CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 GIFT OF 
 Pres.J, G, Schurman 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PR 5282. W9 1892 
 
 The wreck of the "Grosvenor":an account 
 
 3 1924 013 543 172 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013543172 
 
THE 
 
 WRECK OF THE "GROSVENOR' 
 
W. CLARK RUSSELL. 
 {From a recent photograph by Elliott df Fry, London.) 
 
THE 
 
 WRECK OF THE "GROSVENOR" 
 
 An Account of the Mutiny of the Crew and 
 
 THE Loss OF THE SHIP WHEN TRYING 
 TO MAKE THE BERMUDAS 
 
 W. CLARK RUSSELL 
 
 
 ^'Vw. f f- 
 
 NEW YORK U \^ \ Y |^|^;jj f ■, ^ 
 
 LOVELL, CORYELL & COMPAm )» (.y 
 
 4T 45 AND 47 EAST TENTH STKEEI' 
 
THE WRECK OF THE "GROSVENOR." 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 There was every appearance of a south-westerly wind. 
 The coast of France^ which had been standing high and shin- 
 ing upon the horizon on the port bow, and so magnified by 
 the clear northerly air that you could discern, even at that 
 distance, the dim emerald sheen of the upper slopes and the 
 streaky shadows thrown by projecting points and elbows on 
 the white ground, was fast fading, though the sun stUl stood 
 within an hour of its setting beyond the Weak Foreland. The 
 north wind which had rattled us, with an acre of foam at our 
 bows, right away down the river, and had now brought us 
 well abreast of the Gull Light-ship, was dropping fast. There 
 was barely enough air to keep the royals full; and the ship's 
 number, which I had ]ust hoisted at the peak — a string of 
 gaudy flags which made a brilliant figure against the white 
 canvas of the spanker — shook their folds sluggishly. 
 
 The whole stretch of scene, from the North Foreland down 
 to the vanishing French headlands miles away yonder, was 
 lovely at that moment, full of the great peace of an ocean 
 falUng asleep, of gently moving vessels, of the solemn gather- 
 ing of shadows. The town of Deal was upon the starboard 
 bow, a warm cluster of houses, with a windmill on the green 
 hiUs turning drowsily; here and there a window glittering with 
 a sudden beam of light; an inclined beach in the foreground, 
 with groups of boats high and dry upon it, and a line of foam 
 at its base, which sung upon the shingle so that you could 
 hear it plainly amid intervals of silence on board the ship. 
 The evening sun, shining over the giant brow of the South 
 Foreland, struck the gray outhne of the cliif deep in the 
 stUl water; but the clear red blaze fell far and wide over 
 the dry white downs of Sandwich, and the outlying plains, 
 and threw the distant country into such bold rehef against the 
 
6 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR. ' 
 
 blue sky that, from the sea, it looked close at hand, and but a 
 short walk from the shore. 
 
 There were three or four dozen vessels at anchor in the 
 Downs, waiting for a change of wind or anticipating a dead 
 calm for some hours. A few others, like ourselves, were 
 swimming stealthUy over the slack tide, with every foot of 
 their canvas piled upon them to reach safe anchorage' before 
 the wind wholly failed and the tide turned. A large ship with 
 her sails stowed, and her masts and rigging showing with the 
 fineness of ivory tracing against the sky; was being towed up 
 Channel, and the slapping of the water by the paddles of the 
 tug, in fast, capricious revolutions, was quite audible, though 
 both ship and steamer were a long league distant. Here and 
 there small boats were rowing away from the anchored ships 
 for the shore. Now and again you could hear the faint dis- 
 tant choruses of the seamen f urUng a big sail or paying out 
 more cable, the clanlc, clank of which was as pretty as music. 
 Down in the east the heavens were a deep blue, flecked along 
 the water-line with white sails, which glowed in the sunshine 
 like beacons. 
 
 I was in a proper mood to appreciate this beautiful, tranquil 
 scene. I was leaving England for a long spell; and the sight 
 of this quiet little town of Deal and the grand old Foreland 
 cliffs shutting out the sky, and the pale white shores we had 
 left far astern, went right to my heart. Well, it was just a 
 quiet leave-taking of the Old Country without words or sobs. 
 
 " The pilot means to bring up. I have just heard him tell 
 the skipper to stand by for a light sou'-westerly breeze. 
 TMs is a most confounded nuisance! All hands, perhaps, in 
 the middle watch to get under way. " 
 
 "I expected as much," said I, turning and confronting a 
 short, squarely built man, with a power of red hair under his 
 chin, and a skin hke yellow leather through thirty years' ex- 
 posure to sun and wind and dirt all over the world. This was 
 the chief mate, Mr. Ephraim Duckling, confidently assumed 
 by me to be a Yankee, though he didn't talk with his nose. 
 I had looked at this gentleman with some doubt when I first 
 met him in the West India Docks. He had blue eyes, with a 
 cast in the port optic. This somehow made him humorous, 
 whether or no, when he meant to be droll, so he had an ad- 
 vantage over other wits. He had hair so dense, coarse, and 
 red withal, that he might safely have been scalped for a door- 
 mat. His legs were short, and his body very long and broad, 
 and I guessed his strength by the way his arm filled out, and 
 threatened to burst up the sleeve of his coat when he bent it. 
 
THE -WRTilCK OF THE " GROSVENOR. 7 
 
 So far he had been pohtc enough to me, in a mighty rough 
 fashion indeed; and as to the men, there had been little occa- 
 sion for him to give orders as yet. 
 
 " I expected as much," said I. "I have been watching the 
 coast of France for the last quarter of an hour, and the moist- 
 ure has nearly shut it out altogether. I doubt if we'll fetch 
 the Downs before the calm falls. " 
 
 " There is a little wind over the land, though, or that mill 
 wouldn't be turning. " 
 
 He turned his eyes up aloft, then went to the ship's side and 
 looked over. I followed him. The clear, green water was 
 shpping slowly past, and now and again a string of sea-weed 
 went by, or a big transparent jelly-fish, or a great crab float- 
 ing on the top of the water. A thin ripple shot out in a 
 semicircle from the ship's bow, and, at all events, we might 
 tell that we were moving by watching the mast of the Gull 
 Light-ship sliding by the canvas of a vessel hull below the hori- 
 zon to the eastward of the Sands. 
 
 Some of the hands were on the forecastle, looking and point- 
 ing toward the shore. Others stood in a group near the galley, 
 talking with the cook, a fat, pale man, with flannel shirt- 
 sleeves rolled above his elbows. The pigs in the long-boat 
 grunted an accompaniment to chatter of a mass of hens cooped 
 under the long-boat. There was a movement in the sea, and 
 the great sails overhead hung without flapping, and nothing 
 stirred aloft but the light canvas of the royals, which some- 
 times shook the masts lazily, and with a fine distant sound. 
 
 The skipper stood on the weather side of the poop, against 
 the starboard quarter-boat, conversing with the pilot. 
 
 Have before you a tall, well-shaped man, with iron-gray 
 hair, a thin aqtiiline nose, a short, compressed mouth, small 
 dark eyes, which looked at you imperiously from rmder a per- 
 fect hedge of eyebrow, and whitish whiskers, which slanted 
 across his cheeks, dressed in a tall hat, a long monkey-jacket, 
 and square-toed boots. 
 
 Captain Coxon was a decidedly good-looking man, not in 
 the smallest degree approaching the conventional notion of the 
 merchant skipper. Happily, it is no condition of good sea- 
 manship that a man should have bow-legs, and a coppery 
 nose, and groggy eyes; and that he should prefer a dish of 
 junk to a savory kickshaw, and screeching rum to good wine. 
 I had heard before I joined the " Grosvenor " that Coxon was 
 a smart seaman, though a bully to his men. But this did not 
 prejudice me. I thought I knew my duties well enough to 
 steer clear of his temper; and for the rest, knowing what a 
 
8 THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVBNOR. 
 
 sea-faring life is, and how scarcely an hour ever comes without 
 bringing some kind of peril of its own, I would rather any day 
 take service under a bashaw who knew his work than a mild- 
 natured creature who didn't. 
 
 The pilot was a little dusky-faced man, with great bushy 
 whiskers, and a large chocolate-colored shawl round his throat, 
 though we were in August. I was watching these two men 
 talking, when Duckling said, 
 
 "It's my belief that we shall have trouble with those fellows 
 forward. When we trimmed sail oif the North Foreland, did 
 you notice how they went to work?" 
 
 " Yes, I did. And I'll tell you what's the matter. As I 
 was going forward after dinner, the cook stopped me, and 
 told me the men were grumbling at the provisions. He said 
 that some of the pork served out stunk, and the bread was 
 moldy and full of weevils." 
 
 " Oh, is that it?" said Duckhng. " Wait till I get them to 
 sea, and I'll give them my aflSdavit now, if they like, that then 
 they'll liave something to cry over. There's a Portuguese 
 fellow among them, and no ship's company can keep honest 
 when one of those devils comes aboard. He'll always find out 
 something that's wrong, and turn and tumble it about until it 
 sets all hands on fire. " 
 
 He went to the break of the poop and leaned with his arms 
 squarely set, upon the brass rail, and stared furiously at the 
 group of men about the galley. Some of them grew uneasy, 
 and edged away and got round to the other side of the gaUey; 
 others, of those who remained, folded their arms and stared at 
 him back, and one of them laughed, which put him in a pas- 
 sion at once. 
 
 " You- lazy hounds!" he bellowed, in a voice of thunder, 
 " have you nothing to get about? Some of you get that cable 
 range there more over to windward. You, there, get some 
 scrubbing-brushes and clean the long-boat's bottom. Fore- 
 castle, there, come down out of that and see that your halyards 
 are clear for running! I'll teach yon to palaver the cook, you 
 grumbhng villains!" and he made a movement so full of 
 menace that the most obstinate-looking of the fellows got life 
 into them at once, and bustled about. 
 
 I looked at the skipper to see what he thought of this little 
 outbreak; but neither he nor the pilot paid the smallest atten- 
 tion to it; only when Duckling had made an end, the pilot 
 gave an order which was repeated by the chief mate with lungs 
 of brass. 
 
 " Aft here, and clew up the mainsail and furl it!" 
 
THE WEEOK OP THE " SEOSTBNOB." 9 
 
 The men threw down the scrubbing-brushes and chain-hooku 
 which they had picked up, and came aft to the main-deck in a 
 most surly fashion. Duckling eyed them like a mastiff a cat. 
 I noticed some smart-looking nands among them, but they all 
 to a man put on a lubberly air; and as they hauled upon the 
 various ropes which snug a ship's canvas upon the yard pre- 
 paratory to its being furled, I heard them putting all manner 
 of coarse, violent expressions, having reference to the ship and 
 her oiDcers, into their songs. 
 
 They went up aloft slowly and laid out along the yard, 
 grumbling furiously. And to show what bad sailors they 
 were, I suppose, they stowed the sail villainously, leaving bits 
 of the leech sticking out, and making a bunt that must have 
 blown out to the first capful of vrind. 
 
 I was rather of opinion that Duckling's behavior was found- 
 ed on traditions which had been surrendered years ago by 
 British seamen to Yankee skippers and mates. He had sailed 
 a voyage in this ship with Coxon, and the captaia therefore 
 knew his character. That Coxon should abet Duckling's be- 
 havior toward the men by his silence was a bad augury. I 
 reckoned that they understood each other, and that the whole 
 ship's company, including myself, might expect a very uncom- 
 fortable voyage. 
 
 Meanwhile, Duckling waited until the men were off the yard 
 . and descending the riggiag; he then roared out, " Purl the 
 mainsaU!" 
 
 The men stopped coming down, and looked at the yard and 
 then at Duckling; and one of them said, in a sullen tone, " It 
 is furled." 
 
 I was amazed to see Duckling hop off the deck on to the 
 poop-rail and spring up the rigging; I thought he was going 
 to thrash the man who had answered; and the man evidently 
 thought so too, for he turned pale, and edged sideways along 
 the ratline on which he stood. While he held one of his hands 
 clinched. Up went Duckling, shaking the shrouds violently 
 with his imgainly, sprawling way of climbing, and making the 
 men dance upon the ratlines. In a moment he had swung 
 himself upon the foot-rope, and was casting off the yard-arm 
 gaskets. I don't think half a dozen men could have loosed the 
 sail in the time taken by him to do so. Down it fell, and 
 down he came, hand over fist along the main-topsail sheet 
 against the mainmast, bounded up the poop-ladder, and with- 
 out loss of breath, roared out, 
 
 " Furl the mainsail!" 
 
 The men seemed inclined to disobey; some of them had 
 
iO THE WBECK 01' THE " GROSVBNOE. 
 
 already reached the bulwark; but another bellow, accompanied 
 by a gesture, appeared to decide them. They momited slow;ly, 
 got upon the yard, and this time did the job in a saUor-like 
 fashion. 
 
 "I'm only begirming with them," he said, in has rough 
 voice, to me; and the glanced at Coxon, who gave him a nod 
 and a smUe. 
 
 The pilot now told me to go forward and see everything 
 ready for bringing up. We were drawing close to the Downs, 
 but the air had quite died out and the sea stretched like oil to 
 the horizon. I don't know what was giving us way, for the 
 light sails aloft hung flat, and the smoke of a steamboat, with 
 its two funnels only showing away across the Channel, went 
 straight up into the sky. There must, however, have been a 
 faint, imperceptible tide running, but it took us another half 
 hour to reach the point where the pilot had resolved to briag 
 up, and by time the sim had sunk behind the great headland 
 beyond Deal, and was casting a broad crimson glare upon the 
 sea. 
 
 The royals and top-gaUant-sails were clewed up and furled, 
 and then the order was given to let go the top -sail halyards. 
 Down came the three heavy yards rumbhng along the masts, 
 with the sound of chaia rattling over sheaves. The canvas fell 
 into festoons, and the pilot called, 
 
 " All ready forrard?" 
 
 "All ready." 
 
 " Let go the anchor!" 
 
 " Stand clear of the cable!" I shouted. 
 
 Whack! whack! went the carpenter's driving-hammer. A 
 moment's pause, then a tremendous splash, and the cable 
 rushed with a hoarse outcry through the hawser-hole. 
 
 When this job was over I waited on the forecastle to super- 
 intend the stowing of the sails forward. The men worked 
 briskly enough, and I heard one of them who was stowing the 
 fore-topmast stay-sail say " that it was good luck the skipper 
 had brought up. He didn't think he'd be such a fool. " 
 
 This set me wondering what their meaning could be; but I 
 thought it best to take no notice, nor repeat what I had heard, 
 as I considered that the less Mr. Duckling had to say to the 
 men the better we should all get on. 
 
 It was half past seven by the time the sails were furled, and 
 the decks cleared of the ropes. The hands went below to tea, 
 and I was walking aft when the cook came out of the galley, 
 and said: 
 
 " Beg yoiu- pardon, sir; would you mind tasting of this?" 
 
THE WKECK OF THE " GROSVENOE. " H 
 
 And lie handed me a bit of the ship's biscuit. I smelled it and 
 found it moldy, and put a piece in my mouth, but soon spit it 
 out. 
 
 " I can't say much for this, cook," said I. 
 
 " It's not fit for dogs," replied the cook. " But so far aa 
 I've seen, all the proyisions is the same. The sugar's like 
 mud, and the molasses is full of grit; and though I have been 
 to sea, man and boy, two-and-twenty year, I never saw tea 
 hke what they've got on board this ship. It ain't tea — it 
 makes the liquor yaller. It's shavings, and wot I say is, regular 
 tea ain't shavings." 
 
 " Well, let the men complain to the captain," I answered. 
 " He can report to the owners, and get the ship's stores con- 
 demned. " 
 
 "It's my beUef they was condemned afore they came on 
 board," answered the cook. " I'll bet any man a week's grog 
 that they wos bought cheap in a dock-yard sale o' rotten grub 
 by order o' the Admirality." 
 
 " Give me a biscuit," said I, " and I'U show it to the cap- 
 tain." 
 
 He took out one from a drawer in which he kept the dough 
 for the cuddy's use, and I put it in my pocket and went aft. 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 I WILL here pause to describe the ship, which, being the 
 theater of much that befell mo which is related in this book, I 
 should place before your eyes in as true a picture as I caft^ 
 draw. 
 
 The "Grosvenor," then, was a small, full-rigged ship of 
 five hundred tons, painted black with a single white streak 
 belpw her bulwarks. She was a soft-wood vessel, built in 
 HaUfax, Nova Scotia. Her lines were very perfect. Indeed, 
 the beauty of her huU, her lofty masts, stayed with as great 
 perfection as a man-of-war's, her graceful figure-head, sharp 
 yacht-like bows, and round stem had filled me with admira- 
 tion when I first beheld her. Her decks were white and well 
 kept. She had a poop and a top-gallant forecastle, both of 
 which I think the builder might have spared, as she was 
 scarcely big enough for them. There was a good deal of brass 
 work on her after-decks, and more expense than she deserved, 
 from the perishable nature of the material of which she was 
 constructed, had been lavished upon her in respect of deck 
 ornamentation. Her richly carved wheel, brass belaying-pins. 
 
13 THE WEEOK OP THE '* GEOSVENOB. 
 
 brass capstan, brass binnacle, handsome sky-ligbts, and othel 
 Buch details, made her look like a gay pleasure-Tessel rather 
 than a sober trader. Her cuddy, however, was plain enough, 
 containing six cabins, including the pantry. The wood-work 
 was cheaply Tarnished mahogany; a fixed table ran. from the 
 mizzen-mast to within a few feet of the cuddy front, and on 
 either side this table was a stoub hair-covered bench. Abaft 
 the mizzen-mast were the two cabins respectively occupied by 
 Captain Coxon and Mr. Duckling. My own cabia was just 
 under the break of the poop, so that from the window in it I 
 could look out upon the maia-deck. A couple of broad sky- 
 hghts, well protected with brass wire-fenders, let plenty of 
 hght into the cuddy; and swinging trays and lamps, and red 
 cui'tains to draw across the sky-Hghts when the sun beat upon 
 them, completed the fumitui-e of this part of the vessel. 
 
 We could very well have carried a few passengers, and I 
 never learned why we did not; but it may, perhaps, have hap- 
 pened that nobody was going our way at the time we were ad- 
 vertised to sail. 
 
 We were bound to Valparaiso with a general cargo, consist- 
 ing chiefly of toys, hardware, Birmingham and Sheffield cut- 
 lery, and metal goods, and a stock of piano-fortes. The ship, 
 to my thinking, was too deep, as though the owners had com- 
 pensated themselves for the want of passenger-money by 
 " taking it out " in freight. I readily foresaw that we should 
 be a wet ship, and that we should labor more than was com- 
 fortable in a heavy sea. The steerage was packed with hght 
 goods — ^bird cages, and such things — but space was left in the 
 'tween-deck, though the cargo came flush \?ith the deck in the 
 hold. 
 
 However, in spite of being overloaded, the " Grosvenor " 
 had beaten everything coming down the river that day. Just 
 off the Eeoulvers, for example, when we had drawn the wind a 
 trifle more abeam, we overhauled a steamer. She was pretty 
 evidently a fast screw, and her people grew jealous when they 
 saw us coming up astern, and piled up the fires, but could not 
 stop us from dropping her, as neatly as she dropped an old 
 coal brig that was staggering near the shore, under dirty can- 
 vas. But she smothered us with her smoke as we passed her 
 to leeward, and I dare say they were glad to see the dose we 
 got for our pains. 
 
 I came aft, as I have said, after leaving the baker, with the 
 biscuit in my pocket, and got upon the poop. The skipper 
 had gone below with the pUot, and they were having tea 
 Bnckling was walking the pooij, swearing now and again at n 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GKOSTEKOR." 13 
 
 couple of ordinary seamen, whom he had set to work to 
 flemish-coil the ropes along the deck, for no other reason than 
 that he might put as much work upon them as he could invent 
 — for this flemish-coiUng was of no use under the circum- 
 stances, and is only fit for Sundays on passenger ships, when 
 you want to please the ladies with " tidy " effects, or when a 
 vessel is in port. A watch had been set forward, and having 
 cast a look up aloft to see that everything was trim, I went 
 down the companion-ladder to the cuddy, followed by Duck- 
 ling. 
 
 The interior of the cabin looked like some old Dutch paint- 
 ing, for the plain mahogany wood-work gave the place an 
 antique air. The lamps were alight, for it was dusk here, 
 though daylight was still abroad upon the sea; and the lamp- 
 light imparted a grave, old-fashioned coloring to the things it 
 shone upon. The skipper sat near the mizzen-mast, stirring 
 the sugar in a cup of tea. He looked better without than with 
 his hat; his forehead was high, though rather peaked, and his 
 iron-gray hair, parted amidships and brushed carelessly over 
 his ears, gave him a look of dignityi The coarse little pilot 
 was eating bread and butter voraciously, his great whiskers 
 moving as he worked his jaws. 
 
 Duckling and I seated ourselves at the table, and I had 
 some difficulty to prevent myself from laughing at the odd 
 figures Duckhng and the pilot made side by side — the one with 
 his whiskers working Uke a pair of brushes, and the other 
 with that door-mat of red hair on his head, and the puzzling 
 cast of the eye that made me always doubt which one I should 
 address when I tried to look him full in the face. 
 
 " There's a breeze coming up from the sou'-west, sir," said 
 Duckling to the captain. " The water's darkish out in that 
 quarter, but I don't think there's enough of it' to swing the 
 ship. " 
 
 " Let it come favorable, and we'll get under way at once," 
 answered Coxon. " I had a spell of tMs sort of thing last year 
 — for ten days, wasn't it. Duckling? — because I neglected a 
 light air that sprung up south-easterly. I thought it couldn't 
 have held ten minutes, but it would have carried me well away 
 to the French side before it failed, and made me a free passage 
 down, for the wind came fresh from south by west and dead- 
 locked me here. Mr. Eoyle, what's going forward among the 
 men? I heard them cursing pretty freely when they were up 
 aloft." 
 
 " They are complaining of the ship's provisions, sir," I re- 
 
14 THE WKECK OF THE " GROSVBNOE." 
 
 plied. " The cook gave me a biscuit just now, and I promised 
 to show it to you. " 
 
 Saying which, I pulled the biscuit out of my pocket and put 
 it upon the table. He contracted his bushy eyebrows,, and, 
 without looking at the biscuit, stared angrily at me. 
 
 " Hark you, Mr. Eoyle!" said he, in a voice I found detest- 
 able for the sneering contempt it conveyed, " I allow no officer 
 that sails under me to become a confidant of my crew. Do 
 you understand?" 
 
 I flushed up as I answered that I was no confidant of the 
 crew; that the cook had stopped me to explain the men's 
 grievance, and that I had asked him for a biscuit to show the 
 captain as a sample of the ship's bread which the steward was 
 serving out. 
 
 "It's very good bread," said the obsequious pDot, taking 
 up the biscuit while he wiped the butter out of the corners of 
 his mouth. 
 
 " Eat it, then!" I exclaimed. 
 
 "Damnation! eat it yourself!" cried Coxon, furiously. 
 " You're used to that kind of fare, I should think, and like it, 
 or you wouldn't be bringing it into the cuddy in your pocket, 
 would you, sir?" 
 
 I made him no answer. I could see by the expression in 
 Duckling's face that he sided with the skipper, and I thought 
 it would be a bad lookout for me to begin the voyage with a 
 quarrel. 
 
 " I'll trouble you to put that biscuit where you took it 
 from," the captain continued^ vnth an enraged nod in the 
 direction of my pocket, " and return it to the blackguard who 
 gave it, and tell him to present Captain Coxon's respects to 
 the men, and inform them that if they object to the ship's 
 bread, they're welcome to take their meals along with the pigs 
 in the long-boat. The butcher'll serve them. " 
 
 " Mr. Eoyle tells me they find the meat worse than the 
 bread," said Mr. Duckling. " I guess the hounds who grum- 
 ble most are men who have shipped out of work-houses, where 
 their grub was burned burgoo twice a day, and a Hok of brim- 
 stone to make it easy." 
 
 He laughed loudly at his own humor, and was joined by the 
 pilot, who rubbed his hands, and swore that he hadn't heard a 
 better joke for years. 
 
 I made what dispatch I might with my tea, not much de- 
 siring to remain in company with Coxon in his present temper. 
 I fancy he grew a little ashamed of himself presently, for he 
 softened his voice and now and again glanced across at me. 
 
THE WKECK OF THE "GROSVENOR." 15 
 
 The pilot, looking up through the sky-light, called attention to 
 the yan at the main-royal mast-head, which was fluttering to a 
 Hght air from the south-west, as had been predicted, and as I 
 could tell by referring to the tell-tale compass, which was 
 swung just over where Coxon was seated. Then Ooxon and 
 his chief mate talked of the time they meant to occupy in the 
 run to Valparaiso. I understood the former to say that his 
 employers had given Mm eight weeks to do it in. I should 
 like to have said that, had they added another two to that, 
 they would still have been imposing enough upon us all to 
 keep us alive. But at this point I quitted the table, giving 
 Coxon a bow as I rose, which he returned with a sort of half- 
 ashamed stiffness, and repaired to my cabin to get my pipe for 
 a half -hour's enjoyment of the beautiful autumn evening on 
 deck. 
 
 I don't think tobacco has the same flavor ashore that it has 
 at sea. Something in the salt air brings out the full richness 
 and aroma of it. A few whifEs on the main-deck came like oil 
 upon the agitation of my mind, ruffled by Coxon 's imperti- 
 nence and temper. I stepped on to the forecastle to see that 
 the riding lamps were all right, and that there was a man on 
 the lookout. The crew were in the forecastle talking in sub- 
 dued voices, and the hot air, that came up through the fore- 
 scuttle was intolerable as I passed it. I then regained the 
 poop, and seated myself on the rail among the shadows of the 
 backstays leading from the main-royal and top-gallant-masts. 
 
 The sun had gone down some time now, and only faint 
 traces of daylight lowered in the westward. The light on the 
 South Foreland emitted a most beautiful, clear, and brilUant 
 beam, and diif used a broad area of misty radiance on the land 
 around. The light-beacons were winking along the Goodwin 
 Sands, and pretty close at h^ were the lights of Deal, a pale, 
 fine constellation, which made the country all the darker for 
 their presence. The moon would not rise untU after nine, but 
 the heavens were spangled with stars, some so lustrous that 
 the calm sea mirrored them in cones of silver: and from time 
 to time flashing shooting-stars chased across the sky, and with 
 their blue fires offered a peculiar contrast to the eye with the 
 yellow and red hghts on the water. 
 
 There was a little air moving from the southward, but so 
 light as scarcely to be noticeable to any man but a sailor await- 
 ing a change. The vessels at anchor near us loomed large in 
 the starhghted gloom that overspread the face of the sea. 
 Lights flitted upon them; and the voices of men singing, the 
 jingHng of a concertina or a fiddle, the rumbling of yards low- 
 
16 THE WEECK OF THE " GKOSVENOE. 
 
 ered aboard some new-comers wHch could not be descriea, and 
 now and again the measured splash of oars, were sounds which 
 only served to give a deeper intensity to the solemn calm of the 
 night. 
 
 The inmates of the cuddy still kept their seats, and their 
 voices came out through the open sky-Kghts. I heard Captain 
 Coxon say, 
 
 " I should like to know what sort of a feUow they have 
 given me for a second mate. He strikes me as coming the 
 gentleman a trifle, don't he, DuckHng?" 
 
 To which the other replied, " He seems a civil-spoken young 
 man, and up to his work. But I guess there's too much 
 molasses mixed with his blood to suit my book. He wants a 
 New Orleans training, as my old skipper used to say. Do yor. 
 know what that means, sir?" evidently addressing the pilot. 
 " Well, it means a knife in your ribs when you're not disposed 
 to hurry, and a knuckle-duster in the shape of a marhne-spike 
 down your throat if you stop to arguefy." 
 
 The pilot laughed, and said, " Here's your health, sir. Men 
 of your kind are wanted nowadays, sir." 
 
 It was plain from this speech that the pilot had exchanged 
 his tea for something stronger. The captain here began to 
 speak, but I couldn't catch his words, though I strained my 
 ears, as I was anxious to gain all the insight I could into his 
 character, that I might know how to shape my behavior. 
 
 I say this for a very weighty reason — I was entirely depend- 
 ent on the profession I had adopted. I knew it was in the 
 power of any captain I sailed with to injure me, and perhaps 
 ruin iny prospects. Everything in sea-faring life depends upon 
 reports and testimonials; and in these days, when the demand 
 for officers is utterly disproportionate to the immense supply, 
 owners are only too willing to listen to objections, and take 
 any skipper's word as an excuse to decline your services or get 
 rid of you. 
 
 Neither the captain nor Mr. Duckling appeared on deck 
 again. The pilot came up shortly after one bell (half past 
 eight) and looked about him for a few minutes. The tide had 
 swung the ship with her stern up Channel. He went and 
 looked over the side, and then had a stare at Deal, but took no 
 notice of me, whom he could very plainly see, and returned 
 below. 
 
 I lingered three quarters of an hour on deck, duriag which 
 time the little sigh of wind that had come from the south-west 
 died out, and a most perfect calm fell. The large stars burned 
 with amazing brilhancy and power, and I thought it possible 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GKOSVEKOE. " 17 
 
 that the wind might go to the eastward. This idea detained 
 me on deck longer than I had meant to stop, as I thought it 
 would do me no ill service if I shotdd be the first to report a 
 fail" wind to the skipper, and show myself smart in getting the 
 hands up. Perhaps the moon would bring a breeze with her, 
 and as she rose at twenty minutes past nine, I filled another 
 pipe to await her coming. 
 
 As I struck a match, the steward came half-way up the 
 poop-ladder to tell me the spirits were on the table. 
 
 '' Did the captian send you?" I asked. 
 
 " No, sir," he answered. " I thought I'd let you know, as 
 they'll be cleared away after nine, and my orders are not to 
 sei-ye them again when once they're stowed away for the night. 
 That's the captain's rule." 
 
 " All right," said I. Another time I should have gone be- 
 low and had my glass of grog; but I considered it my best 
 policy to keep clear of Coxon until the temper that had been 
 excited by my unfortunate production of the ship's biscuit was 
 cooled down. 
 
 I took some turns along the deck, and shortly after nine one 
 of the lamps in the cuddy was extinguished, and on looking 
 through the sky-light I found that the three men had left the 
 table. There was a man pacing to and fro the forecastle, and 
 I could just make out his figure against the stairs which 
 gleamed and throbbed right down to the horizon. The rest of 
 the crew had evidently turned in, for I heard no voices; and 
 now that the talking which had been going on in the cuddy no 
 longer vexed the ear with rough accents, a profound silence 
 and peace came down upon the ship. Around me the anchored 
 vessels gloomed like phantoms; the sea unrolled its dark un- 
 breathing surface into the visionary distances; nothing sounded 
 from the shore but the murmur of the summer surf upon the 
 shingle. One might have said that the spirit of life had de- 
 parted from the earth; that nothing lived but the stars, which 
 looked down upon a scene as impalpable and elusive as a 
 dream. 
 
 At last up rose the moon. She made her coming apparent 
 by paUng the stars in the southern sky, then by projecting a 
 white mist of light over the horizon. Anon her upper limb, 
 red as fire, jetted upward, and the full orb, vast and feverish 
 as the setting sun, sailed out of the sea, most slowly and 
 solemnly, lifting with her a black mist that belted her like a 
 circle of smoke; this vanished, and by degrees, perceptible to 
 the eye, her color changed; the red chastened into pearl, her 
 disk grew smaller and soon she was well above the horizon, 
 
18 THE -WEECK OF THE " GEOSVENOK. 
 
 shining with a most clear and snyery splendor, and niaking 
 the selbeneath her lustrous with mild light. But not a breath 
 of air foUowed her coming. The ships in the Downs caught 
 the new light, and their yards showed like streaks ot pearl 
 against the night. The red lights of the Goodwm Sands 
 dwindled before the pure, far-reaching radiance into mere 
 floating sparks of fire. The heavens were cloudless, and the 
 sea wonderfully calm. I might keep watch all night, and still 
 have nothing to report; so, knocking the ashes out of my pipe, 
 I descended the poop-ladder and entered my cabin. 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 
 I HAD slung a cot, although there was a good mahogany 
 bunk in the cabin. No sensible person would sleep in a bunk 
 at sea when he could swing in a hammock or cot. Suppose 
 the bunk is athwart ship; when the vessel goes about you 
 must shift your pillow; and very often she will go about ia 
 your watch below and catch you asleep, so that when you wake 
 you find your feet are in the air, and all the blood in your body 
 in your head. When I first went to sea I slept in a 'thwart- 
 ship bunk. The ship was taken aback one night when I was 
 asleep, and they came and roared, " All hands shorten sail!" 
 down the booby-hatch. I heard the cry and tried to get out 
 of my bed, but my head was jammed to leeward by the weight 
 of my body, and I could not move. Had the ship foundered, 
 I should have gone to the bottom, in bed, helpless. Always 
 after that I slept ia a hammock. 
 
 The watch on deck had orders to call the captain if a 
 change of wind came; also I knew that the pilot would be up, 
 sniffing about, off and on through the night; so I turned in 
 properly and slept soundly until two; when waking up, I 
 drew on my small clothes and went on deck, where I found 
 Duckling mousing about ia the moonshine in a pair of yellow 
 flannel drawers, he having, Kke myself, come up to see if any 
 wind was stirring. He looked like a new kind of monkey in 
 his tight white rig and immense head of hair. " No wind, 
 no wind!" he muttered, in a sleepy grumble, and then went 
 below with a run, nearly tumbling, in fact, head over heels 
 down the companion-ladder. 
 
 I took a turn forward to see if the riding lights burned well 
 and the man on the lookout was awake. The decks were wet 
 with dew, and the moon was now hanging over the South 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOE. " 19 
 
 Foreland. The sky was still cloudless, and not a breath of air 
 to be felt. This being the case I went back to my cot. 
 
 When I next awoke I found my cot violently swinging. 1 
 thought for the moment that we were under way and in a 
 heavy sea; but on looking over I saw Mr. Duckling, who ex- 
 claimed, " Out with you, Mr. Royle! There's a good breeze 
 from the east'ard. Look alive and call the boatswain to pipe 
 all hands." 
 
 Hearing this, I was wide awake at once, and a few minutes 
 was making my way to the boatswain's cabin, a deck-house on 
 the port side against the forecastle. He and the carpenter 
 were fast asleep in bunks placed one over the other. I laid 
 hold of the boatswain's leg, which hung over the bunk — both 
 he and the carpenter had turned in " all standing," at they say 
 at sea — and shook it. His great brown hairy face came out of 
 the bolster in which it was buried ■ he then threw over his 
 other leg and sat upright. 
 
 "All hands, su-?" 
 
 "Yes; look sharp, boson!" 
 
 He was about to speak, but stopped short and said, " Ay, 
 ay, sir;" whereupon I hurried aft. 
 
 It was twenty minutes past five by the clock in the cuddy. 
 The sun had been risen half an hour, and was already warm- 
 ing the decks. But there was a fine breeze; not from the 
 eastward, as Duckling had said, but well to the northward of 
 east — which brought ripe, fresh morning smells from the land 
 with it, and made the water run in httle leaps of foam against 
 the ship's side. 
 
 Captain Coxon and the pilot were both on the poop, and as 
 I came up the former called out, 
 
 " Is the boatswain awake yet?" 
 
 " Yes, sir," I answered, and dived into my cabin to finish 
 dressing. I heard the boatswain's pipe sound, followed by the 
 roar of his voice summoning the hands to weigh anchor. My 
 station was on the forecastle, and thither I went. But none 
 of the hands had emerged as yet, the only man seen being the 
 fellow on the lookout. All about us the outward bound ves- 
 sels were taking advantage of the wind; some of them were 
 already standing away, others were sheeting home their can- 
 vas; the clinking of the windlasses was incessant, and several 
 Deal boats were driving under their lugs among the shipping. 
 
 " Mr. Eoyle," cried out the captain, " jump below, will you, 
 and see what those fellows are about. " 
 
 I went to the fore-scuttle and peered into it, bawling, " Be- 
 low there!" 
 
20 THE WRECK OF THE "GEOSVENOB.' 
 
 " There's no use singing out," said a voice; " we don't 
 mean to get the ship under way until you give us sonaething fit 
 to eat." 
 
 " Who was that who spoke?" I called. " Show yourself, 
 my man. " 
 
 A fellow came and stood under the fore-scuttle, and, looking 
 up, said, in a bold, defiant way, 
 
 " I spoke — ' Bill Marling, able seaman.' " 
 
 " Am I to tell the captain that you refuse to turn to?" 
 
 " Ay? and tell him we'd rather have six months of chokee 
 
 than one mouthful of his d d provisions," he answered; and 
 
 immediately a lot of voices took up the theme, and, as I left 
 the forecastle to deliver the message, I heard the men cursing 
 and abusing us all violently, the foreigners particularly — ^that 
 is, the Portuguese and a Frenchman, who was a half negro — 
 swearing in the worst English words and worst Enghsh pro- 
 nunciation, shrilly and fiercely. 
 
 Coxon pretty well knew what was coming. He and Duck- 
 ling stood together on the poop, and I delievered the men's 
 message from the quarter-deck. 
 
 Coxon was in a great rage, and quite pale with it. The ex- 
 pression in his face was really devilish. His lips became blood- 
 less, and when he glanced his eyes around and saw the other 
 ships taking advantage of the fine breeze and saiKng away, he 
 seemed deprived of speech. He had sense enough, however, 
 with all his fury, to know that in his case no good could 
 come from passion. He seized the brass rail with both hands, ' 
 and made a gesture with his head to signify that I should draw 
 nearer. 
 
 " Who was the man who gave you that message, sir?" 
 
 " A feUow who called himself Bill Marling." 
 
 " Do they refuse to leave the forecastle?" 
 
 " They refuse to get the ship under way." 
 
 " Is the boaswain disaffected?" 
 
 " No, sir; but I fancy he knows the men's minds." 
 
 He turned to Mr. Duckhng. 
 
 " If the boatswain is sound, we four ought to be able to 
 make the scoundrels turn to. " 
 
 This was Uke suggesting a hand-to-hand fight— four against 
 twelve, and Duckling had the sense to hold his tongue. The 
 boatswain was standing near the long-boat, looking aft and 
 Coxon suddenly called to him, " Lead the men aft. " 
 
 I now thought proper to get upon the poop; and in a short 
 time the men came aft in twos and threes. They were thirteen 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOK. " 31 
 
 in all, including the carpenter, four ordinary seamen, the cook, 
 and the cook's mate. The boatswain kept forward. 
 
 There was a capstan just abaft the mainmast, and here the 
 men assembled. There was not much in the situation to move 
 one's gravity, and yet I could scarcely forbear smiling when I 
 looked down upon their faces fraught with expressions so vari- 
 ous in kind, though all denoting the same feelings. Some 
 were regular old stagers, fellows who had been to sea all their 
 hves, with great bare arms tattooed with crucifixes, bracelets, 
 and other such devices, in canvas or blanket breeches and 
 flannel shirts, with the invariable belt and knife around their 
 middle. Some, to judge from their clothes, had evidently 
 signed articles in an almost destitute condition, their clothes 
 being complete suits of patches, and their faces pale and thin. 
 The foreigners were, of course, exceedingly dirty; and the 
 " Portugee's " wonderfully ugly countenance was hardly im- 
 proved by the stout sUver ear-rings with which his long earg 
 were ornamented. 
 
 The first movement of mirth in me, however, was but tran- 
 sient. Pity came uppermost in a few moments. I do think 
 there is something touching in the simplicity of sailors, in the 
 child-like way in which they go about to explain a grievance and 
 get it redressed. They have few words and little experience 
 outside the monotonous life they follow; they express them- 
 selves Ul, are subdued by a harsh discipline on board, or by 
 acts of cruelty which could not be tolerated in any kind of 
 service ashore; the very negroes and savages of distant coun- 
 tries have more interest taken in them by the people of Eng- 
 land than sailors, for whom scarcely a charity exists; the laws 
 which deal with their insubordination are unnecessarily severe; 
 and of the persons who are appointed to inqure into the causes 
 of insubordination, scarce five in the hundred are quaUfied by 
 experience, sympathy, or disinterestedness to do sailors justice. 
 
 Some such thoughts as these were in my mind as I stood 
 watching the men on the quarter-deck. 
 
 Coxon, with his hand still clutching the raU, said: " The 
 boatswain has piped you out to get the ship under way. Do 
 you refuse?" 
 
 The man named BUI Marling made a step forward. The 
 men had evidently constituted him spokesman. 
 
 " We don't mean to work this here ship," said he, " untU 
 better food is put aboard. The biscuits are not fit for dogs; 
 and I say that the pork stinks, and that the molasses is grits." 
 
 " That's the truth," said a voice; and the Portuguese nodded 
 and gesticulated violently. 
 
S2 THE WEBCK OF THE " GROSVENOB. 
 
 "You blackguards!" burst out the captain, losing all self, 
 control. " What do you know about food for dogs? You're 
 not as good as dogs to know. Aren't you shipped out of filthy 
 EatcUffe Highway lodgings, where the ship's bread and meat 
 
 and molasses would be eaten by you as d d fine luxuries, you 
 
 lubbers? Turn to at once and man the windlass, or I'll find a 
 way to make you!" 
 
 We say," said the spokesman, pulling a biscuit out of his 
 bosom and holding it up, " that we don't mean to work the 
 ship imtil you give us better bread than this. It's moldy and 
 full of weevils. Put the bread in the sun, and see the worms 
 crawl out of it." 
 
 " Will the skipper pitch the cuddy bread overboard and eat 
 ourn?" demanded a rough voice. 
 
 " And the cuddy meat along with it!" exclaimed a man, a 
 short, powerfully built fellow with a crisp black beard and 
 woolly hair, holding up a piece of pork on the blade of a knife. 
 " Let Captain Coxon smell this." 
 
 The captain looked at them for a few moments with flash- 
 ing eyes, then turned and walked right aft with Duckling. 
 Here they were joined by the pilot, and a discussion took place 
 among them that lasted some minutes. Meanwhile I paced to 
 and fro athwart the poop. The men talked in low toneg 
 among themselves, but none of them seemed disposed to give 
 in. For my own part, I rather fancied that though their com- 
 plaint of the provisions was justifiable enough, it was advanced 
 rather as a sound excuse for declining to sail with a skipper 
 and chief mate whose behavior so far toward them was a very 
 mild suggestion of the treatment they might expect when they 
 should be fairly at sea, and in these two men's power. I 
 heard my name mentioned among them, and one or two re- 
 marks made about me, but not uncomplimentary. The cook 
 had probably told them I was well-disposed, and I believe that 
 some of them would have harangued me had I appeared will- 
 ing to listen. 
 
 Presently Mr. Duckling left the captain and ordered the 
 men to go forward. He then called the boatswain, and, turn- 
 ing to me, said that I was to be left in charge of the ship with 
 the pilot while he and the captain went ashore. 
 
 The boatswain came aft and got into the quarter-boat which 
 Duckling and I lowered; and I then towed her by her painter 
 to the gangway, where Duckling and the captain got into her. 
 
 As no signal was hoisted, I was at a loss to conceive what 
 course Captain Coxon proposed to adopt. Duckling and the 
 boatswain each took an oar while Coxon steered, and away 
 
THE WEECK OF THE " GROSVENOE. " 23 
 
 fhej went, sousing over the little waves which the fresh land 
 breeze had set running along the water. 
 
 By this time all the outward boimd ships had goit their 
 anchors \vp, and were standing down Channel. Some of them 
 which'had got away smartly were well around the Foreland, 
 and we were the only one of them all that still kept the 
 ground. Captain Coxon's rage and disappointment were, of 
 course, intelligible enough; for time to him was not only 
 money, but credit — I mean that every day he could save in 
 making the run to Valparaiso would improve him in his em- 
 ployers' estimation. 
 
 The men peered over the bulwarks at the departing boat, 
 wondering what the skipper would do. There was a tide run- 
 ning to the southward, and they had to keep the boat heading 
 toward Sandwich. Strong as the boatswain was, I could see 
 what a much stronger oar Duckling pulled, by the way the 
 boat's head swerved under the strokes. 
 
 I stood watching them for some time, and then joined the 
 pilot, who had lighted a pipe and sat smoking on the taffrail. 
 He gave me a civil nod, being well disposed enough, now that 
 Coxon was not by, and made some remark about the awkward- 
 ness of the men refusing work when the breeze was so good. 
 
 " True," said I; " but I think you'll find that the magis- 
 trates will give it in their favor. There's some mistake about 
 the ship's stores. Such bread as the men have had served out 
 to them "ought never to have been put on board, and the stew- 
 ard has owned to me that it's all alike. " 
 
 " The captain don't intend to let it come before the magis- 
 trates," answered the pilot, with a wink, and pulling his pipe 
 from his mouth to inspect the bowl. " He wants to be ofEj 
 and means to telegraph for another crew and turn those fellows 
 yonder adrift." 
 
 " Won't he ship some better provisions?" 
 
 " I don't know, sir. Preehaps he's satisfied that the pro- 
 visions is good enough lor the men, and preehaps he isn't. 
 Leastways he'll not be persuaded contrarUy to his belief." 
 
 " So, then, the police are to have nothing to do with this 
 matter, and the stores will be retained for another crew?" 
 
 "That's as it may be." 
 
 "There will be a mutiny before we get to Valparaiso." 
 " Something'll happen, I dare say." 
 
 I not only considered the captain's behavior in this matter 
 bad morally, but extremely impohtic. His motives were plain 
 enough. The stores had been shipped as a cheap lot for the 
 men to eat; and I dare say the understanding between Coxon 
 
24 THE -WKECK OP THE " GEOSVENOE." 
 
 and the owners was that the stores should not be changed. 
 This view would account for his going on shore to teiegrapn 
 for a nBw crew, smce sending the old crew about their business 
 would promise a cheaper issue than signaling for the pohce 
 and bringing the offenders before the magistrates, and causing 
 the vessel to be detained while inquiries were made. But that 
 he would be imperiling the safety of his vessel by shippmg a 
 fresh crew without exchanging the bad stores for good was 
 quite certain, and I wondered that so old a sailor as he should 
 be such a fool as not to foresee some disastrous end to his own 
 or his owners' contemptible cheese-paring policy. 
 
 However, I had not so good an opinion of the pilot's tacittirn- 
 ity as to make him a confidant in these thoughts; we talked 
 on other matters for a few minutes, and he then went below, 
 and after awhile, on passing the sky-light, I saw him, stretched 
 on one of the cuddy benches sound asleep. 
 
 The Downs now presented a very different appearance from 
 what they had exhibited an hour before. There were not 
 above four vessels at anchor, and of those which had fiUed and 
 stood away scarce half a dozen were in sight. These were 
 some lumbering old brigs with a bark among them, with the 
 water almost level with their decks; picturesque enough, how- 
 ever, in the glorious morning light, as they went washing 
 solemnly away, showing their square sterns to the wind. A 
 prettier sight was a fine schooner yacht coming up fast from 
 the southward, with her bow close to the wind; and over to 
 the eastward the sea was alive with smacks, their sails shining 
 like copper, standing apparently for the North Sea. 
 
 The land all about Walmer was of an exquisite soft green, 
 and in the breezy summer light Deal looked the quaintest, 
 snuggest little town in the world. 
 
 A little after eight the steward called me down to breakfast, 
 where I found the pilot impatiently snifiing an atmosphere 
 charged with the aroma of broiled ham and strong coffee. I 
 own, as I helped myself to a rasher and contrasted the good 
 provisions with which the cuddy table was furnished with the 
 bad food served to the men, that I was weak enough to sympa- 
 thize very cordially with the poor fellows. The steward told 
 me that not a man among them had broken hig fast; this he 
 had been told by the cook, who added that the men would 
 rather starve than eat the biscuit that had been served out to 
 them. Such was their way of showing themselves wronged; 
 and the steward declared that he did not half like bringing our 
 breakfast from the galley, for the men, when they smeUed the 
 ham and saw him going aft with a tin of hot rolls, became so 
 
THE WRECK OP THE " GROSVENOR. " 25 
 
 forciole in their language that he every moment, auring his 
 walk along the main-deck, expected to feel himself seized be- 
 hind and pitched overboard. 
 
 "It's the old story, sir," said the pilot, who was making 
 an immense breakfast, " and it's true enough what Mr. Duck- 
 ling said last night, which I thought uncommonly good. They 
 ship sailors out of places where there's nothing to be seen but 
 rags and rum — rum and rags, sir; they give 'em a good cabin 
 to sleep in, pounds sterling a month, grog every day at eight 
 bells, plenty of good livin , considering what they was, where 
 they come from, and what they desarves; and what do they do 
 but turn up their noses at food which they'd crawl upon their 
 knees to get in their kennels ashore, and swear that they won't 
 do ne'er a stroke of work unless they're bribed by the very 
 best of everything. What do they want? — lobsters for break- 
 fast, and wenison and plum-dufl for dinner and chops and 
 tamater-sauce for supper? It's the ruination of owners, sir, 
 are these here new-fangled ideas; and I don't say — mind, I 
 don't say that it don't go agin pilots as a body. A pilot can't 
 do his dooty as he ought when he's got such crews as sarve 
 nowadays to order about. Here am i stuck here, with a job 
 that I knows of waitin' and waitin' for me at Gravesend; and 
 all because this blessed ship's company wants wenison and 
 plum-dufE for dinner!" 
 
 He helped himself to a large slice of broiled ham and de- 
 voured it with sullen energy. 
 
 I could have said a word for the men, but guessed that my 
 remarks would be repeated to the skipper; and since I could 
 not benefit them, there was no use in injuring myself. 
 
 After breakfast I went upon deck, and saw a Deal boat 
 making for the ship. She came along in slashing style, under 
 her broad lug — what splendid boats those Deal luggers are, 
 and how superbly the fellows handle them ! — and in a short 
 time was near enough to enable me to see that she towed our 
 quarter-boat astern, and that Coson and Duckling were among 
 her occupants. I went to the gangway to receive her; she fell 
 off, then luffed, running a fine semicircle; down dropped her 
 lug, her mizsien brought her right to, and she came alongside 
 with beautiful precision, stopping under the gangway like a 
 carriage at your door. 
 
 I caught the line that was flung from her, took a turn with 
 it, and then Coxon and the chief mate stepped on board. The 
 moment he touched the deck, Coxon called to the men, who 
 were hanging about the forecastle, 
 
 " Get your traps together and out with you! If ever a man 
 
26 THE WEECK OF THE "GEOSTENOR." 
 
 among you stops in my sHp five minutes, I'll fling him over- 
 board. " 
 
 With vrhich terrible threat he walked into the cuddy. Duck- 
 iing remained at the gangway to see the crew leave the ship. 
 The poor fallows were all ready. They had made up their 
 minds to go ashore, but hardly knew under what circum- 
 stances. I had noticed them pressing forward to look into the 
 boat when she came alongside, no doubt expecting to see the 
 uniform of a poHce superintendent there. The presence of 
 such an official would, of course, have meant imprisonment to 
 them; they would have been locked up until brought before the 
 magistrates. They were clearly disappointed by the skipper's 
 procedure, for as they came to the gangway, carrying their 
 bags and chests, all kinds of remarks, expressive of their opin- 
 ion on the matter, were uttered by them. 
 
 " The old blackguard!" said one flinging his hag into the 
 boat, and lingering before Duckhng and myself in order to de- 
 liver his observations, " he hasn't the pluck to have us tried. 
 Pitch us overboard ! let him try his (etc. ) hand upon the httlest 
 of us! I'd take six months, and thank 'em, just to warm my 
 fist on his (etc.) face!" and so forth. 
 
 Duckling was wise to hold his peace. The men were furious 
 enough to have massacred hiin had he opened his lips. 
 
 The older hands got into the boat in silence, but none of the 
 rest left the ship without some candid expression of his feelings. 
 One said he'd gladly pay a pound for leave to set fire to the 
 ship. Another called her a floating work-house. A third hoped 
 that the vessel would be sunk, and the brutes commanding her 
 drowned before this time to-morrow. Every evil wish that 
 malice and rage could invent was hurled at the vessel and at 
 those who remained in her. In after days I recalled that beau- 
 tiful morning, the picture of the lugger alongside the ship, the 
 hungry, ill-used men with their poor packs going over the ves- 
 sel's side, and the curses they pronounced as they left us. 
 
 An incident followed the entry of the last of the men in the 
 boat. 
 
 The sail was hoisted, the rope that held the boat let her go, 
 and her head was shoved off; when the " Portugee, " in the 
 excitement and fury of his feelings, drew in his breath and his 
 cheeks, and spit with tremendous energy at Duckling, who was 
 watching him; but the missile fell short; in a word, he spit full 
 in the face of one of the old hands, who instantly knocked him 
 down. He tumbled head over heels among the feet of the 
 crowd of men, while Duckling roared out, " If the man who 
 knocked that blackguard down will return to his duty, I'll he 
 
THB WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR. " 37 
 
 his friend." But all the answer he got was a roar which re- 
 sembled in sound and character the mingled laughter and groans 
 of a large mob. The fresh wind caught and filled the sail, the 
 boat bounded away under the pressure, and in a few minutes 
 was a long distance out of hail. 
 
 CHAPTEE rV. 
 
 A FRESH crew came down from London the following morn- 
 ing in charge of a crimp. 
 
 Duckling went ashore to meet them at the railway station, 
 and they came off ,in the same boat that had landed the others 
 on the previous day. 
 
 They appeared much the same sort of men as those who had 
 left us; badly clothed for the most part, and but four of them 
 had sea-chests, the rest bringing bags. There was one very 
 big man among them, a fellow that dwarfed the others; he held 
 himself erect, wore good boots, and might very well have passed 
 for an escaped Life Guardsman, were it not for an indescribable 
 something in his gait, and the way in which he himg his hands, 
 that marked him for a Jack. 
 
 Another fellow I noticed, as he scrambled over the ship's 
 side, and sung out, in tones as hoarse as a raven's, to pitch 
 him up his " blooming portmantey," had a very extraordinary 
 face, altogether out of proportion with his head, being, I dare 
 say, a full third' too small. The back of the skull was im- 
 mense, and was covered with hair coarser than Duckling's — as 
 coarse as hemp-yards. This grew down beside his ears, and 
 got mixed up with his streaky whiskers, which bound up the 
 lower part of his face like a tar poultice. Out of this circle of 
 hair looked a face as small as a young boy's; little half-closed 
 Chinese eyes, a bit of a pug-nose, and a square mouth, kept 
 open so as to show that he wanted four front teeth. The 
 frame belonging to this remarkable head and face was singu- 
 larly vigorous, though grievously misshapen. His long arms 
 went far down his legs; his back, without having a hump, was 
 as round as a shell, and he looked as if he measured a yard and 
 a half from shoulder to shoulder. I watched this strange-look- 
 ing creature with great curiosity xmtil I lost sight of him in the 
 forecastle. 
 
 The men bustled over the side with great alacrity, bawling 
 for their bags and property to be handed up in a great variety 
 of accents. There were two Dutchmen, and a copper-colored 
 
28 THE WRECK OP THE " GEOSVENOE. 
 
 man, with African features, among them; the rest were En 
 glish- 
 
 The crimp remained in the boat, watching the men go on 
 board. He was from the other side of Jordaii. His woolly 
 hair was soaked with oil, and shone resplendent in the sun; the 
 oil seemed to haye got into his hat, too, for that had a most 
 fearful polish. He wore a great-coat that came down to his 
 shins, and beneath this he exhibited a pair of blue serge 
 breeches, terminating in boots as greasy, as his hat. He was 
 genteel enough to wear kid gloves; but the imagination was 
 not to be seduced by such an artifice from picturing the dirt 
 under the gloves. 
 
 I knew something of crimps, and amused myself with an idle 
 speculation or two while watching the man. This was a fellow 
 who would probably keep a lodging-house for sailors in some 
 dirty little street leading out of the West India Dock Eoad. 
 His terms would be very easy; seven shilUngs a week for board 
 and lodging, and every gentleman to pay for extras. He 
 would probably have two or three amiable and obliging sisters, 
 daughters, or nieces living with him, knowing the generous 
 and bhnd confidence Jack reposes in the endearments of the 
 soft sex, and how very prodigally he will pay for them. 
 
 So this greasy miscreant's dirty West India Dock Road lodg- 
 ing-house for sailors would always be pretty full, and he would 
 never have much difficulty in mustering a crew when he got 
 an order to raise one. Of course it would pay him, as it pays 
 other crimps, to let lodgings to sailors, so as to have them 
 always about him when a crew is wanted; for will he not 
 obhgingly cash their advance notes for them, handing them 
 say, thirty shillings for three pounds ten? " What do I do 
 with this dirty risk?" he will exclaim, when Jack expostulates. 
 " Supposing you cut stick? I lose my money. I only do this 
 to obleege you. Go into the street," he cries, pretending to 
 get in a passion, " and see what you'll get for your dirty piece 
 of paper. You'll be comin' back to me on your bended knees, 
 with tears a-tricklin' and runnin' over your cheeks, axing my 
 parding for wronging me and wilhn' to say a prayer of thank- 
 fulness for me bein' put in your way. You'll want a bag for 
 your clothes, and here's one, dirt cheap, five and a 'arf. And 
 you can't go to sea with one pair o' brigs, and you shall have 
 these beauties a bargain — come, fourteen and sis, for you, and 
 I'll ask you not to say what you gave for 'em, or I shall have 
 four himdred and fifty-vim customers comin' in a rage to tell 
 me I'm a villin for charging of 'em a guinea for the shame 
 axticle. And here's a first-class knife and belt — something fit 
 
THE WEECK OF THE " GE08TEN0B. " 39 
 
 for the heye to rest upon — ^honestly Tortl. 'arf a sovrin, which 
 I'll make you a present of for a bob; and if you say a word I'll 
 take everything back, for I can't stand ingratitood. " 
 
 Our friend watched the crew over the vessel's side with jeal- 
 ous eyes, for had they refused at the last moment to remain in 
 the diip, he would have been a loser to the amount he had 
 given them for their advance notes. He looked really happy 
 when the last man was out of the lugger and her head turned 
 for the shore. He raised his greasy hat to Duckhng, and his 
 hair shone Hke polished mahogany in the sun. 
 
 " Aft here, some of you, and ship this gangway. Boat- 
 swain, pipe all hands to get the ship under way," cried Duck- 
 hng; and turning to me with a wiak, he added, " If the grub 
 is going to bring more rows, we must fight 'em on the high 
 seas." 
 
 There was a little breeze from the south-east; quite enough 
 to keep the smaller sa;Us full and give us headway against the 
 tide that was running up Channel. The men, zealous as all 
 new-comers are, hastened briskly out of the forecastle on hear- 
 ing Duckling's voice and the boatswain's whistle, and manned 
 the windlass. The pilot was now on the poop with the skipper, 
 the latter looking lively enough as he heard the quick clank- 
 ing of the palls. The men broke into a song and chorus pres- 
 ently, and the rude strains chimed in well with the hoarse echo 
 of the cable coming link by link inboard. 
 
 Presently I reported the cable up and down. Then from 
 Duckling, the pilot's mouth-piece, came the familiar orders: 
 
 " Loose the outer jib." 
 
 " Lay aloft, some of you, and loose the top-sails." 
 
 " Up with that jib smartly, my lads." 
 
 " Ahand aft here to the wheel." 
 
 The ship lay with her head pointing to the direction in which 
 she was going: there was nothing more to do than sheet home 
 the top-sails and trip the anchor. The men were tolerably 
 nimble and smart. The three top-saUs were soon set, the wind- 
 lass again manned, and within a quarter of an hour from the 
 time when the order was given, the ship was under way, and 
 pushing quietly through a tide that raced m a hundred wrinkles 
 around her bows. 
 
 "We set the fore and maintop-gallant-saUs and spanker pres- 
 ently; the yards were braced sharp up, for we were heading 
 well south, so as to give the Foreland a wide berth. Thia 
 extra canvas sent us swirling past the red-hulled light-ship off 
 this point, and soon thp Dover pier opened, and the great white 
 cMs with their green heights. Anon, our course bringing the 
 
30 THE wreck; of the " GEOSVENOE. 
 
 wind more aft, we set the mainsail and main-royal and mizzei* 
 top-gaUant-sail, with the stay-sails and jibs. 
 
 The breeze freshened as wo stretched seaward — ^the ship was 
 now carrying a deal of canvas, and the men seemed pleased^ 
 with her pace. 
 
 The day was gloriously fine. The sea was of an emerald 
 green, alive with Httle leaping waves, each with its narrow 
 thread of froth. The breeze was strong enough to lay the ves- 
 sel over just so far as to enable one looldng over the weather 
 side to see her copper, shining red below the green line of 
 water. The brilliant smishine iHuminated the brass-work with 
 innumerable glories, and shone with fluctuating flashes in the 
 glass of sky-hghts, and made the decks glisten like a yacht's. 
 The canvas, broad and white, towered nobly to the sky; and 
 the main-royal against the deep blue of the sky seemed like a 
 cloud among the whiter clouds which swept in quick succession 
 high above. It was a sight to look over the ship's bows, to see 
 her keen stem shredding the water, and the permanent pillar 
 of foam leaning away from her weather-bow. 
 
 This part of the Channel was full of shipping, and I know, 
 by the vividness with which my memory reproduces the scene, 
 how beautiful was the picture impressed upon it. All on our 
 right were the English shores, made delicate and even fanciful 
 by distance; here and there fairy-like groups of houses, stand- 
 ing on the heights among trees or embosomed in valleys, with 
 silver sands sloping to the sea; deep shadows staining the purity 
 of the brilliant chalk; and a foreground of pleasure boats, with 
 sails glistening like pearl, and bright flags streaming. And to 
 our right and left vessels of different rigs and sizes standing up 
 or down Channel, some running, Hke ourselves, free, with 
 streaming wakes, others coming up close-hauled, some in 
 ballast high out of water, stretching their black sides along the 
 sea, and exposing to windward shining surfaces of copper. 
 
 At half past two o'clock in the afternoon, all sail that was 
 required having been made, and the decks cleared, the hands 
 were divided into watches, and I, having charge of the port 
 watch, came on deck. The starboard watch went below; but, 
 as the men had not dined, a portion of my own watch joined 
 the others in the forecastle to get their dinner. 
 
 I now discovered that the copper-faced man, to whom I have 
 drawn attention, was the new cook. I heard the men bandy- 
 ing jokes with him as they went in and out of the galley, carry- 
 ing the steaming lumps of pork and reeking dishes of pea-soup 
 into the forecastle, whence I concluded that they had either 
 
THE WRECK OP THE "GROSVENOK." 31 
 
 not yet discovered the quality of the provisions, or that they 
 were more easily satisfied than their predecessors had been. 
 
 Among the men in my own watch was the great, strapping 
 fellow whom I had likened to a Life Guardsman. I had thought 
 the man too big to be handy up aloft, but was very much de- 
 ceived, for in all my life I never witnessed such feats of activity 
 as he performed. His long legs had enabled him to take two 
 ratUnes at a time, and he saved himself the trouble of getting 
 over the futtock shrouds by very easily making two steps from 
 the main-shrouds to the mainyard, and from the mainyard to 
 the maintop. I watched him leave the galley, carrying his 
 smoking mess; but I also noticed, before I lost sight of him, 
 that he took a suspiciously long sniff at the steam under his 
 nose, and then violently expectorated. 
 
 The breeze was now very hvely; the canvas was stretching 
 nobly to it; and the shore, all along our starboard beam, was 
 a gliding panorama, brilliant with color and sunshine. They 
 were having dinner in the cuddy; and as often as I passed the 
 sky-hght, 1 could see the captain glancing upward at the sails 
 with a well-pleased expression. 
 
 I presently noticed the cook's copper face, crowned with an 
 odd kind of knitted cap, protruding from the gaUey, and his 
 small eyes gazed intently at me. I paced the length of the 
 poop, and when I returned, the cook's head was still at its post; 
 and then his body came out, and he stood staring in my direc- 
 tion. 
 
 I had to turn abruptly to hide my mirth, for his face was 
 ornamented with an expression of disgust exquisitely comical 
 with the wrinkled nose, the arched, thick mouth, and the 
 screwed-up eyebrows. 
 
 When I again looked, he was coming along the deck, swing- 
 ing a piece of very fat pork at the end of a string. He ad- 
 vanced close to the poop-ladder, at the top of which I was 
 standing, and holding up the pork, said: 
 
 " You see dis, sar?" 
 
 " Yes," I answered. 
 
 •" Me belong to a country where we no eat pork," he ex- 
 claimed, with great gravity, still preserving his wrinkled nose 
 and immensely disgusted expression. 
 
 " What country is that?" I asked. 
 
 " Hot country, sar," he answered. " But me will eat pork 
 on board ship." 
 
 "Very proper." 
 
 " But me will not eat stinking pork on board ship or any- 
 where else!" he cried, excitedly. 
 
32 THE WKECK OF THE "GKOSVENOR. 
 
 " Is that piece of pork tainted?" I inquired. 
 
 " Don't know niiffen 'bout tainted, sar/' lie replied, but 
 it smells kinder strong. But not so strong as the liquor where 
 t'other porks was biled in. Nebber smelled de like, sar. Most 
 disgusting. Come and try it, sar. Make you feel queer. " 
 
 " Pitch the water overboard, then." 
 
 " No good, sar. Pork'sle full of stinks, and men grumblin' 
 like hell. Me fust-rate cook, too — ^but no make a stink sweet. 
 Dat beats me. " 
 
 He held up the pork, with an expression on his face as if he 
 were about to sneeze, shook his finger at it as though it were 
 something that could be afiEected by the gesture, and flung it 
 oyerboard. 
 
 "Dat's my rations," said he. "Shouldn't like to eat de 
 fish that swallers it. " 
 
 And, turning jauntily in his frocked canvas breeches, he 
 walked ofiE, 
 
 A few moments afterward the extraordinary-looking man 
 with the small face and large head and shell-shaped back came 
 out of the forecastle, walking from side to side with a spring- 
 ing, jerky action of the legs, they being evidently moved by a 
 force having no reference to his wUl. 
 
 " Ax your pardon, sir," he said, twirling up his thumb in 
 the direction of his forehead; "but the meat's infernal bad 
 aboard of this here wessel. " 
 
 " I can't help it," I answered, annoyed to be the recipient 
 of these complaints, which seemed really to justify Coxon's 
 charge of my being the crew's confidant. " You must talk to 
 the captain about it. " 
 
 " Ne'er a man among us can eat of the pork; and the cook, 
 as is better acquainted than us with these here matters, says 
 he'd rather be bUed alive than swaller a ounce of it. " 
 
 " The captain is the proper person to complain to." 
 
 " That may be, sir," said the man, dropping his chin, so 
 that by projecting his beard, his face appeared to withdraw 
 and grow smaller stiU; " but the boatswain says there'll not 
 be much got by complaining to the skipper." 
 
 " I can't make the ship's stores better than they are," I re- 
 phed, moving a step, for I now perceived that some of the crew 
 were watching us, and I did not want the captain to come on 
 deck and find me talking to this man about the provisions. 
 But it so happened that at this particular moment the captain 
 emerged from the companion hatchway. The man did not 
 stir, and the captain said: 
 
 " What does that fellow want?" 
 
THE WEECK OB THE "QROSVBKOE." 33 
 
 " He is complaining of the pork, sir. I have referred him 
 to you. " 
 
 He gave me a sharp look, and Ijtiaing forward, said, in a 
 qcuet, mild voice: 
 
 " What^s the matter, my man?" 
 
 " Why, sir, I've been asked to come and say that the pork 
 that's been served to the men is in a werry bad state, to be 
 sure. It's more smell than meat, and what ain't smell is 
 brine." 
 
 " I am sorry to hear that," said the captain, in a most 
 benignant manner. ' ' Look into the cuddy and tell the steward 
 I want him." 
 
 The steward stepped on to the quarter-deck, and looked up 
 at his master in a way that made me suspect he had got his 
 cue. 
 
 " What's the matter with the pork, steward?" 
 " E"othiag, sir, that I know of." 
 
 " The men say it smells strong — ^that's what you say, I 
 think?" remarked the captain, addressing the man. 
 " Werry strong, sir — strong enough to sit upon, sir." 
 " I don't know how that can be," exclaimed the steward, 
 looking very puzzled indeed. " It's sweet enough in the cask. 
 Perhaps it's the fault of the biling. " 
 
 " Nothing to do with the biling, mate," said the man, shak- 
 ing his extraordinary head, at the same time surveying the 
 steward indignantly. " Biling clears away smells, as a rule." 
 " Perhaps you've opened a bad cask. If so," said the cap- 
 tain, " fling it overboard, for I'll not have the men poisoned. 
 Let the cook boU me a sample from the next cask you open, . 
 and put it upon my table — do you hear?" 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 " That will do," contiaued the captain, addressing the man. 
 
 " You may go forward and tell your mates what I have said." 
 
 And away straggled the man to inform the crew, no doubt, 
 
 that the skipper was a brick, and that he'd like to punch the 
 
 steward's head. 
 
 At seven o'clock next morning, we were abreast the Isle of 
 Wight, having carried a strong south-easterly breeze with us as 
 far as Eastbourne, when the wind lulled and remained light 
 all through the middle watch; but after four it freshened agaia 
 from the same quarter, and came on to blow strong; but we 
 kept the fore and maiu-royals on her all through, and only 
 furled them to heave the ship to off Ventnor, where we landed 
 the pilot. 
 
 There was a nasty lump of a sea on just here, and some 
 
34 THE WKBCK OF THE " GBOSVBNOB. 
 
 smacks making for Portsmouth carried half sails soaking and 
 their decks running with water. The " GrosTcnor/ owing 
 to her weight, lay steady enough; a little too steady, I thought, 
 for she shipped water over her starboard bow without rising, 
 reminding me of a deep-laden barge, along which you will see 
 the swell runnmg and washing, while she herself goes squash- 
 ing through with scarcely a roll. 
 
 A dandy-rigged boat put off, in response to our signal, and 
 I enjoyed the pretty picture she made as she came foaming, 
 close hauled, toward the ship, burying herself in spray as she 
 shoved her keen nose into the sea, and hopping nimbly out of 
 one trough into another, so that sometimes you could see her 
 forefoot right out of water. 
 
 I was glad when the pilot got over the side. He was a mean 
 toady, and had done me no good with the captain. The gang- 
 way ladder had been thrown over to enable him to descend, 
 and the boat washed high and low, up and down, alongside, 
 sometimes level with the deck, iometimes twelve or fourteen 
 feet in a hollow. 
 
 " Now's your time," said I, mischievously, as he hung on to 
 the man-rope with one leg out to catch the boat as she rose. 
 He took me at my word and let go; but the boat was sinking, 
 and down he went with her, and I had the satisfaction of see- 
 ing him roll right into the boat^s bottom, and there get so 
 hopelessly entangled with the pump and some trawling gear, 
 that it took two boatmen to pull him out and set him on his 
 feet. 
 
 Then away they went, the pilot waving his hat to the skip- 
 per, who cries: 
 
 " Man the lee main-braces." 
 
 The great yards were swung around, and the ship lay over to 
 the immense weight of canvas. 
 
 " Ease of£ those Jib-sheets there, and set the mainsail. " 
 
 The ship, feeling the full breeze, surged slowly forward, part- 
 ing the toppling seas with thundering blows of her bows. She 
 had as much saU on her as she could well carry and a trifle to 
 spare, for the breeze had freshened while we had been lying to: 
 a couple of vessels to windward were taking in their fore and 
 mizzentop-gallant-sails, and ahead was a smart brig with a 
 single reef in her f oretop-sail. The wind was well abeam, per- 
 haps half a point abaft, and every sail was swollen Uke the 
 cheeks of rude Boreas in the picture of that bleak worthy. 
 
 This cracking on dehghted Duckling, whose head turned so 
 violently about, as he stared first at these sails, then at those. 
 
THE "WEECK OP THE "GKOSVENOE." 35 
 
 then forward, then aft, that I thought he would end in putting 
 a kink into his neck. 
 
 " This is 25roper!" he exclaimed, in his hoarse voice, after 
 ordering some hands " to cap the watch-tackle on to the main- 
 tack and rouse it down." " We'll teach 'em how to froth this 
 blessed Channel ! I guess we've had enough of calms, and if 
 the Scilly ain't some miles astern by the second dog-watch to- 
 morrow I'll turn a monk, you see!" 
 
 We were heading well west-south-west, and the water was fly- 
 ing in sheets of foam from the ship's bows. By this time it was 
 dark, and the sky thick with the volume of wind that swept 
 over it; and the stars slione hazily, but it was as much as I 
 could do to trace the outlines of the main-royal and top-gal- 
 lant-sail. 
 
 The vessel was rushing through the Avater at a great pace. 
 I felt as exhilarated as one new to the life when I looked astern 
 and saw the broad path of foam churned by the ship rising and 
 falhng and faxiing upon the desolate gloom of the hilly hori- 
 zon. Blue fixes burned in the water; but, by and by, when by 
 stretching out we had got into the broader sea, and the vessel 
 plunged to the heavier waves which were running, big flakes 
 of phosphorescent light were hurled up with the water every 
 time the ship pitched, and for twenty fathoms astern the 
 water was as luminous as the Milky Way. The roaring of the 
 wind on high, the creaking of the spars, the clanking and 
 grinding of the chain-sheets, the squeal of sheaves working on 
 rusty pins, the hissing and spitting of the seething foam, and 
 ever and anon the sullen thunder of a sea striking the ship, 
 fiUed the ear with a wonderful volume of sound. The captain 
 was cracking on to make up for the lost time, and he was on 
 deck when I went below at ten o'clock to get some rest before 
 relieving Duckling at midnight. There were then two hands 
 at the wheel, and a couple on the lookout; our lamps were 
 burning bravely, but we had long ago outrun all sight of shore 
 and of lights ashore. 
 
 I slept soundly, and at eight bells Duckling roused me up. 
 The impleasantest part of a sailor's life is this periodical tm'n- 
 ing out of warm blankets to walk the deck for four hours. The 
 rawness of the night air is anything but stimulating to a man 
 just awake and very sleepy. Let the wind be ever so steady, 
 the decks are full of powerful draughts rushing out of the Sails, 
 and blowing into your eyes and ears, and up the legs of your 
 trousers, and down the .collar of your shirt, turn where you 
 will: and you think, as your hair is blown over your eyes and 
 a shower of spray comes pattering upon your oil-skins and an- 
 
36 THE WEECK OF THE " GEOSVENOE. " 
 
 noying your face, of your sheltered cabin and warm cot, ana 
 -yonder what, in the name of common sense, caused you tc 
 ,ake to this uncomfortable profession. The crew m this re- 
 spect are better off than their officers; for the watch on deck 
 at night can always manage to sneak into the forecastle and 
 doze upon their chests, or on the deck and keep under shelter; 
 whereas the mate in charge must be always wide awake and on 
 his legs thrBughout his watch, and shirk nothiag that the 
 heayens may choose to pour upon his defenseless person. 
 
 I had four hours before me when I went on deck, and I may 
 perhaps have wished myself ashore in a quiet bed. The cap- 
 tain stood near the wheel. It was blowing very fresh indeed, 
 the wind about east-south-east, with a strong following sea. 
 The yards had been braced further aft, but no other alteration 
 had been made since I had gone below. If I had thought 
 that the vessel was carrying too much sail then, I certainly 
 thought that she was carrying a great deal too much sail now. 
 She could have very well dispensed with the main-royal and 
 top-gallant-sails, and in my opinion would have made the same 
 way with a single reef in the top-sails. The press of canvas 
 was burying her. Well aft as the lyind was, the vessel lay over 
 to starboard under it, and she was dragging her heavy channels 
 sluicing and foaming through the water. The moon was weak, 
 with a big ring round her, and the sky was obsciu-ed by the 
 scud which fled swiftly away to the north-west. The horizon 
 was thick, and the troubled sheen of the moon upon the jump- 
 ing seas made the dark waters, with their ghastly lines of phos- 
 phorescent foam, a most wild and weird panorama. 
 
 I mustered the watch, and a couple of them went to relieve 
 their mates on the forecastle. A night-glass lay on one of 
 the sky-lights, and I swept the horizon with it, but nothing was 
 to be seen. I walked aft to see how she was steering, for these 
 heavy foUowitig seas lumping up against a ship's quarter play 
 the deuce with some vessels, making the compass-card swing 
 wildly and setting the squai-e sails lifting; but found her steer- 
 ing very steadily, though the rush of some of the seas under 
 her counter might have bewildered a two-thousand-ton ship. 
 She rose, too, better than I thought she would, though she 
 was sluggish enough, for some of the seas ran past her with 
 their crests curling above her lee bulwarks, and she had re- 
 ceived one souser near the galley; but her decks to windward 
 were dry. 
 
 Coxon was smoking a big Dutch -pipe, holding it with one 
 hand and the rail with the other. He had a hair cap on with 
 flaps over his ears, and sea-boots, and all that he was doing 
 
THE -WEEOK OF THE "GBOSVENOB." 87 
 
 was first to blow a cloud and then look up at the sails, and 
 then blow another cloud and then look up again. This would 
 appear to have been going on since nine o'clock. I thought' 
 he must be pretty tired of his diTersion by this time. i 
 
 " She bears her canvas well, sir," said I. ■; 
 
 "Yes," he answered, gruffly, "I have lost twenty-four 
 hours. I ought to have been clear of the Channel by this." 
 
 ' ' She is a fast vessel, sir. We are doing a good twelve, I 
 should say. " 
 
 He cast his eyes over the stern, then looked up aloft, but 
 made no answer. I was moving away when he exclaimed : 
 
 " Go forward and tell the men to keep a bright lookout. 
 And keep your weather-eye lifting yourself, sir." 
 
 I did as he bade me, and got upon the forecastle. I found 
 the two men, who were indistinguishable from the poop, 
 wrapped in oil-skins leaning against the forecastle rail. It 
 blew harder here than it did aft, for a power of wind rushed 
 slanting from the fore-topmast-staysail and whirled up from 
 under the foot of the foresail. The crashing sound of the ves- 
 sel's bows, urged through the heavy water by the great power 
 that was bellowing overhead, was wonderful to hear: an up- 
 roar of thunder was all ajound, mingled with wild shrieking 
 cries and the strange groaning of straining timbers. The moon 
 stood away to windward oi the mizzen-royal-masthead, and it 
 was a sight to look up and see the gray canvas, full like bal- 
 loons, soaring into the sky, and to hear the mighty rush of the 
 wind among the rigging as the vessel rolled against it, making 
 the moon whirl across her spars to and fro, to and fro. 
 
 I had been on deck three quarters of an hour when, feeling 
 the wind very cold, I dived into my cabin for a shawl to wrap 
 round my neck. 
 
 I had hardly left the cuddy door to return, when I heard a 
 loud cry from the forecastle, and both hands roared out sim- 
 ultaneously, " A sail right ahead!" 
 
 Ooxon walked quickly forward to the poop-rail to try to see 
 the vessel to windward; then he went over to the other side 
 and peered under the mainsail; after which he said, " I see 
 nothing. Where is she?" 
 
 I shouted through my hands, " On which bow is she?" 
 
 " Eight ahead!" came the reply. 
 
 There was a short pause, and then one of the men roared 
 out, "Hard over! we're upon her! She's cutter rigged. 
 She's a smack. " 
 
 " Hard a-port! hard a-port!" bawled Coxon. 
 
 I saw the spokes of the wheel fly round, but almost at the 
 
38 THE WR-ECK OP THE " GKOSVEKOE. " 
 
 same moment I felt a sudden shock — an odd kind of thud, the 
 effect of which upon my senses was to produce the impression 
 of a sudden lull in the wind. 
 
 " God Almighty!" bellowed a voice, " we've run her down!" 
 
 In a second I had hounded to the weather-side of the poop 
 and looked over, and what I saw sliding rapidly past was a 
 mast and a dark-colored sail, which in the daylight would 
 probably be red, stretched flat upon the wilderness of foam 
 which our ship was sweeping off her sides. Upon this ghastly 
 white ground sail and mast were distinctly outlined — for a brief 
 moment only; they vanished even as I watched, swallowed up 
 in the seething water. And then overhead the sails of the ship 
 began to thunder, and the rigging quivered and jerked as 
 though it must snap. 
 
 " Hard over! hard over!" bellowed Coxon. 
 
 I saw him rush to the wheel, thrust away one of the men, 
 and pulled the spokes over with all his force. The vessel answered 
 splendidly, swerved nobly round like a creature of instinct, and 
 was again rushing headlong with full sail over the sea. 
 
 This was a close shave. At the speed at which she was 
 traveling she had obeyed the rudder in the first instance so 
 promptly as to come roimd close to the wind. A few moments 
 more and she would have been taken back; and this, taking 
 into consideration the amount of canvas she was carrying, must 
 infallibly have meant the loss of most, if not of aU, her spars. 
 Horrified by the thoughts of living creatures drowning in our 
 wake, I cried out to the skipper: 
 
 '" Won't you make an effort to save them, sir?" 
 
 " Save them be hanged!" he answered, fiercely. " Why the 
 devil didn't they get out of our road?" 
 
 I was so much shocked by the coarse inhumanity of this re- 
 ply that I turned on my heel, but yet was constrained by an 
 ugly fascination to turn again and cast shuddering glances at 
 the spot where I pictured the drowning wretches battling with 
 the waves. 
 
 Captain Coxon was too intent upon the compass to notice 
 my manner; he was giving directions to the men in a low voice, 
 with his eyes fixed on the card. 
 
 Presently he exclaimed, in his gruffest voice, " Call the car- 
 penter to sound the well." 
 
 This was soon dispatched, and I returned and reported a dry 
 bottom. 
 
 " Heave the log, sir. " 
 
 I called a couple of hands aft and went through the tiresome 
 and tedious job of ascertaining the speed by the measm-ed line 
 
THE WEBCK: of the " GfEOSVENOR. " 39 
 
 and sand-glass. The reel rattled furiously in the hands of the 
 man who held it; I thought the whole of the line would go 
 away oTerboard before the fellow who was holding the glass 
 cried, " Stop!" 
 
 " What do you make it?" demanded Coxon. 
 
 " Thirteen knots, sir." 
 
 He looked over the side as though to assure himself that the 
 computation was correct, then called out: 
 
 " Clew up the main-royal, and furl it!" 
 
 This was a beginning, and it was about time that a begin- 
 ning was made. The breeze had freshened into a strong wind, 
 this had grown into half a gale, and the look of the sky 
 promised a whole gale before morning. The main-royal hal- 
 yards were let go, and a couple of hands went up to stow the 
 bit of canvas that was thumping among the clouds. 
 
 Presently, " Purl the fore and mizzentop-gallant-sails. " 
 
 This gave occupation to the watch; and now the decks began 
 to grow lively with the figures of men running about, with 
 songs and choruses, with cries of " Belay, there!" — " Up with 
 it smartly, my lads!" and with the heavy flapping of canvas. 
 
 All this, however, was no very great reduction of sail. The 
 " Grosvehor " carried the old-fashioned single top-sails, and 
 these immense spaces of canvas were holding a power of wind. 
 Overhead the scud flew fast and furious, and all to windward 
 the horizon was very thick. We took in the maintop-gallant- 
 sail; and while the hands were aloft we came up hand over fist 
 with a big ship, painted white. She was to leeward, stretching 
 away under double-reefed top-sails, and showed out quite dis- 
 tinctly upon the dark sea beyond, and under the struggling 
 moonshine. We ran close enough to take the wind out of her 
 sails, and could easily have hailed her had there been any neces- 
 sity to do so; but we could discern no one on deck but a single 
 hand at the wheel. She showed no lights, and with her white 
 hull and gleaming sails, and fragile naked yards and masts, 
 she looked as ghostly as anything I ever saw on water. She 
 rolled and plunged solemnly among the seas, and threw up hei 
 own swirling outhne in startling relief upon the foam she flung 
 from her side, and which streamed away in pyramid-shape. 
 She went astern like a buoy, and in a few minutes had vanished 
 as utterly from our sight as if she had foundered. 
 
 I now stood waiting for 'an order which I knew must soon 
 come. It is one thing to " carry on," but it is another thing 
 to rip the masts out of a ship. I don't think we haxi lost half 
 a knot in speed through the canvas that had been taken in; 
 the vessel seemed to be running very nearly as fast as the seas. 
 
40 THE WREOK OF THE " GBOSVBNOR.* 
 
 But tlie wind was not only increasing, but increasing with 
 squalls, so that there were times when you would have thought 
 that the inmates of forty mad-houses had got among the rig- 
 ging and out upon the ya.rds, and were screeching, yelling, and 
 groaning with all the force they were master of. 
 
 At last the captain gaye the order I awaited: 
 
 " All hands reef top-sails. " 
 
 In a few minutes the boatswain's pipe sounded, and the watch 
 below came tumbling out of the forecastle. Now came a 
 scene familiar to every man who has been to sea, whether as a 
 sailor or a passenger. In a ship of war the crew go to work to 
 the sound of fiddles or silver whistles; every man knows his 
 station; everything is done quickly, quietly, and completely. 
 But in a merchantman the men go to work to the sound of 
 their own voices, these voices are, as a rule, uncommonly harsh 
 and hoarse; and as every working party has its own solo and 
 chorus, and as all working parties sing together, the effect 
 upon the ear, to say the very least, is hideous. But also in a 
 merchantman the crew is always less in number than they 
 ought to be. Hence, when the halyards are let go, the confu- 
 sion below and aloft becomes overwhelming; for not more, per- 
 haps than a couple of sails can be handled at a time, and, mean- 
 while, the others waiting to be furled are banged about by the 
 wind, and fling such a thunder apon the ear that orders are 
 scarce audible for the noise. 
 
 All this happened to a certain degree in the present instance. 
 The captain, having carried canvas with fool-hardy boldness, 
 now ran into the otjbier extreme. The quick fierce gusts which 
 ran down upon the ship frightened him, and his order was to 
 let go all three top-sail halyards, and double-reef the sails. 
 The halyards were easily let go; but then, the working hands 
 being few, confusion must follow. The yards coming down 
 upon the caps, the sails stood out in belHes hard as iron. A 
 whole watch upon each reef-tackle could hardly bring the 
 blocks together. When the mizzentop-sail was reefed, it was 
 found that the foretop-saU would require all hands; the helm 
 had to be put down to shake the sail, so as to enable the men 
 to make the reef-points meet. The maintop-sail lifted as well 
 as the foretop-sail, and both sails rattled in unison; and the 
 din of the peahng canvas, furiously shaken by the howHng 
 wind, the cries of the men getting the sad over to windward, 
 the booming of the seas against the ship's bows, the groaning 
 of her timbers, the excited grunting of terrified pigs, and the 
 rumbling of an empty water-cask, which had broken from its 
 lashings and was rolling to and fro the main-deck, constituted 
 
THE WEEOK OP THE "GR08VEN0R." 41 
 
 an uproar of which no description, however elaborate, could 
 eyen faintly express the overwhelming character. 
 
 When the dawn broke it found the " Grosvenor " under 
 reefed top-sails, foretop-mast, stay-sail, foresail, main-trysaU, 
 and spanker, snug enough, but with streaming decks, for the 
 gale had raised a heavy beam sea, and the deep-laden ship was 
 sluggish, and took the water repeatedly over her weather bul- 
 warks. 
 
 The watch below had turned in again, but it was already 
 seven bells, and at four o'clock my turn would come to go to 
 bed. I had charge of the ship, for the captain, having passed 
 the night in observing his vessel's saihng powers under all can- 
 vas, had gone below, and I was not sorry to get rid of him, for 
 his continued presence aft had become a nuisance to my eyes. 
 
 The sea under the gathering light in the east was a remarka- 
 ble sight. The creaming, arching surfaces of the waves took 
 the pale illumination, but the troughs or hollows were livid, 
 and, looking along the rugged surface as the ship rose, one 
 seemed to behold countless lines of yawning caverns opening in 
 an illimitable waste of snow. Nothing could surpass the pro- 
 found desolation of the scene surveyed in the faint struggling 
 dawn; the pallid heaven, bearing its dim and languishing stars, 
 over which were swept long lines of smoke-colored clouds torn 
 and mangled by the wind; the broken ocean pouring and boil- 
 ing away to a melancholy horizon, still dark, save where the 
 dawn was creeping upward with its chilly light, and making 
 the eastern sea and sky leaden-hued. 
 
 I had now leisure to recall the fatal accident I have related, 
 and the inhumanity of Captain Coxon's comment upon it. I 
 hugged, myself in my thick coat as I looked astern at the cold 
 and rushing waters, and thought of the bitter, sudden deaths 
 of the unfortunates we had run down. With what appalling 
 rapidity had the whole thing happened! not even a dying 
 shriek had been heard amid the roar of the wind among the 
 masts. For many a day the memory of that dark-colored sail, 
 prone upon the foaming water, haunted me. The significance 
 of it was awful to think upon. But for the men on the look- 
 out, never a soul among us would have known that Hving be- 
 ings had been hurled into sudden and dreadful death; that the 
 ship in which we sailed had perchance made widows of sleeja- 
 ing wives, had made children fatherless, and that ruin and 
 beggary and sorrow had been churned up out of the deep by 
 our unsparing bows. 
 
 Our voyage had begun iuauspiciously enough, God knows: 
 and as I looked toward the east, where the morning light was 
 
4S THE WEECK OF THE " GUOBVBNOB. 
 
 /findling over the livid, rugged horizon, a strange depression 
 fell upon my spirits, and the presentiment then entered my 
 mind, and never afterward quitted it, that perils and sufEermg 
 and death were in store for us, and that when I had looked on 
 the English coast last night I was tmconsoiously bidding fare- 
 well to scenes I should never behold again. 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 I "WAS on deck again at eight o'clock. It was still blowing a 
 gale, but the wind had drawn right aft, and though the top-sails 
 were kept reefed. Duckling had thought fit to set the maiutop- 
 gallant-sail, and the ship was running bravely. 
 
 Yet, though her speed was good, she was rolling abominably; 
 for the wind had not had time to change the course of the 
 waves, and we had now all the disadvantage of a beam sea, 
 without the modifying influence over the ship's rolling of a 
 beam wind. 
 
 I reckoned that we had made over one hundred and thirty 
 knots during the twelve hours, so that if the gale lasted we 
 might hope to be clear of the ScUly Isles by next morning. 
 There was a small screw-steamer crossing our bows right ahead, 
 possibly haiHng from France and bound to the Bristol Chan- 
 nel. I watched her through a glass, sometimes breathlessly, 
 for in all my life I never saw any vessel pitch as she did, and 
 live. Sometimes she seemed to stand clear out of water, so as 
 to look all hull; then down she would go and leave nothing 
 showing but a bit of her funnel sticking up, with black smoke 
 pouring away from it. Several times when she pitched I said to 
 myself, " Now she is gone!" Her bows went clean under, 
 heaving aloft a prodigious space of foam; up cocked her stern, 
 and, with the help of the glass, I could see her screw scurrying 
 round in the air. Her decks were lumbered with cattle-pens, 
 but the only living thing I could see on board was a man steer- 
 ing her on the bridge. She vanished all on a sudden, amid a 
 Niagara of spray; but some minutes after I saw her smoke on 
 the horizon. Had I not seen her smoke I should have been 
 willing to wager that she had foundered. These mysterious 
 disappearances at sea are by no means rare, but are difficult to 
 account for, since they sometimes happen when the horizon is 
 clear. I have sighted a ship and watched her for some time; 
 withdrawn my eyes for a minute, looked again, and perceived 
 no signs of her. It is possible that mists of small extent may 
 hang upon the sea, not noticeable at a distance, and that they 
 
THU WEECK OF THE " GEOSVBlirOE. " 43 
 
 will shut out a vessel suddenly and puzzle you as a miracle 
 would. The fascinating legend of the " Phantom Ship " may 
 have originated in disappearances of this kind^ for they are 
 quite complete and surprising enough to inspire superstitious 
 thoughts in such plain, unlettered minds as sailors'. 
 
 They were breakfasting in the cuddy and in the forecastle, 
 and I was waiting for the skipper to come on deck that I might 
 go below and get something to eat. But before he made his 
 appearance, the confounded copper-colored cook, accompanied 
 by a couple of men, came aft. 
 
 " Sar," said this worthy, who looked lovely in a pink-striped 
 shirt and yellow overalls, " me ask you respeckfly to speak to 
 de skipper and tell him biscuit am dam bad, sar. " 
 
 "I'm messman for the starboard watch, sir," exclaimed one 
 of the men, " and the ship's company says they can't get the 
 bread down 'em nohow. " 
 
 " Why do you come to me?" I demanded of them, angrily. 
 " I have already told you, cook, that I have nothing to do with 
 the ship's stores. You heard what Captaia Coxon said yester- 
 day?" 
 
 " Can't the steward get up a fresh bag of bread for break- 
 fast?" exclaimed the third man. 
 
 " He's in the cuddy," I replied; " ask him." 
 
 They bobbed their heads forward to see through the cuddy 
 windows, and at that moment Duckling came on deck up 
 through the companion. 
 
 " You can get your breakfast," said he to me. " I'll keep 
 watch until you've done." 
 
 "Here are some men on the quarter-deck complaining of 
 the bread," said I. " Will you speak' to them?" 
 
 He came forward at once very briskly, and looked over. 
 
 " What's the matter?" he called out. 
 
 " We've come to complain of the ship's bread, sir," said one 
 of the men, quite civilly. 
 
 "Dam bad bread, sar! Me honest man and speak plain 
 truff," exclaimed the cook, who possibly thought that his 
 position privileged him to be both easy and candid on the sub- 
 ject of eating. 
 
 " Get away forward!" cried DuckHng, passionately. " The 
 bread's good enough. You want to kick up a shindy. " 
 
 The men made a movement, the instiact of obedience re- 
 sponding mechanically to the command. But the cook held 
 his ground, and said, shaking his head and convulsing his 
 face : 
 ; " De bread am poison, sar. All de flour's changed into 
 
44 THE •WRECK OE THE " GEOSYEITOE. " 
 
 worms. Nebber see such r. t'ing. It get here "—touching his 
 throat — " and make me — yaw!" 
 
 " Go forward, I tell you, you yellow-faced villain!" shouted 
 Duckling. " D'ye hear what I say?" 
 
 " Dis chile is a cook," began the fellow; but Duckling 
 sprung ofE the poop, and with his clinched fist struck him full 
 under the jaw; the poor devil staggered and whirled round, 
 and then up went Duckling's foot, and cook was propelled at 
 a great pace along the main-deck toward the galley. He 
 stopped, put his hand to his jaw, and looked at the palm of it; 
 rubbed the part that had been kicked, turned and held up his 
 clinched fist, and went into the galley. The two other men 
 disappeared in the forecastle. 
 
 " Curse their impudence!" exclaimed Duckling, remounting 
 the poop-ladder, and polishing his knuckles on the sleeve of 
 his coat. " Now, Mr. Eoyle, get you down to your breakfast. 
 I want to turn in when you've done." 
 
 I entered the cuddy, not very greatly edified by Duckling's 
 way of emphasizing his orders, and made a bow to the captain, 
 who was still at table. He condescended to raise his eyes, but 
 for some minutes afterward took no notice of me whatever, 
 occupying himself with glancing over a bundle of slips which 
 looked like bill-heads in his hand. 
 
 The vessel was rolling so heavUy that the very plates slid to 
 and fro on the table; and it not only required dexterity, but 
 was no mean labor, to catch the coffee-pot off the swinging tray, 
 as it came like a pendulum over to my side, and to pour out a 
 cup of coffee without capsizing it. The mahogany panfehng 
 and cabin doors all round creaked incessantly, and in the 
 steward's pantry there was a frequent rattle of crockery. 
 
 " What was going forward on the main-deck just now?" de- 
 manded Coxon, stowing away the papers iu his pocket, and 
 breaking fragments from a breakfast roll. 
 
 I explained. 
 
 " Ah!" said he; " they're still at that game, are they?" 
 
 " Mr. Duckliag punched the cook's head — " 
 
 " I saw him, sir. Likewise he kicked him. Mr. Duckling 
 knows his duty, and I hope he has taught the cook his. 
 Steward!" 
 
 " Yes, sir?" responded the steward, coming out of the 
 pantry. 
 
 _ "See that a piece of the pork you are serving out to the men 
 IS put upon my table to-dav. " 
 
 ''Yes, sir." ^ 
 
 The captain fell into another fit of silence, during which I 
 
' Up went Duckling's foot and cook was propelled at a great pace toward 
 the galley."— Page 44. 
 
THE WRECK OE THE "GROSVENOE." 45 
 
 eat my breakfast as quickly as I could, in order to relieve 
 Duckling. 
 
 " Mr. Eoyle," said he, presently, " when we ran that smack 
 down this morning, what were you for doing?" 
 
 " I should have hove the ship to," I replied, meeting his 
 eyes. 
 
 " "Would you have hove her to had you been alone on deck, 
 sir?" 
 
 " Yes, and depended on your humanity to excuse me." 
 
 " What do you mean by my humanity?" he cried, dissem- 
 bling his temper badly. " What kind of cant is this you have 
 brought on board my ship? Humanity! D — n it!" he ex- 
 claimed, his ungovernable temper blazing out, " had you hove 
 my ship to on your own hook, I'd have had you in irons for 
 the rest of the voyage!" 
 
 "I don't see the use of that threat, sir," said I, quietly. 
 " You have to judge me by what I did do, not by what I might 
 or would do." 
 
 " Oh, confound your distinctions!" he went on, pushing his 
 hair over his ears. " You told me that you would have hove 
 the ship to, had you been alone, and that means you would 
 have whipped the masts out of her. Do you mean to tell me 
 that you knew what sail we were carrying, to talk like this?" 
 
 "Perfectly well." 
 
 My composure irritated him more than my words, and I 
 don't know what savage answer he was about to return ; but 
 his attention was on a sudden arrested and diverted from me. 
 I turned my eyes in the direction in which he was staring, and 
 beheld the whole ship's company advancing along the main- 
 deck, led by the big seaman, whose name was Johnson, and by 
 the tortoise-backed, small-faced man, who was called Fish — 
 Ebenezer Ksh. 
 
 The moment the captain observed them, he rose precipitately 
 and ran up the companion-ladder; and, as I had finished 
 breakfast, I followed him. 
 
 By the time I had reached the break of the poop the hands 
 were all, gathered around the mainmast- A few of them held 
 tin dishes in their hands, in which were lumps of meat swim- 
 ming in black vinegar. One carried some dozen biscuits, sup- 
 ported against his breast. Another held a tin pannikin iUled 
 with treacle, and another grasped a salt- jar, or some such 
 utensil, containing tea. 
 
 The c,ou;p d'mil from the poop was at this moment striking. 
 All around was a heavy sea, with great waves boiling along it; 
 overhead a pale-blue sky, along which the wildest clouds were 
 
46 THE WEECK OF THE " GKOSVENOK. *' 
 
 sweeping. The yessel, running before the wind under double- 
 reefed top-sails, rolled heavUy both to port and to starboard, 
 ever and anon shipping a sheet of green water over her bul- 
 warks, which went rushing to and fro the decks, seething and 
 hissing among the feet of the men, and escaping, with loud, 
 bubbling noises, through the scupper-holes. 
 
 I was almost as soon on deck as Ooxon, and therefore heard 
 the opening address of Johnson, who, folding his arms upon 
 his breast, and " giving " on either leg, so as to maintain his 
 equihbrium while the deck sloped to and fro under him, said, 
 in a low, distinct voice: 
 
 " The ship's company thinks it a dooty as they owe their- 
 selves to come aft altogether to let you know that the provisions 
 sarved out to 'em ain't eatable." 
 
 " Out, all hands, with what you've got to say," replied 
 Ooxon, leaning against the rail; " and when you've done I'll 
 talk to you." 
 
 " Now, then, mates, you hear what the skipper says," ex- 
 claimed Johnson, turning to the others. 
 
 Just then I noticed the copper face of the cook, who was 
 skulking behind the men, with his eyes fixed, flashing like a 
 madman's, upon Duckling. 
 
 The felloy with the biscuits came forward, but a heavy lurch 
 at that moment made him stumble, and the biscuits rolled out 
 of his arms. They were collected officiously by the others, and 
 placed again in his hands, all sopping wet; but he said, in a 
 collected voice: 
 
 " These here are the starboard watch's bread. Ne'er a man 
 has tasted of them. We've brought 'em for you to see, as so 
 be it may happen that you aren't formiliar with the muck the 
 steward sarves out." 
 
 " Hand up a dry one," said the skipper. 
 
 A man ran forward, and returned with a biscuit, which the 
 captain took, broke, smelled, and tasted. He handed it to 
 Duckling, who also smelled and tasted. He (the captain) said, 
 " Fire away!" 
 
 The fellow with the biscuits withdrew, and one of the men, 
 bearing the pork swimming in vinegar, advanced. He was & 
 Dutchman, and was heard and understood with difficulty. 
 
 " My mates they shay tat tiss pork is tam nashty, and it 
 ishn't pork ash I fanshy; but Gott knowsh what it iss; an' I 
 shwear it gifs me ta sMomach-ache — by Gott, it does, sir, ass I 
 am a man." 
 
 This speech was received with great gravity by the men as 
 well as Ooxon, who answered: " Hand it" up." 
 
THE WKECK OB THE "GEOSVENOE." 47 
 
 The mess was shoved through the rail and poked at by the 
 skipper with a penknife; he even jobbed a piece of it out and 
 put it into his mouth. I watched for a grimace^ but he made 
 none. He handed the tin dish, as he had the biscuit, to Duck- 
 ling, who looked at it closely and put it on the deck. 
 
 " The next," said the captain. 
 
 The Dutchman, looking as a man would who is conscious of 
 having discharged a most important duty, hustled back among 
 the others, and the man with ihe treacle came out. 
 
 " This, sir, is what the steward's givin' us for molasses," said 
 he, looking into the pannikin. 
 
 The captain made no answer. 
 
 " And though his senses are agin him, he goes on a-callin' 
 of it molasses. " 
 
 Another pause. 
 
 " But to my way of thinkin' it ain't no more molasses than 
 it's oysters. It's biled black beetles, that's what I call it, and 
 you want a tooth-pick as thick as a marhne-spike to get the 
 shells out o' your teeth arter a meal of it." 
 
 " Hand it up," said the captain, from whom every moment 
 I was expecting an expression of temper. He did not offer to 
 taste the stuff, but inspected it with apparent attention, and 
 tilted the vessel first this way and then that, that the treacle 
 might run. 
 
 " Here's your molasses," said he, handing down the panni- 
 kin. " What else is there?" 
 
 " "We're willin' to call this tea," said a man, holding up an 
 earthenware jar filled with a black liquid; " but it ain't tea 
 like what they sells ashore, and tain't tea like what I've bin 
 used to drink on board other vessejs. It's tea," continued he, 
 looking first into the jar and then at the skipper, " and yet it 
 ain't.' May be it was growed in England, for there isn't no 
 flavor of Chaney about it. It's too faint for 'bacca leaves, 
 and tain't sweet enough for licorice. Fish here says it's the 
 mustiness as makes it taste like senna. " 
 
 Here followed a pause, during which the men gazed eagerly 
 at the skipper. I noticed some angry and even sinister coun- 
 tenances among them; and the cook looked as evil as a fiend, 
 with his hard yellow face and gleaming eyes staring upward 
 under his eyebrows. But so far there had been nothing in the 
 men's speeches and behavior to alarm the most timid captain; 
 and I thought it would require but little tact and a few kindly 
 concessions to make them, on the whole, a hard-workmg and 
 tractable crew. 
 
 The captain having kept silence for some time, exchanged 
 
48 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOB. " 
 
 looks with Duckling, and called to know i£ the men had any 
 more complaints to make. They talked among themselves, 
 and Johnson answered, " No. " 
 
 " Very well, then," said he. " I can do nothing for you 
 here. There are no bake-houses yonder," nodding at the sea, 
 " to get fresh bread from. You must wait till we get to Val- 
 paraiso. " 
 
 A regular growl came up from the men, and Johnson ex- 
 claimed: 
 
 " We can't live on nothing tUl we get to Valparaiso." 
 
 " What do you want me to do?" cried the skipper, savagely. 
 
 "It's not for us to dictate," replied Johnson. "All that 
 the crew wants is grub fit to eat. " 
 
 " Put into Brest," exclaimed a voice. " It ain't far ofl. 
 There is good junk and biscuit to be got at Brest. " 
 
 " Who dares to advise me as to what I'm to do?" shouted 
 the skipper in his furious way. " By Heaven, I'll break every 
 bone in the scoundrel's body if he opens his infernal mutiuous 
 mouth again! I tell you I can't change the provisions here, 
 and I'm not going to alter the ship's course with this wind 
 astern, not if you were all starving in reality. " But having 
 said this, he pulled up short, as if his temper was diverging 
 him from the line of policy he had in his mind to follow; he 
 lowered his voice and said: " I'll tell you what, my lads; you 
 must make the provisions last you for the present, and if I can 
 make fair wind of it, I'll haul round for some Spanish port; 
 or if not there, I'll see what land is to be picked up. " 
 
 " You hear what the captain says, don't you?" growled 
 Duckling. 
 
 " It isn't us that minds waiting, it's our stomachs," said 
 Fish, the small-faced man. 
 
 " Do you mean to tell me you can't get a meal oat of the 
 food in your hands?" demanded the captain, pointing among 
 them. 
 
 " We'd rayther drink cold water than the tea," said one. 
 
 "And the water ain't overdrinkable, neither," exclaimed 
 another. 
 
 " The cook shays te pork'll gif us te cholera/' said one of 
 the Dutchmen. 
 
 " We wouldn't mind if the bread and molasses was right," 
 cried Fish. " But they aren't. ISTothen's right. The werry 
 weevils ain't ordinary; they're longer and fatter than common 
 bread-worms." 
 
 " Hold your jaw!" bawled Duckling. " The captain has 
 spoken to you fairer than any skipper that I ever sailed under 
 
THE WEECK OF THE " GROSVENOR. " 49 
 
 would have spoke. So )a.ow cut forward — do you hear? — and 
 finish your breakfast. Cook, come from behind the mainmast^ 
 you loafing nigger, and leave the main-deck, or I'll make you 
 trot to show the others the road." 
 
 He pulled a brass belaying-pin out of the rail and flourished 
 it. The captain walked aft to the wheel, leaving Duckling to 
 finish off with the men. They moved away, talking in low 
 grumbhng tones among themselves, manifestly dissatisfied with 
 the result of their conference, and presently were all in the 
 forecastle. 
 
 " I'll tell you what it is, Mr. Eoyle," said Duckling, turn- 
 ing impudently upon me; " you must wake up, if you please, 
 and help me to keep those fellows in their places. No use in 
 staring and listening. You must talk to 'em and curse 'em, 
 damme! do you understand, Mr. Eoyle?" 
 
 " No, I don't understand," I replied. " I don't believe in 
 cui-sing men. I've seen that sort of thing tried, but it never 
 answered." 
 
 " Oh, I suppose you are one of those officers who call all 
 hands to pi-ayer before you reef down, are you?" he asked, 
 with a coarse, sneering laugh. " I don't think Captain Coxon 
 will appreciate your services much if that's your kind. " 
 
 " I am sorry you should misunderstand me," I said, grave- 
 ly. "I believe I can do my work, and get others to do theirs, 
 without foul language and knocking men down. " 
 
 " Thunder and lightning! what spoony skipper nursed you 
 at his breast? Could you knock a man down if you tried?" 
 
 I glanced at him with a smile, and saw him running his eyes 
 over me, as though measuring my strength. There was 
 enough of me, perhaps, to make him require time for his cal- 
 culations. Sinewy and vigorous as his ill-built frame was, I was 
 quite a match for him — half a head taller, and weighed more, 
 with heavier arms upon me and a deeper chest than he; and 
 was eight-and-twenty, while he was nearly fifty. 
 
 " I think," said I, " that I could knock a man down if I 
 tried. Perhaps two. But then I don't try. The skipper 
 who nursed me was not a New Orleans man, but an Enghsh- 
 man, and something better — an English gentleman. That 
 means that no one on board his ship ever gave him occasion to 
 use his fists." 
 
 He muttered about something my thinking myself a fine 
 sort of bird, no doubt, but I could not catch all that he said, 
 owing to the incessant thundering of the gale; he then left me 
 and joined the captain, who advanced to meet him, and they 
 both went below. 
 
50 THE WRECK OF THE " GKOSVBNOR. ■" 
 
 It was now pretty plain that I was unsuited for the taste and 
 society of the two men with whom I was thrown. The captain 
 saw that I was not likely to help his paltry views, and that my 
 sympathy was with the crew; and, try as I might, I could not 
 disguise "my real contempt for Duckling. They were great 
 chums, and thoroughly relished each other's nature. They 
 Were both bullies, and, in addition, Duckling was a toady. 
 Hence it was inevitable — ^but less from the subordinate position 
 that I filled than from the disUke I had of these men's char- 
 acters — that I should be an outsider, distrusted by the skipper 
 as objecting to his dealings with the crew and capable of oppos- 
 ing them, and hated by Duckling for the contempt of him I 
 could not disguise. Much as I regretted this result, and had 
 done what I could to avert it, now that it was thrust upon me, 
 I resolved to meet it quietly. For the rest of that watch, 
 therefore, I amused myself by shaping my plans, which simply 
 amounted to a determiaation to do my duty as completely as I 
 could, so as to deprive Ooxon of all opportunity of making my 
 berth more uncomfortable than it was; to hold my tongue, to 
 take no notice of the skipper's doings, to steer clear of Duck- 
 ling as much as possible, and to quit the ship, if possible, at 
 Valparaiso. How I kept these good resolutions you shall 
 hear. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The weather mended next day, and we made all sail with a 
 fine breeze, steering south-south-west. We had left the Downs 
 on Tuesday, the 32d of August, and on the 25th we found by 
 observation that we had made a distance of over nine hundred 
 miles, which, considering the heavy seas the ship had encount- 
 ered and the depth to which she was loaded, was very good 
 sailing. 
 
 However, thougt we carried the strong northwesterly wind 
 with us all day, it fell calm toward night, then shifted ahead, 
 then drew away north, and then fell calm again. We were now 
 well upon the Bay of Biscay, and the heavy swell for which 
 that stretch of sea is famous did not fail us. All through the 
 night we lay like the ship in the song, rolling abominably, with 
 Coxon in a ferocious temper on deck, routing up the hands to 
 man first the port and then the starboard braces, bousing the 
 yards about to every whifE of wind, hke a madman in the Dol- 
 drums, until both watches were exhausted. All this work was 
 put upon us merely because the skipper was in a rage at the 
 
THE -WRECK OF THE " GROSVEB-QE. " 51 
 
 calm, and, not caring to rest himself, determined that his crew 
 should not; but for all the good this sluing the yards about 
 did, he might as well have laid the mainyards aback, and 
 Waited until some wind really came. 
 
 Early in the morning a Ught breeze sprung up aft, and the 
 foretop-mast-stun'sail was run up, and the ship began to move 
 again. This breeze held steady all day and freshened a bit at 
 night, but, being right aft, scarcely gave us more than six 
 knots when liveliest. However, it saved the men^s arms and 
 legs, and enabled them, to go about other and easier work than 
 manning braces, stowing sails, and setting them again. 
 
 And so till Thursday the 31st of August, on which day we 
 were, to the best of memory, in latitude 45° and longitude 
 about 10°. 
 
 The men during this time had been pretty quiet. The boat- 
 swain told me that grumbling among them was as regular as 
 meal-times; but no murmurs came aft, no fresh complaints 
 were made to the skipper. The reason was, I think, the crew 
 believed that the skipper meant to touch at Madeira or one of 
 the more southerly Canary islands. That this was their notion 
 was put into my head by a question asked me by a hand at 
 the wheel when I was alone on deck : would I tell him where 
 the ship was? 
 
 I gave him the results of the sights taken at noon. 
 
 " That's to the east'ard of Madeery, ain't it, sir?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 He bent his eyes on the compass-card, and seemed to be re- 
 flectiag on the ship's course. The subject dropped; but after 
 he had been relieved, and was gone forward, I saw him talk- 
 ing to the rest of the watch; and one of them knelt down and 
 drew some kiad of figure with a piece of chalk upon the deck 
 (it looked to me, and doubtless was, a rude chart of the ship's 
 position), whereupon the cook began to jabber with great vehe- 
 mence, extending his hands in the wildest way, and pulhng 
 one of the men close to him and whispering in his ear. They 
 noticed me watching them, presently, and broke up. 
 
 Had I been on friendly terms with Coxon or Duckhng, I 
 should have made no delay in going to one or the other of them 
 and communicating my misgivings; for misgivings I had, and 
 pretty strong misgivings they were. But I perfectly well fore- 
 saw the reception my hints would meet with from both Duck- 
 ling and the captain. I really believed that the latter dishked 
 me enough now to convert my apprehension of trouble intft 
 some direct charge against me. He might swear that I had 
 sympathized aU along with the crew —and this I admitted — and 
 
58 THE WKECK OF THE " GEOSVENOE. 
 
 that if thp mutiny wliicli my fears foreboded broke out, I 
 should be' held directly responsible for it and treated as the 
 ringleader. Besides, there was another consideration that in- 
 fluenced me: my misgivings might be unfounded. I might 
 make a report which would not only imperU my own position, 
 but provoke him into assuming an attitude toward the men 
 which would produce in reaUty the mutiny that might, as things 
 went, never come to pass. This consideration more than any- 
 thing else decided me to hold my tongue, to let matters take 
 their course, and to leave the captain and Ms chief mate to use 
 their own eyesight, instead of obtruding mine upon them. 
 
 When I left the deck at four o'clock on the Wednesday after- 
 noon, there was a pleasant breeze blowing directly from astern, 
 and the ship was carrying aU the canvas that would draw. 
 The sky was clear, but pale, Mke a winter's sky, and there was 
 a very heavy swell rolling up from the southward. The 
 weather, on the whole, looked promising, and, despite the north- 
 easterly wind, the temperature was so mild that I could have 
 very well dispensed with my pilot-jacket. 
 
 There was something, however, about the aspect of the sun 
 which struck me as new and strange. Standing high over the 
 western horizon, it; should be brilliant enough; and yet it was 
 possible to keep one's eyes upon it for several moments with- 
 out pain. It hung, indeed, a fluctuating molten globe in the 
 sky, without any glory of rays. This seemed to me a real 
 phenomenon, viewed with respect to the apparent purity of 
 the sky; but of course I understood that a mist or fog inter- 
 vened between the sight and the sun, though I never before re- 
 membered having seen the sun's disk so dim in brilliancy and 
 at the same time so clean in outline in a blue sky. 
 
 I looked at the barometer before entering my cabin and 
 found a slight fall. Such a fall might betoken rain, or a 
 change of wind to the southward. In truth, there is no telhng 
 what a rise or fall of the barometer does betoken beyond a 
 change in the density of the atmosphere. I would any day 
 rather trust an old sailor's or an old farmer's eye: and as to 
 weather forecasts, based upon a thousand fantastic hobbies, I 
 liken them to dreams, of which every one remembers the one 
 or two that were verified, and forgets the immense number 
 that were never fulfilled. 
 
 Through the dog-watches the weather still held fair; but the 
 glass had fallen another bit, and the wind was dropping. Cap- 
 taia Ooxon had very little to say to me now, and I to him. I was 
 just civU, and he was barely so; but when I was taking a glass 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSTENOR. " 53 
 
 in the cuddy preparatory to turning in for three hours, he asked 
 me what I thought of the weather. 
 
 "It's difficult to know what this swell means, sir," I an- 
 swered. " Either it comes in advance of a gale or it follows a 
 gale." 
 
 " In advance," he said. " If you are going to turn in, keep 
 your clothes on. There was a thundering gale in the sun this 
 afternoon, and if you clap your nose over the ship's side you'll 
 smell it coming." 
 
 Oddly as he expressed himself, he was quite serious, and I 
 understood him. 
 
 As the wind grew more sluggish the vessel rolled more 
 heavily. I never was in a cuddy that groaned and strained 
 more than this, owing to the mahogany fittings having shrunk 
 and warped away from their fixings. Up through the sky-hghts 
 it was pitch-dark, from the effect of the swinging lamps within; 
 and though both sky-lights were closed, I could hear the saik 
 flapping like sharp peals of artUlery against the masts, and the 
 gurgling, washing sob of the water as the roll of the ship 
 brought it up through the scupper-holes. 
 
 Just then Duckling overhead sung out to the men to get the 
 foretop-mast-stun'sail in; and Ooxon at once quitted the 
 cabin and went on deck. There tvas something ominous in 
 the calm and darkness of the night and the voluminous heav- 
 ing of the sea, and I made up my mind to keep away from my 
 cabin awhile longer. I loaded a pipe, and posted myself in a 
 corner of the cuddy front. Had this been my first voyage, I 
 don't think I should have found more difficulty in keeping my 
 legs. The roll of the vessel was so heavy that it was almost 
 impossible to walk. I gained the corner by dint of keeping my 
 hands out and holding on to everything that came in my road; 
 but even this nook was uncomfortable enough to remain in 
 standing, for, taking the sea-line as my base, I was at one mo- 
 ment reclining at an angle of forty degrees; the next, I had to 
 stiffen my legs forward to prevent myself from being shot hke 
 a stone out of the comer and projected to the other side of the 
 deck. 
 
 The men were at work getting in the foretop-mast-stun'sail, 
 and some were aloft rigging in the boom. There was no air to 
 be felt save the draughts wafted along the deck by the flapping 
 canvas. Even where I stood I could hear the jar and shock of 
 the rudder struck by the swell, and the grindmg of the tiller- 
 chains as the wheel kicked. The sky was -thick, with half a 
 dozen stars sparely glimmering upon it here and there. The 
 sea was black and oily, flashing fitfully with spaces of phos- 
 
54 THE WEECK OF THE " GKOSVElirOE. 
 
 phorescent light •which gleamed below the surface. But it was 
 too dark to discern the extent and bulk of the swell; that was 
 to be felt. 
 
 Duckling's voice began to sound harshly, calling upon the 
 men to bear a hand, and their voices, chorusing up in the 
 darkness; produced a curious effect. So far from my being 
 able to make out their figures, it was as much as I could do to 
 trace the outlines of the sails. After awhile they came down, 
 and immediately Duckling ordered the fore and maia-royals to 
 be furled. Then the fore and mizzentop-gallant halyards 
 were let go, and the sails clewed up ready to be stowed when 
 the men had done with the royals. So by degrees all the 
 lighter sails were taken in, and then the whole of the watch 
 was put to close-reef the mizzentop-saU. 
 
 As I knew one watch was not enough to reef the other top- 
 sails, and that all hands would soon be called, I put my pipe 
 in my pocket and got upon the poop. Duckling stood hold- 
 ing on to the mizzen-riggings, vociferating, bully fashion, to 
 the men. I walked to the binnacle and found that the vessel 
 had no steerage way on her, and that her head was lying west, 
 though she swung heavily four or five points either side of this 
 to every swell that lifted her. The captain took no notice of 
 me, and I went and stuck myself against the companion-hatch- 
 way and had a look around the horizon, which I could not 
 clearly see from my former position on the quarter-deck. 
 
 The scene was certainly very gloomy. The deep, mysterious 
 silence, made more impressive by the breathless rolling of the 
 gigantic swell, and by the impenetrable darkness that overhung 
 the water circle, inspired a peculiar awe in the feelings. The 
 rattle of the canvas overhead had been in some measure sub- 
 dued; but the great top-sails flapped heavily, and now and then 
 rhe bell that hung just abaft the mainmast tolled with a single 
 stroke. 
 
 It was a relief to turn the eye from the black space of ocean 
 to the deck of the ship catching a luster from the cuddy 
 lights. ' 
 
 Duckling, perceiving my figure leaning against the hatch- 
 way, poked his nose into my face to see who I was. 
 
 " I believed you were turned in," said he. 
 
 " I thought all hands would be called, and wished to save 
 myself trouble. " 
 
 "We shall close-reef at eight bells," said he, and marched 
 away. 
 
 This was an act of consideration toward the men, as it 
 meant that the watch below would not be called until it was 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR." 55 
 
 time for them to turn out. At all events, the ship was snug 
 enough now, come what might, even with two whole top-sails 
 on her. Having close-reefed the mizzentop-sail, the hands 
 were now furling the mainsail, and only a little more work was 
 needful to put the ship in trim for a hurricane. So I took 
 Duckling's hint and lay down to get some sleep, first taking a 
 peep at the glass and noting that it was dropping steadily. 
 
 Sailors learn to go to sleep smartly and to get up smartly; 
 and they also learn to extract refreshment out of a few winks, 
 which is an art scarce any landsman that I am acquainted with 
 ever succeeded in acquiring. I was awakened by one of the 
 hands striking eight bells, and at once tumbled up and got on 
 deck. 
 
 The night was darker than it was when I had gone to my 
 cabin; no star was now visible; an inky blackness overspread 
 the confines of the deep, and inspired a sense of calm that was 
 breathless, suffocating, insupportable. The heavy swell' still 
 rose and sunk the vessel, washing her sides to the height of the 
 bulwarks, and making the rudder kick furiously. 
 
 The moment Ooxon saw me he told me to go forward and 
 set all hands to close-reef the foretop-sail. I did his bidding, 
 calling out the order as I went stumbling and sprawling along 
 the main-deck, and letting go the halyards to wake up the men, ' 
 after groping for them. Indeed, it was pitch-dark forward. 
 I might have been stone-blind for anything I could see, barring 
 the thin rays of the forecastle lamp glimmering faintly upon a 
 few objects amidships. 
 
 Owing to this darkness, it was a worse job to reef the top-sails 
 than had it been blowing a hurricane in daylight. It was a 
 quarter to one before both sails were reefed, and then the watch 
 that had been on deck since eight o'clock turned in. 
 
 Here were we now under almost bare poles, in a dead calm; 
 and yet, had the skipper ordered both the fore and mizzen- 
 top-sails to be furled, he would not have been doing more than 
 was justified by the extraordinary character of the night — the 
 strange and monstrous sub-swell of the ocean, the opacity of 
 the heavens, the sinister and phenomenal breathlessness and 
 heat of the atmosphere. 
 
 Duckling was below, lying at full length upon one of the 
 cuddy benches, ready to start up at the first call. I glanced 
 at him through the sky-hght, and wondered how on earth he 
 kept himself steady on his back. I should have been dislodged 
 by every roll as sm-ely as it came. Perhaps he used his shoul- 
 der-blades as cleats to hold on to the sides of the bench; and 
 
56 THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVENOE. 
 
 to SO -wildly proportioned a man as Duckling a great deal was 
 possible. 
 
 The card was swinging in the binnacle as before, and just 
 now the ship's head was north-west. With more canvas upon 
 the vessel, her position would have been perilous by the im- 
 possibility of guessing from what quarter the wind would come 
 — if it came at all. Even to be taken aback under close-reefed 
 top-sails might prove unpleasant enough, should a sudden gale 
 come down and find the ship without way on her. 
 
 The captain, who was on the starboard side of the wheel, 
 called me over to him. 
 
 " Are the decks clear?" 
 
 "AU clear, sir." 
 
 " Foretop-sail sheets?" 
 
 " Eeady for running, sir. " 
 
 " How's her hea4 now?" to the man at the helm. 
 
 " jSTor'-west, half north." 
 
 " Keep a brisk lookout to the south'ard, sir," he said to me; 
 " and sing out if you see the sky clearing." 
 
 I saw him, by the binnacle light, put his finger in his mouth 
 and hold it up. But there was no other air to be felt than the 
 short rush first one way, then another, as the ship rolled. 
 . Scarcely ten minutes had passed since he addressed me, when 
 I saw what I took to be a ship's light standing clear upon the 
 horizon, right astern. 
 
 I was about to call out when another light sprung up just 
 above it. Then a small, faint light, a little to the westward of 
 these, then another. 
 
 Owing to the peculiar character of the atmosphere these 
 lights looked red, and so completely was I deceived by their 
 appearance that I hallooed out, 
 
 " Do you see those lights astern, sir? They look like a fleet 
 of steamers coming up." 
 
 But I had scarcely spoken when I knew that I had made a 
 fool of myself. They were not ships' light, but stars, and at 
 once I comprehended the import of this sudden astral revela- 
 tion. 
 
 " Stand by the starboard braces!" roared the skipper; and 
 the men, awake to a sense of a great and perhaps perilous 
 changfe close at hand, came shambling and stumbling along 
 the deck. 
 
 A wonderful panorama was now being rapidly unfolded in 
 the south. 
 
 All down there the sky was clearing as if by magic, and the 
 stars shining; but as I watched, great flying wreaths, like 
 
THE WEECK OP THE " GROSVENOB. ■" 57 
 
 mighty volumes of smoke pouring out of gigantic factory chim- 
 neys, came rushing over and obscuring them, though always 
 leaving a few brightly burning in a foreground which advanced 
 ■with astonishing rapidity toward the ship. To right and left 
 of this point of the horizon the sky cleared only to be obscured 
 afresh by the flying clouds. Soon, amid the solemn pauses 
 falling upon the ship between the intervals of her pitching, for 
 she had now swung right before the swell, we could hear the 
 coming whirlwind screeching along the surface of the water. 
 The contrast of its approach with the oily,- breathless, heaving 
 surface of the sea around us and all ahead, and the utter stag- 
 nation of the air, produced an effect upon my mind, and, I be- 
 lieve, upon the minds of all others who were witnesses of the 
 sight, to which no words could give expression — an emotion, if 
 you like, of suspense that was almost terror, and yet terror 
 deprived of pain by a wild and tingling curiosity. 
 
 But such a gale as I am describing travels quickly; all over- 
 head the sky was first cleared and then massed up with whirl- 
 ing clouds, before the wind struck us; the white surface of the 
 sea, cleanly hned like the surf upon a beach, was plainly seen 
 by us, even when the water all around was still unruffled; and 
 then, with a prolonged and pealing yell, the gale and the spray 
 it was lashing out of the sea were upon us. In a moment om* 
 decks were soakiag — the masts creaked, and every shroud and 
 stay sung to the sudden, mighty strain; the vessel staggered 
 and reeled— stopped, as a heavy swell rolled under her bows 
 and threw her all aslant against the hurricane, which screeched 
 and howled through the rigging, and then fled forward under 
 the yards, which had squared themselves as the starboard braces 
 were slackened. 
 
 It was lucky for the " Grosvenor " that the gale struck her 
 astern. So great was its fury that, had it taken her aback, I 
 doubt if she would have righted. 
 
 This furious wind had cleared the horizon, and the water-line 
 all around was distinctly figm-ed against the sky. The sea was 
 a sheet of foam, and, what will scarcely seem credible, the swell 
 subsided under the lateral pressure of the wind, so that for a 
 short time we seemed to be racing along a level surface of froth. 
 Large masses of this froth, bubbly and crackling like wood in a 
 fire, were jogged clean off the water and struck the decks or 
 sides of the ship with reports like the discharge of a pistol; and 
 no more than a handful of water blown against my face hit me 
 with such force, that for some moments I suffered the greatest 
 torment, as though my eyes had been scalded, and I hardlj 
 knew whether I haA. not lost my sight. 
 
58 THE WKECK OF THE " GEOSVENOK. " 
 
 The wind was blowing true from the south, and we wera 
 iowling before it due north, losing as much ground every five 
 minutes as had taken us an hour to get during the day. Coxon, 
 however, was feeling the gale before he brought the ship closej 
 at any moment, you see, the wind might chop round and blow 
 a hurricane; though, to be sure, the sky with its torn masses of 
 skurrying clouds had too wild an aspect to make us believe that 
 this gale was likely to be of short duration. 
 
 The sea now began to rise, and it was strange to watch it. 
 First it boiled in short waves, which the wind shattered and 
 blew flat. But other waves rose, too solid for the wind to 
 level; they increased in bulk as they ran, and broke in coils of 
 spray, while fresh and larger waves succeeded, and the ship be- 
 gan to pitch quickly in the young sea. 
 
 The wonderful violence of the wind could not be well appre- 
 ciated by us who were running before it; but when the crew 
 manned the braces and the helm was put to starboard, it seemed 
 as if the wind would blow the ship out of the water. She 
 came to slowly, laying her .main-deck level with the sea, and 
 the screeching of the wind was diabolical and absolutely terrify- 
 ing to listen to. With the weather-leeches just lifting, she 
 was still well away from her course, and her progress imder all 
 three top-sails was all leeway. 
 
 But I soon saw that she could not carry two of the three top- 
 sails, owing to the tremendous sudden pressure put upon the 
 masts by her lurches to windward; and, sure enough. Duckling 
 (who had turned out along with all hands when the gale had 
 first struck the ship) roared through a speaking-trumpet to 
 clew up .and furl the fore and mizzentop-sails. 
 
 It took all hands to deal with each sail separately, and I 
 helped to stow the foretop-sail. 
 
 To be up aloft in weather of the kind I am describing is an 
 experience no landsman can realize by imagination. To begin 
 with, jt is an immense Job to Ireatlie, for the wind stands like 
 something solid in your mouth and up your nostrils, and makes 
 the expelling of your breath a task fitter for a one-horse engine 
 than a pair of human lungs. Then you have two remorseless 
 forces at work in the shape of the wind and the sail doing their 
 utmost to hurl you from the yard. The foretop-sail was 
 snugged as well as bunt-lines and clew-lines, hauled taut as 
 steel bars, could bring it; and, besides, there were already three 
 reefs in it. And yet it stood out like cast-iron, and all hands 
 might have danced a hornpipe upon it without putting a crease 
 into the canvas with their united weight. We had to roar out 
 to Duckhng to put the helm down, and spill the sail, before 
 
THE ■WRECK OF THE " GROSVBNOR. " 59 
 
 we could get hold of it; and so fiercely did the canvas shake in 
 the hiuTicane as the ship came to, that I, who stood in the 
 bunt, expected to see the hands out at the yard-arms shaken 
 ofE the foot-ropes and precipitated into the sea. 
 
 But what a wildly picturesque scene was the ocean, surveyed 
 from the height of the foremast ! The sea was now heavy, 
 and furiously lashing the weather-bow; avalanches of spray ran 
 high up the side, and were blown in a veil of hurtling sleet and 
 froth across the forecastle. Casting my eyes backward, the 
 diip looked forlornly naked with no other canvas on her than 
 the close-reefed maintop-sail, with the bare outlines of her main 
 and after yards, and the slack ropies and lines blown to leeward 
 in semicircles, surging to and fro in long sweeps against the 
 stars, which glimmered and vanished between the furiously 
 whirling clouds. The hull of the vessel looked strangely nar- 
 row and long, contemplated from my elevation, upon the boil- 
 ing seas; the froth of the water made an artificial light, and 
 objects on deck were clear now, which, before the gale burst 
 upon us, had been wrapped in impenetrable darkness. 
 
 When the sail was furled, all hands lay down as smartly as 
 they could; but just under the foretop the rush of wind was so 
 powerful that when I dropped my leg over the edge to feel with 
 my foot for the futtock shrouds, my weight was entirely sus- 
 tained and buoyed up, and I believe that, had I let go with my 
 hands, I should have been blown securely against the fore- 
 shrouds and there held. 
 
 The ship was now as snug as we could make her, hove to 
 under close-reefed maintop-sail and foretop-mast-staysail, rid- 
 ing tolerably well, though, to be sure, the wind had not yet 
 had time to raise much of a sea. The crew were fagged by 
 their heavy work, and the captain ordered the steward to serve 
 out a tot of grog apiece to them, more out of policy than pity, 
 I think, as he would remember what was in their minds re- 
 specting their provisions, and how the ship's safety depended 
 on their obedience. 
 
 CHAPTBE VII. 
 
 All that night it blew terribly hard, and raised as wild and 
 raging a sea as ever I remember hearing or seeing described. 
 Puring my watch — that is, from midnight until four o'clock — ■ 
 the wind veered a couple of points, but had gone back again 
 only to blow harder, just as tliough it had stepped out of its 
 way a trifle to catch extra breath. 
 
 I was quite worn out by the time my turn came to go below. 
 
60 THE WRECK OP THE " GROSTENOE. " 
 
 and though the Tessel was groaning like a live creature in its 
 death-agonies, and the seas thumping against her with such 
 shocks as kept me thinking that she was striking hard ground, 
 I fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow, and never 
 moved until routed out by Duckling four hours afterward. 
 
 All this time the gale had not bated a Jot of its violence, and 
 the ship labored so heavily that I had the utmost difficulty in 
 getting out of the cuddy on to the poop. When I say that the 
 decks fore and aft were streaming wet, I convey no notion of 
 the truth; the main-deck was simply «/Zoa^, and every time the 
 ship rolled, the water on her deck rushed in a wave against the 
 bulwarks and shot high in the air, to mingle sometimes with 
 fresh and heavy inroads of the sea, both falling back upon the 
 deck with the boom of a gun. 
 
 I had already ascertained from Duckling that the well had 
 been sounded and the ship found dry; and therefore, since we 
 were tight below, it mattered little what water was shipped 
 above as the hatches were securely battened down fore and aft, 
 and the mast-coats unwrung. But still she labored under the 
 serious disadvantage of being overloaded; and the result was 
 her fore parts were being incessantly swept by seas which at 
 times completely hid her forecastle in spray. 
 
 Shortly after breakfast Captain Coxon sent me forward to 
 dispatch a couple of hands on to the Jib-boom to snug the inner 
 Jib, which looked to be rather shakily stowed. ' I managed to 
 dodge the water on the main-deck by waiting until it rolled to 
 the. starboard scuppers, and then cutting ahead as fast as I 
 could; but Just as I got upon the forecastle, I was saluted by 
 a green sea which carried me ofE my legs, and would have swept 
 me down on the main-deck had I not held on stoutly with both 
 hands to one of the fore-shrouds. The water nearly drowned 
 me, and kept me sneezing and coughing for ten minutes after- 
 ward. But it did me no further mischief, for I was incased in 
 good oil-skins and sou' -welter, which kept me as dry as a bone 
 inside. 
 
 Two ordinary seamen got upon the Jib-boom, and I bade 
 them keep a good hold, for the ship sometimes danced her fig- 
 ure-head under water and buried her spritsail-yard; and when 
 she sunk her stern, her flying Jib-boom stood up like the miz- 
 zen-mast. I waited until this Job of snugging the sail was 
 finished, and then made haste to get oil the forecastle, where 
 the seas flew so continuously and heavily that had I not kept a 
 sharp lookout I should several times have been knocked over- 
 board. 
 
 Partly out of curiosity and partly with a wish to hearten the 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVENOR. " 61 
 
 men, I looked into the forecastle before going aft. There were 
 sliding-doors let into the entrance on either side the windlass, 
 but one of them was kept half open to admit air, the fore- 
 scuttle above being closed. The darkness here was made visi- 
 ble by an oil-lamp, in shape resembling a tin coffee-pot with a 
 wick in the spout, which burned black and smokily. The deck 
 was up to my ankles in water, which gurgled over the pile of 
 swabs that lay at the open entrance.. It took my eye some mo- 
 ments to distinguish objects in the gloom, and then by degrees 
 the strange interior was revealed. A number of hammocks 
 were swung against the upper deck, and around the for,ecastle 
 were two rows of bmiks, one atop the other. Here and there 
 were sea-chests lashed to the deck, and these, with the huge 
 windlass, a range of chain-cable, lengths of rope, odds and 
 ends of pots and dishes, with here a pair of breeches hanging 
 from a hammock, and there a row of oil-skins swinging from 
 a beam, pretty well made up all the furniture that met my 
 eye. 
 
 The whole of the crew were below. Some of the men lay 
 smoking in their bunks, others in their hammocks with their 
 boots over the edge; one was patching a coat, another greasing 
 his boots, others were seated in a group talking, while under 
 the lamp were a couple of men playing at cards upon a chest, 
 three or four watching and holding on by the hammocks over 
 their heads. 
 
 A man, lying in his bunk with his face toward me, started 
 up and sent his legs, incased in blanket trousers and brown 
 woolen stockings, flying out. 
 
 "Here's Mr. Eoyle, mates!" he called out. "Let's ask 
 him the name of the port the captain means to touch at for 
 proper food, for we aren't goin' to wait much longer. " 
 
 " Don't ask me any questions of that kind, my lads," I re- 
 plied, promptly, seeing a general movement of heads in the 
 bunks and hammocks. " I'd give you proper victuals if I had 
 the ordering' of them; and I have spoken to Captain Ooxon 
 about you, and I am sure he will see this matter put to 
 rights." 
 
 I had difficulty in making my voice heard, for the striking 
 of the seas against the ship's bows filled the place with an over- 
 whelming volume of sound, and the hollow, deafening thunder 
 was increased by the uproar of the ship's straining timbers. 
 
 "Who the devil thinks," said a voice from a hammock, 
 " that we're going to let ourselves be grinded as we was last 
 night, without proper wittles to support us? I'd rather have 
 signed articles for a a coal-barge with drowned rats to eat from 
 
63 THE WRECK OF THE "GEOSTENOK." 
 
 Gravesend to "Whitstable than shipped in this here cursed 
 wessel, where the bread's Just fit to makes savages retch!" 
 
 I had not bargained for this, but had merely meant to ad- 
 , dress them cheerily, with a few words of approval of the smart 
 way in which they had worked the ship in the night. Seeing 
 that my presence would do no good, I turned about and left 
 the forecastle, hearing, as I came away, one of the Dutchman 
 cry out, " Look here. Mister Eile, vill you be pleashed to ssay 
 when we are to hov' something to eat? — for, by Gott! ve vill 
 kill te dom pigs in the long-boat, if the skipper don't mindt — 
 so look out!" 
 
 As "ill-luck would have it. Captain Coxon was at the break 
 of the poop, and saw me come out of the forecastle. He 
 waited until he had got me alongside of him, when he asked 
 me what I was doing among the men. 
 
 " I looked in to. give them a good word for the work they' 
 did last night," I answered. 
 
 "And who asked you to give them a good word, as you call 
 it?" 
 
 " I have never had to wait for orders to encourage a crew." 
 
 "Mind what you are about, sir!" he exclaimed, in a voice 
 tremulous with rage. " I see through your game, and I'll put 
 a stopper upon it that you won't like." 
 
 " What game, sir? Let me have your meaning." 
 
 " An infernal mutinous game!" he roared. " Don't*talk to 
 me, sir! I know you! I've had my eye upon you! You'll 
 
 play false if you can, and are trying to smother up your d d 
 
 rebel meanings with genteel airs! Get away, sir!" he bellowed, 
 stamping his foot. " Get away aft! You're a lumping, use- 
 less incumbrance! But, by thunder! I'll give you two for 
 every one you try to give me! So stand by!" 
 
 And, apparently half mad with his rage, he staggered away 
 in the very direction in which he had told me to go, and stood 
 near the wheel, glaring upon me with a white face, which 
 looked indescribably malevolent in the fur cap and ear-pro- 
 tectors that ornamented it. 
 
 I was terribly vexed by this rudeness, which I was powerless 
 to resist, and regretted my indiscretion in entering the fore- 
 castle after the politic resolutions I had formed. However, 
 Captain Coxon's ferocity was nothing new to me; truly I be- 
 lieved he was not quite right in his mind, and expected, as in 
 former cases, that he would come round a bit by and by, when 
 his insane temper had passed. Still, his insinuations were 
 highly dangerous, not to speak of their ofEehsiveness. It was 
 no joke to be charged, even by a madman, with striving to 
 
THE WEEC:^ OF THE " GROSTEJS-OE." 63 
 
 arouse the crew to mutiny. Nevertheless, I tried to console 
 myself as best I could by reflecting that he could not prove his 
 charges; that I need only to endure his insolence for a few 
 weeks, and that there was always a law to vindicate me and 
 punish him, should his evil temper betray him into any acts of 
 cruelty against me. 
 
 The gale, at times the severest that I was ever in, lasted three 
 days, during which the ship drove somethiug hke eighty mUes 
 to the north-west. The sea on the afternoon of the third day 
 was appalling : had the ship attempted to run, she would have 
 been pooped and smothered in a minute; but lying close, she 
 rode fairly well, though there were moments when I held my 
 breath as she sunk in a hollow like a coal-mine, filled with the 
 astounding noise of boiling water, really believing that the im- 
 mense waves which came hurtling toward us with solid, sharp, 
 transparent ridges, out of which the wind tore lumps of water 
 and llimg them through the rigging of the ship, must over- 
 whelm the vessel before she could rise. to it. 
 
 The fury of the tempest and the violence of the sea, which 
 the boldest could not contemplate without feeling that the ship 
 was every moment in more or less peril, kept the crew sub- 
 dued, and they eat as best thevcould the provisions without com- 
 plaint. However, it needed nothing less than a storm to keep 
 them quiet; for on the second day a sea extinguished the gal- 
 ley-flre, and until the gale abated no cooking could be done; 
 so that the men had to put up with cold water and biscuit. 
 Hence all hands were thrown upon the ship^'s bread for two 
 days, and the badness of it, therefore, was made even more 
 apparent than heretofore when its wormy moldiness was in 
 some degree qualified by the nauseousness of bad salt pork and 
 beef, and the sickly flavor of damaged tea. 
 
 As I had anticipated, the captain came round a little a few ' 
 hours after his iusulting attack upon me. I think his temper 
 frightened him when it had reference to me. Like others of 
 his breed he was a bit of a cur at the bottom. My character 
 was a trifle beyond him, and he was ignorant enough to hate 
 and fear what he could not understand. Be this as it may, he 
 made some rough attempts at a rude kind of politeness when I 
 went below to get some grog, and condescended to say that 
 when I had been to sea as long as he, I would know that the 
 most ungrateful rascals in the world were sailors; that every 
 crew he had sailed with had always taken care to invent some 
 grievance to growl over — either the provisions were bad, or the 
 work too heavy, or the ship unseaworthy; and that long ago 
 he had made up his mind never to pay attention to their com< 
 
64 THE WRECK OP THE " SEOSVEN'OB. '* 
 
 plaints, since no sooner -would one wrong be redressed than an- 
 other would be coined and shoved under his nose. 
 
 I took this opportunity of assuring him that I had never 
 willingly listened to the complaints of the men, and that I was 
 always annoyed when they spoke to me about the provisions, 
 as I had nothing whatever to do with that matter; and that, 
 so far from my wishing to stir up the men into rebellion, my 
 conduct had been uniformly influenced by the desire to concili- 
 ate them and represent their conditions as very tolerable, so as 
 to repress any tendency to diijafEeetion which they might foment 
 among themselves. 
 
 To this he made no reply, and soon we parted; but all the 
 next day he was sullen again, and never addressed me save to 
 give an order. 
 
 On the eveniag of the third day the gale broke; the glass 
 had risen since the morning, but until the first dog-watch the 
 wind did not bate one iota of its violence, and the horizon still 
 retained its stormy and threatening aspect. The clouds then 
 broke in the west, and the setting sun shone forth with deep 
 crimson light upon the wilderness of mountainous waters. 
 The wind fell quickly, then went round to the west, and blew 
 freshly; but there was a remarkable softness and sweetness in 
 the feel and taste of it. A couple of reefs were at once shaken 
 out of the maintop-sail, and a sail made. By midnight the 
 heavy sea had subsided iato a deep, long, rolling swell, still 
 (strangely enough) coming from the south; but the fresh 
 westerly wind held the ship steady, and for the first time for 
 ■ nearly a hundred hours we were able to move about the decks 
 with comparative comfort. Early next morning the watch 
 were set to wash down and clear up the decks, and when I left 
 my cabin at eight o'clock, I found the weather bright and 
 warm, with a blue sky shining among heavy, white, April-look- 
 ing clouds, and the ship making seven knots under all plain 
 sail. The decks were dry and comfortable, and the ship had 
 a habitable and civilized look by reason of the row of clothes 
 hung by the seamen to dry on the forecastle. 
 
 It was half past nine o'clock, and I was standing near the 
 tafErail looking at a shoal of porpoises playing some hundreds 
 of feet astern, when the man who was steering asked me to 
 look in the direction to which he pointed — that was, a httle to 
 the right of the bowsprit — and say if there was anything to be 
 seen there; for he had caughb sight of something black upon 
 the horizon twice, but could not detect it now. 
 
 I turned my eyes toward the quarter of the sea indicated, 
 but could discern nothing whatever; and, telling him that 
 
THE WBECK. OV THE "GKOSVENOK." 65 
 
 what he had seen was probably a wave, which, standing higher 
 than his fellows, will sometimes show black a long distance off, 
 walked to the fore part of the poop. 
 
 The breeze still held good and the vessel was shpping easUy 
 through the water, though the southerly swell made her roll, 
 and at times shook the wind out of the sails. The skipper had 
 gone to lie down, being pretty well exhausted, I dare say, for 
 he had kept the deck for the greater part of three nights run- 
 ning. Duckling was also below. Most of my watch were on 
 the forecastle, sitting or lying in the sun, which shone very 
 warm upon the decks; the hens under the long-boat were chat- 
 tering briskly, and the cocks crowing and the pigs grunting 
 with the comfort of the warmth. 
 
 Suddenly, as the ship rose, I distinctly beheld something 
 black out away upon the horizon, showing just under the foot 
 of the foresail. It vanished instantly; but I was not satisfied, 
 and went for the glass which lay upon the brackets just under 
 the companion. I then told the man who was steering to keep 
 her away a couple of points for a few moments, and resting the 
 glass against the mizzen-royal backstay, pointed it toward the 
 place where I had seen the black object. 
 
 For some moments nothing but sea or sky filled the field of 
 the glass as the ship rose and fell; but all at once there leaped 
 into this field the hull of a ship, deep as her main-chains in the 
 water, which came and went before my eye as the long seas 
 lifted or dropped ia the foreground. I managed to keep her 
 sufiBciently long in view to perceive that she was totally dis- 
 masted. 
 
 " It's a wreck," said I, turning to the man; " let her come 
 to again and luff a point. There may be living creatures 
 aboard of her. " 
 
 Knowing what sort of man Captain Coxon was, I do not 
 think that I should have had the hardihood to luff the ship a 
 point out of her course had it involved the bracing of the 
 yards; for the songs, of the men would certaioly have brought 
 him on deck, and I might have provoked some ugly insolence. 
 But the ship was going free, and would head more westerly 
 without occasioning further change than shghtly slackening 
 the weather-braces of the upper yards. This I did quietly, and 
 the dismantled hull was brought right dead on end with our 
 flying jib-boom. The men now caught sight of her, and be- 
 gan to stare and point, but did not sing out, as they saw by the 
 telescope in my hand that I perceived her. The breeze unhap- 
 pily began to slacken somewhat, owing, perhaps, to the gather- 
 ing heat of the sun; our pace fell off, and a full hour passed 
 
 3 
 
66 THE WEECK OF THE " GEOSVENOE. 
 
 before webrouglit the wreck near enough to see her permanent^ 
 ly, for up to this she had been constantly vanishing under the 
 rise of the swell. She was now about two miles ofE, and I took 
 a long and steady look at her through the telescope. It was a 
 black hull with painted ports. The deck was flush fore and 
 aft, and there was a good-sized house just before where the 
 mainmast should have been. This house was iminjured, 
 though the galley was split up, and to starboard stood up in 
 spMnters like the stump of a tree struck by lightning. No 
 boats could be seen aboard of her. Her jib-boom was gone, 
 and so were all three masts, clean cut ofE at the deck, as 
 though a hand-saw had done it; but the mizzen-mast was along- 
 side, held by the shrouds and backstays, and the port main 
 and f oreshrouds streamed like serpents from her chains into the 
 water. I reckoned at once that she must be loaded with tim- 
 ber, for she never could keep afloat at that depth with any 
 other kind of cargo in her. 
 
 She made a most mournful and piteous object in the sun- 
 light, sluggishly rolling to the swell which ran in transparent 
 volumes over her sides and foamed around the deck-house. 
 Once, when her stem rose, I read the name, Cecilia, in broad, 
 white letters. 
 
 I was gazing at her intently in the effort to witness some in- 
 dication of living thing on board, when, to my mingled con- 
 sternation and horror, I witnessed an arm projecting through 
 the window of the deck-house, and frantically wave what re- 
 sembled a white handkerchief. As none of the men called out, 
 I judged this signal was not perceptible to the naked eye, and 
 in my excitement I shouted — 
 
 " There's a living man on board of her, my lads!" dropped 
 the glass, and ran aft to call the captain. 
 
 I met him coming up the companion-ladder. The fiirst thing 
 he said was, " You're out of your course," and looked up at 
 the saUs. 
 
 " There's a wreck yonder!" I cried, pointing eagerly, " with 
 a man on board signahng to us." 
 
 " Get me the glass," he said, sulkily, and I picked it up 
 and handed it to him. 
 
 He looked at the wreck for some moments, and, addressing 
 the man at the wheel, exclaimed, making a movement with his 
 hand: 
 
 " Keep her away! Where in the devQ are you steering to?" 
 
 " Good Heaven!" I ejaculated; " there's a man on board- 
 there may be others!" 
 
 " Damnation!" he exclaimed, between his teeth; " what do 
 
THE WEECK OF THE " GEOSVElirOE. " 67 
 
 you mean by interfering with me? Keep her away!" he 
 roared out. 
 
 During this time we had drawn suflBciently near to the wreck 
 to enable the sharper-sighted among the hands to remark the 
 signal, and they were calling out that there was somebody fly- 
 ing a handkerchief aboard the hull. 
 
 " Captain Ooxon," said I, with as firm a voice as I could 
 command — for I was nearly in as great a rage as he, and ren- 
 dered insensible to all consequences by his inhumanity — " if 
 you bear away and leave that man yonder to sink with that 
 wreck when he can be saved with very little trouble, you will 
 become as much a murderer as any ruffian who stabs a man 
 asleep." 
 
 When I had said this Coxon turned black in the face with 
 passion. His eyes protruded, his hands and fingers worked as 
 though he were under some electrical process, and I saw for 
 the first time in my life a sight I had always laughed at as a 
 bit of impossible novelist description — a mouth foaming with 
 rage. He rushed aft, just over Duckling's cabin, and stamped 
 with all his might. 
 
 " Now," thought I, " they may try to murder me!" And, 
 without a word, I pulled off my coat, seized a belaying-pin, 
 and stood ready, resolved that, happen what might, I would 
 give the first man who should lay his fingers on me something 
 to remember me by while he had breath in his body. 
 
 The men, not quite understanding what was happening, bu^- 
 seeing that a " row " was taking place, came to the forecastle 
 and advanced by degrees along the main-deck. Among them 
 I noticed the cook, muttering to one or the other who stood 
 near. 
 
 Mr. Duckling, awakened by the violent clattering over his 
 head, came running up the companion-way with a bewil- 
 dered, sleepy look in his face. The captain grasped him by 
 the arm, and, pointing to me, cried out, with an oath, " that 
 that vUlain was breeding a mutiny on board, and, he believed, 
 wanted to murder him and Duckling." 
 
 I at once answered, " Nothing of the kind! There is a man 
 miserably perishing on board that sinking wreck, Mr. Duck- 
 ling, and he ought to be saved. My lads!" I cried, addressing 
 the men on the main-deck, " is there a sailor among you all 
 who would have the heart to leave that man yonder without 
 an effort to rescue him?" 
 
 "No, sir!" shouted one of them. "We'll save the man; 
 and if the skipper refuses, we'U make him!" 
 
 " Luff!" I called to the man at the wheel. 
 
68 THE WRECK OF THE "GEOSVEKOK." 
 
 " Luff at your peril!" screamed the skipper. 
 
 " Aft here, some hands/' I cried, " and lay the main-yard 
 ahack. Let go the port main-braces!" 
 
 The captain came running toward me. 
 
 " By the living God!" I cried, in a fury, grasping the heavy 
 brass belaying-pin, " if you come ■vvitMn a foot of me. Captain 
 Ooxon, I'll dash your brains out!" 
 
 My attitude, my enraged face, and menacing gesture pro- 
 duced the desired effect. He stopped dead, turned a ghastly 
 ■white, and looked round at Duckling. 
 
 "What do you mean by this (etc.) conduct, you (etc.) 
 mutinous scoundrels;" roared Duckhng, mth a volley of foul 
 language. 
 
 " Give him one for himself, if he says too much, Mr. 
 Koyle!" sung out some hoarse voice on the maiu-deck; " we'll 
 Dack yer!" And then came cries of " They're a cursed pair 
 o' murderers!" " Who run the smack down.^" " Who lets 
 men drown?" " Who starves honest men?" This last ex- 
 clamation was followed by a roar. 
 
 The whole of the crew were now on deck, having been 
 aroused by our voices. Some of them were looking on with a 
 grin, others with an expression of fierce curiosity. It was at 
 once understood that I was making a stand against the captain 
 and chief mate, and a single glance at them assured me that 
 by one word I could set the whole of them on fire to do my bid- 
 ding even to shedding blood. 
 
 In the meantime the man at the wheel had luffed until the 
 weather leeches were flat and the ship scarcely moving. And 
 at this moment, that the skipper might know their meaning, a 
 couple of hands Jumped aft and let go the weather main -braces. 
 I took care to keep my eyes on Ooxon and the mate, fully pre- 
 pared for any attack that one or both might make on me. 
 Duckling eyed me furiously, but in silence, evidently baffled by 
 my resolute air and the position of the men. Then he said 
 something to the captain, who looked exhausted and white and 
 haggard with his useless passion. They walked over to the lee- 
 side of the poop, and after a short conference, the captain, to 
 my surprise, went below, and Duckling came forward. 
 
 " There's no objection," he said, " to your saving the man's 
 life, if you want. Lower away the starboard quarter-boat, and 
 you go along in her," he added to me, uttering the last words 
 in such a thick voice that I thought he was choking. 
 
 " Come along, some of you!" I cried out, hastily putting on 
 my coat; and in less than a minute I was in the boat with the 
 
THE WRECK OF THE "QEOSVENOR." 69 
 
 rudder and thole-pins shipped and four hands ready to out oars 
 as soon as we touched the water. 
 
 Duckling began to fumble at one end of the boat's falls. 
 
 " Don't let him lower away!" roared out one of the men in 
 the boat. " He'll let us go with a run. He'd like to see us 
 drowned!" 
 
 Duckling fell back, scowling with fury, and, shoving his 
 head over as the boat sunk quietly into the water, he discharged 
 a volley of execrations at us, saying that he would shoot some 
 of us, if he swung for it, before he was done, and' especially 
 applying a heap of abusive terms to me. 
 
 The fellow pulling the bow oar laughed in his face, and an- 
 other shouted out, ' We'll teach you to say your prayers yet, 
 you ugly old sinner!" 
 
 "We got away from the ship's side cleverly, and in a short 
 time were rowing fast for the wreck. The excitement under 
 which I labored made me reckless of the issue of this advent- 
 ure. The sight of the lonely man upon the week, coupled with 
 the unmanly, brutal intention of Coxon to leave him to his fate, 
 had goaded me into a state of mind infuriate enough to have 
 done and dared anything to compel Coxon to save him. He 
 might call it mutiny, but I called it humanity, and I was pre- 
 pared to stand or fall by my theory. The hate the crew had 
 for their captain and chief mate was quite strong enough to 
 guarantee me against any foul play on the part of Coxon, other- 
 wise I might have prepared myself to see the ship fill and stand 
 away, and leave us alojje on the sea with the wreck. One of 
 the men in the boat suggested this; but another immediately 
 answered, " They'd pitch the skipper overboard i£ he gave such 
 an order and glad o' the chance. There's no love for 'em 
 among us, I can tell you; and, by — ^ — ! there'll be bloody 
 work done aboard the ' Grosvenor ' if things aren't mended 
 soon, as you'll see. " 
 
 They all four pulled at their oars savagely as these words 
 were spoken, and I never saw such sullen and ferocious expres- 
 sions on men's faces as came into theirs as they iixed their eyes 
 as with one accord upon the ship. 
 
 She, deep as she was, looked a beautiful model on the mighty 
 surface of the water, rolling with marvelous grace to the swell, 
 the strength and volume of which made me feel my littleness 
 and weakness as it lifted the small boat with irresistible power. 
 There was wind enough to keep her sails full upon her grace- 
 ful, slender masts, and the brass-work upon her deck flashed 
 brilHantly as she rolled from side to side. 
 Strange contrast, to look from her to the broken and deso- 
 
70 THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVENOK. " 
 
 late picture ahead! My eyes were riveted upon it now with 
 new and iatense emotion, for by this time I could discern that 
 the person who was waving to us was a female — woman or girl 
 I could not yet make out— and that her hair was like a veil of 
 gold behind her swaying arm. 
 
 " It's a woman!" I cried in my excitement; " it's no man 
 at all. Pull smartly, my lads! pull smartly, for God's sake!" 
 
 The men gave way stoutly, and the swell favoring us, we 
 were soon close to the wreck. The girl, as I now perceived she 
 was, waved her handkerchief wildly as we approached; but my 
 attention was occupied in considering how we could best board 
 the wreck without injury to the boat. She lay broadside to us, 
 with her stern on our right, and was not only rolling heavily 
 with wallowing, squelching movements, but was swirling the 
 heavy mizzen-mast that lay alongside through the water each 
 time she went over to starboard, so that it was necessary to ap- 
 proach her with the greatest caution to prevent our boat from 
 beiug stove in. Another element of danger was the great 
 flood of water which she took in over her shattered bulwarks, 
 first on this side, then on that, discharging the torrent again 
 into the sea as she rolled. This water came from her Uke a 
 cataract, and in a second would fill and siak the boat unless 
 extreme care were taken to keep clear of it. 
 
 I waved my hat to the poor girl to let her know that we saw 
 her and had come to save her, and steered the boat right around 
 the wreck that I might observe the most practical point for 
 boarding her. 
 
 She appeared to be a vessel of about seven hundred tons. 
 The falling of her masts had crushed her port bulwarks level 
 with the deck, and part of her starboard bulwarks was also 
 smashed to pieces. Her wheel was gone, and the heavy seas 
 that had swept her deck had carried away capstans, bhmacle, 
 hatchway gratings, pumps — everything, in short, but the deck- 
 house and the remnants of the galley. I particularly noticed a 
 strong iron boat's davit twisted up hke a cork-screw. She 
 was full of water, and lay as deep as her main-chains, but her 
 bows stood high, and her fore-chains were out of the sea. It 
 was miraculous to see her keep afloat as the long swell rolled 
 over her in a cruel, foaming succession of waves. 
 
 Though these plain details impressed themselves upon my 
 memory, I did not seem to notice anything, in the anxiety that 
 possessed me to rescue the lonely creature in the deck-house. 
 It would have been impossible to keep a footing upon the main- 
 deck without a life-line or something to hold on by; and seeing 
 this, and forming my resolutions rapidly, I ordered the man in 
 
THE WKECK OP THE "GEOSVEKOE." 71 
 
 the bow of the boat to throw in his oar and exchange places 
 with me^ and head the boat for the starboard port-chains. As 
 we approached I stood up with one foot planted on the gun- 
 wale ready to spring; the broken shrouds were streaming aft 
 and alongside, so that if I missed the jump and fell into the 
 water there was plenty of stufE to catch hold of. 
 
 "Gently — 'vast rowing — ready to back astern smartly!" I 
 cried, as we approached. I waited a moment: the hull rolled 
 toward us, and the succeeding swell threw up our boat; the 
 deck, though all aslant, was on a line with my feet. I sprung 
 with all my strength, and got well upon the deck, but fell 
 heavily as I reached it. However, I was up again in a mo- 
 ment, and ran forward out of the water. 
 
 Here was a heap of gear — stay-sail, and jib-halyards, and 
 other ropes, some of the ends swarming overboard. I hauled 
 in one of these ends, but found I could not clear the raffle; 
 but, looking round, I perceived a couple of coils of line — spare 
 stun' sail tacks or halyards I took them to be — lying close 
 against the foot of the bowsprit. I immediately seized the end 
 of one of these coils and flung it into the boat, telling them to 
 drop clear of the wreck astern; and when they had backed as 
 far as the length of the line permitted, I bent on the end of 
 the other coil and paid that out until the boat was some fathoms 
 , astern. I then made my end fast, and sung out to one of the 
 men to get on board by the starboard mizzen-chains, and to 
 bring the end of the line with Mm. After waiting a few min- 
 utes, the boat being hidden, I saw the fellow come scrambling 
 over the side with a red face, his clothes and hair streaming, 
 he having fallen overboard. He shook himself like a dog, and 
 crawled with the line, on his hands and knees, a short distance 
 forward, then hauled the line taut and made it fast. 
 
 " Tell them t(5 briag the boat round here," I cried, " and 
 lay off on their oars until we are ready. And you get hold of 
 this hne and work yourself up to me." 
 
 Saying which, I advanced along the deck, clingiug tightly 
 with both hands. It very providentially happened that the 
 door of the deck-house faced the forecastle within a few feet of 
 where the remains of the galley stood. There would be, there- 
 fore, less risk in opening it than had it faced beam wise; for the 
 water, as it broke against the sides of the house, disparted 
 clear of the fore and after parts; that is, the great bulk of it 
 ran clear, though, of course, a foot's depth of it at least surged 
 against the door. 
 
 I called out to the girl to open the door quickly, as it slid in 
 grooves like a panel, and was not to be stirred from the out- 
 
ta THE WEKCK OF THE " GKOSTENOE." 
 
 side. The poor creature appeared mad, and I repeated my re- 
 quest three times without inducing her to leave the window. 
 Then, not believing that she understood me, I cried out, " Are 
 you English?" 
 
 " Yes," she replied. " Tor God's sake, save us!" 
 
 "I can not get you through that window," I exclaimed. 
 " Eouse yourself, and open that door, and I will save you." 
 
 She now seemed to comprehend, and drew in her head. By 
 this time the man out of the boat had succeeded ia sUdiag 
 along the rope to where I stood, though the poor devil was 
 nearly drowned on the road; for when about half-way the hull 
 took in a lump of swell which swept him right off his legs, and 
 he was swung hard a-starboard, holding on for his life. How- 
 ever, he recovered himself smartly when the water was gone, 
 and came along hand over fist, snorting and cursing in wonder- 
 ful style. 
 
 Meanwhile, though I kept a firm hold of the life-line, I took 
 ' care to stand where the inroads of water were not heavy, wait- 
 ing impatiently for the door to open. It shook ia the grooves> 
 tried by a feeble hand; then a desperate effort was made, and 
 it slid a couple of iaches. 
 
 " That will do!" I shouted. " Now, then, my lad, catch 
 hold of me with one hand, and the line with the other." 
 
 The fellow took a firm grip of my monkey-jacket, and I 
 made for the door. The water washed up to my knees, but I 
 soon inserted my fingers in the crevice of the door, and thrust 
 it open. 
 
 The house was a siagle compartment, though I had expected 
 to find it divided into two. In the center was a table that 
 traveled on stanchions from the roof to the deck. On either 
 side were a couple of bunks. The girl stood near the door. 
 In a bunk to the left of the door lay an old man with white 
 hair. Prostrate on his back, on the deck, with his arms 
 stretched against his ears, was the corpse of a man, well dressed; 
 and in a bunk on the right sat a sailor, who, when he saw me, 
 yelled out and snapped his fingers, making horrible grimaces. 
 
 Such, in brief, the coup d'oeil of that weird interior as it met 
 my eyes. 
 
 I seized the girl by the arm. 
 
 " You first," said I. " Come, there is no time to be lost." 
 
 But she shrunk back, pressing against the door with her 
 hand to prevent me from pulling her, crying in a husky voice, 
 and looking at the old man with the white hair. " My father 
 first! my father first!" 
 
 " You shall aU be saved, but you must obey me. Quickly, 
 
THE WEKCK OF THE " GKOSTENOK. 73 
 
 now!" I exclaimed, passionately, for a heavy sea at that mo- 
 naent flooded the ship, and a rush of water swamped the house 
 through the open door, and washed the corpse on the deck up 
 into a corner. 
 
 Grasping her firmly, I lifted her ofE her feet, and went 
 staggering to the life-rope, slinging her light body over my 
 shoulder as I went. Assisted by my man, I gained the bow of 
 the wreck, and, hailing the boat, ordered it alongside. 
 
 " One of you," cried I, " stand ready to receive this lady 
 when I give the signal." 
 
 I then told the man who was with me to jump into the fore- 
 chains, which he instantly did. The wreck lurched heavily to 
 port. " Stand by, my lads!" I shouted. Over she came again, 
 with the water swooping along the main-deck. The boat rose 
 high, and the fore-chains were submerged to the height of the 
 man's knees. " Now !" I called, and lifted the girl over. She 
 was seized by the man in the chains, and pushed toward the 
 boat; the fellow standing in the bow of the boat caught her, 
 and at the same moment down sunk the boat, and the wreck 
 rolled wearily over. But the girl was safe. 
 
 " Hurrah, my lad!" I sung out. " Up with you — there are 
 others remaining;" and I went sprawling along the line to the 
 deck-house, there to encounter another rush of water, which 
 washed as high as my thighs, and fetched me such a thump in 
 the stomach that I thought I must have died of suffocation. 
 
 I was glad to find that the old man had got out of his bunk, 
 and was standing at the door. 
 
 " Is my poor girl safe, sir?" he exclaimed, with the same 
 huskiness of voice that had grated so unpleasantly in the girl's 
 tone. 
 
 " Quite safe; come along." 
 
 "Thanks be to Almighty God!" he ejaculated, and burst 
 into tears. 
 
 I seized hold of his thin, cold hand, but shifted toy fingers to 
 catch him by the coat-collar, so as to exert more power over 
 him, and handed him along the deck, telling my companion to 
 lay hold of the seaman and fetch him away smartly. We man- 
 aged to escape the water, for the poor old gentleman bestirred 
 himself very nimbly, and I helped him over the fore-chains, 
 and when the boat rose, tumbled him into her without cere- 
 mony. I saw the daughter leap toward him and clasp him in 
 hor arms, but I was soon again scrambling on to the deck, hav- 
 ing heard cries from my man, accompanied with several loud 
 curses, mingled with dreadful yells. 
 
74 THE WEECK OE THE " GEOSVENOB. 
 
 " He^ bitten me, sir!" cried my companion, hauling him- 
 self away from the deck-house. "He's roaring mad. " 
 
 " It can't be helped," I answered. " We must get him 
 out." 
 
 He saw me pushing along the life-line, plucked up heart, and 
 went with myself through a sousing sea to the door. I caught 
 a glimpse of a white face glaring at me from the interior: ia a 
 second a figure shot out, iled with incredible speed toward the 
 bow, and leaped into the sea just where our boat lay. 
 
 " They'll pick him up," I exclaimed. " Stop a second;" 
 and I entered the house and stooped over the figure of the man 
 on the deck. I was not familiar with death, and- yet I knew 
 it was here. I can not describe the signs in his face; but such 
 as they were they told me the truth. I noticed a ring upon his 
 finger, and that his clothes were good. His hair was black, 
 and his features well-shaped, though his face had a half-con- 
 vulsed expression, as if something frightful had appeared to 
 him, and he had died of the sight of it. 
 
 " This wreck must be his cofiBn," I said. " He is a corpse. 
 We can do no more. " 
 
 We scrambled for the last time along the life-line and got 
 into the fore-chains, but to our consternation saw the boat row- 
 ing away from the wreck. However, the fit of rage and terror 
 that possessed me lasted but a moment or two; for I now saw 
 they were giving chase to the madman, who was swimming 
 steadily away. Two of the men rowed, and the third hung 
 over the bows, ready to grasp the miserable wretch. The 
 " Grosvenor " stood steady, about a mUe ofE, with her main- 
 yards backed; and just as the fellow over the boat's bows caught 
 hold of the swimmer's hair, the ensign was run up on board 
 the ship and dipped three times. 
 
 " Bring him along!" I shouted. " They'll be ofE without us 
 if we don't bear a hand. " 
 
 They nearly capsized the boat as they dragged the lunatic, 
 streaming like a drowned rat, out of the water; and one of the 
 sailors tumbled him over on his back, and knelt upon him, 
 while he took somB turns with the boat's painter round his 
 body, arms, and legs. The boat then came alongside, and, 
 watching our opportunity, we jumped into her and shoved off. 
 
 I had now leisure to examine the persons whom we had 
 saved. 
 
 They— father and daughter, as I judged them by the girl's 
 exclamation on the wreck— sat in the stern-sheets, their hands 
 locked. The old man seemed nearly insensible, leaning back- 
 ward with his chin on his breast and his eyes partially closed. 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " QROSTENOR." 75 
 
 I feared he was dying, but could do no good until we. reached 
 the " Grosvenor," as we had no spirits in the boat. 
 
 The girl appeared to be about twenty years of age, very fair, 
 her hair of golden straw color, which hung wet and sti-eaky 
 down her back and oyer her shoulders, though a portion of it 
 was held by a comb. She was deadly pate and her lips blue, 
 and in her fine eyes was such a look of mingled horror and rapt- 
 ure as she cast them around her, first glancing at me, then at 
 the wreck, then at the " Grosvenor," that the memory of it 
 will last me to my death. Her dress, of some dark material, 
 was soaked with salt water up to her hips, and she shivered 
 and moaned incessantly, though the sun beat so warmly upon 
 us that the thwarts were hot to the hand. 
 
 The mad sailor lay at the bottom of the boat, looking 
 straight into the sky. He was a horrid-looking object, with his 
 streaming hair, pasty features, and red beard, his naked shanks 
 and feet protruding through his soaking, clinging trousers, 
 which figured his shin-bones as though they clothed a skeleton. 
 Now and again he would give himself a wild twirl and yelp out 
 fiercely; but he was well-nigh spent with his swim, and, on the 
 whole, was quiet enough. 
 
 I said to the girl, " How long have you been in this dread- 
 ful position?" 
 
 Since yesterday morning,'" she answered, in a choking 
 voice painful to hear, and gulping after each word. " "We 
 have not had a drop of water to drink since the night before 
 last. He is mad with thirst, for he drank the water on the 
 deck," and she pointed to the man in the bottom of the boat. 
 
 " My God!" I cried to the men, " do you hear her? They 
 have not drimk water for two days! For ths love of God, give 
 way!" 
 
 They bent their backs to the oars, and the boat foamed over 
 the long swell. The wind was astern and helped us. I did 
 not speak again to the poor girl, for it was cruel to make her 
 talk when the words lacerated her throat as though they were 
 pieces of burning iron. 
 
 After twenty minutes, which seemed . as many hours, we 
 reached the vessel. The crew pressing round the gangway 
 cheered when they saw we had brought people from the wreck. 
 Duckling and the skipper watched us grimly from the poop. 
 
 "Now, then, my lads," I cried, " up with this lady first. 
 Some of you on deck get water ready, as these people are dying 
 of thirst." 
 
 In a few minutes both the girl and the old man were handed 
 over the gangway. I cut the boat's painter adrift from the 
 
/6 THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVENOB." 
 
 ring-bolt so that we could ship the madman without loosening 
 his bonds, and he was hoisted up like a bale of goods. Then 
 four of us got out of the boat^ leaving one to drop her under 
 the davits and hook on the falls. 
 
 At this moment a horrible scene took place. 
 
 The old man, tottering on the arms of two seamen, was be- 
 ing led into the cuddy, followed by the girl, who walked un- 
 aided. The madman, in the grasp of the big sailor named 
 Johnson, stood near the gangway, and as I scrambled on deck 
 one of the men was holding a pannikin full of water to Ms 
 face. The poor wretch was shrinking away from it, with his 
 eyes half out of their sockets; but suddenly tearing his arm 
 with a violent effort from the rope that bound him, he seized 
 the pannikin and bit clean through the tin ; after which, throw- 
 ing back his head, he swallowed the whole draught, dashed the 
 pannikin down, his face turned black, and he fell dead on the 
 deck. 
 
 The big sailor sprung aside with an oath, forced from Tiim 
 by his terror, and from every looker-on there broke a groan. 
 They all shrunk away and stood staring with blanched faces. 
 Such a piteous sight as it was, lying doubled up, with the rope 
 pinioning the miserable hmbs, the teeth locked, and the right 
 arm uptossed! 
 
 " Aft here and get the quarter-boat hoisted up!" shouted 
 Duckhng, advancing on the poop; and, seeing the man dead 
 on the deck, he added, " Get a tarpauHn and cover him up, 
 and let him lie on the fore-hatch. " 
 
 " Shall I tell the steward to serve out grog to the men who 
 went with me?" I asked him. . 
 
 He stared at me contemptuously, and walked away without 
 answering. 
 
 " You shall have your grog," said I, addressing one of them 
 who stood near, "though it should be my own allowance. 
 And, thoroughly exhausted after my exertion, and wet through, 
 I turned into my cabin to put on some dry clothes. 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 While I was in my cabin I heard the men hoisting up the 
 quarter-boat, and this was followed by an order from Duck- 
 ling to man the lee main-braces. The ship, hove to, was ofE 
 her course; but when she iilled, she brought the wreck right 
 abreast of the port-hole in my cabin. I stood watching 
 for some minutes with peculiar emotions, for the recol- 
 lection of the dead body in the deck-house lent a most im- 
 
THE WRECK OP THE "GROSVBNOR." 77 
 
 pressive significance to the mournful object which rolled from 
 side to side. It comforted me, howeyer, to reflect that it was 
 impossible I could have left anything living on the hull, since 
 nothing could have existed below the deck, and any one above 
 must have been seen by me. 
 
 The ship, now lying over, shut the wreck out, and I shifted 
 my clothes as speedily as I could, being anxious to hear what 
 Captain Coxon should say to me. I was also curious to see 
 the old man and girl, and learn what treatment the captain 
 was showiug them. I remember it struck me, just at this 
 time, that the girl was in a very awkward position; for here 
 she was on board a vessel without any female to serve her for 
 a companion and lend her clothes, which she would stand seri- 
 ously iu _need of, as those she had on her were wringing wet. 
 And even supposing she could make shift with these for a time, 
 she would soon want a change of apparel, which she certainly 
 would not get until we reached Valparaiso, unless the skipper 
 put into some port and landed them. The memory of her re- 
 fined and pretty face, with the amber hair about it, and her 
 wild, soft, piteous blue eyes, haunted me; and I tried to think 
 what could be done to make her comfortable in this matter of 
 dress iE the captaiu refused to go out of his way to set them 
 ashore. 
 
 Thus thinking, I was pulling on a boot when there came an 
 awkward knock at the door of the cabin, and in stepped the 
 carpenter, Stevens by name, holding in Ms hand a bar of iron 
 with a collar at either end, and one collar fastened with a pad- 
 lock. Close behind the carpenter came Duckling, who let the 
 door close of itself, and who immediately said : 
 
 " Captain Coxon's orders are to put you in irons. Carpen- 
 ter, clap those belayers on his d d shins!" 
 
 I jumped off the chest on which I was seated, not with the 
 intention of resisting, but of remonstrating; but Duckling mis- 
 taking the action drew a pistol out of his side-pocket, and, pre- 
 senting it at my head, said, right through his nose, which was 
 the first time I had heard him so speak, " By the Eternal! if 
 you don't let the carpenter do his work, I'll shoot you dead — 
 BO mind!" 
 
 " You're a rufiQan and a bully!" said I; " but I'll keep my 
 life if only to punish you and your master!" 
 
 Saying which, I reseated myself, folded my arms resolutely, 
 and suffered the carpenter to lock the irons on my ankles, keep- 
 ing my eyes fixed on Duckling with an expression of the utmost 
 scorn and dislike in them. 
 
78 THE WRECK OF THE " GKOSVENOK. 
 
 " Now," said he, " you infernal mutinous hound! I reckot 
 you'll not. give us much trouble for the rest of the voyage. " 
 
 This injurious language was more than my temper could 
 brook. Scarcely knowing what I did, I threw myself against 
 him, caught his throat, and dashed him violently down upon 
 the deck. The pistol exploded in his hand as he fell. 
 
 " Carpenter," I cried, furiously, " open that door!" 
 
 The fellow obeyed me instantly, and walked out of the cabin. 
 Duckling lay pretty well stunned upon the deck; but in a few 
 moments he would have been up and at me, and, hampered as 
 I was by the irons, he must have mastered me easily. I 
 shambled over to where he lay, dragged him upright, and 
 pitched him with a crash through the open door against the 
 cuddy table. He struck it heavily and rolled under it, and I 
 then slammed the door and sat down, feeling faint and quite 
 exhausted of breath. 
 
 The door had not been closed two minutes when it was 
 partially opened, and a friendly hand (the boatswain's, as I 
 afterward learned) placed a pannikin of rum and water on the 
 deck, and a voice said, " They'll not let you be here long, sir." 
 The door was then shut again; and, very thankful for a refresh- 
 ment of which I stood seriously in need, I got hold of the pan- 
 nikin and swallowed the contents. 
 
 I now tried to reflect upon my situation, but found it im- 
 possible to do BO, as I could not guess what intentions the cap- 
 tain had against me and what would be the result of my conflict 
 with DuckUng. For some while I sat expecting to see the chief 
 mate rush in on me; and, in anticipation of a struggle mth. a 
 coward who would have me almost at his mercy, I laid hold of 
 a sea-boot, very heavy, with an iron-shod heel, and held it 
 ready to strike at the bully's head should he enter. However, 
 in about a quarter of an hour's time I saw him through my 
 cabin window pass along the main-deck, with a blue lump over 
 his right eye, while the rest of his face shone with soap, which 
 he must have used without stint to rid his features of the blood 
 that had smeared them. Whether the report of the pistol had 
 been heard or not I could not tell; but no notice appeared to 
 be taken of it. I noticed a number of the crew just under the 
 forecastle conversing in a very earnest manner, and sometimes 
 looking xoward my cabin. 
 
 There was something very gross and brutal in this treatment 
 to which I was subjected, and there was a contempt in it for 
 Bie, suggested by the skipper sending Duckhng to see me in 
 irons, instead of logging to my" face and acting in a ship-shape 
 fashion in putting me under arrest, t^hich galled me extreme- 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " 6K0SVEN0K." 79 
 
 ly. The veiy irons on my legs were not such as are ordinarily 
 used on board ship, and looked as if they had been picked up 
 cheap in some rag-and-slop shop in South America or in the 
 West Indies, for I think I had seen such things in pict- 
 ures of truculent negro slaves. I was in some measure sup- 
 ported by the reflection that the crew sympathized with me, 
 and would not suffer me to be cruelly used; but the idea of a 
 mutiny among them gave me no pleasure, for the skipper was 
 sure to swear that I was the ringleader, and Duclding would of 
 course back his statements; and my calling upon the men to 
 help me put off to the wreck, against the captain ■'s orders, my 
 going thither, and my confinement in irons, would all tell 
 heavily agaiast me in any court of inquiry; so that, as things 
 were, I not only stood the chance of being professionally ruined, 
 but of having to undergo a term of imprisonment ashore. 
 
 These were no very agreeable reflections; and if some rather 
 desperate thoughts came into my head while I sat pondering 
 over my misfortunes, the reader will not greatly wonder. 
 
 I was growing rather faint with hunger, for it was past my 
 usual dinner hour, and I had done enough work to account for 
 a good appetite. 
 
 The captain was eating his dinner in the cuddy; for I not 
 only smelled the cooking, but heard his voice addressing the 
 steward, who was, perhaps, the only man in the ship who 
 showed any kuid of liking for him. I tried to hear if the old 
 man or the girl were with him, but caught no other voice. I 
 honestly prayed that the captain would act humanely towai-d 
 them; but I had my doubts, for he was certainly a cold-blooded, 
 selfish rascal. 
 
 By and by I heard DackUng's voice, showing that the cap- 
 tain had gone on deck. This man, either wanting the tact of 
 his superior or hating me more bitterly (which I admit was 
 fair, seeing how I had punished him), said in a loud voice to 
 the steward: 
 
 " What fodder is that mutinous dog yonder to have?" 
 
 The steward spoke low and I did not hear him. 
 
 " Serve the skunk right," continued the chief mate. " By 
 glory! if there was only a pair of handcuffs on board they should 
 be on him. How's this lump?" 
 
 The steward replied, and Mr. Duckling continued: 
 
 " I guess the fellow at the wheel grinned when he saw it. 
 But I'll be raising bigger lumps than this on some of 'em be- 
 fore r m done. This is the most skulking, sniveling, mutinous 
 ship's crew that ever I sailed with; I'd rather work the vessel 
 with four Lascars; and as to that rat in the hole there, if it 
 
80 THE WKECK OF THE " GROSVEN OK. " 
 
 wasn't for the color of the bunting we sail under, I reckon we'd 
 have made an ensign of him at the mizzen-peak some days ago, 
 by the Lord! with the signal halyards round his neck, for he's 
 born to be hanged; and I guess, though he knocked me down 
 when I wasn't looking, I'm strong enough to hoist Mm thirty 
 feet, and let him drop with a run. " 
 
 All this was said in a loud Toice for my edification, but I 
 must own it did not frighten me very greatly. To speak the 
 truth, I thought more of the old man and liis daughter than 1 
 did of myself; for if they should hear this bragging bully from 
 their cabins, they would form very alarming conclusions as to 
 the character of the persons who had rescued them, and scarce- 
 ly know, indeed, whether we were not all cut-throats. 
 
 Shortly after this, Duckhng came out on to the main-deck, 
 and, observing me looking through the window, bawled at the 
 top of his voice for the carpenter, who presently came, and 
 Duckling, pointing to my window, gave him some instructions, 
 which he went away to execute. A young ordinary seaman — 
 an Irish lad named Driscoll — was coiling a rope over one of the 
 belaying-pins around the mainmast. Duckling pointed up 
 aloft, and his voice sounded, though I did not hear the order. 
 The lad waited to coil the rest of the rope — a fathom or so — 
 before obeying; whereupon Duckling hit him a blow on the 
 back, slued him round, caught him by the throat, and backed 
 him savagely against the starboard bulwarks, roaring, in lan- 
 guage quite audible to me now, " Up with you, you skulker! 
 Up with you, I say, or I'll pound you to pieces!" 
 
 At this moment the carpenter approached my window, pro- 
 vided with a hammer and a couple of planks, which he pro- 
 ceeded to naU upon the frame-work. Duckling watched him 
 with a grin upon his ugly face, the lump over his eye not im- 
 proving the expression, as you may believe. I was now in 
 comparative darkness; for the port-hole admitted but little 
 light, and, unlike the rest of the cuddy berths, my cabin had 
 no bull's-eye. 
 
 I reached the door with a great deal of trouble, for the iron 
 bar hampered my movements excessively, and found it locked 
 outside; but by whom and when I did not know, for I had not 
 heard the key turned. But I might depend that Duckling had 
 done this with cat-like stealthiness, and that he probably had 
 the key in his pocket. 
 
 I was hungry enough to have felt grateful for a biscuit, and 
 had half a mind to sing out to the steward to bring me some- 
 thing to eat, but reflected that my doing so might only pro- 
 voke an insulting answer from the fellow. With some diflS- 
 
THE WRECK OF THE "dROSVENOB." 81 
 
 culty I pulled the mattress out of the cot and put it into the 
 bunk, as my pinioned legs would not enable me to climb or 
 spring, and lay down and presently fell asleep. 
 
 I slept away the greater part of the afternoon, for when I 
 awoke, the sky, as I saw it through the port-hole, was dark 
 with the shadow of evening. A strong wind was blowing and 
 the ship laying heavily over to it, by which I might know she 
 was carrying a heap of canvas. 
 
 I looked over the edge of the bunk, and saw on the deck 
 near the door a tin dish, containing some common ship's bis- 
 cuit and a can of cold water. I was so hungiy that I jumped 
 up eagerly to get the biscuit, by doing which I so tweaked my 
 ankles with the irons that the blood came from the brokto 
 skin. I made shift to reach the biscuit, which proved to be 
 the ship's bread as served to the men, and eat greedily, being 
 indeed famished; but speedily discovered the substantial ground 
 of complaint the sailors had against the ship's stores; for the 
 biscuit was intolerably moldy and rotten, and so full of weevils 
 that nothing but hunger could have induced me to swallow the 
 abomination. I managed to devour a couple of these things, 
 and drank some water; and then pulled out my pipe and be- 
 gan to smoke, caring little about the skipper's objection to 
 this indulgence in the saloon, and heartily wishing he would 
 come to the cabin that I might tell him what I thought of his 
 behavior. 
 
 How long was this state of things going to last with me? 
 Would the crew compel Captaiu Coxon to put into some near 
 port where I should be handed over to the authorities, or would 
 we proceed direct to Valparaiso? The probabihtiy of his touch- 
 ing anywhere was, in my opinion, now smaller than before, as 
 the delays, and inquiry into my conduct, and the complaints 
 of the men, woidd seriously enlarge the period of the voyage. 
 Nor could I imagine that the poor persons we had rescued 
 would prevail upon him to go out of his way to land them. 
 As for myself, looking back on my actions, I did not beUeve 
 that any court would judge me severely for obhging Coxon to 
 send a boat to the wreck; for I had the evidence of the crew 
 to prove that a human being had been seen signahng to us for 
 help before I ordered the ship to be hove to, and that there- 
 fore my determination to board the wreck had not been specu- 
 lative, but truly justified by the spectacle of human distress. 
 Still, such anticipations scarcely consoled me for the inconven- 
 ience I suffered in my feet being held in irons, and in my 
 being locked up in a gloomy cabin, where such fare as I had 
 
82 THE WKECK OF THE " GKOSVElirOR. " 
 
 already eaten would probably be the food I should get untfl 
 the voyage out was ended. 
 
 As the evening advanced the wind f jeshened, and I heard 
 the captain give orders just over my head, and the hands 
 shortening sail. The skipper was again straining the ship 
 heavily; the creaking and groaning in the cuddy were inces- 
 sant; and every now and again I heard the boom of a sea 
 against the vessel's side and the sousing rush of water on deck. 
 But after the men had been at work some time, the vessel 
 labored less and got upon a more even keel. 
 
 Two bells (niae o'clock) had been struck, when I was sud- 
 denly attracted by a soimd of hammering upon the dead-light 
 in my cabin. I turned my head hastUy; but as it was not 
 only dark inside, but dark without, I could discern nothing, 
 and concluded that the noise had been made on the deck over- 
 head. 
 
 After an interval of a minute the hammering was repeated, 
 and now it was impossible for me to doubt that it was caused 
 by something hard, such as the handle of a knife, being- struck 
 upon the tluck glass of the port-hole. I was greatly aston- 
 ished; but remembering that the main-chains extended away 
 from this port-hole, I easily concluded that some one had got 
 down into them and was knocking to draw my attention. 
 
 I hoisted my legs out of the bunk with very great diflBculty, 
 and having got my feet upon the deck, drew myself to the 
 port-hole, but with much trouble, it being to windward, and 
 the deck sloping to a considerable angle. Not a glimmer of 
 light penetrated my cabin from the cuddy; and whether the 
 sky outside was clear or not, I only know that the prospect 
 seen through the port-hole, buried in the thickness of the 
 ship's wall was pitch-dark. 
 
 I untwisted the screw that kept the dead-light closed, and 
 it blew open, and a rush of wild, concentrated by the narrow- 
 ness of the aperture through which it penetrated, blew damp 
 with spray upon my face. 
 
 Fearful of my voice being heard in the cuddy — for this was 
 the hour when the spirits were put upon the table, and it was 
 quite likely that Ooxon and Duckling might be seated within, 
 drinking alone — ^I muffled my voice between my hands and 
 asked who was there? 
 
 The fellow jammed his face so effectually into the port-hole 
 as to exclude the wind, so that the whisper in which he spoke 
 was quite distinct. 
 
 " Me — Stevens, the carpenter. I've come from the crew 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVEITOK. " 83 
 
 But you're to take your solemn oath you'll not split upon us 
 if I tell you what's goin' to happen?"- 
 
 " I am not in a position to split," I replied. " But I can. 
 make no promises until I know your intentions. " 
 
 The man was a long time silent. Several times he withdrew 
 his face, as I knew (for I could not see him) by the rush of 
 wind that came in, to shake himself free of the spray that 
 broke over him. 
 
 "It's just. this," he said, bunging up the port-hole again. 
 "We'd rather take a twelve-month imprisonment ashore, iu 
 the worst jail in England, than work this vessel on the rotten 
 food we're obliged to eat. What we want to know is, will you 
 take charge o' the ship, and carry her where we tells yer, if we 
 give you command?" 
 
 I was too much startled by this question to reply at onoe. 
 Influenced by the long term of confinement before me if Cap- 
 tain Coxon remained in control, by my bitter dislike of him 
 and his bully factotum, by the longing to be free, and the 
 hundred excuses I could frame for co-operating with the crew, 
 my first impulse was to say yes. But there came quickly con- 
 siderations of the danger of mutiny on board ship, of the sure 
 excesses of men made reckless by liberty and freed from the 
 discipline which, though their passions might protest against 
 it, their still stronger iastincts admitted and obeyed. 
 
 " Give us your answer," said the man. " If the chief mate 
 looks over, he'll see me. " 
 
 "lean not consent," I replied. "I am as sorry for the 
 crew as I am for myself. But things are better as they are. " 
 
 " By !" exclaimed the man, in a violent, hoarse whis- 
 per, we don't mean to let 'em be as they are. We've put 
 up with a bit too much as it is. We'll find a way of making 
 you consent — see to that! And if you peach on us, Ave' re still 
 too strong for you — so miud your life!" 
 
 Saying which, he withdrew his head; and after waiting a 
 short time to see if he remained, I closed the port and shuffled 
 into my bunk again. 
 
 I tried to think how*I should act. 
 
 If I acquainted the captain with the carpenter's disclosure, 
 the men would probably murder me. And though they with- 
 held from bloodshed, my putting the captain on his guard 
 would not save the ship if the men were determiaed to seize 
 her, because he could not count on more than two men to side 
 with him, and the crew would overpower them immediately. 
 
 However, I will not seem more virtuous and upright than I 
 was; and I may therefore say that, after giving this matter 
 
84 THE WRECK OE THE "GROSVENOE." 
 
 some half hour's thinking, I found that it would suit my pur- 
 pose better if the crew mutinied than if the captain continued 
 in charge, because it might open large opportunities for my 
 future, and relieve me from the disgraceful position in which I 
 was placed by the mahce and injustice of my two superiors. 
 The one thing I heartUy prayed for was that murder might 
 not be done; but I did not anticipate great yiolence, as I im- 
 agined that the crew had no other object in rebelling than to 
 compel the captain to put into the nearest port to exchange the 
 stores. 
 
 The night wore away very slowly, and I counted every bell 
 that was struck. The wind decreased at midnight, and I 
 heard Duckling go into the captain^s cabin and rouse him up, 
 the captain evidently having undertaken my duties. DuckUug 
 reported the weather during his watch, and said: " The wind 
 is dropping, but it looks dirty to the south'ard. If we lose the 
 breeze we may get it fresh from t'other quarter, and she can't 
 hurt under easy sail until we see what's going to do. " 
 
 They then went on deck together, and in about ten minutes' 
 time Duckling returned and went into his cabin, closing the 
 door noisily. 
 
 A little after one o'clock I fell into a doze, but was shortly 
 after awakened by hearing the growl of voices close against my 
 cabin, my apprehensions ma^^g my hearing very sensitive 
 even in sleep. 
 
 In a few moments the voices of the men were silenced, and 
 I then heard the tread of footsteps in the cuddy going aft, and 
 some one as he passed tried the handle of my door. 
 
 Another long interval of silence followed-; and as I did not 
 hear the men who had entered the cuddy return, I wondered 
 where they had stationed themselves, and what they were 
 doing. As to myself, the irons on my legs made me quite 
 helpless. 
 
 The time that now passed seemed an eternity, and I wae be- 
 ginning to M'onder whether the voices I had heard might not 
 have been Coxon's and the steward's — all was so quiet— when 
 a step sounded overhead, and the captain's voice rung out, 
 " Lay aft, some hands, and brail up the spanker!" 
 
 Instantly several men ran up the starboard poop-ladder, 
 proving that they must have been stationed close against my 
 cabin, and their heavy feet clattered along the deck, and I 
 heard their voices singing. Scarcely were their voices hushed 
 when a shrill whistle, like a sharp human squeal, was raised 
 forward, and immediately there was a sharp twirl and a shuffle 
 of feet on the deck, followed by a groan and a fall. At the 
 
THE WRECK OF THE "OROSVENOR." 8S 
 
 same moment a door was forced open in the cuddy, and, as I 
 might have judged by what followed, a body of men tumbled 
 into the chief mate's cabin. A growling and yelping of fierce 
 human voices followed. " Haul him out of it by the hair!" 
 "You blackguard! you'll show fight, will yer! Take that 
 for yourself!" " Over the eyes next time, BUI! Let me get at 
 the—" 
 
 But, as I imagined, the muscular, infuriate chief mate would 
 not fall an easy prey, fighting as he deemed for his life. I 
 heard the thump of bodies swung against the paneling, fierce 
 sxecrations, the smash of crockery, and the heavy breathing 
 of men engaged iu deadly conflict. 
 
 It was brief enough in reality, though Duckling seemed to 
 find them work for a good while. 
 
 "Don't kin him now! Wait till dere's plenty of light!" 
 howled a voice, which I knew to be the cook's. And then 
 they came along . the cuddy, dragging the body, which they 
 had either killed or knocked insensible, after them, and got 
 upon the main-deck. 
 
 " Poop, ahoy!" shouted one of them. " What cheer up 
 there, mates?" 
 
 "Eight as a trivet! — ready to sling astern!" came the 
 answer directly over my head, followed by some laughter. 
 
 As I lay holding my breath, scarcely knowing what was next 
 to befall, the handle of my door was tried, the door pushed, 
 then shaken passionately, after which a voice, in tones which 
 might have emanated from a ghost, exclaimed, 
 
 Mr. Eoyle, they have killed the captain and Mr. Duckling! 
 For God Almighty's sake, ask them to spare my Ufe! They 
 will listen to you, sir! For God's sake, save me!" 
 
 " Who are you?" I answered. 
 
 "The steward, sir." 
 
 But as he said this one of the men on the quarter-deck 
 shouted, "Where's the steward? He's as bad as the others! 
 He's the one what swore the pork was sweet!" 
 
 And then I heard the steward steal swiftly away from my 
 cabin door and some men come into the cuddy. They would 
 doubtless have hunted him 'down there and then, but one of 
 them unconsciously diverted the thoughts of the others by ex- 
 claiming! 
 
 " There's the second mate in there. Let's have him out of 
 it." 
 
 My cabin door was again tried, and a heavy kick adminis- 
 tered. 
 
 " It's locked can't you see?" said one of the men. 
 
86 THE WRECK OE THE "GEOSVENOE." 
 
 As it opened into the cuddy, it was not to be forced, so one 
 of them exclaimed that he would fetch a mallet and a calking- 
 iron, with which he returned iu less than a couple of minutes, 
 and presently the lock was smashed to pieces and the door fell 
 open. 
 
 Both swinging lamps were alight in the cuddy, and one, 
 being nearly opposite my cabin, streamed fairly into it. I was 
 seated erect in my bunk when the men entered, and I immedi- 
 ately exclaimed, pointing to the irons, " I am glad you have 
 thought of me. Knock those things off, will you?" 
 
 I believe there was something in the cool way ia which I 
 pronounced those words that as fully persuaded them that I 
 was intent upon tjie mutiny as any action I could have com- 
 mitted. 
 
 " We'll not take long to do that for you," cried the fellow 
 who held the mallet (a formidable weapon by the way, in such 
 hands). " Get upon the deck, and I'll s waller this iron if you 
 ar'n't able to dance a break-down in a jifly!" 
 
 I dropped out of the bunk, and with two blows the man cut 
 ofE the staple, and I kicked the irons off. 
 
 " Now, my lads," said I, beginning to play the part I had 
 made up my mind to act while listening to the onslaught on 
 the captain and Duckling, " what have you done?" 
 
 The fellow who had knocked off the irons, and now answered 
 me, was named Cornish, a man in my own watch. 
 
 " The ship's ourn — that's what we've done," he said. 
 
 " The skipper's dead as a nail up there, I doubt," exclaimed 
 another, indicating the poop with a movement of the head; 
 and if you'll step on to the main-deck, you'll see how we've 
 handled Mister Duckling. " 
 
 " And what do you mean to do?" exclaimed a man, one of 
 the four who had accompaaied me to the wreck, " We're mas- 
 ters now, I suppose you know, and so I hope you ar'n't agin 
 us." 
 
 At this moment the carpenter, followed by a few others, 
 came shoving into the cuddy. 
 
 " Oh, there he is J" he cried. 
 
 He grasped me by the arm and led me out of the cabin, and 
 bidding me stand at the end of the table, with my face looking 
 aft, ran to the door, and bawled at the top of his voice, " into 
 the cuddy all hands!" 
 
 Those who were on the poop came scuffling along, dragging 
 something with them, and presently rose a ciy of " One — two 
 — three!" and there was a soft thud on the main-deck — the 
 body of the captain, in fact, pitched off the poop — and then 
 
' With you' I replied, ' in everything but murder.' "—Page 87. - 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSTElirOE." 87 
 
 the men came running in and stood in a crowd on either side 
 of the table. 
 
 This was a scene I am not likely ever to forget, nor the 
 feelings excited in me by it. 
 
 The men were variously dressed, some in yellow sou'-westers, 
 some in tight-iitting caps, in coarse shirts, in suits of oil-skin, 
 in liberally patched monkey-jackets. Some of them with black 
 beards and mustaches and burned complexions, looked swarthy 
 and sinister enough in the lamp-light; some were pale with the 
 devihsh spirit that had been aroused in them; every face, not 
 excepting the yomagest of the ordinary seamen, wore a pas- 
 sionate, reckless, maUgnant look. They ran their eyes over 
 the cuddy as strangers would, and one of them took a glass off 
 a swinging tray, and held it high, saying grimly, " By the 
 Lord! we'U have something fit to swaller now! No more 
 starvation and stinking water!" 
 
 I noticed the boatswain — named Perrol — ^the only quiet face 
 in the crowd. He met my eye, and instantly looked down. 
 
 "Now, Mr. Eoyle," said the carpenter, "we're all akals 
 here, with a fust-rate execootioner among us " (pointing to the 
 big sailor Johnson), " as knows, when he's axed, how to choke 
 off indiwiduals as don't make theirselves sootable to oiu* feel- 
 in's. "What we're all here collected for to discover is this — 
 are you with us or agin us?" 
 
 " With you," I replied, " in everything but murder." 
 
 Some of them growled, and the carpenter exclaimed hastily: 
 
 " We don't know what you call murder. We ar'n't used to 
 them sort o' expressions. What's done has happened, ain't 
 it? And I have heerd tell of accidents, which is the properest 
 word to convey our thoughts. " 
 
 He nodded at me significantly. 
 
 " Look here," said L " Just a plain word with you before 
 I am asked any more questions. There's not a man among 
 you who doesn't know that I have been warm on your side 
 ever since I learned what kind of provisions you were obliged 
 to eat. I have had words with the captain about your stores, 
 and it is as much because of my interference in that matter as 
 because of my determination not to let a woman die upon a 
 miserable wreck that he clapped me in irons. I don't know 
 what you mean to do with me, and I'll not say I don't care. I 
 do care. I value my life, and in the hope of saving it, I'll tell 
 you this, and it's God's truth — ^that if you take my life, you'll 
 be kilUng a man who has been your friend at heart, who has 
 sympathized with you in your privations, who has never to his 
 knowledge spoken harshly to you when he had the power to 
 
88 THE WEEOK OF THE " GBOSVENOK. 
 
 do SO, and who, had he commanded this vessel, would have 
 shifted your provisions long ago/' 
 
 So saying I folded my arms and looked fixedly at the car- 
 penter. 
 
 They listened to me in silence, and when I had done broke 
 into various exclamations. 
 
 "We know all that." 
 
 " We don't owe you no grudge." 
 
 " We don't want your life. Just show us what to do — that's 
 what it is. " 
 
 I appeared to pay no attention to their remarks, but kept 
 my eyes resolutely bent on Stevens, the carpenter, that they 
 might see I accepted bim as their mouth-piece, and would deal 
 only with him. 
 
 " Well," he began, " aU what you say is quite correct, and 
 we've no fault to find with, you. What I says to you this 
 evenia' through the port-hole I says now-^will you navigate 
 this here vessel for us to the port as we've agreed on? And if 
 you'll do that, you can choose oflBcers out of us, and we'll do 
 your bidding as though you was lawful skipper, and trust to 
 you. But I say now, and I says it before all hands here, that 
 if you takes us where we don't want to go, or put us iu the 
 way of any man-o'-war, or try in any manner to brhig us to 
 book for this here Job, so help me, Mr. Eoyle, and that's your 
 name, as mine is WilKam Stevens, and I say it before all 
 hands, we'll sUng you overboard as sartin as there's hair 
 growin' on your head — -vre will; we'll murder you out and out. 
 All my mates is a-foUowin' of me — so you'll please miud that!"' 
 
 " I hear you," I replied, " and will do your bidding, but 
 on this condition — that having killed the captain, you will 
 swear to me that no more Hves shall be sacrificed. " 
 
 "By Gor, no!" shouted the cook. "Don't swear dat! 
 Wait till by-um-by." 
 
 "Be advised by me!" I cried, seizing the fellow's frightful 
 meaning, and dreading the hideous scene it portended. " We 
 have an old man and a young girl on board. Are they safe?" 
 
 " Yes," answered several voices; and the cook jabbered, 
 " yes, yes!" with horrid contortions of the face, under the 
 impression that I had mistaken his interruption. 
 
 " We have the steward and the chief mate?" 
 
 " Dat's dey! dat's dey!" screamed the cook. " No mercy 
 upon 'em. Hab np mercy upon us! Him strike me on de 
 jaw and kick me! T'oder one poison us! No mercy!" he 
 howled, and several joined in the howl. 
 
 " Look here! I am a single man among many," I said; 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVBNOE." 89 
 
 " but I am not afraid to speak out — because I as an English- 
 man spealdng to Englishmen, with one blood-thirsty yellow 
 savage among you!" there was a shout of laughter. " If you 
 wish it, I will go on my knees to you, and implore you not to 
 stain your hands with these men's blood. You have them in 
 your power — you can not better your position by Idlhng them 
 — be merciful! Mates, how would you kill them — in cold 
 blood? Is there an Englishman among you who would 
 daughter a defenseless man? who would stand by and see a 
 defenseless man slaughtered? There is an Almighty God 
 above you, and he is the God of vengeance! Hear me!" 
 
 " We'll let the steward go!" cried a voice; " but we want 
 om- revenge on Duckling, and we'll have it. D — n your ser- 
 mons!" 
 
 And once again the ominous growling of angry rnen mut- 
 tering altogether arose; in the midst of which the fellow who 
 was steering left the wheel to sing out through the sky-light: 
 
 " It's as black as thunder to the leeward. Better stand by, 
 or the ship'U be aback!" 
 
 " Now what am I to do?" I exclaimed. 
 
 " We give you command. Out with your orders — we'll 
 obey 'em," came the answer. 
 
 In a few moments I was on the poop. By the first glance I 
 threw upward I saw that the ship was already aback. 
 
 "Port your helm — ^hard a-port!" I shouted. "Let go 
 your port-braces fore and aft! Round with the yards smartly!" 
 
 Fortunately not only was the first coming of the wind light, 
 but the canvas on the ship was comparatively small. The 
 mainsail, cross-jack, the three royals, two top-gallant-sails, 
 spanker, flying and outer jibs were furled, and there was a 
 single reef in the fore and mizzentop-sails. The yards swung 
 easily and the sails filled, and, not knowing what course to 
 steer I braced the yards up sharp and kept her close. 
 
 The sky to the south looked threatening, and the night was 
 very dark. I ran below to look at the glass, and found a 
 slight fall, but nothing to speak of. This being so, I thought 
 we might hold on with the top-sails as they were for the pres- 
 ent, and ordered the top-gallant-sail to be furled. The men 
 worked vrith great alacrity, singing out lustily; indeed it was 
 difficult for me, standing on the poop and giving orders, to 
 realize the experiences of the last hour; and yet I might know, 
 by the strange trembhng and inward and painful feehng of 
 faintness which from time to time seized me, that both my 
 moral and physical being had received a terrible shook, and 
 that I should feel the reality more keenly when my excitement 
 
90 THE WRECK OF THE " GKOSVEKOE." 
 
 was abated and I should have no other occupation than to 
 think. 
 
 The only food I had taken all day was the two ship's bis- 
 cuits; and, feeling the need of some substantial refreshment to 
 relieve me of the sensation of faintness, I left the poop to seek 
 the carpenter, in order to request him to keep watch while I 
 went below. 
 
 When on the quarter-deck, and looking toward the cuddy, I 
 perceived two figures huddled together just outside the cuddy 
 door. There was plenty of hght here from the lamps inside, 
 and I at once saw that the two bodies were those of Duckling 
 and Ooxon. 
 
 I stepped up to them. Ooxon lay on his back with his face 
 exposed, and Duckling was right across him, breast downward, 
 his head in the corner and his feet toward me. There was no 
 blood on either of them. Coxon had evidently been struck 
 over the head from behind, and killed instantly; his features 
 were composed, and his gray hairs made him look a reverend 
 object ia death. 
 
 Some men on the main-deck watched me looking at the 
 bodies, and when they saw me take Duckling by the arm and 
 turn him on his back one of them called, " That's right; keep 
 the beggar alive! He's cookee's portion, he is!" 
 
 These exclamations attracted the attention of the carpenter, 
 who came aft immediately and found me stooping over Duck- 
 ling. 
 
 "He's dead, I reckon," he said. 
 
 " Dead, or next door to it," I replied. " Better for him if 
 he is dead. The captain's a corpse, killed quickly enough, by 
 the' look of him," I continued, gazing at the white, still face 
 at my feet. " You had better get him carried forward and 
 covered up. Where's the body of the sailor I brought on 
 board?" 
 
 " Why, pitched him overboard like a dead rat, by orders of 
 this Christian," he answered, giving the captain's body a Mck. 
 " He had a good deal of feelin', this pious gentleman. Why 
 do you want him covered up? Let him go overboard now, 
 won't 'ee? Hi, mates!" he called to the men who were look- 
 ing on. "Here's another witness agin us for the Day o' 
 Judgment! Heave him into the sea, my hearties! We don't 
 want to give him no excuse to soften the truth for our sakes 
 when he's called upon to spin his yarn!" 
 
 The men flocked round the bodies, and while three of them 
 caught up the corpse of the skipper as if it had been a coil of 
 rope, others of them began to handle Duckling. 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GKOSVEITOE. " 91 
 
 " Him too?" asked one. 
 
 " What do you say, Mr. Eoyle?" demanded the carpenter. 
 
 " It ain't Mr. Eoyle's consam- — it's cookee's!" cried one of 
 the men. And he began to bawl for " cookee." 
 
 Meantime the fellows who held the captain's body, not 
 rehshing their burden, went to leeward; and, two of them 
 taking the shoulders and one the feet, they began to swing 
 him, and at a given word shot him over the bulwarks. They 
 then came back quite unconcernedly, one of them observing 
 that the devil ought to be very much obliged to them for their 
 iandsome present. 
 
 The cook now approached, walked aft by some men who 
 held him by the arms. They were laughing uproariously, 
 which was explained when I saw that the cook was drunk. 
 
 " Here's your friend, Mr. Cookee," said Stevens, stirring 
 DucHing with the toe of his boot. " He's waitin' for you to 
 know wot's to become of him. " 
 
 " Him a berry good gentleman," returned the cook, pulling 
 off his cap with drunken gravity, and making a reeling bow to 
 the body. " Me love dis gentleman like my own son. Nebber 
 knew tenderer-hearted man. Him gib me a nice blow here," 
 holding his cUnched fist to his jaw, " and anoder one here," 
 clapping his hand to his back. Then, after a pause, he kicked 
 the dying or dead man savagely in the head, yelling in a hide- 
 ous falsetto, " Oh, I'll skin um alive! Oh, I'll pull his eyes 
 out and make um swaller dem! He kick an' strike honest 
 English cook! Oh, my golly! I'll cut off his foot! Give me 
 a knife, sar," looking round him with a wandering, gleaming 
 eye. " Gib me a knSe, I say, an' you see what I do!" 
 
 One of the ruffians actually gave him a knife. 
 
 I grasped the carpenter's arm. 
 
 "Mr. Stevens," I exclaimed, in his ear, "you'll not allow 
 this! For God's sake, don't let this drunken cannibal dis- 
 grace our manhood by such brutal deeds before us! Living or 
 dead, better fling the body overboard! Don't let him be tort- 
 inred if living; and if dead, is not our revenge complete?" 
 
 The carpenter made no answer, and, sick with horror and 
 disgust I was turning away, feehng powerless to deal with 
 these wretches, when, the cook already kneeling and baring 
 his arm for I know not what bloody work, Stevens sprung for- 
 ward and fetched him such a thump under the chin, that he 
 rolled head over heels into the lee-scuppers. 
 
 The men roared with laughter. 
 
 "Now, then, overboard with this thing!" the carpenter 
 
92 THE WEECK OF THE " GEOSVENOK.'* 
 
 shouted; "and if cookee wants more wengeance, fling him 
 overboard arter him!" 
 
 They seized Duckling as they had seized Coxon, and slung 
 him overboard just as they had slung the other. Some of 
 them ran to the cook^ and it was impossible to judge whether 
 they were in earnest or not when they shrieked outj " Over- 
 board with him too! We can't separate the friends!" The 
 cook, at all events, believed they meant no joke, for, uttering 
 a prolonged yell of terror, he wriggled with incredible activitv 
 out of their hands, and rushed forward like a steam engine. 
 They did not offer to pursue him; and, Ul with these scenes of 
 horror, I called to the carpenter and asked him to step on the 
 poop while I went into the cuddy. 
 
 What to do there?" he inquired, suspiciously. 
 
 " To get somethuig to eat. I have had nothing all day but 
 two of the ship's bad biscuits. " 
 
 " Eight," he said. " But, before I go, I'll tell you what's 
 agreed among us. You're to take charge, and sarve with me 
 and the boson, turn and turn about on deck. That's agree- 
 able, aia't it?" 
 
 "Quite." 
 
 " You're to do all the piloting of the ship, and navigate us 
 to where the ship's company agrees upon." 
 
 "I understand." 
 
 " We three live aft here, and the ship's company forrard; 
 but all the ship's stores'U be smothered, and the cuddy pro- 
 visions sprung, d'ye see? likewise the grog and whatsomever 
 there may be proper to eat and drink. We're aU to be ekals, 
 and fare and fare alike, though the crew'll obey orders as 
 usual. You're to have the skipper's berth, and I'll take 
 youm; and the boson he'll take Duckling's. That we've all 
 agreed on afore we went to work, and so I thought I'd let you 
 know. " 
 
 " Well, Mr. Stevens," I replied, " as I told you just now, 
 111 do your bidding. I'll take the ship to the place you may 
 name; and as I sha'n't play you false, though I have no notion 
 of your intentions, so I hope you won't play me false. I have 
 begged for the steward's life, and you have promised to spare 
 him. And how are two persons we saved to be treated?" 
 
 " They're to live along with us here. All that's settled, I 
 told yer. But I'm not so sure about the steward. I never 
 made no promise about sparing him." 
 
 "Look here!" I exclaimed, sternly. "I am capable of 
 taking this ship to any port you choose to name. There is 
 not another man on board who could do this. I can keep you 
 
'■' ' Are you Mr. Royle ? ' she asked, in a low but most clear and sweet 
 voice." — Page 93. 
 
THE WRECK OF THE "GEOSTENOE." 93 
 
 out of the track of ships, and help you in a number of ways to 
 save your necks. Do you understand me? But I tell you, on 
 my oath, i£ you murder the steward, if any further act of vio- 
 lence is committed on board this ship, I'U throw up my 
 charge, and you may do your worst. These are my terms, 
 easier to you than to me. What is your answer:" 
 
 He reflected a moment and replied, " I'U talk to my mates 
 about it. " 
 
 " Do so," I said. " Call them aft now. But you had 
 better get on deck, as the ship wants watching. Talk to them 
 on the poop." 
 
 He obeyed me literally, calling for the hands to lay aft, and 
 I was left alone. 
 
 I went into the steward's pantry, where I found some cold 
 meat and biscuit and a bottle of sherry. These things I car- 
 ried to the foremost end of the table. Somehow I did not feel 
 greatly concerned about the debate going on oyerhead, as I 
 knew the men could not do without me; nor did I believe the 
 general feeling against the steward sufBciently strong to make 
 them willing to sacrifice my services to their revengeful pas- 
 sions. 
 
 I fell to the meat and wine as greedily as a starving man, 
 and was eating very heartily; when I felt a light touch on my 
 arm. I turned hastily and confronted the girl whom I had 
 brought away from the wreck. Her hair hung loose over her 
 shoulders, and she was as pale as marble. But her blue eyes 
 were very brilliant, and fired with a resolved and brave ex- 
 pression, and I thought her beautiful as she stood before me 
 in the lamp-light with her hair shining about her face. 
 
 " Are you Mr. Eoyle?" she asked, in a low but most clear 
 and sweet voice. 
 
 " I am," I replied, rising. 
 
 She took my hand and kissed it. 
 
 " You have saved my father's Hfe and mine, and I have 
 prayed God to bless you for your noble courage. I have had 
 no opportmiity to thank you before. They would not let me 
 see you. The captain said you had mutinied and were in irons. 
 My father wishes to thank you — his heart is so full that he 
 can not rest — but he is too weak to move. Will you come and 
 see him?" 
 
 She made a movement toward the cabin next the pantry. 
 
 " Not now," I said. " You should be asleep, resting, after 
 your terrible trials." 
 
 " How could I sleep?" she exclaimed, with a shudder. " I 
 
94 THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVENOK. " 
 
 have heard all that has been said. I heard them killing the 
 man in that cabin there." 
 
 She clasped her hands convulsiTely. 
 
 " Frightful things have happened," I said, speaking quick- 
 ly, for I every moment expected the men to come rmming 
 down the companion-ladder, near which we were were convers- 
 ing; "but the worst has passed. Did you not hear them 
 answer me that you and your father were safe? Go, I beg you, 
 to your cabin and sleep if you can, and be sure that no harm 
 shall befall you while I remain in this ship. I have a very 
 diflScult part before me, and wish to reflect upon my position. 
 And the sense that «/owr security will depend upon my actions," 
 I added, moved by her beauty and the memory of the fate I 
 had rescued her from, " will make me doubly vigilant." 
 
 And as she kissed my hand on meeting me, so now I raised 
 hers to my lips; and, obedient to my instructions, she entered 
 her cabin and closed the door. 
 
 I stood for some time engrossed, to the exclusion of all other 
 thoughts, by the picture impressed on my mind by the girl's 
 sweet face. It inspired a new kind of energy in me. What- 
 ever qualms my conscience may, have suffered from my under- 
 taking to navigate the ship for the satisfaction and safety of a 
 pack of ruffians, merely because I stood in fear of my hf e, were 
 annihilated by the sight of this girl. The profound necessity 
 enjoined upon me to protect her from the dangers that would 
 inevitably come upon her should my hf e be taken so violently 
 afEected me, as I stood thinking of her, that my cowardly ac- 
 quiescence in the basest proposals which the crew could submit 
 would have been tolerable to my conscience for her lonely and 
 helpless sake. 
 
 The voices of the men overhead, talking in excited tones, 
 awoke me to a sense of my situation. I took another draught 
 of wine, and entered the captain's cabin, wishing to inspect the 
 log-book that I might ascertain the ship's position at noon on 
 the preceding day. 
 
 The shadow of the mizzen-mast fell right upon the interior 
 as I opened the cabin door. I looked about me for a lamp, 
 but was suddenly scared by the spectacle of a man crawling on 
 his hands and knees out of a comer. 
 
 " Oh, my God!" cried a melancholy voice. " Am I to be 
 killed.'' Will they murder me, sir? Oh, sir, it is in your 
 power to save me! They'U obey you. I have a wife and child 
 in England, sir. I am a miserable sinner, and not fit to die!" 
 
 And the wretched creature burst into tears, and crawled 
 close to my legs and twined his arms around them. 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR. " 95 
 
 " Go back to your comer/' I said. " Don't let them hear 
 or see you. I can make no promises, but will do my best to 
 save your life. Back with you now. Be a man, for God's 
 sake! Your whining will only amuse them. Be resolute; and 
 should you have to face them, meet them bravely." 
 
 He went crawling back to his corner, and I, seeing the log- 
 book open on the table, carried it under the lamp in the cud- 
 dy. There I read off the sights of the previous day, replaced 
 the book, and mounted to the poop. 
 
 The dawn was breaking in the east, and the sky heavy, 
 though something of its threatening character had left it. 
 There was a smart sea on, but the ship lay pretty steady, 
 owing to the wind having freshened enough to keep the vessel 
 well over. "We were making no headway to speak of, the 
 yards being against the masts, and but little canvas set. The 
 fellow steering lounged at the wheel, one arm through the 
 spokes, and his left leg across his right shin, letting all hands 
 know by his free-and-easy attitude that we were all equals now, 
 and that he was only there to oblige. He was watching the 
 men assembled round the forward saloon sky-light, and now and 
 then called out to them. 
 
 There were eight or nine of the crew there and on the top of 
 the sky-hght, and in the center of the throng were squatted the 
 boatswain and the carpenter. 
 
 Many of them were smoking, and some of them laid down 
 the law with their forefingers upon the palms of their hands. 
 I saw no signs of the cook, and hoped that the fright the evil- 
 minded scoundrel had undergone would keep him pretty quiet 
 for a time. 
 
 Not thiuking it politic to join the men until they summoned 
 me, I walked to the compaes to see how the ship's head lay; 
 whereupon the man steering, out of a habit of respect too 
 strong for him to control, drew himself erect, and looked at 
 the sails, and then at the card, as a man intent upon liis work. 
 I made no observation to him, and swept the horizon through 
 my hands, which I hollowed to collect the pale light, but could 
 discover nothing save the rugged outline of waves. 
 
 Just then the men saw me, and both the carpenter and the 
 boatswain scrambled off the sky-hght, and they all came toward 
 me. 
 
 A tremor ran through me which I could not control, but 
 strength was given me to suppress all outward manifestations 
 of emotion, and I awaited their approach with a forced tran- 
 quillity which, as I afterward heard, gave the more iatelHgent 
 and better-disposed among them a good opinion of me. 
 
96 THE WEECK OF THE " GROSVENOE. " 
 
 The carpenter said, " Most of us are for leaving the steward 
 alone; but there's three of us as says that he showed hisself so 
 spiteful ia the way he used to sarve out the rotten stores, and 
 swore to such a lie when he said the pork was sweet before it 
 went iato the coppers, that they're for havin' some kind of re- 
 wenge." 
 
 " ITone of you want his hfe, do you?" 
 
 " D — ^n his hfe!" came a growl. " Who'd take what ain't 
 of no use even to him as owns it?" 
 
 " Which of you wants revenge?" I asked. 
 
 There was apause; and Fish, projecting his extraordinary 
 headj said, " WeU, I'm one as dew." 
 
 " Suppose," said I, " you were to see this wretched creature 
 groveling on his hands and knees, weeping and moaning hke a 
 woman, licking the deck in his agony of fear, and already half 
 dead with terror. Would not such a miserable sight satisfy 
 your thirst for revenge? What punishment short of death that 
 you can inflict would make him suffer more dreadful tortures 
 than his fear has already caused him? Fish, be a man, and 
 leave this haunted wretch alone." 
 
 He muttered something under his breath, though looking, I 
 was glad to see, rather shamefaced; and the boatswain said: 
 
 _" There's something more, Mr. Eoyle. He knows where to 
 lay his hands on the cuddy provisions; and if we knock him 
 on the head we sha'n't be able to find half that'll be wanted. 
 What I woted was that we should make him wait upon us, and 
 let him have nothen but the ship's stores to eat, while he sarves 
 us with the cuddy's." 
 
 " Won't that do?" I exclaimed, addressing the others, at 
 the same time receiving a glance from the boatswain which 
 showed me that I should have an ally in him, as indeed I had 
 expected; for this was the only one of the forecastle hands who 
 had come from London with us, and I was pretty sure he had 
 joined in the mutiny merely to save his hfe. 
 
 " Oh, yes, that'll do," some of them answered impatiently; 
 and one said, "Wot's the use of jawing about the steward? 
 We want to talk of ourselves. Where's the ship bound to? I 
 don't want to be hanged when I get ashore." 
 
 This sensible observation was delivered by Johnson. 
 
 " JSTow, then, if you like, we'll come to that," said I, im- 
 mensely relieved ;.f or I not only knew that the steward's life 
 was safe, but that, in their present temper, no further act of 
 violence would be perpetrated. " Mr. Stevens, you told me 
 that all your plans were prepared. Am I to have your con- 
 fidence?" 
 
THE WRECK OF THE "GEOSVENOK." 97 
 
 " Sartinly," replied the fellow, looking around upon the 
 assemhled faces fast growing distinguishable in the gathering 
 hght. " You're a scholard, and ca;i sail the ship for us; and 
 we look to you to get us out o' this mess, for we'ye treated you 
 well, and made you skipper." 
 
 "Go ahead!" I exclaimed, seating myself in a nonchalant 
 way on one of the gratings abaft the wheel. 
 
 This here mutiny," began the carpenter, after casting 
 about in his mind for words, "is all along o' bad treatment. 
 Had the capten acted fair and proper, ive'd ha' acted fair an' | 
 proper. He as good as swore that he'd put in for fresh stores, 
 but never altered the ship's course, and we wouldn't starve no 
 longer; so we up and did the business. But we never meant 
 to kill him. We was afraid he'd' ha' had pistols on him, and 
 so some of us knocked him down imaweers, and knocked too 
 hard, that was all. And t'other one, he struggled so, instead 
 of givin' up when he saw we was too many for ten o' the likes 
 of him, that he died of his own doin' ; and that's a fact, mates, 
 ain't it?" 
 
 "Ay," responded a gruff voice. "He'd ha' gouged my 
 eye out. He had his thumb in my mouth, workin' away as if 
 he thought my tooth was my eye. He drawed blood with his 
 thumb, and I had to choke it out of my mouth, or he'd ha' 
 tore my tongue out!" 
 
 So saying, he expectorated wildly. 
 
 " To come back to wot I was saying," resumed the carpen- 
 ter; "it's this: when me and my mates made up our minds 
 to squench the skipper and his bully mate for their wrongful 
 dealings with us, one says that our plan was to run the ship to 
 the North Ameriky shore somewheeres. One says Ploridy 
 way; and another, he says roimd into the Gulf o' Mexico, 
 witMn reach o' New Orleans; and another, he says, ' Let's go 
 south, mates, upon the coast of Africa;' and another, he says 
 he's for making the ice, right away north, up near Baffin 
 Land. But none was agreeable to that. "We aren't resolved 
 yet, but we're most all for Ameriky, because it's a big place, 
 pretty nigh big enough to hide in." 
 
 Some of the men laughed. 
 
 " And so," continued the carpenter, " our plan is this — as 
 easy as sayin' your prayers: we'll draw lots and choose upon 
 the coast for you to run us to; and when we're a day's sail of 
 them parts, leavin' you to tell us and to keep us out o' the way 
 of ships, d'ye mind, Mr. Eoyle?" — with stern significance: I 
 nodded — " some of us gets into the long-boat and some into 
 the quarter-boats, and we pulls for the shore. And wot we 
 
98 THE WKECK OF THE " GBOSVENOK. 
 
 do and says when we gets ashore needn't matter^ ehj mates? 
 We're shipwrecked mariners, destitoot and forlorn, and every 
 man's for hisself. And so that's our plan. " 
 
 "Yes, that's our |)lan/' sai* one; "hut it ain't all. 
 You're putting everything to Mr. Eoyle, mate. " 
 
 "Look here. Bill," answered the carpenter, savagely, 
 " either I'm to manage this here business or I'm not. If 
 you're for carryin' of it on, good and well — say the word, and 
 then we'll know the time o' day. But either it must be you 
 or it must be I — there ain't room for two woices ia one 
 mouth. " 
 
 " I've got nothen to say," rejoined the man addressed as 
 " Bill," extending his arms and turning his back; " only I 
 thought you might ha' forgot." 
 
 What the carpenter was holding back I could not guess; but 
 I exhibited no curiosity. Neither did I tell them that our 
 course to the " American shores," as they called it, would 
 bring us right in the road of vessels from all parts of the 
 world. My business was to listen and to act as circumstances 
 should dictate, with good judgment, if possible, for the preser- 
 vation of my own and the lives of the old man and his daugh- 
 ter. 
 
 The carpenter now paused to hear what I had to say. Find- 
 ing this, I exclaimed: 
 
 " I know what you want me to do; and the sooner you fix 
 upon a point to start for the better." 
 
 " Can't you advise us?" said one of the men. " Give us 
 some place easily fetched." 
 
 " I was never on the North American coast," I answered. 
 
 " Well," Ameriky ain't the only place in the world," said 
 Pish. 
 
 "You'd best not say that when you're there," exclaimed 
 Johnson. 
 
 " Most of the hands wants to go ashore in Ameriky, and so 
 that's settled, mates," said the carpenter, sharply. 
 
 "Let's keep south, anyhow, say I. If we can ' make New 
 Orleans, there's plenty of vessels sailing every day from that 
 port, paying good wages, " said Johnson. 
 
 " And every man can choose for hisseU where he'll sail for," 
 observed Fish. 
 
 "Makeup your minds," I exclaimed, "and I'll alter the 
 ship's coui'se." 
 
 So saying, I got off the grating and walked to the other end 
 of the poop. 
 
 I was much easier in my mind, now that I had observed the 
 
THE WEECK OE THE " GROSVESTOR. " 99 
 
 disposition of the men. They were unquestionably alarmed by 
 what they had done, which was tolerable security against the 
 commission of further outrages. Their project of quitting the 
 ship when near land and making for the shore, where, doubt- 
 less, they would represent themselves as shipwrecked seamen, 
 was practicable and struck me as ingenious; for as soon as 
 they got ashore they would disperse and ship on board fresh 
 vessels, and so defy inquiry even should suspicion be excited, 
 or one of them peach upon his fellows. These I at least as- 
 sumed to be their plans. But how far they would affect my 
 own safety I could not tell. I doubted if they would let me 
 leave the ship, as they might be sm-e that, on my landing, I 
 should hasten to inform against them. But I would not allow 
 my mind to be troubled with considerations of the future at that 
 time. All my energies were required to deal with the crisis of 
 the moment, and to guard myself against being led, by too 
 much confidence in their promises, into any step which might 
 prove fatal to me and those I had promised to protect. 
 
 The dawn was now bright in the east and the wind strong 
 from the southward. The ship was chopping on the tumbling 
 seas with scarcely any way upon her; but the menacing aspect 
 of the sky was fast fading, and there was a promise of fair 
 weather in the clouds, which ranged high and out of the reach 
 of the breeze that was burying the ship's lee channels. 
 
 Presently the carpenter called to me, and I went over to the 
 men. 
 
 " We're all resolved, Mr. Eoyle," said he in a pretty civil 
 voice, " and our wotes is for New Orleans. Plenty of wessels 
 is wrecked in the Gulf of Mexico, as I've heeard tell; and 
 when we're about fifty miles off you'll say so, and give us the 
 bearings of the Mississippi, and we'll not trouble you any 
 more. " 
 
 " How's her head?" I asked the man at the wheel. 
 
 " Sou' -west," he replied. 
 
 "Keep her away!" I exclaimed, for the weather leeches 
 were flat. 
 
 " What's our true course for New Orleans?" asked the car- 
 penter, suspiciously. 
 
 " Stop a bit and I'll show you," I answered, and went be- 
 low to the captain's cabin to get the chart. 
 
 "Steward!" I called. 
 
 "Yes, sir," repUed the miserable whining voice. It was 
 still too dark for me to see the man. 
 
 " Make your mind easy — they'll not hm-t you," I said. 
 
 He started up and rushed toward me like a madman. 
 
100 THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVENOE. 
 
 " May God in heaven bless you!" he cried, delirious with 
 Joy. 
 
 "Hold off!" I exclaimed, keepmg him away with my out- 
 stretched hand. " Get your wits about you, and remain here 
 for the present. Don't let them hear you, and don't show 
 yourself until I call you." 
 
 I could have said nothing better to repress his violent mani- 
 festations of delight; for he at once went cowering again into 
 the gloom of the corner. 
 
 I struck a wax match, and after a short search found the 
 chart of the Iforth Atlantic upon which the ship's course, so 
 far as she had gone up to noon on the preceding day, was 
 pricked off. I took this on deck, spread it on the sky-light, 
 and showed our whereabouts to the men. 
 
 " Our course," said I, "is south-west and by west." 
 
 They bent their faces over the chart, studying it curiously. 
 
 " Are you satisfied, Mr. Stevens?" I asked him. 
 
 " Oh, I suppose it's all right," answered he. 
 
 "Slacken away the lee braces," I said. "Put your helm 
 up " (to the man at the wheel). 
 
 The men went tumbling off the poop to man the braces, and 
 in a few minutes we were making a fair wiud. 
 
 Both the carpenter and the boatswain reflaained on the poop. 
 
 " Some hands lay aloft and loose the fore and maintop-gal- 
 lant-sails!" I called out. And, turning to the carpenter, 
 " Mr. Stevens," I said, " I'll navigate this ship for you and 
 your mates to within fifty miles of the mouth of the Missis- 
 sippi, as you wish, but on the conditions I have already named. 
 Do you remember?" 
 
 " Oh, yes," he growled. " We've done enough— too much, 
 I dessay, though not more than the beggars desarved. AU 
 that we want is to get out o' this cursed wessel." 
 
 " Very well," I said. " But I won't undertake to pUot this 
 ship safely unless my orders are obeyed." 
 
 ' The men are quite willin' to obey you, so long as you're 
 true to 'em," he rejoined. 
 
 " You may do what you like with the cuddy stores, though 
 if you take my advice you will let the steward serve them out 
 in the regular way that they may last; otherwise you will eat 
 them all up before we reach our journey's end, and have to 
 fall back upon the bad provisions. But I must have control 
 of the spirits." 
 
 " And what allowance do you mean to put us on?" de- 
 manded the carpenter. 
 
 " I shall be advised by you," said L 
 
THE WRECK OF THE "GEOSVENOK." 101 
 
 This was tuming the tables. He pulled off his cap and 
 scratched his head. 
 
 " Three tots a day?" he suggested. 
 
 " Very well," I said; " but you'll stop at that?" 
 
 "Well, perhaps we can do on three tots a day," he an- 
 swered, after deliberating. 
 
 " And you engage that the steward will be protected against 
 any violence while serving out the men's allowance?" 
 
 "Mates!" he suddenly called out to the men who were 
 standing by to sheet home the top-gallant-sails; "wUl three 
 tots o' grog a day keep you alive?" 
 
 " Are we to have it all at once?" one of them answered. 
 
 " No," I replied; " three times a day." 
 
 "Now then, my lads, let's know your minds," cried the 
 boatswain. 
 
 A young ordinary seaman answered, " Three ain't enough." 
 But one of the older hands turned upon him, exclaiming, 
 "Why, you bit of a snuffler! where will you stow all that 
 rum? Don't go answering for your betters, my young scara- 
 mouch, or may be you'll be findin' yourself brought up with 
 a round turn. That'll do!" he called out to us. 
 
 " Eight you are!" replied the carpenter. 
 
 " Sheet home!" I cried, as the sails fell from the top-gallant 
 yards, anxious to clinch this matter of the grog. 
 
 And so it rested. 
 
 OHAPTEE IX. 
 
 As the men had been up all night, I recommended the car- 
 penter to go to them and tell them that the watches would not 
 be altered, and that the watch whose spell it was below should 
 turn in. 
 
 Some, it appeared, asked that rum should be served out to 
 them; but the carpenter answered that none should be given 
 them until breakfast-time, and that if they got talking too 
 much about the drink, he'd run a brad-awl into the casks and 
 let the contents drain out; for if the men fell to drinking, the 
 ship was sure to get into a mess, in which case they might be 
 boarded by the crew of another vessel and carried to England, 
 where nothing less than hanging or transportation awaited 
 them. 
 
 This substantial advice from the lips of the man who had 
 been foremost in planning the mutiny produced a good effect, 
 and the fellows who had asked for spirits were at once clamor- 
 ously assaUed by their mates; so that, in their temper, had the 
 
102 THE WRECK 01' THB " GBOSVEKOE." 
 
 carpenter proposed to fling the rum casks overboard, most of 
 the hands would have consented and the thing been done. 
 
 All this I was told by the boatswain, who had left the poop 
 with the carpenter, but returned before him. I took this op- 
 portunity of being alone with the man to ask him some ques- 
 tions relative to the mutiny, and particularly inquired if he 
 could tell me what was that iatentibn which the man named 
 " BUI " had asked the carpenter to communicate to me, but 
 which he had refused to explain. The boatswain, who was at 
 bottom a very honest man, declared that he had no notion of 
 the intention the carpenter was conceahng, but promised to try 
 and worm the secret out of Johnson or others who were ia it, 
 and impart it to me. 
 
 He now informed me that he had come into the mutiny be- 
 cause he saw the men were resolved, and also because they 
 thought he took the captain's part, which was a beUef full of 
 peril to him. He said that he could not foresee how this 
 trouble would end; for though the idea of the men to quit the 
 ship and make for the shore in open boats was feasible, yet 
 they would run very heavy risks of capture any way; for if 
 they came across a ship whUe ia the boats, they could not re- 
 fuse to allow themselves to be taken on board, where, some of 
 the mutineers being very gross and ignorant men, the truth 
 would certainly leak out; while as to escaping on shore, "it was 
 fifty to one if the answers they made to inquiries would not 
 differ so widely one from another as to betray them. 
 
 But at this point our conversation was interrupted by the 
 carpenter coming aft to ask me to keep watch while he and 
 the boatswain turned in, as he, for one, was "dead beat," 
 and would not be of any service until he had rested. 
 
 It was now broad daylight, the east was filled with the silver 
 splendors of the rising- sun. I descried a sail to windward, on 
 the starboard tack, heading eastward. I made her out through 
 the glass to be a small top-saU schooner; but as we were going 
 free with a fresh breeze, we soon sunk her hull. 
 
 The sight of this vessel, however, set me thinkuig on my 
 own position. What would be thought and how should I be 
 dealt with when (supposing I should ever reach land) I should 
 come to tell the story of this mutiny? But this was a second- 
 ary consideration. My real anxiety was to foresee how the 
 men would act when I had brought them to the place they 
 wished to arrive at. Would they give such a witness against 
 their murderous dealings as I was a chance to save my life.'' 
 I, whose plain testimony could set justice on the hunt for 
 every one of them. I could not place confidence ia their as- 
 
THE WEEOK OF THE " GROSVENOB." 103 
 
 surances. The oaths of such ruflSans as many of them un- 
 doubtedly were, were worthless. Th^would murder me with- 
 out an instant's scruple if by so doing they could improye their 
 own chances of escape; and I was fully persuaded that I should 
 have shared the fate of Coxon and DuckliQg, in spite of the 
 sympathy I had shown them, and their declaration that they 
 did not want any life, had they not foreseen that they would 
 stand in need of some competent person to navigate the ship 
 for them, and that I was more likely to come ioto their proj- 
 ects than either of the men they had murdered. 
 
 My agitation was greater than I like to admit; and I turned 
 over in my mind all sorts of ideas for my escape, but never 
 forgetting the two helpless persons whose lives I considered 
 wholly dependent on my own preservation. 
 
 At one moment I thought of taking the boatswain, into my 
 confidence, stealthily storing provisions iu one of the quarter- 
 boats, and watching an opportunity to sneak ofE with him and 
 om' passengers under cover of night. 
 
 Then I thought of getting him to sound the minds of the 
 crew, to judge if there was any who might assist us should we 
 rise upon the more desperate of the mutineers. 
 
 Another notion was to pretend to mistake the ship's where- 
 abouts, and run her into some port. 
 
 But such stratagems as these, easily invented, were iu reality 
 impracticable. 
 
 To let the men see that I stood to my work, I never quitted 
 the deck until six o'clock. The morning was then very beau- 
 tiful, with a rich and warm aroma in the glorious southerly 
 breeze, and the water as blue as the heavens. 
 
 On arousing the carpenter in the cabin formerly occupied by 
 me (I found him in the bunk on my mattress with his boots 
 on, and a pipe belonging to me in his hand), I told hini that 
 the ship could now carry all plain sail, and advised him to 
 make it. He got out of the bunk ia a pretty good temper, 
 and went along the cuddy; but as he was about to mount the 
 companion-ladder I called to know if he would see the steward, 
 and speak to him about serving out the cuddy stores, as I pre- 
 ferred that he should give the man instructions, siuce they 
 would best represent the wishes of the crew. But the truth was, 
 I wanted to pack all the responsibility that I could upon Mm, 
 so as to make myself as Uttle answerable as possible to the men. 
 
 "Yes, yes. Fetch him out. Where is he?" he replied, 
 tm-ning round. 
 
 "Steward!" I called. 
 
 Aiter a pause the door of tl^ captain's cabin opened, and 
 
104 THE WEECK OF THE " GEOSVEKOB. 
 
 » 
 
 the figure of the steward stepped forth. Such a woe-begone 
 object, with bloodless lips and haggard expression, and red 
 eyes and quivering mouth, hands hanging like an idiot's, his 
 hair matted, his knees knocking together as he walked, I 
 never wish to see again. 
 
 "Wow, yoimg feller," said the carpenter (the steward, by 
 the way, was about forty years old), "what do you think 
 ought to be done to you, hey? Is hangin' too mild, or is 
 drownin' more to your fancy? or would you like to be di- 
 sected by the cook, who is reckoned a neat hand at carving?" 
 
 The steward turned his blood-shot eyes upon me, and his 
 lips moved. 
 
 "Mr. Stevens is only joking," I exclaimed, feehng that I 
 would give a year's pay to strike the ruffian to the earth for his 
 brutal playing with the miserable creature's terror. "He 
 wants to talk to you about the cuddy provisions." 
 
 The carpenter stared at him grimly, out of a mean tyranny 
 and reMsh of his fears; and the poor creature said " Yes, sir!" 
 lifting his eyes humbly to the carpenter's face, and folding his 
 hands in an involuntary attitude of supplication. 
 
 " You'll understand, young fellew," said the carpenter, 
 thrusting his hands into his pockets, and leaning against the 
 mizzen-mast, " that we're all equals aboard this here wessel, 
 now. E"or one's above t'other, barring yourself, who's just 
 nowheeres at all, owin' to your keepin' in tow of the skipper 
 when he was pisoning us with the stores which you, d — n yer! 
 took joy in sarving out! ISTow you imderstahd this: you're to 
 turn to and sarve out the cuddy stores to the men -at the proper 
 time, and three tots o' grog every day to each man. Mr. 
 Eyle'll tell you how long our passage'U last, and you're to 
 make a calkilation of the live-stock so as each watch gits a 
 share of the pigs an' poultry. But you," he continued, 
 squirting some tobacco-juice from his mouth, " aren't to touch 
 any other provisions but the stores which the crew's been 
 eatin' of; mind that! If we catch you tastin' so much as half 
 a cuddy biscuit, by the living thunder! we'll run you up to the 
 fore yard-arm!" 
 
 He shook his fist in the steward's face, and addressing me, 
 said: 
 
 " That's all to be said, ain't it?" 
 
 " That's all," I rephed; and the steward went cringing and 
 reeling toward the pantry, while the carpenter mounted the 
 companion-ladder. 
 
 I entered the cabin, which, to save confusion, I wUl continue 
 to call the captain's cabin, and seated myself in a chair screwed 
 
THE WBEOK OF THE " GROSVElirOR. " 105 
 
 down to the deck before a wide table. This cabin was com- 
 fortably furnished with hanging book-shelTes, a fine map of 
 the world, a few colored prints of ships, a handsome cot, and 
 mahogany lockers cushioned on top to serve for seats. 
 
 Among some writing materials, a case of mathematical in- 
 struments, a boat's compass, and a variety of other matters 
 which covered the table, I observed an American fi.ve-cham- 
 bered revolver, which, on examining, I found was loaded. I 
 at once put this weapon in my pocket, and, after searching 
 awhile, discovered a box of cartridges, which I also pocketed. 
 
 This I considered a very lucky find, as I never knew the 
 moment when I might stand in need of such a weapon; and, 
 whether I should have occasion to use it or not, it was certainly 
 better in my possession than in the hands of the men. 
 
 I now left my chair to examine the lockers, in the hopes of 
 finding other fire-arms; and I can not express the eagerness 
 with which I prosecuted the search, because I considered that, 
 should the boatswain succeed in winning even one man over 
 from the crew, three resolute men, each armed with a revolver 
 or fire-arm of any kind, might, by carefully waiting their op- 
 portunity, kill or wound enough of the crew to render the 
 others an easy conquest. 
 
 However, t'o my unspeakable disappointment, my search 
 proved fruitless; all that I found in the lockers were clothes 
 belonging to Captain Coxon, a quantity of papers, gld charts 
 and log-books, some parcels of cigars, and a bag containing 
 about thirty pounds in silver. 
 
 WhUe engaged in these explorations, a knock fell on the 
 door, and on my replying, the girl came in. I bowed and 
 asked her to be seated, and inquired how her father did. 
 
 "He is still very weak," she answered; "but he is not 
 worse this morning. I heard your voice just now, and watched 
 you enter this cabin. I hope you will let me speak to you. I 
 have much to say." 
 
 " Indeed," I replied, " I have been waiting impatiently for 
 this opportunity. Will you first tell me your name?" 
 
 " Mary Eobertson. My father is a Liverpool merchant, Mr. 
 Eoyle, and the ship in which we were wrecked was his own 
 vessel. Oh!" she exclaimed, pressing her hands to her face, 
 " we were many hours expecting every moment to die. I can 
 not beUeve that we are saved; and sometimes I can not believe 
 that what has happened is real! I think I was going mad when 
 I saw your ship. I thought the boat was a phantom, and that 
 it would vanish suddenly. It was horrible to be imprisoned 
 with the dead body and that mad sailor! The sailor went mad 
 
106 THB WRECK OF THE 
 
 on the first day, and soon afterward the passenger— for he tt as 
 a passenger who lay dead on the deck — sat up in his bed and 
 uttered a dreadful cry, and fell forward dead. The mad sailor 
 pointed to him and howled; and neither papa nor I could get 
 out of the house, for the water swept against it and would have 
 swept us overboard. " 
 
 She told me all this with her hands to her face, and her fair 
 hair flowing over her shoulders, and made a sweet and pathetic 
 picture in this attitude. 
 
 Suddenly she looked up with a smile of wonderful sweetness, 
 and, seizing my hand, cried: 
 
 " What do we not owe for your noble efforts? How good 
 and brave you are!" 
 
 " You praise me too warmly, Miss Robertson. God knows 
 there was nothing noble in my efforts, nor any daring in them. 
 Had I really risked my life to save you, I should still have 
 barely done my duty. How were you treated yesterday? 
 Well, I hope." 
 
 " Oh, yes. The captain told the steward to give us what we 
 wanted. I think the wine he sent us saved papa's life. He 
 was sinking, but rallied after he had drunk a little of it. I 
 am in a sad plight," she added, while a faint tinge of red came 
 into her cheeks. " I have not even a piece of ribbon to tie up 
 my hair with. " 
 
 She toqjs her beautiful hair in her hands, and smiled. 
 
 " Is there nothing in this cabin that will be of use to you?" 
 I said. " Here is a hair-brush — and it looks a pretty good 
 one. I don't know whether we shall be able to muster a bit 
 of ribbon among us, but I just now came across a roll of serge, 
 and if you can do anything with that and a needle and thread, 
 which I'll easily get for you, I'll see that they are put in your 
 cabin. Here are enough clothes to rig out youi- father, at all 
 events, mitil his own are made ship-shape. But how am I to 
 help you f That has been on my mind. " 
 
 ' I can use the serge, if I may have it," she replied, in the 
 prettiest way imaginable. 
 
 " Here it is," I said, hauling it out of the locker; " and I'll 
 get needles and thread for you presently. No sailor goes to 
 sea without a housewife, and you shall have mine. And if you 
 will wait a moment, I think I can find something else that may 
 be useful. " 
 
 Saying which, I hurried to my old cabin, milocked my chest, 
 and took out a new pair of carpet slippers. 
 
 "A piece of bunting or serge fitted into these will make 
 them sit on your feet, I explained, handing them to her. 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GBOSVBNOR. " 107 
 
 " And I have other ideas. Miss Robertson, all which I hope 
 wUl help to make you a little more comfortable by and by. 
 Leave a sailor alone to find out ways and means. " 
 
 She took the slippers with a graceful httle smile, and put 
 them alongside the roll of serge; and then, with a grave f^ce 
 and in an earnest voice, she asked me what the men meant to 
 do with the ship, now that they had seized her. 
 
 I freely told her as much as I knew, but expressed no fears 
 as to my own, and hers, and her father's safety. Indeed, 1 
 took the most cheerful view I could of our situation. 
 
 " My notion,'' said I, "is that when the time comes for the 
 men to leave the ship they wUl not allow us to go with them. 
 They will oblige us to remain in her, which is the best thing 
 that could happen ; for I am sure that the boatswain will stay, 
 and with Ms and the steward's help there is nothing to pre- 
 vent us taking the ship into the nearest port, or lying to until 
 we meet a vessel and then signaling for help. " 
 
 I fancy she was about to express her doubts of this result, 
 but exclaimed instead: 
 
 " No matter what comes, Mr. Eoyle, we shall feel safe with 
 you. " And then, suddenly rising, she asked me to come and 
 see her father. 
 
 I followed her at once into the cabin. 
 
 The old man lay in an upper bunk, with a blanket over 
 him. He looked hke a dead man, with his white face rendered 
 yet more death-like in appearance by the disheveled white hair 
 upon his head, and the long white beard. He was lying per- 
 fectly stUl, with his eyes closed, his thin hands folded outside 
 the blanket. 
 
 I thought he slept, and motioned to his daughter; but she 
 stooped and whispered, "Papa, here is Mr. Eoyle;" where- 
 upon he opened his eyes and looked at me. The sense of my 
 presence appeared to be very slowly conveyed to his mind, and 
 then he extended his hand. I took it, and saw with emotion 
 that tears streamed from his eyes. 
 
 " Sir," he said, in a weak, faltering voice, " I can only say, 
 God bless you!" 
 
 I answered, cheerfully, " Pray say no more, Mr. Eobertson. 
 I want to lee you recover yom* strength. Thank God, your 
 daughter ilas survived her horrible trials, and will soon quite 
 recover from the effects of them. What now can I do for you? 
 Have you slept?" 
 
 *' xes, yes, I have slept — a little, I thank you. Sir, I have 
 ipitnessed shocking scenes. " 
 
 IS whispered to Miss Eobertson, 
 
108 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR. ** 
 
 " Let me prescribe some medicine that will do you both 
 good. "What you require is support. I will be with you in a 
 minute. ' ' 
 
 So saying, I quitted the cabin and entered the pantry. 
 There I found the steward sitting on the plate chest, with Ms 
 hands to his temples. 
 
 " Now then, my lad," said I, " rouse up. You are not 
 dead yet. Have you any brandy here?" 
 
 He pointed in a mechanical way to a shelf, where were 
 several bottles. I found what I wanted, and gave him a dose 
 to put heart into him, and asked him for some eggs. Four or 
 five, the gathering of yesterday from the kindly hens under 
 the long-boat, lay in the drawer, which he pulled open. I 
 proceeded to mix two tumblers of egg and brandy, which I 
 carried to the next cabin. 
 
 " That is my physic. Miss Eobertson," I exclaimed, putting 
 one of the tumblers into her hand; " obhge me by drinking it; 
 and you, sir," I continued, addressing the old gentleman, 
 " will not wait for her example. " 
 
 They both, to my great satisfaction, swallowed the contents 
 of the glasses, the effect of which, after some moments, upon 
 Mr. Eobertson was decidedly beneficial, for he thanked me for 
 my kindness in a much stronger voice, and even made shift to 
 prop himself on his elbow. 
 
 " It is the best tonic in the world," said I, taking Miss 
 Robertson's glass, " and I am very much obliged to you for 
 your obedience." 
 
 The look she gave me was more eloquent than any verbal re- 
 ply; at least, I found it so. Her face was so womanly and 
 beautiful, so full of pathos in its pallor, with something so 
 brave and open in its whole expression, that it was delightful 
 to, me to watch it. 
 
 " Now," said I to the old gentleman, " allow me to leave 
 you for a little. I want to see what the ' Grosvenor ' can 
 furnish in the shape of linen and drapery. Isn't that what 
 they call it ashore? We have found some serge, and needles 
 and thread are easily got; and I'll set what wits the unfortu- 
 nate steward has left in him to work to discover hqw Miss 
 Eobertson may be made comfortable until we put you both 
 ashore." 
 
 "Do not leave us," cried the old man. "Your society 
 does me good, sir. It puts life into me. I want to tell you who 
 we are, and about our shipwreck, and where we were going. 
 The ' Cecilia ' was my own vessel. I am a merchant, doing 
 most of my trade with the Cape — the Cape of Good Hope. I 
 
" ' Do not leave us,' cried the old man." — Page io8. 
 
THE WKECK OF THE " GEOSVENOE." 109 
 
 took my daughter— my only child, su-— to Cape Town, last 
 year, for a change of scene and air; and I should have stopped 
 another year, but Mary got tired and wanted to get home, and 
 — and — well, as I was telling you, Mr. — Mr. — " 
 
 " Eoyle/' said Miss Robertson. 
 
 " kr. Royle, as I was telling you, Mary got tired; and as 
 the ' Cecilia ' was loading at Cape Town — she was a snug, 
 sound ship — yes, indeed; and we went on board, we and a gen- 
 tleman named — named — " 
 
 " Jameson," his daughter suggested. 
 
 " Ay, poor Jameson — poor, poor fellow!" 
 
 He fdd his face, and was sUent, I should say, a whole min- 
 ute, neither Miss Eobertson nor myself speaking. Presently, 
 looking up, he continued: 
 
 " It came on to blow very heavily, most suddenly, a dread- 
 ful gale. It caught the ship in a calm, and she was unpre- 
 pared, and it snapped all three masts away. Oh, God, what a 
 night of horror! The men went mad, and cried that the ship 
 was going stern down, and crowded in the boats. One went 
 whirling away into the darkness, and one was capsized; and 
 then the captain said the ship was sinking, and my daughter 
 and I ran out of the cabin on to the deck. Well, sir," con- 
 tinued the old man, swallowing convulsive sobs as he spoke, 
 " the ship's side had been pierced, the captain said, 'by one of 
 the yards; and she was slowly settling, and the water came 
 over the deck, and we got into the house where you found us, 
 for shelter. I put my head to the window and called the cap- 
 tain to come, and as he was coming the water hurled him 
 overboard; and there were only myself and my poor girl and 
 Mr. Jameson and — and — tell him the rest!" he suddenly 
 cried, hiding his eyes and stretching out his hand. 
 
 "Another time. Miss Eobertson," I suggested, seeing the 
 look of horror that had come into her face during her father's 
 recital of the story. " Tell me where you live in England, 
 and let us fancy ourselves in the dear old country, which, so it 
 please God, we shall all reach safely in a httle time." 
 
 But they were both too overcome to answer me. The old 
 man kept his face concealed, and the girl drew long, sobbing 
 breaths with dry eyes. 
 
 However, she plucked up presently, and answered that they 
 lived just out of Liverpool, but that her father had also an 
 estate at Leamington, near Warwick, where her mother died, 
 and where she spent most of her time, as she did not like 
 Liverpool. 
 
110 THE WEECK OF THE " GKOSVBNOE." 
 
 "Tell me, sir/' cried Mr. Eobertson, "did you bring the 
 body of poor Jameson witb you? I forget." 
 
 "^If that was Mr. Jameson whose body lay in the deck- 
 house," I replied, " I left him on the wreck. There was his 
 coflSn, Mr. Eobertson, and I dare not wait to bring ofE a dead 
 man when Kring creatures stood in peril of their Uyes. " 
 
 "To be sure, sir!" exclaimed the old gentleman. "You 
 were very right. You acted with great nobleness, and are 
 most kind to us now — most kind, Mary, is he not? Let me 
 see!" knitting his brows. " You are not captain of this ship? 
 I think, my dear, you said this gentleman was the mate? Who 
 is the captain, sir?" 
 
 His daughter put her finger to her mouth, which puzzled 
 me until I considered that she either did not want him to know 
 that the captain was murdered, or, supposing he knew of the 
 murder, that the circumstances should not be revived in his 
 memory, which was just now very feeble. 
 
 He did not wait for his question to be answered, but asked 
 me where the ship was bound to? 
 
 " New Orleans!" I answered, with a glance at his daughter. 
 
 "New Orleans!" he exclaimed. "Let me think — ^that is 
 beyond the West Indies." And with great eagerness he said, 
 " Will you put into one of the West India Islands? I am 
 known at Kingston; I have shipped largely to a firm there. 
 Messieurs Eaymondi & Company. " Why, my dear, we shall 
 be very well received, and we shall be able to purchase fresh 
 clothes," he contiuued, holding up his arm and looking at it 
 with a smile, " and go home in one of the fine mail packets. 
 Ha! ha! ha! how things come about!" 
 
 He lay back upon his pillow with this short mirthless laugh, 
 and remained silent. I do not say that his mind was un- 
 hinged, but his iatellect was unquestionably impaired by the 
 horrors he had witnessed and the suiferings he had endured. 
 But, then, he was an old man — ^nearer seventy than sixty, I 
 took him to be; while his daughter, whom a little rest had put 
 upon the high-road to recovery, did not appear to be above 
 twenty years old. 
 
 As the time was passing rapidly, I determined to seize the 
 opportunity of the carpenter being on deck to do what I 
 could to make these sufferers comfortable. I therefore left 
 them and sung out to the steward, who came with terrified 
 promptitude, casting the while and almost at every step fearful 
 glances in the direction of the main-deck, where some of the 
 hands were visible. 
 
 I gave him the captain's hair brush to wash, and covered a 
 
THE WRECK OF THE "GKOSVBNOE." Ill 
 
 tray with the various toilet conveniences with which the ill- 
 fated skipper had provided himself. These I dispatched by 
 the steward to Miss Eobertsonj and I then made the man pre- 
 pare a tray with a substantial breakfast, consisting of cold fowl, 
 fine white biscuit, ham, preserved fruit, and some tea, which I 
 boiled in the pantry by means of a spirit-lamp that belonged 
 to me. 
 
 I took an immense pleasure in supplying these new friends' 
 wants, and almost forgot the perilous situation I was in, in the 
 agreeable labor of devising means to comfort the girl, whose 
 life and her father's, thanks to God! I had been instrumental 
 in preserving. 
 
 I made a thorough overhaul of Coxon's effects, holding my- 
 self fully privileged to use them for the benefit of poor Mr. 
 Eobertson, and sent to lais cabin a good suit of clothes, some 
 clean Hnen, and a warm overcoat. 
 
 The steward obeyed me humbly and ofiBciously. He con- 
 sidered his life still in great danger, and that he must fall a 
 sacrifice to the fury of the crew if he quitted the ciiddy. How- 
 ever, I found him very useful, for he furnished me with some 
 very good hints, and among other things he, to my great de- 
 light, informed me that he had in the steerage a box of woman's 
 underclothing, which had been made by his wife's hand for a 
 sister living in Valparaiso, to whom he was taldng out the box 
 as a gift, and that I was very welcome to the contents. 
 
 I requested him at once to descend with me and get the box 
 out; but this job took us over twenty minutes, for the box was 
 right aft, and we had to clear away upward of five hundred 
 bird cages, and a mass of light wooden packages of toys and 
 dolls, to come at it. "We succeeded at last in hauling it into 
 the cuddy, and he fetched the key and raised the lid; but 
 burst into tears when he saw a letter from his wife, addressed 
 to his sister, lying on top of the linen. 
 
 I told him to put the letter in his pocket, and to be sure that 
 his sister would be liberally compensated, if all went well with 
 us, for this appropriation of his property. 
 
 "I'm not thinking of the clothes, sir," whined the poor 
 fellow, " but of my wife and child, who I may never see again. ' ' 
 
 " Nonsense!" I exclaimed; " try to understand that a man 
 is never dead until the breath is out of his body. You are as 
 well off as I am and those poor people in the cabin there. 
 What we have to do now is to help each other, and put a bold 
 face on our troubles. The worst hasn't arrived yet, and if- 
 won't do to go mad with anticipating it. Wait till it comes, 
 
112 THE WBECK OF THE " GROSVENOE. 
 
 and if there's a road out of it, I'll take it, trust me. Cock 
 this box under your arm, and take it to Miss Eobertson." 
 
 1 had now done everything that was possible, and to my per- 
 fect satisfaction; for, besides having furnished the old gentler 
 man with a complete change of clothes, I had suppUed his 
 daughter with what I knew she would appreciate as a great 
 luxury — a quantity of warm, dry underclotlung. 
 
 It may strike the reader as ludicrous to find me descending 
 into such trivialities, and perhaps I smiled myself when I 
 thought over the business that had kept me employed since six 
 o'clock. But shipwreck is a terrible leveler, and cold and hun- 
 ger and misery know but Kttle dignity. How would it seem 
 to Miss Eobertson, the daughter of a man obviously opulent, 
 to find herself destitute of clothing, and accepting with grati- 
 tude such rude articles of dress as one poor work-woman would 
 make for another of her condition? She, with the memory in 
 her of abundant wardrobes, of costly silks, and furs, and Jew- 
 elry, of rich attire, and the plentiful apparel of an heiress! 
 But the sea pays but little attention to such claims, and would 
 as hef strip a monarch as a poor sailor, and set him i 
 naked to struggle awhile and drown. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 At seven bells — that is, half an hour before eight — I heard 
 the carpenter's voice shouting down the companion for the 
 steward. I instantly opened the cabin door to tell the man to 
 go at once, as I believed that Stevens merely called to give Mm. 
 orders about the men's breakfast. 
 
 This proved to be the case, as I presently learned on going 
 on deck, whither I repaired (although it was my watch below) 
 in order to see what the carpenter was about. 
 
 I found him lying upon one of the sky-hghts, with a signal 
 flag under his head, smoking a pipe, while three or four of the 
 men sat round him smoking also. All plain sail had been 
 made, as I had directed, and the ship heading west-south-west 
 under a glorious sky, and all around a brilliantly clear horizon 
 and an azure sea. 
 
 Away on our lee quarter, was a large steamer steering south, 
 brig-rigged, bound, I took it, to the west coast of Africa. The 
 men about the carpenter made a movement when they saw me, 
 as though they would leave the poop, but one of them made 
 some remark in a low voice, which kept them all still. The 
 carpenter, seeing me watch the steamer, called out: 
 
 ' She wouldn't take long to catch us, would she? I hops 
 
THE WRECK OF THE "6E0SVEN0R." 113 
 
 there's no man on board this wessel as 'ud hke to see her along- 
 side, or would do anything to bring her near. I wouldn't Uke 
 to be the man 'ud do it — would you, Joe?" 
 
 " Well, I'd rather ha' made my vill fust than forget it, if so 
 it were that I was that man," responded the fellow ques- 
 tioned. 
 
 "We're glad you've come up," continued the carpenter, 
 addressing me, though without shifting his posture, "for 
 blowed if I knowed what to do if she should get askin' us any 
 questions. What'U you do, Mr. Eoyle?" 
 
 " Let her signal us first," I replied, quite aliye to the sinis- 
 ter suggestiveness of these questions. 
 
 " Put the helm up, and go astern of her — ^that's what my 
 advice is," said one of the men. 
 
 "You'll provoke suspicion if you do that," I exclaimed. 
 " However, you can act as you please. " 
 
 " Mr. Eoyle's quite right,'" said the man addressed as Joe. 
 " Why can't you leave the man alone? He knows more about 
 it than us, mates." 
 
 " She's going twelve knots," I said, " and will cross our 
 bow soon enough. Let her signal; We're not bound to answer. " 
 
 The men, in spite of themselves, watched her anxiously, and 
 so did others on the forecastle, such cowards does conscience 
 make of men. As for myself, I gazed at her with bitter in- 
 difference. The help that I stood in need of was not hkely to 
 come from such as she, or, indeed from any vessel short of an 
 inquisitive government ship. Moreover, the part I was play- 
 ing was too difficult to permit me to allow any impulse to in- 
 spire me. The smallest distrust that I should occasion might 
 cost me my life. My r61e, then, surely was to seem one with 
 the men, heart and soul. 
 
 " Let her go off a point," I shouted to the man steering. 
 " They'll not notice that, and she'll be across us sooner for it." 
 
 We were slipping through the water quickly, and by the time 
 she was on our weather-bow the steamer was near enough to 
 enable us to see the awning stretched over her after-deck, and 
 a crowd of persons watching us. She was a great ocean steam- 
 er, and went magnificently through the water. In a few min- 
 utes she was dead on end, dwindling the people watching us, 
 but leaving such a long wake astern of her that we went 
 over it. 
 
 What would I have given to have been on board of her! 
 
 " Let her come to again!" I sung out. 
 The carpenter now got off of the sky-light. 
 
 " I've told the steward to turn to and get the men's break- 
 
114 THE WKECK OF THE " GROSVENOE." 
 
 fast," said he. " Oum's to be read^ by eight; and I reckon 
 I'll show that sniveling cockney what it is to be hungry. You 
 don't call this a mutiny, do yer, Mr. Eoyle? Why, the men 
 are like lambs." 
 
 " Yes, so they are," I answered. " All the same, I shall be 
 glad to feel dry land under me. The law always hangs the 
 skipper of a mutiny, you know; and I'm skipper by your ap- 
 pointment. So the sooner we all get out of this mess the bet- 
 ter, eh, Mr. Stevens!" 
 
 "That's right enough," said he; "and we look to you to 
 get us out of it." 
 
 " I'll do what you ask me — I won't do more," I answered. 
 
 " We don't want more. Enough's what we want. You'll 
 let us see your reckonings every day — not because we doubt 
 you — ^but it'll ease the minds of the men to know that we 
 ar'n't like to foul the Bermudas." 
 
 " The Bermudas are well to the nor'ard of our course," I 
 answered, promptly. 
 
 " All right, Mr. Eoyle, we look to you," he said, with a face 
 on him and in a tone that meant a good deal more than met 
 the ear. " Now, mates," addressing the others, " cut for'ard 
 and get your breakfast, my lads. It's eight bells. Mr. Eoyle, 
 I'll go below and call the boatswain; and shall him and me 
 have pur breakfast and you arterward, or you fust? Say the 
 word. I'm agreeable vichever way it goes." 
 
 " I'll stop on deck tUl you've done," I replied, wishing to 
 have the table to myself. 
 
 Down he went, and I advanced to the poop-rail, and leaned 
 over it to watch the men come aft to receive their share of the 
 cuddy stores. 
 
 I will do them the justice to say that they were quiet enough. 
 Whether the perception that they no longer recognized any 
 superiors would not presently prevail; whether quarrels, deeds 
 of violence, and all the consequences which generally attend 
 the rebellion of ignorant men would not follow, was another 
 matter. They were decent enough in their behavior now, con- 
 gregating on the main-deck, and entering the cuddy one by 
 one to receive the stores which the steward was serviag out. 
 
 These stores, as far as I could judge by the contents of the tin 
 dishes which the men took forward, consisted of butter, white bis- 
 cuit, a rasher of ham to each man, and tea or cocoa; excellent 
 for men who have been starved on rotten provisions. I also found 
 that every man had been served with a glass of rum. They did 
 not seem to begrudge the privilege assumed by the carpenter 
 and boatswain of occupying the cuddy, and eating at the table 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVEUOK." 116 
 
 there. The impression conveyed to me, on the whole, by theii 
 aspect and demeanor was that of men subdued and to a cer- 
 tain extent alarmed by the" position in which they had placed 
 themselves. But for the carpenter, I believe that I at that 
 time, and working upon their then state of mind, could have 
 won them over to submission, and made them willing to bring 
 the ship into port and face an inquiry into the circumstances 
 of the revolt. But though I believe this 7iow, I conceived the 
 attempt too full of peril to imdertake, seeing that my failure 
 must not only jeopardize my own, but the lives of poor old 
 Mr. Eobertson and his daughter, in the safety of whom I was 
 so concerned that I do not say that my profound anxiety did 
 not paralyze the energy with which I should have attempted 
 my own rescue had I been alone. 
 
 How the men treated the steward I could not tell, but I noticed 
 that Master Cook was very quiet in his manner. This was the 
 sure sign of the efficacy of the fright he had received, and it 
 pleased me greatly, as I feared he woxdd prove a dangerous and 
 blood-thirsty mutineer, and a terrible influence in the councils 
 of the men. 
 
 The carpenter was the first to come on deck. I had seen 
 him (through the sky-light) eating like a cormorant, his arms 
 squared, his brown tattooed hands busy with his mouth, mak- 
 ing atonement for his long fast in the forecastle. He kept his 
 cap on, but the boatswain had better manners and looked, as 
 he faced his mate, a quite superior and different order of man 
 altogether. 
 
 I went below as soon as Stevens appeared, and the boatswain 
 had the grace to rise, as though he would leave the table when 
 he saw me. I begged him to~ keep his seat, and calling to the 
 steward, asked to know how the ijien had treated him. 
 
 "Pretty middling, sir, thank you, sir," he replied, with a 
 trifle more spirit in his manner. " They're not brutal, sir. 
 The cook never spoke, sir. Mr. Stevens is rather unkiad, but 
 I dare say it's only a way he has. " 
 
 The boatswain laughed, and asked him if he had breakfasted. 
 
 " No sir — ^not yet. I can wait, sir." 
 
 "There's plenty to eat and drink," said the boatswain, 
 pointing to the table. 
 
 " Yes, sir, plenty," responded the steward, who, looking on 
 the boatswain as one of the ringleaders, was as much afraid of 
 him as of the carpenter. 
 
 "Well, then," continued the boatswain, "why don t you 
 tuck in? Mr. Eoyle won't mind. Sit there, or take what you 
 want in the pantry. " 
 
116 THE WEECK OF THE " GBOSVENOE." 
 
 The steward tumed pale, remembering the threats that had 
 been med toward him if he touched the cuddy stores, and 
 looked upon the boatswain's civility as a trick to get him 
 hanged. 
 
 " Thank you, sir," he stammered; " I've no happetite. I'd 
 rather not eat anything at present, sir. I'll take a ship's bis- 
 cuit shortly, sir, with your leave. " 
 
 Saying which, and with a ghastly face, he shuffled into the 
 pantry, no doubt to escape from what he would consider highly 
 murderous attentions. 
 
 " Eum customer, that steward, Mr. Eoyle," said the boat- 
 swaiu, rubbing his mouth on the back of his hand. 
 
 " So should I be had I undergone his sensations," I replied. 
 
 " Well, I don't know about that. You see there ain't noth- 
 ing regular about a steward. He isn't a sailor and he isn't a 
 landsman; and when you come to them kind o' mongrels, you 
 can't expect much sperrit. It isn't fair to expect it. It's like 
 faUin' foul of a marmozeet, because he isn't as big as a mon- 
 key. What about them passengers o' yours, sir? They've not 
 been sarved with breakfast since I've been here?" 
 
 " I have seen to them," I answered. " What has Stevens 
 been talking about?" As I said this I cast my eyes on the 
 open sky-light to see that our friend was not within hearing. 
 
 He shook his head, and after a short pause exclaimed: 
 
 " He's a bad 'un! he's a bad 'un! he's an out and outer!" 
 
 " Do you know which of them struck the captain down?" 
 
 " He did," he answered at once. 
 
 " I could have sworn it, by the way in which he excused the 
 murderer. " 
 
 " Stevens," continued the boatswain, " is at the bottom of 
 all this here business — him and the cook. I suppose he didn't 
 want the cook for a chum, and so knocked him over when he 
 was going to operate on Duckling's body. But Duckling was 
 a bad 'un too, and so was the skipp'er. They've got to thank 
 theirselves for what they got. The crew never would ha' 
 turned had they been properly fed. " 
 
 "I beheve that," I said. "But I'U tell you what's 
 troubling me, boatswaia. The carpenter has some design be- 
 hind all this, which he is concealing. Does he really mean 
 that I should navigate to withia fifty miles of New Orleans. " 
 
 "Yes, sir, he do," answered the boatswain, regarding me 
 steadfastly. 
 
 " And he means then to heave the ship to, lower away the 
 boats, and make for one of the mouths of the Mississippi, or 
 
THE WEECK OF THE " GROSVENOE." 117 
 
 land upon some part of the coast, and represent himself and 
 his companions as castaway sailors?" 
 
 " Quite right," said the boatswain, watching me fixedly. 
 
 " If that is really his intention," I proceeded, " I can not 
 believe that he wUl allow me to land with the others. He 
 distrusts me. He is as suspicious as all murderers are." 
 
 The boatswain continued eying me intently, as a man might 
 who striyes to form a resolution from the expression in another's 
 face. 
 
 " He means to scuttle the ship," he said, in a low voice. 
 
 "Ah!" I exclaimed, starting. "I should have foreseen 
 this." 
 
 " He means to scuttle her just before he puts off in the 
 boats," he added, iu a whisper. 
 
 I watched him anxiously, for I saw that he had more to tell 
 me. He looked up at both sky-lights, then toward the cuddy 
 door, and then toward the companion-ladder, bent over to me, 
 and said: 
 
 " Mr. Koyle, he don't mean to let you leave the vessel^" [ 
 
 " He means to scuttle her, leaving me on board?" 
 
 He nodded. * 
 
 " Did he teU you this?" 
 
 He nodded again. 
 
 " When?" 
 
 "Just now." 
 
 "And them?" I exclaimed, poiutiag toward the cabia in 
 which were Mr. Eobertson and his daughter. 
 
 " They'll be left too," he rephed. 
 
 I took a deep breath, and closed the knife and fork on my 
 plate. 
 
 "Now, then, mate!" bawled the carpenter's voice, down 
 the companion; " how long are you goia' to be?" 
 
 " Coming," answered the boatswain. 
 
 A thought had flashed upon me. 
 
 " There must be others in this ship whom Stevens distrusts 
 as wen as me," I whispered. " Who are they? Give me but 
 two other men and yourself, and I'll engage that the ship will 
 be ours! See! if these men whom he distrusts could be told 
 that, at the last moment, they will be left to sink in a scuttled 
 ship, they would come over on my side to save their hves. 
 How are they to be got at?" 
 
 He shook his head without speaking, and left the table; but 
 turned to say, " Don't be in a hurry. I've got two hours afore 
 me, and I'U turn it over. " He then went on deck. 
 
 I remained at the cuddy table, buried in thought. The 
 
118 THE WKECK OF THE " GROSVENOE." 
 
 boatswain's communication had taken me utterly by surprise. 
 That Stevens, after the promise he had made me that there 
 should be no more blood shed, after the sympathy I had shown 
 the men from the beginning, should be base enough to deter- 
 mine upon murdering me and the inoffensive persons we had 
 rescued, at the moment when we might think our escape from 
 our heavy misfortunes certain, was so shocking that the, 
 thought of it made me feel as one stunned. An emotion of 
 deep despair was bred in me, and then this, in its turn, begot 
 a wild fit of fury. I could scarcely restrain myself from rush- 
 ing on deck and shooting the ruffian as he stood there. 
 
 To escape from my own insanity, I ran into the captain's 
 cabin and locked the door, and plunged into deep and bitter 
 reflection. 
 
 It was idle for me to think of resistance in my then condi- 
 tion. Upon whom could I count? The boatswain? I could 
 not be sure that he would aid me single-handed, nor hope that 
 he would try to save my life at the risk of his own. The 
 steward? Such a feeble-hearted creature would only hamper 
 me, would be of less use, even, than old Mr. Robertson. Many 
 among the crew, if not all of them, indeed, must obviously be 
 acquainted with Stevens's murderous intentions, and would 
 make a strong and desperate gang to oppose me; and though I 
 should discover the men who were not in the carpenter's confi- 
 dence, how could I depend on them at the last moment? 
 
 The feeling of helplessness induced in me by these consid- 
 erations was profound and annihilating. I witnessed the whole 
 murderous process as though it were happening: the ship hove 
 to, the boats shoving away, one, perhaps, remaining to watch 
 the vessel sink, that they might be in no doubt of our having 
 perished. All this .would happen in the dark, too, for the de- ' 
 parture of the men from the ship would only be safe at night, 
 that no passing vessel might espy them. 
 
 An idea that will sound barbarous, though I should not have 
 hesitated to carry it out could I have seen my way to it, occurred 
 to me. This was to watch an opportmiity when the carpenter 
 was alone, to hurl him overboard. But here, again, the chances 
 against me were fifty to one. To destroy the villain without 
 risk of detection, without the act being witnessed, without sus- 
 picion attaching to me on his being missed, would imply such 
 a host of favoring conditions as the kindliest fortune could 
 scarcely assemble together. 
 
 What, then, was to be done? 
 
 I had already pointed out the course the ship was to steer, 
 and could not alter it. But though I should plausibly alter her 
 
THE WRECK OP THE "GROSVENOK." 119 
 
 coTU'se a point or two, what could follow? The moment land 
 was sighted, let it be what coast it would, they would know I 
 had deceived them; or, giving me credit of having mistaken 
 my reckonings, they would heave the ship to themselves, and 
 then would come the dastardly crime. I dared not signal any 
 passing vessel. Let my imagiaation devise what it would, it 
 could iavent nothing that my judgment would adopt; since 
 being single-handed in this ship, no effort I could make to save 
 the lives of the persons it was my determination to stand by 
 but must end in our destruction. 
 
 By such confessions I show myself no hero; but then I do 
 not want to be thought one. I was, and am, a plain man, 
 placed in one of the most formidable situations that any one 
 could find himself in. In the darkness and horror of that 
 time, I saw no means of escape, and so I admit my blindness. 
 A few strokes of the pen would easily show me other than I was, 
 but then I should not be telling the truth, and should falsely 
 be taking glory to myself, instead of truly showing it to be 
 God's, by whose mercy I am alive to tell the story. 
 
 My clothes and other things belonging to me being in the cabin 
 now occupied by Stevens, I opened the door and desired the 
 steward to bring them to me. My voice was heard by Miss 
 Eobertson, who came round the table to where I stood, and 
 thanked me for my kindness to her and her father. 
 
 She had made good use of the few conveniences I had been 
 able to send her. Her hair was brushed and most prettily looped 
 over the comb, and she wore a collar that became her mightily, 
 which she found in the steward's box. She looked a sweet and 
 true Enghsh girl; her death-like pallor gradually yielding to a 
 healthy white, with a tinge of color on her cheeks. 
 
 "Papa seems better," she said, "and is constantly asking 
 for you; but I told him " (with the prettiest smile) " that you 
 require rest as well as others, and that you have plenty to oc- 
 cupy you. " 
 
 Then looking earnestly at me for some moments, while her 
 face grew wonderfully grave, she exclaimed: 
 
 " "What is wrong, Mr. Eoyle? What makes you look so 
 anxious and worried?" 
 
 " There is plenty to trouble me," I answered, not carelessly, 
 but not putting too much significance into my tone, for at that 
 moment I did not think I ought to tell her the truth. " You 
 know the men have mutinied, and that my position is a difii- 
 cult one. I have to be careful how I act, both for my sake 
 and yours." 
 
 "Yes, I know that, "she said, keeping her clear and thought- 
 
120 THE WRECK OF THE 
 
 ful eyes on me. " But then you said you did not fear that the 
 men would be violent again, and that they would leave us on 
 board this ship when we were near New Orleans. " 
 
 I watched her face some time without speaking, asking my- 
 self if I should take her into my confidence, if I ought to im- 
 part the diabolical scheme of Stevens, as told me by the boat- 
 swain. Certainly I should have to put her ofE without telling 
 her the truth had not the courageous expression in her eyes, 
 her firm and beautiful mouth, her resolute voice and manner 
 told me she would know how to bear it. 
 
 " I will not conceal that I have heard something just now 
 which has affected me very much," 1 said to her. ' WiU you 
 step into my cabin? We can talk there without being seen," I 
 added, having observed Stevens walk along the main-deck, and 
 expecting that he would return in a few moments to his cabin, 
 it being his watch below. 
 
 She followed me in sUence, and I closed the door. 
 
 " I will tell you in a few words," I at once began, " what I 
 heard just now. I told the boatswain that I questioned 
 whether the men would let me land with them, for fear of the 
 evidence I could give. He repHed that he had gathered from 
 the carpenter, while at breaMast, that the men intended to 
 scuttle the ship when they quitted her, and to leave us on 
 board." 
 
 " To drown?" 
 
 "That is their idea." 
 
 She pursed up her mouth tightly, and pressed, her hand to 
 her forehead. That was all. Whatever emotion my statement 
 inspired was hidden. She said in a low voice: 
 
 They are fiends! I did not think them so cruel. My poor 
 father!" 
 
 " This is what I am told they mean to do; and I know 
 Stevens to be a ruffian, and that he will carry out his project 
 if he can. I have spent time alone here in trying to think how 
 we can save ourselves. As yet I see no remedy. But wait," 
 I said; " it will take us three weeks, sailing weU every day, to 
 reach the Gulf of Mexico. I have this time before me; and in 
 that time not only something must, but something shall be 
 done." 
 
 She did not answer. 
 
 " I will hazard nothing; I will venture no risks. What I 
 resolve to do must be effectual," I went on, " because my life 
 is dearer to me now than it was three days ago, for you and 
 your father's sake. You must be saved from these ruf&ans, 
 but no risk must attend your deliverance. This is why I see 
 
THE -WEllCK: OP THE " GEOSTENOR. " 131 
 
 no escape before us as yet, but it will come — ^it will come! De- 
 spair is very fruitful in. expedients, and I am not beaten be- 
 cause I find myself flung like a dog in a hole!" 
 
 She looked up at this, and said: " What is to be done?" 
 
 "I must think." 
 
 " I will think, too. "We need not tell papa?" she added, 
 toning her yoice to a question, with an appealing look in her 
 eyes. 
 
 "No, certainly not. Remember, we are not supposed to 
 question the men's honest intentions toward us. We must 
 appear utterly ignorant." 
 
 Are they armed?" she inquired. 
 
 "No." 
 
 She cast her eyes round the cabin, and said. " Have you 
 no guns?" 
 
 " Nothing but a pistol. But though we had twenty guns, 
 we have no hands to use them. So far as I know yet, there is 
 no man that would stand with me — not even the boatswain, 
 unless he were sure we should conquer the ruffians." 
 
 " Could I not use a pistol? Ah, I remember, you have 
 only one. " 
 
 She sunk her chin on her hand and looked downward, lost 
 in thought. 
 
 : " Why should you not steer the ship for some near port?" 
 she asked, presently. 
 
 " I could not alter the course without being challenged. 
 Remember, that my policy is not to excite suspicion of my 
 honesty. " 
 
 "Ha gale would rise Uke that which wrecked the ' Ce- 
 ciUa,' it might drive us near the land, where we would get 
 help." 
 
 No, we shall have to depend upon ourselves. I do not 
 want to pin my faith on chance." 
 
 I began to pace to and fro, torn by the blind and useless 
 labors of my mind. 
 
 Just then a step sounded along the cuddy. The cabin door 
 was pushed open roughly, and Stevens walked in. He stared 
 at Miss Robertson, and cried: 
 
 " Sorry to iuterrupt. Didn't know you was here ma'am, 
 I'm sure. I thought," addressing me, " I should find you 
 turned in. I've come to have a look at that chart of yours. 
 How long d'ye make it to New Orleans?" 
 
 " About three weeks." 
 
 " Well, there's live stock enough for three weeks anyways. 
 I've just told the cook to stick one of them porkers. All hands 
 
133 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOE." 
 
 has a fancy for roast pork to-day. Sarvant, miss. You was 
 pretty nigh drownded, I think. " 
 
 " My father and I owe our lives to the noble fellows in this 
 ship. They must be brave and good men to risk their hves to 
 save ours/' she answered, with a smile of touching sweetness, 
 looking frankly into the face of the miscreant who stood, cap 
 on head, before her. 
 
 " Lor' bless yer!" he exclaimed; " there wasn't no risk. I'd 
 ha' swum the distance in such a sea for five shUling." 
 
 She shook her head with another smile (I judged the effort 
 this piece of acting cost her), as she said: 
 
 " I know that English sailors undervalue their good deeds. 
 But happily my father is a rich man, and when you land us he 
 will take care that no man no board of this ship will complain 
 of his gratitude." 
 
 " Oh, he's rich!" exclaimed the carpenter, as though struck 
 with a new idea. 
 
 "Very rich." 
 
 " How rich might he be, ma'am?" 
 
 " "Well, he owned the ship that you saved us from — cargo 
 and ship. " 
 
 She could not have offered a better illustration of her father's 
 wealth to the man, for he would appreciate the value of a ves- 
 sel of that size. 
 
 " And what do you think he'll give the men — ^them as saved 
 him, I suppose?" 
 
 " Oh, he won't make any difference. He is indebted to you 
 all, for I have heard that the captain would not have stopped 
 for us had he not been obliged to do so by the crew. " 
 
 " That's true enough," rejoined the carpenter with an oath, 
 looking at me. 
 
 " Perfectly true," I made haste to say. 
 
 " My father would not certainly offer less than one hundred 
 pounds to each man," she said, quite simply. 
 
 He pulled off his cap at this and twirled it and let it drop; 
 picked it up so slowly that I thought he would never bend Ms 
 body sufficiently to enable him to recover it; looked at her 
 sideways as he put it on his head again, and then said to me, 
 with offensive abruptness. 
 
 " Come, master, let's have a look at that blooming chart." 
 '_ I opened the door to let Miss Eobertson pass out, exchang- 
 ing one glance with her as she left, and addressed myself to the 
 carpenter. 
 
 He pored over the chart fljjth his dirty forefinger upon it 
 
 " Whereabouts are W3 now?" he inquired. 
 
THE -WMOK OF THE " GEOSVEKOE. "' 133 
 
 I pointed to the spot, as near as I could judge from yester- 
 'ay's reckoning. 
 
 " What's this here line?" he asked. 
 
 " That's the longitude. " 
 
 He ran his eye to the bottom of the chart, and exclaimed: 
 
 " Thirty. Is that it?" 
 
 "Call it thirty." 
 
 " But what do you call it?" 
 
 " Thirty, I tell you — thirty degrees west longitude." 
 
 " And this here line's the latitude, I suppose?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "That's forty." 
 
 " Call it fourty-four. " 
 
 " Wm that make it right?" 
 
 "Pretty nearly." 
 
 " "What are all these here dots and streaks?" said he, after 
 squinting with his nose close to the chart. " Bio wed if ever 
 I could read them small words." 
 
 " They are the Azores." 
 
 " Oh, we're to the nor'ard o' them, aren't we?" he in- 
 quired, sharply. 
 
 " You can see for yourself," I answered, putting my finger 
 on the chart. 
 
 " Where's this blessed Gulf of Mexico?" he inquired, after 
 casting, his eyes all over the chart. 
 
 "There." 
 
 He ran his dirty thumb nail in a line to the Gulf, and asked 
 me what that blot was. 
 
 "Bermuda." 
 
 " You'U keep south o' that, will yer?" 
 
 " If I can, certainly. " 
 
 " It's a man-o'-war station, I've heerd. " 
 
 " I beUeve it is. " 
 
 " All right," he said, and, looking at the boat's compass on 
 the table, asked if it were true. 
 
 I told him it was; whereupon he set it upon the chart and 
 compared its indications with the line he had run down the 
 chart, and was going away, when I said, 
 
 " What do you think of the young lady's idea? I should 
 Hke to earn a hundred pounds. " 
 
 " So should I," he answered, gruffly, pausing. 
 
 " It would pretty well pay me for what I have had to put 
 up with from Coxon." 
 
 He gave me an indescribable IogJc, full of fierceness, suspi' 
 cion, and cunning. 
 
124 THE WRECK OF THE " GftOSVENOE. " 
 
 " I dessay it would, if you got it/' he said, and walked out, 
 banging the door after him. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 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 man- 
 ner toward the carpenter, wherein she had shown herself per- 
 fectly well qualified to act with me in this critical, dangerous 
 time. She had only just been rescued from one trial fright- 
 ful 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 emer- 
 gency, 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 noted the quickness with which she had con- 
 ceived and expn3ssed 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 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 hoatswain's sense on this new idea. 
 But before quitting the cuddy, I knocked lightly on Miss Rob- 
 ertson's cabin door. 
 
 She opened it instantly. 
 
 " WiU you come on deck?" I asked her. 
 
 " Yes, if I can be of any 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 fuUy, 
 that I might see the old man. 
 
 " Let him, sleep," said I; " that will do him more good. 
 But you wiU 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 boson, 
 Stevens, and myself." 
 
THE WEECK OF THE " GROSVENOB. " 125 
 
 " I should not mind if they spoke to me," she exclaimed. 
 " I should know what to say to them, unless they were brutal.-" 
 
 She turned to look at her father, closed the door softly, 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 sweUing clouds 
 — ^pearl-colored where they faced the sun, and with here and 
 there a rainbow on their skirts, and centers of creamy white — 
 which sailed solemnly over it. 
 
 The breeze had freshened, but the swell had greatly sub- 
 sided, and the sea was almost smooth, with brUIiant 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 in- 
 visible; and astern of her I could Just make out the faint trac- 
 ing 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 rounded canvas, taut rigging delicately interlaced, and 
 gleaming decks and glittering brass-work. The blue watei 
 sung a racing chorus at the bows, and the echo died upon the 
 broad, bubbhng wake astern. 
 
 I ran my eye forward upon the men on the forecastle. Most 
 of the crew were congregated there, lounging, squatting, smok- 
 ing — ^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, S not for my own, would they not spare her? 
 would not some among them be moved by her beauty and 
 her helplessness? 
 
 NotMng would seem more rational than such conjectures, 
 always providing that I ceased to remember these men were 
 criminals, that their one idea now was how 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 then- 
 identity, and secure their punishment. Would not Stevens 
 keep them in mind of this? Knowing what they knew, know- 
 ing what they meditated, I say that in the very orderliness of 
 their behavior I witnessed something more sinister than I should 
 
136 THE WRECK OK THE ■" GEOSVENOE." 
 
 have found in violent conduct. I alone coidd carry them to 
 where they wished to go. I must be conciliated, pleased, 
 obeyed, and my fears tranquiUzed. If I failed them, their 
 doom was inevitable; shipwreck or capture was certain. AH 
 this was plain to me as the fingers on my hand; and during 
 the brief time I stood watching them, I found myself repeat- 
 ing again and again the hopeless question, " What can I do?" 
 
 Miss Robertson walked up and down the deck. The boat- 
 swain glanced at her respectfully, and the men forward stared, 
 and some of them laughed, but none of the remarks they in- 
 dulged in were audible. 
 
 Pish 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 spit the quid in his mouth overboard, and dried his hps 
 on his cuff. As he did not seemed disposed to talk, I left him 
 and joined the boatswain, and at my request he came and stood 
 with me near Miss Eobertson. 
 
 " I have told this lady what you repeated to me at break- 
 fast," I said, in a low voice. " She's 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 respectable gallantry that was very taMng. 
 
 She looked down with a smile. 
 
 "Boatswain,'" said I, "ever 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 Eobertson. Her father is a rich 
 man, owner of the vessel he was wrecked in — " 
 
 " Eobertson & Co., of Liverpool, ship brokers?" he inter- 
 rupted, addressing her. 
 Yes," she replied. 
 
 " Why, I sailed in one of the firm's wessels as boson's mate, 
 three years ago — the ' Albany ' she was called, and a wery 
 comfortable ship she was, well found and properly com- 
 manded. " 
 
 " 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 
 
THE WRECK OF. THE " GEOSTENOR. " 187 
 
 mate's name was Green, and the second's Gull, aad the third 
 ^ah! he were Captain Tribett's son — same name, of com-se. 
 Well, blow me if this aia't wot the Italians call a cohin- 
 cidence. " 
 
 He was as pleased as she, and stood grinning on her. 
 
 " Mr. Eoyle," she suggested, raising her fine eyes to mine, 
 " sm-ely there must be others like the boatswain in this sidp. 
 They can not all be after the pattern of that horriMe car- 
 penter. " 
 
 " We ought to be able to find that out, boson," 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 affair is Just this: the crew have been very badly treat- 
 ed, fed with rotten stores, and starved and abused by the skip- 
 per and chief mate until they went mad. I don't think myself 
 that they meant to kill the captain and Mr. Duckling; but il- 
 happened, and no man barrin' Stevens was guiltier than his 
 mate, and that's where it is. The carpenter knocked the skip- 
 per down, and others kicked him when he was down, not know- 
 ing he was dead; and four or five set on Mr. Duckling, and so 
 you see it's a sin as they all shared alike ia. If one man had 
 killed the skipper, and another 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 conse- 
 quence? 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 patroled the poop for several minutes, 
 for the very obnoxious reason that the men should not take 
 notice of our talMng long and close together. 
 
 Presently he rejoined us, standing a little distance away, and 
 in a careless attitude. 
 
 " Boson," said I, addressing him with my eyes on the deck, 
 so that from a distance I would not appear to be speaking, 
 "Miss Eobertson told Stevens that her father would hand- 
 somely 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 poimds 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. 
 
138 THE WEECK OF THE " GKOSTENOR." 
 
 " They -woTildn't trust him/' said the boatswain, without 
 reflectiag. " They'd think it a roose to bring 'em together to 
 give them 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 
 enamored of her own idea, siace she saw that I entertained it. 
 
 " Sailors don't know anything 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 soveriegns on board this vessel, and count- 
 ed 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 wagabon lives and the carpenter's given- 'em such a 
 talkin' to that they're precious keen m gettin' away and cuttin' 
 off all evidence. It 'ud take more than a hxmdred pounds 
 each to a man to make 'em wilhng to risk their Uves." 
 
 He walked away once more and stood lounging aft, chatting 
 with Fish. 
 
 " I am afraid the boson is right," said I. " Having hved 
 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. Eoyle. 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 noth- 
 iQg more to say. You have spoken to Stevens; let liim 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 re- 
 specting 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 expedi- 
 ent to save us. See how he watches us! He will join us pres- 
 ently. I, too, have a scheme dawning in my head, bufr too im- 
 perfect to discuss as yet. Oom-age!" I said, animated by her 
 beauty and the deep, speaking expression of her blue eyes;"the 
 boson's confession of his owrv «langer makes me feel stronger 
 
THB WEECK OF THE " GROSVENOR. " 129 
 
 by a man. I have greater confidence in Mm than I had. If I 
 could but muster a few fire-arms — ^f or 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 toward us. He flung a coil 
 of rope over a belaying-pin, looked over the ship's side, ap- 
 proached us nearer, and pulled out a pipe and asked me fcrr 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 iu the cuddy there's no telUng 
 whose ears are about," he said. "I'll give you my scheme 
 thought on since breakfast, and listen close, for I dursen't talk 
 much: after this we must belay, or the men'U 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 where they'll be able to get at to scuttle her, 
 and that's right for'ard of the fore-hatch. I'll let that out to 
 Stevens bit by bit, in an ordinary way, and he'U remember it. 
 The night afore we heave to — you'll teU me when — I'll fall 
 overboard and get drowned. That'U 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'U let that drop overboard — d'ye see? — which'U sound like 
 a man's body, and sink right away, and then you'U roar out 
 that the boatswain's fallen overboard. Let 'em do what they 
 hke. I shall be stowed away for'ard, down in the fore-peak 
 somewheres, 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 
 i£ it's done, I'll say 'Yes,' and teU 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 main- 
 yards 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 
 ijs — let 'em look out! for there'll be more bloodletting among 
 9m than ever they saw before, by God!" 
 
130 THE WKECK OF THE " GKOSVENOE. 
 
 He motioned with his hand that we should leave the poop, 
 and walked away. 
 
 Miss Eobertson looked at me and I at her for some moments 
 in silence. 
 
 " Will it do, Mr. Eoyle?" 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 ia 
 the cuddy she took my hand in both of hers and pressed it 
 tightly to her heart, then hurried iato her cabia. 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 The more I considered the boatswain's proposal, the better 
 I liked it. All that day I turned it over and over in my mind. 
 And, what was useful to me, I could sleep when I lay down in 
 my watches below, which was a luxury I had feared, after the 
 boatswain's disclosure at the breakfast-table, would be denied 
 me. 
 
 I did not wish Miss Eobertson to sit at the cuddy table at 
 meal-hours, and when dinner-time came I took care that as 
 good a meal should be taken to her and her father as the ship 
 could furnish. 
 
 When Stevens joined me at the table, he sung out to the 
 steward to " tell the old gent an' his darter that dinner vos 
 a-vaitin'!" Whereupon I explained that the old gentleman 
 was too ill to leave his bunk. 
 
 " Well, then, let the gal come," said he. 
 
 " She can't leave her father," I rephed. 
 
 " Perhaps it ain't that so much as because I ain't genteel 
 enough for her. It's the Vest End o' London as won t have 
 nothen to do with Wapping. The tobaccy in my breath is too 
 strong for her. " 
 
 " Nothing of the kind. The old man is ill, and she must 
 watch him. As to your manners, I dare say she is better 
 pleased with them than you ought to be told. It is not every 
 ship's carpenter that could talk and look hke a skipper, and 
 keep men under as you do." 
 
 "You're right there!" he exclaimed, with a broad grin. 
 " Come, sarve us out a dollop o' that pork, will yer? Eoast 
 pork's never too fresh for me. " 
 
 And he fell like an animal to the meat, and forgot, as I 
 wished, all about Miss Eobertson. 
 
THE WKECK OF THE " GROSVENOR. " 131 
 
 In the first watch, from eight in the evening until midnight, 
 which was the boatswain's, I went and sat for an hour with 
 the old gentleman and his daughter. Not a word was said 
 about the peril we were in; he was quite ignorant of it, and, 
 being better and stronger, was eager in his questions about the 
 ship's progress. 
 
 I took notice that he appeared to forget all about the mutiny, 
 and conversed as if I were captain. Nor did he show any strong 
 recollection of the loss of his ship and the circumstances attend- 
 ing it. Indeed, it seemed that as he grew better his memory 
 grew worse. That was the faculty injured by his sufferings, 
 and when I listened to his questions, which took no cognizance 
 of things of the past, though as recent as yesterday, I thought 
 his memory would presently quit him wholly, for he was an 
 old man, with a mind too feeble to hold on tightly. 
 
 I left them at half past nine, and went on deck. I tried to 
 see who was at the wheel, but could not make the man out. 
 1 think it was one of the Dutchmen. Better this man than 
 Fish, Johnson, or some of the others, whose names I forget, 
 who were thick with the carpenter, and before whom it would 
 not be wise to talk with any suggestion of mystery with the 
 boatswaiu. 
 
 However, there was not much chance of my being noticed, 
 for the night was gloomy, and all about the decks quite dark. 
 The ship was under top-sails and maintop-gallant-saU; the 
 wind was east-south-east, blowing freshly with long seas. 
 There was no appearance of foul weather, and the glass stood 
 steady; but an imder-sky of level cloud lay stretched across' 
 the stars; and, looking abroad over the ship's side, nothing 
 was distiaguishable but the foam of the waves breaking as they 
 ran. 
 
 As I emerged from the companion, the boatswain hailed the 
 forecastle, and told the man there to keep a good lookout. I 
 had not had an opportunity of speaking to him since the morn- 
 ing. I touched him on the arm, and he turned and stared to 
 see who I was. 
 
 " Ah, Mr. Eoyle," said he. 
 
 "Let's get under the lee of that quarter-boat," said I. 
 " We can hear each other there. Who's at the wheel?" 
 
 "Dutch Joe." 
 
 " Come to the binnacle first, and I'll talk to you about the 
 ship's course, and then we'll get tmder the quarter-boat, and 
 he'll think I am giving you sailing directions. " 
 
 We did this, and I gave the boatswain some instructions ia 
 the hearing of the Dutchman; and to appear very much in 
 
132 THE WEECK OTP THE '' 6E0SVEN0K. 
 
 earnest, the boatswain and I hove the log while Dutch Joe 
 turned the glass, which he could easily attend to, holdiag a 
 spoke with one hand, for the ship was steering herseM. 
 
 "We then walked to the qnarter-hoat and stood under the lee 
 of it. 
 
 "Boson," said I, "the more I think of your scheme the 
 better I hke it. Whatever may happen, your being in the 
 hold will prevent any man from scuttling the ship. " 
 
 " Yes, so it will; I'U take care of that. One blow must do 
 the job — ^he mustn't cry out. The piano-fortes are amidships 
 on merely two feet of dunnage; all for'ard the cases run large, 
 and it's there they'll find space. " 
 
 " My intention is not to wait until we come to the Gulf in 
 order to carry this out," said I; " 111 clap on sixty, eighty, a 
 hundred miles, just as I see my way, to every day's run, so as 
 to bring the Gulf of Mexico close alongside the Bermuda 
 Islands. Do you understand, boson?" 
 
 "Yes, I understand. There's no use in waitin'. You're 
 quite right to get it over. The sooner the better, says I. " 
 
 " We shall average a run of three hundred miles every 
 twenty-four hours, and I'll slip in an extra degree whenever I 
 can. Who's to know?" 
 
 " Ne'er a man on this wessel, sir," he answered. " There's 
 not above two as can spell words ia a book, " 
 
 " So I should think. Of course I shall have to prick off the 
 chart according to the wind. A breeze hke this may well give 
 us three hundred miles. If it fall calm, I can make her drift 
 sixty miles west-sou'-west, and clap on another eighty for 
 steerage-way. I shall have double reckonings— one for the 
 crew, one for myself. You, as chief, will know it's all right." 
 
 "Leave that to me," he answered, with a short laugh. 
 " They've found out by this time that the ship's a chpper, and 
 I'll let 'em understand that there never was a better navigator 
 than you. It'll be for you and me to keep as much canvas on 
 her as she'll carry in our watches, for the sake of appearance; 
 and if I was you, sir, I'd trim the log-hne afresh. " 
 
 " A good idea," said I. " I'll give her a double dose. Twelve 
 knots shall be nothing in a moderate breeze. " 
 
 We both laughed at this: and then, to make my presence on 
 deck appear reasonable, I walked to the binnacle. 
 
 I returned and said: 
 
 " In nine days hencS we must contrive to be in longitude 
 63* and latitude 33°— somewhere about it. If we can average 
 one hundred and eighty miles every day, we shall do it. " 
 
THE WRECK OP THE " GEOSVBIf OB. " 133 
 
 " What do you make the distance from where we are now to 
 the Gulf?" 
 
 " In broad numbers, three thousand milps." 
 
 "No more." 
 
 " Averaging two hundred miles a day, we should be abreast 
 of New Orleans in a fortnight. I said three weeks, but I shall 
 correct myself to Stevens to-morrow, after I have taken ob- 
 servations. I'll show him a jump on the chart that will 
 astonish him. I'll punish the scoundrels yet. I'll give them 
 the direct course to Bermuda when they're in the boats, and if 
 our plot only succeeds and the wind serves, one of us two will 
 be ashore on the island before them, to let the governor know 
 whom he is to expect." 
 
 "That maybe done too," answered the boatswain; "but 
 it'll have to be a dark night to get away from 'em without their 
 seeing of us." 
 
 " They'll choose a dark night for their own sakes. Boat- 
 swain, give us your hand. Your cleverness has, in my opinion, 
 as good as saved us. I felt a dead man this morning, but I 
 never was more ahve than I am now. " 
 
 I grasped his hand, and went below> positively ia better 
 spirits than I had enjoyed since I first put my foot upon this 
 ill-fated ship. 
 
 The first thing I did the next morning was to mark off the 
 log-liue afresh, having smuggled the reel below during my 
 watch, i shortened the distances between the knots considera- 
 bly, so that a greater number should pass over the stem while 
 the sand was running than would be reeled off if the line were 
 true. 
 
 '' At eight bells, when the boatswain went on deck, I asked 
 him to take the log with him; and, following him presently, 
 just as Stevens was about to leave the poop, I looked around 
 me, as if studying the weather, and said: 
 
 '' Boson, you must keep the log going, please. Heave it 
 every hour, never less. I may have to depend upon dead- 
 reckoning to-day, Mr. Stevens;" and I pointed to the sky, 
 which was as thick as it had been all night." 
 
 " Shall I heave it now?" inquired the boatswain. 
 
 " Did you heave it in your watch, Mr. Stevens," said I. 
 
 " No," he replied. " What are we doin' now? This has 
 been her pace all along— hadn't touched a brace or given an 
 order since I came on deck. " 
 
 He had come on deck to relieve me at four. 
 
 " Let's heave the log," I exclaimed, " I shall be better satis- 
 fied." 
 
134 THE WRECK OF THE " QEOSVENOE. " 
 
 I gave tlie glass to Stevens, and while arranging the log- 
 ship, I looked over the side, and said: 
 
 " By Jove, she's walking and no mistake!" 
 
 " I allow that yM'ie going ten," said the man at the wheel. 
 
 " I give her thirteen good," said I. 
 
 " Call it fifteen, and you'll not be far out," observed the 
 boatswain. 
 
 The carpenter cocked his evil eye at the water, but hazarded 
 no conjecture. 
 
 " She can sail — ^if she can't do nothing else," was all he 
 said. 
 
 I flung the log-ship overboard. 
 
 " Turn!" I cried out. 
 
 I saw the knots fibbing out hke a string of beads. The reel 
 roared in the boatswain's hands, and when Stevens roared 
 " Stop!" I caught the line and allowed it to jam me against 
 the rail, as though the weight of it, dragged through the water 
 at the phenomenal speed at which we were supposed to be go- 
 ing, would haul me overboard. 
 
 " What's that knot there, Mr. Stevens?" I called out. 
 " Bear a hand; the line is cutting my fingers in halves!" 
 
 He put down the sand-glass and laid hold of the line where 
 the knot was, and began to count. 
 
 " Fifteen !" he roared. 
 
 " Well, I'm jiggered!" exclaimed the man steering. 
 
 I looked at Stevens triumphantly, as though I should say, 
 what do you think of that?" 
 
 " I told you you wur wrong, Mr. Royle," said the boatswain. 
 " It's all fifteen. By jingo! it ain't sailing, it's engine-driv- 
 in'." 
 
 The true speed of the " Grosvenor " was about nine and a 
 half knots — cei-tainly not more; and whether the carpenter 
 should believe the report of the log or not was nothing to me. 
 
 " Log it fifteen on the slate, boson, and keep the log going 
 every hour," I said, and went below again. 
 
 I saw, as was now my custom at every meal, that the steward 
 took a good breakfast to the Eobertsons' cabin, and then sat 
 down with Stevens to the morning repast. 
 
 I took this opportunity of suggesting that if the wind held, 
 and the vessel maintained her present rate of speed, we might 
 hope to be in the Gulf of Mexico in a fortnight. 
 
 "How do you make that out? It was three weeks yester- 
 day " 
 
 " And it might have been a month," I answered. 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVEKOE. " 135 
 
 " But a few days of this kind of sailing, let me tell you, Mr. 
 Stevens, make a great difference in one's calculations." 
 
 " How fur off is the Gulf of Mexico?" b^^sked. 
 
 " About a couple of thousand miles." 
 
 " Ob, a couple of thousand miles. Well, an' what reckon- 
 ing do you get out o' that?" 
 
 " Suppose you put the ship's pace down at thirteen knots an 
 hour?" 
 
 " I thought you made it fifteen,?" he queried, looking at me 
 suspiciously. 
 
 Yes, but I don't suppose we shall keep that up. For the 
 sake of argument I call it thirteen." 
 
 " Well?" cramming his mouth as he spoke. 
 
 " In twenty-four hours we shall have run a distance of three 
 hundred and twelve miles." 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 " Therefore, if we have the luck to keep up this pace of two 
 knots less than we are now actually doing for fifteen days, we 
 shall have accomplished — let me see." 
 
 I drew out a pencil, and commenced a calculation on the 
 back of an old envelope. 
 
 " Three hundred and twelve multiphed by fifteen. Five 
 times naught are naught; three naughts and two are ten: add 
 two thousand; we shall have accomplished a distance of four 
 thousand and six hundred and eighty miles — ^that is, two thou- 
 sand six hundred and eighty miles further than we want to 
 go." 
 
 He was puzzled (and well he might be) by my fluent figures, 
 but would not appear so. 
 
 " I understand," he said. 
 
 " Stop a bit," I exclaimed; " I want to show you spme-. 
 thing." 
 
 I entered the captain's cabin, procured a chart of the North 
 and South Atlantic, including the eastern American coast, and 
 spread it upon the table. 
 
 " The two thousand miles I have given you," said I, " would 
 bring you right ofE the Mississippi. See here." 
 
 He rose and stooped over the chart. 
 
 " The short cut to the Gulf," I continued, pointing with my 
 pencil, "is through the Florida Channel, clean through the 
 Bahamas, where the navigation is very ugly. " 
 
 "I see." 
 
 " I wouldn't trust myself there without a pilot on any con- 
 sideration, and, of course," said I, looking at him, " we don't 
 want a pilot." 
 
136 THE WRECK OP THE " GR06TEN0E. " 
 
 " I should rayther think we don't," he answered, scowling 
 at the chart. 
 
 " So," I went on, " to keep clear of ships and boats, which 
 are sure to board us if we get among these islands, I should 
 steer round the Caribees, do you see? — well away from them, 
 and up through the Caribbean Sea, into the Gulf. Do you fol- 
 low me?" 
 
 "Yes, yes — ^I see." , 
 
 "Now, Mr. Stevens," said I, very gravely, "I want to do 
 my duty to the crew, and put them and myself in the way of 
 getting ashore and clear ofE from all bad consequences. " 
 
 The scoundrel tried to meet my ej'es, but could notj and he 
 listened to me gazing the while on the chart. 
 
 " But I don't think I should succeed if I got among those 
 islands blocking up the entrance of the gulf; and as to the 
 gulf itself, you may take your oath it's full of ships, some of 
 which will pick you up before you reach the shore, while others 
 are pretty certain to come across the vessel you have abandoned^ 
 and then — ^look out!" 
 
 He swallowed some coffee hastily, stared at the chart, and 
 said, in a surly voice, " What are you driving at?" 
 
 " Instead of our abandoning the ship in the Gulf of Mexico," 
 I said, " my opinion is that, in order to assure out safety, and 
 lessen the chance of detection, we ought to abandon her clear 
 of these islands, to the nor'ard of them, off this coast herc^ 
 Florida," pointing to the chart. 
 
 " You think so?" he said, doubtfully, after a long pause. 
 
 " I am certain of it. We ought to land upon some unin- 
 habited part of the coast, travel along it northward until We 
 reach a town, and there represent ourselves as shipwrecked 
 sailors. Ask your mates if I am not right. " 
 
 " Perhaps you are," he replied, stni very dubious, though 
 not speaking distrustfully. 
 
 " If you select the coast of Florida, clear of all these islands, 
 and away from the track of ships, I'll undertake, with good 
 winds, to put the ship off it in nine or ten days. But I'll not 
 answer for our safety if you oblige me to navigate her into the 
 Gulf of Mexico." 
 
 He continued looking at the chart for some moments, and I 
 saw by the movements of his Hps that he was trying to spell 
 the names of the places written on the Florida coast outline, 
 though he would not ask me to help him. 
 
 At last he said : 
 
 " It's Fish and two others as chose New Orleans. I have no 
 fancy for them half an' half places. What I wanted wasto 
 
TH:? wreck OB THE " GBOSVESTOB. " 137 
 
 set away into the Gulf of Guinea, and coast along down to 
 Congo, or that way. I know the coast, but I never was in 
 Amerikey, and," he added, fetching the chart a blow with his 
 fist, " curse me if I Hke the notion of going there!" 
 
 " It won't do to be shifting about," said I, frightened that 
 he would go and get the crew to agree with him to run down 
 to the African coast, which would seriously prolong the Jour- 
 ney, and end, for all I could tell, in defeating my scheme; 
 "we shall be running short of water and eatable stores, and 
 then we shall be in a fix. Make up your mind, Mr. Stevens, 
 to the Morida coast; you can't do better. We shall fetch it in 
 a few days, and once ashore, we can disperse in parties, and 
 each party can tell their own yaiHj if they are asked ques- 
 tions." 
 
 " Well, I'll talk to Msh and the others about it," he growled, 
 going back to his seat. "I think you're right about them 
 West India Islatds. We must keep clear o' them. Perhaps 
 some of 'em for'ard may know what this here Florida is like. 
 I was never ashore there. '* 
 
 He fell to his breakfast again, and, finding him silent, and 
 considering that enough had been said for the present, I left 
 hiJh. 
 
 I did not know how well 1 had argued the matter until that 
 night, when he came to me on the poop, at half past eight, and 
 told me that the men were all agreed that it would be too dan- 
 gerous to abandon the ship off New Orleans, and that they pre- 
 tetted the notion of leaving her off the Morida coast. 
 
 I asked him if I was to consider this point definitely settled, 
 and on his answering in the afiirmative, I sung out to the man 
 at the wheel to keep her away a couple of points, and ordered 
 some of the watch to haul in a bit on the weather-braces, es- 
 plaining to Stevens that his decision would bring our course a 
 trifle more westerly. 
 
 I then told him that, with a good wind, I would give the 
 ship eight or nine days to do the run in, and recommended 
 him to let the crew know this, as they must now turn to and 
 arrange, not only how they should leave the ship — in what con- 
 dition, whether with their clothes and effects, as if they had 
 had time to save them, or quite destitute, as though they had 
 taken to the boats in a hurry— but also make up their minds 
 as to the character of the story they should relate when they 
 got ashore. 
 
 He answered that all this was settled, as, of course,_ I was 
 very weU aware; but then my reason for talMng to him in this 
 
138 THE ■WRECK OF THE " GEOSVEITOK. " 
 
 strain was to convince Mm that I had. no suspicion of the 
 diabolical project he was meditating against my life. 
 
 You will, perhapsj find it hard to believe that he and the 
 others should be so ignorant of navigation as to be duped by 
 my false reckonings and misstatements of distances. But I 
 can aver from experience that merchant-seamen are, as a rule, 
 as ignorant and thick-headed a body of men as any ia this 
 world — and scarcely a handful in every thousand with even a 
 small acquaintance with the theoretical part of their calling. 
 More than a knowledge of practical seamanship is not required 
 from them; and how many are proficient even ia this branch? 
 Of every ship's company more than half always seem to be 
 learning their business; furhng badly, reefing badly, spUcing, 
 scraping, painting, cleaning badly; turning to lazily; slow up 
 aloft, negligent, with an immense capacity of skulking. 
 
 I am persuaded that had I not shown Stevens the chart, I 
 could have satisfied him that a southerly course would have 
 fetched the coast of America. The mistake I made was ia be- 
 ing too candid and honest with them in the beginning. But 
 then I had no plan formed. I dared not be tricky without 
 plausibility, and without some definite end to achieve. Now 
 that I had got a good scheme in my head, I progressed with 
 it rapidly, and I felt so confident of the issue, in the boat- 
 swain's pluck and my own energy, that my situation no longer 
 greatly excited my apprehensions, and all that I desired was 
 that the hour might speedily arrive when the boats with their 
 cargo of rascals and cowards should put off and leave the ship. 
 
 CHATPER Xni. 
 
 Havikg no other log-book than my memory to refer to, I 
 pass over six days, in which nothing occurred striking enough 
 for my recollection to retaia. 
 
 This brought us to Sunday; and on that day at noon we 
 were, as nearly as I can recall, in 37° north latitude and 50° 
 west longitude. 
 
 In round numbers Bermuda lies in latitude 33° and longi- 
 tude 65°. This is close enough for my purpose. We had 
 consequently some distance yet to run before we should heave 
 lo off the coast of Florida. But we had for five days carried 
 a strong following wind with iis, and were now (heading west 
 by south half south) driving eight or nine knots an hour under 
 a fresh wind forward of the port beam. 
 
 I own I was very glad to be able to keep well to the nor'ard 
 of 30*^; for had the north-east trade- wiads got hold of th« 
 
THE WRECK OF THE "GKOSVENOE." 139 
 
 ship, I should not have been able to accommodate the distances 
 Tun to my scheme so well as I now could with shifting winds, 
 blowing sometimes moderate gales. 
 
 The crew continued to behave with moderation. The car- 
 penter, indeed, grew more coarse and offensive in manner as 
 the sense of his importance and of his influence over the men 
 grew upon him; and there were times when Johnson and Fish 
 put themselves rather disagreeably forward; but I must confess 
 I had not looked for so much decency of behavior as was shown 
 by the rest of the men in a crew who were absolute masters of 
 the vessel. 
 
 But, all the same, I was not to be deceived by their apparent 
 tractableness and quiet exterior. I knew but too well the 
 malignant purpose that underlay this reposeful conduct, and 
 never addressed them but I felt that I was accosting murderers, 
 who, when the moment should arrive, would watch their vic- 
 tims miserably drown, with horrid satisfaction at the success of 
 their cruel remedy to remove all chance of their apprehension. 
 
 On this Sunday old Mr. Eobertson came on deck, for the 
 first time, accompanied by his daughter, who had not before 
 been on the poop in the day-time. 
 
 It was my watch on deck; had it been the carpenter's, I 
 should have advised them to keep below. 
 
 What I had feared had now come to pass. Mr. Eobertson's 
 memory was gone. He could recall nothing; but what was 
 more pitiful to see, though it was all for the best, so far as he 
 was concerned, he made no effort to recollect. Nothing was 
 suggestive; nothing, that ever I could detect, put his mind in 
 labor. His daughter spoke to me about this melancholy ex- 
 tinction of his memory, but not with any bitterness or sorrow. 
 
 " It is better," she said, " that he should not remember the 
 horrors of that shipwreck, nor understand our present dread- 
 ful position." 
 
 It was indeed the sense of our position that took her mind 
 away from too active contemplation of her father's intellectual 
 enfeeblement. There was never a more devoted daughter, 
 more tender, gentle, unremitting in her foresight of his wants; 
 and yet, in spite of herself, the feeling of her helplessness would 
 at times overpower her; that strong and beautiful instinct in 
 women which makes them turn for safety and comfort to the 
 strength of men whom they can trust would master her. I 
 knew, I felt through signs touching to me as love, how she 
 looked to me out of her loneliness, out of the deeper loneliness 
 created in her by her father's decay, and wondered that I, a 
 rough sailor, little capable of expressing aU the tenderness and 
 
140 THE WEEOK 01' THE "GEOBVENOE." 
 
 concern and strong resolutions that filled my heart, should have 
 the power to inspirit and pacify her most restless moods. In 
 view of the death that might await us — ^for, hope and strive as 
 we might, we could pronounce nothing certain — it was exquisite 
 flattery to me, breeding in me, indeed, thoughts which I hard- 
 ly noted then, though they were there to make an epoch in my 
 life, to feel her trust, to witness the comfort my presence gave 
 her, to receive her gentle whispers that she had no fear now; 
 that I was her friend; that she knew me as though our friend- 
 ship was of old, old standing! 
 
 I say, God bless her for her faith in me! I look back and 
 know that I did my best. She gave me courage, heart, and 
 cunning; and so I owed my life to her, for it was these things 
 that saved it. 
 
 She exactly knew the plans concerted by the boatswain and 
 myself, and was eager to help us; but I could find no part for 
 her. 
 
 However^ this Sunday afternoon, while I stood near her, 
 talking in a low voice, her father sitting in a chair that I had 
 brotight from the cuddy, full in the sun, whose hght seemed 
 to put new life into him — I said to her. With a smile: 
 
 If to-night is dark enough, the boatswaui must be 
 drowned. " 
 
 " Yes," she answered, " I know* It will not be too soon, 
 you think?" 
 
 " No. I shall not be easy until I get him stowed away in 
 the hold." 
 
 " You will see/' she exclaimed, " that the poor feUow takes 
 plenty to eat and drink with him?" 
 
 " A good deal more than he wants is already thete," I an- 
 swered. " Fof the last three days he has been dropping odds 
 and ends of food down the fore-hatch. Let the worst come to 
 the worst, he has smuggled in enough, he tells me, to last him 
 a fortnight. Besides, the water-casks are there. " 
 
 " And how will he manage to sleep?" 
 
 " Oh, he'll coil up and snug himself away anyhow. Sailors 
 are never pushed for a bedstead: anything and eveiytlmig 
 serves. The only part of the job that will be rather difiicult is 
 the drowning him. I don't know anything that will make a 
 louder splash, and sink quickly, too, than a box of nails. The 
 trouble is to heave it overboard without the man at the wheel 
 seeing me do it; and I must contrive to let him think that 
 the boatswain is aft before I raise the splash, because if this 
 matter is not ihip-shape and carried out cleverly, the man, 
 whoever he may be, that takes the wheel wUl be set thinking, 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GBOSVEN^OB. " 141 
 
 and then get on to talking. Now not the shadow of a suspicion 
 must attend this. " 
 
 " May I tell you how I think the man who is steering "can he 
 deceiTed?" 
 
 " By all means." 
 
 She fixed her eyes on the sea and said: 
 
 " I must ask some questions first. When you come on deck, 
 will it be the boatswain's or the carpenter's turn to go down- 
 
 " The carpenter's. He must be turned in before I move." 
 
 *' And will the same man be at the wheel who steered the 
 ship dm-ing the carpenter's watch?" 
 
 ' No. ■ He will be reheved by a man out of the port watch. " 
 
 " Now, I understand. What I think is, that the man who 
 comes to take the other one's place at the wheel ought to see 
 the boatswain as he passes along the deck. The boatswain 
 should stand talking with you in full sight of this man — that 
 is, near the wheel, if the night is dark — so that he can hear his 
 voice, if he can not distinguish his face; and when all is quiet 
 in the fore-part of the ship, then you and he should walk away 
 and stand yonder," pointing, as she spoke, to the creak of the 
 poop. 
 
 I listened to her with interest and curiosity. 
 
 " Some one must then creep up and stand beside you, and 
 the boatswain must instantly slip away and hide himself. The 
 case of nails ought to be ready in one of those boats; you and 
 the person who takes the boatswain's place must then go to the 
 boat, and one of you, under pretense of examining her, must 
 get the box of nails out on to the rails ready to be pushed over- 
 board. Then the new-comer must crouch among the shadows, 
 and glide away ofE the poop, and when he is gone, you must 
 push the box over into the sea and cry out. " 
 
 " The plot is perfect!" I exclaimed, struck not more by its 
 ingenuity than the rapidity with which it had been conceived. 
 " There is only one drawback — who will replace the boson? 
 I dare not trust the steward. " 
 
 " You will trust me?" she said. 
 
 I could not help laughing as I asserted, " You do not look 
 like the boson. " 
 
 " Oh, that is easily done," she replied, shghtly blushing, 
 . and yet looking at me bravely. " If he will lend me a suit of 
 his clothes, I will put them on. " 
 
 To spare her the shghtest feeling of embarrassment, I said : 
 
 " Very well, Miss Eobertson. It will be a little masquerad- 
 ing, that i? all- I will give you a small sou'-wester that wiU 
 
142 THE WRECK OF THE '' GROSVENOK. " 
 
 hide your hair — though even that precaution should be unneces- 
 sary, for if the night is not dark the adventure must be de- 
 ferred. " 
 
 "It is settled!" she exclaimed, with her eyes shining. 
 "Come! I knew I should be able to help. You will arrange 
 with the boatswain, and let me know the hour you fix upon, 
 and what signal you will give me to steal up on deck and place 
 myself near you. " 
 
 " You are the bravest girl in the world! You are fit to com- 
 mand a ship!" I emphatically affirmed. 
 
 She smiled as she answered, " A true sailor's compliment, 
 Mr. Koyle." Then, with a sudden sigh and a wonderful 
 change of expression, making her beauty a sweet and graceful 
 symbol of the ever-changing sea, she cried, looking at her fa- 
 ther: 
 
 " May God protect us and send us safely home! I dare not 
 think too much. I hope without thinking. Oh, Mr. Eoyle, 
 how shall you feel when we are starting for dear England? 
 This time will drive me mad to remember!" 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 I SHALL never forget the deep anxiety with which I awaited 
 the coming on of the night, my feverish restlessness, the exulta- 
 tion with which I contemplated my scheme, the miserable 
 anguish with which I foreboded its failure. 
 
 It was like tossing a coin — ^the cry mvolving life or death! 
 
 If Stevens detected the stratagem, my life was not worth a 
 rush-Ught, and the thoughts of Mary Eobertson falling a vic- 
 tim to the rage of the crew was more than my mind could be 
 got to bear upon. 
 
 Stevens came on deck at four o'clock in the afternoon, and 
 that I might converse with the boatswain without fear of in- 
 curring the carpenter's suspicion, I brought a chart from the 
 captain's cabin and spread it on the cuddy table, right under 
 the after sky-light; and while the boatswain and I hung over it, 
 pretendiQg to be engaged in calculations, we completed our 
 arrangements. 
 
 He was struck with the boldness of Miss Eobertson 's idea, 
 and said he would as soon trust her to take part in the plot as 
 any stout-hearted man. He grinned at the notion of her wear- 
 ing nis clothes, and told me he'd make up a bundle of his Sun- 
 day rig, and leave it out for me to put into her cabin. 
 
 " She'll know how to shorten what's too lengthy," said he; 
 " and you'd better tell her to take long steps ven she walks, 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOK. " 143 
 
 for vimmen's legs travels twice as quick as a man's, and that's 
 how I alvays knows vich sex is haoting before me in the theay- 
 ter; though, to be sure, some o' them do dress right up to the 
 hammer, and vould deceive their own mothers. " 
 
 " Are the hatches off for'ard?" 
 
 " You leave that to me, Mr. Eoyle. That'll be all right." 
 
 " What weapon have you got?" 
 
 " Only a bar of iron the size of my leg," he answered, grim- 
 ly. "I shouldn't like to drop it on my foot by accident." 
 
 We brought our hurried conversation to a close by perceiving 
 the carpenter staring at us steadfastly through the sky-light; 
 and, whispering that everything now depended upon the night 
 being dark, I repaired with my chart to the cabin I occupied. 
 
 I noticed at this time that the lid of one of the lockers stood 
 a trifle open, sustained by the things inside it, which had evi- 
 dently been tumbled and not put square again. 
 
 This, on inspecting the locker, I found to be the case; and, 
 remembering that here was the bag of silver I had come across 
 while searching for clothes for old Mr. Eobertson, I thrust my 
 hand down to find it. It was gone. " So, Mr. Stevens," 
 thought I, " this is some of your doing, is it? A thief as well 
 as a murderer ! You grow accomplished. " Well, if he had 
 the silver in his pocket when he quitted the ship, it would 
 only drown him the sooner, should he find himself overboard. 
 There was comfort in that reflection, any way; and I should 
 have been perfectly wilHng that the silver had been gold, could 
 the rogue's death have been hastened by the transmutation. 
 
 A little before six o'clock, at which hour I was to reUeve the 
 boatswain in order to take charge of the ship through the 
 second dog-watch, Stevens being in Ms cabin and all quiet in 
 the after part of the vessel, I went quietly down the ladder that 
 conducted to the steerage, this ladder being situated some dozen 
 feet abaft the mizzen-mast. 
 
 All along the starboard side of the ship in this part of her 
 were stowed upward of seven hundred boxes of tin-tacks, each 
 box about twenty inches in length by twelve in breadth, and 
 weighing pretty heavy. There was nothing else that I oould 
 think of that would so well answer the purpose of making a 
 splash alongside as one of these boxes, and which combined 
 the same weight in so handy and portable a bulk. Anything 
 in wood must float; anything in iron might be missed. AU 
 these things had to be carefully considered, for, easy as the job 
 of dropping a weight overboard to counterfeit the sound of a 
 human body fallen into the water may seem, yet in my case 
 the difficulty of accomplishing it successfully, and without the 
 
144 THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVElfOB." 
 
 cliance of subsequent detectioiij was immense, and demanded 
 great prudence and foresight. 
 
 I conveyed one of these boxes to my cabin, and when four 
 bells were struck (the hands kept the relief bells going for their 
 own sakes, I giving them the time each day at noon), I 
 smuggled it up in a top-coat, and stepped with an easy air on 
 to the poop. The man who had been steering was in the act 
 of surrendering the spokes to another hand, and I took advan- 
 tage of one of them cutting off a piece of tobacco for the other, 
 which kept them both occupied, to put my coat and the boi 
 inside it in the stern-sheets of the port quarter-boat, as though 
 it were my coat only which I had deposited there out of the 
 road, handy to slip on should I require it. 
 
 The boatswain observed 4ny action without appearing to 
 notice it; and as he passed me on the way to the cuddy, he said 
 that his clothes would be ready by eight bells for the lady, and 
 that I shoTold find them in a bundle near the door. 
 
 He would not stay to say more; for I believe that the car- 
 penter had found something suspicious in our hanging together 
 over the chart, and had spoken to this effect to his chums 
 among the men; and it therefore behooved the boatswain and 
 me to keep as clear of each other as possible. 
 
 One stroke of fortune, however, I saw was to befall us. The 
 night, unless a very sudden change took place, would be dark. 
 
 The sky was thick, with an even and unbroken ground of 
 cloud which had a pinkish tint down in the western horizon, 
 where the sun was declining behind it. The sea was rough, 
 and looked muddy. The wind held steady, but blew very fresh, 
 and had drawn a trifle further to the southward, so that the 
 vessel was a point off her course. The motion of the ship was 
 very uncomfortable, the pitching sharp and irregular, and she 
 rolled as quickly as a vessel of one hundred tons would. 
 
 As the shadows gathered upon the sea, the spectacle of the 
 leaden-colored sky and waves was indescribably melancholy. 
 Some half dozen Mother Carey's chickens followed in our wake, 
 and I watched their gray breasts skimming the surface of the 
 waves until they grew indistinguishable on the running foam. 
 The look of the weather was doubtful enough to have justified 
 me in furling the maintop-gallant-sails and even single-reefing 
 the two top-sails; but though this canvas did not actually help 
 the ship's progress, as she was close to the wind, and it pressed 
 her over and gave much leeway, yet I thought it best to let it 
 stand, as it suggested an idea of speed to the men (which I 
 took care the log should confirm), and I should require to make 
 
THE WRECK OF THE "GEOSVEKOE." 145 
 
 a long reckoning on tlie chart next day to prove to Stevens tliat 
 we were fast nearing the coast of Florida. 
 
 At eight o'clock I called Stevens, and saw him well upon 
 deck before I ventured to enter the boatswain's berth. I then 
 softly opened the door, and heard the honest fellow snoring 
 like a trooper in his bunk; but the parcel of clothes lay ready, 
 and I at once took them, and knocked lightly on Miss Kobert- 
 Bon's door. 
 
 She immediately appeared, and I handed her the clcthes and 
 also my sou '-wester, which I had taken to my cabin after 
 quitting the deck. 
 
 " What is to be the signal?" she asked. 
 
 " Three blows of my heel over your cabin. There is a spare 
 cabin next door for you to use, as your father ought not to see 
 you." 
 
 "I will contrive that he does not see me," she answered. 
 " He fell asleep just now when I was talking to him. I had 
 better not leave him, for if he should wake up and call for me, 
 I should not like to show myself in these clothes for fear of 
 frightening him; whereas if I stop here, I can dress myself by 
 degrees, and can answer him without letting him see me." 
 
 There is plenty of time," I said. " The boson relieves the 
 carpenter at midnight. I will join the boson when the car- 
 penter has left the deck. Here is my watch — you have no 
 means of knowing the time without quitting your cabin. " 
 
 " Is the night dark?" 
 
 " Very dark. Nothing could be better. Have no fear," I 
 said, handing her my watch; " we shall get the boson safely 
 stowed below, and with him a crow-bar. The carpenter will 
 find it rather harder than he imagines to scuttle the ship. He 
 — I mean the boson — is sound asleep, and snoring like a field- 
 marshal on the eve of glory. His trumpeting is wonderfully 
 consoling, for no man could snore Hke that who forebodes a 
 dismal ending of life." 
 
 I took her hand, receiving as I did so a brave smile from her 
 hopeful, pretty face, and left her. 
 
 Without much idea of sleeping, I lay down under a blanket, 
 but fell asleep immediately, and slept as soundly, if not as 
 noisily, as the boatswain, until eleven o'clock. 
 
 The vessel's motion was now easier; she did not strain, and 
 was more on an even keel, which either meant that the wind 
 had fallen or that it had drawn aft. 
 
 I looked through the port-hole, to see if I could make any- 
 thing of the night, but it was pitch-dark. I lighted a pipe to 
 keep me awake, and lay down again to think over our plot. 
 
146 THE WRECK OF THE "GKOSTENOR." 
 
 and find, if I could, any weakness in it, but felt more tnan ever 
 satisfied with our plans. The only doubtful point was whether 
 the fellow who went down to scuttle the ship would not get 
 into the fore-peak; but if the boatswain could contrive to knock 
 a hole in the bulkhead, he would have the man, whether he 
 
 fot down through the forecastle or the fore-hatch; and this I 
 id not question he would manage, for he was very well 
 acquainted with the ship's hold and the disposition of the 
 cargo. 
 
 I found myself laughing once when I thought of the fright 
 the scoundrel (whoever it might be) would receive from the 
 boatswain — he would think he had met the devil or a ghost; 
 but I did not suppose the boatswain would give him much time 
 to be afraid, if he could only bring that crow-bar, as big as his 
 leg, to bear. 
 
 The sound of eight bells being struck set my heart to beating 
 rather quickly, and almost immediately I heard Stevens's heavy 
 step coming down the companion-ladder. 
 
 I lay quiet, thinking he might look ia, as it would better suit 
 my purpose to let him think me asleep. He went and roused 
 out the boatswaia, and after a little the boatswain went on 
 deck. 
 
 But Stevens did not immediately turn in. I cautiously ab- 
 stracted the key, and looked through the key^hole, and ob- 
 served him bring out a bottle of rum and a tumbler from the 
 pantry, and help himself to a stiff glass. He swallowed the 
 fiery draught with his back turned upon the main-deck, that 
 the men, if any were about, should not see him; and drying 
 his lips by running his sleeve the whole length of his arm over 
 them, he replaced the bottle and glass, and went to his cabin. 
 
 This was now my time. There was nothing to fear from his 
 finding me on deck should he take it into his head to come 
 up, since it was reasonable that I, acting as skipper, should 
 at any and all hours be watching the weather and noting the 
 ship's course, more particularly now, when we were supposed 
 to be drawing near land. 
 
 Still, I left my cabin quietly, as I did not want him to hear 
 me, and sneaked up through the companion on tiptoe. 
 
 The night was not so pitch-dark as I might have expected 
 from the appearance of it through the port-hole; but it was 
 quite dark enough to answer my purpose. For instance, it was 
 as much as I could do to follow the outline of the mainmast, 
 and the man at the wheel aud the wheel itself, viewed from a 
 short distance, were lumped into a blotch, though there was a 
 halo of light all around the binnacle. 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR." 147 
 
 The lamp that was alight m the cuddy hung just abaft the 
 foremost sky-light, and I saw that it would be necessary to cover 
 the glass. So I stepped up to the boatswain, who stood near 
 the mizzen-mast. 
 
 " Are you aU ready, boson?'' 
 
 "All ready." 
 
 " Not afraid of the rats?" I said, with a laugh. 
 
 " No, nor wuss than rats," he replied. " Has the lady got 
 my clothes on yet? I should like to see her. " 
 
 " She'll come when we are ready. That light shining on the 
 sky-light must be concealed. I don't want to put the lamp out, 
 and am afraid to draw the curtains for fear the rings should 
 rattle. There's a tarpaulin in the starboard quarter-boat; 
 take and throw it over the sky-light while I go aft and talk to 
 the fellow steering. Who is he?" 
 
 " Jim Cornish. " 
 
 He found the tarpaulin, and concealed the light, while I 
 spoke to the man at the wheel about the ship's course, the look 
 of the weather, and so on. 
 
 "Now," said I, rejoining the boatswain, "come and take 
 two or three turns along the poop, that Cornish may see us to- 
 gether." 
 
 We paced to and fro, stopping every time we reached the 
 wheel to look at the compass. 
 
 When we were at the fore end of the poop, I halted. 
 
 "Walk aft," I said, " and post yourself right ia the way 
 of Cornish, that he sha'n't be able to see along the weather- 
 side of the poop." 
 
 I followed him until I had come to the part of the deck that 
 was right over Miss Kobertson's cabin, and there struck three 
 smart blows with the heel of my boot, at the same time flap- 
 ping my hands against my breast so as to make Cornish believe 
 that I was warming myself. 
 
 I walked to the break of the poop and waited. 
 
 In less time than I could count twenty a figure came out of 
 the cuddy and mounted the poop-ladder, and stood by my side. 
 Looking close into the face I could see that it was rather too 
 white to be a sailor's, that was all. The figure was a man's, 
 most perfectly so. 
 
 " Admirable!" I whispered, grasping her hand. 
 
 I posted her close agaiast the screened sky-hght, that her fig- 
 ure might be on a level with the mizzen-mast viewed from the 
 wheel, and called to the boatswain. 
 
 The tone of my voice gave him his cue. He came forward 
 just as a man would to receive an order. 
 
148 THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVENOR.*' 
 
 " She is here," I said, turning him by the. arm to where 
 Miss Eobertson stood, motionless. " For God's sake, get for- 
 ward at once! Lose no time!" 
 
 He went up to her and said, 
 
 " I'm sorry I can't see you properly, miss. If this wur 
 daylight I reckon you'd make a handsome sailor, just fit for 
 the gals to go dreamia' an' ravin' about. " 
 
 With which, and waving his hand, the plucky fellow slipped 
 off the poop like a shadow, and I watched hiTn glide along the 
 main-deck until he vanished. 
 
 "Now," whispered I to my companion, "the tragedy be- 
 gins. We must walk up and down that the man steering may 
 see us. Keep on the left side of the deck; it is higher than 
 where I shall walk, and will make you look taller. " 
 
 I posted her properly, and we began to measure the deck. 
 
 Anxious as I was, I could still find time to admire the cour- 
 age of this girl. At no sacrifice of modesty — ^no, not even to 
 the awaking of "an instant's mirth in me — was her noble and 
 beautiful bravery illustrated. Her pluck was so grand an ex- 
 pression of her Enghsh character that no emotion but that of 
 profound admiration of her moral quahties could have been 
 inspired in the mind of any man who beheld her. 
 
 I took care not to go further than the mizzen-rigging, so 
 that Cornish should distinguish nothing but our figures; and 
 after we had paraded the deck awhile I asked her to stand near 
 the quarter-boat, in which I had placed the box. 
 
 I then got on to the rail and fished out the box smartly, and 
 stood it on the rail. 
 
 " Keep your hand upon it," said I, " that it may not roll 
 overboard." 
 
 With which I walked right up to ComisL 
 
 " Does she steer steady?" 
 
 " True as a hair." 
 
 " I left my coat this afternoon in one of the quarter-boats. 
 Have you seen it?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Perhaps it's in the starboard boat." 
 
 I pretended to search, and then drawing close to Miss Eobert- 
 son, said, quickly: 
 
 " Creep away now. Keep close to the rail and crouch low. 
 Get to your cabin and change your dress. Roll the clothes 
 you are wearing in a bundle and hide them for the present." 
 
 She ghded away on her little feet, stooping her head to a 
 level with the rail. 
 
 All was quiet forward — the main-deck deserted. I waited 
 
THE 'WEEOK OP THE " GEOSVENOB. " 149 
 
 some seconds, standing with my hand on the box, and then I 
 shoved it right overboard. It fell, just as I had expected, with 
 a thumping splash. 
 
 . Bistantly I roared out, "Man overboard! Down with your 
 helm! The boson's gone!" and to complete the imposture, I 
 bounded aft, cut away a life-buoy, and flung it far into the 
 darkness astern. 
 
 Cornish obeyed me literally; put the helm right down, and 
 in a few moments the sails were shaking wildly. 
 
 " Steady!" I shouted. " Aft here and man the port main- 
 braces! Bear a hand! the boson's overboard!" 
 
 My excitement made my voice resonant as a trumpet, and 
 the men in both watches came scampering along the deck. 
 The shaking of the canvas, the racing of feet, my own and 
 the cries of the crew, produced, as you may credit, a fine up- 
 roar. Of course I had foreseen that there would be no danger 
 in. bringing the ship back. The wind, though fresh, was cer- 
 tainly not strong enough to jeopardize the spars; moreover, the 
 sea had moderated. 
 
 Up rushed the carpenter in a very short time, rather the 
 worse, I thought, for the dose he had swallowed. 
 
 "What's the matter? "What the devil is all this?" he 
 bellowed, lurching from side to side as the ship rolled, for we 
 were now broadside on. 
 
 " The boson has fallen overboard!" I shouted in his ear; 
 and I had need to shout, for the din of the canvas was deafen- 
 ing. 
 
 " Do you say the boson?" he bawled. 
 
 " Yes. What shall we do? is it too dark to pick him up?" 
 
 " Of course it is!" he cried, hoarse as a raven. " What do 
 you want to do? He's drowned by this time? Who's to find 
 him? Give 'em the proper orders, Mr. Eoyle!" and he 
 vociferated to the men, " Do you want the masts to carry 
 away? Do you want to be overhauled by the fust wessel as 
 comes this road, and hanged, every mother's son of you, be- 
 cause the boson's fallen overboard?" 
 
 I stood to leeward, gazing at the water and uttering exclama- 
 tions to show my concern and distress at the loss of the boat- 
 swain. 
 
 Stevens dragged me by the arm. 
 
 " Give 'em the proper orders, I tell ye, Mr. Eoyle!" he cried. 
 "I say that the boson's drowned, and that no stopping the 
 wessel will save him. Sing out to the men, for the Lord's sake ! 
 Let her fill again, or we're damned!" 
 
 " Very well," I repUed, wi|;h a great air of reluctance, and 
 
150 THE WKECK OF THE " GEOSTENOE. 
 
 I advanced to the poop-rail and delivered the necessary orders. 
 By dint of flatteniag in the jib-sheets and checking the main- 
 braces and brailing up the spanker and rousing the foreyards 
 well f orwardj I got the ship to pay ofE. The carpenter worked 
 like a madman, bawling all the while that if the ship was dis- 
 masted, all hands would certainly be hanged; and he so ani- 
 mated the men by his cries and entreaties, that more work was 
 done by them in one quarter of an hour than they would hav6 
 put into treble that time on any other occasion. 
 
 It was now one o'clock; so it had not taken us an hour to 
 drown the boatswaia, put the ship in irons, and get her clear 
 agaia. 
 
 Stevens came ofE the main-deck on to the poop, greatly re- 
 lieved in his mind, now that the sails were full and the yards 
 trimmed, and asked me how it happened that the boatswain 
 fell overboard. 
 
 I replied, very gravely, that I had come on deck at eight 
 bells, being anxious to see what way the ship was making and 
 how she was heading; that, remembering I had left an overcoat 
 in one of the quarter-boats, I looked, but could not find it; that 
 I spoke to the boatswain, who told me that he had seen the 
 coat in the stern-sheets of the quarter-boat that afternoon, 
 and got on to the poop-rail to search the boat; that I had 
 turned my head for a moment, when I heard a groan, which 
 was immediately followed by a loud splash alongside, and I 
 perceived that the boatswain had vanished. 
 
 " So," continued I, " I pitched a life-buoy astern and sung 
 out to put the helm down; and I must say, Mr. Stevens, that 
 I think we could have saved the poor fellow had we tried. But 
 
 fou are really the skipper of this ship, and since you objected 
 did not argue. " 
 
 " There's no use sayin' we could ha' saved him," rejoined 
 Stevens, gruffly. " I say we couldn't. Who's to see him iii 
 the dark? We should have had to burn a flare for the boat to 
 find us, and what with our driftin' and their lumpin' about, 
 missing their road, and doing no airthly good, we should ha' 
 ended in losia' the boat." 
 
 He did not notice the tarpaulin spread over the sky-hght, 
 though I had an explanation of its being there had he inquired 
 the meaning of it. 
 
 He hung about the deck for a whole hour, though I had 
 offered to take the boatswain's watch, and go turn and turn 
 about with him (Stevens), and he had a long yarn with the 
 man at the wheel, which I contrived to drop in upon after 
 awhile, and found Cornish explaining exactly how the boat- 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GROSTENOK. " 151 
 
 swain fell overboard, and corroborating my story in every par- 
 ticular. 
 
 Thus, laborious as my stratagem had been, it was, as this 
 circumstance alone proved, in no sense too labored; for had 
 not Cornish seen with his own eyes the boatswain and myself 
 standing near the boat just before I gave the alarm, he would 
 in all probabiHty have represented the affair in such a way to 
 Stevens as to set him doubting my story, and perhaps putting 
 the men on to search the ship, to see if the boatswain toas over- 
 board. He went below at two o'clock. 
 
 The sea fell calm, and the wind shifted round to the nor'ard 
 and westward, and was blowing a steady, pleasant breeze at six 
 beUs. The stars came out and the horizon cleared, and, look- 
 ing to leeward, I beheld at a distance of about four miles the 
 outline of a large ship, which, when I brought the binocular 
 glasses to bear on her, I found under full sail. 
 
 She was steering a course seemingly parallel with our own, 
 and as I watched her my brains went to work to conceive in 
 what possible way I could utilize her presence. 
 
 At all events, the first thing I had to do was to make sail, or 
 she would run away from me; so I at once called up the watch. 
 
 While the men were at work the dawn broke, and by the 
 clearer hght I perceived that the vessel was making a more 
 westerly course than we, and was drawing closer to us at every 
 foot of water we severally measured. She was a noble-looking 
 merchantman, like a frigate with her painted ports with double 
 top-sail and top-gallant yards, and with sky-sails set, so that 
 her sails were a wonderful volume and tower of canvas. 
 
 The sight of her filled me with emotions I can not express. 
 As to signaling her, I knew that the moment the men saw me 
 handling the signal-halyards they would crowd aft and ask me 
 what I meant to do. I might, indeed, hail her if I could sheer 
 the " Grosvenor " close enough alongside for my voice to 
 carry; but if they failed to hear me or refused to help, what 
 would be my position? So surely as I raised my voice to de- 
 clare our situation, so surely would the crew drag me down and 
 murder me out of hand. 
 
 Presently Fish and Johnson came along the main-deck, and 
 while Fish entered the cuddy Johnson came up to me. 
 
 " Hadn't you better put the ship about?" he said. " You're 
 running us rather close. The men don't like it. " 
 
 Seeing that no chance would be given me to make my peril 
 known to the stranger, I formed my resolution rapidly. I 
 called out to the men: 
 
 " Johnson wants to 'bout ship. Yonder vessel can see that 
 
152 THE WEEOK OP THE " GEOSVENOE. ' 
 
 we are making a free wind, and she'll either think we're mad 
 or that there's something wrong with us il we 'bout ship with 
 a beam wind. Now what am I to do?" 
 
 " Haul us away from that ship — that's all we want," an- 
 swered one of them. 
 
 At this moment the carpenter came running up the poop- 
 ladder, with nothing on but his shirt and a pair of breeches. 
 
 "Halloo!" he called out, fiercely, "what are you about? 
 Do you want to put us alongside?" 
 
 And he bawled out fiercely, "Port youi- helm! run right 
 away under her stem!" 
 
 " If you do that," I exclaimed, very anxious now to show 
 how weU-iatentioned I was, " you will excite her suspicions. 
 Steady!" I cried, seeing the ship drawing rapidly ahead; bring 
 her to again a point off her course." 
 
 Stevens scowled at me, but did not speak. 
 
 The crew clustered up the poop-ladder to stare at the ship, 
 and I caught some of them casting such threatening looks at 
 me that I wanted no better hint of the kind of mercy I should 
 receive if I played them any tricks. 
 
 " Mr. Stevens," said I, " leave me to manage, and I'll do 
 you no wrong. That ship is making more way than we are, 
 and we shall have her dead on end presently. Then I'll show 
 you what to do." 
 
 As I spoke, the vessel which we had brought well on the 
 port bow hoisted English colors. The old ensign floated grace- 
 fully, and stood out at the gaff end. 
 
 We must answer her," I exclaimed to the carpenter. 
 " You had better bend on the ensign and run it up." 
 
 I suppose he knew that there could be no mischievous mean- 
 ing in the display of this flag, for he obeyed me, though lei- 
 surely. 
 
 The ship, when she saw that we answered her, hauled her 
 ensign down, and after awhUe, during which she sensibly in- 
 creased the distance between us, and had drawn very nearly 
 stern on, hoisted her number. 
 
 " Eun up the answering pennant," I exclaimed; "itwfll 
 look civil, any way, and it means nothing." 
 
 I pointed out the signal to the carpenter, who hoisted it; 
 but I could see by his face that he meant to obey no more orders 
 of this kiad. 
 
 " Steady as she goes!" cried I, to the fellow steering. " A 
 hand let go the weather mizzen-braces, and haul in, some of 
 you, to leeward." 
 
 This maneuver laid the sails of the mizzen-mast aback; they 
 
THE WRECK OP THE " 6R0SVEN0R." 153 
 
 at once impeded our way, nor, being now right ahead of us, 
 could the people on board the ship see what we had done. 
 The result was, the vessel drove away rapidly, I taking care to 
 luff as she got to windward, so as to keep our flying jib-boom 
 in a direct line with her stern. 
 
 To judge by the way the men glanced at me and spoke to 
 one another, they evidently appreciated this stratagem; and 
 Stevens condescended to say, " That's one for her." 
 
 " Better than going about," I answered, dryly. 
 
 " They've hauled down them signals," he said, blinding the 
 point I raised by my remark. 
 
 " See. She doesn't mean to stop to ask any questions!" 
 
 The end of this was that in about twenty minutes the ship 
 was three or four miles ahead of us; so not choosing to lose 
 any more time, I swung the mizzen-yards, and got the " Grosve- 
 nor " on her course again. 
 
 Stevens went below to put on his coat and cap and boots, in 
 order to relieve me, for it was now four o'clock. The dawn 
 had broken with every promise of a fine day, and where the sun 
 rose the sky resembled frost-work, layer upon layer of high 
 dehcate clouds, ranged like scale-armor, all glittering with sil- 
 ver brightness and whitening the sea, over which they hung 
 with a pale, pearly Ught. 
 
 I was thoroughly exhausted, not so much from the want of 
 rest as from the excitement I had gone through. Still, I had 
 a part to play before I turned in; so I stuck my knuckles in my 
 eyes to rub them open, and waited for Stevens, who presently 
 came on deck, having first stopped on the main-deck to 
 grumble to his crony Fish over his not having had a quarter of 
 an hour's sleep since midnight. 
 
 " I'm growed sick o' the sight o' this poop," he growled to 
 me. " Sick o' the sight o' the whole wessel. Fust part o' the 
 woyage I was starved for food. Now, with the boson over- 
 board, I'm starved for sleep. How long are we going to take 
 to reach Florida? Sink me if I shouldn't ha' woted for some 
 nearer coast had I known this woyage wur going to last to the 
 day o' judgment. " 
 
 " If it don't fall calm," I answered, " I may safely promise 
 to put you off the coast of Florida on Friday afternoon. " 
 
 He thrust his hands into his breeches pockets, and stared 
 aft. 
 
 "I am very much troubled about the loss of the boson," 
 said I. 
 
 "Are you?" he responded, ironically. 
 
 " He was a civil man and a good sailor." 
 
154 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOR. " 
 
 " Yes; I dessay he was. But he's no use now." 
 
 " He deserved that we should have made an effort to save 
 him." 
 
 " Wellj you said that before, and I said no; and I suppose I 
 know wot I mean when I says no." 
 
 " But won't the crew think me a heartless rascal for not 
 sending a boat to the poor devil?" I demanded, pretending to 
 lose my temper. 
 
 " The boson was none so popular — don't make no mistake. 
 He wasn't one of — Hell seize me! where are you diivin' to, 
 Mr. Royle? Can't you let a drowned man alone?" he cried, 
 with an outburst of passion. But immediately he softened Ms 
 voice, and, with a look of indescribable cunning, said, " Some 
 of the hands didn't like him, of course; and some did, and 
 they'll be sorry. I am one of them as did, and would ha' 
 saved him if I hadn't feared the masts, and reckoned there'd 
 be no use in the boat gropin' about in the dark for a drownin' 
 man. " 
 
 "No doubt of that," I replied, ia a most open manner. 
 " You know the course, Mr. Stevens? You might set the 
 foretop-mast-stun'sail presently, for we shall have a fine day." 
 
 And with a civU nod I left Mm, more than ever satisfied that 
 my stratagem was a complete success. 
 
 I bent my ear to Miss Eobertson's cabin as I passed, to hear 
 if she were stirring. All was still: so I passed on to my berth, 
 and turned in just as I was, and slept soundly tUl eight 
 o'clock. 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 I OKLT saw Miss Eobertson for a few minutes at breakfast- 
 time. 
 
 The steward, as usual, carried their breakfast on a tray to 
 the door; and taking it in, she saw me and came forward. 
 
 " Is it all well?" she asked, quickly and eagerly. 
 
 " All well," I rephed. 
 
 " He is in the hold," she whispered, " and no one knows?" 
 
 " He is in the hold, and the crew beheve to a man that he is 
 overboard." 
 
 " It is a good beginniag," she affirmed, with a faiat smile 
 playing over her pale face. 
 
 " Thanks to your great courage! You performed your part 
 admirably." 
 
 "There is that hateful carpenter watching us through, the 
 sky-light," she whispered, without raising her eyes. " Tell me 
 
THE WRECK OF THE "GEOSVENOR." 155 
 
 one thing before I go — ^when will the ship reach the port she is 
 to stop at?" 
 
 " I shall endeavor to make it Friday afternoon." 
 
 " The day after to-morrow!" 
 
 She clasped her hands suddenly, and exclaimed, with a little 
 sob in her voice, " Oh, let us pray that God will be merciful 
 and protect us!" 
 
 I had no thoughts for myseU as I watched her enter her 
 cabin. The situation was, indeed, a dreadful one for so sweet 
 and helpless a woman to be placed in. I, a rough, sturdy fel- 
 low, used to the dangers of the sea, was scared at our position 
 when I contemplated it. Truly might I say that our lives hung 
 by a hair, and that whether we were to live or perish dismally 
 would depend upon the courage and promptness with which 
 the boatswain and I should act at the last moment. 
 
 It was worse for me that I did not know the exact plan of 
 the mutineers. 
 
 I was aware that their intention was to scuttle the ship and 
 leave her, with us on board, to siuk; but Tiow they would do 
 this I did not know. I mean I could not foresee whether they 
 would scuttle the ship while all the crew remained on board, 
 stopping until they knew the vessel was actually sinking before 
 taMng to the boats, or whether they would get into the boats, 
 leaving one man in the hold to scuttle the ship, and, lying by, 
 to take him ofE when his work should have been performed. 
 
 Either was likely; but one would make our preservation 
 comparatively easy; the other would make it almost impossi- 
 ble. 
 
 When I went on deck all hands were at breakfast. The car- 
 penter quitted the poop the moment I showed myself, and I 
 was left alone, none of the crew visible but the steersman. 
 
 The breeze was slashing a splendid sailing wind; the fore- 
 top-mast-stmi'sail set, every sail round and hard as a drum- 
 skin, and the water smooth; the ship bowled along like a yacht 
 in a racing match. Nothing was in sight all round the hori- 
 zon. 
 
 I made sure that the carpenter would go to bed as soon as 
 he had done breakfast; but instead, about twenty minutes after 
 he had left the poop, 1 saw him walk along the main-deck and 
 disappear in the forecastle. 
 
 Mter an interval of some ten minutes he reappeared, fol- 
 lowed by Johnson, the cook, and a couple of hands. They got 
 upon the port side of the long-boat, and presently I heard the 
 fluttering and screaming of hens. 
 
 I crossed the poop to see wha^t was the matter, and found all 
 
156 THE WRECK OP THE "GROSVBNOE." 
 
 four men wringing the necks of the poultry. In a short time 
 about sixteen hens — all that remained — ^lay dead iu a heap 
 near the coop. The cook and Johnson gathered them up and 
 carried them into the galley. 
 
 Soon after they returned, and clambered on to the top of 
 the long-boat, the cover of which they pitched off, and fell, 
 each with a knife in his hand, upon the pigs. The noise now 
 was hideous. The pigs squealed like human beings;- but both 
 men probably knew then- work, for the screeching did not last 
 above five minutes. 
 
 The cook, with his face, arms, and breeches all bloody, flung 
 the carcasses among the men, who had gathered round to wit- 
 ness the sport, and a deal of ugly play followed. They tossed 
 the slaughtered pigs at each other, and men and pigs feU down 
 with tremendous thuds; and soon there was not a man who 
 did not look as though he had been rolled for an horn- in the 
 gutter of a shambles. Their hoarse laughter, their horrible 
 oaths, their rage not more shocking than their mirth, the live 
 men rolling over the dead pigs, their faces and clothes ghastly 
 with blood — all this was a scene which made one abhor one's 
 self for laughing at it, though it was impossible to help laugh- 
 ing sometimes. But occasionally my mirth would be checked 
 by a sudden spasm of terror, when I caught a sight of a fellow 
 with an infuriate face, monstrous with its crimson coloring, 
 rush with his knife at another, and be struck down like a nine- 
 
 Ein by a dead pig hurled full at his head before he could deliver 
 is blow. 
 
 The saturnalia came to an end, and the men, cursing, growl- 
 ing, groaning and laughing — some reehng half stunned, and 
 all panting for breath — surged into the forecastle to clean 
 themselves, while the cook and Johnson carried the pigs into 
 the galley. 
 
 I did not quite understand what this scene heralded, but had 
 not long to wait before it was explained. 
 
 In twos and threes, after much delay, the men emerged and 
 began to wash the decks down. Two got into the long-boat 
 and began to clean her out. Then the carpenter came aft 
 with Johnson, and I heard him swearing at the steward. 
 After a bit, Johnson came forth, rolling a cask of cuddy bread 
 along the deck; after him went the steward, bearing a lime- 
 juice jar, filled, of course, with rum. 
 
 These things were stored near the foremast. Then all three 
 came aft again (the carpenter superintending the work), and 
 more provisions were taken forward; and when enough was 
 collected, the whole was snugged and covered with a tarpaulin. 
 
THE WRECK OP THE " GROSTENOR." 157 
 
 ready, as I now tmderstood, to be shipped into the long-boat, 
 when she should have been swung over the ship's side. 
 
 These preparations brought the reality of the position of my- 
 self and companions most completely home to me; yet I per- 
 fectly preserved my composure, and appeared to take the 
 greatest interest in all that was going forward. 
 
 The carpenter came upon the poop presently, and went to 
 the starboard quarter-boat and inspected it. He then crossed 
 to the other boat; after which he walked up to me. 
 
 "How many hands," he asked, "do you think the long- 
 boat 'ud carry, comfortable?" 
 
 I measured her with my eye before answering. 
 
 " About twenty," I replied. 
 
 " One on top o' t'other, like cattle!" he growled. " Why, 
 mate, there wouldn't be standin' room. " 
 
 " Do you mean to put off from the ship in her?" 
 
 " In her and one of them others," he replied, meaning the 
 quarter-boats. 
 
 " If you want my opinion, I should say that all hands ought 
 to get into the long-boat. She has heaps of beam, and will 
 carry us all well. Besides, she can sail. It will look better, 
 too, to be found in her, should we be picked up before landing; 
 because you can make out that both quarter-boats were carried 
 away." 
 
 " We're all resolved," he answered, doggedly. " We mean 
 to put off in the long-boat and one o' them quarter-boats. 
 The quarter-boat can tow the long-boat if it's calm. Why I 
 ax'd you how many the long-boat 'ud carry, was because we 
 don't want to overload the quarter-boat. We can use her as 
 a tender for stores and water, do you see, so that if we get to a 
 barren place we sha'n't starve." 
 
 "I understand." 
 
 " Then two boats'U be enough, any ways." 
 
 " I should say so. They'd carry thirty persons between 
 them," I answered. 
 
 To satisfy himself he went and took another look at the 
 boats, and afterward called Johnson up to him. 
 
 They talked together for some time, occasionally glancing at 
 me, and Johnson then went away; but in a few minutes he re- 
 turned with a mallet and chisel. Both men now got into the 
 port-quarter-boat and proceeded, to my rage and mortification, 
 to rip a portion of the planking out of her. In this way they 
 knocked several planks away and threw them overboard, and 
 Johnson then got out of her and went to the other boat, and 
 fell to examining her closely to see that all was right; for they 
 
158 THE WRECK OF THE "GEOSVENOK." 
 
 evidently had made up their minds to use her, she being the 
 larger of the two. 
 
 The carpenter came and stood close beside me, watching 
 Johnson. I dare say he expected I would ask him why he had 
 injured the boat; but I hardly dared trust myself to speak to 
 him, so great was my passion and abhorrence of the wretch, 
 whose motive in rendering this boat useless was, of course, 
 that we should not be able to save ourselves when we found the 
 ship sinking. 
 
 When Johnson had done, some men came aft, and they went 
 to work to provision the remaining quarter-boat, passing bags 
 of bread, tins of preserved meat, kegs of water, and stores of 
 that description, from hand to hand, until the boat held about 
 a quarter as much again as she was fit to carry. 
 
 In the meantime others were busy in the long-boat, getting 
 her fit for sailing with a spare top-gallant-stun'sail boom and 
 top-gallant-stun^sail, looking to the oars and thole-pins, and 
 so forth. 
 . The morning passed rapidly, the crew as busy as bees, smok- 
 ing to a man, and bandying coarse jokes with one another, and 
 uttering loud laughs as they worked. 
 
 The carpenter never once addressed me. He ran about the 
 decks, squirting tobacco-juice everywhere, superintending the 
 work that was going forward, and manif estmg great excite- 
 ment, with not a few displays of bad temper. . 
 
 A little before noon, when I made ready to take the sun's 
 altitude, the men at work about the long-boat suspended their 
 occupation to watch me, and Stevens drew aft, and came 
 snuffling about my heels. 
 
 When I sung out eight bells, and went below to work out 
 my observations, he followed me into the cabin, and stood 
 looking on. The ignorance of his distrust was almost ludicrous; 
 I beheve he thought I should work out a false reckoning if he 
 were not by, but that his watching would prevent me from 
 making two and two five. 
 
 " Now, Mr. Eoyle," said he, seeing me put down my pencil, 
 " where are we?" 
 
 I unrolled the chart upon the table, and drew a line down a 
 rule from the highly imaginary point to which I had brought 
 the ship at noon on the preceding day to latitude 29°, longi- 
 tude 74° 30'. " Here is our position at the present moment," 
 I said, pointing to the mark on the chart. 
 
 " This here is Ploridy, ain't it?" he demanded, outlioiiig 
 the coast with his dirty thumb. 
 
 "That is Florida." 
 
THE WEBCK OF THE " GEOSVEWOR. " 159 
 
 " "Well, I calls it Ploridy for short." 
 
 " Eloridy then. I know what you mean. " 
 
 " And you give us till the day arter to-morrow to do this bit 
 o' distance in?" 
 
 " It doesn't look much on the chart. There's not much 
 room for miles to show in on a square of paper Kke this." 
 
 " Well, we shall be all ready to lower away the boats when 
 you give us the word," said he. 
 
 " Perhaps you'll sit down for five minutes, Mr. Stevens, and 
 inform me exactly of your arrangements," I exclaimed; "for 
 it is difficult for me to do my share in this job unless I accu- 
 rately know what yours is to be. " 
 
 He looked at me askant, his villainous eyes right in the cor- 
 ners of their sockets; but sat down, nevertheless, and tilted 
 his cap over his forehead in order to scratch the back of his 
 head. 
 
 " I thought you knew what our plans was?" he remarked. 
 
 "Why, I've got a kind of general notion of them, but I 
 should like to understand them more clearly." 
 
 " Well, I thought they was clear — clear as mud in a wine- 
 glass. Leastways, they're clear to all hands." 
 
 " For instance, why did you knock a hole in the quarter- 
 boat this morning?" 
 
 " I didn't think you'd want that explained," he answered, 
 promptly. 
 
 " But you see I do, Mr. Stevens." 
 
 " Well, we only want two boats, and it 'ud be a silly look- 
 out to leave the third one sound and tight, to drift about with 
 tlie ' Grosvenor's ' name writ inside o' her." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Because I say it would. " 
 
 " How could she drift about if she were up at the davits?" 
 
 " How do I know?" he answered, morosely. " I'm lookin^ 
 at things as may happen. It ain't for me to explain of 
 them." 
 
 " Very well," said I, master enough of the ruffian's mean- 
 ing to require no further information on this point. 
 
 " Anything more, Mr. Eoyle?" 
 
 " Yes. The next matter is this: you gave me to understand 
 that we should heave the ship to at night?" 
 
 " Sartinly. As soon as ever it comes on dusk, so as we shall 
 have all night before us to get well away. " 
 
 " Do you mean to leave her with her canvas standing?" 
 
 " Just as she is when she's hove to. " 
 
160 THE WRECK OF THE "GBOSTENOE." 
 
 " Some ship may sight her, and finding her abandoned, send 
 a crew on board to work her to the nearest port. " 
 
 I thought this might tempt him to admit that she was to be 
 scuttled, which confession need not necessarily have involved 
 the information that I and the others were to be left on board. 
 
 But the fellow was too cimning to hint at such a thing. 
 
 "Let them as finds her keep her," he said, getting up. 
 " That's their consarn. Any more questions, Mr. Boyle?" 
 
 " Are we to take our clothes with us?" 
 
 He grinned in the oddest manner. 
 
 " No. Them as has wallyables may shove 'em into their 
 pockets; but no kits'U be allowed in the boats. We're a poor 
 lot o' shipwrecked sailors — mariners, as the newspapers calls 
 us — come away from a ship that was settHn' under our legs 
 afore we had the 'arts to leave her. We just had time to 
 wittol the boats and stand for the shore. We depend upon 
 Christian kindness for 'elp; and if we falls foul o' a missionary, 
 leave me alone to make him vurship our piety. The skipper 
 he fell mad and jumped overboard. The cluef mate he lost 
 his life by springin' into vun o' the boats and missin' of it; 
 and the second mate he manfully stuck to the ship for the love 
 he bore her owners, and, we pree-sume, went down with-her. " 
 
 "Oh!" I ejaculated, forcing a laugh; "then I am not to 
 admit that I am the second mate, when questioned?" 
 
 He stared at me as if he were drunk, and cried, " Youl" 
 then burst into a laugh, and hit me a slap on the back. 
 
 " Ah!" he exclaimed. " I forgot. Of course you'll not be 
 second mate when you get ashore." 
 
 " What then?" 
 
 " Why, a passenger — a parson — the ship's doctor. We'll 
 tell you wot to say as we go along. Come, get us off this 
 bloomin' coast, will you, as soon as you can," pointing to the 
 chart. " All hands is grown' deUkit with care and consarn; 
 as Joe Sampson used to sing, 
 
 " Vith care and consarn 
 Ve're a-vaisting avay." 
 
 And our nerviss systems is that wrought up with fear of our 
 necks, that bio wed if we sha'n't want two months o' strong 
 physicking and prime livin', at the werry least, to make men 
 of us ag'in arter we're landed. " 
 
 And with a leering grin and an ugly nod he quitted the 
 cabin. 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GBOSVENOE/ ' 161 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 I MADE up my mind, as Stevens left me, to bring this terri' 
 ble time to an end on Friday afternoon, come what might. 
 Let it fall a calm, let it blow a gale, on Friday afternoon I 
 would tell the carpenter that the ship was off the coast of 
 Florida, forty or fifty miles distant. 
 
 If, by the boatswain's ruse, I could keep the ship afloat and 
 carry her to Bermuda, it would matter little whether we hove 
 her to one hundred or even two hundred miles distant fi-om 
 the island. The suspense I endured, the horror of our situa- 
 tion, was more than I could bear. I believed that my health 
 and strength would give way if I protracted the ship's jour- 
 ney to the spot where the men would leave her, even for 
 twenty-four hours longer than Friday. 
 
 The task before me, then, was to prepare for the final strug- 
 gle, to thoroughly mature my plans, to utilize the control I 
 still had over the ship to the utmost advantage, and to put 
 into shape all plausible objections and hints I could think upon, 
 which would be helpful to me if adopted by the crew. 
 
 Wliat I most felt was the want of fire-arms. The revolver I 
 carried was indeed five-chambered, and there was much good- 
 fortune in my having been the first to get hold of it. But 
 could I have armed the boatswain, or even the steward, with 
 another pistol, I should have been much easier in my mind 
 when I contemplated the chances of a struggle between us and 
 the crew. 
 
 However, there is no evil that is not attended by some kind 
 of compensation, and I found this out; for, taldng it into my 
 head that there might be a pistol among Duckling's effects, 
 though I was pretty sure that the weapon he had threatened 
 me with was the one in my possession, I entered his cabia with 
 the intention to begin a search, but had no sooner opened the 
 lid of his chest than I perceived that I had been forestalled; 
 for the clothes were tossed any way, the pockets turned inside 
 out, and articles taken out of wrappers, as I should judge from 
 the paper coverings that lay among the clothes. 
 
 So now I could only hope that Duckling had not had a pistol, 
 since whoever had rifled his box must have met with it. And 
 that Stevens was the thief in this as in the case of the silver I 
 had no doubt at all. 
 
 There being now only two of us to keep watch, Stevens sind 
 
 6 
 
162 THE WRECK OF THE 
 
 I did not meet at dinner. I took his place while he dined, and 
 he then relisTed me. 
 
 The steward told me they were having a fine feast in the 
 forecastle; that upward of ten of the fowls that had been 
 strangled in the morning had been put to bake for the men's 
 dinner; that, ia addition to this, they had cooked three legs of 
 pork, and were drinkiag freely from a jar of rum, which the 
 carpenter had ordered ham to take forward. 
 
 I could pretty well judge that theywere enjoying themselves 
 by the loud choruses they were singing. 
 
 Believing they would end in becoming drunk, I knocked on 
 Miss Robertson's door to tell her on no account to show herself 
 on deck. She gave me her hand the moment she saw me, and 
 gently brought me into the cabin and made me sit down, 
 though I had not meant to stay. 
 
 The old gentleman stood with his back to the door, looking 
 through the port-hole. Though he heard my voice, he did not 
 turn, and only looked round when his daughter pulled him by 
 the arm. 
 
 " How do you do, sir?" he asked, making me a most courtly 
 bow. " I hope you are well? You find us, sir," with a state- 
 ly wave of the hand, " in wretched accommodations; but all 
 this will be mended presently. The greatest lesson of life is 
 patience. " 
 
 And he made me another bow, meanwhile looking hard at 
 me and contracting his brows. 
 
 I was more afEected by this painful change — this visible and 
 rapid decay, not of his memory only, but of his mind — ^than I 
 know how to. describe. The mournful, helpless look his 
 daughter gave him, the tearless melancholy in her eyes, as she 
 bent them on me, hit me hard. 
 
 I did not know how to answer him, and could only fix my 
 eyes on the deck. 
 
 " This prospect," he continued, pointing to the port-hole, 
 " is exceedingly monotonous. I have been watching it I should 
 say a full half hour — about that time, my dear, should you not 
 think? — and find no change in it whatever. I witness always 
 the same unbroken line of water, slightly darker, I observe, 
 than the sky which bends to meet it. That unbroken line has 
 a curious effect upon me. It seems to press Uke a substantial 
 ligature, or binding, upon my forehead; positively," he ex- 
 claimed, with a smile almost as sweet as his child's, " as though 
 I had a cord tied round my head." 
 
 He swept his hand over his forehead, as though he could re- 
 move the sensation of tightness by the gesture. It was pitiful 
 
THE WBECK OF THE " GEOSVENOR. " 163 
 
 to witness such a venerable and dignified old gentleman 
 stricken thus in his mind by the sufferings and miserable hor- 
 rors of shipwreck. 
 
 " I think, sir," I said, addressing him with all the respect- 
 fulness I could infuse into my voice, " that the uneasiness of 
 which you complaia would leave you if you would lie down. 
 The eye gets strained by staring through a port-hole, and that 
 eternal horizon yonder really grows a kind of craze in one's 
 head if watched too long. " 
 
 " You are quite right, sir," he replied, making me another 
 bow; and, addressing his daughter. This gentleman sympa- 
 thizes with the peculiar inspirations of what I may call mono- 
 tonous nature. 
 
 He looked at her with extraordinary and painful earnestness. 
 Evidently, some recollections had leaped into his mind and 
 quitted him immediately, leaving him bewildered by it. 
 
 He then said, in a most plaintive voice: 
 
 " I wiU lie down. Your shoulder, my love." 
 
 He stretched out his trembling hand. I got up to help him, 
 but he withdrew from me with an air of ofEended pride, and 
 reared his figure to its full height. 
 
 " This is my daughter, sir," he exclaimed, with cold em- 
 phasis; and though I knew he was not accountable for his be- 
 havior, I shrunk back, feeling more completely snubbed than 
 ever I remember being in my life. 
 
 With her assistance he got into the bunk, and lay there quite 
 
 stni. 
 
 She drew close to me, and obliged me to share the seat she 
 made of the box which had contained the steward's hnen. 
 
 " You are not angry with him?" she whispered. 
 
 "Indeed not." 
 
 " I shall lose him soon. He wUl not live long," she said, 
 and tears came into her eyes. 
 
 " God will spare him to you. Miss Eobertson. Have cour- 
 age; Our trials are nearly ended. Once ashore, he will re- 
 cover his health. It is this miserable confinement, this 
 gloomy cabin, this absence of the comforts he had been used 
 to, that are telling upon his mind. He wiU live to recall all 
 this in his English home. The worst has never come until it 
 is passed — that is my creed; because the worst may be trans- 
 formed into good even when it is on us." 
 
 " Tou have the courage," she answered, " not I. But you 
 give me courage. God knows what I should have done but 
 for you." 
 
 I looked into her brave, soft eyes, swimming in tears, and 
 
164 THE WEECK 0¥ THE 
 
 could have spoken some deep thoughts to her then, awakened 
 by her words. 
 
 I was silent a moment, and then said : 
 
 " You must not go on deck to-day. Indeed, I think you 
 had better remain below until I ask you to join me. " 
 
 " Why? is there any new danger?" 
 
 " Nothing you need fear. The men, who fancy themselves 
 very nearly at their journey's end, threaten to grow boisterous. 
 But my importance to them is too great to allow them to offend 
 me yet. Still, it will be best for you to keep out of sight." 
 
 " I will do whatever you wish. " 
 
 " I am sure you will. My wish is to save you — ^not my wish 
 only — ^it is my resolution. Trust me wholly. Miss Eobertson. 
 Keep up your courage, for I may want you to help me at the 
 last." 
 
 " You must trust in me, too, as my whole trust is in you," 
 she answered, smiling. 
 
 I smiled back at her, and said: 
 
 " Now, let me tell you what may happen — what all my ener- 
 gies are and have been engaged to bring about. On Friday 
 afternoon I shaU tell the carpenter that the ship is fifty or 
 sixty miles off the coast of Florida. If the night is calm — and 
 I pray that it may be — the ship will be hove to, that isj ren- 
 dered stationary on the water; the long-boat wiU be slung over 
 the side, and the quarter-boat lowered. All this is certain to 
 happen. But now come my doubts. Will the crew remain 
 on board until the man they send into the hold to scuttle the 
 vessel rejoins them? or will they get into the boats and wait 
 for him alongside? If they take to the boats and wait for the 
 man, the ship is ours. II they remain on board, then our 
 preservation will depend upon the boson. " 
 
 " How?" 
 
 " He will either kUl the man who gets into the hold, or 
 knock him insensible. He will then have to act as though he 
 were the man he has knocked on the head." 
 
 "I see." 
 
 " If they call to him, he will have to answer them without 
 showing himself. Perhaps he will call to them. They will 
 answer him. They wiU necessarily muffle their voices, that we 
 who are aft may not suspect what they are about. In that 
 case the boson may counterfeit the voice of the man he has 
 knocked on the head successfully." 
 
 " But what will he tell them?" 
 
 " Why, that his job is nearly finished, and that they had 
 best take to the boats and hold off for him, as he is scuttling 
 
THE WRECK OP THE "GEOSVENOR." 163 
 
 her in half a dozen places, and the people aft will find her sink- 
 ing and make a rush to the boats if they are not kept away. 
 He will tell them that when he has done scuttling her he will 
 run up and jump OTerboard and swim to them. This, if done 
 cleverly, may decide the men to shove off. We shall see. " 
 
 "It is a clever scheme," she answered, musingly. "The 
 boatswain's life depends upon his success, and I believe he will 
 succeed in duping them. " 
 
 "What can be done he will do, I am sui-e," I said, not 
 choosing to admit that I had not her confidence in the strata- 
 gem, because I feared that the more the boatswain should en- 
 deavor to disguise his voice, the greater would be the risk of its 
 being recognized. " But let me tell you that this is the worst 
 view of the case. It is quite probable that the men will take 
 to the boats and wait for their mate to finish in the hold, not 
 only because it will save time, but because they will imagine it 
 an effectual way of compelling us to remain on the vessel. " 
 
 " What villains ! And if they take to the boats?" 
 
 " Then I shall want you." 
 
 " What can I do?" 
 
 " We shall see. There still remains a third chance. The 
 carpenter is, or I have read his character upside down, a born 
 murderer. It is possible that this villain may design to leave 
 the man whom he sends into the hold to sink with the ship. 
 He has not above half a dozen chums, confidential friends, 
 among the crew; and it will be his and their policy to rid 
 themselves of the others as best they can, so as to diminish the 
 number of witnesses against them. If, therefore, they con- 
 template this, they wiU leave the ship while they suppose the 
 act of scuttling to be actually proceeding. Now, among the 
 many schemes which have entered my mind, there was one I 
 should have put in practice had I not feared to commit any 
 action which might in the smallest degree imperil your safety. 
 This scheme was to cautiously sound the minds of the men who 
 were not in the carpenter's intimate confidence; ascertain how 
 far they relish the notion of quitting the ship for a shore that 
 might prove inhospitable, or on which their boats might be 
 wrecked and themselves drowned; and discover, by what shrewd- 
 ness I am master of, how many I might get to come over to my 
 side if the boatswain and myself turned upon Stevens and killed 
 him, shot down Johnson, and fell, armed with my revolver 
 and a couple of belaying-pins, upon Gornish and Fish — these 
 three men composing Stevens's cabinet. I say that this was 
 quite practicable, and no very great courage required to execute 
 
166 THE -WBEOK 01' THE " 6B0STE1TOB. " 
 
 it, as we should have killed or stunned these men before they 
 would be able to resist us." 
 
 " There would be nine left." 
 
 " Yes; but I should have reckoned upon some of them help- 
 ing me." jj 
 
 " You could not have depended upon them. 
 
 " Well, we have another plan; and I refer to this only to 
 show you a specimen of some of the schemes which have come 
 into my head." 
 
 " Mr. Eoyle, if you had a pistol to give me, I would help 
 you to shoot them! Show me how I can aid you in saving our 
 Hves, and I will do your bidding!" she exclaimed, with her eyes 
 on fire. 
 
 I put my finger on my Hp and smiled. 
 
 She blushed scarlet, and said: " You do not think me wom- 
 anly to talk so?" 
 
 " You would not hate me were you to know my thoughts," 
 I answered, rising. 
 
 " Are you going, Mr. Eoyle?" 
 
 " Yes. Stevens, for all I know, may have seen me come ia 
 here. I would rather he should find me in my own cabin." 
 
 " We see very little of you, considering that we are all three 
 in one small ship," she said, hanging her head. 
 
 " I never leave you willingly, and would be with you all day 
 if I might. But a rough sailor like me is poor company." 
 
 " Sailors are the best company in the world, Mr. Eoyle." 
 
 " Only one woman in every hundred thinks so — perhaps one 
 in every thousand. Well, you would see less of me than you 
 do if I was not prepared to lay down my life for you. No! I 
 don't say that boastfully. I have sworn in my heart to save 
 you, and it shall cost me my life if I faU. That is what I 
 should have said. " 
 
 She turned her back suddenly, and I hardly knew whether I 
 had not said too much. I stood watching her for a few mo- 
 ments, with my fingers on the handle of the door. Finding 
 she did not move, I went quietly out, but as I closed the door 
 I heard her sob. Now, what had I said to make her cry? I 
 did not like to go in again, and so I repaired to my cabin, 
 wishing, instead of allowing my conversation to drift into a 
 personal cun-ent, I had confined it to my plans, which I had 
 not half unfolded to her, but from which I had been as easily 
 diverted as if they were a bit of fiction, instead of a living plot 
 that our lives depended on. 
 
 During my watch from four to sis, Stevens joined me, and 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVBNOR. " 16? 
 
 asked how " Moridy " would bear from the ship when she was 
 hove to? 
 
 I told him that Florida was not an island, but part of the 
 main coast of North America, and that he might head the 
 boats any point from north-north-west to south-south-west, and 
 from a distance of fifty or sixty miles, fetch some part of the 
 Florida coast, which, I dared say, showed a seaboard ranging 
 four hundred mites long. 
 
 This seemed iiew to him, which more than ever convinced 
 me of his ignorance; for though I had repeatedly pointed out 
 Florida to him, yet he did not know but that it was an island, 
 which might easily be missed by steering the boats a point out 
 of the course given. 
 
 He then asked me what compasses we had that we might 
 take with us. 
 
 " We shall only want one in the long-boat," Irephed; " and 
 there is one on the table in the captain's cabin which vnll do. 
 Have you got the long-boat all ready?" 
 
 "Ay, clean as a new brass farden, and provisioned for a 
 month. " 
 
 " Now let me understand; when the ship is hove to, you will 
 sling the long-boat over?" 
 
 " I explained all that before," he answered, gruffly. 
 
 "Not that." 
 
 "You're hangin' on a tidy bit about them there boats. 
 What do you think?" 
 
 " I suppose my life is as good as yours, and that I have a 
 right to find out how we are to abondon this ship and make 
 the shore," I answered, with some show of warmth, my object 
 being to get all the information from him that was possible to 
 be drawn. " You'll get the long-boat alongside, and all hands 
 will jump into her? Is that it?" 
 
 " Why, wot do you think we'd get the boat alongside for if 
 we didn't get into her?" he repUed, with a kind of growling 
 laugh. 
 
 '^Will anybody be left on the ship?" 
 
 " Anybody left on the ship?" he exclaimed, fetchiag a sud- 
 den breath. " Wot's put that in yer head?" 
 
 " I was afraid that that yellow devU, the cook, might induce 
 you to leave the steward behind to take his chance to sink or 
 swim in her, just out of revenge for calHng bad pork good," 
 said I, fixing my eyes upon him. 
 
 " No, no, nothen of that sort," he replied, quickly, and 
 with evident alarm. " Curse the cook! d'ye think I'se skipper 
 to give them kind o' orders?" 
 
168 THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVBKOB. ' 
 
 " Now you see what I'm driving at/' I said, laying my hand 
 on his arm, and addressing him with a snule. " I really did 
 think you meant to leave the poor devil of a steward behind. 
 And what I wanted to understand was how you proposed to 
 manage with the boats to prevent him boarding you — ^that is 
 why I was curious. " 
 
 The suspicious ruflBan took the bait as I meant he should; 
 and, putting on an unconcerned manner, which fitted him as 
 ill as the pilot- jacket, which he had stolen from the captain he 
 had murdered, and which he was now wearing, inquired, 
 " What I meant by that? If they left the steward behind — 
 not that they was goin' to, but to say it, for the sake o' argy- 
 ment — -what would the management of the boats have to do 
 with preventin' him boardin' of them? He didn't under- 
 stand. " 
 
 " Oh, nothing," I replied, with a shrug. " Since we are to 
 take the steward with us, there's an end of the matter. " 
 
 " Can't you explain, sir?" he cried, striving to suppress his 
 temper. 
 
 " It is not worth the trouble," said I; " because, don't you 
 see, if even you had made up your mind to leave the steward 
 on the ship, you'd only have one man to deal with. What put 
 this matter into my head was a yarn I read some time ago about 
 a ship's company wishing to leave their vessel. There were 
 only two boats which were serviceable, and these wouldn't hold 
 above two thirds of the crew. So the men conspired among 
 themselves — do you understand me?" 
 
 " Yes, yes, I'm a-foUowin' of you." 
 
 " That is, twelve men out of a crew composed of eighteen 
 hands resolved to lower the boats and get away, and leave the 
 others to shift for themselves. But they had to act cautiously, 
 because, don't you see, the fellows who were to be left behind 
 would become desperate with the fear of death, and if any 
 of them contrived to get into the boats, they might begin a 
 fight, which, if it didn't capsize the boats, was pretty sure to 
 end in a drowning match. Of course, in our case, as I have 
 said, even supposing you had made up your mind to leave the 
 steward behind, we' should have nothing to fear, because he 
 would be only one man. But when you come to two or three, 
 or four men driven mad by terror, then look out, if they get 
 among you in a boat! for fear will make two as strong as six, 
 and I shouldn't like to be in the boat where such a fight was 
 taking place." 
 
 " Well, but how did them other chaps manage as you're tell- 
 in' about?" ^ ^ ^ 
 
THE WEECK OF THE "GROSVEKOR." 169 
 
 " Why, they all got into the boats in a lump, and shoved o3 
 well clear of the ship. The others jumped into the water 
 after them, but never reached the boats. But all this doesn't 
 hit our case. You wished me to explain, and now you know 
 my reasons for asking you how you meant to manage with the 
 boats. Do not forget that there is a woman among us, and a 
 flght at the last moment, when our lives may depend upon 
 orderliness and coolness, may drown us all. " 
 
 And so saying, I left him, under pretense of looking at the 
 compass. 
 
 CHAPTEE XVII. 
 
 I HAD no reason to suppose that the hints I took care to 
 wrap up in-, my conversation with Stevens would shape his 
 actions to the form I wished them to take; but though they 
 did no good, they would certainly do me no harm, and it was 
 at least certain that my opinion was respected, so that I might 
 hope that some weight would attach to whatever suggestions I 
 offered. 
 
 Nothing now remained to be done but to wait the result of 
 events; but no language can express an idea of my anxiety as 
 the hours passed, bringing us momentarily closer to the dreaded 
 and yet wished-for issue. 
 
 Some of the men got intoxicated that afternoon, and I be- 
 Heve two of them had a desperate set-to; they sung until they 
 were tired, and* for tea had more hot roast pork and fowls. 
 
 But the majority had their senses, and kept those who were 
 drunk under; so that the riot was all forward. 
 
 I wondered what the boatswain would think of the shindy 
 over his head, and whether he had a watch to tell the time by. 
 His abode was surely a very dismal one, among the coals in 
 the fore-peak, and dark as night, with plenty of rats to squeak 
 about his ears, and the endless creaking and complaining of 
 the timbers under water. 
 
 A terrible idea possessed me once. It was that he might be 
 asleep when the man went down to scuttle the ship, who, of 
 course, would take a candle with him, and find him lying 
 there. 
 
 But there was no use in imagining evil. I could only do what 
 was possible. If we were doomed to die, why, we must meet 
 our fate heroically. What more? 
 
 It blew freshly at eleven o'clock, and held all night. I kept 
 all the sail on tne ship that she would bear, and up to noou 
 next day we spanked along at a great pace. 
 
170 
 
 Then the wind fell light and veered round to the north; bu\ 
 this did not matter to me, for I showed the carpenter a run on 
 the chart which convincingly proved to him that, even if we 
 lid no more than four knots an hour until next day, we should 
 be near enough to the coast of Florida to heave to. 
 
 This afternoon the men made preparations to swhig the 
 long-boat over the side, clapping on straps to the collar of the 
 mainstay, and forward round the trestle-tree, ready to hook on 
 the tackles to lift the boat out of her chocks. Their eagerness 
 to get away from the ship was well illustrated by these early 
 preparations. 
 
 All that day they fared sumptuously on roast pork, and what- 
 ever took their fancy among the cuddy stores, but drank httle, 
 or at all events not enough to afEect them; though there was 
 sufficient rum in the hold to kill them all off in a day, had they 
 had a mind to broach the casks. 
 
 Toward evening we sighted no less than five ships, two stand- 
 ing to the south and the others steering north. The spectacle 
 of these vessels fully persuaded Stevens that we were nearing 
 the coast, he telling me he had no doubt they were from the 
 West Indies, which he supposed were not more than four hun- 
 dred miles distant. 
 
 1 did not undeceive him. 
 
 I saw Miss Eobertson for a few minutes that evening to re- 
 peat my caution to her not to show herself on deck. 
 
 The men were again at their pranks in the forecastle, sky- 
 larking, as they call it at sea, and though not drank, they were 
 making a tremendous noise. One of them had got a concer- 
 tina, and sat tailor-fashion, on top of the capstan, and some 
 were dancing, two having dressed themselves up as women in 
 canvas bonnets, and blankets round them to resemble skirts. 
 
 Fun of this sort would have been innocent enough had there 
 been any recognized discipline to overlook it; but from decent 
 mirth to boisterous, coarse disorder is an easy step to sailors; 
 and in the present temper of the crew the least provocation 
 might convert the ship into a theater for exhibitions of horse- 
 play which, begun in vanity, might end in criminal excesses. 
 
 During my brief conversation with Miss Eobertson, I asked 
 her an odd question — Could she steer a ship? 
 
 She answered, "Yes." 
 
 " You say ' yes ' because you will try if you are wanted to 
 do so," I said. 
 
 "I say ' yes ' because I really understand how to use the 
 wheel," she replied, seriously. 
 
 " Where did you learn?" 
 
THE WRECK Off THE " GROSTENOR. " 171 
 
 " During our voyage to the Cape of Good Hope. I used to 
 watch the man steering, and observe him move the wheel so as 
 to keep the compass-card steady. I told Captain JenMnson I 
 should like to learn to steer, and he would often let me hold 
 the wheel, and, for fun, give me orders. " 
 
 " Which way would you puU the spokes if I told you to put 
 the helm to the starboard?" 
 
 " To the left," she answered, promptly. 
 
 " And if I said ' hard over '?" 
 
 " If the wind was blowing on the left hand side, I would 
 push the wheel to the right until I could push it no further. 
 You can^t puzzle me, indeed. I know all the steering terms. 
 Really, I can steer. " 
 
 I quite believed her, though I should never have dreamed of 
 her proficiency in' this matter; and told her that if we suc- 
 ceeded in getting away from the boats, she would be of the 
 utmost importance to us, because then there would be three 
 men to work the ship, whereas two only would be at Hberty if 
 one had to take the wheel. 
 
 And now I come to Friday. 
 
 We kept no regular watches. Stevens, ever distrustful of 
 me, was markedly so now that our voyage was nearly ended. 
 He was incessantly up and down, looking at the compass, com- 
 puting the ship's speed by staring at the passing water, and 
 often engaged, sometimes on the poop, sometimes on the fore- 
 castle, ia conversation with Fish, Cornish, Johnson and others. 
 
 He made no inquiries after Mr. or Miss Eobertson; he ap- 
 peared to have forgotten their existence. I also noticed that 
 he shirked me as often as he could, leaving the deck when I 
 appeared, and mounting the ladder the furthest from where I 
 stood when he came aft from the main-deck. 
 
 The dawn had broken with a promise of a beautiful day; 
 though the glass, which had been dropping very slowly aU 
 through the night, stood low at eight o'clock that morning. 
 The sun, even at that early hour, was intensely hot, and here 
 and there the pitch in the seams of the deck adhered to the 
 soles of one's boots, while the smell of the paint-work rose hot 
 in the nostrils. 
 
 There was a long swell, the undulations, moderate though 
 wide apart, coming from the westward; the clouds were very 
 high, and the sky a dazzling blue, and the wind about north, 
 very soft and refreshing. 
 
 The men were quiet, and continued so throughout the day. 
 Many of them, as well as the carpenter, incessantly gazed 
 axound the horizon, evidently fearing the approach of a vessel; 
 
172 THE WRBCK OF THE " GEOSVEN-QB." 
 
 and some would steal aft and look at the compass, and tlien go 
 
 away again. t u 
 
 "We were under all plain sail, and the ship, as near as i could 
 tell, was making about five knots an hour, though the log gave 
 us seven, and I logged it seven on the slate m case of any 
 arguments arising. i • , . 
 
 When I came on deck with my sextant in hand to take sights, 
 I was struck by the intent expressions on the faces of the crew, 
 the whole of whom, even including the cook, had collected on 
 the poop, or stood upon the ladders waiting for me. 
 
 "When I saw them thus congregated, my heart for a moment 
 failed me. 
 
 The tremendous doubt crossed my mind — were they 
 acquainted with the ship's whereabouts? Did they know, bad 
 thex known all through, that I was deceiving them? 
 
 No! 
 
 As I looked at them I became reassured. Theirs was an 
 anxiety I should have been blind to -misconstrue. The true 
 expression on their faces represented nothing but eager curiosity 
 to know whether our journey were really ended, or whether 
 more time must elapse before they could quit the ship which 
 they had rendered accursed with the crime of murder, and 
 which, as I well knew, from what Stevens had over and over 
 again let fall, they abhorred with all the terrors of vulgar 
 conscience. 
 
 Having made my observations, I was about to quit the poop, 
 when one of the men called out: 
 
 " Tell us what you make it." 
 
 " I will when I have worked it out," I replied. 
 
 " Work it out here, while we looks on." 
 
 " Do any of you understand navigation?" 
 
 There was no reply. 
 
 " Unless you can count," said I, " you'll not be able to fol- 
 low me." 
 
 " Two and two and one makes nine," said a voice. 
 
 " What do ye mean by jokin' ? You ought to be ashamed o' 
 yourself!" exclaimed one of the men. And then there was a 
 blow, and immediately after an oath. 
 
 ' ' If you want me to work out these sights in your presence, 
 I'll do so," said I. 
 
 And I went below to get the things I required, leaving my 
 sextant on deck to show them that I meant to be honest. 
 
 When I returned, they were all around the sky-light, gazing 
 at the sextant as though it were an animal; no man taking the 
 liberty to touch it, however. 
 
THE WEEOK OF THE "GEOSVENOB." 173 
 
 They came, hustling each other ahout me as I sat on the 
 sky-light working out my figures, and I promise you their 
 
 Eroximity, coupled with my notion that they might suspect I 
 ad been deceiTin^ them, did not sharpen my wits so as to ex- 
 pedite my calculations. 
 
 I carried two reckonings in my head — ^the false and the true; 
 and, finding our actual whereabouts to be ninety-eight miles 
 from Bermuda, the islands bearing west-south-west, as straight 
 as a line, I imf olded the chart, and, giving them the imaginary 
 longitude and latitude, put my finger upon the spot we were 
 supposed to have reached, exclaiming: 
 Now you can see where we are." 
 
 "Just make a small mark therewith your pencil, wiljyou?" 
 said Johnson; " then all hands can have a look." 
 
 I did so and quitted the sky-light, surrendering the chart to 
 the men, who made a strange picture as they stood poring over 
 it, pointing with their brown forefingers and arguing. 
 
 There^s no question I can answer, is there?" said I to the 
 carpenter. 
 
 Mates, is there anything you want to say to Mr. Eoyle?" 
 he exclaimed. 
 
 " When are we going to heave the ship to?" asked Ksh. 
 
 " That's for you to answer," I rejoined. 
 
 " Well, I'm for not standin' too close inshore," said FisL 
 
 " How fur ofE do you say is this here Florida coast?" asked 
 Johnson. 
 
 " About sixty miles. Look at the chart." 
 
 " And every minute brings us nearer," said a man. 
 
 "That's true," I replied. "But you don't want to leave 
 the ship before dusk, do you?" 
 
 The men looked at each other as though they were riot sure 
 that they ought to confide so much to me as an answer to my 
 question would involve. I particularly took notice of this, 
 and felt how thoroughly I was put aside by them in their in- 
 tentions. 
 
 The carpenter said, " You'll understand our arrangements 
 by and by, Mr. Eoyle. How's the wind?" 
 
 " About north," said I. 
 
 " Mates, shall we bring the yards to the masts and keep the 
 leeches liftin' till we're ready to stop, her?" 
 
 " The best thing as can happen," said Johnson. 
 
 " She'll lie to the westward at that, and'll look to be sailin' 
 properly it. a wessel sights her; and she'll make no headway 
 neither," said Stevens. 
 
 " You can't do better," I exclaimed. 
 
174 THE WKECK OF THE " GROSTENOE." 
 
 So the helm, was put down, and as the men went to work I 
 descended to my cabin. 
 
 The steward's head was at the pantry door, and I called to 
 him, " Bring me a biscuit and the sherry." 
 
 I wanted neither, but I had something to say to him; and if 
 Stevens saw him come to my cabiri with a tray in his hand he 
 was not likely to follow and listen at the door. 
 
 The steward put the tray down and was going away, when I 
 took him by the arm and led him to the extremity of the 
 cabin. 
 
 " Do you value your life?" I said to him, in a whisper. 
 
 He stared at me and turned pale. 
 
 "Just Usten,'' I continued. "At dusk this evening the 
 men are going to scuttle the ship first, that she may fill with 
 water and sink. It is not their intention to take us with 
 them." 
 
 " My God!" he muttered, trembling Hke a freezing man, 
 " are we to be left on board to sink?" 
 
 " That is what they mean. But the boson, who they be- 
 lieve to be drowned, is in the hold ready to kill the man who 
 goes down to scuttle the ship. If we act promptly, we may 
 save our hves and get away from the ruflBans. There are only 
 three of us, but we must fight as though we were twelve men, 
 if it should come to our having to fight. Understand that. 
 When once the men are in the boats, no creature among them 
 must ever get on board again alive. Hit hard — spare nothing! 
 If we are beaten, we are dead men; if we conquer, our lives are 
 our own." 
 
 " I'll do my best," answered the steward, the expression 
 upon whose face, however, was anything but heroical. " But 
 you must tell me what to do, sir. I sha'n't know, sir. I never 
 was in a fight, and the sight of blood is terrifying to me, sir. " 
 
 ' ' You'll have to bottle up your fears. Don't misunderstand 
 me, steward. Every man left on board this ship to drown will 
 look to his companions to help him to save his life. And, bj 
 all that's holy! if you show any cowardice, if you skulk, if you 
 do not fight like forty men, if you do not stick by my side and 
 obey my words hke a fiash of hghtning, as sure as you breathe 
 I'll put a bullet through your head! I'll kill you for not help- 
 ing me!" 
 
 And I pulled out the pistol from my pocket and flourished it 
 under his nose. 
 
 He recoiled from the weapon with his eyes half out of his 
 Jiead, and gasped: 
 
 " What am I to use, sir?" 
 
THE WKECK OF THE "GKOSVENOE." 17S 
 
 '"' The first iron belaying-pia you can snatch up," I answered. 
 " There are plenty to be found. And now be off. Not a look, 
 not a word! Go to your work as usual. If you open your 
 mouth you are a dead man." 
 
 He went away as pale as a ghost. However, cur as he was, 
 I did not despair of his turning to at the last moment. 
 Cowards will sometimes make terrible antagonists. The mad- 
 ness of fear renders them desperate, and in their frenzy they 
 will do more execution than the brave, deliberate man. 
 
 I did not remain long off the poop, being too anxious to ob- 
 serve the movements of the crew. 
 
 I found the breeze slackening fast, with every appearance of 
 a calm in the hot, misty blue sky and the glassy aspect of the 
 horizon. The lower sails flapped to every motion of the ship, 
 and, lying close to what little wind there was, we made no 
 progress at all. > 
 
 The promise of a calm, though favorable to the intentions of 
 the men, in so far as it would keep the horizon clear of sailing 
 ships, and so limit the probability of their operations being wit- 
 nessed to the chance of a steamer passing, was a blow to me; 
 as one essential part of my scheme — that of swinging the main- 
 yards round and getting way on the ship when the men had 
 left her — would be impracticable. 
 
 The glass, indeed, stood low; but then this might betoken 
 the coming of more wind than I should want — a gale that would 
 detain the men on the ship, and force them to defer the scheme 
 of abandoning her for an indefinite period. 
 
 They had. gone to dinner, but were so quiet that the vessel 
 seemed deserted, and nothing was audible but the clanking of 
 the tiller-chains and the rattling of the sails against the masts. 
 
 Stevens was forward, apparently having his dinner with the 
 men. In glancing through the sky-hght, I saw Mary Eobert- 
 son looking up at me. I leaned forward, so that my face was 
 concealed from the man at the wheel — ^the only person on deck 
 besides myself — and whispered: 
 
 " Keep up your courage, and be ready to act as I may 
 direct." 
 
 " I am quite ready," she answered. 
 
 "Eemain in your cabin," I said, "and don't let the men 
 see you;" for it had flashed upon me that if the crew saw her 
 they might force her to go along with them in their boats. 
 
 " I wanted a little brandy for papa," she answered. " He is 
 very poorly and weak, and rambles terribly in his talk." 
 
 She turned to hide her tears from me, and prevent me wit- 
 nessing her struggles to restrain them. She would feel their 
 
176 THE WRECK OF THE "GROSVENOB." 
 
 impotence, the mockery of them, at such a time; besides, deai 
 heart, she would think I should distrust her courage if she let 
 me see her weep. 
 
 The steward came forward under the sky-light as she entered 
 her cabia, and said: 
 
 " I wiU fight for my life, sir." 
 
 " That is my advice to you." 
 
 " I will do my best. I have been thiaking of my wife and 
 child, sir." 
 
 " Hush!" I cried. " Not so loud. If your courage fails 
 you, there is a girl in that cabin there who wiLL show you how 
 to be brave. Eemember two things — act quickly and strike 
 hard; and, for God's sake! don't fall to drinking to pull up 
 your nerves! If I find you drunk, I will call upon the men to 
 drown you. " 
 
 And with this injunction I left the sky-light. 
 
 The men remained a great while in the forecastle, all so 
 quiet that I wondered whether some among them were not even 
 now below scuttling the ship. But they would hardly act so 
 prematurely. To be sure it would take a long time for the 
 ship to fill, bored even in half a dozen places by an auger; but 
 until the evening fell, and they were actually in the boats, they 
 could not be sure that a wind would not spring up to obh'ge 
 them to keep to the ship. 
 
 I remained on deck, never thinking of dinner, watching the 
 weather anxiously. 
 
 An ordinary seaman came aft to relieve the wheel; but find- 
 ing that the ship had no steerage-way on her, he squatted him- 
 self on the taft'rail, pulled out a pipe and began to smoke. I 
 took no notice of him. 
 
 Shortly afterward Stevens came along the main-deck and 
 mounted the poop. 
 
 "A dead calm," said he, after sweeping the horizon with 
 his hand over his eyes, " and blessedly hot." 
 
 " Is the ship to be left all standing?" I inquired. 
 
 " What do you think?" he rephed, with an air of indiffer- 
 ence, casting has eyes aloft. 
 
 " I should snug her, certaiuly." 
 
 " Why?" he demanded, folding his arms and staring at me 
 as he leaned against the poop-rail. 
 
 " Because, should she drift, and be overhauled by another 
 ship, it will look more ship-shape if she is found snug, as 
 though she had been abandoned in a storm. " 
 
 " There's something in that," he answered, without shifting 
 bis position. 
 
THE WKECK OF THE " GEOSVESTOR." 177 
 
 " Shall I tell the men to shorten sail?" 
 
 " If you like/' he replied, grinning ia my face. 
 
 I pretended not to observe his odd manner, being very anx- 
 ious to get in all the sail I could while there were men to do it. 
 So I sxmg out, " All hands shorten sail!" 
 
 The men on the forecastle stared and burst into a laugh; 
 and one of a group on the main-deck, who were inspecting the 
 provisions for the long-boat, which lay under a tarpaidin, ex- 
 claimed: 
 
 " Wot's goin' to happen?" 
 
 I glanced at the carpenter, who still surveyed me with a 
 broad grin, and walked aft. I was a fool not to have antici- 
 pated this. What was it to the crew whether the ship sunk 
 with all sails standing or all sails furled? 
 
 I was too restless to go below; but to dissemble my terrible 
 anxiety as well as I could, I lighted a pipe and crouched in the 
 shadow of the mizzen-mast out of the way of the broiling sun. 
 
 The breeze had utterly gone. The sea was glassy, and white, 
 and long wreaths of mist stood down in the south, upon the 
 horizon. As I looked at the ship, at her graceful spaces of 
 canvas lowering upon the fine and delicate masts, her white 
 decks, her gleaming brass-work, the significance of the crime 
 meditated by the crew was shocking to me. The awful cold- 
 bloodedness with which they meant to sink the beautiful vessel, 
 with the few poor lives who were to be left defenseless on 
 board, overwhelmed me with horror and detestation. So 
 atrocious an act I thought the Almighty would not surely per- 
 mit. Oould not I count upon his mercy and protection? Ee- 
 membering that I had not sought him yet, I pulled off my cap, 
 and without kneeling — for I durst not kneel with the eyes of 
 the men upon me — I mutely invoked His heavenly protection. 
 I pleaded with all the^ strength of my heart for the sweet and 
 helpless girl whom, under His divine providence, I had already 
 rescued from one dreadful fate, and whom, under His sure 
 guidance, I might yet preserve from the slow and bitter death 
 which the crew had planned that we should suffer. 
 
 It was not imtil six o'clock that the carpenter ordered the 
 men to get the long-boat over. But Just before he called out, 
 I had noticed, with a leap of Joy in me, that the water out in 
 the north-west was dark as with a shadow of a cloud upon it. 
 
 Though this was no more than a cat's-paw, and traveled very 
 slowly, I was certain, not only from the indications of the 
 barometer, but from the complexion of the sky, that wind was 
 behind. 
 
178 THE WEKCK OF THE " GEOSVEN^OK. " 
 
 The men did not appear to notice it, and when the carpenter 
 sung out the order, all hands went to work briskly. 
 
 Some ran aloft with tackles, which they made fast to the 
 starboard fore and main yard-arms; others hooked on tackles 
 to the straps which were already round the trestle-tree and col- 
 lar of the mainstay. But willuiglyas they worked, even these 
 preliminary measures ran into a great deal of time; and before 
 they had done, a light breeze had come down on the ship, and 
 taken her aback. 
 
 The carpenter, seeing this, clapped some hands on to the 
 fore and mizzen-braces, and filled the fore and after sails. 
 The ship was therefore hove with her head at west. 
 
 This done, he went to the wheel, put the helm amidship and 
 made it fast; and then went forward again to superintend the 
 work. 
 
 I took up my position on the starboard side of the poop, 
 close against the ladder, and there I remained. I scanned the 
 faces of the men carefully, and found all hands present, in- 
 cluding the cook. I thus knew that no man was below ia the 
 hold, and it was now my business to watch closely that I might 
 miss the man who should have the job to scuttle the ship. 
 
 The breeze died away, but in the same direction whence it 
 had come was another shadow, more defined, and extending far 
 to the north. 
 
 The men had begun their work late, and as they knew that 
 they had little or no twibght to count upon, labored hard at 
 the difficult task of raising the long-boat out of her chocks, 
 and swinging her clear of the bulwarks. 
 
 It was close upon seven o'clock before they were ready to 
 hoist. They took the end of one fall to the capstan on the 
 main-deck, the other they led forward through a block, and 
 presently up rose the boat until it was on a level with the bul- 
 warks. Then the yard-arm tackles were manned, the midship 
 falls slacked off, and the big boat sunk gently down into the 
 water. 
 
 She was brought alongside at once, and three men jumped 
 into her. Then began the process of storing the provisions. 
 This was carried on by five men, while the remaining three 
 came aft; and whUe one got into the quarter-boat, the other 
 two lowered her. 
 
 At this moment 1 missed the carpenter. 
 
 I held my breath, looking into the boats and all round. 
 
 He was not to be seen. 
 
 I strained my ear at the foremost sky-light, conceiving that 
 he might have entered the cuddy. 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVEKOR. " 179 
 
 All was silent there. 
 
 Beyond the shadow of a doubt, he it was who had planned 
 the scuttling of the ship, and he it was who had left the deck 
 to do it. 
 
 It was a supreme moment. I had not contemplated that he 
 would be the man who should bore the hole. If the boatswain 
 killed him! 
 
 Great God! the hands were on deck — all about us! If he did 
 not return they would seek him. He was their leader, and they 
 were not hkely to quit the ship without him. 
 . The hair stirred on my head; the sweat stood in beads on my 
 face. I bit my lip half through to control my features, and 
 «tood waiting for — I knew not what! 
 
 CHAPTEE XVIII. 
 
 The men went on busily proTisioning the long-boat, some 
 whistling gay tunes, others laughing and passing jokes, aU in 
 good spirits, as though they were going on a holiday expedi- 
 tion. 
 
 The shadow on the horizon was broadening fast, and the sun 
 was sinking quickly, making the ocean blood-red with its burn- 
 ing effulgence, and veioing the well-greased masts with lines of 
 fire. 
 
 What had happened? 
 
 Even now, as I thought, was the villain lying dead, with 
 the auger in his hand! 
 
 The minutes rolling past seemed eternal. Eive, ten, twenty 
 minutes came and went. The sun's lower limb was close 
 against the water-liue, sipping the ruddy splendor it had 
 kindled. The breeze was now close at hand, but we still lay 
 in a breathless calm, and the saUs flapped softly to the tuneful 
 motion of the deep. 
 
 Then some of the men who remained on deck went over the 
 ship's side, leaving four of the crew on the main-deck close 
 against the gang-way. These men sometimes looked at me, 
 sometimes into the cuddy, sometimes forward, but none of 
 them spoke. 
 
 Now the sun was half hidden, and the soft breeze blowing 
 upon the saUs outlined the masts against those which were 
 backed. 
 
 Suddenly — and I started as though I had beheld a ghost — 
 the carpenter came round from before the gaUey, and walked 
 quickly to the gangway. 
 
 " Over with you, lads," he cried. 
 
180 THE WKECK OF THE "GEOSVBKOK." 
 
 Like rats leaping from a sinking hull they dropped, one after 
 the other, into the long-boat, the carpenter going last. Their 
 painter was fast to a chain-plate, and they cast it adrift. The 
 quarter-boat was in tow, and in a few minutes both boats stood 
 at some two or three cable lengths from the ship, the men 
 watching her. 
 
 The last glorious fragment of the sinking sun fled, and dark- 
 ness came creeping swiftly over the sea. 
 
 I had stood Uke one in whom Ufe had suddenly been extin- 
 guished — too much amazed to act. Seeing the carpenter re- 
 turn, I had made sure that he had killed the boatswain; but 
 his behaTior contradicted this supposition. Had he been at- 
 tacked by the boatswam and killed him, would he have quitted 
 the ship without revenging himself upon me, whom he would 
 know to be at the bottom of this conspiracy against his hfe? 
 
 What, then, was the meaning of his return, his collected 
 manner, his silent exit from the ship? Had the boatswain, 
 lying hidden, diedf The thought fired my blood. Yes, I 
 believed that he had died — that the carpenter had performed 
 his task unmolested without perceiving the corpse — and that, 
 while I stood there, the water was rushing into the ship's 
 hold! 
 
 I flung myself off the poop and bounded forward. In the 
 briefest possible time I was peering down the fore-scuttle. 
 
 "Below there!" I called. 
 
 " There was no answer. 
 
 " Below there, I say, boson!" 
 
 My cry was succeeded by a. hollow, thumping sound. 
 
 " Below there!" I shouted for the third time. 
 
 I heard the sounds of a foot treading on something that 
 crunched under the tread. 
 
 " I am Mr. Eoyle. Boson, are you below? For God 
 Almighty's sake answer, and let me know that you are Kving!" 
 
 " Have the skunks cleared out?" responded a voice, and, 
 stumbling as he moved, the boatswain came imder the fore- 
 scuttle, and turned up his face. 
 
 " What have you done?" I cried, almost delirious. 
 
 " Why, plugged up two on 'em. There's only one more," 
 he answered. 
 
 " One more what?" 
 
 " Leaks — ^holes — whatever you call 'em." 
 
 So saying he shouldered his way back into the gloom. 
 
 It was now all as clear as dayhght to me. I waited some 
 minutes^ bursting with impatience and anxiety, during which 
 I heard him hammering away like a calker. My fear was that 
 
XHB WRECK OF THE " SROSTENOE. " 181 
 
 the men would discover that they had omitted to put the com- 
 pass ia the hoats, and that they would return for one. There 
 were other things, too, of which they might perceive the omis- 
 sion, and row to the ship to obtaia them before she sunk. 
 
 Just as I was about to cry out to him to bear a hand, the 
 boatswain's face gleamed under the hatchway. 
 
 " Have you done?" I exclaimed. 
 
 "Ay, ay." 
 
 " Is she tight?" 
 
 " Tight as a cocoa-nut." 
 
 " Up with you, then! There is a bit of a breeze blowing. 
 Let us swing the maia-yards and get way upon the ship. 
 They are waiting to see her settle before they up sail. It is 
 dark enough to act. Hurrah, now!" 
 
 He came up through the forecastle and followed me on to 
 the main-deck. 
 
 Though not yet dark, the shadow of the evening made it 
 difficult to distinguish faces even a short distance ofE. There 
 was a pretty little wind up aloft rounding the royals and top- 
 gallant-saUs, and flattening the sails on the main-yards weU 
 against the masts. 
 
 I stopped a second to look over the bulwarks, and found that 
 the boats stQl remained at about three cable-lengths from the 
 ship. They had shipped the mast in the long-boat; but I 
 noticed that the two boats lay side by side, four men in the 
 quarter-boat, and the rest in the long-boat, and that they were 
 handing out some of the stores which had been stowed in the 
 quarter-boat to Hghten her. 
 
 " We must lose no time, Mr. Eoyle," exclaimed the boat- 
 swain. " How many hands can we muster?" 
 
 "Three." 
 
 " That'll do. We can swing the main-yard. Who's the 
 third? — ^the steward? Let's have him out." 
 
 I ran to the cuddy and called the steward. He came out of 
 the pantry. 
 
 " On to the poop with you!" I cried. " Eight aft — you'll 
 find the boson there. Miss Eobertson!" 
 
 At the sound of her name she stepped forth from her cabin. 
 " The men are out of the ship," I exclaimed. " We are ready 
 to get way upon her. WiU you take the wheel at once?" 
 
 She was running on to the poop before the request was well 
 out of my mouth. 
 
 The boatswain had already let go the starboard main-braces; 
 and as I rushed aft, he and the steward were hauling to lee- 
 
182 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSTENOR. 
 
 ward. I threw the whole weight of my body on the brace, and 
 pulled with the strength of two men. 
 
 " Put the wheel to starboard!" I cried out; and the girl, 
 having cast off the lashing with marvelous quickness, ran the 
 spokes over. 
 
 " By God, she's a wonder!" cried the boatswain, looking at' 
 her. 
 
 And so was he. The muscles on his bare arms stood up like 
 lumps of iron under the flesh as he strained the heavy brace. 
 
 The great yards swung easily: the top-sail, top-gallant, and 
 royal yards came round with the main-yard, and swung them- 
 selves when the sails filled. 
 
 There was no time to gather in the slack of the lee braces. 
 I ran to windward, belayed the braces, and raised a loud cry. 
 
 " They're after us, boson! — they're after us!'^ 
 
 We might have been sure of that; for if we had not been 
 able to see them, we could have heard them; the grinding of 
 the oars in the rowlocks, the frothing of the water at the boat's 
 bows, the cries and oaths of the men in the long-boat, inciting 
 the others to overtake us. 
 
 Only the quarter-boat was in pursuit as yet; but in the long- 
 boat they were rigging up the stun'saU they had shipped, 
 meaning, as they were to windward, to bear down upon us. 
 
 There was no doubt that they guessed their scheme had been 
 baffled, by discerning three men on deck. The cai-penter at 
 least knew that old Mr. Eobertson was too ill to leave his cabin, 
 and failing Mm, he would instantly perceive that a trick had 
 been played, and though he could not tell, in that Ught and at 
 that distance, who the third man was, he would certainly know 
 that this third man's presence on board implied the existence 
 of a plot to save the ship. 
 
 As the boat approached I perceived that she was rowed by 
 four men and steered by a. fifth; and, presently hearing his 
 voice, I understood that this man steering was Stevens. 
 
 The ship had just got way enough upon her to answer her 
 helm. Already we were drawing the long-boat away from our 
 beam on to the quarter. 
 
 I shouted to Miss Eobertson, " Steady! keep her straight as 
 she is!" for even now we had brought the wind too far aft for 
 the trim of the yards. 
 
 " Steward," I cried, " whip out one of those iron belaying- 
 pins, and stand by to hammer away!" 
 
 We then posted ourselves — the boatswain and the steward at 
 the gangway, and I half-way up the poop-ladder, each with a 
 
' I leveled the pistol at his head, the muzzle not being a yard away from 
 his face, and pulled the trigger." — Page 183. 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVENOB. " 183 
 
 heavy belaying-pin in his hand — ready to receiTe the scoundrels 
 ■who were making for the starboard main-chains. 
 
 The boat, urged furiously through the water, came up to us 
 hand over fist, the carpenter cursing us furiously, and swear- 
 ing that he would do for us yed;. 
 
 I got my pistol ready, meaning to shoot the ruffian the mo- 
 ment he should be within reach of the weapon, but abandoned 
 this intention from a motive of hate and revenge. I knew if 
 I killed him as he sat there in the stem-sheets that the others 
 would take fright and run away; and such was my passion, and 
 the sense of our superiority over them from our position in the 
 ship as against theirs in the boat, that I made up my mind to 
 let them come alongside and get into the chains, so that we 
 might kill them all as a warning to the occupants of the long- 
 boat, who were now coming down upon us before the breeze. 
 
 I took one glance at Miss Eobertson; her figure was visible 
 by the side of the wheel. She was steering as steadily as any 
 sailor, and with an emotion of gratitude to God for giving us 
 such help, and her so much courage at this supreme moment, 
 I addressed all my energies to the bloody work before me. 
 
 The boat dashed alongside, and the men threw in their oars. 
 The fellow in the bow grabbed hold of one of the chain-plates, 
 passed the boat's painter around it, hauled it short, and made 
 it fast with incredible activity and speed. Then, pulling their 
 knives out of the sheaths, they all came clambering into the 
 main-chains. 
 
 So close as they now were, I could make out the faces of the 
 men. One was big Johnson, another Cornish> the third Pish, 
 the fourth Schmidten. 
 
 I alone was visible. The boatswaia and the steward stood 
 with uplifted arms ready to strike at the first head that showed 
 itself. 
 
 The carpenter sprung on to the bulwark just where I stood. 
 He poised his knife to stab me under the throat. 
 
 "Now, you murderous, treacherous ruffian!" I cried, at 
 the top of my voice, " say your prayers!" I leveled the pistol 
 at his head, the muzzle not being a yard away from his face, 
 and pulled the trigger. The bright flash illuminated him hke 
 a ray of lightning. He uttered a scream, shrill as a child's, 
 but terrific in intensity, clapped his hands to his face, and fell 
 like a stone into the maia-chains. 
 
 "It is your turn now!" I roared to Johnson, and let fly at 
 him. He was holding on to one of the main-shrouds in the 
 act of springing on to the deck. ' I missed his head, but struck 
 him on the arm, I think; for he let go the shroud with a deep 
 
184 THE WEECK OP THE " GEOSVEKOE. " 
 
 groan, reeled backward, and toppled overboard, and I heard 
 the heavy splash of "his body as he fell. 
 
 But we were not even now, three to three, but three to one; 
 for the boatswain had let drive with his frightful belaying-pin 
 at Fish's head, just as that enormous protuberance had shown 
 itself over the bulwark, and the wretch lay dead or stunned in 
 the boat alongside; while the steward, who had secreted a huge 
 carving-knife in his bosom, had stabbed the Dutchman right 
 in the stomach, leaving the knife in him; and the miserable 
 creature hung over the bulwark, head and arms hanging down 
 toward the water, and, suddenly writhing as he hung, dropped 
 overboard. 
 
 Cornish, of all five men, alone Uved. I had watched him aim 
 a blow at the boatswain's back, and fired, but missed him. But 
 he too had missed his aim, and the boatswain, slewing round, 
 struck his wrist with the heavy belaying-pin — ^whack! it sounded 
 like the blow of a hammer on wood — and the knife feU from 
 his hand. 
 
 " Mercy! spare my life!" he roared, seeing that I had again 
 covered him, having two more shots left. 
 
 The steward, capable, now that things had gone well with 
 us, of performing prodigies of valor, rushed upon him, laid 
 hold of his legs, and pulled him ofE the bulwark on to the 
 deck. 
 
 I thought the fall had broken his back, for he lay groaning 
 and motionless. 
 
 " Don't kill him!" I cried. " Make his hands fast and leave 
 him for the present. We may want him by and by. " 
 
 The boatswain whipped a rope's end round him aiid shoved 
 him against the rail, and then came running up the poop-lad- 
 der, wiping the streaming perspiration from his face. 
 
 The breeze was freshening, and the boat alongside wobbled 
 and splashed as the ship towed her through the water. 
 
 I ran aft and stared into the gloom astern. I could see noth- 
 ing of the long-boat. I looked again and again, and fetched 
 the night-glass, and by its aid, sure enough, I beheld her, a 
 smudge on the even ground of the gloom, standing away close 
 to the wind, for this much I could tell by the outline of her 
 sail. 
 
 " Miss Eobertson," I cried, " we are saved! Yonder is the 
 long-boat leaving us. Our lives are our own!" 
 
 " I bless God for His mercy!" she answered, quietly. But 
 then her pent-up feelings mastered her; she rocked to and fro, 
 grasping the spokes of the wheel, and I extended my arms just 
 in time to save her from falling. 
 
THE WftECK OP THE " GROSVENOr/' 185 
 
 " Boson!" I shouted, and he came hurrying to me. " Miss 
 Robertson has fainted! Eeach me a flag out of that locker. " 
 
 He handed me a signal-flag, and I laid the poor girl gently 
 down upon the deck, with the flag for a pillow under her head. 
 
 " Fetch me some brandy, boson. The steward will give you 
 a wine-glassful. " 
 
 And, with one hand upon the wheel to steady the ship, I 
 knelt by the girl's side, holding her cold fingers, with so much 
 tenderness and love for her in my heart that I could have wept 
 like a woman to see her lying so pale and still. 
 
 The boatswain returned quickly, followed by the steward. I 
 surrendered the wheel to the former, and taking the brandy, 
 succeeded in introducing some into her mouth. By dint of 
 this, and chafing her hands and moistening her forehead, I re- 
 stored her to consciousness. I then, with my arm supporting 
 her, helped her into the cuddy: but I did not stay an instant 
 after this, for there was plenty of work to be done on deck; and 
 though we had escaped one peril, yet here we might be run- 
 ning headlong into another, for the ship was under full sail; 
 we had but three men to work her, not counting Cornish, of 
 whose willingness or capacity to work after his rough handling 
 I as yet knew nothing. The glass stood low, and if a gale 
 should spring up and catch us as we were, it was fifty to one if 
 the ship did not go to the bottom. 
 
 " Boson," I exclaimed, " what's to be done now?" 
 
 " Shorten sail while the wind's light, that's sartin," he an- 
 swered. " But the first job must be to get Cornish out of his 
 lashin's and set him on his legs. He must lend us a hand." 
 
 "Yes; we'll do that," I replied. "Steward, can you 
 steer?" 
 
 " No, sir," responded the steward. 
 
 " Oh, d — n it!" vociferated the boatswain. " I'd rather be 
 a gufly than a steward," meaning by guffy a marine. 
 
 " Well," cried I, " you must try." 
 
 " But I know nothing about it, sir." 
 
 "Come here and lay hold. of these spokes. Look at that 
 card — no, by Jove!' you can't see it." 
 
 But the binnacle lamp was trimmed, and in a moment the 
 boatswain had pulled out a lucifer match, dexterously caught 
 the flame in his hollowed hands, and fired the mesh. 
 
 " Look at that card," I said, as the boatswain shipped the 
 lamp. 
 
 'a'm a-lookm', sir." 
 
 " Do you see that it points south-east?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
186 THE WRECK OF THE "GROSVBNOE." 
 
 "If those letters S. E. swing to the left of the lubber's 
 point — ^that black mark there — pull the spokes to the left until 
 S. E. comes to the mark again. If S. E. goes to the right, 
 shove the spokes to the right. Do you understand?" 
 
 "Yes, I think I do, sir." 
 
 " Mind your eye, steward. Don't let those letters get away 
 from you, or you'll run the ship into the long-boat, and bring 
 all hands on board again. " 
 
 And leaving him holding on to the wheel with the fear and 
 in the attitude of a cockney clinging for his hfe, the boatswain 
 and I walked to the main-deck. 
 
 Cornish lay like a bundle against the rail. When he saw us 
 he cried out: 
 
 "Kill me if you like, but for God's sake loosen this rope 
 first! It's keepin' my blood all in one place!" 
 
 " How do you know we haven't come to drown you?" cried 
 the boatswain, in an awful voice. " Don't jaw us about your 
 blood. You won't want none in five minutes. " 
 
 " Then the Lord have mercy upon my soul!" groaned the 
 poor wretch, and let drop his head, which he had Hf ted out of 
 the scuppers to address us. 
 
 " Drownin'g too easy for the likes o' you," continued the 
 boatswain. " You want whippin' and picklin' and then quar- 
 terin' arterward." 
 
 " We are willing to spare your life," said I, feeling that we 
 had no time to waste, if you will give us your word to help 
 us to work this ship and bring her into port, if we get no assist- 
 ance on the road. " 
 
 " I'll do anything if you'll spare my life," moaned he, " and 
 loose this rope round my middle. ' ' 
 
 " Do you think he's to be trusted, Mr. Eoyle?" said the 
 boatswain, in a stern voice, playing a part. " There's a blood- 
 thirsty look on his countinunce, and his eyes are full o' mur- 
 der. " 
 
 " Only try me! "groaned Cornish, faintly. 
 ^^ "He wur Stevens's chief mate," continued the boatswain; 
 " an' I think it 'ud be wiser to leave him as he is for a few 
 hours while we consider the advisability of trustin' of him." 
 
 " Then I shall be cut in halves!" moaned Cornish. 
 
 " WeU," I exclaimed, pretending first to reflect, "wewiU 
 try you; and if you act honestly by us you shall have no cause 
 to complain. But if you attempt to play false, we will treat 
 you as you deserve; we will shoot you as we shot your mates, 
 and pitch your body overboard. So you'll know what to ex- 
 pect. Boson, cast bun adrift." 
 
THE -WEECK OP THE " GEOSVBKOE." 18? 
 
 He was speedily liberated, and the boatswaiB hoisted him on 
 to his feet, when, finding him very shaky, I fetched a glass of 
 rum from the pantry, which he swallowed. 
 
 " Thank you, sir," said he, rubbing his wrist, which the 
 boatswain had struck during the conflict. " I'll be honest and 
 do what I can. You may trust me to work for you. This 
 here mutiny belonged to all hands, and was no one man's, un- 
 less it were Stevens's; and I'd rather be here than in the long- 
 boat." 
 
 "Boson," said I, cutting the fellow short, "the carpenter 
 made the port quarter-boat useless by knocking some planks 
 out of her. We ought to get the boat alongside on board whUe 
 the water's smooth — we may want her. " 
 
 "Eight you are, Mr. Eoyle," said he. "Pay us out a 
 rope's end, wUl you, and I'll drop her under the davits?" 
 
 And, active as a cat, he scrambled into the main-chains. 
 
 But on a sudden I heard a heavy splash. 
 
 " My God!" I cried, " he's fallen overboard!" And I was 
 rushing toward the poop when I heard him sing out, " Halloo! 
 here's another!" and this was followed by a second sj^ash. 
 
 I got on to the bulwarks and bawled to him, " where are 
 you? What are you doing? Are you bathing?" 
 
 "The deuce a bit!" he answered. " It was one o' them 
 blessed mutineers in the main-chains, and here was another in 
 the boat. I pitched 'em into the water. Now, then, slacken 
 gently, and belay when I sing out. " 
 
 In a few moments the boat was under the davits and both 
 falls hooked on. Then up came the boatswain, and the three 
 of us began to hoist, manning first one fall and then the other, 
 bit by bit, until the boat was up; but she was a heavy load, 
 with her freight of provisions and water — too precious to us to 
 lose — and we panted, I promise you, by the time she was 
 abreast of the poop-rail. 
 
 " Mr. Boson!" said Cornish, suddenly, " beggin' your par- 
 don — I thought you was dead. " 
 
 " Did you, Jim Cornish?" 
 
 "' I thought you was drownded, sir. " 
 
 " Well, I ain't the fir^t drownded man as has come to life 
 again. " 
 
 " AU hands, Mr. Boson, thought you was overboard, lyin' 
 drownded. You was overboard?" 
 
 " And do you think I'm going to explain?" answered the 
 boatswain, contemptuously. 
 
 " It terrified me to see you, sir." 
 
188 THE WBECK OS THE "GBOSVENOE." 
 
 " Well, perhaps I ain't real, arter all. How do you know? 
 Seein' ain't believin', so old women say." 
 
 " I don't believe in ghosts; but I thought you was one, Mr. 
 Boson, and so did big Johnson when he swore you was one of 
 the three at the port main-braces. " 
 
 " Well, I aiu't ashamed o' bein' a shadder. Better men 
 nor me have been shadders. I knew a ship-chandler as wos a 
 church-warden and worth a mint o' money, who became a 
 shadder, and kept his wife from marryin' WilUam Soaper, o' 
 the Coopid public-house. Love Lane, Shadwell High Street, 
 by standin' at the foot of her bed every night at eight bells. 
 He had a cast in wun eye, Mr. Eoyle, and that's how his wife 
 knew him." 
 
 " Well, I say no more; but my hair riz when you turned an 
 hit me over the arm. I thought you couldn't be substantial 
 like." 
 
 " 'Cause you didn't get enough o' my belaymg-pm," re- 
 joined the boatswain, with a loud laugh. " Wait tUl you turn 
 dusty ag'in, mate, and then you'll see wot a real ghost can 
 do." 
 
 Just then Miss Eobertson emerged from the companion. I 
 ran to her and entreated her to remaiu below — ^though for an 
 hour only. 
 
 " No, no," she answered, "let me help you. I am much 
 better — I am quite well now. I can steer the ship while you 
 take in some of the saUs, for I know there are too many sails 
 set, if the wind should come." 
 
 Then, seeing Cornish, she started and held my arm, whis- 
 pering, " Who is he? Have they come on board?" 
 
 I briefly explained, and then renewed my entreaties that she 
 should remaiu in her cabin; but she said she would not leave 
 the deck, even if I refused her permission to steer, and pleaded 
 so eloquently, holding my arm and raising her sweet eyes to 
 my face, that I reluctantly gave way. 
 
 She hastened eagerly to take the steward's place, and I never 
 saw a man resign any responsible position more willingly than 
 he. 
 
 I now explained to the boatswain that the glass stood very 
 low, and that we must at once turn to and get in all the sad 
 we could handle. 
 
 I asked Cornish if he thought he was able to go aloft, and 
 on his answering in the aflBrmative, first testing the strength 
 of his wrist by hanging with his whole weight to one of the 
 ratlines on the mizzen-rigging, he went to work to clew up the 
 three royals. 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVENOB. " 189 
 
 I knew that the steward was of no use aloft, and never even 
 asked him if he would venture his hand at it, for I was pretty 
 sure he would lose his head and tumble overboard before he 
 had mounted twenty feet, and he was too useful to us to lose 
 right off in that way. 
 
 Cornish went up to stow the mizzen-royal, and the boatswain 
 and I went aloft to the main-royal. The breeze was still very 
 gentle, and the ship slipping smoothly through the black space 
 of sea; but when we were in the main-royal yard I called the 
 attention of the boatswain to the appearance of the sky in the 
 north-west, for it was lightning faintly ia that direction, and 
 the pale illumination sufficed to expose a huge bank of cloud 
 stretching far to the north. 
 
 " We shall be able to get the top-gallant-sails off her, " he 
 said, " and the jibs and staysails. But I don't know how we're 
 going to furl the mainsail, and it'll take us all night to reef 
 the top-sails. " 
 
 " We must work all night," I answered, " and do what we 
 can. Just tell me, while I pass this gasket, how you managed 
 in the hold. " 
 
 " Why," he answered, " you know I took a kind o' crow- 
 bar down with me, and I reckoned on splittin', open the head 
 of the fust chap as should drop through the fore-scuttle. But, 
 tumin' it over in my mind, I thought it 'ud be dangerous to 
 kill the feller, as his mates might take it into their heads to 
 wait for him. And so I determined to hide myself when I 
 heerd the cove comin', and stand by to plug up the holes arter 
 he wur gone. " 
 
 Here he discharged some tobacco-juice from his mouth, and 
 dried his lips on the sail. 
 
 " Werry well; I had my knife with me an' a box o' matches, 
 and werry useful they wos. I made a bit of a flare by combing 
 out a strand of yarns and settin' fire to it, and found wot was 
 more pleasin' to my eye than had I come across a five-pun note 
 — I mean a spare broomstick, which I found knocking about in 
 the coal-hole; and I cut it up in pieces and pointed 'em ready 
 to sarve. I knew whoever 'ud come would use an atiger, and 
 know'd the size hole it 'ud cut; and by and by — ^but the Lord 
 knows how long it were afore it happened — I hears some one 
 drop down the fore-scuttle and strike a match and light a bit o' 
 candle-end. I got behind the bulkhead, where there was a 
 plank out, and I see the carpenter working away with his 
 auger, blowin' and sweatin' like any respectable hartizan earn- 
 in' of honest wages. By and by the water comes rushin' in; 
 and then he bores another hole and the water comes through 
 
190 THE WRECK OF THE " GKOSVEN'OR." 
 
 that; and then he bores another hole, arter which he blows out 
 his candle and goes away, scramblin' up on the deck. My 
 fingers quivered to give him one for hisself with the end o' my 
 crow-bar over the back of his head. However, no sooner did 
 he clear out than I struck a match, fits in the bits of broom- 
 stick, and stops the leaks as neatly as he made ^em. I thought 
 they'd hear me drivin' them plugs in, and that was all I was 
 afraid of. But the ship's none the worse for them holes. 
 She's as tight as ever she wos: an' I reckon' if she gets no 
 more water in her than'll come through them plugs, she won't 
 be in a hurry to sink." t laughed as we shook hands heartily. 
 I often think over that; the immense height we looked down 
 from; the mystical extent of black water mingling with the far- 
 off sky; the faint play of lightning on the horizon; the dark 
 hull of the ship far below, with the dim radiance of the cuddy 
 lamps upon the sky-lights; the brave, sweet girl steering us; 
 and we two perched on a dizzy eminence, shaking hands! 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 CoENiSH had stowed the mizzen-royal by the time we had 
 reached the deck, and when he joined us we clewed up the 
 foretop-gallant-sail, so that we might handle that sail when he 
 had done with the royal. 
 
 I found this man qtiite civil and very wUling, and in my 
 opinion he spoke honestly when he declared that he had rather 
 be with us than in the long-boat. 
 
 The lightning was growing more vivid upon the horizon; 
 that is, when I looked in that direction from the towering 
 height of the fore royal yard; and it jagged and scored with 
 blue lines the great volume and belt of cloud that hung to the 
 sea. The wind had slightly freshened, but still it remained a 
 very gentle breeze, and urged the ship noislessly through the 
 water. 
 
 The stars were few and languishing, as you may have some- 
 times seen them on a summer's night in England when the air 
 is sultry and the night dull and thunderous. All the horizon 
 round was lost in gloom, save where the lightning threw out 
 at swift intervals the black water agaiust the gleaming back- 
 ground of cloud. 
 
 When we again reached the deck we were rather scant ol 
 breath, and I, being unused of late to this kind of exercise, felt 
 the effects of it more than the others. 
 
 However, if it was going to blow a gale of wind, as the glass 
 threatened, it was very advisable that we should shorten sail. 
 
THE WBECK OF THE " GROSVENOE." 191 
 
 now that it was calm; for assuredly three men, although work- 
 ing for their lives as we were, would be utterly useless up aloft 
 when once the weather got bad. 
 
 We went into the cuddy and took, all three of us, a sup of 
 rum to give us life, and I then said, " Shall we turn to and 
 snug away aft, since we are here?" 
 
 They agreed; so we went on the poop and let go the mizzen- 
 top-gallant and top-sail halyards, roused out the reef-tackles, 
 and went aloft, when we first stowed the top-gallant-sail, and 
 then got down upon the top-sail yard. 
 
 It was a hard job tying in all three reefs, passing the ear- 
 riags and hauling the reef -bands taut along the yard; but we 
 managed to complete the job in about half an hour. 
 
 Miss Eobertson remained at the wheel all this time, and the 
 steward was useful on deck to let go any ropes which we found 
 fast. 
 
 " It pains me," I said to the girl, " to see you standing here. 
 I know you are worn out, and I feel to be acting a most un- 
 manly part in allowing you to have your way." 
 
 " You can not do without me. Why do you want to make 
 your crew smaller in number than it is?" she answered, smil- 
 ing with the light reflected from the compass card upon her 
 face. " Look at the lightning over there! I'm sailor enough 
 to know that our masts would be broken if the wind struck the 
 ship with all this sail upon her. And what is my work — ^idly 
 standing here — compared to yours — you, who have already 
 done so much, and are still doing the work of many men?" 
 
 "You argue too well for my wishes. I want you to agree 
 with me." 
 
 " Whom have you to take my place here?" 
 
 "Only the steward." 
 
 "He can not steer, Mr. Eoyle; and I assure you the ship 
 wants watching." 
 
 I laughed at this nautical language in her sweet mouth, and 
 said: 
 
 " Well, you shall remain here a little while longer:" 
 
 " One thing, " she exclaimed, " I will ask you to do — ^to look 
 into our cabin and see if papa wants anything." 
 
 I ran below and peeped into the cabin. She had already 
 lighted the lamp belonging to it, and so I was able to see that 
 the old gentleman was asleep. I procured some brandy and 
 water and biscuit, and also a chair, and returned on deck. 
 
 " Your father is asleep," said I, " so you may make your 
 mind easy about him. Here are some refreshments; and see, 
 if I put this chair here you can sit and hold the wheel steady 
 
192 THE ■WRECK OF THE " GEOSVENOR. 
 
 with one hand: there is no occasion to remain on your feet. 
 Keep that star yonder — right oyer the yard-arm," pointing it 
 out to her. That is as good a guide as a compass for the time 
 being. We need only keep the Bails full. I can shape no 
 course as yet, though we shall haul round the moment we have 
 stripped more canvas off her. 
 
 I now heard the voices of Cornish and the boatswain right 
 away far out in the darkness ahead, and, running forward on 
 to the forecastle, I found them stowiag the flying jib. 
 
 To save time I let go the outer and inner jib-halyards, and, 
 with assistance of the steward, hauled those sails down. He 
 and I also clewed up the main top-gallant-sail, took the main- 
 tack and sheet to the winch and got them up, rounded up the 
 leech-lines and bimtUnes as well as we could, and then belayed 
 and went forward again. I let go the foretop-sail halyards 
 and took the ends of the reef -tackles to the capstan; and while 
 the two others were tackhng the outer jib, the steward and I 
 hauled down the maintop-mast-staysail, and snugged it as best 
 we could ia the netting. 
 
 Those tasks achieved, I got upon the bowsprit, and gave the 
 two men a hand to stow the jibs. 
 
 "Now, mates," I cried, "let's get upon the foretop-sail 
 yard and see what we can do there." 
 
 And up we went, and in three quarters of an hour, with the 
 help of a jigger, we had hauled out the ear-rings and tied every 
 blessed reef -point in the sail. 
 
 But this was the finishing touch to our strength, and Cornish 
 was so exhausted that I had to help him over the top down the 
 fore-rigging. 
 
 We had indeed accomplished wonders; close-reefed two of 
 the three top-sails, stowed the three jibs, the three royals, the 
 top-gallant-sails and stay-sails. Our work was rendered three 
 times harder than it need have been by the darkness: we had 
 to fumble and grope, and by being scarcely able to see 
 each other we found it extremely difficult to work in 
 unison; so, that instead of hauling altogether, we hauled at 
 odd times, and rendered our individual strength ineffectual, 
 when, could we have collectively exerted it, we should have 
 achieved our purpose easily. 
 
 " I must sit down for a spell, sir," said Cornish. " I can't 
 do more work yet." 
 
 "If we could only get that top-gaUant-sail ofE her!" I ex- 
 claimed, looking longingly up at it. But, all the same, I felt that 
 a whole regiment of bayonets astern of me could not have 
 urged me one inch up the shrouds. 
 
THE WKECK OF THE " GKOSVEl<rOK. " 193 
 
 We dragged our weary limbs aft and squatted ourselves near 
 the wheel, I for one being scarcely able to stand. 
 
 " Mr. Eoyle," said MissEobertson, " will you and the others 
 go down into the cabin and get some sleep? I will keep watch, 
 and promise faithfully to wake you the moment I think neces- 
 sary." 
 
 " Boson," I exclaimed, " do you hear that? Miss Eobertson 
 wants us to turn in. She will keep watch, she says, and call 
 us if a gale comes!" 
 
 " God bless her!" said the boatswain. " I called her a won- 
 der just now, and I'd call her a wonder again. So she is! and 
 though she hears me speak, and may think me wantin' in good 
 manners, I'll say this — an' tired as I am, I'd fight the man 
 now as he stood who'd contradict me — that she's just one o' 
 the best — mind, Jim, I say the best — o' the werry properest 
 kiad o' gals as God Almighty ever made; a regular real 
 woman to the eye, and a sailor in her heart. And, by the hv- 
 in' Moses! Jim, if you can tell me now to my face that you 
 would ha' let her sink in this here wessel, I'll chuck you over- 
 board, you willin! So say it!" 
 
 "I don't want to say it," muttered Cornish, penitentially. 
 " I never thought o' the lady. I forgot she were on board. 
 Mr. Boson, don't say no more about it, please. I've done my 
 duty, I hope, Mr. Eoyle. I've worked werry hard, considerin' 
 my bad wrist. I'd liefer fight for the lady than agin her, 
 now that I see wot she's made of. ' By-gones is by-gones,' as 
 the cock as had his eye knocked out in a fight said when he 
 looked about and couldn't see nothen of it; and if you call me 
 a wilhn, well and good; I'll not arguey, for I dare say you 
 ain't fur wrong, mate," 
 
 " Mr. Eoyle, you have not answered me. Will you and the 
 others lie down and sleep while I watch?" 
 
 " Not yet. Miss Eobertson. By and by, perhaps. We have 
 more work before us, and are only resting. Steward!" 
 
 He came from behind the companion, where I think he had 
 fallen asleep. 
 
 "Yes, Mr. Eoyle, sir." 
 
 " Out below and mix aU hands a jug of brandy and water, 
 and bring some biscuits. Here, boson, is some tobacco. 
 Smoke a pipe. Fire away, Cornish. It's more soothing 
 than sleep, mates. ' ' 
 
 "The lightning's growin' rather powerful," said the boat- 
 swain, lookmg astern as he lighted his pipe. 
 
 " Don't it look as if it wur settin' away to the east'ard?" 
 Questioned Cornish. 
 
194 THE WRECK OV THE " GKOSVENOE." 
 
 " No/' I replied, watching the lurid gleams lighting up 
 the piled-up clouds. "It's coming after us dead on end, 
 though slowly enough." 
 
 I pulled out my watch and held it close to the binnacle. 
 
 "Half past two!" I cried, amazed at the passage of time. 
 " Upon my word, I didn't think it was twelve o'clock yet. 
 Miss Eobertson, I know I can not induce you to go below; but 
 you must allow me to relieve you for a spell at the wheel. I 
 can sit and steer as well as you. You'll find this grating com- 
 fortable." 
 
 Saying which I pulled out some flags from the locker, made 
 a kind of cushion for her back, I then took her chair, keeping 
 the wheel steady with my foot. 
 
 There was less wind than there had been half an hour be- 
 fore; enough to give the vessel steerage- way, and that was all. 
 
 We were heading south-east, the wind, or what there was of 
 it, upon the port quarter. There was every promise of a calm 
 falling again, and this I should not have minded, nor the light- 
 ning either, which might well have been the play of a passing 
 thunder-storm, had it not been for the permanent depression 
 of the mercury. 
 
 The air was very warm, but less oppressive than it had been; 
 the sea black and even, and the heavens with a stooping, 
 murky aspect. 
 
 It was some comfort to me, however, to look aloft, and see 
 the amount of canvas we had taken ofE the ship. If we could 
 only manage to pull up our strength again, we might well suc- 
 ceed in furling the top-gallant-sail, and reefing the top-sail 
 before the change of Weather came. 
 
 The steward made his appearance with the spirits and bis- 
 cuit; and Miss Eobertson went below, whispering to me as she 
 passed, that she wished to look at her father, and that she 
 would return in a few minutes. 
 
 " ISTow that the lady's gone, Mr. Eoyle," exclaimed the 
 boatswain, as soon as she had left the deck, "let's talk over 
 our situation and think what's to be done." 
 
 The steward squatted himself on his hams like a coolie, and 
 posed himself in an attitude of eager attention. 
 
 " Quite right, boson," I replied. " I have been thinking 
 during the time we have been at work, and will tell you what 
 my plans are. At noon yesterday — that will be fifteen hours 
 ago — the Bermuda Islands bore as true as a hair west-half- 
 south. "We hove to with the ship's head to the nor'ard and 
 westward and made some way at that, and taking the run we 
 have made to-night, I allow that if we head the ship west by 
 
THE ■WRECK OP THE " GEOSTEN'OE. " 195 
 
 ntrth we shall make the islands, with anything like a breeze, 
 some time on Monday morning." 
 
 " But, if we're just off the coast of Florida," said Cornish, 
 "why couldn't we turn to and run for the West India 
 Islands?" 
 
 " Which is nearest, I wonders," exclaimed the boatswain, 
 " the West Hindie Islands or the kingdom of Jericho?" 
 
 " It's 'ardly a time for jokin'," remonstrated the steward. 
 
 " I don't know that I said anything funny," observed Corn- 
 ish, warmly. 
 
 " Well, then, wot do you mean by talking about the West 
 Hindie Islands?" cried the boatswain. 
 
 "Wot do I mean?" retorted the other: "why wot. I says. 
 Here we are ofE the coast of Ploridy — " 
 
 " OfE the coast o' your grandmother! Shut up, mate, and 
 let Mr. Eoyle speak. You know nothen about it. " 
 
 " The Bermudas are nearer to hand than the West Indies," 
 I continued, not wishing to explain. " What we have to do, 
 then, the moment we can use our legs, is to haul the ship 
 round. How is the wind now? north-north-west. Well, she 
 will lie properly. And as soon as ever it comes day-break, we 
 must run up a signal of distress, and keep it flying. What 
 more can we do?" 
 
 " I suppose," said the boatswain, doubtfully, sucking so 
 hard at his pipe that it glowed like a steamer's red light under 
 his nose, " you wouldn't like to wenture on a run to the Eng- 
 hsh Channel, Mr. Eoyle. It would be aiming some kind of 
 fame, and perhaps a trifle o' money from the owners, if it wur 
 to git about that three hands — ^well, I'll ax the steward's par- 
 don and say four — that four hands brought this here blessed 
 ship and her walleyble cargo out o' a rigular knock-down 
 mutiny, all aways up the Atlantic Ocean, into the Henglish 
 Channel, and landed her safe in the West Hindie Docks. I 
 never see my name in print in my life — " 
 
 " What's your true name, Mr. Boson?" inquired the stew- 
 ard. 
 
 "Joshua, or Jo Forward, young feller; sometimes called 
 Forrard, sometimes Jo, and on Sundays Mister." 
 
 " I know a Forward as lives at Blackwall," said the steward. 
 
 " Do yer? Well, then, now you knows two. Wot I was 
 sayin', Mr. Eoyle, was, I never see my name in print in my 
 life, and I should like to see it regular wrote down in the news- 
 papers. Lloyd's is always my weekly penn'orth ashore. " 
 
 He knocked the hot ashes into the palm of his hand, scruti- 
 
196 THE WEECK OP THE '* GEOSVENOK. " 
 
 nized it earnestly to see that there was no tobacco left in it, and 
 tossed it away. 
 
 " A good deal, sir," said the steward, in a thin voice, " is to 
 be said about the lady we saved. The saviag of her alone 
 would make 'eros of us in the public mind. " 
 
 " Wot do you call us — 'eros.''" interrogated the boatswain. 
 
 "Yes, sir, 'eros.-" 
 
 " What's the meaning of that word, Mr. Eoyle — any rela- 
 tion to earwigs?" 
 
 " He means heroes," I replied. " Don't you, steward?" 
 
 " I did more than mean it — I said it, sir," exclaimed the 
 steward. 
 
 " That's how the Chaneymen talk, and quarrel with you for 
 not foUowin' of their sense. Wot do you think of my notion, 
 Jim, of saUin' this wessel to England?" said the boatswain. 
 
 Cornish made no answer. I saw him, in the pale hght 
 diffused around the binnacle, wipe his mouth with the back of 
 his hand, and shift uneasily on his seat. I could scarcely 
 wonder that the boatswain's idea should make him feel uncom- 
 fortable. 
 
 " Your scheme," said I, " would be a captial one providing 
 that every man of us four had sis hands and six legs and the 
 strength of three big Johnsons; that we could do without sleep 
 and split ourselves into pieces whenever we had occasion to reef 
 top-sails. But, as I am only capable of doing one man's 
 work, and require rest like other weakly mortals, I must tell 
 you plainly that I for one should be very sorry to undertake to 
 work this ship to the BngUsh Channel, imless you would guar- 
 antee that by dawn this morning we should receive a draft of 
 at least six men out of a passing vessel. " 
 
 "Well, well," said the boatswain, "it was only a thought; 
 and I don't say it's to be done. " 
 
 " Nob to be thought on — much less done," exclaimed Corn- 
 ish. 
 
 " Don't be too sartin, friend," retorted the boatswain, 
 turning smartly on him. " ' Where there's a will there's a 
 way,' wos a sayin' when I was a lad." 
 
 " If it comes on to blow," I put in, " it may take us all we 
 can do to fetch Bermuda. Don't dream of aiming for a fur- 
 ther port. ' ' 
 
 At this moment Miss Eobertson returned. I asked her how 
 she found her father, and she replied, in a low voice, that he 
 was sleeping, but that his breathing was very faint and uncer- 
 tain, and that he sometimes talked in his sleep. 
 
 She could not disguise her anxiety, and I entreated her to go 
 
THE WEEOK OP THE " GROSVEKOR," 197 
 
 below and watch Mm and rest herself as well; but she answered 
 that she would not leave the deck until I had finished taking 
 in sail and doing what was necessary. 
 
 " You can not tell me that I am not of use/' she added. 
 " I will steer while you work, and if you wish to sleep I will 
 watch for you. Why should I not do so? I can benefit papa 
 more by helping you to save the ship than by leaving you to 
 work alone while I sit with him. I pray God," she said, in 
 her sweet, low, troubled voice, " that all may go well with us. 
 But I have been so near to death that it scarcely frightens me 
 now. TeU me what to do and I will do it — though for your 
 sake alone as you would have sacrificed your life for mine. I 
 owe. you what I can never repay; and how kind, how gentle, 
 how good you have been to my father and me." 
 
 She spoke in so low a voice that it was impossible for any 
 one to hear her but myself; and so greatly did her words affect 
 me — I, who had now learned to love her, who could indeed 
 have died a hundred-fold over for her dear sake, that I dared 
 not trust myself to speak. Had I spoken I should have said 
 what I was sure she would have disliked to hear from a rough 
 sailor like me : nay, I even turned away from her, that I might 
 be silent, recoiling from my own heart's language, that seemed 
 but an impertinence, an unfair obtrusion of claims which, even 
 though she admitted them by speaking of my having saved her 
 life, I should have been unmanly to assert. 
 
 I quickly recovered myself, and said, forcing a laugh: 
 
 " You are as bad a mutineer as the others. But as you will 
 not obey me, I must obey you. " 
 
 And looking at the ponderous bank of cloud in the north- 
 west, of which the gathering brightness and intensity of the 
 hghtning was illustrating its steady approach, I exclaimed: 
 
 " Are we strong enough to turn to, mates?" 
 
 " "We can douse that top-gallant-sail, I dare say," answered 
 the boatswain. "Up on your pins, steward!" 
 
 And we trooped along to the main-deck. 
 
 The speU of rest, and perhaps the grog, not to mention the 
 tobacco, had done us no harm. The three of us went aloft, 
 carrying the jigger with us, which we left in the main-top, and 
 furled the top-gallant-sail, if not in man-of-war fashion and 
 with a proper harbor bunt, at all events very securely. 
 
 But the maintop-sail was another matter. All three of us 
 had to lay out to windward to haul taut one ear-ring; then 
 skim along to the other end of the yard to the other ear-ring; 
 and so up and down, and still more reef -points and still more 
 ear-rings, 'until my legs and fingers ached. 
 
198 THE WRECK OF THE " QROSVENOK.'" 
 
 This job over, we rested ourselves in the main-top, and then 
 got upon the main-yard, and made shift to pass the yard- 
 arm gaskets round the sail, and stow it after a fashion, 
 though I had no doubt that the first gale of wind that struck 
 it would blow it clear of its lashings in a minute. 
 
 Then on deck again with the maintop-sail halyards to the 
 capstan; and the dawn found the ship imder the three close- 
 reefed top-sails, foresail, and foretop-mast-staysail, the whole 
 of the other canvas having been reefed and stowed away by 
 three worn-out men, one of whom had been nearly knocked up 
 by the fight with the mutineers, the second of whom was fresh 
 from an imprisonment of three days in a close, stifling, and 
 rat-swarmiag coal-hole, while a third had received such a crack 
 on his wrist as would have sent any man but an English sailor 
 to his hammock, and kept him Ul and groaniag for a month. 
 
 OHAPTBE XX. 
 
 Our next job was to man the port-braces and bring the ship 
 to a westerly course. But before we went to this work the 
 boatswain and I stood for some minutes looking at the appear- 
 ance of the sky. 
 
 The range of cloud, which had been but a low-lying and ap- 
 parently a fugitive bank in the north-west at midnight, was 
 now so far advanced as to project nearly over our he^s; and 
 what rendered its aspect more sinister was the steely color of 
 the sky, which it ruled with a line, here and there rugged, but 
 for the most part singularly even, right from the confines of 
 the north-eastern to the limits of the south-western horizon. 
 All the central portion of this vast surface of cloud was of a 
 livid hue, which, by a deception of the eye made it appear 
 convex; and at frequent intervals a sharp shower of arrowy 
 lightning whizzed from that portion of it furthest away from 
 us; but as yet we could hear no thunder. 
 
 " When the rain^s before the wind, then your top-sail hal- 
 jpxds mind," chanted the boatswain. " There's rather more 
 ZiOv a quarter o' an inch o' rain there, and there's something 
 worse nor rain astern of it. " 
 
 The gloomiest feature of this approaching tempest, if such 
 it were, was the slowness, at once mysterious and impressive, 
 /"f its approach. 
 
 I vas not, however, to be deceived by this into supposing 
 that, because it had taken nearly all night to climb the hori- 
 zon, there was no wind behind it. I had had experience of a 
 storm of this kiad, and remembered the observations of one of 
 
' I asked Miss Robertson to put the helm down, and keep it there until 
 the compass pointed west." — Page 199. 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GtROSVENOR. " 199 
 
 the officers of the ship when speaking of it. " Those kind of 
 storms/' he said, "are not driven by wind, but create it. 
 They keep a hurricane locked up in their insides, and wander 
 across the sea on the lookout for ships; when they come across 
 something worth wrecking, they let fly. Don't be deceived by 
 their slow pace, and imagine them only thunder-storms. 
 They'll burst hke an earthquake in a dead calm over your 
 head, and, whenever you see one coming, snug your ship right 
 away down to the last reef in her, and keep your stern at it. " 
 
 " I am debating, boson," said I, " whether to bring the ship 
 round or keep her before it. What do you thiak.'"' 
 
 " There's a gale of wind there. I can smell it," he replied; 
 " but we're snug enough to lie close, aren't we?" looking up 
 at the masts. 
 
 " That's to be proved," said I. " "We'll bring her close, if 
 you like; but I am pretty sure we shall have to rim for it later 
 on." 
 
 " It'll bowl us well away into mid- Atlantic, won't it, Mr. 
 Eoyle?" 
 
 " Yes; I wish we were more to the nor'ard of Bermuda. 
 However we'll tackle the yards, and have a trial for the tight 
 little islands. " 
 
 " They're pretty nigh all rocks, aren't they? I never 
 sighted 'em." 
 
 "Nor I. But they've got a dock-yard at Bermuda, I be- 
 Heve, where the Yankees reiit sometimes, and that's about all 
 I know of those islands." 
 
 I asked Miss Eobertson to put the helm down, and keep it 
 there until the compass pointed west; but the ship had so Httle 
 way upon her, owing to the small amount of canvas she carried 
 now and the faintness of the wind, that it took her as long to 
 come round as if we had been warping her head to the west- 
 ward by a buoy. 
 
 Having braced up the yards and steadied the helm, we could 
 do no more; and, resolving to profit as much as possible from 
 the interval of rest before us, I directed Cornish to take the 
 wheel, and ordered the steward to go forward and light the 
 galley fire and boil some coffee for breakfast. 
 
 " Boson," said I, " you might as well drop below and have 
 a look at those plugs of yours. Take a hammer with you and 
 this light," handing him the binnacle-lamp, " and drive the 
 plugs in hard, for if the ship should labor heavily, she might 
 strain them out." 
 
 He started on his errsjiTid. and I then told Miss Eobertson 
 
200 THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVEKOB. 
 
 that there was nothing now to detain her on deck^, and thanked 
 her for the great service she had rendered us. 
 
 How well I remember her as she stood near the wheel, wear- 
 ing my straw hat, her dress hitched up to allow freedom to her 
 movements; her small hands with the delicate blue veins glow- 
 ing through the white clear skin, her yellow hair looped up, 
 though with many a tress straying like an amber-colored 
 feather; her marble face, her lips pale with fatigue, her beau- 
 tiful blue eyes fired ever with the same brave spirit, though 
 dim with the weariness of long and painful watching, and the 
 oppressive and numbing sense of ever-present danger! 
 
 On no consideration would I allow her to remain any longer 
 on deck; and though she begged to stay, I took her hand firm- 
 ly, and led her into the cuddy to her cabin door. 
 
 " You will faithfully promise me to lie down and sleep?" I 
 said. 
 
 " I will lie down, and will sleep if I can," she answered with 
 a wan smile. 
 
 " We have succeeded in saving you so far," I continued 
 earnestly, " and it would be cruel, very cruel, and hard upon 
 me, to see your health break down for the want of rest and 
 sleep, when both are at your command, now that life is bright 
 again, and when any hour may see us safe on the deck of 
 another vessel.'" 
 
 " You shall not suffer through me," she rephed. " I wiU 
 obey you; indeed I will do anything you want." 
 
 I lossed her hand respectfully, and said that a single hour of 
 sound sleep would do her a deal of good; by that time I would 
 take care that breakfast should be ready for her and her father, 
 and then I held open the cabin door for her to enter, and re- 
 turned on deck. 
 
 A most extraordinary and wonderful sight saluted me when 
 I reached the poop. 
 
 The sun had risen behind the vast embankment of cloud, 
 and its glorious rays, the orb itself being invisible, projected in 
 a thousand lines of silver beyond the margin of the bank to 
 the right and overhead, jutting out in visible threads, each as 
 defined as a sunbeam in a dark room. 
 
 But the effect of this wonderful light was to render the can- 
 opy of cloud more horribly livid; and weird and startling was 
 the contrast of the mild and far-reaching sunshine, streaming 
 in lines of silver brightness into the steely sky, with the blue 
 lightning ripping up the belly of the cloud, and suffering the 
 eye to dwell for an instant on the titanic strata of gloom that 
 stood ponderously behind. 
 
THE -WBECK OF THE " GROSVEKOR." 201 
 
 Nor was the ocean at this moment a less somber and majes- 
 tical object than the heavens; for upon half of it rested a 
 shadow deep as night, making the water sallow and thick, and 
 most desolate to behold under the terrible curtain that lay close 
 down to it upon the horizon; while all on the right the green 
 sea sparkled in the sunbeams, heaying slowly under the calm 
 that had fallen. 
 
 Looking far away on the weather-beam, and . where the 
 shadow on the sea was deepest, I fancied that I discerned a 
 black object, which might well be a ship with her saUs dark- 
 ened by her distance from the sun. 
 
 I pointed it out to Cornish, who saw it too, and I then 
 fetched the telescope. 
 
 Judge of my surprise and consternation when the outline of 
 a boat with her sail low down on the mast entered the field of 
 the glass! I cried out, " It's the long-boat!" 
 
 Cornish turned hastily. ' 
 
 " My God!" he cried, " they're doomed men!" 
 
 I gazed at her intently, but could not be deceived, for I re- 
 cognized the cut of the stun' sail, lowered as it was in anticipa- 
 tion of the breaking of the storm, and I could also make out 
 the minute dark figures of the men in her. 
 
 My surprise, however, was but momentary, for considering 
 the hghtness of the wind that had prevailed all night, and the 
 probability of her having stood to and fro in expectation of 
 coming across us, or the quarter-boat which had attacked us,- I 
 had no reason to expect that they should have been far off. 
 
 The boatswain came along the quarter-deck, singing out, 
 " It's all right below! No fear of a leak there!" 
 
 " Come up here," I cried. " There's the long-boat yon- 
 der!" 
 
 On hearing this he ran aft as hard as he could and stared in 
 the direction I indicated, but could not make her out until he 
 had the glass to his eye, on which he exclaimed: 
 
 " Yes, it's her, sure enough. Why, we may have to make 
 another fight for it. She's heading this way, and if she brings 
 down any wind, by jingo! she'll overhaul us." 
 
 " No, no,'' I answered. " They're not for fighting. They 
 don't like the look of the weather, boson, and would board us 
 to save their lives, not to take ours." 
 
 " That's it, sir," exclaimed Cornish. " I reckon there's 
 little enough mutineering among 'em, now Stevens is gone. 
 I'd lay my life they'd turn to and go to work just as I have, 
 if you'd lay by for 'em and take 'em in." 
 
 Neither the boatswain nor I made any reply to this. 
 
203 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSTENOE. 
 
 For my own part, though "we had been perishing for the 
 want of more hands, I don't think I should hare had trust 
 enough in those rascals to allow them on board; for I could 
 not doubt that when the storm was over, and they found them- 
 selves afloat in the " Grosvenor " once more, they would lay 
 violent hands on me and the boatswain, and treat us as they 
 treated Coxon and Duckling, revenging themselves in this way 
 upon us for the death of Stevens and the other leaders of the 
 mutiny, and likewise protecting themselves against their being 
 carried to England and handed over to the authorities on shore 
 as murderers. 
 
 The lightning was now growing very vivid, and for the first 
 time I heard the sullen moan of thunder. 
 
 " That means/' said the boatswain, " that it's a good bit 
 off yet; and if that creature for'ard'U only bear a hand we 
 shall be able to get something to eat and drink before it comes 
 down." 
 
 However, as he spoke, the steward came with a big coffee- 
 pot. He set it on the sky-hght, and fetched from the pantry 
 some good preserved meat, biscuit, and butter, and we fell to 
 the repast with great relish and hunger. 
 
 Being the first to finish, I took the wheel while Cornish 
 breakfasted, and then ordered the steward to go and make 
 some fresh cofEee, and keep it hot in the galley, and prepare 
 a good, breakfast for the Eobei-tsons, ready to serve when the 
 young lady should leave her cabin. 
 
 "Boson," said I, as he came slowly toward me, filling his 
 pipe, " I don't like the look of that mainsail. It'll blow out 
 and kick up a deuce of a shindy. You and Cornish had better 
 lay aloft with some spare line and serve the sail with it. " 
 
 " That's soon done," he answered, cheerfully. And Corn- 
 ish left his breakfast and they both went aloft. 
 
 I yawned repeatedly as I stood at the wheel, and my eyes 
 were sore for want of sleep. 
 
 But there was something in the aspect of that tremendous, 
 stooping, quarter sphere of cloud abeam of us throwing a dark- 
 ness most sinister to behold on half the sea, a,nd vomiting 
 quick lances of blue fire from its caverns, while now and again 
 the thunder rolled solemnly, which was formidable enough to 
 keep me wide awake. 
 
 It was growing darker every moment: already the sun's 
 beams were obscured, though that portion of the great canopy 
 of cloud which lav nearest to the luminary carried still a flam- 
 ing edge. 
 
THE WKEOK OF THE "GEOSTBNOE." 203 
 
 A dead calm had fallen, and the ship rested motionless on 
 the water. 
 
 The two men remained for a short time on the main-yard, 
 and then came down, leaving the sail much more secure than 
 they had found it. Cornish dispatched his breakfast, and the 
 boatswain came to me. 
 
 " Do you see the long-boat now, sir?" 
 
 "No," I replied; she's hidden in the rain yonder. By 
 Heaven! it is coming down!" 
 
 I did not exaggerate; the horizon was gray with the rain; it 
 looked like steam rising from the boiling sea. 
 
 " It'n keep 'em busy bailing," said the boatswain. 
 
 " Hold on here," I cried, " till I get my oU-skins." 
 
 I was back agaia iu a few moments, and he went away to 
 drape himself for the downfall, and to advise Cornish to do the 
 same. 
 
 I left the wheel for a second or two to close one of the sky- 
 lights, and as I did so a flash of hghtning seemed to set the 
 ship on fire, and immediately came a deafening crash of thun- 
 der. I think there is something more awful in the roar of 
 thunder heard at sea than on shore, imless you are among the 
 mountains; you get the full intensity of it, the mighty out- 
 burst smiting the smooth surface of the water, which in itself 
 is a wonderful vehicle of sound, and running onward for 
 leagues without meeting with any impediment to check or 
 divert it. 
 
 I hastened to see if the lightning-conductor ran clear to the 
 water, and finding the end of the wire coiled up in the port main- 
 chains, flung it overboard and resumed my place at the wheel. 
 
 Nor that the vast surface of cloud was well forward of over- 
 head, I observed that its front was an almost perfect . semi- 
 circle, the extremities at either point of the horizon projecting 
 hke horns. There stUl remained, embraced by these horns, a 
 clear expanse of steel-colored sky. There the sea was light, 
 but all to starboard it was black, and the terrible shadow was 
 fast bearing down upon the ship. 
 
 Crack! the lightning whizzed, and turned the deck, spars, 
 and rigging into a net-work of blue fire. The peal that fol- 
 lowed was a sudden explosion — a great dead crash, as though 
 some mighty ponderous orb had fallen from the highest heaven 
 upon the flooring of the sky and riven it. 
 
 Then I heard the fain. 
 
 I scarcely know which was the more terrifying to see and 
 hear — ^the rain, or the thunder and lightning. 
 
 It was a cataract of water falling from a prodigious eleva- 
 
204 THE -WRECK OS THE "GEOSVENOE." 
 
 tion. It was a dense, impervious liquid veil, shutting out all 
 sight of sea and sky. It tore the water into foam ia strikiag it. 
 
 Then loom I down it came upon us. 
 
 I held on by the wheel, and the hoatswain Jammed himself 
 under the grating. It was not rain only — it was hail as big as 
 eggs; and the rain-drops were as big as eggs too. 
 
 There was not a breath of air. This terrific fall came down 
 in perfectly perpendicular lines; and as the hghtning rushed 
 through it, it illumiaated with its ghastly effulgence a broad 
 sheet of water. 
 
 It was so dark that I could not see the card in the binnacle. 
 The water rushed off our decks just as it would had we shipped 
 a sea; and for the space of twenty minutes I stood stimned, 
 deaf, blind, in the midst of a horrible and overpowering con- 
 cert of pealing thunder and rushing rain, the awful gloom be- 
 ing rendered yet more dreadful by the dazzling flashes which 
 passed through it. 
 
 It passed as suddenly as it had come, and left us stiU in a 
 breathless calm, drenched, terrified, and motionless. 
 
 It grew lighter to windward, and I felt a small air blowing 
 on my streaming face; lighter stUl, though to leeward the 
 storm was ragiug and roaring, and passing with its darkness 
 like some unearthly night. 
 
 I squeezed the water out of my eyes, and saw the wind come 
 rushing toward us upon the sea, while all overhead the sky 
 was a broad lead-colored space. 
 
 " Now, boson," I roared, " stand by!" 
 
 He came out from under the grating, and took a grip of the 
 rail. 
 
 "Here it comes!" he cried; "and by the holy poker!" he 
 added, " here comes the long-boat atop of it!" 
 
 I could only cast one brief glance in the direction indicated, 
 where, sure enough, I saw the long-boat flying toward us on a 
 surface of foam. In an instant the gale struck the ship and 
 over she heeled, laying her port bulwark close down upon the 
 water. But there she stopped. 
 
 " Had we had whole top-sails," I cried, " it would have been 
 Amen!" 
 
 I waited a moment or two before deciding whether to put 
 the helm up and run. If this was the worst of it, the ship 
 would do as she was. But in that time the long-boat, urged 
 furiously forward by the sail they stni kept on her, passed 
 close under our stern. Twice, before she reached us, I saw 
 them try to bring her so as to come alongside and each time I 
 
I 
 
 a, 
 
 s 
 
 3 
 
THE WRECK OF THE "GEOSVEKOE." 205 
 
 held my breath, for I knew that the moment they brought her 
 broadside to the wind she would capsize. 
 
 May God forbid that ever I should behold such a sight again! 
 
 It was indescribably shocking to see them swept helplessly 
 past within hail of us. There were seyen men in her. Two 
 of them cried out and raved furiously, entreating with dread- 
 ful, mad gesticulations as they whirled past. But the rest, 
 some clinging to the mast, others seated with their arms fold- 
 ed, were silent, Hke dead men already, with fixed and staring 
 eyes — a ghastly crew. I saw one of the two raving men spring 
 on to the gimwale, but he was instantly pulled down by 
 another. 
 
 But what was there to see? It was a moment's horror — 
 quick-vanishing as some monstrous object leaping into sight 
 under a flash of lightning, then instantaneously swallowed up 
 ia the devouring gloom. 
 
 Our ship had got way upon her, and was surging foward with 
 her lee channels under water. The long-boat dwindled away 
 on our quarter, the spray veiling her as she fled, and in a few 
 minutes was not to be distinguished upon the immeasurable 
 bed of foam and wave, stretching down to the livid storm that 
 still raged upon the far horizon. 
 
 "My God!" exclaimed Cornish, who stood near the wheel 
 unnoticed by me. " I might ha' been in her! I might ha' 
 been in her!" 
 
 And he covered his face with his hands, and sobbed and 
 shook with the horror of the scene, and the agony of the 
 thoughts it had conjured up. 
 
 OHAPTEE XXI. 
 
 I HAEDLT knew what to make of the weather; for though 
 it blew very hard, the wind was not so violent as it had been 
 during those three days which I- have written of in another 
 part of thif story. 
 
 The ship managed to hold her own well, with her head at 
 west; I mean that she went scraping through the water, mak- 
 ing very little lee-way, and so far she could fairly well carry 
 the three closed-reefed top-sails; though I believe that had 
 another yard of canvas more than was already exposed been on 
 her, she would have lain down and never risrhted again, so vio- 
 lent was the first clap and outfly of the wink. 
 
 Nevertheless, I got the boatswain to take the wheel, aik 
 sent Cornish forward to stand in the f oretop-sail sheets, while 
 I kept by the mizzen, for I was not at all sure that the terrific 
 
206 THE WKECK OF THE " GKOSVENOB. ' 
 
 thunder-storm that had broken over us was not the precursor 
 of a hurricane, to come down at any moment on the gale that 
 was already blowing, and wreck the ship out of hand. 
 
 In this way twenty minutes passed, -v^en, finding the wind 
 to remain steady, I sung out to Oomish that he might come 
 aft again. As I never knew the moment when a vessel might 
 heave in sight, I bent on the small ensign and ran it half-way 
 up at the gaff end, not thinking it judicious to exhibit a train 
 of flag-signals in so much wind. I then took the telescope, 
 and, setting it steady in the mizzen-rigging, slowly and care- 
 fully swept the weather horizon, and afterward transferred 
 the glass to leeward, but no ship was to be seen. 
 
 "We ought to be in the track o' some sort o' wessels, too," 
 exclaimed the boatswain, who had been awaiting the result of 
 my inspections. "The steamers from Liverpool to New 
 Orleans, and the "West India mail-ships, 'ud come right across 
 this way, wouldn't they?" 
 
 " Not quite so far north," I answered. " But there ought 
 to be no lack of sailing-ships from all parts — from England to 
 the southern ports of the United States and North America — 
 from American ports to Eio and the eastern coast of South 
 America. They can not keep us long waiting. Something 
 must heave in sight soon. " 
 
 " Suppose we sight a wessel, what do you mean to do, sir?" 
 
 " Ask them to let me have a few men to work the ship to 
 the nearest port." 
 
 " But suppose they're short-handed?" 
 
 " Then they won't obhge us." 
 
 " I can't see myself, sir," said he, " why, instead o' tryin' 
 to fetch Bermuda, we shouldn't put the helm up and square 
 away for England. How might the English Channel lie as we 
 now are?" 
 
 " A trifle to the east'ard of north-east." 
 
 " Well, this here's a fair wind for it. " 
 
 " That's true; but will you kindly remember that the ship's 
 company consists of three men?" 
 
 " Of four, countin' the steward, and five, countin' Miss 
 Eobertson." 
 
 " Of three men, I say, capable of working the vessel." 
 
 " Well, yes J you're right. Arter all, there's only three to 
 go aloft." 
 
 " I suppose you know," I continued, " that it would take a 
 sailing-ship, properly manned, four or five weeks to make the 
 Enghsh Channel. " 
 
 "WeU, sir." 
 
THE WRECK OE THE " GROSTENOE. " 307 
 
 " Neither you, nor I, nor Cornish could do without sleep for 
 four or five weeks." 
 
 " We could keep regular watches, Mr. Eoyle." 
 
 " I dare say we could; but we should have to let the ship re- 
 main under reefed top-sails. But instead of taking four or five 
 weeks, we should take four or five months to reach England 
 under close-reefed top-sails, rmless we could keep a gale of 
 wind astern of us all the way. I'll tell you what it is, boson, 
 these exploits are very pretty and appear very possible, in 
 books, and persons who take anything that is told them about 
 the sea as likely and true believe they can be acoomphshed. 
 And on one or two occasions they have been accompUshed. 
 Also I have heard on one occasion a gentleman made a voyage 
 from Timor to Bathurst Island on the back of a turtle. But 
 the odds, in my unromantic opinion, are a thousand to one 
 against our working the ship home as we are, unless we can 
 ship a crew on the road, and very shortly. And how can we 
 be sure of this? There is scarce a ship goes to sea now that is 
 not short-handed. We may sight fifty vessels, and get no help 
 from one of them. They may all be wilUng to take us on 
 board if we abandon the ' Grosvenor;' but they'll tell us that 
 they can give us no assistance to work her. ' Depend upon it, 
 our wisest course is to make Bermuda. There, perhaps, we 
 may pick up some hands. But if we head for England in this 
 trim — a deep ship, with heavy gear to work, and but two sea- 
 men to depend upon, if the third has to take the wheel, trust- 
 ing to chance to help us, I repeat that the odds against our 
 bringing the ship home are one thousand to one. We shall be 
 at the mercy of every gale that rises, and end in becoming a 
 kind of phantom ship, chased about the ocean just as the wind 
 happens to blow us. " 
 
 " Well, sir," said he, "I dare say you're right, and I'll say 
 no more about it. Now, about turnin' in. I'll keep here, if 
 you like to go below for a couple of hours. Cornish can stand 
 by to rouse you up." 
 
 I had another look to windward, before making up my mind 
 to go below. A strong sea was rising, and the wind blew hard 
 enough to keep one leaning against it. There was no break in 
 the sky, and the horizon was thick, but the lookout was not 
 worse than it had been half an hour before. 
 
 We were, however, snug enough aloft, if not very neat; the 
 bunt of the mainsail, indeed, looked rather shaky, but the 
 other sails lay very secure upon the yards; and this being so, 
 and the gale remaining steady, I told the boatswain to keep the 
 
308 THE WEECK OP THE " GEOSTEKOE. " 
 
 sMp to her present course, and went below, yawning horribly 
 and dead wearied. 
 
 I had slept three quarters of an hour when I was awakened 
 by the steward rushing into my cabin and hauling upon me 
 ]ike a madman. Being scarcely conscious, I imagined that 
 the mutineers had got on board again, and that here was one 
 of them falling upon me; and having sense enough, I suppose, 
 in my sleepy brain to make me determine to sell my life at a 
 good price, I let fly at the steward's breast and struck him so 
 hard that he roared out, which sound brought me to my senses 
 at once. 
 
 " What is it?" I cried. 
 
 " Oh, sir," responded the steward, half dead with terror and 
 the loss of breath occasioned by my blow, " the ship's sinking 
 sir! We're all going down! I've been told to fetch you up. 
 The Lord have mercy upon us!" 
 
 I rolled on to the deck in my hurry to leave the bunk, and 
 ran with all my speed up the companion-ladder; nor was the 
 ascent difficult, for the ship was on a level keel, pitching heav- 
 ily, indeed, but rolling slightly. 
 
 Scarcely, however, was my head up through the companion 
 when I thought it would be blown off my shoulders. The fury 
 and force of the wind was such as I had never before in all my 
 life experienced. 
 
 Both the boatswain and Cornish were at the wheel, and, in 
 order to reach them, I had to drop upon my hands and knees 
 and crawl -along the deck. When near them, I took a grip of 
 the grating and looked around me. 
 
 The first thing I saw was that the mainsail had blown away 
 from most of the gaskets, and wag thundering in a thousand 
 rags upon the yard. The foresail was spht in halves, and the 
 port mizzentop-sail sheet had carried away, and the sail was 
 pealing hke endless discharges of musketry. 
 
 All the spars were safe still. The lee-braces had been let 
 go, the helm put up, and the ship was racing before a hurri- 
 cane as furious as a tornado, heading south-east, with a wilder- 
 ness of foam boiling under her bows. 
 
 This, then, was the real gale which the thunder-storm had 
 been nearly all night bringing up. The first gale was but a 
 summer breeze compared to it. 
 
 The clouds lay like huge fantastic rolls of sheet lead upon 
 the sky; in some quarters of the circle drooping to the water- 
 line in patches and spaces ink-black. No fragment of blue 
 heaven was visible; and yet it was hghter than it had been 
 when I went below. 
 
THE WRECK OE THE " QROSTENOB. '* 309 
 
 The ensign, half-masted, roared over my head; the sea was 
 momentarily gi-owing heavier, and, as the ship pitched, she 
 took the water in broad sheets over her forecastle. 
 
 The terrible beating of the mizzentop-sail was making the 
 mizzen-mast, from the mast-coat to the royal mast-head, jump 
 like a piece of whalebone. Although deafened, bewildered, 
 and soaked through with the screaming of the gale, the thun- 
 der of the torn canvas, and the spray which the wind tore out 
 of the sea and hurled through the air, I still preserved my 
 senses; and, perceiving that the mizzentop-mast would go if the 
 sail were not got rid of, I crawled on my hands and knees to 
 the foot of the mast and let go the remaining sheet. 
 
 With appalling force, and instantaneously, the massive chain 
 was torn through the sheave-hole, and in less time than I could 
 have counted ten, one half the sail had blown into the main- 
 top, and the rest streamed like the ends of whip-cord from the 
 yard. 
 
 I crawled to the fore-end of the poop to look at the main- 
 mast; that stood steady; but while I watched the foremast, the 
 foresail went to pieces, and the leaping and plunging of the 
 heavy blocks upon it made the whole mast quiver so violently 
 that the top-gaUant and royal-mast ■ beat to and fro like a bow 
 strung and unstrung quickly. 
 
 I waited some moments, debating whether or not to let go 
 the foretop-sail sheets; but, reflecting that the fidl force of the 
 wind was kept away from it by the maintop-sail, and that it 
 would certainly blow to pieces if I touched a rope belonging to 
 it, I dropped on my hands and knees again and crawled away 
 aft. 
 
 " I saw it coming!" roared the boson in my ear. " I had 
 just time to sing out to Cornish to slacken the lee-braces and 
 put the helm hard over. " 
 
 " We shall never be able to run!" I bellowed back. " She'll 
 be pooped, as sure as a gun, when the sea comes! We must 
 heave her to while we can. No use thinking of the foretop- 
 sail — it must go!" 
 
 " Look there!"' shouted Comiah, dropping the spokes with 
 one hand to point. 
 
 There was something indeed to look at; one of the finest 
 steamers I had ever seen, brig-rigged, hove to rmder a main- 
 staysail. She seemed, so rapidly were we reeling through the 
 water, to rise out of the sea. 
 
 She lay with her bowsprit pointing across our path, just on 
 our starboard bow. Lying as she was, without way on her, ws 
 
210 THE WBECE; of the " GKOSVElirOE. ' 
 
 should have run into her had the weather been thick, as surely 
 as I lire to say so. 
 
 "We slightly starboarded the helm, clearing her by the time 
 we were abreast by not more than a quarter of a mile. But 
 we dared not have hauled the ship round another poiut; for, 
 with our braces all loose, the first spilling of the sails would 
 have brought the yards aback, in wmch case, indeed, we might 
 have called upon trod to have mercy on our souls, for the ship 
 would not have lived five miuutes. 
 
 There was something fascinating in the spectacle of that 
 Beautiful steamship, rolling securely in the heavy sea, reveal- 
 ing as she went over to starboard her noble, graceful hull to 
 within a few feet of her keel. But there was also something 
 unspeakably dreadful to us to see help so close at hand, and 
 yet of no more use than had it offered a thousand miles away. 
 
 There was a man on her bridge, and others doubtless watched 
 our vessel unseen by us; and God knows what sensations must 
 have been excited in them by the sight of our torn and whirl- 
 ing ship blindly rushing before the tempest, her sails in rags, 
 the half -hoisted ensign bitterly illustrating our miserable con- 
 dition, and appealing, with a power and pathos no human cry 
 could express, for help which could not be given. 
 
 " Let us try and heave her to now!" I shrieked, maddened 
 by the sight of this ship whirling fast away on our quarter. 
 'We can he by her until the gale has done, and then she will 
 help us!" 
 
 But the boatswain could not control the wheel alone: the 
 blows of the sea against the rudder made it hard for even four 
 pairs of hands to hold the wheel steady. I rushed to the com- 
 panion and bawled for the steward, and when, after a long 
 pause, he emerged, no sooner did the ynnA hit him than he 
 rolled down the ladder. 
 
 I sprung below, hauled him up by the collar of his jacket, 
 and drove him with both hands to his stem up to the wheel. 
 
 " Hold on to these spokes!" I roared. And then Cornish 
 and I ran staggering along the poop. 
 
 " Get the end of the starboard main-brace to the capstan!" 
 I cried to him. " Look alive! ship one of the bars ready!" 
 
 And then I scrambled as best I could down on the main- 
 deck, and went floundering forward through the water, that 
 was now washing higher than my ankle, to the foretop-sail ' 
 halyards, which I let go. 
 
 Crack! whiz! away went the sail, strips of it flying into the 
 sea like smoke. 
 
 I struggled back again on to the poop, but the violence of 
 
THE WRECK OF THE "GEOSVENOK." 311 
 
 the wind was almost more than I could bear; it beat the breath 
 out of me; it stung my face just as if it were filled with 
 needles; it roared in my ears; it resembled a solid wall; it rolled 
 me off my knees and hands, and obliged me to drag myself 
 against it bit by bit, by whatever came in my road to hold on 
 to. 
 
 Cornish lay upon the deck with the end of the main-brace 
 in his hands, haying taken the necessary turn with it around 
 the capstan. 
 
 I laid my weight against -the bar and went to work, and, 
 scrambling and panting, beaten half dead by the wind, and no 
 more able to look astern without protecting my eyes with my 
 hands than I could survey any object in a room full of blind- 
 ing smoke, I gradually got the main-yard round, but found I 
 had not the strength to bring it close to the mast. 
 
 I saw the boatswain speak to the steward, who left the wheel 
 to help me with his weight against the capstan bar. 
 
 I do think at that moment that the boatswain transformed 
 himself into an immovable figure of iron. Heaven knows 
 from what measureless inner sources he procured the tempo- 
 rary strength; he clinched his teeth, and the muscles in his 
 hands rose like bulbs as he hung to the wheel and pitted his 
 strength against the blows of the seas upon the rudder. 
 
 Brave, honest fellow! a true seaman! a true Englishman! 
 Wen would it be for sailors were there more of his kind among 
 them to set them examples of honest labor, noble self-sacrifice, 
 and duty ungrudgingly performed! 
 
 The seas struck the ship heavily as she rounded to. I feared 
 that she would have too much head-sail to lie close, for the fore- 
 sail and foretop-sail were in ribbons — they might show enough 
 roaring canvas when coupled with the foretop-mast-staysail to 
 make her pay off, we having no after-sail set to counterbalance 
 the effect of them. 
 
 However, she lay steady, that is, as the compass goes, but 
 rolled fearfully, wallowing deep hke a ship half full of water, 
 and shipped such tremendous seas that I constantly expected 
 to hear the crash of the galley stove in. 
 
 I now shaded my eyes to look astern; not hoping, indeed, to 
 see the steamer near, but expecting at least to find her in sight. 
 But the horizon was a dull blank: not a sign of the vessel to 
 be seen, nothing but the rugged line of water, and the nearer 
 deep dark under the shadow of the leaden pouring clouds. 
 
313 THE WEEOK OP THE " GHOBVEKOE.' 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIL 
 
 In bringing the ship close to the wind in this terrible gale, 
 without springing a spar, we had done what I never should 
 have believed practicable to four men, taking into considera- 
 tion the size of the ship and the prodigious force of the wind; 
 and when I looked aloft and considered that only a few hours 
 before, so to speak, the ship was calrrying all the sail that could 
 be put upon her, and that three men had stripped her of it and 
 put her under a close-reefed maintop-sail fit to encounter a 
 raging hurricane, I could not help thinking that we had a 
 right to feel proud of our endurance and spirit. 
 
 There was no difficulty now in holding the wheel, and, had 
 no worse sea than was now running been promised us, the 
 hehn might have been lashed and the vessel lain as comfort- 
 ably as a smack with her foresail over to windward. 
 
 The torn sails were making a hideous noise on the yards for- 
 ward, and as there was no earthly reason why this clamor 
 should be suffered to last, I called to Cornish to get his knife 
 ready and help me to cut the canvas away from the Jack- 
 stays. We hauled the braces taut to steady the yards, and 
 then went aloft, and in ten minutes severed the fragments of 
 the foresail and top-sail, and they blew up into the air Hke 
 paper, and were carried nearly half a mile before they fell into 
 the sea. 
 
 The wind was killing up aloft, and I was heartily glad to get 
 on deck again, not only to escape the wind, but on account of 
 the foretop-mast and top-gallant-mast, both of which had been 
 heavUy tried, and now rocked heavily as the ship rolled, and 
 threatened to come down with the weight of the yards upon 
 them. 
 
 But neither Cornish nor I had strength enough in us to stay 
 cho masts more securely; our journey aloft and our sojourn oli 
 the yards, and our fight with the wind to maintain om- hold, 
 had pretty well done for us; and in Cornish I took notice of 
 that air of lassitude and duU indifference which creeps upon 
 shipwrecked men when worn out with their struggles, and 
 which resembles, in its way, the stupor which falls upon per- 
 sons who are perishing of cold. 
 
 It was fair, however, since I had some rest, that I should 
 now take a spell at the wheel, and I therefore told Cornish to 
 go to the cabin lately occupied by Stevens, the ship's carpen- 
 ter, and turn in, and then crawled aft to the poop and desired 
 
THE WEECK OF THE "GEOSVEKOK." 213 
 
 the boatswain to go below and rest himself, and order the 
 steward, who had not done one tenth of the work we had per- 
 formed, to stand by ready to come on deck if I should call to 
 him. 
 
 I was now alone on deck, in the center, so it seemed when 
 looking around the horizon, of a great storm, which was fast 
 lifting the sea into mountains. 
 
 I took a turn roimd the spokes of the wheel and secured the 
 tiller ropes to steady the helm, and held on, crouching to wind- 
 ward, so that I might get some shelter from the murderous 
 force of the wind by the slanting deck and rail. 
 
 I could better now realize our position than when at work, 
 and the criticalness of it struck and awed me like a revelation. 
 
 I cast my eyes upon the maintop-sail, and inspected it anx- 
 iously, as on this sail our lives might depend. If it blew away, 
 the only sail remaining would be the foretop-mast-staysail. In 
 all probability the ship's head would at once pay off, let me 
 keep the helm jammed down as hard as I pleased; the vessel 
 would then drive before the seas, which, as she had not enough 
 canvas on her to keep her running at any speed, would very 
 soon topple over her stem, sweep the decks fore and aft, and 
 render her unmanageable. 
 
 There was likewise the further danger of the foretoprmast 
 going, the whole weight of the stay-sail being upon it. .If this 
 went, it would take that sail with it, and the ship would round 
 into the wind's eye and drive away astern. 
 
 Had there been more hands on board, I should not have 
 found these speculations so alarming. My first job would 
 have been to get some of the cargo out of the hold and pitch 
 it overboard so as to lighten the ship, for the dead weight in 
 her made her strain horribly. Then, with men to help, it 
 would have been easy to get the storm-trysail on if the top-sail 
 blew away, clap preventer backstays on to the foremast and 
 f oretop-mast, and rouse them taut with tackles, ■ and send 
 down the royal and top-gallant-yards, so as to ease the masts 
 of the immense leverage of these spars. 
 
 But what could four men do — one of the four being almost 
 uselss, and all four exhausted not by the perils and labor of 
 the storm only, but by the fight they had had to make for 
 their hves against fellow-beings? 
 
 Alone on deck, with the heavy seas splashing and thunder- 
 ing, and precipitating their volumes of water over the ship's 
 side, with the gale howling and roaring through the skies, I 
 grew bitterly despondent. It seemed as if God himself were 
 against me; that I was the sport of some remorseless fate. 
 
214 THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSTENOR. " 
 
 whereby I was led from one peril to another, from one suffer- 
 ing to another, and no mercy to be shown me until death gave 
 me rest. 
 
 And yet I was sensible of no revolt and inward rage against 
 what I deemed my destiny. My being and iadividuality were 
 absorbed and swallowed up in the power and immensity of the 
 tempest like a rain-drop ia the sea. I was overwhelmed by the 
 vastness of the danger which surrounded me, by the sense of the 
 littleness and insignificance of myself and my companions in 
 the midst of this spacious theater of warring winds, and raging 
 seas, and far-reaching sky of pouring cloud. I felt as though 
 all the forces of nature were directed against my life; and those 
 cries which my heart would have sent up in the presence of dan- 
 gers less tumultuous and immense were silenced by a kind of 
 dull amazement, of heavy, passive bewilderment, which numbed 
 my mind, and forced upon me an indifference to the issue 
 without depriving me of the will and energy to avert it. 
 
 I held my post at the wheel, being anxious that the boat- 
 swain and Cornish should recruit their strength by sleep, for if 
 one or the other of them broke down, then, indeed, our case 
 would be deplorable. 
 
 The force of the wind was stupendous, and yet the brave 
 maintop-sail stood it; but not an hour had passed since the 
 two men went below when a monster wave took the ship on 
 the starboard bow and threw her up, rolling at the same time 
 an immense body of water on to the decks; her stern, where I 
 was crouched, sunk in the hollow level with the sea, then, as 
 the leviathan wave rolled under her counter, the ship's bows 
 fell into a prodigious trough with a sickening, whirling swoop. 
 Ere she could recover, another great sea rolled right upon her, 
 burying her forecastle, and rusmng with the fury of a cataract 
 along the main-deck.. 
 
 Another wave like that, and our fate was sealed. 
 
 But happily these were exceptional seas; smaller waves suc- 
 ceeded, and the struggling, straining ship showed herself alive 
 still. 
 
 Ahve, but maimed. That tremendous swoop had carried 
 away the jib-boom and the foretop-gallant-mast-— the one close 
 against the bowsprit head, the other a few inches above the 
 top-gallant-yard. The mast, with the royal-yard upon it, 
 hung all in a heap against the foretop-mast, but fortunately 
 kept steady, owing to the yard-arm having jammed itself into 
 the foretop-mast rigging. The jib-boom was clean gone adrift, 
 and was washing away to leeward. 
 
 Tlus was no formidable accident, though it gave the ship a 
 
THE WRECK OF THE "GEOSVENOB." 315 
 
 wrecked and broken look. I should have been well pleased to 
 see all three top-gallant masts go over the side, for the weight 
 of the yards, swaying to and fro at great angles, was too much 
 for the lower masts, and not only strained the decks, but the 
 planking to which the chain-plates were bolted. 
 
 My great anxiety now was for the f oretop-mast, which was 
 sustaining the weight of the broken mast and yard, in addition 
 to the top-gallant-yard, ^till standing, and the heavy pulling of 
 the foretop-mast-staysail. 
 
 Dreading the consequences that might follow the loss of this 
 sail, I called to the steward at the top of my voice, and on his 
 thrusting his head up the companion, I bade him rouse up 
 Cornish and the boatswain, and send them on deck. 
 
 In a very short time they both arrived, and the boatswain, 
 on looking forward, immediately comprehended our position 
 and anticipated my order. 
 
 " The topmast'll go!" he roared in my ear. "Better let 
 go the staysail-halyards, and make a short job o' it. " 
 
 " Turn to and do it at once," I replied. Away they skur- 
 ried. I lost sight of them when they were once oil the poop, 
 and it seemed an eternity before they showed themselves again 
 on the forecastle. 
 
 No wonder! They had to wade and struggle through a 
 rough sea on the main-deck, which obliged them to hold on, 
 for minutes at a time, to whatever they could put their hands 
 to. 
 
 I wanted them to bear a hand in getting rid of the staysail, 
 for, with the wheel hard down, the ship showed a tendency to 
 fall off. But it was impossible to make my voice heard — I 
 could only wave my hand; the boatswain understood the gest- 
 ure, and I saw him motion to Cornish to clear ofE the fore- 
 castle. He then ran over to leeward and let go the foretop- 
 mast-staysaU sheet and halyards, and, this done, he could do 
 no more but take to his heels. 
 
 The hullabaloo was frightful — ^the thundering of the sails, 
 the snapping and cracking of the sheets. 
 
 Boom! I knew it must follow. It was a choice of two evils 
 — to poop the ship or lose a mast. 
 
 Down came the topmast, splintering and crashing with a 
 sound that rose above the roar of the gale, and in a minute was 
 swinging against the shroud — an awful wreck to behold in such 
 a scene of raging sea and buried decks. 
 
 I knew well now what ought to be done, and done without 
 delay; for the stay-sail was in the water, ballooning out to every 
 
216 THE WKECK OF THE " GBOSVENOR. " 
 
 wave, and dragging the ship's head round more effectually than 
 had the sail been set. 
 
 But I had a wonderful ally in the boatswain — keen, unerr- 
 ing, and intrepid, a consummate sailor. I should never have 
 had the heart to give him the order; and yet there he was, and 
 Cornish by his side, at work, knife in hand, cutting and hack- 
 ing away for dear life. 
 
 A long and perilous job indeed — now up aloft, now down, 
 soaked by the incessant seas that thundered over the ship's 
 bows, tripping over the raffle that encumbered the deck, act- 
 ually swarming out on the bowsprit with their knives between 
 their teeth, at moments plunged deep in the sea, yet busy again 
 as they were lifted high in the air. 
 
 I draw my breath as I write. I have the scene before me; I 
 see the ropes parting under the knives of the men. I close 
 my eyes as I behold once more the boiling wave that buries 
 them, and dare not look, lest I should find them gone. I hear 
 the hooting of the hurricane, the groaning of the overloaded 
 vessel, and over all the faint hurrah those brave spirits utter as 
 the last rope is severed and the unwieldy wreck of spars and 
 cordage falls overboard and glides away upon a running sea, 
 and the ship comes to again under my hand, and braves, with 
 her bows almost at them, the merciless onslaught of the huge 
 green, waves. 
 
 Only the day before, one of these men was a mutineer, 
 blood-stained already, and prepared for new murders! 
 
 Strange translation! from base villainy to actions heroical! 
 But those who know sailors best wUl least doubt their capacity 
 of gauging extremes. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIII. 
 
 Bt the loss of the foretop-mast the ship was greatly eased. 
 In almost every sea that we had encountered since leaving 
 England, I had observed the immense leverage exerted over 
 the deep-lying hull by the weight of her lofty spars; and by 
 the effect which the carrying away of the foretop-mast had 
 produced, I had no doubt that oui- position would be rendered 
 far less critical, while the vessel would rise to the waves with 
 much greater ease, if we could rid her of a portion of her im- 
 mense topweight. 
 
 I waited until the boatswain came aft, and then surrendered 
 the wheel to Cornish; after which I crouched with the boat- 
 swain under the lee of the companion, where, at least, we could 
 hear each other's voices. 
 
THE WEEOK OP THE " 6E0SVEN0K. " 217 
 
 " She pitches easier since that foretop-mast went, boson. 
 There is still too much top-hamper. The main-royal-stay is 
 gone, and the mast can't stand long, I think, unless we stay 
 it for'ard again. But we mustn't lose the topmast. " 
 
 " No,, we can't do without him. Yet there's a risk of him 
 goia' too, if you cut away the top-gall'nt backstays. What's 
 to prevent him?" said he, looking up at the mast. 
 
 " Oh, I know how to prevent it," I replied, " I'll go aloft 
 with a hand-saw and wound the mast. What do you thiuk? 
 Shall we let it carry away?" 
 
 " Yes," he replied promptly. " She'll be another ship with 
 them masts out of her. If it comes on fine we'll make shift to 
 bend on the new foresail, and get a jib on her by a stay from 
 the lower mast-head to the bowsprit end. " Then, he contin- 
 ued, calculating on his fingers, "we shall have the maintop- 
 mast-stays'l, mizzen, mizzentop-s'l — sis and two makes height 
 — ^height sails on her — a bloomin' show o' canvas!" 
 
 He ran his eye aloft and said, emphatically: 
 
 " I'm for lettin' of 'em go, most sartinly." 
 
 I got up, but he caught hold of my arm. 
 
 " I'll go aloft," said he. 
 
 " No, no," I replied, " it's my turn. You stand by to cut 
 away the lanyards to leeward, and then get to windward and 
 wait for me. We must watch for a heavy lurch, for we don't 
 want the spars to fall amidships and drive a hole through the 
 deck." 
 
 Saying which, I got oil the poop and made for the cabin 
 lately shared between the carpenter and the boatswain, where 
 I should find a saw in the tool-chest. 
 
 I crept along the main-deck to leeward, but was washed ofE 
 my feet in spite of every precaution, and thrown with my head 
 against the bulwark, but the blow was more bewildering than 
 hurtful. Fortunately, everything was secure, so there were no 
 pounding casks and huge spars, driving about like battering- 
 rams, to dodge. 
 
 I found a saw, and also laid hold of the sounding-rod, so 
 that I might try the well, being always very distrustful of the 
 boatswain's plugs in the fore-hold; but on drawing up the rod 
 out of the sounding-pipe, I found there were not above five to 
 six inches of water in her, and, as the pumps sucked at four 
 inches, I had not only the satisfaction of knowing that the ship 
 was tight in her hull, but that she was draining in very little 
 water from her decks. 
 
 This discovery of the ship's soundness filled me with joy. 
 
318 THE WRECK OF THE '' GEOSVENOR. " 
 
 and, thrusting the saw down my waistcoat, I sprung into the 
 main -rigging with a new feeling of life in me. 
 
 I could not help thinking, as I went plowing and clinging 
 my way up the ratlines, that the hurricane was less furious 
 than it had been an hour ago; but this, I dare say, was more 
 my hope than my conviction, for, exposed as I now was to the 
 full force of the wind, its power and outcry were frightful. 
 There were moments when it jammed me so hard against the 
 shrouds that I could not have stirred an inch — no, not to save 
 my life. 
 
 I remember once reading an account of the wreck of a vessel 
 called the " Wager," where it was told that so terrible was the 
 appearance of the sea that many of the sailors went raving 
 mad with fear at the sight of it, some throwing themselves over 
 board in their dehrium, and others falling flat on the deck and 
 rolling to and fro with the motion of the ship, without making 
 the smallest eifort to help themselves. 
 
 I believe that much such a fear as drove those poor creatures 
 wild was spread below me now, and I can only thank Almighty 
 God for giving me the courage to witness the terrible spectacle 
 without losing my reason. 
 
 No words that I am master of could submit the true picture 
 of this whirling, mountainous, boiling scene to you. The 
 waves, foreshortened to my sight by my elevation above them, 
 drew, nevertheless, a deeper shadow into their caverns, so that, 
 so lively was this deception of coloring, each time the vessel's 
 head fell into one of these billows it seemed as though she were 
 plunging into a measureless abysm, as roaring and awful as a 
 maelstrom, from which it would be almost impossible for her 
 to rise in time to lift to the next great wave that was rushing 
 upon her. 
 
 When, after incredible toil, I succeeded in gaining the cross- 
 trees, I paused for some moments to recover breath, during 
 which I looked, with my fingers shading my eyes, carefully all 
 round the horizon, but saw no ship in sight. 
 
 The topmast was pretty steady, but the top-gallant-mast 
 rocked heavily, owing to the main-royal-stay being carried 
 away; moreover, the boatswain had already let go the royal 
 and top-gaUant-braces, so that they might run out when the 
 mast fell, and leave it free to go overboard; and the yards 
 swinging in the wind and to the plunging of the ship, threat- 
 ened every moment to bring down the structure of masts, in- 
 cluding all or a part of the topmast, so that I was in the 
 greatest perU. 
 
 In order, therefore, to lose no time, I put my knife in my 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GROSTEKOB. " 219 
 
 teeth, and sHnned up the top-gallant riggings where, holding 
 CO with one hand, I cut the top- gallant-stay adrift, though the 
 strands were so hard that I thought I should never accomplish 
 the job. This support being gone, the mast jumped wildly, 
 insomuch that I commended my soul to God, every instant be- 
 lieviag that I should be shaken off the mast or that it would 
 go overboard with me. 
 
 However, I succeeded in sliding down again into the cross- 
 trees, and having cut away the top-gallant rigging to leeward, 
 I pulled out my saw and went to work at the mast with it, 
 sawing the mast just under the yard, so that it might go clean 
 off at that place. 
 
 When I had sawed deep enough, I cut away the weather rig- 
 ging and got down into the maintop as fast as ever I could, 
 and sung out to the boatswain to cut away to leeward. 
 
 By the time I reached the deck all was adrift to leeward, and 
 the mast was now held in its place by the weather backstays. 
 I dropped into the chains and there helped the boatswain with 
 my knife, and watching an opportunity when the ship rolled 
 heavily to leeward, we cut through the lanyards of the top- 
 gallant backstay, and the whole structure of spar, yards, and 
 rigging went flying overboard. 
 
 Encouraged by the success of these operations, and well 
 knowing that a large measure of our safety depended upon our 
 easing the ship of her top-hamper, I sung out that we would 
 now cut away the mizzentop-gallant-mast, and once more 
 went aloft, though the boatswaiii begged hard to take my place 
 this time. 
 
 This spar, being much lighter and smaller, did not threaten 
 me so dangerously as the other had done, and in a tolerably 
 short space of time we had sent it flying overboard after the 
 maintop-gallant-mast; and all this we did without further in- 
 jury to ourselves than a temporary deprivation of strength and 
 breath. 
 
 The ship had now the appearance of a wreck; and yet in her 
 mutilated condition was safer than she had been at any mo- 
 ment siace the gale first sprung up. The easing her of all 
 this topweight seemed to make her as buoyant as though we had 
 got a hundred tons of cargo out of her. Indeed, I was now 
 satisfied, providing everything stood, and the wind did not in- 
 crease in violence, that she would be able to ride out the gale. 
 
 Cornish (as well as the boatswain and myself) was soaked 
 through and through; we therefore arranged that the boat- 
 swain and I should go below and shift our clothes, and that the 
 boatswam should then relieve Cornish. 
 
230 THE WRECK OF THE " GBOSVEKOK. " 
 
 So down we went, I, for one, terribly exhausted, but cheered 
 all the same by an honest hope that we should save our lives 
 and the ship, after all. 
 
 I stepped into the pantry to swallow a dram, so as to get my 
 nerves together, for I was trembling all over with the weari- 
 ness in me, and cold as ice on the skin from the repeated 
 dousings I had. received, then changed my clothes; and never 
 was anything more comforting and grateful than the feel of 
 the dry flannel and the warm stockings and sea-boots which I 
 exchanged for shoes that sopped like brown paper and came to 
 pieces in my hand when I pulled them off. 
 
 The morning was far advanced, a little past eleven. I was 
 anxious to ask Miss Eobertson how she did, and reassure her 
 as to our position before going on deck to take observations, 
 and therefore went to her cabin door and Hstened, meaning to 
 knock and ask her leave to see her if I heard her voice ia con- 
 versation with her father. 
 
 I strained my ear, but the creaking and groaning of the ship 
 inside, and the bellowing of the wind outside, were so violent, 
 that, had the girl been singing at the top of her voice, I do not 
 beheve I should have heard her. 
 
 I longed to see her, and shook the handle of the door, judg- 
 ing that she would distinguish this sound amid the other noises 
 .which prevailed, and, sure enough, the door opened, and her 
 sweet face looked out. 
 
 She showed herself fully when she saw me, and came into 
 the cuddy, and was going to address me, but a look of agoniz- 
 ing sorrow came into her face; she dropped on her knees be- 
 fore the bench at the table and buried her head, and never was 
 there an attitude of grief more expressive of piteous misery 
 than this. 
 
 My belief was that the frightful rolling of the ship had crazed 
 her brain, and that she fancied I had come to tell her we were 
 siaking. 
 
 Not to allow this false impression to affect her an instant 
 longer than could be helped, I dropped on one knee by her 
 side, and at once told her that the ship had been eased, and 
 was riding well, and that the gale, as- 1 believed, was breaking. 
 
 She shook her head, still keeping her face buried, as though 
 she would say that it was not the danger we were in that had 
 given her that misery. 
 
 " Tell me what has happened!" I exclaimed. " Your troub- 
 les and trials have been very, very great — too great for you 
 to bear, brave and true-hearted as you are. It unmans me and 
 breaks me down to see you in this attitude. For your own 
 
THE WKECK OP THE " GROSVENOB. " 331 
 
 sake, keep up your courage for a little longer. The first ship 
 that passes when this gale abates wUl take us on board; and 
 there are three of us still with you who will never yield an inch 
 to any danger that may come while their Ufe holds out and 
 yours remains to be saved." 
 
 She upturned her pale face, streaming with tears, and said 
 the simple words, but in a tone I shall never forget — " Papa is 
 dead!" 
 
 Was it so, indeed? 
 
 And was I so purblind as to wrong her beautiful and heroic 
 character by supposing her capable of being crazed with fears 
 for her own life. 
 
 I rose from her side and stood looking at her in silence. I 
 had nothing to say. 
 
 However dangerous our situation might have been, I should 
 stUl have known how to comfort and encourage her. 
 
 But — her father was dead! 
 
 This was a blow I could not avert — a sorrow no labor could 
 remit. It struck home hard to me. 
 
 I took her hand and raised her, and entered the cabin hand 
 in hand with her. The moisture of the deck dulled the trans- 
 parency of the bull's-eye, but sufiQcient light was admitted 
 through the port-hole to enable me to see him. He was as 
 white as a sheet, and his hair frosted his head, and made him 
 resemble a piece of marble carving. His under-jaw had 
 dropped, and that was the great and prominent signal of the 
 thing that had come to him. 
 
 Poor 6ld man ! lying dead imder the coarse blanket, with his 
 thin hands folded, as though he had died ia prayer, and a most 
 peaceful, holy calm in his face! 
 
 Was it worth while bringing him from the wreck for this? 
 
 " God was with him. when he died," I said, and I closed his 
 poor eyes as tenderly as my rough hands would let me. 
 
 She looked at him, speechless with grief, and burst into an 
 uncontrollable fit of crying. 
 
 My love and tenderness, my deep pity of her lonely helpless- 
 ness, were all so great an impulse in me, that I took her in my 
 arms andoeld her while she sobbed upon my shoulder. I am 
 sure that she knew my sorrow was deep and real, and that I 
 held her to my heart that she might not feel her loneliness. 
 _ When her great outburst of grief was passed, I made her 
 sit; and then she told me that when she had left the deck, she 
 had looked at her father before lying down, and thought him 
 sleeping very calmly. He was not dead then. Oh, no! she 
 had noticed by the motion of the covering on him that he was 
 
223 THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVENOJR. " 
 
 breathing peacefully. Being very tired, slie had fallen asleep 
 quickly and slept soundly. She awoke, not half an hour be- 
 fore she heard me trying the handle of the door. The rolling 
 and straioiug of the ship frightened her, and she heard one of 
 the masts go overboard. She got out of bed, meaniug to call 
 her father, so that he might be ready to follow her, if the ship 
 were sinking (as she believed it was), on to the deck, but 
 cound not wake him. She took him by the arm, and this 
 bringing her close to his face, she saw that he was dead. She 
 would have called me, but dreaded to leave the cabia lest she 
 should be separated from her father. Meanwhile she heard 
 the fall of another mast alongside, and the ship at the mo- 
 ment rolling heavily, she believed the vessel actually sinking, 
 and flung herseK upon her father's body, prayiag to God that 
 her death might be mercifully speedy, and that the waves 
 might not separate them in deatL 
 
 At this point she broke down, and cried again bitterly. 
 
 When I came to think over what she had gone through dur- 
 ing that half hour— the dead body of her father before her, of 
 him whose life a few hours before she had no serious fear of, 
 and the bitterness of death which she had tasted in the dread- 
 ful persuasion that the vessel was sinking, I was too much 
 affected to speak. I could only hold her hands and caress 
 them, wondering in my heart that God, who loves and blesses 
 aU things that are good and pure, should single out this beau- 
 tiful, helpless, heroic girl for suffering so complicated and 
 miserable. 
 
 After awhile I explained that it was necessary I should leave 
 her, as I was desirous of observing the position of the sun, and 
 promised, if no new trouble detained me on deck, to return to 
 her as soon as I had completed my observations. 
 
 So without fm-ther words I came away and got my sextant, 
 and went on deck. 
 
 I found Cornish still at the wheel, and the boatswain lean- 
 ing over the weather side of the ship about half-way down the 
 poop, watching the hull of the vessel as she rolled and 
 plunged. I might have saved myself the trouble of bringing 
 the sextant with me, for there was not only no sign of the sun 
 now, but no promise of it showing itself even for a minute. 
 Three impenetrable strata of cloud obscured the heaven: the 
 first, a universal mist or thickness, tolerably bright as it lay 
 nearest the sun; beneath this, ranges of heavier clouds, which 
 had the appearance of being stationary, owing to the speed at 
 which the ponderous smoke-colored clouds composing the low- 
 est stratum was swept past them. Under this whirling, gloomy 
 
THE -WEECK OF THE "GEOSVBNOR." 233 
 
 BKj the sea was tossing in mountains, and between sea and 
 cloud the storm was sweeping with a stupendous voice, and 
 ■with a. power so great that no man on shore who could have 
 experienced its fury there would believe that anything afloat 
 could encounter it and live. 
 
 I remained until noon anxiously watching the sky, hoping 
 that the outlines of the sim might swim out, if for a few mo- 
 ments only, and give me a chance to fix it. 
 
 I was particularly wishful to get sights, because, if the wind 
 abated, we might be able to wear the ship and stand for the 
 Bermudas, which was the land the nearest to us that I knew 
 of. But I could not be certain as to the course to be steered 
 unless I knew my latitude and longitude. The " Grosvenor," 
 now hove to in this furious gale, was drifting dead to leeward 
 at from three to four knots an hour. Consequently, i£ the 
 weather remained thick and this monstrous sea lasted, I should 
 be out of my reckoning altogether next day. This was the 
 more to be deplored, as every mile was of serious consequence 
 to persons in our position, as it would represent so many 
 hours more of hard work and bitter expectation. 
 
 The boatswain had by this time taken the wheel, to let 
 Cornish go below to change his clothes, and, as no conversa- 
 tion could be carried on in that unsheltered part of the deck, 
 I reserved what I had to say to him for another opportunity, 
 and returned to the cuddy. 
 
 I could not bear to think of the poor girl being alone with 
 her dead father in the darksome cabin, where the grief of death 
 would be augmented by the dismaying sounds of the groaning 
 timbers and the furious wash of the water against the ship's 
 side. 
 
 I went to her and begged her to come with me to my own 
 cabin, which, being to windward, and having two bull's-eyes 
 in the deck, was lighter and more cheerful than hers. 
 
 " Your staying here," I said, " can not recall your poor 
 father to life; and I know if he were alive, he would wish me 
 to take yon away. He will rest quietly here. Miss Eobertson, 
 and we will close the cabin door and leave him for awhile." 
 
 I drew her gently from the cabin, and when I had got her 
 into the cuddy, I closed the door upon the dead old man, and 
 led her by the hand to my own cabin. 
 
 "_ I intend," I said, " that you shall occupy this berth, and 
 I will remove to the cabin next to this. " 
 
 She answered in broken tones that she could not bear the 
 thought of beiag separated from her father. 
 
 "But you mil not be separated from him," I answered. 
 
234 THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVENOE. " 
 
 " even though you should never see him more with" your eye& 
 There is only one separation, and that is when the heart turns 
 and the memory forgets. He will always be with you in your 
 thoughts, .a dear friend, a dear companion and father, as in 
 life; not absent because he is dead, since I think that death 
 makes those whom we love doubly our own, for they become 
 spirits to watch over us, let us journey where we please, and 
 their affection is not to be chilled by worldly selfishness. Try 
 to think thus of the dead. It is not a parting that should pain 
 us. Your father has set out on his journey before us; death 
 is but a short leave-taking, and only a man who is doomed to 
 Hve forever could look upon death as an eternal separation. " 
 
 She wept quietly, and once or twice looked at me as though 
 she WQidd smUe through her tears, to let me know that she 
 was grateful for my poor attempts to console her; but she 
 could not smile. Eough and idle as my words were, yet, in 
 the fullness of my sympathy, and of my knowledge of her 
 trials, and my sense of the dangers which, even as I spoke, 
 were raging round us, my voice faltered, and I turned to hide 
 my face. 
 
 It happened then that my eye lighted, upon the little Bible I 
 had carried with me in all my voyages ever since I had gone to 
 sea, and I felt that now, with the old man lying dead, and his 
 poor child's grief, and our own hard and miserable position, 
 was the fitting time to invoke God's mercy, and to pray to Him 
 to watch over us. 
 
 I spoke to that effect to Miss Eobertson, and said that if 
 she consented I would call in Cornish and the steward and ask 
 them to joiQ us; that the boatswain was at the wheel and could 
 not leave his post, but we might believe that the Almighty 
 would accept the brave man's faithful discharge of his duty as 
 a prayer, and would not overlook him, if our prayers were 
 accepted, because he could not kneel in company with us. 
 
 " Let him know that we are praying," she exclaimed, eager- 
 ly, " and he will pray too." 
 
 I saw that my suggestion had aroused her, and at once left 
 the cabin and went on deck, and, going close to the boatswain, 
 I said: 
 
 " Poor Mr. Eobertson is dead, and his daughter is in great 
 grief." 
 
 "^Ah, poor lad;^.!" he replied. " I hope God'U spare her. 
 She's a brave yfiiing woman, and seen a sight more trouble 
 within the last fortnight than so pretty a gell deserves." 
 
 " Boson, I am going to call in Cornish and the steward, and 
 read prayers and ask God for His protection. I should have 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GKOSVENOE. " 235 
 
 liked you, brave old messmate, to join; but as you can't leave 
 the deck, pray with us in your heart, will you?" 
 
 " Ay, ay, that I will, heartily; an' I hope for the lady's sake 
 that God Almighty'll hear us, for I'd sooner die myself than 
 she shoidd, poor gell! for I'm older, and it's my turn afore 
 hers by rights. " 
 
 I clapped him on the back and went below, where I called 
 to the steward and Cornish, both of whom came aft on hearing 
 my voice. 
 
 During my absence, Miss Eobertson had taken the Bible and 
 laid it open on the table; and when the two men came in I 
 
 " My lads, we are in the hands of God, who is our Father; 
 and I will ask you to join this lady and me in thanking Him 
 for the mercy and protection He has already vouchsafed us, 
 and to pray to Him to lead us out of present peril and bring 
 us safely to the home we love. " 
 
 The steward said "Yes, sir," and looked about him for a 
 place to sit or kneel, but Cornish hung his head and glanced at 
 the door shamefacedly. 
 
 "You need not stop unless you wish, Cornish," said I. 
 " But why should you not join us? The way you have worked, 
 the honest manner ia which you have behaved, amply atone 
 for the past. From no man can more than hearty repentance 
 be expected, and we. all stand in need of each other's prayers. 
 Join us, mate." 
 
 " Won't it be makin' a kind of game o' religion for the 
 likes o' me to pray?" he answered. "I was for murderin' 
 you an' the lady and all hands as are left on board this wessel 
 — what 'ud be the use o' my prayers?" 
 
 Miss Eobertson went over to him and took his hand. 
 
 "God," said she, "has told us that there is more joy in 
 heaven over one sinner that repenteth than over ninety-and- 
 mne just persons who need no repentance. But who is good 
 among us, Cornish? Be sure that as you repent so are you 
 forgiven. My poor father lies dead in his cabin, and I wish 
 you to pray with me for him, and to pray with us for our own 
 poor lives. Mr. Eoyle," she said, " Cornish will stay." 
 
 And, with an expression on her face of infinite sweetness and 
 pathos, she drew him to one of the cushioned lockers and seat- 
 ed herself by his side. 
 
 I saw that her charming, wonderful grac, h»r cordial, ten- 
 der voice, and her condescension, which a man of his condition 
 would feel, had deeply moved him. 
 
 The steward seated himself on the other side of her, and I 
 
226 THE WKECK OF THE " GROSVENOE. " 
 
 began to read from the open book before me, beginning the 
 chapter which she had chosen for us during my absence on 
 deck. This chapter was the eleventh of St. John, wherein is 
 related the story of that sickness " which was not unto death, 
 but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glori- 
 fied thereby. " 
 
 I read only to the thirty-sixth verse, for what followed that 
 did not closely apply to our position; but there were passages 
 preceding it which stirred me to the center of my heart, know- 
 ing how they went home to the mourner, more especially those 
 pregnant lines, " Martha saith imto him, I know that He shall 
 rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto 
 her, lam the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in 
 Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live," which made me 
 feel that the words I had formerly addressed to were not 
 wholly idle. 
 
 I then turned to St. Matthew, and read from the eighth 
 chapter those few verses wherein it is told that Christ entered a 
 ship with his disciples, and that there arose a great storm. 
 Only men- in a tempest at sea, their lives in jeopardy, and worn 
 out with anxiety and the fear of death, know how great is the 
 comfort to be got out of this brief story of our Lord's power 
 over the elements, and His love of those whom He died to save; 
 and, taking this as a kind of text, I knelt down, the others 
 imitating me, and prayed that He who rebuked the sea and the 
 wind before His doubting disciples, would be with us who be,- 
 lieved in Him in our present danger. 
 
 Many things I said (feeling that He whom I addressed was 
 our Father, and that He alone could save us) which have gone 
 from my mind, and tears stood in my eyes as I prayed;, but ] 
 was not ashamed to let the others see them, even if they had 
 not been as greatly affected as I, which was not the case. Nor 
 would I conclude my prayer without entreating God to com- 
 fort the heart of the mourner, and to receive in heaven the 
 soul of him for whom she was weeping. 
 
 I then shook Cornish and the steward heartily by the hand, 
 and I am sure, by the expression in Cornish's face, that he was 
 glad he had stayed, and that his kneehng in prayer had done 
 him good. 
 
 " STow," said I, " you had best get your dinner, and relieve 
 the boatswain; and you, steward, obtain what food you can, 
 and bring it to us here, and then you and the boson can dine 
 together. " 
 
 The two men left the cabin, and I went and seated myself 
 beside Miss Bobertson, and said aU that I could to comfort her. 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVENOB. " 227 
 
 She was very grateful to me for my prayers for herself and 
 her father, and already, as though she had drawn support from 
 our little service, spoke with some degree of calmness of his 
 death. It would have made her happy, she said, could she 
 have kissed him before he died, and have been awake to attend 
 to any last want. 
 
 I told her that I beheved he had died in his sleep, without a 
 struggle; for, so recent as his death was, less placidity would 
 have appeared in his face bad he died awake or conscious. I 
 added that secretly I had never believed he would hve to reach 
 Valparaiso, had the ship continued her voyage. He was too 
 old a man to sufEer and survive the physical and mental trials 
 he had passed through; and, sad though his death was, under 
 the circumstances which surrounded it, yet she must think it 
 had only been hastened a little; for he was already an old 
 man, and his end might have been near, even had all prospered 
 and he had reached England in his own ship. 
 
 By degrees I drew her mind away from the subject by lead- 
 ing her thoughts to our own critical position. At another time 
 I should have softened my account of our danger; but I 
 thought it best to speak plainly, as the sense of the insecurity 
 of our lives would ui some measure distract her thoughts from 
 her father's death. 
 
 She asked me if the storm was not abating. 
 
 " It is not increasing in violence," I answered, " which is a 
 good sign. But there is one danger to be feared which must 
 very shortly take me on deck. The wind may suddenly lull 
 and blow again hard from another quarter. This would be 
 the worst tMng that could happen to us, for we should then 
 have what is called a cross sea, and the ship is so deeply loaded 
 that we might have great difficulty in keeping her afloat." 
 
 " May I go on deck with you?" 
 
 " You would not be able to stand. Feel this!" I exclaimed, 
 as the ship's stem rose to a sickening height and then came 
 down, down, down, with the water roaring about her as high 
 as our ears. 
 
 " Let me go with you!" she pleaded. 
 
 " Very well," I rephed., meaning to keep her under the 
 companion, half-way up the ladder. 
 
 I took a big top-coat belonging to the captain and buttoned 
 her up in it, and also tied his fur cap over her head, so that 
 she would be weU protected from the wind, while the coat 
 would keep her dress close against her. 
 
 I then sUpped on my oil-skins, and taking a strong grip of 
 her hand to steady her, led her up the companion-ladder. 
 
238 THE WEECK OF THE "GEOSVENOR." 
 
 " Do not come any farther," said I. 
 
 " Wherever you go I will go/' she answered, grasping my 
 arm. 
 
 Admiring her courage and stirred by her words, which were 
 as dear to me as a kiss from her lips would have been, I led 
 her right on to the deck over to windward, and made her sit 
 on a small coil of rope just under the rail. 
 
 The sea was no heavier than it had been siuce the early 
 morning, and yet my short absence below had transformed it 
 into a subhme and stupendous novelty. 
 
 You will remember that not only was the " Grosvenor " a 
 small ship, but that she lay deep, with a free board lower by a 
 " foot and a half than she ought to have shown. 
 
 The height from the poop-rail to the water was not above 
 twelve feet; and it is therefore no exaggeration to say that the 
 sea, running from fifteen to twenty feet high, stood like walls 
 on either side of her. 
 
 To appreciate the effect of such a sea upon a ship like the 
 " Grosvenor," you must have crossed the Atlantic in a hurri- 
 cane, not in an immense and powerful ocean steamer, but in 
 a yacht. 
 
 But even this experience would not enable you to reahze our 
 danger; for the yacht would not be overloaded with cargo; she 
 wotud probably be strong, supple, and Hght; whereas the 
 " Grosvenor " was choked to the height of the hold wit^ seven 
 hundred and fifty tons of dead weight, and was a ISTovjS Scotia 
 soft-wood ship, which means that she might start a butt at any 
 moment, and go to pieces in one of her frightful sweeps down-, 
 ward. 
 
 Having lodged Miss Eobertson in a secure and sheltered 
 place, I crawled along the poop on to the main-deck and 
 sounded the weU again. I found a trifle over six inches of 
 water in her, which satisfied me that she was stUl perfectly 
 tight, and that the extra leakage was owing to the drainings 
 from the decks. 
 
 I regained the poop and communicated the good news to the 
 boatswain, who nodded; but I noticed that there was more 
 anxiety in his face than I liked to see, and that he watched the 
 ship very closely each time she pitched with extra heaviness. 
 
 Miss Eobertson was looking up at the masts with alarmed 
 eyes; but I pointed to them and smiled, and shook my head to 
 let her know that their wrecked appearance need not frighten 
 her. I then took the telescope, and, making it fast over jny 
 back, clambered into the mizzen-top, she watching my ascent 
 with her hands tightly clasped. 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVEBTOB. " 329 
 
 The ensign still roared some half dozen feet below the gaff- 
 end; it was a brave bit of bunting to hold on as it did. I 
 planted myself firmly against the rigging and carefully swept 
 the weather-horizon, and finding nothing there, pointed the 
 glass to leeward; but all that part of the sea was likewise a 
 waste of foaming waves, with never a sign of a ship in all 
 the raging seas. 
 
 I was greatly disappointed, for though no ship could have 
 helped us in such a sea, yet the sight of one hove to near us — 
 and no ship afloat, sailer or steamer, but must have hove to in 
 that gale — would have comforted us greatly, as a promise of 
 help at hand and rescue to come when the wind Should have 
 gone down. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXrV. 
 
 All that day the wind continued to blow with frightful force, 
 and the sky to wear its menacing aspect. On looking, how- 
 ever, at the barometer at four o'clock in the afternoon, I ob- 
 served a distinct rise in the mercury; but I did not dare to 
 feel elated by this promise of an improvement; for, as I have 
 before said, the only thing the mercury foretells is a change of 
 weather, but what kind of change you shall never be sure of 
 until it comes. 
 
 What 1 most dreaded was the veering of the gale to an op- 
 posite quarter, whereby, a new sea being set running right 
 athwart, or in the eye of the already raging sea, our decks 
 would be helplessly swept and the ship grow unmanageable. 
 
 A Uttle after eight the wind sensibly decreased, and, to my 
 great dehght, the sky cleared in the direction whence the gale 
 was blowing, so that there was a prospect of the sea subsiding 
 before the wind shifted — that, is, if it shifted at all. 
 
 When Cornish, who had been below resting after a long 
 spell, came on deck and saw the stars shining, and that the 
 gale was moderating, he stared upward like one spell-bound, 
 and then, running up to me, seized my hand and wrung it in 
 silence. 
 
 I heartUy returned this mute congratulation, and we both 
 went over and shook hands with the boatswain; -and those 
 who can appreciate the dangers of the frightful storm that had 
 been roaring about us all day, and feel with us in the senti- 
 ments of despair and helplessness which the peril we stood in 
 awoke in us, will understand the significance of our passionate 
 silence as we held each other's hand and looked- upon the 
 
230 THE WEBOK OP THE " CmOSVENOB. " 
 
 bright stars, which shone like the hlessing of God upon our 
 
 I was eager to show Mary Eobertson these glorious harbin- 
 gers, and ran below to bring her on deck. 
 
 I found her again in the cabin in which her father lay, bend- 
 ing over his body in prayer. I waited until she turned her 
 head, and then exclaimed that the wind was f alliug, and that 
 all the sky in the north-west was bright with stars, and begged 
 her to follow me and see them. 
 
 She came immediately, and, after looking around her, cried 
 out in a rapturous voice: 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Koyle! God has heard our prayers!" and in the 
 wUdness of her emotions, burst into a flood of tears. 
 
 I held her hand as I answered: 
 
 " It was your grief that moved me to pray to Him, and I 
 consider you our guardian angel on board this ship, and that 
 God who loves you wiU spare our hves for your sake." 
 
 " No, no; do not say so; I am not worthier than you — not 
 worthier than the brave boatswain, and Cornish, whose repent- 
 ance would do honor to the noblest heart. Oh, if my poor 
 father had but been spared to me!" 
 
 She turned her pale face and soft and swimming eyes up ta 
 the stars and gazed at them intently, as though she witnessed a 
 vision there. 
 
 But though the wind had abated, it still blew a gale, and 
 the sea boiled and tumbled about us and over our decks in a 
 manner that would have been terrifying had we not seen it la 
 a greater state of fury. 
 
 I sent the steward forward to see if he could get the gaUey- 
 fire to burn, so as to boil us some water for coffee, for though 
 the ship was in a wdrm latitude, yet the wind, owing to its 
 strength, was at times piercingly cold, and we all longed for a 
 hot drink — a cup of hot coffee or cocoa being infinitely more 
 invigorating, grateful, and warming than any kind of spirits 
 drank cold. 
 
 All that the steward did, however, was to get wet through; 
 and this he managed so effectually that he came crawling aft, 
 looking precisely as if he had been fished out of the water with 
 grappling-hooks. 
 
 I lighted a bull's-eye lamp, and went to the pumps and 
 sounded the well. 
 
 On hauling up the rod I found, to my consternation, that 
 there were nine inches of water in the ship. 
 
 I was so much startled by this discovery that I stood for a 
 moments motionless; then, bethinking me that one of the 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GR08VBK0R." 831 
 
 plugged auger-holes might be leakmg, I slipped forward with- 
 out saying a word to the others, and, getting a large mallet 
 from the tool-chest, I entered the forecastle, so as to get into 
 the fore-peak. 
 
 I had not been in the forecastle since the men had left the 
 ship, and I can not describe the effect produced upon me by 
 this dark, deserted abode, with its row of idly swinging ham- 
 mocks glimmering in the light shed by the bull's-eye lamp; 
 the black chests of the seamen which they had left behind 
 them; here and there a suit of dark oil-sldns suspended by a 
 nail, and looking like a hanged man; the hollow space reso- 
 nant with the booming thunder of the seas and the mighty wash 
 of the water swirling over the top-gallant deck. 
 
 The whole scene took a peculiarly ghastly significance from 
 the knowledge that of all the men who had occupied those 
 hammocks and bunks, one only survived; for four of them we 
 ourselves had killed, and I could not suppose that the long- 
 boat had lived ten minutes after the gale had broken upon her. 
 
 I made my way over the cable-ranges, stooping my head to 
 clear the hammocks, and striking my shins against the sea- 
 chests, and swung myself into the hold. 
 
 Here I found myself against the water-casks, close against 
 the cargo, and just beyond was the bulkhead behind which the 
 boatswain had hidden when Stevens bored the holes. 
 
 Carefully throwing the light over the walls, I presently per- 
 ceived the plugs or ends of the broom-stick protruding; and 
 going close to them I found they were perfectly tight, that no 
 sign of moisture was visible around them. 
 
 It may seem strange that this discovery vexed and alarmed 
 me. And yet this was the case. 
 
 It would have made me perfectly easy in my mind to have 
 seen the water gushing in through one of these holes, because 
 not only would a few blows of the mallet have set it to rights, 
 but it would have acquainted me with the cause of the small 
 increase of water in the hold. » 
 
 Now that cause might be sought elsewhere. 
 
 Was it possible that the apprehensions I had felt each time 
 the ship had taken one of her tremendous headers were to be 
 reahzed? — that she had strained a butt or started a bolt in 
 some ungetatable place? 
 
 Here where I stood, deep in the ship, below the water-line, it 
 was frightful to hear her straining, it was frightful to feel her 
 motion. 
 
 The whole place resounded with groans and cries, as if the 
 hold had been filled with wounded men. 
 
333 THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVESTOB." 
 
 What bolts, though forged by a Cyclops, could resist that 
 horrible grinding — could hold together the immense weight 
 which the sea threw up as a child a ball, leaving parts of it 
 poised in air, out of water, unsustained save by the structure 
 that contained it, then letting the whole hull fall with a hol- 
 low, horrible crash into a chasm between the waves, beating it 
 first here, then there, with blows the force of which was to be 
 calculated in hundreds of tons? 
 
 I scrambled up through the fore-scuttle, and, perceiving 
 Cornish smoking a pipe under the break of the poop, I desired 
 he would go and relieve the boatswain at the wheel for a short 
 while and send him to me, as I had something particular to 
 say to him. 
 
 I waited until the boastwain came, as here was the best 
 place I could choose to conduct conversation. 
 
 Beyond all question the wind was falling; and though the 
 ship still rolled terribly, she was not taking in nearly so much 
 water over her sides. 
 
 1 retrimmed the lamp in my hand, and in a few minutes the 
 boatswain joined me. 
 
 I said to him at once: 
 
 " I have just made nine inches of water in the hold. " 
 
 " When was that?^' he inquired. 
 
 " Ten minutes ago." 
 
 " When you sounded the well before, what did you find?" 
 
 " Between five and six inches." 
 
 " I'll tell you what it is, sir," said he. " You'll hexcuse 
 me sayin' of it, but it's no easy job to get at the true depth 
 of water in a ship's bottom when she's tumbUn' about like this 
 here." 
 
 " I think I got correct soundings." 
 
 " Suppose," he continued, "you drop the rod when she's 
 on her beam-ends. Where's the water? Why, the water hes 
 aU on one side, and, the rod'll come up pretty near dry. " 
 
 " I Vaited until the ship was level." 
 
 "Ah, you did, because you knows your work. But it's 
 astonishin' what few persons there are as really does know how 
 to sound the pumps. You'll hexcuse me, sir, but I should 
 like. to drop the rod myself." 
 
 " Certainly," I replied, " and I hope you'll make it less 
 than I." 
 
 In order to render my description clear to readers not ac- 
 quainted with such details, I may state that in most large ships 
 there is a pipe that leads from the upper deck, alongside the 
 pumps, down to the bottom, or within a few inches of the hot* 
 
THE WEECK OP THE " GROSVENOH." 333 
 
 torn of the vessel. The water in the hold necessarily rises to 
 the height of its own level in this pipe; and in order to guage 
 the depth of water, a dry rod of iron, usually graduated in 
 feet and inches, is attached to the end of a line and dropped 
 down the tube, and when drawn up the depth of water is ascer- 
 tained by the height of the water on the rod. 
 
 It is not too much to say that no method for. determining 
 this essential point in a ship's safety could well be more sus- 
 ceptible of inaccuracy than this. 
 
 The immersed rod, on being withdrawn from the tube, wets 
 the sides of the tube; hence, though the rod be dry when it is 
 dropped a second time, it is wetted in its passage down the 
 tube; and as the accuracy of its indication is dependent on its 
 exhibiting the mark of the level of water, it is manifest that if 
 it becomes wetted before reaching the water, the result it shows 
 on being withdrawn must be erroneous. 
 
 Secondly, as the boatswain remarked to me if the well be 
 sounded at any moment when the vessel is inclined at any 
 angle on one side or the other, the water must necessarily roll 
 to the side to which the vessel inclines, by which the height of 
 the water in the well is depressed, so that the rod will not re- 
 port the true depth. 
 
 Hence, to use the sounding-rod properly, one must not only 
 possess good sense, but exercise very great judgment. 
 
 I held the lamp close to the sounding-pipe, and the boat- 
 swain carefully dried the rod on his coat preparatory to drop- 
 ping it. 
 
 He then let it fall some distance down the tube, keeping it, 
 however, well above the bottom, until the ship, midway in a 
 roll, stood for a moment on a level keel. 
 
 He instantly dropped the rod, and, hauling it up quickly, 
 remarked that we had got the true soundings this time. 
 
 He held the rod to the light, and I found it a fraction over 
 nine inches. 
 
 "That's what it is, anyways," said he, putting down the 
 rod. 
 
 " An increase of three inches since the afternoon." 
 
 " Well, there's nothen to alarm us in that, is there, Mr. 
 Eoyle?" he questioned. " Perhaps it's one o' my plugs as 
 wants hammerin'." 
 
 " S"o, they're as tight as a new kettle," I answered. " I 
 have just come from examining them. " 
 
 " Well, all we've got to do is to pump the ship out; and, if 
 we can, make the pumps suck all right. That 11 show us if 
 anything's wrong." 
 
234 THE WRECK OF THE "' GROSTENOB." 
 
 This was just the proposition I was about to make; so I 
 went into the cuddy and sung out for the steward; but he was 
 so long answering that I lost my temper and ran into the pan- 
 try, where I found him shamming sleep. 
 
 I started him on to his legs and had him on the main-deck 
 in less time than he could have asked what the matter was. 
 
 " Look here!" I cried, " if you don't turn to and help as all 
 to save our lives, I'U Just send you adrift in that quarter-boat 
 with the planks out of her bottom! What do you mean by 
 pretending to be asleep when I sing out to you?'' 
 
 And after abusiag him for some time to lot him know that 
 I would have no skulking, and that if his life were worth hav- 
 ing he must save it himself, for we were not going to do his 
 work and our own as well, I bade him lay hold of one of the 
 pump-handles, and we all three of us set to work to pump the 
 ship. 
 
 If this were not the heaviest job we had yet performed, it was 
 the most tiring; but we plied out arms steadily and persever- 
 ingly, taking every now and then a spelt of rest, and- shifting 
 our posts so as to vary our postures; and after pumping I 
 scarcely know how long, the pumps sucked, whereat the boat- 
 swain and I cheered heartily. 
 
 " Now, sir," said the boatswain, as we entered the cuddy to 
 refresh ourselves with a dram of brandy and water after our 
 heavy exertions, " we know that the ship's dry, leastways, 
 starting from the ship's bottom; if the well's sounded again at 
 half past ten — ^it's now half past nine — ^that'll be time enough 
 to find out if anything's gone wrong." 
 
 " How about the watches? We're aU adrift again. Here's 
 Cornish at the wheel, and it's your watch on deck?" 
 
 As I said this. Miss Eobertson came out of the cabin where 
 her father lay— do what I might I could not induce her to keep 
 away from the old man's body — and, approaching us slowly, 
 asked why we had been pumping. 
 
 "Why, ma'am," rephed the boatswain, "it's always usual 
 to pump the water out o' wessels. On dry ships it's done 
 sometimes in the mornin' watch, and t'others they pumps in 
 the first dog-watch. All accordin'. Some wessels as they call 
 colliers require pumpin' all day long; and the 'Heagle,' 
 which was the fust wesBel as I went to sea in, warn't the only 
 Geordie as required pumpin' not only all day long, but all 
 night long as well. Every wessel has her own custom, but it's 
 a werry dry ship indeed as don't want pumpin' wunce a day." 
 
 " I was afraid," she said, " when 1 heard the clanking of 
 the pumps that water was coming into the ship." 
 
THE ■WRECK OF THE "GROSVENOR." 235 
 
 She looked at me earnestly, as though she believed that this 
 was the case, and that I would not frighten her by telling her 
 so. I had learned to interpret the language of her eyes by this 
 time, and answered her doubts as though she had expressed 
 them. 
 
 " I should tell you at once if there was any danger threat- 
 ened in that way," I said. " There was more water in the 
 ship than I cared to find in her, and so the three of us have 
 been pumping her out. ' ' 
 
 " About them watches, Mr. Eoyle?" exclaimed the boat- 
 swain. 
 
 " Well, begin afresh, if you like," I replied. " I'll take the 
 wheel for two hours, and then you can relieve me." 
 
 " Why will you not let me take my turn at the wheel?" said 
 Miss Eobertson. 
 
 The boatswain laughed. 
 
 " I have proved to you that I know how to steer." 
 
 " Well, that's right enough," said the boatswain. 
 
 " All three of you can lie down then. " 
 
 I smiled and shook my head. 
 
 Said the boatswain: "If your arms wur as strong as your 
 sperrit, miss, there'd be no reason why you shouldn't go turn 
 and turn about with us. " 
 
 " But I can hold the wheel. " 
 
 " It 'ud fling you overboard. Listen to it's kicMn'. You 
 might as well try to prewent one o' Barclay Perkins's dray 
 hosses from bustin' into a gallop by catchin' hold o' its tail. 
 It 'ud be a poor lookout for us to lose you, I can teU yer. 
 What," continued the boatswain, energetically, " we want to 
 know is, that you're sleepin', and forgettin' all this here ex- 
 citement in pleasing dreams. To see a lady like you knocked 
 about by a gale o' wind is just one o' them things I have no fancy 
 for. Mr. Eoyle, if I had a young and beautiful darter, and a 
 dock or a barryonet worth a thousand a year, if that ain't 
 sayin' too much, wos to propose marriage to her, an' ax her to 
 come and be married to him in some fur-ofl place, wich 'ud 
 obhge her to cross the water, blowed if I'd consent; No flesh 
 an' blood o' mine as I had any kind o' feeling for should set 
 foot on board ship without fust having a row with me. Make 
 no mistake. I'ni talkin' o' females, miss. I say the sea ain't 
 a fit place for women and gells. It does middlin' well for the 
 likes of me and Mr. Eoyle here, as aren't afraid o' carryin' 
 full-rigged ships and other agreeable dewices in gunpowder and 
 Hiadian ink on'our harms, and is seasoned, as the sayin' is, to 
 the wexations o' the mariner's life. But when it comes to 
 
236 THE WEEOK OB' THE " GEOSVEKOR." 
 
 young ladies crossin' the ocean, an' I don't care wot they goes 
 as — as passengers or skippers' wives, or stewardishes, or female 
 hemigrants-^then I say it ain't proper; and if I'd lia' been a 
 lawyer I'd ha' made it agin the law, and contrived such a Act 
 of Parleyment as 'ud make the gent as took his wife, darter, 
 haunt, cousin, grandmother, female nephey, or any relations in 
 petticoats, to sea along with him, wish hisseU hanged afore he 
 paid her passage-money. " 
 
 I was so much impressed by this vehement piece of rhetoric, 
 delivered with many convulsions of the face and a great deal 
 of hand-sawing, that I could not forbear mixing him some 
 more brandy and water, which he drank at a draught, having 
 first wished Miss Eobertson and myseU long Me and plenty of 
 happiness. 
 
 His declamation had quite silenced her, though I saw by her 
 eyes that she would renew her entreaties the moment she had 
 me alone. 
 
 " Then you'll go on deck, sir, and relieve Comish, and I'U 
 turn in?" observed the boatswain. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Eight," said he, and was going. 
 
 I added: 
 
 " We must sound the well again at half past ten." 
 
 "Ay, ay!" 
 
 " I sha'n't be able to leave the wheel, and I would rather 
 you should sound than Cornish. I'll send the steward to rouse 
 you." 
 
 " Very well," said he. And after waiting to hear if I had 
 anything more to say, he entered his cabin, and in all proba- 
 bility was sound asleep two minutes after. 
 
 Miss Robertson stood near the table, with her hands folded 
 and her eyes bent down- 
 
 I was about to ask her to withdraw to her cabin and get 
 some sleep. 
 
 " Mr. Eoyle, you are dreadfully tired and worn out, and yet 
 you are going on deck to remain at the wheel for two hours." 
 
 "That is nothing." 
 
 " Why wUl you not let me take your place?" 
 
 " Because — " 
 
 " Let the steward keep near that ladder there, so that I can 
 call to him if I want you. " 
 
 " Do you thiak I could rest with the knowledge you were 
 alone on deck?" 
 
 " You refuse because you believe I am not to be trusted," 
 she said, gently, looking down again. 
 
THE WBEOK OF THE " GKOSVENOR. " 337 
 
 " If your life were not dependent on the ship's safety, I 
 should not think of her safety, but of yours. I refuse for your 
 own sake, not for mine — ^no, I will not say that. For loth our 
 sakes I refuse. I have one dear hope — well, I will call it a 
 great ambition, which I need not be ashamed to own: it is, 
 that I may be the means of placing you on shore in England. 
 This hope has given me half the courage with which I have 
 fought on through danger after danger since I first brought you 
 from the wreck. If anything should happen to you now, I feel 
 that -all the courage and strength of heart which have sustained 
 me would go. Is that saying too much? I do not wish to ex- 
 aggerate," I exclaimed, feehng the blood in my cheeks, and 
 lamenting, without being able to control, the impulse that had 
 forced this speech from me, and scarcely knowing whether to 
 applaud or detest myself for my candor. 
 
 She looked up at me with her frank, beautiful eyes, but on a 
 sudden averted them from my face to the door of the cabin 
 where her dead father lay. A look of indescribable anguish 
 came over her, and she drew a deep, long, sobbing breath. 
 
 Without another word, I took her hand and led her to the 
 cabin, and I knew the reason why she did not turn and speak 
 to me was that I might not see she was weeping. 
 
 But it was time for action, and I dare not let the deep love 
 that had came to me for her divert my thoughts from my 
 present extremity. 
 
 I summoned the steward, who tumbled out of his cabin 
 smartly enough, and ordered him to bring his mattress and lay 
 it alongside the companion-ladder, so as to be within hail. 
 
 This done, I gained the poop and sent Cornish below. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXV. 
 
 As I stood at the wheel I considered how I should act when 
 the storm had passed. And I was justified in speculating, be- 
 cause now the sky was clear right away round, and the stars 
 large and bright, though a strong gale was still blowing and 
 keeping the sea very heavy. 
 
 Indeed, the clearness of the sky made me think that the 
 wiad would go to the eastward, but as yet there was no sign of 
 it veering from the old quarter. 
 
 We had been heading west ever since we hove to, and travel- 
 ing broadside on dead south-south-east. Now, if wind and sea 
 dropped, our business would be to make sail, if possible, and, 
 with the wind holding north-north-west, make an eight hour's 
 board north-easterly, and then round and stand for Bermuda, 
 
238 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVBNOR. " 
 
 This, of course, would depend upon the weather. 
 
 It was, however, more than possible that we should be 
 picked up very soon by some passing ship. It was not_ as 
 though we were down away in the South Pacific, or knocking 
 about in the poisonous Gulf of Guinea, or up in the North 
 Atlantic at 60°- We were on a great ocean highway, crossed 
 and recrossed by English, American, Dutch, and French ships, 
 to and from all parts of the world; and bad indeed would our 
 fortune be, and baleful the star under which we sailed, if we 
 were not overhauled in a short time and assistance rendered us. 
 
 A great though unexpressed ambition of mine was to save 
 the ship and navigate her myself, not necessarily to England, 
 but to some port whence I could communicate with her owners 
 and ask for instructions. 
 
 As I have elsewhere admitted, I was entirely dependent on 
 my profession, my father having been a retired army surgeon, 
 who had died extremely poor, leaving me at the age of twelve 
 an orphan, with no other friend in the world than the vicar of 
 the parish we dwelt in, who generously sent me to school for 
 two years at his own expense, and then, after sounding my in- 
 clinations, apprenticed me to the sea. 
 
 Under such circumstances, therefore, it would be highly ad- 
 vantageous to my interests to save the ship, since my doing so 
 would prefer some definite claims upon the attention of the 
 owners, or perhaps excite the notice of another firm more 
 generous in their deaUngs with their servants, and of a higher 
 commercial standing. 
 
 While I stood dreaming in this manner at the wheel, allovraig 
 my thoughts to run on until I pictured myself the com- 
 mander of a fine ship, and ending in allowing my mind to be- 
 come engrossed with thoughts of Mary Eobertson, whom I be- 
 lieved I should never see again after we had bidden each other 
 farewell on shore, and who would soon forget the young second 
 mate whom destiny had thrown her with for a little time of 
 trouble and suffering and death, I beheld a figure advance 
 along the poop, and on its approach I perceived the boatswain. 
 
 "I've been sounding the well, Mr.Eoyle," said he. "I 
 roused up on a sudden and went and did it, as I woke up 
 anxious; and there's bad news, sir — twelve laches o' water." 
 
 " Twelve inches!" I cried. 
 
 "It's true enough. I found the bull's-eye on the cuddy 
 table, and the rod don't tell no lies when it's properly used. " 
 
 " The pumps suck at four inches, don't they?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVENOB." 239 
 
 " Then that's a rise of eight inches since half past nine 
 o'clock. What time is it now?" 
 
 " Twenty minutes arter ten." 
 
 " We must man the pumps at once. Call Cornish. You'll 
 find the steward on a mattress against the companion-ladder. " 
 
 He paused a moment to look round him at the weather, and 
 then went away. 
 
 I could not doubt now that the ship was leaky, and after 
 what we had endured, and my fond expectation of saving the 
 vessel — and the miserable death after all our hopes, that might 
 be in store for us — I felt that it was very hard on us, and I 
 yielded to a fit of despair. 
 
 What struck most home to me was that my passionate 
 dream to save Mary Eobertson might be defeated. The mis- 
 eries which had been accumulated on her wrung my heart to 
 think of. First her shipwreck, and then the peril of the mu- 
 tiay, and then the dreadful storm that had held us face to face 
 with death throughout the fearful day, and then the death of 
 her father, and now this new horror of the ship whereon we 
 stood filling with water beneath our feet. 
 
 Yet hope — and God be praised for this mercy to all men ! — 
 springs eternal, and after a few minutes my despair was mas- 
 tered by reflection. If the ship made no more water than eight 
 inches in three quarters of an hour, it would be possible to 
 keep her afloat for some days by regular spells at the pumpi, 
 and there were four hands to work them if Miss Eobertson 
 steered while we pumped. In that time it would be a thousand 
 to one if our signal of distress were not seen and answered. 
 
 Presently I heard the men pumping on the main-deck, and 
 the boatswaia's voice singing to encourage the others. What 
 courage that man had! I, who tell this story, am ashamed to 
 think of the prominence I give to my own small actions when 
 all the heroism belongs to him. I know not what great writer 
 it was who, visiting the field of the battle of Waterloo, asked 
 how it was that the officers who fell in that fight had graves 
 and monuments erected to them, when the soldiers — ^the 
 privates by whom all the hard work was done, who showed all 
 the courage and won the battle — lay nameless in hidden pits? 
 A.nd so, when we send ships to discover the north pole, we have 
 little to say about poor Jack, who loses his life by scurvy, or 
 his toes and nose by frost-bites, who labors manfully, and who 
 makes all the success of the expedition, so far as ib goes. Our 
 shouts are for Jack's officer; we title him, we lionize him — Ms 
 was all the work, all the suffering, all the anxiety, we think. 
 \ who have been to sea say that Jack deserves as much praise 
 
340 THE WEBOK OF THE " GEOSTENOB. '* , ' 
 
 as his skipper, and perhaps a little more; and if honor is to be 
 bestowed let Jack have his share; and if a monument is to be 
 raised, let poor Jack's name be written on the stone as well as 
 the other's, for be sure that Jack could have done without the 
 other, but also be sure that the other couldn't have done with- 
 out Jack. 
 
 Chained to my post, which I dared not vacate for a moment, 
 for the ship pitched heavily and required close watching as she 
 came to and fell off upon the swinging seas, I grew miserably 
 anxious to learn how the pumping progressed, and felt that, 
 after the boatswain, my own hands would do four times the 
 work of the other two. 
 
 It was our peculiar misfortune that of the four men on board 
 the ship three only should be capable; and that as one of the 
 three men was constantly required at the wheel, there were but 
 two available men to do the work. Hgd the steward been a 
 sailor, our difficulties would have been considerably diminished, 
 and I bitterly deplored my want of judgment in allowing Ksh 
 and the Dutchman to be destroyed, for though I would not 
 have trusted Johnson and Stevens, yet the other two might 
 have been brought over to work for us, and I have no doubt 
 that the spectacle of the perishing wretches in the long-boat, as 
 she was whirled past us, would have produced as salutary an 
 effect upon them as it had upon Cornish; and with two extra 
 hands of this kind we could not only have kept the pumps go- 
 ing, but have made shift to sail the ship at the same time. 
 
 The hollow, thrashing sounds of the pump either found Miss 
 Eobertson awake or aroused her, for soon after the pumping 
 had commenced she came on deck, swathed in the big warm 
 overcoat and fur cap. 
 
 Such a costume for a girl must make you laugh in the de- 
 scription; and yet, believe me, she lost in nothing by it. The 
 coat dwarfed her figm-e somewhat, but the fur cap looked lux- 
 urious against her fair hair, and nothing could detract from the 
 exquisite femininity of her face, manner, and carriage. I 
 speak of the impression she had made on me in the day-time; 
 the starhght only revealed her white face now to me. 
 
 " Is the water stiU coming into the ship?" she asked. 
 
 " The boson has reported to me that eight inches deep have 
 come into her since half past niae. " 
 
 " Is that much?" 
 
 " More than we want." 
 
 " I don't like to trouble you with my questions, Mr. Eoyle,' 
 but I am very, very anxious." 
 
THE WKECK OV THE "GROSVENOR." 341 
 
 " Of course you are; and do not suppose that you can trouble. 
 Ask me what you will. I promise to tell you the truth." 
 
 " If you find you can not pump the water out as fast as it 
 comes in, what will you do?" 
 
 " Leave the ship. " 
 
 " How?" she exclaimed, looking around her. 
 
 " By that quarter-boat there." 
 
 " But it would fill with water and sink in such waves as 
 these." 
 
 " These waves are not going to last, and it is quite likely 
 that by this time to-morrow the sea will be calm. " 
 
 " Will the ship keep afloat until to-morrow?" 
 
 " If the water does not come in more rapidly than it does at 
 present the ship will keep afloat so long as we can manage to 
 pump her out every hour. " And so," said I, laughing to en- 
 courage her, " we are not going to die all at once, you see.^' 
 
 She drew quite close to me, and said : 
 
 " I shall never fear death while you remain on board, Mr. 
 Eoyle. You have saved me from death once, and, though I 
 may be wicked in dariug to prophesy, yet I feel certain — cer- 
 tain," she repeated, with singular emphasis, "that you will 
 save my hfe again. " 
 
 " I shall try very hard, be sure of that," I answered. 
 
 " I believe — no, it is not so much a belief as a strong con- 
 viction, with which my mind seems to have nothing to do — 
 that, whatever dangers may be before us, you and I will not 
 perish." 
 
 She paused, and I saw that she was looking at me earnestly. 
 " You will not think me superstitious if I tell you that the 
 reason of my conviction is a dream? My poor father came and 
 stood beside me; he was so real ! I stretched out my arms to 
 him, and he took my hand and said, ' Darling, do not fear! 
 He who has saved your life once will save it again. God will 
 have mercy upon you and him for the prayers you offered to 
 Him.' He stooped and kissed me and faded away, and I 
 started up and heard the men pumping. I went to look at 
 him, for I thought — I thought he had really come to my side. 
 Oh, Mr. Eoyle, his spirit is with us!" 
 
 Though my mind was of too prosaic a turn to catch any 
 significance in a dream, yet there was a strange, deep, solemn 
 tenderness in her voice and manner as she related this vision 
 that impressed me. It made my heart leap to hear her own 
 sweet lips pronounce her faith in me, and my natural hopes 
 and longings for life gathered a new light and enthusiasm from 
 her own belief in our future salvation. 
 
343 THE WRECK OF THE " GKOSVENOB. 
 
 " Shipwrecked persons have been saved by a dream before 
 now," I replied, gravely. " Many years ago a vessel called 
 the ' Mary ' went ashore on some rocks to the southward of 
 one of the Channel Islands. A few of the crew managed to 
 gain the rooks, where they existed ten or twelve days without 
 water or any kind of food save limpets, which only increased 
 tlieir thirst without reUeving their hvmger. A vessel bound 
 out of Guernsey passed the rocks at a distance too far away to 
 observe the signals of distress made by the perishing men. 
 But the son of the captain had twice dreamed that there were 
 persons dying on those rocks, and so importuned his father to 
 stand close to them that the men with great reluctance con- 
 sented. In this way, and by a dream, those sailors were saved. 
 Though I do not as a rule believe in dreams, I believe this 
 story to be true, and I believe in your dream.'' 
 
 She remained silent, but the ship presently giving a sudden 
 lurch she put her hand on my arm to steady herself, and kept 
 it there. Had I dared I should have bent my head and kissed 
 the little hand. She could not know how much she made me 
 love her by such actions as this. 
 
 " The boatswain has told me," she said, after a short 
 silence, " that you want to save the ship. I asked him why. 
 Are you angry with me for being curious?" 
 
 " Not in the least. What did he answer?" 
 
 " He said that you thought the owners would recom- 
 pense you for your fidelity, and promote you in their service." 
 
 " How could he know this? I have never spoken such 
 thoughts to him." 
 
 " It would not be difficult to guess such a wish. " 
 
 " Well, I don't know that I have any right to expect pro-" 
 motion or recompense of any kind from owners who send their 
 ship to sea so badly provisioned that the men mutiny. " 
 
 But if the water gains upon the ship, you will not be able 
 to save her." 
 
 " No, she must sink." 
 
 " What will you do then?" 
 
 " Put you on shore or aboard another ship," I replied, 
 laughing at my own evasion, for I knew what she meant. 
 
 ' Oh, of course, if we do not reach the shore we shall none 
 of us be able to do anything," she said, dropping her head, for 
 she stood close enough to the binnacle-light to enable me to see 
 her movements and almost catch the expression of her face. 
 " I mean what will you do when we get ashore?" 
 
 " I must try to get another ship." 
 
 " To command?" 
 
THE WKECK OF THE " GEOSVENOE. " 343 
 
 " Oh, dear, no! as second mate, if they'll have me." 
 
 " If command of a ship were given you would you accept 
 it?" 
 
 "If I could, but I can't." 
 
 She asked quickly, " Why not?" 
 
 " Because I have not passed an examination as master." 
 
 She was silent again, and I caught myself listening eagerly 
 to the sound of the pumping going on on the main-deck, and 
 wondering at my own levity ia the face of our danger. But I 
 could not help forgetting a very great deal when she was at my 
 side. 
 
 All at once it flashed upon me that her father owned several 
 ships, and that her questions were preliminary to her offering 
 me the command of one of them. 
 
 I give you my honor that all recollection of who and what 
 she was, of her station on shore, of her wealth as the old 
 man's heiress, had as absolutely gone out of my mind as if the 
 knowledge had never been imparted. What she was to me — 
 what love and the wonderful association of danger and death 
 had endeared her to me as — was what she was as she stood by 
 my side, a sweet and gentle woman whom my heart was draw- 
 ing closer and closer to every hour, whose life I would have died 
 to preserve, whose danger made my own hf e a larger necessity 
 to me than I should have felt it. 
 
 A momentary emotion of disappointment, a resentment 
 whereof I knew not the meaning, through lacking the leisure 
 or the skill to analyze it, made me turn and say — 
 
 " Would you like me to command one of your ships. Miss 
 Robertson?" 
 
 "Yes," she answered, promptly. 
 
 " As a recompense for my humane efforts to preserve you 
 from drowning?" 
 
 She withdrew her hand from my arm and inclined her head 
 to look me full in the face. 
 
 " Mr. Eoyle, I never thought you would speak to me like 
 that" 
 
 " I want no recompense for what I have done. Miss Eobert- 
 son." 
 
 " I have not offered you any recompense. " 
 
 " Let me feel," I said, " that you understand it is possible 
 for an English sailor to do his duty without asking or expect- 
 ing any manner of reward. The Humane Society's medals are 
 not for him." 
 
 " Why are you angry with me?" she exclaimed, sinking her 
 head, and speaking with a httle sob in her voice. 
 
244 THE WEECK OF THE "GEOSVENOE." 
 
 I was stirred to the heart by her broken tones, and an- 
 swered: 
 
 " I am not angry. I conld not be angry with you. I wish 
 you to feel that what I have done, that whatever I may do is — 
 is—" 
 
 I faltered and stopped — an ignominious breakdown! though 
 I think it concealed the true secret of my resentment. 
 
 I covered my confusion by taking her hand and resting it on 
 my arm again. 
 
 " Do you mean/' she said, " that all you have done has been 
 for my sake only — out of humanity — ^that you would do as 
 much for anybody else?" 
 
 " No," said I, boldly. 
 
 Agaia she withdrew her hand and remained silent, and I 
 made up my miud not to interrupt her thoughts. 
 
 After a few moments she went to the ship's side and stood 
 there; sometimes looking at the stars and sometimes at the 
 water that stretched away into the gloom into heavy breaking 
 
 The wind was singing shrilly up aloft, but the sounds of the 
 pumping ceased on a sudden. 
 
 I awaited the approach of the boatswain with inexpressible 
 anxiety. After an interval I saw his figure come up the poop- 
 ladder. 
 
 " Pumps suck!" he roared out. 
 
 ''Hurrah!" I shouted. "Down with you for grog all 
 round!" for the other two were following the boatswain. But 
 they all came aft first and stood near the wheel, blowing hke 
 whales, and Miss Eobertson joined the group. 
 
 " If it's no worse than this, boson," I asserted, " she'll 
 do." 
 
 " Ay, she'll do, sir; but it's hard work. My arms feel as 
 though they wos tied up in knots. " 
 
 " So do mine," said the steward. 
 
 " ShaU I take the wheel?" asked Cornish. 
 
 " No; go and get some grog and turn in, all of you, I am 
 as fresh as a lark, and will stay here till twelve o'clock," I re- 
 plied. 
 
 The steward at once shuffled below. 
 
 " Boatswain, ask Mr. Eoyle to let me take the wheel," said 
 Miss Eobertson. " He has been talking to me for the last 
 half hour, and sometimes held the wheel with one hand. I 
 am sure I can hold it. " 
 
 "As you won't go below. Miss Eobertson, you shall steer; 
 but I will stop by you," I said. 
 
THE WRECK OF IHE " GROSVEKOB. " 345 
 
 " That will be of no use!" she exclaimed. 
 
 Cornish smothered a laugh and walked away. 
 
 " Now, boson, down with you!" I cried. "I'll have you 
 up again shortly to sound the well. But half an hour's sleep 
 is something. If you get knocked up, I lose half the ship's 
 company — ^two thirds of it." 
 
 " All right sir," he replied, with a prodigious yawn. " You 
 an' the lady'U know how to settle this here business of steer- 
 ing." 
 
 And off he went. 
 
 "You see how obedient these men are. Miss Eobertson. 
 Why will you not obey orders, and get some sleep?" 
 
 " I have offended you, Mr. Eoyle, and I am very, very 
 sorry." 
 
 " Let us make peace, then," I said, holding out my hand. 
 
 She took it; but when I had got her hand, I would not let it 
 go for some moments. 
 
 She was leaving the deck in silence, when she came back and 
 said: 
 
 " If we should have to leave this ship suddenly, I should not 
 like — ^it would make me unhappy forever to think of poor 
 papa left in her." 
 
 She spoke, poor girl! with a great effort. 
 
 I answered immediately. 
 
 " Any wish you may express shall be carried out. " 
 
 " He would go down in this ship without a prayer said for 
 him!" she exclaimed, sobbing. 
 
 " Will you leave this with me? I promise you that no ten- 
 derness, no reverence, no sincere sorrow shall be wanting." 
 
 " Mr. Eoyle, you are a dear good friend to me. God knows 
 how lonely I should have been without you; and yet — ^I made 
 you angry." 
 
 " Do not say that. What I do I do for your safety — for 
 your ultimate happiness; so that when we say farewell to each 
 other on shore, I may feel that the trust which God gave me 
 iu you was honorably and faithfully discharged. I desire, if 
 our hves are spared, that this memory may follow me when all 
 this scene is changed, and we behold it again only in our 
 dreams. I should have told you my meaning just now, but 
 one can not always express one's thoughts." 
 
 " You have told me your meaning, and I shall not forget it. 
 God bless you!" she implored, in her calm, earnest voice, and 
 Went slowly down into the cuddy. 
 
24:6 THE WEECK OF THE " GEOSVENOB. " 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVl. 
 
 The wind still continued a brisk gale and the sea very 
 heavy. Yet overhead it was a glorious night; and as the glass 
 had risen steadily, I was surprised to find the wild weather 
 holding on so long. 
 
 I busied my head with all kinds of schemes to save the ship, 
 and believed it would be no hard matter to do so if the water 
 did not come into her more quickly than she was now making 
 it. 
 
 Unfortunately, there were only two parts of the ship's hold 
 which we could get into — namely, right forward in the fore- 
 peak, and right aft down in the lazarette. If she had strained 
 a butt, or started any part of her planking or outer, skin, 
 amidships or anywhere in her bottom between these two points, 
 there would be no chance of getting at the leak unless the cargo 
 were slimg out of her. 
 
 But the leak could not be considered very serious that did 
 not run a greater depth of water into the ship than under a 
 foot an hour; and with the Bermudas close at hand and the 
 weather promising fair, I could stUl dare to think it possible, 
 despite the hopes and fears which alternately depressed and 
 elevated me, to bring- the vessel to port, all crippled and un- 
 der-manned as she was. 
 
 These speculations kept me busily thinking until half past 
 eleven, on which I bawled to the steward, who got up and 
 called the boatswain and Cornish, though I only wanted the 
 boatswain. Cornish thought it was midnight and his turn to 
 take the wheel, so he came aft. I resigned my post, being anx- 
 ious to get on the main-deck, where I found the boatswain in 
 the act of sounding the well, he having lost some time in re- 
 lighting the lamp, which had burned out. 
 
 He dropped the rod carefully, and found the water thirteen 
 inches deep — that was, nine inches high in the pumps. 
 
 "Just what 1 thought," said he; " she's takin' of it at a 
 foot an hour, no better and no worse. " 
 
 " Well, we must turn to," I exclaimed. " We mustn't let 
 it rise above a foot, as every inch will make our work longer 
 and harder. " 
 
 "If it stops at that, good and well," said tlie boatswain. 
 " But there's always a hif in these here sinkin' cases. How- 
 ever, there's time enough to croak when the worst happens." 
 
 He called to the steward, and we all three went to work and 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSTBIJ'OE. " 347 
 
 pumped vigorously, and kept the handles grinding and clank- 
 ing, Tfith now and again a spell of a couplfe of minutes rest be- 
 tween, until the pumps gave out the throaty sound which told 
 us that the water was exhausted. 
 
 Though this proved beyond a doubt that, providing the leak 
 remained as it was, we should be able to keep the water un- 
 der, the prospect before us of having to work the pumps every 
 hour was extremely disheartening; all four of us required sleep 
 to put us right, and-already our bones were aching with weari- 
 ness. Yet it was certaiu that we should be able to obtain, at 
 the very best, but brief snatches of rest; and I, for one, did not 
 even promise myself so much, for I had strong misgivings as 
 to the condition of the ship's bottom, and was prepared, at any 
 moment, to find the water gaining more rapidly upon us than 
 we could pump it out, though I kept my fears to myself. 
 
 I had been on deck now for four hours at one stretch; so, 
 leaving Cornish at the wheel, I lay down on the steward's 
 mattress in the cuddy, while he seated himself on the bench 
 with his head upon the cuddy table, and snored in that post- 
 ure. 
 
 But we were all aroused again within the hour by Cornish, 
 who called to us down the companion, and away we floundered, 
 with our eyes gummed up with sleep, to the pumps, and wearily 
 worked them Eke miserable automatons. 
 
 The dawn found me again at the wheel, having been there 
 half an hour. 
 
 I scanned the broken, desolate horizon in the pale light 
 creeping over it, but no ship was in sight. The sea, though not 
 nearly so dangerous as it had been, was terribly sloppy, short, 
 and quick, and tumbled very often over the ship's sides, making 
 the decks, with the raffle that encumbered them, look wretched. 
 
 I had not had my clothes ofE me for some days, and the sense 
 of personal discomfort in no small degree aggravated the pro- 
 found feeling of weariness which ached like rheumatism in my 
 body and absolutely stung in my legs. The skin of my face 
 was hard and dry with long exposure to the terrible wind and 
 the salt water it had blown and dried upon it; and though my 
 Tmderclothing was dry, yet it produced all the sensation of damp- 
 ness upon my skin, and never in all my life had I felt so un- 
 comfortable, weary and spiritless as I did standing at the wheel 
 when the dawn broke, and I looked abroad upon the rugged 
 fields of water and found no vessel in sight to inspire me with 
 a moment's emotion of hope. 
 
 I was replaced at the wheel by the boatswain, and took an- 
 other turn at the pumps. When this harassing job was ended, 
 
248 THE WEEOK OP THE " GROSVENOK. ' * 
 
 I went into the forecastle, making my way thither with much 
 difiBculty. 
 
 I had a sacred duty to perform, and now that the daylight 
 was come, it was proper I should go to work. 
 
 On entering the forecastle, I looked around me on the empty 
 hammocks swinging from the deck, and finding one that looked 
 new and clean, took it down and threw the niattress and 
 blankets out of it and folded it up as a piece of canvas. 
 
 I then searched the carpenter's berth for a sail-needle, twine, 
 and palm, which things, together with the hammock, I took 
 aft. 
 
 On reaching the cuddy, I called Cornish, whose services ia 
 this matter I preferred to the steward's, and bade him follow 
 me into the cabin where the old man's body lay. 
 
 When there, I closed the door and informed him that we 
 should bury the poor old gentleman when the morning was 
 more advanced, and that I wished him to help me to sew up 
 the body ia the hammock. 
 
 God knows I had rather that any man should have under- 
 taken this job than I; but it was a duty I was bound to per- 
 form, and I desired, for Miss Eobertson's sake, that it should 
 be carried out with aU the reverence and tenderness that so 
 rude and simple a burial was susceptible of, and nothing done 
 to cause the least violence to her feelings. 
 
 "We spread the hammock open on the deck, and lifted the 
 body and placed it on the hammock, and rolled a blanket over 
 it. A very great change had come over the face of the corpse 
 since death, and I do not think I should have known it as the 
 kindly, dignified countenance, reverent with its white hair and 
 beard, that had smiled at me from the bunk and thanked me 
 for what I had done. 
 
 For what I had done! Alas! how mocking was this memory 
 now! With what painful cynicism did that lonely face illus- 
 trate the power of man over the great issues of life and death! 
 
 I brought the sides of the hammock to meet over the corpse, 
 and held them while Cornish passed the stitches. I then sent 
 him to find me a big holy-stone or any pieces of iron, so as to 
 sink the body, and he brought some pieces of the stone which 
 I had secured in the clews at the foot of the hammock. 
 
 We left the face exposed, and raised the body on to the bunk 
 and covered it over; after which I dispatched Cornish for a 
 carpenter's short-stage I had noticed forward, and which was 
 in use for slinging the men over the ship's side for scraping or 
 painting her. A grating would have answered our purpose 
 oettar, but the hatches were battened down, the tarpaulins over 
 
THE WRECK OF THE "GKOSVENOB." 24d 
 
 them, and there was no grating to be got at without leaving 
 the hatchway exposed. 
 
 I dressed this short-stage in the big ensign, and placed it on 
 the upper bunk ready to be used, and then told Cornish to 
 stand by with the steward, and went aft and knocked at Miss 
 Eobertson's door. 
 
 My heart was in my throat, for this mission was even more 
 ungrateful to me than the sewiag-up of the body had been, and 
 I was afraid that I should not be able to address her tenderly 
 enough, and show her how truly I mourned for and with her. 
 
 As I got no answer, I was leaving, wishing her to obtain all 
 the sleep she could; but when I had gone a few paces she came 
 out and followed me. 
 
 " Did you knock just now, Mr. Eoyle?" she asked. 
 
 I told her yes, but coidd not immediately summon up cour- 
 age enough to tell her why I had knocked. 
 
 She looked at me inquiringly, and I began to reproach my- 
 self for my weakness, and still I could not address her; but, 
 seeing me glance toward her father's cabin, she understood all 
 on a sudden, and covered her face with her hands. 
 
 "I have left his face uncovered for you to kiss," I said, 
 gently laying my hand on her arm. 
 
 She went at once into his cabin, and I closed the door upon 
 her and waited outside. 
 
 She did not keep me long waiting. I think, brave girl that 
 she was, even amid all her desolating sorrow, that she knew I 
 would wish the burial over, so that we might address ourselves 
 again to the ship. 
 
 " I leave him to you now," she said. 
 
 I thought she meant that she would not witness the funeral, 
 and was glad that she had so resolved, and I accordingly took 
 her hand to lead her away to her cabin. 
 
 " Let me be with you!" she exclaimed. " Indeed, indeed, 
 I am strong enough to bear it. I should not be happy if I did 
 not know the moment when he left me, that I might pray to 
 God for him then. " 
 
 "Be it so," I answered. "IwUl call you when we are 
 ready." 
 
 She left me; and Cornish and the steward and I went into 
 the cabin to complete the mournful preparations. 
 
 I cased the body completely in the hammock, and we then 
 raised it up and laid it upon the stage, which we had made to 
 answer for a stretcher, and over it I threw a sheet, so that only 
 the sheet and the ensign were visible. 
 
 This done, I consulted with Cornish as to what part of the 
 
350 THE WRECK OF THE "GKOSVENOE." 
 
 deck we should choose in order to tilt the body overboard. It 
 is generally the custom to rest the body near the gangway, but 
 the ship was rolling too heavily to enable us to do this now, 
 and the main-deck was afloat; so we decided on carrying the 
 body right aft, and thither we transported it, lodging the foot 
 of the stretcher on the rail abaft the port quarter-boat. 
 
 The boatswain removed his hat when he saw the body, and 
 the others imitated him. 
 
 I went below and told Miss Eobertson that all was ready, and 
 took from among the books belonging to the captain an old 
 thin volume containing the Office for the Burial of Dead at 
 Sea, printed in very large type. It was fortunate that I had 
 noticed this sUp of a book when overhauling Oaptaia Coxon's 
 effects, for my own prayer-book did not contain the office, and 
 there was no church service among the captain's books. 
 
 I entreated Miss Eobertson to reflect before resolving to wit- 
 ness the burial. I told her that her presence could do no good, 
 and faithfully assured her that prayers would be read, and the 
 sad nttle service conducted as reverently and tenderly as my 
 deep sympathy and the respect which the others felt for her 
 could dictate. 
 
 She only answered that it would comfort her to pray for him 
 and herself at the moment he was leaving her, and put her 
 hand into mine, and gently and with tearless eyes, though 
 with a world of sorrow in her beautiful pale face, asked me to 
 take her on deck. 
 
 Such grief was not to be argued with — iadeed, I felt it would 
 be cruel to oppose any fancy, however strange it seemed to me, 
 which might really solace her. 
 
 She started and stopped when she saw the stretcher and the 
 white sheet and the outlines beneath it, and her hand clasped 
 mine tightly; but she recovered herself and we advanced, and 
 then, resolving that she should not see the body leave the 
 stretcher, I procured a flag and placed it near the after sky- 
 light, and said she could kneel there; which she did with her 
 back turned upon us. 
 
 I then whispered Cornish to watch me and take note of the 
 sign I should give him to tUt the stretcher, and to do it quick- 
 ly; after which I placed myself near the body and began to 
 read the service. 
 
 It was altogether a strange, impressive scene— one that in a 
 
 picture would, I am sure, hold the eye for a long time, but in 
 
 the reality create an inefllaceable memory. 
 
 _ The insecurity — the peril, I should prefer to say — of our 
 
 situation heightened my own feelings, and made me behold ia 
 
THE WEEOK OF THE "GROSVENOE." 251 
 
 the corpse we were about to commit to the deep, a sad type 
 and melancholy forerunner of our own end. The ship, with 
 her broken masts, her streaming decks, her Jib-boom gone, her 
 one sail swollen by the hoarse gale, plunging and rolling amid 
 the tumultuous seas that foamed around and over her; the 
 strong man at the wheel, bareheaded, his hair blown about by 
 the wind, looking downward with a face full of blunt and honest 
 sorrow, and Ms lips moving as they repeated the words I read; 
 the motionless, kneeling girl; the three of us standing near the 
 corpse; the still, dead burden on the stretcher, waiting to be 
 launched; the blue sky and sun kindling into glory as it soared 
 aboye the eastern horizon— all these were details which formed 
 a picture the wildness and strangeness of which no pen could 
 describe. They are all, as a vision, before me as I write; but 
 they make me know how poor are words, and eloquence how 
 weak, when great realities and things which have befallen many 
 men are to be described. 
 
 When I came to that part of the office wherein it is directed 
 that the body shall be let fall into the sea, my heart beat anx- 
 iously, for I feared that the girl would look around and see 
 what was done. 
 
 I gave the sign, and instantly Cornish obeyed, and I thank 
 God that the sullen splash of the corpse was lost in the roar of 
 a sea bursting under the ship's counter. 
 
 Now that it was gone, the worst was over; and in a short 
 time I brought the service to an end, omitting many portions 
 which assuredly I had not skipped had not time been precious 
 to us. 
 
 I motioned to Cornish and the steward to carry the stretcher 
 away, and waited for Miss Eobertson to rise; but she remained for 
 some minutes on her knees, and when she rose the deck was clear. 
 
 She gave me her hand, and smiled softly, though with a 
 heart-broken expression in her eyes, at the boatswain by way 
 of thanking him for his sympathy, and I then conducted her 
 below and left her at the door of the cabin, saying : 
 
 " I have no words to tell you how I feel for you. Pray God 
 that those who are still living may be spared, -and be sure that 
 in His own good time He will comfort you. " 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVII. 
 
 All that morning the gale continued fresh and the sea dan- 
 gerous. We found that the ship was regularly making nine to 
 ten inches of water an hour; and after the funeral we turned 
 to and pumped her out again. 
 
25^ THE TVEECK OF THE " GEOSVENOr/* 
 
 But this heavy work, coupled with our extreme anxiety and 
 the perils and labor we had gone through, was beginning to 
 tell heavily upon us. The steward showed signs of what 
 strength he had coming to an end, and Cornish's face had a 
 worn and wasted look, as of a man who has fasted long. The 
 boatswain supported this fatigue best, and always went cheer- 
 fully to work, and had encouraging words for us all. As for 
 me, what I suffered most from was, strange to say, the eternal 
 rolling of the ship. At times it completely nauseated me. 
 Also it gave me a racking headache, and occasionally the mo- 
 tion so bewildered me that I was obliged to sit down and hold 
 my head in my hands until the dizziness had passed. 
 
 I believe this feeling was the result of overwork, long wake- 
 fulness, and preying anxiety which was hourly sapping my 
 constitution. Yet I was generally reheved by even a quarter 
 of an hour's sleep, but presently was troubled again, and I grew 
 to dread the time when I should take the wheel, for right aft 
 the motion of the ship was intensely felt by me, so much so 
 that on that morning, the vessel's stern falling heavily into a 
 hollow, I nearly f aiated, and only saved myself from rolling on 
 the deck by clinging convulsively to the wheel. 
 
 At a quarter past eleven I had just gone into the cuddy, 
 after having had an hour's spell at the pumps with the boat- 
 swain and the steward, when I heard Cornish's voice shouting 
 down the companion, " A sail! a sail!" 
 
 But a minute before I had felt so utterly prostrated that I 
 should not have believed myself capable of taking half a dozen 
 steps without a long rest between each. Yet those magical 
 words sent me rushing up the companion-ladder with as much 
 speed and energy as I should have been capable of after a long 
 night's refreshing slumber. 
 
 The moment Cornish saw me he pointed like a madman to 
 the horizon on the weather-beam, and the ship's stem rising at 
 that moment, I clearly beheld the sails of a vessel, though in 
 what direction she was going I could not tell by the naked 
 eye. 
 
 Both the boatswain and the other had come running aft on 
 hearing Cornish's exclamation, and the steward, in the mad- 
 ness of his eagerness, had swung himself on to the mizzen rig- 
 ging, and stood there Jjawling, " Yonder 's the ship! yonder's 
 the ship! Come up here, and you'll see her plain enough!" 
 
 I got the telescope and pointed it at the vessel, and found 
 that she was heading directly for us, steeriag due south, with 
 the gale upon her starboard quarter. 
 
 On this I cried out, " She's coming slap at us, boys! Hur- 
 
THE WKECK OF THE "GEOSVBKOK." 253 
 
 rah! Cornish, you were the first to see her; thank you! thank 
 you!" 
 
 And I grasped his hand and shook it wildly. I then seized 
 the telescope and inspected the yessel again, and exclaimed, 
 while I held the glass to my eye: 
 
 " She's a big ^p, boson. She's carrying a maintop-gallant- 
 sail, and there's a single reef in her foretop-sail. She can't 
 miss us! She's coming right at us, hand oyer fist, boys! 
 Steward, go and tell Miss Eobertson to come on deck. Down 
 with you, and belay that squalling! Do you think we're 
 bhnd?" 
 
 The small ensign was still alive, roaring away just as we had 
 hoisted and left it; but in my excitement I did not think the 
 signal importunate enough, though surely it was so; and rush- 
 ing to the flag-locker, I got out the book of signals, and sung 
 out to the boatswain to help me to bend on the flags which I 
 threw out, and which would represent thai we were sinking. 
 
 We hauled the ensign down and rrm up the string of flags, 
 and glorious they looked in our eyes, as they streamed out in a 
 semicircle, showing their brilliant colors against the clear blue 
 sky. 
 
 Again I took the telescope, and set it on the rail, and knelt 
 to steady myself. 
 
 The hull of the ship was now half risen, and as she came 
 rolling and plunging over the seas I could discern the vast space 
 of froth she was throwing up at her bows. Dead on as she 
 was, we could not tell whether she had hoisted any flag at her 
 peak, and I hoped, in mercy to us, that she would send up an 
 answering pennant to the royal-masthead, so that we might 
 see it and know that our signal was perceived. 
 
 But this was a foolish hope, only such a one as bitter eager 
 anxiety could coin. She was coming right at us; she could not 
 fail to see us; what need to answer us yet, when a little 
 patience, only a little patience^ and she would be within a bis- 
 cuit's throw of us? 
 
 Miss Eobertson came on deck without any covering on her 
 head, and the wind blew her hair away from its fastenings and 
 floated it out like a cloud of gold. She held on to the rail and 
 stared at the coming ship with wild eyes and a frowning fore- 
 head; while the steward, who had fallen crazy with the sight of 
 ihe ship, clambered once more into the mizzen rigging, and 
 wiDuted and beckoned to the vessel as a little child would. 
 
 It did not take me long, however, to recover my own reason, 
 the more especially as I felt we might require all the sense we 
 had when the ship rounded and hove to. I could not, indeed. 
 
£54 THE WRECK OF THE "GKOSVENOE." 
 
 hope that they would send a boat through such a sea; they 
 would He by us and send a boat when the sea moderated, which, 
 to judge by the barometer and the high and beaming sky, we 
 might expect to find that night or next morning; and then we 
 should require our. senses, not only to keep the pumps going, 
 but to enter the boat calmly and in an orderly way, and help 
 our rescuers to save our lives. 
 
 The boatswain leaned against the companion-hatchway with 
 his arms folded, contemplating the approaching ship with a 
 wooden face. Variously and powerfully as the spectacle of the 
 vessel had affected Cornish and Miss Eobertson, and myself and 
 the steward, on the boatswain it had scarcely produced any 
 impression. 
 
 I know not what kind of misgiving came into my miad as I 
 looked from the coming ship to his stolid f aca 
 
 I had infinite confidence in this man's judgment and bravery, 
 and his lifelessness on this occasion weighed down upon me like 
 a heavy presentiment, insomuch that the cheery, congratulatory 
 words I was about to address to Miss Eobertson died away on 
 my lips. 
 
 I should say that we had sighted this vessel's upper sails 
 when she was about seventeen miles distant, and, therefore, 
 coming down upon us before a strong wind, and helped onward 
 by the long running seas, in less than half an hour her whole 
 figure was plain to us upon the water. 
 
 I examined her carefully through the glass, striving to make 
 out her nationality by the cut of her aloft. I thought she had 
 the look of a Scotch ship, her hull being after the pattern of 
 the Aberdeen clippers, such as I remembered them in the Aus- 
 tralian trade, painted green, and she was also rigged with sky- 
 sail-poles and a great breadth of canvas. 
 
 I handed the glass to the boatswain, and asked him what 
 country he took her to be of. After inspecting her, he said he 
 did not think she was English; the color of her canvas looked 
 foreign, but it was hard to tell; we should see her colors pres- 
 ently. 
 
 As she approached. Miss Eobertson's excitement grew very 
 great; not demonstrative — I mean, she did not cry out nor 
 gesticulate like the steward in the rigging; it was visible, like a 
 kind of madness, in her eyes, in her swelling bosom, in a 
 strange, wonderful, briUiant smile upon her face, such as a 
 great actress might wear in a play, but which we who observe 
 it know to be forced and unreal. 
 
 I ran below for the fur cap and coat, and made her put 
 them on, and then drew her away from the ship's side and kept 
 
THE WEECK OF THE "GEOSVEKOR." 255 
 
 close to her, eyen holding her by the hand for some time, for 
 I could not tell what effect the sight of the ship might produce 
 upon her miud, already stung and weakened by privations and 
 cruel sorrow and peril. 
 
 The vessel came rolling and plunging down toward us before 
 the wind, carrying a sea on either quarter as high as her main- 
 brace bumpkms, and spreading a great surface of foam before 
 and around her. 
 
 When she was about a couple of miles off they let go the 
 maintop-gallant-halyards and clewed up the sail; and then the 
 helm was starboarded, which brought her bows astern of us 
 and gave her a sheer, by which we saw that she was a fine bark 
 of at least eight hundred tons burden. 
 
 At the same moment she hoisted Eussian colors. 
 
 I was bitterly disappointed when I saw that flag. I should 
 have been equally disappointed by the sight of any other foreign 
 flag, unless it were the Stars and Stripes, which floats over 
 brave hearts, and is a signal to Englishmen as full of welcome 
 and promise, almost, as their own loved bit of bmating. 
 
 I had hoped, God knows how earnestly, that we should be- 
 hold the English ensign at the gaff-end. Our chances of rescue 
 by a British ship were fifty to one as against our chances of 
 rescue by a foreigner. Cases, indeed, have been known of 
 ships commanded by Enghshmen sighting vessels in distress 
 and leaving them to their fate; but, to the honor and glory of 
 our calling, I say that these cases make so brief a list that no 
 impartial-minded man wUl allow them to weigh with him a 
 moment when he considers the vast number of instances of 
 pluck, humanity, and heroism which illustrate and adorn the 
 story of British naval life. 
 
 It is otherwise vrith foreigners. I write not with any foolish 
 insular prejudice against wooden shoes and continental con- 
 nections: we can not dispute good evidence. Though I believe 
 that the Eussians make fair sailors and fight bravely on sea, 
 why was it that my heart sunk when I saw that flag? I say 
 that the British flag is an assurance to all distressed persons 
 that what can be done for them will be done for them; and 
 foreigners know this well, and would sooner sight it when they 
 are in peril than their own colors, be those colors Dutch, or 
 French, or Spanish, or Danish, or Italian, or Eussian. But 
 he must be a confident man indeed who hopes anything from a 
 vessel sailing under a foreign flag when life is to be saved at 
 the risk of the lives of the rescuers. 
 
 "He's goin' to round to!" exclaimed the boatswain, who 
 watched the movements of the ship with an unconcern abso- 
 
256 THE WKECK OF THE " GKOSVENOK. " 
 
 lately rlienomenal to me even to recall now, when I consider 
 that the lives of us all might have depended upon the stranger's 
 actions. 
 
 She went gracefully swooping and swashing along the water, 
 and I saw the hands upon the deck aft standmg by at the maia- 
 brace to back the yards. 
 
 " Boson/' I cried, " she means to heave to — she won't leave 
 us." 
 
 He made no answer, but continued watching her with an im- 
 movable face. 
 
 She passed under our stem not more than a quarter of a mile 
 distant, perhaps not so far. There was a crowd of persons near 
 the wheel, some looking at us through binocular glasses, others 
 through telescopes. There were a few women and children 
 among them. 
 
 Yet I could detect no hurry, no eagerness, no excitement in 
 their movements; they appeared as imperturbable as Turks or 
 Hollanders contemplating us as though we were rather an 
 object of cuiiosity than in miserable, perishing distress. 
 
 I jumped upon the grating abaft the wheel, and waved my 
 hat to them and pointed to our sig-nals. A man standing near 
 their starboard quarter-boat, whom, by the way he looked aloft, 
 I judged to be the captain, flourished his hand in reply. 
 
 I then, at the top of my voice and through my hands, 
 shouted, " We're sinking! for God's sake stand by us!" On 
 which the same person held up his hand again, though I do not 
 believe he understood or even heard what I said. 
 
 Meanwhile they had braced up the fore-yards, and as the ves- 
 sel came round parallel with us, at a distance of about two 
 thirds of a mile, they backed the mainyards, and in a few 
 moments she lay steady, riding finely upon the water and keep- 
 ing her decks dry, though the seas were stiU splashing over us 
 freely. 
 
 Seeing now, as I believed, that she meant to stand by us, all 
 my excitement broke out afresh. I cried out that we were 
 saved, and fell upon my knees and thanked God for his mercy. 
 Miss Eobertson sobbed aloud, and the steward came down out 
 of the rigging and danced about the deck, exclaiming wildly 
 and extending his arms toward the ship. Cornish retained his 
 grasp of the wheel, but could not move his eyes from the ship; 
 the boatswain alone remained perfectly tranquil, and even 
 angered me by his hard, unconcerned face. 
 
 ' Good God!" I cried, " do you not value your life? Have 
 you nothing to say? See, she is lying there, and wiU wait till 
 the sea moderatesj and then fetch us on board. " 
 
THE WEEOK OE THE " aEOSVEITOE. " 357 
 
 "Perhaps she may," he answered, "and it'll be time 
 enough for me to go mad when I am saved. " 
 
 And he then folded his arms afresh, and leaned against the 
 rail, contemplating the ship with the same extraordinary in- 
 difference. 
 
 They now hauled down the flag, and I waited anxiously to 
 see if they would hoist the answering pennant to let us know 
 they understood our signal; but they made no further sign 
 that way, nor could I be sure, therefore, that they imderstood 
 the flags we had hoisted; for though in those days Marryat's 
 Code was in use among ships of all nations, yet it often hap- 
 pened (as it does now) that vessels, both British and foreign, 
 would, through the meanness of their owners, be sent to sea 
 with merely the flags indicating their own number on board, 
 so that speaking one of these vessels was like addressing a dumb 
 person. 
 
 The movements of the people on the Eussian bark were quite 
 discernible by the naked eye; and we all now, saving the boat- 
 swain, watched her with wrapt eagerness, the steward stopping 
 his mad antics to grasp the poop-rail, and gaze with devouring 
 eyes. 
 
 We did not know what they would do, and, iadeed, we 
 scarcely knew what we had to expect; for it was plain to us all 
 that a boat would stand but a poor chance in that violent sea, 
 and that we should run a greater risk of losing our lives by 
 quitting the ship than by staying in her. 
 
 But would they not give us some sign, some assurance, that 
 they meant to stand by us? 
 
 The agony of my doubts of their intentions was exquisite. 
 
 For some time she held her ground right abreast oi us; but 
 cm- top-sail beiag full, while the Eussian was actually hove to, 
 we slowly began to reach ahead of her. 
 
 Seeing this I cried out to Cornish to put the helm hard down, 
 and keep the sail flat at the leech; but he had already antici- 
 pated this order, though it was a useless one; for the ship came 
 to and fell off with every sea, though the helm was hard down; 
 and before we could have got her to behave as we wished, we 
 should have been obliged to clap some after-sail upon her, 
 which I did not dare do, as we had only choice of the mizzen 
 and cross-jack, and either of these sails (both being large) 
 would probably have slued her round head into the sea, and 
 throwQ her dead and useless gn our hands. 
 
 Seeing that we were slowly bringing the Eussian on to our 
 lee quarter, I called out, in the hope of encouraging the others: 
 
258 THE WEECK OF THE " GBOSTENOK.' 
 
 " No matter! she will let us draw ahead, and then shorten 
 sail and stand after us." 
 
 " Are they goia' to lower that boat?" exclaimed the boat- 
 swain suddenly starting out of his apathetic manner. 
 
 There was a crowd of men round the starboard davits where 
 the quarter-boat hung, but it was not until I brought the tele- 
 scope to bear upon them that I could see they were holding an 
 animated discussion. 
 
 The man who had motioned to us, and whom I took to be 
 master of the ship, stood aft, in company with two others and 
 a woman, and gesticulated very vehemently, sometimes point- 
 ing at us and sometimes at the sea. 
 
 His meaning was intelligible enough to me, but I was not 
 disheartened; for though it was plain that he was representing 
 the waves as too rough to permit them to lower a boat, which 
 was a conclusive sign, at least, that those whom he addressed 
 were lu-ging him to save us; yet his refusal was no proof that 
 h^ did not mean to keep by us until it should be safe to send 
 a boat to our ship. 
 
 " What will they do, Mr. Eoyle?" exclaimed Miss Eobert- 
 son, speaking in a voice sharpened by the terrible excite- 
 ment under which she labored. 
 
 " They wUl not leave us," I answered. " They are men — 
 and it is enough that they should have seen you among us to 
 make them stay. Oh!" I cried, " it is hard that those waves 
 do not subside! But patience! The wind is lulling — we have 
 a long spell of daylight before us. Would to God she were an 
 English ship! I should have no fear then." I again pointed 
 the glass at the vessel. 
 
 The captain was still declaiming and gesticulating; but the 
 men had withdrawn from the quarter-boat, and were watching 
 us over the bulwarks. 
 
 Since the boat was not to be lowered, why did he continue 
 arguing? 
 
 I watched him intently, watched him untU my eyes grew 
 bleared and the metal rim of the telescope seemed to burn into 
 the flesh around my eye. 
 
 I put the glass down, and turned to glance at the flags 
 streaming over my head. 
 
 " There she goes! I knew it! They never shows no pity!" 
 exclaimed the boatswain, in a deep voice. 
 
 I looked and saw the figures of the men hauling on the lee 
 main-braces. 
 
 The yards swung round; the 'vessel's head paid off; they 
 squared away forward, and in a few minutes her stem was at 
 
THE WEECK OF THE " GHOSVEN-QE. " 259 
 
 US, and she went away, solemnly rolling and plunging; the 
 maintop-gallant-sail being sheeted home and the yard hoisted 
 as she surged forward on her course. 
 
 We remained staring after her — no one speaking — no one 
 believing in the reahty of what he beheld. 
 
 Of all the trials that had befallen us, this was the worst. 
 , Of all the terrible, cruel disappointments that can aflflicfc 
 suffering people, none, none in all the hideous catalogue, is 
 more deadly, more unendm-able, more frightful to endure, than 
 that which it was our doom then to feel. To witness our sal- 
 ration at hand and then to miss it; to have been buoyed up 
 with hope unspeakable; to taste, in the promise of rescue, the 
 joy of renovated life; to beheve that our suffering was at an 
 end, and that in a short time we should be among sympathetic 
 rescuers, looking back with shudders upon the perils from 
 which we had been snatched — to have felt all this, and then to 
 be deceived! 
 
 I thought my heart would burst. I tried to speak, but my 
 tongue clove to the roof of my mouth. 
 
 When the steward saw that we were abandoned he uttered a 
 loud scream and rushed headlong down into the cuddy. 
 
 I 'took no notice of him. 
 
 Cornish ran from the wheel, and, springing on to the rail, 
 shook his fist at the departing vessel, raving, and cursing her 
 with horrible, blasphemous words, black in the face with his 
 mad and useless rage. 
 
 The boatswain took his place, and grasped the wheel, never 
 speaking a word. 
 
 I was aroused from the stupor that had come over me, the 
 effect of excessive emotion, by Miss Eobertson putting her hand 
 in mine. 
 
 " Be brave!" she whispered, with her mouth close to my 
 ear. " God is with us stiU. My dead father would not deceive 
 me. We shall be saved yet. Have courage, and be your own 
 true self again. " 
 
 I looked into her shining eyes, out of which all the excite- 
 ment that had fired them while the Eussian remained hove to 
 had departed. There was a beautiful tranquillity, there was a 
 courage Heaven-inspired, there was a soft, and hopeful smile 
 upon her pale face, which fell upon the tempest in my breast 
 and stilled it. 
 
 God had given her this influence over me, and I yielded to 
 it as though He himself had commanded me. 
 
 All her own troubles came before me, all her own bitter 
 trials, her miserable bereavement; and as I heard her sweet 
 
360 THE WRECK OP THE 
 
 voice bidding me have ■ courage, and beheld her smiling upon 
 me out of her deep faith' liin her simple, sacred dream, I caught 
 up both her hands and bent my'hoad over them and wept, 
 
 " Cornish!" I cried, recovering myself, and seizing the man 
 by the arm as he stood shouting at the fast-lessening ship, 
 " what is the use of those oaths? Let them go their'ways — 
 the pitiless cowards! "We are Englishmen, and our lives are 
 still our own. Come, brave companion! we have all under- 
 gone too much to permit this trial to break us. See this lady! 
 she swears that we shall be saved yet. Be of her heart and 
 mind and the boson's there, and help us to make another fight 
 for it. Come!" 
 
 He Buffered me to pull him off his perilous perch, and then 
 sat himself down upon a coil of rope, trembling all over, and 
 hid his face in his hands. 
 
 But a new trouble awaited me. 
 
 At this moment the steward came staggering up the com- 
 panion-ladder, his face purple, his eyes protruding, and talking 
 loudly and iacoherently. He clasped the sea-chest belonging 
 to himself, which certainly was of greater weight than he in 
 his enfeebled state would have been able to bear had he not 
 been mad. The chest was corded, and he had no doubt 
 packed it. 
 
 He rushed to the ship's side and pitched it overboard, and 
 was in the act of springing on to the rail, meaning to fling 
 himself into the sea, when I caught hold of him, and, using 
 more force than I was conscious of, dragged him backward so 
 violently that his head struck the deck like a cannon shot, and 
 he lay motionless and insensible. 
 
 " That's the best thing that could have happened to him," 
 exclaimed the boatswaiu. " Let him lie a bit. He'll come 
 to, and may be leave his craze behind him. It wouldn't be 
 the fust time I've seen a daft man knocked sensible." 
 
 And then, coolly biting a chew out of a stick of tobacco, 
 which he very carefully replaced in his breeches pocket, he 
 added: 
 
 " Jim, come and lay hold of this here wheel, will yer, while 
 me and Mr. Eoyle pumps the ship out?" 
 
 Cornish got up and took the boatswain's place. 
 
 " I can help you to pump, Mr. Eoyle, "*^ said Miss Eobert- 
 Bon. 
 
 The boatswain laughed. 
 
 " Lor' bless your dear 'art, miss, what next?" he cried, 
 " No, no; you stand by here ready to knock this steward down 
 agin i£ he shows hisseU anxious to swim arter the Eoosian. 
 
THE wHECK Of liiE "gRosVtsnOr." 261 
 
 We'll see what water the ship's a-makin'; and if she shows her- 
 self obstinate, as I rayther think she will, why, we'll all turn 
 to and leave hex-. For yoi;' , e got to deal with a bad ship as 
 you would with a bad wife : use every genteel persuasion fust; 
 and if that won't alter her, there's nothen for it but to grease 
 your boots, oil your hair, and po-Htely walk out." 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVIII. 
 
 There being but two of us now to work the pumps, it was 
 more than we could do to keep them going. We plied them, 
 with a brief spell between, and then my arms fell to my side, 
 and I told the boatswain I could pump no more. 
 
 He sounded the well and made six inches. 
 
 " There's only two inches left that we can get out of her," 
 said he; " and they'll do no harm." 
 
 On which we quitted the main-deck and came into the 
 cuddy. 
 
 " Mr. Eoyle," he said, seating himself on the edge of the 
 table, " we shall have to leave this ship if we aren't taken ofE 
 her. I reckon it'H. require twelve feet o' water to sink her, 
 allowin' for there being a deal o' wood in 'the cargo; and may 
 be she won't go down at that. However, we'll say twelve 
 feet, and supposin' we lets her be, she'll give us, if you hke, 
 eight or nine hours afore settUn'. I'm not saying as we ought 
 to leave her; but I'm lookin' at you, sir, and see that you're 
 werry nigh knocked up; Cornish is about a quarter o' the man 
 he was; an' as to the bloomin' steward, he's as good as 
 drowned, no better and no worse. We shall take one spell too 
 many at them pumps and fall down under it an' never get up 
 agia. Wot we had best do is to keep a look all around for 
 wessels, get that there quarter-boat ready for lowerin', and 
 stand by to leave the ship when the sea calms. You know how 
 Bermuda bears, don't you, sir?" 
 
 " I can find out to-night. It is too late to get sights now." 
 
 " I think," he returned, " that our lives'll be as safe in the 
 boat as they are on board this ship, an' a trifle safer. I've 
 been watching this wessel a good deal, and my beUef is that 
 wos another gale to strike her, she'd make one o' her long 
 plunges and go to pieces hke a pack o' cards, when she got to 
 the bottom o' the walley o' water. Of course if this sea don't 
 calm we must make shift to keep her afloat until it do. You'll 
 excuse me for talkin' as though I wos dictatin'. I'm just giv- 
 in' you the thoughts that come into my head while we wos 
 pumpin'." 
 
362 THE WEECK OF THE " GEOSVENOK. 
 
 " I quite agree with you/' I replied; " I am only thinking 
 of the size of the quarter-boat — ^whether she isn't too small for 
 five persons?" 
 
 ' ' Not she ! I'll get a bit of a mast rigged up in her^ and it'll 
 go hard if we don't get four mile an hour out of her somehows. 
 How fur might the Bermuda Islands be off?" 
 
 I answered, after reflecting some moments, that they would 
 probably be distant from the ship between two hundred and 
 fifty and three hundred miles. 
 
 " We should get pretty near 'em in three days," said he, 
 " if the wind blew that way. WUl you go an' tell the young 
 lady what we're thinkin' o' doing, whUe I overhauls the boat 
 an' see what's wantin' in her? One ^ood job is, we sha'n't 
 have to put off, through the ship's sinkin', all of a heap." 
 
 " There's a long warning given us, and I can't help think- 
 in'- that the stormy weather's blown hisself out, for the sky 
 looks to me to have a regular-set fair blue in it." 
 
 He went on to the main-deck. I inspected the glass, which 
 I found had risen since I last looked at it. This, coupled with 
 the brilliant sky and glorious sunshine and the diminishing 
 motion of the ship, cheered me somewhat, though I looked 
 forward with misgiving to leaving the ship, having upon me 
 the memory of sufferings endured by shipwrecked men in this 
 lonely condition, and remembering that Mary Eobertson would 
 be one of us, and have to share in any privations that might 
 befall us. 
 
 At the same time, it was quite clear to me that the boat- 
 swain, Cornish, and myself would never, with our failing 
 strength, be able to keep the ship afloat; and for Miss Eobert- 
 son's sake, therefore, it was my duty to put a cheerful face 
 upon the melancholy alternative. 
 
 When I reached the poop, the first thing I beheld was the 
 Russian bark, now a square of gleaming white upon the 
 southern horizon. 
 
 I quickly averted my eyes from the shameful object, and saw 
 that the steward had recovered from his swoon, and was squat- 
 ting against the companion, counting his fingers and smiling 
 at them. 
 
 Miss Eobertson was steering the ship, while Cornish lay ex- 
 tended along the deck, his head pillowed on a flag. 
 
 The wind (as by the appearance of the weather I might have 
 anticipated, had my mind been free to speculate on such things) 
 had dropped suddenly, and was now a gentle breeze, and the 
 sea was subsiding rapidly. Indeed, a most golden, glorious 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVElirOE." 263 
 
 afternoon had set in, with a promise of a hot and breathless 
 night. 
 
 I approached Miss Eobertson, and asked her what was the 
 matter with Cornish. 
 
 " I noticed him reeling at the wheel/' she answered, " with 
 his face quite white. I put a flag for his head, and told him 
 to lie down. I called to you, but you did not hear me; and I 
 have been waiting to see you that you might get him some 
 brandy." 
 
 I found that the- boatswain had not yet come aft, and at once 
 went below to procure a dram for Cornish. I returned and 
 knelt by his side, and was startled to perceive that his eyeballs 
 were turned up, and his hands and teeth clinched, as though 
 he were convulsed. Sharp tremors ran through his body, and 
 he made no reply nor appeared to hear me, though I called 
 nis name several times. 
 
 Believing that he was dying, I shouted to the boatswain, who 
 came immediately. 
 
 The moment he looked at Cornish he uttered an exclama- 
 tion. 
 
 " God knows what ails the poor creature!" I cried. " Lift 
 his head, that I may put some bxandy into his mouth." 
 
 The boatswain raised him by the shoulders, but his head 
 hung back like a dead man's. I drew out my knife and in- 
 serted the blade between his teeth, and by this means contrived 
 to introduce some brandy into his mouth, but it bubbled back 
 again, which was a terrible sign, I thought; and still the 
 tremors shook his poor body, and the eyes remained upturned, 
 making the face most ghastly to see. 
 
 "It's his heart broke!" exclaimed the boatswain, in a 
 tremulous voice. " Jim! what's the matter with 'ee, mate? 
 You're not goin' to let the sight o' that Eoosian murderer kill 
 you? Come, come! God Almighty knows we've all had a hard 
 fight for it, but we're not beat yet, lad. 'Tis but another spell 
 o' waitin', and it'll come right presently. Don't let a gale o' 
 wind knock the breath out o' you. What man as goes to sea 
 but meets with reverses like this here? Swaller the brandy, 
 Jim! My God, Mr. Eoyle, he's dyin'!" 
 
 As he said this Cornish threw up his arms and stiffened out 
 his body. So strong was his dying action that he knocked the 
 glass of brandy out of my hand and threw me backward some 
 paces. The pupils of his eyes rolled down and a film came 
 over them; he uttered something in a hoarse whisper, and lay 
 dead on the boatswain's knee. 
 
264 THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVElfOR." 
 
 I glanced at Miss Eobertson. Her lips were tightly com- 
 pressed, otherwise the heroic girl showed no emotion. 
 
 The boatswaia drew a deep breath, and let the dead man's 
 head fall gently on the flag. 
 
 " For Miss Eobertson's sake," I whispered, " let us carry 
 him forward. " 
 
 He acquiesced in silence, and we bore the body o£E the poop 
 and laid it on the fore-hatch. 
 
 " There will be no need to bury him," said I. 
 
 " No need and no time, sir. I trust God'U be merciful to 
 the poor sailor when he's called up. He was made bad by 
 them others, sir. His heart wasn't wrong," replied the boat- 
 swain. 
 
 I procured a blanket from the forecastle and covered the 
 body with it, and we then walked back to the poop slowly and 
 without speaking. 
 
 I felt the death of this man keenly. He had worked well, 
 confronted danger cheerfully; he had atoned, in his untutored 
 fashion, for the wrongs he had taken a part in;. besides, the 
 fellowship of perU was a tie upon us all, not to be sundered 
 without a pang, which our hearts never would have felt had 
 fate dealt otherwise with us. 
 
 I stopped a moment with the boatswain to look at the steward 
 before joining Miss Eobertson. To many, I believe, this 
 spectacle of idiotcy would have been more affecting than Cor- 
 nish's death. He was tracing figures, such as circles and crosses, 
 with his forefinger on the deck, smiling vacantly meanwhile, 
 and now and then looking aroimd him with rolling, unmean- 
 ing eyes. 
 
 " How is it with you, my man?" I said. 
 
 He gazed at me very earnestly, rose to his feet, and, taking 
 my arm, drew me a short distance away from the boatswain. 
 
 "A ship passed us just now, sir," he exclaimed, in a whis- 
 per, and with a profoundly confidential an*. " Did you see 
 her?" 
 
 " Yes, steward, I saw her." 
 
 " A word in your ear, sir — mum ! that's the straight tip. 
 Do you see? I was tired of this ship, sir — tired of being afraid 
 of drowning. I. put myself on board that vessel, and there 1 
 am -now, sir. But hush! do you know I can not talk to them 
 —they're furriners! Eoosians, sir, by the hving cock!— that's 
 my oath — and it crows every morning in my back garden." 
 
 He struck me softly on the waistcoat, and feU back a step, 
 with his finger on his hp. 
 
 " Ah," said I, " I understand. Sit down again and go on 
 
THE ■WRECK OF THE " GfiOSTElTOE.*'' 265 
 
 drawing on the deck, and then they'll think you're lost in 
 study and not trouble yon." 
 
 "Eight, my lord — ^your lordship's 'umble servant," an- 
 swered the poor creature, making me a low bow; and with a 
 lofty and dignified air he resumed his place on the deck near 
 the companion. 
 
 " Wot was he sayiu'?" inquired the boatswain. 
 
 "^He is quite imbecile. He thinks he is on board the Eus- 
 sian," I replied. 
 
 " Well, that's a comfort," said the boatswain. " He'll not 
 be trj&i' to swim arter her agin. " 
 
 " Miss Eobertson," I exclaimed, " you need not remain at 
 the wheel. There is so little wind now that the ship may be 
 left to herself." 
 
 Saying which I made the wheel fast and led her to one of the 
 eky-lights. 
 
 " Boson," said I, " will you fetch us something to eat and 
 drink out of the pantry? Open a tin of meat, and get some 
 biscuit and wine. This may be our last meal on board the 
 ' Grosyenor,' " I added, to Miss Eobertson, as the boatswain 
 left us. 
 
 She looked at me inquiringly, but did not speak. 
 
 "Before we knew," I continued, "that poor Cornish was 
 dying, the boatswain and I resolved that we should all of us 
 leave the ship. We have no longer the strength to man the 
 pumps. The water is coming in at the rate of a foot an hour, 
 and we have found latterly that even three of us can not pump 
 more at a time out of her than six or seven inches, and every 
 spell at the pumps leaves us more exhausted. But even though 
 we had hesitated to leave her, yet, now that Cornish is gone 
 and the steward has fallen imbecile, we have no alternative. " 
 
 "I understand," she said, glancing at the boat and com- 
 pressing her lips. 
 
 " You are not afraid — ^you who have shown more heart and 
 courage than all of us put together. " 
 
 " No — I am not much afraid. I believe that God is look- 
 ing down upon us and that He will preserve us. But," she 
 cried, taking a short breath, and clasping her hands convul- 
 sively, " it will be very, very lonely on the great sea in that 
 httleboat." 
 
 " Why more lonely in that little boat than on this broken 
 and sinking ship? I believe, with you, that God is looking 
 down upon us, and He has given us that pure and beautiful sky 
 as an encouragement and a promise. Contrast the sea now with 
 what it was this morning. In a few hours hence it wiE be calm; 
 
266 THE WEECK OF THE " GKOSTEKOR." 
 
 and believe me when I say that we shall be a thousand-fold 
 safer in that boat than we are in this strained and leaking ship. 
 Even whUe we talk now the water is creeping into the hold, 
 and every hour will make her sink deeper and deeper until she 
 disappears beneath the surface. On the other hand, we muy 
 have many days together of this fine weather. I will steer the 
 boat for the Bermuda Islands, which we can not miss by head- 
 ing the boat west, even i£ I should lack the means of ascertain- 
 ing our exact whereabouts, which you may trust me will not 
 be the case. Moreover, the chance of our being rescued by a 
 passing ship will be much greater when we are in the boat 
 than it is whUe we remaia here; for no ship, though she were 
 commanded by a savage, would refuse to pick a boat up and 
 take its occupants on board; whereas vessels, as we have already 
 seen to our cost, will sight distressed ships and leave them to 
 shift for themselves." 
 
 " I do not doubt you are right," she replied, with a plaintive 
 smile. " I should not say or do anything to oppose you. And 
 believe me," she exclaimed, earnestly, "that I do not think 
 more of my own life than that of my companions. Death is 
 not so terrible but that we may meet it, if God wills, calmly. 
 And I would rather die at once, Mr. Eoyle, than win a few 
 short years of life on hard and bitter terms." 
 
 She looked at the steward as she spoke, and an expression of 
 beautiful pity came into her face. 
 
 "Miss Eobertson," I said, "ia my heart I am pledged to 
 save your life. If you die, we both die! — of that be sure." 
 
 " I know what I owe you," she answered, in a low and 
 broken voice. ' ' I know that my life is yours, won by you from 
 the very jaws of death, soothed and supported by you after- 
 ward. What my gratitude is only God knows. I have no 
 words to tell you. " 
 
 "Do you give me the life I have saved?" I asked, wonder- 
 ing at my own breathless voice as I questioned her. 
 
 " I do," she replied, firmly, Hfting up her eyes and looking 
 at me. 
 
 " Do you give it to me because your sweet and generous 
 gratitude makes you think it my due — not knowing I am poor, 
 not remembering that my station in life is humble, without a 
 question as to my past?" 
 
 " I give it to you because I love you!" she answered, extend- 
 ing her hand. 
 
 I drew her toward me and kissed her forehead. 
 
 *' God bless you, Mary, darling, for your faith in me! God 
 
tHB WEEOK 01' THE " GEOSVENOE." 367 
 
 bless you for your priceless gift of your love to me! Living or 
 dead, dearest, we are one!" 
 
 And she, as though to seal these words, which our danger in- 
 vested with an entrancing mysteriousness, raised my hand to 
 her spotless Kps, and then held it some moments to her heart. 
 
 The boatswain, coming up the poop-ladder, saw her holding 
 my hand. He approached us slowly and in silence; and, put- 
 ting down the tray, which he had heaped, with sailor-like pro- 
 fusion, with food enough for a dozen persons, stood looking on 
 us thoughtfully. 
 
 " Mr. Eoyle," he said, in a dehberate voice, " you'll excuse 
 me for sayia' of it, but, sir, you've found her out?" 
 
 " I have, boson. " 
 
 "You've found her out, sir, as the truest-hearted gell as 
 ever did duty as a darter?" 
 
 "I have." 
 
 " I've watched her, and know her to be British — ^true oak, 
 seasoned by God Almighty, as does this sort o' work better nor 
 Time! You've found her out, sir?" 
 
 "It is true, boson." 
 
 "And you, miss," he exclaimed, in the same deliberate 
 voice, " have found Mm out." 
 
 She looked downward with a blush. 
 ' " Mr. Eoyle, and you, miss," he continued, " I'm not goin' 
 to say nothen agin this being the right time to find each other 
 out in. It's Almighty Providence as brings these here mat- 
 ters to pass, and it's in times o' danger as love speaks out 
 strongest, turnin' the heart into a speakin'-trumpet and hailin' 
 with a loud and tremendious woice. Wot I wur goin' to say is 
 this: that in Mr. Eoyle I've seen the love for a long while past 
 burnin' and strugghn', and sometimes hidin' of itself, and then 
 burstin' up afresh like a flare aboard o' a sinkin' ketch on a 
 windy night; and in, you, miss, I've likewise seen tokens as 
 'ud ha' made me up and speak my Joy days an' days ago, had 
 it been'my consarn to attend to 'em. I say, that now as we're 
 sinkin' without at all meanin' to drown, with no wun but God 
 Almighty to see us, this is the properest time for you to have 
 found each other out in. Mr. Eoyle, your hand, sir; miss, 
 yours. I say, God bless you! While we have breath we'll keep 
 the boat afloat; and if it's not to be, still I'll say, God bless 
 you!" 
 
 He shook us heartily by the hand, looked hard at the poor 
 steward, as though he would shake hands with him too; then 
 walked aft, hauled down the signals, stepped into the cuddy. 
 
268 THE WEECK OF THE '' GROSVENOE. " 
 
 returned with the large ensign, bent it on to the halyards, and 
 ran it up to the gaff-end. 
 
 " That," said he, returning and looking up proudly at the 
 flag, "is to let them as it may consarn know that we're not 
 dead yet. Now. sir, shall I pipe to dinner?'' 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 I THINK the boatswain was right. 
 
 It was no season for love-making; but it was surely a fitting 
 moment " for finding each other out in." 
 
 I can say this — and, God knows, never was there less bom- 
 bast in such a thought than there was in mine — that when I 
 looked round upon the sea and then upon my beloved com- 
 panion, I felt that I would rather have chosen death, with her 
 love to bless me in the end, than life without knowledge of 
 her. 
 
 I put food before the steward and induced him to eat; but it 
 was pitiful to see his silly, instinctive ways — no Reason in them, 
 nothing but a mechanical guiding, with foolish, fleeting smiles 
 upon his pale face. 
 
 I thought of that wife of his whose letter he had wept over, 
 and his child, and scarcely knew whether it would not have 
 been better for him and them that he should have died than 
 return to them a broken-down, puUng imbecile. 
 
 I said as much to Mary, but the tender heart would not 
 agree with me. 
 
 " While there is life there is hope," she answered, softly. 
 " Should God permit us to reach home, I will see that the poor 
 fellow is well cared for. It may be that when all those horrors 
 have passed, his mind will recover its strength. Our trials are 
 very hard. "When I saw that Eussian ship, I thought my own 
 brain would go." 
 
 She pressed her hand to her forehead, and an expression of 
 suffering, provoked by memory, came into her face. 
 
 We dispatched our meal, and I went on to the main-deck to 
 sound the well. I found two feet of water in the hold, and I 
 came back and gave the boatswain ihe soundings, who recom- 
 mended that we should at once turn to and get the boat ready. 
 
 I said to him, as he clambered into the boat for the purpose 
 of overhauling her, that I fully believed that a special Provi- 
 dence was watching over us, and that we might confidently 
 hope God would not abandon us now. 
 
 " If the men had not chased us in this boat," I continued, 
 " what chance should we have to save our lives? The other boat 
 
THE 'WKECK OF THE " GEOSVESTOE. " 369 
 
 is Tiseless, and we should never have have been able to repair 
 her in time to get away from the ship. Then look at the 
 weather! I have predicted a dead calm to-night, and already 
 the wind is gone." 
 
 " Yes, everything's happened for the best," he replied. " I 
 only wish poor Jim's life had been saved. It's a'most like 
 leavin' of him to drown, to go away without buryin' him; and 
 yet 1 know there'd be no use- in puttin' him overboard. 
 There's been a deal o' precious human life wasted since we left 
 the Channel; and who are the murderers? "Why, the owners. 
 It's all come of their sendin' the ship to sea with rotten stores. 
 A few dirty pounds 'ud ha' saved all this. " 
 
 We had never yet had the leisure to inspect the stores with 
 which the mutineers had furnished the quarter-boat, and we 
 now found, in spite of their having shifted a lot of provisions 
 out of her into the long-boat before starting in pursuit of us, 
 that there was stiU an abundance left: four kegs of water, 
 several tins of cuddy bread, preserved meat and fruits, sugar, 
 ilour, and other things, not to mention such items as boxes of 
 lucifer matches, fishing-tackle, a burning-glass, a quantity of 
 tools and nails; in a word, everything wMch men in the con- 
 dition they had hoped to find themselves in might stand in need 
 of to support life. Indeed, the foresight illustrated by the pro- 
 visioning of this boat was truly remarkable, the only things they 
 had omitted being a mast and sail, it having been their inten- 
 tion to keep this boat in tow of the other. I even found that 
 they had furnished the boat with the oars belonging to the dis- 
 abled quarter-boat in addition to her own. 
 
 However, the boat was not yet stocked to my satisfaction. 
 I therefore repaired to my cabin and procured the boat's com- 
 pass, some charts, a sextant, and other necessary articles such 
 as the " Nautical Almanac," and pencils and paper wherewith 
 to work out my observations, which I placed very carefully in 
 the locker in the stern-sheets of the boat. 
 
 I allowed Mary to heljo me, that the occupation might divert 
 her mind from the overwhelming thoughts which the gradual 
 setthng of the ship on which we stood must have excited in tlie 
 strongest and bravest mind; and, indeed^ I worked busily and 
 eagerly to guard myself against any terror that might come 
 upon me. She it was who suggested that we should provide 
 eurselves with lamps and oil; and I shipped a lantern to hoist 
 at our mast-head when the darkness came, and the bull's-eye 
 lamp to enable me to work out observations of the stars, which 
 I intended to make when the night fell. To all these things, 
 which sound numerous, but in reality occupied but little space. 
 
270 The webck of the "geosvekoe/' 
 
 I added a can of oil, meshes for the lamps, top coats, oil-skins, 
 and rugs to protect us at night, so that the afternoon was well 
 advanced before we had ended our preparations. Meanwhile, 
 the boatswain had stepped a topgallant-stun' sail boom to serve 
 us for a mast, well stayed, with a block and halyards at the 
 masthead to serve for hoisting a flag or lantern, and a spare 
 topgallant-stun'sail to act as a sail. 
 
 By tliis time the wind had completely died away; a peaceful 
 deep-blue sky stretched from horizon to horizon; and the agi- 
 tation of the sea had subsided into a long and silent swell, which 
 washed up against the ship's sides, scarcely causing her to roll, 
 so deep had. she sunk in the water. 
 
 I now thought it high time to lower the boat and bring her 
 alongside, as our calculations of the length of time to be occu- 
 pied by the ship in sinking might be falsified to our destruction 
 by her suddenly going stern down with us on board. 
 
 We therefore lowered the boat, and got the gangway-ladder 
 over the side. 
 
 The boatswain got into the boat first to help Mary into her. 
 I then took the steward by the arms and brought him along 
 smartly, as there was danger in keeping the boat washing against 
 the ship's side. He resisted at first, and only smiled vacantly 
 when I threatened to leave him; but on the boatswain cr3dng 
 out that his wife was waiting for him, the poor idiot got him- 
 self together with a scramble, and went so hastily over the gang- 
 way that he narrowly escaped a ducking. 
 
 I paused a moment at the gangway and looked around, striv- 
 ing to remember if there was anything we had forgotten which 
 would be of some use to us. Mary watched me anxiously, and 
 called to me by my Christian name, at the same time extending 
 her arms. I would not keep her in suspense a moment, and 
 at once dropped into the boat. She grasped and fondled my 
 hand, and drew me close beside her. 
 
 " I should have gone on board again had you delayed com- 
 ing," she whispered. 
 
 The boatswain shoved the boat's head ofE, and we each 
 shipped an oar and pulled the boat about a quarter of a mile 
 away from the ship; and then, from a strange and wild curi- 
 osity to behold the ship sink, and still in our hearts clinging to 
 her, not only as the home wherein we had found shelter for 
 many days past, but as the only yisible object in all the 
 stupendous reach of waters, we threw in the oars and sat watch- 
 ing her. 
 
 She had now sunk as deep as her main-chains, and was but 
 a little higher out of the water than the hull from which we 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " QROSVENOE." 271 
 
 nad rescued Mary and her father. It was strange to benold 
 her eyen from a short distance and notice her littleness in com- 
 parison with the immensity of the deep on which she rested, 
 and recall the terrible seas she had braved and triumphed over. 
 
 Few sailors can behold the ship in which they have sailed 
 sinking before their eyes without the same emotion of distress 
 and pity, almost, which the spectacle of a drowning man excites 
 in them. She has grown a famihar name, a familiar object; 
 thus far she has borne them in safety; she has been rudely 
 beaten, and yet has done her duty; but the tempest has broken 
 her down at last; all the beauty is shorn from her; she is weary 
 with the long and dreadful struggles with the vast forces that 
 nature arrayed against her; she sinks, a desolate, abandoned 
 thing, in mid-ocean, carrying with her a thousand memories 
 which surge up in the heart with the pain of a strong man's 
 tears. 
 
 I looked from the ship to realize our own position. Perhaps 
 not yet could it be keenly felt, for the ship was still a visible 
 object for us to hold on by; and yet, turning my eyes away to 
 the far reaches of the horizon, at one moment borne high on 
 the summit of the ocean swell, which appeared mountainous 
 when felt in and viewed from the boat, then sinking deep in 
 the hollow, so that the near ship was hidden from us — the su- 
 preme loneliness of our situation, our helplessness, and the 
 f ragihty and diminutiveness of the structure on which our lives 
 depended, came home to me with the pain and wonder of a 
 shock. 
 
 Our boat, however, was new this voyage, with a good beam, 
 and showing a tolerably bold side, considering her dimensions 
 and freight. Of the two quarter-boats with which the " Grosve- 
 nor" had been furnished, this was the larger and the 
 stronger built, and for this reason had been chosen by Stevens. 
 I could not hope, indeed, that she would live a moment in 
 anything of a sea; but she was certainly stout enough to carry 
 us to the Bermudas, providing the weather remained moder- 
 ate. 
 
 It was now six o'clock. I said to the boatswain: 
 
 " Every hour of this weather -is valuable to us. There is no 
 reason why we should stay here. '^ 
 
 "I should like to see her sink, Mr. Eoyle; I should like to 
 know that poor Jim found a regular coffin in her, " he an- 
 swered. " We can't make no headway with the saU, and I 
 don't recommend rowin' for the two or three mile we can fetch 
 with the oars. It 'ud be wurse nor pumpin'. " 
 
 He was right. When I reflected, I was quite sure I could 
 
373 THE WEECK OF THE "GKOSVENOE." 
 
 not, in my exhausted state, be able to handle one of the big 
 oars for even five miautes at a stretch; and, admitting that I 
 had been strong enough to row for a couple of hours, yet the 
 result to have been obtained could not have been important 
 enough to justify the serious labor. 
 
 The steward all tliis time sat perfectly quiet in the bottom of 
 the boat, with his back against the mast. He paid no atten- 
 tion to us when we spoke, nor looked around him, though 
 sometimes he would fix his eyes vacantly on the sky aa if his 
 shattered mind foimd relief in contemplating the void. I was 
 heartily glad to find him quiet, though I took care to watch 
 him, for it was difl&cult to tell whether his imbecility was not 
 counterfeited, by his madness, to throw us ofE our guard, and 
 furnish him with an opportunity to play us and himself some 
 deadly trick. 
 
 As some hours had elapsed since we had tasted food, I opened 
 atinof nieatand prepared a meal. The boatswaia eat heartily, 
 and so did the steward; but I could not prevail upon Mary to 
 take more than a biscuit and sherry and water. 
 
 Indeed, as the evening approached, our position affected her 
 more deeply, and often, after she had cast her eyes toward the 
 horizon, I would see her Ups whispering a prayer, and feel her 
 hand tightening on mine. 
 
 The ship still floated, but she was so low in the water that I 
 every minute expected to see her vanish. The water was above 
 her main-chains, and I could only attribute her obstinacy in 
 not sinking to the great quantity of wood — both in cases and 
 goods — ^which composed her cargo. 
 
 The sun was now quite close to the horizon, branding the 
 ocean with a purple glare, but itself descending into a cloud- 
 less sky. I can not express how majestic and wonderful the 
 great orb looked to us who were almost level with the yater. 
 Its disk seemed vaster than I had ever before seen it, and there 
 was something sublimely solemn in the loneliness of its de- 
 scent. All the sky about it, and far to the south and north, 
 was changed into the color of gold by its luster; and over our 
 heads the heavens were an exquisite tender green, which melted 
 in the east into a dark blue. ' 
 
 I was telling Mary that ere the sun sunk again we might be 
 on board a ship, and whispering any words of encouragement 
 and hope to her, when I was startled by the boatswain crying, 
 " Now she's gone! Look at her!" 
 
 I turned my eyes toward the ship, and covdd scarcely credit 
 my senses when I found that her huU had vanished, and that 
 
THE WEECK OF THE " GEOSYBKOE. " 373 
 
 nothing was to be seen of her but her spars, which were all 
 aslant sternward. 
 
 I held my breath as I saw the masts sink lower and lower. 
 First the cross-jack yard was submerged, the gaff with the en- 
 sign hanging dead at the peak, then the mainyard; presently 
 only the maintop-mast cross-trees were visible, a'dark cross upon 
 the waterj they vanished. At the same moment the sun dis- 
 appeared . behind the horizon; and now we were alone on the 
 great, breathing deep, with* all the eastern sky growing dark 
 as we watched. 
 
 "It's all over!" said the boatswain, breaking the silence, 
 and speaking iu a hollow tone. " Ifo livin' man'U ever see the 
 ' Grosvenor ' again!" . 
 
 Mary shivered and leaned against me. I took up a rug and 
 folded it roimd her, and kissed her forehead. 
 
 The boatswain had turned his back upon us, and sat with his 
 hands folded, I believe in prayer. I am sure he was thinking 
 of Jim Cornish, and I would not have interrupted that honest 
 heart's communion with its Maker for the value of the ship 
 that had sunk. 
 
 Darkness came down very quickly, and, that we might lose 
 no chance of being seen by any distant vessel, I lighted the 
 ship's lantern and hoisted it at the mast-head. I also lighted 
 the bull's-eye lamp and set it in the stern-sheets. 
 
 "Mary," I whispered, " I will make you up a bed in the 
 bottom of the boat. While this weather lasts, dearest, we 
 have no cause to be alarmed by our position. It will make me 
 happy to see you sleeping, and be sure that while you sleep 
 there wiU be watchful eyes near you." 
 
 " I will sleep as I am here, by your side; I shall rest better 
 so," she answered. " I could not sleep lying down." 
 
 It was too sweet a privilege to forego; I passed my arm 
 around her and held her close to me; and she closed her eyes 
 Mke a child, to please me. 
 
 Worn out as I was, enfeebled both intellectually and phys- 
 ically by the heavy strain that had been put upon me ever since 
 that day when I had been ironed by Captain Coxon's orders, I 
 say — and I solemnly believe in the truth of what I am about to 
 write — that had it not been for the living reality of this girl, 
 encircled by my arm, with her head supported by my shoulder; 
 had it not been for the deep love I felt for her, which localized 
 my thoughts, and, so to say, humanized them down to the level 
 of our situation, forbidding them to trespass beyond the prosaic 
 limits of our danger, of the precautions to be taken by us, of 
 our chances of rescue, of the course to be steered when the 
 
274 THE WRECK OF THE " GROSVEITOK. " 
 
 wind should fill our sail — I should have gone mad when the 
 night came down upon the sea and enveloped our boat (a lonely 
 speck on the gigantic world of water) in the mystery and fear 
 of -the darkaess. I know this by recalling the fancy that for a 
 few moments possessed me in looking along the water, when I 
 clearly beheld the outline of a coast, with innumerable lights 
 winking upon it; by the whirling, dizzy sensation in my head 
 which followed the extinction of the vision; by the emotion of 
 wild horror and unutterable disappointment which overcame 
 me when I detected the cheat. I pressed my darhng to me, 
 and looked upon her sweet face, revealed by the light shed by 
 the lantern at the mast-head, and all my misery left me; and 
 the delight which the knowledge that she was my own love, 
 and that I held her in my arms, gave me, fell like an exorcism 
 upon the demons of my stricken imagination. 
 
 She smiled when I pressed her to my side, and when she saw 
 my face close to hers, looking at her; but she did not know 
 that she had saved me from a fate more dreadful than death, 
 and that I — so strong as I seemed, so earnest as I had shown 
 myself in my conflicts with fate, so resolutely as I had striven 
 to comfort her — ^had been rescued from madness by her whom 
 I had a thousand times pitied for her helplessness. 
 
 She fell asleep at last, and I sat for nearly two hours motion- 
 less, that I should not awaken her. The steward slept with 
 his head in his arms, kneeling — a strange, mad posture. The 
 boatswain sat forward, with his face turned aft and his arms 
 folded. I addressed him once, but he did not answer. Proba- 
 bly I spoke too low for him to hear, being fearful of waking 
 Mary; but there was little we had to say. Doubtless he found 
 his thoughts too engrossing to sufEer him to talk. 
 
 Being anxious to " take a star," as we say at sea, and not 
 knowing how the time went, I gently drew out my watch and 
 found the hour a quarter to eleven. In replacing the watch I 
 aroused Mary, who raised her head and looked round her with 
 eyes that flashed in the lantern hght. 
 
 " Where are we?" she exclaimed, and bent her head to gaze 
 at me, on which she recollected herself. " Poor boy!" she 
 said, taking my hand, " I have kept you supporting my weight. 
 You were more tired than I. But it is your turn now. Eest 
 your head on my shoulder." 
 
 " No, it is still your turn," I answered, " and you shall sleep 
 again presently. But since you are awake, I will try to find 
 out where we are. You shall hold the lamp for me while I 
 make my calculations and examine the chart. " 
 
 Saying which, I di-ew out my sextant and got across the 
 
THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSTEKOB." 275 
 
 thwarts to' the mast, 'which I stood up alongside of to lean on; 
 for the swell, though moderate enough to pass without notice 
 on a big vessel, lifted and sunk the boat iu such a way as to 
 make it difficult to stand steady. 
 
 I was in the act of raising the sextant to my eye, when the 
 boatswain suddenly cried, " Mr. Eoyle, listen!" 
 
 " What do you hear?" I asked. 
 
 " Hush! listen now!" he answered, in a breathless Toice. 
 
 I strained my ear, but nothing was audible to me but the 
 wash of the water against the boat's side. 
 
 " Don't you hear it, Mr. Eoyle?" he cried, iu a kind of 
 agony, holding up his finger. " Miss Eobertson, don't you 
 hear something?" 
 
 There was another interval of silence, and Mary answered: 
 " I hear a kind of throbbing." 
 
 "It is so!" I exclaimed. " I hear it now! it is the engines 
 of a steamer!" 
 
 "A steamer? Yes! I heard it! where is she?" shouted the 
 boatswain, and he Jumped on to the thwart on which I stood. 
 
 We strained our ears again. 
 
 That throbbing sound, as Mary had accurately described it, 
 ' closely resembling the rhythmical running of a locomotive- 
 engine heard in the country on a silent night at a long dis- 
 tance, was now distinctly audible; but so smooth was the water, 
 so breathless the night, that it was impossible to tell how far 
 away the vessel might be; for so fine and dehcate a vehicle of 
 sound is the ocean in a calm, that, though the hull of a steam- 
 ship might be below the horizon, yet the thumping of her en- 
 gines would be heard. 
 
 Once more we inclined our ears, holding our breath as we 
 hstened. 
 
 " It grows louder!" cried the boatswain. " Mr. Eoyle, bend 
 your bull's-eye lamp to the end o' one o' the oars and swing; 
 it about, while I dip this mast-head lantern. " 
 
 Very different was his manner now from what it had been 
 that morning when the Eussian hove in sight. 
 
 I lashed the lamp by the ring of it to an oar and waved it to 
 and fro. MeanwhUe the boatswain had got hold of the mast- 
 head halyards, and was running the big ship's lantern up and 
 down the mast. 
 
 " Mary," I exclaimed, " lift up the seat behind you, and ig 
 the left-hand corner you will find a pistol." 
 
 " I have it," she answered, in a few moments, 
 ^ " Point it over the stern and fire!" I cried, 
 
276 THE WEECK OF THE " GROSVEN'OE." 
 
 She leveled the little weapon and pulled the trigger; the 
 white flame leaped, and a smart report followed. 
 
 " Listen now!" I said. 
 
 I held the oar steady, and the boatswain ceased to dance the 
 lantern. For the first few seconds I heard nothing, then my 
 ear caught the throbbing sound. 
 
 "I see her!" cried the boatswain; and, following his finger 
 (my sight being keener than my hearing), I saw not only the 
 shadow of a vessel down in the south-west, but the smoke from 
 her funnel pouring along the stars. 
 
 " Mary," I cried, " fire again!" 
 
 She drew the trigger. 
 
 "Again!" 
 
 The clear report whizzed like a bullet past my ear. 
 
 Simultaneously with the second report a ball of blue fire shot 
 up into the sky. Another followed, and another. 
 
 A moment after a red light shone clear upon the sea. 
 
 " She sees us!" I cried. " God be praised! Mary, darling, 
 she sees us!" 
 
 I waved the lamp furiously. But there was no need to wave 
 it any longer. The red hght drew nearer and nearer; the 
 throbbing of the engines louder and louder, and the revolutions 
 of the propeller sounded like a ptdse beating through the water. 
 The shadow broadened and loomed larger. I could hear the 
 water spouting out of her side and the blowing ofE of the safety- 
 valve. 
 
 Soon the vessel grew a defined shape against the stars, and 
 then a voice, thinned by the distance, shouted, " What light is 
 that?" 
 
 I cried to the boatswain: "Answer, for God's sake! My 
 voice is weak." 
 
 ^e hollowed his hands and roared back: " We're shipwrecked 
 seamen adrift in a quarter-boat!" 
 
 Nearer and nearer came the shadow, and now it was a long, 
 black hull, a funnel pouring forth a dense volume of smoke, 
 spotted with fire-sparks, and tapering "masts and fragile rig- 
 ging, with the stars running through them. 
 
 .'^Ease her!" 
 
 The sound of the throbbing grew more measured. We could 
 hear the water as it was churned up by the screw. 
 
 " Stop her!" 
 
 The sounds ceased, and the vessel came looming up slowly, 
 more slowly, until she stopped. 
 
 " What is t|iat? — a boat?" exclaimed a strong bass voice. 
 
"A voice sung out, 'How many are there of you?' " — Page 277. 
 
THE WRECK OP THE " GROSVENOE. " 277 
 
 " Yes!" answered the boatsv.'ain. " We've been ship- 
 wrecked; we're adrift. in a quarter-boat." 
 " Can you bring her alongside?" 
 " Ay, ay, sir!" 
 
 I threw out an oar, but trembled so violently that it was 
 as much as I could do to work it. We headed the boat for the 
 steamer and rowed toward her. As we approached, I perceived 
 that she was very long, bark-rigged, and raking, manifestly a 
 powerful, iron-built ocean steamer. They hung a red light on 
 the forestay and a white light over her port quarter, and lights 
 flitted about her gangway. 
 
 A voice sung out: How many are there of you?" 
 
 The boatswaia answered: " Three men and a lady." 
 
 On this the same voice called, " H you want help to bring 
 that boat alongside, we'll send to you." 
 
 " We'll be alongside in a few minutes," returned the boat- 
 swaia. 
 
 But the fact was, the vessel had stopped her engines when 
 further off from us than we had imagined; being deceived by 
 the magnitude of her looming hull, which seemed to stand not 
 a hundred fathoms away from us, and by the wonderful dis- 
 tjactuess of the voice that had spoken us. 
 
 I did not know how feeble I had become until I took the oar; 
 and the violent emotions excited in me by our rescue, now to 
 be effected after our long and heavy trials, diminished stUl the 
 httle strength that was left in me; so that the boat moved very 
 slowly through the water, and it was full twenty minutes, 
 starting from the time when we had shipped oars, before we 
 came up with her. 
 
 " We'll fling you a rope's end," said a voice; " look out for 
 it." . 
 
 A line fell into the boat. The boatswain caught it, and 
 sung out, "AUfast!" 
 
 I looked up the high side of the steamer: there was a crowd 
 of men assembled round the gangway, their faces visible in the 
 light shed not only by our own mast-head lantern (which was 
 on a level with the steamer's bulwarks), but by other lanterns 
 which some of them held. In all this light we, the occupants 
 of the boat, were to be clearly viewed from the deck; and the 
 voice that had first addressed us said: 
 
 " Are you strong enough to get up the ladder? If not, we'll 
 ding you on board." 
 
 I answered that if a couple of hands would come down into 
 the boat so as to help the ladv and a man (who had fallen im- 
 
278 THE WEECK OF THE " GROSVENOR." 
 
 becile) over the slip's side, the other two would manage to got 
 on board without assistance. 
 
 On this a short gangway-ladder was lowered, and two men 
 descended and got into the boat. 
 
 " Take that lady first," I said, pointing to Mary, but hold- 
 ing on, as I spoke, to the boat's mast, for I felt horribly sick 
 and faint, and knew not, indeed, what was going to happen to 
 me; and I had to exert all my power to steady my voice. 
 
 They took her by the arms, and watching the moment when 
 the wash of the swell brought the boat against the ship's side, 
 landed her clcTcrly on the ladder and helped her on to the 
 deck. 
 
 "Boson," I cried, huskily, "she — she is — saved! I am 
 dying, I think. God bless herl and — and — ^your handj 
 mate — " 
 
 I remember uttering these incoherent words, and seeing the 
 boatswain spring forward to catch me. Then my senses left 
 me with a flash. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 I REMAINED, as I was afterward informed, insensible for 
 four days, during which time I told and retold, in my delirium, 
 the story of the mutiny and our own sufferings, so that, as the 
 ship's surgeon assured me, he became very exactly acquainted 
 with all the particulars of the " Grosvenor's" voyage, from 
 the time of her leaving the Enghsh Channel to the moment of 
 our rescue from the boat; though I, from whom he learned the 
 story, was insensible as I related it. My delirium even em- 
 braced so remote an incident as the running down of the 
 smack. 
 
 When I opened my eyes I found myself in a small, very com- 
 fortable cabin, lying in a bunk; and, being alone, I had no 
 knowledge of where I was, nor would my memory give me the 
 slightest assistance. Every object my eye rested upon was 
 unfamiliar, and that I was on hoard a ship was all that I knew 
 for certain. What puzzled me most was the jarring sound 
 caused by the engines. I could not conceive what this meant 
 nor what produced it; and the vessel being perfectly steady, it 
 was not in my power to realize that I was being borne over the 
 water. 
 
 I closed my eyes and lay perfectly still, striving to master 
 the past and inform myself of what had become of me; but so 
 hopelessly muddled was my brain that had some unseen person, 
 by way of a joke, told me in a supulchral voice that I was dead. 
 
t^E WRECK OF THE " GHOSVEN'OE. " 27S 
 
 and apprehending the things about me only by meaas of my 
 spirit, which had not yel had time to get out of my body, I 
 should have beheved him; though I don't say that I should 
 not have been puzzled to reconcile my very keen appetite and 
 thirst with my non-existent condition. 
 
 In a few minutes the door of the cabin was opened, and a 
 jolly red-faced man, wearing a Scotch cap, looked in. Seeing 
 me with my eyes open, he came forward and exclaimed, in a 
 cheerful voice: 
 
 "All ahve 0! Staring about you full of wonderment! 
 Nothing so good as curiosity in a sick man. Shows that the 
 blood is flowing." 
 
 He felt my pulse, and asked me if I knew who he was. 
 
 I replied that I had never seen him before. 
 
 " WeU, that's not my fault," said he; " for I've been look- 
 ing at you a pretty tidy while, on and off, since we hoisted you 
 eut of the brine. 
 
 " ' Guid speed an' furder to you, Johnny; 
 
 Guid health, hale han's an' weather bonnie; 
 May ye ne'er want a stoup o' hrany. 
 
 To clear your headl' 
 Hungry?" 
 
 "Very," said I. 
 
 " Thirsty?" 
 
 " Yes. " 
 
 " How do you feel in yourseH?'' 
 
 " I have been trying to find out. I don't know. I forget 
 who I am. " 
 
 " Eaise your arm and try your muscles. " 
 
 " I can raise my arm," I said, doing so. 
 
 " How's your memory?" 
 
 " If you'll give me a hint or two, I'll see." 
 
 He looked at me very earnestly and with much kindness in 
 the expression of his jovial face, and debated some matter in 
 his own mind. 
 
 " I'll send you in some beef-tea," he said, " by a person 
 who'U be able to do you more good than I can. But don't ex- 
 cite yourself. Converse calmly, and don't talk too much." 
 
 So saying, he went away. 
 
 I lay quite still, and my memory remained as helpless a;i 
 though I had just been born. 
 
 After an interval of about ten minutes the door was again 
 opened, and Mary came in. She closed the door and ap- 
 proached me, holding a cup of beef -tea in her hand; but, how- 
 ever she had schooled herself to behavOj her resolution forsook 
 
280 TSS WtlECK OF THE " GEOSTENOJl. " 
 
 her; she put the cup down, threw her arms round my neck, 
 and sobbed with her cheek against mine. 
 
 With my recognition of her, my memory returned to me. 
 
 " My darling," I cried, in a weak voice, " is it you indeed? 
 Oh, God is very merciful to have spared us! I remembered 
 nothing just now; but all has come back to me with your dear 
 face." 
 
 She was too overcome to speak for some moments; hut, 
 raising herself presently, she said, in broken tones: 
 
 " I thought I should never see you again, never be able to 
 speak to you more. But I am wicked to give way to my feel- 
 ings, when I have been told that any excitement must be dan- 
 gerous to my darling. Drink this, now — no, I will hold the 
 cup to your lips. Strength has been given me to bear the 
 sufferings we have gone through, that I may nurse you and 
 bring you back to health. " 
 
 I would not let go her hand; but when I attempted to prop 
 myself up, I found my elbow would not sustain me; so I lay 
 back and drank from the cup which she held to my mouth. 
 
 "How long is it," I asked her, " siace we were tken on 
 board this vessel?" 
 
 " Four days. Do you know that you fell down insensible in 
 the boat the moment after I had been carried on to the deck 
 of this ship? The men crowded around me and held their lan- 
 terns to my face, and I found that most of them were Scotch 
 by their exclamations. A woman took me by the hand to lead 
 me away, but I refused to move one step untU I saw that you 
 were on board. She told me that you had fainted in the boat- 
 swain's arms, and others cried out that you were dead. I saw 
 them bring you up out of the boat, and told the woman that I 
 must go with you and see where they put you, and asked if 
 there was a doctor on board. She said yes, and that he was 
 that man in the Scotch cap and great-coat, who was helping 
 the others to take you down-stairs. I took your poor senseless 
 hands and cried bitterly over them, and told the doctor I would 
 go on my knees to him if he would save your hfe. But he was 
 very kind — ^very kind and gentle. " 
 
 " And you, Mary? I see you keep up your wonderful cour- 
 age to the last. " 
 
 " I fainted when the doctor took me. away from you," she 
 answered, with one of her sweet, wistful smiles. " I slept far 
 into the next day, and I rose well yesterday morning, and have 
 been by your side nearly ever since. - It is rather hard upon me 
 that your consciousness should have returned when I had left 
 the cabin for a few minutes. " 
 
tSB WtlECK 0* THE " GfeOSVEKOK." 281 
 
 1 made her turn her face to the Hght that I might see her 
 clearly, and found that though her mental and physical sufEer- 
 ings had left traces on her calm and beautiful face, yet, on 
 the whole, she looked fairly well in health; her eyes bright, her 
 complexion clear, and her lips red, with a firm expression on 
 them. I also took notice that she was well dressed in a black 
 silk, though probably I was not good critic enough just then 
 in such matters to observe that it fitted her ill, and did no 
 manner of justice to her lovely shape. 
 
 She caught me looking at the dress, and told me, with a 
 smile, that it had been lent to her by a lady passenger. 
 
 " Why do you stand?" I said. 
 
 " The doctor only allowed me to see you on condition that I 
 did not stay above five minutes. " 
 
 " That is nonsense! I can not let you go, now you are here. 
 Your dear face gives me back all the strength I have lost. 
 How came I to fall down insensible? I am ashamed of myself! 
 I, as a saUor, supposed to be inured to all kinds of privation, 
 to be cut adrift from my senses by a shipwrecki Mary, you 
 are fitter to be a sailor than I. After this, let me buy a needle 
 and thread, and advertise for needle-work. " 
 
 " You are talfa'ng too much. I shall leave you." 
 
 " You can not, whUe I hold your hand. " 
 
 " Am I not stronger than you are?" 
 
 " In all things stronger, Mary. You have been my guardian 
 angel. You interceded for my life with God, and He heard you 
 when He would not have heard me. " 
 
 She placed her hand on my mouth. 
 
 " You are talking too much, I say. You reproach yourself 
 for your weakness, but try to remember what you have gone 
 through; how you had to balSe the mutineers, to take charge 
 of the ship, to save our lives from their terrible designs. Ee- 
 member, too, that for days together you scarcely closed your 
 eyes in sleep — ^that you did the work of a whole crew during 
 the storm. Dearest, what you have gone through would have 
 broken many a man's heart or driven him mad. It has left 
 you your own true self for me to love and cherish while God 
 shall spare us to each other. " 
 
 She kissed me on the mouth, drew her hand from mine, and 
 with a smile full of tender affection left the caT5in. 
 
 I was vexed to lose her even for a short time; and still chose 
 to thiak myself a poor creature for falling ill and keeping to 
 my bed, when I might be with her about the ship, and telling 
 the people on board the story of her misfortunes and beautifiS 
 courage. 
 
282 tHE WR-ECk Ot ISE "GEOSVENOE." 
 
 It was a mistake of the doctor's to suppose that Tier conyeis 
 sation could hurt me. 
 
 I had no idea of the time and stared hard at the bull s-eye 
 over my head, hoping to discover by the complexion of the 
 light that it was early in the day, so that I might again see 
 Mary before the night came. I was even rash enough to im- 
 agine that I had the strength to rise, and made an effort to get 
 out of the bunk, which gave me just the best illustration I 
 could wish that I was as weak as a baby. So I tumbled back 
 with a groan of disappointment, and, after staring fixedly at 
 the bull's-eye, I fell asleep. 
 
 This sleep lasted some hours. I awoke, not as I had first 
 awakened from insensibility, with tremors and bewilderment, 
 but easily, with a delicious sense of warmth and rest and re- 
 newing vigor in my hmbs. 
 
 I opened my eyes upon three person standing near the bunk; 
 one was Mary, the obher the doctor, and the third a tlun, 
 elderly, surbumed man, in a white waistcoat with gold buttons 
 and a blue cloth loose coat. 
 
 The doctor felt my pulse, and letting fall my hand, said to 
 Mary: 
 
 "Now, Miss Eobertson, Mr. Eoyle will do. If you wUl 
 kindly tell the steward to give you another basin of broth, you 
 wUl find our patient able to make a meal. " 
 
 She kissed her hand to me behind the backs of the others, 
 and went out with a beaming smile. 
 
 " This is Captain Craik, Mr. Eoyle," continued the doctor, 
 motioning to the gentleman in the white waistcoat, " com- 
 manding this vessel, the ' Peri '- " 
 
 I at once thanked him earnestly for his humanity, and the 
 kindness he was showing me. 
 
 " Indeed," he repUed, " I am very pleased with my good 
 fortune in rescuing so brave a pair of men as yourself and your 
 boatswain, and happy to have been the instrument of saving 
 the charming girl to whom you are betrothed from the horror 
 of exposure in an open boat. I have had the whole of your 
 story from Miss Eobertson, and I can only say that you have 
 acted very heroically and honorably." 
 
 I replied that I was very grateful to him for his kind words; 
 but I assured him that I only deserved a portion of his praise. 
 The man who truly merited admiration was the boatswain. 
 
 " You shall divide the honors," he said, smiling. " The 
 boson is already a hero. My crew seem disposed to worship 
 him. If you have nothing better for him in your mind, you 
 
IBE WfeSCK OP THE " GEOSVEKOE." ^SS 
 
 may hand him over to me. I know the yalue of such men 
 nowadays^ when so much is left to the crimp. " 
 
 Saying this, he went to the door and called; and immediate- 
 ly my old companion, the boatswain, came in. I held out my 
 hand, and it was clutched by the honest fellow and held with 
 passionate cordiality. 
 
 " Mr. Eoyle, sir," he exclaimed, ia a faltering voice, " this 
 is a happy moment for me. There was a time when I never 
 thought I should ha' seen you alive again; and it went to my 
 heart, and made me blubber like any old woman when I 
 thought o' your dyin* arter all the trouble you've seen, and 
 just when, t£ I may be so bold as to say it, you might be 
 hopin' to marry the brave, high-spirited gell as you saved 
 from drownia', and who belongs to you by the will o' God 
 Almighty. Captain Craik, sir — I speak by your favor, and ax 
 pardon for the liberty — this gen'man and me has seen some 
 queer starts together since we fust shipped aboard the ' Grosve- 
 nor' in the west Hiudie Docks, and," he cried, with ve- 
 hemence, " I'd sooner ha' lost the use o' my right arm an' leg 
 — yes, an' you may chuck my right eye in along with them — 
 than Mr. Eoyle should ha' died just as he was goin' to live 
 properly and set down on the bench o' matrimony an' happi- 
 ness with a bold and happy wife!" 
 
 This eloquent harangue he delivered with a moist eye, ad- 
 dressing us all three in turn. I thanked him heartily for what 
 he had said, but limited my reply to this; for though I could 
 have complimented him more warmly than he had praised me, 
 I considered that it would be more becoming to hold over all 
 mutual admiration and you-and-me glorification until we 
 should be alone. 
 
 I observed that he wore a velvet waistcoat, and carried a 
 shiny cloth cap with a brilhant peak, very richly garnished 
 with braid; and as such articles of raiment could only emanate 
 from the forecastle, I concluded that they were gifts from the 
 crew, and that Captain Craik had reason in thinking that the 
 boatswain had become a hero. 
 
 The doctor shortly after this motioned him to go, whereupon 
 he gave a ship-shape salute by tweaking an imaginary curl on 
 his forehead, and went away. 
 
 I now asked what had become of the steward. Captain 
 Craik answered that the man was all right so far as his health 
 went; that he wandered about the decks very harmlessly, smil- 
 ing ia the faces of the men, and seldom speaking. 
 
 " One peculiarity of the poor creature, said he, " is that he 
 will not taste any Mnd of food but what is served out to the 
 
384 THE WM:CK OF THE "GROSVEKOE." 
 
 crew. I have myself tried him with dishes from the saloon 
 table, but could not induce him to touch a mouthful. The 
 first time I tried him in this way he fell from me as though I 
 had offered to cut his throat, the perspiration poured from his 
 forehead, and he eyed me with looks of the utmost horror and 
 ayersion. Can you account for this?" 
 
 "Yes, sir," I rephed. "The steward was in the habit of 
 serving out the ship's stores to the crew of the ' Grosvenor. ' 
 He rather sided with the captain, and tried to make the best 
 of what was outrageously bad. When the men mutinied they 
 threatened to hang him if he touched any portion of the cuddy 
 stores, and I dare say they would have executed their threat. 
 He was rather a coward before he lost his reason, and the 
 threat affected him violently. I myself never could induce 
 him to taste any other food than the ship's rotten stores while 
 the men remained in the vessel, and I dare say the memory of 
 the threat still hves in his broken mind. " 
 
 " Thanks for your explanation," said the doctor, " I shall 
 sleep the better for it; for, upon my word, the man's unnat- 
 ural disKke of good food — of entrees, man, and curried fowl 
 and roast goose, for I tried him myself — ^has kept me awake 
 bothering my head to understand." 
 
 " May I ask what vessel this is?" I said, addressing Captain 
 Oraik. 
 
 " The ' Peri ' of Glasgow, homeward bound from Jamaica^" 
 he answered. 
 
 " I know the ship now, sir. She belongs to the Liae. " 
 
 " Quite right. We shall hope to put you ashore in seven 
 days hence. It is curious that I should have known Mr. Eob- 
 ertson, your lady's father. I called upon him a few years 
 siace ia Liverpool, on business, and had a long conversation 
 with him. Little could I have dreamed that his end would be 
 so sad, and that it should be reserved for me to rescue his 
 daughter from an open boat in mid-Atlantic!" 
 
 " Ah, sir," I exclaimed, " no one but I can ever know the 
 terrible trials this poor girl has passed through. She has been 
 twice shipwrecked withm three weeks; she has experienced all 
 the horrors of a mutiny; she has lost her father under circum- 
 stances which would have killed many girls with grief; she has 
 been held in terror of her life, and yet never once has her 
 noble courage flagged, her splendid spirit failed her. " 
 
 "Yes," answered Captain Craik, " I have read her charac- 
 ter in her story and in her way of relating it. You are to be 
 congratulated on having won the lova of a woman whose re- 
 spect aloDe would do a man honor. " 
 
THE ■weeCk of the " geosvekoe. " S85 
 
 " He deserves what he has got," said the doctor, laughing. 
 " Findings keepings.'' 
 
 " I did find her, and I mean to keep her," I exclaimed. 
 
 "Well, you have picked up a fortune," observed Captain 
 Oraik. " It is not every man who finds a shipwreck a good 
 investment. ' ' 
 
 " I know nothing about her fortune," I answered. " She 
 did indeed tell me that her father was a ship-owner; but I 
 have asked no questions and only know her as Mary Eobert- 
 son, a sweet, brave girl, whom I love, and please God, mean 
 to marry, though she possessed nothing more in the world than 
 the clothes I found her in. " 
 
 " Come, come!" said the doctor. 
 
 "You're not a sailor, doctor, " remarked Captain Craik, 
 dryly. 
 
 " But, my dear sir, you'll not tell me that a gold pound's 
 not better than a silver sixpence?" cried the doctor. " Did 
 you never sing this song: 
 
 " Awa wi' your witclicraft o' beauty's alarms. 
 The slender bit beauty you grasp la your arms; 
 Oh, gie me the lass that has acres o' charms, 
 Oh, gie me the lass wi' the well-stocldt farms. 
 Then hey for a lass wi' a tocher! then hey for a lass 
 
 wi' a tocher! 
 Then hey for a lass wi' a tocher! the nice yellow guineas 
 
 for me." 
 
 Is not an heiress better than a poor wench?" 
 
 " I don't see how your simile of the pound and the sixpence 
 applies," answered Captain Craik. " A good woman is a good 
 woman all the world over, and a gift that every honest man wUl 
 thank God for." 
 
 " Mark yonder pomp of costly fashion 
 Round the wealthy titled bride; 
 But when compared with real passion, 
 Poor is all that princely pride." 
 
 That's one of Eobbie's, too, doctor, and I commend your atten- 
 tion to the whole song as a wholesome purge." 
 
 As the conversation was rather too personal to be much to 
 my liking, I was very glad when it was put an end to by Mary 
 coming in with a basin of soup for me. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXI. 
 
 Thanks to my darUng's devotion, to her unwearied atten- 
 tions, to her foresight and care of me, I was strong enough tg 
 
286 THE WRECK OF THE " GEOSVENOE. 
 
 leare my cabin on the third day following my restoration iw 
 consciousness. 
 
 During that time many inquiries were made after my health 
 by the passengers, and Mary told me that the greatest curios- 
 ity prevailed fore and aft to see me. So misfortune had made 
 a little ephemeral hero of me, and this, perhaps, was one 
 stroke of compensation which I should have been very willing 
 to dispense with. 
 
 The second officer of the ship, a man of about my height 
 and build, had very kindly placed his wardrobe at my disposal, 
 but all that I had chosen to borrow from him was some linen, 
 which, indeed, I stood greatly in need of; but my clothes, 
 though rather the worse for salt water, were, in my opinion, 
 quite good enough for me to wear until I should be able to buy 
 a new outfit ashore. 
 
 At twelve o^ clock, then, on the third day, I rose and leisurely 
 dressed myself, and then sat waiting for Mary, whose arm to 
 lean on I preferred to any one's else. 
 
 She came to the cabin presently, and when she had entered 
 I folded her in my arms with so deep a feeling of happiness 
 and love and gratitude in me that I had no words to speak to 
 her. 
 
 It was when I released her that she said: "Since God has 
 heard our prayers, dearest, and mercifully preserved us from 
 death, shall we thank Him, now that we are together, and say 
 one prayer for my dear father, who, I firmly believe, looks 
 down upon us and has still the power to bless us?" 
 
 I took her hand, and we knelt together, and, first thank- 
 ing her for reminding me of my bounden duty, I lifted up my 
 heart to Almighty God, Father of all men, who had guarded 
 us amid our perils, who had brought us to the knowledge and 
 love of Him and of each other by the lesson of hard trials and 
 sorrowful privation. 
 
 And I would ask you to believe that I do not relate such 
 circumstances as these from any ostentatious wish to parade 
 my piety, of which, God knows, I have not so large a store that 
 I need be vain of showing it; but that I may in some poor 
 fashion justify many good men in my own profession who, be- 
 cause they are scandalized by persons among us that are bad, 
 are confounded with these by people ashore, who imagine the 
 typical sailor to be a loose, debauched fellow, with his mouth 
 full of ba,d language and his head full of drink. I say earnestly 
 that this is not so; that a large and generous soul animates many 
 sailors; that they love God, pray to Him, and in many ways — 
 too rough, may be, to commend them to fastidious piety, hv^ 
 
THE WEEOK OP THE " GROSVENOR. " - 287 
 
 not surely the less honest for the roughness — strive to act up to 
 a just standard of goodness; and that even among the had — Bad, 
 I mean, through the looseness of their morals and the insanity 
 of their language — there is often found a hidden, instinctive re- 
 hgion and veneration and fear of God not to be discovered in the 
 classes ashore to which you may parallel them. Nor, indeed, do I 
 understand how this can fail to be; for no familiarity with the 
 mighty deep can lessen its ever-appeahng grandeur to them as 
 a symbol of heavenly power and majesty; and the frequent 
 fear of their lives in which sailors go — ^the fury of tempests, 
 the darkness of stormy nights, the fragility of the ship in com- 
 parison with the mountainous waves which menace her, the 
 horror of near and iron coasts — I say that such things, which 
 are daily presented to them, must inevitably excite and sustain 
 contemplations which very few events that happen on shore 
 are calculated to arouse in the minds of the ignorant classes 
 with whom such sailors as I am speaking of are on a level. 
 
 When I quitted the cabia, supported by Mary, I found my- 
 self in a very spacious saloon, most handsomely furnished and 
 decorated, and striking me more by the contrast it offered to 
 the plain and small interior of the " Grosvenor's " cabin. 
 
 The table was being prepared for lunch: smartly dressed 
 steward and xmder-stewards trotted to and fro; there were 
 flowers on the table, vases of gold-fish swinging from the deck, 
 a rich thick carpet underfoot, comfortable and handsome sofas; 
 a piano-forte stood against the mizzen-mast, which was covered 
 with a mahogany skin and gilded; two rows of lamps went the 
 length of the saloon; and what with the paintings on the cabin 
 doors, the curtains, the rich brass-work about the spacious sky- 
 lights, the bright sunshine streaming in upon the whole scene 
 ^nd kindling a brilliance in the pohshed wood-work, the crys- 
 tal on the table, the looking-glasses at the fore end of the 
 saloon — I fairly paused with amazement, scarcely conceiving 
 it possible that this airy, sunshiny, suniptuous drawing-room 
 was actually the interior of a ship, and that we were on the sea, 
 steaming at the rate of so many miles an hour toward England. 
 
 There were a couple of well-dressed women sewing or doing 
 some kind of needle-work and conversing on one of the sofas, 
 and on another sofa a gentleman sat reading. These, with 
 the stewards, were all the people in the saloon. 
 
 The gentleman and the ladies looked at us when we ap- 
 proached, and all three of them rose. 
 
 The ladies came and shook hands with Mary, who intro- 
 duced me to them; but I forget their names. 
 
 They began to praise me; the gentleman struck in sud ^e^ 
 
J888 - THE WKECK OF THE " GROSVENOE. " 
 
 permission to shake me by the hand. They had heard my 
 story— it was a beautiful romance: in short, they overpowered 
 me with civilities, and made me so nervous that I had scarcely 
 the heart to go on deck. 
 
 Of course it was all very kindly meant; but, then, what 
 were my exploits? Nothing to make money out of, nothing 
 to justify my appearance on the boards of a London theater, 
 nothing to furnish a column of wild writing to a newspaper, 
 nothing to merit even the honor of ^ flattering request from a 
 photographic company. I very exactly knew what I had done, 
 and was keenly alive to the absurdity of any heroizing process. 
 
 However, I had sense enough to guess that what blushing 
 honors were thrust upon me would be short lived. Who does 
 not thank God some time or other in his life that there is such 
 a thing as oblivion? 
 
 So we went on deck, I overhearing one of the ladies talk 
 some nonsense about her never having read or heard of anything 
 more delicately romantic and exciting than the young sailor 
 rescuing a pretby girl from a wreck and falling ia love with her. 
 
 " Did you hear that, Mary?" I whispered. 
 
 " Yes," she answered. 
 
 " Was it romantic?" 
 
 "I think so." 
 
 " And exciting?" 
 
 "Dreadfully." 
 
 " And did they live happily ever afterward?" 
 
 "We shall see." 
 
 " Darling, it is romantic and it is exciting, to us, and to no 
 one else. Yes, very romantic, now that I come to think of it; 
 but all has come about so gradually that I have never thought 
 of the romance that runs through our story. What time did 
 we have to think? Mutineers out of Wapping are no polite gar- 
 nishers of a love story; and romance must be pretty stoutly 
 bolt-roped not to be blown into smithereens by a hurricane." 
 
 There were a number of passengers on deck— ^men, women 
 and children; and when I ran my eye along the ship (the 
 " Grosvenor " would have made a neat long-boat for her) and 
 observed her dimensions, I thought that a city might have gone 
 to sea in her without any inconvenience arising from over- 
 crowding. In a word, she was a magnificent Olyde-built iron 
 boat of some four thousand tons burden, and propelled by 
 eight hundred horse-power engines; her decks white as a 
 yacht's, a shining awning forward and aft; a short, yellow 
 tunnel, towering mast and broad yards, and embodying every 
 conceivable latest improvement in compasses, capstans, boat- 
 
THE WKECK OF THE " GEOSTEKOE." 28ft 
 
 lowering gear, blocks, gauges, logs, windlass, and the rest of 
 it. She was steaming over a smooth sea and under a glorious 
 hlue sky at the rate of thirteen knots or nearly fifteen miles an 
 hour. Cool draughts of air circled under the awning, and 
 fanned my hollow cheeks, and invigorated and refreshed me 
 like cordials. 
 
 The captain was on deck when we arrived, and the moment 
 he saw me he came forward and shook my hand, offering me 
 many kiudly congratulations on my recovery; and with his own 
 hands placed chairs for me and Mary near the mizzen-mast. 
 Then the chief officer approached, and most, indeed I think 
 all, of the passengers; and I beheve that, had I been as cynical 
 as old Diogenes, I should have been melted into a hearty faith 
 in human nature by the sympathy shown me by these kind 
 people. 
 
 They illustrated their goodness best, perhaps, by withdraw- 
 ing after a geuerous salutation, and resuming their various 
 employments or discussions, so as to put me at my ease. The 
 doctor and the chief officer stayed a httle while talking to us; 
 and then presently the tiffin-bell rang, and all the passengers 
 went below, the captain having previously suggested that I 
 should remain on deck, so as to get the benefit of the air, and 
 that he would send a steward to wait upon me. Mary would 
 not leave my side; and the officer in charge taking his station 
 on the bridge before the funnel, we, to my great satisfaction, 
 had the deck almost to ourselves. 
 
 "You predicted, Mary,'^ I said, "that our lives would be 
 spared. Your dream has come true. ■" 
 
 " Yes; I knew my father would not deceive me. Would to 
 God he had been spared!" 
 
 " Yet God has been very good to us, Mary. What a change 
 is this from the deck of the ' Grosvenor ' — the seas beating 
 over us, the ship laboring as though at any moment she must 
 go to pieces — ourselves fagged to death, and each of us in our 
 hearts for hours and hours beholding death face to face! I feel 
 as though I had no right to be alive after so much hard work. 
 It is a violation of natural laws, and an impertinent triumph- 
 ing of vitahty over the whole forces of nature. " 
 
 " But you are alive, dear, and that is all I care about. " 
 
 I pressed her hand, and after looking round me, asked her 
 if she knew whether this vessel went direct to Glasgow. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Have you any friends there?" 
 
 " None. But I have friends here. The captain has aske(3 
 me to stay with his wife until I hear from home," 
 
 10 
 
?90 THE WEECK OF THE "6B0SVEK0E." 
 
 " To wliom shall you write?" 
 
 "To my aunt in Leamington. She mil come to Glasgow 
 and take me home. And you — " 
 
 "I?" 
 
 I looked at her and smiled. 
 
 " I? Why, your question puts a matter into my head that 
 I must think oyer. " 
 
 " You are not strong enough to think If you begin to 
 think, I shall grow angry. " 
 
 " But I must think, Mary." 
 
 " Why?" 
 
 " I must think how I am to get to London, and what I am 
 to do when I get there. " 
 
 " When we were on the ' Grosvenor,' " she said, " you did 
 all the thinking for me, didn't you? And now that we are on 
 the ' Peri,' I mean to do all the thinking for you. But I need 
 not say that I have thought my thoughts out. I have done 
 with them. " 
 
 " Look here, Mary, I am going to be candid — " 
 
 " Here comes one of the stewards to interrupt you. " 
 
 A very civil fellow came with a tray, which he placed on the 
 sky-light, and stood by to wait on us. I told him he need not 
 stay, and, addressing Mary, I exclaimed: 
 
 " This recalls our farewell feast on the ' Grosvenor.' " 
 
 " Yes; and there is the boatswain watching us, as if he 
 would like to come to us again and congratulate us on having 
 found each other out. Do catch his eye, dear, and wave your 
 hand. He dare not come here. " 
 
 I waved my hand to him, and he flourished his cap in re- 
 turn, and so did three or four men who were around him, 
 
 " I am going — " I began. 
 
 " You will eat your lunch first," she interrupted. 
 
 " But why wiU you not Hsten?" 
 
 " Because I have made my arrangements." 
 
 " But I wish to speak of myself, dear." 
 
 " I am speaking of you — my arrangements concern you — 
 and me, " 
 
 I looked at her uneasily, for somehow the sense of my own 
 poverty came home to me very sharply, and I had a strong dis- 
 .inclination to hear what my foolish pride might smart under 
 as a mortification. 
 
 She read my thoughts "in my eyes; and, blushing, yet letting 
 me see her sweet face, she said in a low voice: " I mought we 
 were to be married?" 
 
THE WEEOK OF THE " 6E0SVBN0E. " 291 
 
 (< ' 
 
 ' I holpe sa It is my dearest wish^, Mary. I have told you 
 I love you. It would break up my life to lose you now. " 
 
 " You shall not lose me — but neither will I lose you. I 
 shall never release you more. " 
 
 " Mary, do let me speak my thoughts out. I am very poor. 
 The little that \ had has gone down in the ' Grosvenor. ' I 
 could not marry you as I am. I could only offer you the hand of 
 a pauper. Let me tell you my plans. I shall write, on reach- 
 ing Glasgow, to the owners of the ' Grosvenor, ' relate the loss 
 of the ship, and ask for payment of the wages that are due to 
 me. With this money I will travel to London and go to work 
 at once to obtain a berth on another ship. Perhaps, when the 
 owners of the ' Grosvenor ' hear my story, they wUl give me a 
 post on board one of their other vessels. At all events, I must 
 hope for the best. I wUl work very hard — " 
 
 No, no! I can not hsten!" she exclaimed, impetuously. 
 " You are going to tell me that you will work very hard to be- 
 come captain and save a Httle money; and you wUl then say 
 that several years must pass before your pride wiU suffer you 
 to think yourself in a proper position to make me your wife. " 
 
 " Yes, I was going to say that." 
 
 " Oh, where is your clever head which enabled you to tri- 
 umph over the mutineers? Has the shipwreck served you as 
 it has the poor steward?" 
 
 " My darling — " 
 
 " Were you to work twenty years, what money could you 
 save out of this poor profession of the sea that would justify 
 your pride — ^your cruel pride?" 
 
 I was about to speak. 
 
 " What money could you save that would be of service when 
 you know that I am rich, when you know that what is mine is 
 yours. ?" 
 
 " Not much," said I. 
 
 " Would you have loved me the less had you known me to 
 be poor? Would you not have risked your life to save mine 
 though I had been a beggar? You loved me because — ^because 
 I am Mary Eobertson; and I love you because you are Edward 
 Eoyle — dear to me for your own dear sake, for my poor dead 
 father's sake, because of my love for you. Would you go away 
 and leave me because you are too proud to make us both 
 happy? I will give you all I have — I will be a beggar and you 
 shall be rich, that you need not leave me. Oh, do not speak 
 of l?eiag poor! Who is poor that acts as you have done? Who 
 is poor that can enrich a girl's heart as you have enriched 
 mine?" 
 
293 THE WRECK OF THE " GKOSVENOE." 
 
 She had raised her voice unconsciously, and overhearing her- 
 self, as it were, she stopped, on a sudden, and bowed her head 
 with a sob. 
 
 " Mary," I whispered, " I will put my pride away. Let no 
 man judge me wrongly. I talk idly — God knows how idly — 
 when I speak of leaving you. Yes, I could leave you — ^but at 
 what cost? at what cost to us both? What you have said — 
 that I loved you as Mary Kobertson — is true. I know in my 
 own heart that my love can not dishonor us — that it can not 
 gain nor lose by what the future may hold in store for me with 
 you, dear one, as my wife." 
 
 " Now you are my own true sailor boy!" was all she said. 
 
 I began this story on the sea, and I desire to end it on the 
 sea; and though another yarn, which should embrace my ar- 
 rival at Glasgow, my introduction to Mary's aunt, my visit to 
 Leamington, my marriage, and divers other circumstances of 
 an equally personal nature, could easily be spun to follow this, 
 yet the title of this story must limit the compass of it, and 
 with the " Wreck of the Grosvenor " my tale should have had 
 an end. 
 
 And yet I should be doing but poor justice to the faithful 
 and beautiful nature of my dear wife, if I did not tell you that 
 the plans which she had unfolded to me, and which I have 
 made to appear as though they only concerned myself, includ- 
 ed the boatswain and the poor steward. For both a provision 
 was contemplated which I knew her too well to doubt that she 
 would forget : a provision that, on the one hand, would bring 
 the boatswain alongside of us even in our own home, and make 
 him independent of his calhng, which, to say the least, con- 
 sidering the many years he had been at sea, had served him 
 but ill, and still offered him but a scurvy lookout; while, on 
 the other hand, it would enable the steward to support himself 
 and his wife and child, without in the smallest degree taxing 
 those unfortunate brains which we could only hope the ship- 
 wreck had not irreparably damaged. 
 
 Thus much, and this bit of a yarn is spun. 
 
 And now I ask myself, is it worth the telling? Well, however 
 it goes as a piece of work, it may teach a lesson — that good 
 sailors may be made bad and bad sailors may be made out- 
 rageous, and harmless men may be converted into criminals, 
 by the meanness of ship-owners. Every man knows, thanks 
 to one earnest, eloquent, and indefatigable voice that has been 
 raised among us, what this country thinks of the rascals who 
 send rotten ships to sea. And it is worth while to acquaint 
 people with' another kind of rottenness that is likewise sent to 
 
The weeck of o-kE "gkosvenoe.-" 293 
 
 tea,, which, in its way, is as bad as rotten timbers— a rotten- 
 ness which is even less excusable, inasmuch as it costs but a 
 trifling sum of money to remedy, than rotten hulls: I mean 
 rotten food. 
 
 Sailors have not many champions; beeause I think their 
 troubles and wrongs are not understood. You must live and 
 sufEer their lives to know their hves. Go aloft with them, man 
 the pumps with them, eat their biscuit and their pork, and 
 driuk then- water with them; lodge with crimps along with 
 them; be of their nature, and experience their shore-going 
 temptations, the harpies in trousers and petticoats who prey 
 upon them, who drug them and strip them. 
 
 And however deficient a man may be ia those quahfications 
 of mind which go to the making of popular novels, I hope no 
 person wiU charge such a writer with impertinence for draw- 
 ing a qmll on behalf of a race of men to whom Britaia owes 
 the greatest part of her wealth and prosperity; who brave 
 death; who combat the elements; who lead in numerous instances 
 the lives of mongrel dogs; who submit, with a few murmurs 
 that scarcely ever reach the shore-going ear, to privations which 
 blanche the cheeks to read, that our tables and our homes 
 may be abundantly f urished, our bankirig balances large, and 
 our national importance supreme. 
 
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