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 ^9-^/ 
 
 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 VOL.
 
 NEW NOVELS AT ALL LIBRARIES. 
 
 BLIND LOVE. By Wilkie Collins. With Preface by 
 Walter Besant. 3 vols. 
 
 THE BELL OF ST. PAUL'S. By Walter Besant. 3 
 
 vols. 
 
 FOR THE LOVE OF A LASS. By Austin Clare. 2 
 
 vols. 
 
 FETTERED FOR LIFE. By Frank Barrett. 3 vols. 
 
 PASSION'S SLAVE. By Richard Ashe King. 3 vols. 
 
 A YANKEE AT THE COURT OF KING ARTHUR. 
 By Mark Twain, i vol. 
 
 THE DEAD MAN'S SECRET; or, the Valley of Gold. By 
 
 J. E. MUDDOCK. I vol. 
 
 THE ROMANCE OF JENNY HARLOWE. By W. Clark 
 Russell, i vol. 
 
 A NOBLE WOMAN. By Henry Greville. i vol. 
 
 A LAST LOVE. By Georges Ohnet. i vol. 
 
 London : CHATTO & WINDUS, Piccadilly, W.
 
 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 BY 
 
 W, CLARK RUSSELL 
 
 AUTHOR OF • THE FROZEN PIRATE THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOE 
 
 * A BOOK FOR THE HAMMOCK ' ' THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 JENNY HARI-OWE' ETC 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES 
 VOL L 
 
 CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY 
 
 1890 
 
 \TJie right of trafislaiion is reserveW^
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE FIRST VOLUME 
 
 CHAPTER - PAGE 
 
 I. My Cousin 1 
 
 II. The Bride 23 
 
 III. Laura Jexxings 40 
 
 IV. In the Solent 63 
 
 V. Long Tom 92 
 
 VI. Finn Tests the Crew's Sight 117 
 
 VII. Sail Ho ! 13(3 
 
 VIII. We Speak the 'Wanderer' 158 
 
 IX. A Squall . . " 179 
 
 X. I Go Alopt 198 
 
 XI. The Portuguese Brig 217 
 
 XII. A Second Warning 247 
 
 XIII. I Intertret the Warning 272
 
 'Co' 3, Pelham Street :,^ 
 
 HASTINGS. I 
 
 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY. 
 
 CHAPTER T. 
 
 MY COUSIN. 
 
 ' Sir Wilfrid Moxsox, sir,' exclaimed my man. 
 
 It was half-past ten o'clock at night, and I 
 was in my lodgings in Bury Street, St. James, 
 slippers on feet, a pij^e of tobacco in my hand, 
 seltzer and brandy at my elbow, and on my knees 
 the ' Sun ' newspaper, the chief evening sheet of 
 the times. 
 
 ' Sir Wilfrid Monson, sir.' 
 
 My cousin I thought I, starting, and lookino" 
 round at my man with a fancy in me for a mo- 
 ment that he had got the wrong name. ' Show 
 liim in.' 
 
 Sir Wilfrid entered in a sort of swift headlono- 
 way, full of nervousness and passion, as was to be 
 seen easily enough ; and then he came to a dead 
 stop with a wild look round tlie room, as if to 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 make sure that I was alone, and a frowning stare 
 at my servant, who was lingering a moment on 
 the threshold as though suddenly surprised out of 
 his habits of prompt sleek attendance by a fit of 
 astonishment. 
 
 He stood about six feet higli ; he had a slight 
 stoop, and was something awkward in arms and 
 legs ; yet you were sensible of the indefinable 
 quality of breeding in him the moment your eye 
 took in his form and face, uncommon as both 
 were. He was forty-four years of age at this 
 time, and looked fifty. His hair was long and 
 plentiful, but of an iron grey streaked with soft 
 white. He had a protruding under-lip, and a 
 nose, which might have been broken for the 
 irregularity of its outline, with unusually high-cut 
 nostrils. His eyes were large, short-sighted, and 
 grey, luminous and earnest, but with a tremulous 
 lid that seemed to put a quivering into their 
 expression that was a liint in its way of cunning 
 and mental weakness. He had a broad, intellec- 
 tual forehead, brilliantly white teeth, high cheek 
 bones, a large heavy chin, rounding into a most 
 delicately moulded throat. He was a man, indeed, 
 at whom, as a stranger, one might catch one's self 
 staring as at something sufficiently puzzling to be 
 well worth resolving. Ill-looking lie was noi^ and 
 yet one seemed to seek in vain for qualities of
 
 MV COUSIN 3 
 
 body or mind to neutralise to the sight what was 
 assuredly a combination of much that was un- 
 comely, and indeed, in one or two directions, 
 absolutely grotesque. But then I had the secret. 
 The long and short of it was, my cousin. Sir 
 \Yilfrid Monson, was not entirely straight-headed. 
 Everything was made clear to the mind, after a 
 glance at his strange, w^eak, yet striking profile, 
 with the hint that there had been madness in his 
 mother's family. He was the eighth baronet, and 
 on his father's side (and that was my side, I am 
 thankful to say) all liad been sound as a bell ; but 
 my uncle had fallen in love with the daughter of 
 a Scotch peer whose fomily were tainted with 
 insanity — no matter her real name : the Lady 
 Elizabeth will suffice. He was frankly warned by 
 the old Earl, wdio was not too mad to be can- 
 did, but the lovesick creature grinned in his lord- 
 ship's face with a wild shake of the head at the 
 disclosure, as though he saw no mere in it than 
 a disposition to end the engagement. Then the 
 honest old madman carried him to a great win- 
 dow that overlooked a spacious sweep of lawn, 
 and pointed with a bitter smile and a despairful 
 heave of the shoulders to three women walking, 
 two of whom were soberly clad in big bonnets 
 and veils down their back, whilst the third, who 
 was between them, and whose arms were locked
 
 4 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ill the others', ghded forwards as though her feet 
 travelled on clockwork rollers, whilst she kept her 
 head fixedly bent, her chin upon her breast, and 
 her gaze rooted upon the ground ; and as the 
 amorous baronet watched — the Earl meanwhile 
 preserving his miserable smile as he held his 
 gouty forefinger levelled — he saw the down- 
 looking woman make an efibrt to break away 
 from her companions, but without ever lifting 
 her head. 
 
 ' That's Lady Alice,' said the Earl, ' speechless 
 and brainless ! Guid preserve us ! And the Lady 
 Elizabeth is her seester.' 
 
 ' Ay, that may be,' answers the other ; ' but 
 take two roses growing side by side : because 
 some venomous worm is eating into the heart of 
 one and withering up its beauty, is the other that 
 is radiant and flawless to be left uncherished ? ' 
 
 ' Guid forbid ! ' answered the Earl, and then 
 turned away with a weak hechl hech! that should 
 have proved more terrifying to one's matrimonial 
 yearnings than even the desolate picture of the 
 three fissures stalking^ the emerald-green sward. 
 
 CO o 
 
 These were dim memories, yet they flashed 
 into my head with the swiftness of thought, along 
 with the workings of the eager conjecture and 
 lively wonder raised in me by Wilfrid's visit, and 
 by his peculiar aspect, too, during the few mo-
 
 MV CO (/SIN ,5 
 
 merits' interval of pause that followed his entrance. 
 My servant shut the door ; Wilfrid looked to see 
 that it was closed, then approached me with a sort 
 of hftino' of his face as of a man half choked with 
 a hurry and passion of sentences which he wants 
 to be quit of all at once in a breath, staggering as 
 he moved, his right arm outstretched wdth a rapid 
 vibration of the hand at the wrist ; and, without 
 delivering himself of a syllable, he fell into a chair 
 near the table, dashing his hat to the floor as he 
 did so, buried his face in his arms, and so lay 
 sobbing in respirations of hysteric fierceness. 
 
 This extraordinary behaviour amazed and 
 terrified me. I w^ill not deny that I at first 
 suspected the madness that lurked as a poison in 
 his blood had suddenly obtained a strong hold, 
 and that he had come to see me wdiilst seized 
 with a heavy fit. I put down my pipe and 
 adopted a steadier posture, so to speak, in my 
 chair, secretly hoping that the surprise his manner 
 or appearance had excited in my valet would 
 render the fellow curious enouo^h to hani;^ about 
 outside to listen to what might pass at the start. 
 I kept my eyes fixed upon my cousin, but without 
 offering to speak, for, whatever might be the cause 
 of the agitation that was convulsing his powerful 
 form with deep sobbing breathings, the emotion 
 was too overwhelming to be broken in upon by
 
 6 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 speech. Presently lie looked up, his eyes were 
 tearless, but his face was both dusky and haggard 
 with the anguish that worked in him. 
 
 ' In the nauie of Heaven, Wilfrid,' I cried, 
 witnessinsj intelligence enoiis^h in his o-aze to 
 instantly relieve me from tlie dread that had 
 possessed me, ' what is wrong with you ? what 
 has happened ? ' 
 
 He drew a lonc^ tremulous breath and essaved 
 to speak, but was unintelligible in the broken 
 syllable or two he managed to utter. I poured 
 what sailors term a ' two-finger nip ' of brandy 
 into a tumbler, and added a little seltzer water to 
 the dram. He seized the glass with a hand that 
 shook like a drunkard's, and emptied it. But the 
 draught steadied him, and a moment after he said 
 in a low voice, while he clasped his hands upon 
 the table with such a grip of each other that the 
 veins stood out like whipcord : ' My wife has left 
 roe.' 
 
 I stared at him stupidly. The disclosure was 
 so unexpected, so wildly remote from any con- 
 clusion my fears had arrived at, that I could only 
 look at him like a fool. 
 
 ' Left you ! ' I faltered, ' what d ye mean, 
 Wilfrid ? Eefused to live with you ? ' 
 
 ' No ! ' he exclaimed witli a face darkening yet 
 to the effort it cost him to subdue his voice, ' she
 
 MV COUSIN 7 
 
 has eloped— left me — left her baby for — for — ' 
 lie stopped, bringing his fist to the table with a 
 crash that was like to have demolished everytliing 
 upon it. 
 
 'It is an abominable business,' said I sooth- 
 ingly ; ' but it is rot to be bettered by letting 
 feeling overmaster you. Come, take your time ; 
 give yourself a chance. You are here, of course, 
 to tell me the story. Let me have it quietly. It 
 is but to let yourself be torn to pieces to suffer 
 your passion to jockey your reason.' 
 
 ' She has left me ! ' he shrieked, rising bolt 
 upright from his chair, and lifting his arms with 
 his hands clenched to the ceihng. ' Devil and 
 beast ! faitliless mother ! faithless wife ! May 
 God ' 
 
 I raised my hand, looking him full in the face. 
 ' Pray sit, Wilfrid. Lady Monson has 1 eft you, 
 you say. With or for whom ? ' 
 
 'Hope-Kennedy,' he answered, 'Colonel Hope- 
 Kennedy,' bringing out the words as though they 
 were rooted in his throat. ' My good friend 
 Hope-Kennedy, Charles ; the man I have enter- 
 tained, have hunted with, assisted at a time when 
 help was precious to him. Ay, Colonel Hope- 
 Kennedy. That is the man she has left me for, 
 the fellow that she has abandoned her baby for. 
 It is a dream — it is a dream ! I loved her so. I
 
 S A.y OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 could have kissed her breast, where her heart lay, 
 as a Bible for truth, siucerity, and all beautiful 
 thought.' 
 
 He passed his hand over his forehead and 
 seated himself again, or rather dropped into his 
 chair, resting his chin upon the palm of his hand 
 with the nails of his fingers at his teeth, w^hilst he 
 watched me with a gaze that was rendered in- 
 describably pathetic by the soft near-sighted look 
 of his grey eyes under the shadow of his forehead, 
 that had a wrinkled, twisted, even distorted aspect 
 with the pain his soul was in. There was but 
 one way of giving him relief, and that w^as by 
 plying him with questions to enable him to let 
 loose his thoughts. He extended his hand for the 
 brandy and mixed himself a bumper. There was 
 little in spirits to hurt him at such a time as this. 
 Indeed I believe he could have carried a whole 
 bottle in his head without exhibiting himself as in 
 the least degree oversparred. This second dose 
 distinctly rallied him, and now he lay back in his 
 chair with his arms folded upon his breast. 
 
 ' When did your wife leave you, Wilfrid ? ' 
 
 ' A week to-day,' 
 
 ' You know, of course, without doubt, that 
 Hope-Kennedy is the man she has gone off with ? ' 
 
 He nodded savagely with a smile like a scowl 
 passing over his face.
 
 MV COUSIN 9 
 
 ' But liow do YOU know for certain ? ' I cried, 
 determined to make him talk. 
 
 He pulled a number of letters from his side- 
 pocket, overhauled them, found one, glanced at 
 it, and handed it to me with a posture of the arm 
 that might have made one think it was some 
 venomous snake he held. 
 
 ' This was found in my wife's bedroom,' said 
 he, ' read it to yourself. Every line of it seems 
 to be written in fire here.' Tie struck his breast 
 with his fist. 
 
 What I am telling happened a long time ago, 
 as you will notice presently. The letter my 
 cousin handed to me I read once and never saw 
 again, and so, as you may suppose, I am unable 
 to give it as it was written. But the substance of 
 it was this : It was addressed to Lady Monson. 
 The writer called her, I recollect, my darling, my 
 adorable Henrietta. It was all about the proposed 
 elopement, a complete sketch of the plan of it, and 
 the one document Sir Wilfrid could have prayed 
 to get hold of, had he any desire to know what 
 had become of his Avife, and on what kind of 
 rambles she and her paramour had started. The 
 letter was signed, boldly enough, ' Frank Hope- 
 Kennedy,' and was filled with careful instructions 
 to her how and when to leave her house. Eail- 
 roads were few and far between in those davs.
 
 lo AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 Sir Wilfrid Monson's estate was in Cumberland, and 
 it was a long journey by coacli and chaise to the 
 town that was connected with the metropolis by 
 steam. But the Colonel liad made every arrange- 
 ment for her ladyship, and it was apparent from 
 his instructions that she had managed her flight first 
 by driving to an adjacent village, where she dis- 
 missed the carriage with orders for it to return for 
 her at such and such an hour; then, when her 
 coachman was out of sight, she entered a postchaise 
 that was in readiness and galloped along to a 
 town through which the stage coach passed. By 
 this coach she would travel some twenty or thirty 
 miles, then post it to the terminus of the line 
 that conveyed her to London. But all this, though 
 it ran into a tedious bit of description, was but a 
 part of the gallant Colonel's programme. Her 
 ladyship would arrive in London at such and such 
 an hour, and the Colonel would be waiting at the 
 station to receive her. They would then drive to 
 a hotel out of Bond Street, and next morning 
 proceed to Southampton, where the * Shark' lay 
 ready for them. It was manifest that Colonel 
 Hope-Kennedy intended to sail away with Lady 
 Monson in a vessel named the ' Shark.' He 
 devoted a page of small writing to a description 
 of this craft, which, I might take it — though not 
 much in that way was to be gathered from a
 
 MV COUSIN II 
 
 landsman's statement — was a large schooner 
 yacht owned by Lord Winterton, from whom 
 the Colonel had apparently hired it for an inde- 
 finite period. He assured his adorable Henrietta 
 that he had spared neither money nor pains to 
 render the vessel as luxurious in cuisine, cabin 
 fittings, and the like as was practicable in a sea- 
 going fabric in those days. He added that what 
 his darling required for the voyage must be hastily 
 purchased at Southampton. She must be satisfied 
 with a very slender wardrobe ; time was pressing ; 
 the madman to whom the clergyman who married 
 them had shackled her would be off in wild pur- 
 suit, helter-skelter, flying moon wards mayhap in 
 his delirium on the instant of discovering that she 
 was gone. Time therefore pressed, and when 
 once the anchor of the ' Shark ' was lifted off the 
 ground he had no intention of letting it fall again 
 until they had measured six thousand miles of 
 salt water. 
 
 I delivered a prolonged whistle on reading 
 this. Six thousand miles of ocean, methought, 
 sounded intolerably real as a condition of an 
 elopement. My cousin never removed his eyes 
 from my face while I read. I gave him the 
 letter, which he folded and returned to his pocket. 
 He was now looking somewhat collected, though 
 the surging of the passion and grief in him would
 
 12 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 show Iq a momentary sparkle of the e3'e, in a 
 spasmodic grin and twist of the hps, in a quick 
 clenching of his hands as though he would drive 
 his finger nails into his palms. I hardly knew 
 what to say, for the letter was as full a revelation 
 of the vile story as he could have given me in an 
 hour's delivery, and the injury and misery of the 
 thincf were too recent to admit of soothinor words. 
 Yet I guessed that it would do him good to talk. 
 
 ' Have they sailed yet, do you know ? ' I 
 inquired. 
 
 'Yes,' he answered, letting out his breath in a 
 sigh as though some thought in him had arrested 
 his respiration for a bit. 
 
 ' How do you know ? ' 
 
 ' I arrived an hour ago from Southampton,' 
 he replied, ' and have got all the information I 
 require.' 
 
 'There cannot be much to add to what the 
 letter contains,' said I ; 'it is the completest 
 imaginable story of the devihsh business.' 
 
 He looked at me oddly, and then said, ' Ay, it 
 tells what has happened. But that did not satisfy 
 me. I have gone beyond that, and know the place 
 they are making for.' 
 
 ' It will be six thousand miles distant, anyhow,' 
 said I. 
 
 ' Quite. The villain reasoned with a pair of
 
 MY COUSIN 13 
 
 compasses in his hand. It is Cape Town — the 
 other side of the world ; when 'tis ice and 
 northern blasts with us, it is the fragrance of the 
 moon-lily and a warm heaven of quiet stars with 
 them.' 
 
 He struck the table, smothering some wild 
 curse or other behind his set teeth, next leaped 
 from his chair and fell to pacing the room, now 
 and again muttering to himself with an occasional 
 flourish of his arm. I watched him in silence. 
 Presently he returned to the table and mixed 
 another glass of liquor. He sat lost in thought 
 for a little, then with a slow lifting of his eyes, till 
 his gaze lay steadfest on me, he said : ' Charhe, I 
 am going to follow them to Cape Town.' 
 
 ' In some South African trader ? ' 
 
 ' In my yacht. You know her ? ' 
 
 ' I have never seen her, but I have heard of 
 her as a very fine vessel.' 
 
 ' She sails two feet to the " Shark's " one,' he 
 exclaimed, with a queer gleam of satisfaction 
 glistening in the earnest stare he kept fastened 
 on me. ' I gave her square yards last year — • 
 you will know what a great hoist of topsail, and 
 a big squaresail under it, and a large topgallant- 
 sail should do for such a model as the " Bride." 
 The " Shark " is fore and aft only.' He fetched 
 his leg a smack that sounded like the report of a
 
 14 A.y OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 pistol. ' We'll have 'em ! ' he exclahiied, and his 
 face turned pale as he spoke the words. 
 
 'Let me understand you,' said I; 'you propose 
 to sail in pursuit of the Colonel and your wife ? ' 
 
 He nodded whilst he clasped his hands upon 
 the table and leaned forward. 
 
 ' What proof have you that they have started 
 for Cape Town P ' 
 
 He instantly answered : ' The captain of the 
 " Shark " is a man named Fidler. My captain's 
 name is Finn. His wife and Mrs. Fidler are 
 neighbours at Southampton, and good friends. 
 Mrs. Fidler told my captain's wife that her hus- 
 band was superintending the equipment of Lord 
 Winterton's yacht for a voyage round the world, 
 and that the first port of call would be Table Bay. 
 She knew that the " Shark " had been let by 
 Wiuterton to a gentleman, but at the time of her 
 speaking to Mrs. Finn she did not know his 
 name.' 
 
 ' You said just now,' I exclaimed, ' that you 
 had assisted this fellow Hope-Kennedy when help 
 was precious to him. I suppose you mean that 
 you lent him money ? How can he support the 
 expense of a yacht, for, if I remember rightly, the 
 " Shark's " burthen is over two hundred tons? ' 
 
 ' I lent him money before I was married ; 
 within the last three years he has come into a
 
 MV CO US IX IS 
 
 fortune of between eighty and a hundred thousand 
 pounds.' 
 
 I paused a moment and then said, ' Have you 
 thoroughly considered this project of chasing the 
 fumtives ? ' 
 
 His eyes brightened to a sudden rage, but he 
 checked the utterance of what rose to his hps 
 and said with a violent effort to subdue himself : 
 ' I start the day after to-morrow.' 
 ' Alone ? ' 
 
 ' No, my sister-in-law will accompany me ; ' 
 then, after a breath or two, ' and you.' 
 'I?' 
 
 ' Oh,' he cried, ' it would be ridiculous in me 
 to expect you to say at once that you will come ; 
 but before I leave this room I shall have your 
 promise.' And as he said this he stretched his 
 arms across the table and took my hand in both 
 his and fondled it, meanwhile eyeing me in the 
 most passionate, wistful manner that can be 
 imagined. 
 
 ' Wilfrid,' said I softly, touched by his air and 
 a sort of beauty as I seemed to think that came 
 into his strange face with the pleading of it, 
 ' Avhatever I can do that may be serviceable to 
 you in this time of bitter trial, I icill do. But 
 let me reason with you a little.' 
 
 ' Ay, reason,' he responded, relinquishing my
 
 i6 AN OCEAN TRACED V 
 
 hand and folding Lis arms, and leaning back in 
 his chair. 
 
 ' I have been a sailor in my time, as yon 
 know,' said I, ' and have some acquaintance with 
 the sea, even though my experience goes no fur- 
 ther than a brief spell of East African and West 
 Indian stations ; and, therefore, forgive me for 
 inquiring your expectations. What do you sup- 
 pose ? The " Shark " will have had three days' 
 start of you.' 
 
 ' Five days,' he interrupted. 
 
 ' Five days then. Do you expect to overhaul 
 her at sea, or is it your intention to crowd on to 
 the Cape, await her arrival there, or, if you find 
 that she has already sailed, to follow her to the 
 next port, providing you can learn it ? ' 
 
 'You have named the programme,' he an- 
 swered. ' I shall chase her. If I miss her I shall 
 wait for her at Table Bay.' 
 
 ' She may get there before you,' I said, ' and 
 be under way for another destination whilst you 
 are still miles to the nor\ird.' 
 
 ' No,' he cried hotly, ' we shall be there first ; 
 but we shall not need to go so far. Her course 
 must be our course, and we shall overhaul her ; 
 don't doubt that.' 
 
 ' But put it,' said I, ' first of all, that you dunt 
 overhaul her. You may pass her close on a dark
 
 J/F COUSIN 17 
 
 niglit with never a guess at her presence. She 
 may be \Yithin twenty miles of you on a clear, bright 
 day, and not a creature on board suspect that a 
 shift of helm by so much as half a point would 
 bring what all hands are dying to overhaul within 
 eyeshot in half an hour.' 
 
 He hstened with a face clouded and frowning 
 with impatience ; but I was resolved to weaken 
 if I could what seemed to me an insane reso- 
 lution. 
 
 ' Count upon missing her at sea, for I tell you 
 the chances of your picking her up are all against 
 you. ^Yell, now, you arrive at Table Bay and 
 find that the " Shark " sailed a day or two before 
 for some port of which nobody knows anything. 
 What ^vill you do then ? How will you steer 
 your '• Bride .^ " For all you can tell, this man 
 Hope -Kennedy may make for the Pacific Islands 
 by way of Cape Horn, or he may head north-east 
 for the Mozambique and the Indian waters, or 
 south-east for the Austrahas. It is but to let 
 fly an arrow in the dark to embark on such a 
 quest.' 
 
 He lay back looking at me a little without 
 speaking, and then said, in a more collected 
 manner than his face might' promise, 'I may miss 
 this man upon the high seas ; I may find his yacht 
 lias arrived and gone again when I reach Table 
 
 VOL. T. C
 
 i8 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 Bay ; and I may not know, as you sa}^, in what 
 direction to seek her if there be no one in Cape 
 Town able to tell me what port she has started 
 for ; but ' — he drew a deep breath — ' the pursuit 
 gives me a chance. You will admit that ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, a chance, as you say.' 
 
 ' A chance,' he continued, ^ that need not keep 
 me waiting long for it to happen. D'ye think I 
 could rest with the knowledge that that scoundrel 
 and the woman he has rendered faithless to me 
 are close yonder ? ' he exclaimed, pointing as 
 though there had come a vision of the Atlantic 
 before his mind's eye and he saw the yacht afloat 
 upon it. ' Who's to tell me that before the month 
 is out our friend the Colonel will not be drifting 
 somewhere fathoms deep with a shot through his 
 heart ? ' 
 
 ' If you catch him you will shoot him ? ' 
 
 ' Oh yes.' 
 
 ' And Lady Monson ? ' 
 
 He looked down upon his hands without 
 answering. 
 
 ' I am a single man,' said I, ' and am, there- 
 fore, no doubt disqualified from passing an 
 opinion. But I vow to heaven, Wilfrid, if my 
 wife chose to leave me for another man, I would 
 not lift a finger either to regain her or to avenge 
 myself. A divorce would fully appease me.
 
 MV COUSIN 
 
 J9 
 
 Who would not feel gay to be rid of a woman 
 whose every lieart-tbrob is a dishoDour? What 
 more unendurable than an association rendered 
 an incomparable insult, and the basest lie under 
 heaven, by one's wife's secret abhorrence and her 
 desire for another ? ' 
 
 On a sudden he sprang to his feet as though 
 stabbed. ' Cease for Christ's sake ! ' he shouted. 
 ' The more truthful your words are, the more they 
 madden me. If I could tear her from me,' clutch- 
 ing at his breast in a wild, tragical way — 'if I 
 could cleanse my heart of her as you would 
 purify a vessel of what has lain foul and poisonous 
 in it ; if disgust would but ftill cool on my resent- 
 ment and leave me loathing her merely ; if — if — 
 if ! But it is if that makes the difference betwixt 
 hell and heaven in this bad world of unexpected 
 things.' He sat afresh, passing the back of his 
 hand over his brow, and sighing heavily. ' There 
 is no if for me,' said he. ' I love her passionately 
 
 yet, and so hate her besides that ' He checked 
 
 himself with a shake of the head. ' Xo, no, per- 
 haps not when it came to it,' he muttered as 
 though thinking aloud. ' We are wasting time,' 
 he cried, pulling out his watch. ' Charlie, you 
 will accompany me ? ' 
 
 * But you say you start the day after to- 
 
 c 2
 
 20 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ' Yes.' 
 
 ' From Southampton ? ' 
 ' Yes.' 
 
 ' And, sliould you find tlie " Shark " gone when 
 you arrive at the Cape ' 
 
 'Well?' 
 
 ' Ay,' said I, 'that's just it. We should be 
 like Adam and Eve, with all the world before us 
 where to choose.' 
 
 ' Charhe, will you come ? I counted upon 
 you from the moment of forming my resolution. 
 You have been a sailor. You are the one man 
 of them all that I should turn to in such a time 
 as this. Say you will come. Laura Jennings, 
 my wife's — my — my sister-in-law I mean — w^ill 
 accompany us. Did I tell you this ? Yes ; I 
 recollect. She is a stout-hearted little woman, as 
 brave as she is beautiful, and so shocked, so 
 shocked ! ' He clasped his hands upon his brow% 
 lifting his eyes. ' She would pass through a 
 furnace to rescue her sister from this infamy. 
 Come ! ' 
 
 ' You give me no time.' 
 
 ' Time ! You have all to-morrow. You may 
 easily be on board by four o'clock in the^after- 
 noon on the following day. Time ! A sailor 
 knows nothing of time. I nmst have you by my 
 side, Cliarlic. We shall meet them, and I shall
 
 MY COUSIN 21 
 
 need a friend. The support and help of your 
 company too ' 
 
 ' Will your yacht be ready for sea by the day 
 after to-morrow ? ' 
 
 ' She is ready now.' 
 
 ' Your people will have worked expedi- 
 tiousl}^' said I, fencing a little, for he was leaning 
 towards me and devouring me with his eyes, 
 and I found it impossible to say yes or no right 
 off. 
 
 ' Will you come ? ' 
 
 ' How many form your party ? ' 
 
 ' There is myself, there is Laura, tlien you, 
 then a maid for my sister-in-law, and my man, 
 and yours if you choose to bring him.' 
 
 ' In short, there will be three of us,' said I ; 
 ' no doctor ? ' 
 
 ' We cannot be too few. What would be the 
 good of a doctor ? Will you come ? ' 
 
 ' Do you sleep in town to-night ? ' 
 
 ' Yes,' he replied, naming a hotel near Charing 
 Cross. 
 
 ' Well then, Wilfrid/ said I, ' you must give 
 me to-night to think the thing over. What are 
 your plans for to-morrow ? ' 
 
 ' I leave for Southampton at ten. Laura 
 arrives there at six in the evening.' 
 
 ' Then,' said I, ' you shall have my answer by
 
 22 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 nine o'clock to-morrow morning. Will tliat 
 do?' 
 
 ' It must do, I suppose,' said lie wearily, moving 
 as if to rise, and casting a dull, absent sort of look 
 at his watch. 
 
 A quarter of an hour later I was alone.
 
 23 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 THE BRIDE. 
 
 Time was wlien I had been much thrown w^ith my 
 cousin. I had served in the Eoyal Nav}' for a few 
 years, as I have said, but abandoned it on my in- 
 heriting a very comfortable httle fortune from my 
 father, w^ho survived my mother a few months only. 
 I say I quitted the sea then, partly because I was 
 now become an independent man, partly because 
 I was comparatively without influence and so 
 found the vocation unpromising, and partly be- 
 cause my frizzling equatorial spells of service had 
 fairly sickened me of the life. 
 
 It was then that Wilfrid, who was a bachelor, 
 and my senior by some ten years or thereabouts, 
 invited me down to Cumberland, where I hunted 
 and shot with him and passed some meriy weeks. 
 He took a great liking to me, and I was often 
 with him and we were much too^ether in London. 
 There came a time, however, when he took it into 
 his head to travel. He thought he w^ould go 
 abroad and see the w^orld ; not Paiis, Brussels, and
 
 24 AX OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 Eome, but America and the Indies and Aus- 
 tralia — a considerable undertaking in those am- 
 bling days of the tea waggon and the cotton 
 kettle-bottom, when the passage from the Thames 
 to Bombay occupied four months, and when a 
 man who had made a voyage round the world 
 believed he had a right to give himself airs. 
 
 Well, my cousin sailed ; I went down to 
 Gravesend with him and bade him good-bye 
 there. His first start was for New York, and then 
 he talked of proceeding to the West Indies and 
 afterwards to the Cape, thence to India or Aus- 
 tralia, and so on. He was away so long that the 
 very memory of him grew dim in me, till one day 
 I heard some men in a club that I belonged to 
 speaking about the beautiful Lady Monson. I 
 pricked up my ears at this, for Monson is my 
 name and the word caught me instantly, and, 
 gathering from the talk that one of the group, a 
 young baronet with whom I was well acquainted, 
 could satisfy ray curiosity about the lady, I 
 waited till he was alone and then questioned him. 
 
 He told me that Lady Monson was my 
 cousin's wife ; Sir Wilfrid had met her at Mel- 
 bourne and married her there. She was the 
 daughter of a squatter, a man of small beginnings, 
 who had done amazingly well. She was exceed- 
 ingly beautiful, my young friend assured me. He
 
 THE BRIDE 25 
 
 had met her tAvice at county balls, and had never 
 seen her like for dignity, grace, and loveliness of 
 form and face. He told me that she was very 
 fond of the sea, so some friends or acquaintances 
 of hers had informed him, and that, to gratify her 
 taste in this way, Sir Wilfrid sold his cutter — a 
 vessel of twenty tons, aboard which I had 
 made one or two excursions with him — and re- 
 placed her by a handsome schooner which he had 
 rechristened the ' Bride.' I understood from the 
 young baronet that my cousin and his wife were 
 then away cruising in the Mediterranean. 
 
 I had not before heard of Wilfrid's marriage, 
 and, though for the moment I was a little sur- 
 prised and perhaps vexed that he had never com- 
 municated so interesting a piece of nev^s as this to 
 me, who, as a blood relation and an intimate 
 friend, had a claim upon his candour and kind- 
 ness, yet on reflection I judged that his memory had 
 been weakened by separation as mine had ; and 
 then I considered that he was so much engrossed 
 by his wife as to be able to think of little besides, 
 whilst, though he had then been married many 
 months, he had apparently spent, with Lady 
 Monson a good deal of his time out of England. 
 
 About six weeks before the opening of this 
 story I met him in Bond Street. I was pass- 
 ing him, for time and travel had wonderfully
 
 26 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 changed him, aud in his long hair and smooth 
 face I must certainly have failed, in the hurry 
 of the pavement, to have recognised the cropped 
 and bewhiskered young fellow, whom I had 
 taken leave of at Gravesend, but for his starting 
 and his peculiar way of peering at me. My 
 rooms were conveniently near ; I carried him to 
 them, and a couple of hours passed whilst he 
 told me of his adventures. I noticed that he said 
 much less about his wife than I should have 
 expected to hear from him. He referred to her, 
 indeed ; praised her beauty, her accomplishments, 
 with an almost passionate admiration in his way 
 of speaking, yet I remarked a sort of uneasiness in 
 his face too, a kind of shadowing as though the 
 having to speak of his wife raised thoughts which 
 eclipsed or dimmed the brightness of the holiday 
 memories he was full of Still I was so little sure 
 that when I came to think it over I was con- 
 vinced it was mere fancy on my part, or at the 
 worst I took it that, though he was worth ten 
 thousand a year, she might be making him uneasy 
 by extravagance, or there might have been a tiff 
 between them before leaviniy his home to come to 
 London, the memory of which would worry a man 
 of his temperament, a creature of nerves, and 
 tainted besides, as you know. He told me he was 
 in London for a couple of days on a matter of
 
 THE BRIDE 27 
 
 business, and that he had asked Lady Monson to 
 accompany him, but she had said it vexed her to 
 leave her baby for even a day, and that it was out 
 of the question to subject the bairn to the jolting, 
 risks, and fatigue of a long journey. He looked 
 curiously as he said this, but the expression fled 
 too nimbly from his face to be determinable. 
 
 What was I doing .^ When would it suit me 
 to visit him? If I had no better engagement 
 would I return with him? But, though I had 
 missed nothing of the old cordiality in his greet- 
 ing and in his conversation that had reference to 
 our bygone jinks and to his travels, his invitation 
 — if invitation it could be called — was lifeless. So 
 much so indeed that it was as good or bad as his 
 telling me he did not want me then^ however wel- 
 come I might be by-and-by. We parted, and I 
 did not see or hear of him again until he came, as 
 I have related, to tell me that his wife had eloped 
 with Colonel Hope-Kennedy. 
 
 I had now to decide how to act, and I was 
 never more puzzled or irresolute in the whole 
 course of my life. Had he proposed an ocean 
 cruise as a mere yachting trip, I should have 
 accepted the offer right out of hand. 
 
 The sea, as avocation, I did not love; but very 
 different from the discipline of a man-of-war's 
 quarter-deck, and the fever-breeding tedium of
 
 28 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 stagnant and broiling stations, was the business 
 of navigating the bkie brine in a large, richly- 
 equipped yacht, of chasing the sun as one chose, 
 of storing one's mind with memories of the glitter- 
 ing pageantry of noble and shining rivers, and 
 green and sparkling scenes of country radiant and 
 aromatic with the vegetation of tropic heights and 
 distant sea-board cities, past the gleam of the 
 coral strand with a scent of sandalwood in the 
 offshore breeze, and boats of strange form and rig, 
 gay as aquatic parrots, sliding along the turquoise 
 surface to the strains of a chant as Asiatic as the 
 smell of the hubble-bubble. No man ever loved 
 travel more than I ; only unfortunately, in my 
 time, when 1 had the right sort of health and spirit 
 for adventure, journeys by land and by sea were 
 tedious and fatiguing. Very few steamers were 
 afloat : one might have sought in vain for a pro- 
 peller to thrash one to the world's end with the 
 velocity of a gale of wind. I had often a mind, 
 after Wilfrid had started on his voyage to various 
 parts of the world, to follow his example ; but I 
 would shake my head when I came to think of the 
 passenger ship, the chance of being locked up for 
 months with a score or two of people, half of whom 
 might prove disagreeable, not to mention indif- 
 ferent food and a vile ship's oook, with weeks of 
 equatorial deadness, and everything to be gone 
 
 I
 
 THE BRIDE 29 
 
 tliroiigli again as one went fi^oni place to place by 
 S9a, and myself companionless the Avhile. 
 
 But a yachting cruise was another matter, and 
 I say I should have accepted Wilfrid's proposal 
 without an instant's reflection, even if I had had 
 to be on board by noon next day, but for the 
 extraordinary motive of the trip. It was very 
 plain that he had no clear perception of his own 
 programme. He talked as though everything that 
 happened would correspond with his anticipations. 
 He seemed cocksure, for instance, of overhauhng 
 the ' Shark ' ni mid-ocean, when in reality the possi- 
 bilit}' of such an encounter was so infinitesimally 
 small that no man in his senses would dream of 
 seriously entering it as an item in liis catalogue of 
 chances. Then, supposing him to miss the 'Shark,' 
 he was equally cocksure of arriving at Table Bay 
 before her. The ' Bride ' midit be the swifter 
 vessel, but the course was six thousand miles and 
 more ; the run might occupy two and perhaps 
 three, ay, and even four months, and, though I 
 did not make much of the - Shark's ' five days' 
 start, yet, even if the ' Bride ' outsailed her by 
 four feet to one, so much of the unexpected must 
 enter as conditions of so long a run and so great 
 a period of time — calms, headwinds, disaster, 
 strong, favourable breezes for the chased, sneak- 
 ing and baffling draughts of air for the pursuer—
 
 30 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 that it was mere madness to reckon with con- 
 fidence upon the ' Bride's ' arrival at Cape Town 
 before the ' Shark.' So that, as there was no 
 certainty at all about it, what was to follow if my 
 cousin found that the runaways had sailed from 
 Cape Town without leaving the faintest hint 
 behind them as to their destination ! 
 
 Moreover, how could one be sure that the 
 Colonel and Lady Monson would not change their 
 mmds and make for American or Mediterranean 
 ports ? Their determination to put the whole 
 w^orld between tliem and England was not very 
 intelligible, seeing that our globe is a big one, and 
 that scoundrels need not travel far to be lost to 
 the eye. If Lady Monson discovered that she 
 had left behind her the remarkable letter which 
 Wilfrid had given to me to read, then it would 
 be strange if she and the Colonel did not change 
 their programme, unless, indeed, they supposed 
 that Wilfrid would never dream of following them 
 upon tlie high seas. 
 
 But these were idle speculations ; they made 
 no part of my business. Should I accompany my 
 cousin on as mad an undertaking as ever passion 
 and distraction could hurry him into? I was 
 heartily grieved for the poor fellovv^ and I sin- 
 cerely desired to be of use to him. It might be 
 that after we had been chasine for a few v/eeks
 
 THE BRIDE 
 
 31 
 
 his heart would sicken to the sight hour after 
 hour of the bare sea-line, and then perhaps, if I 
 were with him, I might come to have influence 
 enouc^h over his moods to divert him from his 
 resolution and so steer us home again ; for I 
 would think to myself, grant that we fall in with 
 the ' Shark,' what can Wilfrid do ? Would he 
 arm his men and board her ? Yachtsmen are a 
 peaceful body of seafarers, and before it could 
 come to a boarding match and a hand-to-liand 
 fight he would have to satisfy his crew that they 
 had signed articles to sell tlieir lives as well as 
 work his ship. To be sure, if the yachts fell 
 within hail and Sir Wilfrid challenged the Colonel, 
 the latter would not, it may be supposed, decline 
 the duel. 
 
 But, view the proposal as I might, I could 
 see nothmg but a mad scheme in it ; and I 
 think it must have been two o'clock in the morn- 
 ing before I had made up my mind, so heartily 
 did I bother myself with considerations: and then, 
 after reflecting that there was nothing to keep me 
 in England, that my cousin had come to me as a 
 brother and asked me in a sense to stand by him 
 as a brother, that the state of his mind imposed it 
 almost as a pious obligation upon me to be by his 
 side in this time of extremity and bitter anguish, 
 that the quest was practically so aimless — the ex-
 
 32 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 cursion was almost certain to end on this side the 
 Cape, or, to put it at the worst, to end at Table 
 Bay, which, after all, would prove no formidable 
 cruise, but, on the contrary, a trip that must do me 
 good and kill the autumn months very pleasantly — 
 I say that, after lengthily reflecting on these and 
 many other points and possibilities of the project, 
 I made up my mind that I would sail with him. * 
 JSText morning I despatched my man with a 
 note — a brief sentence : ' / will he on hoard 
 to-morrow hy fom\ and received Wilfrid's reply, 
 written in an agitated sprawling hand : ^God hless 
 you I Your decision makes a douhle-har relied 
 iveapon of my purpose. I have not slejjt a ivink 
 all night — my fifth night of sleeplessness ; hut I 
 shall feel easier ivhen the clipper keel of the 
 " Bride " is shearing through it in hot and sure 
 pursuit. I start in a quarter of an hour for 
 Southampton. Laura will he overjoyed to hear 
 that you are to he one of us ; from the moment of 
 my determining to follow that hell-horn rascal she 
 has heen exhorting me to choose a companion — of 
 my own sex^ I mean., hut it w'ould have to he you 
 or nix. My good angel he praised., 'tis all right 
 now! We'll have 'em, we'll have 'em! Hark me ! 
 Would to heaven the pistol-hall had the power to 
 cause in the heart of a ruffian and a seducer the 
 intolerahle menial torments he works for another
 
 THE BRIDE 33 
 
 ere it fulfilled its mission by killing him ! ' He 
 signed himself, ^ Yours ever affectionately J 
 
 Wild as the tone of this note was, it was less 
 suggestive of excitement and passion and restless- 
 ness than the writing. I locked it away and 
 possess it still, and no memorial that I can put 
 my hand on has its power of lighting up the past. 
 I never look at it without living again in the 
 veritable atmosphere and colour and emotions of 
 the long- vanished days. 
 
 Being a bachelor, my few affairs which needed 
 attention were speedily put in order. My re- 
 quirements in regard to apparel for a voyage to 
 the Cape I exactly knew, and supplied them in 
 three or four hours. The railroad to Southamp- 
 ton had been opened some months, so I should 
 be spared a long and tiresome journey by coach. 
 By ten o'clock that night I was ready bag and 
 baggage — a creditable performance in a man who 
 for some years had been used to a lounging, in- 
 active life. I offered to take my servant, but he 
 told me he was a bad sailor and afraid of the 
 water, and was without curiosity to view foreign 
 parts ; so I paid and discharged him, not doubting 
 that I should be able to manage very well without 
 a man ; and leaving what property I could not 
 carry with me in charge of my landlord, I next 
 morning took my departure for Southampton. 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 ■A^' OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 I believe I did not in the least degree realise 
 the nature of the queer adventure I had con- 
 sented to embark on until I found myself in 
 a wherry heading in the direction of a large 
 schooner-yacht that lay a mile away out upon 
 Southampton Water. She was the 'Bride,' the 
 boatman told me, and the handsomest vessel of 
 her kind that he knew. 
 
 ' A finer craft than the " Shark " ? ' said I. 
 
 ' Whoy yes,' he answered, 'bigger by fourteen 
 or fifteen ton, but Oi dunno about foiner. The 
 " Shark " has the sweeter lines, Oi allow ; but that 
 there " Bride," ' said he with a toss of his head in 
 the direction of the yacht, sitting with his back 
 upon her as he was, ' has got the ocean-going 
 qualities of a line-of-battle-ship.' 
 
 * Take a race between them,' said I, ' which 
 would prove the better ship ? ' 
 
 ' Whoy, in loight airs the '* Shark," Oi daresay, 
 'ud creep ahead. In ratching, too, in small winds 
 she'd go to wind'ard of t'other as though she was 
 warping that way. But in anything loike a stiff 
 breeze yonder " Bride " 'ud forereach upon and 
 weather the " Shark" as easy as swallowing a pint 
 o' yale, or my name's Noah, which it ain't.' 
 
 ' The " Shark " has sailed ? ' 
 
 ' Oy, last week.' 
 
 ' Where bound to, d'ye know ? '
 
 THE BRIDE 35 
 
 * Can't say, Oi'm sure. Oi've lieerd she was 
 hired by an army gent, and that, wherever his 
 cruise may carry him to, he ain't going to be in a 
 hurry to finish it.' 
 
 ' Does he sail alone ? Or, perhaps, he takes 
 his wife or children with him ? ' 
 
 ' Well,' said the waterman, pausing on his 
 oars a minute or so with a grin, whilst his damp 
 oyster-like eyes met in a kind of squint on my face, 
 ' the night afore the " Shark " sailed Oi fell in with 
 one of her crew, a chap named Bobby Watt ; and 
 on my asking him if this here military gent was 
 a-going to make the voyage alone he shuts one 
 oye and says, " Jim," he says, Jim being one of 
 my names, not Xoah, " Jim," says he, " when 
 soldiers go to sea," says he, " do they take 
 pairosols with 'em .^ and are bonnet boxes to be 
 found 'mongst their luggage ? Tell ye what it is, 
 Jim," he says, " they may call yachting an inno- 
 cent divarsion, but bet your life, Jim," says he, 
 " 'taint all as moral as it looks ! " by which Oi 
 understood,' said the waterman falhng to his oars 
 again, ' that the mihtary gent hain't sailed alone in 
 the " Shark," nor took his wife with bim neither, 
 if so be he's a wedded man.' 
 
 We were now rapidly approaching the ' Bride,' 
 and as there was little to be learnt from the 
 waterman T ceased to question him, whilst I 
 
 D 2
 
 36 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 inspected the yacht as a fabric that was to make 
 me a home for I knew not how long. Then it 
 was, perhaps, that the full perception of my 
 undertaking and of my cousin's undertaking, too, 
 for the matter of that, broke in upon me with the 
 picture of the fine vessel straining hghtly at her 
 cable, whilst past her ran tlie liquid slope into 
 airy distance, where, in the delicate blue blending 
 of azure radiance float inoj down and minorlino- 
 with the dim cerulean light lifting off the face of 
 the quiet waters, you witnessed a faint vision of 
 dashes of pale green and gleaming foreshore with 
 blobs and films of land beyond, swimming, as it 
 seemed, in the autumn haze and distorted by 
 refraction. It was the Isle of Wight, and the 
 shore on either hand went yawning to it till it 
 looked a day's sail away ; and I suppose it was 
 the sense of distance that came to me with the 
 scene of the horizon past the yacht, touched with 
 hues illusive enough to look remote, that rendered 
 realisation of Wilfrid's wild programme sharp in 
 me as I directed a critical gaze at the beautiful 
 fabric we were nearing. 
 
 And beautiful she was — such a gallant toy as 
 an impassioned sweetheart would love to present 
 to the woman he adored. In those days the 
 memory of the superb Baltimore clippers and of 
 the moulded perfections of the schooners which
 
 THE BRIDE 37 
 
 traded to the Western Islands and to the Medi- 
 terranean for the season's fruits, was still a vital 
 inspiration among the shipwrights and yacht- 
 builders of the country. I had never before seen 
 the ' Bride,' but I had no sooner obtained a fair 
 view of her, first broadside on, then sternwise, as 
 my boatman made for the starboard gangway, 
 than I fell in love with her. She had the beam 
 and scantling of a revenue cutter, with high 
 bulwarks, and an elliptical stern, and a bow with 
 the sheer of a smack, but elegant beyond expres- 
 sion with its dominating flair at the catheads, 
 where it fell sharpening to a knife-like cutwater, 
 thence rounding amidships with just enough swell 
 of the sides to delight a sailor's eye. 
 
 The merest landsman must instantly have 
 recognised in her the fabric and body of a sea- 
 going craft of the true pattern. This was delightful 
 to observe. The voyage might prove a long one, 
 with many passages of storm in it, and the pro- 
 spect of traversing the great oceans of the world ; 
 and one would naturally want to make sure in 
 one's floating home of every quality of staunch- 
 ness and stability. A vessel, however, of over 
 two hundred tons burthen in those times was no 
 mean ship. Crafts of the ' Bride's ' dimensions 
 were regularly trading as cargo and passenger 
 boats to foreign parts ; so that httle in my day
 
 38 AN OCEAX TRAGEDY 
 
 would have been made of any number of voyages 
 round the world in such a structure as Sir Wil- 
 frid's yacht. It is different now. Our ideas have 
 enlarged with the growth of the huge mail boat, 
 and a voyage in a yacht driven by steam and of a 
 burthen considerably in excess of many West 
 Indiamen, which half a century ago were regarded 
 as fine large ships, is considered a performance 
 remarkable enough to justify the publication of a 
 book about it, no matter how destitute of interest 
 and incident the trip may have proved. The 
 fashion of the age favoured gilt, and forward and 
 about her quarters and stern the ' Bride ' floated 
 upon the smooth waters all ablaze witli the glory 
 of the westering sun striking upon the embellish- 
 ments of golden devices writhing to the shining 
 form of the semi-nude beauty, that with arms 
 clasped Madonna- wise, sought with an incompar- 
 able air of coyness to conceal the graces of her 
 form under the powerful projecting spar of the 
 bowsprit ; whilst aft the gilt work, in scrolls, 
 flowers and the like, with a central wreath as a 
 frame for the virgin-white letters of the yacht's 
 name, smote the satin surface under the counter 
 with the sheen of a sunbeam. All this brightness 
 and richness was increased by her sheathing of 
 new copper that rose high upon the glossy bends, 
 and sank with ruddy clearness under the water,
 
 THE BRIDE 39 
 
 where it flickered like a light there, preserving 
 yet, even in its tremulous waning, something of 
 the fair proportions of the submerged parts. 
 
 The bulwarks were so tall that it was not until. 
 I was close aboard I could distinguish signs of life 
 on the yacht. I then .spied a head over the rail 
 aft watching me, and on a sudden there sprang 
 up alongside of it a white parasol edged with 
 black, and the gleam as it looked of a fair girlish 
 face in the pearly twilight of the white shelter. 
 Then, as I drew close, the man's head uprose and I 
 distinguished the odd physiognomy of my cousin 
 under a large straw hat. He saluted me with a 
 gloomy gesture of the hand, with something, 
 moreover, in his posture to suggest that he was 
 apprehensive of being observed by people aboard 
 adjacent vessels, though I would not swear at this 
 distance of time that there was anything lying 
 nearer to us than half a mile. You would have 
 thought some one of consequence had died on 
 board, all was so quiet. I lifted my hat solemnly 
 in response to Wilfrid's melancholy flourish, as 
 though I was visitin^^ the craft to attend a funeral; 
 the boat then sheered alongside, and paying the 
 waterman his charges, I stepped up the short 
 ladder and jumped on deck.
 
 40 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 LAURA JEXXINGS. 
 
 Sir Wilfrid was coming to the gangway as I 
 entered, leaving his companion, whom I at once 
 understood to be Miss Laura Jennings, standing 
 near the wheel. He grasped my hand, gazing at 
 me earnestly a moment or two without speaking, 
 and then exclaimed in a low faltering voice, ' You 
 are the dearest fellow to come ! you are the dearest 
 fellow to come ! Indeed it is good, true and 
 noble of you.' 
 
 He then turned to a man dressed in a suit of 
 pilot cloth, with brass buttons on his waistcoat and 
 a round hat of old sailor fashion on his head, w^ho 
 stood at a respectful distance looking on, and 
 motioned to him. He approached. 
 
 • Charles, this is Captain Finn, the master of the 
 yacht. My cousin, Mr. Monson.' 
 
 Finn lifted his hat with a short scrape of his 
 right leg abaft. 
 
 ' Glad to see you aboard, sir, glad to see you 
 aboard,' said he, in a loather-lunged note that one
 
 LAURA JENNINGS 41 
 
 felt he had difficulty in subduing. ' A melancholy 
 errand, Mr. Monson, sir, God deliver us ! But 
 we're jocke^^ing a real sweetheart, your honour, 
 and if we ain't soon sticking tight to Captain 
 Fidler's skirts I don't think it'll be for not being 
 able to guess his course.' 
 
 He shook his head and sighed. But there lay 
 a jolly expression in his large protruding lobster- 
 like eye that twinkled there like the flame of a 
 taper — enough of it to make me suspect that his 
 mute-like air and Ember- week tone of voice was a 
 mere piece of sympathetic acting, and that he 
 w^as a merry dog enough when Wilfrid was out of 
 sight, 
 
 ' See Mr. Monson's luggage aboard, captain,' 
 said my cousin, ' and stowed in his cabin, and then 
 get your anchor. There's nothing to keep us now.' 
 
 ' Ay, ay, sir.' 
 
 ' Step this way, Charlie, that I may introduce 
 you to my sister-in-law.' 
 
 He passed his arm through mine and we 
 walked aft, but I noticed in him a certain manner 
 of cowering, so to speak, as of one who fears tliat 
 he is being watched and talked about, an involun- 
 tary illustration of profound sensitivei^ess, no 
 doubt, for, as I have said, the yacht lay lonely, and 
 he was hardly likely to dread the scrutiny of his 
 own men.
 
 42 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 The girl he introduced me to seemed about 
 nineteen or twenty years old. Lady Monson had 
 been described to me as tall, stately, slow in 
 movement, and of a reposeful expression of face that 
 would have been deemed spiritless in a person 
 wanting the eloquence of lier rich and tropic 
 charms : so at least my club friend the young 
 baronet had as good as told me; and it was 
 natural perhaps that I should expect to find her 
 sister something after her style in height and form, 
 if not in colour. 
 
 Instead, she was a woman rather under than 
 above the average stature, fair in a sort of golden 
 way, by which I wish to convey a complexion of 
 exquisite softness and purity, very faintly freckled 
 as though a little gold-dust had been artfully 
 shaken over it, a hue of countenance so to speak 
 that blended most admirably with a great quantity 
 of hair of a dark gold, whereof there lay upon her 
 brow many little natural curls and short tresses 
 which her white forehead, shining through them, 
 refined into a kind of amber colour. Her eyes 
 were of violet with a merry spirit in them, which 
 defied the neutralising influence of the sorrowful 
 expression of her mouth. By some she might 
 have been held a thought too stout, but for my 
 part I could see nothing that was not perfectly 
 graceful in the curves and lines of her figure. I
 
 LAURA JEXXIXGS 43 
 
 will not pretend to describe how she was dressed ; 
 in mournino' I thouo-ht she was at first when she 
 stood at a distance. She was sombrely clad to 
 keep Wilfrid's melancholy in countenance perhaps, 
 and I daresay she looked the sweeter and fairer 
 for being thus apparelled since there is no wear 
 fitter than dark clothes for setting ofi" such skin 
 and hau' as hers. Indeed, her style of dress and 
 the fashion of her coiffure were the anticipation of a 
 taste of a much later date. In those days women 
 brushed their hair into a plaster-like smoothness 
 down the cheeks, then coiled it behind the ear, and 
 stowed what remained in an ungainly lump at the 
 back of the head, into which was stuck a big 
 comb. The dress, agaiu, was loose about the body, 
 as though the least revelation of the figure were 
 an act of immodesty, and the sleeves were what 
 they called gigots ; all details in short combining to 
 so ugly a result as to set me wondering now some- 
 times that love-making did not come to a dead 
 stand. Miss Laura Jennings' dress was cut to show 
 her figure. The sleeves were tight, and I recollect 
 that she wore gauntlet-shaped gloves that clothed 
 her arm midway to the elbow. 
 
 This which I am writing was my impression, 
 at the instant, of the girl with whom I was to be 
 associated for a long while upon the ocean, and 
 with whom I was to share in one adventure at all
 
 44 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 events, which I do not doubt you will accept 
 as amongst the most singular that ever befell a 
 voyager. She curtsied with a pretty old world 
 grace, to Wilfrid's introduction, sending at the 
 same time a sparkling glance full of spirited 
 criticism through the fringe of her lids, whicli 
 drooped with a demureness that was almost 
 coquettish I thought. Then she brightened into 
 a frank manner, whilst she extended her hand. 
 
 ^ I am very pleased to meet you, Mr. Monson ; 
 glad indeed to feel sure now that you will be of 
 our party. Sir Wilfrid has talked of you much 
 of late. You have acted far more kindly than you 
 can imagine in joining us.' 
 
 ' We have a fine vessel under us at all events. 
 Miss Jennings,' said I, with a look at the un- 
 sheltered decks which stretched i]nder the 
 declining sun white as freshly -peeled almonds. 
 ' She seems to have been born with the right kind 
 of soul, Wilfrid ; and I think if your skipper will 
 tell her quietly what is expected of her she wil 
 fulfil your utmost expectations.' 
 
 He forced a melancholy smile which swiftly 
 faded, and then with a start and a stare over the 
 rail on either hand he exclaimed, ' It makes me 
 uneasy to be on deck, d'ye know. I feel — though 
 'tis stupid enough — as if there were eyes yonder 
 and yonder on the watch. This restlessness will
 
 LAURA JENXIXGS 45 
 
 pass when we get to sea. Let us go below, dinner 
 will be ready by half past five/ pulling out his 
 watch, • and it is now a little after four.' 
 
 He took his sister-in-law's hand in a brotherly, 
 boyish way, and the three of us descended. 
 
 The cabin was as shining and sumptuous an 
 interior as ever I was in, or could imagine indeed, 
 of a yacht's internal accommodation. Mirrors, 
 hand-painted bulkheads, combinations of gilt and 
 cream, thick carpets, handsome lamps, silver 
 swinging-trays, and twenty more elegancies which 
 I will not bore you with, made you feel, as you 
 stood at the foot of the companion steps, as though 
 you had entered some dehcious, sparkling, fragrant 
 little drawing-room. The bedrooms were at each 
 extremity. The berth allotted to me was a roomy 
 airy apartment forward, with a stout bulkhead at 
 the end of the short passage that effectually closed 
 this part of the craft from whatever might be 
 amidships and beyond. There was a stand of arms 
 fixed here, and my thoughts instantly went to 
 Colonel Hope-Kennedy and Lady Monson, and 
 the crew of the ' Shark,' as I counted twenty fowling 
 pieces with long polished barrels and bright stocks, 
 with- hooks alono-side from which huuR- a number 
 of cutlasses and pistols of the sort you then found 
 in the small-arms chests aboard men of war. The 
 pattern of these weapons persuaded me that they
 
 46 A.\ OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 had been collected in a hurry, piu'chased out of 
 hand off some Southampton or Gosport dealer in 
 such ware. They can signify but one sort of 
 business, thought I ; but bless my heart ! does he 
 seriously entertain notions of boarding if we fall 
 in with the craft ? And do his men suspect his 
 intentions ? And has he provided for all things 
 by shipping a fighting crew ? 
 
 I peered into my berth, saw that it would make 
 me as comfortable a sea bedroom as it was possible 
 to desire, and returned to the cabin, where Wilfrid 
 and Miss Jennings were sitting, he at a small table 
 right aft, sprawling upon it with his elbow, his 
 chin in his hand, his face gloomy with melancholy 
 and anger, and his eyes fixed upon a porthole 
 through which he might just get a glimpse of 
 green shore with a tremble of water yellow under 
 the western light steeping to it ; she near him 
 on a short sofa, with her back against the vessel'^ 
 side, toying with her hat which lay in her lap, so 
 that I was now able to see that she was indeed 
 a very sweet woman to the topmost curl of 
 gold that gleamed upon her head. Indeed, you 
 seemed to witness her charms as in a light of her 
 own making. There was something positively 
 phosphoric in the irradiation on her face and hair, 
 as though in sober truth they were self-luminous. 
 A couple of fellows were bringing my luggage
 
 LAURA JENNINGS 47 
 
 down the hatch, but very quietlv. I knew they 
 Avere getting the anchor on deck by the dim chink 
 chink of the windlass pawls, but I could hear no 
 other sounds, no sinorinfj out of orders, nothing 
 save the pulsing of the windlass barrel to indicate 
 that we were about to start. There was an 
 element of solemnity in this our first step, at all 
 events, along the prodigious liquid highway we 
 were about to enter that was not a little irksome 
 to me. After all it was not my wife who had run 
 away, and whom I was starting in pursuit of, and, 
 though I keenly sympathised with my cousin, it 
 Avas impossible that I could feel or look as though 
 I was broken down by grief. 
 
 ' We are not a numerous party,' said I, in a 
 hearty way, seating myself, ' one less, indeed, than 
 we bargained for, Wilfrid, for I am without a 
 servant. My fellow funked the very name of salt 
 water, and there was no time to replace him.' 
 
 ' There are two stewards to wait upon you, aud 
 mv own valet besides,' said Wilfrid, brincfincr his 
 Qyes with an effort from the porthole, through 
 which he was staring, to my face. ' Trust me to 
 see that you are made perfectly comfortable.' 
 
 ' My dear fellow — comfortable ! Why, this is 
 palatial ! ' I cried, with a comprehensive sweep of 
 my hand round the cabin ; * much too luxurious, 
 in my humble opinion ; don't you think so. Miss
 
 48 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 Jennings ? Only figure all these fine tilings going 
 down to swell tlie navies that lie green on the 
 Atlantic ooze.' 
 
 « The " Bride " is a lovely boat,' she answered, 
 ' and very swift, Wilfrid says.' 
 
 ' Swift enough to serve my turn, I expect,' said 
 he, with what the Scotch call a raised look coming 
 into his face. 
 
 ' But why not come on deck ? ' said I ; ' no 
 fear of being noticed, Wilfrid. Who is there to 
 see lis, and who is there to care if anybody 
 should see us ? ' 
 
 He drew his tall, awkward figure together 
 with a shake of the head. 
 
 ' Get you on deck by all means, Charles, and 
 take Laura with you if she will go. I have occu- 
 pation to last me until the dinner-bell in my 
 cabin.' 
 
 ' Will you accompany me. Miss Jennings ? ' 
 said I. 
 
 ' Indeed I will,' she exclaimed with an alacrity 
 that exhibited her as little disposed as myself to 
 rest passive in the shadow of my cousin's heavy, 
 resentful melancholy. 
 
 He seized my hand in both his as I rose to 
 escort the girl on deck. ' God bless you once 
 again, my dear boy, for joining us. Presently I 
 shall feel the stronger and perhaps tlie brighter
 
 LAURA JENNINGS 49 
 
 for having you by my side.' He looked wistfully, 
 still holding my hand, at Miss Jennings, as though 
 he would address a word to her too, but on a 
 sudden broke away with a sigh like a sob, and 
 walked hastily to the after passage, where his cabin 
 was. 
 
 In silence, and much affected, I handed the girl 
 up the companion steps. Gay and glittering as was 
 the cabin, its inspirations were but as those of a 
 charnel-house compared with the sense of life and 
 the quickness of spirit you got by mounting on 
 deck and entering the shining atmosphere of the 
 autumn afternoon with the high blue sky filled 
 with the soft and reddenincr Horht of the waninof 
 luminary, whilst already the land on either side 
 was gathering to its green and gold and brown 
 the tender dyes of the evening. The distance had 
 been clarified by a small easterly air that had 
 sprung up since I first stepped on board, and the 
 Isle of Wight hung in a soft pure mass of many 
 dyes upon the white gleam of the water that 
 brimmed to it. There was a large frigate, as I 
 imagined her, drawing slowly up past Gosport 
 way, heading westwards, and the eye fastened 
 upon her with a sort of wonder ; for, though she 
 looked to be hull down and the merest toy, and 
 indistinguishable by the careless glance as a sail, 
 yet she was too defined to pass for a cloud either, 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 whilst the silver brightness seemed impossible in 
 canvas, and you ^\atched her with a fancy in you 
 of a large bland star that would be presently 
 afloat in the blue, and sparkling there on the 
 brow of the risino- nio-lit. There were a few 
 vessels of different kinds anchored off Southamp- 
 ton, and the scene in tliat direction looked won- 
 derfully fair and peaceful, with the spars of the 
 craft gilt with sunshine and a flash in their 
 hulls where paint or glass caught the declining 
 beam, and past them the higher reaches of the 
 light blue water with the twinkling of little 
 sails that carried the gaze shorewards to the 
 town. 
 
 All this my sight took in quickly. The men 
 had quitted the windlass, and were making sail 
 upon the yacht nimbly, but so quietly, even with 
 a quality of stealth in their manner of pulhng and 
 hauling, that we could not have been a stiller 
 ship had we been a privateersman getting under 
 way on a dark night with a design of surprising 
 a rich fabric or of escaping a heavily-armed 
 enemy. They looked a stout crew of men, attired 
 without the uniformity that is usual in yachting 
 companies in these days, though the diversity of 
 dress was not sufficiently marked to offend. I 
 gathered that the vessel carried a mate as well as 
 a captain, and detected him in the figure of a 
 
 I
 
 LAURA JEXNIXGS 51 
 
 sturdy little fellow, with a cast in his eye and a 
 mat of red hair under his chin, who stood betwixt 
 the knightheads forward, staring aloft at a hand 
 on the topsail yard. Captain Finn saluted the 
 girl and me with a flourish of a hairy paw to 
 his hat, but was too full of business to give us 
 further heed. 
 
 ' We shall be under way very soon now. Miss 
 Jennings,' said I ; ' it is a strange voyage that we 
 are undertaking.' 
 
 ' A sad one too,' she answered. 
 ' You show a deal of courage in accompanying 
 Wilfrid,' I exclaimed. 
 
 ' I hesitated at first,' said she, ' but he seemed 
 so sure of overtaking the " Shark," and pressed 
 me so earnestly to join him, believing that the 
 
 sight of me, or that by my pleading to — to ' 
 
 She faltered, flushing to the eyes, and half turned 
 from me with such a tremulous parting of her lips 
 to the gush of the mild breeze, which set a 
 hundred golden fibres of her hair dancing about 
 her ears, that I expected to see a tear upon her 
 cheek when she looked at me afresh. I pre- 
 tended to be interested in nothing but the move- 
 ments of the men who were hoisting; the main- 
 sail. 
 
 ' What do you think of the voyage, Mr. 
 Monson ? ' she exclaimed after a little pause 
 
 E 2
 
 52 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 thougli she held her face averted as if waiting for 
 the flush to fade out of her cheeks. 
 
 ' It bothers me considerably,' I answered ; 
 * there is nothing to make heads or tails of in it 
 that I can see.' 
 
 'But why? ' and now she stole a sidelong look 
 at me. 
 
 'Well, first of all,' I exclaimed, 'I cannot 
 imagine that there is the faintest probability of 
 our picking up the " Shark." She may be below 
 the horizon, and we may be sailing three or four 
 leagues apart for days at a stretch, and neither 
 ship with the faintest suspicion of the other being 
 close. The ocean is too big for a hunt of this 
 sort.' 
 
 ' But suppose we should pick her up, to use 
 your term, Mr. Monson ? ' 
 
 ' Suppose it, Miss Jennings, and add this sup- 
 position : that the gallant Colonel ' — she frowned 
 at his name, with a sweet curl of horror on her 
 lip as she looked down — ' who will long before 
 have twigged us, declines to heave-to or have 
 anything Avhatever to do Avith us ; what then ? ' 
 
 ' I suggested this to your cousin,' slie answered 
 quickly ; ' it is a most natural objection to make. 
 He answered that if the " Shark '' refused to stop 
 when he hailed her — that is the proper term, I 
 know — he would compel her to come to a stand
 
 LAURA JENNINGS 53 
 
 by continuing to fire at her, even if it came to 
 his sinking her, though his object would be to 
 knock her mast down to prevent her from 
 saihng.' 
 
 I checked a smile at the expression ' knock 
 her mast down,' and then caught mj^self running 
 my glance round in search of any hint of ordnance 
 of a persuasive kind ; and now it was that I 
 noticed for the first time, secured amidships of 
 the forecastle, and comfortably housed and tar- 
 paulined, something that my naval instincts were 
 bound to promptly interpret into a Lomj Toni^ and 
 of formidable calibre too, if the right sort of hint 
 of it was to be obtained out of its swathing. I 
 also observed another feature that had escaped 
 me : I mean a bow-port on either side the bow- 
 sprit — a detail of equipment so uncommon in a 
 pleasure craft as to force me to the conclusion 
 that the apertures had been quite newly cut and 
 fitted. 
 
 I uttered a low whistle, whilst I foimd my 
 companion's gaze rooted upon me with the same 
 critical attention in the spirited blue gleam of it I 
 liad before noticed. 
 
 'Well ! ' said I, taking a bit of a breath, 'upon 
 my word, though, I should not have thought he 
 had it in him ! Yes, yonder's a remedy,' I con- 
 tinued, nodding in the direction of the forecastle,
 
 54 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 * to correspond ^vith Wilfrid's intentions if he's 
 fortunate enough to fall in with the " Shark." 
 Will she be armed, I wonder ? It would then 
 make the oddest of all peppering matches.' 
 
 ' If the yacht escapes us, we are certain to 
 meet with her at the Cape,' said Miss Jennings. 
 
 It was idle to argue on matters of seamanship 
 with the pretty creature. 
 
 ' Wilfrid has said little on the subject to me,' I 
 remarked. ' He was dreadfully overcome when 
 he called to ask me to accompany him. But it is 
 good and brave of you to enter upon this wild 
 experiment with a womanly and a sisterly hope 
 of courting the fugitive back to her right and 
 only resting-place. My cousin will receive her, 
 then ? ' 
 
 ' He means to come between her and the con- 
 sequences of her — of her folly,' said she, colouring 
 again with a flash in her eye and a steady con- 
 frontment of me, 'let the course he may after- 
 wards make up his mind to pursue be what it 
 will.' 
 
 I saw both distress and a little hint of temper 
 in her face, and changed the subject. 
 
 ' Have you been long in England ? ' 
 
 ' I arrived three months ago at Sherburne 
 Abbey ' (my cousin's seat in the north). ' You 
 know I am an Australian ? '
 
 LAURA JENNINGS 55 
 
 ' Yes, but not througli Wilfrid, of whose mar- 
 riage I should have learned nothing but for 
 hearing it talked about one day in a club. A 
 young baronet who had met Lady Monson "was 
 loud in her praises. He described her as a won- 
 derfully beautiful woman, but dark, with fiery 
 Spanish eyes and raven tresses ; ' and here I 
 peeped at her own soft violet stars and sunny 
 hair. 
 
 ' Yes, she is beautiful, Mr. Monson,' she 
 answered sadly, ' too beautiful indeed. Her face 
 has proved a fatal gift to her. What madness ! ' 
 she exclaimed, whispering her words almost. 
 * And never was there a more devoted husband 
 than Wilfrid. And her baby — the little lamb ! 
 Oh, how could she do it ! how could she do it ! ' 
 
 ' With whom has the child been placed ? * 
 said I. 
 
 ' With a cousin, Mrs. Trevor.' 
 
 ' Oh, I know, a dear good creature : the bairn 
 will be in excellent hands.' 
 
 ' Sir Wilfrid was too affectionate, Mr. Monson. 
 You know,' she continued, looking at me sideways, 
 her face very grave, ' if you have ceased to love or 
 to like a person, your aversion w411 grow in propor- 
 tion as he grows fond of you. It is not true, Mr. 
 Monson, that love begets love. No ; if it were 
 true, my sister would be the happiest of women.'
 
 S6 A.V OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ' Have you met Colonel Hope-Kennedy ? ' 
 
 ' Oh yes, often and often. He was a very 
 constant visitor at Slierburne Abbey.' 
 
 ' Pretty good-looking ? ' 
 
 ' Tall, very gentlemanly, not by any means 
 handsome to my taste, but I have no doubt many 
 women would think him so.' 
 
 ' The name is familiar to me, but I never met 
 the man. Did he live in the north ? ' 
 
 ' No ; whenever he came to Sherburne Abbey 
 he was your cousin's guest.' 
 
 Phew ! thought I. ' And, of course,' I said, 
 willing to pursue the subject afresh, since it did 
 not seem now to embarrass her to refer to it, 
 whilst I was curious to learn as much of the story 
 as could be got, ' my cousin had no suspicion of 
 the scoundrelism of the man he was entertaining.' 
 
 ' No, nor is he to be blamed. He is a gentle- 
 man, Mr. Monson, and, like all fine, generous, 
 amiable natures, very, very slow to distrust 
 persons w^hom he has honoured with his friend- 
 ship. When he came to me witli the news that 
 Henrietta had left him I believed he had gone 
 utterly mad, knowing him to be just a littW — she 
 hesitated, and ran her eyes over my face as though 
 positively she halted merely to the notion that 
 perhaps / was a trifle gone too ; and then, clasp- 
 ing her hands before her, and hanging her head so
 
 LA URA JEXNIXGS 57 
 
 as to look as if she was speaking witii her eyes 
 closed, she went on : ' I was much with Henrietta, 
 and often when Colonel Hope-Kennedy was 
 present. I had ridden with them, had watched 
 them whilst they played bilhards — a game my 
 sister was very fond of — observed them at the 
 piano when she was singing and he turning the 
 music, or when she accompanied him in a song ; 
 he sang well. But — it might be, it is true, 
 because I was as unsuspicious as Wilfrid — yet I 
 declare, Mr. Monson, that I never witnessed even 
 so much as a look exchanged between them of a 
 kind to excite a moment's uneasiness. !N'o ! 
 Wilfrid cannot be charged with blindness ; the 
 acting was as exquisite as the object was detest- 
 able.' And she flushed up again, half turning 
 from me with a stride towards the rail and a 
 wandering look at the green country, which I 
 accepted as a hint that she wislied the subject to 
 drop. 
 
 The yacht was now under way. They had 
 catted, and were fishing the anchor forwards ; I 
 noticed that the man I had taken to be the mate 
 had arrived aft and was at the wheel. The 
 vessel's head was pointing fair for the Solent, and 
 already you heard a faint crackling sound like a 
 delicate rending of satin rising from under the 
 bows, thougrh there was so little weight in the
 
 58 A.V OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 draught of air that the ' Bride ' floated without 
 the least perceptible list or inclination, spite of all 
 plain sail being upon her with the exception of 
 the top-gallant sail. 
 
 ' Fairly started at last, Miss Jennings,' said I. 
 
 She glanced round hastily as though dis- 
 turbed in an absorbing reverie, smiled, and then 
 looked sad enough to weep, all in a breath. 
 
 Well, it was a solemn moment for her, I 
 must say. She had her maid with her, it is true ; 
 but she was the only lady on board. There 
 was none of her own quality with whom she 
 could talk apart — no other woman to keep her in 
 countenance, so to speak, with the sympathy of 
 presence and sex ; she w^as bound on a trip of 
 which no mortal man could have dated the 
 termination — an adventure that might carry her 
 all about the world for aught she knew, for, since 
 she was fully conscious of the very variable 
 weather of my cousin's mind, to use the old 
 phrase, she would needs be too shrewd not to 
 conjecture that many wild and surprising things 
 were quite likely to happen whilst the power of 
 directing the movements of the yacht remained 
 his. 
 
 And then again she was in quest of her sister, 
 without a higher hope to support her than a 
 fancy — that was the merest dream to my mind,
 
 LAURA JENXIXGS 59 
 
 when I thought of the httle baby the woman had 
 left behind her, to say nothmg of her husband — 
 that her passionate entreaties backing Wilfrid's 
 appeals might coax her ladyship to quit the side 
 of the gallant figure she had run away with. 
 
 Just then the merry silver tinkling of a bell 
 smartly rung sounded through the open skylight, 
 and at the same moment the form of a neat and 
 comely young woman arose in the companion 
 hatch. 
 
 ' \Yhat is it, Graham ? ' inquired Miss Jen- 
 nings. 
 
 ' The first dinner-bell, Miss. The second will 
 ring at the half-hour.' 
 
 The girl pulled out a watch of the size of a 
 thumbnail and exclaimed, 'It is already five 
 o'clock, !Mr. Monson. It cannot be a whole hour 
 since you arrived ! I hope the time w^ill pass as 
 quickly when we are at sea.' 
 
 She hngered a moment gazing shorewards, 
 sheltering her eyes sailor-fashion with an un- 
 gloved hand of milk-w^hi-te softness, on which 
 sparkled a gem or two ; then, giving me a slight 
 bow, she went to the companion and stepped 
 down the ladder with the grace and ease of a 
 creature floating on wings. Ho, ho ! thought I, 
 she wdll have her sea legs anyl^ow ; no need 
 therefore, Master Charles, to be too officious with
 
 6o AX OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 your hand and arm Avlieu the hour of tumblefi- 
 cation comes. But that she was hkely to prove 
 a good sailor was a reasonable conjecture, see- 
 ing that she was comparatively fresh from pro- 
 bably a four months' passage from Melbourne. 
 
 I followed her after a short interval, and then 
 to the summons of the second dinner-bell entered 
 the cabin. The equipment of the table rendered 
 festal the sumptuous furniture of this interior 
 with tlie sparkle of silver and crystal, and the 
 dyes of wines blending with the central show of 
 rich flowers. The western sunshine lay upon the 
 skylight, and the atmosphere was ruddy with it. 
 One is apt to be curious when in novel situations, 
 and I must confess that yachting in such a craft 
 as this was something very new to me, not to 
 speak of the uncommon character one's ex- 
 periences at the onset would take from the motive 
 and conditions of the voyage ; and this will prove 
 my apology for saying that, whilst I stood waiting 
 for Wilfrid and his sister-in-law to arrive, I 
 bestowed more attention, furtive as it might be, 
 upon the two stewards and my cousin's man than 
 I should have thought of obliging them witli 
 ashore. The stewards were commonplace enough, 
 a pair of trim-built fellows, the head one's face 
 hard with that habitual air of solicitude which 
 comes at sea to a man whose duties lie amongst
 
 LAURA JENNINGS 6r 
 
 crockery and bills of fare, and whose leisure is 
 often devoted to dark and mysterious altercations 
 with the cook ; the second steward was noticeable 
 for nothing but a large strawberry mark on his 
 left cheek ; but ^Yilfrid's man was worth a stare. 
 I had no recollection of him, and consequently he 
 must have been taken into my cousin's service since 
 I was last at the Abbey, as we used to call it. He 
 had the appearance of a man wdio had been bred 
 to the business of a mute, a Ian thorn-jawed, 
 yellow, hollow-eyed person whose age might have 
 been five-and-twenty or iive-and-forty ; hair as 
 black as coal, glossy as grease brushed flat to the 
 tenacity of sticking-plaster, and fitting his egg- 
 shaped skull like a wig. He was dressed in 
 black, his trousers a little short and somewhat 
 tight at the ankles, where they revealed a pair- of 
 white socks bulging with a hint of gout over the 
 sides of a pair of pumps. He stood behind the 
 chair that Wilfrid would take with his hands 
 reverentially clasped upon his waistcoat, his whole 
 posture indicative of humility and resignation. 
 Nothing could be more in harmony with the 
 melancholy nature of our expedition than this 
 fellow's countenance. 
 
 Miss Jennings arrived and took her place ; 
 she was followed by my cousin, who walked to 
 the table with the gait of a person following a
 
 62 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 coffin. This sort of thing, thought I, must be 
 suffered for a clay or two, but afterwards, if the 
 air is not to be cleared by a rousing laugh, it 
 won't be for lack of any effort on my part to 
 tune up my pipes.
 
 63 
 
 CHAPTEE lY. 
 
 IX THE SOL EXT. 
 
 The dinner was exquisitely cooked, and as per- 
 fectly ordered a repast as the most fastidious 
 could devise or desire ; but very little was said, 
 mainly, I suspect, because our thoughts were 
 filled with the one subject we could not refer to 
 whilst the attendants hung about us. What fell 
 was the merest commonplace, but I noticed that 
 whilst Wilfrid ate little he offered no objection to 
 the frequent replenishing of his glass Avith cham- 
 pagne by the melancholy chap who stood behind 
 him. 
 
 By-and-by we found ourselves alone. 
 
 ' That is very honest port ; you need not be 
 afraid of it, Charles,' said my cousin. ' Do you 
 understand gunnery ? ' 
 
 ' I believe I could load a piece and point it,* 
 said I, smiling, ' but beyond that ' 
 
 ' Have you seen the gun on the forecastle ? ' 
 
 ' Just the outline of a cannon,' I answered,
 
 64 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 * under a smother of tarpaulin. What is called a 
 Long Tom, I think.' 
 
 ' You will have guessed the object of my 
 mounting it ? ' said he, with a frown darkening 
 his face to one of those angry moods which would 
 sweep athwart his mind like the deep but flitting 
 shadows of squall clouds over a gloomy sky sullen 
 witli the complexion of storm. 
 
 ' Yes ; Miss Jennings explained,' I answered, 
 glancing at her and meeting her eye, in which I 
 seemed to find the faintest hint of rebuke, as 
 though she feared I might be laughing in my 
 sleeve. ' What's the calibre, W^ilfrid ? ' 
 ' Eighteen pounds,' he answered. 
 ' An eighteen pounder, eh ! That should bring 
 the " Shark's " spars about their ears, though. Let 
 me think : the range of an eighteen pounder will 
 be, at an elevation of five degrees, a little over a 
 mile.' 
 
 ' If,' cried my cousin — lifting his hand as 
 though to smite the table, then brinoiDcr his 
 clenched fi.st softly down, manifestly checked in 
 some hot impetuous impulse by the sense of the 
 presence of the girl, who regarded him with a 
 face as serious as thoue^h she were listenino- to a 
 favourite preacher — ' if,' he repeated, sobering his 
 voice with the drooping of his arm, ' we succeed 
 in overhauhng the '' Shark," and they refuse to
 
 IN THE SOLENT 65 
 
 heave her to, my purpose is to wrei:k her aloft, 
 and tlien^ should they show fight, to continue 
 firing at her until I sink her.' 
 
 There was a vicious expression in his eyes as 
 he said this, to which the peculiar indescribable 
 trembling or quivering of the lids imparted a 
 singular air of cunning. 
 
 ' Is the " Shark " armed, do you know ? ' said I. 
 
 ' She carries a couple of small brass pieces, I 
 believe, for purposes of signalling. Pop-guns,' 
 said he, contemptuously. ' But I fancy she has 
 an armoury of her own. Lord Winterton was 
 constantly cruising north on shooting excursions, 
 and it is quite likely that he let the weapons 
 which belong to him with the yacht.' 
 
 ' If Colonel Hope-Kennedy's programme,' said 
 I, ' includes a ramble amoncrst the South Sea 
 Islands, you may reckon upon his having equipped 
 himself with small arms and powder enough, if 
 only with an eye to man-eating rogues. But to 
 revert to your Long Tom, Wilfrid. It should not 
 be hard to sink a yacht with such a piece ; but 
 you are not for murdering your wife, my dear 
 fellow?' 
 
 ' Xo, no,' said he slowly, and speaking to me, 
 though he kept his eyes fixed upon his sister-in- 
 law, 'have no fear of that. It is I that am the 
 murdered man.' He pressed his hand to his 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 heart. ' Eather put it thus : that when they find 
 their vessel hulled and sinking they will get their 
 boats over and be very willing to be picked up 
 by us.' 
 
 ' But j^our round shot may knock their boats 
 into staves,' said I, ' and what then ? ' 
 
 ' Our own boats w^ill be at hand to rescue 
 them,' said he, now looking at me full w^ith an 
 expression of relish of the argument. 
 
 ' But, my dear Wilfrid,' said I, ' don't you 
 know that Avhen a craft founders she has a trick 
 of drowning most of the people aboard her, and 
 amongst the few survivors, d'ye see, who con- 
 trived to support themselves by w^iatever lay 
 floating might not he Lady Monson ! ' 
 
 He took a deep breath, and said, so slowdy 
 that he seemed to articulate wdth difficulty, ' Be 
 it so. I have made up my mind. If we over- 
 haul the " Shark " and she dechnes to heave to, I 
 shall fire into her. The blood of Avhatever follows 
 will be upon their heads. This has been forced 
 upon me ; it is none of my seeking. I do not 
 mean that Colonel Hope-Kennedy shall possess 
 my w^ife, and I will take her from him alive if 
 possible ; but rest assured I am not to be hindered 
 from separating them though her death should be 
 the consequence.' 
 
 Miss Jennings clasped her fingers upon her
 
 IN THE SOLENT 67 
 
 forehead and sat motionless, looking down. For 
 a little I was both startled and bewildered ; one 
 moment he talked as though his wish was that 
 his wife should not be harmed, and the next, in 
 some concealed convulsion of wrath, he betrayed 
 a far blacker resolution than ever I could have 
 imagined him capable of. Yet in the brief silence 
 that followed I had time to rid myself of my little 
 fit of consternation by considering, first of all, that 
 he was now talking just as, according to my notion, 
 he was acting — insanely ; next, that it was a thou- 
 sand to one against our falling in with the yacht ; 
 and again, supposing we came up with her, it was 
 not very probable that the crew of the ' Bride ' 
 could be tempted, even by heavy bribes, into a 
 measure that might put them in jeopardy of their 
 necks or their liberty. 
 
 It was now dark, and the cabin lamps had been 
 for some time lighted. The evening looked black 
 against the portholes and the skylight, but the 
 cheerfulness and beauty of the cabin were greatly 
 heightened by the sparkling of the oil-flames in 
 the mirrors, the swing-trays, the glass-like surface 
 of the bulkheads, and so on. Miss Laura's golden 
 lovehuess — do not laugh at my poor nautical 
 attempts to put this amber-coloured, violet-eyed 
 woman before you — showed, as one may well 
 suppose of such a complexion and tints, incom- 
 
 r 2
 
 68 A.V OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 parably perfect, I tliought, in the soft thougli 
 rich radiance diffused by the burning sperm. I 
 wondered that she should listen so passively to 
 Wilfrid's confession of liis intentions should we 
 overhaul the ' Shark.' My gaze went to her as he 
 concluded that little speech I have just set down ; 
 but I witnessed no alteration in as much of her 
 face as was visible, nor any stir, as of one startled 
 or shocked, in her posture. Possibly she did not 
 master all the significance of his words ; for how 
 should a girl realise the full meaning of plumping 
 round shot out of an eighteen-pounder into a vessel 
 till she was made a sieve of? Or it might be that 
 she was of my mind in regarding the expedition 
 as a lunatic undertaking, and in suspecting that a 
 few weeks of this ocean hunt would sicken Wilfrid 
 of his determination to chase the ' Shark ' round 
 the world. Or mingled with these fancies, besides, 
 there might be enough of violent resentment 
 against her sister, of grief, pain, shame, to enable 
 her to listen with an unmoved countenance to 
 fiercer and wilder menaces than Wilfrid had as 
 yet delivered himself of. 
 
 These thoughts occupied my mind during the 
 short spell of silence that followed my cousin's 
 speech. He suddenly rang a little handbell, and 
 his melancholy servant came sliding up to him out 
 of the after cabin.
 
 IN THE SOLENT 69 
 
 ' Tell Captain Finn I Avish to see him — that is, 
 if he can leave the deck.' 
 
 The fellow mounted the steps. 
 
 'What is the name of that gloomy-looking 
 man of yours, Wilfrid ? ' 
 
 ' Muffin,' he answered. 
 
 ' Have I not seen somebody wonderfully like 
 him,' said I, ' holding on with drunken gravity 
 to the top of a hearse trotting home from the last 
 public-house along the road from the graveyard?' 
 
 ^liss Laura laughed ; and there was a girlish 
 freshness and arch cordiahty in her laughter that 
 must have put me into a good humour, I think, had 
 it been my wife instead of Wilfrid's that Colonel 
 Hope-Kennedy was sailing away with. 
 
 ' Maybe, Charles, maybe,' he answered, with 
 a dull smile ; ' he may have been an undertaker's 
 man for all I know ; though I doubt it, because I 
 had him from Lord with a five years' charac- 
 ter, every word of which has proved true. But I 
 knew you would have your joke. The fellow fits 
 my temper to a hair ; he has a hearse-like face I 
 admit ; but then he is the quietest man in the 
 world — a very ghost ; summon him, and if he 
 shaped himself out of thin air he couldn't appear 
 at your elbow more noiselessly. That's his main 
 recommendation to me. Any kind of noise now 
 I find distracting ; even music — Laura will tell
 
 70 AX OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 YOU that I'll run a mile to escape tlie souad of a 
 piano.' 
 
 At this moment a pair of pilot breerlies showed 
 tlieiiiselves in the companion-way, and down came 
 Captain Finn. As lie stood, hat in hand, soberly 
 clothed with nothing more jimcrack in the way 
 of iinery upon him than a row of brass waistcoat- 
 buttons, I thought he looked a very proper, 
 sailorly sort of man. There was no lack of in- 
 telligence in his eyes, which protruded, as from a 
 long habit of staring too eagerly to windward 
 and trying to see into the inside of gales of wind. 
 He was remarkable, however, for a flice that was 
 out of all proportion too long, not for the width 
 of his head only, but for his body ; whilst his 
 legs, on the other hand, w^ere as much too short, 
 so that he submitted himself as a person whose 
 capacity of growth had been experimentally dis- 
 tributed, insomuch that his legs appeared to have 
 come to a full stop when he was still a youth, 
 whilst in his face the active principle of elongation 
 had continued laborious until lono^ after the term 
 when nature should have made an end. 
 
 ' A glass of wine, captain ? ' said Sir Wilfrid. 
 
 ' Thank your honour. I^eed makes the old 
 wife trot, they say, and I feel a- dry — I feel a-dry.' 
 
 ' Put your hat down and sit, Finn. I want 
 you to give my cousin, Mr. Monson, your views
 
 IN THE SOLENT 71 
 
 respecting tins — this voyage. But first, where are 
 we?' 
 
 ' Why,' answered the captain, balancing the 
 wine-glass awkwardly betwixt a thumb and a 
 forefinorer that resembled nothing^ so much as a 
 brace of stumpy carrots, whilst he dkected a 
 nervous look from Wilfrid to me and on to Miss 
 Laura, as though he would have us observe that 
 he addressed us generally ; ' there's Yarmouth 
 lights opening down over the port bow, and I 
 reckon to be clear of tlie Solent by about three 
 bells — half-past nine o'clock.' 
 
 ' The navigation hereabouts,' said 1, ' needs a 
 bright look-out. The captain may not thank us 
 for calUng him below.' 
 
 ' Lord love 'ee, Mr. Monson, su^,' he answered, 
 ' the mate, Jacob Crimp, him with the one eye 
 slewed — if so be as you've noticed the man, sir — 
 he's at the helm, and I'd trust him for any inshore 
 navigation, from the Good'ens to the Start, blind- 
 folded. Why, he knows his soundings by the 
 smell of the mud.' 
 
 '• How is tlie weather ?' inquired my cousin. 
 
 ' Fine, clear night, sir ; the stars plentiful and 
 the moon arising ; the wind's drawed a bit norradly, 
 and's briskeniug at that ; yet it keeps a draught, 
 with nothing noticeable in the shape of weight in 
 it. Well, your honour, and you, Mr. Monson, sir,
 
 72 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 and you, my lady, all I'm sure I can say, is, here's 
 luck,' and down went the wine. 
 
 ' Captain,' said Sir Wilfrid, ' oblige me by giv- 
 ing Mr. Monson your views of the chase we liave 
 started upon.' 
 
 Finn put down the wine-glass and dried his 
 lips on a pocket handkerchief of the size of a small 
 ensign. 
 
 'Well,' he began with a nervous uneasy twist- 
 ing about of his legs and feet, ' my view's this : 
 Fidler isn't likely to take any other road to the 
 Cape than the one that's followed by the Indie- 
 men. Now,' said he laying a forefinger in the 
 palm of his big hand, yellow still with ancient 
 stains of tar, whilst Wilfrid watched him in his 
 near-sighted way, leaning forward in tlie posture 
 of one absorbed by what is said ; ' you may take 
 that there road as skirting the Bay o' Biscay and 
 striking the latitude of forty at about fifteen de- 
 grees east ; then a south by west half west course 
 for the Canaries ; the Equator to be cut at twenty- 
 five degrees west, and a straight course for 
 Trinidad to follow with a clean brace up to the 
 South East trades. What d'ye think, sir ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, 'tis about the road, no doubt,' said I, for 
 whatever might have been my thoughts, I had no 
 intention to drop a discouraging syllable then 
 before Finn in my cousin's hearing.
 
 IN THE SOLENT 73 
 
 ' But,' said the captain, eyeing me nervously 
 and anxiously, ' if so be as we should have the 
 luck to fall into that there ''Shark's"' wake, you 
 know, we shan't need to trouble ourselves with 
 the course to the Cape south of the equator.' 
 
 ' Of course not,' exclaimed Sir Wilfrid. 
 
 ' By which I mean to say,' continued the cap- 
 tain, giving his back hair a pull as though it were 
 some bell rope with which he desired to ring up 
 the invention or imagination that lay drowsy in 
 his brain, ' that if we aren't on to the "Shark" 
 this side the Line it'll be better for us to tarn to 
 and make up our mind to crack on all for Table 
 Bay to be there afore her, without further troubling 
 ourselves about her heaving in sight, tliough, 
 of course, the same bright look-out '11 be kept.' 
 
 ' Good,' said Wilfrid with a heavy emphatic 
 nod ; ' that's not to be bettered, I think, Charles.' 
 
 'I suppose,' said I, addressing Finn, 'that, 
 though your hope will be to pick up the "Shark" 
 any day after a given period, and though you'll 
 follow the scent of her as closely as your conjec- 
 ture of Fidler's navigation will admit, you will 
 still go on sweating — pray pardon this word in its 
 sea sense. Miss Jennings — your craft as though 
 the one business of the expedition was to make 
 the swiftest possible passage to the Cape of Good 
 Hope ? '
 
 74 AX OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ' Ay, never sparing a clotli, sir, and she's 
 something to jockey, Mr. Monson. You don't 
 know her yet, sir.' 
 
 ' The '' Shark's" a fore and aft schooner ? ' 
 
 ' Yes,' he answered. 
 
 ' She carries a square sail, no doubt ? ' 
 
 'Ay, a big 'un, but good only for running, 
 and we ain't without that canvas, too, you must 
 know,' he added with the twinkle of humour in 
 his gaze that I had observed in him when Wilfrid 
 had first made him known to me. ' Enouoh of 
 it, Mr. Monson, to hold wind to serve a Dutch- 
 man for a week, not to mention a torps'l and a 
 t'gallants'l fit for a line-o'-battle ship to ratch 
 under.' 
 
 This was vague talk, but it pleased Wilfrid. 
 
 ' Square yards are very well,' said I ; ' but 
 surely they don't allow a vessel to look up to it 
 as though her canvas was fore and aft only .^ I 
 merely ask for information. My marine experi- 
 ences were limited to square rigs.' 
 
 'There's nothen to prevent the "Bride" from 
 looking up to it as close as the "Shark,"' answered 
 Finn. ' The yards '11 lie fore and aft ; what's to 
 hinder them? There ain't no spread, sir, hke 
 what 3'ou get in ships with your futtock rigging 
 and backstays and shrouds in the road of the 
 slings elbowing their way to channels big enough
 
 IN THE SOLENT 
 
 7S 
 
 for a ball-room. Besides,' lie added, 'suppose it 
 should be a matter of a quarter of a plat's differ- 
 ence, we need but stow the square cloths, and 
 then we ain't no worse off than the "Shark." ' 
 
 ' True,' said I, thinking more of Miss Jennings 
 than of what Finn was saying : so perfect a pic- 
 ture of girlish beauty did she happen to be at that 
 instant as she leaned on her elbow, supporting her 
 chin with a small white hand, her form in a pos- 
 ture that left one side of her face in shadow, 
 whilst the other side lay bright, golden, and soft 
 in the lamplight over the table. She was listen- 
 ing with charming gravity, and a countenance of 
 sympathy whose tenderness was unimpaired by 
 an appearance of attention that I could not doubt 
 was just a little forced, since our sailor talk could 
 not but be Greek to her. Besides, at intervals, 
 there was a lift of the white lid, a gleam of the 
 violet eye, which was like assuring one tliat 
 thought was kept in the direction of our conver- 
 sation only by constraint. 
 
 I was beginnino' to feel the want of a cio'ar, 
 and I had been sittiiig long enough now to make 
 me pine for a few turns on deck, but I durst not 
 be abrupt in the face of my cousin's devouring 
 stare at his skipper and the pathetic spectacle of 
 the contending passions in him as he hearkened, 
 now nodding, now gloomily smiling, now lying 
 
 I
 
 76 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 back on a sudden with a frown which he made as 
 if to smooth out by pressing his hand to his brow. 
 
 ' The "- Shark," ' said I, ' has five days' start of 
 us. Give her a hundred miles a day, for the mere 
 sake of argument; she shoukl be, at that, well in 
 the heart of the Bay.' 
 
 ' By heaven ! within arm's length of us, when 
 you put it so ! ' cried Wilfrid, extending his hand 
 in a wild, darting, irrelevant gesture, and closing 
 his fingers with a snap as though upon some 
 phantom throat he had seen and thought to clutch. 
 
 ' Five hundred miles,' exclaimed Finn, ap- 
 parently giving no heed to the baronet's action. 
 • Well, sir, as a bit of supposing, there's no harm 
 in it. It might be more. / should allow less. 
 There's been no weight of wind down Channel. 
 What's happened then to blow her along ? But 
 there's no telling. Anyhow,' said he, picking up 
 his cap and rising, ' there's nothing in five hundred 
 miles, no, nor in a thousand, to make us anxious 
 with such a race- course as hes afore us. 'Tain't 
 as if we'd got to catch the craft before she'd made 
 Madeira.' He paused, looking a little irresolute, 
 and then said, addressing Wilfrid, ' I don't know 
 if there's anything more your honour would like 
 to ask of me ? ' 
 
 ' No, not for the moment,' answered my cousin 
 dully, with the air of a man languid with a sudden
 
 IX THE SOLENT yj 
 
 sense of weariness or exhaustion following some 
 internal fiery perturbation ; ' it is just tliis, Finn. 
 Mr. Monson served in the Eoyal Navy for a few 
 years, and I was anxious that he should be at 
 once made acquainted with your views so that he 
 and you could combine your experiences. You 
 have chased in your time, Charles, no doubt ! ' 
 
 ' Xot very often, and then always something 
 that was in sisfht,' I answered with a slig;ht odance 
 at Finn, whose gaze instantly fell whilst he ex- 
 claimed : 
 
 ' Well, sir, any suggestion you can make Fll 
 be mighty thankful to receive. But it'll be all 
 plain sailing, I don't doubt ; it'll be all plain sail- 
 ing,' he repeated, rumbling out the words in a 
 stifled hurricane note, and, giving us a bow, he 
 went up the steps. 
 
 Wilfrid gazed at me vacantly when I proposed 
 a cigar on deck. 
 
 ' What do you think of Finn ? ' he asked. 
 
 ' He seems as honest a man and as practical a 
 seaman as needs be. But he has had command of 
 this yacht since you bought her ? ' 
 
 He nodded. ' Well then, of course, you know 
 all about him. He has clearly been a merchant 
 Jack in his day, and has all necessary experience, 
 I daresay, to qualify him for this charge. But I 
 say, Wilfrid, let us go on deck, my dear fellow
 
 78 A.y OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 Miss Jennings, I am sure, will not object to the 
 scent of a cigar in the open air.' 
 
 ' Xor down here either,' she exclaimed. 
 
 ' I shall remember that,' said I gratefully. 
 ' Now, Wilfrid, won't you ? ' 
 
 ' No,' he interrupted ; ' I am drowsy, and 
 thank Heaven for a sensation that threatens to 
 become a novelty. If I get no rest to-night it 
 will be my eighth of sleeplessness, and I must 
 humour myself ; yes, I must humour myself,' he 
 repeated, talking in a sort of muttering way, and 
 rising. 
 
 I advised him by all means to withdraw if 
 he really felt tired, and further recommended a 
 boatswain's caulker of whisky to top off the 
 champagne and port he had been swallowing. 
 
 ' How will you amuse yourself, Laura ? ' he 
 exclaimed, turning to her. ' It will be dull work 
 for you, I fear.' 
 
 ' No, no,' cried I blithely, ' why need Miss 
 Jeuning^s be dull? It must be our business to 
 keep her lively.' 
 
 ' I can sit and read here,' said she, ' till it is 
 time to go to bed. What is the hour, Mr. 
 Monson ? ' 
 
 ' Just on the stroke of eight,' said I. 
 
 She made a pretty little grimace, and then 
 burst into one of her refreshinor cordial laughs.
 
 IN THE SOLENT 
 
 79 
 
 * A little early for bed, Wilfrid,' slie ex- 
 claimed. 
 
 He smothered a yawn and responded : ' I 
 will leave you to Charles. Would to heaven I 
 had his spirits. God bless you both — good night.' 
 
 He rang for his valet and stalked with hang- 
 ing arms and drooping head, in the most melan- 
 cholic manner picturable, to his cabin. I asked 
 Miss Jennings to accompany me on deck. 
 
 ' There is a moon in the air,' said I ; ' you 
 may see the haze of it through this porthole ; but 
 I must not forget that it is an autumn night, so 
 let me beg you to wrap yourself up warmly whilst 
 I slip on a pea-coat.' 
 
 I fancied she hung in the wind an instant, as a 
 girl miglit who could not promptly see her way to 
 walking the deck of a yacht alone with a young 
 man on a moonlicfht or anv other night, but she 
 assented so quickly in reality that I daresay my 
 suspicion was an idle and groundless bit of 
 sensitiveness. Five minutes later we were on deck 
 together. 
 
 The yacht was floating tln^ougli the dusk 
 — that was tinctured into glimmering pearl 
 by the broad face of silver moon whicli had 
 already climbed several degrees above the black 
 sky-line of the Isle of Wight — without the 
 least perceptible stir or tremor in her frame.
 
 8o AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 The wind was well abaft the starboard beam ; 
 the great main boom overhung the port quarter; 
 the white sail rose wan to the moonshine with a 
 large gaff topsail above it — for those were the 
 days of gaffs — dimming into a space of airy faint- 
 ness to the masthead, above the white button of 
 whose truck you caught the icy gleam of a metal 
 vane as though it was a piece of meteoric scoring 
 under the dust of the stars that hovered in the 
 velvet gloom like ^^a sheet of undulating silver 
 glooming out into follows in places. Light as 
 the breeze was, and following us besides, it held 
 the canvas asleep ; but that every cloud-like 
 cloth was doing its work, too, the ear quickly 
 noted in the pleasant fountain-like sounds of 
 running waters over the side, with a cool seeth- 
 ing noise in the w^ake and a fairy tinkling of ex- 
 ploding foam-bells. The land to port loomed 
 black against the moonshine, save where some 
 slope or other catching the slanting beam showed 
 the faint green of its herbage or wooded growths 
 in a very phantasm of hue, like some verdant 
 stretch of land dyeing an attenuated veil of vapour 
 witnessed afar upon the ocean. Over the port bow 
 I caught sight of a light or two a long way down 
 the dusky reach, as it seemed, with a brighter 
 gleam to starboard where the land, catching the 
 moonlight, came in visionary streaks and breaks
 
 IN THE SOLENT 8l 
 
 to abeam and on past the quarter where it 
 seemed to melt out into some twinkling beacon — 
 off Calshot Castle, maybe, so far astern it looked. 
 
 I spied the sturdy figure of the mate standino- 
 beside the wheel, no longer steering, but manifestly 
 conning the yacht. The skipper was abreast of 
 the skylight, leaning over the rail with his arm 
 round a backstay ; there were figures movincr for- 
 ward tipping the gloom there with the scarlet 
 points of glowing bowls of tobacco, but if they 
 conversed it was in whispers. The stillness was 
 scarce imaginable. It was heightened yet even 
 to my fancy presently when, growing used to the 
 light I spied the phantom figure of what was 
 apparently a large brig clouded to her royals with 
 pale canvas stemming the Solent outward bound 
 some half a mile distant. 
 
 ' There is no dew,' said I ; 'the moon shines 
 purely, and is full of promise so far as fine 
 weather goes. Well ! here we are fairly started 
 indeed. It is almost a dream to me. Miss Jennings, 
 d'ye know ? ' I continued, staring about me. 
 ' Three days ago I had no notice of any thin o- 
 having gone wrong with my cousin, and therefore 
 little dreamt, as you will suppose, of what I was 
 to enter upon this blessed afternoon. Three days 
 ago ! And now here am I heading into God 
 knows what part of this mighty globe of ocean 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 AjV ocean tragedy 
 
 as empty of all theory of destination as though I 
 were bound in a balloon to the part the poets call 
 interstellar space. How is it all to end, I wonder ? ' 
 She was pacing quietly by my side. 
 ' You think the pursuit a silly one, Mr. 
 Monson ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, I do, and Wilfrid knows that I do. If 
 
 he were not He is my cousin, Miss Jennings, 
 
 and a dear friend, and you are his sister-in-law 
 and dear to him, too, I am sure, and so I dare be 
 candid with you. If it were not that he ' (I 
 touched my forehead), ' would he embark on 
 such a quest as this ? ' 
 
 ' Yes,' she replied, with just enough of heat, or 
 
 temper, or whatever you like to call it, in her voice 
 
 to render her utterance distinct with unconscious 
 
 emphasis ; ' he adored his wife. Can a man 
 
 tear his love into pieces in a day, as though 
 
 it were no more than a tedious old letter ? He 
 
 thinks he hates her ; he does so in a sense, no 
 
 doubt ; but in a sense, too, he still worships her. 
 
 Mad ! that is what you mean.' 
 
 I was beginning to protest. 
 
 ' Yes, it is what you mean, and you are right 
 
 and wrong. If he does not pursue her, if he does 
 
 not recover her, she is lost for ever. She is lost 
 
 now, you will tell me. Ay,' she cried with a little 
 
 stamp, ' lost so far as her husband's heart goes.
 
 AV THE SOLE XT 83 
 
 SO far as her honour is concerned ; but not so 
 utterly lost as slie will later be if she is not 
 rescued from that — tliat man, who must be so 
 served, Mr. Monson, as to render it impossible 
 for him ever again to trouble the peace of another 
 home, to break the heart of a noble-minded 
 creature and rob a little infant of its mother. 
 Hate him I Oh, girl as I am, I declare before 
 my Maker I would shoot him with my own 
 hand ! ' 
 
 There was nothing in the least degree theatri- 
 cal in her way of speaking. The words came in 
 a hurry to her lips from her indignant heart, and 
 I heard the sincerity of them so clearly in the 
 mere utterance, I did not doubt for an instant 
 that, put a pistol in her hand and set up the figure 
 of the Colonel in front of her, she would have 
 sought for his heart, if he had one, with the barrel 
 of the weapon without so much as a sigh at having 
 to kill him. I felt abashed ; her sincerity and 
 resentment were overwhelming ; her strength of 
 feeling, too, won a pecuhar accentuation from the 
 character of airy delicacy, of tender fragility, the 
 moonlight gave to her fair and golden beauty. 
 It was hke listening to a volume of sounds poured 
 forth by a singing bird, and wondering that such 
 far-reaching melody should be produced by so 
 small a creature. 
 
 G 2
 
 84 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ' I fear,' said I, ' you don't think me very 
 sincere in my sympathy with Wilfrid ' 
 
 ' Oh. yes, Mr. Monson,' she interrupted ; ' do 
 not suppose such a thing. It is not to be imagined 
 that you should take this cruel and miserable affair 
 to heart as he does, or feel it as I do, who am 
 her sister.' 
 
 ' The truth \^^ said I, 'it is impossible for 
 a bachelor not to take a cynical view of troubles 
 of this sort. A man Avas charged w^ith the mur- 
 der of his sweetheart. The judge said to him, 
 " Had the woman been your wife, your guilt 
 would not have been so great, because you w^ould 
 have no other means of getting rid of her save 
 by killing her ; but the unhappy creature whose 
 throat you cut you could have sent adrift without 
 trouble." What I mean to say is, Miss Jennings, 
 that a husband does not merit half the pity that 
 is felt for him if his wife elopes. He is easily quit 
 of a woman who is his wife onl}^ by name. I am 
 for pitying her. The inevitable sequel, the dis- 
 grace, desertion, and the rest of it is as punctual 
 as the indications of the hand of a clock. . . . 
 But see how nimbly the "Bride " floats through all 
 this darkness and quietude. We shall be passing 
 that vessel shortly, and yet for canvas she might 
 really be one of the pyramids of Egypt towing 
 down Channel.'
 
 /A' THE SOLENT 85 
 
 We went to the rail to look, I, for one, glad 
 enough to change the subject, for it was nothing 
 less than profanity to be arguing with so sweet 
 a little woman as this — in the pure white shining 
 of the moon, too, and with something of an ocean 
 freshness of atmosphere all about us — on such a 
 gangrenous subject as the elopement of Lady 
 Monson with Colonel Hope-Kennedy. Out of all 
 my sea-going experiences I could not pick a fairer 
 picture than was made by the brig we were 
 passing, clad as she was in moonlight, and rising 
 in steam-coloured spaces to mere films of royals 
 motionless under the stars. She was a man of- war ; 
 the white of her broad band, tliat was broken by 
 black ports, gleamed like the ivory of piano- 
 forte keys ; her canvas was exquisitely cut and 
 set, and trimmed as naval men know how — one 
 yardarm looking backwards a little over another, 
 the rounded silent cloths, faint in the radiance 
 with a gleam as of alabaster showing through 
 a delicate haze, and high aloft the tremor of 
 a pennant like the expiring trail of a shooting 
 star. All was as hushed as death upon her ; 
 her high bulwarks concealed her decks ; nothing 
 was to be seen stuTing along the whole length of 
 the shapely, beautiful, visionary fabric that, as we 
 left her slowly veering away upon our quarter, 
 looked to lose the substance of her form, as though
 
 86 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 through the gradual absorption of the hght her 
 own white canvas made by the clearer and icy 
 radiance of the soaring moon. 
 
 ' To think now,' said I, ' of the thunder of 
 adamantine lips concealed within the silence of 
 that heap of swimming faintness ! How amazing 
 the change from the exquisite repose she suggests 
 to the fierce crimson blaze and lieadlong detona- 
 tions of a broadside flashing up the dark land and 
 dying out miles away in a sullen roar. But, d'ye 
 know, Miss Jennings, I sliall grow poetical if I do 
 not light another cigar. Women should encou- 
 rage men to smoke. Nothing keeps them 
 quieter.' 
 
 We exchanged a few words with Captain Finn, 
 who, together w^ith the mate, was keeping a bright 
 look-out, and then resumed our w\alk, and, in a 
 quiet chat that was ended only by a small bell 
 on the forecastle announcing the hour of ten by 
 four chimes, Miss Laura gave me the story of my 
 cousin's introduction to her family, described the 
 marriage, talked to me about Melbourne and her 
 home there, with more to the same purpose, all 
 very interesting to me, though it would make the 
 merest parish gossip in print. Her mother "svas 
 dead ; her father was a hearty man of sixty 
 who had emigrated years before in dire poverty, 
 *as you will suppose,' said she, 'when I tell you
 
 AV THE SOLENT ^-j 
 
 that lie was the son of a clissentiDg minister \vho 
 had a family of twelve children, and who died 
 without leaving money enough to pay for his 
 funeral.' Mr. Jennings had made a fortune by 
 squatting, but he had lost a considerable sum 
 within the past few years by stupid speculation, 
 and as Miss Laura said this I could see, by hearing 
 her (to use a Paddyism) the pout of her lij) ; for, 
 brioht as the moonlight was, the silver of it 
 blended with the golden tint of her hair without 
 defining any feature of her clearly saving her eyes, 
 in which the beam of the planet would sparkle 
 like a diamond whenever she raised them to my 
 face. She told me her father was very proud that 
 his daughter should become a lady of title, and 
 yet he opposed the marriage, too. In short, he 
 saw that Wilfrid's mind was not as sound as it 
 should be, though he never could point to any act 
 or speech to justify his misgivings. But this was 
 intelligible enough ; for, to speak of my cousin as 
 I remembered him in earlier times, the notion you 
 got that he was not straight-headed, as I have 
 before said, was from his face, and the suspicion 
 lay but dully in one, so rational was his behaviour, 
 so polished and often intellectual his talk; till 
 on a sudden it was sharpened into conviction 
 on yoiu' hearing that there was insanity in his 
 mother's family.
 
 88 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ' What had Lady Monson to say to your 
 father's misgivings ? ' I inquired. 
 
 ' She accepted him, and insisted upon marry- 
 ing him. He was wonderfully fond of her, Mr. 
 Monson.' 
 
 ' And she?' 
 
 I saw her give her head a little shake, but 
 she made no reply. Perhaps she considered that 
 this trip we had started on sufficiently answered 
 the question. She said, after a brief pause, ' I 
 myself thought my father a great deal too critical 
 in his estimate of Sir Wilfrid. Xo one talked 
 more delightfully than your cousin. He was a 
 favourite with everybody whom he met at Mel- 
 bourne. He was fresh from his travels, and was 
 full of entertaining stories and shrewd observa- 
 tions ; and then, again, he had mucli to say about 
 European capitals, of English university life, ot 
 English society — you will not need me to tell you 
 that we Colonials have little weaknesses in regard 
 to lords and ladies and to the doings of high 
 life, from which people in England are quite 
 exempt, and for the having which I fear we 
 are slightly sneered at and a good deal wondered 
 at.' 
 
 I caught the sparkle of her lifted eye. 
 
 ' And pray. Miss Jennings,' said I, ' what 
 would your papa think if he were to know that
 
 IX THE SOLENT 89 
 
 YOU had embarked on what, I must still take the 
 liberty of calling, a very queer voyage ? ' 
 
 ' Oh,' she cried quickly and almost hysteri- 
 cally, ' don't ask me what he would think of what 
 I am doincr \ What will be his thouofhts when he 
 gets the news of what Henrietta has done ? ' 
 
 She turned her head away from me, and 
 kept it averted long enough to make me suspect 
 that there was a tear in her eye. It was then that 
 a sailor forward struck the forecastle bell four 
 times. 
 
 ' Ten o'clock ! ' she exclaimed, knowing as an 
 ocean traveller how to interpret sea time. ' Good 
 night, Mr. Monson.' 
 
 I handed her down the companion-steps, and 
 went to my own cabin, and was presently in my 
 bunk. But it was after seven bells, half-past 
 eleven, before I fell asleep. 
 
 The breeze had freshened ; had drawn ap- 
 parently more yet to the northward, and the 
 yacht having hauled it a bit now that we were 
 out of the Solent, was leaning over a trifle with 
 a sputtering and frisky snapping of froth along 
 her bends and a quiet moaning sounding down 
 into her heart out of the hollows of her canvas, 
 whilst an occasional creak breaking from one 
 knew not what part of the structure, hinted at a 
 taut drag of tacks and sheets, though there was
 
 90 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 no motion in the water over whose surface our 
 keel shclecl as steadily as a sleigh over a snow- 
 covered plain. 
 
 It was one tiding on top of another, I suppose ; 
 the fancies put into me by the oddness of this 
 adventure ; the memory of the long gun forward; 
 Wilfrid's tragic intentions, the darker to my mind 
 because it was so easy for me to see how grief, 
 wrath, a sense of dishonour, bitter injury, Avith 
 impulses not imaginable by me which every 
 recurrence to tlie motherless little baby at liome 
 wonld visit him with, had quickened in liim of 
 late the deadly seminal principle that circulated 
 in his blood. Then again, there was Miss Laura's 
 beauty, if beauty be the proper term to express 
 a combination of physical charms which a brief 
 felicitous sentence like a single Xvn^ from some old 
 poet would better convey than fifty pages of 
 description ; her conversation ; her sympathy with 
 the motive of this trip ; her apparent heedlessness 
 as to the time to be occupied by it ; her in- 
 difference as to the magnitude of the programme 
 that Wilfrid's resolution to recover his wife mio-ht 
 
 o 
 
 end in framing if Table Bay should prove but a 
 starting point — I say it Avas one thing on top 
 of another ; and all reflections and considerations 
 being rendered acute by the spirit of life one now 
 felt in the yacht, and that awakened the most
 
 I.y THE SOLENT 91 
 
 dormant or puzzled faculty to the perception that 
 it was all grim, downright earnest, small wonder 
 that I should have lain awake until half-past 
 eleven. Indeed, that I should have snatched a 
 wink of sleep that first blessed night is a mj^stery 
 only to be partially resolved by reflecting that I 
 was young, heedless, 'unencumbered' as they say, 
 a lover of adventure, and in no sense dissatisfied 
 by the company I found myself among. 
 
 L
 
 92 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 LONG TOM. 
 
 Whex I awoke the morniriG^ was streaminc^ a 
 windy light through the port-hole over my bunk. 
 I lay a few minutes watching my coat and other 
 suspended garments swinging against the bulk- 
 head, and listening to the creaking and groanings 
 of partitions and strong fastenings, and to a 
 muffled humming sound that was like the distant 
 continuous roll of a drum mixed with a faint 
 seething that sent one's fancy to the shingle of the 
 English shore, and to the panting respiration of 
 the recoiling breaker upon it ; and then I guessed 
 that there was a fresh breeze blowing. 
 
 I tumbled out of bed and stood awhile, partly 
 with the notion of making sure of my legs and 
 partly to discover if I was likely to be sea-sick. 
 Finding myself happily sound in all ways, I drew 
 on some clothing and looked out. Wilfrid's melan- 
 choly man sat at the cabin table, leaning his head 
 upon his elbow with his fingers penetrating the 
 black plaister of hair over his brow so that he
 
 LONG TOM 93 
 
 presented a very dejected and disordered appear- 
 ance. I called to him, lie looked in my direction 
 with a wandering eye, struggled to get up, put his 
 hand upon his stomach with an odd smile and sat 
 again. I entered the cabin to see what ailed the 
 fellow. 
 
 ' What's the matter with you ? ' said I. ' Sick ? ' 
 
 He turned his hollow yellow face upon me, and 
 I saw that he was in liquor. 
 
 ' It's here, sir,' he exclaimed, pointing with an 
 inebriated forefinger to the lower button of his 
 waistcoat ; ' it's a feehn', sir, as if I was a globe, 
 sir, with gold and silver fishes a swimming round 
 and round, and poking of their noses against me 
 to get out.' 
 
 He spoke respectfully, but thickly, with sundry 
 little feints at rising as though very sensible that 
 he should not be sitting whilst I stood. 
 
 ' Try a dose of brandy,' said I, satirically. 
 
 ' Do you think it will help me, sir ? ' he 
 inquired, pulling his fingers out of his hair and 
 clasping his hands upon his waistcoat, whilst his 
 lips went twisting into an intoxicated grin on one 
 side of his nose, as it looked. ' I will try it, Mr. 
 Monson, sir. There's a something here as wants 
 settling, sir. I never was partial to the hocean, 
 sir.' 
 
 He was proceeding, but just then the second
 
 94 
 
 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 steward came below, on which I quitted the 
 mehmcholy man, ordered a cold salt-water bath 
 and a hot cup of coffee and was presently on 
 deck. It w^as a windy-looking morning, the sky 
 hif>h, grey, compacted; with here and there a 
 dark curl of scud in chase of some bald lump of 
 sulphur-coloured cloud blowing away to leew^ard 
 like the first ball of powder smoke from a cannon's 
 mouth ere the wind has had time to shred it. 
 The water was green, a true Channel sea with the 
 foam of the curled ridges dazzling out in times to 
 the touch of a wet, pale beam of sunshine drop- 
 ping in a lance of light in some breathless moment 
 throucfh one of the dim blue lines that here and 
 there veined the dulness aloft. There was no land 
 to be seen ; the haze of the sea line ran the water 
 into the sky, and the green of the horizon went 
 blending into the soft greyness of the heavens 
 till it looked all one with a difference of colour 
 only. 
 
 The yacht was bowling through it at a noble 
 pace ; the wind sat as it should for such a craft as 
 the ' Bride ' ; tlie sea had quartered her and swept 
 in hillocks of foam along her lustrous bends, sending 
 an impulse to her floating rushes with ever}' 
 pale boiling of it to her frame, and the sputter 
 and creaming all about her bows, and the swirl of 
 the snow over the lee rail, and the milk-white race
 
 LONG TOM 95 
 
 of \Yake rising and falling fan-shaped astern pris- 
 matic with the glint of chips and bubbles and 
 feathers of spume swept out of the giddiness by 
 the rush of the wind, might have made you think 
 yourself aboard a ship of a thousand tons. Upon 
 my word it was as though the 'Bride' had got the 
 scent and knew that the 'Shark' was not far dis- 
 tant. Finn was not sparing her. He was to 
 windward, close beside the wheel, as I emerged, 
 and I knew he w^atched me whilst I stood a 
 moment in the hatch looking from the huge thun- 
 derous hollow of the mainsail to tlie yawn of the 
 big square-sail they had clapped upon her with 
 the whole square topsail atop of z7, topgallant sail 
 stowed, but the jibs yearning from their sheets 
 taut as fiddle-strings, as though they would bodily 
 uproot the timber and iron to which they were 
 belayed. 
 
 Something of the exhilaration of a real chase 
 came into one with the glad roaring aloft and the 
 saw-like spitting at the cutwater, and the sullen 
 crash of the arching billow repulsed by the cleav- 
 ing bow; and it was the instinct in me, I suppose, 
 due to my early training and recollection of the 
 long pursuit of more than one polacre and nimble - 
 heeled schooner fiush to the hatches with a livinor 
 ebony cargo that made me send a look sheer over 
 the bows in search of some shining quarry there.
 
 96 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 There were three or four coasters in a huddle 
 on the weather beam, their outhnes sharp, but 
 their substance of a dingy black against the yel- 
 lowish glare of light over the water that way as 
 though the East were finding reflection in it ; and 
 to leeward, a mile off, a full-rigged sailing ship on 
 a bowhne bound up Channel, and plunging her 
 round bows with clumsy viciousness into the 
 green hollows with a frequent lift of white water 
 to above the cathead, where it blew in a storm of 
 crystals into the head canvas. 
 
 ' Good morning, captain.' 
 
 ' Good morning, sir,' answered Finn, knuck- 
 ling his forehead in the old fashioned style. ' Nice 
 little breeze of wind, sir.' 
 
 ' Ay, one could pray for nothing better,' said 
 I, crossing over to him. ' You've got a fine craft 
 here certainly, captain ; no stint of beam, and 
 bulwarks stout and tall enough to serve the pur- 
 pose of a pirate. And how finely she rounds 
 forward to the eyes. Hillo ! getting ready with 
 your gun so soon ? ' 
 
 ' No, su% only a cleaning of him,' he answered 
 with a grin. 
 
 They had removed the tarpaulin, and there 
 stood the long piece, with a couple of seamen 
 hard at work furbishing it up. 
 
 ' D'ye think,' said I, making a step or two
 
 LGXG TOM 97 
 
 towards the rail to bring us out of earshot of the 
 fellow who was standing at the w^heel, ' that Sir 
 Wilfrid really means to let fly at the " Shark " 
 should we overhaul her, if she refuses to 
 heave to P ' 
 
 ' I don't doubt it, sir.' 
 
 ' But how about your crew ? Will they be 
 willing, think you, to fire into a vessel that's a 
 yacht like their own ship, that hails from the 
 same port, and whose people may mimber 
 amongst them acquaintances — old shipmates of 
 your own men ? ' 
 
 ' They'll obey orders, sir,' said he quietly, with 
 an air of caution in his long^ face. 
 
 ' Suppose it should come to our having to 
 board the "Shark," captain, and she shows fight — 
 are vou croing to set your men to hazard their 
 lives in the face of the pacific articles they, I 
 presume, have signed ? ' 
 
 ' It'll never come to a fight, Mr. Monson,' he 
 responded, ' though I don't say it may not come 
 to oar having to fire at the vessel to stop her ; for 
 you see if the Colonel commands Fidler to keep 
 all fast and take no notice of us there'll be nothen 
 for him but to obey : whilst stop her vce must, do 
 
 ye see, sir ? But as to fighting ' he shook 
 
 his head. ' Xo, sir ; when the time's come for 
 boarding they'll be willing to let us walk quietly 
 
 VOL. T. H
 
 98 A A OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ovei; the side no matter how much they may con- 
 sider their feehngs injured by our shooting at 'em. 
 In short it's hke this ; ne'er a man aboard the 
 '-'" Shark " but knows what the Colonel and her Lady- 
 ship's gone and done ; a good many I dessay are 
 husbands themselves, not to speak of their being 
 Englishmen, and ye may take it that ne'er a hand 
 of 'em from Fidler down is going to resist Sir 
 Wilfrid's stepping on board to demand his own.' 
 
 ' You may be right,' said I ; ' 'tis hard to say, 
 though. Do our crew know the errand we are 
 on? ' 
 
 ' Bound to it, sir. In fact, the sliipping of that 
 there gun wouldn't allow the job to remain a 
 secret. But the " Shark " was away first, and if all 
 Southampton had got talking of our intention it 
 couldn't have signified, so far as consarns I mean 
 their guessing at it aboard the " Shark." ' 
 
 ' You must have pushed your equipment for- 
 ward with wonderful expedition ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, sir ; we worked day and night. Of 
 course we was all ready for sea, but there would 
 be many things a wanting for what might turn 
 out a six or seven thousand mile run with ne'er a 
 stoppage along the whole road of it.' 
 
 My eye was just then taken by something that 
 glittered upon the mainmast witliin reach of a 
 man's uphfted arm. I peered, imagining it to be
 
 LONG TOM 99 
 
 a little plate with an inscription upon it com- 
 memorating something that Wilfrid might have 
 deemed worthy of a memorial. I caught Finn 
 grinning. 
 
 ' D'ye see what it is, sir ? ' said he. 
 
 I looked again, and shook my head. He 
 walked to the mast and I followed him, and now 
 I saw that it was a handsome five-guinea piece, 
 obviously of an old date — but it was too high to 
 distinguish the impress clearly — secured by a 
 couple of little staples which gripped without 
 piercing or wounding it. 
 
 ' That piece of money,' said Finn, ' is for the 
 first man that sights the " Shark." ' 
 
 ' Ha ! ' I exclaimed, ' an old whaHng practice. 
 My cousin has not viewed the world for nothing ! ' 
 
 It was but a trifling thing, yet in its way it 
 was almost as hard a bit of underscoring of my 
 cousin's resolution as the long grinning piece they 
 were cleaning forward, or the stand of arms 
 against the bulkhead below. 
 
 ' What's the pace, captain .^ ' 
 
 ' A full ten, sir, by the last heave of the log.' 
 
 I fell a whistling — for it was grand saiHng, 
 surely — with a lift of my eye to the topgallant sail 
 that lay stowed in a snow-white streak with a 
 proper man-of-war's bunt amidships on the slender 
 black yard. 
 
 H 2
 
 loo AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ' Well, sir,' said Finn, taking it upon himself 
 to interpret my glance, ' I know tlie " Bride," and 
 I'm likewise acquainted with a good many vessels 
 whicli ain't the least bit in the world like her, 
 and my notion's this, that a craft '11 do no more 
 than she can do. I've hove the log to reefed 
 canvas, and I've hove it in the same wind to 
 whole sails and found a loss. No use of burying 
 what you want to keep afloat. I might set 
 that there little top-gallant sail without enjoying 
 a hinch of w^ay more out of it. Then what 'ud be 
 the good of straining the spars ? ' 
 
 ' But you'll be setting stun' sails, I suppose, 
 when a right chance for running them aloft occurs? ' 
 
 ' Ay, sir. There's the boom irons all ready. 
 But my notion is, in a vessel of this sort, that it's 
 best to keep your stun' sail booms out of sight till 
 your anchors are stowed. Once out of soundings, 
 and then let a man cut what capers he likes.' 
 
 As he said this, up rose my cousin's long body 
 through the companion hatch. He stood a little 
 looking about him in his short-sighted way, but 
 with an expression of satisfaction upon his face 
 that gave a new character to it. I saw him rub 
 his hands w^hilst he grinned to the swift salt rush 
 of the wind. He caught sight of me, and instantly 
 approached. 
 
 ' This will do ! this will do, Charles ! ' he cried,
 
 LONG TOM loi 
 
 grasping my hand. ' Don't spare her, captain. 
 These are slants to be made the most of. By- 
 heaven, but it makes a new man of me to see 
 such a sight as that \ ' pointing to the white torrent 
 that was roaring past to leeward. 
 
 He stared with a sort of pathetic eagerness at 
 the vessels which we were passing as though they 
 had their anchors down, afterwards shading his 
 eyes for another long yearning look over either 
 bow. 
 
 ' It is fine, though ! it is fine, though ! ' he 
 muttered with the spirit of an unreasonable ex- 
 hilaration working strong in every feature. ' What 
 is it, captain ? Twelve ? ' Finn gave him the 
 figure. ' And what would be the " Shark's " pace 
 supposing her yonder ? ' 
 
 ' Not all ours. Sir Wilfrid, not all ours,' re- 
 sponded Finn, ' though it is a fine sailing breeze, 
 your honour. A craft would have to be a sawed- 
 off-square consarn not to wash handsomely along 
 this morning, sir.' 
 
 ' How have you slept, Wilfrid ? ' said I. 
 
 ' Well,' he answered. ' But I say, Charles, what 
 do you think ? ' said he with a sudden boyish air 
 that startled me with its suggestion of stupidity in 
 him. ' Muffin is drunk.' 
 
 ' Drunk ! ' cried I ; ' but who the deuce is 
 Muffin .^ ' forgetting the name.
 
 I02 Ay OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 'Why, my man,' lie answered; 'my valet. 
 It's very odd. I thought at first it was sea- 
 sickness. He's been crying. The tears, I give 
 you my word, streamed down his cheeks. He 
 begs to be set ashore, and swears that if he should 
 choke with one of the fish that are swimming about 
 in him, his mother and two sisters would have to 
 go to the Union. Do you think he's mad? ' 
 
 • Drunk, and sea-sick too,' said I. ' Has he 
 not been away with you on a yachting trip 
 before ? ' 
 
 ' No. This is a handsome vessel, don't you 
 think, Charles.^' he exclaimed, breaking from 
 the subject as tliough it had never been in 
 his mind, and following on his question with a 
 curious fluttering smile and that trembling of the 
 lids I have before described; though his gaze 
 steadied miraculously as they rested upon the gun 
 the fellows were at work upon, and a shadow came 
 into his face which was as good as tellins^ me that 
 I need not respond to his inquiry, as his thoughts 
 were already elsewhere. 
 
 ' Let's go and have a look at my cannon,' said 
 he with the same odd boyish manner he had dis- 
 covered a minute or two earlier. 
 
 We walked forward ; the decks had been 
 some time before washed down and were sand 
 dry, white as a tree newly stripped of its bark,
 
 LONG TOM 103 
 
 with a glitter all about them of the crystals of 
 salt. The rigging was everywhere neatly coiled 
 down ; whatever was of brass shone as though it 
 reflected a sunbeam ; no detail but must have 
 satisfied the most exacting nautical eye with aa 
 indication of frigate-hke neatness, cleanliness, 
 finish, and fore and aft discipHne. The ' Bride/ 
 after the manner of many yachts of those days, 
 carried a galley on deck abaft her foremast. I 
 peeped in as I passed and took notice of a snug 
 little interior, brilliant with polished cooking 
 vessels, and as clean and sweet as a dairy. A 
 few of the sailors were standincr about it waitincr 
 (as I took it) for the cook to furnish the messes 
 with their breakfast. They had the air of a rough 
 resolute set of men, with something of the inspira- 
 tion of the yachting business, perhaps, in their 
 manner of saluting Sir Wilfrid and myself, but 
 with little of the aspect of the seafarer of the 
 pleasure vessel of these times. They were bushy- 
 whiskered hard-a-weather fellows for the most 
 part, with one odd face amongst them as yellow 
 and wrinkled as the skin of a decayed lemon. 
 
 I asked ^Yilfrid carelessly if any of his crew 
 liad sailed with him before. He answered that a 
 few of them had ; but that the others had declined 
 to start on a voyage to the end of which Finn 
 was unable to furnish a date, so that the captain
 
 104 A.y OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 had made up the complement in a hurry out of 
 the best hands he could find cruising about ashore. 
 So this, thought I, accounts for the absence of 
 that uniformity of apparel one looks for amongst 
 the crews of yachts ; yet all the sailors I had 
 taken notice of were dressed warmly in very 
 good clean nautical clothes, though I protest it 
 made one think of the old picaroon and yarns of 
 the Spanish Main to glance at one or two of the 
 dry, tough, burnt, seawardly chaps who concealed 
 their pipes and dragged a curl upon their foreheads 
 to us as we passed them. 
 
 Wilfrid stared at his eighteen-pounder as 
 though he were some lad viewing a toy cannon 
 he had just purchased. He bent close to it in his 
 near-sighted w^ay, and looked it all over whilst he 
 asked me what I thought of it. I saw the two 
 fellows who were still at work upon it chew hard 
 on the junks in their cheek-bones in their struggle 
 to keep their faces. 
 
 ' Why,' said I, ' it seems to me a very good 
 sort of gun, Wilfrid, and a thing, when fired, I'd 
 rather stand behind than in front of.' 
 
 ' I should have had two of them,' said he 
 with a momentary darkening of his looks to the 
 rising in him of some vexing memory, pointing as 
 he spoke to the bow ports, ' but Finn thought 
 one piece of such a calibre enough at this end of
 
 LONG TOM X05 
 
 the vessel, and it would have been idle to mount 
 a stern-chaser ; for what we want to fire at — 
 should it come to it — we can alwaj's manage to 
 keep yonder,' nodding in the direction of the jib- 
 boom. 
 
 I had no mind to talk with him in the pre- 
 sence of the two fellows, one of whom I would 
 see screw up his eye like the twist of a gimblet at 
 us whilst he went on polishing ; so I stepped into 
 the head to take a view of the shear of the cut- 
 water as it drove knife-like into each green 
 freckled and glass-smooth side of 'surge rolling 
 transversely from us ere shattering it into a snow- 
 storm ; but the bulwarks being too tall to enable 
 me to see all that I looked for, I sprang on to 
 the bowsprit and laid out to the jibboom end, 
 which I jockeyed, holding on to a stay and beckon- 
 ing to \Yilfrid to follow ; but he shook his head 
 with a loud call to me to mind what I was about. 
 
 One may talk of the joy of a swift gallop on 
 horseback when the man and the animal fit like 
 hand and glove, when all is smooth running, w^ith 
 a gallant leap now and again ; but w^hat is a flight 
 of that sort compared with the sensations you get 
 by striding the jibboom of such a schooner as the 
 'Bride ' and feeling her airily leap with you over the 
 hquid hollows which yawn right under you, green, 
 as the summer leaf or purple as the violet for a
 
 io6 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 moment or two, before the smiting stem fills the 
 thunderous chasm with the splendour of a cloud 
 of boihng froth ! It was a picture to have de- 
 tained me an hour, so noble was the spectacle of 
 the leaning yacht for ever coming right at me as 
 it seemed, the rounds of her canvas whitened into 
 marble hardness with the yearn and lean of the 
 distended cloths to a quarter of the sea where 
 hung a brighter tincture of sky through some 
 tenuity of the eastern greyness behind which the 
 sun was soaring. One felt a life and soul in the 
 httle ship in every floating bound she made, in 
 every sliding blow of the bow that sent a vast 
 smooth curl of billow to windward for the shrill- 
 edged blast to transform into a very cataract of 
 stars and diamonds and prisms ! Lovely beyond 
 description was the curtseying of her gilt figure- 
 head and the refulgence of the gold lines all about 
 it to the milk-white softness that seethed to the 
 hawse-pipes. 
 
 I made my way inboards and said to Wilfrid, 
 who stood waiting for me, ' She's a beauty. She 
 should achieve yonr end for you if it is Table Bay 
 only you are thinking of. But yonder great 
 horizon ! ' I exclaimed, motioning with my hand. 
 * We are still in tlie narrow sea — yet look how far 
 it stretches ! Think then of the Atlantic circle.' 
 
 * We shall overhaul her ! ' he exclaimed quickly,
 
 LONG TOM 107 
 
 with a gesture that made an instant's passion of his 
 way of speaking. 'Come along aft, Charles, and 
 stump it a bit for an appetite. Breakfast can't be 
 far off now.' 
 
 Miss Laura did not make her appearance until 
 we were at table. I feared that the 'Bride's ' lively- 
 dance had proved too much for her, and glanced 
 aft for the maid that I might ask how her mistress 
 did. Indeed, though on deck one gave no heed to 
 the rolling and plunging of the yacht, the move- 
 ments were rendered mighty sensible in the cabin 
 by the swift, often convulsive, oscillations of lamps 
 and swing-trays, by the sliding of articles of the 
 breakfast equipment in the fiddles, by the mono- 
 tonous ticking-like noise of doors upon their 
 hooks, the slope of the cabin floor, sounds like 
 the groanings of strong men in pain breaking in 
 upon the ear from all parts, and above all by 
 sudden lee-hu^ches which veiled the port-holes in 
 green water, that sobbed madly till it flashed, with 
 a shriek and a long dim roar, ofl* the weeping glass 
 lifted by the weather roll to the dull grey glare of 
 the day. 
 
 But we had scarcely taken our seats when the 
 girl arrived, and she brought such life and hght 
 and fragTance in her mere aspect to the table, that 
 it was as though some rich and beautiful flower of 
 a perfume sweetened yet by the coohiess of dew^
 
 io8 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 had been placed amongst us. She had slept well, 
 she said, but her maid was ill and helpless. ' And 
 where is Muffin ? ' she demanded. 
 
 ' He's a lying down, miss,' exclaimed the head 
 steward ; ' he says his blood-w^essels is that deli- 
 cate he's got to be werry careful indeed.' 
 
 Wilfrid leaned across to her and said, in a low 
 voice that the steward might not hear him, but 
 with the boyish air that I had found odd and even 
 absurd strong in him again, ' Laura, my dear, 
 imagine ! Muffin is drunk' He broke into a 
 strong, noisy laugh. ' Weepingly drunk, Laura ; 
 talks of himself as a globe of fish, and indeed,' he 
 added, with a sudden recovery of his gravity, ' so 
 queer outside all inspirations of the bottle that 
 I'm disposed to think him mad.' Again he uttered 
 a loud ha ! ha ! peering at me witli his short sight 
 to see if I was amused. 
 
 A look of concern entered Miss Jennings' face, 
 but quickly left it, subdued, as I noticed, by an 
 effort of will. 
 
 ' I was afraid that Muffin would not suit you, 
 she exclaimed, quietly. ' I told you so, I re- 
 member. Those yellow, hollow men are miserable 
 sailors. He has all good qualities as a valet on 
 shore, but ' she was proceeding when he in- 
 terrupted her. 
 
 ' I say, Laura, isn't this breeze magnificent,
 
 LONG TOM 109 
 
 eh ? Think, my dear — ten knots an hour ! We 
 are sweeping through it as though we were in 
 tow of a comet. Why, if the devil himself were 
 ahead we should overhaul him at this pace.' 
 
 He dropped his knife and fork as though to 
 rub his hands — an action common to him when 
 gratified — but his face darkened, a wild expression 
 came into it with a sudden savage protrusion of 
 his projecting under-lip to the bitter sneer of the 
 upper one ; he fell again to eating in a hurry, 
 breathing short and masticating viciously with 
 now and again a shake of the head, until all at 
 once, ere he had half m.ade an end of what was 
 before him, he pushed his plate violently away 
 and lay back in his chair, with his arms tightly 
 folded upon his breast and his gaze intently fixed 
 downwards, in a way to make me think of that 
 aunt of his whom the old earl had pointed out to 
 his father as she paced the green sward betwixt 
 two keepers. 
 
 With the easiest air imaginable, though it was 
 impossible that she could effectually bhnd to my 
 sight the mingled expression of worry and dismay 
 in her eyes as she directed them at me, Miss 
 Jennings, making the breakfast upon the table 
 her text, prattled about the food one gets on 
 board ship, seizing, as it seemed to me, the first 
 common-place topic she could think of.
 
 no AN OCEAX TRAGEDY 
 
 I took an askant view of the stewards to see 
 if they noticed Sir Wilfrid, but could find nothing 
 to interpret in their w^ooden, availing faces. After 
 a little he seemed to wake up, coming back to his 
 mind, as it were, with a long, tremulous sigh, and 
 a puzzled look round at the table as though 
 wondering whether he had breakfasted or not. 
 Miss Jennings and I chatted common-places. He 
 called for a cup of tea, and then, after hstening 
 with plenty of intelligence in his manner to a little 
 experience I w^as relating to Miss Laura concern- 
 ing the recovery of a captain's pig that had been 
 washed overboard in a sudden squall, he described 
 a gale of wind he liad encountered off Agulhas 
 whilst on a voyage to India, during which the 
 cuddy front was stove in, and an immense sow 
 and her young, along with a fine specimen of 
 an English cart-horse and a cow, washed bodily 
 aft, and swept in thunder down the broad stair- 
 case in the saloon that conducted to the berths 
 and livino--room for wdiat were then termed the 
 steerage passengers. Xo story was ever more 
 graphically related. He described the panic 
 amongst the passengers, the horrible concert 
 produced by the screams of the pigs and the 
 terrified moaning and bellowmg of the cow, the 
 uproar of the cart-horse's plunging hoofs against 
 the resonant bulkheads, mingled with the shrieks
 
 LONG TOM HI 
 
 of the people who were in bed and imagined the 
 ship to be already under water ; I say he de- 
 scribed all this so well, w^ith so keen an apprecia- 
 tion of the humour, as well as of the horror of the 
 scene, with a delivery so free from all excitement, 
 that it seemed almost incredible he should be the 
 same man that just now sat fixed in the posture 
 of a melancholy madman with a face, as I might 
 have thought, dark with the shadow of eclipsed 
 reason. 
 
 Breakfast ended, he quitted the table to fetch 
 his pipe. 
 
 ' I had better have come without a man, 
 after all,' said he, laughing ; ' one condition 
 of sea-going should be that a fellow must 
 help himself; and, upon my word, it comes 
 to it no matter how many servants he brings 
 with him. 'Tis the same ashore too, after alL 
 It is the mistress who does most of the waiting ; ' 
 and thus pleasantly speaking he went to his 
 cabin. 
 
 Miss Laura made as if to rise. 
 
 ' An instant. Miss Jennings,' said I. ' I have 
 seen nothing of Wilfrid of late years. You, on 
 the other hand, have been a good deal thrown 
 with him during the last three months. Tell me, 
 then, what you think of his manner and language 
 just now — that piece of behaviour, I mean, from
 
 112 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 which he started, so to speak, into perfect ra- 
 tionality ? ' 
 
 ' It was a sort of mood,' she answered, speak- 
 ing low, ' that I have noticed in him, but never 
 before saw so defined.' 
 
 ' It was madness,' said I, with a shake of the 
 head. 
 
 'The shadow of a passing mood of madness,' 
 said she. ' Was he on deck with you before 
 breakfast .^ ' 
 
 I answered yes. 
 
 ' Were his spirits good ? ' 
 
 ' Irrationally good, I thought. It was the 
 sight of the flying schooner, no doubt, the picture 
 of the running seas, the sense of headlong speed, 
 with the black grin of the forecastle gun to 
 quicken his wild craving into a very delirium of 
 expectation and hope. But that kind of glee is 
 quite as alarming as his melancholy.' 
 
 ' Yes, but you will find his melancholy strong 
 as his spirits seem high. Do I make myself 
 understood, Mr. Monson ? ' 
 
 ' Quite. One moment, you mean, he is look- 
 ing down upon this extraordinary plan of his — 
 this goose-chase, I must call it, with a bounding 
 heart from the edo-e of a chasm the next he is 
 at the very bottom of the pit gazing upwards in 
 an anguish of dejection. The deeper the preci-
 
 LONG TOM 113 
 
 pice tlie gloomier the depth where he brings up. 
 Certainly I understand you. Miss Jennings. But 
 here is now a consideration that is bothering me/ 
 I continued, sending a look aft, and up at the 
 open skylight and around, to make sure that we 
 were unheard. ' I am his cousin. As his associate 
 in this voyage I have a right to regard myself as 
 his best friend, for the time being anyway. Now 
 what is my duty in the face of a condition of 
 mind whose capriciousness fills it with menace ? 
 He brinas me here as his right-hand man 
 to help him, but to help him in or to what? 
 I seem to understand his programme, yet I 
 protest I cannot render it intelligible to my own 
 common sense. Many might think me " wanting " 
 myself to be here at all ; but I will not go into 
 that ; w^hat I mean is, is it not my duty to hinder 
 him if possible from prosecuting a chase which, in 
 my humble judgment, by continuing to irritate 
 him with the disappointment of hope, may end in 
 rendering organic what is now, let us pray, 
 merely functional and fugitive ? ' 
 
 ' You may try, but I do not think you will 
 succeed,' she exclaimed. ' Indeed,' she cried, 
 raising her voice, but immediately and nervously 
 subduing it. ' I hope you will not try, for it is 
 not hard to foresee what must follow. You will 
 merely make his resolution more stubborn by 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 ^^ OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 rendering it angrier than it is, and then there 
 might come a coohiess between you — ^indeed, 
 something worse than coohiess on his side ; for 
 in such minds as your cousin's it is impossible 
 to imagine what dangerous ideas opposition may 
 provoke.' 
 
 I bowed in recognition of the truth of this, 
 admiring in her a quality of sagacity that, to the 
 fancy at all events of a young man as I then was, 
 would gather a new excellence from lier graces. 
 She looked at me with a tremble of liofht in her 
 gaze that vexed its serenity. 
 
 ' Besides, Mr. Monson, we must consider 
 Henrietta.' 
 
 ' It is natural you should think wholly of her,' 
 said I. 
 
 ' Not wholly. But this pursuit may end in 
 rescuing her from Colonel Hope-Kennedy. It 
 gives her future a chance. But you would have 
 her husband sit quietly at home.' 
 
 ' Well, not exactly,' I interrupted. 
 
 ' What would you have him do ? ' she asked. 
 
 * Get a divorce,' said I. 
 
 'He won't do that,' she exclaimed. 'Mar- 
 riage in his sight is a sacrament. Do not you 
 know his views, Mr. Monson ? ' 
 
 'You see, I have long lost sight of him.' 
 
 ' Well, I ^7zc>?^ he would not seek a divorce.
 
 LONG TOM 115 
 
 He would be mad indeed,' she cried, flushing to 
 her brows, ' to give my sister the liberty she 
 
 wants, and Colonel Hope-Kennedy ' She 
 
 faltered and stopped, biting her underlip, with 
 the hot emotions which mounted to her flice 
 imparting a sudden air of womanly maturity to 
 her girlish beauty, whilst her breast rose and fell 
 to her ireful breathing. * This is no mad pursuit,' 
 she continued after a brief pause, speaking softly. 
 ' What is there unreasonable in a man's determin- 
 ation to follow his wife that he may come as 
 swiftly as the ship, the coach, the railway will 
 permit him between her and a life of shame and 
 remorse and misery ? ' 
 
 As she spoke, my cousin arrived, holding a 
 great meerschaum pipe in his hand. She at once 
 rose and left the table with a faint smile at me 
 and a glance on top of it that was as eloquent as 
 a whisper of regret at having been betrayed into 
 warmth. Well, thought I, you are a sweet httle 
 woman, and it is highly probable that before I 
 have been a week in your company I shall be 
 head over ears in love with you. But for all that, 
 you fair and artless creature, I don't agree with 
 you in your views of this chase. Suppose 
 Wilfrid recaptures his wife — what is he going to 
 do w^ith her ? She is not a lunatic ; he cannot 
 lock her up — but I broke off to the approach of my 
 
 I 2
 
 Ii6 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 cousin, fetched my pipe, and went on deck with 
 him. 
 
 After all it was about time I should now see 
 that, though we might shape a course for the 
 yacht and give the wind the name of the compass 
 points whence it blew. Chance was our skipper 
 and helmsman, and the regions into which he 
 was leading us as blind and thick as smoke. 
 Throughout life and in all things it is the same, 
 of course ; we sail with a fog that stands wall- 
 like at the bows of our intentions, receding inch 
 by inch with our advance, and leaving the water 
 clear on eitlier hand and astern, but ahead it 
 remains for ever as thick as mud in a wine-glass. 
 Anyhow, the chase was a sort of consolation to 
 Wilfrid ; it had Miss Laura's approval, and there 
 was hope enough to be got out of it according to 
 her to render her trustful. But for my part I 
 could only view it as a yachting excursion, and 
 I particularly felt this when I stepped on deck 
 with my cousin, spite of my quite recent talk with 
 his sweet sister-in-law, and felt the sweep of the 
 strong wind, and caught the roar of the divided 
 waters sounding a small thunder upon the ears 
 after the comparative calm of tlie breakfast-table 
 below.
 
 117 
 
 CHAPTEE YI. 
 
 FINN TESTS THE CREW's SIGHT. 
 
 Little of interest happened at the outset. 
 There were but three of us for company ; our 
 ship was a small one, and the inner life of it 
 a monotonous round of eathif?, drinking^, smokin^r, 
 of taking the wheel, of pendulously stumping the 
 quarter-deck, of keeping a look-out, of scrubbing 
 and polishing, and making and shortening sail ; 
 whilst outside there was nothing but weather and 
 sea ; so that in a very short time I had lapsed 
 into the old ocean trick of timing the passage of 
 the hours by meals. 
 
 But that I may not approach in a staggering 
 or disjointed way the huddle of astonishments which 
 then lay many leagues distance past the gleam of 
 the sea-line towards which our bowsprit was 
 pointing, I will enter here in a sort of log-book 
 fashion a few of the interests, features and 
 spectacles of this early passage of our singular 
 excursion. 
 
 The fresh wind ran us well down Channel.
 
 1X8 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 Hour after hour tlie ' Bride' was driving the green 
 seas into foam before her, and there was a continu- 
 ous fretful heaving of the log to Wilfrid's feverish 
 demands, until I think, l)efore we were two days 
 out, the very souls of the crew had grown to 
 loathe the cry of ' turn ! ' and the rattle of the 
 reel. 
 
 That same morning — the morning I mean 
 that I have dealt with in the last chapter — after 
 Wilfrid and I had been smoking a httle while 
 under the lee of tlie tall bulwark which the wind 
 struck and recoiled from, leaving a space of calm 
 in the clear above it to the height of a man's 
 hand, my cousin, who had been chatting with the 
 utmost intellio^ence on a matter so remote from the 
 object of this chase as a sale of yearlings which 
 he had attended a few weeks before, sprang to 
 his feet with the most abrupt breaking away 
 imaginable from what he was talking about, and 
 called to Captain Finn, who was coming leisurely 
 aft from the neighbourhood of the galley w^ith a 
 sailorly eye upturned at the canvas and a roll of 
 his short legs that made you think he would feel 
 more at home on all fours. 
 
 ' Finn,' cried Wilfrid, ' there is no one on the 
 look-out ! ' and he pointed with his long awkward 
 arm at the topgallant yard. 
 
 * Why hardly yet, sir,' began Finn.
 
 FINN TESTS THE CREW'S SIGHT 119 
 
 ' Hardly yet\ ' interrupted Wilfrid, ' my orders 
 were, day and niglit from the hour of our 
 departure.' 
 
 ' Beg your honour's pardon, I'm sure, sir,' 
 said Finn. ' I didn't quite take ye as meaning 
 to be literal. Five days' start, you know. Sir 
 Wilfrid ' 
 
 'What is that to meV cried my cousin 
 impetuously ; ' it's the unexpected you've got to 
 make ready for at sea, man. Figure something 
 havincf cjone wrong with the " Shark " — her masts 
 overboard — a leak — fire. Anyway,' he cried with 
 the heat of a man who means to have his will but 
 who grows suddenly sensible of the weakness of 
 his arguments, ' have a fellow stationed aloft day 
 and night. D'ye hear me, Finn ? ' 
 
 ' Certainly I hear you. Sir Wilfiid.' 
 
 He knuckled his forehead, and was in the act 
 of moving away to give directions, when my 
 cousin stopped him. 
 
 ' ^o use sending blind men aloft, Finn — mere 
 gogglers like myself, worse luck ! You must find 
 out the men with eyes in their heads in this 
 ship.' 
 
 Finn hung in tlie wind, sending a dull rolling 
 glance at the five guinea piece nailed to the main- 
 mast. ' If it worn't for that,' he exclaimed, pointing 
 to it, ' it wouldn't matter ; but if I pick and choose,
 
 I20 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 'twill be like stirring up the inside of a sty. The 
 men '11 argue that the piece of money is for the 
 first man that sights the " Shark," and they'll think 
 it hard that a few of them only should be selected 
 to stand a look-out aloft ; for it will be but one of 
 'em that's chosen as can airn the money.' 
 
 ' Very true,' said I. 
 
 ' Confound it, Charles ! ' cried my cousin 
 angrily, ' what'll be the good of posting a short- 
 sighted man up there ? ' 
 
 ' All hands. Captain Finn, have got two eyes 
 apiece in their heads .^ ' said I. 
 
 ' All, sir,' he answered after a little reflection, 
 ' saving the mate, and he's got two eyes too ; only 
 one makes a foul hawse of t'other.' 
 
 ' You may take it, Wilfrid,' said I, ' that your 
 men are able to see pretty much alike.' 
 
 ' Is there no way of testing the fellows' sight?' 
 cried Wilfrid excitedly, with an unnecessary 
 headlong manner about him as though he would 
 heave his body along with every question he put 
 or exclamation he uttered ; ' then we could 
 uproot the moles among them. Dash me, Finn, 
 if I'm going to let the " Shark " slip astern of us 
 for want of eyesight.' 
 
 The skipper sent a slow uncertain look 
 around the horizon, evidently puzzled ; then his 
 face cleared a bit. He went to the weather rail
 
 FINN TESTS THE CREW'S SIGHT lit 
 
 and stared ahead, crossed to leeward and fas- 
 tened his eyes on the sea on the lee bow, then 
 coming up to windward again he hailed a man 
 who was at work upon the topsail yard doing 
 something to one of the stirrups of the foot-rope. 
 
 ' Aloft there ! ' 
 
 'HiUo!' 
 
 ' Jump on to the topgallant yard and let me 
 know if there's anything in sight ahead or on 
 either bow ? ' 
 
 ' Ay, ay, sir.' 
 
 The fellow got upon the yard, and leaned 
 from it with one hand grasping the tie, whilst 
 with the other he shaded his eyes and took a 
 long whaling look. His figure was soft and firm 
 as a pencil drawing against the hard and windy 
 greyness of the heavens, and the rippling of his 
 trousers to the wind, the yellow streak of his 
 lifted arm naked to the elbow, the inimitable, 
 easy, careless pose of him as he swayed to the 
 swift vibrations of the spar on which he stood 
 with the ivory white ciurves of the jib and stay 
 foresail going down past him till they were lost 
 forward of the topsail that yawned in a shadowed 
 hollow which looked the duskier for the gleam 
 of the pinion of staysail this side of it, made a 
 little sea picture of quiet but singular beauty. 
 
 'Nothing in sight, sir,' he bawled down.
 
 122 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 Finn raised his hand in token that he heard him 
 and turned to Wilfrid. 
 
 ' Now sir,' said he, ' something's bound to be 
 heaving into view shortly ahead of us. We 
 misfht test the men thus ; one watch at a time ; 
 two men on the topgallant yard, which can be 
 hoisted without setting the sail ; four men on the 
 topsail yard ; and two men on the foreyard. I'll 
 send Crimp on to the forecastle to see all's fair. 
 There's to be no singing out ; the man that 
 sees the sail first is to hold up his arm. That'll 
 test the chaps on the topgallant yard who from 
 the height they're posted at are bound to see the 
 hobject first ; then it'll come to the tops'l yard 
 and then to the foi-eyard. What d'ye say, sir ? 
 It'll take the men off their work, but not for long 
 I reckon, for something's bound to show soon 
 hereabouts.' 
 
 'An excellent notion,' shouted Wilfrid glee- 
 fully, all temper in him gone. ' Quick about it, 
 Finn ; and see here, there'll be a crown piece for 
 the man on each yard who's the first to hold up 
 his arm.' 
 
 ' That'll skin their eyes for 'em,' rumbled Finn 
 in a half- suppressed hurricane note, and he went 
 forward grinning broadly. 
 
 The port watch were mustered ; I heard him 
 explaining ; the cock- eyed mate walked sulkily to
 
 FINN TESTS THE CREW'S SIGHT 123 
 
 tlie forecastle and took up his place between 
 the knight-heads in a sullen posture ; his arms 
 folded and his eyes turned up. ' Away aloft ! ' 
 there was a headloni^ rush of men, the riof- 
 ging danced to their springs, and in a few 
 moments every yard had its allotted number of 
 look-outs. 
 
 It was not a test to beheve in, for the instant 
 an arm on the topgallant yard was brandished the 
 fellows below would know that something had 
 hove into view, and the dishonest amongst them, 
 calculating upon its appearance in due course, 
 miglit flourish their fists before their eyes gave 
 them the right to do so. However, Wilfrid looked 
 hugely pleased, and you witnessed the one virtue 
 of the test in that. He bet me a sovereiorn to ten 
 shillings that the man on the port topgallant 
 yard-arm would be the first to lift his hand. I 
 took Ifim, and then naturally found the affair 
 interesting. 
 
 In the midst of this business Miss Jennincrs 
 arrived, cosily dressed in a jacket that fitted her 
 shape and a little hat that looked to be made of 
 beaver curled on one side to a sort of cockade 
 where a small black plume rattled to the wind as 
 I caught her hand and conducted her to my chair 
 under the bulwarks. She started when she saw 
 those sailors aloft all apparently staring in one
 
 124 AX OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 direction with the intentness which the inspira- 
 tion of five shillings would put into the nautical 
 eye. 
 
 ' What is in sight ? ' she exclaimed, looking 
 round at Wilfrid with a pale face. ' Surely — 
 surely ' 
 
 I explained, whilst my cousin, rubbing his 
 hands together and breaking into a loud but 
 scarcely mirthful laugh, asked if she did not think 
 it was a magnificent idea. 
 
 ' Positively,' she cried with alarm still bright 
 in her eyes, ' I believed at first that the " Shark " or 
 some vessel like her was in sight. But Wilfrid, 
 when a man climbs up there to look-out, will not 
 he have a telescope ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, by day,' he answered, ' and a night-glass 
 when the dark comes.' 
 
 ' Then what good is there in that sort of test ? ' 
 she inquired. ' The shortest- sigh ted man with 
 a telescope at his eye would be able to see miles 
 farther than the lons^est sighted.' 
 
 ' Aye,' cried my cousin, ' but a good sight '11 see 
 further through a glass than a feeble one, and 
 I want to find out who have got the good sight 
 amongst those fellows.' 
 
 I saw her peep askant at me, to gather what 
 I thought of this business. Very clearly she 
 found nothing but childishness in it. Meanwhile
 
 FINN TESTS THE CREW'S SIGHT 125 
 
 Wilfrid kept his large weak eyes fixed upon the 
 two fellows on the topgallant yard. They might 
 have been a couple of birds perched on a bough 
 and he a great hungry torn cat watching them. 
 Finn was at the wheel, having sent the man who 
 had been steering to join the others aloft. The 
 mate on the forecastle looked sulkily up ; the 
 growling that was going on within him, and his 
 astonishment and scorn of the whole proceeding, 
 were inimitably expressed in his posture. Twenty 
 minutes passed. I was sick of staring, and filled 
 another pipe, though without venturing to speak, 
 for the breathless intensity of expectation in Wil- 
 frid's manner, along with the eager, aching, 
 straining expression of his face upturned to where 
 the men were, was a sort of spell in its way upon 
 one, and I positively felt afraid to break the 
 silence. On a sudden the man on the port side 
 of the topgallant yard raised his hand, and in the 
 space of a breath afterwards up went the other 
 fellow's arm. But my cousin had won his bet ; 
 he hit his leg a blow with boyish delight strong 
 in his face. 
 
 ^ A magnificent test, isn't it ? ' he whispered, 
 as though he feared his voice would travel aloft ; 
 * now watch the topsail yard. The fellows there 
 haven't seen the gestures of the chaps above 
 them. Another sovereign to ten shillings, Charles,
 
 ,26 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 that the outermost man to windward will hold up 
 his hand first.' 
 
 I took the bet, and, as luck would have it, he 
 won again, for a very few minutes after the sail 
 had been descried from the loftiest yard the man 
 whom Wilfrid had backed signalled, and then up 
 went the arms of the other three along with the 
 arms of the two fellow^s who were stationed on 
 the fore yard as though they were being drilled, 
 whilst a rumble of laughter sounded from amongst 
 a group of the starboard watch, who were stand- 
 in <"<• near the galley awaiting the issue of the test. 
 
 The hands came down ; the mate set the crew 
 to w^ork ; the fellow whose trick it was. at the 
 wheel relieved the captain, wdio walked up to us. 
 ' That's what they sighted, sir,' he exclaimed, 
 pointing ahead, wdiere we could just catch a 
 glimpse of an airy streak of a marble hue, which 
 showed only wdienever our speeding schooner 
 lifted upon some seething brow that washed in 
 thunder slantwise to leeward, but which presently 
 enlarged to the proportions of a powerful cutter, 
 apparently a revenue boat, staggering under a 
 press as though in a hurry, steering north for an 
 English port. 
 
 Wilfrid's satisfaction was unbounded ; his 
 exuberance of dehght w^as something to startle 
 one, seeing that there was nothing whatever to
 
 FINN TESTS THE CREW'S SIGHT 127 
 
 justify it. As 1 looked at him I recalled Miss 
 Laura's remark as to fits of excessive gloom 
 following these irrational soarings of spirits, and 
 expected shortly to find him plunged in a mood 
 of fixed black melancholy. He told Captain Finn 
 to have the other watch tested in the same way 
 before the day was out, and produced fifteen 
 shiUings, ten of which were to go to the two men 
 whom he had backed, and half-a-crown a piece 
 to the fellows on the fore yard. Finn took the 
 money with an eye that seemed actually to lan- 
 guish under its load of expostulation, but he 
 made no remark. He anticipated, as I might, 
 indeed, that fathom after fathom of hoarse fore- 
 castle arguments would attend this distribution, 
 for assuredly the men on the foreyard were no 
 more entitled to the money than the others who 
 received none. 
 
 '- Now, captain,' cried Wilfrid, ' send the man 
 who first sighted that sail yonder aloft at once. 
 Let the foretopgallant yard be the look-out sta- 
 tion ; d'ye understand ? * 
 ' Yes, sir.' 
 'Call Muffin.' 
 
 But Muffin was too ill, or drunk, or both, to 
 appear, so one of the • stewards was summoned 
 and ordered to bring from Sir Wilfrid's cabin a 
 telescope that he would find in such and such a
 
 128 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 place. The man returned with the glass, a lovely 
 Dollond, silver-mounted. 
 
 * Try it, Charles,' my cousin said to me. 
 
 I pointed it at the cutter, and found the lenses 
 amazingly powerful and brilliant. ' A superb 
 glass, indeed,' said I, returning it to him. 
 
 ' Now, captain,' said Wilfrid with that raised 
 look I have before referred to, ' I dedicate this 
 glass to the discovery of the " Shark." ' His 
 teeth met in a snap as he spoke the word, and 
 his breathing grew laboured. ' Let this telescope 
 be carried aloft by that topgallant yard man who 
 was the first to lift his hand, and there let it 
 remain, passing from sunrise to sunset from hand 
 to hand as the look-outs are relieved. Never on 
 any account whatever is it to be brought down 
 from that masthead until the image of the craft 
 we want is reflected fair in it. See to this, Finn.' 
 
 ' Ay, ay, sir,' responded the captain with his 
 long face still charged with expostulation, though 
 you saw he would not have disputed for the value 
 of his wages. 
 
 ' By-and-by,' continued my cousin, ' I'll give 
 you a night glass of equal power, to be dedicated 
 to the same purpose.' 
 
 ' Thank 'ee. Sir Wilfrid ; but your honour ' — 
 and here the worthy fellow looked nervously from 
 Sir Wilfrid to me — ' am I to understand, sir, that
 
 F/XX TESTS THE CREWS SIGHT iig 
 
 this here beautiful instrument,' handUng it as if it 
 were a baby, ' along with t'other wliich you're to 
 give me, is to be kept aloft clay and night no 
 matter the weather ? ' 
 
 ' Day and night, no matter the weather,' said 
 Wilfrid, in a sepulchral voice. 
 
 ' Very good, sir, but I should just hke to 
 say ' 
 
 ' Now, pray, don't say anything at all,' inter- 
 rupted my cousin, peevishly ; ' you're losing time, 
 Finn. Send that fellow aloft, will you ? Gracious 
 heaven! can't you see it makes one feel des- 
 perate to understand that there's nobody on thet^*/ 
 look-out ? ' 
 
 He jumped up and fell to pacing the deck 
 with long, irritable strides. Finn, without another 
 word, hurried forward. Presently the fellow who 
 had first signalled sprang into the rigging with 
 the glass slung over his shoulder. He ran nimbly 
 aloft, and was speedily on the topgallant yard ; 
 and there he sat, with an arm embracing the 
 mast, from time to time levelhng the pohshed tube 
 that glanced like a ray of light in his liand, and 
 slowly sweeping the sea from one beam to another. 
 Wilfrid came to a stand at sight of him ; he 
 clasped his arms on his breast, his gaze directed 
 aloft, whilst he swayed on one leg with the other 
 bent before him to the heave of the deck ; his 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 I30 A.V OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 melodramatic posture made one think of a Manfred 
 in the act of assailing some celestial body with 
 injurious language. It pained me to look at him. 
 He was pale and haggard, but there was the spirit 
 of high breeding in every lineament to give the 
 grace of distinction and a quality of spiritual 
 tenderness to his odd, irregular, uncomely face. 
 He stared so long and so fixedly at the man that I 
 saw the fellow^s forward looking up too, as though 
 there must be something uncommon there to de- 
 tain the baronet's gaze. After a while he let his 
 arms drop witli an awakening manner, and slowly 
 sent his eyes aroiuid the sea in the most absent 
 way that could be thought of till, his gaze meeting 
 mine, he gave a start, and cried, with a flourish of 
 one hand, whilst he pointed to the topgallant yard 
 with the other, ' Day and night, Charles ; day 
 and night ! And keep you on the look-out, too, 
 will you, old friend ? You carry a sailor's eye in 
 your head, and have hunted under canvas before. 
 We mustn't miss her ! We mustn't miss her ! * 
 And with a shake of his head he abruptly strode 
 to the companion and went below. 
 
 I sat with Miss Jennings under the shelter of 
 the bulwarks until hard upon luncheon-time. 
 Wilfrid did rot again make his appearance on 
 deck that morning. The girl asked me if the 
 test the men's eyesight had been put to w^as my
 
 FINN TESTS THE CREIVS SIGHT 131 
 
 cousin's notion. I answered tliat it was the 
 captain's. 
 
 ' Then how stupid of liim, Mr. Monson.' 
 ' Well, perhaps so,' said I, ' but I'm rather 
 sorry for Finn, do you know. It is not only that 
 he has to execute orders which he may consider 
 ridiculous ; he has to plot so as to harmonise the 
 plain routine of shipboard life with Wilfrid's 
 irrational or extravagant expectations. But there 
 is the mate. I have not spoken to him yet. 
 Let's hear what he thinks of the skipper's testing 
 job.' 
 
 He was pacing the lee quarter-deck, being in 
 charge of the yacht, though Finn had been up 
 and down throughout the morning, sniffing about 
 uneasily as though he could not bear to have the 
 picture of the little ship out of his sight too long. 
 I called to him and he crossed over to us slowdy, 
 as though astonished that I sliould want him. 
 His face had something of a Cape Horn look, with 
 its slewed eye and a number of warts riding the 
 wrinkles of his weather-seasoned skin, and a mat 
 of hair upon his tliroat as coarse as rope-yarns. 
 He was no beauty certainly, yet I fancied him 
 somehow as a good seaman ; maybe for the fore- 
 castle sourness of his face and a general sulkiness 
 of demeanour, which I have commonly found as 
 expressing excellent sea-going principles. 
 
 K 2
 
 132 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ' You're the mate, I think, Mr. Crimp ? ' said 
 I, blandly. 
 
 ' Yes, I'm the mate,' he answered, staring froni 
 me to Miss Jennings, and speaking in a voic.^ 
 broken by years of bawling in heavy weather, and 
 possibly, too, by hard drinking. 
 
 ' We're blowing along very prettily, Mr. Crimj , . 
 If this breeze holds it cannot be long before w^- 
 are out of soundings.' 
 
 'No, I don't suppose it will be long,' h- 
 answered. 
 
 ' Do you know the " Shark ? " ' 
 
 ' Why, yes.' 
 
 ' Are we going to pick her up, think you ? ' 
 
 ' Well, if we gets into her wake and shove- 
 along faster nor she, there'll be nothin' to stop u 
 picking her up,' he answered, steadily viewin 
 Miss Jennings and myself alternately, to satisi 
 his mind, as I took it, that we were not quizzin 
 him. 
 
 ' I suppose,' said I, ' that the captain will b 
 testing the eyesight of the other watc. 
 presently ? ' 
 
 ' Ay,' said he, with a sort of sneer, ' they'll g. 
 aloft after dinner.' 
 
 ' Isn't it a good test ? ' 
 
 ' Don't see no use in it at all,' he answered 
 gruffly, sending a look aloft and following it o
 
 FINN TESTS THE CREW'S SIGHT 133 
 
 with an admonitory stare at the fellow at the wheel. 
 ' Suppose nothen had hove into view ; the men 'ud 
 be still on the yards a-watching. 'Sides, observing 
 an object at sea depends upon where your eyes 
 is. One chap may be looking in another direction 
 when his mate sings out. Is that going to stand 
 for a sign that his sight's poor ? ' 
 
 ' What do the men think ? ' said I, anxious to 
 get behind the forecastle, so to speak, for I was 
 never to know how far knowledge of this kind 
 might be serviceable to us later on. 
 
 'Why, the watch has been a-grumbling and 
 a-quarrelling over the rewards. They say 'tain't 
 fair. If t'other watch is to be tested on the same 
 terms, stand by for something like a melhee, 
 says I.' 
 
 ' Oh, but that must be stopped,' I exclaimed, 
 ' we want no " melhees " aboard the " Bride," Mr. 
 Crimp.' 
 
 Just then I caught sight of Captain Finn. I 
 beckoned to him, and the mate passed over to 
 leeward, where he fell to pacing the deck as 
 before. I told the skipper what Crimp had said, 
 and he burst into a laugh. 
 
 ' Melhees ! ' he exclaimed, ' that's just what old 
 Jacob 'ud like. He's a regular lime-juicer, sir, 
 and distils hacid at every pore : but he's a 
 first-class seaman. I'd rather have that man by
 
 134 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 my side at a time of danger than the choicest of 
 all the sailors as I can call to mind that I've met 
 in my day. But there'll be no melhee, sir — 
 there'll be no melhee, lady. The men are 
 grumbling a bit ; and why ? 'Cause they're sailors. 
 But it'll be all right, sir. That there notion of 
 testing, I don't mind owning of it to you, w^as 
 merely to pacify Sir Wilfrid, sir. I'll carry out 
 his orders, of course, and send the other watch 
 aloft arter dinner. It'll have to cost another 
 fifteen shillin', otherwise I don't mean to say there 
 mightn't come a feeling of onpleasantness amcngst 
 the sailors. But Sir Wilfrid '11 not mind that, sir.' 
 
 I drew the money from my pocket and gave 
 it him. ' Here,' said I, ' you needn't trouble Sir 
 Wilfrid ; I'll make it right with him. Only,' I 
 exclaimed, ' keep the crew in a good temper. 
 We do not want any disaffection. Heaven knows 
 there's trouble enough aboard, as it is ! ' 
 
 He knuckled his forehead, and the luncheon 
 bell now sounding, I handed Miss Jennings below^; 
 but I could not help saying to her, as we stood a 
 moment together in the cabin, that I saw one part 
 of my duty would lie in advising Wilfrid to have 
 as little as possible to do with his crew and the 
 working of the yacht ; for grief and heart -bitter- 
 ness had so sharpened his eccentricities that one 
 never could tell wdmt orders he might give of a
 
 FINN TESTS THE CREW'S SIGHT 135 
 
 nature to lead to difficulty and trouble with the 
 men. 'Perhaps,' I added, 'it might be thought 
 that a sincere friendship would suffer him to have 
 his way, in the hope that some measure of his 
 would bring this goose-chase to an abrupt end 
 and force him home. But, then, you are m- 
 terested in the pursuit, Miss Jennings, and lieaven 
 forbid that any active or passive effort, or in- 
 fluence, or agency of mine, should hinder you 
 from realising the hope with ^vhich you have 
 embarked on this strange adventure.'
 
 136 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SAIL 110 ! 
 
 A CHARACTERISTIC of Wilfrid's mental feebleness 
 was his inability to keep liis attention long fixed. 
 This symptom would be more or less acute ac- 
 cording to the hold his trouble had of him. He 
 arrived at the luncheon table to the second 
 summons, and I was really startled, after con- 
 versing with him a httle, to gather from what he 
 said that the whole incident of the testing of the 
 men's eyesight had gone sheer out of his memory. 
 This being so, no purpose could have been served 
 by recurring to it, though, had he mentioned the 
 subject, I had made up my mind to use it as a 
 text that I might exhort him not to meddle with 
 his crew, nor in any way step between Captain 
 Finn and the navigation of the ' Bride.' 
 
 However I found something to raise a hope 
 in me too, in his odd, variable, imperfect intellect ; 
 namely, that he might come presently to but dimly 
 comprehend the piu*port of this voyage, and then 
 I did not doubt of being able to influence him and
 
 SAIL HO! 137 
 
 carry him back home, in short ; for the wild un- 
 certainty of the adventure was made to my mind 
 more extravagant still by the inspiration of it 
 being due to my poor cousin's weak brains ; in 
 fact, not to mince my meaning, it w^ould have been 
 a mad undertaking in the sanest man's hands ; 
 to my fancy then it became the completest 
 expression of madness possible, when I thought 
 of a madman as conceiving and governing it. 
 
 Finn, as I afterwards learnt, sent the other 
 watch aloft whilst we w^ere at lunch, and there 
 they hung, staring away for an hour ; when, just 
 as the captain was about to sing out to them to 
 come down, a fellow on the foreyard (the lowest 
 of the three yards) signalled a sail, and then all 
 hands saw it together ! so, to arrest any further 
 grumbhng, Finn gave five shillings to the fore- 
 yard man and made the watch draw lots for the 
 other two iive-shiUing prizes. This arrangement 
 satisfied them, and it seemed to soothe the fellows 
 in the other watch as well, who perhaps now 
 perceived that there was little but inanity in the 
 test, and that the only sensible w^ay to treat the 
 whole affair was to look upon it as a joke. 
 
 This I learnt afterwards from Finn, who did 
 not show himself much surprised to hear that 
 Sir Wilfrid had apparently forgotten the incident 
 of the mornino^.
 
 138 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ' You'll forgive me saying of it, Mr. Monson,' he 
 exclaimed, ' seeing it is your own cousin I'm speak- 
 ing about, sir ; but I've been master of bis yacht 
 now since he bought her for her ladyship, and I 
 know this much of Sir Wilfrid, that his mind ain't 
 as if it were half the time with the orders he gives. 
 He'll say a thing without the eyes of his intellects 
 being upon it. The result is that soon after the 
 words is off his lips the sentiment of 'em is gone 
 from his recollection. It is like breathing on a 
 looking-glass ; there's the mark, but it don't last 
 long.' 
 
 It came on a bit thick that afternoon, with 
 now and again a haze of rain in the gust of a 
 squall, sweeping like the explosion of a gun into 
 the straining canvas out of the heart of the hard 
 but steady breeze, and this weather, together with 
 some strange edge of cold that had entered it 
 since luncheon time, kept us below, though I was 
 on deck for a httle while when I had that chat 
 with the skipper which I have just repeated. 
 Wilfrid lighted his big pipe in the cabin, telling 
 Miss Laura that she had given us leave to smoke 
 there on the preceding night, an odd proof of his 
 power to remember little things. The interior was 
 a bit gloomy with the ashen atmosphere of the 
 grey day sifting through the skylight and down the 
 companion hatch, and with a green dimness coming
 
 SAIL ho: 139 
 
 yet into it from time to lime to the burying of the 
 glass of the ports in the pale emerald of the clear 
 brine under the froth that was roaring away past 
 on the surface. But there was nothing much to 
 incommode one in the movements of the vessel ; 
 wind and sea, as I have said, were on the cjuarter, 
 and the lift of the tall Channel surge cam.e soft as 
 its own melting head to the weather counter, run- 
 ning the shapely fabric into a long arrowy floating 
 launch ahead, with a lean down that was wrought 
 by rhythmic action into a mere bit of cradle- 
 play. 
 
 Snugged in the cushions of a most luxurious 
 arm-chair, with the consoling scent of a fine cigar 
 under my nose and a noble claret ^xithin arm's 
 reach chilled to the temperature of snow by the 
 richly-chased silver jug which contained it, I felt 
 that there must be greater hardships in life than 
 yachting, even when the sailing cruise came to a 
 hunt for a runaway wife. Miss Jennings sat near 
 me, with a novel in her lap, on whose open page 
 her violet eyes would sometimes rest when the 
 conversation languished. There was a mirror in 
 the bulkhead just behind me and her hair shone 
 in it as though a sunbeam rested on her tresses. 
 Wilfrid lay at full length upon a couch, blowing 
 clouds from his pipe with his large strange weak 
 eyes fixed upon the upper deck. He talked a
 
 I40 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 good deal of his travels, always rationally and 
 often with evidences of a shrewd perception ; but 
 again and again he would withdraw his pipe from 
 his mouth and seem to forget that he held it, sigh 
 deeply, a long tremulous inspiration that was full 
 of the tears of a heart which sobbed continuously, 
 then start on a sudden, sit upright and send a 
 crazy wandering look at the porthole near him ; 
 after which he would stretch liis form again and 
 resume his pipe and fall to talking afresh, but 
 never picking up the thread he had let drop, or 
 speaking with the least reference to the anecdote, 
 experience, incident, or what not, from whose 
 relation he had just before broken. 
 
 Once he jumped up, after lying silent for five 
 or ten minutes, diu:ing which Miss Jennings seemed 
 to read, whilst I, thinking of nothing in particular, 
 lazily watched the rings of cigar smoke I expelled 
 float to the wreathing of flowers and foliage 
 painted with dehghtful taste upon the cabin 
 ceiling. His movement was extraordinarily 
 abrupt ; he put his pipe down and stalked to his 
 cabin — sialk is the one word that expresses my 
 cousin's peculiar walk when any dark or strange 
 mood was upon him — and I presumed that he 
 had gone into hiding for a while; but he quickly 
 reappeared. There was a light in his eye and a 
 spot of red on each high cheekbone as he put a
 
 SAIL HO! 141 
 
 case in my hand, saying, ' Will these do, d'ye 
 think, Charles ? ' 
 
 It contained a handsome pair of duelling 
 pistols. 
 
 ' Upon my word, Wilfrid,' said I, in an off- 
 hand way whilst I toyed with one of the weapons 
 as if admiring it, ' our httle ship is not without 
 teeth, eh ? What with your gun forward and the 
 small arms near my cabin, and now these — you'll 
 be having a powder magazine on board, I 
 suppose ? ' 
 
 ' There'll be as much powder as we need, I 
 dare say. What think you of those weapons P ' 
 
 ' They are quite kilHng. For what purpose 
 are pills like these gilded so sumptuously ? Is all 
 this garnisliing supposed to make death more 
 palatable P ' 
 
 Miss Laura extended her hand, and I nave 
 her the weapon I was examining. A look came 
 into her face that made me feel slad I wasn't 
 Colonel Hope-Kennedy just then. She flushed to 
 some thought with a sudden sweep of her gaze to 
 the porthole, then looked again at the pistol while 
 she bit her lip. I found something fascinating in 
 this brief passage of spirit in her. Wilfrid, holding 
 the other pistol, drew himself erect before a length 
 of looking-glass against the starboard bulkhead, 
 and levelled the weapon at his own reflection.
 
 142 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 He stood motionless, save for the swaying of his 
 figure upon the rolling deck, his head thrown 
 back, his nostrils large, his countenance a sallow 
 white ; it was absolutely as thougli he believed in 
 the reality of his own impersonation, and waited 
 for the signal to fire. 
 
 '^Bless me, Wilfrid!' cried I, 'I hope these 
 afiairs of yours aren't loaded ! Hair triggers, by 
 Jingo ! Mind — if tliey are — you'll destroy that 
 fine piece of plate glass.' 
 
 Of course I knew better ; but his rapt posture 
 was a little alarming, arid I said the first thing 
 that came into my head to break the spell. His 
 arm sank to his side, and he turned to me with a 
 grin that was bewildering with its conflicting 
 emotions of anger, misery, and triumph. 
 
 ' Let that man give me a chance I ' said he, in 
 a low but deep voice. 
 
 ' Ay, but my dear boy,' said I, relieved by his 
 slowly returning the pistols to tlie case, ' figure the 
 boot on the other leg ; — supposing he kills you ? ' 
 
 ' Good God ! ' cried he, ' d'ye think that con- 
 sideration would hinder me from attempting the 
 life of the rufiian who has brought shame and 
 dishonour upon me and my child ? ' 
 
 'No,' said I, with a glance at Miss Laura, 
 whom I found eyeing me with a look of surprise 
 that sparkled with something more than a hint of
 
 SAIL HO! 
 
 143 
 
 temper ; * but if we should meet this fellow on 
 the open sea, and you challenge him, and he 
 should kill you, what will you have done for 
 yourself? Suffered him to put you quietly out 
 of the road and achieve the double triumph of 
 first taking your wife from you and then making 
 a widow of her ! — which, of course, would answer 
 his purpose very well, whether he designed matri- 
 mony or not, seeing that there could not be much 
 peace of mind for him with the knowledge either 
 that you were on his track, or waiting with spider- 
 like patience in England for his retm^n.' 
 
 ' By heaven, Charles ! ' he roared out, ' no 
 man but you would dare talk to me like this ' 
 
 I raised my hand. ' "Wilfrid, nothing that 3'ou 
 can say, no temper that you can exhibit, no 
 menaces that you ma}^ utter, will prevent me 
 from remembering that I am here at your earnest 
 request as the one male friend you wished at your 
 side in such a time, and from speaking to you as 
 freely as I should think within myself. This, to 
 be sure, is ridiculously premature. We have yet 
 to fall in with the '* Shark." Supposing tliat hap- 
 pens, and that Colonel Hope-Kennedy consents to 
 fight you, and you insist, then it will not be for 
 me to say you nay. But, believe me, nothing 
 shall intimidate me from trvino[ to make you 
 understand that, honour or no honour, to Give
 
 144 ^'"^ OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 that rascal an opportunity of assassinating you 
 Avould be the very maddest act your most 
 righteous wrath could hurry you into.' 
 
 He looked at me a little while in silence, w^as 
 about to speak, cliecked himself, or may be it was 
 his voice that failed him ; a dampness came into 
 his eyes, he compressed his lips till they w^ere 
 bloodless in the effort to suppress his tears ; then 
 flourishing his arm with a gesture grievously ex- 
 pressive of the anguish he was feeling at that 
 moment, he went to his cabin, and w^e saw no 
 more of him till dinner-time. 
 
 I thought Miss Jennings would rebuke me for 
 what I had said, and I gathered myself together, 
 in an intellectual sense, for a little gentle fencing 
 with her for a bit ; for, let her hate the Colonel 
 as she might, and let her be as eager as she 
 would that her sister should be speedily rescued 
 from the villain she had sacrificed her honour for, 
 I had made up my mind not to suffer her to 
 imagine that I regarded a meeting between the 
 two men as a necessary effect of the Colonel's 
 action ; but that, on the contrary, I should con- 
 sider it my duty to vehemently discountenance a 
 duel, until I found that there was nothing in 
 argument to dissuade my cousin ; when of course 
 I w^ould render him such services as he might 
 expect from me.
 
 SAIL HO! 145 
 
 In short, as you will see, I took a cold- 
 blooded view of the whole business. The prosaic 
 arbitrament of the law, that was my notion ! 
 The shears of a dispassionate judge ! No, pistols 
 and coffee for two, thankee I Methinks when it 
 comes to one's wife preferring Jones or Tomkins 
 to one's own lovely self, her new emotions should 
 be helped, not by giving the latest darling of her 
 heart the chance to kill one, but by starting one's 
 attorney to play upon the blissful couple with the 
 cold black venom of his ink-horn ! 
 
 Miss Jennings, however, made no reference to 
 my speech, nor to the manner of Wilfrid's going. 
 She remained quiet and showed herself subdued 
 and grieved for some time, and then we talked 
 about the testing of the men's sight, and I repeated 
 what Captain Fhmhacl said to me on that subject. 
 On a sudden she exclaimed : 
 
 'You told me, Mr. Monson, that you have 
 never seen my sister ? ' 
 
 'Xo, only heard of her, and then quite in- 
 directly.' 
 
 She went to her cabin, moving in a very 
 inimitable, floating, graceful, yielding way to the 
 heave of the deck, never offering to grasp any- 
 thing for support, though the lee-lurches were at 
 times somewhat staggering, and I thought I never 
 saw a more perfect little figure as she withdrew, 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 her hair glowing when her form was already 
 vague as she flitted into the shadow astern of the 
 companion steps towards the dark corridor or pas- 
 sac^e wliich conducted to her cabin. She returned 
 after a sliort absence with a miniature painting 
 set in a very handsome case, on which was my 
 cousin's crest wdth initials beneath, signifying that 
 it was a gift from him to Laura Jennings. I 
 carried it under the skylight to see it clearly. 
 
 ' When was this done ? ' I asked. 
 
 ' About a year ago,' she answered. ' Wilfrid 
 sent it to Melbourne as a gift to me.' 
 
 Now it might be that I was then — taste, of 
 course, changes — no very passionate admirer of 
 dark women ; brunettes, I mean, of a South 
 European sort, which the face in the miniature 
 was after the pattern of; and that is why, no 
 doubt, the expectation in me of the ripe and 
 tropic graces I was to behold w^as not a little dis- 
 appointed. Anyone could see by the likeness 
 that Lady Monson was a fine woman ; her hair 
 was raven black, but there was a want of taste in 
 the fashion in which it w^as dressed ; her eyes 
 were bright, imperious, rather too staring, with 
 something of haughty astonishment in tlieir ex- 
 pression ; but this might have been the artist's 
 misinterpretation of their character. She was as 
 like her sister Laura as I was like her. Her
 
 SAIL ho: 147 
 
 mouth ^vas somewhat hirge, rich, vokiptuous ; the 
 throat very beautiful, with something about the 
 line or cm^ve of the jaw which w^ould have made 
 you suspect, w^ithout knowing the original, that 
 the character of this part of the face was exqui- 
 sitely reproduced. It was a heaviness to com- 
 municate a slightly mascuhne air to the whole 
 countenance. I turned to Miss Jennings and 
 found her eyes intent on my face. 
 
 ' She is a handsome lady,' said I, ' handsomer I 
 should think than she is here represented : quite 
 apart, I mean, from the glow of countenance, 
 the animation of look, and all the rest of the 
 things which go to make up two thirds at least of 
 human beauty.' 
 
 She took the miniature in silence. 
 
 ' She is not like you,' said I. 
 
 ' Xot in the least,' she exclaimed. 'I am 
 little ; she is very tall. She has a commanding 
 manner, a rich ^oice, and indeed,' she added with 
 a. smile, and then looking down, 'anyone might 
 suppose her of noble blood.' 
 
 I should have hked to tell her how very much 
 sweeter and prettier she was than her sister, what a 
 very different sort of heart, as it seemed to me, irom 
 her ladyship's, looked out at you from her violet 
 eyes ; how very much more good, pure, gentle, 
 sympathetic, womanly was the expression of her
 
 148 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 moutli compared with what I had found in the por- 
 trait's. But our friendship was rather too new just 
 then for such candour as this ; yet I would not 
 swear that some faint suspicion did not cross her of 
 what w^as in my mind, though so subtle are w^omen's 
 ways, so indeterminable by w^ords the meaning 
 that may be perfectly emphatic to every instinct in 
 one in the turn of the head, a droop of the lid, a 
 sudden soft tincturing of the cheek, that I have no 
 reason to offer for supposing this. 
 
 She took the miniature to her cabin, and I 
 waited awhile, thinking she would return. I then 
 lighted a cigar, but as I stepped towards the com- 
 panion with the design of killing the rest of the 
 afternoon till the dinner-hour on deck, Muffin 
 came dowai the steps. He looked hideously 
 sallow^, and carried a horril)ly dismal expression of 
 countenance, but he appeared to be no longer in 
 liquor. 
 
 ' Well, said I shortly, ' how are you now, 
 Muffin ? ' 
 
 ' Uncommonly queer, I am sorrowful to say, 
 sir,' he answered, patting his. stomach and falling 
 away on his left leg w^ith a liumbly respectful 
 downcast look and a writhe of the hps into a 
 smile that w^ould have been expressionless if it 
 was not that it increased his ugliness by the 
 exhibition of a row of fane's of the colour of the
 
 SAIL HO! 
 
 149 
 
 keys of an ancient harpsichord. ' The sea is not a 
 congenial spear, sir.' 
 
 ' Sphere, I suppose you mean,' said I ; ' but give 
 yourself a day or two, man ; the sickness will wear 
 off.' 
 
 ' I heg your pardon, sir,' — he paused, still keep- 
 ing his eyes downward whilst he bowed meekly 
 and respectfully, but with an air of profound 
 dejection. 
 
 ' Well ? ' I exclaimed, running my gaze over the 
 fellow's odd figure with a yearning to laugh in me 
 at the sight of the gouty bulgings of his feet over 
 his pumps. 
 
 ' May I take it, sir,' said he, clasping his hands 
 humbly upon his waistcoat, ' that there is no 
 dispogition on the Bayronet's part to give up 
 chasing of her ladyship by water ? ' 
 
 ' You may,' said I, bluntly. ' Why, confound 
 it, Muffm, we've only just entered on the run I ' 
 
 He turned up his eyes to heaven till nothing 
 showed but the bloodshot whites : ' Sir, I humbly 
 beg your pardon. It seems an ordacious liberty 
 for the likes of me to be questioning the likes of 
 you; but may I ask, sir, — is t]i3 voyage likely to 
 carry us fur ? ' 
 
 ' Well, it is about six thousand miles to the 
 Cape, to begin with,' said I. 
 
 ' Good God ! ' he cried, startled out of all
 
 I50 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 respectfulness. ' Why there'll be years of sailing in 
 that distance, sir, begging your pardon for the 
 hexclamation my agitation caused me to make, 
 sir.' 
 
 ' If you want to return,' said I, feeling a sort 
 of pity for the poor devil, for the consternation 
 that worked in him lay very strong upon his 
 yellow :fice, ' your plan must be to obtain Sir 
 Wilfrid's permission to tranship yourself into the 
 first vessel we speak that will be willing to receive 
 you and carry you to England. It is the only 
 remedy I can suggest.' 
 
 He bowed very meekly and with a manner of 
 respectful gratitude ; nevertheless, something in 
 him seemed to tell me that he was not very 
 much obliged by my suggestion, and that if he 
 quitted Wilfrid's service it would not be in the 
 manner I recommended. 
 
 Nothing worth noting happened till next day. 
 It was in the afternoon. The Scillies were astern 
 and the broad Atlantic was now stretching fair 
 under our bows. A strong fine wind had bowled 
 us steadily down Channel and the utmost had 
 been made of it by Captain Finn, who, despite his 
 talk of studdingsails and stowed anchors, had sent 
 his booms aloft ere we had brought Prawle Point 
 abeam and the ' Bride ' had swept along before 
 the strong wind that would come in slaps at times
 
 SAIL HO/ 151 
 
 with almost the spite of a bit of a hurricane in 
 them, under a foretopmast studdingsail ; whence 
 you wdll gather that the yacht was prodigiously 
 crowded ; but then Finn was always under the 
 influence of the fear of Wilfrid's head in the com- 
 panion hatch ; for I learnt that several times in 
 the night my cousin unexpectedly made his 
 appearance on deck, and his hot incessant coiq- 
 mand to both Finn and old Jacob Crimp, accord- 
 ing as he found one or the other in charge, was 
 that they were to sail the yacht at all hazards 
 short of springing her lower masts, for in the 
 matter of spare booms and suits of canvas she 
 could not have been more liberally equipped had 
 her errand signified a three years' fighting voyage. 
 Well, as I have said, it was the afternoon of 
 the third day of our leaving Southampton. The 
 breeze had slackened much about the time that 
 Finn stood oglincj the sun throuoh his sextant, 
 and then it veered in a small puff and came on to 
 blow a gentle, steady wind from south-south-east, 
 which tautened our sheets for us and brought the 
 square yards fore and aft. There was a long 
 broad-browed swell from the southward that 
 flashed under the hazy sunlight like splintered 
 glass with the wrinkliug of it, over which the 
 yacht went rolling and bowing in a rhythm as 
 stately and regular as the swing of a thousand-ton
 
 152 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 Indiaman, with a sulky lift of foam to her cut- 
 water at every plunge and a yeasty seething 
 spreading on either quarter, the recoiling wash cf 
 it from the counter as snappish as surf. Suddenly 
 from high above, cleaving the vaporous yellow of 
 the atmosphere in a dead sort of way, came a cry 
 from the look-out man on the topgallant yard, 
 ' Sail ho ! ' and the sparkle of the telescope in his 
 hands as he levelled the glittering tube at the sea, 
 over the starboard bow, rendered the customary 
 echo of ' Where away ? ' unnecessary. 
 
 There was nothing however to take notice of 
 in this ; the cry of ' Sail ho ! ' had been sounding 
 pretty regularly on and off since the look-out 
 aloft had been established, as you will suppose 
 when you think of the crowded waters we 
 were then navigating ; though everything thus 
 signalled so far had hove into view broad on 
 either bow or on either beam. We were all on 
 deck ; that is to say, Miss Jennings, snug in a fur 
 cloak, — for the shift of wind had not softened the 
 temperature of the atmosphere, — in a chair near 
 the skylight ; Wilfrid near her, lying upon the 
 ivory-white plank smoking a cigar, with his head 
 supported on his elbow, and I stumping the deck 
 close to them, with Finn abreast of the wheel to 
 windward. We were in the midst of some 
 common-place chatter when that voice from aloft
 
 SAIL HO! 153 
 
 smote our ears, and when we saw the direction in 
 which the fellow was holding his glass levelled we 
 all looked that way, scarce thinking for the 
 moment that if the stranger were heading for ns 
 she would not be in sight from the deck for a 
 spell yet, and as long again if slie were travelling 
 our course. 
 
 Miss Jennings resumed her seat ; Wilfrid 
 stretched his length along the deck as before ; 
 and I went on pacing to and fro close beside 
 them. 
 
 ' It will be a Monday on which we sight the 
 '' Shark," ' said Wilfrid. 
 
 ' How do you know ? ' said I. 
 
 ' I dreamt it,' he answered. 
 
 Miss Jennings looked at him wistfully as if 
 she believed in dreams. 
 
 ' It was an odd vision,' he continued, with a 
 soft far-away expression in his eyes, very unlike the 
 usual trouble in them. ' I dreamt that on hear- 
 ing of the — of the ' he pushed his hair from 
 
 his forehead and spoke with his hand to his brow 
 — ' I say that I dreamt I flung myself on horse- 
 back — it was a favourite mare — Lady Henrietta, 
 Laura ' — she bowed her head — ' and gave chase. I 
 did not know which way to go, so I let fall the 
 reins on the animal's neck and left the scent to tiiie 
 detection of her instincts. She carried me to the
 
 154 yi^y OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 sea-coast, a desolate bit of a bay, I remember, 
 with tlie air full of the moaning of vexed^waters 
 and a melancholy crying of wind in the crevices 
 and chasms of the cliff, and the whole scene made 
 gamiter than it needed to have been, as I fancied, 
 by a skeleton that was one moment that of a big 
 fish and the next of a man, fluctuating upon the 
 sight hke an image seen three fathoms deep 
 floating in such glass-clear water as you get in the 
 West Indian latitudes.' He paused. ^ Where 
 was I ? ' he inquired, with an air of bewilderment. 
 
 ' Your horse had carried you to the sea- 
 shore,' said Miss Laura, with her face full of 
 credulity. I love a superstitious girl, and who is 
 the woman that does not believe in dreams ? 
 
 ' Ha ! ' he cried, after a brief effort of memory ; 
 ' yes, the mare came to a stand on the margin 
 of the beach, and heaven knows whence the 
 apparition rose : but there was an empty boat 
 tossing before me, with a sort of sign- post 
 erected in her, a pole with a black board upon it 
 on which was written, in letters that glowed as 
 though wrought by a brush dipped in a sunbeam, 
 the sinde word Monday ! ' 
 
 ' Pooh ! ' said I, scornfully, and flmcying at 
 the moment that somethinoj stirred in the com- 
 panion-way, I moved a step or two in that direc- 
 tion and saw Muffin with his head a trifle above
 
 SAIL HO! 155 
 
 the level of the top step apparently taking the 
 air, thoiigli no doubt he was diverting himself 
 too, by listening to our talk. On seeing me he 
 descended, stepping backwards with a sickly 
 respectful smile of apology. 
 
 ' Why do you say pooh, Mr. Monson ? ' asked 
 Miss Jennings. ' Wise people never ridicule dreams 
 until they have been disproved.' 
 
 I admired her arch air that floated hke a veil 
 of gauze over her sympathy with Wilfrid. 
 
 ' I don't want to believe in dreams/ said I ; 
 ' my own dreams are mucli too uncomfortable to 
 make me desire faith in that direction.' 
 
 I glanced at Wilfrid ; his eyes were staring 
 right up at the vane at the maintopmast-head, 
 and it was easily seen that he was no longer 
 thinking of what we had been talking about. 
 Miss Jennings opened the novel that lay in her 
 lap and seemed to read ; there was a store of 
 tliis sort of literature in the yacht, laid in, I dare 
 say, by Sir Wilfrid for Lady Monson, who, I don't 
 doubt, was a great devourer of novels ; the trash 
 in one, two, and three volumes of an age of trashy 
 fiction, of a romantic literature of o-or(Teous 
 waistcoats, nankeen breeches, and Pelliam cravats. 
 I don't think Miss Jennings had read much of the 
 book she held. It was called ' The Peeress,' and 
 I believe it had taken her two days to arrive at
 
 156 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 the end of the first chapter. But then, who can 
 read at sea ? For my part I can never fix my 
 attention. In a dead cahii I am prone to snooze ; 
 in a brisk breeze every sweep of surge, every leap 
 of frothing head, every glance of sunshine, every 
 solemn soaring of white cloud up the slope of the 
 liquid girdle is an irresistible appeal to me to quit 
 my author for teachers full of hints worth 
 remembering ; and then, indeed, I yield myself to 
 that luxury of passivity Wordsworth rhymes 
 about — that disposition to keep quiet until I am 
 visited with impulses — the happiest apology ever 
 attempted by a home-keeping poet for an un- 
 willingness to be at the trouble to seek beyond 
 his hillside for ideas. 
 
 ' Here is a flowery fancy ! ' exclaimed Miss 
 Jennings, and she began to read. It was some- 
 thing — I forget what — in the primitive Bulwerian 
 vein ; plenty of capitals, I dare say, and without 
 much sense that I could make out to linger upon 
 the ear ; but one sentence I remember : ' He had 
 that inexpressible air of distinction which comes 
 as a royal gift from heaven to members of old 
 families and only to them.' 
 
 ' Stupid ass ! ' exclaimed Wilfrid, whom I had 
 imagined to be wool-gathering. 
 
 ' But there is truth in it, though,' said Miss 
 Jenninsfs.
 
 SAIL HO! i^S7 
 
 ' What is an old family ? ' I exclaimed. 
 
 ' Why a good family, surely, Mr. Monson,' she 
 answered. 
 
 ' No, no, Laura,' grumbled Wilfrid. ' I could 
 introduce you to a longshore sailor who can't sign 
 his name, and whose sole theory of principle lies 
 in successfully hoodwinking the revenue people, 
 who will tell you that his forefathers have been 
 boatmen and smugglers for over three hundred 
 years, and who could feel his way back along a 
 chain of Jims, Dicks, and Joes without a link 
 missing down, maybe, to a time when the pro- 
 genitors of scores of our Dukes, Earls, and the 
 rest of them were — tush I That boatman belongs 
 to an old family.' 
 
 ' Then, pray, what is a good family ? ' inquired 
 Miss Jennings. 
 
 ' Yonder's the sail that was sighted awhile 
 gone, Sir Wilfrid,' sung out Captain Finn in his 
 leather-lunged voice. 
 
 My cousin sprang to his feet, and the three of 
 us went to the rail to look.
 
 158 ^A' OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 WE SPEAK THE ' WANDERER.* 
 
 On the lee-bow was a clasli of orange light, much 
 less like the sails of a ship than a feather of vapour 
 bronzed by a sunset and vanishing in the tail of a 
 cloud. 
 
 ' How does she head, Finn ? ' cried Wilfrid to 
 the skipper, who was viewing her through a long, 
 heavy, poAverful glass of his own. 
 
 ' Coming dead on end for us, sir.' 
 
 ' What'll she be, captain ? ' said I. 
 
 He eyed her a bit, and answered, ' A square 
 rig, sir ; a bit of a barque, I dare say.' 
 
 My cousin suddenly slapped his leg — one of 
 his favourite gestures when a fit of excitement 
 seized him, ' Charles,' he bawled, ' we'll speak 
 her. D'ye hear me, Finn.^ We'll speak her, I 
 
 Sc' 
 
 ' Ay, ay. sir,' cried the captain. 
 
 ' She may have news for us,' Wilfrid pro- 
 ceeded ; ' it is about time we fell in with some- 
 thing that has sighted the " Shark." '
 
 Jl'E SPEAK THE ' WAXDERER 
 
 159 
 
 'A bit betimes, sir/ said Finn, touching his 
 caj:) and approaching to give me liis telescope 
 Avhich I had extended my liand for. 
 
 ' Confomid it, man I ' cried Wilfrid, in a pas- 
 sion, 'everything's always too soon ^viih you. 
 Suppose by this time to-morrow we should have 
 the schooner in sight — what then, hey ? What 
 -would be your arguments .^ That she had no 
 business to heave in sight yet ? ' 
 
 Finn made no answer, but pulled his cap off 
 to scratch his head, with his lips muttering uncon- 
 sciously to himself to the energy of his secret 
 thoughts, and his long face, which his mouth 
 seemed to sit exactly in the middle of, working 
 in every muscle with protest. 
 
 The distant vessel was showing in the glass as 
 high as the curve of her fore- course, with now 
 and again a dim sort of refractive glimmer of wet 
 black hull rising off a head of sea into an airv, 
 pale length of light that hung in a low o-leam 
 betwixt the junction of sea and sky. The sun 
 was westering though still high, but his orb was 
 rayless, and the body of him looked no more than 
 an oozing of shapeless yellow flame into the odd 
 sky that seemed a misty blue in places, though 
 where it appeared so you would notice a faint 
 outhne of cloud ; and as he waned, his reflection 
 in the wind- wrinkled heave of the loner head-
 
 i6o AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 swell, seemed as if each broad soft brow was alive 
 with runnings of flaming oil. 
 
 There was to be no more argument about 
 good and bad families. Wilfrid now could think 
 of nothing but the approaching vessel, and the 
 child-like qualities which went to the creation 
 of his baflSing, unfixable nature showed in an 
 eager impatience, in which you seemed to witness 
 as much of boyish desire for something fresh and 
 new to happen as of anything else. For my part, 
 T detest arguments. They force you to give rea- 
 sons and to enter upon definitions. I fancied, 
 however, I was beginning to detect Miss Laura's 
 little weakness. There was a feminine hanker- 
 ing in her after ancient blood, sounding titles, 
 high and mighty things. As I glanced at her 
 sweet face I felt in the humour to lecture her. 
 What but this weakness had led to her sister's 
 undoing ? Wilfrid was a worthy, honest, good- 
 hearted, generous-souled creature, spite of his 
 being a bit mad : but I could not imagine he was 
 a man to fall in love with ; and in this queer chase 
 we had entered upon there was justification enough 
 of tliat notion. His wife had married him, I sup- 
 pose, for position, which she had allowed the first 
 good-looking rogue she met to persuade her was 
 as worthless as dust and ashes unless a human 
 heart beat inside it. And the scoundrel was
 
 WE SPEAK THE ' WANDERER' i6i 
 
 right, though he deserved the halter for his prac- 
 tical illustration of his meaning. I met Miss 
 Jennings' eye and she smiled. She called softly 
 to me : 
 
 ' You are puzzling over the difference between 
 a good and an old family ! ' 
 
 ' I wish my coimtenance w^ere less ingenuous,' 
 said I. 
 
 'Hadn't you better run up some signal,' 
 exclaimed Wilfrid, turning upon Finn, ' to 
 make yonder craft know that we want her to 
 stop ? ' 
 
 'Lay aft here a couple of hands,' shouted 
 Finn in a sulky note. 
 
 Two seamen instantly came along. The fiag- 
 locker was dragged from its cleats or chocks 
 under the small, milk-white grating abaft the 
 wheel ; Finn, with a square, carrot - coloured 
 thumb ploughed into the book of directions ; 
 then, after a little, a string of butterfly bunting 
 soared gracefully to the topmost head, where the 
 flags were to be best seen, a long pennant toppin<r 
 the gay colours like a tongue of flame against the 
 rusty yellow of the atmosphere ; the dip of the 
 yacht to the swell became a holiday curtsey, and 
 you thought of her as putting on a simper like 
 some pretty country wench newly pranked out by 
 her sweetheart with a knot of ribbons. 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 i62 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 . ' Aft and haul up the ma in- tack ; round in on 
 the weather fore braces and lay the topsail to the 
 mast ; do\Yn helium ! so — leave her at that ! ' and 
 the ' Bride,' with the wide ocean heave lifting to 
 the bow^ came to a stand, her way arrested, the 
 wind combing her fore and aft canvas like tlie 
 countless invisible fingers of giant spirits, and a 
 dull plash and sulky wash of water alongside, and 
 a frequent sharp clatter of wheel chains to the jar 
 of the churning rudder. There was the true spirit 
 of the deep in this picture then, for the seamen 
 had dropped the various jobs they were upon and 
 stood awaiting orders about the decks, every 
 man's shadow swaying upon the salt sparkling of 
 the spotless planks, and all eyes directed at the 
 approaching craft that had now risen to her wash 
 streak and was coming along in a slow stately roll 
 with lier canvas yearning from flying jib to fore 
 royal, every cloth yellow as satin, and flashes of 
 light like the explosion of ordnance breaking in soft 
 sulphur-coloured flames from her wet side as she 
 lifted it sunwards from the pale blue brine that 
 melted yeastily from her metalled forefoot into two 
 salival lines which united abaft and went astern 
 in a wake that looked as if she were towing some 
 half mile length of amber-tinctured satin. Yet 
 there was no beauty in her as in us ; it was the 
 sweetness and grace of airy distance working in
 
 WE SPEAK THE ' WANDERER ' 163 
 
 her and tlie mild and misty gushing of the after- 
 noon radiance, and the wild enfolding arms of the 
 horizon sweeping as it were the very soul of the 
 mighty ocean loneliness into her sohtary shape 
 and into her bland and starhke canvas, until you 
 found her veritably spiritualised out of her 
 commonplace meaning into a mere fairy fancy, 
 some toy like imagination of the deep ; but she 
 hardened rapidly into the familiar prosaics of 
 timber, sailcloth and tackling, as she came floating 
 down upon us, sinking to her narrow white band, 
 then poised till a broad width of her green sheath- 
 ing was exposed, with a figure in a tall chimney- 
 pot hat standing on the rail holding on by a back- 
 stay. 
 
 She was a slow old waggon, and one saw the 
 reason of it as she came sliding along, rolling like 
 an anchored galliot in a sea-way, in her bows as 
 I'ound as an apple and her kettle-bottom run ; 
 and Wilfrid's impatience grew into torture to us to 
 see almost as much as to him to feel as he'd pace 
 the deck for a minute or two tumultuously, then 
 fling against the rail with a wild stare at the 
 approaching craft as if indeed he was cocksure she 
 was full of news for him, though for my part it 
 seemed mere trifling with the yacht's routine io 
 back her yard that we might ask questions at tha 
 early time of day. She steered so as to com 
 
 M 2
 
 i64 A A' OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 within easy hail and then boom-ending her fore- 
 topmast studdingsail she backed her main topsail 
 and floated the full length o:' her out abreast of us 
 within pistol shot, pitching clumsily and bringing 
 her bows out of it with the white brine frothing 
 hke lacework all about her there, her line of bul- 
 warks dotted with heads watching us, the sounds 
 of the creaking of her aloft very clear along with 
 a farmyard noise of several cocks crowing one 
 after the other lustily, and the lowing of bulls or 
 cows. 
 
 ' Barque ahoy ! ' sung out Captain Finn, 
 funnelling his hands as a vehicle for his voice. 
 
 ' Halloa ? ' cried the figure that stood upon the 
 rail in the most cheery, laughing voice that can be 
 conceived. 
 
 ' What ship is that ? ' 
 
 ' The '' Wanderer." ' 
 
 ' Where are you from ? and where are you 
 bound to?' 
 
 ' From Valparaiso to Sunderland,' answered the 
 other in a way that made one think he spoke with 
 difficulty through suppressed mirth. 
 
 ' Will you tell us,' bawled Finn, ' if you've 
 sighted an outward bound fore and aft schooner- 
 yacht within the past week ? ' 
 
 ' Sighted a fore and aft schooner-yacht ? ay, 
 that I have, master, fine a vessel as yourn pretty
 
 WE SPEAK THE 'WANDERER' 165 
 
 nigh,' shouted the other as though he must burst 
 in a moment into a roar of laughter. 
 
 ' Ask him aboard ! ask him aboard ! ' cried 
 Wilfrid Avild with excitement, slapping his knee 
 till it was like a discharge of pistols. ' Beg him to 
 do me the favour of drinking a bottle of cham- 
 pagne with me ; ask him — ask him — but first 
 ascertain if he has made an entry of the meeting 
 in his log-book.' 
 
 ' Ay, ay, sir. Ho the barque ahoy ! ' 
 
 ' Halloa .P' 
 
 ' Can you tell us when and whereabouts ye fell 
 in with that there schooner.^ ' 
 
 ' Tell ye ! to be sure I can ; got it in black and 
 white, master. Ha ! ha ! ha ! ' and here the old 
 figure in the tall hat clapped his hand to his side 
 and laughed outright, toppling and reehng about 
 on the rail in such a manner that I took it for 
 granted he was drunk and expected every moment 
 to see him plunge overboard. 
 
 ' Ask him aboard ! ask him aboard ! ' shrieked 
 Wilfrid. ' Eequest him to bring his log-book with 
 him. We will send a boat.' 
 
 Finn hailed the barque again. ' Sir Wilfrid 
 Monson's compliments to you, sir, and will be 
 pleased to see you aboard to drink a bottle of 
 champagne with him. Will you kindly bring 
 your log-book with you? We will send a boat.'
 
 i66 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ' Eight y'are,' shouted the old chap with a 
 liumoroiis flourish of his hand, and so speaking 
 he sprang inboard, laughing heartily, and dis- 
 appeared down his little companion hatch. 
 
 A boat was lowered with four men in charge 
 of surly old Crimp. My cousin's excitement was 
 a real torment to witness. He smote his hands 
 violently together whilst he urged the men at the 
 top of his voice to bear a hand and be off or the 
 barque would be swinging her topsail and sailing 
 away from us. He twitched from head to foot as 
 though he must fall into convulsions ; he bawled 
 to the sailors not to wait to cast anything adrift 
 but to put their knives through it as though some- 
 body were drowning astern and the delay of a 
 single moment mic^ht make all the difference be- 
 tween life or death. ' By heaven ! ' he cried, halt- 
 ing in front of me and Miss Jennings with a 
 fierceness of manner that was rendered almost 
 delirious by the quality of savage exultation in it, 'I 
 hiew it would fall out thus ? They cannot escape 
 me. Of course it is the " Shark " that that fellow 
 has sighted.' He broke from us and ran to the 
 rail and overhung it, gnawing his nails whilst he 
 watched the receding boat with his eyelids quiver- 
 ing and his face working hke that of a man in 
 acute pain. 
 
 ' I fear,' said I, in a low voice, to Miss Jennings,
 
 WE SPEAK THE 'WANDERER'- 167 
 
 ' that it would not require more than two or three 
 incidents of this sort to utterly dement him. His 
 resolution is strong enough. Why in the name of 
 ] ity will not he secure his mind to it ? It's bound 
 to go adrift else, I fear.' 
 
 ' But realise what he has suffered, Mr. Monson,' 
 she answered gently, ' such a blow^ might unseat a 
 stronger reason than his. I cannot wonder at his 
 excitement. Look how I am trembling ! ' She 
 lifted her little hand which shook as tliou.o-h she 
 had been seized with a chill, but there was 
 tremor enough in her voice to indicate her agita- 
 tion. ' The mere idea that the " Shark " may be 
 much nearer to us than we imagine — that this 
 chase may very shortly bring her within sight of 
 
 us ' a strong shiver ran through her. ' Do 
 
 you believe it is the " Shark " that that old man 
 saw?' 
 
 ' I shall be better able to judge when he 
 comes aboard,' said I. ' See, our boat is along- 
 side. They must fend her off handsomely, by 
 George, if she is not to be swamped. Heavens ! 
 how that old cask wallows ! ' 
 
 In a few moments the little old man in the 
 tall hat came to the gangway and looked over ; 
 there was aj)parently some discussion ; 1 imagined 
 the elderly humourist was going to funk it, for I 
 fancied I saw him wag his head ; but on a sudden^
 
 i68 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 all very nimbly, he dropped into the wide main- 
 chains, whence, watching his opportunity, he 
 toppled into the boat, which immediately shoved 
 off. Wilfrid went to the gangway to receive him. 
 I was a little apprehensive of the effect of my 
 cousin's behaviour — w^hich had something of the 
 contortions and motions of a galvanised body — 
 upon the old sea-dog that was coming, and I say 
 I rather hoped that this captain might be a bit 
 too tipsy to prove a nice observer. I took a view 
 of him as he sat in the stern sheets, the boat 
 sinking and rising from peak to hollow as she 
 burst through the water to the gilded, sparkling 
 sweep of the admirably handled oars, and could 
 have laughed out of mere sympathy with the 
 broad grin that lay upon his jolly, mottled coun- 
 tenance. His face was as round as the full moon, 
 and of the appearance of brawn ; his nose was a 
 little fiery pimple ; small white whiskers went in 
 a slant in the direction of his nostrils, coming to 
 an end under either eye. His hat was too big 
 for him, and pressed down the top of his ears into 
 the likeness of overhanging flaps under the Quaker- 
 like breadth of bi im ; his mouth ^vas stretched in 
 a smile all the time he was approaching the yacht, 
 and he burst into a loud laugh as he grasped the 
 man-ropes and bundled agilely up the side of the 
 ' Bride.'
 
 WE SPEAK THE ' WANDERER ' 169 
 
 ' You are very good to come on board, sir,' 
 cried Wilfrid, bowing with agitation, and speak- 
 ing as though suffering from a swollen throat w^itli 
 the hurry, anxiety, impatience, which mastered 
 him. ' I thank you for this visit. I see you have 
 your log-book with you. Let me inquire your 
 name ? ' 
 
 ' Puncheon, sir. Ha ! ha ! ha ! Toby Pun- 
 cheon, sir ; a rascally queer name, ho ! ho ! And 
 your honom-'s a lord, ain't ye? I didn't quite 
 catch the words. He ! he ! he ! ' rattled out the 
 old fellow^, laughing after almost every other 
 word, and staring at us one after another as he 
 spoke without the least diminution of his pro- 
 digious grin. 
 
 ' No, no ; not a lord,' exclaimed Wilfrid ; 
 'but pray step this way, Captain Puncheon. 
 Charles, please accompany us. Captain Finn, I 
 shall want you below.' 
 
 He led the road to the companion, calling to 
 the steward, whilst he was yet midway down the 
 steps, to put champagne and glasses upon the 
 table. 
 
 Captain Puncheon's grin grew alarmingly wide 
 as he surveyed the glittering cabin. ' My eye ! ' 
 he cried, after a rumbling laugh full of astonish- 
 ment, ' them's looking-glasses and no mistake ! 
 And pickle me blue if ever I see the Hkes of such
 
 I70 AA^ OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 lamps afore on board ship ! ' growing grave an 
 instant to utter a low whistle. ' Why, it's finer 
 than a theaytre, ain't it ? ' he exclaimed, turning 
 to me, once more grinning from ear to ear, and 
 addressing me as if I was his mate that had come 
 off with him. His glass was filled ; he drank to 
 us, and pulled his log-book out of the piece of 
 newspaper in which he had brought it wrapped 
 
 ' Will you kindly give us,' said Wilfrid, ' the 
 date on which you passed the schooner-yacht ? ' 
 
 ' Ay, that I will,' cried Puncheon, turning 
 back the pages of his log, and then pouncing 
 upon an entry with a forefinger curled by 
 rheumatism into the aspect of a fish-hook as 
 though the piece of writing would run away if he 
 did not keep it squeezed down upon the page. 
 He felt about his coat with his other hand, and 
 then bursting into a laugh exclaimed : ' Gents, 
 you must read for yourselves. Blow'd if I ain't 
 gone and forgot my glasses.' 
 
 The entry was perfectly shipshape, and written 
 in a round, somewhat trembling old hand. There 
 were the usual records of weather, courses steered, 
 and the like, and under the heading of observa- 
 tions was : ' Passed large schooner-yacht steering 
 west-south-west. Hoisted our ensign, but she 
 showed no colours.' The log gave the latitude
 
 WE SPEAK THE 'WANDERER' 171 
 
 and longitude of this encounter as 16° West 
 longitude, 41° 30' North latitude. 
 
 I hurriedly made certain calculations after 
 reading aloud this entry, and addressing Finn said, 
 ' If that vessel be the " Shark " she has managed 
 to hold her ov/n so far.' 
 
 ' Ay, sir,' answered Finn, peering at my 
 figures, ' but what's been her weather ? ' 
 
 ' Are you chasing of her, gents ? ' whipped out 
 Puncheon, smiling as though he only waited for 
 us to answer to break into a roar of laughter. 
 
 ' Yes,' cried Wilfrid fiercely, ' and we mean to 
 catcli her ; ' then, controlling himself, ' Captain, 
 will you be so good as to describe the vessel you 
 met ? ' 
 
 ' Describe her ? 'Course I will,' answered the 
 old chap, and forthwith he gave us a sailorly 
 picture of a yacht apparently of the burthen of 
 the ' Shark,' a fore and aft schooner, a long, low, 
 black, handsome vessel, loftily rigged even for a 
 craft of her kind. She passed within a mile and 
 a half of the ' Wanderer ' ; it was about eight 
 o'clock in the morning, the sunshine bright, the 
 wind north-east, a pleasant air. I asked Puncheon 
 if he examined her with his glass. ' Examine her 
 through my glass ? Ay, that I did,' he answered 
 in his hilarious way. ' I see some figures aboard 
 aft. No lady. No, ne'er a hint of a female
 
 172 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 garment. Happen if there was women they was 
 still abed, seeing how young the morn was for 
 females as goes to sea for pleasure. I took notice 
 of a tall gent in a white cap with a naval peak 
 and a white jacket.' That was about as much as 
 he could tell us, and so saying he regaled himself 
 with a hearty laugh. Finn questioned him as one 
 sailor would another on points of the yacht's fur- 
 niture aloft, but the old fellow could only speak 
 generally of the impression left upon him. Wil- 
 frid's face w^as flushed with excitement. 
 
 ' Finn,' he exclaimed, ' what do you think ? ' 
 
 ' Why, your honour,' said the man deliberately, 
 ' putting two and two together, and totalling up 
 all sarcumstances of rig, haspect, time and place, 
 I don't doubt that the schooner-yacht Captain 
 Puncheon here fell in with was the " Shark." ' 
 
 Puncheon rose. 
 
 'Empty this bottle,' cried Wilfrid to him. 
 ' By heaven, man, the news you give me does me 
 good, though ! ' 
 
 The old chap filled up, grinning merrily. 
 
 ' Gents,' he cried, holding the foaming glass 
 aloft and looking at it with one eye closed, ' your 
 errand's an honest one I'm sure, and so here's 
 success to it. The craft I fell in with has got 
 legs, mind ye. Yes, by thunder, ha ! ha ! ha ! 
 she's got legs, gents, and'll require all the catching
 
 jri: SPEAK THE ' WANDERER = 173 
 
 I expects your honours have stomachs for. 'Tain't 
 to be done in the inside of a month, he ! he ! he ! 
 and so I tells ye. See her slipping through it 
 under her squaresail ! God bless my body and 
 soul, 'twas hke the shadow of a cloud runninp- 
 ower the waters. But sive yourselves a lono- 
 course, gents all, and you've got a beauty here as 
 must lay her aboard — in time, ha ! ha ! ha ! Your 
 honours, my respects to you.' 
 
 Down went the wine and up he got, pulhncr 
 his hat to his ears and stepping w4th a deep sea 
 roll up the companion ladder. We followed him 
 to the gangway. 
 
 ' Is there nothing more to ask, Charles ? ' cried 
 Wilfi'id. 
 
 But Puncheon had given us all that he had 
 to tell, and though I could have wished him to 
 hint at something distinctive in the vessel's hull, 
 such as her figure-head or any other point of the 
 like kind in which the ' Shark ' might differ fi^om 
 vessels of her build and appearance, yet there 
 was the strongest possible reason to suppose that 
 the craft he reported was Lord Winterton's 
 schooner with Lady Monson and Colonel Hope- 
 Kennedy on board. 
 
 Whilst Captain Puncheon waited for the 
 yacht's boat to haul alongside Sir Wilfrid sent for 
 a box of cigars which he presented to the old
 
 174 ^^ OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 chap. The gift produced such a grin that I saw 
 some of the hands forward turn their backs upon 
 us to conceal their mirth. 
 
 'Do you think, captain,' exclaimed Wilfrid, 
 once more rendered almost alarmingly convulsive 
 in his movements by the excitement that filled 
 him, ' that there are men aboard your vessel who 
 took note of more than you did in the yacht's 
 appearance ? If so ' 
 
 But Puncheon interrupted him by saying that 
 he was the only man who examined the schooner 
 through a glass, and therefore neither his mate nor 
 any of the seamen who were on deck at the time 
 could possibly have observed her so fully as he. 
 
 ' Make haste and return,' bawled my cousin to 
 the fellows in the boat as they shoved off with the 
 grinning old skipper in the stern sheets. ' Every 
 moment is precious,' he muttered, walking briskly 
 in short turns opposite Miss Jennings and me. 
 ' To think of them sneaking along like the 
 shadow of a cloud, hey I ' he sent a wildly im- 
 patient look aloft and brought his foot with a 
 heavy stamp to the deck. 
 
 'It is the "Shark" then.^' whispered Miss 
 Jennings. 
 
 ' No doubt of it,' I answered. 
 
 She glanced at me as if she had been wounded 
 and her lips turned pale. Well, thought I, an-
 
 IV£ SPEAK THE 'WANDERER' 175 
 
 ticipatiou, to be sure, is often the worst part of an 
 affair of this sort, but if the mere hearing of the 
 ' Shark ' affects this httle sweetheart so violently, 
 how will the sighting of the craft serve her, and 
 the boarding of her, if ever it comes to it ? In a 
 few minutes the yacht's boat was returning, whilst 
 you saAv the figure of old Puncheon clambering 
 out of his main chains over the bulwarks of the 
 ' Wanderer.' A little later and there were hands 
 tailing on to the falls, the boat rising dripping to 
 the davits, and the foretopsail yard slowly point- 
 ing its arm to the wind ; then, to the full weight 
 of the breeze sweeping red with the sunset into 
 her hollowed canvas, the 'Bride' leaned down, 
 sullenly shouldering the swell into foam with the 
 first stubborn push of her bows, till gathering 
 way she was once more swinging into the west 
 and south with the gloom of the evening grow- 
 ing into a windy vagueness on her lee-beam, 
 whilst on the weather quarter, black as indigo 
 against the dull western redness, was the figure 
 of the barque rolling with filled maintopsail 
 over the long Atlantic heavings and rapidly 
 diminishing into the fragile beauty of some ex- 
 quisitely carved toy of ebony wood on the skirts 
 of the rising and falling fan-shaped stretch of 
 seething paleness that marked the limits of the 
 ' Bride's ' wake.
 
 176 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 Wilfrid, who had been standinf^j at the com- 
 pass staring with a frown at the card, with his 
 arms folded, whilst the men trimmed sail and 
 started the yacht afresh, marched up to me when 
 that business was over and exclaimed, ' What did 
 you make the average of the "Shark's" daily 
 runs according to Puncheon's reckonings of the 
 place of his meeting her ? ' 
 
 ' About a hundred and eighty miles a day,' I 
 answered. 
 
 ' We haven't been doing that though ! ' 
 
 ' 1^0 : but wait a little,' said I : 'let your 
 " Bride " feel the trade wind humming aloft.' 
 
 ' Finn,' he bawled. The captain came running 
 to us. ' Fetch the track-chart, Finn. There's 
 light enough yet to see by.' 
 
 The man disappeared and very quickly re- 
 turned with a handy chart of the world which he 
 unrolled and laid on the top of the skyhght. We 
 all overhung it. Miss Jennings amongst us. The 
 men forward watched us curiously. Something 
 in the manner of them suggested to the swift 
 glance I sent their way that the perception our 
 voyage was more serious, with a wilder, sterner 
 purpose in it than they had imagined, was be- 
 ginning to daAvn upon them since Puncheon's 
 visit. 
 
 'Mark the spot, Finn,' exclaimed Wilfrid in
 
 IVE SPEAK THE ' WANDERER ' 177 
 
 the dogged voice of a man sullenly and obstinately 
 struggling to master a feeling of exhaustion, ' the 
 exact spot where the barque fell in with the 
 " Shark." ' 
 
 Finn produced a parallel ruler, a pair of 
 compasses, a pencil and the like, calculated and 
 indicated the spot by a httle cross. 
 
 ' How short the distance she has sailed seems ! ' 
 exclaimed Miss Jennings. 
 
 'Fifteen degrees of latitude, though,' said I; 
 ' these charts are mighty deceptive. A very 
 small pencil-mark ^vill cover a tremendously long 
 course.' 
 
 Wilfrid stood motionless with his eyes fixed 
 upon the mark Finn had made. He talked a 
 little to himself, but voicelessly. The captain 
 watched him nervously. My cousin came to 
 himself with a start. ' What will have been the 
 '• Shark's " course by magnetic compass, Finn, say 
 ft'om the latitude of the Sciilies to the spot where 
 the '• Wanderer " met her ? '. 
 
 The captain put his parallel rules on the chart 
 and named the course ; what it was I forget, — 
 south-west by south, I believe, or something near it. 
 
 * Supposing the wind not to head her, Finn,' 
 continued my cousin, ' would she steer the same 
 course down to the time when the '' Wanderer " 
 met her ? ' 
 
 VOL. T. N
 
 178 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ' No, your honour. There's no call for Fidler 
 any more than there is for me to go to the west- 
 wards of Madeira.' 
 
 ' Now, Finn, show me on this chart where, 
 steering the course you are now heading, you 
 will have arrived when you have run nine hun- 
 dred miles ? ' 
 
 ' How's her head ? ' sung out Finn to the 
 fellow at the wheel. The man answered. ' You 
 hear it, Sir Wilfrid .? ' said Finn. My cousin 
 nodded. The captain put his rules on the chart, 
 adjusting them to the course the 'Bride' was 
 then sailing, and the measure of nine hundred 
 miles brought the mark he made to touch the 
 cross that represented the ' Shark's ' place. 'That's 
 right, I think, Mr. Monson,' said he, turning a 
 sober face of triumph on me. 
 
 ' Quite right,' I answered, and I spoke no 
 more than the truth, for the poor fellow had 
 made his calculations with laborious anxiety. 
 
 Wilfrid clapped his hands together with a 
 shout of lauditer that carried his voice to a 
 shriek almost, and without speaking a word he 
 strode to the hatch and went below.
 
 179 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 A SQUALL. 
 
 Although Finn's calculations showed very well 
 upon tlie chart, it will not be supposed I could 
 find anything in them upon which to ground that 
 hope of falling in with the ' Shark ' which had 
 become a conviction with Wilfrid. The look-out 
 man at our masthead might perhaps, on a clear 
 day, compass a range of some twenty miles, even 
 thirty if it came to a gleam of lofty canvas hover- 
 ing over a hull a league or two past the slope of 
 waters ; but what was a view of this kind to 
 signify in so vast an ocean as we had entered ? 
 As I have elsewhere said, the difference of a 
 quarter of a point would in a few hours, supposing 
 a good breeze of wind to be blowing, carry the 
 ' Bride ' wide of the wake of the ' Shark ' and put 
 the two yachts out of sight fair abreast of one 
 another. 
 
 Finn understood this as well as I ; but when 
 I fell into a talk with him on the subject that 
 evening — I mean the evening of the day on which 
 
 TT 2
 
 i8o AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 we had spoken the ' Wanderer ' — he told me very 
 honestly that the odds indeed were heavy against 
 our heaving the ' Shark ' into view, though he 
 was quite sure of outsaihng her if the course was 
 to extend to the Cape of Good Hope ; but that as 
 there was a chance of our picking her up, whether 
 by luck, if I chose to think it so, or by his hitting 
 with accuracy upon the line of direction that Fidler 
 would take, he had made up his mind to regard 
 the thing as going to happen, for his own ease of 
 mind as well as to keep my cousin's expectations 
 lively and trusting. 
 
 ' A man can but do his best, sir,' he said to 
 me. ' Sir Wilfrid needs a deal of humouring ; 
 you can see that, sir. I knew all along, when he 
 hrst came and told me what had happened 
 and gave me my orders, that the job of keeping 
 him pacified would have to go hand in hand 
 with tlie business of sailing the ' Bride ' and 
 lighting upon the ' Shark,' if so be she's dis- 
 coverable. My notion is that if you're called 
 upon so to act as to fit an employer's taste and 
 keep his views and wishes gratified, though by no 
 more than maintaining expectation in him, the 
 best thing is to tarn to and try to think as fur as 
 you can the same way as he do. I don't mind 
 Faying, Mr. Monson, that I allow the whole of 
 this here woyage to be as wague as wagueness
 
 A SQUALL i8i 
 
 can well be ; therefore wliy worrit over parts of 
 it ? Suppose we overhaul the '' Shark " — then 
 it'll be all right ; suppose we don't — then it won't 
 be for the want of trying.' 
 
 This Avas the substance of Finn's opinion as 
 he imparted it to me that night. His sincerity 
 touched me ; besides, I saw worry enough in tlie 
 poor fellow to make me sorry for him. Indeed, I 
 resolved from that hour to back liim up, heartily 
 agreeing with him that the adventure was quite 
 too vague to justify anxiety in respect of any one 
 detail of the programme. 
 
 The weather was quiet when I went to bed 
 til at night. I came below from my long yarn 
 with Finn, leaving a windy smear of moon over 
 our mastheads and a dark sky going down from 
 it to the obscured sea-line, with here and there a 
 pale and vapoury point of star hovering sparely 
 over a wing of cloud that lay still in the dusk as 
 though what wind there was blew low upon the 
 waters. The wide sea came to the yacht in a 
 dusky throbbing, like folds of gloom rolling with 
 a sort of palpitation in them to the eye ; tlie 
 foam glanced in places, but there was little weight 
 in the wind, and the pallid spires of the yacht's 
 canvas floated nearly upright through the dark 
 atmosphere, with a sound of the sob of water 
 coming ofi' her weather bow and the dead plash
 
 i82 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 of the hidden billow falling without life from her 
 quarter, in a way that made one think there were 
 fellows emptying buckets over the side abreast of 
 the wheel. 
 
 Wilfrid had been moody and reserved through- 
 out the dinner and retired early to bed. I sat an 
 hour with Miss Laura, with the mild diversion of 
 a draught-board between us ; but we soon forgot to 
 play in talking. We had been but a few days 
 together, yet I had already made the discovery 
 that I wonderfully enjoyed her company and that 
 I immensely relished a quality of arch naivete 
 in her conversation which owed something of its 
 effect to the contrast between a sort of coquettish 
 sagacity in many things she said and the nun-like 
 artlessness and virginal sweetness I seemed to 
 find in the gentle girlish regard of her charming 
 eyes. I also observed in myself that the more I 
 saw of her the more her beauty gained upon me. 
 I never remember meeting a Avoman's face that I 
 would sooner have taken as a frank expression of 
 mind ; there was a softness and delicacy of feature 
 that one instinctively accepted as an illustration 
 of habitual refinement and purity of thought. 
 Her manner, save when aroused, was of engaging 
 o'entleuess and tenderness, and her "smile the most 
 amiable of any I remember. Her position was of 
 great delicacy, and could not have failed to pain-
 
 A SQUALL 183 
 
 fully distress one of your self-conscious women. 
 Our adventure, every reference to it, every 
 mention of the ' Shark,' every expression in 
 Wilfrid of grief, shame, temper, was as it were 
 a rude withdrawal of the veil from before her 
 sister's frailty. There was no other lady on 
 board to lielp her to bear, so to speak, the burthen 
 of tlie inevitable topic, and yet she never made it 
 appear as though there was pain and shame to 
 her in the subject, outside her grief for Wilfrid, 
 her eagerness that her sister should be recovered, 
 her resentment against the man who had betrayed 
 and dishonoured his friend. 
 
 I may fail to convey what I thought of her 
 maidenly acceptance of her share in this strange 
 adventure, but I am certain that nobody but a 
 person of exquisite instincts could have acted, as 
 she did, the delicate and exacting part allotted her 
 by my cousin. 
 
 The weather was still very quiet when T bade 
 her good-night. I went to my cabin, and do not 
 suppose I was ten minutes in my bed before I 
 fell asleep. I awoke to a sound of a great roaring 
 all about, accompanied by the cries of men on 
 deck, the sharp flinging down of coils of rope and 
 the thunder of shaking canvas trembhng in every 
 fibre of the hull. My bunk was an athwart-ship 
 one, and I had turned-in, to employ the proper
 
 1 84 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 sea parlance, witli my head to windward ; but 
 now the yacht was lymg over on t'other side, and I 
 awoke to find my heels in the air and the weight 
 of my body upon my neck ; but the angle of the 
 craft was so sharp that it was not without a pro- 
 dioious amount of heavinc? and flounderincf I 
 managed to get my legs over and to sit upright. 
 
 A squall ! thought I, feeling for my pillow, 
 which I placed in the port end of my bedstead and 
 once again lay down. A flash of sun-bright 
 lightning glanced through the port-hole as though 
 a gun had been fired into my cabin and the interior 
 glanced out into a noon-tide efiulgence for one 
 breathless instant, in which, however, I managed 
 to catch sight of the angle formed by a coat with 
 a stanchion, upon which it hung by a peg. Upon 
 my word, it was as though the yacht was upon 
 her beam ends — such a heel as was not to be 
 realised by one lying in a bunk or even sitting 
 upright in it ; then came the darkness like a sea 
 of ink, rollinsj to the sidit in which the reflection 
 of the flash still writhed, followed by a mighty 
 shock of thunder that died away in a hundred 
 rattling peals as though 'twas high mountainous 
 land all around the horizon, honeycombed with 
 caverns and every peak as resonant as a hollow 
 dome. 
 
 A sharp squall ! thought I, but there was too
 
 A SQUALL 185 
 
 mucli noise for sleep. It was all hands on deck 
 I was pretty sure by the numerous scampering 
 over my head ; the harsh voices of the sailors 
 bawling at the ropes would be swept into faint 
 cries by the rush of the wind, and now and again 
 a heavy lumpish sound that put a quiver into 
 every plank, followed by a snarling noise like the 
 hissing of half-a-dozen locomotives blowing off 
 steam, was warrant enough to ears not unused to 
 such sounds that the ' Bride ' was taking large 
 doses of water in pretty freely over her rail. 
 
 I lay quiet and was presently sensible that the 
 yacht was off' the wind ; the righting of her was 
 no small comfort ; she was manifestly going 
 through it like a comet ; the sea was now well 
 aft, and the suggestion of swiftness I fotmi "a 
 the mere feel of the hull, somehow or other, 
 black as my cabin was and the blacker as it 
 remained for the flash of lightning, was accen- 
 tuated by the thunderous rush of each surge out- 
 stripping us in the race and hurling its black 
 length along the vessel's side, and the fierce 
 spitting and crackling of the smother of spume 
 that was raised by the vessel's headlong flight 
 and that went raging and racing astern on top 
 of the swelling ebony fold that swept forwards 
 from the opposite direction. 
 
 Humph ! thought I, if this is a case of ' up
 
 i86 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 keeleg ' with friend Finn he'll have to enter into 
 something shrewder and surer than dead reckon- 
 ing to find his way back again into the ' Shark's ' 
 wake. I had a mind to see what was happening, 
 and after a spell of troublesome groping and 
 clawing, during which I had like to have broke 
 my nose by striking it against the edge of a chest 
 of drawers built into a corner, I succeeded in 
 lighting my lamp, and was presently snug in a 
 pea coat and a sou' -wester which I had been wise 
 enough to include in the slender sea outfit I 
 had purchased for this voyage. The cabin light 
 was always kept burning throughout the night, 
 dimmed by one of the stewards, after we had 
 retired to our berths, but with plenty of flame 
 left to see by, and on emerging the first object 
 I caught sight of was the figure of a man on his 
 knees on the cabin floor in a posture of prayer 
 and apparently in an agony of fright. Nothing 
 was to be heard of him until I had approached 
 close, for the roaring of the wind and the washing 
 and foaming of seas drowned all other noises ; but 
 on stooping to make sure of the fellow, whose 
 hands were clasped over his eyes whilst he held 
 his face upturned as he swayed upon his knees, I 
 could hear him praying with all his might, with 
 an energy indeed that might of itself have ac- 
 counted for the drops of perspiration that ghstened
 
 A SQUALL 187 
 
 upon his brow, if it wasn't that his attitude of 
 terror explained the secret of that moisture. It 
 w^as Muffin. There was something so shameful in 
 the fellow's cowardice that all in an instant I lost 
 my temper and gave him a kick which flung him 
 at his length, face down, upon the deck. He set 
 up a horrible howl. 
 
 Oh Lord ! oh mercy ! we're gone ! we're 
 ga :e ! Oh, if I was only on dry ground ' 
 
 Here I seized him by the collar. ' Get up, 
 you fool,' I cried. 'Do you know where you 
 are, you idiot? Cease! If you alarm Miss 
 
 Jennings ' and I hauled him on to his legs, 
 
 shaking him heartily as I did so. 
 
 ' Oh, Mr. Monson,' he whined, ' is it you, sir ? 
 Tell me we ain't all dead and gone, sir ! Oh, this 
 is 'orrible, though I 'orrible ! Never no more ; 
 never no more for me ! ' 
 
 ' Be oflf to your berth at once,' cried I angrily, 
 though my temper died out of me at the absurd 
 sight of his yellow, working, terrified face, ren- 
 dered ugly enough to challenge the skill of a 
 Cruikshank by the manner in which, during his 
 devotions, he had streaked his forehead and nose 
 and his cheeks past his eyes with his plaster-like 
 lengths of coal-black hair. He was for speaking, 
 but I grasped him by the shoulder and ran him 
 towards his berth that lay some little distance
 
 1 88 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 forward of mine on the starboard side, and when 
 he had shut himself in I made my way on deck, 
 with a peep aft, as I went up the steps, where all 
 seemed quiet. 
 
 The night was still very dark but of a clearer 
 dusk. The moon made a red streak low in the 
 west amongst some ragged clouds that seemed to 
 fall like a short flight of steps, every one edged 
 with blood, to the sea-line, where the muddy 
 crimson drained out, just showing the lurid stain- 
 ing of it now and again when some surge beneath 
 reared an unbroken head to the lustre. The 
 night was made to look amazingly wilder than it 
 was in reality by that western setting jumble of 
 ugly lustre and torn vapour like a flock of giant 
 bats heading from the moon for some ocean soh- 
 tude of deeper blackness. To windward there 
 was a great lake of indigo-blue in the sky in 
 which a number of trembhng stars were floating 
 and vast white puffs of cloud crossing it with the 
 swiftness of scud in a gale ; but to leeward it was 
 just a mass of heaped-up gloom, one dye of dusk 
 on top of another in blocks of blackness such as a 
 poet might dream of in picturing the hellish walls 
 and battlements of a beleaguered city of demons ; 
 and upon this mass of darkness that looked as 
 substantial as stone to the eye there was a plenti- 
 ful play and crackle of violet lightning ; but no
 
 A SQUALL 189 
 
 thunder, at least none that I could hear. It was 
 blowing fresh, but the wind had taken off con- 
 siderably within the last ten minutes ; the ' Bride ' 
 was close hauled ; there was a strong sea on the 
 bow and she was plunging smartly with at fre- 
 quent intervals a brisk squall of spray over her 
 head that rattled upon the deck like a fall of hail 
 in a thunderstorm ; a dark gleam would break 
 first here and then there from her deck to her 
 rolhug, but the water was draining off fast, flash- 
 ing in a loud hissing through the scupper holes at 
 every lee send, but with weight enough yet re- 
 maining in each rush of it to enable me to gather 
 that it must have been pretty nearly waist-high 
 between the bulwarks with the first shipping of 
 the seas and the first downrush of the fierce 
 squall. 
 
 They had snugged the ' Bride ' to very small 
 canvas ; the play of the white waters round her 
 threw out her shape clear as black paint on 
 canvas ; at moments she dived till you would 
 think the tall black coil arching at her past the 
 creaming glare crushed out of the sea by the 
 smiting of her forefoot must leap right aboard 
 her ; but her staunch and buoyant bow, the 
 truest piece of ocean moulding I ever saw in a 
 ship, would regularly swing with a leap to the 
 peak of the billow, shattering it with a saucy
 
 I90 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 disdain that seemed to be followed by an echo of 
 derisive laug^hter in the yellincr rina of the wind 
 splitting upon the rigging or sweeping into the 
 iron hard cavities of the diminished spaces of wan 
 and spectral canvas. 
 
 I took all this in as I stood a minute in the 
 companion hatch ; then perceiving the figure of a 
 man to windward almost abreast of me, I crossed 
 to him. It was Finn. 
 
 ' Very ugly squall that, Mr. Monson/ said he 
 after peering at me to make sure of my identity ; 
 'it found us with tops'l and t'gallants'l set and 
 took us slap aback. It was the most onexpected 
 thing that ever happened to me ; as onnatural 
 as that there moon. Talk of keeping a look-out ! 
 I was staring hard that way w^ith the wind a 
 pleasant air blowing off t'other side and saw 
 nothing and heard nothing until I felt it.' 
 ' You had to run ? ' 
 ' Ay, but not for long, sir.' 
 ' How's her head now, Captain Finn ? ' 
 ' Her proper course, Mr. Monson.' 
 ' Well, the weather is brightening. You'll 
 be making sail again on your ship, I suppose, 
 presently ? ' 
 
 ' Ay, but let that muck blow away first,' he 
 answered, pointing with a shadowy arm into the 
 mass of obscurity where the lightning still winked
 
 A SQUALL 191 
 
 fitfully. ' After such a blow-me-aback job as this 
 I ain't going to trust the weather till I can see 
 more of it.' 
 
 I lingered a little, watching the slow opening 
 of the sky to windward, and the gradual unfold- 
 ing of the stars down the velvet declivity, that 
 looked as though purified by the cleansing of the 
 black wet squall, and then bidding good-night to 
 Finn, who seemed a bit subdued by the wildly 
 disconcerting attack of the Aveather, that to a 
 sober, vigilant seaman was about as uncomfort- 
 able a snub in its way as could be administered, 
 I went below, intending to walk straight to my 
 berth and go to bed again. On entering the 
 cabin, however, I found the lamp turned up, and 
 Wilfrid pacing the carpet with long strides and 
 with an agitation of manner that w^as. grotesquely 
 deepened by the occasional stagger of his gait by 
 the plunging of the yacht and the hurried lift of 
 his arm to clutch the nearest thing at hand for 
 support. I concluded that he had been aroused 
 by the commotion of the squall, but thought it 
 strange he had not stepped on deck to see how 
 things were. On seeing me he put his hand on 
 the back of a fixed revolving chair, and swung, or 
 rather reeled, himself into it, then leaned his cheek 
 upon his hand in a posture of extreme moodiness, 
 whilst he kept his eyes bent downwards.
 
 192 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 I took a seat opposite him, after a glance 
 round in search of Miss Jennings, who, I thought, 
 might also be up. 
 
 'The noise above disturbed you, I suppose, 
 Wilfrid?' said I. 
 
 ' I have not slept,' he answered. 
 
 ' Not since half-past nine ! You went to bed 
 then, you know, and it's now two o'clock,' I 
 exclaimed, looking at the dial under the sky- 
 light. 
 
 ' I have not slept,' he repeated. 
 
 ' I wonder that the squall did not bring you 
 on deck.' 
 
 ' For what purpose ? ' he exclaimed gloomily. 
 ' I could hear Finn's voice ; I could follow what 
 the men were doing. If every squall we are 
 likely to meet is to bring me from my bed, I may 
 as well order a hammock to be slung for me on 
 deck.' 
 
 ' What is the matter, Wilfrid ? ' said I, ear- 
 nestly and soothingly. ' Something, I fear, has 
 happened to vex and bother you.' 
 
 He passed his hand over his eyes, and looking 
 down said, 'I have had a warning.' 
 
 ' A what ? ' I exclaimed. 
 
 ' A warning,' he answered, fetching a deep 
 sigh and making as if to rise, retaining, however, 
 his posture of profound melancholy, whilst ht
 
 A SQUALL 193 
 
 sent a slow, wandering look around, finally fasten- 
 ing his eyes upon me. 
 
 * From whom came this warning, Wilfrid ? * 
 said I, cheerfully. ' Mufiin ? Egad, you'll be 
 getting a warning from him soon, I reckon. I 
 found the chap on his knees just now, sweating 
 with fear and praying like clockwork. I gave 
 him a kick, and I wonder the howl that he raised 
 did not bring you running out of your cabin.' I 
 jabbered this off in a reckless, laughing way, 
 though I watched him narrowly, too, all the time 
 I was speaking. 
 
 ' iSTothing shall hinder me, Charles,' he ex- 
 claimed, closins: his rio-ht fist and lettins: it lie in 
 a menacing way upon the table. * I have made 
 up my mind to tear the creature who still remains 
 my wife from the side of the man she has left mc 
 for ; and before God ' — he rolled his eyes up and 
 raised his clenched hand — ' my vow is this : that 
 I will hunt them from port to port, through ocean 
 after ocean, until I meet with them ! When that 
 shall be I know not ; but this I do know — that 
 my time will come and I can wait. But I must 
 be on the move. Nothing could render life toler- 
 able to me now but the sense of action, the 
 animation and hope of pursuit.' 
 
 ' But the warning ? ' said I. 
 
 * Oh, to be vexed by ghostly exhortations — it 
 VOL. I.
 
 194 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 is enough to craze one ! ' he exclaimed. ' Heaveu 
 knows, resohition grows weak enough in me as 
 it is to any thought of my httle one that visits 
 me. Oh no,' he cried, with a sarcastic shake of 
 the head and a singuhir smile, ' do not believe 
 that thoughts of my baby girl would cause me 
 to falter even for one breathless instant on 
 this course that I have made up my mind to 
 pursue. But to think of the helpless lamb as 
 alone ' 
 
 ' My dear fellow,' I interrupted, ' the child 
 could not possibly be in tenderer hands.' 
 
 ' I know, I know^,' he cried, with a sob in his 
 voice, ' but she is motherless, Charles ; and then 
 how precarious is life at that age ! I may never 
 6ee her asfain ! ' 
 
 He broke down at this and hid his face. 
 
 ' Come, come,' said I, ' your nerves have been 
 strained by the incident of this afternoon, or, I 
 should say, of yesterday afternoon — unduly, 
 though intelligibly, excited by Puncheon's report 
 of having passed the " Shark." Endeavour to 
 get some rest, old fellow. These warnings, these 
 visions, mysterious voices sounding out of heaven 
 knows where, midnight shapes as thin as moon- 
 shine — Wilfrid, depend upon it, they all emanate 
 from a disordered condition of that part of the 
 body which the Chinese have most wisely selected
 
 A SQUALL 195 
 
 as the true seat of the soul ; I mean here,' said I, 
 pattmg my waistcoat. 
 
 He regarded me somewhat vacantly and sat 
 awhile in silence, sighed tremulously, and stepped 
 to the foot of the companion ladder, where he 
 stood staring up into the arch of black night that 
 filled the companion entrance. Presently Finn 
 rumbled out an order on deck. There was the 
 flash of bright stars upon the gleaming ebony of 
 the cabin windows with every heave of the yacht ; 
 the sea was moderating, and the loud humming of 
 the wind aloft o;raduallv finins^ into a dull com- 
 plaining noise. Eopes were thrown down over- 
 head ; voices began to sing out. I uttered a loud 
 yawn. Wilfrid turned and exclaimed, ' Don't let 
 me keep you up, Charles.' 
 
 ' It's all right,' said I, ' but why not go to bed, 
 too ? Or first describe this warning that you have 
 had ; express the nature of it. Perhaps, like the 
 proverbial onlooker who sees most of the game, I 
 might be able to help you with some reassuring 
 suggestion.' 
 
 But he merely shook his head ; and now, feel- 
 ing quite intolerably sleepy, and in no mood, 
 therefore, as you will suppose, to reason with a 
 mind so oppressed as his with superstitious melan- 
 choly, I called a cheery good-night to him, went 
 to my cabin, and was soon fast asleep.
 
 196 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 I was awakened by the brilliant daylight that 
 filled my berth, and at once rose and sung out to 
 the steward to prepare me a bath. All the time 
 I bathed and dressed I was thinking of Wilfrid 
 and of what he called his ' warning.' I supposed 
 it was some voice that he had heard, and he had 
 made it plain that it had referred, amongst other 
 things maybe, to his little infant. Xow, though 
 of course I had known for years that he was 
 ' touched,' as the expression goes, I had never 
 understood that his craziness had risen to the 
 height of hearing voices and beholding visions in 
 his waking hours ; and I was, therefore, forced to 
 beheve that his mind was far more unhinged at 
 present than his manners and speech, pecuHar as 
 they unquestionably were at times, had indicated. 
 Well, thought I, assuredly if he gets worse, if the 
 symptoms should grow more defined, this chase 
 will have to come to an end. I, for one, should 
 most certainly call a halt. Why, what could be 
 fuller of madness than his vow last night before 
 me — to go on sailing from port to port, and tra- 
 versing ocean after ocean, until he has captured 
 her ladyship ; as if a pursuit on such lines as 
 these were going to end in anything better than 
 driving all hands daft and converting the ' Bride ' 
 into a floating lunatic asylum ? So far, it is true, 
 I have found method enough to keep my mind
 
 A SQL/ALL 197 
 
 tolerably easy ; but if poor Wilfrid is going to 
 become very much worse, hang me, thought I, 
 plying a pair of hair-brushes with very agitated 
 hands, if Captain Finn don't haul his wind for 
 the handiest port and set me ashore for one.
 
 198 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 I GO ALOFT. 
 
 It was a fresh sweet ocean morning, one of the 
 fairest I remember ; the wind, a tender fanning 
 from the west, warm enough to make one fancy 
 an odour and bahn of the tropics in it, leagues 
 ahead as those parallels yet lay. The sky was one 
 broad surface of curls and feathers of pearl- 
 coloured vapour, an interweaving, as it were, of 
 many-shaped links of silken cloud shot with 
 silver and amber and gold from the early sun. 
 I never beheld a lovelier dome of sky so tender in 
 glory and rich in delicate perfections of tints. 
 The sea spread in a firm dark line to it like a 
 blue floor under some miglity roof of marble ; 
 tlie sun's wake came in a misty stream of light to 
 the port bends of the yacht, where it was flashed 
 by the mirror-like wet blackness of the glossy 
 side back deep into the brimming azure of the 
 brine in a great pufi* of radiance that made one 
 think of a cloud of brightly illuminated steam 
 ascending from the depths.
 
 / GO ALOFT 199 
 
 Everything was brilliant and clean and cheer- 
 ful, the decks of the white softness of foam, brass 
 sparkling, rigging flemish-coiled or festooned as 
 by an artist's hand upon the pins ; forward stood 
 the long cannon radiant as polished jet, a detail 
 that gave an odd significance to the saucy know- 
 ing ' spring,' as it is called, of the yacht tliat way. 
 The cocks and hens in the coops were straining 
 their throats and blending with their cheerful 
 voices was a noise of pigs ; there was black 
 smoke pouring away from the galley chimney, 
 and now and again you got a whiff of something 
 good frying for the men's breakfasts, for my cousin 
 fed his sailors well. The ' Bride ' with erect masts 
 was sliding over the wide folds of water whose 
 undulations were so long drawn and regular as to 
 be scarce perceptible in the motion of the vessel ; 
 there was air enough to crisp the sea, and where 
 the sun's light lay the tremble was blinding ; on 
 either bow was a curl of silver and pale eddyings 
 alongside with a line of oil-smooth water going 
 away astern from under the counter ; yet we were 
 but creeping, too, spite of the yacht being a pile of 
 white cloths — every stitch she owned abroad to 
 her topgallant studdingsail. 
 
 The mate had charge and was stumping the 
 weather side of the c[uarterdeck in his soiu* way 
 when I arrived.
 
 200 A.y OCEAN TRACED 1 
 
 ' Good morning, Mr. Crimp.' 
 ' Marniug,' he answered. 
 
 * Ugly squall that last night.' 
 ^ Ugly Pay.' 
 
 The fellow gave the word sir to no man, re- 
 stricting its use when ashore to dogs as Fmn once 
 told me ; but his surly tricks of speech and man- 
 ner were so wholly a part of him, so entirely 
 natural, so unconsciously expressed, that it would 
 have been as idle to resent them as to have 
 quarrelled with him for having an askew eye or 
 lost one's temper because his beard resembled 
 rope yarns. 
 
 ' Anything in sight?' I asked, looking round. 
 
 ' Ay,' he answered. 
 
 ' Where ? ' I exclaimed, running my eye over 
 the sea. 
 
 * Up yonder,' he responded, indicating with a 
 gesture of his chin the topgallant-yard where was 
 perched the inevitable figure of a look-out man. 
 
 ' But where away, Mr. Crimp, — where away, 
 sir ? ' 
 
 * On the starboard bow,' he answered, ' 'tain't 
 long been sighted.' 
 
 Breakfast would not be ready for some time 
 yet, and having nothing to do I thought I would 
 make a journey aloft on my own account and take 
 a view of the distant sail and of the spacious field
 
 / GO ALOFT 201 
 
 of the glittering morning ocean from tlie altitude 
 of the masthead. I stepped below for a telescope 
 of my own, a glass I had many a time ogled the 
 sea with when I was doing penance for past and 
 future sins in African and West Indian waters. 
 MufSn was at the foot of the companion steps 
 holding a pair of Wilfrid's boots. He cast his 
 eyes down and drew his figure in though there 
 was abundance of room for me to pass. A slow, 
 obsequious, apologetic smile went twisting and 
 curling down his lips ; his yellow face had a bur- 
 nished look ; he was uncommonly clean-shaven, 
 and his hair was brushed or plastered to the 
 smoothness of his skull. 
 
 ' Got your courage back ? ' said I. 
 
 * Thank you, yes, sir,' he answered humbly with 
 his eyes respectfully cast down. ' Eichard's himself 
 again this morning, sir, as the saying is. But it 
 was a 'orrible time, sir.' 
 
 'You came near to making it so,' said I. ' Have 
 you been to Sir Wilfrid yet ? ' 
 ' Yes, sir.' 
 ' How is he ? ' 
 
 * Asleep, sir,' he rephed in a blandly confi- 
 dential way. 
 
 * Glad to hear it,' I exclaimed ; ' don't disturb 
 him. He passed a bad night down to two or 
 three o'clock this morning.' I was going ; sud-
 
 202 AiX OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 denly I stopped. ' By the way,' said I, rounding 
 upon the fellow, ' how long have you been in Sir 
 Wilfrid's service ? ' 
 
 My question appeared to penetrate him with a 
 consuroing desire to be exact. He partially closed 
 one eye, cocked the other aloft like a hen in the 
 act of drinking, and then said with the air of one 
 happy in the power of speaking with accuracy, 
 ' It'll be five months to the hour, sir, come height 
 o'clock, Friday evening next.' 
 
 ' During the time that you have been in his 
 service,' said I carelessly,' have you ever heard him 
 speak of hearing voices or seeing visions? ' 
 
 ' Woices, no, sir,' he answered ; ' but wisions,' 
 he added with a sigh and lengthening his yellow 
 face into an expression of deep concern, ' has, I fear, 
 sir, more'n once presented theirselves to him.' 
 ' Of what nature, do you know ? ' 
 ' Sir Wilfrid's a little mysterious, sir,' he re- 
 sponded in a greasy tone of voice and looking 
 down as if he would have me understand that 
 with all due respect he w^as my cousin's valet and 
 knew his place. 
 
 I said no more but made my way on deck 
 with a suspicion in me that the fellow had lied, 
 though I hardly knew why I should think so. I 
 trudged forward, and findini^ three or four of the 
 men hanging about the galley I pulled out five
 
 / GO ALOFT 203 
 
 shillings and gave the money to one of them, say- 
 ing that I was going aloft and wished to pay my 
 footing, for I was in no temper to be chased and 
 worried. This made me free of the rigging, into 
 which I sprang and had soon shinned as high as 
 the topgallant-yard, npon wdiich I perched myself 
 so noiselessly that the man who overhung it on 
 the other side of the mast and wdio was drowsily 
 chewing upon a quid of tobacco with his eye 
 screwed into Wilfrid's lovely telescope, had no 
 notion I was aloncrside of him. I coughed softlv, 
 for I had known seamen to lose their lives when 
 up aloft by being suddenly startled. He put a 
 whiskered face past the mast and stared at me as 
 if I was Old Nick, out of the minutest pair of eyes 
 I ever saw in the human head, mere gimlet-holes 
 they seemed for the admission of light. 
 
 ' Thinking of your sweetheart, Jack ? ' said I 
 with a laugh, ignorant of his name but counting 
 Jack to be a sure word. 
 
 ' Can't rightly say what I was a -thinking of, 
 sir,' he answered hoarsely; ' 'twarn't my sweet- 
 heart anyways, seeing that the only gell I was 
 ever really partial to sarved me as her ledship 
 sarved Sir Wilfrid yonder,' indicating the quarter- 
 deck with a side-ways motion of his head. 
 
 ' Cut stick, eh ? ' said I. 
 
 'Wuss than that, sir,' he answered. 'If she'd
 
 204 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ha' taken herself off and stopped at that I dunno 
 as I should have any occasion to grumble ; but 
 she prigged the furniture that I'd laid in agin 
 getting married. Ay, 'prigged it. The boiling 
 amounted to fourteen pound tew, a bloomin' lot 
 o' money for a poor seafaring man to be robbed 
 of for the sake of a master chimney-sweep.' He 
 cast a slow disgusted look around and expectorated 
 with an air of loathing. 
 
 * I hope you got the master chimney-sweep 
 locked up,' said I. 
 
 ' No fear ! ' cried he, talking very fast ; ' smite 
 me, your honour, if that there gell didn't tarn to 
 and swear that that furniture was hers, bought 
 out of her own savings, and that she guv me the 
 money to order it with. Thinking o' my sweet- 
 heart ! ' he grumbled, lifting the telescope in an 
 abstracted manner to his eye, ' if it worn't for 
 women dummed if this 'ere earth wouldn't be 
 worth a-living in.' 
 
 I smothered a laugh, and catching sight of the 
 sail shining faintly in the blue air, leagues and 
 leagues distant as it seemed, I pointed the glass 
 and easily distinguished the royal, topgallant-sail 
 and a snatch of the topsail of a ship heading 
 directly for us. 
 
 ' I wonder if she'll have any news ? ' said I. 
 
 ' Beg your pardon, sir,' exclaimed the man,
 
 / GO ALOFT 205 
 
 * but could you tell me how long it's reckoned in 
 the cabin this here ramble's a-going to last ? ' 
 
 'What was the nature of the voyage you 
 signed for ? ' 
 
 ' Why,' he replied, * a yachting cruise to 
 Table Bay and home.' 
 
 ' It'll not exceed that. I believe,' I exclaimed. 
 
 ' And if we picks up that there " Shark " and 
 
 recovers the lady afore we git to the Cape, shall we 
 
 keep all on or shift our helium for Southamptin 
 
 again ? ' 
 
 ' Captain Finn will be able to tell you more 
 about it than I,' I responded in a tone that 
 silenced him, though his tiny eyes looked athirst 
 for information as he regarded me aslant over one 
 of his huge whiskers. 
 
 The height from which I surveyed the vast 
 plain of sea, the spirit of whose lonehness seemed 
 to find the one touch of emphasis it needed to 
 render its magnitude realisable by human instincts 
 in that remote flaw of ship's canvas which broke 
 the continuity of the boundless horizon filled me 
 with a feeling of exhilaration I cannot express ; the 
 sweet mild ocean breeze high on that slender 
 yard sank through and through me, and vitality 
 to its most secret recesses was quickened by it 
 into a very intoxication of life, new, free, ardent ; 
 the air hummed gently in a vibratory metallic
 
 2o6 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 note as though it were some echo of a dis- 
 tant concert of harps and viohns ; far down the 
 hull of the yacht, plentiful as was her beam in 
 reahty, looked like a long slender plank rounded 
 at the bows, the whiteness of the deck showing 
 with a sort of radiance as though it were thinly 
 sheeted with crystal upon which the shadows of the 
 rigging, masts, and canvas lay dark and beauti- 
 fuhy clear, with a fitful swaying of them to the 
 heave of the fabric, off polished and brilliant 
 things such as the skylight or the brass decora- 
 tions, when flashes of fire w^ould leap forth to be 
 veiled again in the violet gloom of the recurrent 
 shade. The thin curve of foam on either hand the 
 cutwater looked hke frosted silver ; my eye went 
 to the airy confines of the ocean spreading out 
 into a delicate haze of soft azure light where it 
 washed the marble of that magnificent morning 
 firmament, and then it was that, sharper than ever 
 I had before felt it, there rose the perception in 
 me of the incalculable odds against our sighting 
 the yacht we were in pursuit of, so measureless 
 did the ocean distance appear when with the gaze 
 going from the ' Bride's ' masthead I thought of 
 the distance that made the visible and compassable 
 sphere, big as it was, as little as a star compared 
 with the heavenly desert it floats in. 
 
 When I looked down again I observed Miss
 
 / GO ALOFT 207 
 
 Jennings watching me from the gangway with her 
 hand shading her eyes. I raised my hat and she 
 bowed, and being wishful of her company I bade 
 my friend Jack keep his eyes pohshed, as the piece 
 that was nailed to the mast would help to lessen 
 the loss that his sweetheart had occasioned him, 
 and descended, hearing him rumbling in his 
 gizzard as I got off the foot-rope, though what he 
 said I did not catch. 
 
 ' What is there to be seen, Mr. Monson ? ' was 
 Miss Jennings' first question, with a delicate fire of 
 timorous expectation in her eyes. 
 
 ' Only a ship,' said I. 
 
 ' Xot— not ' 
 
 'No! not the "Shark" yet,' I exclaimed 
 smiling. 
 
 ' 1 am stupid to feel so nervous. I dare say I 
 am as passionately anxious as Wilfrid to see my 
 sister in this vessel safe — and separated from — 
 from ' — she faltered and quickly added, bringing 
 her hands together and locking them, 'but I 
 dread the moment to arrive when the '^ Shark " will 
 be reported in sight.' 
 
 ' Well, if we are to pick up that craft,' said I, 
 ' we shall do so and then there'll be an end on't. 
 But I give you my word. Miss Jennings, the ocean 
 looks a mighty big place from that bit of a 
 stick up there.'
 
 2o8 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 * Too big for this chase ? ' 
 
 * Too big I fear to give Wilfrid the chance he 
 wants.' 
 
 She sent a bright glance at the topgallant-yard 
 and said, ' Does not that great height make you 
 feel dizzy ? ' 
 
 ' Ay, as wine does. There is an intoxication 
 as of ether in the air up there. Oh, Miss Jennings, 
 if I could only manage to get you on to that yard 
 — see how near to heaven it is ! You would 
 then be able not only to say that you looked like 
 an angel, but that you felt like one.' 
 
 She laughed prettily and turned as if to invite 
 me to walk. After a bit I spoke of the squall 
 last night. It had not disturbed her. Then I 
 told her of Wilfrid's melancholy perturbation, on 
 which her face grew grave and her air thought- 
 ful. 
 
 ' He did not tell you the nature of the warn- 
 ing ? ' she inquired. 
 
 ' Xo. It evidently had reference to his baby. 
 I wished to ascertain whether it was a voice or a 
 vision — though I really don't know why ; for an 
 hallucination is an hallucination all the world 
 over, and it signifies little whether it be a sheeted 
 essence to affect the eye or a string of airy syl- 
 lables to affright the ear.' 
 
 'I am sorry, I am sorry,' she exclaimed
 
 / GO ALOFT ao9 
 
 anxiously ; ' it is a bad symptom, I fear. Yet it 
 ought not to surprise one. The shock was ter- 
 rible — so recent too! Scarcely a fortnight ago 
 he felt safe and happy in his wife's love and 
 faith ' 
 
 'Maybe,' I interrupted, 'but I wouldn't be 
 too sure though. When I last met him — I mean 
 somewhile before he came to ask me to join him 
 in this trip — his manner was very clouded, I 
 thought, when he spoke of his wife. I fancy 
 even then suspicion was something more than a 
 seed. But still, as you say, it is all desperately 
 recent, and it certainly is a sort of business to 
 play havoc with such a mind as his. Did you 
 ever hear of his having warnings or seeing visions 
 before ? ' 
 
 ' Never.' 
 
 ' I asked his valet that question just now, and 
 he told me he did not know that his master heard 
 " woices," but he believed he was troubled with 
 " wisions," as he called them.' 
 
 ' Wilfrid has been very secret then. My 
 sister spoke much to me of the oddness of his 
 character, made more of it indeed than ever I 
 could witness, — but then one understands why, 
 now,' she exclaimed with an angry toss of her 
 head. ' But she never once hinted at his suffer- 
 ing from delusions of the kind you name How 
 
 VOL. I. p
 
 2IO AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 should his man know then? Wilfrid is not a 
 person to be so very confidential as all that with 
 his servant. I never liked Muffin, and I believe 
 he is a story-teller,' 
 
 ' So do I,' said I, ' and a coward to boot,' 
 and I told her of my finding him on his knees, 
 and how I had prostrated him with a kick. This 
 provoked one of her cordial, sweet, clearing 
 laughs. It was a music to fit to gayer thoughts 
 than we had been discoursing, and presently we 
 were chatting lightly about dress, society, some 
 maestro's new opera and other light topics very 
 much more suitable for a yacht's quarter-deck 
 under such a morning heaven as was then shining 
 upon us, than the raven, owl, and bat-like subjects 
 of ghosts, warnings, visions, and insanity. 
 
 The breakfast bell rang ; Muffin arrived with 
 a soap- varnished face and a humble bow, and in 
 greasy accents delivered his master's compliments 
 to us and, please, we were not to wait breakfast 
 for him. But when we were half through the 
 meal Wilfrid .came from his cabin and seated 
 himself. He looked worn and worried ; his ex- 
 pression was that of a man who has succeeded in 
 ciilming himself after a secret bitter mental con- 
 flict, but whose countenance still wears the traces 
 of his struggle. He called for a cup of tea, which 
 with a slice of dry toast formed his breakfast.
 
 / CO ALOFT 211 
 
 Now and again I saw liim glancing wistfully at 
 ]\liss Jennings, but his eyes fell from her when she 
 looked at him as though he feared the detection 
 of some wish or thought in the manner of his 
 watching her. He inquired languidly about the 
 weather, the sail the yacht was under, and the 
 like. 
 
 ' There'll be a ship in sight over the bow,' 
 said I, 'by the time we are ready to go on deck.' 
 
 ' Ha ! ' he exclaimed, instantly briskening ; 
 ' we must speak her. Were it to come to twenty 
 vessels a day passing us we should hail them all. 
 But it is the wind's capriciousness that makes the 
 fretting part of an excursion of this kind. Here 
 are we creeping along as though in tow of one of 
 our boats, whilst where the " Shark " is there 
 may be half a gale driving her through it as fast 
 as a whale's first rush to tlie stab of a harpoon.' 
 
 ' Heels were given to us in the small hours of 
 this morning though,' said I. ' We covered more 
 space of sea in five minutes than I should like 
 to swim if I had a month to do it in.' 
 
 ' Oh, but she was off her course,' exclaimed 
 Wilfrid. 
 
 ' Only to the first of the squall,' I exclaimed ; 
 ' when I went on deck she was lying fair up again 
 and crushing througli it with the obstinacy of a 
 liner.' 
 
 p 2
 
 212 A.y OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 He glanced at rae absently 'as though he 
 barely attended to my words, and then looked 
 round hira, as I supposed, to observe if Muffin 
 and the stewards w^ere out of hearing. He lay 
 back in his chair, eyeing Miss Jennings for a little 
 with a thoughtful regard that was made pathetic 
 by the marks of care and grief in his face. 
 
 ' Laura,' he said, ' I am worrying about baby. 
 
 * Why, Wilfrid ? ' she answered gently. 
 
 * Oh, it may be a mere instinctive anxiety, 
 some secret misgiving, well founded but quite 
 inexplicable and therefore to be sneered at by 
 friend Charles here — who knows not yet the 
 subtleties of a flesh-and-blood tie — as mere senti- 
 ment.' 
 
 'But why allow a fancy to worry you, Wil- 
 frid ? ' said I. 
 
 ' I fear it is no fancy,' he answered quickly. 
 
 ' I told Miss Jennings,' said I, ' that you have 
 been vexed and upset by what you interpreted 
 into a warning.' 
 
 ' Did it particularly refer to baby?' she asked. 
 
 ' Wholly,' he responded gloomily. 
 
 ' But confound it all, Wilfrid,' cried I some- 
 what impatiently, * won't you put this miserable 
 vision into words ? What form did it take ? A 
 warning ! If you choose to view things asquint 
 they're full of warnings. Consider the siipersti-
 
 / GO ALOFT 213 
 
 tions which flourish ; the signs of luck and of ill- 
 hick ; the meanicg of the stumble on the thres- 
 hold, the capsized salt-cellar and the rest of the 
 inventions of the wicked old hags who ride a cock- 
 horse on broorasticks. Why,' I cried, talking 
 vehemently with the idea of breakiniz through the 
 thickness upon his mind, though it was no better 
 than elbowing a fog, ' I protest, Wilfrid, I would 
 rather swing at your lower-yardarm and be cut 
 down after a reasonable time to plomb the deep 
 peace of the green silence beneath our keel, than 
 live in a torment of apprehension of shadows, and 
 convert life into a huge mustard poultice to adjust 
 to my quivering anatomy staggering onwards to 
 the grave ! ' 
 
 He surveyed me with a lack-lustre eye whilst 
 he listened. 
 
 ' Might not this warning, as you call it, Wil- 
 frid,' said Miss Jennings, ' have been some brief, 
 vivid dream, the impression of which was keen 
 enough, when you awoke, to make you imagine 
 you had viewed what had appeared with open 
 eyes ? ' 
 
 ' Xo ! ' he answered emphatically, ' what I saw 
 I saw as I see you.' 
 
 ' Then it wasn't a voice ? ' I exclaimed. 
 
 ' Xo matter,' he said, ' God's eye is upon the 
 innocent. Surely he will protect my little one.
 
 214 ^-"^^ OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 Still — still — ' he seemed to struggle ^\ith some 
 thought and paused. 
 
 I made up my mind to attempt a bold stroke. 
 ' AVilf,' said I, ' your child must be dearer to you 
 than your wife. Since you are uneasy about the 
 bairn why not abandon a pursuit wdiich, I give 
 you my w^ord, seems to me about as aimless as a 
 chase after the flying shadow of a cloud, and shift 
 your helm for home, where you will be able to 
 have the child by your side and where there will 
 be no need for warnings relating to her to worry 
 you?' 
 
 A dangerous light came into his eyes ; his 
 strangely cut nostrils enlarged and trembled ; 
 half a dozen dark moods went like ripples of 
 shadow over his face. I regarded him steadfastly, 
 but I Avill own not without a good deal of anxiety, 
 for his bearing^ at this moment had more of the 
 madman in it than I had ever before witnessed. 
 He breathed deep several times before speaking. 
 
 ' You are right,' he said ; ' my child is dearer 
 to me than my wife, but my honour stands first 
 of all. For God's sake do not craze me with 
 such suggestions. Look at me ! ' he cried, ex- 
 tending his arms, ' gripped here,' clasping his left 
 hand, ' by my child that in its sweet innocence 
 would withhold me from this pursuit; and dragged 
 here,' and here he clenched his riglit hand with a
 
 / GO ALOFT 215 
 
 menacing shake of it, ' by a sense of duty that 
 must have its way though it should come to my 
 never setting eyes on my baby again. Charles ' 
 — his voice sank — ' at your hands I should have 
 expected something better than such advice as 
 this. If you are weary of the voyage ' 
 
 ' No, no,' I interrupted. 
 
 ' Why torment me then,' he shouted, * by 
 representing this pursuit as idle as a chase of 
 shadows ? Is it so ? Great heaven, man ! you 
 yourself read out the entry in Captain Puncheon's 
 log-book.' 
 
 ' Well, well, Wilfrid,' said I soothingly, ' I am 
 very sorry to have said anything to annoy you. 
 The fact is I am too prosaic in my views of things 
 to be as helpful as I should like to be in a quest 
 of this sort. Come, shall we go on deck now 
 and see if that chap which I sighted from the top- 
 gallantyard has hove into view yet ?' 
 
 The poor fellow rose slowly from his chair, 
 straightening up his figure till he looked twice 
 as tall again as he was. His anger had left him. 
 
 ' Oh for the privilege,' he exclaimed, ' of being 
 able to catch but a single glimpse of the future ! 
 Would to heaven I had been born a saint with a 
 glory round my head, for by that light only is it 
 possible to interpret the hieroglyphs in which the 
 page of life is printed.'
 
 2i6 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ' Miss Jennings,' said I, ' your sunny hair 
 comes so near to the sort of nimbus my cousin 
 desires, that I am sure if you would cast your 
 eyes upon the mystical page that puzzles him you 
 could read it aloud to us both by the light of 
 those golden tresses.' 
 
 ' Charles,' exclaimed Wilfrid shortly, ' you are 
 for making fun of everything,' and he stalked to 
 his cabin, but only to fetch his pipe, as I after- 
 wards found. 
 
 I could not discover, however, that Miss 
 Jennings wholly agreed in Wilfrid's notion of 
 my ridiculing propensity.
 
 217 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE PORTUGUESE BEIG. 
 
 Eight over the bows on either hand the sky had 
 cleared since the early morning ; the fairy drapery 
 of linked, prismatic, shell-like cloud had lifted, 
 leaving the sea-line a dark blue sweep of water 
 against the delicate effulgence of the heavens, and 
 like a star climbing above that most exquisite 
 horizon shone the sail that was approaching us, 
 still distant a feir eight miles, but already dis- 
 tinctly visible from the low altitude of the 
 ' Bride's ' quarter-deck. Sir Wilfrid, leaning over 
 the side, sent a long yearning look at her, then with 
 a glance at the man on the topgallant-yard he 
 walked over to Finn, who had relieved the mate 
 at eight bells, and conversed with him. I got a 
 chair for Miss Jennings, fetched her novel — the 
 end of the first volume of which seemed still as 
 far off as the Cape of Good Hope — and a rug for 
 her feet, and having made her comfortable I 
 loaded a pipe and squatted myself on deck under 
 the lee of the mainmast.
 
 2i8 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 I was not perhaps in the very sweetest of 
 tempers ; for though what I had said below might 
 have been a bit provoking, Wilfrid had turned 
 upon me for it a little too hotly methought. 
 This expedition, to be sure, had a special interest 
 for liim^ as it had a special interest for Miss 
 Jennings ; but so far as / was concerned it was 
 a mere sympathetic undertaking. My cousin, to 
 be sure, was ' wanting ' ; but that consideration 
 was not going to render any indignation I might 
 unwarily provoke in him the more endurable. 
 My quarrel, however, just then lay with myself. 
 I was beginning to consider that I had joined 
 Wilfrid in this cruise too hurriedly ; that had I 
 insisted upon more time for reflection I should 
 have declined the adventure for the very good 
 reason that I was unable to see how I could be of 
 the least use to him in it. The ocean makes people 
 selfish ; its monotony presses upon and contracts 
 the mind as its visible girdle circumscribes the 
 sight. Thought is forced inwards and the intellect 
 devours itself as the monkey eats its tail. I was 
 already pining somewhat for the diversions of the 
 shore. Had I been sensible of any limit to the daily 
 and nightly routine of eating, sleeping, keeping a 
 look-out and discussing probabilities, my humour 
 might have lightened somewhat ; but on what 
 date was this voyage to end ? Where was this
 
 THE PORTUGUESE BRIG 219 
 
 white fabric that was floating in beauty over the 
 quiet waters going to carry me ? Heavy clouds 
 of smoke floated from my hps when I thought 
 that for months and months I might be sundered 
 from my ckib, from the opera, of which I was a 
 very great lover, from the engaging recreation 
 of billiards, from the quarter of a hundred of 
 pleasures with which the idle man of means loads 
 the blunderbuss of life to shoot at and kill the 
 flying hours as they pass. 
 
 Poor Wilfrid, thouoii ! I thouo'ht with a sio'h : 
 and an emotion of pity rose in me as a rebuke 
 when I glanced at his long, awkward figure, 
 thought of the bitter heart-ache that left him only 
 when he slept, of his love for his little one, of the 
 dreadful grief and dishonour that had come to 
 him, of this apparently aimless pursuit upon the 
 boundless surface of the ocean of a faithless 
 woman, with the subtle distressing quality of 
 madness in all he did, in all he thought, to make 
 his conduct a sadder thing than can be described. 
 
 I peeped round the mast for a short view of 
 Miss Jennings. She seemed to have lighted on a 
 chapter in the novel that was interesting. Under 
 the droop of her long lashes her half-closed violet 
 eyes showed with a drowsy gleam ; her profile 
 had the delicacy of a cameo, clear and tender, 
 against the soft grey of the bulwarks past her.
 
 220 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 Deuced odd, thought I, tliat I should find her 
 prettiness so fascinating ; as though, forsooth, she 
 was the first sweet girl I had ever seen ! I filled 
 another pipe and sat awhile pufiing slowly, with 
 these lines of haunting beauty running in my 
 head : 
 
 Have you seen but a bright lily grow, 
 Before rude hands have touched it ? 
 
 Have you marked but the fall of the snow 
 Before the soil hath smutch'd it ? 
 
 Have you felt the wool of the beaver ? 
 Or swan's down ever ? 
 
 Or have smelt o' the bud o' the briar ? 
 Or the nard in the fire ? 
 
 Or have tasted the bag of the bee ? 
 
 O so white ! so soft ! so sweet is she ! 
 
 The poet is also the prophet ; and maybe, 
 thought I, when old Ben Jonson planned this 
 fairy temple of words, lie had his eye on some 
 such another little delicate goddess as that yonder. 
 
 But there was to happen presently something 
 of a kind to send sentiment flying. 
 
 Bit by bit the cloud -mailed sky had drawn 
 away down into the northward, until far past 
 our mastheads that way it was clear blue heaven 
 with an horizon ruling it of a sort of transparent 
 sharpness that made you imagine you saw the 
 atmosphere beyond through it as though it were 
 the edge of some huge lens. The breeze was 
 weak and the yacht's pace very leisurely ; there
 
 THE PORTUGUESE BRIG 221 
 
 were hints of a calm at hand, here and there in 
 certain long glassy swathes which wound like 
 currents amongst the darker shadow of the 
 wrinkling breeze upon the water ; to every small 
 roll upon the long sleepy undulation, the main 
 boom swang in with a short rattle of canvas in the 
 head of the sail and a flap or two forwards with the 
 smite of the mast by the square topsail as though 
 there were hands aloft lazily beating a carpet. 
 
 The vessel ahead was steering dead for us, her 
 masts in one. She was much smaller than I had 
 supposed from the first glimpse I caught of her 
 from the masthead — a little brig, apparently, her 
 cloths showing out rusty to the brilliance as she 
 neared us, albeit afar they had shone hke a star 
 of white fire. Her hull was of a dirty yellow — a 
 sort of pea-soup colour, and the foot of her fore- 
 sail was spread by a bentinck boom. She was 
 without an atom of interest in my eyes — a small 
 foreigner, as I supposed, sluggishly lumbering 
 home to some Spanish or Italian port with her 
 forecastle filled with chocolate- coloured Dacros 
 and the cabin atmosphere poisonous with the 
 lint:rerincr fumes of bad cookino;. 
 
 DO D 
 
 Wilfrid and Finn stood looking at her to- 
 gether, the latter raising a glass to his eye from 
 time to time. I knocked the ashes out of my 
 bowl and crossed over to them.
 
 222 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ' It will be strange if she has any news to give 
 us of the " Shark," ' said I. 
 
 ' We will speak her, of course,' said Wilfrid. 
 ' Looks as if she meant to give us the stem,' 
 exclaimed Finn, with a glance aft at the fellow at 
 the helm ; ' she is steering dead on for us as if her 
 course were a bee-line and we were athwart it.' 
 
 • I expect she'll not be able to talk to you in 
 Enghsh,' said I. 
 
 'What is her country, do you think, Mr. 
 Monson ? ' asked Miss Jennings, closing her 
 volume and joining us. 
 
 ' Itahan. What say you, captain ? ' 
 'Well, I can't rightly tell what she is,' he 
 answered, ' but I know what she ain't — and that's 
 English.' He stepped aft, bent on the ensign, 
 and ran it aloft. 
 
 ' Does she see us ? ' exclaimed Wilfrid ; ' really 
 she is steering as if she would run us down.' 
 
 I took the captain's glass and brought it to 
 bear. She w\as bow on, and there was no sign of 
 a head over the forecastle rail — nothing living in 
 the rio-o'incT or upon the yards either; the foresail 
 concealed the run of her abaft. ' She appears 
 derehct,' said I, ' with her helm secured amid- 
 ships, and blowing hke the wdnd — as she listeth.' 
 ' Time to get out of her road, I think,' 
 grumbled Finn. ' Down helium ! '
 
 THE PORTUGUESE BRIG 223 
 
 The turn of a spoke or two brought the 
 stranger on the lee bow. Then it was that, 
 on takinf^ another view of her throuo-h the oflass, 
 I observed a couple of men standing near a 
 jolly-boat, that swung at a pair of heavy wooden 
 davits like a Nantucket whaler's on the quarter. 
 One of them wore a red cap resembling an in- 
 verted flower-pot ; the other, whilst he addressed 
 his companion, gesticulated with inconceivable 
 vehemence. 
 
 ' Foreigners of a surety ! ' said I ; ' they'll have 
 no news for us.' 
 
 All continued quiet ; the two vesst-ls ap- 
 proached each other slowly ; the stranger now 
 proving herself, as I had supposed her, a brig of 
 about a hundred and eighty tons, as dirty a look- 
 ing craft as ever I saAv, stained in streaks about 
 the hull, as though her crew washed the decks 
 down with the water in which they boiled their 
 meat ; her rigging slack and grey for want of tar ; 
 the clews of her sails gaping at a distance from 
 her yardarms ; and at her mainmast-head an 
 immense weathercock, representing a boat with 
 what I supposed to be a saint standing up in it, 
 with gilt enough left upon the metal of which it 
 was formed to flash dully at intervals as the 
 rolling of the vessel swung the sunhght off and 
 on to it. As she hfted to the floating heave
 
 224 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 of the sea she showed a bottom of ugly green 
 sheathing, rich with marine growths, dark patches 
 of barnacles, sea-moss, and long trailings of weed 
 rising vividly green from the sparkle of the brine. 
 
 ' What a very horrid-looking boat,' observed 
 Miss Jennings. 
 
 As the girl said this I saw the fellow at the 
 stranger's wheel revolve it with frantic gestures 
 as though some deadly danger had been descried 
 close aboard ; the brig came heavily and sluggishly 
 round right athwart our course, showing no colours, 
 and dipping her channels to the run of the folds 
 with the weary motion of a waterlogged vessel, and 
 so lay all aback. Finn looked on, scarcely under- 
 standing the manoeuvre, then bawled out, ' Hard 
 down ! Hard down 1 Chuck her right up in the 
 wind ! Why, bless my body and soul, what are 
 the fools aiming at ? ' 
 
 The yacht nimbly answering her helm came 
 to a stand, her square canvas to the mast, her fore 
 and aft sails fluttering. 
 
 ' Hail her, Finn ! ' cried Wilfrid with excite- 
 ment. 
 
 ' Xo need, sir ; they're coming aboard,' an- 
 swered the captain, and sure enough there were 
 the men, the only two besides the man at the 
 helm who were visible, working like madmen to 
 lower away their jolly-boat. In their red-hot
 
 THE PORTUGUESE BRIG 225 
 
 haste they let her drop with a run, and the fat 
 fabric smote the water so heavily that I looked to 
 see her floating in staves alongside. Then down 
 one fall with the agility of a monkey dropped the 
 man in the red nightcap into her and unhooked 
 the blocks, jumping about like a madman. His 
 companion swung himself down by the other fall, 
 and in a trice both men, sitting so far in the head 
 of the boat as to cock her stern high up whilst 
 her nose was nearly under, were pulling for the 
 yacht as though the devil himself were in pursuit 
 of them. 
 
 ;What do they want? The '^ Bride"?' ex- 
 claimed Wilfrid, breaking into a huge roar of 
 laughter, with a slap of his knee. He had 
 been eyeing the approach of the boat with a sort 
 of high, lifting stare — head thrown back, nostrils 
 round and quivering like an impatient horse's. 
 
 ' The desire of the moth for the star I ' said I 
 to Miss Jennincrs. ' But the simile won't hold : 
 yonder red. nightcap spoils the fancy of the moth.' 
 
 ' Shall we receive them aboard, sir ? ' exclaimed 
 Captain Finn. 
 
 'Certainly,' responded Wilfrid, with another 
 short shout of laughter. 
 
 ' Unship that there gangway,' sung out Finn ; 
 ' the steps over the side, one of ye.' 
 
 The two strange creatures pulled with amazing 
 
 VOL. r. Q
 
 226 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 contortions. Small wonder tliat the heap of child- 
 like disposition that pretty well made up the sub- 
 stance of Wilfrid's manhood, should have been 
 stirred into extravagant merriment by the wild 
 movements of the two fellows' bodies, the wind- 
 mill-like flourishings of their oars, the flopping 
 and flapping of the red cap, the incessant strain- 
 in o- and twistincy of the chocolate faces over the 
 shoulder to see how they were heading, the shrill 
 exclamations that sounded from the instant the 
 fellows were within ear-shot and that never ceased 
 until they had floundered and splashed alongside - 
 I never beheld two more hideous men. Their 
 skins were begrimed with dirt, and their colour 
 came near to the complexion of the negro with 
 sun and weather and neglect of soap ; the hair of 
 the seaman that wore the dirty red nightcap fell 
 in snake- like coils upon his back and shoulders, 
 black as tar and shining as grease. He wore 
 thick gold hoops in his ears and a fiided blue sash 
 round his waist ; his feet were naked, and for the 
 like of them it would be necessary to hunt the 
 iorests of Brazil. The other man wore a slouched 
 felt hat, a pair of grey trousers jammed into half 
 WelUngton boots, a jacket confined by a button 
 at the neck, the sieeves "thrown over his back, 
 whilst his dark arms, naked to the elbows, were 
 h:iuy as a baboon's, with a ghmpse to be caught
 
 THE PORTUGUESE BRIG 227 
 
 of a most intricate network of gunpowder and 
 Lidian ink devices covering tlie flesh to the very 
 finger-nails. This creature had a very heavy 
 moustache, backed by a pair of fierce whiskers, 
 with flashing, though blood-shot eyes, like a blot 
 of ink upon a slice of orange-peel. 
 
 We were in a group at the gangway when 
 they came sputtering alongside, flinging down 
 their oars and walloping about in the wildest con- 
 ceivable scramble as they made fast the painter 
 and clawed their way up ; and the instant they 
 were on our deck they both let fly at us in a tor- 
 rent of words, not attempting to distinguish 
 amongst us, but both of them addressing first one 
 and then another, all with such mad impetuosity of 
 speech, such smiting of tlieir bosoms, such snap- 
 ping of their fingers and convulsive brandishing of 
 their fists, that the irrecognisable tongue in which 
 they delivered themselves was rendered the most 
 hopelessly confounding language that ever be- 
 wildered the ear. It was quite impossible to 
 gather what they desired to state. First they 
 w^ould point to our ensign, then to their brig, then 
 to the long gun upon our forecastle, meanwhile 
 talking with indescribable rapidity. Finn tried to 
 check them ; he bawled, ' Stop ! stop ! You no 
 speakee English ? ' but they only stared and let 
 drive again the moment he ended his question. 
 
 q2
 
 228 AiV OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ' There's no good in all this,' said Wilfrid, ' we 
 must find out what they want. What the deuce 
 is tlieir language, Charles, d'ye know P ' 
 
 ' A sort of Portuguese, I imagine,' said I, ' but a 
 mighty corrupt specimen of that tongue, I should 
 think.' 
 
 ' I will try them in French,' said he, and 
 approaching the fellow in the red nightcap he 
 bawled in French, with an excellent accent, 
 ' What is wrong with your ship ? What can we 
 do for you ? ' 
 
 Both men shook their heads and broke out 
 together afresh. It was amazing that they should 
 go on jabbering as though we perfectly understood 
 them when one glance at our faces should have 
 assured them that they might as well have 
 addressed the deck on which they stood. 
 
 ' Try 'em in Latin, Wilf,' cried I. 
 
 He addressed a few words to them in that 
 tongue, but his English accent extinguished the 
 hint or two they might have found in the words 
 he employed had he pronounced them in South 
 European fashion, and after glaring at him a 
 moment with a deaf face the red-capped man 
 stormed forth again into a passion of speech 
 accompanied by the most incredible gesticulations, 
 pointing to his brig, to our flag, to the cannon as 
 before, winding up in the delirium of his emotion
 
 THE PORTUGUESE BRIG 229 
 
 by flinging his cap down on deck and tearing a 
 handful of hair out of his head. 
 
 Our crew were all on deck and had come 
 shouldering one another aft as far as they durst, 
 where they stood looking on, a grinning, hearken- 
 ing, bewhiskered huddle of faces. I thought it 
 just possible that one of them might understand 
 the lingo of our grimy and astonishing visitors, 
 and suggested as much to Captain Finn. He called 
 out, ' Do any one of you men follow what these 
 chaps are a-saying ? ' 
 
 A fellow responded, ' It's Portugee, sir. I can 
 swear to that, though I can't talk in it.' 
 
 ' Try them in Italian, Laura,' said Wilfrid. 
 
 She coloured, and in a very pretty accent that 
 floated to the ear like the soft sounds of a flute 
 after the hoarse, hideous and howling gibberish of 
 the two Dagos, as I judged them, she asked if 
 they were Portuguese. The eyes of the fellow in 
 the slouched hat flashed to a o-reat mn that dis- 
 closed a very cavern of a mouth under his mous- 
 tache widening to his whiskers, and he nodded 
 violently. She asked again in Italian what they 
 required, but this fell dead. They did not under- 
 stand her, but possibly imagining that she could 
 comprehend them they both addressed her at once, 
 raising a most irritating clattering with tJieir 
 tons^ues.
 
 230 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ' It looks to me,' said Finn, ' as if it was a case 
 o' mutiny. Don't see what else can sinnify their 
 constant pointing to that there gun and our flag 
 and then their brig.' 
 
 I sent a look at the vessel as he spoke, and 
 took notice now of a number of heads along the 
 line of the main-deck rail, w^atching us in a sort 
 of ducking way, by which I mean to convey a 
 kind of coming and going of those dusky nobs 
 which suggested a very furtive and askant look- 
 out. She was not above a quarter of a mile off; 
 tlie wheel showed plain and the man at it kept his 
 face upon us continuously, whilst his posture, 
 Liliputianised as he was, betrayed extraordinary 
 impatience and anxiety. The craft lay aback, the 
 light wind hollowing her sails in-board and her 
 ugly besmeared hull rolling in a manner that I 
 suppose was rendered nauseous to the eye by her 
 colour, her form, her frowsy, ill-cut canvas and her 
 sheathing of sickly hue, foul with slimy weed and 
 squalid attire of repulsive sea-growth upon the 
 long and tender lifting and falling of the spark- 
 ling blue. There were some white letters under 
 her counter, but though I took a swift peep at 
 them through Finn's telescope the shadow there and 
 the long slant of the name towards the sternpost 
 rendered the words indecipherable. The glass 
 showed such heads along- the rail as I could fix to
 
 THE PORTUGUESE BRIG 231 
 
 be strictly in keeping with the filth and neglect 
 you saw in the brig and with the appearance of 
 the two men aboard of the schooner. Most of 
 them might have passed for negroes. There were 
 indications of extreme agitation amongst them, 
 visible in a sort of fretful. Hitting, a constant look- 
 ing up and around and abaft in the direction of 
 the man at the wheel. 
 
 I thought I would try my hand with the red- 
 capped worthy, and striding up to him I sung out 
 ' Capitano ' ? 
 
 He nodded, striking himself, and then pointing 
 to his companion, spoke some word, but I did not 
 understand him. By this time the crew had come 
 shoving one another a little further aft, so that we 
 now made a fair crowd all about the gangway ; 
 every man's attention was fixed upon the two 
 Portuguese. It was so odd an experience that it 
 created a sort of hcence for the crew, and Finn 
 was satisfied to look on whilst first one and then 
 another of our men addressed the two fellows, 
 striving to coax some meaning out of them by 
 addressing them in ' pigeon ' and other fonPiS of 
 English, according to that odd superstition current 
 amongst seamen that our language is most in- 
 telligible to foreigners when spoken in a manner 
 the least intelligible to- ourselves. 
 
 We of the quarterdeck were beginning to
 
 232 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 grow weary of all this. The hope of bemg able 
 to pick up news of the ' Shark ' had gone out of 
 Wilfrid's mind long ago ; the humour, moreover, of 
 the two creatures' appearance and apparel was 
 now stale to him, and with folded arms he stood 
 apart watching their gesticulations and listening 
 to their jargon — in which it seemed to me they 
 were telling the same story over and over and 
 over again — with a tired air and a gloomy brow. 
 I drew Finn apart. 
 
 ' What is the matter with them, think you ? ' 
 
 ' I dorn't doubt it's a mutiny, sir.' 
 
 ' It looks like it certainly. But how can we 
 help them ? ' 
 
 ' We cant help them, sir. The best thing we 
 can do, I think, is to order 'em off. You can see, 
 Mr. Monson, his honour's growing sick of the 
 noise.' 
 
 I started suddenly. 
 
 ' Why, Finn, look ! ' I cried, ' see ! they have 
 trimmed sail on the brio- and slie is under 
 
 wav 
 
 It was indeed as I had said. Unobserved by 
 us, the people of the vessel had squared the main- 
 yards and flattened in the head-sheets, and there 
 she was away to windward, pushing slowly through 
 it with a brassy wrinkhng of w^ater at her stem, 
 her crew runnino- about her as active as ants,
 
 THE PORTUGUESE BRIG 233 
 
 whilst I noticed in the difference of costume that 
 a new man had replaced the fellow who was at 
 the wheel. 
 
 ' Mind,' I shouted, ' or by Jupiter they'll rim 
 away with the ship and leave this brace of beauties 
 on oiu' hands.' 
 
 A sincfle glance enabled Finn to see how it was. 
 In a breath he sprarg upon the red- capped man, 
 caught him by the collar, twisted his head round 
 in the direction of the brig whilst he yelled in his 
 ear, ' Lookee ! lookee ! yom- ship go ! your ship 
 go ; jumpee, jumpee or you loosee ship 1 ' It 
 was not likely that the grimy creature would have 
 met with a ghost of a hint of the truth in the 
 ' lookees ' and 'jumpees ' of friend Finn, but his 
 nose havincr beino^ slewed in the ricfht direction he 
 instantly saw for himself. He broke out in a long 
 ringing howl which I took to be some tremendous 
 sea-curse in the Portuguese language, and caUing 
 his companion's attention to the brig by striking 
 him with his clenched fist between the shoulders 
 and then indicating the vessel with both arms 
 outstretched in a melodramatic posture that 
 made one think of Masaniello, he uttered another 
 ^^'ild roar that was no doubt a further example 
 of Portuguese bad language, and went in a sprawl 
 to the gangway followed by his comrade. In a 
 trice they were over the side and in the boat
 
 234 ^^V OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 and pulling furiously in the direction of tlie 
 brisf. 
 
 ' Better trim sail, Captain Finn, so as to lie up 
 for that vessel,' exclaimed Wilfrid. ' We must 
 see those men aboard and the Httle drama played 
 out, though 'tis vexatiously delaying.' 
 
 It was now blowdng a very light air of wind, 
 yet there was weight enough in it to hold steady 
 the canvas of the Portucruese brioj even to the 
 lifting of her foresail, lumpish as those cloths 
 were made " by the boom that spread the clews, 
 and one saw by the w^ake of her that she was 
 stirring through it at a pace to render the pur- 
 suit of the boat long and possibly hopeless, if the 
 crew refused to back their yards for the two 
 fellows. The boat was a fat, tub -like fabric, 
 apparently heavy for her size, and the rowers pulled 
 w^ith such alternate heat and passion, that though 
 they made the water buzz and foam about the 
 bows, their motion was as erratic — first to right, 
 then to left, then a spasmodic heave round as 
 though they meant to return to us — as the course 
 of a fly chmbing a pane of glass. The whole 
 picture was thrown out strong and clear by the 
 background of sparkling azure water melting into 
 a sort of tremblinoj faintness off the horizon to 
 above the height of the brig's masts against the 
 sky, which from there ran up in a tint of deep-
 
 THE PORTUGUESE BRIG 235 
 
 eniDg blue till it whitened out into glory round 
 about the sun. Tlie boat rose and fell upon the 
 long ocean heave, splashed wildly forwards by the 
 two rowers, who again and again would turn their 
 mahogany- coloured faces over their shoulders to 
 yell to the withdrawing vessel. The brig's crew 
 stood in a crowd aft watching, most of them, as 
 the glass disclosed, in a loafing, lounging posture, 
 their bare arras folded or their hands sunk in 
 their breeches-pockets, whilst one or another 
 occasionally pointed at us or the boat with a 
 theatrical attitude of leaning back as he did so 
 that made one fancy one could hear the laughter 
 or the curses which attended these gestures. On 
 high rustily glittered the amazing old weathercock 
 or dog-vane of the saint in his boat, from which 
 would leap with penduhnn regularity a dull flame 
 sunwards, timing a like kind of fire which flashed 
 wet from the dirty yellow and sickly green of the 
 hull, as her side rolled streaming to the noon-tide 
 blaze. 
 
 ' I say, Wilfrid,' cried I, ' it doesn't seem as if 
 those chaps meant to let that boat approach them,' 
 
 ' What's to be done ? ' he exclaimed. 
 
 I looked at Finn. 'If they don't pick those 
 two fellows up,' said I, ' we shall have to do so, 
 that's cocksure. But they are a kind of beauties 
 whose room is better than their company, I think,
 
 236 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 as tlie crew would find out when Ave approached 
 tlie equinoctial waters.' 
 
 ' Ay, sir,' cried Finn, ' it would never do to 
 have the likes o' them aboard, your honour,' ad- 
 dressing Sir Wilfrid. ' No, no, the brig must pick 
 'em up. Dang their cruel hearts ! I never seed a 
 scurvier trick played at sea in all my days.' 
 
 ' But what's to be done ? ' cried Wilfrid im- 
 patiently and irritably. ' Could one of our boats 
 overhaul the brig and put the two fellows aboard 
 her?' 
 
 Finn shook his head. 
 
 ' See here, Wilf,' said I : ' suppose we let shp 
 a blank shot at her out of that eighteen-pounder 
 yonder? The dirty herd of scowbankers may 
 take us to be a man of war. And another idea 
 on top of this ! ' cried I, bursting into a laugh. 
 ' Is there anything black aboard that we can fly at 
 the masthead ? It should prove a warrant of our 
 honesty that must puzzle them gloriously.' 
 
 ' Would a black shawl do, Mr. Monson ? ' said 
 Miss Jennings. 
 
 ' The very thing,' said I, ' if it's big enough.' 
 
 She immediately went below. 
 
 ' I think a blank shot's a first class idea,' ex- 
 claimed Finn, ' but as to a black flag ' and he 
 
 cocked his eye dubiously at the masthead, whilst 
 his face visibly lengthened.
 
 THE PORTUGUESE BRIG 237 
 
 ' Why a Uacl flag, Charles ? ' cried Wilfrid. 
 
 'Why, my dear Wilf, — the pirate's bimting, 
 you know. The rogues may take us for a pica- 
 roon — no telling the persuasive influence of a 
 black banner upon the nerves of such gentry.* 
 
 ' Xoble ! noble ! ' shouted Wilfrid, slapping 
 his leg : ' frighten them, Finn, frighten them. 
 Why, man, they can't be all fools, and some of 
 them at least will very well know that that ensign 
 up there,' pointing to the commercial flag at our 
 peak, ' is not her Britannic Majesty's red cross. 
 But a black flag— oh, yes, by all means if we 
 can but muster such a thing. And get that gun 
 loaded, will ye, Finn .^ get it done at once, I say.' 
 
 The skipper walked hurriedly forward as Miss 
 Laura arrived with a black cashmere or crape 
 shawl — I do not recollect the material. We held 
 it open between us. 
 
 ' The very thing,' I cried, and full of excite- 
 ment — for here was something genuine in the way 
 of an incident to break in upon the monotony of 
 a sea trip — I bent the shawl on to the signal hal- 
 liards that led from the main-topmast head and 
 sent it aloft in a little ball, ready to break when 
 the gun should be fired. 
 
 Meanwliile all was bustle forwards. It is a 
 question whether Jack does not love firing off a 
 cannon even better than beating a drum. Miss
 
 238 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 Jennings walked right aft as far as slie could go, 
 holding her fingers in readiness for her ears and 
 saying to me as she passed that sudden noises 
 frightened her. Wilfrid stood alongside of me, 
 glancing with a boyish expression of excite- 
 ment and expectation from the seamen congre- 
 gated round the gun to the little black ball at 
 the masthead. The yacht was slowly overhauhng 
 the brig, but almost imperceptibly. The boat 
 maintained an equidistance betwixt us and was 
 struggling, wabbhng, and splashing fair in a hne 
 with our cutwater and the lee- quarter of the 
 Portuguese craft. The two rowers exhibited no 
 signs of exhaustion, though I expected every 
 minute to find one or both of them give up and 
 disappear, dead beaten, in the bottom of their 
 tub. 
 
 ' All ready forward, sir,' shouted Finn ; 
 ' will your honour give us the signal when to 
 fire?' 
 
 As lie sung out the group of seamen hustled 
 backwards from the gun and thinned into meagre 
 lines of spectators at a safe distance. 
 
 ' Fire ! ' bawled Wilfrid. 
 
 There was a glance of flame past the bow 
 port, a roar that tingled through the decks into 
 one's very marrow, and the sea turned blind with 
 white smoke, iridescent as a cobweb, over the
 
 THE PORTUGUESE BRIG 239 
 
 bows of the ' Bride.' I tugged at the signal hal- 
 liards, broke my little ball, and the black shawl 
 floated out fair from the masthead, as sinister a 
 piratic symbol as one could have desired and not 
 an atom the less mahgnant in significance for 
 wanting the old-fashioned embellishments of the 
 cross-bones and skull. I saw the Jacks forward 
 looking up at the sight with grinning wonderment. 
 However, it was easy to see by their way of 
 laughing, staring and turning to one another, that 
 they twigged the motive of that wild marine exhi- 
 bition. I sprang to the peak signal halhards and 
 hauled the ensign down, for the black flag com- 
 bines but ill with the Union Jack, and then went 
 to the side to see what the brig was about. 
 Either she did not understand our meaning, or 
 was resolved not to take any hint from us. She 
 held on doggedly without a touch of the braces 
 or a shift of the helm by the length of a spoke, 
 with her people watching us and the pursuing 
 boat from over the taft\'ail, a cluster of sidphur- 
 coloured faces, as they looked at that distance, 
 but harmonising excellently well, I thought, with 
 the dingy yellow of the canvas rising in ungainly 
 spaces over their heads and the sickly hue of the 
 brig's hull with its shiny, pease-soup-like reflec- 
 tion in the water to the lift of the squalid fabric 
 upon some polished brow of swell.
 
 240 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ' Wilfrid,' cried I, ' they don't mean to pick 
 up their boat.' 
 
 ' It looks like it,' said he ; ' what's to be done ? 
 There's something confoundedly insulting in the 
 rogues' indifference to our gun and colours.' 
 
 ' Better consult with Finn,' said I. 
 
 He called to the skipper, who came to us from 
 the forecastle. 
 
 ' I say, Finn, what are we to do ? We don't 
 want those two filthy fellow^s aboard this yacht ; 
 and yet, if that brig don't pick them up, we can't 
 of course let them remain adrift here.' 
 
 ' Arm a boat's crew,' said I ; ' you have wea- 
 pons enough below. Take those two fellows out of 
 yonder boat and compel the brig to receive them. 
 I'll take charge wdth pleasure if Finn'll permit.' 
 
 Finn, a slow, sober, steady old merchant sea- 
 man, did not seem to see this. The expression of 
 worry made his long face comical wdth the puz- 
 zled twist at the corners of his mouth, which 
 looked to be, in his countenance, where most 
 men's noses are situated. 
 
 ' Or,' said I, observing him to hang in the 
 wind, ' make them really believe that those are 
 the colours we sail under,' pointing to the shawl, 
 ' ])y slapping a round-shot at them in sober 
 earnest, leaving the missile to take its chance of 
 missing or hitting.'
 
 THE PORTUGUESE BRIG 241 
 
 ' That's it,' almost shrieked Wilfrid in his 
 excitement ; ' yes ! that'll save the botheration 
 of boat -lowering and arguefication and perhaps 
 bloodshed, by George ! Emi forward now, Finn, 
 and let fly a round-shot at that ugly brute ; hit 
 her if you can, no matter Avhere, that they may 
 know we're in earnest, and that they may believe 
 if they don't heave to we shall sink them. Xo 
 remonstrance, Finn, for heaven's sake ! Jump, 
 my dear fellow. Dash it, man,' he cried pas- 
 sionately, with a quite furious gesture in the 
 direction of the brig, ' thais not the object of our 
 chase ! ' 
 
 Finn, with an air of concern but awed also by 
 Wilfrid's temper and insistence, hurried on to the 
 forecastle. I watched them load the gun a second 
 time, and burst into a laugh when I saw two 
 fellows rise out of the fore hatch, each of them 
 hugging an eighteen-pound shot to his heart. 
 
 ' Only one ball at a time,' shouted Wilfrid, 
 conceiving very likely that they meant to double 
 shot the gun. 
 
 ' Ay, ay, sir,' responded Finn. 
 
 The crew backed away as before. The stout, 
 whiskered seaman, with a face that made one 
 think of a red apple snugged in a setting of horse- 
 hair, who had previously fired the gun and who 
 was apparently the ' Bride's ' gunner, sighted the 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 piece with a deliberateness that made me expect 
 wonders. We all held our breath. I fixed my 
 eye on the brig to observe, if possible, where the 
 shot struck her. Then, crash ! Had the cannon 
 been loaded to the muzzle the blast could not 
 have been more deafening. The thunder of it 
 swept with a thrill, out and away fiercer than the 
 tremble of the first shock, through the deck and 
 w^as almost immediately followed by a loud and 
 fearful yell from the forecastle. I thought the 
 gun had burst. 
 
 ' Merciful powers ! What has happened ? ' 
 cried Wilfrid. 
 
 Captain Finn came bowling aft fast as his legs 
 would travel, shouting as he ran. 
 
 ' What is it .? what is it ? ' my cousin and I 
 roared out in one voice. 
 
 ' The shot's struck the boat, your honours, and 
 sunk her ! ' bellowed Finn. 
 
 I looked, and sure enough where the boat 
 had been there was nothing to be seen but the 
 violet slope of the swell softly drawing out of the 
 cloud of powder-smoke that was settling in 
 lengthening, glistening folds towards the brig ! 
 I thought I observed something dark however, 
 and snatching up Finn's telescope from the sky- 
 light-top I levelled it and made out the head of 
 the man witb^ tKp red nightcap holding by an oar
 
 THE PORTUGUESE BRIG 243 
 
 or bit of wreckage. I shouted out that one of 
 the men was ahve m the water. The dismay 
 was universal, but there was no disorder, no com- 
 motion. By waiting a httle the ' Bride,' even as 
 she was heading, would have floated to the spot 
 where that melancholy red beacon was bobbing ; 
 but the delay this would have involved was not to 
 be dreamt of. With a smartness that excited my 
 admiration, man-of- wars-man as I had been in my 
 time, our largest boat, a six-oared fabric, with 
 sour old Crimp in the stern-sheets, was lowered 
 and pulled away with splendid precision in the 
 direction of the red nightcap. In a few minutes 
 they had got the fellow in-boards ; they then hiing 
 upon their oars, looking round and round ; but 
 the other unfortunate creature, he of the slouched 
 hat and black and flashing eyes, had found a 
 sailor's grave. I sought with the glass over a 
 broad field of water, but could see nothing. 
 Indeed there was not a vestige left of the boat 
 save what the red- capped chap had clung to. 
 
 ' One of them killed ! Heaven have mercy 
 upon us,' groaned Wilfrid in my ear, and his 
 appearance was full of dreadful consternation. 
 
 Meanwhile the brig ahead was holding stead- 
 fastly on, her crowd of people aft gazing at us as 
 before. I took a view of them ; they all held a 
 sort of gaping posture ; there were no dramatic 
 
 R 2
 
 244 ^-V OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 o'esticulations, no eag-er and derisive turninpr to 
 one another, no pointing arms and backward- 
 leaning attitudes. They had as thunderstruck 
 an air as can be imagined in a mob of men. 
 What they supposed us to be now after our 
 extermination of the boat and one of the two 
 fellows w^ho had sought our assistance, it ^vas 
 impossible to conjecture. 
 
 Our boat, that had sped away from us about 
 four times faster than we wxre moving througli 
 the water, hung, with lifted oars, over the spot 
 where our cannon-ball had taken effect until the 
 ' Bride ' had slowly surged to within hail ; then 
 up stood sour Crimp. 
 
 ' What are we to do ? ' 
 
 'Have you got both men?' bawled Finn, 
 who perfectly well knew that they hadn't. 
 
 ' No ; there was but one to get, and here he 
 is,' and Crimp pointed into the bottom of the 
 boat. 
 
 ' Put him aboard his ship,' cried Finn. ' If 
 they refuse to receive him, find out if there's e'er 
 a one of 'em that can speak Engiisli, and then tell 
 tliem that if they don't take him we shall arm our 
 men and compel 'em to it ; and if that don't do 
 we'll keep all on firing into 'em till they follow the 
 road that's been took by their jolly-boat.' 
 
 His long face was puj'ple with temper and the
 
 THE PORTUGUESE BRIG 245 
 
 effort of shouting, and he turned it upon Wilfrid, 
 who nodded a fierce excited approval, whilst I 
 cried, ' That's it, that's it ; they must take him.' 
 
 Crimp held up his hand in token of having 
 heard the captain, then seated himself; the oars 
 fell and flashed as they rose wet to the sun, every 
 gold-bright blade in a line, and the foam went 
 spinning away from the bows of the little craft in 
 snow to the magnificent disciplined sweep of those 
 British muscles. In a jiffy she was on the brig's 
 quarter, with Crimp erect in her, gesticulating to 
 the crowd who overhung the rail. I kept the 
 telescope bearing on them and it seemed to me 
 that the whole huddle of them jabbered to Crimp 
 all together, an indistinguishable hubbub, to judore 
 from the extraordinary contortions into which 
 every individual figure flung itself, some of them 
 going to the lengths of spinning round in their 
 frenzy, whilst others leapt upon the rail and 
 addressed the boat's crew with uplifted arms, as 
 though they called all sorts of maledictions down 
 upon our men. This went on for a few minutes, 
 then I saw the bow-oar fork out his boat-hook 
 and drag the boat to the main channels into 
 which,all very expeditiously, two or three brawny 
 pairs of arms lifted the red-capped man. Then 
 four of our fellows sprang into the chains, handed 
 the little creature over the rail and let him drop
 
 246 A A' OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ill-boards. They then re-entered their boat and 
 fell astern of the brig by a few fathoms, holding 
 their station there by a soft plying of oars, Crimp's 
 notion probably being, as ours was indeed, that 
 the Portuguese crew would presently send our 
 friend the red-cap to follow his mate. 
 
 We waited, watching intently. On a sudden 
 I spied the red-cap in the heart of the mob of 
 men that had clustered again near the wheel. 
 His gesticulations were full of remonstrance ; his 
 people writhed round about him* in the throes of 
 a Portuguese argument, but it seemed to me as 
 I followed their gestures and their way of turn- 
 ing their faces towards us, that their talk was 
 all about our schooner, as though indeed their 
 mutinous passions had been diverted by our 
 cannon-shot in a direction that boded no parti- 
 cular evil to the red-capped man. 
 
 ' They'll not hurt the creature, I believe,' 
 said I. 
 
 ' Call the men aboard, Finn,' exclaimed 
 Wilfrid, ' and get the " Bride " to her course.'
 
 247 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 A SECOXD WARXIXG. 
 
 I HAULED down the shawl from the masthead, care- 
 fully unbent, folded and gave it to Miss Jennings, 
 who stood with Wilfrid watchino^ the Portuo-uese 
 brig. We had hoisted in our boat, and the men 
 were busy about the decks coiling up after 
 having trimmed sail. 
 
 ' Once more heading a fair course for the 
 " Shark," ' said I with a glance at the compass 
 ' This has been a neat morning's work. A few 
 incidents of the kind should make out a lively 
 voyage.' 
 
 * Oh but it's dreadful to think of that poor 
 man having been drowned ! ' exclaimed Miss 
 Jennings. ' I was watching the boat before the 
 gun was fired. In an instant she vanished. She 
 might have been a phantom. She melted out 
 upon the water as a snow-flake would. I pressed 
 my eyes, for I could not believe them at first.' 
 
 ' Horrible ! ' exclaimed Wilfrid in a hollow, 
 melancholy voice ; ' what had that miserable
 
 248 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 creature clone that we should take his life? 
 Have we insensibly — insensibly — courted some 
 curse of heaven upon this yacht ? Who was the 
 villain that did it ? ' He wheeled round passion- 
 ately ; ' Finn — Captain Finn, I say ! ' he shouted. 
 • The captain, who was giving directions to 
 some men in the waist, came aft 
 
 'Who was it that fired that shot, Finn?' 
 cried my cousin in his headlong way, jerking his 
 head as it were at Finn with the question, whilst 
 his arms and legs twitched and twisted as though 
 to an electric current. 
 
 ' A man named O'Connor, Sir Wilfrid,' 
 responded Finn. 
 
 ' Did he do it expressly, think you ? ' 
 
 ' I wouldn't like to say that, your honour. 
 The fellow's a blunderhead. I inquired if there 
 was e'er a man for'ard as could load and sight 
 a cannon, and this chap stands up and says that 
 he'd sarved for three years in a privateer and 
 was reckoned the deadest shot out of a crew of 
 ninety men.' 
 
 ' Call him aft,' said Wilfrid. ' If he aimed at 
 iiat boat intentionally it's murder — call him 
 aft ! ' 
 
 He took some impatient strides to and fro with 
 a face that worked like a ship in a seaway with 
 the conflict of emotions within him, whilst Finn
 
 A SECOND WARNING 249 
 
 going a little way forward, sung out for O'Connor. 
 Meanwhile we were rapidly widening the distance 
 between us and the brig. I protest it was with 
 an honest feeling of relief that I watched her 
 sliding into a toy-like sliape with promise of 
 nothing showing presently but some radiant film 
 of her topmost canvas in the silver azure that 
 streaked by a hand's breadth, as it looked, the 
 whole girdle of the horizon ; for one was never 
 to know but that her people might send the red- 
 capped man adrift for us to pick up, or worry us 
 in some other way. 
 
 Finn arrived, followed by the Irishman who 
 had discharged the gun ; his immense black 
 whiskers stood out thick, straight, inflexible as 
 the bristles of a chimney-sweep's brush, con- 
 trasting very extraordinarily with the bright 
 apple-red of his cheeks and the blue, Hibernian, 
 seawardly eye that glimmered under a dense 
 black thatch of brow. He stood bolt upright 
 soldier-fashion, with his arms straight up and 
 down by his side like pump-handles, and fixed 
 an unwinking stare upon whoever addressed 
 him. 
 
 'You fired that gun, Captain Finn says,' 
 exclaimed Wilfrid. 
 
 ' Oi did, your honour.' 
 
 ' What made vou take aim at the boat ? '
 
 250 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ' Your honour, by the holy eleven, I took aim 
 at the brig. There's something wrong with the 
 pace.' 
 
 ' Wrong with the piece. What d'ye mean ? ' 
 
 ' It was cast with a kink, sorr ; it dhroops 
 amidships and shoots as Misther Crimp's larboard 
 oye peeps, your honour, though loike his oye 
 it manes well.' 
 
 ' Nonsense,' I cried, ' you must have covered 
 the boat to hit it.' 
 
 * By all that's sacred then,' cried the man, ' I 
 had the natest observation of the brig's main- 
 topmasht as ever oye could bring the muzzle of 
 a pace to soight. The gun was cast with a kink, 
 sorr.' 
 
 ' My belief is that you're utterly ignorant of 
 guns,' cried Wilfrid. ' The concussion was fierce 
 enough to shake the yacht to pieces.' 
 
 ' 'Twas your honour's design to froighten 
 'em.' 
 
 ' But not to murder them, you dolt ! ' shouted 
 Wilfrid. 'D'ye know I could have you lianged 
 for this.' 
 
 ' It was but a haythen Portuguay, sorr,' 
 answered the fellow, preserving his ramrod-like 
 posture and his unwinking stare. 
 
 ' Tell him to go forward, Finn ; tell him to 
 go forward,' cried Wilfrid, ' and see that he never
 
 A SECOND WARNING 251 
 
 has any more to do with that gun on any account 
 whatever, d'ye understand ? ' 
 
 The seaman knuckled his forehead and 
 wheeled round, but methought I could just catch 
 a glimpse past his whisker of a sudden protrusion 
 of the cheek as though he w^as signalling with his 
 tongue to a brother Jack who was flemish-coiling 
 a rope not very far from where he was standing. 
 
 The luncheon bell rang and we went below. 
 At table we could talk of nothing but the 
 unhappy Portuguese whom our round-shot had 
 sent to the bottom. Muffin's face of respectful 
 horror was a feature of the time which I recall 
 more vividly than even the disaster itself. This 
 man, though he was in attendance on Wilfrid as 
 a valet, regularly stood behind his master's chair 
 at meals. It was Wilfrid's whim to have him at 
 hand. He did not offer to wait unless it was to 
 procure anything my cousin might require when 
 the stewards were busy with Miss Jennings and 
 myself, or one or both of them absent. His air 
 of deferential consternation was exceedingly fine 
 as he hstened to our talk about the annihilated 
 boat and the foundered foreigner — ' Who,' said 
 I with a glance at his yellow visage, the shocked 
 expression of which he tried to smother by 
 twisting his lips into a sort of shape that might 
 pass as a faint obsequious simper and by keeping
 
 252 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 his eyelids lowered, ' let us trust was cut in halves, 
 for then his extinction would be painless ; for after 
 all, drowning, though it is reckoned an agreeable 
 death after consciousness has fled, is mortal agony, I 
 take it, whilst the sensation of suffocation remains.' 
 
 Muffin's left leg fell away with an exceedingly 
 nervous crooking of it in the trouser, and he 
 turned up his eyes an instant to the upper deck 
 with so sickly a roll, that spite of myself I burst 
 into a laugh, though I swiftly recovered myself 
 
 ' It is strange, Charles,' exclaimed my cousin 
 in a raven-like note, ' that a ghastly incident of 
 this kind should sit so lightly on your mind, 
 considering that you have quitted the sea for 
 years and have led a far more effeminate life 
 ashore than I who have been roughing it on 
 the ocean when very likely you were lounging 
 with a bored face in an opera stall or dozing over 
 a cigar in some capacious club armchair. Had 
 you been chasing slavers or pitching cannon shot 
 into African villages down to the present 
 moment, I could almost understand your indif- 
 ference to a business that's going to haunt me for 
 the rest of my days.' 
 
 'Xonsense!' I exclaimed, 'it was a bad job 
 I admit, but a pure accident, not more tragical 
 than had the boat capsized and drowned the 
 man. Tliere would be nothing in a twenty-fold
 
 A SECOND WARNfiXG 253 
 
 Uglier mishap to haunt you. But I'll tell you 
 what, though,' I continued, talking on to avert 
 the sentimental argument which I saw strong in 
 Wilfrid's face, ' the incident of this morning points 
 a very useful moral.' 
 
 ' What moral ? ' he demanded. 
 
 ' Why, that we must not be in too great a 
 hurry to speak every sail we sight.' 
 
 ' Finn knows my wishes ; we must hear all 
 we can about the " Shark," ' cried Wilfrid 
 warmly. 
 
 ' The very vessel that we neglect to speak,' 
 exclaimed Miss Jennings softly — she had spoken 
 but httle and it was easy to see through the 
 transparency of her unaffected manner that the 
 tragic affair of the morning had made a very 
 deep impression on her — 'might prove the one 
 ship of all we pass that could most usefully direct 
 us.' 
 
 ' Two to one ! ' said I, giving her a bow and 
 smiling to the look of coy reproach in her 
 charming eyes ; ' of course, Miss Jennings, I have 
 no more to say. At least,' I added, turning to 
 Wilfrid, ' on the head of speaking passing ships, 
 though the moral I find in this forenoon trouble 
 is not exhausted.' 
 
 ' Well ? ' said he a little imperiously, leaning 
 towards me on one elbow with his naib at his
 
 254 -4iV OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 lips and tlie spirit of restlessness quick as the 
 blood in his veins in every lineament. 
 
 ' Well,' said I, echoing him, ' my suggestion 
 is that your Long Tom's murderous mission 
 should be peremptorily cut short by your 
 ordering Finn to strike the noisy old barker 
 at once down into the hold, where he'll be a 
 deuced deal more useful as ballast than as a fore- 
 castle toy for the illustration of Irish humour.' 
 
 ' No ! ' shouted Wilfrid, fetching the table 
 a whack with his fist : ' so say no more about 
 it, Charles. Strange that you^ who should 
 possess the subtlest and strongest of any kind 
 of human sympathy for and with me — I mean 
 the sympathy of blood — should so absolutely fail 
 to appreciate my determination and to accept my 
 purpose ! That girl there,' pointing with his long 
 arm to Miss Laura, ' can read my heart and, of 
 her sweetness, justify and approve all she finds 
 there. But you^ my dear Charles ' — he softened 
 his voice though he continued speaking with 
 warmth nevertheless — '' you^ my own first cousin, 
 you to whom my honour should be hardly less 
 dear than your own — you would have me 
 abandon this pursuit — forego every detail of my 
 carefully prepared programme — blink with a 
 cynical laziness at my own and my infant's 
 degradation and turn to the law — to the law
 
 . A SECOND WARiXIXG 255 
 
 forsooth ! — for the appeasement or extinction of 
 every just yearning and of every consuming 
 desire of my manhood. Xo by G — ! ' he roared, 
 ' fate may be against me, but even her iron hand 
 can be forced by a heart goaded as mine has 
 been and is.' 
 
 He rose from the table and without another 
 word went to his cabin. 
 
 We had been for some time alone — I mean 
 that Muffin and the stewards had left us. When 
 my cousin was gone I looked at Miss Jennings. 
 
 ' Forgive me, Mr. Monson,' she exclaimed 
 with a little blush and speaking with an en- 
 chanting diffidence, ' but I fear — indeed I am sure, 
 that any, even the lightest, suggestion that runs 
 counter to Wilfrid's wishes irritates him. And,' 
 she added almost in a whisper, ' I think it is 
 dangerous to irritate him.' 
 
 ' I have no wish to irritate him, believe me, 
 Miss Jennings,' said I. ' I desire to be of some 
 practical help, and my recommendations have no 
 other motive. But I give you my word if this 
 ort of thmg goes on I shall grow selfish, nay, 
 alarmed if you hke. I certainly never anticipated 
 these melodramatic displays, these tragic rebukes, 
 when I accepted his offer of the voyage. Pray 
 consider : if Wilf, poor fellow, should grow worse, 
 if his action'' should result in exhibiting him
 
 256 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 as irresponsible, what's to be done? Heaven 
 forbid that I should say a word to alarm you — ' 
 she shook her head with a smile : I was a Uttle 
 abashed but proceeded nevertheless — ' we are not 
 upon dry land here. The ocean is as full of the 
 unexpected as it is of fish. Finn is a plain steady 
 man with brains enough, but then he is not in 
 command in the sense that a captain is in 
 command when we speak of a ship whose skipper 
 is lord paramount. He will obey as Wilfrid 
 orders, and I say, Miss Jennings, with all sub- 
 mission to your engaging, to your beautiful 
 desires as a sister, that if Wilfrid's humour is 
 going to gain on him at the rate at which I seem 
 to find it growing, it will be my business, as I am 
 certain it will be my duty for everybody's sake as 
 well as for yours and his own, so to contrive this 
 unparalleled pursuit as to end it swiftly.' 
 
 She was silent — a httle awed, I think, by my 
 emphatic manner, perhaps by a certain note of 
 sternness, for I had been irritated, besides being 
 nervous ; and then, again, my distaste for the trip 
 worked very strongly in me whilst I was talking to 
 her. 
 
 We v;ere a somewhat gloomy ship for the rest 
 of the day. I noticed that the seamen wore 
 tolerably grave faces at their several jobs, and 
 it was easy to gather that, now they had had time
 
 A SECOND IVARXJXG 257 
 
 to digest the incident of the morning it was as 
 little to their taste as it was to ours aft. Indeed 
 it was impossible to tell what kind of omen they 
 might manufacture out of so tragic an affair. 
 Sailors were very much more superstitious in those 
 days than they are now ; the steam fiend has 
 Avonderfully cleared the atmospliere of the fore- 
 castle, and the sea-goblin has long since made his 
 final dive from the topgallant-rail to keep com- 
 pany with the mermaid in her secret bower of 
 coral in a realm f^ithoms deep beneath the ocean 
 ooze. OConnor tried very hard to look as if 
 he felt that on the whole he almost deserved 
 to be hanged for liis blundersome extermination 
 of the Portugee lieathen ; at least this seemed his 
 air when, as he sat stitching on a sail in the waist, 
 he suspected a quarterdeck gaze to be directed at 
 him. But it is hard for a man with merry blue 
 eyes and cheeks veritably grinning with ruddiness 
 in the embrace of a huge liearty pair of care- 
 fully doctored whiskers to look contrite. The 
 Irishman did his best, but I laughed to see how 
 the instant he forgot his part nature jovially broke 
 out in him again. 
 
 Crimp had charge that afternoon, and when 
 I arrived on deck with a cigar in my mouth, 
 leavino' Miss Jennino-s and her maid liano^ino; 
 together over a hat whose feather in some way 
 
 VOL. 1. s
 
 258 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 or other had gone wrong, I asked tlie mate what 
 was his opinion of the accident of the morning. 
 
 ' Ain't got any opinion about it at all,' he 
 answered. 
 
 ' It w^as an accident, let us believe,' said I. 
 
 'Pure hignorance more like,' he answered. 
 ' That there O'Connor's regularly ate up with pride. 
 He's all bounce. Says he's descended from kings 
 and if he had his rights he'd be at the head o' Ulster 
 or some such place as that 'stead of an able seaman. 
 He know anything 'bout firing off cannons ! ' making 
 a horrible foce and going to the side to spit. 
 
 ' Did they understand what you said aboard 
 thebiig when you talked to them from the boat?' 
 
 ' Ne'er a word.' 
 
 ' Was the red- capped man hurt ? ' 
 
 ' Dazed. Eyes pretty nigh out on's cheeks. 
 He was too full o' salt water to curse, I allow, so 
 when we hauled him into the boat he fell on his 
 knees and prayed. A bloomin' poor job ; a measly 
 mean business! Knocking of a boat to pieces an' 
 drownding of a m.an. What's the good o' that 
 there gun ? Only fit to kick up a plaguey shindy. 
 Next time it may bust and then, stand by ! for I 
 once see an explosion.' 
 
 ' Is there anything wrong with the piece as 
 O'Connor suggests?' said I, much enjoying the old 
 chap's sourness, which I may say was not a little 
 in harmony with my mood that afternoon.
 
 A SECOND WARNING 259 
 
 ' Couldn't tell if ye offered me all ye was worth. 
 My business ain't guns. I shipped to do my bit 
 and my bit I'll do^ but the line's chalked a mighty 
 long way this side o' hordnance.' 
 
 I walked on to the forecastle to inspect the 
 gun for myself. O'Connor watched me with the 
 whole round of his face, broad and purple as the 
 rising moon. The gun was of an elderly fashion 
 but it looked a very substantial weapon, with a 
 murderous grin in the gape of it and a long slim 
 throat that warranted a venomous delivery. The 
 kink the Irishman spoke of was altogether in his 
 eye. 
 
 I returned to the quarterdeck, relighted my 
 cigar, stowed myself comfortably away in the 
 chair I had at an earher hour procured for Miss 
 Jennings, and pulling from my pocket a little 
 handy edition of one of Walter Scott's novels, was 
 speedily transported leagues away from the ocean 
 by the spells of that delightful wizard. Thus 
 passed the afternoon. Miss Jennings remained 
 below, and Wilfrid lay hid in his cabin. It was 
 very pleasant weather. The sky was a clear blue 
 from line to hue, with just a group of faint bronze- 
 browed clouds of a dim cream at the horizon 
 looming in the azure air far away down in the north- 
 west. The wind was cool though salt, a pleasant 
 breeze from the east with a trifle of northing in 
 
 s 2
 
 26o AiV OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 it, and very steadily the yacht travelled quietly 
 over the plain of twinkling waters, cradled by a 
 soft western heaving. She made no stir forwards 
 saving now and agahi a sound as of the pressure 
 of a light foot upon tinderish brushwood ; every 
 sail that would draw was packed on her, to her 
 triangular lower studdingsail, the reflection of 
 which waved in the tremulous blue hke a sheet 
 of quicksilver, fluctuating as it drained downwards. 
 
 Still it was dull work. I would often break 
 away from Scott to send a glance at the skylight 
 where I could just get a peep at the ruddy glow 
 of Miss Laura's hair, as she sat at the table with 
 her maid near her, and heartily wished she would 
 join me. Crimp's company was like pickles, a 
 very little of it went a long way. Had etiquette 
 permitted I should have been glad to go 
 amongst the men and yarn with them, for I could 
 not doubt there was a store of amusing ex- 
 periences lying behind some of the rugged hairy 
 countenances scattered about the decks. Indeed 
 no summons ever greeted my ear more cheerfully 
 than the first dinner bell ; for whether one has an 
 appetite or not, sitting down to a meal on board 
 ship is something to do. 
 
 Nothing that need make a part of this story 
 happened that night. ' Wilfrid was reserved, but 
 his behaviour and the little he said were collected
 
 A SECOND WARNING 261 
 
 enough to make one wonder at the lengths he 
 would occasionally go the other way. He 
 brought a large diary from his cabin, and sat 
 writing in it up to a short while before going to 
 bed. I cannot imagine what he had to put 
 down, unless, indeed, he were posting up the book 
 from some old date. It found him occupation, 
 however, and he was a good deal in labour too 
 throughout, I thought, often biting the feather of 
 his pen, casting his eyes up, plunging his fingers 
 into his hair and frowning upon the page, and 
 comporting himself, in a word, astliough he were 
 composing an epic poem. I played at beggar- 
 my-neighbour with Miss Jennings, showed her 
 some tricks at cards, and she told my fortune. 
 She said she could read my future by looking at 
 my hand, and I feel the clasp of her fingers still, 
 and smell the perfume of her hair and behold the 
 brightness of it, and see her poring upon my palm 
 talking low that Wilfrid should not be disturbed, 
 tracing the lines with a rosy finger-nail with an 
 occasional lift of her eyes to mine, the violet of 
 them dark as hazel and brilliant in the oil flames 
 — it might have happened an hour ago, so keen 
 is this particular memory. 
 
 It was as peaceful an ocean night as any man 
 could imagine of the weather up in the seas which 
 our yacht was still stemming ; moonless, for the
 
 262 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 planet rose late now, but spacious and radiant 
 with stars. There was the phantasm of a craft 
 when I went on deck about a mile on the bow of 
 us, in the spangled dusk looking like ice, so fine 
 and delicate was the white of her canvas ; but no 
 notice was taken of her. Finn trudged over to 
 the gloom to leeward when I rose up through the 
 hatch, possibly mistaking me for my cousin, and 
 manifestly anxious to shirk the job of having any- 
 thinf]^ to do with the stranGfer. I watched her 
 pass — a mere wraith of a ship she looked, sliding 
 her three stately spires that seemed to melt upon 
 the eye as you watched them under the red 
 tremble and green and diamond- like sparkling of 
 the luminaries which looked down upon her. 
 By the time she had faded out like a little puff of 
 steam in the dumb shadow astern, my pipe was 
 smoked out, and I went below and to bed, scarce 
 having exclianged three words with Finn, and 
 musing much on my fortune that Miss Laura had 
 read in my hand — that my ' hue of life ' was very 
 long, that in middle life I should meet with a 
 woman who would fascinate me, but that, 
 nevertheless, I should die as I had lived, a 
 bachelor. 
 
 Next morning Wilfrid did not appear at the 
 breakfast- table. Muffin informed me that his 
 master liad passed a very bad night, had not
 
 A SECOND WARNING 263 
 
 closed liis eyes, indeed, and for hour after hour 
 had paced the cabin, sometimes going on 
 deck. 
 
 ' Is he ill, do you think ? ' I inquired. 
 
 'Not exactly ill, sir,' he answered in his 
 sleekest manner, with the now familiar crook of 
 one knee and his arms hanging straight up and 
 down. 
 
 'What then?' I demanded, perceiving that 
 the fellow^ had more to say, though his very 
 humble and obsequious respectfulness would not 
 suffer him to express much at a time. 
 
 ' I fear, sir,' he exclaimed, looking down, ' that 
 yesterday's 'orrid tragedy has preyed upon his 
 nerves, which, as you are of course aweer, sir, is 
 uncommonly delicate.' 
 
 I thought this probable, and, as the man was 
 going to his master's cabin with a cup of tea from 
 the breakfast- table, I told him to give Sir Wilfrid 
 my love and to say that I should be glad to look 
 in and sit with him. He returned to tell me my 
 cousin thanked me, but that he would be leaving 
 his berth presently, and would then join me in a 
 pipe on deck. 
 
 There was a fresh breeze blowing, and the 
 yacht was plunging through it in a snowstorm, 
 rising buoyant to the bow surge witJi a broad 
 dazzle of racin^? water over the lee-rail, and a
 
 264 AN OCEAX TRAGEDY 
 
 smother of white roaring in a cataract from under 
 her counter. TJiere was wind in the misty shining 
 of the sun and in the spaces of dim blue between 
 the driving clouds. The ocean was gay with 
 tints, flying cloud-shadows of slate, broad tracts 
 of hurrying blue rich and gloriously fresh, with a 
 ceaseless flashing of the heads of the dissolving 
 billows, dashes of lustrous yellow to the touch of 
 the sun that, you would see, sweeping a rusty ball 
 of copper through a mass of smoke-like vapour 
 and then leaping out, moist and rayless, into some 
 speeding lagoon of clear heaven. The horizon 
 throbbed to the walls of the dimness that 
 circled the line all the way round, and my first 
 glance was for a ship ; but all was bare ocean. 
 From time to time the fellow on the topgallant- 
 yard ogled the slope over either bow in a way 
 that made me imagine some sort of hope of 
 the ' Shark ' heavini2[ into view had come to the 
 sailors out of this rushino^ morniucr. I waited for 
 Miss Jennings, thinking she would arrive on deck ; 
 but, after stumping to and fro for a half-hour 
 or thereabouts, and passing the skyhght, I saw 
 her and Wilfrid in close conversation standing 
 almost directly beneath, he gesticulating with 
 great energy, but speaking in a subdued voice, 
 and she watching him with a troubled face. 
 Passing the skylight again, a little later on, I
 
 A SECOND WARNING 265 
 
 caught sight of Wilfrid's figure marching up and 
 down with irregular, broken strides, whilst the 
 girl, leaning with her hand upon the back of a 
 chair, continued to gaze at him, with now and 
 again a little movement of the arm which sug- 
 orested that slie was endeavouring; to reassure or 
 to reason with him. 
 
 I got alongside of Finn and fell into a yarn 
 with him. One thing led to another, and Lady 
 Monson's name was mentioned. 
 
 ' Was she a pleasant lady ? ' said I. 
 
 'Ay, to look at, your honour. Up to the 
 hammer. A little too much of her, some folks 
 might think, but such eyes, sir ! such teeth ! and 
 talk oi figures ! ' and here he delivered a low pro- 
 longed whistle of admiration. 
 
 ' She was a tolerably amiable lady, I suppose ? ' 
 said I carelessly. 
 
 ' Well, sir, if you'll forgive me for saying of it, 
 that's just what she icasixt^' he replied. ' She was 
 one of them parties as can be very glad and very 
 sorry for themselves and for nobody else. She 
 steered Sir Wilfrid as I might this here " Bride." 
 She needed but to set her course and the craft 
 answered the shift of helm right away off. Ye 
 never saw her, sir ? ' 
 
 ' Never.' 
 
 ' Well, she hadn't somehow the appearance of
 
 266 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 what I tarm a marrj'ing woman. She looked to 
 be one of them splendid females as can't abide 
 husbands for the reason that, behig made up of 
 wanity, nothing satisfies 'em but the sort of ad- 
 miration that sweethearts feels. I took notice 
 once that, she being seated in a cheer, as it 
 might be there,' said he, indicating a part of 
 the deck with a nod of his long head, SSir 
 Wilfrid draws up alongside of her to see if she 
 were comfortable and if he could run on any 
 errand for her ; she scarcely gave him a look as 
 she answered short as though his merely 
 being near fretted her. But a minute arter 
 up steps a gent from the cabin, the Honourable 
 Mr. Lacy, and dawdles up to her, pulling at his 
 bit of a whisker and showing of his teeth over a 
 long puking of " Haw ! haws ! " and " Yaases : " 
 and then see the change in her ladyship ! Gor 
 bless my heart and soul, your honour, 'twarn't 
 the same woman. She hadn't smiles enough for 
 this here honourable. Her voice was like curds 
 and whey. She managed the colour in her 
 cheeks, too, somehow and bloomed out upon the 
 poor little dandy when a minute afore her face to 
 her husband was as blank as a custard. No, Mr. 
 Monson, sir, her ladyship wasn't a marrying 
 woman. She was one of them ladies meant by 
 natur to sit in a gilt cheer in the heart of a crowd
 
 A SECOND WARNING 207 
 
 of young men all a-bowing to and a-worsliipping 
 of her ; very different from her sister, sir. That" 
 little lady down below there I allow'll have the 
 true makings of an English wife and an English 
 mother in her, for all she's an Australian.' 
 
 ' I suppose, then, you were not very much 
 surprised wdien you heard of Lady Monson's 
 elopement ? ' 
 
 ' '^o more surprised, your honour, than a man 
 can be when a thing that he's been expecting has 
 happened. But she's not going to stick to the 
 colonel. If his honour don't overhaul the 
 "Shark" and separate 'em she'll be separating 
 herself long afore the time it 'ud occupy the 
 schooner to sail round the world. Lord love 'ee, 
 sir ; if I were to hear of her heeloping vrith some 
 African king, atop of an elephant, it wouldn't 
 surprise me. When a woman like her allows a 
 chap to cut her cable he must be a wiser man 
 than e'er a proj^het of them all that's writ about 
 who's going to tell you where the hull'll strand or 
 bring up/ 
 
 As he delivered himself of these words Sir 
 Wilfrid showed in the hatch handing Miss Jen- 
 nings up the ladder, and my companion started 
 away on a lonely quarterdeck walk. The girl 
 looked very grave and worried ; my cousin, 
 gaunt and haggard, with a fire in his weak, pro-
 
 268 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 trading eyes that was like the hght of fever or of 
 famine. He grasped my hand and held it whilst 
 he sent a look round. I spoke hghtly of the fine 
 breeze and the yacht's pace and the good runs we 
 should be making if this weather held, finding 
 something in his instant's assumption of a hearty 
 demeanour, a sort of strained liveliness far more 
 affecting than his melancholy, that was like a 
 request to me not to venture upon any sort of 
 personal inquiries. He called to Finn to know 
 the speed, then said, ' Charles, give Laura your 
 arm, will you? There's too much wind to sit. 
 She looks a little pale, but a few turns will give 
 roses to her cheeks. My head aches, and I must 
 keep below out of this air till I am better.' 
 
 Miss Jennings took my arm, for there w^ould 
 happen a frequent lee swing with a rise of the 
 bow and a long slanting rush to the whole weight 
 of the cloths till you could have spooned up the 
 white w^ater over the side with your hand that 
 rendered walking difficult and fatiguhig ; very 
 soon I ])laced chairs under the weather bulwarks, 
 snugging her with rugs and shawls, and in the 
 comparative calm of that shelter we were able to 
 converse. 
 
 ' Wilfrid looks very ill this morning,' said I. 
 
 ' He has had another warning,' she answered. 
 
 ' The deuce he has. When ? '
 
 A SECOND IVARXING 269 
 
 ' Last night.' 
 
 ' What sort of a warning is it this time ? ' 
 
 'Precisely the same as the first one,' she 
 repHed. 
 
 ' I am grieved but not surprised,' said I. 'I 
 very much fear he is going from bad to worse. I 
 still hold with the views I expressed last evening. 
 A time may, nay, a time must come, when you 
 yourself, ]\Iiss Jennings, ardent as is your sisterly 
 desire, will look to me for some resolution that 
 shall preserve us and himself ^00 from the schemes 
 of a growing distemper.' She was silent. 'Did 
 he tell you,' I continued, ' the nature of the 
 
 warning ? ' 
 
 ' Yes,' she answered. 
 
 ' In confidence ? If so, of course- 
 
 ' Xo,' she interrupted, ' he came from his cabin 
 after breakfast when you had gone on deck, and I 
 saw at once that something was very wrong with 
 him. I was determined to get at the truth and 
 questioned him persistently, and then he told me 
 all.' 
 
 ' All ! ' exclaimed I, opening my eyes, for the 
 word seemed to indicate some very large matter 
 lying behind his confession. 
 
 ' What he has seen,' she said, ' for two nights 
 running has been a mysterious writing upon his 
 cabin wall.'
 
 270 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ' Humph ! ' said I. 
 
 ' Do you remember, Mr. Monson, that he told 
 us of a dream in which he had seen a boat with a 
 sort of sign- board in it on which was inscribed the 
 word Monday in letters of flame ? Well, he sees 
 the same sort of fiery scrawl now in his cabin.' 
 
 ' What is the nature of the message ? ' 
 
 ' He says that the words are ' Eeturx to 
 Baby ! ' 
 
 ' He has dreamt this,' said I, ' or it is some 
 wretched trick of the sight or brains ; but I would 
 rather believe it a dream.' 
 
 ' It is an illusion of some khid no doubt,' she 
 exclaimed, ' but it is strange that it should occur, 
 be the cause w^hat it will, on two successive nights 
 and much about the same time. JSTo wonder the 
 poor fellow is depressed this morning. It is not 
 only that he fears this warning as signifying that 
 something is seriously wrong with baby, and that 
 it is a mysterious command to him to return to 
 her at once ; he dreads that it may occur again to- 
 night and to-morrow night, continuously indeed, 
 until it actually drives him mad by obliging him 
 to make up his mind either to neglect his child or 
 to abandon his pursuit of his wife.' 
 
 ' The long and short of it is. Miss Jennings,' 
 said I, ' that when it comes to one's being thrown 
 with a man whose mind is a misfit that's apt to
 
 A SECOND WARNING 271 
 
 shift like an ill-stowed cargo to any breeze of wind 
 that heels the craft over, one must " stand by," as 
 sailors say, for troublesome half-hours and be- 
 wilderingly unexpected confrontments.' 
 
 But there was no use in my tellhig her the 
 wish Avas strong in my mind that if it was to be 
 Wilfrid's unhappy destiny to grow worse, then the 
 sooner he acted in such a way as to force all hands 
 to see that it would be at his own as well as at 
 our peril to leave him at large and to suffer him 
 to preserve control over the movements of the 
 yacht, and by consequence the lives and fortunes 
 of those who sailed in her, the better ; for I protest 
 that even in the thick of my talk with the girl 1 
 never sent a glance at the white roll of spinning 
 waters twisting and roaring away alongside with- 
 out a sense of the absurdity of the whole business, 
 the aimlessness of the pursuit, the futility of it as 
 a project of revenge, its profound idleness as a 
 scheme of recovering Lady Monson, guessing, as 
 anyone could from my cousin's talk and from what 
 Laura Jennings had let fall, that if Wilfrid should 
 succeed in regaining his wife he wouldn't know 
 what in the w^orld to do with her !
 
 272 A.V OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 I IXTERPRET THE WARXIXG 
 
 The strong wind blew throughout the day and 
 the yacht made a gaUant run, floating buoyant in 
 foam from one blue knoll to another, with nothing 
 living outside our decks saving a grey gull that 
 overhung the seething line torn up by the furrow 
 of our keel. A bright lookout was kept aloft ; 
 rarely did I send a glance that way but that I saw 
 one or another of the men whose duty lay in 
 overhanging the topgallant-yard sweeping the 
 windy sallow sky against which the ridged horizon 
 was beating, with Wilfrid's polished, lance-bright 
 tube. 
 
 In the first dog-watch before we sat down to 
 dinner the breeze thinned and the ocean flattened 
 out into a softly-heaving surface flowing in folds 
 of tender blue to the dark orange of the west, 
 where lines of the hectic of the crimsoning orb 
 hung like mouldy stains of blood. All cloths 
 were crowded on our little ship, and when after 
 dinner I came on deck I found her sliding through
 
 / INTERPRET THE WARNING 273 
 
 the evening shadow, large and pale, like a body 
 of moon-tinctured mist that floats off some great 
 mountain- top and sails stately on the indigo-blue 
 air, melting as it goes, as our canvas seemed to 
 dissolve to the deepening of the dusk upon its full 
 bosoms. A sailor was playing a concertina forward 
 and a man -was singing to it. Here and there 
 upon the forecastle was a dim grouping of outlines 
 with a scarlet tipping of the darkness by above 
 half-a-score of well-sucked tobacco pipes, making 
 one thmk of a constellation of fire-flies or of a 
 cluster of riding lights. 
 
 I had asked Miss Jennings to join me on deck, 
 but she declined on the plea — which two or three 
 sneezes emphasised in the most reassuring way — 
 that she felt chilly and was afraid of catching 
 cold. Wilfrid produced his diary again, if a diary 
 it was, and sat writing. I tried to court him into 
 a walk and a smoke but he said no ; he had a 
 fancy for writing just then ; it was a humour 
 whose visits were somewhat rare, and therefore, 
 the mood being on him, he wished to encourage it 
 as he had a very great deal to commit to paper. 
 
 'Well,' said I, Til just go and smoke one 
 cigar, and then, with your permission. Miss 
 Jennings, I'll endeavour to win a sixpence from 
 you at beggar-my-neighbour again, and you shall 
 tell me my fortune once more.' 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 2/4 -4A' OCEAX TRAGEDY 
 
 I yawned as I stepped on deck. Dull enough 
 work, by George ! thoiiglu I. Only think of this 
 sort of thing lasting till we get to the Cape, with 
 Wilfrid's intention that even by that time, if we 
 don't fall in with the ' Shark,' little more than 
 a beginnino: shall have been made ! Let me 
 once see the inside of Table Bay and her ladyship 
 may go hang for any fnrther pursuit that / shall 
 be concerned in. The worst of it was that poor 
 Wilfrid's troubles, warnings, health and the like, 
 engrossed Miss Jennings. Nearly all our talk was 
 about my cousin. I had hoped that the sunshine 
 of her nature, that was bright in her laugh just as 
 you seemed to see it glowing in her hair, would 
 have somewhat cleared the gloom that Wilfrid 
 cast upon our social atmosphere ; but she seemed 
 to lie under a kind of spell ; it was keen womanly 
 sympathy no doubt, beautifid for its sincerity, 
 animated too by an honom^able sensitiveness — by 
 the feeling, I mean, that the runaway was her 
 sister, and that she to that degree at least shared 
 in tlie responsibility of the blow that had been 
 dealt the poor fellow's fond and generous heart. 
 All this was doubtless as it should be ; nevertheless 
 her qualities went to fashion a behaviour I could 
 not greatly relish simply because it came between 
 us. Her thoughts were so much with my cousin 
 and her sister's wrong-doing, that the side of her I
 
 / INTERPRET THE WARXEXG 275 
 
 was permitted to approach I found somewhat 
 blind. 
 
 All was now quiet on deck ; the concertina 
 liad ceased ; the watch below had gone to bed ; 
 those who were on duty stowed themselves 
 away in various parts, and sat, mere shapes 
 of shadow, blending with the deep gloom 
 betwixt the bulwarks, nodding but ready to leap 
 to the first call. There were many shooting stars 
 this night ; one of them scored the heavens with 
 a bright line that lins^ered a full ten minutes after 
 the meteor had vanished in a puff of spangles, and 
 it was so 2[htterini2[ as to find a clear reflection 
 in the smooth of the swell where it writhed, 
 broadened and contracted like a dim silver serpent 
 of prodigious length. There was some dew in 
 the air, and the sparkle of it upon the rail and 
 skyhght flashed crisply to the stars to the quiet 
 rise and fall of the yacht upon the black invisible 
 heave that yearned the whole length of her, with 
 an occasional purr of froth at the cutwater, and a 
 soft, rippling washing noise dying off astern into 
 the gloom. The phosphorus in the sea was so 
 plentiful that you might have thought yourself 
 inside the tropics. It glared like sheet lightning 
 under each ebony slope running westwards, and in 
 every small play of froth there was the winking of 
 it like the first scratching of lucifer matches. 
 
 T 2
 
 276 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 Under tlie counter where tie wake was the 
 streaming of this hght was hke a thin sheathing 
 of the Avater there with gold-beater's skin, rising 
 and faUing, and of a greenisli tint, of tlie hght 
 of the moon. The flash of the sea-glow 
 forward when the bow broke the swell would 
 throw out the round of the staysail and jib as 
 though the clear lens of a bull's-eye lamp had 
 glanced upon the canvas. This greenish, baffling 
 twinkling, this fading and flickering of flames 
 over the side thickened the obscurity to the sight 
 within the rails. Somehow, too, the mystic illu- 
 mination seemed to deepen the stillness that lay 
 upon the deep, sp'te of the welter and the breeze 
 that had weii^ht enouo^h to lift a streak of foam 
 here and there. It might be that the sight of those 
 flres made one think of the crackling and noise of 
 flame, so that the very dumbness of the burning 
 lay like a hush upon the darkling surface with 
 nothing aboard us to vex it, for our canvas swelled 
 silent as if carved in mother-of-pearl, and not so 
 much as the chafe of a rope or the stir of a sheave 
 in its block fell from above to trouble the ear. 
 
 I spied a figure standing a foot or two before 
 the main rigging, leaning over the side. Not 
 knowing whether Finn or Crimp had the watch, 
 and supposing this man to be one of them, I ap- 
 proached close and peered.
 
 / INTERPRET THE WARXIXG 277 
 
 'Is that you, captain?' said I, for the shadow 
 of the rigging was upon him to darken him 
 yet. 
 
 ' No sir, it's me, Mr. Monson. Muffin, sir.' 
 
 He had no need to mention his name, for his 
 greasy, most remarkable voice, along with its 
 indescribable tone of insincere habitual obse- 
 quiousness would have proclaimed him Muffin had 
 he spoken as one of a crowd out of the bottom of 
 a coal mine. 
 
 ' Feel sick ? ' said I. 
 
 'No, I am obliged to you, sir,' he ans^vered 
 with a simper in his tone. ' I am taking the 
 liberty of breathing the hair just a little, sir.' 
 
 ' I suppose youll not be sorry to get home 
 again. Muffin .^ ' 
 
 ' Indeed, sir,' he exclaimed, ' I shall be most 
 humbly thankful, I assure you.' 
 
 ' You're an Englishman, aren't you ? ' 
 
 ' Oh dear yes, quite English, sir. Born at 
 'ammersmith, sir.' 
 
 ' Then you ought to be very fond of the sea.' 
 
 ' I should be more partial to it, sir, I believe,' 
 said he, ' if it was a river. I ha^'e a natural aver- 
 sion to the hocean, sir. I can swim and I can 
 row. I've pulled on the Serpentine, sir, and four 
 years ago I made a voyage to the Continong as 
 far as Gaily, and found the water very hentertain-
 
 278 ^A' OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ino'. But there's so much hocean here, sir, that 
 it's alarming to think of. On a river, Mr. Monson, 
 sir, one can never seem distant, but here — why, 
 sir, if my mother's 'ouse was in one of them stars, 
 it couldn't seem farther off, and every day I sup- 
 pose '11 make the distance greater.' 
 
 ' That 3^ou must expect,' said I, turning with 
 a notion of seeking Finn or Crimp. 
 
 ' I beg your pardon, sir,' he said, ' but could 
 you tell me Avhat them fires are that's burning in 
 the water ? ' 
 
 ' Phosphorus,' said I. 
 
 ' Phosphorus ? ' he ejaculated as though 
 startled, ' hoh, indeed sir ! And might I wenture 
 to ask why it is that the water don't put it out ? ' 
 
 ' There are more kinds of fire than one,' said 
 I, laughing, and not much relishing the prostrative 
 nature of the fellow's respectfulness I walked aft. 
 
 Close to a boat that hung inboards by the 
 davits, only a few strides from where Muffin was 
 standing, I spied another figure standing with his 
 back against the rail. It proved to be Mr. Jacob 
 Crimp. 
 
 ' Plenty of fire in the water to-night,' said I. 
 
 ' Is there ? ' he ansAvered, slowly rounding his 
 sturdy little figure to look. * I ain't took 
 notice.' 
 
 ' Have you followed the sea many years, Mr.
 
 } IXTERPRET THE IVARXEXG 279 
 
 Crimp ? ' said I, feeling tlie need of a chat, and 
 willing moreover to humour the quizzical mood 
 that commonly came to me ^sdlen I conversed with 
 this sour little chap. 
 
 ' Thirty year.' 
 
 ' A long spell ! ' 
 
 ' Sight too long.' 
 
 ' I suppose you'll be setthng down ashore 
 soon ? ' 
 
 'Ay, if I ain't drownded. Then settling 
 ashore with me '11 sinoify a hole in the airth.' 
 
 ' Come, come,' said I, ' after thirty years of 
 hard labour there '11 be surely dollars enough for 
 a clean shirt and a roof. But you may be married, 
 thougli ? ' 
 
 ' Xo I ain't,' he answered with a snap like 
 cocking a gun. 
 
 ' \yell, a sailor is a fool to get married,' said I. 
 'Why should a man burthen himself with a wife 
 whose society lie cannot enjoy, with whom he 
 accepts all the obligations of a home without the 
 privilege of occupying it, save for a few weeks at 
 a time? ' 
 
 ' Well, I ain't married, so I don't care. It's 
 nothen to me what other men do. Talk o' settling ! 
 If you come to my berth I'll show you the fruits 
 of thirty year of sea sarvice ; an old chest, a soot or 
 two of clothes, and 'bout as much ready cash as 'ud
 
 28o AX OCEAX TRAGFA)Y 
 
 parchase a close of ratsbane.' Here emotion choked 
 him and he remained silent. 
 
 At this moment a low, mocking, most extraor- 
 dinary laugh came out of the blackness upon the 
 sea in the direction I happened to be gazing in. 
 The sound was a distinct lia I ha I ha ! and before 
 the derisive, hollow, mirthless note had fairly 
 died off the ear, a brisk angry voice within ap- 
 parently a pistol shot of us exclaimed, ' That yacht 
 is cursed ! ' A laugh like the first followed and 
 then all was still. 
 
 Crimp started, and I was grateful to heaven he 
 did so, since it was an assurance the noise had been 
 no imagination of my own. I will not deny that 
 I felt exceedingly frightened. My legs trembled 
 like an up- and-down lead line in a strong tideway. 
 It was not only the suddenness, the unexpectedness 
 of such a thing ; it was the combination of deep 
 gloom upon the waters, the play of the phosphoric 
 fires there, the oppressive mystery of the sombre 
 vastness stretching from over our rail as it seemed 
 to the immeasurably remote dim lights of heaven 
 lying low upon the edge of the ocean, and Ian- 
 o-uishincy in the darkness there. 
 
 ' Did you hear it ? ' I cried in a subdued voice 
 to Crimp. 
 
 'Ay,' responded the man in a startled voice. 
 ^ I don't see anything. Do you ? '
 
 / INTERPRET THE V/ARXIXG 281 
 
 I peered my hardest. ' XothiDg/ 1 exclaimed. 
 '- Hush, the cry may be repeated.' 
 
 We strained our eyes and ears too, but all was 
 silent ; nor was there any livelier sparkle in the 
 liquid dusk to indicate the dip of an oar. or the 
 stirring of the fiery water by a boat's stem. 
 
 ' Did the fellow at the wheel hear it, think 
 you ? ' said I. 
 
 We both stepped aft, the mate looking to right 
 and left, and even up at the stars overhead as 
 though he feared something would tumble down 
 upon us out of the dark air. He approached the 
 man who was at the helm and said, ' Thomas, did 
 you hear anybody a-laughing like just now out on 
 the quarter there ? ' 
 
 'Xo,' answered the man. 
 
 ' Are ye a bit deaf? ' 
 
 'Xe'erabit.' 
 
 ' And you mean to say you heard notlten ? ' 
 
 ' Xothen.' 
 
 Grumbling with astonishment and perplexity, 
 Crimp turned to me. ' If it wur fancy,' he mut- 
 tered, ' call me a dawg's flea.' 
 
 I believed I could see Muffin's figure still 
 leaning over the rail. Had he heard the voice? 
 As I passed the skylight I looked down and per- 
 ceived him standing with drooped head and folded 
 arms before Wilfrid in the cabin. My cousin
 
 282 AX OCEAX TRAGEDY 
 
 appeared to be giving him some instructioDs. 
 Advancing yet a little I discovered that what I 
 had taken to be the valet's figure was merely a 
 coil of rope on a pin, the outline of which was 
 blackened up and enlarged to the proportions and 
 even the posture of a human shape by the illusive 
 character of the obscurity made by the shrouds 
 just there. I threw my half-finished cigar over- 
 board. 
 
 ' Enouoh to make a man feel as if he'd like 
 to be turned in,' said Crimp. ' It's gone blooming 
 cold, han't it ? ' 
 
 ' It's the most puzzling thing that ever hap- 
 pened to me,' said 1 ; ' but of course if we were in 
 the secret we should find nothing wonderful in it. 
 In the West Indian waters, you know, there is a 
 fish to be caught that talks well enough to put a 
 ship about. Who's to tell in a midnight black- 
 ness of this sort what amazing marine thing may 
 not rise to the surface and utter sounds which an 
 alarmed ear would easily interpret into something 
 confoundedly unpleasant ? ' 
 
 ' What did it say ? ' inquired Crimp. 
 
 ' Why, after the laugh, " that yaclifs cursed^'' 
 then another laugh. So it seemed to me,' said I, 
 with my eyes going blind against the blackness 
 whence the noise had proceeded. 
 
 ' That's just what I heard,' said Crimp gruffly, 

 
 2 IXTERPRET THE WARXIXG 2S3 
 
 ' exactly them words. Two ears ain't a going to 
 n^et tlie same meanim? out of what's s^ot no sense 
 in it to start with.' 
 
 ' Pooh,' I exchaimed, mentally protesting 
 as^ainst an argument that was much too forcible 
 to be soothing, ' what could it have been, man, if 
 it were not, say, some great bird, mayhap, flapping 
 past us unseen, and uttering notes which, since 
 they sounded the same to you and me, would have 
 sounded the same to the wdiole ship's company 
 had they been on deck listening ? ' 
 
 ' Beats all my going a-fishiug anyhow,' growled 
 Crimp, going to the rail and looking over. 
 
 ' Well, take my advice and don't speak of it,' 
 said I ; ' you'll only get laughed at, especially as 
 the fellow at the wheel heard nothing.' 
 
 ' His starboard ear's caulked ; he's hard o' 
 hearing,' rumbled Crimp. 
 
 I walked to the taffrail and looked astern. 
 There was nothing to be seen but faint phantasmal 
 sheets of phosphoric light softly undulating, wdth 
 the brighter glow of our wake. I was really more 
 agitated than I should have liked to own, and I 
 must have stood for nearly a quarter of an hour 
 speculating upon the incident and striving to 
 reassure myself. One thought led to another and 
 presently I found myself starting to a sudden odd 
 suspicion that came into my head with the vivid
 
 284 -4.V OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 gleam of a broad space of the sea-glow that 
 flashed out bright as though it reflected a lantern 
 hung over the side from the run of the yacht 
 where the bends hollowed in from the sternpost. 
 It was a suspicion that had no reference wdiatever 
 to the voice tliat Crimp andl had heard, yet it did 
 me good by drawing my mind away from that bit 
 of preternaturalism, and a few minutes later I 
 found myself below alongside of Miss Jennings. 
 
 ' The cigar you lighted to-night must have 
 been an unusually big one,' said she with a hght 
 glance, in which, however, it was easy to see that 
 she noted my expression was something different 
 from what was usual in me. 
 
 I smiled, and measuring on my finger, told 
 her that I had smoked but that much of the 
 cigar and thrown the rest of it overboard. 
 Wilfrid sat at the table with a tumbler of seltzer 
 and brandy before him, and he was filling his 
 large meerschaum pipe a3 I arrived. 
 
 ' Help yourself, Charles,' said he, pointing to 
 the swing tray that was full of decanters. ' I 
 was about to join you on deck. How goes the 
 night.?' 
 
 ' Dark, but fine ; the wind just a small 
 pleasant air. I am tired, or I should accom- 
 pany you.' 
 
 ' We are sailing though, I hope,' said he.
 
 1 INTERPRET THE WARXIXG 285 
 
 ' Ay, some four knots or thereabouts, and 
 heading our course. We have no right to 
 grumble. It has blown a fine gale all day, and 
 from the hour of our start down to the present 
 moment I think we have had fairer weather and 
 brisker breezes than we had a right to hope for.' 
 
 He emptied his tumbler, lighted his pipe, and 
 said that he would go and take a turn or two. 
 ' If I should loiter,' he added, ' don't sit up. If I 
 am not to sleep when I turn in, the night will be 
 aU too lono^ for me were I to g-o to bed at four 
 o'clock in the morning,' 
 
 As he mounted the cabin steps I rose to mix 
 a glass of seltzer and brandy, and when I returned 
 to my seat near Miss Jennings, she at once said, 
 ' I hope nothing has happened to wony you, Mr. 
 Monson ? ' 
 
 ' Why do you ask .^' 
 
 ' You had a slightly troubled look when you 
 came into the cabin just now.' 
 
 ' What will you think,' said I, ' if I tell you 
 that / have had a warnino- ? ' 
 
 Her eves orlittered to the roundincr of the 
 brows, and her lips parted as though with a sigh 
 of surprise. I shook my head, looking with a 
 smile at her. ' I see how^ it is. If I am candid, 
 you will think there are two instead of one ! ' 
 
 ' Xo, no,' she cried.
 
 2S6 A.V OCEAX TRAGEDY 
 
 I was ill tlie midst of telling her about the 
 voice Crimp and I had heard Avhen Muffin passed 
 through the cabin, seemingly from his own berth 
 on his way to his master's. He held a little 
 parcel of some kind. On arriving at the opening 
 of the short alley or corridor that divided the 
 after berths, he stopped, looked round, and said 
 in his humblest manner, ' I beg your pardon, 
 sir, but is the bayronet in his cabin, d'ye know, 
 sir ? ' 
 
 ' He's on deck,' I answered. 
 
 ' Thank you, sir,' he exclaimed, and vanished. 
 
 I proceeded with my story and finished it. 
 
 ' It must have been some trick of the hearing, 
 Mr. Monson,' exclaimed the girl ; ' some sea-fowl 
 winging slowly past, as you suggest, or — it is im- 
 possible to say. I can speak from experience. 
 Often I have been alone and have heard my 
 name called so distinctly that I have started and 
 looked round, though there might have been 
 nobody within a mile of me. The senses are 
 conjurors; they are perpetually playing one tricks, 
 and, which is very mortifying, with tlie simplest 
 appliances.' 
 
 ' True enough that, Miss Jennings. The creak 
 of a door will be a murdered man's groan some- 
 times. I remember once being • at a country 
 house and holding a pistol in my hand ready to
 
 / INTERPRET THE WARXIXG 287 
 
 cover the fio;iire of a man that was watchiDo- the 
 old-fashioned building with burglarious intentness ; 
 which same man, after I had stood staring at him 
 for a long twenty minutes, was resolved by the 
 crawl of the moonshine into his orjoinal fabric 
 and proportions of a neatly- clipped bush. Xo ; I 
 shall not suffer that mysterious voice to sink very 
 deep. It was passing strange and that's all. I 
 hope sour old Crimp has some sense of the ridicu- 
 lous and will keep his mouth shut. Heaven 
 deliver us if he should take it upon himself to tell 
 Wilfrid a mysterious sea-voice sung out just now 
 that this yacht was cursed ! ' 
 
 I rose with a glance at the skylight. ' Excuse 
 me for a few minutes. I am soino- to Wilfrid's 
 cabin to confirm a suspicion that has entered my 
 head. Should my cousin arrive whilst I am 
 absent, endeavour to detain him here until I 
 return. I shall know how to excuse myself for 
 entering his bedroom.' 
 
 She looked at me wonderingly, but asked no 
 questions. I walked swiftly but softly to the cor- 
 ridor aft. Wilfrid's cabin was on the port side. 
 It was the aftermost berth, two cabins there 
 having been knocked into one. I turned the 
 handle of the door and entered. The flame of a 
 silver-bright bracket lamp filled the place w^th 
 light. It was a very handsome sea apartment,
 
 288 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 witli no lack of mirrors, liangings, small costly 
 furniture, all designed for the comfort and happi- 
 ness of her ladyship. I nimbly closed the door 
 behind me and stood for an instant beholding the 
 precise spectacle I had entered fully expecting to 
 witness. It was Muffin, who stood close against 
 tlie bulkhead at the foot of the bunk my cousin 
 occupied, grasping in his left hand a small white 
 jar such as might be used for jam, whilst in the 
 other hand he flourished a brush, with which he 
 was apparently painting or scoring marks upon 
 the bulkhead as I entered. The occasional kick 
 of the rudder, with frequent creaking, straining 
 noises arising from the movement of the yacht, 
 hindered him from hearing me turn the handle of 
 the door and from being conscious of my presence, 
 w^hilst I stood looking on. He had made some 
 progress with his mysterious lettering ; for. having 
 dipped the brush into the jar, he fell to wTiting a 
 big B after several preliminary flourishes of his 
 arm as though he had a mind to give an artistic 
 curve to the letter ; he was then beginning to 
 paint a small A, though the brush left no mark, 
 when I exclaimed, ' How many b's are there in 
 baby?' 
 
 He looked round slowly, keeping his right 
 liand nevertlieless lifted, and preserving his posture 
 in all save the turn of his head as thoudi he liad
 
 / INTERPRET THE WARNING 289 
 
 been blasted into motionlessness by a flash of 
 lightning. I walked up to him : 
 
 ' So,' said I, ' you are the warning, eh ? You 
 are the mysterious fiery message which has dis- 
 tracted my cousin for the last two days and nights, 
 and which, if continued, must end in driving him 
 mad ? You scoundrel ! ' 
 
 He faced round, his right hand slowly sinking 
 to his side hke a pump-handle gradually settling. 
 For a moment there was a look of malevolent 
 defiance in his face, but it yielded to one of con- 
 sternation, terror, eager entreaty. 
 
 ' Mr. Monson, sir,' he exclaimed in a voice 
 that was the very double-distilled extract of oily 
 accent, ' I am discovered, sir. I meant the 
 honourable bayronet no 'arm. My 'umble wish 
 is to get 'ome.' 
 
 ' What is that stuff you have there ? ' 
 
 ' A remedy for wermin, sir, which they told 
 me was numerous on board ship.' 
 
 ' Open that porthole ! ' 
 
 He did so after giving me a look as if he sus- 
 pected I meant to squeeze him overboard through 
 the aperture. 
 
 ' Out now with that pot and brush.' 
 
 He tossed them into the sea. I turned clown 
 the lamp till only the feeblest glimmer of flame 
 remained, and then sure enough there stole out 
 
 VOL. I. u
 
 290 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 upon the bulkhead in a feeble, green, glittering 
 crawling that seemed to wink upon the sight with 
 its coming and going the words ' Return to 
 Ba—: 
 
 ' Eub that off at once,' said I, ' and be quick 
 about it too. If Sir Wilfrid arrives I shall have 
 to explain ; and he's a man to shoot you for such 
 an act as this.' 
 
 He pulled a pocket handkerchief out of his 
 coat-tail and fell to rubbing the bulkhead with a 
 terrified hand, backing to see if the letters were 
 gone, then applying himself afresh, breathing 
 hard meanwhile and manifesting much fear, for 
 no doubt he believed that my hint that Wilfrid 
 would shoot him was very well founded, seeing 
 that he had a half crazy man to deal with in 
 his master. He rubbed till nothing was left of 
 the letters. I turned up the lamp and ordered 
 him out of the cabin. He was about to address 
 me. 
 
 ' Not a word,' I cried, subduing my voice, for 
 though my temper was such that I could scarce 
 keep my hands off him, yet I was exceedingly 
 anxious too that Wilfrid should not overhear me 
 nor come to his berth and find me in it with his 
 valet. ' Get away forward now to your own 
 cabin.' 
 
 ' For God's sake, Mr. Monson, don't tell Sir
 
 / INTERPRET THE WARNING 29 
 
 Wilfrid, sir,' he exclaimed, in a hoarse, broken 
 tone. 
 
 ' Away with you ! I promise nothing. This 
 is a matter to think over. I shall require to talk 
 with you in the morning.' 
 
 I held open the cabin door and he passed out 
 in a sideways fashion as if he feared I should hit 
 him, and then travelled swiftly forwards with 
 such a twinkling of the white socks bulging over 
 his pumps as made me believe he ran. My 
 cousin was still on deck. Miss Jennings gazed 
 at me earnestly ; I looked to see if the coast was 
 clear, and exclaimed : ' It proved as I had sup- 
 posed. I have interpreted the warning Wilfrid 
 has received.' 
 
 She gazed at me in silence. 
 
 ' The mysterious handwriting is Muffin's,' I 
 continued. ' The flaming admonition is wrought 
 by a brush dipped in a phosphoric composition 
 for — for — beetles ! ' 
 
 * You mean to say, Mr. Monson ' She 
 
 paused to a long breath whilst her eyes shone 
 with astonishment. 
 
 ' The long and short of it is. Miss Jennings,' 
 said I, ' that our friend Muffin hates the sea ; he 
 has been cursing the voyage from the bottom of 
 his soul pretty nearly ever since we started, and 
 has hit upon this device to appeal to Wilfrid's
 
 292 AN OCEAA TRAGEDY 
 
 instincts as a father and to bis poor, weak, credulous 
 nerves as — as — well as a man not wholly sound, 
 in the hope, not ill-founded, that provided the 
 warning be repeated often enough, my cousin 
 would return to baby.' 
 
 ' The horrid wretch ! You actually found 
 him ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, he had got as far as Return to Ba — .' 
 
 'Shall you teU Wilfrid .?' 
 
 ' No,' I answered, ' not a word must be said 
 to him on the subject. I told Muffin — and I 
 believe in my own notion too — that if my cousin 
 were to hear that the sufferings occasioned him by 
 the mysterious writing on his cabin wall were due 
 to a trick of his valet, he would pistol the scoun- 
 drel. No, we must keep our counsel. I shall 
 confer with Finn in the morning and contrive that 
 our melancholy humourist be wholly and effec- 
 tually sundered henceforth from all intercourse 
 with this end of the yacht.' 
 
 Well, she was thunderstruck, and could hardly 
 be brought to credit that a servant should play 
 his master so cruel a trick. I told her that in my 
 opinion Muffin would do well as keeper of a private 
 lunatic asylum, since so artful a wretch might be 
 warranted to drive anyone whose nerves were not 
 * laid up ' with galvanised iron strands into a con- 
 dition of sullen imbecility or clamorous lunacy
 
 / INTERPRET THE WARNING 293 
 
 within any time specified by the friends and rela- 
 tives of the sufierer. When, however, the pretty 
 creature's surprise had somewhat abated, she 
 expressed herself as wonderfully grateful that the 
 discovery had been so early made. ' Had the 
 writing been continued,' she said, ' I am sure it 
 would have ended in completely crazing poor 
 Wilfi'id. And I am glad too for another reason, 
 Mr. Monson^it proves at all events that there 
 was nothing insane in your cousin's fancy of a 
 warning. After all, the healthiest-minded person 
 would be startled and dismayed, and afterwards, 
 perhaps, dangerously afiected, by finding a refe- 
 rence to his baby shining out upon him in the 
 dark, night after night ' 
 
 ' I believe I should have got up and rubbed the 
 reference out,' said I, ' had it ghmmered upon me.' 
 
 ' But you are not Wilfrid. Wliat made you 
 suspect Muffin ? ' 
 
 ' I suspected not Muffin, but a trick, and then 
 that Muffin must be the man. It came to me 
 with the sight of a bright sheet of phosphoric fire 
 flaming off" the yacht's quarter as I overhung the 
 rail, staring into the gloom and puzzhng over the 
 cry Crimp and I had heard. One can't give a 
 reason for the visitations of fancy. Instinct I take 
 to be the soul's forefinger with which it points out 
 things to the reason.'
 
 294 ^^ OCEAN TRAGEDY 
 
 ' I hope it will point to the true cause of the 
 mysterious voice you heard,' she exclaimed, smil- 
 ing, but with something of uneasiness in her face 
 nevertheless. 
 
 We continued chatting a little ; she then went 
 to her cabin. Soon after she had withdrawn, 
 Wilfrid arrived. He yawned, and without seat- 
 ing himself spoke of the weather, the yacht's pro- 
 gress, and other common-place matters. For my 
 part I had too much on my mind just then to feel 
 in the humour to detain him, so after a few 
 sentences as carelessly spoken as I could manage, 
 I advised him after his sleepless nights to try once 
 more for a spell of rest, and so saying went away 
 to my own berth. 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 PBIXTED BT 
 
 8POTTI6WOODB AND CO., KEW-eTRUT SQUiJM 
 
 LONDON
 
 
 'yr-''';ii'j:\:M 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILUNOiS-URBANA 
 
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