CHAPTER VII.—Continued.

Clutha Leader, Volume V, Issue 216, 30 August 1878, Page 7

CHAPTER Vll.—Continued.

Meantime came a Government officer, and paid in an enormous sum in notes and mercantile bills, priucipaliy the iatter. Presently Dodd was invited into the manager's room. . 'Leaving the country, Capt. Dodd V * Yes, sir., * You bpd better take some ol your A money in bills at sight on -London.* f I would ratber have notes, sic,* faltered Dodd. _^ ■*Ofa, biUsS-^^-liveiva upon Daring are just as gdo A> even without our endorsement. However, you can have 7 half aod half. Calcutta does but little ia Eoglish bank-notes, you know.' They gave him hie money. Tbe bids 7 were all manifestly good.' Bnt he recognised one of them as having just been paid in by the civilian. He found himself somehow safe in tbe street, clutching tbe cash, with one half of bis great paternal heart on fire, and the other half freezing. He bad rescued his children's fortune; but be bad seen destruction graze it. The natural chill at being scraped by peril soon passed, the triumphaufc glow remained. Tbe ■ next sentiment was precaution; be filled with it to tbe brim ; he went and bought a great broad pocket-book with % key to it j though be was oa dry land, he covered it witb oiled silk against tbe water; and sewed the whole thing to his flannel waistcoat, end felt for it with his band a hundred times a day: tbe fruit ol bis own toil, his children's board, the rescued treasure he was to have the joy of bringing home safe to the dear panner of ali bis W Unexpectedly be was ordered out to Canton io sail the Agra to the Cai>e. Then a novel and strange feeling came over him like a cloud ; that feeling was a sense of persona danger: not that the many perils of tbe deep were new to him : he bad faced them tbis nve-and-twenty years: but till now tbey w'eie little present to bis imagination : they used to come; be encountered : be gone: but now, though absent, tbey darkened the way. It was tbe pocket-book. The material treasure, ihe hard cash, : which had lately sec h'"n in a glow, seemed now to load bis chest and hunoheavy round tbe neck of bis heart. Sailors are more or le^ superstitious:' and men are creatures of hahA, even in their courage. Now D«»vbi had never gone to sea with a lot of money on him vefore. As be was a rftout hearted matt, these vague forebodings wouM. peHbaps, have cleared away with tbo bus, etc, ; when the Agra set. her studding e;*fls- j off Macao, but for a p'ece of poAiue intelligence be hud p-'eked up at LinTin. The Chinese a'dmind bad warned him ofa pirate, a daring pAuie who had been lately cruisbig in tAo w;urvs: . first beard of south rife line: *»„<, hau since taken a RuAan ship at tire vermouth ofthe Caul on river, r/i!> idem! the crew in sight of laud, a.-d sold ihe women for slaves, or woise. Dodd asked for particulars; w;=s he » Ladroner, a Malay, a Dotncse ? In wuat latitude was be io be locked for 1 'Vhe admiral on this examined bis mnuioraiida: by these it atneared little uas known as yet about the mAieaiA, except tbat he never cruised hmg un one ground; the crew w;«s a mixed or«o : the captain was belmved to be a Porn»guese, and to hr.ye a consort commanded by his btoiber: buc this was doubtful; at all events ihe pair bad never been seen at work together. The gunner arrived and saluted the quarter deck; the captain on tbis saluted him, and beckoned bim to the weather side. On this tbe other officers kept religiously to leeward. 'Mr Monk,' said Dodd, 'you will clean aud prepare all tbe email arms directly/

' Ay, ay, sir/ said the old Niier, wiih a gleam of satisfaction. ' How many of your deck guns are serviceable V

This simple question stirred up in one moment all the bile in the poor old gentleman's nature. ' My deck guns serviceable ! bow tbe

— — can they, when that son of a sea cook your |tbird mate has been and lashed the water butts to their breechings, and jammed his gear in between their nozzles, till they can't breathe, poor things, far less bark. I wish he was lasbed between the divel's hind hocks with a red hot cable as tight as be has jammed my guns/ ,/.* Be so good as not to swear, Mr $£j_ ler V said Dodd. 'At your age, sir, I look to you to set an example to \he petty officers.'

' Well, I won't swear do more, sir -. d — d ifi do!' He added very loudly, aod wiih a seeming access of ire, ' and I ax your pardon, captain, and the deck's/ P

When a man bas a deep anxiety, some human midge or mosquito bazzes at biin. Jt is a rule. To Dodd, bc»vy with responsibility, and a dark misgiving be must not communicate, came delicately, and by degrees, and wiih a semigenuflesion every tbree step's, one like a "magpie; and, putting bis hands .together, as our children do to approach tbe Almighty, delivered himself thus, in modulated tones, and good Hiadostanee. 'The Daughter of Light, in whose beams I, Ramgolam* fiask, glows with an amicable desire to see

the lord commao'ler of tbe ship resembling a mountain ; and to make a communication/

. Taught by snd experience how weighty are ihe communications :he daughters of lights pour into nautical commanders at sea. Dodd hailed Mr Tickell, midshipman, and sent bim down to the lady's cabin. Wr Ticked soon came back reddish, but grinning, to say that nothing less than the captain would do. Dodd sighed, dismissed Monk with a promise to inspect (he gun deck himself; then went di>wa to Mrs Be res - fonl and found Jher indignant. Wbr had he stopped tbe ship miles and miles from Macao, and given her the trouble and aonoynnce'ofa voyage in that nasty little boat ? Dodd opened his .great brown eyes, ' Why, madam, ie is shoal water o if Macao; we dure not come ia.' ( No, evasion, sir. Wbat have I to do with youo shoal water? it was laziness, and want of considerar'on for a lady who ha?? rented half your ship.' 'Nothing of the kind, madam, I assure you. 1 ' Are you the person they call gentleman Dodd?' < Yes.' ' Then don't contradict a lady ! or I shall tske the liberty to dispute your liile.' Dodd took no notice of this, and with a patience few imulical cotnmandeis would have shown, endeavoured to make her see that be was obliged to give Macao shoals a wide berth, or cast away the ship. She would not see it. When Dodd saw .she wanted, not an explanation, buc a grievance, he Ceased to ihw^rt her. ' I am neglecting my duties to no purpose,' said he, and left, net' without ceremony. Ibis was a fresh offence; and, as he went out, sbe declared opeu war. And she made it too from that hovr : a war of pins and needles, Dodd went on the go a deck and found that the defence of the ship bad, as usual in these peaceful days, been sacrificed to the cargo. Out of twenty eighteen- pounders she carried on iliac deck, he cleaved three, and that with difficulty. To clear any moie he must have sacrificed either merchandise or waier : and he was not tbe man to do either on the mere chance of a danger so unusual as an encouter with a pirate. He was a- met chant captain, zj»»t a warrior. Meantime tbe Agra bad already shown him great- sadi -ig qualities: Hie log 1 was hove at- sundown and gave eleven kuois; r-o tb.tc witb a good breeze abaft, few fore-und-aiWigged pirate* could ovei haul her. And ibis wind carried her swiftly past one nest <jf theur at all events; the Ladtona isles. At nine p.m. all the lights were os dered out. 31 rs DeseA'ord bad brought a hovel on board, and refused to comply ; the masser-at-arms insisted; she threatened him with the veogeaoco of tbe Company, tbe printer, and the nobility and gentry of the TJritish realm. The masier-nt-arms, finding- he- \r.'d no chance in argument, doused tbe glim — pHbdile resource o f a wc-.d< d'fpuiaor. — then basely fled the rheioi-ical conse-

quence. The northerly breeze died out, and bgbt variable winds b-.mled the ship. It was tbe Gth A ori! ere sbe passed tbe MaccAfield Bank in latitude Hi. Aod i'Ow they sailed for many days out, of tight of laud. Dodd's chest expanded : bis main anxiety at tbis part of tbe \oyagelay iv the state cabin: of all the- perils of tbe sea none shakes a sailor like fire. He set a watch day and night on that spoiled child. On the lasc May they passed the great Kantuna, and got among the Bornese and Malay Islands, at which the captain's glass began to sweep the horizon again, and night and day at the dizzy fore top gtdlant masthead be perched an Eye. They crossed the line in longitude 107, witb a slight breeze, but soon fell into tbe Doldrums. A dead calm, and nothing to do but kill time. Dodd bad put down Neptune : that old blackguard could no longer row out on the ship's port side and board ber on tbe starboard, pretending to come from ocean's depths ; and sb::ve tbe novices witb a rusty hoop and dob a soapy brush in their mouths. But champagne popped, tbe sexes fiirted, and the sailors span fathomless yarns, and danced rattling hornpipes, fiddled to by the grave Fulla love. 'If there's anything I can dew it's fiddle,' said be. He and bis frieDri. as be systematically called Vespasian, taught the crew Yankee steps, and were beloved. One honest saltatory British tar offered that western pair bis grog for a week. Even Mrs Beresfoid [ emerged and walked tbe deck, quenching ber austere regards wnh a familiar smite on Colonel Kenea'y, ber escort : this gallant good-natured soldier flattered her to the nine, and, finding her sweeten with tbe treacle, tried to iecoocile ber to bis old friend Dodd. Straight she soured, aud forbade ihe topic imperiously. By ibis lime the maies and midshipmen of the Agra bad fin homed their captain. Mr Tickell delivered ibe mind ofthe united midshipmen wben be proposed Dodd's health in their mess-room ' as a navigator, a mathematician, a seaman, a gentleman, aud a brick, with three times three/

Dodd never spoke to his officers like a ruffian, nor yet palavered them, but he bad a very pleasant way of conveying appreciation of an officer's zeal by a

knowing nod with a kindly smile on the heels of i I. As for the man, they seldom came in com act wiih the captain of a well-oificeird abio : tbis crew only knew bim at first as a good-tempered soul, who didn't bother about nothing. But one day, us they lay becalmed souih of the line, a jolly foretopmau came on tbe quarter deck with a fid of soup, and saluting and scraping, first to deck, then to tbe captain, asked bim if be would taste that. ' Yes. my man. Smoked 1' 1 Like aud blazes, your honour, axing your pardon and the deck's.' { Young gentleman,' said Dodd to Mr Meredith, a midshipman, 'be so good as io send tbe cook aft.' The cook came and received, not an oath nor a threat, but a remonstrance aud a grim warning". Iv the teeth of this be burnt the soup boirtbly tbe very next day. The crew sent tbe lucky foretopumn ait again. He made bis scrape and presented bis fid. The captain tasted tbe soup, and neat Mr Grey to bid tbe boa tb wain's mate pipe the bands on deck and hi-ing tbe cook aft. '*' Quartermaster, unsling a fire-bucket and fill it from tbe men's kids : Mr Tickeil, see tbe cook swallow bis own mess, Eosen's mate, take a bight of tbe flying jib sheet, stand over bim, and start bim if be dallies with if.' With this tbe captain went below, and the cook, supping at tbe bucket, delivered himself as follows: * Well, ye lubbers, it is first — rate, liiere s no burn iv it. It goes down like oil. Cuise.your ladylike stomacks ; you a'»n't fit for a ship ; why don't ye go ashore and man a gingerbread coach aod feed off French frogs and Italian baccy-pipe stems? (Whack.) Whau the —is that for V Boatswains mate. * Sup more, and jaw less/ ' Well, I am supping as fast as I can. (Whack, whack.) Bloody end to ye, what are ye about ? (Whack, wback, whack.) Oh, Joe, Lord bless you, I can't eat any more of it. (Whack.) I'll give you my grog for a week only to let me fling the over tbe side. (Whack, whack, whack.) Ob, good, kind, dear Mr Tickell do go down to tbe captain lor me." (Whack, whack.) ' Avast !' cried tbe captain, reappearing; and tbe uplifted rope fell barmless, 1 Silence, fore and afc !' (Pipe.) 4 Tho cook bas received a bgbf, punishment this time, for spoiling the men's mess. My crew shall eat nothing T can't ea»; myself. .My care is heavier than; lochs is; but not my work, nor my danger in time of danger. Mind linn, or you'll find I can be as sepeie as any master afiout. Purser/ 1 Sir/ 1 Double the men's grog: tbey have been cheated of their meal/ * Ay, ay, sir. 2 f And stop the cook's ami his male's [ov a week.' c Ay, ay, sir/ * Bosen. pipe down/ c Shipmates, listen to me,' sr-id tbe foretopmap, ' This old Agra is a d«~d com- Ibr- l able ship/ The oracular sentence Was bailed witb a ringing cheer. SSAd it is unlucky the British seaman fis so enamoured of theological teruj3j lor be constantly misapplies tbem. After lying a week like a (lend log on the calm bnt bearing waters, came a few light puffs iv tlie upper air and inflated the topsails only : the ship crawled southward, the ci'ew whistling ; for wind.

At last, one afternoon, it begar, to rain, and after the rain came a gale from the eastward. The waichlul skipper saw ie purple the water to windward, and ordered tbe topsails to be reefed and the lee ports closed. This last order seemed an excess of precaution ; but Dodd was not yet thoroughly acquainted with bis ship's qualities : and the bard cash round bis neck made bim cautions. The lee poris were closed, all but one, and tbat was lowered. Mr Grey was working a problem in bis cabin, and wanted a little light and a little air, so be just drooped his port, but, not to deviate from the spirit of bis captain's instructions, he fastened a tackle to it; that he might have mechanical force to close it with should the ship lie over. Down" came tbe gale with a whoo, and made all crack. Tbe ship Jay over pretty much, and tbe sea poured in au Mr Grey's port. He applied bis purchase to'close ic. But though his tackle gave him tbe force of a dozen hands, he might c as well have tried to move a mountain : on tbe coal vary, tbe tremendous sea rushed in and burst the port wide open. Grey, after a vain struggle with its might, shrieked for help'; down tumbled ihe nearest bands, and hauled on the tackle in vain. De- ! struction was rushing on the ship, and on tbem fitst. But meantime the captain, with a shrewed guess at tbe general nature of the danger be could not see, bad roared out, ' Slack the main sheet/ Tbe ship righted, and tbe port came flying to, and tbe terror-stricken oien breathed hard, up to their waists in water and floating boxes. Grey barred tbe unlucky pert, and went aft, drenched in body, and wretched in mind, to report bis own fault. . He found the captain looking grim as dealb. He told him, almost crying, what he had done, and how he had miscalculated the power of the water. Dodd looked and saw his distress. ' Let it be a lesson, sir/ said he sternly.

' How many ships have been lose by this in lair weather, und not a, man saved to tell how tbe craft was fooled

away.'

' Captain, bid me fling myself over the side, aod I'll do it.'

' Humph 1 I'm afraid I can't afford to lose a good officer for a fault be will — never — repeat/

It blew bard all night and till twelve the next day. Tbe Agra showed ber weak point : she rolled abominably. A dirty night came on. At eight bells Mr Grey, touched by Dodd's clemency, and brimful of zeal, reported a light m Mrs Beresford's cabin. It bad been put out as usual by the master-at-arms, but tbe redact ory one had relighted it.

',Go and take it away," said Dodd. Soon screams were beard from the cabin. ' Oh, mercy ! mercy ! I will not be drowned iv tbe dark/

Dodd, wbo had kept clear of her so long, went down and tried to re-assure her.

' Oh, the tempest ! the tempest !' she cried. Awd TO BB DROWNfiD IN THE DARK !'

' Tempest ? It is blowing half a gale of wind— that is all/

' Half a gale 1 Ah, that is tbe way you always talk to us ladies. Oh, pray give me my lighv ; and send me a clergyman/

Dodd took pity, and let her have her light, with a midshipman to watch it. He even made her a hypocritical promise that, should there be one grain of danger, be would lie to, but said he must not make a foul wind of a fair one for a lew lee larches. The Agra broke plenty of glass and crockery though with her fair wind and her lee lurches.

Wind down at nodn next day, and a dead calm.

At two p.m. the weather cleared, the stm came out high in heaven's centre, and a balmy breeze from the west. At 0.25 the grand orb set calm ancf red, and the sea was gorgeous whh miles aod miles of great ruby dimples : ie was tbe first glowing smile of southern latitude. The night stole on so soft, so clear, so balmy, all were loth to close tbeir eyes on it : the passengers lingered long on deck, watchiug the Great Bear dip and the Southern Cross ri»e, and over bead a whole heaven of glorious stars most of us have never swen and never shall see in tbis world. ISo belching smoke obscured, no pluogi.jg paddles deafened; all was musical; the soft air sighing among tlie sails; rhe phosphorescent water bubbling from tbe ship's bows ; tbe murmurs from little knots of men 00. deck subdued by the gieat calm.: home seemed nearer, all danger far ; Peace ruled the sea, the sky, tbe heart: the ship, making a track of white fire on the deep, glided gently yet swiftly homeward, urged by snowy sabs piled up like alabaster towers against a violet sky, out of which out of which looked a thousand eyes of holy tranquil fire, So melted the sweet night away.

Now carmine streaks tinged tbe eastern sky at tbe water's edge ; aod tbat water blushed; now the stre.iks turned orange, and tbe waves below them sparkled. Thence splashes of living gold flew and settled on tbe ship's white sails, the deck, and tbe faces; aad with no more prologue, being so near the line, up came majestically a huge, fiery, golden sun, and set the sea flaming liquid topaz.

Instant \he look-out at the foretop-gallunt-mnst-head bailed-tbe deck below.

" S'-I'ItAWGE SAIL \ Rj.QHT AHEAD !"

The strange sail was reported to Captain Dodd, then dressing iv his cabin. He came soon afreT oa deck and bailed the look-out: ' Which way is she standing ?'

' Can't say, sir. Can't see her move

any/ Dodd ordered the boatswain to pipe to breakfast; and taking bis deck glass went ligbtly up to tbe fore- top-gal lan t-mast-crosstrees. Thence, through the light haze of the glorious morning, he espied a long low schooner, lattnerigged, lying close under Point Leat, a small island about nine miles distant oa the weather bow; and nearly in the Agra's course then approaching the Straits of Gaspar, 4 Lattiude S.

' She is hove-to/ said Dodd, very gravely. At eight o'clock, the stranger lay about two miles to windward ; and still hove- to.

By this time all eyes were turned upon her, and half-a-dozen glasses. Everybody, except the captain, delivered an opinion. She was a Greek lying- to for water : she was Malay coming north with canes, and short of bands : sbe was a pirate watching the Straits. The captain leaned silent and sombre i with his arms on the bulwarks, and watched the suspected Craft, Mr Fullalove joined the group, and levelled a powerful glass, of his own construction. His inspection was long and minute, and, while the glass was j at his eye, Sharpe asked him half in a ! whisper, could he make out anything V ' ' Wai,' said he, ' the varmint looks considerable snaky/ Then, without, moving his glass, he let drop a word at a time, as if the facts were trickling into his telescope at tbe lens, and out at the sight. One — two — four — seven, false ports/ There was a momentary murmur among the officers all round. But '.British sailors are undemonstrative: Colonel Keneally, strolling 1 the deck with his cigar, saw tbey were watching

another ship with maritime curiosity, aud making , comments ; but he'discerned no particular emotion dov anxiety in what tbey said, nor in the grave low tones they said it in. Perhaps a brother seamen would though:

The next observation that trickled out of Fullalove's tube was tbis : * I judge there are too few bands on deck, and too many — white — eye-balls — glittering at the portholes/ ' Confound it !' muttered Bayiiss, uaeasily ; ' how can you see that ?' Fullalove replied only by quietly handing his glass to DoHd. The capt. thus appealed to, glued his ays to the tube, ' Well, sir; see tbe false porf3, and tbe white eyebrows ?' asked Sharpe ironically. ' I see this is tbe best glass I ever looked through," said Dodd doggedly, without interrupting his inspection. ' I think he is a Malay pirate/ said Mr Grey. Sharpe took bim up very quickly, and angrily: 'Nonsense! And if he is, he won't venture on a craft of tbis size/ ' Says the whale to tbe swordfish,' suggested Fullalove, with a little guttural laugh. The captain with the Atnericau glass at; bis eve, turned half round to the man at the wheel : ' Starboard !' ' Starboard it is-' < Steer South South East/ i Ay, ay, sir/ And the ship's course was thus altered two points. This order lowered Dodd fifty per cent, in Mr Sharpe's esdmauoa. He held bis toague as long he coold : but at last bis surprise and dissatisfaction burst out of him, ' Won't that bring him out on us V ' Very likely, sir,' replied Dodd, ;. ' Begging your pardon, captain, would it not be wiser lo keep our course, and sbow tbe blackguard we don't fear him V i ' When we do ? Sharpe, be has made up bis mind an hour ago whether to lie still, or bite; my changing my course two points won't change, bis mind ; but it may make him declare it ; and / must kuow what he does intend, belore I run the ship into Abe narrows ahead/ 'Oh, I see,' said Sharpe, half convinced. Tbe alteration in the Agra's couvse produced no movement on tho parr, of the mysterious schooner. She lay-to voder tbe land still, and witb only a few bands on deck, while tbe Agia edged away from ber and entered the Strains between Long Island arid Point Lr.at, leaving the schooner about two i n>ile« and a half disiant fco tbe N. W. Ah I The straDgers deck, swaraas black with men. His sham ports fell a3 if by magic, his guns grinned through the gap 3 like black teeth ; bis huge foresail rose and filled, and out he came in chase. The breeze was a kits from Hezvea, the sky a vaulted, sapphire, tbe sea a million dimples of liquid, lucid, gold.