My Danish Sweetheart: A Novel. Volume 2 of 3 by William Clark Russell

  CHAPTER V.

  THE END OF THE 'EARLY MORN.'

  The first business of the men was to get the broken mast out of thewater. Helga helped, and worked with as much dexterity as though she hadbeen bred to the calling of the Deal waterman. The mast in breaking hadbeen shortened by ten feet, and was therefore hardly as useful a spar tostep as the bowsprit. It was laid along the thwarts in the side, and wewent to work to strengthen the mast that had been sprung in the Channelby laying pieces of wood over the fractured part, and securely bindingthem by turn upon turn of rope. This, at sea, they call 'fishing aspar.' Jacob shook his head as he looked at the mast when we had made anend of the repairs, but said nothing. When the mast was stepped, wehoisted the sail with a reef in it to ease the strain. Abraham went tothe tiller, the boat's head was put to a south-west course, and onceagain the little fabric was pushing through it, rolling in a long-drawnway upon a sudden swell that had risen while we worked, with a frequentlittle vicious shake of white waters off her bow, as though the combingof the small seas irritated her.

  The wind was about east, of a November coldness, and it blew somewhatlightly till a little before ten o'clock in the morning, when it camealong freshening in a gust which heeled the boat sharply, and brought awild, anxious look into Abraham's eyes as he gazed at the mast. Thehorizon slightly thickened to some film of mist which overlay thewindward junction of heaven and water, and the sky then took a windyface, with dim breaks of blue betwixt long streaks of hard vapour, underwhich there nimbly sailed, here and there, a wreath of light-yellowscud. The sea rapidly became sloppy--an uncomfortable tumble of billowsoccasioned by the lateral run of the swell--and the boat's gait grew sostaggering, such a sense of internal dislocation was induced by herbrisk, jerky wobbling--now to windward, now to leeward, now by thestern, now by the head, then all the motions happening together, as itwere, followed by a sickly, leaning slide down some slope of roundedwater--that for the first time in my life I felt positively seasick, andwas not a little thankful for the relief I obtained from a nip of poorCaptain Nielsen's brandy out of one of the few jars which had been takenfrom the raft, and which still remained full.

  Some while before noon it was blowing a fresh breeze, with a somewhatsteadier sea; but the rolling and plunging of the lugger continued sharpand exceedingly uncomfortable. To still further help the mast--Abrahamhaving gone into the forepeak to get a little sleep--Helga and I, at therequest of Jacob, who was steering, tied a second reef in the sail:though, had the spar been sound, the lugger would have easily borne thewhole of her canvas.

  'If that mast goes, what is to be done?' said I to Jacob.

  'Whoy,' he answered, 'we shall have to make shift with the remains ofthe mast that went overboard last night.'

  'But what sail will you be able to hoist on that shortened height?'

  'Enough to keep us slowly blowing along,' he answered, 'till we falls inwith a wessel as will help us to the sort o' spar as 'll sarve.'

  'Considering the barrenness of the sea we have been sailing through,'said I, 'the look-out seems a poor one, if we're to depend upon passingassistance.'

  'Mr. Tregarthen,' said he, fixing his eyes upon my face, 'I'm an olderman nor you, and therefore I takes the liberty of telling ye this: thatneither ashore nor at sea do things fall out in the fashion as ishanticipated. That's what the Hi-talian organ-grinder discovered. Heconceived that if he could get hold of a big monkey he'd do a goodtrade; so he buys the biggest he could meet with--a chap pretty nigh asbig as himself. What happened? When them parties was met with a weekarterwards, it was the monkey that was a-turning the handle, while thehorgan-grinder was doing the dancing.'

  'The public wouldn't know the difference,' said Helga.

  'True for you, lady,' answered Jacob, with an approving nod and a smileof admiration. 'But Mr. Tregarthen here'll find out that I'm speakingthe Lard's truth when I says that human hanticipation always works outcontrariwise.'

  'I heartily hope it may do so in our case!' I exclaimed, vexed by theirrationality, as it seemed to me, of this homely boatman's philosophicviews.

  'About toime for Abraham to take soights, ain't it?' said he.

  I went to the hatch and called to Abraham, who in a few minutes arrived,and, with sleepy eyes, fell to groping after the sun with his oldquadrant. While he was thus occupied, Helga touched me lightly on theshoulder and pointed astern. I peered an instant, and then said:

  'I see it! A sail!--at the wrong end of the sea again, of course!Another _Thermopylae_, maybe, to thunder past us with no furtherrecognition of our wants than a wagging head over the rail, with afinger at its nose.'

  'It's height bells!' cried Abraham; and he sat down to his roughcalculations.

  Jacob looked soberly over his shoulder at the distant tiny space ofwhite canvas.

  'If there's business to be done with her,' said he, 'we must steer tokeep her head right at our starn. What course'll she be taking?'

  'She appears to be coming directly at us,' answered Helga.

  'Why not lower your sail, heave the lugger to, and fly a distresssignal?' said I.

  I had scarcely uttered the words when the boat violently jumped a sea; acrash followed, and the next instant the sail, with half of the fishedmast, was overboard, with the lugger rapidly swinging, head to sea, tothe drag of the wreckage.

  I was not a little startled by the sudden cracking of the mast, that waslike the report of a gun, and the splash of the sail overboard, and therapid slewing of the boat.

  Helga quietly said in my ear, 'Nothing better could have happened. Weare now indeed a wreck for that ship astern to sight, and she is sure tospeak to us.'

  Abraham flung down his log-book with a sudden roaring out of I know notwhat 'longshore profanities, and Jacob, letting go the helm, wentscrambling forwards over the thwarts, heaping sea-blessings, as hesprawled, upon the eyes and limbs of the boat-builder who had suppliedthe lugger with spars. The three of us went to work, and Helga helped usas best she could, to get the sail in; but the sea that was now runningwas large compared to what it had been during the night, and the taskwas extraordinarily laborious and distressful. Indeed, how long it tookus to drag that great lugsail full of water over the rail was to be toldby the ship astern, for when I had leisure to look for her I found herrisen to her hull, and coming along, as it seemed to me, dead for us,heeling sharply away from the fresh wind, but rolling heavily too on theswell, and pitching with the regularity of a swing in motion.

  Helga and I threw ourselves upon a thwart, to take breath. The boatmenstood looking at the approaching vessel.

  'She'll not miss seeing us, any way,' said Abraham.

  'I'm for letting the lugger loie as she is,' exclaimed Jacob: 'they'llsee the mess we're in, and back their taws'l.'

  'You will signal to her, I hope?' said I.

  'Ay,' answered Abraham; 'we'll gi' 'em a flourish of the Jack presently,though there'll be little need, for if our condition ain't going to stop'em there's nothen in a colour to do it.'

  'Abraham,' said I, 'you and Jacob will not, I am sure, think usungrateful if I say that I have made up my mind--and I am sure MissNielsen will agree--that I have made up my mind, Abraham, to leave yourlugger for that ship, outward-bound as I can see she is, if she willreceive us.'

  'Well, sir,' answered Abraham mildly, 'you and the lady are your ownmasters, and, of course, you'll do as you please.'

  'It is no longer right,' I continued, 'that we should go on in thisfashion, eating you out of your little floating house and home; nor isit reasonable that we should keep you deprived of the comfort of yourforepeak. We owe you our lives, and, God knows, we are grateful! But ourgratitude must not take the form of compelling you to go on maintainingus.'

  Abraham took a slow look at the ship.

  'Well, sir,' said he, 'down to this hour the odds have been so heavyagin your exchanging this craft for a homeward-bounder that I reallyhaven't the heart to recommend ye to wait a little longer. It's but anoncomfortable life for the likes o
f you and the lady--she having to loiein a little bit of a coal-black room, forrads, as may be all very goodfor us men, but werry bad and hard for her; and you having to tarn inunder that there opening, into which there's no vartue in sailcloth tokeep the draughts from blowing. I dorn't doubt ye'll be happier aboard acraft where you'll have room to stretch your legs in, a proper table tosit down to for your meals, and a cabin where you'll loie snug. 'Sides,tain't, after all, as if she wasn't agoing to give ye the same chancesof getting home as the _Airly Marn_ dew. Only hope she'll receive ye.'

  'Bound to it,' rumbled Jacob, 'if so be as her cap'n's a _man_.'

  I turned to Helga.

  'Do I decide wisely?'

  'Yes, Hugh,' she answered. 'I hate to think of you lying in that coldspace there throughout the nights. The two poor fellows,' she addedsoftly, 'are generous, kind, large-hearted men, and I shrink from thethought of the mad adventure they have engaged in. But,' said she, witha little smile and a faint touch of colour in her cheeks, as though shespoke reluctantly, 'the _Early Morn_ is very uncomfortable.'

  'All we have now to pray for is that the captain of that vessel willtake us on board,' said I, fixing my eyes on the ship, that was yet toodistant for the naked sight to make anything of. 'I suppose, Abraham,' Ispoke out, turning to the man, 'that you will request them to give you aboom for a spare mast?'

  'Vy, ask yourself the question, sir,' he answered.

  'But suppose they have no spare booms, and are unable to accommodateyou?'

  'Then,' said he, 'we must up with that there stick,' pointing with hissquare thumb to the mast that had carried away on the previous night,'and blow along till we meets with something that _will_ accommodateus.'

  'But, honestly, men--are you in earnest in your resolution to pursuethis voyage to Australia? You two--the crew now half the workingstrength you started with--a big boat of eighteen tons to handle,and----' I was on the point of referring to the slenderness of his skillas a navigator, but, happily, snapped my lips in time to silence thewords.

  Abraham eyed me a moment, then gave me a huge, emphatic nod, and,without remark, turned his back upon me in 'longshore fashion, andleisurely looked around the ocean line.

  'Men,' said I, 'that ship may take us aboard, and in the bustle I maymiss the chance of saying what is in my mind. My name is HughTregarthen, as you know, and I live at Tintrenale, which you havelikewise heard me say. I came away from home in a hurry to get alongsidethe ship that this brave girl's father commanded; and as I was then, soam I now, without a single article of value upon me worthy of youracceptance; for, as to my watch, it was my father's, and I must keep it.But if it should please God, men, to bring us all safely to Englandagain, then, no matter when you two may return, whether in twelve monthshence or twelve years hence, you will find set apart for you, at thelittle bank in Tintrenale, a sum of fifty pounds--which you will takeas signifying twenty-five pounds from Miss Helga Nielsen, andtwenty-five pounds from me.'

  'We thank you koindly, sir,' said Jacob.

  'Let us get home, first,' said Abraham; 'yet, I thank ye koindly tew,Mr. Tregarthen,' he added, rounding upon me again and extending hisrough hand.

  I grasped and held it with eyes suffused by the emotion of gratitudewhich possessed me: then Jacob shook hands with me, and then the poorfellows shook hands with Helga, whose breath I could hear battling witha sob in her throat as she thanked them for her life and for theirgoodness to her.

  But every minute was bringing the ship closer, and now I could think ofnothing else. Would she back her topsail and come to a stand? Would sheat any moment shift her helm and give us a wide berth? Would she, if shecame to a halt, receive Helga and me? These were considerations toexcite a passion of anxiety in me. Helga's eyes, with a clear blue gleamin them, were fixed upon the oncoming vessel; but the agitation, thehurry of emotions in her little heart, showed in the trembling of hernostrils and the contraction of her white brow, where a few threads ofher pale-gold hair were blowing.

  Jacob pulled the Jack out of the locker, and attached it to the longstaff or pole, and fell to waving it as before, when the Hamburger hoveinto view. The ship came along slowly, but without deviating by a hair'sbreadth from her course, that was on a straight line with the lugger.She was still dim in the blue, windy air, but determinable to a certainextent, and now with the naked vision I could distinguish her as abarque or ship of about the size of the _Anine_, her hull black and arow of painted ports running along either side. She sat somewhat highupon the water, as though she were half empty or her cargo very lightgoods; but she was neat aloft--different, indeed, from the Hamburger.Her royals were stowed in streaks of snow upon their yards, but the restof her canvas was spread, and it showed in soft, fair bosoms of white,and the cloths carried, indeed, an almost yacht-like brilliance as theysteadily swung against the steely gray of the atmosphere of the horizon.The ship pitched somewhat heavily as she came, and the foam rose inmilky clouds to the hawse-pipes with a regular alternation of thelifting out of the round, wet, black bows, and a flash of sunshine offthe streaming timbers. From time to time Jacob flourished his flagstaff,all of us, meanwhile, waiting and watching in silence. Presently,Abraham put his little telescope to his eye, and, after a pause, said:

  'She means to heave-to.'

  'How can you tell?' I cried.

  'I can see some figures a-standing by the weather mainbraces,' said he;'and every now and again there's a chap, aft, bending his body over therail to have a look at us.'

  His 'longshore observation proved correct. Indeed, your Deal boatman caninterpret the intentions of a ship as you are able to read the passionsin the human face. When she was within a few of her own lengths of us,the mainsail having previously been hauled up, the yards on the mainmastwere swung, and the vessel's way arrested. Her impulse, which appearedto have been very nicely calculated, brought her surging, foaming, androlling to almost abreast of us, within reach of the fling of a linebefore she came to a dead stand. I instantly took notice of a crowd ofchocolate-visaged men standing on the forecastle, staring at us, with awhite man on the cathead, and a man aft on the poop, with a whitewideawake and long yellow whiskers.

  'Barque ahoy!' bawled Abraham, for the vessel proved to be of that rig,though it was not to have been told by us as she approached head on.

  'Hallo!' shouted the man in the white wideawake.

  'For God's sake, sir,' shouted Abraham, 'heave us a line, that we mayhaul alongside! We're in great distress, and there's a couple of partieshere as wants to get aboard ye.'

  'Heave them a line!' shouted the fellow aft, sending his voice to theforecastle.

  'Look out for it!' bawled the white man on the heel of the catheadwithin the rail.

  A line lay ready, as though our want had been foreseen; with sailorlycelerity the white man gathered it into fakes, and in a few moments thecoils were flying through the air. Jacob caught the rope with theunerring clutch of a boatman, and the three of us, stretching our backsat it, swung the lugger to the vessel's quarter.

  'What is it you want?' cried the long-whiskered man, looking down at usover the rail.

  'We'll come aboard and tell you, sir,' answered Abraham. 'Jacob, youmind the lugger! Now, Mr. Tregarthen, watch your chance and jump intothem channels [meaning the mizzen chains], and I'll stand by to help thelady up to your hands. Ye'll want narve, miss! Can ye do it?'

  Helga smiled.

  I jumped on to a thwart, planting one foot on the gunwale in readiness.The rolling of the two craft, complicated, so to speak, by the swiftjumps of the lugger as compared with the slow stoops of the barque, madethe task of boarding ticklish even to me, who had had some experience ingaining the decks of ships in heavy weather. I waited. Up swung theboat, and over came the leaning side of the barque: then I sprang, andsuccessfully, and, instantly turning, waited to catch hold of Helga.

  Abraham took her under the arms as though to lift her towards me whenthe opportunity came.

  'I can manage alone--I shall be safer alone!' she exc
laimed, giving hima smile and then setting her lips.

  She did as I had done--stood on a thwart, securely planting one foot onthe gunwale; and even in such a moment as that I could find mind enoughto admire the beauty of her figure and the charming grace of her postureas her form floated perpendicularly upon the staggering motions of thelugger.

  'Now, Hugh!' she cried, as her outstretched hands were borne up to thelevel of mine. I caught her. She sprang, and was at my side in a breath.

  'Nobly done, Helga,' said I: 'now over the rail with us.'

  She stopped to call Abraham with a voice in which I could trace no hurryof breathing: 'Will you please hand me up my little parcel?'

  This was done, and a minute later we had gained the poop of the barque.

  The man with the long whiskers advanced to the break of the short poopor upper deck as Helga and I ascended the ladder that led to it. Heseized the brim of his hat, and, without lifting it, bowed his head asthough to the tug he gave, and said with a slightly nasal accent by nomeans Yankee, but of the kind that is common to the denomination of'tub-thumpers':

  'I suppose you are the two distressed parties the sailor in the luggercalled out about?'

  'We are, sir,' said I. 'May I take it that you are the captain of thisbarque?'

  'You may,' he responded, with his eyes fixed on Helga. 'Captain JoppaBunting, master of the barque _Light of the World_, from the riverThames for Table Bay, with a small cargo _and_ for orders. That givesyou everything, sir,' said he.

  He pulled at his long whiskers with a complacent smile, nowcontemplating me and now Helga.

  'Captain Bunting,' said I, 'this lady and myself are shipwrecked people,very eager indeed to get home. We have met with some hard adventures,and this lady, the daughter of the master of the barque _Anine_, has notonly undergone the miseries of shipwreck, the hardships of a raft, andsome days of wretchedness aboard that open boat alongside: she has beenafflicted, besides, by the death of her father.'

  'Very sorry indeed to hear it, miss,' said the Captain; 'but let this beyour consolation, that every man's earthly father is bound to die atsome time or other, but man's Heavenly Father remains with him forever.'

  Helga bowed her head. Language of this kind in the mouth of a plainsea-captain comforted me greatly as a warrant of goodwill and help.

  'I'm sure,' said I, 'I may count upon your kindness to receive this ladyand me and put us aboard the first homeward-bound ship that we mayencounter.'

  'Why, of course, it is my duty as a Christian man,' he answered, 'to beof service to all sorrowing persons that I may happen to fall in with. ADeal lugger--as I may presume your little ship to be--is no fit abodefor a young lady of sweet-and-twenty----'

  He was about to add something, but at that moment Abraham came up theladder, followed by the white man whom I had noticed standing on theforecastle.

  'What can I do for you, my man?' said the Captain, turning to Abraham.

  'Whoy, sir, it's loike this----' began Abraham.

  'He wants us to give him a spare boom to serve as a mast, sir,' clippedin the other, who, as I presently got to know, was the first mate of thevessel--a sandy-haired, pale-faced man, with the lightest-blue eyes Ihad ever seen, a little pimple of a nose, which the sun had caught, andwhich glowed red, in violent contrast with his veal-coloured cheeks. Hewas dressed in a plain suit of pilot-cloth, with a shovel peaked cap;but the old pair of carpet slippers he wore gave him a down-at-heelslook.

  'A spare boom!' cried the Captain. 'That's a big order, my lad. Why, thesight of your boat made me think I hadn't got rid of the Downs yet!There's no hovelling to be done down here, is there?'

  'They're carrying out the boat to Australia, sir!' said the mate.

  The Captain looked hard at Abraham.

  'For a consideration, I suppose?' said he.

  'Ay, sir, for a consideration, as you say,' responded Abraham, grinningbroadly, and clearly very much gratified by the Captain's reception ofhim.

  'Then,' said the Captain, pulling down his whiskers and smiling with anexpression of self-complacency not to be conveyed in words, 'I do notfor a moment doubt that you _are_ carrying that lugger to Australia, formy opinion of the Deal boatmen is this: that for a consideration theywould carry their immortal souls to the gates of the devil's palace, andthen return to their public-houses, get drunk on the money they hadreceived, and roll about bragging how they had bested Old Nick himself!Spare boom for a mast, eh?' he continued, peering into Abraham's face.'What's your name, my man?'

  'Abraham Vise,' answered the boatman, apparently too much astonished asyet to be angry.

  'Well, see here, friend Abraham,' said the Captain turning up his eyesand blandly pointing aloft, 'my ship isn't a forest, and spare boomsdon't grow aboard us. And yet,' said he, once again peering closely intoAbraham's face, 'you're evidently a fellow-Christian in distress, andit's my duty to help you! I suppose you _are_ a Christian?'

  'Born one!' answered Abraham.

  'Then, Mr. Jones,' exclaimed the Captain, 'go round the ship with friendAbraham Vise, and see what's to be come at in the shape of a spareboom. Off with you now! Time's time on the ocean, and I can't keep mytops'l aback all day.'

  The two men went off the poop. The Captain asked me my name, theninquired Helga's, and said, 'Mr. Tregarthen, and you, Miss Nielsen, Iwill ask you to step below. I have a drop of wine in my cabin, and aglass of it can hurt neither of you. Come along, if you please;' and, sosaying, he led the way to a little companion-hatch, down which hebundled, with Helga and myself in his wake; and T recollect, as I turnedto put my foot upon the first of the steps, that I took notice (with asort of wonder in me that passed through my mind with the velocity ofthought) of the lemon-coloured face of a man standing at the wheel, withsuch a scowl upon his brow, that looked to be withered by the sun to theaspect of the rind of a rotten orange, and with such a fierce, glaringexpression in his dusky eyes, the pupils of which lay like a drop of inkslowly filtering out upon a slip of coloured blotting-paper, that butfor the hurry I was in to follow the Captain I must have lingered toglance again and yet again at the strange, fierce, forbidding creature.

  We entered a plain little state-cabin, or living-room, filled with thefurniture that is commonly to be seen in craft of this sort--a table,lockers, two or three chairs, a swinging tray, a lamp, and the like. TheCaptain asked us to sit, and disappeared in a berth forward of thestate-cabin; but he returned too speedily to suffer Helga and me toexchange words. He put a bottle of marsala upon the table, took thewineglasses from a rack affixed to a beam, and produced from aside-locker a plate of mixed biscuits. He filled the glasses, and, withhis singular smile and equally curious bow, drank our healths, addingthat he hoped to have the pleasure of speedily transhipping us.

  He had removed his wideawake hat, and there was nothing, for the moment,to distract me from a swift but comprehensive survey of him. He had along hooked nose, small, restless eyes, and hair so plentiful that itcurled upon his back. His cheeks were perfectly colourless, and of anunwholesome dinginess, and hung very fat behind his long whiskers, andI found him remarkable for the appearance of his mouth, the upper lipof which was as thick as the lower. He might have passed very well for aLondon tradesman--a man who had become almost bloodless through longyears of serving behind a counter in a dark shop. He had nothingwhatever of the sailor in his aspect--I do not mean the theatricalsailor, our old friend of the purple nose and grog-blossomed skin, butof that ordinary every-day mariner whom one may meet with in thousandsin the docks of Great Britain. But that, however, which I seemed to findmost remarkable in him was his smile. It was the haunting of hiscountenance by the very spectre of mirth. There was no life, nosincerity in it. Nevertheless, it caused a perpetual play of featuresmore or less defined, informed by an expression which made one instantlyperceive that Captain Joppa Bunting had the highest possible opinion ofhimself.

  He asked me for my story, and I gave it him, he, meanwhile, listening tome with his singular smile, and his eyes almos
t embarrassingly rootedupon my face.

  'Ah!' cried he, fetching a deep sigh, 'a noble cause is the lifeboatservice. Heaven bless its sublime efforts! and it is gratifying to knowthat her Majesty the Queen is a patron of the institution. Mr.Tregarthen, your conscience should be very acceptable to you, sir, whenyou come to consider that but for you this charming young lady must haveperished'--he motioned towards Helga with an ungainly inclination of hisbody.

  'I think, Captain,' said I, 'you must put it the other way about--Imean, that but for Miss Nielsen _I_ must have perished.'

  'Nielsen--Nielsen,' said he, repeating the word. 'That is not an Englishname, is it?'

  'Captain Nielsen was a Dane,' said I.

  'But you are not a Dane, madam?' he exclaimed.

  'My mother was English,' she answered; 'but I am a Dane, nevertheless.'

  'What is the religion of the Danes?' he asked.

  'We are a Protestant people,' she answered, while I stared at the man,wondering whether he was perfectly sound in his head, for nothing couldseem more malapropos at such a time as this than his questions about,and his references to, religion.

  'What is your denomination, madam?' he asked, smiling, with a drag atone long whisker.

  'I thought I had made you understand that I was a Protestant,' sheanswered, with an instant's petulance.

  'There are many sorts of Protestants!' he exclaimed.

  'Have you not a black crew?' said I, anxious to change the subject,sending a glance in search of Abraham through the window of the littledoor that led on to the quarter-deck, and that was framed on either handby a berth or sleeping-room, from one of which the Captain had broughtthe wine.

  'Yes, my crew are black,' said he; 'black here'--he touched hisface--'and, I fear, black here'--he put his hand upon his heart. 'But Ihave some hope of crushing one superstition out of them before we let goour anchor in Table Bay!'

  As he said these words a sudden violent shock was to be felt in thecabin, as though, indeed, the ship, as she dropped her stern into thetrough, had struck the ground. All this time the vessel had been rollingand plunging somewhat heavily as she lay with her topsail to the mastin the very swing of the sea; but after the uneasy feverish friskings ofthe lugger, the motion was so long-drawn, so easy, so comfortable, in aword, that I had sat and talked scarcely sensible of it. But the suddenshock could not have been more startling, more seemingly violent, had abig ship driven into us. A loud cry followed. Captain Bunting sprang tohis feet; at the same moment there was a hurried tramp and rush offootsteps overhead, and more cries. Captain Bunting ran to thecompanion-steps, up which he hopped with incredible activity.

  'I fear the lugger has been driven against the vessel's side!' saidHelga.

  'Oh, Heaven, yes!' I cried. 'But I trust, for the poor fellows' sake,she is not injured. Let us go on deck!'

  We ran up the steps, and the very first object I saw as I passed throughthe hatch was Jacob's face, purple with the toil of climbing, risingover the rail on the quarter. Abraham and two or three coloured mengrasped the poor fellow, and over he floundered on to the deck,streaming wet.

  Helga and I ran to the side to see what had happened. There was no needto look long. Directly under the ship's quarter lay the lugger with thewater sluicing into her. The whole of one side of her was crushed asthough an army of workmen had been hammering at her with choppers. Wehad scarcely time to glance before she was gone! A sea foamed over andfilled her out of hand, and down she went like a stone, with a snap ofthe line that held her, as though it had been thread, to the lift of thebarque from the drowning fabric.

  'Gone!' cried I. 'Heaven preserve us! What will our poor friends do?'

  Captain Bunting was roaring out in true sea-fashion. He might continueto smile, indeed; but his voice had lost its nasal twang.

  'How did this happen?' he bawled. 'Why on earth wasn't the lugger keptfended off? Mr. Jones, jump into that quarter-boat and see if we'vereceived any injury.'

  The mate hopped into the boat, and craned over. 'It seems all right withus, sir!' he cried.

  'Well, then, how did this happen?' exclaimed the Captain, addressingJacob, who stood, the very picture of distress and dejection, with thewater running away upon the deck from his feet, and draining from hisfinger-ends as his arms hung up and down as though he stood in ashower-bath.

  'I'd gone forward,' answered the poor fellow, 'to slacken away the linethat the lugger might drop clear, and then it happened, and that's all Iknow;' and here he slowly turned his half-drowned, bewildered face uponAbraham, who was staring over the rail down upon the sea where thelugger had sunk, as though rendered motionless by a stroke of paralysis.

  'Well, and what'll you do now?' cried Captain Bunting.

  'Do? Whoy, chuck myself overboard!' shouted Jacob, apparently quickenedinto his old vitality by the anguish of sudden realization.

  Here Abraham slowly looked round, and then turned and lay against therail, eyeing us lifelessly.