LI B RAFLY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 U N IVLRSITY 
 
 Of ILLINOIS 
 
 82S
 
 199/ 
 
 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 NEW HOVELS AT ALL LIBRARIES. 
 
 A FELLOW OF TRINITY. By AlAxN St. Aubyn 
 
 and Walt Wheeler. 3 vols. 
 
 THE WORD AND THE WILL. By James Payn. 
 
 3 vols. 
 
 AUNT ABIGAIL DYKES. By George Randolph. 
 
 1 vol. 
 
 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. By Bret 
 
 Harte. 1 vol. 
 
 RUFFINO. ByOuiDA. 1 vol. 
 
 London : CHATTO & WIND US, Piccadilly, W.
 
 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 £0e (gomance of a TErecft 
 
 BY 
 
 W. CLARK RUSSELL 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES 
 VOL I. 
 
 bonbon 
 CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY 
 
 1890
 
 PRINTED BY 
 
 SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE 
 
 LONDON
 
 
 
 - 
 
 ?J3 
 
 v. i 
 
 TO 
 
 LEOPOLD HUDSON, ESQ. 
 
 Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Enjlaud 
 Warden of Middlesex Hospital College 
 
 IN GRATITUDE
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/myshipmatelouise01russ
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 OF 
 THE FIRST VOLUME 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. DOWN CHANNEL 1 
 
 II. THE FRENCH LUGGER 20 
 
 III. MY FELLOW PASSENGERS 43 
 
 IV. LOUISE TEMPLE 00 
 
 V. A MYSTERIOUS VOICE 84 
 
 VI. WE LOSE A MAN ....... 10£ 
 
 VII. A SEA FUNERAL 130 
 
 VIII. A STRANGE CARGO 161 
 
 IX. A SECRET BLOW 182 
 
 X. THE HUMOURS OF AN INDIA MAN . . . . 203 
 
 XI. A STRANGE SAIL 223 
 
 XII. A STORM OF WIND 240 
 
 XIII. FIRE ! 270 
 
 XIV. CRABB 292
 
 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 CHAPTEE I 
 
 DOWN CHANNEL 
 
 We had left Gravesend at four o'clock in the 
 morning, and now, at half-past eight o'clock in 
 the evening, we were off the South Foreland, 
 the ship on a taut bowline heading on a due 
 down Channel course. 
 
 It was a September night, with an edge of 
 winter in the gusts and blasts which swept 
 squall-like into the airy darkling hollows of 
 the canvas. There was a full moon, small as 
 a silver cannon-ball, with a tropical greenish 
 tinge in its icy sparkling, and the scud came 
 sweeping up over it in shreds and curls and 
 feathers of vapour, sailing up dark from where 
 the land of France was, and whitening out into 
 a gossamer delicacy of tint as it soared into 
 and fled through the central silver splendour. 
 
 vol. i. B
 
 2 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 The weight of the whole range of Channel was 
 in the run of the surge that flashed into 
 masses of white water from the ponderous 
 bow of the Indiaman as she stormed and 
 crushed her way along, the tacks of her 
 courses groaning to every windward roll, as 
 though the clew of each sail were the hand of 
 a giant seeking to uproot the massive iron 
 bolt that confined the corner of the groaning 
 cloths to the deck. 
 
 The towering foreland showed in a pale 
 and windy heap on the starboard quarter. 
 The land ran in a sort of elusive faintness 
 along our beam, with the Dover lights hang- 
 ing in the pallid shadow like a galaxy of 
 fireflies : beyond them a sort of trembling 
 nebulous sheen, marking Folkestone ; and on 
 high in the clear dusk over the quarter you 
 saw the Foreland light like some wild and 
 yellow star staring down upon the sea clear 
 of the flight of the wing-like scud. 
 
 The ship was the Countess Ida, a well- 
 known Indiaman of her day — now so long 
 ago that it makes me feel as though I were 
 two centuries old to be able to relate that I 
 was a hearty young fellow in those times. 
 She was bound to Bombay. Most of the
 
 DOWN CHANNEL 3 
 
 passengers had come aboard at Gravesend, I 
 amongst tliem ; and here we were now thrash- 
 ing our way into the widening waters of the 
 Channel, mighty thankful — those of us who 
 were not sea-sick, I mean — that there had 
 come a shift of wind when the southern limb 
 of the Goodwin Sands was still abreast, to 
 enable us to keep our anchors at the cathead 
 and save us a heart-wearying spell of detention 
 in the Downs. 
 
 The vessel looked noble by moonlight ; 
 she was showing a maintopgallant sail to the 
 freshening wind, and the canvas soared to 
 high aloft in shadowy spaces, which came and 
 went in a kind of winking as the luminary 
 leapt from the edge of the hurrying clouds 
 into some little lagoon of soft indigo, flashing 
 
 O CD ' O 
 
 down a very rain of silver fires, till the long 
 sparkling beam travelling over the foaming 
 heads of the seas, like a spoke of a revolving 
 wheel, was extinguished in a breath by the 
 sweep of a body of vapour over the lovely 
 planet. I stood at the rail that ran athwart 
 the break of the poop, surveying this grand 
 night-picture of the outward-bound Indiaman. 
 From time to time there would be a roaring 
 of water off her weather-bow, that glanced in 
 
 B 2
 
 4 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 the moonshine in a huge fountain of pris- 
 matic crystals. The figures of a couple 
 of seamen keeping a lookout trudged the 
 weather-side of the forecastle, their shadows 
 at their feet starting out upon the white plank 
 to some quick and brilliant hurl of moonlight, 
 clear as a sketch in ink, upon white paper. 
 Amidships, forward, loomed up the big 
 galley, with a huge long-boat stowed before 
 it roofed with spare booms ; on either hand 
 rose the high bulwarks with three carronades 
 of a side stealing out of the dusk between the 
 tall defences of the ship like the shapes of 
 beasts crouching to obtain a view of the sea 
 through the port-holes. A red ray of light 
 came aslant from the galley and touched with 
 its rusty radiance a few links of the huge 
 chain cable that was ranged along the decks, 
 a coil of rope hanging upon a belaying pin, 
 and a fragment of bulwarks stanchion. Now 
 
 at O 
 
 and again a seaman would pass through this 
 light, the figure of him coming out red against 
 the greenish silver in the atmosphere. A 
 knot of passengers hung together close under 
 the weather poop ladder, with a broad white 
 space of the quarter-deck sloping from their 
 feet to the lee waterways, whence at intervals
 
 DOJVX CHAXXEL 5 
 
 there would come a sound of choking and 
 gasping as the heave of the ship brought the 
 dark Channel surge brimming to the scupper 
 holes. The growling hum of the voices of the 
 men blended in a strange effect upon the ear 
 with the shrill singing of the wind in the 
 rigging and the ceaseless washing noises over 
 the side and the long-drawn creaking sounds 
 which arise from all parts of a ship strug- 
 gling against a head sea under a press of 
 canvas. 
 
 Aft on the poop where I was standing the 
 vessel had something of a deserted look. The 
 pilot had been dropped off Deal ; the officer 
 of the watch (the chief mate) was stumping 
 the weather-side of the deck from the ladder 
 to abreast of the foremost skylight ; the dark 
 figure of the captain swung in a sort of pen- 
 dulum-tramping from the mizzen rigging to 
 the grating abaft the wheel. Dim as a distant 
 firebrand over the port quarter, windily 
 flickering upon the stretch of throbbing 
 waters, shone the lantern of the lightship off 
 the South Sand Head ; and it was odd to 
 mark how it rose and fell upon the speeding 
 night sky to the swift yet stately pitching of 
 our ship, with the figure of the man at the
 
 6 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 helm somehow showing the vaguer for it, 
 spite of the shining of the binnacle lamp fling- 
 ing a little golden haze round about the com- 
 pass stand, abaft which the shape of the fellow 
 showed vague as the outline of a ghost. 
 
 Ha! thought I, this is being at sea now 
 indeed ! Why, though we were in narrow 
 waters yet, there was such a note of ocean 
 yearning in the thunderous wash of the 
 weather billows sweeping along the bends 
 that, but for the pale glimmer of the 
 line of land trending away to starboard, I 
 might easily have imagined the whole waters 
 of the great Atlantic to be under our bow. 
 
 It was a bit chilly, and I caught myself 
 hugging my peacoat to me with a half-formed 
 resolution to make for my cabin, where there 
 were yet some traps of mine remaining to be 
 stowed away. But I lingered — lover of all 
 sea-effects, as I then was and still am — to 
 watch a fine brig blowing past us along to the 
 Downs, the strong wind gushing fair over her 
 quarter, and her canvas rising in marble-like 
 curves to the tiny royals ; every cloth glanc- 
 ing in pearl to the dance of the moon amongst 
 the clouds, every rope upon her glistening 
 out into silver wire, with the foam, white as
 
 DOWN CHANNEL 7 
 
 sifted snow, lifting to her hawse-pipes to the 
 clipper shearing of her keen stem, and not a 
 light aboard of her but what was kindled by 
 the luminary in the glass and brass about her 
 decks as she went rolling past ns delicate as a 
 vision, pale as steam, yet of an exquisite 
 grace as determinable as a piece of painting 
 on ivory. 
 
 I walked aft to the companion hatch and 
 entered the cuddy, or, as it is now called, the 
 saloon. The apartment was the width of the 
 ship, and was indeed a very splendid and 
 spacious state-cabin, with a bulkhead at the 
 extremity under the wheel, where the cap- 
 tain's bedroom was, and a berth alongside 
 of it, where the skipper worked out his 
 navigation along with the officers, and where 
 the midshipmen went to school. There were 
 also two berths right forward close against 
 the entrance to the cuddy by way of the 
 quarter-deck, occupied by the first and second 
 mates ; otherwise, the interior was as clear as 
 a ballroom, and it was like entering a 
 brilliantly illuminated pavilion ashore, to pass 
 out of the windy dusk of the night and the 
 flying moonshine of it into the soft brightness 
 of oil-flames burning in handsome lamps of
 
 8 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 white and gleaming metal, duplicated by 
 mirrors, with hand-paintings between and 
 polished panels in which the radiance cloudily 
 rippled. A long table went down the centre 
 of this cuddy, and over it were the domes 
 of the sky-lights, in which were many plants 
 and flowers of beauty swinging in pots, and 
 globes of fish and silver swinging trays. 
 Eight through the heart of the interior came 
 the shaft of the mizzen mast, rich with 
 chiselled configurations, and of a delicate 
 hue ; a handsome piano stood lashed to the 
 deck abaft the trunk of giant spar. The 
 planks were finely carpeted, and sofas and 
 arm-chairs ran the length of this glittering 
 saloon on either side of it. 
 
 There were a few people assembled at the 
 fore-end of the table as I made my way to 
 the hatch whose wide steps led to the sleep- 
 ing berths below. It was not hard to per- 
 ceive that one of them was an East Indian 
 military gentleman whose liver was on lire 
 through years of curry. His white whiskers 
 of the wire-like inflexibility of a cat's, stood 
 out on either side his lemon-coloured cheeks ; 
 his little blood-shot eyes of indigo sparkled 
 under overhanging brows where the hair lay
 
 DOWN CHANNEL 9 
 
 thick like rolls of cotton-wool. This gentle- 
 man I knew to be Colonel Bannister, and as 
 I cautiously made my way along — for the 
 movements of the decks were staggering 
 enough to oblige me to tread warily — I 
 gathered that he was ridiculing the medical 
 profession to Dr. Hemmeridge, the ship's 
 surgeon, for its inability to prescribe for 
 sea- sickness. 
 
 1 Tt iss der nerves/ I heard a fat Dutch 
 gentleman say — afterwards known to me as 
 Peter Hemskirk, manager of a firm in 
 Bombay. 
 
 ' Nerves ! ' sneered the colonel, with a 
 glance at the Dutchman's waistcoat. ' Don't 
 you know the difference between the nerves 
 and the stomach, sir? ' 
 
 ' Same thing,' exclaimed Dr. Hemmeridge 
 soothingly ; ' sea-sickness means the head, 
 any way ; and pray, colonel, what are the 
 brains but ' 
 
 ' Ha ! ha ! ' roared the colonel, interrupt- 
 ing him ; ' there I have you. If it be the 
 brains only which are affected, why, then, 
 ha ! ha ! no wonder Mynheer here doesn't 
 suffer, though it's his first voyage, he says.' 
 
 But my descent of the steps carried me
 
 io MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 out of earshot of this interesting talk. My 
 cabin was well aft. There was a fairly wide 
 corridor, and the berths were ranged on either 
 hand of it. From some of them, as I made 
 my way along, came in muffled sounds various 
 notes of lamentation and suffering. A black 
 woman, with a ring through her nose and her 
 head draped in white, sat on the deck in front 
 of the closed door of a berth, moaning in a 
 sea- sick way over a baby that she rocked in 
 her arms, and that was crying at the top of 
 its pipes. The door of a cabin immediately 
 opposite opened, and a young fellow with a 
 ghastly face putting his head out exclaimed 
 in accents strongly suggestive of nausea : 
 ' I thay, confound it ! thtop that noithe, will 
 you? The rolling ith bad enough without 
 that thindy. Thteward !' The ship gave a 
 lurch, and he swung out, but instantly darted 
 back again, being indeed but half clothed : ' I 
 thay, are you the thteward ? ' 
 
 'JNk>,' said I. 'Keep on singing out. 
 Somebody '11 come to you.' 
 
 6 Won't they thmother that woman ? ' he 
 shouted, and he would have said more, but a 
 sudden kickup of the ship slammed his cabin 
 door for him, and the next moment my ear
 
 DOWN CHANNEL u 
 
 caught a sound that indicated too surely his 
 rashness in leaving his bunk. 
 
 I entered my berth, and found the lamp 
 alight in it, and the young gentleman who 
 was to share the cabin with me sitting in his 
 bedstead, that was above mine, dangling his 
 legs over the edge of it, and gazing with a 
 disordered countenance upon the deck. I had 
 chatted with him during the afternoon and 
 had learnt who he was. Indeed, his name 
 was in big letters upon his portmanteau — 
 4 The Hon. Stephen Colledge ;' and incident- 
 ally he had told me that he was a son of Lord 
 Sandown, and that he was bound to India on 
 a shooting tour. He was a good-looking 
 young man, with fair whiskers, white teeth, a 
 genial smile, yet with something of affectation 
 in his way of speaking. 
 
 ' It's doocid rough, isn't it, Mr Dugdale ? ' 
 said he ; ' and isn't it raining ? ' 
 
 < No,' said I. 
 
 ' Oli, but look at the glass here,' he ex- 
 claimed, indicating the scuttle or porthole, 
 the thick glass of which showed gleaming, 
 but black as coal against the night outside. 
 
 ' Why,' said I, ' the wet there is the sea ; 
 it is spray ; nothing but spray.'
 
 12 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 1 Hang all waves ! ' he said in a low voice. 
 ' Why the dickens can't the ocean always be 
 calm? If I'd have known that this ship 
 pitched so, I'd have waited for a steadier 
 vessel. Will you do rne the kindness to lift 
 the lid of that portmanteau ? You'll find a 
 flask of brandy in it. Hang me if I like to 
 move. Sorry now I didn't bring a cot, though 
 they're cloocid awkward things to get in and 
 out of.' 
 
 I found the flask, and gave it to him, and 
 he took a pull at it. I declined his offer of a 
 dram, and went to work to stow away some 
 odds and ends which were in my trunk. 
 
 ' Don't you feel ill ? ' said he. 
 
 1 No,' said I. 
 
 ' Oh, ah, I remember now ! ' he exclaimed ; 
 ' you were a sailor once, weren't you ? ' 
 
 4 Yes ; I had a couple of years of it.' 
 
 ' Wish Tel been a sailor, I know,' said he. 
 ' I mean, after I'd given it up. As to being a 
 sailor — merciful goodness ! think of four, per- 
 haps five months of this' 
 
 ' Oh, you'll be as good a sailor as ever a 
 seaman amongst us in a day or two,' said I 
 encouragingly. 
 
 'Don't feel like it now, though,' he ex-
 
 DOWN CHANNEL 13 
 
 claimed. 4 Let's see : I think you said you 
 were going out to do some painting ? — Oh no ! 
 I beg pardon : it was a chap named Emmett 
 
 who told me that. You — yon ' He looked 
 
 at me with a slightly inebriated cock of the 
 head, from which I might infer that the ' pull ' 
 he had taken at his flask was by no means his 
 first ' drain ' within the hour. 
 
 4 Xo,' said I, with a laugh ; ; I am going 
 out to see an old relative up country. And 
 not more for that than for the fun of a 
 voyage.' 
 
 1 The fan of the voyage ! ' he echoed with 
 a stupid face ; then with a sudden brightening 
 up of his manner, though his gloomy counten- 
 ance quickly returned to him, he exclaimed, 
 'I say, Dogdale — beg pardon, you know ; no 
 good in mistering a chap that you're going to 
 sleep with for four or five months — call me 
 Colledge, old fellow — but I say, though, seen 
 anything more of that ripping girl since 
 dinner ? By George ! what eyes, eh ? ' 
 
 He drew his legs up, and with a slight 
 groan composed himself in a posture for sleep, 
 manifestly heedless of any answer I might 
 make to his question. 
 
 I lingered awhile in the berth, and then,
 
 14 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 filling a pipe, mounted to the saloon, and 
 made my way to the quarter-deck to smoke 
 in the shelter of the recess in the cuddy 
 front. Colonel Bannister lay sprawling upon 
 a sofa, holding a tumbler of brandy grog. 
 There were other passengers in the cuddy, 
 scattered, and all of them grimly silent, staring 
 hard at the lamps, yet with something of 
 vacancy in their regard, as though their 
 thoughts were elsewhere. As I stepped on to 
 the quarter-deck, the cries and chorusing of 
 men aloft, came sounding through the strong 
 and hissing pouring of the wind between the 
 masts and through the harsh seething of the 
 seas, which the bows of the ship were smiting 
 into snowstorms as she went sullenly ploughing 
 through the water with the weather-leech of 
 the maintopgallant-sail trembling in the green 
 glancings of the moonlight like the fly of a 
 flag in a breeze of wind. They were taking a 
 reef in the fore and mizzen topsails. The chief 
 mate, Mr. Prance, from time to time, would 
 sing out an order over my head that was 
 answered by a hoarse ' Ay, ay, sir,' echoing 
 out of the gloom in which the fore-part of the 
 ship was plunged. I lighted my pipe and sat 
 myself down on the coamings of the booby
 
 DOWN CHAXXEL i 5 
 
 hatch to enjoy a smoke. I was alone, and 
 this moon-touched flying Channel night-scene 
 carried my memory back to the times when I 
 was a sailor, when I had paced the deck of 
 such another vessel as this, as a midshipman 
 of her. It seemed a long time ago, yet it was 
 no more than six years either. The old pro- 
 fessional instinct was quickened in me by the 
 voices of the fellows aloft, till I felt as though 
 it were my watch on deck, that I was skulk- 
 ing under the break of the poop here, and 
 that I ought to be aloft jockeying a lee yard- 
 arm or dangling to windward on the flemish 
 horse. 
 
 Presently all was quiet on high, and by 
 the windy sheen in the atmosphere, caused by 
 the commingling of white waters and the fre- 
 quent glance of the moon through some rent 
 in the ragged scud, I could make out the 
 figures of the fellows on the fore descending 
 the shrouds. A little while afterwards a deep 
 sea voice broke out into a strange wild song, 
 that was caught up and re-echoed in a hurri- 
 cane chorus by the tail of men hauling upon 
 the halliards to masthead the yard. It was 
 a proper sort of note to fit such a night as 
 that. A minute after, a chorus of a like gruff-
 
 16 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 ness but of a different melody resounded on 
 the poop, where they were mastheading the 
 top-sail yard after reefing it. The combined 
 notes fluno- a true oceanic character into the 
 picture of the darkling Indiana an swelling and 
 rolling and pitching in floating launches 
 through it, with her wide pinions rising in 
 spaces of faintness to the scud, and the black 
 lines of her royal yards sheering to and fro 
 against the moon that, when she showed, 
 seemed to reel amidst the rushing wings of 
 vapour to the wild dance of our mastheads. 
 The songs of the sailors, the clear shrill whist- 
 ling of a boatswain's mate forward, the orders 
 uttered quickly by the chief officer, the washing 
 noises of the creaming surges, the sullen shout- 
 ing of the wind in the rigging resembling the 
 sulky breaker-like roar of a wood of tall trees 
 swept by a gale — all this made one feel that one 
 was at sea in earnest. 
 
 I knocked the ashes out of my pipe and 
 went on to the poop. The land still showed 
 very dimly to starboard, with here and there 
 little oozings of dim radiance that might mark 
 a village or a town. You could see to the 
 horizon, where the water showed in a sort of 
 greenish blackness with some speck of flame
 
 DOWN CHANNEL 17 
 
 of a French lighthouse over the port quarter, 
 and the September clouds soaring up off the 
 edge of the sea like puffs and coils of smoke 
 from a thousand factory chimneys down there, 
 and now and again a bright star glancing out 
 from amongst them as they came swiftly float- 
 ing up to the moon, turning of a silvery white 
 as they neared the glorious planet. 
 
 There were windows in the cuddy front, 
 and as I glanced through one of them I saw the 
 captain come down the companion steps into 
 the brightly lighted saloon and seat himself 
 at the table, where in a moment he was joined 
 by the fiery-eyed little colonel. Decanters 
 and glasses were placed by one of the stewards 
 on a swing-tray, and the scene then had some- 
 thing of a homely look spite of the cuddy's 
 aspect of comparative desertion. Captain 
 Keeling, I think, was about the most sailorly- 
 looking man I ever remember meeting. I had 
 heard of him ashore, and learnt that he had 
 used the sea for upwards of forty-five years. 
 He had served in every kind of craft, and had 
 obtained great reputation amongst owners and 
 underwriters for his defence and preservation 
 of an Indiaman he was in command of that 
 was attacked in the Bay of Bengal by a heavily 
 
 vol. 1. c
 
 1 3 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 armed French picaroon full of men. Cups 
 and swords and services of plate and purses 
 of money were heaped upon him for his con- 
 duct in that affair ; and indeed in his way he 
 was a sort of small Commodore Dance. 
 
 I looked at him with some interest as he 
 sat beside the colonel with the full light of 
 the lamp over against him shining upon his 
 face and figure. There had been little enough 
 to see of him during the day, and it was not 
 until we dropped the pilot that he showed 
 himself. His countenance was crimsoned with 
 long spells of tropic weather, and hardened 
 into ruggedness like the face of a rock by the 
 years of gales he had gone through. He was 
 about sixty years of age ; and his short-cropped 
 hair was as white as silver, with a thin line of 
 whisker of a like fleecy sort slanting from his 
 ear to the middle of his cheek. His nose was 
 shaped like the bowl of a clay-pipe, and was 
 of a darker red than the rest of his face. His 
 small sea-blue eyes were sunk deep, as though 
 from the effect of loner staring to windward ; 
 and almost hidden as they were by the heavy 
 ridge of silver eyebrow, they seemed to be no 
 more than gimlet holes in his head for the ad- 
 mission of light. He had thrown open his
 
 DOWN CHANNEL 19 
 
 peacoat, and discovered a sort of uniform 
 under it : a buff-coloured waistcoat with gilt 
 buttons, an open frock-coat of blue cloth with 
 velvet lapels. Around his neck was a satin 
 stock, in which were three pins, connected by 
 small chains. His shirt collar was divided 
 behind, and rose in two sharp points under 
 his chin, which obliged him to keep his head 
 erect in a quite military posture. Such was 
 Captain Keeling, commander of the famous old 
 Indiaman Countess Ida. 
 
 I guessed he would not remain long below, 
 otherwise I should have been tempted to join 
 him in a glass of grog, spite of the company 
 of Colonel Bannister, who was hardly the sort 
 of man to make one feel happy on such an 
 occasion as the first night out at sea with 
 memory bitterly recent of leave-taking, of 
 kisses, of the hand-shakes of folks one might 
 never see a^ain. 
 
 c2
 
 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE FBENCH LUGGER 
 
 My pipe was out ; the quarter-deck bulwarks 
 hid the sea, and so I mounted the poop ladder 
 to take a look round before turning in. Away 
 to port, or larboard, as we then called it, was 
 a full-rigged ship rolling up Channel under 
 all plain sail, with such a smother of white 
 yeast clouding her bows, and racing aft into 
 the long line of her wake, which went glaring 
 over the dark throbbing waters, that it made 
 one think of the base of a waterspout writhing 
 upwards to meet the descending tube of 
 vapour. She was the first object that took 
 my eye, and I hurriedly crossed the deck to 
 view her. Mr. Prance, the chief mate, stood 
 at the rail watching her. 
 
 ' A noble sight ! ' said I. 
 
 1 Yes, sir, an English frigate. A fifty-one 
 gun vessel, apparently. Upon my word, 
 nothing statelier ever swam, or ever again
 
 THE FRENCH LUGGER 21 
 
 will swim, than ships of that kind. Look at 
 the line of her batteries — black and white 
 like the keys of a pianoforte ! What square- 
 ness of yard, sir ! Her main-royal should be 
 as big as our top-gallants ail. 5 
 
 He sent a look aloft at the reeling fabric 
 
 over our heads, with a thoughtful drag at a 
 
 © © 
 
 short growth of beard that curled upwards 
 from his chin like the fore-thatch of a sou'- 
 wester. The noble ship went floating out 
 into the darkness astern, and her pale heights 
 died upon the gloom like a burst of steam 
 
 dissolving in the wind. 
 © 
 
 1 What is that out yonder upon the star- 
 board bow there, Mr. Prance ? ' said I. 
 
 He peered awhile, and said : ' Some craft 
 reaching like ourselves — standing as we head 
 — a lumpish thing, anyhow. What a blot 
 she makes, seeing that she has no height of 
 spar ! ' 
 
 6 We are overhauling her,' said I. 
 
 ' Ay,' he answered, keeping his eyes fixed 
 upon her. ' Doesn't she seem a bit uncertain, 
 though ? ' he muttered, as if thinking aloud. 
 
 I had wonderfully good sight in those 
 days, and after straining my eyes awhile 
 against the heap of scarce determinable
 
 22 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 shadow which the craft made, I exclaimed : 
 * She'll "be a French lugger, or I'm greatly 
 mistaken.' 
 
 ' I believe you are right, sir,' answered the 
 mate. 
 
 He drew a little away from me, as a hint, 
 perhaps, that he desired to address his atten- 
 tion to the vessel on the bow, and suddenly 
 putting his hand to his mouth, he hailed the 
 forecastle in a sharp clear note. An answer 
 was returned swift as the tone of a bell to the 
 blow of its tongue. 
 
 ' Show a light forward ! Smartly now ! 
 That chap ahead seems asleep.' 
 
 There were no side-lights in those days. 
 Some long years were to elapse before the 
 Shipping Act enforced the use of a night 
 signal more to the point than a short flourish 
 of the binnacle lamp over the side. In a few 
 moments a large globular lantern in the grip 
 of a seaman, whose figure showed like a 
 sketch in phosphorus to the illumination of 
 the flame, was rested upon the forecastle rail, 
 with the night beyond him looking the 
 blacker for the rising and falling point of 
 fire. The hint seemed to be taken by the 
 fellow ahead, and the mate walked aft to the
 
 THE FRENCH LUGGER 23 
 
 binnacle, into which he stood looking, after- 
 wards going to the rail, at which he lingered, 
 staring forwards. 
 
 I crossed over to leeward to watch the 
 milk-like race of waters along the side. The 
 foam made a sort of twilight of its own in 
 the air. Under the foot of the mainsail that 
 was arched transversely across the deck, the 
 wind stormed with a note of hurricane out 
 of the huge concavity of the cloths, and 
 made the rushing snow giddy with the 
 whipping of it, till the eye reeled again to 
 the sight of the yeasty boiling. Never did 
 any ship raise such a smother about her as 
 the Countess Ida. Our speed was scarce a 
 full five miles, and yet, looking over to 
 leeward, when the huge fabric came heeling 
 down to her channels to the scud of a sea and 
 to the weight of the wind in her canvas, you 
 would have supposed her thundering through 
 it a whole ten knots at least. 
 
 On a sudden there was a loud and fearful 
 cry forward. ' Port your helium ! port your 
 helium ! ' I could hear a voice roaring out 
 with a meaning as of life or death in the 
 startling vehemence of the utterance. 
 
 1 Starboard ! starboard ! ' shouted Mr.
 
 24 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 Prance, who was still standing aft : c over 
 with it, men, for God's sake, before we're 
 into her ! ' 
 
 Xext instant there was a dull shock 
 throughout the ship ; a thrill that ran 
 through her planks into the very soles of 
 one's feet, while there arose shrieks and 
 shouts as from three-score throats under the 
 bows, and a most lamentable and terrifying 
 noise of wood-splintering, of canvas tearing, 
 of liberated sails flogging the wind. I 
 bounded to the weather-rail, and saw a large 
 hull of some eighty tons wholly dismasted — 
 a wild scene of wreck and ruin to the flash 
 of the moon at that moment shining down 
 out of a clear space of sky — gliding past into 
 our wake. The dark object seemed filled 
 with men, and the yells left me in no doubt 
 that she was a Frenchman — a large three- 
 masted lugger, as I had supposed her. 
 
 In an instant our ship was in an uproar. 
 There is nothing in language to express the 
 noise and excitement. To begin with, our 
 helm having been put down, we had come 
 round into the wind, and lay pitching heavily 
 with sails slatting and thundering, yards 
 creaking;, rigging straining. The sailors 
 
 O ' CJCJ O CD
 
 THE FRENCH LUGGER 25 
 
 rushed to and fro. All discipline for the 
 moment seemed to have gone overboard. 
 The captain had come tumbling up on deck, 
 and was calling orders to the mate, who 
 re-echoed them in loud bawlings to the 
 quarter-deck and forecastle. Lanterns were 
 got up and shown over the rail, and by the 
 light of them you saw the figures of the 
 seamen speeding from rope to rope and 
 hauling upon the gear, their gruff, harsh 
 chorusings rising high above the terrified 
 chatter of the passengers — many of whom 
 had rushed up on deck barely clothed — high 
 also above the storming and shrilling of the 
 wind, the deep notes of angry waters warring 
 at our bows, and the distracting shaking and 
 beating of the sails. 
 
 But a few orders delivered by Mr. Prance, 
 whose tongue was as a trumpet in a moment 
 like this, acted upon the ship as the sym- 
 pathetic hand of a horseman upon a restive 
 terrified thoroughbred. 
 
 1 Haul up the mainsail — fore clew garnets 
 — back maintopsail yard — tail on to the 
 weather-braces and round in handsomely. 
 Mr. Cocker (this was addressed to the second- 
 mate, who had tumbled up with the rest of
 
 26 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 the watch below on feeling the thump the 
 Countess Ida had given herself, and on hear- 
 ing the uproar that followed) — burn a flare — 
 smartly, if you please ! Also get blue lights 
 and rockets up.' 
 
 I ran aft to see if the vessel that we had 
 wrecked was anywhere about. The moon 
 was shining brilliantly down upon the sea at 
 that time, and the swollen Channel waters 
 were lifting their black heights into creaming 
 peaks in an atmosphere of delicate silver haze, 
 that yet suffered the eye to penetrate to the 
 dark confines of the horizon. The wake of 
 the planet was a long throbbing line of angry 
 broken splendour in the south ; but the tail 
 of it seemed to stream fair to the point of sea 
 into which the lugger had veered, and I was 
 confident that if she were afloat I should see 
 her. 
 
 ' Who is that to leeward there ? ' called 
 the captain from the other side of the wheel 
 in a tone of worry and irritation. 
 
 ' Mr. Dugdale,' I replied. 
 
 ' Oh, beg pardon, I'm sure,' he exclaimed ; 
 ' do you see anything of the vessel that we've 
 run down ? ' 
 
 6 Nothing,' I responded.
 
 THE FRENCH LUGGER 27 
 
 1 She must have foundered,' said he ; c yet 
 though I listened, I heard no cries after 
 the wreck had once fairly settled away from 
 us.' 
 
 Here the mate came aft hastily, and with 
 a touch of his cap, reported that the well had 
 been sounded, and that all was right with the 
 ship. 
 
 1 Very well, sir,' said the captain. ' I shall 
 keep all fast with my boats. The calamity 
 can't be helped. I'm not going to increase it 
 by sacrificing my men's lives. The poor 
 devils will have had a boat of their own, I 
 suppose. Show blue lights, will ye, Mr. 
 Prance, and send a rocket up from time to 
 time.' 
 
 They were burning a flare over the 
 quarter-deck rail at that moment — some 
 turpentine arrangement, that threw out a long 
 flickering flame and a great coil of smoke 
 from the yawning mouth of the tin funnel 
 that contained the mixture. It was like 
 watching the ship by sheet-lightning to see a 
 large part of her amid-ships and her mainmast 
 and the pale lights of the mainsail hanging 
 from the yard in the grip of the gear — to see 
 all this come and go as the flame leapt and
 
 28 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 faded. There was a crowd of terrified 
 passengers on the poop, some of them ladies, 
 hiio-orinor themselves in dressin^-^owns and 
 shawls ; and out of the heart of the little mob 
 rose the saw-like notes of Colonel Bannister. 
 
 ' These collisions,' I heard him cry, ' never 
 can take place if a proper lookout be kept. 
 It is preposterous to argue. I'd compel the 
 oldest seaman who contradicted me to eat his 
 words. Why, have I been making the voyage 
 
 to India four times ' But the rest of his 
 
 observations were drowned in cries of astonish- 
 ment and alarm from the ladies as a rocket, 
 discharged close to them, went hissing and 
 shearing up athwart the howling wind in a 
 stream of fire, breaking on high into a blood- 
 red ball, that floated swiftly landwards, like 
 an electric meteor, ghastly against the moon-/ 
 shine, with a wide crimson atmosphere about 
 it that tinctured the very scud. A moment 
 after a blue light was burnt over the side 
 from the head of the poop ladder, whereat 
 there was a general recoil and more shrill 
 exclamations from the ladies. In fact, these 
 wild mystical lights as it were coming on 
 top of the fancy of men drowning astern, and 
 colouring the ship with unearthly glares, and
 
 THE FRENCH LUGGER 
 
 29 
 
 flinging a wonderful complexion of horror 
 upon the night for a wide space round about 
 the pitching and groaning Indiaman, jmt such 
 an element of mystery and fear into the scene 
 that though I was by no means a new hand at 
 such sea-shows, I will own to shuddering 
 again and yet again as I overhung the side 
 of the poop, striving to discern any object 
 that might resemble a boat in the foam- 
 whitened gloom into which the lugger had 
 slided. 
 
 'What has happened? Everybody is so 
 excited that one can't get at the real story.' 
 
 I turned quickly, and saw the tall figure 
 of a lady at my side. She was habited in a 
 cloak, the hood of which was over her head, 
 and darkened her face almost to the conceal- 
 ment of it, saving her eyes, which shone large, 
 liquid, with a clear red spot in the depths, 
 from the reflection of the flare at the quarter- 
 deck bulwark. 
 
 I briefly explained, lifting my cap as I gave 
 her her name — Miss Temple — for I had par- 
 ticularly remarked her as she came aboard at 
 Gravesend, and asked who she was, though I 
 had seen nothing more of her down to that 
 moment. I ended my account pointing to the
 
 3 o MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 quarter of the sea where the lugger had dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 'Thanks for the story,' she exclaimed, 
 with a sudden note of haughtiness in her 
 voice, while she kept her eyes, of the rich 
 blackness of the tropic night-sky, fixed firm and 
 gleaming upon me, as though she had addressed 
 me in error, and wanted to make sure of me. 
 She moved as though she would walk off, 
 paused, and said : ' Poor creatures ! I hope 
 they will be saved. Is our ship injured, do 
 you know ? ' 
 
 ' 1 believe not,' said I a little coldly. 
 ' There may be a rope or two broken forward 
 perhaps, but there is nothing but the French 
 lugger to be sorry for.' 
 
 ' My aunt, Mrs. Eadcliffe,' said she, ' has 
 been rendered somewhat hysterical by the 
 commotion on deck. She is too ill to 
 leave her bed. I think I may reassure 
 her?' 
 
 4 Oh yes,' I exclaimed. ' But yonder, 
 abreast of the wheel there, is the captain to 
 confirm my words.' 
 
 She gave me a bow, or rather a curtsey 
 of those days, and walked aft to address 
 the captain, as I supposed. Instead, she
 
 THE FRENCH LUGGER 31 
 
 descended the companion hatch, and I lost 
 sight of her. 
 
 A disdainful lady, thought I, but a rare 
 beauty too ! — marvellous eyes, anyhow, to be- 
 hold by such an illumination as this of rockets 
 and blue lights, and flying moonshine, and the 
 yellow glimmer of flare-tins. 
 
 All this while the ship lay hove-to, her 
 maintopsail to the mast, the folds of her 
 hanging mainsail sending a low thunder into 
 the wind as it shook its cloths, the seas 
 breaking in stormy noises from her bow ; but 
 now there fell a dead silence upon the people 
 along her decks : nothing broke this hush 
 upon the life of the vessel, save the occasional 
 harsh hissing rush of a rocket piercing the 
 restless noises of the sea and the whistling of 
 the wind in the rigging. The bulwark rail 
 was lined with sailors, eagerly looking towards 
 the tail of the misty wake of the moon, into 
 which the black surges went shouldering and 
 changing into troubled hills of dull silver. 
 The captain and two of the mates stood aft, 
 intently watching the water, often putting 
 themselves into strained hearkening postures, 
 their hands to their ears. Most of the lady 
 passengers went below, but not to bed, for
 
 32 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 you could catch a sight of them through the 
 skylight seated at the table talking swiftly, 
 often directing anxious glances at the window- 
 glass through which you could see them. 
 There was one majestic old lady amongst them 
 with grey hair that looked to be powdered, a 
 hawk's-bill nose, an immense bosom, that 
 started immediately from under her chin. 
 The lamplight flashed in diamonds in her ears, 
 and in rubies and in stones of value and 
 beauty upon her fingers. She was Colonel 
 Bannister's wife, and was apparently not 
 wanting in her husband's fiery energy and 
 capacity of taking peppery views of things, if 
 I might judge by her vehement nods, and the 
 glances she shot around her from her grey 
 eyes. It was a cabin picture I caught but a 
 glimpse of as I crossed the deck to take a look 
 to leeward, but one, somehow, that sunk into 
 my memory, maybe because of the magic- 
 lantern-like look of the interior, with its 
 brilliant lamps and many-coloured attire of the 
 ladies in their shawls, dressing-gowns, and what 
 not — standing out upon the eye amidst the wild 
 dark frame of the seething clamorous night. 
 
 All at once there was a loud cry. I 
 rushed back to the weather rail.
 
 THE FRENCH LUGGER 33 
 
 'There's a boat heading for us, sir — see 
 her, sir ? Away yonder, this side o' the 
 tumble of the moon's reflection I ' 
 
 'Ay, there she is! It'll be the lugger's 
 boat. God, how she dives ! ' 
 
 Twenty shadowy arms pointed in the 
 direction which had been indicated by the 
 gruff grumbling cries of the sailors. The 
 second mate, Mr. Cocker, came hastily for- 
 ward to the break of the poop. 
 
 ' Stand by, some of you,' he shouted, ' to 
 heave them the end of a line. Make ready 
 with bow-lines to help them over the side.' 
 
 I could see the boat clearly now as she 
 rose to the height of a sea, her black wet side 
 sparkling out an instant to the moonlight ere 
 she sank out of sight past the ivory white 
 head of the surge sweeping under her. She 
 seemed to be deep with men ; but I could 
 count only two oars. She was rushed down 
 upon us by the impulse of the sea and wind, 
 and I felt my heart stand still as she drove 
 bow on into us, whirling round alongside in a 
 manner to make you look for the wreck of 
 her in staves washing away under our counter. 
 She was full of people, with women amongst 
 them — poor creatures, in great white caps 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 and long golden earrings, the men for the 
 most part in. huge fishermen's boots, and 
 tasselled caps and jerseys that might have 
 been of any colour in that light. One could 
 just make these features out, but no more, for 
 the contents of the boat as it rose soaring and 
 falling alongside were but a dark huddle of 
 human shapes, writhing and twisting like a 
 mass of worms in a pot, vociferating to us in 
 the scarce intelligible patois of Gravelines or 
 Calais or Boulogne. 
 
 There was no magic in the commands even 
 of British officers to British sailors to put the 
 least element of calm into the business. It 
 was not only that at one moment the boat 
 alongside seemed to be hove up to the India- 
 man's covering-board and that at the next she 
 was rushing down into a chasm that laid bare 
 many feet of the big ship's yellow sheathing : 
 there was the dreadful expectation of the 
 whole of the human freight being overset and 
 drowning alongside in a breath ; there were 
 the heart-rending shouts of the distracted 
 people ; there was the total inability of captain 
 and mates to make themselves understood. 
 How it was managed I will not pretend to ex- 
 plain. By some means the boat was dragged
 
 THE FRENCH LUGGER 35 
 
 to the gangway, grinding and thumping herself 
 horribly against the Incliaman's rolling, stoop- 
 ing, massive side ; then bowlines and ropes in 
 plenty were dangled over or flung into her ; 
 and through the unshipped gangway, illumi- 
 nated by half-a-dozen lanterns, and crowded 
 by a hustling mob of sailors and passengers, 
 one after another, the women and the men — 
 most of the men coming first ! — were dragged 
 inboards, some of them falling flat upon the 
 deck, some dropping on their knees and crossing 
 themselves ; a few of the women weeping 
 passionately, one of them sobbing in dreadful 
 paroxysms, the others mute as statues, as 
 though terror and the presence of death had 
 frozen the lifeblood in them and arrested the 
 very beating of their hearts. Two of them 
 fell into the sea ; but they had lines about 
 them and were dragged up half dead. They 
 were all of them dripping wet, the men's sea- 
 boots full of water ; whilst the soaked gowns 
 of the women flooded the deck on which they 
 stood, as though several buckets of brine had 
 been capsized there. 
 
 Old Reeling's pity for them would not go 
 to the length of introducing the wretched 
 creatures into the cuddy, to spoil the ship's 
 
 D 2
 
 36 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 fine carpets and stain and ruin the coverings 
 of the couches. They were accordingly 
 brought together in the recess under the 
 break of the poop, where at all events they 
 were sheltered. Hot spirits and water were 
 given to them along with bread and meat, and 
 this supper the unhappy creatures ate by the 
 light of the dimly burning lanterns held by 
 the sailors. 
 
 There never was an odder wilder sight 
 than the picture the poor half-drowned 
 creatures made. Some of the women scarcely 
 once intermitted their sobs and lamentations, 
 save when they silenced their throats by a 
 mouthful of food or drink. They were very 
 ugly, dark as coffee ; and their black wet hair 
 streaming like sea-weed upon their shoulders 
 and brows from under their soaked caps 
 made them look like witches. The men 
 talked hoarsely and eagerly with many 
 passionate gestures, which suggested fierce 
 denunciation. The mate coming down to the 
 booby hatch around which these people were 
 squatting, eating, drinking, moaning, and 
 jabbering without the least regard to the 
 crowd of curious eyes which inspected them 
 from the quarter-deck — the mate, I say, com-
 
 THE FRENCH LUGGER 37 
 
 ing down, stood looking a minute at them, and 
 then sent a glance round, and seeing me, asked 
 if I spoke French. 
 
 4 Yes,' said I, ' but not such French as those 
 people are talking.' 
 
 4 We have three passengers,' said he, ' who, 
 I am told, are scholars in that language ; but 
 the steward informs me they're too sea-sick to 
 come on deck. Just ask these people in such 
 French as you have, if their captain's amongst 
 them.' 
 
 As he said this, a little old man seated on 
 the hatch-coaming, with a red nightcap on, 
 immense earrings, and a face of leather puck- 
 ered into a thousand wrinkles like the grin of 
 a monkey, looked up at Mr Prance, and 
 nodding with frightful energy whilst he struck 
 his bosom with his clenched fist, cried out : 
 'Yash, yash. me capitaine.' 
 
 * 1 la ! " said the mate/ do you speak English, 
 then ? ' 
 
 4 Yash, yash," he roared : ' me speakee Ang- 
 leesh.' 
 
 Happily he knew enough to save me the 
 labour of interpreting; and labourii would have 
 been with a vengeance, since, though it was 
 perfectly certain none amongst them, saving
 
 38 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 the little monkey-faced man, comprehended a 
 syllable of the mate's questions, every time 
 the small withered chap answered — which he 
 did with extraordinary convulsions and a vast 
 variety of frantic gesticulations — all the rest 
 of them broke into speech, the women join- 
 ing in, and there was such a hubbub of tongues 
 that not an inch of idea could I have got out 
 of the distracting row. However, in course 
 of time the leathery manikin who called him- 
 self captain made Mr. Prance understand that 
 the lugger belonged to Boulogne ; that she 
 had the survivors of another lusher on board, 
 making some thirty-four souls in all, men and 
 women, at the time of the collision, of which 
 seventeen or eighteen were drowned. After 
 he had given Mr. Prance these figures, he 
 turned to the others and said something in ^ 
 shrill, fierce, rapid voice, whereat the women 
 fell to shrieking and weeping, whilst many of 
 the men tore their hair, some going the length 
 of knocking their heads against the cuddy 
 front. It was a sight to sicken the heart, the 
 more, I think, for the unutterable element of 
 grotesque farce imported into that dismal 
 tragedy by their countenances, postures, and 
 behaviour ; and having heard and seen enough,
 
 THE FRENCH LUGGER 3; 
 
 I slipped away on to the poop, with a chi'l 
 coming into my very soul to the thought of 
 the drowned bodies out yonder when my eye 
 went to the sea weltering black to the troubled 
 line of moonshine, and heaving in ashen lumi- 
 nous billows in that chill path of light. 
 
 But long before this, our rockets, blue- 
 lights, and flares had been seen ; and a moment 
 or two after I had gained the poop I spied the 
 figure of Captain Keeling with a few male 
 passengers at his side standing at the rail 
 watching a powerful cutter thrashing through 
 it to us close-hauled, with the water boiling 
 to her leaps, and her big mainsail to midway 
 high dark with the saturation of the flying 
 brine. In less than twenty minutes she was 
 rising and falling buoyant as a seabird abreast 
 of us, with a shadowy figure at her lee rail 
 bawling with lungs of brass to know what 
 was wrong. 
 
 ' I have run down a French lugger,' shouted 
 Captain Keeling, ' and have half her people on 
 board, and must put them ashore at once, for 
 I wish to proceed.' 
 
 ' Eight y'are,' came from the cutter; but 
 with a note of irritation and disappointment in 
 the cry, as I could not but fancy.
 
 4 o MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 Then followed some wonderful manoeuvring. 
 There was only one way of transshipping the 
 miserable French people, and that was by a 
 yardarm whip and a big basket. Hands 
 sprang aloft to prepare the necessary tackle ; 
 Prance meanwhile, from the head of the poop 
 ladder, thundered the intentions of the India- 
 man through a speaking-trumpet to the cutter. 
 I could see old Keeling stamp from time to 
 time with impatience as he broke away from 
 the questions of the passengers, one of whom 
 was Colonel Bannister, into a sharp walk full 
 of grief and irritability. Meanwhile they had 
 shifted their helm aboard the cutter and got 
 way upon the fine little craft. I saw her take 
 the weight of the wind and heel down to the 
 line of her gunwale, then break a dark sea 
 into boiling milk, leaping the liquid acclivity 
 as a horse takes a tall gate, burying herself 
 nose under with the downwards launching rush, 
 then soaring again to the height of the next 
 billow with full wa} x upon her. She came 
 tearing and hissing through it as though her 
 coppered forefoot were of red-hot metal, and 
 when abreast of our lee quarter, put her helm 
 down, and swept with marvellous grace and 
 precision to alongside of us, clear of our 
 shearing spars, and there she lay.
 
 THE FRENCH LUGGER 41 
 
 It was hard upon midnight when the last 
 basket-load had been lowered on to her deck. 
 There was no hitch ; all went well ; a line 
 attached to the basket enabled the cutter's 
 people to haul it fair to their decks ; but the 
 terror of the unfortunate Frenchmen was 
 painful to see. The women got into the basket 
 bravely ; but many of the men blankly re- 
 fused to enter, and had to be stowed in it by 
 force, our Jacks holding on till the order to 
 'sway away' was given, when up would go poor 
 Crapaud shrieking vengeance upon us all, and 
 calling upon the Virgin and saints for help. 
 In its way it was like a little engagement with 
 an enemy. Some of the Frenchmen drew 
 knives, and had to be knocked down. 
 
 Then, when the last of them was swayed 
 over the side and lowered — ' Are you all right?' 
 shouted Captain Keeling to the cutter. 
 
 i All right,' responded a deep voice, hoarse 
 with rum and weather. ' I suppose your 
 owners'll make the job worth something to 
 us? ' 
 
 1 Ay, ay,' answered the captain. ' Iiound 
 with your topsail yard, Mr Prance. Lively 
 now ! this business has cost us half a night as 
 it is.'
 
 42 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 In a few minutes the great yards on the 
 main were swung slowly to the drag of the 
 braces with loud heave-yeos from the sailors, 
 and the ship, feeling the weight of the wind 
 in the vast dim hollow of the topsail, leaned 
 with a new impulse of life in her frame and 
 drove half an acre of foam ahead of her. 
 We had resumed our voyage ; and with a 
 sense of supreme weariness in me following 
 the excitement of the hours, and chilled to 
 the marrow by my long spell on deck and 
 incessant loiterings in the keen night-wind, I 
 entered the saloon, called for a tumbler of 
 grog, and made my way to my berth.
 
 43 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 MY FELLOW PASSENGERS 
 
 It blew a hard breeze of wind that night. 
 Soon after I had left the deck they furled the 
 mainsail and topgallantsail, reefed the main- 
 topsail, and tied another reef in the mizzen- 
 topsail. In fact, it looked as if we were to 
 have a black gale of wind, dead on end too, 
 with a sure prospect then of bearing up for 
 the Downs afresh. How it may be in these 
 steamboat times, I will not pretend to say ; 
 but my experience of the old sailing-ship is 
 that the first night out, let the weather be 
 what it will, is, on the whole, about as 
 wretched a time as a man at any period of 
 his ]ife has to pass through. 
 
 Mr. Colledge was sound asleep in his bunk, 
 his brandy flask within convenient reach of 
 his hand. It was certain enough that he had 
 heard nothing of the disturbance on deck. 
 I undressed and rolled into my bed, and there
 
 44 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 lay wide awake for a long time. The ship 
 creaked like a cradle. The full dismalness of 
 a first night out was upon me, and it was 
 made weightier yet — how much weightier 
 indeed ! — by the recollection of the wild and 
 sudden tragedy of the evening. Oh, the 
 insufferable weariness of the noises, the strain- 
 ing of the bulkheads, the yearning roar of 
 the dark surge washing the porthole, with the 
 boiling of it dying out into a dim simmering 
 upon the wind, the instant stagger of the ship 
 to the blow of some heavy sea full on her 
 bow, the sensation of breathless descent as 
 the vessel chopped clown with a huge heave 
 to windward into the trough, the pendulum 
 swing of one's wearing apparel hanging 
 against the bulkhead, the half-stifled exclama- 
 tions breaking from adjacent cabins, the, 
 whole improved into a true oceanic flavour 
 by the occasional hoarse songs of the sailors 
 above, faintly heard, as though you were in a 
 vault, and that strange vibratory humming 
 which the wind makes to one hearkening to it 
 out of the cabin of a ship. 
 
 I fell asleep at last, and was awakened at 
 half-past seven by the steward, who wished to 
 know if I wanted hot water to shave with.
 
 MY FELLOW PASSEXGERS 45 
 
 The moment I had my consciousness, I was 
 sensible that a heavy sea was running. 
 
 1 Xo shaving this morning, thank you,' 
 said I, ' unless I have a mind to slice the 
 nose off my face. How's the weather, 
 steward ? ' 
 
 'Blowing a buster from the south'ard, 
 sir,' he answered, talking with his lips at the 
 Venetian of the closed door, c and the ship 
 going along 'andsomely as a roll of smoke.' 
 
 Here somebody called him, and he trotted 
 away. 
 
 Mr. Colledge awoke. 'By George!' he 
 exclaimed, 'I've had a doocid long sleep.' 
 
 ' How dye feel ? ' said I. 
 
 'In no humour to rise,' he answered. ' I 
 suppose I can have what breakfast I'm likely 
 to eat brought to me here ? ' 
 
 ' Bless you, yes,' I answered. 
 
 6 Any news, Mr. Dugdale ? ' he asked, his 
 voice beginning to languish as a sensation of 
 nausea grew upon him with the larger 
 awakening of his faculties. 
 
 ' We ran down a French lugger last night,' 
 said I, ' and drowned a lot of men. That's 
 all.' 
 
 He eyed me dully, thinking perhaps that
 
 46 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 I was joking, and then said : 'Well, there it 
 is, you see. Yesterday, yon were talking of 
 the fun of a voyage ; and the very earliest of 
 the humours is the drowning of a lot of 
 men.' 
 
 ' And women,' said I. 
 8 Poor devils ! ' he exclaimed. ' Will you 
 hand me a bottle of Hungary water that 
 you'll find in my portmanteau ? Much obliged 
 to you, Dngclale : and will you kindly tell the 
 steward as you pass through the cabin to 
 bring me a cup of tea ? ' 
 
 1 Get up by-and-by, if you feel equal to it,' 
 said I. ' Nursing sea-sickness only makes the 
 demon more pitiless. Show yourself on deck, 
 and the wind'll blow the nausea out of you. 
 And I'll tell you a better cure than Hungary 
 water or brandy flasks — a cube of salt-horse, 
 Colledge ; a hearty lump of marine beef, 
 something to work up the muscles of your 
 jaws, and to sharpen your teeth for you.' 
 
 ' Oh gracious, my dear fellow — don't,' he 
 exclaimed, turning his face to the wall of the 
 ship ; and I heard him exclaim, as though 
 muttering to himself : ' How the water gurgles 
 about this window, and what a doocid sickly 
 green it is ! '
 
 MY FELLOW PASSENGERS 47 
 
 But a very few of us assembled at the 
 breakfast table. Colonel Bannister was there, 
 a very ramrod of a man, with a Bengal- tigerish 
 expression of face as he glared round about 
 him from betwixt his white wire-like whiskers. 
 There were also present Mr. Emmett, an artist, 
 who was making the voyage to the East for 
 the purpose of painting Indian scenery, a 
 man with lone hair curling down his back, 
 a ragged beard and moustaches, a velvet coat, 
 and Byronic collars, out of which his long 
 thin neck forked up like the head of a pole 
 through a scarecrow's suit of clothes ; Mr. 
 Peter Hemskirk, who looked uncommonly fat, 
 pale, and unfinished in his attire this morning ; 
 two young Civil Service fellows — as we should 
 now call their trade — named Greenhew and 
 Fairtliorne ; and Mr. Sylvanus Johnson, a 
 journalist, bound to Bombay or Calcutta (I 
 cannot be sure of the city), to edit a news- 
 paper — a bullet-headed man, with a sort of 
 low-comedian face, very blue about the cheeks 
 where he shaved, and small keen restless 
 black eyes, full of intelligence, whose sugges- 
 tion in that way was not to be impaired or 
 weakened by an expression in repose of sin- 
 gular self-complacency. Captain Keeling, at
 
 48 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 the head of the table, sat skewered up in his 
 uniform frock-coat in stiff satin stock and 
 collars. Mr. Prance occupied the other end 
 of the table. He, too, was attired in a uniform 
 resembling the dress worn by the skipper. 
 He had a pleasant brown sailorly face, with a 
 floating pose of head upon his shoulders that 
 made one think of a soap-bubble poised on 
 top of a pipe-stem. There were no ladies. 
 Once I caught a glimpse of Mrs. Colonel Ban- 
 nister's Eoman nose, and grey hair ornamented 
 with a large black lace cap, fitfully hovering 
 for a moment or two in the wide hatch past 
 the chief officer's chair, down which the steps 
 led that went to the sleeping berths. But the 
 apparition vanished with almost startling 
 suddenness, as though the old lady had 
 fallen or been violently pulled below. When, 
 later on, I inquired after her, I learnt that' 
 he had betaken herself again to her bunk. 
 
 It was a mighty uncomfortable breakfast. 
 The ship was rolling violently and convul- 
 sively upon the short snappish Channel seas 
 ' — the most insufferable of all waters when in 
 commotion, making even the seasoned salt 
 pine for the long regular rhythmic heave of 
 the blue ocean billow. The fiddles hindered
 
 MY FELLOW PASSENGERS 49 
 
 the plates from sliding on to our laps ; but 
 their contents were not to be so easily coaxed 
 into keeping their place ; an unusually heavy 
 lurch shot a large helping of liver and bacon 
 on to Mr. Hemskirk's knees ; and the ship's 
 surgeon, Dr. Hemmeridge, came perilously near 
 to being badly scalded by Mr. Johnson, the 
 literary man, who, in reaching for a cup of tea 
 tilted the swinging tray. There was not 
 much talk, and what little was said chiefly 
 concerned the incident of the previous 
 evening. 
 
 1 Captain,' cried young Mr. Fairthorne in 
 an effeminate voice — he was the gentleman, it 
 seems, who last night had been calling upon 
 anybody to smother the ayah — ' whath to 
 become of thothe poor Frenchmen ? ' 
 
 ' Sir,' answered Captain Keeling in a 
 manner as stiff as a marline-spike with his 
 dislike of the subject, ' I do not know.' 
 
 ' Frenchmen,' cried Colonel Bannister in a 
 loud voice, as though he were directing the 
 manoeuvres of a company of Sepoys, ' are the 
 hereditary enemies of our country, and it 
 never can matter to a Briton what becomes of 
 them.' 
 
 ' Boot my tear sir,' remarked Mr. Henio- 
 
 vol. 1. E
 
 50 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 kirk, ' you are a Briton, yes — and you are a 
 Christian too, und der Franclrman iss your 
 broder.' 
 
 'My what?' roared the colonel. 'Tell 
 ye what it is, Mr. Hemskirk : it is a good job 
 that you cannot pronounce our language, 
 otherwise you might happen sometimes, sir, 
 to grow offensive.' 
 
 Mynheer, who seemed to have had some 
 previous acquaintance with this little bomb- 
 shell of a man, dried the grease upon his lips 
 with a napkin, and cast a wink upon Mr. 
 Greenhew, whose face of resentment at this 
 familiarity caused me to break into such an 
 immoderate fit of laughter that there was 
 nothing for it but to bolt from the table. 
 
 I found a real Channel picture stretching 
 round me when I gained the deck ; a grey 
 sky, lightened in places with a kind of suffu- 
 sion of radiance that made one think of the 
 rusty bronze lingering in the wake of an 
 expired sunset. Saving these flaws of dull 
 light, there was no break anywhere visible in 
 the wide cold bald stare of heaven over our 
 mastheads. The strong wind was a dry one, 
 yet the horizon was thick with a look of rain 
 all the way round ; and out of the smother in
 
 MY FELLOW PASSENGERS 51 
 
 the south, the sea was rolling in heights of a 
 dark green, rich with creaming foam, that 
 somehow seemed to satisfy the eye, as though 
 each frothing crest were a streak of sunshine. 
 There was a smack half a mile to windward 
 of us Btaggering along, and sinking and 
 rising under a fragment of red mainsail ; 
 but there was nothing else to be seen in that 
 way. 
 
 The wind was blowing free for us — almost 
 dead abeam, indeed ; and the Countess Ida 
 was swarming through it in a manner to put 
 a quicker beat into the heart at the first sight 
 of the picture she made. The topgallantsail 
 was set over the single-reefed maintopsail ; the 
 whole foresail was on her, and, with the other 
 topsails and a staysail or two, was tearing the 
 great ship through the short savage heapings 
 of water with a power that made one think of 
 steam as trifling by comparison. The fore- 
 castle was wet with flying spray. The galley 
 chimney was smoking cheerily, and from all 
 about the long-boat came hearty farmyard 
 sounds of the grunting of pigs and the bleating 
 of sheep and the cackling of liens. There 
 was a gang of seamen at the pumps, and as 
 they plied the brakes with nervous sinewy 
 
 e2 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
 
 5 2 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 arms, their song chimed in with the gushing 
 of the water flowing freely to the scuppers, 
 and washing back again to their feet with 
 every roll to windward. Other seamen were 
 at work upon the carronades, or cleaning 
 paint-work with scrubbing-brushes, or coiling 
 gear away upon pins, and so on, and so on. 
 It was after eight, and all hands were on deck, 
 and a fine set of livelies they looked, spite of 
 most of them being snugged up in black or 
 yellow oil-skins. Ships went with full com- 
 panies i" +i-~~~ nV*yfl. and but for the slender- 
 ises of our ordnance, it might have been easy 
 to imagine one's self on board a man-of-war 
 when one ran one's eyes over the decks of the 
 Countess Ida and counted the crew, and 
 marked the butcher and butcher's mates, the 
 cook and his mates, the baker and his mates, 
 the carpenter and his mates, coming and 
 going, and making a very fair of the neigh- 
 bourhood of the galley. 
 
 The second mate warmly clad paced the 
 weather side of the poop, sending many a 
 w T eatherly glance to seaward, with a frequent 
 lifting of his eyes to the rounded iron-hard 
 canvas ; whilst against the brilliant white 
 wake of the ship, roaring and boiling upwards
 
 M Y FELLO I V PA SSENGERS 5 3 
 
 as it seemed, to the stoop of the Indiaman's 
 huge square counter, the figures of the two 
 sailors at the big wheel stood out clear-cut 
 as cameos, with the broad brass band upon 
 the circle dully reflecting a space of copperish 
 light in the sky over the weather mizzen- 
 topsail yardarm, and the newly polished hood 
 of the binnacle gleaming as though sun- 
 touched. A couple of midshipmen in pea- 
 coats and brass buttons, curly headed young 
 rogues, with a spirit of mischief bright in 
 every glance they sent, patrolled the lee side 
 of the poop ; and up in the mizzen top were 
 two more of them, with vet auother lon^-- 
 legged fellow jockeying a spur of the 
 -trees, with his loose trousers rattling like 
 a flag ; but what job he was upon I could not 
 tell. The planks of this deck were as white 
 as the trunk of a tree newly stripped of its 
 bark. Four handsome quarter-boats swung 
 at the davits. Along the rail on either hand 
 went a row of hencoops, through the bars of 
 which the heads of cocks and liens came and 
 went in a winking sort of way, like a swift 
 showing and withdrawing of red rags. On 
 the rail, for a considerable distance, were 
 stowed bundles of compressed hay, the scent
 
 54 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 of which was a real puzzle to the nose, coming 
 as it did through the hard sweep of the salt 
 wind. The white skylights glistened through, 
 the intricacies of brass wire which shielded 
 them. Abaft the wheel, on either side of it, 
 their tompioned muzzles eyed blindly by the 
 closed ports meant to receive them, were a 
 couple of eighteen pounders ; for in those 
 days the Indiamen still went armed ; not 
 heavily, indeed, as in the war-times of an 
 earlier period, but with artillery and small- 
 arms enough -to enable her to dispute with 
 some promise of success with the picaroon 
 who was still afloat, whose malignant flag 
 the burnished waters of the Antilles yet re- 
 flected, and whose amiable company of assas- 
 sins were as often to be met with under the 
 African and South American heights as in 
 the Channel of the Mozambique, or east- 
 ward yet on the broad surface of the Indian 
 Ocean. 
 
 I crossed the deck to where Mr. Cocker 
 was stumping, and asked him if he could tell 
 me off what part of the English coast our 
 ship now was. 
 
 ' Drawing on to the Wight, sir,' he 
 answered, with a sort of groping look in the
 
 MY FELLOW PASSENGERS 55 
 
 little moist blue eyes he turned over the lee 
 bow into the thickness beyond. 
 
 ' Well, we're blowing through it, anyway,' 
 said I. ' I shouldn't have allowed these heels 
 for any conceivable structure born with such 
 bows as the Countess Ida. What is it ? ' I 
 asked with a glance at the broad dazzle of 
 yeast dancing and whipping and slinging off 
 the Indiaman's tall side against the hurl of the 
 weather surge. 
 
 ' It'll be all eight,' answered the second 
 officer : ' it would be ten had she worked her- 
 self loose of the grip of the stevedores. She 
 wants the mainsail and foreto'^arn'sail. These 
 old buckets are manufactured to creak, and 
 whilst they creak, they hold, it is said.' 
 
 His face crumpled up into a grin that made 
 him look twenty years older under the thatch 
 of his sou'-wester curling to his eyebrows, with 
 the broad flaps over his ears hke a nightcap 
 for his sea-helmet to sit upon. 
 
 ' Pray, Mr. Cocker,' said I, ' was any 
 damage done to the ship by the collision last 
 night ? ' 
 
 ' There wasn't so much as a rope-yarn 
 parted,' he answered. ' I looked to see the 
 spritsail yard sprung, for it'll have been that
 
 56 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 spar, I reckon, which dragged the lugger's 
 masts overboard by the shrouds of them. But 
 it's as sound as anything else aboard the ship.' 
 
 He shifted uneasily, as though to make off, 
 and, turning my head, I spied the captain 
 looking into the binnacle. So, having had 
 already enough of the deck, I stepped below 
 for a smoke in the cuddy recess, where I found 
 Mr. Emmet t in a long cloak, such as mysterious 
 assassins and renegade noblemen used to wear 
 at the Coburg Theatre, sucking at a large 
 curled meerschaum pipe, and arguing on the 
 subject of longitude with a little man almost a 
 dwarf, an honest and highly intelligent pigmy, 
 with the head of a giant supported on the legs 
 of a boy of six, an amiable earnest little 
 creature, with a trick of looking up wistfully 
 into your face. His name was Bichard 
 Saunders : and I afterwards understood that 
 he was proceeding to India on behalf of some 
 Pharmaceutical Society, to collect information 
 on and examples of Hindu and other medicines, 
 drugs, charms, and so forth. 
 
 Well, all that day it continued to blow a 
 very strong wind. The ship's plunging in- 
 creased as the Channel opened under her bow 
 and admitted something of the weight of the
 
 MY FELLOW PASSENGERS 57 
 
 Atlantic in the run of its seas. There was a 
 constant sharp-shooting of spray forward over 
 the forecastle, and the wet came sobbing alone? 
 the lee scuppers to where the cuddy front 
 checked it under the poop ladder. ^ ery few 
 of us assembled at lunch or at dinner. 
 
 During the progress of this last meal, 
 Colonel Bannister left the table and went 
 below, and after an interval, uprose through 
 the hatch, with his large distinguished-looking 
 wife holding on to him. Mynheer Peter 
 Hemskirk, on seeing her, cried out: 'Ah, 
 Meestrees Bannister, boot dot iss vot I call 
 plooky ! ' and Mr. Johnson came near to 
 breaking his neck whilst starting to his legs to 
 stand as she passed. She took a chair next 
 her husband, and sat grimly staring around 
 her, her lips pale with the compression of 
 them. She shook her head to every sugges- 
 tion made by the steward, and then, being 
 unable to hold out any longer, seized hold of 
 her little ramrod of a husband and went 
 staggering and rolling below with him. When 
 he returned, he tossed down a glass of wine 
 with an angry gesture and a fierce counten- 
 ance, and looking at Hemskirk, cried out : 
 c I've a great respect for my wife, sir, and
 
 58 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 she's a fine woman in every sense of the word \ 
 — The Dutchman nodded. — 'But,' continued 
 the colonel, clenching his fist, ' if ever I go to 
 sea with a woman again, be she wife, aunt, or 
 grandmother, may I be poisoned for a lunatic, 
 and my remains committed to the deep. This 
 is the fourth time I've sworn it — my mind is 
 now resolved ! ' 
 
 Out of all this sort of thing one could get 
 a laugh here and there ; but on the whole it 
 was desperately weary work, and continued so 
 till we had blown clear of soundings. Alto- 
 gether, it was as ugly a down Channel run as 
 any man would pray to be preserved from ; 
 the atmosphere grey, the seas a muddy green, 
 the howling blast chill as a November morn, 
 often darkening to a squall, that would sweep 
 between the masts in horizontal hues of rain 
 sparkling like steel, and with spite enough in 
 the lancing of them to compel the strongest to 
 turn his back. Now and again a lady pas- 
 senger would show in the cuddy ; but though 
 there were some twenty-eight of us in all, not 
 reckoning a couple of ayahs, and a Chinaman 
 in the garb of his country, who acted as nurse 
 to one Mrs. Trevor's baby, never once in those
 
 MTt FELLOW PASSENGERS 59 
 
 days did above seven of us, barring the skipper 
 and his mates, sit down to a meal. 
 
 The thick weather lay heavily upon the 
 captain's mind, held him in fits of abstraction 
 whilst at table, dismissed him after a brief 
 sitting to the deck, and kept him heedful and 
 taciturn whilst there. He had had one 
 collision, and wanted no more ; and you would 
 notice how that tragedy had served him, by 
 observing him when in the cuddy to prick up 
 his ears to the least unusual noise on deck, to 
 glance at the tell-tale compass over his head, 
 as though it were the sun which he had been 
 patiently waiting for a chance to ' shoot,' to 
 swallow his food with impatient motions to 
 the steward to bear a hand, and to bolt up the 
 cabin steps without a smile or syllable of 
 apology to us for quitting the table.
 
 Co MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 LOUISE TEMI>LE 
 
 But there came a change at last. Ushant 
 was then many long leagues astern, and the 
 night had been dark but quiet, with a long 
 Biscayan swell brimming to our starboard 
 quarter, and a play of sheet-lightning off the 
 lee bow, and wind enough to send the India- 
 man through it at some six knots with her 
 royals and cross-jack furled and the weather 
 clew of her mainsail up. This was as the 
 picture showed when I went to bed at five 
 bells — half- past ten — and on opening my eyes 
 next morning I found the berth brilliant with 
 sunshine, bulkhead and ceiling trembling to 
 the glory rippling off the sea through the 
 large round scuttle or porthole, and the 
 action of the ship a stately gliding, with a 
 slow long floating heave that raised no sound 
 whatever of creak or straining, and that, after 
 the long spell of tumblefication, was as
 
 LOUISE TEMPLE 61 
 
 grateful to every sense and to all wearied 
 bones as the firm unrocking surface of dry 
 land. 
 
 Mr. Colledge was shaving himself. I lay 
 eyeing him for a few minutes, admiring the 
 handsome high-born looks of the youth, and 
 thinking it was a pity that such manly beauty 
 as his should lack the consecrating touch of 
 an intellectual expression to parallel his 
 physical graces. He saw me in the glass in 
 which he was scraping himself. 
 
 1 Good-morning, Dugdale. I feel all right 
 again, d'ye know. I am going to eat my 
 breakfast in the cuddy and then go on 
 deck.' 
 
 4 Glad to hear it,' said I, putting my legs 
 over the side of the bunk. 
 
 'I suppose there'll be some girls about 
 this morning,' said he. c Who the dooce are 
 the passengers, I wonder? Anybody very 
 nice aboard, not counting that ripping young- 
 lady with the black eyes ? ' 
 
 1 Nearly everybody's been as sea-sick as 
 you,' said I ; ' and the few who have put 
 in an appearance are males — your friend 
 Emmett, the fat Dutchman, and two or three 
 others.'
 
 62 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 ' Oh, you mean Mynheer Hemskirk, the 
 corpulent chap, whose voice sounds like that 
 of a man inside a rum puncheon talking, 
 through the bunghole.' 
 
 I asked him if he could tell me anything 
 about Miss Temple, the black-eyed lady. 
 
 ' Some one told me at Gravesend,' he 
 answered — l but I don't know who it was — 
 that she's a daughter of Sir Conyers Temple. 
 I think I've heard my father speak of him as 
 a man he has hunted with. If he's that Sir 
 Conyers, he broke his neck four years ago in 
 a steeplechase.' 
 
 'Who accompanies the young lady to 
 India, I wonder ? ' said I. 
 
 ' Her aunt, I believe ; but I don't know 
 her name. But I say, though, what makes 
 you so inquisitive ? ' 
 
 8 Oh, my dear Colledge,' said I, ' one is 
 always inquisitive about one's fellow- 
 passengers on board ship. The girl came 
 up to me on deck the other night when the 
 row of the collision was in full swing. I see 
 her big eyes now — black as ebony, yet 
 luminous too, with the flame of a flare-tin at 
 the side reflected in each magnificent orb in 
 a^ spot of crimson which made her pale
 
 LOUISE TEMPLE 63 
 
 hooded face as mystical as a vision of the 
 night.' 
 
 He turned to stare at me, and broke into 
 a laugh. 'So ! you are the poet amongst the 
 passengers, eh ? as Emmett's the painter ? 
 What's to be my walk? Oh, there goes the 
 first breakfast bell ! Heaven bless us, what a 
 delightful thing it is not to feel sea-sick ! ' 
 
 We continued to gabble a bit in this 
 fashion ; he then left the berth, and a little 
 later I followed him. 
 
 The large cuddy wore an aspect it had 
 not before exhibited. The sunshine sparkled 
 upon the skylights, and the interior was full 
 of the blue and silver radiance of the rich 
 and welcome autumn morning outside. The 
 long table was all aglow with the silver and 
 crystal furniture of the white damask, and 
 through the glazed domes in the upper deck 
 you could see the canvas on the mizzen 
 swelling in a milky softness from yard to yard 
 as the sails mounted to the height of the 
 tender little royal. 
 
 The passengers came from the deck or up 
 from below one after another ; the change in 
 the weather had acted as a charm, and here 
 now was the whole mob of us, one old lady
 
 64 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 excepted, with a glimpse to be had of the 
 two ayahs sunning themselves on the quarter- 
 deck. The skipper, looking a bit stale, as 
 with too much of all-night work, but smart 
 enough in the gingerbread trickery of his 
 uniform, made a little speech of compliments 
 to the ladies and gentlemen from the head of 
 the table. There was a courtliness about the 
 old fellow that gained not a little in relish 
 from a sort of deep-sea flavour in his manner 
 and varying expressions of face. I liked 
 the quality of the bow with which he accom- 
 panied his answer to any lady who addressed 
 him. 
 
 I sat at the bottom of the table on the 
 right hand of the chief-officer, and was able to 
 command a pretty good view of the people 
 that I was to be associated with, as I might 
 suppose, for the next three or four, and 
 perhaps five months. There were several 
 girls amongst us — two Miss Joliffes, three 
 Miss Brookes's, Miss Hudson, and four or five 
 more. Miss Hudson was exceedingly pretty 
 — hair of dark gold, and a skin delicate as a 
 lily, upon which lay a kind of golden tinge 
 — oh, call it not freckles ! though 1 dare- 
 say the charming effect was produced by
 
 LOUISE TEMPLE 65 
 
 something of that sort. Her eyes were large, 
 moist, violet in hue, with slightly lifted eye- 
 brows, which gave them an arch look. Mr. 
 Sylvanus Johnson, who sat next me, after 
 staring at her a little, muttered in my ear in 
 a dramatic undertone : ' Perdita has expressed 
 that o-irl sir : 
 
 Violets dim, 
 But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes 
 Or Cytherea's breath.' 
 
 1 If that be her mother next to her,' said 
 I, ' ^m your attention upon her, Mr. Johnson, 
 and Perdita's fancy will exhale ! ' 
 
 And indeed Mrs. Hudson was a very 
 extraordinary, and I may say violent contrast 
 to her daughter : a pursy lady of about fifty, 
 with a heavy underlip, puffed-out cheeks of a 
 bluish tint, and a wig, the youthful hue of 
 which defined every trace of age in her 
 countenance, till one thought of her as being 
 some score years older than she really was. 
 
 But the interior was wonderfully human- 
 ised by these ladies. Their dress, the sparkle 
 of jewels in their ears, on their fingers and 
 throats, here and there a turban seated high 
 on some motherly head — it was the age of 
 turbans and feathers — the soft notes of the 
 
 vol. 1. F
 
 66 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 girls running an undertone of music through 
 the deeper voices of the matrons and the 
 growling of us males grumbling conversation 
 across and up the table, whipped the fancy 
 ashore, and made one think of drawing-rooms 
 and guitars and Books of Beauty. 
 
 There was one lady, however, who held 
 my eye from the start. She was Miss Louise 
 Temple, and I cannot express how deep was 
 the admiration her charms excited in me. I 
 told you that I had caught a glimpse of her 
 at Gravesend ; but, down to this moment, I 
 had been unable to obtain a fair view of her. 
 Her hair that, to judge by the coils of it, when 
 let down would have reached to below her 
 knees, was of a wonderful blackness without 
 either gloss or deadness. She wore it in a 
 manner that was perfectly new in those days : 
 in twinings which heaped it up to the aspect 
 of a crown ; whilst behind it was brushed up 
 in a way to exhibit the lovely form of the 
 head from the curve of the neck to where the 
 beautiful tresses lay piled. Her face was per- 
 fectly colourless, the complexion clear, and 
 the skin exquisitely delicate. Her mouth was 
 small, the upper lip slightly curved, and there 
 was the hint of a pout in the faint, scarce
 
 LOUISE TEMPLE 67 
 
 perceptible protrusion of the under lip. Her 
 nose was perfectly straight, like a Greek 
 woman's ; but it had the English indent under 
 the brow, and therefore had the beauty, which 
 to my fancy, no Greek profile ever yet pos- 
 sessed. 
 
 But her eyes ! How am I to describe 
 them ? What impression can I hope to con- 
 vey by such terms as large, black, soft, and 
 fluid? The lids were delicately veined, the 
 eyelashes long, and between these fringes the 
 eyes shone of a dark liquid loveliness, full of 
 the light, as it seemed to me, of a high intelli- 
 gence, with spirit and haughtiness in every 
 glance. They were the most dramatic, by 
 which I do not mean theatric, pair of twinklers 
 that ever sparkled star-like under the beauty 
 of a woman's brow ; created, you might have 
 thought, for the interpretation of the Shake- 
 spearean imaginations, with all capacity in 
 them of surprise, scorn, resentment, melting 
 tenderness, and of every fine and noble passion. 
 She was attired in a dress of black cloth, 
 simple as a riding habit of to-day, and so 
 fitting her figure as to express without exag- 
 geration every point of grace in the curves 
 and fulness of her tall but still maidenlv form.
 
 63 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 I caught her glance for a moment ; I am 
 sure she remembered me as the passenger she 
 had addressed on the poop ; yet there was not 
 the faintest expression of recognition in the 
 full, firm, swift stare she honoured me with. 
 She looked away from me as haughtily as a 
 queen, with flashing inspection of the others 
 of the row of us that confronted her, though 
 it seemed to me that her gaze lingered a little 
 on the Honourable Mr. Colledge, who was 
 seated immediately opposite. 
 
 6 1 reckon now,' whispered Mr. Prance, 
 leaning to me in his chair from his athwart- 
 ship post at the foot of the table, ' that 
 yonder Miss Temple will be about the hand- 
 somest woman that was ever afloat.' 
 
 6 There have been many thousands of 
 women afloat,' said I, ' since Noah got 
 under way with the ladies of his family 
 aboard.' 
 
 ' I have been sailing in passenger-ships/ 
 said he, ' for nineteen years come next month, 
 and have never before seen such a figure-head 
 as Miss Temple's. What teeth she has ! 
 Little teeth, sir, as all women's should be ; 
 and where' s the whiteness that's to be com- 
 pared to them ? '
 
 LOUISE TEMPLE 69 
 
 1 Who is that homely, pleasant - faced 
 woman sitting by her side ? ' 
 
 'Her aunt, Mrs. Eadcliffe,' he answered. 
 
 4 What errand carries that stately creature 
 to India, do you know, Mr. Prance ? ' 
 
 ' I do not, sir.' 
 
 ' Not very likely,' I continued, ' that she's 
 bound out in search of a husband.' 
 
 1 No, no,' he muttered. ' The like of her 
 have a big enough market at home to com- 
 mand. No need for her to cross the ocean to 
 find a sweetheart. She's the daughter of a 
 dead baronet, a tenth title, so the captain was 
 saying ; and her mother has a large estate to 
 live on. Captain Keeling knows all about 
 them. Her ladyship was seized with para- 
 lysis when her husband was brought home 
 with his neck broken, and has been a sheer 
 hulk ever since, I believe, poor thing. We 
 brought Mrs. Eadcliffe to England last voyage. 
 Her husband's a big planter up country, and 
 worth a lac or two. I expect Miss Temple 
 is going out on a visit — nothing more. Her 
 health may need a voyage. Those choice bits 
 of mechanism often go wrong in their works. 
 She wants a stroke of colour in her cheeks. 
 'Tis the scent of the milkmaid that she lacks, sir.'
 
 jo MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 He gave a pleasant nod, quietly rose, and 
 went on deck by way of the cuddy front, to 
 relieve the second officer, who was watching 
 the ship for him whilst he breakfasted. 
 
 At such a first meal as this, so to speak, 
 when, barring one, we had all come together 
 for the first time, there was no want of British 
 reserve and shyness. We chiefly contented 
 ourselves with staring. Colonel Bannister 
 alone talked freely ; he was loud on the sub- 
 ject of army grievances, and was rendered 
 indeed, intolerably fluent and noisy by the 
 respectful attention he received from a 
 gentleman who sat over against him, one 
 Mr. Hoclcler, a tall, thin, nervous, yellow- 
 faced man, with a paralytic catching up ot 
 his breath in his speech, who was going to 
 India to fill some post of responsibility in 
 a college. Mrs. Bannister witli her hawks- 
 bill nose, grey hair, and full figure, sat bolt 
 upright, eating with avidity, and sweeping 
 the faces round about her with a small 
 severe eye. 
 
 I watched little Mrs.Badeliffe with attention. 
 It was not hard to guess that she was an ami- 
 able, fidgety, anxious body, of elastic proper- 
 ties of mind, easily, but only temporarily, to
 
 LOUISE TEMPLE 71 
 
 be repressed. She talked in a quick way to 
 her niece, darting what she had to say into 
 the girl's ear, with an abrupt withdrawal of 
 her head, and an earnest look at Miss Temple's 
 face. The other would sometimes faintly 
 smile, but for the "most part her air was one 
 of haughty abstraction. Indeed, it was easy 
 to see that, so far as her opinion of her fellow- 
 passengers went, it was not quite flattering to 
 the bulk of us. 
 
 It was a noble morning, indeed, on deck. 
 There was a long blue heave of swell from 
 the northward, quiet as the rise and fall of a 
 sleeper's breast, and the white buttons of the 
 ship's trucks, glancing like silver against the 
 moist blue of the sky, swung so slowly and 
 tenderly to and fro that one could almost 
 watch tli em without perception of any move- 
 ment. The ocean was of asleep sea blue, all 
 to eastward Hashing under the sun, and the 
 small waves chased us with a voice of summer 
 in the caressing seething of the snow of their 
 heads against the sides of the Indiaman. The 
 ship had studdingsails set, and under these 
 far overhanoingr wings the water trembled 
 back the radiance that fell from the swelling 
 cloths, as though there were a floating thin-
 
 72 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 ness of quicksilver there prismatic as a soap- 
 bubble. 
 
 Very soon after breakfast the poop was 
 filled, and I marked the Jacks forward staring 
 aft at the sight of us all. It was not hot 
 enough for an awning, and there was still too 
 much edge in the breeze, warmly as the sun 
 looked down, to suffer the ladies to sit for any 
 length of time. The picture was a cheerful 
 one, full of movement and life and colour. 
 The white-headed skipper, skewered up in his 
 bebuttoned and belaced frock-coat, patrolled 
 the weather side of the deck with Mrs. Rad- 
 cliffe on his arm. Mr. Emmett paced the 
 planks with Mrs. Joliffe and her daughters, 
 and I could hear him bidding them admire 
 the contrast between the violet shadowing in 
 the hollows of the sails and the delicate sheen 
 of the edges against the blue, as though at 
 those extremities they dissolved into pure 
 lustre. Little Mr. Saunders trotted along- 
 side the orbicular form of Mynheer Hemskirk, 
 who showed as a giant as he looked down 
 into the earnest upstaring face of the big- 
 headed little chap. Three Civil Service youths 
 lounged upon a hencoop, looking askant at the 
 young ladies, and laughing under their breaths
 
 LOUISE TEMPLE 
 
 73 
 
 at what one or another of them said. Near 
 the foremost skylight stood Mr. Johnson and 
 Colonel Bannister. One did not need to listen 
 attentively to understand that the colonel 
 was falling foul of the calling of journal- 
 ism, and that Mr. Johnson was endeavouring 
 to defend it by repeating over and over again : 
 ' Granted — I admit it — I'm not going to say 
 no ; but give me leave to ask, where on earth 
 would your profession be, sir, if its actions 
 were not chronicled ? ' These remarks he 
 continued to reiterate till the colonel was in 
 a white heat, and I had to walk away to con- 
 ceal my laughter. 
 
 As I passed the companion hatchway, 
 which you will please to understand is the 
 hooded entrance to the cuddy by way of the 
 poop, Miss Temple came up out of it, closely 
 followed by Mr. Colledge. There was some- 
 thing like a smile on her pale face, and he 
 was talking with animation. She wore a 
 black hat, wide at the brim, with a lar^e 
 black feather encircling it, and a sort of jacket 
 with some rich trimming of dark fur upon it. 
 I was close enough to overhear them as they 
 emerged. 
 
 1 I quite remember my dear father speak-
 
 74 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 ing of Lord Sandown,' she said, coming to a 
 stand at the head of the companion steps, 
 and sending a sparkling sweeping look along 
 the decks. ' Is not Lady Isabella Fitz James 
 an aunt of yours, Mr. Colledge ? ' 
 
 ' Oh yes. I hope you don't know her,' he 
 answered. ; She writes books, you know, 
 and fancies herself a wit ; and her conversa- 
 tion is as parching as the seedcake she used 
 to give me when I was a boy.' 
 
 ' 1 have met her,' said Miss Temple. 
 ' I rather liked her. Perhaps she neglects 
 to be clever in the company of her own 
 sex.' 
 
 ' Ever been to India before P ' he asked. 
 
 ' No,' she answered in a voice whose note 
 of affability somehow by no means softened 
 her haughty regard of the passengers as they 
 walked past. ' I am entirely obliging my 
 aunt by undertaking the trip. My uncle is 
 very old, and too infirm to make the passage 
 to England, and he was extremely anxious for 
 my mother and me to spend some months 
 with him. Of course it was a ridiculous invi- 
 tation as far as poor mamma is concerned. 
 You know she is a helpless cripple, Mr. 
 Colledge.'
 
 LOUISE TEMPLE 75 
 
 < Oh, indeed. I didn't know. I am very 
 sorry, I'm sure,' said he. 
 
 ' I shall not remain long,' she continued ; 
 ' most probably I shall return in this ship.' 
 
 4 By George, though, I hope you will ! ' 
 he exclaimed. ' I'm booked to come home in 
 her too. There'll be more shooting in three 
 months than I shall want, you know. I mean 
 to pot a few tigers, and try my hand on a 
 wild elephant or two. By Jove, Miss Temple, 
 if you'll allow me, you shall have the skin of 
 the first tiger I shoot ! ' 
 
 'Oh, you are too good, Mr. Colledge,' 
 said she, with a smile trembling on her parted 
 lips, lifting her hand as she spoke to smooth 
 a streak of hair off her forehead with fingers 
 that sparkled with rings ; but her eyes were 
 brighter than any of her gems ; they turned 
 at that instant full upon me as I stood looking 
 at her a little way past the mizzen-mast, and 
 there seemed something of positive insolence 
 in the brief stare she fixed upon me ; the faint 
 smile vanished to the curl of her upper lip as 
 she turned her head. 
 
 That, my fine madam, thought I, may be 
 your manner of regarding everything which is 
 not to be found in the Peerage.
 
 76 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 Colledge, who had followed her glance, 
 saw me. 
 
 ' Oh, Dugdale,' he cried, ' can you tell me 
 anything about tigers' skins — how long it 
 takes to doctor them into rugs and all that 
 sort of thing, don't you know ? ' 
 
 1 1 can tell you nothing about tigers' skins,' 
 said I curtly. ' I have never seen a tiger.' 
 
 6 Know anything about lions' skins, then ? ' 
 he sung out with a half-smile, meant, as my 
 temper fancied, for Miss Temple. 
 
 ' The ass in the fable clothed, himself in 
 one, I believe,' said I, ' but his roar betrayed 
 him.' 
 
 6 Now I come to think of it,' said he, ' I 
 believe there are no lions in India ; ' and he 
 looked from me to the girl with a face of 
 interrogation so full of good temper as to 
 satisfy me that at heart he was a kindly- 
 natured young fellow. 
 
 4 1 think I shall walk, Mr. Colledge,' said 
 Miss Temple. 
 
 They joined the folks promenading the 
 weather-deck, and I went to the recess under 
 the poop to smoke a pipe. 
 
 I leaned in a sulky mood against the bulk- 
 head. There was a sense upon me as of
 
 LOUISE TEMPLE 77 
 
 having been snubbed. I was a young man in 
 those days, of an uncomfortably sensitive dis- 
 position. Yet there should have been virtue 
 enough in that glorious morning to soothe in 
 one's soul a keener sting than was to be 
 inflicted by a handsome woman's scornful 
 glance. The slight leaning away of the ship 
 from the soft breeze showed a space over the 
 bulwark rails of the sparkling azure under the 
 sun steeping to the delicate silver blue of the 
 sky, with a small star-like point of white in 
 the far-off airy dazzle, marking the topmost 
 cloths of a ship out there. The white planks 
 under my feet had the glistening look of sand, 
 now that the decks had been washed down, 
 and had dried out into a frosting of themselves, 
 as it were, with tiny crystals of brine. The 
 shadows of the ri^o-inor in ink-black lines swung 
 sleepily to the motion of the fabric. The 
 Chinaman nurse, in a gown of blue, and wide 
 blue trousers, and primrose-coloured face, and 
 a gleaming tail like a dead black serpent lying 
 down his back, leaned against a carronade, 
 tossing the little baby he had charge of till the 
 plump little sweet crowed again with delight. 
 On the warm tarpaulin over the main-hatch sat 
 the two ayahs, crooning over the infants they
 
 78 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 held, often lifting their eyes, like beads of un- 
 polished indigo stuck into slips of mottled 
 soap, to the poop, where the mothers of their 
 youngsters were. There was a taste as of a 
 hubble-bubble in the air, with the faint relish 
 of bamboo chafing-gear and cocoa-nut ropes. 
 The hubble-bubble, I daresay, was a fancy 
 wrought by the spectacle of those black faces, 
 and helped by a noise of parrots somewhere 
 aft. 
 
 A length of sail was stretched along the 
 waist, and upon it were seated several sailors, 
 flourishing palms and needles as they stitched. 
 They talked together in a low voice that the 
 mate of the watch should not hear them. At 
 one of the fellows who sat with his face towards 
 me, I found myself looking as at a curiosity 
 that slowly compels the attention, spite of any 
 heedless mood you may be in. Many ugly 
 mariners had I met in my time, but never the 
 like of that man. His right eye had a lamen- 
 table cast ; his back was so round that I ima- 
 gined he had a hunch. He had enormously 
 ong strong arms, with immense fists at the 
 ends of them, and the sleeves of his shirt being 
 rolled to above his elbow exposed a score of 
 extraordinary devices in Indian ink writhing
 
 LOUISE TEMPLE 79 
 
 amongst the hair that lay in places like fur 
 upon the flesh. The bridge of his nose had 
 been crushed to his face, and a mere knob with 
 two holes in it stood out about an inch above 
 his hare-lip. Though manifestly an old sailor, 
 salted down for ship's use by years of seafaring, 
 his complexion was dingy and dough-like as 
 the skin of a London baker, with nothing dis- 
 tinctive upon it saving a number of warts, and 
 a huge mole over a ridge of scarlet eyebrow 
 dashed with a few grey hairs. His hair, that 
 was of coarse brick-red, hung down upon his 
 back, as though, forsooth, the ship's cook had 
 made a wig for him out of the parings of 
 carrots. Indeed, he was as much a monster 
 as anything that was ever shut up in a cage 
 and carried about as a show. 
 
 I was watching him with growing interest, 
 wondering to myself what sort of a life such 
 a creature as that had led, what kind of ships 
 he had sailed in chiefly, and how so grotesque 
 an object had been suffered to ' sign on ' for an 
 Indiaman, in which one might expect to find 
 something of a man-of-war uniformity and 
 smartness of crew, when Mr. Sylvanus Johnson 
 came out from the cuddy, rolling anunlighted 
 cheroot betwixt his lips.
 
 So MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 4 See that chap sitting upon the sail yonder? ' 
 said I — ' a good subject for a leading article, 
 Mr. Johnson „' 
 
 ' Oh confound it, Mr. Dugdale ; no sneers, 
 if you please. Let me light this cigar at your 
 pipe. That fellow is in Emmett's way, not 
 mine. Quite a triumph of hideousness, I 
 protest. But what's the matter with you, this 
 lovely morning ? You look a bit down in the 
 mouth, Mr. Dugdale. Not going to be sea-sick, I 
 hope, now that all the rest of us have recovered?' 
 
 ' Down in the mouth ? Not I. But I'll 
 tell you what, Mr. Johnson — when you take 
 charge of your newspaper, will you be so good 
 as to inform the world that there is nothing 
 under the broad sky more consumedly insipid 
 than the chattering of a young man and a 
 young woman when they first meet.' 
 
 6 Why, how now ? ' said he. 
 
 4 Oh, my dear sir,' cried I, ' hear them. 
 The unspeakable drivel of it — the ' reallys ' 
 and ' oh dears ' and ' yes quites ' — 
 
 ' Yes,' said Mr. Johnson looking at the ash 
 of his cigar after every puff; ' I think I know 
 what you mean. But it is the effect of polite- 
 ness, I believe. A young gentleman and a 
 young lady who desire to please will begin
 
 LOUISE TEMPLE Si 
 
 very low with each other, lest they should 
 prove disconcerting. But what d'ye say' — 
 he lowered his voice — ' to the drivel, as you 
 call it, of a man of advanced years ? ' — here 
 lie looked into the cuddy, then took a step 
 forward to peer up at the poop — ' of a person 
 who has seen the world — of a colonel, in short ? 
 I wish to be on good terms with my fellow- 
 passengers ; but if that man Bannister goes on 
 as he has begun, I'm afraid — I'm afraid it will 
 end in my having to pull his nose.' 
 
 He sent another nervous look into the 
 cuddy and frowned upon his cigar end. 
 
 ' Has he been offensive ? ' said I. 
 
 ' Well, judge,' he exclaimed, ' when I tell 
 you that he said there wasn't a respectable man 
 connected with journalism ; that the calling 
 was distinctly a tipsy one ; that his idea of a 
 journalist was that of a man lying in bed till 
 his only shirt came from the wash, and invent- 
 ing lies to publish to the world when the 
 washerwoman enabled him to clothe himself. 
 — " And pray, sir," said I, sneering at him, 
 " what would the country know of your 
 military achievements if it were not for the 
 journalist? You army gentlemen profess to 
 despise him ; bat you will get up very early 
 
 vol. I. G
 
 82 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 to buy bis paper if you have a notion that 
 there will be any mention of your doings in 
 it." — That was pretty warm, I think ? ' 
 
 ' Bather,' said I ; ' and what did he say ? ' 
 
 ' He answered that if any other man but 
 myself had said as much, he would have told 
 him to go and be damned.' 
 
 ' Well,' said I, ' I hope the passengers may 
 prove a companionable body, I am sure. For 
 my part, it is more likely than not that my 
 place of abode whilst the weather permits will 
 be the foretop. Anything to escape over- 
 hearing the insipidity of a chat between a 
 young man and a young woman when they 
 first meet.' 
 
 ' I see,' said he, ; that your friend Colledge 
 has hooked himself on to Miss Temple. I 
 should say he needs to be the son of a noble- 
 man to make headway with such a Cleopatra 
 as her ladyship. Fine eyes, perhaps ; but a 
 little pale, eh? Give me Miss Hudson. I 
 don't admire the sneering part of the sex.' 
 
 ' Nor I,' said I. 
 
 'But every woman,' said he, ' has a way 
 of her own of making love. Some simper 
 themselves into a man's affection, and some 
 triumph by scorn and contempt. Do you re-
 
 LOUISE TEMPLE 83 
 
 member liow the Duchess of Cleveland made 
 love to Wycherley? She put her head out 
 of the coach window and cried out to him : 
 " Sir, you're a rascal, you're a villain ! " and 
 Pope tells us that Wycherley from that mo- 
 ment entertained hopes.' 
 
 But by this time my pipe was smoked out ; 
 and catching sight of Mynheer Hemskirk and 
 a passenger named Adams, a lawyer, coming 
 down the ladder with the notion as I might 
 guess of joining us in the recess that was the 
 one smoking-room of the ship, I bolted for- 
 wards, got upon the forecastle, and overhung 
 the rail, where I lay for a long half-hour 
 lazily enjoying the sight of the massive cut- 
 water of the Indiaman rending the brilliant 
 blue surface, with a clear lift of azure water 
 either hand of her, that broke into a little 
 running stream of foam abreast of the cat- 
 heads, and swarmed quietly aft in foam-bells 
 and winking bubbles, that made one think of 
 the froth at the foot of a cascade gliding alon<? 
 the crystal-clear breast of a stream to the 
 murmur of summer leaves and the horn-like 
 hum of insects. 
 
 g2
 
 84 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 A MYSTERIOUS VOICE 
 
 Well, all that day the weather held fine and 
 clear ; indeed, we might have been on the 
 Madeira parallels ; and I said to Mr. Prance 
 that it was enough to make one keep a bright 
 look-out for the flying fish. The sky was of 
 a wonderful softness of blue, piebald in the 
 main, with small snow-like puffs of cloud 
 flying low, as though they were a fog that 
 had broken up. A large black ship passed 
 us in the afternoon. She was close hauled, 
 and, being to leeward, showed to perfection 
 when she came abreast. Her sails seemed to 
 be formed of cotton cloth, and mounted in 
 three spires to little sky sails, with a crowd of 
 fleecy jibs curving at the bowsprit and jib- 
 booms, and many stay-sails between the masts 
 softly shadowed like a drawing in pencil. The 
 lustre lifting off the sea was reverberated in a 
 row of scuttles, and the flash of the glass was
 
 A MYSTERIOUS VOICE 85 
 
 so like the yellow blaze of a gun that you 
 started to the sight, and strained your ear an 
 instant for the report. 
 
 She was too far off to hail. The captain, 
 standing in the midst of a crowd of ladies, 
 said that she was an American, and told the 
 second officer, who had the watch, to make 
 the Countess Idas number. 
 
 ' Oh, what a lovely string of flags ! ' ex- 
 claimed Miss Hudson, who stood near me, 
 following with her languishing violet eyes the 
 soaring of the mani-coloured bunting as it rose 
 to the block of the peak signal halliards like 
 the tail of a kite. ' Is there anybody very 
 important in that ship that we are honouring 
 him with that pretty display ? ' 
 
 ' No,' said I, laughing, as I let my gaze 
 sink fair into the sweet depths of her wonder- 
 ful peepers. 'By means of those flags the 
 Countess Ida is telling yonder craft who she 
 is, so that when she arrives home she may 
 report us.' 
 
 ' Oh, how heavenly ! Only think of a ship 
 being made to tell her name! Oh mamma, 
 she cried, making a step to catch hold of her 
 mother's gown, and to give it a tweak, as the 
 old lady stood at the rail gazing at the Ameri-
 
 86 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 can vessel from the ambush of a large bonnet, 
 shaped like a coal-scuttle ; ' imagine, dear : 
 Mr. Dugdale says that the Countess Ida is 
 telling that ship who she is. How clever men 
 are — particularly sailors. I love sailors.' 
 
 Her melting eyes sought the deck, and 
 the long lashes drooped in a tender shadow of 
 beauty upon the faint golden tinge of her 
 cheeks. 
 
 ' La, now, to think of it ! ' cried Mrs. Hud- 
 son. ' Well, those who go down into the sea, 
 as the saying is, do certainly see some won- 
 derful things.' 
 
 Here Mr. Colledge, who did not know, I 
 suppose, that I was conversing with these 
 ladies, came up to me and said : ' By the way, 
 Dugdale, what was that joke of yours about 
 the lion's skin this morning? Miss Temple 
 says it was meant for a joke ; but hang me if 
 I can see any point in it.' 
 
 ' What did I say ? ' I asked. 
 
 He repeated the remark. 
 
 ' Oh, yes ; the young lady is right,' said I, 
 sending a look at her as she stood near the 
 wheel by her aunt's side — the pair of them 
 well away from the rest of us — gazing through 
 a pair of delicate little opera glasses at the
 
 A MYSTERIOUS VOICE 87 
 
 Yankee ; ' it was a joke. What a capital 
 memory you have. But as to point, it had 
 none, and the joke, my dear fellow, lies in 
 that.' 
 
 ' Well,' said lie, ' it makes a man feel like 
 an ass to miss a good thing when a lady is 
 standing by who can see it clearly enough to 
 laugh at it afterwards.' 
 
 ' Yes,' I exclaimed ; ' very true indeed. 
 What a fine picture that ship makes, eh? 
 There goes her answering pennant ! Let them 
 say what they will of Jonathan, he has a trick 
 high above the art of John Bull in ship- 
 building.' 
 
 I watched his handsome face as he peered 
 at her. He turned to me and said : ' D'ye 
 know, there's a doocid lot of humour in the 
 idea of the point of a joke lying in its having 
 no point ; ' and with that he went over to 
 Miss Temple, whose haughty face softened into 
 a smile to his approach ; and there for some 
 time the three of them stood, he ogling the 
 American (that was slowly slipping into toy- 
 like dimensions upon our quarter) through 
 the girl's binocular ; whilst she talked with 
 him, as I could tell by the movement of her 
 lips, Mrs. RadclifFe meanwhile looking on with
 
 88 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 fidgety motions of her head, and frequent 
 glances at her niece, the nervous interrogative 
 slightly troubled character of which was as 
 suggestive to me as to how it stood between 
 them, as if she had come to my side and 
 whipped out that she was really afraid that 
 Louise's character would make the charge of 
 her a worry and a perplexity. 
 
 There was a noble sunset that evening. 
 In the west lay stretched a delicate curtain of 
 cloud linked in shapes of shell, with dashes 
 here and there as of mare's tails ; whilst near 
 the sea-line the vapour was more compacted, 
 still linked, but with a closer inwreathing, as 
 like to chain armour as anything I can com- 
 pare it to. When the sun sank into this 
 exquisite lace of vapour, it lighted up a 
 hundred colours all over it, which transformed 
 the whole of the western heavens into a most 
 gorgeous and dazzling tapestry. Xever saw I 
 before the like of such a sunset. But for the 
 visible circle of the glowing mass of the orb, 
 you would have thought those glorious shooting 
 hues, those astonishing and sumptuous emis- 
 sions of green and gold and purple, of rose 
 and brilliant yellow and shining blue fainting 
 into an unimaginably delicate texture of green,
 
 A MYSTERIOUS VOICE 89 
 
 some phenomenal exhibition of electric splen- 
 dour. The sea glowed under this vast display 
 of western magnificence in fifty superb hues. 
 We all stood looking, whilst the wondrous 
 pageant slowly faded, the ship meanwhile re- 
 flecting the splendour in her sails till they 
 showed like yellow satin against the soft 
 evening blue gathering over the mastheads, as 
 she pushed softly through the water, the oil- 
 smooth surface of her wake lined with the 
 spume broken out by the passage of her bows 
 lifting tenderly on the swell that was flowing 
 in long lines to the ship from out of the north- 
 west. 
 
 The moon rose late, but it was a fine clear 
 starlit dusk when eight bells of the second 
 dog-watch floated along the decks and echoed 
 quietly down out of the wind- hushed spaces 
 of the canvas. The sea swept black to its 
 confines where the low wheeling stars were 
 hovering like ships' lights in the immeasurable 
 distance. The radiance of the cuddy lamps 
 flung a sheen upon the quarter-deck atmo- 
 sphere; but away forward from abreast of the 
 mainmast the ship lay black in the shadow of 
 her own canvas, with a view of a few dark 
 blotches of the forms of men moving about
 
 90 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 the forecastle, their figures showing out against 
 the brilliant dust in the shy under the wide 
 yawn of the fore-course. 
 
 Old Keeling was pacing the deck with 
 studding-sails out on both sides, as Jack says, 
 that is to say, with a lady on either arm. 
 Other figures moved here and there ; and Mr. 
 Cocker, who had charge of the deck, walked 
 to and fro from rail to rail with the young 
 fourth officer by his side, regularly pausing, 
 ere swinging round for the stump back, to 
 take a peep under the foot of the mainsail or 
 to send a long look into the weather horizon. 
 Little Mr. Saunders came up to me, spoke of 
 the beauty of the evening, and asked me to 
 walk. He was a very intelligent little chap, 
 and had written several works on the super- 
 stitions of various peoples in relation to their 
 treatment of diseases. He was wonderfully in 
 earnest in all he said, and would again and 
 again in his enthusiasm come to a stand, raise 
 his arm to catch hold of a button of my coat, 
 as if to detain me, meanwhile standing on the 
 tips of his toes and peering up into my face. 
 On the other side of the deck walked my 
 friend Colledge between Miss Temple and her 
 aunt. Three of the Civil Service o-entlemen
 
 A MYSTERIOUS VOICE 91 
 
 were in tow of Mrs. Brookes and her 
 daughters ; and right aft, leaning in pictur- 
 esque attitude against one of the guns, was 
 Mr. Sylvanus Johnson airily and in a gallant 
 tone of voice explaining to Mrs. and Miss 
 Hudson how it was that the sun and moon 
 were sometimes to be seen shining together. 
 Down in the cuddy, directly under the after- 
 skylight, sat Colonel Bannister playing whist 
 with his wife, Mr. Hodder, and Mr Adams ; 
 and almost every time I passed I could hear 
 the military man's voice remonstrating with 
 one or the other of them for having played 
 such or such a card : ' You should have led 
 the knave, sir. What on earth, my dear, 
 made you trump ^'spades ? Xo, no ; I was 
 right ! I believe I am not to be taught whist 
 at my time of life, sir ; ' and so on, and so on. 
 By-and-by a bell rang to summon the 
 passengers below to such refreshments of wine 
 and biscuits and strong waters as they chose 
 to partake of. The promenaders in shadowy 
 forms melted down the companion hatchway, 
 and two or three of us only remained on deck. 
 Mr. Colledge was one of them. He came over 
 to me, staring in my face, to make sure of me, 
 and exclaimed : ' I wisli they would allow a
 
 92 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 man to smoke up here. What is the evil in a 
 pipe of tobacco or a cheroot, that you must go 
 and sneak into a dark corner to light it ? ' 
 
 6 How is it that you are not below with 
 Miss Temple ? ' said I. 
 
 1 Oh,' said he, laughing, ' I want to make 
 her last me out the voyage, and that won't be 
 done, you know, if we see too much of each 
 other.' 
 
 4 You are to be congratulated,' said I, 8 on 
 the compliment she pays you : 
 
 Favours to none, to none she smiles extends ; 
 Oft she rejects, and oftener still offends. 
 
 That's not exactly how the poet puts it, but it 
 is apter than the original.' 
 
 ' Oh well, you know, Dugdale, she has met 
 some of my people. I don't dislike her for 
 holding off. It shows that her blood and 
 instincts are English ; though, faith, when I 
 first saw her I took her to be a Spaniard. 
 Between you and me, though, the golden 
 headed girl's the belle of the ship. What's her 
 name ? — Ah ! Miss Hudson. Look at her 
 as she sits in the light down there ! Why, 
 now, if I had your poetical turn, how would 
 I spout whole yards about her fingers like
 
 A MYSTERIOUS VOICE 93 
 
 snowflakes, and her lips like But see 
 
 here ! there's nothing new in the shape of 
 imagery to apply to a pretty woman. Oh 
 yes ! Miss Hudson's the ship's beauty. But 
 Miss Temple is ripping company, and, my 
 stars ! what eyes ! ' 
 
 I Take care,' said I, laughing, ' that you 
 don't do what the man who marries the 
 deceased wife's sister always does — wed the 
 wrong one. Choose correctly at the start.' 
 
 He burst into a laugh. 
 
 I I am already engaged to be married,' 
 said he. 'What single man of judgment 
 would dare adventure a voyage to Bombay 
 without securing himself in that fashion 
 against all risks ? ' 
 
 I stared into his grinning face, as we stood 
 at the skylight, to discover if he was in 
 earnest. 
 
 1 Keep your secret, Colledge,' said I ; ' I'll 
 not peach.' 
 
 Here the second-mate interrupted us by 
 singing out an order to the watch to haul 
 down the fore and main topgallant studding- 
 sails. Then he took in his lower and main 
 topmast studdingsails. The men's noisy bawl- 
 ing made talking difficult, and Colledge went
 
 9 4 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 below for a glass of brandy-and-water. 
 Presently old Keeling came on deck, and after 
 a look around, and a pretty long stare over 
 the weather bow, where there was a very 
 faint show of lightning, he said something to 
 the second mate and returned to the cndcly. 
 
 6 In foretopmast stnddingsail ! ' bawled Mr. 
 Cocker ; ' clew up the mizzen-royal and furl 
 it.' 
 
 A little group of midshipmen hovering in 
 the dusk in the lee of the break of the poop, 
 where the shadow of the great mainsail lay 
 like the darkness of a thunderstorm upon the 
 air, rushed to the mizzen rigging, and in a few 
 moments the gossamer-Jike cloud floating 
 under the mizzen-royal truck was melting out 
 like a streak of vapour against the stars, with 
 a couple of the young lads making the shrouds 
 dance as they clawed their way up the rat- 
 lines. 
 
 ' What's wrong with the weather, Mr. 
 Cocker,' said I, ' that you are denuding the 
 ship in this fashion ? ' 
 
 6 Oh,' said he with a short laugh, ' Captain 
 Keeling is a very cautious commander, sir. 
 He'll never show a stun'sail to the night out- 
 side the tropics ; and it is a regular business
 
 A MYSTERIOUS VOICE 95 
 
 with us to furl the fore and mizzen royal in 
 
 the second dog-watch, though it is so fine to- 
 night, he has let them fly longer than usual.' 
 
 ' Humph ! ' said I ; 'no wonder he's 
 popular with lady passengers. I suppose 
 there is no chance of the ship falling over- 
 board with the main-royal still on her ? ' 
 
 ' When it comes to my getting command,' 
 said he, t the world will find that I am for 
 carrying on. What my ship can't carry, she'll 
 have to drag. I've made my calculations, and 
 there's nothing with decent heels that shouldn't 
 be able to make the voyage to India in seventy- 
 five days. It is the trick of wind-jamming that 
 stops us all. A skipper '11 sweat his yards fore 
 and aft sooner than be off his course by the 
 fraction of a point. For my part, I'd make 
 every foul wind a fair one.' 
 
 He called out some order to the group of 
 shadows at work upon the lower studdingsail, 
 and I went to the skylight with half a mind in 
 me to go below and see what was doing there ; 
 but changed my intention when I saw friend 
 Colledge leaning over a draughtboard with 
 Miss Temple, Miss Hudson looking on at the 
 game from the opposite side, and Mr. Johnson 
 drawing diagrams with his forefinger to Mrs.
 
 96 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 Hudson in explanation of something I suppose 
 that he was talking about. 
 
 I went right aft and sat myself upon a little 
 bit of grating abaft the wheel, and there, spite 
 of the adjacency of the man at the helm, I felt 
 as much alone as if I had mastheaded myself. 
 The great body of the Indiaman went away 
 from me in a dark heap ; the white deck of 
 the poop was a mere faintness betwixt the 
 rails. Her canvas rose in phantasmal ashen 
 outlines, with a slow swing of stars betwixt 
 the squares of the rigging, and a frequent 
 flashing of meteors on high sailing amongst 
 the luminaries in streaks of glittering dust. 
 There was little more to be heard than the 
 chafe of the tiller gear in its leading blocks, 
 the occasional dim noise of a rope straining to 
 the quiet lift of the Indiaman, the bubbling 
 of water going away in holes and eddies 
 from the huge rudder, and a dull tinkling of 
 the piano in the saloon, and some lady singing 
 to it. 
 
 All at once I spied the figure of a man 
 dancing down the main shrouds in red-hot 
 haste. I was going in a lounging way forward 
 at the moment, and heard Mr. Cocker say: 
 4 What the deuce is it ? ' The fellow standing
 
 A MYSTERIOUS VOICE 
 
 97 
 
 on a ratline a little above the bulwark rail 
 made some answer. 
 
 'Yon are mad,' cried the mate. 'What 
 are von — an Irishman ? ' 
 
 ' Xo, sir.' I had now drawn close enough 
 to catch what was said. ' If I was, maybe I'd 
 be a Papish, and then the sign of the cross 
 would exercise [exorcise, I presume] the 
 blooming voice overboard.' 
 
 ' Voice in your eye ! ' cried Mr. Cocker. 
 6 Up again with you ! This is some new dod<*e 
 for skulking. But you'll have t) invent 
 something better than a ghost before you 
 knock off on any job you're upon aboard this 
 ship.' 
 
 'What is it, sir?' called the voice of the 
 captain from the companion, and he came 
 marching up to us in his buttoned-up way, as 
 though he sought to neutralise the trick of a 
 deep sea roll by a soldierly posture. 
 
 'Why, sir,' answered Mr. Cocker, 'this 
 man here has come down from aloft with a 
 run to tell me that there's a ghost talking to 
 him upon the topsail yard.' 
 
 'A what? ' cried the captain. 
 
 ' I 'splained it to the second officer as a 
 woice, sir,' said the man, speaking very respect- 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 9 S MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 fully, but emphatically, as one talking out of 
 a conviction. 
 
 ' What did this voice say ? ' said the 
 captain. 
 
 1 1 was mounting the topmast rigging,' re- 
 plied the man, ' and my head was on a level 
 with the tawpsl yard, when a woice broke 
 into a sort of raw " haw-haw," and says, 
 " What d'ye want ? " it says. " Hook it ! " it 
 says. " I know you." So down I come.' 
 
 1 Anybody skylarking up there, Mr. 
 Cocker ? ' 
 
 The mate looked up with his hand to the 
 side of his mouth. ' Aloft there ! ' he bawled ; 
 1 anybody on the topsail yard ? ' 
 
 We all strained our ears, staring intently, 
 but no response came, and there was nothing 
 to be seen. Dark as the shadow of the night 
 was up in the loom of the squares of canvas, 
 it was not so black but that a human figure 
 might have been seen up in it after some 
 searching with the gaze. 
 
 c It's your imagination, my man,' said the 
 captain, half- turning as though to walk aft. 
 
 1 Up aloft with you again, now ! ' exclaimed 
 the second-mate. 
 
 ' By thunder, then,' cried the man, smiting
 
 A MYSTERIOUS VOICE 99 
 
 the ratline with his fist, whilst he clipped hold 
 of it with the other, swinging out and staring 
 
 up, ' I'd rather go into irons for the rest of 
 the woyage ! ' 
 
 By this time a number of the watch on 
 deck had gathered about the main-hatchway, 
 and stood in a huddle in the obscurity, listening 
 to what was going forward. On a sudden a 
 fellow leapt out of the group and sprang into 
 the main rigging. 
 
 He hove some curses under his breath at 
 the seaman, who continued to hang in the 
 shrouds, and went aloft, hand over fist, as good 
 as disappearing to the eye as he climbed into 
 the big main top. The other man put his foot 
 on to the rail and dropped on to the deck, 
 where some of the sailors began eagerly in 
 hoarse hurried whispers to question him. 
 
 ' Well, what d'ye see? ' shouted Mr. Cocker, 
 sending his voice fair into the full heart of the 
 high glooming topsail. 
 
 There was no answer ; but a few seconds 
 later I spied the dark form of the man swing off 
 the rigging on to the topmast backstay, down 
 which he slided in headlong speed. He 
 jumped on to the poop ladder and roared out : 
 ' By holy Moses, then, sir, it's the devil him- 
 
 h 2
 
 ioo MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 self! There's no man to be seen, and yet a 
 man there is ! ' 
 
 ' And what did he say ? ' 
 
 ' Why,' he cried, wiping the sweat off his 
 brow, ' Blast me, here he is again ! ' 
 
 The brief pause that followed showed the 
 captain as well as the second-mate, to be not a 
 little astonished. In fact, the fellow was one 
 of the boatswain's mates, a bushy whiskered 
 giant of a sailor, assuredly not of a kind to 
 connive at any Jack's horse-play or tomfoolery 
 in his watch on deck and under the eye of the 
 officer in charge. The captain sent one of the 
 midshipmen for his binocular glass, the second 
 mate meanwhile staggering back a few paces 
 to stare aloft. But there was no magic in the 
 skipper's lenses to resolve the conundrum. In- 
 deed, I reckoned my own eyes to be as good 
 as any glasses for such an inspection as that ; 
 but view the swelling heights as I would, going 
 from one part of the deck to another, that no 
 fathom of the length of the yards should es- 
 cape me, I could witness nothing resembling a 
 human shape, nothing whatever with the least 
 stir of life in it. 
 
 4 Well, this beats my time !' said Mr Cocker, 
 drawing a deep breath.
 
 A MYSTERIOUS VOICE 101 
 
 1 What sort of voice was it P ' demanded 
 Captain Keeling, letting fall the binocular with 
 which he had been sweeping the fabric of spar 
 and sail, and coming to the brass rail over- 
 looking the quarter-deck. 
 
 The first of the two men who had been 
 terrified cried out from the group near the 
 hatchway, before the other could answer : ' It 
 was exactly like the voice of Punch, sir, in 
 the Judy show.' 
 
 ' Then there must be a pair of 'em ! ' roared 
 the other fellow with great excitement. ' What 
 I heard was like a drunken old man swearing 
 in his sleep.' 
 
 ' Captain,' said I, stepping forward, ' let 
 me go aloft, will you ? I've long wanted to 
 believe in ghosts, and here is a chance now for 
 me to embark in that faith.' 
 
 ' Ghosts, Mr Dugdale ? Yet it is an extra- 
 ordinary business too. There has been no- 
 thing to hear from the deck, lias there?' 
 
 1 Xothing, sir,' answered Mr. Cocker. ' But, 
 Mr. Dugdale, if you will take the weather 
 rigging, I'll slip up to leeward ; and it'll be 
 strange if between us we don't let the life out 
 of the wonder, be it what it will.' 
 
 I jumped at once into the weather shrouds,
 
 ro2 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 and was promptly travelling aloft with the 
 si »lit of the figure of the second mate in the 
 rigging abreast clawing the ratlines, and the 
 frog-like spread of his legs showing out against 
 thefaintness of the space of the mainsail behind 
 him. We came together in the maintop, and 
 there stood looking up and listening a minute. 
 
 ' I see nothing,' said I. 
 
 ' Nor I,' said the second mate. 
 
 We peered carefully round us, then got into 
 the topmast rigging and climbed to the level 
 of the topsail yard, where we waited for the 
 wonderful voice to address us ; but nothing- 
 spoke, nor was there anything to be seen. 
 
 ' Those two sailors must have fallen crazy,' 
 said I. 
 
 ' There's no need to go any higher,' said Mr. 
 Cocker ; ' the topgallant and royal yards lie 
 clear as rules against the stars. On deck 
 there ! ' 
 
 'Hallo?' came the voice of the captain, 
 floating up in a sort of echo from the hull of 
 the ship, that looked a mile down in that 
 gloom. 
 
 ' There's nothing up here for a voice to come 
 out of, sir.' 
 
 ' Then you had better come down, sir,' called
 
 A MYSTERIOUS VOICE 103 
 
 the captain ; and I thought I could hear a 
 little note of laughter below, as though two or 
 three passengers had collected. 
 
 Mr. Cocker's vague form melted over the 
 top ; but I lingered a minute to survey the 
 picture. My head was close against the main- 
 topmast crosstrees, a height of some eighty or 
 ninety feet above the line of the ship's rail, 
 with the distance of the vessel's side from the 
 water's edge to add on to it. I lingered but a 
 minute or two, yet in that brief space the 
 shadowy night-scene, with the grand cathedral- 
 like figure of the noble craft sailing along in 
 the heart of it, was swept into me with such 
 vehemence of impression that the scene lies 
 upon my memory clear now as it then was in 
 that far-off, that very far-off, time. Every 
 sound on deck rose with a subdued thin tone, as 
 though from some elfin world. There was a 
 delicate throbbing of green lire in the black 
 water as it washed slowly past the lazy sides 
 of the Countess Ida, and upon this visionary, 
 faintly-glittering surface the form of the great 
 ship was shadowily depictured, with the glim 
 mer of the deck of the poop dimly dashed 
 with the illuminated squares of the sky-lights, 
 and a point of scarce determinable radiance
 
 104 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 confronting the wheel where the binnacle light 
 was showing. The ocean night-breeze sighed 
 with a note of surf heard from afar in the 
 quiet hollows of the canvas. There was some- 
 times a little light pattering of the reef-points, 
 resembling the noise of the falling of a brief 
 summer thunder-shower upon fallen leaves. 
 The sea spread as vast as the sky, and you 
 seemed to be able to pierce to the other side 
 of the world, so infinitely distant did the 
 stars close to the horizon look, as though 
 there they were shining over an antipodean 
 land. 
 
 6 Aloft there, Mr. Dugdale ! ' came dimly 
 sounding from the deck ; ' do you hear any- 
 thing more of the voice ? ' 
 
 ' No,' I answered ; but the cry had broken 
 the spell that was upon me, and down 
 I went, looking narrowly about me as I 
 descended. 
 
 I had scarcely gained the poop when there 
 was a commotion on the quarter-deck, and I 
 heard the voice of the Chinaman exclaiming : 
 'What sailor-man hab seen Prince? What 
 sailor-man, I say, hab seen him ? Him gone 
 for lost, I say? Oh— ai— ; Oh— ai— ! 
 Him ixone for lost, I sav ? '
 
 A MYSTERIOUS VOICE io S 
 
 1 Who in thunder is making that row ? ' 
 shouted Mr Cocker, putting his head over the 
 brass rail. 
 
 The Chinaman stepped out from under the 
 recess, and the cabin lights showed him up 
 plainly enough. He wrung his hands and 
 executed a variety of piteous gestures whilst he 
 cried : ' Oh sah, did you sabbe Prince ? Him 
 gone for lost, I say ! Oh — ai — ! Oh — ai 
 — ! Him gone for lost, I say ! ' And here 
 he rolled his eyes up aloft and over the 
 bulwarks, and then made as if he would 
 rush forwards. 
 
 4 Is that you, Handcock? 5 said Mr Cocker, 
 addressing a stout man who stepped out of the 
 cuddy at that moment. 
 
 ; Yes, shy answered the fellow, who was 
 indeed the head steward. 
 
 ; What's the matter with that Chinese 
 idiot r * 
 
 'Why, sir, his mistress's parrot has escaped. 
 He is responsible for the safe-keeping of the 
 fowl, and he's just missed him/ 
 
 1 Then it'll ha' been that bloomin' parrot 
 that's been a talking aloft/ said a deep voice 
 from near the pumps ; but I noticed an un- 
 easy shifting amongst some of the figures
 
 106 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 standing there, as though that^eve a conjecture 
 not to be too hastily received. 
 
 ' Here, John,' shouted Mr Cocker ; ' come 
 up here, Johnny.' 
 
 The Chinaman, who continued to mutter 
 « Oh — ai — ! ' whilst he gazed idiotically 
 about him with much wringing of his hands, 
 slowly and in attitudes of extreme misery, 
 ascended the poop ladder. 
 
 ' Could this parrot talk, John ? ' said Mr. 
 Cocker. 
 
 6 Oh, him talkee lubberly. Him speakee 
 like soul of Christian gen'man.' 
 
 4 What could he say ? ' shouted the second 
 mate, evidently desirous that this conversation 
 should be heard on the quarter-deck. 
 
 ' Oh, him say " you go dam," ' cried John. 
 6 And what else ? ' cried Mr. Cocker, 
 smothering his laughter. 
 
 ' Oh, him say " Gib me egg for breakfiss ; " 
 and him laugh " haw-haw ; " and him say 
 " hook it " and " whach you wantee ; " and he 
 speakee better than common sailor-man ; ' and 
 here he burst out into another long wailing 
 6 Oh — ai — ! Him gone for drownded. 
 Him gone for lost, I say ! ' 
 
 ' Now you hear what this man says, my
 
 A MYSTERIOUS VOICE 107 
 
 lads,' called Mr. Cocker. * Jump aloft, those 
 of you who are not afraid ', and catch the 
 bird if you can.' 
 
 The young fourth mate set the example ; 
 and in a trice a dozen sailors were running 
 up the fore main and mizzen, where for a 
 long half-hour they were bawling to one 
 another, some of them feigning to have 
 caught the bird, whilst they Icurikity-cooed at 
 the top of their pipes, the Chinaman mean- 
 while shrieking with excitement as he ran 
 from one mast to another. But it was all to 
 no purpose. The bird had evidently gone 
 overboard ; probably had attempted a flight 
 with its shorn pinions after the second of the 
 men who had been frightened had come down 
 in a hurry. The search was renewed next 
 morning at daybreak ; but poor Prince was 
 gone for good.
 
 io8 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 CHAPTEE VI 
 
 WE LOSE A MAN 
 
 Spite of Mr. Cocker's hints as to Captain 
 Keeling's timidity in the matter of canvas, the 
 old skipper evidently knew what he was about 
 in taking in his flying kites in good time, for 
 whilst the seamen were still scrambling in the 
 rigging and skylarking up there in search of 
 the parrot, the breeze freshened in a long 
 moaning gust over the rail, with a brighter 
 flashing of the stars to windward, and a 
 sudden stoop of the Indiaman that sent a 
 line of water washing along her sides in milk ; 
 and at midnight she was bowing down with 
 nothing showing above her main topgallant- 
 sail to a strong wind off the beam, the stars 
 gone, and a look of hard weather in the ob- 
 scurity of the horizon. 
 
 For the next four days we had plenty of 
 wind and high seas with frequent grey rain- 
 squalls shrouding the ship, and leaving her
 
 WE LOSE A MAX 109 
 
 with streaming decks and darkened canvas 
 and dribbling gear. It was Channel weather 
 again, in short, saving that there was the 
 relish of the temperate parallels in the air, 
 whilst the seas rolled large and wide and 
 regular with all the difference betwixt the 
 motion of the ship and her rollicking neck- 
 breaking capers in the narrow waters that 
 you'd find between the trot of a donkey and 
 the majestical thunderous gallop of a charger. 
 But the wet made a miserable time of it. 
 What was there to be seen on deck save the 
 gleaming forms of men in oil-skins, the sweep 
 of the dark-green surge out of the near veil 
 of haze, the rain-shadowed curves of the 
 canvas — the whole fitly put to music by the 
 damp dull clattering of booms, noises of 
 chafing up aloft, and the wild whistling of the 
 wind upon the taut weather rigging? The 
 males amongst us who smoked would come 
 together after meals in a huddle under the 
 break of the poop, cowering against the 
 weather bulkhead out of the wet of the rain ; 
 and on these occasions arguments ran high. 
 If Colonel Bannister was of our company, 
 nothing could be said but that he whipped 
 out with a flat contradiction to it. In fact, he
 
 no MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 was of that order of mind who reckons its 
 mission to be that of teaching everybody to 
 think correctly. 
 
 Once he endeavoured to prove to Mr. 
 Emmett that he was wanting in an essential 
 qualification of a painter, namely, an eye for 
 atmosphere, by requesting him to say how far 
 the horizon was off, and roaring in triumph 
 because Mr. Emmett answered five miles. Mr. 
 Johnson, after a careful look at the sea, sub- 
 mitted that Mr. Emmett was right. The 
 colonel, pulling out his white whiskers, asked 
 how it was possible that a journalist should 
 know anything about such things. Angry 
 words were averted by Mynheer Hemskirk, 
 who, with a fat face and foolish smile, broke 
 in with a mouldy old puzzle : ' Answer me 
 dis : here iss a bortrait. I shtands opposite, 
 und I shay, " Brooders unci shisters hov I 
 none boot dot man's farder iss my farder's 
 soon! Yot relation iss dot man to dot 
 bicture?'" ;The colonel had never heard 
 this, and asked the Dutchman to repeat it. 
 Mr. Hodder in a mild voice said : ' It is him- 
 self.' Little Mr. Saunders, after thinking hard, 
 said it was his father. ' That's it, of course ! ' 
 shouted the colonel. The Dutchman said no,
 
 WE LOSE A MAN in 
 
 and repeated the lines with great emphasis, 
 striking one fist into the palm of the other at 
 every syllable. Then sides were taken merely 
 to enrage the colonel. Some agreed with him, 
 and some with the Dutchman. Mr. Emmett, 
 feigning not to catch the point, compelled the 
 stupid good-natured Hemskirk to repeat the 
 question a dozen times over. So loud was the 
 argument, so angry the colonel, so excited the 
 Dutchman, and so demonstrative most of the 
 others of the listeners, that the chief officer 
 came off the poop to look at us. 
 
 I give this as an in stance of our method 
 of killing that dreary time. The old ladies 
 for the most part kept their cabins ; but the 
 girls came into the cuddy as usual, and made 
 the interior comfortable to the eye as they sat 
 here and there with knitting-needles in their 
 hands or a book upon their knees. 
 
 On one of these foul-weather afternoons, 
 hearing a strange noise of sin^im* I entered 
 the cuddy, and found Peter Hemskirk standing 
 with his face to the company and- his back 
 upon one of the Miss Joliffes, who was accom- 
 panying him at the piano. He was singing a 
 fashionable sentimental song of that day, ' I'd 
 be a Butterfly, born in a Bower.' The posture
 
 H2 MY SHIP MA TE LO VISE 
 
 of the man was exquisitely absurd as he stood 
 with his immensely fat figure swaying to the 
 movements of the ship, a ridiculous smile 
 upon his face, whilst he held his arms extended, 
 singing first to one and then to another, so 
 that every one might share in the song. The 
 picture of this great corpulent man, with an 
 overflow of chins between his shirt collars, 
 and a vast surface of green waistcoat arching 
 out like the round of a full topsail, and then 
 curving in again to a pair of legs of the exact 
 resemblance of a pegtop— standing as he was 
 with his feet close together — I say, the sight 
 of this immense man singing 4 I'd be a Booter- 
 fly ' in falsetto, proved too much for the 
 company. They listened a little with sober 
 faces ; but at last Miss Hudson gave way, and 
 bent her head behind her mother and lay 
 shaking in an hysterical fit of laughter ; then 
 another girl laughed out ; then followed a 
 general chorus of merriment. But the un- 
 daunted Dutchman persevered. He would 
 not let us off a single syllable, but worked his 
 way without the least alteration of posture 
 right through the song, making us a low bow 
 when he had come to an end ; whilst Miss 
 JolifFe, darting from the piano stool, fled
 
 WE LOSE A MAN 113 
 
 through the saloon and disappeared clown the 
 hatchway with a face as red as a powder-flag. 
 Miss Temple was the only one of us un- 
 moved by this ridiculous exhibition. She 
 kept her eyes bent on a book in her lap for 
 the most part whilst Mynheer sang, now and 
 then glancing round her with a face of cold 
 wonder. Once our eyes met, when she in- 
 stantly sent her gaze flashing to her book 
 again. Indeed, it was already possible to see 
 the sort of opinion in which she was held by 
 her fellow-passengers by their manner of 
 holding off from her as from a person who 
 considered herself much too good to be of 
 them, though the obligation of going to India 
 forced her to be with them. Yet one easily 
 guessed that the other girls hugely admired 
 her. I'd notice them running their eyes over 
 her dress, watching her face and bearing at 
 table, following her motions about the deck ; 
 and again and again I would overhear them 
 speaking in careful whispers about her when 
 she was out of sight. In short, she might 
 have been a woman of distinguished title 
 amongst us ; and if the passengers gave her a 
 respectful berth, it was certainly not, I think, 
 because they would not have felt themselves 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 ii 4 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 flattered by an unbending or friendly be- 
 haviour in her. 
 
 On the following Thursday the wind 
 slackened, the weather cleared, and midway 
 of the forenoon it was already a hot sparkling 
 morning, with a high heaven of delicate 
 clouds like a silver frosting of the blue vault, 
 a wide sea of flowing sapphire, and the 
 Indiaman swaying along under studdingsails 
 to the royal yards. I had been spending an 
 hour in my bunk reading. As I passed 
 through the cndcly on my way to the poop I 
 heard the report of firearms, and on going on 
 deck found Mr. Colledge and Miss Temple 
 shooting with pistols at a bottle that dangled 
 from the lee main-yardarm. Most of the 
 passengers sat about watching them ; but the 
 couple were alone in the pastime. The pistols 
 were very elegant weapons, mounted in silver, 
 with long gleaming barrels. Colledge loaded 
 and handed them to his companion, occasion- 
 ally taking aim himself. 
 
 She could not have lighted upon any 
 practice fitter to exhibit and accentuate the 
 perfections of her figure and face. Her dark 
 glance went sparkling along the line of the 
 levelled barrel ; her lips, of a delicate red,
 
 WE LOSE A MAN u 5 
 
 lay lightly apart to the sweep of the breeze, 
 that was sweet and warm as new milk ; her 
 colourless face under the broad shadow of her 
 hat resembled some faultless carving in marble 
 magically informed by a sort of dumb 
 haughty human vitality. I cannot tell you 
 how she was attired, but her figure was there 
 in its lovely proportions, a full yet maidenly 
 delicate shape against the clear azure over 
 the sea-line, as she stood poised on small firm 
 feet upon the leaning and yielding deck, her 
 head thrown back, her arm extended, and a 
 fire in her deep liquid eyes that anticipated 
 the flash of the pistol. 
 
 ' A very noble-looking woman, sir,' said a 
 voice lew down at my side. 
 
 Mr. Eichard Saunders stood gazing up at 
 me with the eager wistful expression that is 
 somewhat common in dwarfs. It was on the 
 tip of my tongue to ask the poor little chap if 
 he had ever been in love ; but he was a man 
 whose sensitiveness and tenderness of heart 
 obliged one to think twice before speaking. 
 
 1 Ay, Mr. Saunders. A noble woman 
 indeed, as you say,' I answered as softly as he 
 had spoken. ' But how pale is her cheek ! 
 It makes you think of the white death that 
 
 i 2
 
 n6 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 Helena speaks of in " All's Well that Ends 
 Well."' 
 
 6 What Hemmeridge would term chlorosis,' 
 said he. ' No, sir ; she is perfectly healthy. 
 It is a very uncommon complexion indeed, 
 and very fit for a throne or some high place 
 from which a woman needs to gaze imperi- 
 ously and with a countenance that must not 
 change colour.' 
 
 1 She looks to have been born to some- 
 thing higher than she is likely to attain,' said 
 I, watching her with eyes I found it impos- 
 sible to withdraw. ' A pity there did not go 
 a little more womanhood to her composition. 
 She might make a fine actress, and do very 
 well in the unrealities of life ; but I should 
 say there is but small heart there, Mr. 
 Saunders, with just the same amount of pride 
 that sent Lucifer flaming headlong to ' 
 
 Some one coughed immediately behind 
 me. I looked round and met Mrs. Eadcliffe's 
 gaze full. She was seated on a hencoop ; but 
 whether she was there when I came to a 
 stand to view Miss Temple, or had arrived 
 unobserved by me, I could not tell. I felt the 
 blood rise in scarlet to my brow, and walked 
 right away forward on the forecastle, greatly,
 
 WE LOSE A MAN 117 
 
 I doubt not, to the astonishment of little 
 Saunders, who, I believe, was in the act of 
 addressing me when I bolted. 
 
 I went into the head of the ship and leaned 
 against the slope of the giant bowsprit as it 
 came in the towering steeve of those days, to 
 the topgallant-forecastle deck, through which 
 it vanished like the lopped trunk of a titan 
 oak whose roots go deep. The ping of a 
 pistol report caught my ear. There was a 
 sound of the splintering of glass at the yard- 
 arm, along with some hand-clapping on the 
 poop, as though the passengers regarded this 
 shooting at a mark as an entertainment de- 
 signed for their amusement. Far out ahead 
 of me, jockeying the jib-boom, sat a sailor at 
 work on the stay there ; his figure stooped 
 and soared with the lift of the long spar that 
 pointed like the ship's outstretched finger to 
 the shining azure distance into which she was 
 sailing, and he sang a song to himself in 
 hoarse low notes, that to my mind put a 
 better music to the flowing satin-like heavings 
 of the darkly blue water under him than any 
 mortal musician that I can think of could 
 have married the picture to. There were a 
 few seamen occupied on various jobs about
 
 n8 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 the forecastle. The square of the hatch 
 called the scuttle, lay dark in the deck, and 
 rising up through it, I could hear the grumb- 
 ling notes of a sailor apparently reading aloud 
 to one of his mates. 
 
 Presently the bewhiskered face of the boat- 
 swain showed at the head of the forecastle 
 ladder. On spying me, he approached with 
 the rough sea-salute of a drag at a lock of 
 hair under his round hat. He had served 
 as able seaman aboard the ship that I 
 had been midshipman in, though before my 
 time ; this had come out in a chat, and now 
 he had always a friendly greeting when I met 
 him on deck. He was a sailor of a school 
 that is almost extinct ; a round-backed man 
 of the merchantman's slowness in his move- 
 ments, yet probably as fine a sample of a 
 boatswain as was ever afloat ; with an eye 
 that seemed to compass the whole ship in a 
 breath, of a singular capacity of seeing into a 
 man and knowing what he was fit for, most 
 exquisitely and intimately acquainted with 
 the machinery of a vessel ; a delightful per- 
 former upon his silver pipe, out of which he 
 coaxed such clear and penetrating strains 
 that you would have imagined when he blew
 
 WE LOSE A MAN 119 
 
 upon it a flight of canary birds Lad settled in 
 the rigging round about him. The voice of the 
 tempest was in his gruff cry of 4 All hands ! ' 
 and his face might have stood as a symbol for 
 hard ocean weather, as the bursting cheeks of 
 Boreas express the north wind. He carried a 
 little length of tough but pliant cane in his 
 hand, with which he would flog whatever 
 stood next him when excited and finding 
 fault with some fellow for ' sogering,' as it is 
 called ; and I once saw him catch a man of 
 his own size by the scruff of the neck, and 
 with his cane dust the hinder part of him as 
 prettily as ever a schoolmaster laid it on to a 
 boy. 
 
 ' At the wrong end of the ship, ain't you, 
 sir ? ' he called to me as he approached in his 
 strong hearty voice. 
 
 1 It's all one to me,' said I, laughing, ' now 
 that there's no music in the like of that pipe 
 of yours to set me dancing.' 
 
 'Ha!' he exclaimed, fetching a deep 
 breath. ' I wonder if ever it'll be my luck 
 to knock off the sea and settle down ashore ? 
 I allow there's more going to the life of a 
 human being than the turning in of dead- 
 eyes and the staying of masts plumb. By
 
 120 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 the way,' added lie, lowering his voice, ' I'm 
 afeerd there's going to be a death aboard.' 
 
 ' I hope not,' said I ; ' it will be the first, 
 and a little early, too. Who's the sick man, 
 bo'sim ? ' 
 
 6 Why, a chap named Crabb,'he answered. 
 ' I think you know him. I once took notice 
 of a smile on your countenance as you stood 
 watching him at the pumps.' 
 
 6 What ! do you mean that bow-legged 
 carroty creature with no top to his nose and 
 one eye trying to look astern ? ' 
 
 ; Ay,' said he ; ' that's Crabb.' 
 
 ' Dying, d'ye say, Mr. Smallridge ? ' I con- 
 sidered an instant, and exclaimed : ' Surely 
 lie was at the wheel from ten to twelve during 
 the first watch last night ? ' 
 
 ' So he was,' answered the boatswain ; 
 ' but he took ill in the middle watch, and the 
 latest noose is that he's a-dying rapidly.' 
 
 ' What's the poor fellow's malady? ' said I. 
 
 'Well, the doctor don't seem rightly to 
 understand,' he answered : ' he's been forrards 
 twice since breakfast-time, and calls it a 
 general break-up — an easy tarm for the 
 'splaining of a difficulty. But what it means, 
 blowed if I know,' he added, with a dance
 
 WE LOSE A MAN 121 
 
 aft, to observe if the mate had hove into 
 sight. 
 
 ' A general break-up,' said I, ' signifies a 
 decay of the vital organs. I don't mean to 
 say that Crabb isn't decayed, but I certainly 
 should have thought the worst of his dis- 
 temper lay outside.' 
 
 4 Oh, yes,' said he ; ' you wouldn't suppose 
 that he'd need a worse illness than his own 
 face to kill him. But this ain't seeing after 
 the ship's work, is it ? ' and with another 
 pleasant sea-flourish of his hand to his brow, 
 he left me. 
 
 A little later, I was walking leisurely aft, 
 meaning to regain the poop for a yarn with 
 Colledo'e, who stood alone to leeward, looking 
 over the rail with his arms folded in the 
 attitude of a man profoundly bored, when 
 the ship's doctor, Mr. Hemmeridge, came out 
 of the cuddy door to take a few pulls at his 
 pipe under the shelter of the overhanging 
 deck. 
 
 ' So, doctor,' said I, planting myself care- 
 lessly in front of him with a light swing on 
 my straddled legs to the soft heave of the 
 ship, ' we are to lose a man, I hear ? ' 
 
 ' Who told you that ? ' he exclaimed,
 
 122 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 gazing at me out of a pair of moist weak 
 eyes, which, I am afraid, told a story of 
 something even stronger than his jalap and 
 Glauber salts, stored secretly amongst the 
 bottles which filled the shelves of his dark 
 and dismal little berth right away aft over the 
 lazarette. 
 
 1 Why, the air is full of the news,' said I : 
 ' a ship's a village, where whatever happens 
 is known to all the neighbours.' 
 
 6 1 don't know about losing a man,' said 
 he, striking a spark into a tinder-box and 
 lighting his pipe with a sulphur match ; c he's 
 not dead yet, anyway. We must keep our 
 voices hushed in these matters aboard ship, 
 Mr. Dugdale. Wherever there are ladies, 
 there's a deal of nervousness.' 
 
 ' True ; and I'll be as hushed as you 
 please. But this Crabb is so amazing a 
 figure, that I can't but feel interested in his 
 illness. What ails him, now ? ' 
 
 6 If he dies, it must be of decay,' he 
 answered, with a toss of his hand. ' I can 
 find nothing wron^ with him but the manner 
 of his going. He lies motionless, and groans 
 occasionally. It will be a matter in which 
 the heart is involved, no doubt.'
 
 WE LOSE A MAN 123 
 
 I saw my curiosity did not please him, 
 and so, after exchanging a few idle sentences, 
 I mounted the poop and joined Mr. Colledge. 
 
 He was looking at the water that was 
 passing, but not greatly heeding the sight of 
 it. I daresay, though there was much, never- 
 theless, to engage the eye of a lover of sea-bits 
 in the delicate interlacery of foam that came 
 past in spaces like veils of lace spreading out 
 on the heave of the sea along with cloudy 
 seethings of milk-white softness under the 
 surface, which made a wonder of the radiant 
 opalescent blue of the clear profound there 
 that was softened out of its sunny brilliance 
 by the shadowing of the high side of the 
 Indiaman. 
 
 ' This is going to be a long voyage, I am 
 afraid,' exclaimed Colledge, with a sort of 
 sigh, bringing his back round upon the rail 
 and leaning against it with folded arms. 
 
 1 Xot bored already, I hope ? ' said I. 
 
 ' Well, do you know, Dugdale,' he ex- 
 claimed, whilst I caught his eye following the 
 form of ]\Iiss Hudson, who was walking the 
 weather-deck with Mr. Emmett, 'I believe 
 I made a mistake in engaging myself before 
 I started. When a man asks a girl to be his
 
 124 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 wife, lie ought to marry her with as little 
 delay as possible. Now, here am I leaving 
 the sweetheart I have affianced myself to for 
 perhaps ten months of ocean voyaging, with 
 some months on top of it in India for 
 shooting, and the chance beyond of being 
 eaten up by the game I pursue.' 
 
 ' Why did you engage yourself ? ' said I. 
 
 6 1 had been lunching at her father's house 
 — Sir Johu Crawley, member for Oxborough, 
 a red-hot Tory, and one of the noblest hands 
 at billiards you could dream of. Do you 
 know him ? ' 
 
 'Never heard of him,' said I. 
 
 ' Well, he rarely speaks in the House, 
 certainly. I had been lunching with him and 
 Eanny ; and as I was not likely to see the old 
 chap again this side of my Indian trip, he 
 plied me with champagne in a loving way ; 
 and when I walked with Fanny into the 
 garden for a little ramble, I was rather more 
 •emotional than is customary with me ; and 
 the long and short of it is I proposed to her, 
 and she accepted me. Here she is,' said he ; 
 and he put his hand in his pocket and pro- 
 duced a very delicate little ivory miniature of 
 a meriy, pretty, rather Irish face, with soft
 
 WE LOSE A MAN 125 
 
 brown curls about the forehead, and a 
 loguish look in the slightly lifted regard of 
 the eyes, as though she were shooting a 
 glance at you through her upper lashes. 
 
 ' A very sweet creature,' said I, giving him 
 back the painting. ' Is not she good enough 
 for you? Bless my soul, what coxcombs men 
 are ! What is there to fret you in knowing 
 that you have won the love of such a sweet- 
 heart as that ? ' 
 
 He hung his handsome face over the 
 miniature, gazing at it with an intentness that 
 brought his eyes to a squint, then slipped it 
 into his pocket, exclaiming with an odd note 
 of contrition in his voice : ' Well, I'm a doocid 
 ass, I suppose. But still I think I made a 
 mistake in engaging myself. There was time 
 enough to ask her to marry me when I re- 
 turned. Who knows that I shall ever 
 return ? ' 
 
 ' Now, dont be sentimental, my dear 
 fellow.' 
 
 ' Oh yes,* that's all very fine,' said he ; 
 ' but I suppose you know that tiger-hunting 
 isn't altogether like chasing a hare, for in- 
 stance.' 
 
 'Don't tiger-hunt, then/Jsaid I, growing
 
 126 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 sick of all this. ' Hark ! what fine voice is 
 that singing in the cuddy ? ' 
 
 He pricked his ear. ' Oh, it is Miss 
 Temple,' said he ; and he stole away to the 
 after skylight, through which a glimpse of the 
 piano was to be had. He took a peep, then 
 bestowed a train of nods upon me, and a 
 moment after crept below. Alas ! for Fanny 
 Crawley, thought I. 
 
 Both of the wide skylights were open, and 
 Miss Temple's voice rose clear and full, a rich 
 contralto, with now and then a tremor sound- 
 ing through it in an added quality of sweetness. 
 Those who were walking paused to listen, and 
 those who were seated let fall their work or 
 lifted their eyes from their books. Mr. John- 
 son and one or two others assembled at the 
 skylight. But no one saving friend Colledge 
 offered to go below. I could have bet a 
 thousand pounds that the cuddy was empty, 
 or the girl never would have sung. In fact, 
 one took notice of a sort of timidity in the 
 very hearkening of the people to her, as though 
 she were a princess whose voice was something 
 to be listened to afar and with respect, and 
 who was not to be approached or disturbed 
 on any account whatever. Soon after she had
 
 WE LOSE A MAN 127 
 
 ended, a male voice piped up, and Mx. John- 
 son, after listening a little, came sauntering 
 over to me. 
 
 I Your friend Colledge don't sing* ill * he 
 exclaimed with the complacent grin he usually 
 put on before delivering himself. ' Do you 
 feel equal to a small bet ? ' 
 
 'What's the wager to be about ?' 
 
 I I bet you,' said he, closing one eye, 
 1 twenty shillings to a crown that Mr. Colledge 
 and ]\Iiss Temple will have plighted their troth 
 before we strike the longitude of the Cape of 
 Good Hope.' 
 
 ' Why not latitude ? ' said I. 
 
 1 Why, my dear sir, don't you see that the 
 longitude gives me a broader margin ? ' And 
 the fellow was actually beginning to explain 
 the difference between latitude and longitude, 
 when I cut him short. 
 
 1 I'll not bet,' said I ; ' I have no wish to 
 win your money on a certainty. They won't 
 be engaged, and so you'd better keep your 
 sovereign.' 
 
 He whistled low, and with a mel ncholy 
 attempt at a comical cast of countenance, ex- 
 claimed : 'Ah, I see how it goes. It is the 
 wish, my friend, that's father to the thought.
 
 128 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 But Lor' preserve us ; my dear Mr. Dugdale, 
 do you suppose that a young lady after her 
 pattern would ever condescend to cast her eye 
 upon anything even the sixtieth part of one 
 single degree beneath the level of the son of 
 a baron and heir to the title and property ? ' 
 
 ' Do you recollect,' said I, ' how your 
 name-sake Dr. Samuel Johnson told his friends 
 that being teased by a neighbour at table to 
 give his opinion on Horace or Virgil, I forget 
 which, he immediately fixed his attention on 
 thoughts of Punch and Judy ? Suffer me now 
 to imitate that great man and to think of 
 Punch and Judy.' 
 
 1 Here comes Punch, I do believe,' said he 
 with a good-natured laugh. 
 
 As he spoke, up rose the figure of Colonel 
 Bannister from the quarter-deck. His face 
 was red with temper, his eyes sparkled, and 
 his white whiskers stood out like spikes of 
 light from a flame. We happened to be the 
 first persons he came across as he climbed the 
 ladder. 
 
 ' Of all infernal instruments,' he cried, 6 the 
 piano is the worst. What on earth, I should 
 like to know, do shipowners mean by adding 
 that execrable piece of furniture to the cabin
 
 WE LOSE A MAN 129 
 
 accommodation ? The moment I sit down to 
 write up my diary, twang-twang goes that 
 scoundrel Jew's harp ; and as if that noise 
 were not enough, a woman must needs fall a- 
 squealing to it ; and then, when I think that 
 the row is over for a bit, and I pick up my 
 pen afresh, some chap with a voice like a 
 tormented hog lets fly.' 
 
 1 You should write to the Times, sir,' said 
 Mr. Johnson. 
 
 The colonel gave him a look full of 
 marlinespikes and corkscrews, and walked aft 
 on his short stiff legs to the captain, with whom 
 I heard him expostulating in very strong 
 language. Presently the tiffin-bell rang, and 
 I went below. 
 
 vol 1.
 
 130 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 CHAPTEE VII 
 
 A SEA FUNERAL 
 
 The doctor sat on the starboard side of the 
 table, and I caught him eyeing me with a 
 meaning expression that somewhat puzzled me. 
 Once, indeed, he winked, and fearing that he 
 might be a little tipsy and easily led into 
 a demonstrativeness of manner sufficiently 
 marked to catch the skipper's attention, I took 
 some pains riot to see him. Old Keeling, at 
 the head of the table, his face shining like a 
 mahogany figure-head under a fresh coat of 
 varnish, was in the middle of the story of 
 his action with the corsair in the Bay of 
 Bengal, when Mr. Prance entered the cuddy 
 and quietly took his seat. He fell to work 
 upon a piece of corned beef whilst he seemed 
 to listen with a face of respectful courtesy to 
 Keeling's long-winded yarn, with its running 
 commentary of ' How brave ! ' ' What dreadful
 
 A SEA FUNERAL 131 
 
 creatures ! ' ' How very awful ! ' and the like 
 from the ladies. 
 
 The skipper came to an end, and Mr. Prance 
 said to me : ' A plucky fight, sir.' 
 
 1 Very,' said I, watching for that twinkle 
 of e}'e which his voice suggested. 
 
 ' The best of an engagement of that sort,' 
 he exclaim ad, c is that you may go on fighting 
 it over and over again without loss of blood. 
 By the way, talking of pirates, the captain 
 has yet to be informed that one of them lies 
 dead aboard his ship.' 
 
 I stared at him. 
 
 ' A fellow named Crabb,' he began. 
 
 1 What ! ' I interrupted ; ' is Crabb dead 
 then?' 
 
 It was now his turn to stare. ' Do you 
 know the man, Mr. Dugdale ? ' 
 
 1 Why, yes,' I answered, ' as the ugliest 
 creature (heaven rest his soul, since he is 
 dead I) that ever encountered mortal gaze.' 
 
 ' But how did you learn that his name was 
 Crabb, and that lie was dying ? for that you 
 seem to have guessed also, judging from your 
 question ? ' 
 
 ' Why, my dear sir,' I answered, ' you have 
 a large company of sailors on board, and the 
 
 K 2
 
 1 32 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 ship is full of deep-sea voices, and I carry ears 
 in my head, Mr. Prance.' 
 
 ' Humph ! ' said he. ' Well, as I've always 
 said, news travels a deal too fast aboard 
 passenger craft. In fact, I've known passengers 
 to pick up things which had remained for 
 weeks afterwards secrets to the captain and 
 mates.' He emptied a glass of marsala and 
 added : ' You are right in speaking of the man's 
 ugliness. I have been to see him as he lies 
 in his bunk.' He made a dreadful grimace 
 and upturned his eyes to the deck above. 
 
 ' Was this Crabb a pirate ? ' said I. 
 
 ' Ay,' he answered ; ' but I had not heard 
 of it down to half an hour ago. The carpenter 
 knew him, but held his tongue when he found 
 him a shipmate. Now that the fellow is dead, 
 Chips has a yarn as long as the sea-snake about 
 him. He did business in West Indian waters ; 
 and the carpenter says that if the stories he 
 told against himself w T ere to be believed, no 
 viler miscreant ever stepped between the rails 
 of a ship.' 
 
 1 But did he bra^ of his evil doings in the 
 forecastle before the men ? ' I asked. 
 
 ' No ; Chips had been shipmate with him 
 two voyages ago in a small craft, and he after-
 
 A SEA FUNERAL 133 
 
 wards met him ashore in several of the low 
 sailors' haunts down in the east end of London. 
 When he had too much drink, he would out 
 with the most blood-curdling tales of atrocity. 
 No, sir ; he kept his counsel aboard this ship. 
 He knew what would have followed had his 
 career been suspected by us aft.' 
 
 ' When do you bury him ? ' said I. 
 
 4 To - morrow morning, I suppose,' he 
 answered. ' Captain Keeling is averse to hasty 
 funerals. I've heard him say that when he 
 was chief mate, a man died, and two hours 
 later the body had been stitched up ready for 
 the last toss ; but whilst the captain was look- 
 ing for his Prayer-book, the boatswain of the 
 ship came rushing aft with his hair on end 
 and his eyes half out of his head to report 
 that the hammock with its contents had rolled 
 off the grating on which it was placed, and 
 was wriggling about the deck. When it was 
 cut open, the fellow inside was found to be 
 alive, bathed in perspiration and half-mad with 
 fright.' 
 
 This conversation we had carried on in a 
 low voice, easily managed, as I sat on his right 
 hand close against him. A few minutes later 
 the mate went on to the poop, and I stepped
 
 134 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 to the quarter-deck to smoke a cheroot. Whilst 
 I was preparing the weed to light it, Dr. Hem- 
 meridge came out of the cuddy. 
 
 c You may be interested to know,' said he, 
 ' that your ugly friend is dead.' 
 
 ' And that is what you wished to convey 
 to me by winking ? ' said I. 
 
 He nodded with a smile that could scarcely 
 be called sober. ' You took a particular interest 
 in him,' he exclaimed, ' and so I thought I 
 would give you the news before I made my 
 report to the captain.' 
 
 c You are very good,' I exclaimed with a 
 sarcastic bow. 
 
 ' In fact, Mr. Dugdale,' he continued, ' I am 
 going to pay another visit to the forecastle, as 
 there is something in the manner of this fellow's 
 death that puzzles me. Indeed, it is as likely 
 as not I may make a post-mortem examination.' 
 Here he lifted his hand and eyed it an instant. 
 I noticed that it trembled. He immediately 
 grew conscious of his action, blushed slightly, 
 and spoke with a note of confusion : ' The devil 
 of it is, the Jacks object to this sort of in- 
 quisitions. Then, again, the light forward is 
 abominably bad, and there is too much risk 
 when there are ladies aboard in any attempt
 
 A SEA- FUNERAL 135 
 
 to smuggle the body aft. Would you like to 
 see the man ? You admired him in life, you 
 know.' 
 
 I hung in the wind a moment, then said : 
 * Yes ; I will go with you ; ' and we trudged 
 forwards. 
 
 The sailors' dwelling-place was what is 
 called a topgallant forecastle ; a structure in 
 the bows of the ship corresponding with the 
 cuddy and its poop -deck aft. There was a 
 wing on either hand of it that came very nearly 
 to abreast of the foremast, for in those times a 
 ship's foremast was stepped or erected nearer 
 to the bows than it now stands. Each of these 
 two wings held a couple of cabins, respectively 
 occupied by the boatswain, the sail-maker, the 
 carpenter, and the cook. You entered the 
 forecastle itself by doors just forward of the 
 huge windlass, the great fore-hatch lying be- 
 tween it and the long-boat that stood in 
 chocks full of live-stock. It should have been 
 familiar ground to me ; yet I found some- 
 thing of real novelty, too, in the sight as I 
 followed the doctor through the port door and 
 entered what resembled a vast gloomy cave, 
 resonant with the sound of seas smitten by the 
 cutwater, with a slush-lamp swinging amidships
 
 136 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 under a begrimed beam, and a line of daylight 
 falling a little beyond fair through the open 
 scuttle or deck -hatch, and resembling in its 
 dusty shaft and defined margin a sunbeam 
 striking through a chink of the shutter of a 
 darkened room. 
 
 There was at least a score of hammocks 
 hung up under the ceiliDg or upper deck, 
 with here and there the faces of mariners 
 showing over them, or perhaps the half of a 
 stockinged leg, and nothing else of the man 
 inside but that to be seen. There was also a 
 double tier of bunks, which wound round 
 from the after bulkhead into the gloom for- 
 ward, that seemed the darker, somehow, for 
 the loom of the immense heel of the bowsprit 
 that came piercing through the knightheads. 
 It was a rough, wild scene to survey by that 
 light ; a blending into a sort of muddle, 
 as it were, of hammocks and sea-chests and 
 stanchions and dangling oil-skins and sea- 
 boots and canvas bags, and divers other odds 
 and ends of the marine equipment. There 
 were figures seated on the boxes, stolidly 
 smoking, or stitching at their clothes ; grim, 
 silent, unshaven salts, stealing out upon the 
 eye in that strange commingling of dull light
 
 A SEA FUNERAL 137 
 
 and dim shadow, in proportions so grotesque 
 and even startling that they hardly needed to 
 vanish on a sudden to persuade one they 
 were creatures of another universe. Many 
 creaking and straining noises threaded the 
 hush in this gloomy timber cavern. The 
 motion of the ship, too, was much more 
 defined here than it was aft, and you felt the 
 deck rising and falling under your feet as 
 though you were on a see-saw with a fre- 
 quent small thunder of cleft sea breaking in. 
 
 The doctor made his way to a bunk on 
 the port side, almost abreast of the scuttle, 
 where the light came sifting through the 
 gloom with power enough to define shape, 
 and even colour. In this bunk lay a motion- 
 less figure under a blanket, and a small 
 square of canvas over his head. The bunks 
 in the immediate neighbourhood were empty, 
 and the fellows who swung in hammocks a 
 little distance away peered dumbly at us, with 
 eyes which gleamed like discs of polished 
 steel amid the hair on their faces. 
 
 Dr. Hemmeridge pulled the bit of sail- 
 cloth from the face of the body, and there 
 lay before me the most hideous mask that 
 could enter the mind of anv man, saving
 
 138 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 the master who drew Caliban, to figure. 
 Nothing showed of the eyes through the con- 
 tracted lids but the whites. There was a 
 drop in the under-jaw that had twisted the 
 creature's hare-lip into the distortion of a 
 shocking grin. 
 
 I took one look and recoiled, and, as I 
 did so, a fellow who had been watching us 
 at the forecastle door approached and said 
 respectfully : ' There ain't no doubt of his 
 being stone-dead, sir, I suppose ? ' 
 
 Hemmeridge turned from the body. There 
 was an odd look of loathing and puzzlement 
 in his face. 
 
 c Oh yes, man, quite dead,' he answered. 
 'An amazing corpse, don't you think, Mr. Dug- 
 dale ? Good enough to preserve in spirits 
 as a show for the museum of a hospital.' 
 
 ' I hope,' exclaimed a deep voice from a 
 hammock that swung near, ' if so be that that 
 there Crabb's dead and gone, he ain't going 
 to be let lie to p'ison the parfumed hatmo- 
 sphere of this here drawing-room.' 
 
 * No, my man,' answered the doctor, look- 
 ing at the body ; ' we'll have him out of this 
 in good time. But there's nothing to hurt in 
 his remaining here a bit.'
 
 A SEA FUXERAL 139 
 
 'What did he cloy of?' asked an old 
 sailor, who had risen from his chest, and 
 stood surveying us as he leaned against a 
 stanchion with the inverted bowl of a sooty 
 pipe betwixt his teeth. 
 
 ' Now. what, would be the good,' cried the 
 doctor fretfully, ' of giving this forecastle a 
 lecture on the causes of death ? What did 
 he die of? A plague on't, Mr. Dugdale ! Do 
 you know I've a great mind to take a peep 
 inside him, if only in the interests of the 
 medical journals.' 
 
 •I'm beginning to feel a little faint,' said 
 I, with a movement towards the forecastle 
 door. 
 
 ' Oh well. Mr. Willard,' exclaimed Hem- 
 meridge, addressing the man who had ap- 
 proached us, and who proved to be the sail- 
 maker, 'have him stitched up as soon as you 
 please, and then get him on to the fore-hatch 
 with a tarpaulin over him, till other orders 
 come forward.' 
 
 ' Are ye likely to hold an inquest, doc- 
 tor?' asked the sailmaker, whose Eoman 
 nose and thin frill or streamlet of wool-white 
 whisker running under his chin from one ear 
 to another gave him a queer sort of yearning
 
 140 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 raised haggard look in that light, as he in- 
 clined his head forward to ask the question. 
 
 ' Oh, it wouldn't be an inquest,' responded 
 the doctor with a short laugh. * But it is 
 death from natural causes, anyway,' added he 
 in a careless voice ; ' and so we'll go aft again, 
 Mr. Dugdale ; unless, indeed, you would like 
 to take another view of your friend ? ' 
 
 I shoved past hirn, and got out of the 
 forecastle at once ; and never before did the 
 sunshine seem more glorious, nor the ocean 
 breeze sweeter, nor the swelling heights of 
 the Incliaman more airily beautiful and majes- 
 tic. In fact, I had felt half suffocated in that 
 forecastle ; and as I made my way to the 
 poop, I respired the gushing wind as it 
 hummed past me over the bulwarks as 
 thirstily as ever shipwrecked sailor lapped 
 water. 
 
 That same evening, some time after din- 
 ner, after a long smoke and a yarn with 
 Colledge and young Fairthorne down on the 
 quarter-deck, where we patrolled the planks 
 in a regular look-out swing from the cuddy 
 front to the gangway and back again, I went 
 on to the poop, leaving my two companions 
 to continue a game of chess in the cuddy,
 
 A SEA FUNERAL 141 
 
 where they had been playing that afternoon. 
 It was a fine clear moonless night, with a 
 pleasant breeze out of the north-east, before 
 which the ship was quietly running under 
 all plain sail, saving the fore and mizzen 
 royals, with a fore-topmast studdingsail boom 
 still rigged out and reeling gaunt athwart the 
 stars to the quiet heave and plunge of the 
 ship, as though it were some giant fishing- 
 rod in the hand of a Colossus bobbin 2 for 
 whales. 
 
 There were a few passengers moving about 
 the deck, but it was too dark to make sure of 
 them, though the delicate sheen in the air, 
 falling in a sort of silver showering from the 
 velvet-dark heaven of brilliants on high, 
 enabled one to see forms and to follow the 
 movements of things clearly. There was a 
 deal of phosphorus in the water this night, 
 and I stood looking over the lee quarter at 
 the pale green or sun-coloured flashings of it 
 as it swept into the race of our wake in fiery 
 coils, in configurations as of writhing serpents, 
 in fibrine interwreathings that would enlarge 
 and shape themselves into the proportions of 
 sea-monsters and leviathan fish. 
 
 1 Is it true, do vou know, that one of the
 
 i 4 2 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 sailors died this afternoon ? ' exclaimed a low, 
 clear, but most melodious voice by my side. 
 
 It was Miss Temple. She started as I 
 quitted my leaning posture and turned to 
 her. . 
 
 ' Oh, I beg your pardon,' she exclaimed in 
 a changed note. 
 
 It was very clear she had mistaken me — 
 for Colledge, for all I can tell. She was alone. 
 Yet had she come from the cuddy, she must 
 certainly have seen the young sprig playing at 
 the table with Fairthorne at chess. 
 
 ' I should be glad to answer your question,' 
 said I coolly, ' if you care to stop and listen, 
 Miss Temple.' 
 
 By the starlight I could see her fine im- 
 perious dark eyes bent on me. 
 
 ' It is curious,' she exclaimed — and perhaps 
 by daylight I should have found some sign of 
 a smile in her face ; but her countenance 
 showed like marble in that shadow — ' that 
 this should be the second time I have asked you 
 about what is happening in the ship. You 
 have been a sailor, I think, Mr. Dugdale ? ' 
 
 ' Mr. Colledge has doubtless told you so,' 
 said I. 
 
 1 Yes ; it was he who told me. You share
 
 A SEA FUXERAL 143 
 
 his cabin, I believe. Will you tell me if it 
 be true that one of the sailors has died ? ' 
 
 ' It is true,' said I ; * a sailor named Crabb 
 died this morning.' 
 
 1 Has he been buried ? ' 
 
 ' Xo ; that ceremony is to take place in 
 the morning, I believe.' 
 
 1 Our ship, then, will sail all night long 
 with a dead body on board ? ' she exclaimed 
 with a lift of her eyes to the stars and then a 
 look seawards. ' Are not the superstitions of 
 sailors opposed to such burdens ? ' 
 
 'Jack does not love dead bodies,' said I, 
 making as if to resume my leaning posture at 
 the rail, as one interrupted in a reverie ; for 
 harmless as her questions were, I did not at all 
 relish her haughty commanding manner of 
 putting them ; besides, this was the first time 
 I had exchanged a sentence with her since 
 that night of the collision in the Channel ; and 
 the unconquerable delight I took in gazing at 
 her beauty, that now, to my ardent young 
 eyes, was idealised by the starlit dusk by 
 which I surveyed her into graces beyond 
 expression fascinating, affected me also as a 
 sort of injury to my own dignity, thanks to 
 the mood that had grown up in me through
 
 144 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 what I had said and thought of her. ' But,' 
 continued I carelessly, ' what is regarded as a 
 superstition by the sailor is a stroke of nature 
 common to us all. One may travel far with- 
 out meeting any person who will choose a 
 dead body for company.' 
 
 She walked to the rail a few feet away 
 from where I stood, and looked at the water 
 for some while in silence, as though she had 
 not heard me. 
 
 ' I would rather die anywhere than at sea,' 
 she exclaimed, as though thinking aloud, with 
 a sudden crossing of her hands upon her 
 breast, as if a chill had entered her from the 
 dark ocean. s The horror of being buried in 
 that void there would keep me alive. Oh, if 
 it be true, as Shakespeare says, that dreams 
 may visit us in our graves — in our graves 
 ashore, where there are daisies and green turf 
 and the twinkling shadows of leaves, and often 
 the full moon and the high summer night 
 shedding a peace like that of God himself, 
 passing all understanding, upon the dead — 
 ichat should be the visions that enter into the 
 sleep of one floating deep down in that great 
 mystery there ? ' 
 
 This was a passage of humour which I
 
 A SEA FUNERAL 145 
 
 was quite young enough to have coaxed, and 
 have sought to improve in any other fine 
 young woman after her pattern ; but my 
 temper just then happened to be perverse and 
 my mood obnoxious to sentiment. 
 
 ' Why,' said I, pretending to stare at the 
 water, ' what's the difference between being 
 lowered in a coffin and being hove overboard 
 in a canvas sack with a lump of holystone at 
 one's feet, when one doesn't know it ? If one 
 could believe in the mermaid, in coral pavilions 
 illuminated with cressets brilliant with sea-fire, 
 in those sweet songs which were formerly 
 sung by fishy virgins, who swept their lyres of 
 gold with arms of ivory and fingers of pearl, 
 I believe that when my time came I should 
 be very willing to take the plunge, in fact 
 choose it in preference to ' 
 
 I brought my eyes away from the water, 
 and saw her figure in the companion-way 
 down which she floated ! 
 
 A minute later, Colonel Bannister came 
 along. He approached me close, staring hard, 
 and said : ' Oh, it's you, Dugdale ! I thought 
 it was the second-mate. Here's a pretty go ! 
 There's a man dead.' 
 
 1 He couldn't help it, colonel,' said I. 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 1 46 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 ' Ay, but what did he die of? ' he shouted. 
 ' I've asked Hemmeridge, and he won't give 
 the disease a name. I don't want it to go 
 further, but betwixt you and me and the bed- 
 post, hang me ' — here he subdued his voice 
 into an extraordinary croaking whisper — ' if 
 I don't believe that Hemmeridge ' — and he 
 lifted his hand to his mouth in a posture of 
 drinking. ' My contention is, they've got no 
 right to keep the body. What's the good of 
 it ? Since Hemmeridge is mute, who's going 
 to say that the seaman didn't die of smallpox ? 
 That's it, you see ! Smallpox ! and a crowd 
 of creatures forward who are infernally negli- 
 gent in cleanliness, as all sailors are, not to 
 mention a mob of us aft who, if a plague should 
 break out, must perish. Mind, I say perish I 
 Where's that second-mate ? ' 
 
 He impetuously crossed the deck and 
 hurried forward on the weather side of the 
 poop. 
 
 'Beg pardon, sir,' said the fellow at the 
 wheel, speaking in a deep, bass, salt voice ; 
 ' 'tain't for the likes of me to say nothen, 
 leastways here ; ' he made a step to leeward, 
 holding a spoke at arm's-length, to expecto- 
 rate over the rail, and then returned: 'but
 
 A SEA FUNERAL 147 
 
 I've heercl the bo'sun say as that you've been 
 a sailorman in your day, and I know that the 
 gent that's just left 'ee is a sojer. And I 
 should ha' taken it very koind if, when he 
 told ye that we was an oncleanly lot forrards, 
 you'd ha' called him a bloomin' liar.' 
 
 ' So he is, my man,' said I, ' whether I tell 
 him so or not.' 
 
 ' I've been a-sailing in troopships ower and 
 ower again,' exclaimed the fellow, half- stifling 
 himself, to subdue his angry voice, ' and I 
 could tell that there gent this — that spite of 
 all his pipeclay and the ship-shape looks of 
 him outside, there ain't an oncleanlier man 
 than the gujfy. You let him know that, sir ; 
 and if he dorn't believe it, and the capt'n '11 
 gi' me leave, smite me ! if I won't ondertake 
 to argue it out wi' him to the satisfaction of 
 every party as chooses for to listen, either 
 aft ' — striking the wheel a blow with his im- 
 mense fist ; ' or forrads ' — another blow ; ' or 
 down in the hold ' — a third blow ; ' or up in 
 that there main-top ; ' and here he fetched his 
 thigh a whack that sounded like the report of 
 a firearm. 
 
 'Wheel there ! where are you driving the 
 ship to P ' shouted the second-mate from the 
 
 L 2
 
 148 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 forward part of the poop ; but merely as an 
 excuse, I think, to break away from the 
 colonel, who had now tailed on to him. 
 
 As he came rumbling aft, I went forward. 
 
 It was the most delicate gentle weather 
 imaginable next morning when I went on 
 deck an hour before breakfast-time to get a 
 cold bath in the ship's head, which to my 
 mind is the very noblest luxury the sea has to 
 yield : nothing to be clone but to strip, drop 
 over the side on to the grating betwixt the 
 headboards, well out of sight of the poop, 
 where the spout of the head-pump, as it is 
 called, commands you, and so be played on 
 for half-an-hour at a spell by some ordinary 
 seaman, who will be glad to oblige you for 
 the value of a glass of grog. Oh, the delight 
 past language of the sensation sinking through 
 and through one to the very marrow that' 
 comes with the gushing of the sparkling green 
 brine pouring away from one in foam back 
 into the flashing heart of the deep out of 
 which it is sucked ! 
 
 As I passed the forehatch on my way aft, 
 I observed a heap of something lying under a 
 arpaulin ; at the same moment the boatswain 
 stepped out of his berth.
 
 A SEA FUNERAL 149 
 
 1 Have ye heard what time the funeral's to 
 take place, sir ? ' 
 
 c Bless me ! ' cried I with a start, ' I had 
 forgotten all about it. Small wonder that we 
 and our troubles should be compared to 
 sparks that fly upwards, for we are extin- 
 guished in a breath and clean forgotten.' I 
 glanced at the tarpaulin on the hatchway with 
 an ugly shuddering recollection coming upon 
 me of the face of the man as I had last viewed 
 him dead in his bunk. ' No,' said I ; ' I am 
 unable to tell you when they mean to bury 
 him. The sooner the better, I should say.' 
 
 ' True for you, sir,' he answered ; ■ here 
 are some of our chaps swearing that they had 
 bad dreams last night, all a-owing to this here 
 dead man a-lying here. The fact is Crabb 
 wasn't no favourite, and since he's made his 
 hexit, as the saying is, the men want him gone 
 for true.' 
 
 As he said this, the third-mate, Mr. Play- 
 ford, came forward singing out for the boat- 
 swain. 
 
 ' Here, sir,' answered Smallridge in a voice 
 like the low of a calf. 
 
 The officer crossed the hatch, taking care
 
 ISO MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 to give the heap under the tarpaulin a wide 
 berth. 
 
 ' Funeral's to take place at four bells, 
 bo'sun,' said he. — c Good morning, Mr. Dug- 
 dale. All hands to be cleaned up and at- 
 tend. Pity there's no more wind, Mr. Dug- 
 dale. The trades are consumeclly slow of 
 coming. Four bells, bo'sun, d'ye hear ? All 
 hands — the big ensign — four pall-bearers,' he 
 added with a grin — ' everything to be ship- 
 shape and in Bristol fashion — to please the 
 ladies,' he added, looking at me with one eye 
 shut. 
 
 ' Well, now you know all about it, Mr. 
 Smallridge,' said I, and walked aft with Mr. 
 Playford ; and the breakfast-bell then sound- 
 ing, I entered the cuddy and took my 
 place. 
 
 I had thought to catch a glance, perhaps 
 one glance, during the meal from Miss Temple, 
 who might probably recollect her few words 
 with me on the preceding evening, and her 
 cool trick of sliding off to let me talk aloud 
 to myself. But she never turned her eyes my 
 way. She sometimes spoke across the table 
 to Mr. Colled ge, once inclined her fine figure 
 towards Captain Keeling to respond to some
 
 A SEA FUNERAL 151 
 
 remark "of his, and occasionally exchanged a 
 sentence with her aunt. But the rest of us 
 might have been as much hidden as the body 
 of Crabb was forward, for all the attention she 
 honoured us with. 
 
 'I am glad that this funeral is going to 
 take place,' Mr. Johnson said to me. ' I have 
 promised a friend of mine who owns a news- 
 paper in London a series of articles on this 
 voyage, and down to this time I haven't quite 
 seen my way. For what has happened pro- 
 per to tell? Dash my wig ! saving that col- 
 lision, of which I couldn't make head nor tail, 
 and dare not therefore attempt, what ghost of 
 an incident good for what I may call word- 
 painting has occurred ? ' 
 
 1 This burial should give you the chance 
 you want,' said I. 
 
 ' Yes,' he exclaimed ; ' I shall be able to 
 do it justice, I believe. I am a little uncer- 
 tain in the matter of nautical terms ; and 
 when I've finished the account of it, I should 
 be glad if you'd listen to it, Mr. Dugdale, and 
 correct any trifling technical errors I may 
 happen to make. Even now, I'll be shot if I 
 can tell the difference between starboard and 
 larboard — never can remember, somehow.
 
 152 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 The words are so confoundedly alike, you 
 know/ 
 
 ' If I were you,' said I, 'I should not suffer 
 ignorance of the sea-life to hinder me from 
 writing fully about it. Few sailors read ; no- 
 body else understands the calling. Say what 
 you like, and you need only dash your absur- 
 dities into your canvas with a cocksure brush 
 to be accepted as an authority.' 
 
 'Still,' he exclaimed, 'in an account of a 
 funeral at sea I should like to have the rigging 
 right ; nor in a description which,' added he 
 complacently, ' is not likely to be wanting in 
 some of the choicer qualities of poetry, would 
 it be desirable, insignificant as the error might 
 be in the eyes of landsmen, to mistake the 
 mainmast for, let me say, the spanker boom.' 
 
 I assured him that I should be glad to 
 hear his account when he had written it ; and 
 soon afterwards we left the table and went on 
 deck. 
 
 The ship was this morning a very grand 
 show of canvas. Her yards were braced just 
 a little forward; the weather clew of the 
 mainsail was up ; all studdingsails to port 
 were on her, and aloft she had something of 
 the look of a line-of-battle ship with her im~
 
 A SEA FUNERAL 153 
 
 mensely square yards rising to the truck, the 
 great hoist of main top-sail, with its four 
 bands of reef-points, enormously thick shrouds 
 and big tops, and all the heavens over the 
 bow and far to port hidden by space upon 
 space of cloth, effulgent in the sunshine, and 
 flinging a light of their own upon the blue air 
 in a sort of liquid gushing of radiance off their 
 edges, trembling into an exquisite delicacy of 
 outline like a thinness of ice against the sky. 
 At the peak flew the red ensign half-mast high, 
 languidly floating in rich brand-new folds of 
 sunny crimson to the quiet breathing of the 
 wind oyer the quarter. It was a hint of what 
 was to come, and you noticed the influence of 
 it upon the passengers, who talked in subdued 
 voices, and walked thoughtfully, as though it 
 were the Sabbath and Divine service was 
 shortly to be held. There was nothing in 
 sight the wide and gleaming circle round, 
 saving the shoulders of a group of huge cream- 
 coloured clouds down .in the west, looking 
 like the mountainous loom of a snow-whitened 
 country. 
 
 Shortly before ten o'clock, Smallridge, 
 taking his stand upon the forecastle head, 
 applied his silver whistle to his lips, and sent
 
 154 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 the shrill metallic summons ringing through- 
 out the length of the ship, following it with a 
 deep-chested hurricane roar of ' All hands 
 'tend funeral.' The Jacks had been off work 
 since breakfast time, and to the boatswain's 
 melodious invitation they came tumbling out of 
 the forecastle all in the spruce warm* weather 
 attire of those days — flowing white trousers, 
 coloured shirts, round jackets, collars lying 
 open to half way down their breasts, half a 
 fathom of silk handkerchief worked up into 
 the sailor's knot, and, for the most part, round 
 hats of straw, shaped like a tall hat of to-day, 
 but the crown considerably lower. They 
 came soberly rolling along in bunches of three 
 and four, and massed themselves forward of 
 the gangway and round about the hatchway, 
 and the huge pillar of mast shooting up abaft 
 it. In the foreground stood Smallridge, with 
 three rows of cloth buttons to his jacket, his 
 storm-beaten face luminous with recent rins- 
 ing, and his cheeks framed by a pair of up- 
 right collars such as the negro minstrel of 
 our time loves to embellish his blackened 
 countenance with. Next him was the sail- 
 maker, his small blood-stained eyes restlessly 
 rolling themselves aft upon the people on the
 
 A SEA FUNERAL 155 
 
 poop from either side his high Roman nose. 
 By his side was the cook, a fat, bilious-looking 
 man ; and close to him the carpenter, a 
 withered old Scotchman, with a face of leather, 
 puckered into a thousand wrinkles by time, 
 weather, and trials of temper. 
 
 The first, third, and fourth mates took 
 their place a little abaft the gangway, leaving 
 the second officer on the poop to look after 
 the ship. A young reefer clad in bright but- 
 tons stood at the bell, which he struck in 
 funereal time, constantly glancing around him 
 to find some one to exchange a grin with. 
 When all were assembled the skipper stalked 
 solemnly out of the cuddy, Prayer-book in 
 hand. He was dressed as the officers were, in 
 a long blue coat with black velvet lapels, cuffs, 
 and collar, and white jean pantaloons. The 
 only feature that distinguished his costume 
 from that of the mates was the undecorated 
 coat-cuffs ; whereas the chief-mate had one 
 button on his wrist, the third-mate three, and 
 the fourth-mate four. Keeling; was a man of 
 strong piety, and his manner of addressing 
 himself to this solemn business was full of an 
 old-fashioned awe and reverence, which one 
 might look a long way round among modern
 
 156 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 sea captains to find the like of, in such a per- 
 formance, at all events, as that of burying the 
 remains of a forecastle hand. Most of the 
 passengers were grouped along the break of 
 the poop to witness the ceremony. I see that 
 large and stirring picture very freshly even 
 now : the mass of whiskered faces, one show- 
 ing past another, nearly every jaw moving to 
 the gnawing of a quid ; Keeling and his officers 
 in full fig ; the many-coloured dresses of the 
 ladies fluttering along the line of the poop 
 rail ; I recall the deep hush that settled down 
 upon the fine ship, no sound to break it but 
 the tolling of the bell and a noise of water 
 lazily washing alongside. High above us the 
 great squares of canvas rose in brilliant clouds, 
 one swelling to another with a soft swaying of 
 the whole majestic fabric, as though the vessel 
 were something sentient, and was keeping 
 time with her mastheads to the mournful 
 chimes on the quarter-deck. 
 
 The bell ceased ; the midshipman struck 
 ten o'clock upon it ; the Jacks on the quarter- 
 deck made a lane, and down it from forward 
 came four hearty seamen, bearing upon their 
 shoulders a hatch grating, on which was the 
 hammock containing the body, covered with
 
 A SEA FUNERAL 157 
 
 England's commercial ensign. One end of 
 this grating was rested upon the lee rail ; then 
 the captain began to read the sea funeral ser- 
 vice. Mr. Johnson, who stood near me, stared 
 thirstily at the scene ; and me thought Mr. 
 Emmett, who was perched on the rail to wind- 
 ward, rolled his eye over the mass of colour 
 that softened and brightened as the movement 
 of the ship shifted the shadows, as though 
 some fancies of a startling canvas to be wrought 
 out of the spectacle were stirring in his mind. 
 The captain paused in his delivery ; the ensign 
 was whipped off, the grating tilted, and the 
 white hammock flashed overboard. I was at 
 the lee rail, and glanced down into the sea 
 alongside as the hammock sped from the bul- 
 wark. But the ocean coffin, instead of sink- 
 ing, went floating astern like a lifebuoy, 
 bobbing bravely upon the summer tumble, 
 and lifting and sinking upon the swell as 
 duck-like as a waterborne lifeboat. 
 
 I believe no man saw this but myself, 
 everybody listening reverentially to the closing 
 words of the skipper's recital from the Prayer- 
 book. I walked hastily aft to observe the 
 hammock as it veered into our wake, and
 
 158 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 beckoned to Mr. Cocker, who at once crossed 
 the deck. 
 
 ' See there ! ' cried I, pointing to the thing 
 that was frisking in the eddies upturned by 
 our keel, and crawling into the distance to the 
 slow progress of the ship. i Friend Crabb 
 seems in no hurry to knock at Davy Jones's 
 door.' 
 
 ' I expect the fool of a sailmaker forgot to 
 weight the body,' said he. ' Unless,' he added, 
 with a little change in his voice, as if he meant 
 what he said, whilst he did not wish me to 
 suppose him in earnest, ' the chap was too 
 great a rascal when alive to sink now that he's 
 nothing but a body.' 
 
 ' I thought,' I exclaimed, ' that wicked 
 sailors, like Falstaff, had an alacrity in sink- 
 ing.' 
 
 'I'll tell you a fact, then, Mr. Dugdale,' 
 said he. ' I was aboard a ship where we 
 buried a man that had murdered a negro in 
 Jamaica. He was a ruffian down to the heels 
 of his yellow feet, sir, with a deal worse on 
 his conscience, in our opinion, than even the 
 blood of a darkey. It was a dead calm when 
 we dropped him over the side with a twelve- 
 pound shot at the clews of his hammock.
 
 A SEA FUNERAL 159 
 
 Down he went ; but up he came again, and 
 lay wobbling under the main chains. The 
 captain, not liking such a neighbour, ordered 
 a boat over with a fresh weight for the corpse. 
 It was another twelve-pound shot, and down 
 it took him, as all hands expected. But scarce 
 was the boat hoisted when the chief mate, who 
 was looking over the rail, sings out quietly : 
 "Here's Joey again." And there lay the ham- 
 mock just under the mizzen chains. 'Twas 
 lucky a breath of wind came along just then 
 and sneaked the barque away, for had the 
 calm lasted, the men would have sworn that 
 the body had got hold of the ship and wouldn't 
 let her move. But as to our being ever able 
 to sink it ' — he shook his head, and pointing 
 to the hammock that was now showing like a 
 fleck of foam in the tail of our wake, he ex- 
 claimed : ' It's the same with Crabb. He's of 
 the sort that Old Davy will have nothing to 
 do with.' 
 
 The boatswain's pipe shrilled out again ; 
 the ceremony was over. The sailors stalked 
 gravely towards the forecastle, the passengers 
 distributed themselves about the poop. 
 
 ' Quite worth seeing, don't you think ? ' 
 said Mr, Johnson, coming up to me in the
 
 160 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 manner of a man fresh from a stage perform- 
 ance that has pleased him. ' Only let me be 
 sure of my nautical details, and I believe I 
 can see my way to a very pretty article, Mr. 
 Dugdale.'
 
 A STRANGE CARGO 161 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 A STRANGE CARGO 
 
 We took the north-east trades on the Canary- 
 parallels ; but they blew a very light breeze, 
 occasionally failing us, indeed, with more than 
 once a positive hint of a shift in the western 
 sky, though no change happened. Captain 
 Keeling declared that in all his time he never 
 remembered the like of so faint a trade-wind. 
 Indeed, it threatened us with a long passage 
 to the equator, and again and again I would 
 feel as vexed as if I had had command of the 
 ship, and my reputation depended upon her 
 progress, when I'd come on deck and find the 
 long blue heave of the swell gushing to our 
 port quarter, just freckled by the delicate soft 
 wind, with scarce a ripple of. weight enough 
 to run into foam, the weather clew of the 
 mainsail swinging in and out, and the big top- 
 sails, to the curtseying of the ship upon the 
 swell, coming into the masts with short slaps, 
 
 VOL. I. If
 
 1 62 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 which made each sheet hum like a twanged 
 harp-wire through its yard-arm sheave-hole. 
 Very different was all this from my own ex- 
 perience of the trades when, for da} T s and 
 days, from twenty-seven degrees north down 
 to within thirty leagues of the equator, it had 
 been one long wild thunderous spell of sailing, 
 foam to the hawse-pipes, every yard and 
 studding-sail boom straining at its brace as a 
 racer at its bridle, the white water to leeward 
 flashing past in a dazzle, like foam from the 
 sponsons of a paddle-steamer, and all day long 
 a fine noise of wind roaring between the masts, 
 and on high the wool-like clouds of the trades 
 blowing, charged with prismatic hues, trans- 
 versely across the line of our course. 
 
 Yet we managed to kill the time with some 
 degree of entertainment to ourselves. Mr. 
 Greenhew and Mr. Eiley were head over ears 
 in love with Miss Hudson, and were~~beginning 
 to talk sarcasm at each other when there were 
 people near to listen to their conversation. 
 Mr. Fairthorne was paying very marked at- 
 tention to Miss Mary Joliffe. Mynheer Peter 
 Hemskirk seemed to find something agreeable 
 in the company of Miss Helen Trevor, an 
 exceedingly fat, blue-eyed girl, with a bunch
 
 A STRANGE CARGO 163 
 
 of flaxen ringlets falling before each ear, and 
 her hair behind dragged up to a tall comb 
 that sat in an odd staring way upon her head. 
 There was some sport in all this for qniet ob- 
 servation. Then there was always a rubber 
 of whist to be had. Though Colonel Bannister 
 was often in too peppery a humour to play, 
 his aristocratic falcon-beaked wife was ever 
 ready and eager to take a hand, and partners 
 were never to be wanting when Mr. Adam or 
 Mr. Saunders or Mr. Hodder was about. 
 
 Colledge and I were good friends, and had 
 long yarns together in our cabin and on deck. 
 It was, maybe, # because we shared a berth that 
 I was more with him than with the others, 
 though Mr. Johnson once attempted a stroke 
 of irony by saying that of course my intimacy 
 with Mr. Colledge had nothing whatever to do 
 with the circumstance of his being the son of 
 a lord, ' which,' added he, ' speaks well for 
 your heart, Dngdale, for he has very many 
 excellent qualities.' 
 
 'Mr. Johnson,' said I, 'I do not think you 
 very brilliant as a genius, and I am sure you 
 are not very richly stocked in gifts of satire. 
 I would advise you to dedicate all you have 
 in that way to your profession, lest, when you 
 
 M 2
 
 1 64 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 come to set up as a book-critic, you will find 
 yourself gastados, as the Spaniards say — 
 expended.' 
 
 But to return to Mr. Colledge : the charac- 
 teristic I liked him best for was a certain 
 naivete. He would speak of his engagement 
 with Fanny Crawley as a schoolboy might of 
 a like experience, and not seem to know what 
 to make of it. One day he was lying in his 
 bunk smoking a pipe, with his leg over the 
 edge, his head propped by his arm, his hand- 
 some face flushed by the heat, and his soft 
 dark-blue eyes shining as with wine. I had 
 come warm and fatigued from the poop, and 
 lay stretched upon the deck on my mattress. 
 We had been talking of Miss Crawley, and he 
 had lugged her portrait from his breast-pocket 
 to have a look at it ; which indeed was a habit 
 of his when he spoke of her, as though he 
 could hardly persuade himself that he was 
 engaged without first taking a peep. 
 
 'Upon my word, Dugclale,' said he lan- 
 guidly, ' hang me now, if it was not for Fanny 
 here, Fd propose to Louise Temple. She's a 
 ripping girl, and the sort of woman my father 
 would like ; a fine stately presence for a draw- 
 ing-room, eh ? Figure the dignity with which
 
 A STRAXGE CARGO 165 
 
 she would kiss the hand of a sovereign, making 
 the business quite the other way about by her 
 salutation, and queening it to the confusion of 
 every eye. My father doesn't very much care 
 about Fanny — has no style, he thinks — nothing 
 distinguished about her.' 
 
 1 But you are engaged to her with Ills 
 sanction, I presume ? ' 
 
 ' I don't know,' he answered. 
 
 I laughed, and said : ; Has Miss Temple 
 heard that you're engaged to be married ? ' 
 
 1 Xo,' he answered with a small air of con- 
 fusion ; ' there was no need to tell her. What 
 should there be in such a confession to interest 
 her? You're the only person on board the 
 ship that I have mentioned the thing to. Of 
 course I can trust to you,' said he, soothingly. 
 
 'Trust me!' I exclaimed, laughing again. 
 1 There is nothing wrong surely in this engage- 
 ment that you should fear the betrayal of the 
 secret of it ? But since it is a secret, it is 
 perfectly safe in my keeping.' 
 
 ' Do you think I ought to tell Miss Temple 
 that I'm engaged ? ' said he. 
 
 ' "Well, if you are making love to her,' said 
 I. c it might be as well to give her a hint that 
 you're not in earnest.'
 
 jet MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 c 0h, but, confound it, I amV he cried. 
 'I mean,' he added, catching himself up, 'I 
 think her a doocidly charming girl, and the 
 most delightful creature to flirt with that ever 
 I met in my life ; but if I go and tell her I'm 
 engaged ' 
 
 'Well?' 
 
 6 It would knock my association with her 
 on the head. It is not as if Fanny were 
 within reach of an early post. Even if I were 
 disposed to break off my engagement with 
 her, it must take me some months to do it. 
 D'ye understand me ? ' 
 
 ' You mean, of course,' said I, ' that no 
 letter can reach her under seven or eight 
 months, unless, indeed, you conveyed one to 
 her by a homeward-bound ship.' 
 
 ' Ay ; but putting the homeward-bound 
 ship aside, Fanny could not know of my reso- 
 lution — were it ever to come to that — until 
 she received the letter I posted to her in 
 India ; therefore, I should have to consider 
 myself engaged to her all that time.' 
 
 ' Xo doubt,' said I, beginning to feel bored. 
 
 ' Miss Temple would take that view,' said 
 he, ' and that's why I don't choose to tell her 
 the truth.'
 
 A STRANGE CARGO 167 
 
 ' I don't quite follow your logic,' I ex- 
 claimed ; ' but no matter. It may be that 
 you want too much in the way of sweet- 
 hearts. But so far as your secret goes, you 
 can trust me to hold my tongue. Possibly, I 
 may admire Miss Temple as warmly as you 
 do ; see qualities in her superior even to her 
 excellence as a mistress of postures ; but I do 
 not yet love her so passionately as not to wish 
 to see her chastened a bit by the lesson she 
 is likely to learn from your delight in her 
 society.' 
 
 1 1 don't understand,' he exclaimed, lazily 
 knocking the ashes of his pipe out through 
 the open porthole. 
 
 ' Neither do I,' cried I, springing to my 
 legs with a loud yawn. ' Heaven bless us, 
 my dear Co] ledge ! here are we now, I dare- 
 say, a fail thousand miles from the nearest 
 African headland. Surely we are distant 
 enough from all civilisation, then, to be clear 
 of the influence of the girls ! Take my advice, 
 and keep your heart whole till you get to 
 India. There may be a Princess waiting for 
 you there, more likely to value a tiger-hide 
 offering than Miss Temple ; whilst Miss Craw-
 
 168 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 ley's broken heart will mend apace when she 
 learns that your wife has a black skin.' 
 
 1 Oh, hang it all ! ' I heard him begin ; 
 but I was sick of the subject, and sauntered 
 forth to see what was doing on deck. 
 
 There was very little wind ; indeed, here 
 and there about the sea were glass-like swathes 
 riding the quiet pulse of the long slow swell 
 in scythe-shaped horns, as though, in fact, 
 there was to be a dead calm anon. Only the 
 topmost and lightest canvas was asleep ; the 
 heavier cloths hung up and down with no 
 more of life in them than what they got out 
 of the heave of the ship ; and deep as we yet 
 were in the heart of the North Atlantic, there 
 was, it seemed to me, a true tropic touch in 
 the aspect of things — in the clear pale blue 
 of the sky ; in the sluggish crawling of the 
 clouds, with their rounded brows stealing out 
 in a copperish hue ; in the wavering of the 
 atmosphere over the hot line of the bulwarks, 
 as though there was a sort of steam going up 
 from the wood ; in the parched look of the 
 running-gear, and in the salt glistening of the 
 white planks ; in the figures of crimson-faced 
 men, their feet naked, their arms and chests 
 bare, again and again coming to the great
 
 A STRANGE CARGO 169 
 
 scuttle butt, lashed a bit forward of the gang- 
 way, and drinking from the metal dipper. 
 
 When I arrived on the poop, I found the 
 captain standing aft surrounded by a number 
 of ladies, directing a binocular glass at the sea 
 over the starboard bow. The chief mate at 
 the head of the poop ladder was likewise 
 staring into the same quarter, with Mr. John- 
 son alongside, bothering him with questions, 
 and little Saunders on tiptoe, to see over the 
 rail, fanning his face with a large flapping 
 black wideawake. 
 
 I stepped to the side to look, and saw 
 some object about a mile distant, that emitted 
 a wet flash of light from time to time. I 
 asked the mate to lend me his glass, and at 
 once made the thing out to be a capsized hull 
 of a vessel of about eighty tons. She floated 
 almost to the line of her yellow sheathing, 
 and the ^old-like metal rising wet to the sun 
 from the soft sweep of the blue brine darted 
 flashes as dazzling as flame from the mouth of 
 a cannon. 
 
 I returned the glass to Mr. Prance. 
 
 ' She has not been long in that condition, 
 I think?' said I. 
 
 4 Not twenty-four hours, I should say,' he
 
 170 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 answered. ' I see no wreckage floating about 
 her.' 
 
 ' Nor I. If she had a crew on board when 
 she turned turtle,' I said, ' she may have 
 clapped down upon them as you imprison 
 flies under a tumbler.' 
 
 ' God bless us, what a dreadful death to 
 die ! ' cried little Saunders. ' I can conceive 
 of no agony to equal that of being in a cabin 
 in a sinking ship and going down with her, 
 and knowing that she is under water and still 
 settling.' 
 
 The little chap shuddered and pulled out 
 a great blue pocket-handkerchief, with which 
 he dried his forehead. 
 
 8 How long could a man live in a cabin 
 under water ? ' asked Mr. Johnson. 
 
 6 Long enough to come off with his life,' 
 
 CD G ' 
 
 answered the mate, bringing the glass from 
 his eye and looking at Mr. Johnson. ' I'll 
 give you a queer yarn in a few words, sir ; 
 wild enough to furnish out an Al copper- 
 bottomed sea-tale to some one of you literary 
 gentlemen. A small vessel was dismasted 
 'twixt TarifFa and Tangier in the middle of the 
 Gut there. All her crew saving one man got 
 away in the boat, The fellow that was left
 
 A STRAXGE CARGO i;r 
 
 lay drunk in the cabin. A sea shifted her 
 cargo ; shortly after she capsized and went 
 down. A few days later, that same ship 
 floated up from the bottom of the sea 
 on to the shore near Tangier. She was 
 boarded, and they found the man alive in the 
 cabin.' 
 
 ' What was the vessel's cargo, Mr. Prance ? ' 
 inquired little Saunders. 
 
 1 Oil and brandy, sir.' 
 
 4 Don't you think,' exclaimed Mr. Johnson, 
 4 that your story is one that would be very 
 acceptable to the marines, Mr. Prance, but 
 that would not be believed by your sailors 
 were you to tell it to them ? ' 
 
 Here the captain, who had been slowly 
 coming forward, accompanied by half-a-dozen 
 ladies, interrupted us. 
 
 • Mr. Prance.' 
 
 'Sir?' 
 
 ' That "object yonder is a danger in the 
 way of navigation. I think it would be kind 
 in us to send a shot at it.' 
 
 ' Ay, ay, sir.' 
 
 ' We will shift the helm,', continued old 
 Keeling, in the skewered, buttoned-up sort 
 of voice and air lie was wont to use when
 
 i 7 2 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 addressing his mates in the presence of the 
 passengers, ' so as to bring the wreck within 
 reach of our carronades.' 
 
 6 Very good, sir.' 
 
 ' I expect,' continued old marline -spike, 
 6 that she is floating on the air in her hold 
 rather than on her cargo, even though it be 
 cork ; and if we can knock a hole in her, she 
 will sink.' 
 
 Mr. Prance stepped aft to the wheel, and 
 the vessel's course was changed. Instructions 
 went forward ; and the boatswain, who com- 
 bined with his duties the functions of chief- 
 gunner aboard the Countess Ida, superintended 
 the loading of a couple of pieces. 
 
 ' Please tell me when they are going to 
 fire, Mr. Piley, that I may stop my ears,' cried 
 Miss Hudson, who looked-a very lovely little 
 woman that morning in a wide straw hat and 
 a body of some muslin-like material, through 
 which the snow of her throat and neck showed, 
 making you think of a white rose in a crystal 
 vase. 
 
 Mr. Greenhew, with a glance full of scissors 
 and thumbscrews, as sailors say, at Mr. Piley, 
 told Miss Hudson that if she objected to the 
 noise, he would insist that the gun should not
 
 A STRANGE CARGO 173 
 
 be fired, and would make it a personal matter 
 between himself and the captain. 
 
 1 Not for worlds, thank you very much all 
 the same,' said Miss Hudson, sending a lan- 
 guishing look at him through her eyelashes ; 
 which, being witnessed by Mr. Riley, would, 
 I did not doubt, occasion a large expenditure 
 of sarcasm between the young men later on. 
 
 The motion of the ship was very slow, and 
 we had floated almost imperceptibly down 
 upon the wreck. The skipper then suggested 
 that the ladies should go aft, and off they went 
 in a flutter and huddle of many-coloured 
 gowns, Mrs. Colonel Bannister leading the 
 way, and Mrs. Hudson limping in the wake 
 with her fingers in her ears. A chap with a 
 purple face and immense whiskers was sighting 
 the piece. 
 
 ' Let fly now, whenever you are ready,' 
 shouted Mr. Prance. 
 
 There was a roaring explosion ; Mr. John- 
 son recoiled on to the feet of Mr. Emmett, who 
 shouted with pain, and went hopping to the 
 skylight with a foot in his hand. There were 
 several screeches from the ladies, and rae- 
 thought the whiskers of the colonel, who stood 
 beside me thirstily looking on, forked out with
 
 174 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 an added tension of every separate fibre, to the 
 thunder of the gun and the smell of the powder. 
 The ball flew wide. 
 
 ' Another shot ! ' called out Mr. Prance. 
 
 Bang ! went the piece. I had my eye on 
 the wreck at that moment, and saw half the 
 stern-post, from which the rudder was gone, 
 and a few feet of the keel to which it was 
 affixed, vanish like a shattered bottle. 
 
 4 That's done it ! ' cried old Keeling with 
 excitement as he stood ogling the wreck through 
 his binocular. ' If a hole that'll let the air out 
 is to sink her, she's as good as foundered. ' 
 
 He had scarcely said this when there was a 
 sudden roar of voices along the whole length 
 of our ship. 
 
 ' See ! she is full of men ! ' 
 
 'Heart alive, where are they coming 
 from ? ' 
 
 ' They're rising as if they were dead bodies, 
 and the last blast was sounding.' 
 
 ' What'll they be ? What'll they be ? 
 
 ' Defend us ! they must all be afloat in a 
 minute and drowning ! ' 
 
 Fifty exclamations of this kind rolled along 
 the bulwarks, where the sailors had gathered 
 in their full company to watch the effect of
 
 A STRANGE CARGO 175 
 
 the shot. There was no glass within reach of 
 me ; but my sight was keen, and at the first 
 blush I believed that the hull had been a 
 slaver, that she had capsized when full of 
 negroes, and that our round-shot had made a 
 man hole aft big enough for them to escape 
 through. There were twenty or thirty of 
 them. They came thrusting through the 
 aperture with extraordinary agility, and most 
 of them held a very firm seat on the clean line 
 of the keel. But every now and again one or 
 another of them would lose his balance and 
 slide down the hard bright surface of the 
 vellow sheathing upon the round of the bilge 
 plump into the water, where you would observe 
 him making frantic but idle efforts to reclimb 
 the wet and slippery slope. 
 
 ; Monkeys, as I am a man ! ' roared Mr. 
 Prance. 
 
 ' A cargo of monkeys, sir ! ' shouted the 
 skipper from the other end of the poop, whilst 
 he kept his glasses levelled at the wreck. 
 
 A sort of groaning note of astonishment, 
 followed by a wild shout of laughter, came 
 along from the Jacks. Indeed, one needed to 
 look hard at the thing to believe in it, so in* 
 credibly odd was the incident. One moment
 
 176 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 the wreck was a mere curve of naked yellow 
 sheathing flashing to the sun as it rolled ; the 
 next, pouff! went the thunder of the gun, and 
 as though its grinning adamantine lips owned 
 some magical and diabolical potency of invo- 
 cation, lo ! the hole made by the shot was 
 vomiting monkeys, and in a trice the radiant 
 rounds of the keel-up fabric were covered with 
 the figures of squatting, clinging, grinning 
 creatures of all sizes, some like little hairy 
 babies, some like men as large at least as Mr. 
 Saunders. 
 
 ' There'll be a human being rising out of 
 that hole before long, I expect,' said Mr. Prance. 
 6 He must needs be slower than the monkeys 
 if he's a man. How many d'ye make, Mr. 
 Dugdale ? ' 
 
 ' Some thirty or forty,' said I. c But I tell 
 you what, Mr. Prance : there'll be none left in 
 a few minutes, for the hull is sinking rapidly.' 
 
 At that instant Captain Keeling sung out : 
 c Mr. Prance — have one of the quarter-boats 
 manned. It is as I thought — the hull was 
 floating on the air in her hold, and she's settling 
 fast. We can't let those poor creatures drown. 
 Get the main topsail backed.' 
 
 A boat's crew came bundling aft to the cry
 
 A STRAXGE CARGO 177 
 
 of the mate ; in a mighty hurry the gripes 
 were cast adrift, and the tackles slackened 
 away with the men in their places, and the 
 fourth officer in the stern sheets shipping the 
 rudder as the boat sank. There was a deal 
 of confusion for the moment, what with the 
 tumbling aft of the sailors, the passengers 
 getting out of their road, the hubbub of ladies' 
 voices, and the cries of the seamen dragging 
 upon the weather main-braces to back the 
 yards. 
 
 ' There she goes ! ' cried I ; ' there'll not 
 be many of the creatures rescued, I believe. 
 Monkeys are indifferent swimmers.' 
 
 1 Lively now, Mr. Jenkinson,' yelled Mr. 
 Prance to the fourth officer, ' or they'll all be 
 drowned.' 
 
 The chaps gave way with a will, and the 
 boat buzzed towards the patch of little black 
 heads that rose and sank upon the swell as 
 though a sack of cocoa-nuts had been capsized 
 out there. All hands stood gazing in silence. 
 The drowning struggle of a single beast is a 
 pitiful sight ; but to see a crowd perishing, a 
 whole mob of brutes horribly counterfeiting 
 the aspect and motions of suffering humanity 
 with their faces and gestures, is painful, and 
 
 vol. 1. n
 
 i 7 8 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 indeed intolerable. The ladies had come to the 
 forward end of the poop out of the way of 
 the seamen pulling upon the main brace, and 
 I found myself next to Miss Temple at the 
 rail. 
 
 'They are monkeys, I suppose?' she said, 
 swiftly shooting a glance of her black eyes 
 at me, and then staring again seawards wuth 
 her pale face as passionless as a piece of 
 carving, and nothing to show that she was 
 in the least degree moved by the excitement 
 of the scene of drowning monkeys and speed- 
 ing boat, saving her parted lips, as though 
 she breathed a little fast. 
 
 ' They are as much monkeys,' said I, ' as 
 fur and tails can make a creature.' 
 
 6 Do you suppose there were living people 
 locked up in that hold V 
 
 ' God forbid ! ' said I. ' It is not a thing 
 to conjecture now.' 
 
 4 How could those monkeys have lived 
 without air ? ' 
 
 ' Air there must have been, Miss Temple, 
 or they could not have lived. The story of 
 the wreck seems simple enough to my mind. 
 She was, no doubt, a little schooner from the 
 Brazilian coast, bound to a European port
 
 A STRANGE CARGO 179 
 
 with a freight of monkeys, which are always 
 a saleable commodity. They would be 
 stowed away somewhere aft in the run, per- 
 haps, as it is called. The vessel capsized, 
 and floated, as Captain Keeling suggested, 
 upon the air in her. Our cannon-ball 
 knocked a hole in the hulk right over the 
 monkeys' quarters, and out they came. I 
 can tell you of more wonderful things than 
 that.' 
 
 1 She must have capsized, as you call it, 
 very recently,' said she, glancing at me again 
 — it was rarely more than a glance with her, 
 as though she believed that such beauty as 
 her eyes had entitled them to a royal privacy. 
 
 ; Xo doubt,' I answered. 
 
 By this time the boat had reached the 
 spot where the hulk had foundered, and we 
 could see the men lying over the side picking 
 up the monkeys. I ran my gaze eagerly 
 over the surface there, somehow fancying 
 that one or more bodies of men might rise ; 
 but there was nothing in that way to be seen. 
 The boat lingered with the fellows in her 
 standing up and looking around them. They 
 then reseated themselves, the oars sparkled, 
 
 h 2
 
 180 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 and presently the little fabric came rushing 
 through the water to alongside. 
 
 < How many have you picked up, Mr. 
 Jenkinson ! ' cried the mate. 
 
 ' Only eight, sir. I believe they were half 
 dead with hunger and thirst, and had no 
 strength to swim, for most of them had sunk 
 before we could approach them.' 
 
 ' Hand the poor brutes up.' 
 
 Some of the Jacks jumped into the chains 
 to receive the creatures, and they were 
 passed over the rail on to the quarter-deck. 
 Deeply as one might pity the unhappy brutes, 
 it was impossible to look at them with a 
 grave face. One of them was an ape with 
 white whiskers like a frill, and a tuft of hair 
 upon his brow that-made the rest of his head 
 look bald. He had lost an eye, but the other 
 blinker was so full of human expression that 
 I found myself shaking with laughter as I 
 watched him. He sat on his hams like a 
 Lascar, gazing up at us with his one eye 
 with a wrinkled and grinning countenance of 
 appeal grotesque beyond the wildest fancies 
 of the caricaturist. There was one pretty 
 little chap with red fur upon his breast like a 
 waistcoat. Some of the creatures, on feeling
 
 A STRAXGE CARGO 1S1 
 
 the warm planks of the deck, lay down in the 
 exact posture of human beings, reposing their 
 heads upon their extended arms and closing 
 their eyes. 
 
 1 Bo'sun,' called Mr. Prance, ' o-et those 
 poor beasts forward and have water and food 
 given them. Swing the topsail yard — lee 
 main topsail braces.' 
 
 In a few minutes the quarter-deck was 
 clear again, with an ordinary seaman swab- 
 bing the wet spaces left by the monkeys, and 
 the ship quietly pushing forwards on her 
 course.
 
 82 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 CHA.PTEE IX 
 
 A SEC EET BLOW 
 
 At sea, a very little thing goes a very long 
 way, and you will suppose that this incident 
 of the monkeys gave us plenty to talk about 
 and to wonder at. At the dinner table that 
 evening old Keeling favoured us with a long 
 yarn about a French craft that capsized some- 
 where off the Scilly Islands with four men in 
 her : how the air in her hold kept her buoy- 
 ant ; how the fellows climbed into the run 
 and sat with their heads against the ship's 
 bottom ; how one of them strove with might 
 and main to knock a plank out, that he might 
 see if help was about, in nOAvise suspecting 
 that if he let the air escape the hull would 
 sink ; how, all unknown to the wretched im- 
 prisoned men, a smack fell in with the cap- 
 sized craft and tried to tow her, but gave up 
 after the line had parted two or three times ; 
 how she finally stranded upon one of the
 
 A SECRET BLOW 183 
 
 Scilly Isles ; and how one of the inhabitants 
 coming clown to view the wreck, shot away 
 as though the devil were in chase of him, on 
 hearing the sound of voices inside. 
 
 Mr. Johnson whispered to me : 'I don't 
 believe it ; ' and Colonel Bannister listened 
 with a fine incredulous stare fixed upon the 
 skipper's crimson countenance ; but the rest 
 of us were vastly interested, especially the 
 elder ladies, who, behind old Reeling's back, 
 spoke of him as c a love." 
 
 We settled it amongst us to purchase the 
 monkeys from the boat's crew which had 
 rescued them, leaving the ape for the seamen 
 to make a pet of. The matter was talked 
 over at that dinner, and I overheard Miss 
 Temple ask Mr. Colledge to try to secure the 
 little monkey with the red waistcoat for her. 
 She was the only one of the ladies who wanted 
 a monkey. 
 
 'Would you like one, Miss Hudson?' 
 said I. 
 
 She shuddered in the prettiest way. 
 
 'Oh, I hate monkeys,' she cried ; ' they 
 are so like men, you know ! ' 
 
 ' Then, by every law of logic,' bawled the 
 colonel with a loud laugh, 'you must hate
 
 i& 4 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 men more, madam. Don't you see ? — ha ! ha ! 
 Why do you hate monkeys? Because they 
 are like men. How much, then, must you 
 hate men, the original of the monkey ! ' 
 
 He roared with laughter again. In fact, 
 there never was a man who more keenly 
 relished his own sallies of wit than Colonel 
 Bannister. 
 
 Miss Hudson coloured, and fanned herself. 
 
 1 1 hate monkeys too,' cried Mr. Green- 
 hew, ' and for the reason that makes Miss 
 Hudson averse to them ; ' and here he looked 
 very hard at the colonel. 
 
 'Well, certainly a fellow-feeling don't 
 always make us kind,' murmured Mr. Eiley 
 in an audible voice, and putting a glass into 
 his eye to look around him as he laughed. 
 
 Here the steward said something in a low 
 voice to Mr. Prance, who looked at me, and 
 said in a hollow tragic tone : ' Five of the 
 monkeys have gone dead, sir.' 
 
 I called the news down the table to the 
 captain. 
 
 ' I'm sorry to hear it, Mr. Dugdale,' he an- 
 swered in a dry voice ; ' but you don't want 
 me to open a subscription list for the widows, 
 do ye ? '
 
 A SECRET BLOW 1S5 
 
 1 Can any one say if the little chap with 
 the red waistcoat's dead ? ' cried Mr. Colledge. 
 
 ' Dead hand gone, sir,' exclaimed the cock- 
 ney head steward. 
 
 ' What is left of the lot ? ' inquired Keeling. 
 
 1 The hape, sir ; and the two little chaps 
 that was rescued with their tails half ate up, 
 as is supposed by themselves,' responded the 
 steward. 
 
 Mr. Johnson burst out a-laughing. 
 
 ' Tails eaten up ! ' cried Mrs. Bannister, 
 poising a pair of gold glasses upon her Eoman 
 nose as she addressed the captain. 'Are 
 there any sharks here ? ' 
 
 ' 1 should say not, madam,' answered the 
 skipper. 'It is a trick monkeys fall into of 
 biting their own tails, as human beings gnaw 
 their finger-nails.' 
 
 ' And when they have consumed their 
 tails, Captain Keeling,' said Mrs. Hudson, in a 
 rather vulgar voice, ' do they go on with the 
 rest of themselves ? ' 
 
 ' I believe they are only hindered, madam,' 
 said Keehng, with a grave face, ' by discover- 
 ing themselves, after a given limit, somewhat 
 inaccessible.' 
 
 ' I dishke monkeys,' said Mrs. JolifFe to
 
 1 86 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 Mr. Saunders ; ' but I should imagine that 
 natural philosophers would find their habits 
 and tastes very interesting subjects for study.' 
 
 The little chap moved uneasily in his 
 chair, with a half-glance up and clown, to see 
 if anybody smiled. 
 
 ' The monkey eating his tail,' exclaimed 
 Mr. Emmett, ' is to my mind a very beautiful 
 symbol.' 
 
 ' Of what ? ' inquired Mr. Hodder. 
 
 ' Of a dissipated young man devouring the 
 fortune left him,' answered Mr. Emmett. 
 
 4 Very true ; very good, indeed ! ' cried 
 Mr. Adams, the lawyer, with a laugh. 
 
 The death of the monkeys extinguished 
 the scheme of purchasing them. The one- 
 eyed ape was not to be thought of ; and now 
 it was known that the tails of the other sur- 
 vivors were merely stumps, the subject was 
 very unanimously dropped, and the three poor 
 beasts left for the sailors to do what they 
 pleased with. 
 
 As an incident, the matter might have 
 served for the clay, so dull is life on shipboard 
 with nothing to look forward to but meal- 
 time. But something else was to happen that 
 evening.
 
 A SECRET BLOW 1S7 
 
 Two bells — nine o'clock — had been struck. 
 Most of the passengers were below, for there 
 was a deal of dew in the air, too much of it 
 for the thin dresses of the ladies, who, through 
 the skylight, were to be seen reading and 
 chatting in the cuddy, with a party of whist- 
 players at the table, Mr. Emmett's and Mr. 
 Hodder's noses close together over a crib- 
 bage board, and Colledge at chess with Miss 
 Temple, Miss Hudson opposite, leaning her 
 shining head on her arm bare to the elbow, a 
 faultless limb indeed, watching them. The 
 breeze had freshened at sundown. There 
 was a half-moon in the heavens, with a tropic 
 brightness of disc, and the ocean under her 
 light spread away to its limits in a surface 
 firm and dark as polished indigo, saving that 
 under the planet there was a long trembling 
 wake, and an icy sparkle in the eastern waters, 
 over which some large, most beautiful star 
 was hanging ; but though there was breeze 
 enough to put a merry rippling into the sea, 
 the feathering of each little surge was too 
 delicate to catch the eye, unless the white 
 water broke close ; and the deep brimmed to 
 the distant luminaries, a mighty shadow. 
 
 The skipper was below ; Mr. Cocker had
 
 1 88 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 charge of the deck, and I joined him in his 
 walk. He talked of the monkeys, how the 
 poor wretches had died one after another in 
 the forecastle. 
 
 ' I saw one of them die,' said he : ' npon 
 my life, Mr. Dugdale, it was like seeing a 
 human being expire. I don't wonder women 
 dislike that kind of beasts. For my part, I 
 regard monkeys as poor relations.' 
 
 ' What were the men laughing at, shortly 
 *\*,er we had come up from dinner ? ' I asked. 
 
 ' Why, sir, at little John Chinaman. The 
 ape was on the forehatch, secured by a piece 
 of line round his waist. Johnny went to have 
 a look at him. There was nobody about — at 
 least he thought so. He stared hard at the 
 ape, who viewed- him eagerly with his one 
 eye, and then said : " I say, where you from, 
 hey?" The ape continued to look. "Oh, 
 you can speakee," continued John ; " me 
 savee you can for speakee. Why you no talkee, 
 hey ? Me ask where you from ? Where you 
 from ? " The ape caught a flea. " How you 
 capsize, hey ? " asked the Chinese lunatic as 
 gravely, Mr. Dugdale, so the men say, as if he 
 were addressing you or me. " Speakee soft — 
 how you capsize, hey ? " This went on, I am
 
 A SECRET BLOW 189 
 
 told, for ten minutes, the men meanwhile 
 coming on tip-toe to listen over the forecastle 
 edge till they could stand it no longer, and 
 their roar of laughter was what you heard, 
 sir.' 
 
 ' A mere bit of sham posture-making in 
 Johnny, don't you think ? ' said I. ' He might 
 guess the men were listening. Had he been 
 a negro, now. But a Chinaman would very 
 well know that a monkey can't talk.' 
 
 ' This John is one who doesn't know, I'll 
 swear. Besides, sir, the Chinese are not such 
 geniuses as are imagined. There are thou- 
 sands amongst them to correspond with our 
 ignorant superstitious peasantry at home. I 
 remember at Chusan that four Chinamen 
 were engaged to carry a piano out of the 
 cabin. Whilst they were wrestling with it on 
 the quarter-deck, a string broke with a loud 
 twang, on which they put the instrument 
 down and ran away, viewing it from a dis- 
 tance with faces working with alarm and 
 astonishment. The mate called to know 
 what they meant by dropping their work. 
 " Him spirit ! him speakee," they cried ; in 
 fact, they would have no more to do with the 
 piano ; and when some of the crew picked it
 
 190 
 
 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 up to carry it to the gangway, the quivering 
 Johns went backing and recoiling on to the 
 forecastle, as though the instrument were a 
 cage with a wild beast in it that might at any 
 moment spring out on them.' 
 
 Whilst he was speaking I had been watch- 
 ing a star slowly creeping away from the edge 
 of the mainsail to leeward, as though it were 
 sweeping through the sky on its own account 
 on a course parallel with the line of the 
 horizon. My attention was fixed on what my 
 companion said, and my gaze rested mechani- 
 cally upon the star. Suddenly the truth 
 flashed upon me, and I started. 
 
 ' Why, Mr. Cocker, what's happening to 
 the ship ? Are we going home again ? She 
 is coming-to rapidly ! You will be having all 
 your stim'-sails there to larboard aback in a 
 minute.' 
 
 He had been too much engrossed by our 
 chat to notice this. 
 
 ' Wheel there ! ' he shouted, running aft 
 as he cried. 'What are you doing with the 
 ship? Port your helium, man, port your 
 helium ! ' 
 
 I hastily followed, to see what was the 
 matter. The wheel was deserted, and as I
 
 A SECRET BLOW 191 
 
 approached, I saw the circle revolve against 
 the stars over the taffrail like a windmill in a 
 gale. Alongside, prone on the deck, his arms 
 outstretched and his face down, was the figure 
 of the helmsman. 
 
 ' He is in a fit,' cried the second mate, 
 grasping the wheel and revolving it, to bring 
 the ship to her course again. 
 
 Here Captain Keeling came hastily up the 
 companion steps. 
 
 1 Where's the officer of the watch ? ' he 
 shouted. 
 
 'Here, sir,' answered Cocker from the 
 wheel. 
 
 1 Do you know, sir,' cried the skipper, 
 ' that you are four points off your course ? ' 
 
 6 The helmsman has fallen down in a fit, 
 or else lies dead here, sir,' responded the 
 second-mate. 
 
 The skipper saw how it was, and bawled 
 for some hands to come aft. Such of the 
 passengers as were on deck gathered about 
 the wheel in a group. 
 
 ' What is that ? ' exclaimed little Mr. 
 Saunders, stooping close to the prostrate sea- 
 man's head. ' Blood, gentlemen ! ' he ex- 
 claimed. 'See the great stain of it here!
 
 192 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 This man has been struck down by some 
 hand.' 
 
 'What's that? what's that?' cried old 
 Keeling, bending his crowbar of a figure to 
 the stain. ' Ay, he has been struck down as 
 you say, Mr. Saunders. Who has done this 
 thing ? Look about you, men ; see if there's 
 anybody concealed here.' 
 
 Three or four fellows had come tumbling 
 aft. One took the wheel from the second 
 mate ; and the others, along with the mid- 
 shipmen of the watch, fell to peering under 
 the gratings and into the gig that hung astern 
 flush with the taffrail, and up aloft ; but there 
 was nothing living to be found, and the great 
 fabric of mizzen masts and sails whitened to 
 the truck by the moon, and the yard-arms 
 showing in black lines against the stars, 
 soared without blotch or stir, saving here and 
 there a thin shadow upon the pallid cloths 
 creeping to the movement of the spars. 
 
 Dr. Hemmeridge now arrived. The sea- 
 man, who appeared as dead as a stone, was 
 turned over, and propped by a couple of 
 sailors, and the doctor took a view of him by 
 the help of the binnacle lamp. There was a 
 desperate gash on the left side of the head.
 
 A SECRET BLOW 193 
 
 The small straw hat that the poor fellow was 
 wearing was cut through, as though to the 
 clip of a chopper. There was a deal of blood 
 on the deck, and the man's face was ghastly 
 enough, with its beard encrimsoned and drip- 
 ping, to turn the heart sick. 
 
 I Is he dead, think you ? ' demanded the 
 captain. 
 
 I I cannot yet tell,' answered the doctor. 
 ' Eaise him, men, and carry him forward at 
 once to his bunk.' 
 
 The sailors, followed by the doctor, went 
 staggering shadowily under their burden along 
 the poop and disappeared, leaving a little 
 crowd of us at the wheel dumb with wonder, 
 and looking about us with eyes which gleamed 
 to the flame of the binnacle lamp that Mr. 
 Cocker yet held. 
 
 c Xow, how has this happened ? ' demanded 
 old Keeling, after a prolonged squint aloft. 
 < Had you left the deck, Mr. Cocker ? ' 
 
 1 No, sir, not for a living instant ; Mr. Dug- 
 dale will bear witness to that.' 
 
 1 It is true,' I said. 
 
 ' Did no man from f jrward come along the 
 poop ? ' 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 194 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 8 No man, sir ; I'll swear it,' answered Mr. 
 Cocker. 
 
 ' Any of you young gentlemen been aloft ? ' 
 said Keeling, addressing the midshipmen. 
 
 8 No, sir,' answered one of them, ' neither 
 aloft nor yet abaft the mizzen rigging for the 
 last half-hour. 7 
 
 The old chap took the lamp out of Mr. 
 Cocker's hand and looked under the gratings, 
 then got upon them and stared into the gig, 
 as though dissatisfied with the earlier inspec- 
 tion of these hiding-places. 
 
 ' Most extraordinary ! ' he exclaimed ; ' did 
 some madman do it, and then jump over- 
 board ? ' 
 
 He looked over the sides to port and star- 
 board. The qua_rter galleries were small, with 
 bumpkins for the main-braces stretching out 
 from them. They were untenanted. 
 
 6 What was the man's name, Mr. Cocker?' 
 
 c Simpson, sir.' 
 
 ' Was he unpopular forward, do you know? 
 Had he quarrelled lately with any man ? ' 
 
 6 1 will inquire, sir.' 
 
 Old Keeling seemed as bewildered as a 
 person newly awakened from a dream ; and, 
 indeed, it was an extraordinary and an in-
 
 A SECRET BLOW 195 
 
 credible thing. Mr. Saunders and Mynheer 
 Hemskirk, with one or two others who were 
 on the deck at the time, swore that no man 
 had come aft from the direction of the fore- 
 castle. They were conversing in a group a 
 little forward of the mizzen mast, and could 
 take their oaths that there was no living 
 creature abaft that point at the time of the 
 occurrence saving the man who had been so 
 mysteriously felled to the deck. 
 
 'He most hov done it himself,' said Hems- 
 kirk. 
 
 ' What ! Dealt himself a blow that sheared 
 through his hat into his skull ? ' cried old 
 Keeling. 
 
 1 I've been making inquiries, sir,' said the 
 second-mate, approaching us, c and find that 
 Simpson, instead of being disliked, was a 
 general favourite. No man has been aft, sir.' 
 
 ' Something must have fallen from the 
 rigging,' said Mr. Saunders. 
 
 ' Sir,' cried the captain in a voice of 
 mingled wrath and astonishment, ' when any- 
 thing falls from aloft, it drops plumb, sir — up 
 and down. sir. The law of gravitation, Mr. 
 Saunders, is the same at sea as it is on shore. 
 What could fall from those heights up there ' — 
 
 2
 
 1 96 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 and here lie turned up his head like a hen in 
 the act of drinking — ' to strike a man standing 
 at the wheel all that distance away ? ' 
 
 The news had got wind below, and the 
 passengers came up in twos and threes from 
 the cuddy, asking questions as they arrived, 
 the loudest and most importunate amongst 
 them, needless to say, being Colonel Bannister. 
 There was real consternation amongst the 
 ladies at the sight of the bloodstain. I shall 
 not easily forget the picture of that poop-full 
 of people : the staring of the women at the 
 dark blotch against the wheel, whilst they held 
 themselves in a sort of posture of recoil, hold- 
 ing their dresses back, as if something were 
 crawling at them ; the subdued wondering air 
 of the men, restlessly looking about them, one 
 going to the rail to gaze over, the dusky form 
 of another stooping to peer under the gratings, 
 a third with his head lying back straining his 
 sight at the airy empearled spire of the cloths 
 rising from the cross-jack to the royal yard, 
 the mizzen-top showing clear and firm as a 
 drawing in Indian ink against the delicate 
 shimmering concavity of the topsail. The 
 half-moon rode in brilliance over the main 
 top-gallant yard-arm, and the dark swell rolled
 
 A SECRET BLOW 197 
 
 in soundless hearings to the quarter, with the 
 wake of the planet lying in the shape of a 
 silver fan to half way across the ocean, and not 
 a cloud in the whole wide velvet-black depths 
 to obscure so much as a thumbnail of Stardust. 
 
 1 What has happened, Dugdale?' exclaimed 
 Colledge, accosting me at once as he rose 
 through the companion with Miss Temple at 
 his side. 
 
 ' A man that was at the helm has been 
 struck down,' said I. 
 
 1 By whom ? ' said he. 
 
 ' Why, that's it,' I answered ; ' nobody 
 knows, and I don't think anybody ever will 
 know.' 
 
 1 Is he dead ? ' asked Miss Temple. 
 
 ' I cannot say,' I responded ; ' his hat was 
 cut through and his head laid open. There is 
 a dreadful illustration of what has happened 
 close against the wheel.' 
 
 1 In what form ? ' she asked. 
 
 ■ Blood ! ' said I. 
 
 ' Why, it's murder, then ! ' cried Colledge. 
 
 ' It looks like it,' said I, with a glance at 
 Miss Temple's face, that showed white as 
 alabaster to the moonlight, whilst in each 
 glowing dark eye sparkled a little star of silver
 
 198 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 far more brilliant than the ice-like flash of the 
 diamonds which trembled in her ears. ' But 
 be the assassin what he may, I'll swear by 
 every saint in the calendar that he's not 
 aboard this ship.' 
 
 'Pray, explain, Mr. Dugclale,' exclaimed 
 Miss Temple in a voice of curiosity at once 
 haughty and peevish. 
 
 I made no answer. 
 
 ' My dear fellow, what do you want to 
 imply ? ' said Colledge : ' that the man was 
 struck down — by somebody out of doors ? ' 
 and his eyes went wandering over the sea. 
 
 ' It seems my mission, Miss Temple,' said' 
 I with a half-laugh, ' to furnish you with in- 
 formation on what happens on board the 
 Countess Ida. Once again let me enjoy the 
 privilege you do me the honour to confer 
 upon me ; ' and with that, in an offhand 
 manner, I told her the story as you have it. 
 
 ' Did anybody, think you, crawl out of the 
 hind windows,' exclaimed Colledge, ' and 
 creep up over the stern and strike the man 
 down ? ' 
 
 ' No,' said I. 
 
 'How did it happen, then?' asked Miss 
 Temple fretfully.
 
 A SECRET BLOW 199 
 
 ' Why,' I answered, looking at her, ' the 
 blow was no doubt dealt by a spirit.' 
 
 ' Lor' bless us, how terrifying ! ' exclaimed 
 Mrs. Hudson, who, unknown to me, had 
 drawn to my elbow to listen. ' What with 
 the heat and the sight of that blood ! ' she 
 cried, fanning herself violently. 'A spirit, 
 did you say, sir? Oh, I shall never be able 
 to sleep in the ship again after this.' 
 
 I edged away, finding little pleasure in the 
 prospect of a chat with Mrs. Hudson with 
 Miss Temple close at hand to listen to us. At 
 that moment Dr. Hemmeridge made his ap- 
 pearance. He stalked up to the captain, who 
 stood with his hand gripping the vang of the 
 spanker gaff, returning short almost gruff 
 answers to the questions fired at him. 
 
 ' The man's alive, sir,' said the doctor ; 
 ' but he's badly hurt. I've soldered his wound ; 
 but it is an ugly cut.' 
 
 ' Is he conscious ? ' demanded Keeling. 
 
 'Heii" 
 
 is. 
 
 ' And what does he say ? ' 
 
 ' He has nothing to say, sir. How should 
 he remember, Captain Keeling ? lie fell to 
 the blow as an ox would.' 
 
 ' Ha ! ' cried the skipper ; ' but does he
 
 200 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 recollect seeing anybody lurking near him — 
 has he any suspicion ' 
 
 1 Sir,' answered the doctor, ' at the present 
 moment his mind has but half an eye 
 open.' 
 
 I made one of the crowd that had assem- 
 bled to hear the doctor's report, and stood 
 near the binnacle stand — close enough to it, 
 in fact, to be able to lay my hand upon the 
 hood. My eye was travelling from the ugly 
 patch that had an appearance as of still sift- 
 ing out upon the white plank within half a 
 yard of me, when I caught sight of a black 
 lump of something just showing in the curve 
 of the base of the binnacle stand betwixt the 
 starboard legs of it. It was gone in a moment 
 with the slipping off it of the streak of moon- 
 shine that had disclosed it to me. Almost 
 mechanically, whilst I continued to listen to 
 the doctor, I put my toe to the thing ; then, 
 still in a mechanical way, picked it up. It 
 was a large stone, something of the shape of 
 a comb, with a twist in the middle of it, and 
 of a smooth surface on top, but rugged and 
 broken underneath, with a length of about 
 five inches jagged into an edge as keen as a 
 flint splinter. It was extraordinarily heavy,
 
 A SECRET BLOW 201 
 
 and might in that quality have been a lump 
 of gold. 
 
 1 Hallo ! ' I cried, ' what have we here ? ' 
 and I held it to the glass of the binnacle to 
 view it by the lamplight. 
 
 ' What is that you are looking at, Mr. 
 Dugdale ? ' called out old Keeling. 
 
 ' Why,' said I, ' neither more nor less to 
 my mind than the weapon with which your 
 sailor has been laid low, captain.' 
 
 There was a rush to look at it. Keeling 
 held it up to the moonlight, then poised it in 
 his hand. 
 
 * Who could have been the ruffian that 
 hove it ? ' he cried. 
 
 ' Allow me to see it,' exclaimed little Mr. 
 Saunders, and he worked his way, low down 
 amongst us, to the captain. He weighed the 
 stone, smelt it, carefully inspected it, then 
 looked up to the captain with a grin that 
 wrinkled his large, long, eager, wise old face 
 from his brow to his chin. ' A suspicion,' he 
 exclaimed, ' that has been slowly growing in 
 my mind is now confirmed. No mortal hand 
 hove this missile, captain. It comes from the 
 angels, sir.' 
 
 He paused.
 
 202 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 ' Lawk-a-daisy, what is the man going to 
 say next ? ' cried out Mrs. Hudson hysteri- 
 cally. 
 
 1 Captain Keeling, ladies and gentlemen,' 
 continued little Saunders, nursing the stone as 
 tenderly while he spoke as if it had been a 
 new-born babe, ' this has fallen from those 
 infinite spangled heights up there. It is, in 
 short, a meteorolite, and, so far as I can now 
 judge, a very beautiful specimen of one.'
 
 203 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE IIUMOUBS OF AN IXDIAMAX 
 
 The mystery being at an end, most of the 
 passengers, after a brief spell of loitering and 
 talking, went below, little Saunders leading the 
 way with the meteorolite, and the captain 
 closing the procession, to finish the glass of 
 grog he had been disturbed at by finding the 
 ship off her course. I was exchanging a few 
 words with Mr. Cocker on this second queer 
 incident of the day, when the fellow who was 
 at the wheel exclaimed : ' Beg pardon, sir ; ' 
 and I saw him shift very uneasily from one 
 leg to the other with a drag of the length of 
 his arm over his brow, as though he freely 
 perspired. 
 
 ; What is it ? ' inquired Mr. Cocker. 
 
 ; Am I expected to stand here alone, sir : 
 asked the fellow. 
 
 1 Certainly. What ! On a fine night like 
 this ? What do you want P That I should
 
 204 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 call hands to the relieving tackles ? ' cried the 
 second-mate. 
 
 The man sent a look up at the stars before 
 answering, with a sort of cowering air in the 
 posture of his head. 
 
 ' One of them blooming boomerangs,' said 
 he, ' might come along again, sir. What's a 
 man to do if time ain't allowed him to get out 
 of the road ? ' 
 
 ' Your having a companion won't help you/ 
 said the second-mate. 
 
 ' I dunno,' answered the fellow. ' Whatever 
 it be that chucks the like of them things, might 
 hold off at the sight of two of us.' 
 
 The second-mate stood looking at him a 
 little, and then burst into a laugh. 
 
 ' Well, well ! ' said he ; 'if there's ever a 
 lead-line to sound the depths of forecastle 
 ignorance, I allow there must be fathoms 
 enough of it to belay an end to the moon's 
 horns.' 
 
 Nevertheless he called to one of the watch 
 to come aft and hold the wheel with the other 
 man, making some allowance, I daresay, for 
 the superstitious feelings which possessed the 
 sailor, and which were certainly not to be
 
 THE HUMOURS OF 4N INDIAMAN 205 
 
 softened down by the sight of the great blood- 
 stain close to his feet. 
 
 I went below for a glass of brandy, and 
 found the passengers listening to Mr. Saunders, 
 who, with the meteorolite before him, was 
 delivering a discourse on that kind of stone, 
 pointing to it with his finger, speaking very 
 slowly and emphatically, and looking in his 
 wistful way up into the faces of his audience. 
 Even Miss Temple seemed interested, and stood 
 listening with her back against the mizzen- 
 mast, the embellished trunk of which formed 
 a very noble fanciful background for her fine 
 figure. However, I was more in the temper 
 for a pipe of tobacco than for a lecture, and 
 was presently on deck again, for after half-past 
 nine o'clock in the evening we were privileged 
 to smoke upon the poop. Colledge presently 
 joined me ; but in twenty minutes he gave a 
 prodigious yawn and then went to bed ; and I 
 paced the deck alone, with deep enjoyment of 
 the hush coming to the ship out of the dark 
 scintillant distance — a silence of ocean-nm'ht 
 that seemed to be deepened to the senses by 
 the marble stillness of the wide white pinions 
 stealing and floating up in a sort of glimmer 
 of spaces to the faint mist-like square of the
 
 206 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 main royal. There was a faint noise of tremb- 
 ling and rippling waters over the side, and the 
 line of the taffrail with the two fellows at the 
 wheel rose and fell very softly to the black 
 secret heave of the long deep-sea undulation. 
 The cuddy lamps were dimmed, the interior 
 deserted ; there was a small group of smokers 
 on the quarter-deck in the shadow of the bul- 
 wark conversing quietly ; abaft the mizzen 
 rigging flitted the dusky form of old Keeling, 
 who had come up to take a turn or two and a 
 final squint at the weather before turning in. 
 
 Some one emerged through the companion 
 hatch, and, after looking about him a little, 
 crossed to the lee rail, where I was standing. 
 
 ' Is that you, Dugdale ? ' 
 
 ' Yes,' said I. ' What's the matter, Green- 
 hew ? Time to be in bed, isn't it ? ' 
 
 1 Oh, I say, Dugdale,' exclaimed the young 
 fellow in a breathless kind of way, as though 
 the effort to check some fit of merriment nearly 
 choked him, ' there's such a lark down-stairs 
 
 — in my cabin — Biley, you know ' And 
 
 here he laughed out. 
 
 ' What's the lark ? ' I asked. 
 
 ' I want you to come and see,' he answered. 
 * I found it out by the merest accident, Heavens,
 
 THE HUMOURS OF AN INDIA MAN 207 
 
 what capers ! And if I don't contrive some 
 excuse to introduce Miss Hudson into the cabin, 
 
 that she may see him Well ! well ! But 
 
 come along, though.' 
 
 c But, my good fellow, let me first of all 
 know what I am to see/ said I. ' I am enjoy- 
 ing the silence and coolness of this deck and 
 my pipe and ' 
 
 He interrupted me as he cautiously stared 
 around him. 
 
 ' You know, of course, that Riley's got the 
 bunk under me F ' he exclaimed in a fluttering 
 voice, as though he should at any moment 
 break out into a loud laugh ; ' well, you can 
 make him do whatever you like when he's 
 asleep.' 
 
 c Go on,' said I ; ' I may understand you 
 presently.' 
 
 1 When I went to my cabin to turn in,' he 
 continued, * I found him in bed ; and imagin- 
 ing him to be awake, I exclaimed, just as a 
 matter of chaff, you know: "Look out, my 
 friend ! There'll be a meteorolite crashing 
 clean through my bunk into your head in a 
 minute — so, mind your eye, Eiley ! " The 
 moment I said this he hopped out from between 
 his sheets on to the deck, and stood cowering
 
 2o8 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 with his hands over his head, as if to shelter 
 it. His eyes were shut, and I supposed he was 
 playing the fool. " Get back into bed, man," 
 said I ; " you can't humbug me." He immedi- 
 ately lay down again in a manner that surprised 
 me, I assure you, Dugdale ; for it was as full 
 of obedience as the behaviour of any beaten 
 dog. I watched him a little, to see if he 
 opened his eyes ; but he kept them shut, and 
 his breathing proved him fast asleep. I 
 thought I would try him again. "Hi, Riley ! " 
 I exclaimed. " Here's Peter Hemskirk come 
 to haul you out of your bunk. Protect your- 
 self, or he'll be dragging you into the cuddy, 
 dressed as you are, and Miss Hudson is there 
 to see you." Instantly, Dugdale ' — here he 
 clapped his hands to his lips, to smother a fit 
 of laughter — c he doubled up his fists and let 
 fly at the air, kicking off the clothes, that he 
 might strike out with his legs ; and thus he lay 
 working all over like a galvanised frog. You 
 never saw such a sight. Come down and look 
 at him.' 
 
 ' Have } T ou observed anything of the sort 
 in him before? ' said I, knocking the ashes out 
 of my pipe. 
 
 ' Never before,' he answered ; ' but I have
 
 THE HUMOURS OF AN INDIA MAN 209 
 
 liim on the hip now. He's tried to make a 
 fool of me to Miss Hudson, and this blessed 
 evening shows me my way to a very pretty 
 rejoinder. Come along, come along ! Should 
 he wake, there can be no performance.' 
 
 He went gliding with the step of a skater 
 to the companion, and I followed, scarcely 
 knowing as yet whether the young fellow was 
 not designing in all this some practical joke 
 of which I was to be the victim. We passed 
 through the deserted cuddy, faintly lighted by 
 one dimly burning lantern, and descended to 
 the lower deck, where the corridor between 
 the berths was illuminated by a bull's-eye 
 lamp fixed under a clock against the bulk- 
 head. The cabin shared by the young men 
 stood three doors down past mine on the same 
 side of the ship. Greenhew halted a moment 
 to listen, then turned the handle, took a peep, 
 and beckoned me to enter. Affixed to a 
 stanchion was a small bracket lamp, the glow 
 of which was upon Eiley's face as he lay on 
 his back in an under bunk, unmistakably in a 
 deep sleep. His eyes were sealed, his lips 
 parted, his respirations low and deep, as of 
 one who slumbers heavily. The wild disorder 
 vol. 1. P
 
 2io MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 of the bedclothes was corroboration enough 
 of Greenhew's tale, at least in one article 
 of it. 
 
 ' Try him yourself,' said my companion in 
 a low voice. 
 
 6 No, no,' I answered. ' I have a sailor's 
 reverence for sleep. You have invited me 
 here to witness a performance. It is for you 
 to make the play, Greenhew.' 
 
 He at once cried out : ' Eiley ! Eiley ! the 
 ship is sinking ! For God's sake strike out, or 
 you're a drowned man ! ' 
 
 I was amazed to observe the young fellow 
 instantly rise to his knees and motion with his 
 arms in the exact manner of a swimmer, yet 
 with a stoop of the head 'to clear it of the 
 boards of the upper bunk, which I considered 
 as remarkable as any other part of the extra- 
 ordinary exhibition for the perception that it 
 indicated of surrounding conditions ; whilst 
 his gestures on the other hand proved him 
 completely under the control of the delusion 
 created by his cabin-fellow's cry. I also ob- 
 served an expression of extreme suffering and 
 anxiety in his face, that was made dumb 
 otherwise by the closed lids. In fact it was 
 the countenance of a swimmer battling in
 
 THE HUMOURS OF AN IN D I AM AN 211 
 
 agony. Greenhew looked on half choking 
 with laughter. 
 
 ' Oh,' he whipped out in disjointed sylla- 
 bles, ' if ^liss Hudson could only see him now ! 
 Dugdale, you'll have to find me some excuse 
 to introduce her here. Her mother must 
 attend too — the more the merrier ! ' and here 
 he went off again into a fit, as though he 
 should suffocate. 
 
 For my part, I could see nothing to laugh 
 at. Indeed, the thing shocked and astonished 
 me as a painful, degrading, mysterious ex- 
 pression of the human mind acting under 
 conditions of which I could not be expected 
 of course to make head or tail. Eiley con- 
 tinued to move his arms with the motions of 
 a swimmer for some minutes, meanwhile 
 breathing hard, as though the water's edge 
 rose to his lip, whilst his face continued drawn 
 out into an indescribable expression of distress. 
 His gesticulations then grew feeble, his re- 
 spiration lost its fierceness and swiftness and 
 became once more long drawn and regular, 
 and presently he lay back, still in a deep sleep, 
 in the posture in which I had observed him 
 when I entered. 
 
 'What d'ye think of that?' exclaimed 
 
 r 2
 
 212 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 Greenhew with a face of triumphant enjoy- 
 ment. 
 
 ' A pitiful trick for a sleeper to fall into/ 
 said I. ' I like your show so little, Greenhew, 
 that I wish to see no more of it.' 
 
 ' Oh, nonsense ! ' he exclaimed ; ' let's keep 
 him caper-cutting a while longer. I'll have a 
 regular performance here every night. It 
 shall be the talk of the ship, by George ! ' 
 
 As he spoke these words, Eiley uttered a 
 low cry, opened his eyes full upon us, stared 
 a moment with the bewilderment of a man 
 who has not all his senses, then sat upright, 
 running his gaze over his bedclothes. 
 
 ' What is the matter ? ' he exclaimed, look- 
 ing around at us. ' Who has been ' 
 
 The light and expression of a full mind 
 entered his eyes. He threw his feet over on 
 to the deck and stood up. 
 
 ' Have I been making a fool of myself in 
 my sleep, Dugdale ? ' said he. — I was at a loss 
 for an answer. — He proceeded : ' I know my 
 weakness. I have heard of it often enough — 
 at school — from my mother — again and again 
 since, Dugdale. Greenhew has brought you 
 here to watch me. And that means/ cried he, 
 turning fiercely upon Greenhew, ' that you
 
 THE HUMOURS OF AN INDIAMAN 213 
 
 have been exercising your humour upon me 
 in my sleep, and instead of compassionating 
 a painful and humiliating infirmity, you 
 
 have ' 
 
 His temper choked him. He clenched his 
 fist and let fly at friend Greenhew right be- 
 tween the eyes. Down went the Civil Service 
 man like a statue knocked off its pedestal ; 
 but he was up again in a minute ; and neither 
 of them wanting in spunk, at it they went ! 
 It was enough to make any man die of laugh- 
 ter to see Eiley's very imperfectly clad figure 
 dancing and manoeuvring round Greenhew 
 with the gestures of a cannibal at a feast- 
 dance, yet all the while handsomely plumping 
 his fists into his antagonist, who hammered 
 wildly in return with a ruddy nose and one 
 eye already slowly closing. I threw myself 
 between them, but could do little for laughing. 
 They fought in silence, so far at least as their 
 voices were concerned ; but the hard thumps 
 they dealt the bulkhead as they went pom- 
 melling each other from side to side, not to 
 mention their frequent capsizals over boxes, 
 the flight of any objects, such as boots, which 
 their toes happened to strike against, might 
 well have caused the occupants of the adja-
 
 214 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 cent cabins to believe that if this scramble did 
 not signify a rush of people escaping from a 
 sinking ship, then it must certainly mean a 
 desperate mutiny amongst the crew accom- 
 panied by all the disorder of a struggle for 
 life. 
 
 ' For heaven's sake, stop this ! ' I shouted ; 
 'consider how terrified the ladies will be. 
 Greenhew, cease it, mam Riley, get you into 
 your bunk again ' 
 
 Here there was a violent thumping upon 
 the door of the cabin. 
 
 ' Anybody fallen mad here ? ' was bawled 
 in the familiar notes of Colonel Bannister, 
 c or is it murder that's being done ? ' 
 
 He opened the door and looked in. 
 
 ' Yot, in Got's name, iss happening ? ' 
 rumbled the deep voice of Peter Hemskirk 
 over the military man's shoulder. 
 
 The ship slightly leaned at that moment, 
 and caused the Dutchman to put his weight 
 against the colonel, with the consequence 
 that the little soldier was shot into the cabin 
 with Mynheer at his heels. 
 
 ' What's this ? ' cried the colonel. 
 
 ' I'll teach you ! ' gasped Riley.
 
 THE HUMOURS OF AX IX D I AM AN 215 
 
 ' Haven't you had enough ? ' shouted Green- 
 hew. 
 
 1 Seberate 'em ! seberate 'em ! ' exclaimed 
 Hemskirk. ' Look, shentlemen, how Mr. 
 Greenhew bleeds.' 
 
 1 What on earth is the matter ? ' exclaimed 
 some one at the door. 
 
 It was Mr. Emmett. He trembled, and 
 was very pale. He had thown his tragedian 
 cloak over his shoulders, and looked a truly 
 ludicrous object with a short space of his 
 bare shanks showing and his feet in a pair of 
 large carpet slippers. In fact, by this time 
 the whole of the passengers were alarmed, 
 the ladies looking out of their doors and 
 calling, the men hustling into the passage to 
 see, with the sound of Mr. Prance's voice at 
 the head of the steps of the hatch shouting 
 down to know what the noise was about. It 
 was more than I could stand. The figures 
 of the colonel and the Dutchman and Emmett, 
 not to mention Riley, coming on top of the 
 absurdity of the fight, proved too much for 
 me. I took one look at Greenhew, shot 
 through the door, gained my cabin, and 
 flung myself into my bunk, exhausted with 
 laughter, and utterly incapable of answering
 
 216 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 the numberless questions which Colleclge fired 
 off at me. 
 
 The noise ceased after a while, but not 
 before I heard the captain's storming accents 
 outside my berth. I could also hear the 
 colonel complaining in strong language of so 
 great an outrage as that of two young men 
 fighting in the dead of night within the 
 hearing of ladies. The old skipper insisted 
 on one of the young fellows quitting the 
 cabin and sharing the berth tenanted by Mr. 
 Fairthorne. Both vehemently refused to 
 budge. The captain then asked who struck 
 the first blow. Eiley answered that he had, 
 and was beginning to explain, when old Keel- 
 ing silenced him by saying that he would 
 give him five minutes to retire to Mr. Fair- 
 thorne's berth, and that if he had not cleared 
 out by that time he would send for the boat- 
 swain and a sailor or two to show him the 
 road. This ended the difficulty, as I was 
 told next morning, and the rest of the night 
 passed quietly enough. 
 
 Next day, Mr. Eiley put in an appearance 
 at breakfast. On seeing me he came round 
 to my seat, and in a few words begged me 
 not to explain the cause of the quarrel, as he
 
 THE HUMOURS OF AN INDIAMAN 217 
 
 had no wish that his peculiarity as a sleeper 
 should be known to the rest of us. I gave 
 him my word, but regretted that he should 
 have exacted it, as I wished to talk 
 with Saunders and Hemmeridge on the 
 very extraordinary manifestations I had wit- 
 nessed. It was fortunate, however, that my 
 share in the disturbance was not guessed at. 
 The colonel, Hemskirk, and the rest imagined 
 that I had been drawn to the young men's 
 berth by the noise, as they had, and no ques- 
 tions were therefore asked me. Mr. Green- 
 hew kept his bed for three days. It was 
 mainly sulking and shame with him, the 
 others thought ; but the truth was his eye 
 had not only closed, but was so swollen and 
 blackened as to render him unfit to appear in 
 public. He sent one of the stewards to ask 
 me to see him ; but I had had quite enough 
 of Mr. Greenhew, and contrived to keep clear 
 of the youth until his coming on deck made 
 escape from him impossible. 
 
 Nothing happened worth noting in the 
 week that followed this business. The trade- 
 wind blew as languid a breeze as ever vexed 
 the heart and inflamed the passions of a ship- 
 master. It was to be a long passage, we all
 
 218 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 said — six months, Mr. Johnson predicted — 
 and old Keeling admitted that lie had nothing 
 to offer ns in the way of hope until we had 
 crossed the equator, where the south-east 
 trades might compensate us for this northern 
 sluggishness by blowing a brisk gale of wind. 
 However, if the dull crawling of the ship 
 held the spirits of us who lived aft somewhat 
 low, forward the Jacks made sport enough 
 for themselves, and of a second dog-watch 
 were as jolly a lot as ever fetched an echo 
 out. of a hollow topsail with salt-hardened 
 lungs. There were a couple of excellent 
 fiddlers amongst them, and these chaps 
 would perch themselves upon the booms, and 
 with bowed heads and quivering arms saw 
 endless dance-tunes out of the catgut. Many 
 a half-hour have I pleasantly killed in watch- 
 ing and hearkening to the forecastle frolics. 
 The squeaking of the fiddles was the right 
 sort of music for the show ; the Jacks in 
 couples lovingly embracing each other, slided, 
 twirled, frisked, polked with loose delighted 
 limbs between the forecastle rails, their hairy 
 faces grinning over each other's shoulders ; 
 or one of them would take the deck — the 
 rest drawing off to smoke a pipe and look on
 
 THE HUMOURS OF AN I ND J AM AN 219 
 
 — and break into a noble maritime shuffle — 
 the true deep-sea hornpipe — always dancing 
 it to perfection, as I would think. One such 
 scene I vividly recall as I sit writing : a tar 
 of manly proportions, a little way past the 
 forecastle ladder, plain in the view of the 
 poop, his shoes twinkling, his flowing duck 
 breeches trembling, his arms folded, or one 
 hand gracefully arching to his head, his 
 straw hat on nine hairs, his face between 
 his broad black whiskers showing out in the 
 hue of claret, his little eyes sparkling with 
 the enjoyment of the measures, and the 
 perspiration hopping off his nose like parched 
 peas ; past him a crowd of storm-dyed faces 
 meditatively surveying him, gnawing with 
 excitement upon the junks standing high in 
 their cheeks in their sympathy with the 
 dancer, or pulling their pipes from their lips 
 with the slow deliberateness of the merchant 
 sailor to expectorate and growl out a com- 
 ment upon the capering lively ; to the right 
 of him amidships on the booms the two 
 fiddlers, working their hardest, and threaten- 
 ing every moment to topple over on to the 
 deck with the energy of their movements. 
 Far ahead forked out the great bow-sprit and
 
 220 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 jib-booms, made massive to the eye by the 
 long spritsail yard and the enormously thick 
 gear of shrouds and guys ; on high rose the 
 canvas at the fore, yellowing as it soared into 
 a golden tinge to the westering glory that 
 was setting the heavens on fire on the star- 
 board beam. Oh ! it was a sight beautiful 
 exceedingly, with the gilding of the ropes by 
 the sunset to the complexion of golden wire, 
 and a long line of blood-red radiance flowing 
 down to the ship from the horizon, and mak- 
 ing a sparkling scarlet of the fabric's glossy 
 sides, and putting a crimson star of splendour 
 into every window, with the sweep of the 
 dark-blue sea coursing in long lines into the 
 east, that showed in a liquid softness of violet 
 past the wan spaces of the far overhanging 
 studdingsails. 
 
 In this same week about which I am 
 writing, Mr. Colledge, inspired possibly by the 
 noise of the fiddles forward and the spectacle 
 of the forecastle jinks, made an effort to get 
 up a dance aft ; but to no purpose. Some of 
 the girls looked eagerly when the thing was 
 suggested ; and certainly Colledge's pro- 
 gramme was a promising one : there was the 
 wide spread of awning for a ballroom ceiling ;
 
 THE HUMOURS OF AX INDIAMAN 221 
 
 there were flags in abundance to stretch be- 
 tween the ridge -rope and the rail, as a wall of 
 radiant colours through which the moon 
 would sift her delicate tender haze without 
 injury to the light of the lanterns, which were 
 to be hung in a row on either side fore and 
 aft ; there was the piano to rouse up from its 
 moorings below, and to be secured on some 
 part of the deck where its tinkling could be 
 everywhere heard. There was also a quiet 
 sea, and a deck whose gentle cradling could 
 but serve as a pulse to the joyous revolutions 
 of the waltz. 
 
 Colledge was enchanted with his scheme, 
 and went about thirstily in the prosecution of 
 it ; but, as I have said, to no purpose. Colonel 
 Bannister shouted with derision when asked if 
 he would dance ; Greenhew was not yet well 
 of his eye, was extremely sulky, and hung 
 about in retired places ; Eiley called dancing 
 a bore ; Fairthorne pleaded tender feet ; little 
 Saunders smote his breast to Colledge's inquiry 
 and said plaintively : ' Who would stand up 
 with me?' In short, every man-jack of us 
 aft, saving Mr. Johnson and myself, declined 
 to take any active part in the proposed ball ; 
 and Colledge, with a face of loathing, aban-
 
 222 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 doned the idea, vowing to me that he had 
 never met with such a pack of scarecrows in 
 his life, and that we should have been better 
 off in the direction of jollity and companion- 
 ship had the cargo of monkeys been spared 
 to take the place of our male passengers. 
 
 Thus did we somewhat wearily roll our 
 way through the Atlantic parallels, fanned by 
 a light north-east wind over the quarter, under 
 a heaven of blue, with the sun in the midst of 
 it splendidly shining, and a night-sky of airy 
 indigo rich with stars from sea-line to sea- 
 line. The flying-fish shot from the coppered 
 sides of the Indiaman, but saving them and 
 ourselves, the ocean was tenantless of life ; we 
 sighted no ship ; no bird hovered near us ; 
 once only, when it was drawing near to mid- 
 night, I heard the sounds of a deep respiration 
 off one or the other of the bows — the noise of 
 some leviathan of the deep rising from the 
 dark profound to blow his fountain under the 
 stars ; but there was no shadow of it to be 
 seen nor break of white waters to indicate its 
 neighbourhood. It was but a single sigh, 
 deep and solemn, as though old ocean himself 
 had delivered it out of his heart, and the 
 glittering heights seemed to gather a deeper 
 mystery from the mere note of it.
 
 223 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 A STRANGE SAIL 
 
 It was a Friday morning. On going on deck 
 before breakfast for a pump-bath in the ship's 
 bead, I found as queer a look of weather all 
 about as ever I had witnessed in my life. A 
 troubled swell, but without much height or 
 power, was running from the westwards, and 
 the Indiaman rolled awkwardly upon it with 
 much noise of beating canvas aloft and of 
 straining spars. The water was of a dull 
 olive tint, with an appearance of mud in it, 
 as though some violent disturbance at 
 bottom had lifted the ooze cloudily to the 
 surface. It was hard to tell whether the sky 
 was blue or slate, so thick, dusty, impervious 
 was it, with here and there a dim outline of 
 cloud, and patches, so to speak, of a kind of 
 yellowish blue, where some belly of obscured 
 vapour stooped lower than the rest ; whilst, 
 the whole sea-circle round, there hovered an
 
 224 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 immense grummet or ring of a clingy, sooty 
 appearance, like to a line of smoke left by the 
 funnels of steamers, and hanging in a brown 
 cloud, leagues in length, in silent motionless 
 weather on the rim of the waters of the 
 English Channel. 
 
 ' Hallo, Mr. Smallridge,' said I, as I stepped 
 over the rail out of the head, addressing the 
 boatswain, who was superintending the work 
 of a couple of hands slung over the bow, 
 ' what have we yonder ? ' and I sent my gaze 
 at a sail I had now for the first time caught 
 sight of that was hovering down upon our 
 port quarter some two or three miles distant. 
 
 6 A brig, sir, I believe,' he answered ; ' she 
 was in sight much about the same place at 
 daybreak. There's been a little air of wind, 
 but it's failing, I doubt.' 
 
 6 Making way for something to follow, I 
 fancy ? ' said I, casting a look round the 
 horizon. 
 
 ' Ay,' he answered ; ' that muck's a-drawing 
 up, and there'll be thunder in it too, if my 
 corns speaks right. Niver had no such aching 
 in my toes as this morning since last Toosday 
 was two year, when we fell in off the Hope 
 with the ugliest thunderstorm that I can
 
 A STRANGE SAIL 225 
 
 remember south of the heequator. When 
 my corns begins to squirm I always know 
 that thunder ain't fur off.' 
 
 1 Well, thunder or no thunder,' said I, ' I 
 hope there's to come wind enough in the wake 
 of all this to blow us along. We shall be 
 having to call it sixty days to the Line, bo'sun, 
 if we don't mind our eye ; ' and giving him a 
 friendly nod, I made my way to my cabin to 
 finish dressing. 
 
 The gloomy appearance continued all the 
 morning without the least change. The wind 
 fell dead ; and a prodigious hush overhung 
 the sea, a stillness that grew absolutely over- 
 whelming to the fancy, if you gave your mind 
 to it, and stood watching the heave of the 
 swell running in ugly green heaps without a 
 sound. Noises were curiously distinct. The 
 voice of a man hailing the forecastle from the 
 foretopmast crosstrees sounded on the poop 
 as though he had called from the maintop. 
 A laugh from near the wheel had a startlingly 
 near note, though it came to you along the 
 whole length of the after-deck. The water 
 brimming to the channels alongside to the 
 stoop of the hull sent the oddest hollowest 
 sobbing tone into the air, as though some 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 monster were strangling alongside. Halliards 
 had been let go and sails clewed up and 
 hauled down, and the Countess Ida lay with 
 something of a naked look as she wallowed 
 with the clumsiness of a wide-beamed ship 
 under topsails and fore course ; and all the 
 rest of the square canvas, saving the royals 
 and mizzen topgallant-sail, which were furled, 
 swinging in and out festooned by the grip of 
 the gear. 
 
 By noon the sail that I had noticed early 
 that morning had neared us in some insensible 
 fashion till she hung something more than a 
 mile away off the quarter as before. I had 
 several times examined her with the telescope 
 and was not a little impressed by her appear- 
 ance. She was a brig of about two hundred 
 and sixty tons ; a most beautiful and perfect 
 model, indeed, with a clipper lift of bow and 
 a knife-like cutwater and a long wonderfully 
 graceful arching sweep of side rounding into 
 the very perfection of a run. Her copper 
 came high, and was very clean, as though she 
 were fresh from port. Her masts were singu- 
 larly lofty for her size, both of them tapering 
 away into skysail poles with yards across ; 
 but she had furled all canvas down to her
 
 A STRANGE SAIL 227 
 
 two topsails and foresail, and lay rolling 
 heavily, lifting her symmetrical fabric to the 
 height of the swell, when she would be hove 
 out against the ugly sulky background in 
 such keen relief that her rigging glanced like 
 hairs as it came from the mastheads to the 
 channels, with a white, odd, almost ghastly 
 stare in her canvas that was brilliant as cotton ; 
 then down she would sink behind some sullen 
 almost livid peak till she was hidden to the 
 reef-band of her fore-course. 
 
 Throughout the morning I had observed 
 Captain Keeling somewhat restlessly examin- 
 ing her ; that is to say, he would send looks 
 enough at her through his binocular glass to 
 suggest that he found something unusual, 
 perhaps disturbing, in her appearance. There 
 were no sights to be had, though the old 
 fellow and his two mates stood about the 
 deck, sextants in hands, occasionally lifting 
 their eyes to that part of the sky where the 
 sun was supposed to be. Observing Mr. 
 Prance at the rail, steadfastly observing the 
 brig down upon the quarter, I went up to him. 
 
 1 Pray what do you find in that craft yon- 
 der, Mr. Prance, to interest you ? The skip- 
 per does not seem able to keep his glass off her.' 
 
 q 2
 
 228 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 ' What do you see, Mr. Dugdale ? ' he 
 answered, viewing me out of the corners of his 
 eyes without turning his head. ' Come, you 
 have been a sailor. What is your notion of 
 her?' 
 
 4 She's a beauty, anyway,' I answered ; ' no 
 builder's yard ever turned out anything 
 sweeter in the shape of a hull — a trifle too 
 lofty, perhaps. For my part, I hate everything 
 above royals. Give me short mastheads, the 
 royal-yard sitting close under the truck, 
 English frigate-fashion ' — I was proceeding. 
 
 ' No, no ; I don't mean that, Mr. Dugdale/ 
 he interrupted with a hint of a seaman's 
 •impatience at my criticism. 
 
 1 What, then ? ' I asked. 
 
 'Does she look honest, think you?' said 
 he. 
 
 ' Ha ! ' cried I : ' now I understand.' 
 
 ' Hush ! not a word if you please,' he 
 exclaimed with a glance along the poop ; ' the 
 ladies must on no account be frightened, and 
 it is but a mere suspicion on Captain Keeling's 
 part at best. Yet he has had some acquain- 
 tance with gentry of her kind, if, indeed, yon- 
 derchap be of the denomination he conjectures.' 
 
 4 She must have been stealthily sneaking
 
 A STRANGE SAIL 
 
 229 
 
 down upon us,' I exclaimed, ' to occupy her 
 present position, otherwise she should be a 
 league distant out on the beam. But then 
 such a hull as that must yield to a catspaw 
 that wouldn't blow a feather out of the 
 Countess Idas mizzen-top. What has been 
 seen to excite misgiving, Mr. Prance ? ' 
 
 ' Too many of a crew, sir,' he answered ; 
 ' the outline of a long-torn on her forecastle r 
 but ill-concealed by the raffle thrown over it. 
 Six guns of a side, Mr. Dugdale, though the 
 closed ports hide their grins.' 
 
 4 She will not attempt anything with a big 
 chap like us, surely.' 
 
 At that moment the captain called him, and 
 he walked aft. 
 
 Presently, it sensibly darkened, as though 
 to the passage of some denser sheet of vapour 
 crawling through the heart of the obscurity 
 on high. The sea turned of an oil-like smooth- 
 ness, and ran in folds as of liquid bottle-green 
 glass out of the grimy shadow that was slowly 
 thickening all away round the ocean limit. 
 The order was given to furl the clewed-up sails 
 and to reef the topsails. The boatswain's pipe 
 summoned all hands to this work, and the ship 
 for a while was full of life and commotion.
 
 230 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 However, by this time the secret of old 
 Keeling's uneasiness had in some way leaked 
 out ; in fact, the skipper could no longer have 
 kept the people in ignorance of his suspicions ; 
 for some ten minutes or so before the tiffin 
 bell rang, after the hands had come down 
 from aloft, the order was quietly sent along to 
 see all clear for action ; and as I took my seat 
 at table, being close to the cuddy front, as my 
 chair brought me with a clear view of the 
 quarter-deck through the open windows, I 
 could observe the men preparing our little show 
 of carronades, removing the tompions, placing 
 rams, sponges, train-tackles, and the like at 
 hand, and passing shot and chests of small- 
 arms through the main hatch. 
 
 Captain Keeling, stiff, and bolstered up as 
 usual in his brass-buttoned frock coat, his face 
 of a deeper rubicund from some recent touch 
 of soap and towel, seated himself at the head 
 of the table ; but Prance and the other mates 
 remained on deck. One noticed a deal of un- 
 easiness amongst the ladies, saving Miss Temple 
 whose haughty beautiful face wore its ordinary 
 impassive expression. There was no coquetry 
 in the startled eyes that Miss Hudson rolled 
 around. Mrs. Bannister fanned herself ve-
 
 A STRANGE SAIL 231 
 
 hemently, and ate nothing. There were some 
 of 11s males, too, who looked as if we didn't 
 like it. Mr. Emniett was exceedingly thought- 
 ful ; Mr. Fairthorne drank thirstily, and pulled 
 incessantly at his little sprouting moustache ; 
 Mr. Hodder watched old Keeling continuously ; 
 and Mr. Eiley made much of his eye-glass. 
 Nothing to the point was said for a little while ; 
 then the colonel rapped out : 
 
 ' I say, captain, have you any notion as to 
 the nationality of that chap whom your people 
 are making ready to resist ? ' 
 
 ' No, sir,' answered Keeling stiffly ; ' we 
 gave her a sight of our ensign this morning ; 
 but she showed no colours in return, and I 
 am not a man to keep my hat off to one who 
 will not respond.' 
 
 1 Dot iss my vay,' exclaimed Peter Hems- 
 kirk, bestowing a train of nods on the skipper. 
 
 ' But, captain,' said Mrs. Joliffe, a nervous 
 gentle-faced middle-aged lady, with soft white 
 hair, ' have you any good reason for supposing 
 that the ship may prove dangerous to us ? ' 
 
 ' Madam,' responded Keeling with a bow, 
 and you noticed the prevailing condition 
 amongst us by the general nervous inclining 
 of ears towards the old fellow to catch what
 
 232 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 lie said, ' there is reason to believe that certain 
 Spaniards of the island of Cuba have equipped 
 two or three smart vessels to act the part of 
 marine highwaymen. The authorities wink at 
 the business, I am told. Their practice is to 
 bring ships to and board them, and plunder 
 the best of what they may come across. Last 
 year, a West Indiaman named the Jamaica 
 Belle was overhauled by one of these craft, 
 who took specie amounting to twelve thousand 
 pounds out of her. I believe they are not cut- 
 throats in the old piratic sense.' 
 
 ' Oh, don't speak of cut-throats ! ' cried 
 Mrs. Hudson. ' Will they dare to attack us 
 — the monsters ! ' 
 
 c Ladies and gentlemen,' said Keeling, 
 ' pray, clearly understand : my suspicions of 
 the stranger may be ill-founded. Meanwhile, 
 our business is to put ourselves in a posture of 
 defence, ready for whatever may happen.' 
 
 1 Certainly,' exclaimed the colonel very 
 emphatically with a look round ; and then 
 speaking with his eyes fixed upon Mr. Johnson ; 
 6 1 presume we shall be able to count upon all 
 our male friends here assembled to assist your 
 crew to the utmost of their powers, should the 
 stranger make any attempt upon this ship ? '
 
 A STRANGE SAIL 233 
 
 'We shall expect you to cover yourself 
 with glory, colonel,' said Mr. Johnson, in 'a 
 familiar sarcastic voice ; ' and I shall be happy 
 to write and print a full description of your 
 behaviour, sir.' 
 
 ' I am quite willing to fight,' exclaimed 
 Mr. Fairthorne in an effeminate voice. 'I 
 mean that I shall be glad to thoot ; but I am 
 no thwordthman.' 
 
 ' Possengers hov no beesness to vight,' ex- 
 claimed Mynheer Hemskirk, enlarging his im- 
 mense waistcoat by obtruding his chest ; ' dey 
 gets in der vay of dem as knows vot to do.' 
 
 Miss Temple bit her lip to conceal a smile. 
 
 ' That's all very well,' exclaimed Eiley, 
 talking at Miss Hudson ; ' but suppose, Hems- 
 kirk, you should find some greasy Spaniard 
 with earrings and oily ringlets rifling your 
 boxes, hauling out all the money 3-011've got, 
 pocketing that fine silver-mounted meerschaum 
 pipe of yours ' 
 
 ' 1 vould coot orff hiss head,' answered the 
 Dutchman, breathing hard. 
 
 'Gentlemen, you are unnecessarily alarming 
 the ladies,' cried old marline-spike from the 
 head of the table. 
 
 'I suppose there's no lack of small- arms
 
 234 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 with you, captain ? ' roared the Colonel ; 
 'plenty for us here as well as for your 
 men ? ' 
 
 ' I shall insist upon your not meddling, 
 Edward, in whatever may happen,' cried his 
 wife, giving him an emphatic nod over the 
 edge of her fan with her Eoman nose. 
 
 ' I shall meddle, then, my dear,' he shouted. 
 4 If it comes to those rascals attacking us, I 
 shall fight, as of course we all will,' and again 
 he bent his little fiery eyes upon Mr. Johnson. 
 
 'My note-book is ready, colonel,' said 
 Mr. Johnson pleasantly, with a satirical grin 
 at the peppery little soldier. ' I'll not lose 
 sight of you, sir.' 
 
 { I believe you will then, sir,' sneered the 
 colonel, 'unless Captain Keeling takes the 
 precaution to clap his hatches on to prevent 
 anybody skulking below from off the deck.' 
 
 ' Mere bluster is not going to help us,' 
 said Colledge, who disliked the colonel ; ' no 
 good in railing and storming like heroes in a 
 blank- verse performance for an hour at a 
 time before falling to. If Captain Keeling 
 wants any assistance outside that of his crew, 
 he may command me for one.' 
 
 6 I wath never taught fenthing,' said
 
 A STRANGE SAIL 235 
 
 Mr. Fairthorne ; c if I fight, it mutlit be with 
 a muthket.' 
 
 ' If the ship should be captured, what's to 
 become of us ? ' cried Mrs. Hudson. ' I've 
 read the most barbarous histories about 
 pirates. They have no respect for sex or 
 age ; and it's quite common, I've heard, for 
 every pirate to have twelve wives.' 
 
 Here Mrs. Trevor suddenly shrieked out 
 for some one to bring her baby to her, then 
 went into hysterics, and was presently carried 
 away in a dead faint by the stewards, followed 
 by her daughter, weeping bitterly. Old 
 Keeling whipped out an oath. 
 
 ' Now, gentlemen,' he exclaimed, ' you see 
 what your conversation has brought about. 
 Ladies, I beg that you will not be uneasy. 
 The stranger will give us no trouble, I am 
 persuaded ; ' and rising with a look of con- 
 tempt, he bowed stiffly to Miss Temple and 
 her aunt, and went on deck. 
 
 I was too curious to observe what was 
 going forward to linger in the cuddy amid 
 this idle rattle of tongues. Our ship having 
 no steerage-way, had slewed to the beat of the 
 swell, and the brig was now off the starboard 
 bow, pretty much distant as she had been
 
 236 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 when we went to lunch, but showing out with 
 amazing clearness against the sooty sky past 
 hereupon which her topsails swung from side to 
 side so heavily that the lower yard-arms at times 
 seemed to spear the water lifting to them in 
 hills. All over and beyond her lay a deep 
 shadow of thunder, a sky scowling to the 
 zenith thick as though viewed through a dust- 
 storm, with a vision of the tufted cloud of the 
 electric tempest hovering here and there ; but 
 there was no lightning as yet, no echo of dis- 
 tant grumbling ; there was not a breath of 
 air to cool the moistened lip, and the noiseless 
 heave of the swell was as though old ocean 
 lay breathing hard in a posture of dumb ex- 
 pectation. 
 
 Our crew hung about the decks in groups 
 ready to spring to the first command. Iron 
 stanchions had been fitted into the line of the 
 rails, and boarding-nets triced up the length 
 of the ship from just before the fore-rigging 
 to the poop rail. Aft was a small gang of 
 seamen stationed at each gun there, with all 
 necessary machinery for the artillery at hand. 
 The captain, the chief mate, and Mr. Cocker 
 stood abreast of the wheel, looking at the 
 brig with an occasional glance round the sea
 
 A STRAXGE SAIL 237 
 
 at the weather. I stepped to the side to take 
 another view of the stranger, and I was 
 noticing with admiration the toy-like beauty 
 of her as she soared with ruddy sheathing to 
 the head of a swell, with now and again a most 
 delicate echo of the clapping and beating of 
 her canvas stealing to us through the dark, 
 breathless atmosphere, when I was accosted 
 by some one at my elbow. 
 
 1 Do you think it possible, Mr. Dugdale, 
 that if that vessel fired at our ship she could 
 hit us, so violently rolling as she is ? ' 
 
 I turned. It was Mrs. Eadcliffe, and with 
 her was Miss Temple. With the exception of 
 a 'good morning' or a 'good night, ' I had 
 never exchanged a syllable with this lady in 
 all the time she and I had been together on 
 shipboard. Her kind little face fluttered 
 jerkily at me as she asked the question in a 
 manner to remind one of the movements of 
 the head of a hen. Miss Temple stood like a 
 statue, swaying to the majestic perpendicular 
 of her figure upon the rolling deck without 
 the least visible effort to keep her balance, 
 her [dark and shining eyes fixed upon the 
 brig. 
 
 ' Her gunners,' said I, ' would need to be
 
 238 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 practised marksmen, I should say, to hit us 
 from such a tumbling platform as that yon- 
 der.' 
 
 ' Just my opinion, as I told you, Louise,' she 
 exclaimed. 
 
 1 If she were to begin to fire,' exclaimed 
 the girl, keeping her gaze bent seawards, ' she 
 would be sure to hit us, though it were by 
 chance.' 
 
 ' Very possibly,' said I. 
 
 ' There will be some wind soon, I think, 
 don't you ? ' said Mrs. Badcline. 
 
 ' 1 hope so,' I answered. 
 
 1 In that case,' said she, ' we shall be able 
 to sail away and escape, shan't we ? ' 
 
 ' She will chase us,' exclaimed Miss Tem- 
 ple ; ' and as she sails faster than we do, she 
 will catch us ! ' 
 
 'Now, is that likely ? ' cried Mrs. Badcline, 
 with a nervous toss of her head at me. 
 
 ' Everything is possible at sea,' said I, 
 laughing ; ' but there is a deal in our favour, 
 Mrs. Badcline : first the weather, that as good 
 as disables that fellow at present anyway ; 
 then the coming on of the night, with every 
 prospect of losing the brig in the darkness.' 
 
 'Would you advocate our miming away
 
 A STRANGE SAIL 239 
 
 from him ? ' exclaimed Miss Temple, looking 
 at me with~a fulness and firmness that was 
 as embarrassing and vexing in its way as an 
 impertinent stare. 
 
 ' Oh, yes,' said I ; ' certainly. We are a 
 peaceful trader. It is our business to arrive 
 in India sound in body ' 
 
 4 I should consider,' said she, gazing at me 
 as if she would subdue me into acquiescence 
 in anything she chose to say by merely eye- 
 ing me strenuously, ' that Captain Keeling 
 would be acting the part of a coward if he 
 ran away from that little vessel.' 
 
 1 Oh, Louise, how can you talk so ! ' cried 
 Mrs. Eadcliffe, with a sort of despairful toss of 
 her hands. 
 
 ' I should like to see a fight between two 
 ships,' said the girl, removing her overbearing 
 eyes from my face to send them over the deck 
 amongst the groups of men. ' Of course, if 
 that vessel attacks us, we ladies will be sent 
 below to rend the cabin with our screams at 
 every broadside ; but I, for one, am perfectly 
 willing, if the captain consents, to shoot at 
 those people through a porthole.' 
 
 ' Oh, Louise, the whims which possess you 
 are really dreadful ! ' cried Mrs. Eadcliffe :
 
 240 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 ' imagine, if you should even wound a man ! 
 it would make you miserable for life ; perhaps 
 end in your becoming a Eoman Catholic and 
 going into a convent. Think of that.' 
 
 Miss Temple looked at her aunt with a 
 little curl of her lip. 
 
 ' I do not know,' she exclaimed, ' why it 
 should be more dreadful in a woman to defend 
 her life than in a man. Nobody, I suppose, 
 wishes to hurt those people ; but if they 
 attempt to hurt us, why should we women 
 feel shocked at the notion of our helping the 
 sailors to protect the ship by any means in 
 our power ? I am like Mr. Fairthorne,' she 
 continued, with a sarcastic glance at me ; ' I 
 could not fight with a sword, but I can cer- 
 tainly pull the trigger of a musket.' 
 
 ' It is really hardly lady-like, my dear,' 
 began Mrs. Eadcliffe. 
 
 ' Nonsense, aunt ! Lady-like ! Is it more 
 genteel to fall into hysterics and swoon away, 
 than to take aim at a wicked wretch who will 
 have your life if you don't take his ? ' and as 
 she said this, she whipped a cotton umbrella 
 out of her aunt's hand, and putting it to her 
 shoulder, as though it were a gun, levelled it 
 at the brig.
 
 A STRAXGE SAIL 241 
 
 Coiledge, who was standing at a little dis- 
 tance away, talking to two or three of the 
 passengers, clapped his hands and laughed 
 out. For my part, I could not take my eyes 
 off her, so fascinating were the beauties of her 
 fine form in that posture, her head drooped 
 in the attitude of the marksman, and her 
 marble-like profile showing out clear as a cut- 
 ting in ivory against the soft shadowy mass of 
 gloom of the sky astern. 
 
 Mrs. Eadcliffe again tossed her arms in a 
 despairful gesture, with a pecking, so to speak, 
 of her face at the gangs of men on the quarter- 
 deck and waist ; and then making a little 
 flurried snatch at her umbrella, she passed 
 her arm through her niece's, exclaiming : 
 ' Help me to reach the cuddy, my dear. 
 There's a thunderstorm brewing, I'm sure, 
 and I'm afraid of lightning.' She made me a 
 little staggering curtsey, and walked with Miss 
 Temple to the companion, down which the 
 pair of them went, followed by Mr. Coiledge, 
 who I could hear complimenting Mibs Temple 
 on her resolution to fight the enemy, if the 
 stranger should prove one. 
 
 A few minutes later Mr. Emmett and Mr. 
 
 vol. 1. R
 
 242 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 Johnson approached me, bumping against 
 each other like a brace of lighters in a sea- 
 way as they struck out on the swaying deck 
 with their staggering legs. 
 
 w I say, Dugdale,' cried the journalist, 
 c shall you fight ? ' 
 
 1 Why, yes,' I answered. ' We shall all be 
 expected to help the crew certainly.' 
 
 ' 1 don't see that ! ' exclaimed Mr. Emmett, 
 drawing his wide-awake down to his nose 
 and folding his arms with a tragic gesture 
 upon his breast, whilst he swung his figure 
 from side to side on wide-stretched legs. ' It's 
 all very fine to expect ; but I agree with 
 Johnson, whose argument is, that we have 
 paid our money to be transported in safety to 
 Bombay; and I cannot for the life of me see 
 that the captain has any right to look for co- 
 operation at our hands, unless, indeed, he so 
 contrives it as to enable us to help him with- 
 out imperilling our lives.' 
 
 ' But that fellow yonder may be full of 
 ruffians, Emmett,' said I ; ' and if you do not 
 help our sailors to defendthe Countess Ida, they 
 may board us ; and then they will cut your 
 throat,' I added, with a look at his long neck, 
 ' which is no very agreeable sensation, I believe,
 
 A STRANGE SAIL 
 
 243 
 
 and an experience quite worth a pinch of 
 heroism to evade.' 
 
 1 It's a beastly business altogether,' said he, 
 wrinkling his nose as he stared at the brig. 
 
 6 But why should they board us ? ' ex- 
 claimed Mr. Johnson. ' If they do, it will be 
 the captain's fault. Why does he want to go on 
 sticking here for, as if, by George ! we were a 
 man-of-war with three decks bristling with 
 guns and crammed to suffocation with men ? ' 
 
 1 There is no wind,' said I ; 6 and without 
 wind, Johnson, ships cannot sail.' 
 
 ' Then why the confounded dickens don't 
 he lower all the boats,' he cried, ' and fill them 
 with sailors, and tug the ship out of sight of 
 that beast there ? ' 
 
 I laughed outright. 
 
 © O 
 
 ' Well, I'm not in the habit of using strong 
 language,' said Mr. Emmett, scowling at the 
 brig ; 'but curse me if I'm going to fight 
 My simple contention is, I've paid my money 
 to be transported peacefully to India ; and,' 
 added he, with a glance aft at old Keeling, who 
 was staring up at the sky, as though to observe 
 if there were any drift in the vapour up there, 
 4 if he don't fulfil his undertaking, I'll sue him 
 or his owners for breach of contract.'
 
 244 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 1 I'm no sailor,' exclaimed Mr. Johnson, 
 ' but I may claim to have some intelligence as 
 a landsman, and my argument is,' he cried, 
 talking in a loud voice, ' that it is quite in 
 Captain Keeling's power to launch the boats 
 and drag the ship away from this spot. In an 
 hour the brig would be out of sight.' 
 
 At that instant there was a flash of li^ht- 
 ning that made a crimson dazzle of the dark 
 heavens beyond the brig, where the sky 
 sloped in a horrible yellowish slate colour 
 into the sooty thickness which circled the 
 horizon. 
 
 ' Ha ! ' cried Mr. Emmett, ' I don't like 
 lightning ; ' and he abruptly trundled down 
 the poop ladder to the quarter-deck and dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 6 Here's a mess to be in ! ' grumbled John- 
 son. ' It's all very well to shoot or be shot at 
 if you make butchery a profession. But to be 
 maimed or killed in some cheap affray — 
 having to fight for people you don't care a 
 hang about — obliged, for instance, to jeopar- 
 dise your eyes, your limbs, perhaps your very 
 existence, for an old woman like Mrs. 
 Bannister, when the business is not in one's 
 line at all — ' He clenched his fist, and fetching
 
 A STRANGE SAIL 245 
 
 his thigh a whack with it, exclaimed : ' Let 
 little hectoring Colonel Cock-a-doodle-doo cut 
 as many throats as he can come at — I am a 
 man of peace. I have parted with a large 
 sum to get to India in comfort ; and to expect 
 me to help the sailors to fight is as monstrous 
 as to look to me to assist them in furling the 
 sails and scrubbing the decks.' 
 
 Thus speaking, he followed Mr. Emmet t 
 clown on to the quarter-deck.
 
 246 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 CHAPTEE XII 
 
 A STOEM OF WIND 
 
 The atmosphere now took a deeper tinge of 
 gloom. Thunder had followed the blaze of 
 lightning in the west, low, distant, but con- 
 tinuous, like a rapid succession of the batteries 
 of several ships of war heard from afar ; and 
 as the echoes of this ominous growling swept 
 to our ears over the glass- smooth heave of the 
 swell, the fresh dye of gloom came into the 
 day and made an evening darkness of the 
 afternoon. 
 
 The noise of the thunder had been like 
 calling a hush upon the ship. The men hung 
 in silent groups along the decks ; motionless 
 at the wheel was the tall form of a powerful 
 sailor gripping the spokes with an iron clutch 
 that was scarcely to be shaken by the fre- 
 quent hard drag of the tiller-gear to the kick 
 of the rudder ; the seamen stationed at the 
 guns aft stood with folded arms or hands
 
 A STORM OF WIND 247 
 
 carelessly thrust into their pockets gazing at 
 the brig, or, with the impatient looks of 
 sailors kept idly waiting on deck during their 
 watch below, directing glances at the horizon 
 or the sky, as though in search of some sign 
 of wind. The three mates continued to over- 
 hang the rail near the captain, who walked 
 the length of a plank to and fro with a tele- 
 scope under his arm, which he would some- 
 times level at the brig, afterwards addressing 
 his officers in a low voice. 
 
 All the ladies were below ; but shortly after 
 Mr. Johnson had left me, Miss Temple came 
 on deck and went to the side to look at the 
 stranger, and there lingered, with her gaze 
 upon the western sky, over which the light- 
 ning was now running in fluid lines, a cascad- 
 ing of fiery streaks with a frequent dull 
 opening blaze low down, which the heads of 
 the swell would catch and mirror as though 
 it were an instant gleam of sunset. Had she 
 condescended to glance my way, I should have 
 joined her. She loitered a while, and then 
 left the deck ; and at the same moment the 
 second-mate came forward to the break of the 
 poop and called out an order for the foresail
 
 248 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 and mizzen topsail to be furled and the fore- 
 topsail to be close reefed. 
 
 ' Very unpleasant state of suspense this,' 
 said little Mr. Saunders, stealing to my side 
 and looking up into my face. 
 
 ' Very,' I answered ; 'but it seems as if 
 the weather was to extinguish our anxiety as 
 regards the brisf.' 
 
 4 Yes,' said he. ' I heard the captain tell 
 Mr. Prance that he believes there is a gale of 
 wind behind that storm yonder. Gracious 
 me ! what a very vivid flash. Hark ! it nears 
 us quickly.' 
 
 There was a rattling peal of thunder now, 
 a long volleying roar of it, and a few large 
 drops of rain fell. Mr. Cocker stood at the 
 rail with a telescope in his hand. He busily 
 watched the men up aloft, sometimes letting 
 fly an order to the boatswain in a voice that 
 went past the ear like a stone from a sling. 
 A large drop of rain splashed upon Mr. 
 Saunders's nose. 
 
 ' It's about to burst, I think,' said he, look- 
 ing straight up into the heavens with his 
 modest yearning eyes. ' I shall go below ; ' 
 and down trotted the little creature. 
 
 ' Mr. Cocker,' said I, ' lend me your glass
 
 A STORM OF WIND 2.59 
 
 for an instant, will you ? ' I pointed it at the 
 brio-. < Yes,' I exclaimed, talking to the 
 second-mate with the telescope at my eye ; ' I 
 believe I was not mistaken. Full of men, 
 indeed ! Phew ! Why. there are hands 
 enough upon her yards to furnish out the 
 complement of a fifty-gun frigate.' 
 
 It was indeed as I said. They were furl- 
 ing all canvas upon the stranger, intending 
 apparently to let her meet what was to come 
 with a small storm foretrysail, which I could 
 see a crowd of seamen bending and making 
 ready for setting. Her fore and topsail 
 yards were loaded with men swarming like 
 bees along the thin delicate lines of spars, and 
 even as I watched, the canvas they were rolling 
 up melted away into slender streaks of white. 
 In the cross-trees of both masts, and higher 
 yet on the yards above, and in the tops also, 
 were a number of men busily employed in 
 sending down the royal, skysail, and topgallant 
 yards and housing the topgallant masts. 
 There looked to me to be at least a hundred 
 of a crew to the vessel. 
 
 You found something almost ghastly and 
 absolutely startling in the sharp distinctness 
 of the little fabric rolling against the thunder-
 
 c 
 
 250 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 black skies behind her, and upon the long 
 malignant, greenish-hued swell in which the 
 plunging lightning was sparkling as though 
 the water were crackling with phosphoric 
 fires. Dark as the atmosphere was with the 
 deep shadow of storm, the brig stood out to 
 the eye visible to the minutest detail the 
 sight could reach to, plunging heavily under 
 her naked spars, with her wet black sides 
 darting out the mirrored flame of the light- 
 ning flashes with as clear a dazzle as glass or 
 polished brass would throw. 
 
 6 The number of her crew witnesses to her 
 character,' said I, returning the telescope to 
 Mr. Cocker. 
 
 6 Oh, there is no doubt of her,' he ex- 
 claimed ; ' the captain's an old liand, and 
 twigged her speedily.' 
 
 ' The weather will put an end to her, I ex- 
 pect,' said I. ' Very lucky for us, Mr. Cocker. 
 A large crew of ruffians and six guns of a 
 side, not to mention a twenty-four pounder in 
 the bows, and cutlasses and small arms in 
 galore, hardly form a joke. It is easy to 
 figure the beauty, that sails, I daresay, three 
 feet to our one, quietly sheering alongside and 
 throwing seventy or eighty of her children
 
 A STORM OF WIND 251 
 
 aboard, dark-skinned assassins, armed to the 
 teeth, reeking of garlic. Well, hang me, 
 Mr. Cocker, if I didn't believe that the times 
 of those gentry had passed some years 
 ago.' 
 
 His lips were moving to answer me, but 
 there was a wide and blinding flash of light- 
 ning at that instant that set the heavens on 
 fire, immediately followed by a crash of 
 thunder as deafening as though a first-rate 
 had blown up close aboard us. Yet again 
 the scowl of the clouds deepened in darkness, 
 and the brig grew vague on a sudden in the 
 gloom of the storm. 
 
 ' There comes the rain ! ' cried Mr. 
 Cocker, pointing to a line of greyish shadow 
 with a look of steam boiling up as it were 
 from the base of it. It drew creeping slowly 
 on to the brig, and its perpendicular fall made 
 one think of it as of a vast sheet of water 
 up above overflowing and cataracting sheer 
 down over the edge of a cloud. 
 
 ' There is no wind there,' said I ; ' it is a 
 regular Irishman's hurricane, right up and 
 down. But here goes for a waterproof.' 
 
 I trundled below for a suit of rubber 
 clothes, being too anxious to observe what
 
 252 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 was to happen to choose to leave the deck. 
 All the passengers were congregated in the 
 cuddy, and the lightning, as it glittered in 
 the portholes and skylights, flashed up their 
 faces in the gloomy atmosphere, making them 
 look a pale and trembling crowd. The 
 colonel was pacing the deck near the piano. 
 Miss Hudson leaned against her mother with 
 her hands over her eyes. If ever there came 
 a brighter flash than usual, one lady or 
 another would scream. Colledge and Miss 
 Temple sat over a draught-board ; but I 
 could not gather, from the hurried glance I 
 threw over the people as I passed through 
 them, that they were playing. I equipped my- 
 self from head to foot in waterproofs and came 
 again into the saloon on my way to the poop. 
 
 ' Are you going on deck, Dugdale ? ' cried 
 Mr. Johnson, shouting aloud, to render his 
 voice audible above the continuous cannonad- 
 ing of the thunder. 
 
 'Yes,' I replied. 
 
 6 You will be struck dead, sir,' called out 
 Mrs. Hudson. 
 
 'I have half a mind to join you,' said 
 Mr. Emmett, jumping up with a wild look at 
 the skylight : ' it's simply beastly down here.'
 
 A STORM OF WIND 253 
 
 ' Hark to that ! ' bawled tlie colonel ; 
 ' there's a shower for you ! ' 
 
 The wall of rain had reached us. For a 
 minute before it struck the ship you could 
 hear it hissing upon the sea like twenty 
 locomotives blowing off steam ; then plump ! 
 came the cataract on to our decks. Had 
 every drop been a brick, the noise could not 
 have been more astounding. One couldn't 
 hear the thunder for the roaring of the fall 
 of water and hailstones, though the deep and 
 awful note of the electric storm was in it to 
 add to its tremendous sound. The darkness 
 was now so heavy in the cuddy, that in the in- 
 tervals of the lightning the faces of the people 
 were scarce distinguishable. Amid the dis- 
 tacting noises of the thunder, of the breathless 
 storm of hail and rain, of the water cascading 
 off the decks overboard in a furious gushing 
 and seething, arose the chorus of a number of 
 seamen on the quarter-deck hauling upon the 
 main-topsail halliards there, with the pierc- 
 ing chirruping of the boatswain's pipe and 
 hoarse orders delivered overhead from the 
 poop. 
 
 1 Where's the steward ? ' bawled the 
 colonel in his loudest tones. ' Confound it,
 
 254 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 are we to be left in total blackness here? 
 Why don't some one light the lamps ? ' 
 
 ' Are you coming on deck, Mr. Emmett ? ' 
 I cried ; but he had sunk back on his seat 
 with his arms folded and his head bowed ; 
 and obtaining no reply, I walked to the com- 
 panion steps, receiving, as I passed Miss 
 Temple, a half interrogative glance from her, 
 which made me look again in readiness to 
 answer the question that seemed to hover on 
 her lips. But her eyes instantly dropped, and 
 the next instant she had turned to say some- 
 thing to her aunt, who was on a sofa behind 
 her ; so, rounding on my heel, up I went into 
 the smoking wet. 
 
 There was nothing to be seen but rain — 
 such a sheet of it as one must explore the 
 latitudes we were in to parallel. The lightning 
 flashed amidst it incessantly, and every line of 
 the falling water sparkled like glowing wire 
 in dazzling hues of crimson and of violet 
 alternating. I waited under the shelter of 
 the companion cover till the first weight of 
 all this rain and hail should have passed. 
 Through the haze of moisture that rose like 
 steam off the decks to the cataractal swamp- 
 ing, I could discern the figure of old Keeling
 
 A STORM OF WIND 255 
 
 looking like a soaked scarecrow, the fine- 
 weather hat upon his head reduced to pulp 
 and hanging about his ears like a rotten fig. 
 The fellow at the wheel stood like a statue 
 amid the drenching downpour ; but the men 
 who had been stationed at the guns were 
 gone. 
 
 I had not been a minute in the hatchway 
 when the heavens seemed to be split open to 
 the very heart of their depths by a flash of 
 lightning, followed in the space of the beat of 
 a heart by a shock of thunder that seemed to 
 happen immediately over our mastheads — a 
 most soul-subduing crash, if ever there was 
 one ! and as if by magic, the rain ceased, and 
 the atmosphere sensibly brightened. There 
 was a great noise of shrieking in the cuddy, 
 and half blinded, and pretty handsomely dazed 
 by that terrible blast of lightning and the thun- 
 der-clap which had followed, I crept down the 
 steps with my pulse beating hard in my ears 
 to see what had happened, scarce knowing 
 but that some one had been struck and perhaps 
 killed. 
 
 1 What is it ? ' I shouted to the colonel, 
 who stood at the foot of the ladder. 
 
 'Only Mrs. Hudson in hysterics,' he
 
 256 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 roared ; on hearing which I went up again, 
 being in no temper to make one of the ner- 
 vous company below. 
 
 The swell had flattened ; all to starboard 
 there was an oozing as of daylight into the 
 breathless thickness, with ugly hump-shaped 
 masses of black vapour defining themselves 
 up in the ugly sallow smother in a sort of writh- 
 ing way, as though they were coming together 
 in a jumble ; but to port it was as black as 
 thunder, an inky slope hoary with rain, with 
 lightning spitting and zigzagging all over it. 
 I went to the rail, where stood Mr. Cocker 
 with his clothes full of water. 
 
 ' A pretty little shower ! ' said I. 
 
 ' Very,' he answered, with his face show- 
 ing of a bleached look like the -flesh of a 
 washerwoman's hand. ' A plague on this 
 sort of work, say I ! This serge shrinks con- 
 sumedly when drenched, and my trousers will 
 be up to my knees to-morrow morning — three 
 pounds ten as good as washed out of a man's 
 pocket.' 
 
 ' Where's your glass, Mr. Cocker ? ' 
 
 ' In that hencoop there,' said he. 
 
 I pulled out and directed it at the dim 
 blotch of brig that had caught my eye steal-
 
 A STORM OF WIND 
 
 257 
 
 ing out of the wet dusk like the phantom of 
 a ship. 
 
 1 By my great-grandfather's wig ! ' cried I 
 with a start. c So ! no fear now of being 
 boarded. Our windpipes are safe for the 
 present. Look for yourself, Mr. Cocker.' 
 
 He ogled her an instant, then bawled to 
 the skipper, who was speaking to Mr. Prance. 
 
 1 The brig's been struck, sir ! Her main- 
 mast is over the side.' 
 
 In very truth it was as he declared. I 
 whipped the glass out of his hand for another 
 look, and, sure enough, could clearly distin- 
 guish a whole lumber of wreckage lifting to 
 the roll of the subdued swell alongside the 
 swaying hull of the brig. Her foremast and 
 topmast stood intact to the cross-trees, but 
 abaft she was as completely denuded as if a 
 chopper had been laid to the foot of the mast. 
 The mess is not to be described. I could 
 make out that a length of her bulwark was 
 crushed flat, and the black lines of shrouds 
 and gear went snaking overboard like so 
 many serpents wriggling out of the hatches 
 into the water. But the gloom was too deep 
 to sufler me to see what her people were 
 doing. 
 
 vol. 1. s
 
 258 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 I went to the companion way and called 
 down to Colonel Bannister. 
 
 < Halloa ? What now ? Who wants me ? ' 
 he shouted. 
 
 c Tell the ladies, colonel,' I sung down, 
 6 that the brig has been struck by lightning, 
 and that our safety, so far as she is concerned, 
 is assured.' 
 
 I heard him roar out the news as I went 
 to the side again, and a moment after up 
 rushed the whole body of passengers to see 
 for themselves. The decks were full of water, 
 but nobody seemed to mind that. The ladies 
 came splashing through it to the rail, some of 
 them taking terrified peeps at the mass of 
 winking blackness settling away down in the 
 east, and dodging the play of lightning, as it 
 were, with a sort of involuntary ducking of 
 their heads and lifting of their finders to their 
 eyes. 
 
 Old Keeling; cried out : ' Ladies, be good 
 enough to take my advice and return to the 
 cabin. We shall be having a strong blow of 
 wind coming along in a few minutes.' 
 
 ' Gott, she iss on fire ! ' here shouted 
 Hemskirk, pointing directly at the brig with
 
 A STORM OF WIND 259 
 
 a fat forefinger, whilst with the other hand 
 he kept a binocular glass glued to his eyes. 
 
 1 Is it so then, sir ! ' cried Mr. Prance to 
 the skipper ; c there is smoke rising from 
 her fore-hatch.' 
 
 Mr. Cocker had replaced his telescope in 
 the hencoop ; I jumped for it, and in a trice 
 had the lenses bearing upon the brig. There 
 was an appearance of smoke, a thin bluish 
 haze of it, as though mounting from a newly 
 kindled bonfire, slowly going spirally into the 
 motionless air ; but almost at the instant of 
 my first looking I thought I could witness 
 something of a ruddy tinge flashing for a 
 breath into this smoke, as if to a sudden 
 leap of flame. Though the brig lay at the 
 same distance that had separated her from us 
 throughout the afternoon, the shrouded and 
 heaped-up vaporous wall of firmament beyond 
 her seemed to heave her as close again to us 
 a- she really was ; and now quite easily by 
 the aid of the glass I could see her decks as 
 she rolled them our way dark with her people, 
 many of them hacking and hewing at her 
 rigging, as though to clear away the wreck- 
 age ; others seemingly passing buckets along ; 
 others, again, running wildly and as it might 
 
 s 2
 
 260 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 seem aimlessly about, whilst with the regu- 
 larity of a swing in action the beautifully 
 moulded hull rolled quietly from side to side 
 with a rhythmic oscillation of her one mast 
 upon which the fragment of white trysail 
 filled and hollowed as it beat the air, starting 
 out upon the eye with a very ghastliness of 
 pallor as it swelled to its cotton-like hue out 
 of the shadow of its incurving, and hovered 
 like some butterfly over the hideous dusky 
 green of the swell. 
 
 I replaced the telescope. 
 
 ' Here comes the wind ! ' I heard Mr. 
 Cocker sing out. 
 
 ' Ladies,' cried old Keeling, ' let me beg of 
 you to step below.' 
 
 Most of them complied, but a few lingered, 
 staring with curiosity at the coming weather. 
 I watched it with amazement, for never before 
 had I seen a storm of wind coming down 
 upon a ship in a sort of wall. One saw the 
 line of it in a ridge of foam whose extremities 
 were lost in the gloom on either hand. It 
 was of a glass-like smoothness all in front of 
 it, and not a breath of air was to be felt when 
 the stormy hissing of it was loud in our ears 
 as it came sweeping up, the clouds on high
 
 A STORM OF WIND 261 
 
 darting to right and left, and a paler faintness, 
 as of increasing daylight, coming into the air 
 along with it. The bull-like notes of Mr. 
 Prance rang from the poop through the ship. 
 
 ' Stand by main-topsail halliards — fore- 
 topsail sheets — foretopmast staysail down- 
 haul.' 
 
 The wind struck the brig. My eye was 
 upon her, and she disappeared in the shrieking 
 whirl of flying spume as you extinguish a 
 reflection in a mirror by breathing upon the 
 glass. A minute later it was upon us. It 
 smote the Indiaman right abeam, and down 
 she lay in a seething and hissing flatness of 
 boiling waters, stooping yet and yet, till the 
 line of the topgallant bulwark rail looked to 
 be flush with the furious yeasty smother. 
 There were two men at the helm holding the 
 wheel jammed hard over. I swung to a 
 belaying pin on the weather rail, and the poop 
 deck went down from me to leeward at an 
 angle that made one's eyes reel in the head to 
 look along it. There was a true hurricane 
 note in the bellowing of the wind on high 
 under the rush and disparting of the mad- 
 dened clouds, and the first flash of it between 
 our masts was as the passage of a score of
 
 262 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 locomotives racing by at express speed and 
 shrieking as they went. 
 
 I was waiting to see what the ship meant 
 to do, when the weather main-topsail sheet 
 parted, though a treble-reefed sail, with a 
 sound like another clap of thunder, and in a 
 moment the canvas was flogging away from 
 the yard in ribands, with Mr. Cocker shout- 
 ing at the top of his voice, and a crowd of 
 seamen tumbling and capsizing about the 
 main deck to the officer's orders to haul upon 
 the clewlines. It was at that instant, amidst 
 all this prodigious hallabaloo, that I caught 
 sight of Miss Temple to leeward of the mizzen 
 mast holding on to some gear that was belayed 
 at the foot of the mast. As my gaze rested 
 on her, the rope she grasped either overhauled 
 itself or was detached from the pin, and she 
 swung out to leeward. There were hencoops 
 and rails and the mizzen shrouds to save her 
 from going overboard ; but there was nothing 
 to prevent her from breaking a limb, or even 
 her neck, if she let go. Though my legs yet 
 preserved something of their old seafaring 
 nimbleness, the slope of the deck made despe- 
 rate work for them. Yet the girl must be 
 reached, and at once. She did not appear to
 
 A STORM OF WIND 263 
 
 have sense enough to lower herself down the 
 rope till her feet touched, in which posture 
 she might have hung with safety. She main- 
 tained her first clutch of the gear, and swung 
 above the deck to the height of some two, 
 perhaps three feet. Keeling, who was clinging 
 to the weather vang, did not seem to see her. 
 The helmsmen grinding at the wheel heeded 
 nothing but their business. Mr. Prance and 
 the second officer clawing at the brass rail at 
 the break of the poop, leaned to windward, 
 with their eyes on the streaming rags of the 
 maintopsail shouting commands. 
 
 There was only one means of arriving at 
 the girl with any approach to swiftness. I 
 dropped on to the deck, and went down upon 
 my knees with my head to windward, and 
 worked my way stern first in that attitude to 
 the line of lee hencoops, along which I made 
 shift to travel half jammed by my own weight 
 against the bars of the coops, until, coming 
 abreast of the girl, I got upon my legs, and 
 firmly planting my left foot against the bottom 
 of the row of boxes in which the fowls were 
 immured, and leaning on my right leg in a 
 fencing posture, I put my arms round her 
 waist and told her to let go. She did so at
 
 264 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 once, as likely as not because she could hold 
 on no longer. The weight of her noble figure 
 was rather more than I had bargained for. I 
 had thought to hold her fairly off the deck and 
 ease her away, whilst in my arms, down to the 
 hencoop behind, on which she could sit ; but 
 she was too much for me. I was forced to 
 let her feet touch the planks, where, losing 
 her balance, she threw her arm round my 
 neck to save herself from falling. The next 
 moment I was lodged upon the hencoop, she 
 on my knee, and her arms still enclosing my 
 head ; but this was only for a breath or two. 
 It was easy to lift her to my side, and there 
 she sat, her fine face dark with blushes, and 
 her eyes sparkling with alarm and confusion 
 and twenty other passions and emotions, whilst 
 the curve of her bosom rose and fell with 
 hysteric swiftness. 
 
 'What a very ridiculous position! It 
 serves me right. I should have taken the 
 captain's advice. I should have gone below.' 
 
 This was all my haughty companion con- 
 descended to say. Not a syllable of thanks — 
 not a glance of softness to reward me ! How- 
 ever, to be reasonable, she could have 
 scarcely been audible had she attempted more
 
 A STORM OF WIND 265 
 
 words. Even to catch the few sentences she 
 uttered I had to strain ray ear to the movement 
 of her lips, off which the wind clipped her 
 speech with a silencing yell. 
 
 There had been but little in the thunder of 
 the storm, which still showed livid over the 
 eastern horizon, that surpassed the wild and 
 prodigious roaring of this first outfly of the 
 hurricane. The ship continued to lie down to 
 the fierce sweep of the wind at the angle she 
 had reached to — it was as good or bad, indeed, 
 as being on her beam ends — and Miss Temple 
 and I were forced to keep our seats upon the 
 hencoop, no more able to crawl up the deck 
 to where the companion hatch was than had 
 it been a slope of polished ice. This maybe 
 was what she meant by ' the ridiculousness of 
 her position.' The captain, standing to wind- 
 ward, was sending ominous looks at the band 
 of the foretopsail and at the foretopmaststay- 
 sail, the cloths of which continued miraculously 
 to hold. There was too much wind for the 
 sea to rise suddenly ; indeed, the weight of 
 the blast had smoothed down what remains of 
 swell the rain and hail had left ; the ocean 
 was a level surface of foam, out of which the 
 tempest of wind was tearing up whole snow-
 
 266 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 storms of flakes of spume, which flew over the 
 ship in clouds that whitened out into a sort 
 of dazzle, as though sun touched, as they flew 
 in their throbbing masses athwart the leaden 
 sky which poured across the sea over the ship's 
 bows in rags and trailing lengths and gyrating 
 coils of sooty vapour. 
 
 'Look!' I shouted to Miss Temple, and 
 pointed over our stern, where, out of the 
 flying faintness and thickness of spray, the 
 figure of the brig was at that instant for miner 
 itself. 
 
 I sprang upon the hencoop, the better to 
 see, grasping the mizzen shrouds for support. 
 
 6 Shall I give you a hoist ? ' I cried to the 
 girl. 
 
 Her curiosity was too strong ; the flying 
 brig — a fleeting vision of the object which had 
 filled us with alarm and suspense throughout 
 the day, was a wonder to be witnessed at such 
 a time as that at any cost. Her lips parted 
 in the word yes to the howl of the gale, and 
 in a moment I had her up alongside of me, 
 my arm through hers, securely gripping and 
 supporting her, and the pair of us gazing 
 breathlessly at the sight astern. 
 
 With her single mast rising to the topmast
 
 A STORM OF WIXD 267 
 
 cross-trees, the yards square, the remains of 
 the trysail streaming like white hair from gaff 
 and boltrope, the brig swept under our stern, 
 shooting sheer athwart, seething smoothly as 
 a sleigh over a level plain of snow, and rushing 
 before the wind straight as the flight of an 
 arrow. A coil of thick black smoke, whose 
 base was reddened by sudden tongues of fire, 
 blew over her bow, and coloured the atmo- 
 sphere into which she rushed with a complexion 
 of thunder. It seemed to rise from the fore- 
 hatch, and it fled straight off the deck. I 
 caught a sight of crowds of men forward and 
 aft, with a couple of fellows leaping into the 
 fore-rigging as the brig rushed by, to gesticu- 
 late to us. But the vision came and went in 
 a few breaths like an object seen by lightning. 
 So dense was the gale with spray, that there 
 was scarcely a cable's length of opening round 
 about us. The brig showed and was gone ! a 
 phantasm, with the white waters pouring over 
 her sprit-sail yard as she rushed through it, and 
 no more of her was to be noted by the eye during 
 the headlong swiftness of her plunge from one 
 wall of spindrift into another, than the delicate 
 lines of her rigging supporting the foremast, 
 the bowsprit vanishing in a cloud of smoke,
 
 268 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 blowing ahead of her, a length of white deck, 
 a flash of skylight glass, the glimmer, so to 
 speak, of some score of faces turned our 
 way. 
 
 ' She is on fire,' I cried in Miss Temple's 
 ear : ' she carries a doomed crew into that 
 thickness ! ' 
 
 She moved, as if to resume her seat, and 
 very carefully I got her on to the hencoop 
 again. 
 
 But the first terrific spite of the gale was 
 now gone, and the squab form of the India- 
 man lifting a little out of the seething cauldron 
 in which she lay with her main-deck rail flush 
 with the yeasty surface, was beginning slowly 
 to pay off. Her decks gradually grew level, 
 and presently she was right before^ the wind, 
 with the howl of it at her taflrail, and her 
 huge bows heaping up the white sea till the 
 leaps of the summits were at either cathead. 
 
 Mr. Colledge's face showed in the com- 
 panion-way. 
 
 ' Oh, there you are, Miss Temple ! ' he 
 roared. ' Mrs. Radcliffe is firmly persuaded 
 you have been blown overboard.' 
 
 She rose, but sat again, for the wind was 
 too strong for her. Friend Colledge himself
 
 A STORM OF WIND 269 
 
 seemed pinned by the weight of it in the 
 hatch. 
 
 ' We may be able to manage it between us,' 
 I shouted ; and passing my arm through hers, 
 I drove the pair of us to windward, and got 
 her on to the companion ladder, down which 
 she went.
 
 27o MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 fike! 
 
 It blew fiercely all that night. A mountainous 
 sea was rolling two hours after the first of 
 the gale, amid which the Countess Ida lay 
 hove-to under a small storm trysail, making- 
 very heavy weather of it indeed. There was 
 a deal to talk about, but no opportunity for 
 conversing. Few were present at the dinner- 
 table, though the sea then running was 
 moderate in comparison with the sickening 
 heights to which it swelled later on ; and there 
 was little more to be done throughout the 
 meal than to hold on for dear life, to keep a 
 keen weather-eye lifting upon one's food, and 
 to gaze speechlessly across the table at one 
 another amid an uproar of howling hurricane, 
 of roaring waters, of straining bulkheads, of a 
 ceaseless clattering of crockery and other noisy 
 articles, that rendered conversation sheerly 
 impossible.
 
 FIRE! ill 
 
 And you may add to all this a good deal of 
 consternation amongst us passengers. I had 
 seen some weather in my time, but never the 
 like of such a tossing and plunging bout as 
 this. There were moments, indeed, when one 
 felt it high time to go to prayers : I mean when 
 the ship would lie down on the slant of some 
 prodigious surge until she was hanging by her 
 keel off the slope with her broadside upon the 
 water, as though it were the bottom of her. 
 There were many heave-overs of this sort, 
 every one of which was accompanied by half- 
 stifled shrieks from the cabins, by the sounds 
 of the crash of boxes, unlashed articles, chairs, 
 movable commodities of all kinds rushing with 
 lightning-speed to leeward. Heavy contribu- 
 tions had been made upon our nervous 
 systems by the incidents of the day : the 
 vicinity of the brig — the prospect of having 
 our windpipes slit — the furious thunder- 
 storm — the spectacle of the lightning-struck 
 craft : and the stock of fortitude left amongst 
 us was but slender for a manly and courageous 
 encounter of such an experience as this night 
 was to prove. 
 
 I vividly recall the appearance of the 
 cuddy at eleven o'clock when the hurricane
 
 272 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 was nearing its height. The ship was hove-to 
 on the starboard tack, and the lamps in the 
 saloon would sometimes swing over to larboard 
 till their globes appeared to rest against the 
 upper deck. I had managed in some sort of 
 parrot fashion to claw along the table to 
 abreast of a swinging tray, where I mixed my- 
 self a glass of cold brandy grog, with which 
 I slided down to a sofa on the lee-side ; and 
 there I sat looking up at the people to 
 windward as at a row of figures in a gallery. 
 Heaven knows I was but little disposed to 
 mirth ; yet for the life of me I could not re- 
 frain from laughter at the miserable appearance 
 presented by most of my fellow-passengers 
 there assembled. Near to the cuddy front, 
 on the windward seats, sat Mr Johnson, with 
 terror very visibly working in his white 
 countenance. His eyes rolled frightfully to 
 every unusually heavy stoop of the ship, and 
 his long lean frame writhed in a manner 
 ludicrous to see, in his efforts to keep himself 
 from darting forwards. Near him was Mr. 
 Emmett, who strove to hold himself propped 
 by thrusting at the cushions with his hands, 
 and forking out his legs like a pair of open 
 compasses with the toes stuck into the carpet
 
 fire: 273 
 
 on the deck, as though he was a ballet dancer 
 about to attempt a pirouette on those extremi- 
 ties. Little Mr. Saunders, who had thought- 
 lessly taken a seat on the weather side, sat 
 with his short shanks swinging high off the 
 deck in the last agonies, as one could see, of 
 holding on. My eye was on him when he 
 slided off the cushion to one of those dizzy 
 heaves of the ship which might have made 
 any man believe she was capsizing. He shot 
 off the smooth leather like a bolt discharged 
 from a cross-bow, and striking the deck, 
 rolled over and over in the manner of a boy 
 coming down a hill. There was nothing to 
 arrest him ; he passed under the table and 
 arrived half-dead within a fathom of me ; on 
 which I edged along to his little figure and 
 picked him up. He was not hurt, but was 
 terribly frightened. 
 
 1 What shocking weather, to be sure ! ' was 
 all lie said. 
 
 I put my glass of grog into the worthy 
 little creature's hand, and he thanked me 
 witli one of his long-faced, wistful looks, 
 then applied the tumbler to his mouth and 
 emptied it. 
 
 But to end all this : at three o'clock in the 
 
 vol. 1. t
 
 274 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 morning there was a sensible decrease in the 
 gale. I had fallen asleep in the cuddy, and 
 waking at that hour, and finding but one 
 lamp dimly burning, and the interior deserted, 
 I worked my way to the hatch, groped along 
 to my cabin, and tumbled into my bunk, 
 where I slept soundly till half-past eight. 
 The sun was shining when I opened my eyes : 
 the ship was plunging and rolling, but easily, 
 and in a floating, launching manner, that 
 proved her to be sailing along with the wind 
 aft. Colledge was seated in his bunk with 
 his legs over the edge, gazing at me medita- 
 tively. 
 
 'Awake?' he exclaimed. 
 
 ' Yes,' said I. 
 
 6 Fine weather this morning Dmnlale. 
 But preserve us, what a night we've come 
 through, hey ? D'yejremember talking of the 
 fun of a voyage ? Yesterday was a humorous 
 time certainly.' 
 
 I sprang out of bed. ' Patience, my friend, 
 patience ! ' said I ; ' this trip will end, like 
 everything else in our world.' 
 
 ' Ay, at the bottom of the sea, for all one 
 is to know,' he grumbled. 'A rod of land 
 before twenty thousand acres of shipboard,
 
 FIRE! 275 
 
 say I. By the way, you and Miss Temple 
 looked very happy in each other's company 
 when I peeped out of the hatch yesterday to see 
 what had become of her, at her aunt's request.' 
 
 ' You should have risen through the deck 
 a little earlier,' said I. ' You would have 
 found her hanging.' 
 
 1 Hanging ! ' he cried. 
 
 6 Oh, not by the neck,' said I. 
 
 I What did yen do ? ' 
 
 I I rescued her. I seized her by the waist 
 and bore her gloriously to a hencoop.' 
 
 ' Did you put your arms round her waist ? ' 
 said he, staring at me. 
 
 'I did,' I exclaimed. 
 
 He looked a little gloomy. Then brighten- 
 ing in a fitful kind of way, he said : ' Well, I 
 suppose you had to do it — a case of pure 
 necessity, Dugdale ? ' 
 
 I closed one eye and smiled at him. 
 
 ' She's a very fine woman,' said he, gazing 
 at me gloomily again. ' I trust you have not 
 been indiscreet enough to tell her that I am 
 encra^ed to be married ? ' 
 
 1 Oh now, my dear Colledge, don't let us 
 trifle — don't let us trifle ! ' said I. ' Scarcely 
 have you escaped the risk of being boarded 
 
 T 2
 
 276 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 by pirates — the chance of being beheaded by- 
 some giant picaroon — of being struck dead by 
 lightning — of foundering in this ship in the 
 small-hours, when round with circus speed 
 sweep your thoughts to the ladies again, and 
 your mouth is filled with impassioned questions. 
 Where's your gratitude for these hairbreadth 
 escapes ? ' and being by this time in trim for 
 my morning bath, I bolted out of the cabin, 
 laughing loudly, and deaf to his shout of, ' I 
 say, though, did you tell her that I was en- 
 gaged ? ' 
 
 The ocean was a very grand sight. The 
 wind still blew fresh, but as the ship was run- 
 ning with it, it seemed to come without much 
 weight. The sea was flowing in long tall 
 surges of an amazing richness and brilliance of 
 blue, and far and near their foaming heads 
 flashed out to the sunshine in a splendour of 
 whiteness that contrasted most gloriously with 
 the long dark slopes of unbroken water. From 
 sea-line to sea-line the sky was overspread with 
 clouds of majestic bulk and grandeur of 
 swelling form, as white in parts as the foam 
 which broke under them, and with many rain- 
 bows in their skirts, and a tender violet shad- 
 ing in the centre of them, that gave them as
 
 FIRE / 277 
 
 they soared above the horizon the look of 
 brushing the very heads of the coursing seas. 
 The Indiaman was thundering through it under 
 whole topsails and topgallant-sails, rolling with 
 the stateliness of a line-of-battle ship as she 
 went, with a rhythmically recurring stoop of 
 her ponderous bows till the water boiled to 
 the line of her forecastle rail, and her deck 
 forward looked to lie as flat as a spoon in the 
 dazzling smother. 
 
 I saw Mr. Prance on the poop, and having 
 had my bath, stepped aft to exchange a greet- 
 ing with him. 
 
 ' The ship appears to have come safely out 
 of last night's mess,' said I. 
 
 1 It was a real breeze,' he answered ; * nothing 
 suffered but the main- topsail. The Countess 
 Ida's a proper ship, Mr. Dugdale. Those who 
 put her together made all allowances, even for 
 her rats. There's some craft I know would 
 have strained themselves into mere baskets in 
 last night's popple. But there was not an inch 
 more of water this morning in the Counters s 
 well than will drain into her in twenty-four 
 hours in a river.' 
 
 ' And the brig, Mr. Prance ? I believe I
 
 278 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 and Miss Temple were the two who saw the 
 last of her.' 
 
 6 No. Captain Keeling spied her as she 
 swept under our stern,' said he. ' She was on 
 fire ; and by this time, I reckon her beautiful 
 hull — and truly beautiful it was, Mr. Dugdale 
 — will be represented somewhere around us 
 here by a few charred fragments.' 
 
 ' Or,' said I, ' even supposing they managed 
 to extinguish the fire, Mr. Prance, her one 
 mast with most of its heavy hamper aloft was 
 not going to stand the hurricane very long. So 
 she'll either be a few blackened staves, as you 
 say, or a sheer hulk. And her people ? ' 
 
 'Ah,' exclaimed the chief mate, fetching a 
 deep breath, 'from eighty to a hundred of 
 them I allow. There's no boat puT together 
 by mortal hands could have lived last night. 
 By heavens though, but it is enough to make 
 a harlequin thoughtful to figure such a ship- 
 load of souls as that brig carried hurried into 
 mere carcases for the deep-sea dab to smell to 
 and the wall-eyed cod of the Atlantic to nibble 
 at.' 
 
 ' Now, honestly, Mr. Prance — do you really 
 believe there was anything of the pirate about 
 that brig ? '
 
 FIRE! 279 
 
 4 Honestly, Mr. Dugdale, I do, sir ; and I 
 
 haven't a shadow of a doubt that if the weather 
 had taken any other turn, if a sailing breeze 
 had sprung up, or the water had held smooth 
 enough for a boating excursion, her people 
 would have put us to our trumps with a good 
 chance of their crippling us and plundering 
 us, to say no more.' 
 
 Here the breakfast bell rang, and I rushed 
 to the cabin to complete my toilet for the 
 table. 
 
 There was no lack of talk this morning 
 when the passengers had taken their places. 
 The anxieties of the preceding day and night 
 seemed only to have deepened the purple hue 
 of old Keelimr's countenance, and his face 
 showed like the north-west moon in a mist 
 betwixt the tall points of his shirt collars, as 
 he turned his skewered form from side to side 
 answering questions, smirking to congratula- 
 tions, and bowing to the ' Good-morning, 
 captain,' showered upon him by the ladies. Mr. 
 Johnson came to the table with a black eye, and 
 Dr. Hemmeridge's forehead was neatly inlaid 
 with an immense strip of his own sticking- 
 plaster, the effect in both cases of the gentlemen 
 having fallen out of their bunks in the night.
 
 280 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 Colonel Bannister had sprained a wrist, and 
 the pain made him unusually vindictive and 
 aggressive in his remarks. The weather had 
 not apparently served the ladies very kindly. 
 Mrs. Hudson presented herself with her wig 
 slightly awry, and her daughter looked as if 
 she had not been to bed for a week. It was 
 hard to realise, in fact, that the pale spiritless 
 young lady with heavy violet eyes looking 
 languidly through their long lashes, which 
 deepened yet the dark shadow in the hollows 
 under them, was the golden, flashful, laughing, 
 coquettish young creature of the preceding 
 morning. 
 
 I had made sure of a bow at least from 
 Miss Temple ; but I never once caught so much 
 as a glance from her. Yet she was very easy 
 and smiling in her occasional conversation 
 with Colledge across the table. She alone of 
 the women seemed to have suffered nothing 
 from the violent usage of the night that was 
 gone. In faultlessness of appearance, so far as 
 her hair and attire and the like went, she 
 might have stepped from her bedroom ashore 
 after a couple of hours spent with her maid 
 before a looking-glass. Not even a look for 
 me, thought I ! not even one of those cold
 
 FIRE! 28 1 
 
 swiftly fading smiles with which she would 
 receive the greeting of a neighbour or a sen- 
 tence from the captain ! 
 
 I was stupid enough to feel piqued — to 
 suffer from a fit of bad temper, in short, which 
 came very near to landing me in an ugly quar- 
 rel with Mr. Johnson. 
 
 ' D'ye know, I rather wish now, 1 said this 
 journalist, addressing us generally at one end 
 of the table, but with an air of caution, as 
 though he did not desire the colonel to hear 
 him, * that that brig yesterday had attacked 
 us. It would have furnished me with an 
 opportunity for a very remarkable sea-descrip- 
 tion.' 
 
 ' Tut ! ' said I, with a sneer ; ' before a man 
 can describe he must see ; and what would 
 you have seen ? ' 
 
 1 Seen, sir ? ' he cried ; ' why, everything 
 that might have happened, sir.' 
 
 'Amongst the rats perhaps down in the 
 hold. Xothing more to be seen there, unless 
 it's bilge water.' 
 
 'Goot! 'cried Mynheer Hemskirk. 'It 
 vould hov been vonny to combare Meester 
 Shonson's description mit der reeality.' 
 
 ' I will ask you not to question my courage,'
 
 282 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 said Mr. Johnson, looking at me with a face 
 whose paleness was not a little accentuated by 
 his black eye. 8 I believe when it came to the 
 scratch I should be found as good as another. 
 You would have fought, of course,' he added, 
 with a sarcastic sneer at me. 
 
 'Yes; I would have fought then, just as I 
 am ready to fight now,' said I, looking at him. 
 
 8 Gentlemen, gentlemen,' exclaimed Mr. 
 Prance, in a subdued reprimanding voice, 8 the 
 ladies will be hearing you in a minute.' 
 
 4 You have been a sailor, Dugdale, you 
 know,' remarked Mr. Emmett in a satirical tone, 
 8 and might, therefore, have guessed yesterday 
 that either the brig was a harmless trader, or 
 that, supposing her to have been of a piratical 
 nature, she would not attack us.' 
 
 8 And what then ? ' cried I, eyeing him 
 hotly. 
 
 8 Well,' said he, with a foolish grin, 8 of 
 course, under those circumstances, a large 
 character for heroism might be earned very 
 cheaply indeed.' 
 
 Johnson lay back in his chair to deliver 
 himself of a noisy laugh. His seat was a fixed 
 revolving contrivance, and its one socketed 
 leg might have been injured during the night.
 
 FIRE / 283 
 
 Be this as it may, on the journalist flinging 
 himself back with a loud applauding ' Ha ! ha ! ' 
 of his friend Emmett's satiric hit at me, 
 the chair broke, and backward he went with 
 it with a knife in one hand and a fork in the 
 other. Old Keeling started to his feet ; the 
 stewards came in a rush to the prostrate man. 
 Those ladies who were near gathered their 
 gowns about them as the)' watched him plung- 
 ing in his efforts to extricate himself from the 
 chair, in which his hips were in some manner 
 jammed. For my part, having breakfasted, 
 and beiiiL>' half suffocated with laughter, I 
 was glad enough to run away out on deck. 
 Indeed, the disaster had cooled my temper, and 
 this occurrence was something to be thank- 
 ful for, since one thing was leading to another, 
 and, for all one could tell, the journalist and I 
 might have come to blows as we sat side by 
 side. 
 
 He and Emmett cut me for the rest of the 
 day. My own temper was sulky for the most 
 part. I spent the whole of the morning on 
 the forecastle, smoking pipe after pipe in the 
 4 eyes ' of the ship, yarning in a fragmentary 
 way with the boatswain, who invented excuses 
 to come into the ' head ' to indulge in a brief
 
 284 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 chat with me, whilst by his postures and 
 motions he contrived to wear an air of business 
 to the gaze that might be watching from the 
 poop. 
 
 I would not own to myself that the sullen 
 cast of my temper that day was due to Miss 
 Temple ; but secretly I was quite conscious 
 that my mood was owing to her, and the mere 
 perception of this was a new vexation to me. 
 For what was this young lady to me ? What 
 could signify her coolness, her insolence, her 
 cold and cutting disregard of me ? We had 
 barely exchanged a dozen words since we left 
 the Thames. Though my admiration of her 
 fine figure, her haughty face, her dark, tragic, 
 passionate eyes was extravagantly great, it was 
 hidden ; she had not divined it ; and she was 
 therefore without the influence over my moods 
 and emotions which she might have possessed 
 had I known that she was conscious how 
 deeply she fascinated me. She would not 
 even give me a chance to thoroughly dislike 
 her. The heart cannot steer a middle course 
 with such a woman as she. Had her 
 behaviour enabled me to hate her, I should 
 have felt easy ; but her conduct was of the 
 marble-like quality of her features, hard and
 
 FIRE! 285 
 
 polished, and too slippery for the passions to 
 set a footing upon. ' Pshaw ! ' thought I again 
 and again, as I viciously hammered the ashes 
 out of the bowl of my pipe on the forecastle 
 rail, ' am not I an idiot to be thinking of 
 yonder woman in this fashion, musing upon 
 her, speculating about her — a person who is 
 absolutely as much a stranger to me as any 
 fine lady driving past me in a London Park ! ' 
 Yet would I repeatedly catch myself stealing 
 peeps at her from under the arch of the 
 courses, hidden as I was right forward in the 
 ship's bows, while she was pacing the length 
 of the poop with Mr. Colledge, or standing 
 awhile to hold a conversation with her aunt 
 and Captain Keeling, the nobility of her figure 
 and the chilling lofty dignity of her bearing dis- 
 tinctly visible to me all that way off, and 
 strongly defining her amongst the rest of the 
 people who wavered and straggled about the 
 deck. 
 
 The wind lightened towards noon ; the 
 fine sailing breeze failed us, and sank into a 
 small air off the larboard beam ; the swell of 
 the sea went down, but the colour of the 
 brine was still the same rich sparkling blue of 
 the early morning. I had never seen so deeply
 
 286 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 pure and beautiful a tint in the ocean in these 
 parallels. It made one think of the Cape Horn 
 latitudes, with the white sun wheeling low, 
 and a gleam of ice in the distant sapphire 
 south. The great masses of cream-soft rain- 
 bow-tinctured cloud melted out, and at two 
 o'clock in the afternoon it was a true 
 equinoctial day, and the Indiaman a hot 
 tropic picture, awnings spread, the pitch 
 softening betwixt the seams, a sort of bluish 
 steamy haze lazily floating off the line of her 
 bulwark rail, through which the dim sea-limit 
 showed in a sultry sinuous horizon. The ship 
 rippled through it, clothed to her trucks with 
 cloths that shone with the silver whiteness of 
 stars to the hot noontide effulgence. The 
 ayahs lolled about the quarter-deck, and 
 John Chinaman sat upon a carronade fretting 
 the baby he held into squeals of laughter and 
 temper by tossing t The old sow grunted 
 with a grave grubbing noise under the long- 
 boat, and fore and aft every cock in the ship 
 was swelling his throat with defiant fine- 
 weather Growings. 
 
 It was somewhere about three bells that 
 evening — half-past seven o'clock — that I was 
 standing with Mr. Prance at the brass rail
 
 fire: 287 
 
 that protected the break of the poop, the 
 pair of us leaning upon it, watching a grin- 
 ning hairy fellow capering in a hornpipe a 
 little abaft the stowed anchor on the forecastle. 
 The one-eyed ape which we had rescued, and 
 which by this time was grown a favourite 
 amongst the seamen, sat low in the foreshrouds, 
 watching the dancing sailor — an odd bit of 
 colour for the picture of the fore-part of the 
 ship, clothed as he was in a red jacket and a 
 cap like an inverted flower-pot, the tassel of 
 it drooping to his empty socket. It was a 
 most perfect ocean evening, the west glowing 
 gloriously with a scarlet sunset, the sea tenderly 
 heaving, a soft warm breathing of air holding 
 the lighter sails aloft quiet. All the passengers 
 were on deck saving Miss Temple, who was 
 playing the piano to herself in the cuddy. 
 In the recess just under me were three or 
 four smokers ; and the voice of Mr. Hodder 
 waxing warm in some argument with 
 Mynheer Peter Hemskirk, entered with un- 
 pleasant disturbing emphasis into the tender 
 concert of sounds produced by the fiddlers 
 forward, the occasional laughter of the sea- 
 men, the tinkling in the saloon, the voices of 
 the ladies aft, the gentle rippling of water
 
 288 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 alongside, combining, and softened by distance 
 and the vastness amid which the ship floated, 
 into a sort of music. 
 
 I was in the midst of a pleasant yarn 
 with Mr. Prance, whilst we hung over the 
 rail, half watching the jigging chap forward, 
 and half listening to each other. He was re- 
 counting some of his early experiences at sea, 
 with a hint in his manner of lapsing anon into 
 a sentimental mood on his lighting upon the 
 name of a girl whom he had been betrothed 
 to. 
 
 All on a sudden the music forward ceased. 
 The fiddler that was working away upon the 
 booms jumped up and peered downwards in 
 the posture of a man snuffling up some strange 
 smell. The fellow who was dancing came to 
 a halt and looked too, walking to the fore- 
 castle edge and inclining his ear towards the 
 forehatch, as it seemed. He stared round to 
 the crowd of his shipmates who had been 
 watching him, and said something, and a 
 body of them came to where he was and stood 
 gazing. The weather clew of the mainsail 
 being lifted, all that happened forward lay 
 plain in sight to those who were aft. 
 
 6 What is wrong there ? ' exclaimed Mr.
 
 FIRE! 289 
 
 Prance abruptly, breaking off* from what he 
 was saying, and sending one of his falcon 
 looks at the forecastle. 'The pose of that 
 fiddling chap might make one believe he was 
 tasting cholera somewhere about.' 
 
 A boatswain's mate came down the fore- 
 castle ladder and went to the forehatch, where 
 he paused. Then, with a glance aft, he came 
 right along to the quarter-deck with hurried 
 steps, and mounted the poop ladder, coming 
 t<> a stand when his head was on a level with 
 the upper deck. 
 
 1 What is it ? ' cried Mr. Prance. 
 
 The fellow answered in a low voice, 
 audible only to the chief officer and myself: 
 * There's a smell of fire forwards, sir, and a 
 sound as of some one knocking inside of the 
 hatch.' 
 
 • A smell of fire ! ' ejaculated the mate ; 
 and swiftly, though preserving his quiet bear- 
 ing, lie descended to the quarter-deck and 
 walked forward. 
 
 I had long ago made myself free of all 
 parts of the ship, and guessed, therefore, that 
 my following in the wake of the mate would 
 attract no attention, nor give significance to 
 a business which might prove a false alarm. 
 
 vol. I. u
 
 290 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 By the time he had reached the hatch, I was 
 at his side. The boatswain and sailmaker 
 came out of their cabins, a number of seamen 
 quitted the forecastle to join us, and the rest 
 gathered at the edge of the raised deck, look- 
 ing down. The fore-hatch was a great square 
 protected by a cover that was to be lifted in 
 pieces. A tarpaulin was stretched over it 
 with battening irons to keep it fixed, for this 
 was a hatch there was seldom or never any 
 occasion to enter at sea, the cargo in all pro- 
 bability coming flush to it. 
 
 I had scarcely stood a moment in the 
 atmosphere of this hatch, when I became sen- 
 sible of a faint smell as of burning, yet too 
 subtle to be detected by a nostril that was not 
 particularly keen. As I was sniffing to make 
 sure, there came a hollow, dull noise of knock- 
 ing, distinct, and unmistakably produced by 
 some one immediately under the hatch striking 
 at it with a heavy instrument. Mr. Prance 
 hung in the wind for a second or two snuffling 
 and hearkening with the countenance of one 
 who discredits his senses. 
 
 4 Why ' he exclaimed, ' there is somebody 
 
 below, and — and' Here he sniffed up 
 
 hard with much too much energy, methought,
 
 FIRE! 291 
 
 to enable him to taste the faint fumes. 'Car- 
 penter,' he exclaimed to the withered old 
 Scotchman who made one of the crowd of 
 onlookers, 'get this hatch stripped and the 
 c »ver lilted — quickly, but quietly, if you 
 please.' 
 
 He looked sternly round upon fhe men ; 
 and then sent a hurried glance aft, where 
 stood Captain Keeling in the spot we had just 
 vacated, with Mrs. Madeline on his arm. 
 
 The battens were nimbly drawn, the tar- 
 paulin thrown aside, and some seamen stooped 
 to raise the hatch cover. A few seconds were 
 expended in prising and manoeuvring, in the 
 midst of which the knocking was repeated 
 with a note of violence in it, accompanied by 
 a general start and a growl of wonder from 
 all hands. 
 
 8 Heave ! ' cried the carpenter, and up came 
 the cover, followed by a small cloud of blue 
 smoke, and immediately after by the figure of 
 the hideous sailor Crabb, who sprang from oil 
 the top of a layer of white-wood cases with a 
 loud curse and a horrible fit of coughing. 
 
 '; 2
 
 2Q2 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 CRABB 
 
 The atmosphere was still red with the 
 sunset, though the luminary was below the 
 horizon, and there was plenty of light to see 
 by. An extraordinary shout went up from 
 amongst the men at the sight of Crabb, as he 
 leapt out of the hatch in the heart of the 
 little cloud of smoke. Those who were on 
 the side of the deck on to which he jumped 
 recoiled with a positive roar ofdiorror and 
 fright, one or two of them capsizing and roll- 
 ing over and over away from the hatch, as 
 though they were in too great a hurry to 
 escape to find time to get upon their legs. 
 
 I very well remember feeling the blood 
 desert my cheek, whilst my heart seemed to 
 come to a stand, and my breathing grow 
 difficult at the apparition of the fellow. Crabb ! 
 Why, I had seen him lying dead in his bunk ! 
 I had heard of him as lying stitched up in a
 
 CRABB 293 
 
 hammock on this very fore-batch ! I had 
 beheld that same hammock flash overboard, 
 and I had watched it lifting and frisking away 
 astern ! Who, then, was yonder hideous 
 creature that had jumped in hobgoblin fashion 
 out of the hold? Could he be the buried 
 Crabb himself? 
 
 There is no lack of things to frighten 
 people withal in this world ; but I cannot 
 conceive of any shock comparable to the 
 instant consternation felt by a man who meets 
 another of whose death he is piofoundly 
 assured, and whom he lias been thinking of 
 as a corpse, dead and buried, for any number 
 of days gone by. The general horror, the 
 prodigious universal amazement which held 
 the mate and me and others amongst us 
 speechless and motionless, as though we had 
 been blasted and withered up by some electric 
 bolt from heaven, scarcely endured a minute : 
 yet by that handful of seconds was the pic- 
 ture of this amazing incident framed. I see 
 Crabb now as he let fall his arm from his face 
 when his lit of choking coughing ceased ; and 
 I recall the blind wild look of his distorted 
 
 -. as he slowly turned his countenance 
 round, as though the mild evening light was
 
 294 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 violently oppressive to his vision after the 
 days of blackness passed in the hold. His 
 repulsive countenance was dark with dirt and 
 grime. I observed many scratches upon his 
 arms, which were naked to the elbows, as 
 though he were fresh from squeezing and 
 boring through some ugly jagged intri- 
 cacies of stowed commodities. His shirt hung 
 in rags upon him ; there were many rents in 
 his loose trousers ; and there was blood upon 
 his exposed chest, from a wound seemingly 
 made by the sharp head of a nail or some edge 
 of iron-sheathed case. 
 
 'Seize that man, bo'sun,' suddenly roared 
 Mr. Prance, leaping out of his benumbed con- 
 dition of astonishment in a way to make one 
 think of a bull sweeping out through a hedge : 
 4 handcuff him, and shut him up in your 
 berth for the present. Get the head-pump 
 rigged — the hose passed along. Jump for 
 buckets, and stand by to pass them down.' 
 
 The powerful hand of the boatswain closed 
 like a vice upon Crabb's neck. I thought to 
 see a struggle, but the ugly sailor seemed weak 
 and dazed, and stepped passively to the boat- 
 swain's berth into which my friend shot him ? 
 following and closing the door, to conceal, I
 
 CRABB 295 
 
 suppose, the operation of manacling the 
 man from the eyes of the half-stupefied 
 Jacks. 
 
 Half-stupefied, I say : but the orders of 
 the mate were like the flourish of some magic 
 wand over each man. There was a headlong 
 rush, though with something of discipline in 
 the hurry of it too, at the chief officer's com- 
 mand. Smoke was draining through the open 
 hatch, floating up thinly and lazily, though it 
 was a thing to make one hold one's breath, 
 not knowing but that the next vomit might 
 prove a thicker, darker coil, with a lightning- 
 like reddening of the base of it to the flicker 
 of some deep down tongue of flame. Fire at 
 sea! Ah, great God! Out of the mere 
 thought of it will come the spirit of the 
 fleetest runner into the laziest and most lifeless 
 shanks. 
 
 The mate sprang on top of the cases stowed 
 level with the lower edges of the hold with a 
 cry for men to follow him. The interior was 
 the fore-part of the 'tween decks, bulkheaded 
 off some little distance before the mainmast, 
 and filled with light, easily handled goods. 
 The hatch conducting to the ship's hold lay 
 closed immediately under these few tons of
 
 296 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 freight in a line with the yawning square into 
 which Mr. Prance had sprung. Where was 
 the lire? If in the lower hold, then heaven 
 help us ! I glanced aft, and saw the captain 
 hastily walking forward. The passengers had 
 come together in a crowd, and were staring 
 with pale faces from the head of the poop 
 ladder. Old Keeling was perfectly cool. He 
 asked no questions, made no fuss, simply came 
 to the side of the hatch, saw Mr. Prance and 
 a gang of men at work breaking out the 
 cargo, and stood watching, never hindering 
 the people's labour by a question. His keen 
 seawardly eye took in everything in a breath. 
 One needed but to watch his face to see that. 
 The placidity of the line old fellow was a 
 magnificent influence. In an incredibly short 
 space of time, the captain meanwhile never 
 once opening his lips, the head-pump was 
 rigged, the hose trailed along and pointed 
 ready, a number of seamen were standing in 
 hies with buckets ranged along all prepared for 
 drawing water, and passing it to the hatchway 
 with the swiftest expedition. I cannot express 
 the wonderful encouragement the heart found 
 in this silence alone. The captain trusted his 
 chief mate, saw that he exactly knew what to
 
 CRABB 297 
 
 do, and stood by as a spectator, with just one 
 look of approval at his quiet, resolute, deep- 
 breathing ranks of seamen awaiting orders. 
 
 Once he turned his purple face, and ob- 
 serving Mr. Johnson and Mr. Emmett and one 
 or two others nervously edging their way for- 
 wards, he beckoned witli a long forefinger to 
 a boatswain's mate and said in a low voice : 
 ' Drive those gentlemen aft on to the poop, 
 and see that none of the passengers leaves it.' 
 He glanced at me once, but said nothing, pos- 
 sibly because he had found me looking on when 
 lie arrived. 
 
 All as tranquilly as though the job was no 
 more than the mere breaking. out of a few 
 boxes of passengers' luggage, the work of re- 
 moving the cargo so as to get at the fire pro- 
 ceeded. The smoke continued to steal 
 stealthily up. The contents of the cases I do 
 not know, but they were light enough to be 
 lifted easily. A number of them were got on 
 deck. The mate and Mr. Cocker — who had 
 arrived from his cabin shortly after the captain 
 had come — headed the gang of workers, and 
 rapidly disappeared in the lanes they opened. 
 
 ' Here it is ! ' at last came a mullled shout. 
 
 Mr. Cocker coming out of a dark hole like
 
 29S MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 a rat, with the perspiration streaming from 
 him as though a bucket of oil had been cap- 
 sized over his head, sang out for the hose to 
 be overhauled and the pump to be worked. 
 
 'Have you discovered the fire, sir?' said 
 the captain, calling down to him in such a 
 collected voice as he would have used in 
 requesting a passenger to take wine with 
 him. 
 
 ' Yes, sir. It is a small affair. The hose 
 will suffice, I think, sir.' 
 
 An instant after, the clanking of the plied 
 pump was to be heard along with the sound 
 of water steadily gushing, followed by a cloud 
 of steam, which quickly vanished. A quarter 
 of an hour later the mate came up black 
 as a chimney-sweep. He touched his cap to 
 the captain, and simply said : ' the lire's out, 
 sir.' 
 
 ' What was it, Mr. Prance ? ' 
 
 4 A bale of blankets, sir.' 
 
 ' Can you guess how it originated ? ' 
 
 ' I expect that the man Crabb ' began 
 
 the mate. 
 
 The captain started and stared. 
 
 6 The man Crabb,' continued Mr. Prance, 
 c whom we imagined dead and buried, sir, has
 
 CRABB 299 
 
 been skulking in the hold' — old Keeling 
 frowned with amazement — ; and I have no 
 doubt he fired the bale whilst lighting his 
 pipe/ 
 
 'Crabb in the hold!' cried the skipper; 
 * do you speak of the man whom we buried, 
 sir ? ' 
 
 4 The same, sir,' answered Mr. Prance. 
 
 Old Keeling gazed about him with a gaping 
 
 DC (DID 
 
 face. 4 But he died, sir, and was buried,' he 
 exclaimed. ; I read the funeral service over 
 him, and saw, sir — Mr. Prance, I saw with my 
 own eyes the hammock fall from the grating 
 after it had been tilted .' 
 
 The chief officer said something in reply 
 which I did not catch, owing to the noise 
 amongst the men who were yet in the hold 
 and the talk of the sailors round about. He 
 then walked to the boatswain's berth followed 
 by the captain, that old marline-spike's e}-es 
 might bear witness to the assurance that the 
 Crabb who had leapt up out of the fore-hatch 
 in a smother of smoke was the same Crabb 
 who had been solemnly interred over the ship's 
 side some weeks before. 
 
 Mr. Cocker came wriggling out of the 
 hold and got on to the deck alongside of me to
 
 300 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 superintend the restowal of the broken-out 
 goods. 
 
 ' Is the fire out ? ' I asked. 
 
 ' Black out,' he answered. ' It was no 
 fire, to speak truly of it, Mr. Dugdale. A top 
 bale of blankets or some such stuff was 
 smouldering in about the circle of a five- 
 shilling piece — a little ring eating slowly 
 inwards, but throwing out smoke enough to 
 furnish forth a volcano for a stage-scene. A 
 beastly smell ! not to speak of some of the 
 stuff down there being as blackening as a 
 shoe-polisher's brushes.' Here he looked at 
 the palms of his hands, which were only a 
 little more grimy than his face. — i But what's 
 this I hear about Crabb ? Has the dead 
 sailor come to life again ? ' 
 
 ' He's yonder,' said I, nodding towards 
 the boatswain's berth, which the captain and 
 mate had entered, closing the door after them : 
 6 you'll need to see to believe. Time was that 
 when a man was dropped over a ship's side 
 with a cannon-ball at his feet he was 
 as dead as if his brains were out. D'ye 
 remember, Mr. Cocker, how that hammock 
 went floating astern, as if there were less 
 than a dead sailor in it, though something
 
 CRABB 301 
 
 more than nothing? There's been some 
 devilish stealthy scheme here depend upon it. 
 We may yet find out that the ship wasn't 
 scuttled because the ugly rogue hadn't time to 
 pierce through the lower hatch before he 
 set the vessel on fire.' 
 
 ' But he was a dead man, sir ; Hem- 
 meridge saw him dead,' cried Cocker, eyeing 
 me with an inimitable air of astonishment. 
 
 4 Ay,' said I, ' dead as the bones of a 
 mummy. But he's there all the same,' I added 
 pointing to the forecastle cabin, ' as alive as 
 you or I, and capable, I daresay, of kicking 
 after a little.' 
 
 At this moment the mate put his head out 
 of the boatswain's berth and called to Mr. 
 ( locker, on which I walked leisurely aft, with 
 amazement in me growing, and scarcely 
 capable of realising the truth of what I had 
 
 -ecu. 
 
 The passengers were still crowding the 
 fore-part of the poop, peering and eagerly 
 talking, but in subdued voices, with Colonel 
 Bannister moving angrily amongst them, and 
 the boatswain's mate sentinelling the foot of 
 the ladder. 
 
 'Oh, Mr. Dugdale,' cried Mrs. Uadchne,
 
 3 o2 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 leaning over the rail and crying down her 
 question with a pecking motion of her head; 
 ' is the fire out, do you know ? Are we 
 safe ? ' 
 
 'The fire is out, madam,' I replied, lifting 
 my hat ; ' and the ship is as safe this minute 
 as ever she was in the Thames. Captain 
 Keeling will, I have no doubt, be here very 
 shortly to reassure you.' 
 
 Miss Temple, towering half a head above 
 her aunt, looked down at me with an air of 
 imperious questioning in her face. There 
 was a hot scarlet blush all along the west, yet 
 with power enough in its illumination to 
 render each face of the crowd above quite 
 distinguishable against the tender shadow 
 stealing from the east into the Ttir, and I 
 could see an eagerness in the girl's full, dark, 
 glowing, and steadfast saze to warrant me 
 the honour of a conversation with her if I 
 chose to ascend the ladder. But just then 
 Hemmeridge came out of the cuddy on to 
 the quarter-deck with the hint of a stagger 
 in his walk. His eyes showed that lie was 
 only just awake, and his hair that he had run 
 out of his cabin in a hurry. 
 
 ' 1 say, Dugdale,' he exclaimed, ; what's
 
 CRADB 303 
 
 been the matter, hey? Fire, is it ? And the 
 Bteward tells me that Crabb has come back. 
 Has the man £one mad ? ' 
 
 k There's been a lire,' said I, ; and Crabb 
 lias come back.' 
 
 Here Cocker came along the deck. 
 
 1 Doctor, the captain wants you.' 
 
 • Where is be ': ' 
 
 'Come along; I'll take you to him,' said 
 the second-mate, running his eye over 
 Hemmeridge's figure with a half-look on at me 
 full of meaning in it. 
 
 They walked forward, the doctor a triile 
 unsteady in his gait, I thought. 
 
 I went to my berth for some tobacco ; I 
 stayed a short time below, and when I re- 
 turned, the last scar of sunset was none. The 
 west was a liquid violet darkness trembling 
 with stars, and the ship was floating through 
 the darkness of the night, which in these 
 latitudes follows swiftly upon the heels of the 
 departing day. Captain Keeling had come 
 alt, and was standing in the midst of a crowd 
 of passengers answering questions, and sooth- 
 ing ill*.- women, who were snapping inquiries 
 in whole volleys, their voices threaded by 
 tremors and shrill with nerves. Mr. Trance.
 
 304 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 who had found time to cleanse himself, was on 
 deck in charge of the ship. All was hushed 
 forwards. Against the stars twinkling over 
 the line of the forecastle rail under the foot 
 of the foresail, that slowly lifted and fell to 
 the heave of the ship. I could distinguish the 
 outlines of sailors moving here and there in 
 twos and threes. A subdued hoarse growling of 
 voices came out of the block of darkness round 
 about the galley and the longboat, where 
 were gathered a number of men, doubtlessly 
 discoursing on the marvellous incident of the 
 evening. The glittering brilliants in the sky 
 winked like dewdrops along the black edge of 
 the spars and at the extremity of the yard- 
 arms ; and spite of the voices of the people 
 aft and of the mutterings forward, so deep was 
 the ocean hush up aloft that again and again 
 the sound of the delicate night-breeze, breath- 
 ing lightly into the visionary spaces of the 
 sails, would fall like a sigh upon the ear. 
 
 ' An exciting piece of work, Mr Prance, 
 said I, stepping to his side, 4 taking it from 
 the start to the close.' 
 
 ' Why, yes,' he answered. ' The passengers 
 will not be wanting in experiences to relate 
 when they get ashore. Enough has happened
 
 CRABB 305 
 
 yesterday and to-day, in the way of excite- 
 ment, I mean, to last out an ordinary voyage, 
 though it were as long as one of Captain 
 Cook's.' 
 
 'What has Hemmeridge to say about this 
 business of Crabb, do you know?' I asked. 
 
 c You will keep the news to yourself, if you 
 please,' he answered ; ' but I don't mind tell- 
 ing you that he's under arrest — that is to say, 
 he has to consider himself so.' 
 
 4 What for ? ' I asked, greatly astonished. 
 
 4 Why, Mr Dugdale,' said he, slowly look- 
 ing round, to make sure that the coast was 
 clear, ' you may easily guess that this business 
 of the scoundrel Crabb — an old pirate, as I 
 remember telling you, signifies a very deep- 
 laid plot, an atrociously ingenious conspiracy.' 
 
 ' I supposed that at once,' said I. 
 
 ' The fellow Crabb feigned to be dead,' he 
 continued. ' A sham it must have been, other- 
 wise he wouldn't be in irons yonder. Now, 
 are we to believe that Hemmeridge can't 
 distinguish between death and life ? He 
 reports the man dead to the captain. The 
 fellow is stitched up ; but, as we have since 
 ascertained, a prepared hammock is substituted 
 for the one that conceals his remains, and we 
 
 VOL. I. X
 
 3 o6 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE 
 
 bun 7 maybe some clump of wood. This is 
 the part Captain Keeling least likes, I think. 
 He is a pious old gentleman, and his horror 
 
 when ' He checked himself with a cough, 
 
 and a sound on top of it like a smothered 
 laugh, as though he enjoyed some fancy in 
 his mind, but durst not be too candid, since it 
 was the captain he talked about. 
 
 ' It is assumed,' said I, ' that Hemmeridge 
 represented Crabb as dead knowing him to be 
 alive?' He nodded. c What will have been 
 the project?' I continued, shaping out the 
 truth as, bit by bit, it formed itself in my 
 head. ' Robbery, of course. Ay, Mr. Prance, 
 that will have been it. Crabb is to be 
 smuggled into the hold, the notion throughout 
 the ship being that he is dead and overboard ; 
 and when in the hold ' I stopped. 
 
 8 Well, 5 said he with a shrug of his 
 shoulders, e there's the mail-room. What else ? 
 With a parcel of diamonds in it worth seventy 
 thousand pounds, not to speak of money, 
 jewelry, and other precious matters.' 
 
 'By heavens! did any man ever hear the 
 like of such a plot ? ' cried I ; ' and Hemmeridge 
 is suspected as a confederate ? ' 
 
 1 We shall see, we shall see,' he answered.
 
 CRABS 307 
 
 'Just tell me this, Mr. Prance,' I exclaimed, 
 thirsty with curiosity, 'who arc the others in- 
 volved ? Somebody must have shifted Crabb's 
 
 remains/ 
 
 'The sailmaker is in irons,' said lie. 
 
 * Yes! I might have sworn it! Why is it 
 that the high Roman nose of that chap has 
 haunted my recollection of the ghastly 
 appearance Mr. Crabb presented at every re- 
 currence of my mind to the loathsome picture? ' 
 
 lie slightly started, and I could see him 
 eyeing me earnestly. 
 
 * By the way,' he exclaimed, 'now that I 
 think of it, Eemmeridge showed Crabb's body 
 to you, didn'i lie r ' 
 
 * ( lertainly he did,' I responded. 
 
 'Well, it will give the doctor a chance,' 
 said he, as though thinking aloud ; and so 
 Baying he made some steps in the direction of 
 
 the captain, and I went down on the quarter- 
 deck to blow a cloud and muse upon the 
 matters he had filled my mind with. 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME 
 
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 Archie Lovell. 
 
 BY PERCY FITZGERALD. 
 Fatal Zero. 
 
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 QueenCophetua. I A Real Queen. 
 One by One. | King or Knave ? 
 
 Prefaced by Sir BARTLE FRERE. 
 Pandurang Harl. 
 
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 The Capel Girls. 
 
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 Robin Gray. 
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 The Flower of the Forest 
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 The Golden Shaft. 
 Of High Degree. 
 Loving a Dream. 
 
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 El I ice Quentln. 
 Sebastian Strome. 
 Dust. 
 
 Fortune's Fool. 
 Beatrix Randolph. 
 David Poindextor's Disappearance. 
 The Spectre of the Camera. 
 
 BY SIR A. HELPS. 
 Ivan de Blron. 
 
 BY ISAAC HENDERSON. 
 Agatha Page. 
 
 BY MRS. ALFRED HUNT 
 i Thornicroft's Model. 
 J The Leaden Casket. 
 , Self Condemned. 
 That other Person. 
 
 BY JEAN INGE LOW. 
 Fated to be Free-
 
 96 
 
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 27 
 
 THE PICCAD 
 
 Popular Stories by the Best Authors, 
 crown 8vo, cloth 
 BY GRANT ALLEN. 
 Phlllstia. I For Maimie's Sake. 
 
 Babylon. The Devil's Die. 
 
 In all Shades. I This Mortal Coil. 
 The Tents of Shem. 
 
 BY REV. S. BARING GOULD. 
 Red Spider. I Eve. 
 
 BY WALTER BESANT & J. RICE. 
 Ready Money Mortiboy. 
 My Little Girl. 
 The Case of Mr. Lucraft 
 This Son of Vulcan. 
 With Harp and Crown. 
 The Gulden Butterfly. 
 By C«. His Arbour. 
 The Monks of Thelema. 
 'Twas in Trafalgar's Bay. 
 The Seamy Side. 
 The Ten Years' Tenant. 
 The Chaplain of the Fleet. 
 
 BY WALTER BESANT. 
 All Sorts and Conditions of Men. 
 The Captains' Room. 
 All in a Garden Fair. 
 Dorothy Forster. Uncle Jack. 
 Children of Glbeon. 
 The World Went Very Well Then. 
 Herr Paulus. For Faith and Freedom. 
 The Bell of St. Paul's. 
 
 BY ROBERT BUCHANAN. 
 A Child of Nature. | God and the Man. 
 The Shadow of the Sword. 
 The Martyrdom of Madeline. 
 Love Me for Ever. 
 Annan Water. I Foxglove Manor. 
 Matt. I Masterof the Mine 
 
 The New Abelard | Heir of Linne. 
 
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 The Shadow of a Crime. 
 A Son of Hagar. | The Deemster. 
 
 BY MRS. H. LOVETT CAMERON. 
 Juliet's Guardian. | Deceivers Ever. 
 
 BY MORTIMER COLLINS. 
 Sweet Anne Page. 1 Transmigration. 
 From Midnight to Midnight. 
 MORTIMER & FRANCES COLLINS. 
 Blacksmith and Scholar. 
 The Village Comedy. 
 You Plav me False. 
 
 BY W1LKIE COLLINS. 
 Antonina. | Basil. The Law and the 
 
 Hide and Seek. 
 The Dead Secret 
 Gueen of Hearts. 
 **y Miscellanies. 
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 The Moonstone. 
 Man and Wife. 
 Poor Miss Finch. 
 Miss or Mrs. ? 
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 The Frozen Deep. 
 
 Lady. 
 Haunted Hotel. 
 The Fallen Leaves 
 Jezebel'sDaughter 
 The Black Robe. 
 Heart and Science 
 " I Say No." 
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 The Legacy of 
 
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 Paul Foster's Daughter. 
 
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 Hearts of Gold. 
 
 BY ALPHONSE DAUDET. 
 The Evangelist; or, Port Salvation. 
 
 BY JAMES DE MILLE. 
 A Castle in Spain. 
 
 BY J. LEITH DERWENT. 
 Our Lady of Tears. 
 Circe's Lovers. 
 
 BY M. BETHAM-BDWARDS. 
 Felicia. 
 
 BY MRS. ANNIE EDWARDES. 
 Archie Lovell. 
 
 BY PERCY FITZGERALD. 
 Fatal Zero. 
 
 BY R. E. FRANCILLON. 
 QueenCophetua. I A Real Queen. 
 One by One. | King or Knave ? 
 
 Prefaced by Sir BARTLE FRERE. 
 Pandurang Harl. 
 
 BY EDWARD GARRETT. 
 The Capel Girls. 
 
 BY CHARLES GIBBON. 
 Robin Gray. 
 In Honour Bouna. 
 Queen of the Meadow. 
 The Flower of the Forest 
 A Heart's Problem. 
 The Braes of Yarrow. 
 The Golden Shaft. 
 Of High Degree. 
 Loving a Dream. 
 
 BY JULIAN HAWTHORNS. 
 Garth. 
 
 Ellice Quentln. 
 Sebastian Strome. 
 Dust. 
 
 Fortune's Fool. 
 Beatrix Randolph. 
 David Poindexter's Disappearance. 
 The Spectre of the Camera. 
 
 BY SIR A. HELI'S. 
 Ivan de Biron. 
 
 by isaac he:;derson. 
 
 Agatha Page. 
 
 BY MRS. ALFRED HUNT 
 1 Thornicroft's Model. 
 1 The Leaden Casket. 
 J Self Condemned. 
 That other Person. 
 
 BY JEAN INGE LOW. 
 Fated to be Free.
 
 23 
 
 BOOKS PUBLISHED BY 
 
 Piccadilly Novels, continued — 
 
 BY R. ASHE KING. 
 A Drawn Game. 
 "The Wearing of the Green." 
 
 BY HENRY KINGSLEY. 
 Number Seventeen. 
 
 BY E. LYNN LINTON, 
 Patricia Kemball. 
 The Atonement of Learn Dundas. 
 The World Well Lost. 
 Under which Lord? 
 "My Love !" 
 lone. 
 
 Paston Carew. 
 Sowing the Wind. 
 
 BY HENRY W. LUCY. 
 Gideon Fleyce. 
 
 by yusnN McCarthy^ 
 
 The Waterdale Neighbours. 
 
 A Fair Saxon. 
 
 Linley Rochford. 
 
 My Enemy's Daughter. 
 
 Dear Lady Disdain. 
 
 Miss Misanthrope. 
 
 Donna Quixote. 
 
 The Comet of a Season. 
 
 Maid of Athens. 
 
 Camiola. 
 
 BY AGNES MACDONELL, 
 Quaker Cousins. 
 
 BY FLORENCE MARRY AT. 
 Open ! Sesame I 
 
 BY D. CHRISTIE MURRAY. 
 Life's Atonement. I Coals of Fire. 
 Joseph's Coat. Val Strange. 
 
 A Model Father. I Hearts. 
 A Bit of Human Nature. 
 First Person Singular. 
 Cynic Fortune. 
 The Way of the World. 
 
 BY GEORGES OHNET. 
 A Weird Gift. 
 
 BY MRS. OLIPHANT. 
 Whlteladies. 
 
 BY OUIDA. 
 Held in Bondage. | TwoLittleWooden 
 Strathmore. Shoes. 
 
 Chandos. In a Winter City. 
 
 Under Two Flags. 'Ariadne. 
 Idalla. 
 Cecil Castle- 
 
 maine's Gage. 
 Tncotrln. 
 Puck. 
 Folle Farine. 
 
 Friendship. 
 ] Moths. 
 'Pipistrello. 
 
 A Village Com- 
 mune. 
 
 Bimbi. 
 
 Wanda. 
 
 Frescoes. 
 
 In Maremma 
 
 ADog of Flanders 
 Pascarel. 
 Signa, 
 
 Princess Naprax- iOthmar. 
 ine. iGuilderoy. 
 
 BY MARGARET A. PAUL. 
 Gentle and Simple. 
 
 Piccadilly Novels, continued-* 
 
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 Lost Sir Massing- A Grape from 
 
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 Walter's Word. 
 Less Black than 
 
 We're Painted 
 
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 High Spirits. 
 Under One Roof. 
 A Confidential 
 
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 From Exile. 
 
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 Some Private 
 
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 Glow-worm Tales. 
 Talk of the Town. 
 In Peril and Pri- 
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 Holiday Tasks. 
 The Mystery cf 
 Mirbridge. 
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 Valentlna. | The Foreigners. 
 
 Mrs. Lancaster's Rival. 
 
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 It Is Never Too Late to Mend. 
 Hard Cash. | Peg Wofflngton 
 
 Christie Johnstone. 
 Griffith Gaunt. | Foul Play. 
 The Double Marriage. 
 Love Me Little, Love Me Long. 
 The Cloister and the Hearth. 
 The Course of True Love 
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 Put Yourself in His Place. 
 A Terrible Temptation 
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 Women are Strange. 
 The Hands of Justice. 
 
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 An Ocean Tragedy. 
 
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 Bound to the Wheel. 
 Guy Waterman. | Two Dreamers. 
 The Lion in the Path. 
 
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 Margaret and Elizabeth. 
 Gideon's Rock. I Heart Salvage. 
 The High Mills. | Sebastian 
 
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 The Mysteries of Heron Dyke. 
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 The Afghan Knife. 
 
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 The Violin Player. 
 
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 The Way we Live Now. 
 Frau Frohmann. I Marion Fay, 
 Kept in the Dark. 
 Mr. Scarborough's Familv, 
 The Land Leaguers.
 
 CHATTO S> W 'INDUS, PICCADILLY. 
 
 29 
 
 Piccadilly Novels, continued— 
 BY FRANCES E. TROLLOPS. 
 
 Like Ships upon the Sea. 
 
 Anne Furness. I Mabel's Progress. 
 BY IVAN TURGENIEFF, &c. 
 
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 What She Came Through. 
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 Noblesse Oblige. 
 
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 Valerie's Fate. 
 
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 Strange Stories. 
 Philistia. I The Devil's Die. 
 
 Babylon. This Mortal Coll. 
 
 In all Shades. 
 The Beckoning Hand. 
 For Maimie's Sake. 
 
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 The Ten Years' Tenant. 
 The Chaplain of the Fleet. 
 
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 All Sorts and Conditions of Men. 
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 All in a Garden Fair. 
 Dorothy Forster. 
 Uncle Jack. 
 Children of Gibeon. 
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 Herr Paulus. 
 
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 The New Abelard. 
 Matt. 
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 the Sword. 
 A Child of Nature. 
 God and the Man. 
 Love Me for Ever. 
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 Paul Ferroll. 
 Why Paul Ferroll Killed his Wife. 
 
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 The Bar Sinister. 
 
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 Basil. 
 
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 Queen of Hearts. 
 Miss or Mrs.? 
 New Magdalen 
 The Frozen Deep. 
 
 My Miscellanies. 
 Woman in White. 
 The Moonstone. 
 Man and Wife. 
 Poor Miss Finch. 
 The Fallen Leaves 
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 Blacksmith and Scholar. 
 The Village Comedy. 
 You Play me False. 
 
 ff* M.J. COLQUHO ; ' 
 Every Inch a Sofdier. 
 
 BY DUTTON COOK. 
 Lso. I Paul Foster's Dau-
 
 30 
 
 BOOKS PUBLISHED BY 
 
 Cheap Popular Novels, continued — 
 
 BY C. EGBERT CRADDOCK. 
 The Prophet of the Great Smoky 
 Mountains. 
 
 BY WILLIAM CYPLES. 
 Hearts of Gold. 
 
 BY ALPHONSE DAUDET. 
 The Evangelist; or, Port Salvation. 
 
 BY JAMES DE MILLE. 
 A Castle In Spain 
 
 BY J. LEITH DERWENT. 
 Our Lady of Tears. | Circe's Lovers. 
 
 BY CHARLES DICKENS. 
 Sketches by Boz. I Oliver Twist. 
 Pickwick Papers. | Nicholas Nickleby 
 
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 The Man-Hunter. 
 Caught at Last ! 
 ~ racked and Taken. 
 
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 Strange Secrets. 
 
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 A Point of Honour. | Archie Lovell. 
 
 BY M. BETHAM-EDWARDS. 
 Felicia. 
 
 BY EDWARD EGGLESTON. 
 
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 Polly. I Fatal Zero* 
 
 Seventy-five Brooke Street. 
 The Lady of Brantome. 
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 Filthy Lucre. 
 
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 Olympia. I Queen Cophetua. 
 
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 Seth's Brother's Wife. 
 
 BY HAIN FRI SWELL. 
 One of Two- 
 
 BY EDWARD GARRETT. 
 The Capel Girls. 
 
 BY CHARLES GIBBON. 
 
 Robin Gray. 
 For Lack of Gold. 
 What will the 
 
 World Say? 
 In Loye and War. 
 For the Kmg. 
 In PasturesGreen 
 
 In Honour Bound 
 The Flower of the 
 
 Forest. 
 Braes of Yarrow. 
 The Golden Shaft. 
 Of High Degree, 
 i Mead and Stream. 
 
 Queen of the Mea- Loving a Dream. 
 
 dow. A Hard Knot. 
 
 A Heart's Problem Heart's Delight. 
 The Dead Heart. I Blood-Money. 
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 Every Day Papers. 
 
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 BY LADY DUFFVS HARDY. 
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 Under the Greenwood Tree. 
 
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 The Tenth Earl. 
 
 BY JULIAN HAWTHORNE. 
 
 Sebastian Stroma 
 
 Dust. 
 
 Beatrix Randolph. 
 
 Love — or a Name. 
 
 Garth 
 
 ElliceQuentln. 
 
 Fortune's Fool 
 
 Miss Cadogna. 
 
 David Poindexter's Disappearance. 
 
 The Spectre of the Camera. 
 
 BY SIR ARTHUR HELPS. 
 Ivan de Biron. 
 
 BY MRS. CASH EL HOEY. 
 The Lover's Creed. 
 
 BY MRS. GEORGE HOOPER, 
 The House of Raby. 
 
 BY TIG HE HOPKINS. 
 'Twlxt Love and Duty. 
 
 BY MRS. ALFRED HUNT. 
 Thornicroft's Model. 
 The Leaden Casket. 
 Self-Condemned. | That other Person 
 
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 Fated to be Free. 
 
 BY HARRIETT JAY. 
 The Dark Colleen. 
 The Queen of Connaught. 
 
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 Colonial Facts and Fictions 
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 A Drawn Game. 
 "The Wearing of the Green." 
 Passion's Slave. 
 
 BY HENRY KINGSLEY. 
 Oakshott Castle 
 
 BY JOHN LEYS. 
 The Lindsays. 
 
 BY MARY LIN SKILL. 
 In Exchange for a Soul. 
 
 BY E. LYNN LINTON. 
 Patricia Kemball. 
 The Atonement of Learn Dundas. 
 The World Well Lost. 
 Under which Lord? | Paston Carew 
 With a Silken Thread. 
 The Rebel of the Family. 
 "My Love." I lone 
 
 BY HENRY W. LUCY. 
 Gideon Fleyce. 
 
 by justin McCarthy. 
 
 Dear LadyDisdain 
 The Waterdale 
 
 Neighbours. 
 My Enemy's 
 
 Daughter. 
 A Fair Saxon, 
 Llnley Rochford- 
 
 Miss Misanthrope 
 Donna Quixote. 
 The Comet of 8) 
 
 Season. 
 Maid of Athene 
 Camlola,
 
 CiiATTO & W INDUS, PICCADILLY. 
 
 V 
 
 Cheap Popular Novels, continued— 
 
 BY AGNES MACDONELL. 
 Quaker Cousins. 
 
 By KATHARINE S. MACQUOID. 
 The Evil Eye. | Lost Rose, 
 
 BY \V. H. hlALLOCK. 
 The New Republic. 
 
 BY FLORENCE MARRY AT. 
 Open! Sesame. I Fighting the Air. 
 A Harvest of Wild Written in Fire. 
 Oats. 
 
 BY J. MASTERMAN. 
 Half-a-dozen Daughters. 
 
 BY BRANDER MATTHEWS. 
 A Secret of the Sea. 
 
 BY JEAN MIDDLEMASS. 
 Touch and Go. | Mr. Dorllllon. 
 
 BY MRS. MOLESWORTH. 
 Hathercourt Rectory. 
 
 BY J. E. MUDDOCK. 
 Stories Weird and Wonderful. 
 
 BY D. CHRISTIE MURRAY. 
 ALIfe'sAtonement Hearts. 
 A Model Father. 
 Joseph's Coat. 
 Coals of Fire. 
 BytheGateof the 
 Val Strange [Sea. 
 Old Blazer's Hero. 
 One Traveller Returns. 
 
 BY HENRY MURRAY. 
 A Game of Bluff. 
 
 BY ALICE O'HANLON. 
 The Unforeseen. | Chance ? or Fate ? 
 
 BY GEORGES OHNET. 
 Doctor Rameau. 
 
 BY MRS. OLIPHANT. 
 Whltelad/es. | The Primrose Path. 
 The Greatest Heiress In England. 
 BY MRS. ROBERT O'REILLY. 
 Phoebe's Fortunes. 
 
 BY OUIDA. 
 Held In Bondage. TwoLlttleWooden 
 
 Way of the World. 
 
 A Bit of Human 
 Nature. 
 
 First Person Sin- 
 gular. 
 
 Cynic Fortune. 
 
 Strathmore. 
 
 Chandos. 
 
 Under Two Flags. 
 
 Idalia. 
 
 Cecil Castle- 
 
 malne's Gage. 
 Trlcotrin. | Puck. 
 Folle Farlne. 
 A Dog of Flanders. 
 Pascarel. 
 Slgna [Ine. 
 
 Princess Naprax- 
 In a WlnterClty 
 
 Shoes. 
 
 Ariadne. 
 
 Friendship. 
 
 Moths. 
 
 Plplstrello. 
 
 A Village Com- 
 mune. 
 
 Blmbl. | Wanda, 
 
 Frescoes. 
 
 In Maremma, 
 
 Othmar. 
 lOuldas Wisdom, 
 Wlt.and Pathos. 
 
 BY MARGARET AGNES PAUL. 
 Gentle and Simple. 
 
 BY JAMES PAYN. 
 Lost Sir Massing- I A County Family. 
 
 berd. I At Her Mercy. 
 
 APerfectTreasure I A Woman's Ven- 
 Bentlnck's Tutor. | geancc. 
 Murphy"* Mas*.*"*. Cecil's Tryst 
 
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 Clyffards of Clyffe | Mirk Abbey. 
 The Family Scape- 
 
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 Foster Brothers. 
 
 Found Dead. 
 
 Best of Husbands. 
 
 Walter's Word. 
 
 Halves. 
 
 Fallen Fortunes. 
 
 What He Cost Her 
 
 Humorou 8 Stories 
 
 Gwendoline's Har- 
 vest. 
 
 £200 Reward. 
 
 Like Father, Like 
 Son. 
 
 Marine Residence. 
 
 Married Beneath 
 Him. 
 
 Not Wooed, but 
 Won. 
 
 Leas Black than 
 
 We're Painted. 
 By Proxy. 
 Under One Roof 
 High Spirits. 
 Carlyon's Year. 
 A Confidential 
 
 Agent. 
 Some Private 
 
 Vlew3. 
 From Exile. 
 A Grape from a 
 
 Thorn. 
 For Cash Only. 
 Kit : A Memory. 
 The Canon's Ward 
 Talk of the Town. 
 Holiday Tasks. 
 Glow-worm Tales 
 The Mystery of Mirbridgo 
 BY C. L. PIRKIS. 
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 Grace Balmalgn's Sweetheart. 
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 Round the Galley Fire. 
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