Hobelist.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7620, 18 December 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

Hobelist.

CHAPTER- XXII-Smartly Managed:

. ' L [KOW FIRST PUBLISHED.] . :; THE. GOLDM HOPE: ';. ' ; A EOMANCE OF THE DEEP. ' "7 dreamt a- dream thai teas not all a.'-dream, BY W: CLARK BUSSELL, , Author of-,,^A- Sea _ Queen," "The 1 Weeck of.the Ghosvenoe," "A , ' • Saiwe's. Sweetheart," &c.

. [The Hmm ' of Tbansiation is Be- '_'■'■.. SEEVED.]

The early morning sun flashed joyously. The trade clouds, masses of soft white vapour, every one of them as full of fanciful shapes as glowing coals are of faces, poured with a. certain slowness that rendered them majestic out of the ■ • horizon ; the sea looked to have innumerable tints with their shadowings ; the deep was a dark blue, rolling in long white crested waves, out of whoso liquid slants a_ swarm of _ flying fish would •sparkle in a glittering shower scarcely distinguishable from the silver lacework ,■ of foam in which they'd vanish ; the schooner seemed to be instinct with the . spirit .of the morning, and there was • r . Something of theglad. gambolling of a I-, sportive fish in her manner of rolling ' ;,\ Tipon the swell which under-ran the j ?•'• surges and which would heel her again ! -.; and again to her wash-streak, 1 when, it .' and tl'.e surge, and the full blast of the •'. 3°y° u s shouting trade wind in the tall ' •.", expanse of her canvas combined their : .'--'forces at the same instantupon her. . : ' '~ ■ The ship was now about three quarters '; ' . of a. mile ahead of the Golden Hope ; ' ■ jvhbse copper forefoot appeared to smite 'i the tail of her wake, go dead on end she : '. -was. So small was the schooner's . ': appreciable loss in this running, that . , - you would have needed to wait a bit to ; '"find out how tho case stood: whether ; : '.the' Golden Hope was overhauling tho '" ' .-ship or whether the ship was leaving^ the ' • Golden Hope. Mr Fortoscuo, -Hiram '. Wd Stone, stood together on the weather ,)■■,' quarter looking at the vessel. - •;'. "She. r sweeps through it fast" ex- : claimed •' , the clergyman; "but our \ ' schooner clings' to her nobly." - >'' '■'• " It's, taken her all night to catch us '. ; "np and pass us," said Stone, with a . triumphant glance aloft. ; . ." Well, I know by tho vast difference ' \in size and the trifling ■ difference in ■ "speed between the vessels," said Fortes--1 : cue, '•" that I could not have done better •. than this schooner if I had spent ten > times the money she has cost me." *. Stone looked gratefully at him. ."Pfay God'oiir.mission may be as true" as the Golden Hope is true to it !, How sweet : and cool thia wind is ! Is there a like breeze in the Indian Ocean P " ' , " Tl^ere is, sir," replied Weeks. "How does it blow south of the Equator?" "Why from October to April it's nor' -west: then south-east as this here - trade is for the rest of the time," said - Hiram. " Would the island — Stone's island — be within the compass of the trade wind?" asked Fortescue, with the nervous hesitation he repeatedly dis- ,'■ played when asking questions respecting tho island; a nervousness that . tended to keep Hiram. constantly in doubt as to Fortescue's sanity on this one point. ■ " Why, yes, no doubt it would," re- - plied the skipper, who was not sure, his ' ■ acquaintance with the Indian Ocean as a navigator and student of it being extremely small, and who therefore . answered to please the curate. Fortescue looked at Stone. ."It's as hot as, l toldyer, sir," said the old sailor. "But ye get draughts ' and winds and storms." "It's this steady, cooling, pouring air ; " that makes mo ask the question," said ' Mr Fortescue, turning, his face full to the gushing, glorious, sunlit wind, the brighter and gladder for ; tho bluoness of .■• the sea and sky in it, and for the- spark'-' . ling of white water. ." When I think of those baking equatorial parallels, when ' we found it stifling even as far south as the latitude of. Ascension . . . " he broke off with a deep sigh. Stone's face had the expression of a man who is about to say a dozen comforting things, when Hiram suddenly roared out: "What's she up toP What's gone wrong with her?" He pointed with lively excitement of gesture to tho ship, thafc had all on a - sudden put her helm hard down, and ■ was then in the act of rounding into the ". - wind, making out the length of her in a pitching, heaving movemont, with the white wako sweeping in a curve to her glassy counter, in which the light off the water trembled like the lustre on the water itself ; you s aw the main clewgarnets slowly mounting, tlie main, royal ■ and topgallant sail fluttering, all fore-and-aft sails, shaking as though the - wJiole ship shuddred, but she was too far off to guess more than that, she had , so much way on her she was bound to come round on the starboard tack, which sure enough she did, anJ away to windward she presently lay, bowi?s t° the seas, with her maintopsail to the na?^ There was only one interpretation o£ tho sudden confusion aboard of hor, and old Stone singing out, " She'll have lost a- man, Captain," sprang forward and ' danced up the fore-rigging. He was followed by. two seamen, one • , of whom had barely mounted a couple of ratlines than ho shouted out, " There he is ! right dead ahead of us ! " " Keep your eye on him — fix him as If you was to be shot if you lost him ! " bawled Stone, and the old chap and. tho other sailor eamc running down on deck. ' "Keep her away !" pried Hiram, at '„■ the top of his husky pipes, whilst the , • -watch below,' aroused .by the movement , and cries, came tumbling up to see what had happened: "Get the boat oyer; cast the gripes adriffc; hook on fore- - burton ; pass that watch tackle along and clap it on to the foremost .' shroud of main rigging;" as fast as these dislocated orders were bawled. '• out was tho job done;' the boat lifted out of the bigger boat plumped into tho • -water, and towing through the swirl to leeward, with Stone and two men in her, exaetJy knowing what Hiram meant to • do, anil waiting. ' It was indeed a smart piece of work, all so clever in nimble seamanship that a much more experienced seafarer than Fortescuo might havo gaped with wonder- at the swift manoeuvring of tho „ men. 'Onq.moment tho boat was stowed and griped in tho bigger boat forward— „ the next, so ifc seemed to the curate, she was in tho water, held by her painter, and cleaving tho yeasty wavK, rushing > to leeward with threo men in hor, and ier little noso cocked high. But the Teal excitement lay eisowhero ; tho men sighting the swimmer had kept crying ' to Hiram as if ho did not see him, but he had motioned silence with a windmill flourish of his long arm, and ereot on tho rail, gripping a backstay, ho stood conning the schooner as she bore down towards tho black speck on the water, : 1 broad on the weather bow. By this time tho struggling seaman ' was visible to Mr Fortescuc,_ who 'watched him with that indescribable : «xcitement formed of yearning and • terror and sympathy, which will make the hearts of such men as ho hammer furiously on their breasts when iiiey witness a sight of this kind. The ; swimmer, was bareheaded, -with black : ' hair, and every heave of the sco, that -threw him to the sun brought aut a dull ■flash from his wet tresses ; a circle of

white floated some distance from him — a life-buoy hove from the ship— but ho did not see ' it ; ■ sometimes tho melting brow of a surge smothered him, but he'd reappear, till you'd think you could see his face among .his matted ..glistening locks, and into it you'd put the expression of agony, the fancy created from the strugglo between the man and the mighty ocean. "Steady!" shouted .Hiram to the ; helmsman, and ho flourished his hat that the swimmer might get 'strength from tho encouragement, whilst . the crow, looking over the rail, spoke among themselves in excited voices, subdued to hoarse whispers. ' "He may sink at any second ! " " Steady, he may hold ont another few minutes ! " ■ " God ! I thought he wur gone ! How that sea chucked him up afore it broke over him!" "Stand by to let slip there, Mr Stone ! " roared Hiram, in one o£ the most splitting, ncigh-liko yell ho had yet delivered himself of. "Down helium!" The tiller was swept to leeward. "Let slip now!" Theschooner came tearing and snapping round into the wind ; she had been steered- so as to bring the man within a biscuit's toss from the side. As he went past Mr Fortescue saw his upturned face, livid with strangulation, tho configuration of his body under water, the swaying of his legs, the feebly-moving, but bravely-battling, gestures of his arms— it was a sight that came and .went whilst a man could draw and oxpel tho wild deep broath it forced upon him ; but even before the curate could realise what was happening, tho released boat, with the way the schooner had given her, shot, with a couple of oars, out alongside the drowning man ; and in a few moments the poor fellow was in her whilst the schooner flying into thowind's dye' brought her topsail and topgallant sail aback and lay tranquilly rising and falling upon the blue and frothing seas. " Saved ! " exclaimed Hiram, quietly dismounting from the rail arid looking with a smile at the curate, who, turning up his eyes jn gratitude to God, thought of the noble and devoted courage of the sailor, and of those hardships, perils, and heroisms of his which of tenest the Heavenly" Father of all alone sees, alono knows. . , ■ The, rest was as easy as saying tho alphabet, now the man was got ; and a shift of the helm and a little trimming of canvass speedily brought the schooner to her boat, as a mother to her child. By this time the ship had lowered one of her quarter boats, of a fine whaling pattern, as smart as white and brass could make her ;' six men were in her, and ono of the mates steered. Perceiving the schooner's intentions they had evidently, waited till the man had been picked up ; and now that ho was rescued and the schooner hove-to, the boat came to her with the six oars flashing as they drove her foaming through the water with the seas following her. 1 "How is the man, Mr Stone P" asked Hiram, leaning over the side. ' " A bit exhausted, but in other respects middlin', I think, capt'n," replied the old chap. The poor fellow sitting in tlie bottom of the boat with, his back against a thwart looked up at Hiram and Mr Fortcsouo and smiled faintly. There was a pathos in that smile beyond expression; its weakness and the gravity that instantly followed made it a thousand times more moving than tears. Weeks would have had him up for a warm and a sup of drink, but the ship's boat was at hand, tho ship herself close, and the man was not .so exhausted but that he could wait to be stowed away in his own bunk or hammock. Tho two vessels were within speaking distance, but nothing was said. The stripes and stars flew at the ship's peak ; the red ensign at the schooner's. Close to as she now was, tho great American ship looked grand indeed as she slowly and rhythmically pitched upon the swell leaning away from the breeze, with her main topsail aback and the canvas on' the. other masts fall, How crisply each blue sea swept its glitter of snoWy foam alongthe low, massive, gleaming sides of her ! The schooner lay on her portquarter, and every lift of the surge enabled those who gazed from her deck ■to see along the ship, under whose .counter was .written the word "Columbia" — the baro pronunciation of which is like au organ note for majestio and high-sounding melody— whilst upon her raised after-deck — that was more liko the top of a short deck-house than a poop— stood a group of fifteen or twenty people, some of them passengers, with, ladies among them ; one, evidently the captain, was alone, on the rail, holding to the yang of the spanker-gaff, watching the progress -of ■ his boat to the schooner. In a very few moments that boat was alongside the Golden HcJpe and the man transferred. Tho indescribable Yankeeism of tho boat's crow's appearance was perhaps heightened by the presence of ' a negro, and an American possibly could have sworn to the very Stato, if not the city, to which the mate in the. stern sheets belonged, by the cut of- his noso and the curve of the jawbones into the yellow " goattee." ' . " Gentlemen," said- he, pulling off his cap and speaking bareheaded, whereupon Mx Fovtescue and Hiram at once uncovered, "My captain r desires his compliments and thanks to you for your humanity. It is but what every sailor 'has a right to expect from men sailing under that flag," and he waved his hand to tho English ensign. " We're glad to have saved a follow being's life, sir," answered Hiram. " Farewell, gentlemen," said the mate. " Shove off— hold !" Ho bent his ear to the white-faced, streaming, sodden man, and then, loblcing up, he exclaimed; "He's jest asked ,me to say, God bless you, gentlemen. . Give way now, lads, smartly." ' The crew leaned to their oars and tlie : boat sprang liko a gull taking wing, ■ from the side of the Golden Hope, i whilst Mr Fortescue stopped back from • the rail with a sob in his throat, for this i was an ocean incident to move him i deeply, since it was a manifestation of j God's love and mercy upon an element ■ that was novel to him as tho sceno of i many thousands of men's toil, danger, 1 privations, and death. ' How mighty looked the' deep to his eyes as ho j glanced, for the space of a breath, i around him ? How little, he thought, . < was man in comparison to it! How ' tender, how far-seeing, waß the Eye that < marked the fall of a human being into a j depth and surface so vast ! It was a j natural reverie for a clergyman to fall j jnto, but ho was speedily interrupted by J the eri.es of the men hoisting the boat in j over the side, and by Stone approaohing him and saying that another minute 1 would have settled the seaman's busi- ] ness, that his life depended upon the 5 snatch made at him by Will Breeches j when the poor fellow's face camo livid ( out of the froth of the sea that broke 1 over him as the boat approached, and 1 that had it not been for Hiram's' ma- s ncouvro of .making the schooner tow the. i boat to the man he would have gone j down. i The ocean was glorious at that mo- i mont; you would have thought that a i larger spirit of gladness had been put. c into the flashing, windy, salt and frothy t sceno by tho deliverance of the poor 1 j sailor from tlie cold and bitter death t that lay under all this brightness and i beauty. Every long line of foam glit- s tered like frost in the sun, tho bluo of 1 tho sea .took a tone of tenderness from 1 the touching in many parts of it of tho j

sailing violofc shadow of the clouds, and the wind seemed full of music as it blow like tho strains of a band heard too far off to distinguish the airs through the rigging arid under the foot of tho sails of the schooner that lay curtseying upon the surges till the boat should hare reached the American. A few long, hearty strokes of the oars did this for nor. Tho resoued man was handed through the gangway, and in a few moments the. boat was hooked on and rising to the davits. "Eound in on your forebraces !" rang out Hiram. " Sharp up with the yards, lads !" and the Golden, Hope was once more leaning from tho breeze and shearing in a smother of froth out of one hollow down into another; whilst the big four-masted Yankee was manoonvring to got down again and in trim upon the port tack. As the schooner passed, the American captain, standing on tho rail, shouted with one hand against his mouth, "Wo thank you much for your humanity, and we heartily admire your smart seamanship." Hiram sprang on to the rail, and putting the whole of his husky voice into an effort that turned hjs face crimson and came near to starting his eyes altogether out of their sockets, ho bellowed, " We're always glad to sarre a relation!" '" • It was a touch that seemed to be appreciated ; anyhow it was'extremely pat to the emotionalism of that moment; hats and handkerchiefs were waved aft ; three hurricane cheers were delivered by the crew, many of whom managed to show themselves over the bulwarks and flourish their caps,' whereupon the crow of the schooner sprang into the rigging and gave the Yankees three British cheers in return, which was followed in proper sea fashion by one more cheer from the Americans. Then each vessel dipped her flag three times, to the other, the gracefullesfc of farewells, nevermore touching than, when the flags are the red or white of Great Britain and the radiant bunting of the great Republic, and beautiful as well as graceful when the fine old courtesy has the setting of such sea and sky, so blue, so pure, so joyous as sparkled under and beamed down upon the Columbia and the G-olden Hope. But though tho schooner was the first to start afresh, the ship was speedily after hor; she was kept a rapful, set all royals, and ran up her foretopmast stunsail, and thus by degrees crossed the schooner's wake, passing her to leeward. " Ha !" said Hiram, laughing and addressing Stone, "that's to please the ladies and persuade the male passengers into a higher ideal of the Columbia's speed, than they've got by observing the time it took for her to. overhaul us." " Well, a point off till it draws on dark ain't going to signify much when there's a reputation to keep up," answered Stone. "Ay," said Hiram, "an' since we've done 'em one sarvice let's oblige 'em still furdor by enabling of them to draw away fast." ■ He called to the man at the tiller, " Luff you may !" and when tho foretopgallant sail was half aback, and the topsail lifting with every plunge, the order was " Nothing off!" with tho result, of course, that the Columbia went by at tho rate of threo feet to the schooner's one. A noble sight, truly ! One vast surface of canvas with an echoing of wind booming out of every swollen concavity, that might have passed for tho thundering of a storm among hills, supported, by tho long, slender, leaning hull so urged by the mighty impulse of the canvas that it was all clean, cutting through the seas with it, quo endless savage shearing and spearing of the metalled cut-water hissing like red-hot iron, with a tall fountain playing in dolphiu-like tints from tho contact of the rushing stem with the resisting water ! And yet, spite of Hiram's friendly "wind jamming," the royals of that noble ship were visible at sun-down from the schooner's quarter-deck ! CHAPTER Xlll.— Doubts. Though Fortescue was in constant association, with Hiram and Stone, yet rarely did the curate say anything about the motive of the voyage. All reference to jt he seemed to have left north o£ tho • Equator, if ifc were not now and again for some light and quickly despatched allusion to the island j such, for instance, as he made when he asked if the trade wind blow over it. Hiram and Stone, it is true, would talk about the schooner's mission ; indeed they had so many secret conversations over it that they ended in somewhat fogging one another ; for as the voyage progressed, Hiram would bo found, wondering whether Stone's island was not as^much a dream of the old man as was the vision that had . sent them sailing to the Indian Ocean, in spite of his former manful support of Stone's veracity- at a time when Fortescue seemed sceptical; whilst Stone, influenced by tho skipper's scepticism as regards the curate's fancies, began to think that after all the journey was a most singularly conceived one, quite out of the way of ordinary human ideas, with perhaps d deal more of nerves in it than heaven's finger. These views slippod out from them one day when they wero off l'Agulhas ; tho schooner was running before a strong westerly breeze with a high sea chasing her, in a manner to make the man at the tiller somotimes glance uneasily over his shoulder; an albatross in pursuit, a noble white bird poisod on wings as treinorless as marble', inspecting the foaming furrow with arched neck and gleaming eyes for whatever might roll up good to eat out of tho froth ; the sky piebald with clouds, behind which tho sun rained down showers of gold, the sea-line rolling clear as glass to the sky that whitened down to it as though it reflected ice and snow beyond ; and : Hiram and Stone being on deck it was ; natural that the situation of the vessel, '■ which was, roughly speaking, twenty^ : ono degrees oast longitude, should set ' them talking about a shift of helm in a ' day or two for the Indian Ocean ; be- ' cause, as Hiram had already told his > mate, he had no idea of running half 1 way to Australia before heading north ' as was the custom with many ships ' bound to the East Indies. The Golden Hope was-a schooner, and he as skipper advocated short cuts. No lubberly ' middle passages for him, "If the son'- < east wind wasn't a blowiu'," ho said, ] "it ought to. Call Stone's island nor'- < east by n'or,fch from the longitood o' £ thirty and the latitood they was then a l foJJoAvin' of, and that 'u'd enable, thorn £ to giyp Madagasky a wide berth and find notheu in tlje. road to the west'ards but Roddergrew hislarid," ' " t "I only say supposin," continued 1 Hiram breathing quickly too, " because * I want to put myself right in case things £ should tarn out wrong. Stone knows I respect him rts a true man from the top t of his hair down to tho heels of his ? boots ; but a man may be true and yet i be in horror. , I don't say Stono is ; but 1 supposiu' this hero island of his has got t into his head as if it wur a fact, when « may be it wur only a fancy, just as your v wision, air, has led you on as though it t was all cocksure, and 's truo as if it had t taken place when yo.u was awake instead '■ of when you was asleep. What's goin' } to happen so far as my share in this s job's consaroed when wo jpornes to whore .t the island's marked ou the chart, and r it ain't tliere? What aro ye goin' to <3 say P Will it be put down to my bad i navigation or what? and if wo are to t keop all on huntiu' after it, how long 's i it to be for?" * "

Ho spoke with the same perfect tone of respectfulness that had all through marked his speech and manner to the curate, only he was now very emphatic. "Hiram," said Stone, "ye'vo made Mr Fortoscue very pale, mate; it's scarcely fair to him, as it's sartinly not right to me to talk as you have. I'm not a man to dream. I told you t'other day that if you'll navigate the Golden Hope to where I've named the hisland to be in, you'll find ifc there ; and I took leave to fancy thafc when that argument was concluded it wouldn't bo given rise to agin." " I hope Mr Fortescue sees my point. I trust he do, I'm sure," said Hiram. " Say what any of us may, tho voyage is a fantastic one, to bo ended as you hope, sir, I heartily pray; but there's so much that's wisionary in it that who's goin' to know the hisland ain't a wision too — — " , "I'm goin' to know it!" cried Stone. "Ay, an' so you may, but aren't delusions satisfyin' to the minds that entertains them ? Don't a mad woman when she calls herself the' Hempress 0' Proosia, believe that she's that party ? William, you may be the sanest man as ever trod the decks of a ship, and yet fancy you'd been shipwrecked, and talk about where it had happened; onderstand " "Mr. Stone," said Fortescue, in a low, trembling voice, turning his ashen face upon the old sailor, " you have not deceived me ?" " Sir, as there's a God in heaven, what I told you was the truth, and nothen but the truth." " You will swear ifc ?,' The old man lifted both hands looking up to the sky : "I swear it !" he replied with profound devotional earnestness of emphasis. "Why do you doubt himP" said Fortescue, who was trembling from head to foot, and speaking with nervous quickness to Hiram. "Doubt him, sir? Not I. I don't doubfc him. 'Tisn'fc his belief that Idoubt; but," cried Weeks, "what I want to be onderstood is that a man may speak tho truth of a- lie— swear, and sincerely swear to something ho believes happened, but which never did happen, and," he continued, drawing himself erect, " I choose this opportunity to beg of you, Mr Fortescue, to onder- j stand that if we don't see the hisland when we come to where Bill says it lies,' tho fault '11 not be mine." " Let that be so," said. Stone. " It's for me," exclaimed Hiram, " to carry the schooner to Stone's hisland; it's for Stone to be answerable for the hisland being in longitood heast seventy degrees thirteen minutes, and in latitood south ten degrees and forty minutes;and it's 'for you, Mr Fortoscue, to be satisfied whether the lady you're seekin' of be on, the hisland or not, so that all consarned in this wisionary ondertakin' may feel he's done his duty." " Let that bo so," repeated Stone. Mr Fortescue bowed his head without speaking. " Sail-ho !" shouted some fellow aloft. "Where away?" cried Hiram. "Dead ahead, sir!" Hiram went to the rail to look, but, seeing nothing, concluded that the sail would be hull down from tho deck, and stepped below for liis sextant, with, every appearance in him of being perfectly satisfied and at rest in his own | mind, 'sow thafc the considerations which had tumbled him were put squarely b-foiv Mr Forfcescue. Stdtic stood at the weather rail with fo'.Jsu arms looking towards the sea ahead. The clergyman walked over to him. / '• Why should Captain Weeks talk as if he doubted you P" he said, fixing his largo eyes on the old sailor, with an intensity of gaze that seemed the more penetrating for tho heightening of thoir own natural fires ,by the light flowing into them off the sea and the sky. '1 " I don't believe he do doubt me, Mr Fortescue," answered' Stone, meeting the clergyman's gaze with a troubled face. " What I understand is he fancies my island may be a delusion— only may he, look j'ou,' sir— and ho fears, if that be so, his not findin' of ifc '11 be set down' against his nautical knowledge. The notion's bin brought about by our talkin' of late. Long woyagos breed all sorts o' ideas. People fall out 'and make friends agin, wrongly suspect one. another and rightly ascertain the truth, and. grow sorry, git filled with mistaken notions and loses of 'em over arid over again in a passage of threo or four months. Hiram's growed wrongheaded because he's suddenly become sensitive about his feolih's as a navigator. But it'll come all right, sir." " Surely he can have no other reason than the one he has given for supposing the possibility of your being mistaken ?" said Mr Fortescuo, whoso emotions would inevitably lead him into putting all sorts of constructions upon Stone's manner, more particularly on the comparatively cool manner ho had exhibited whilst Hiram talked. "Well," said Stone, "I don't say, sneaking as a nautical man myself, that his fears aren't to bo appreciated. If that there island wasn't there, why, if I stuck out that it was, and you believed mo and stuck out for ifc too, sir, it 'ud sartinly make him feel boobyish-like when he worked out his sights and couldn't bring nothen in the shape of an island into view. Ho's allowed his feelin's as a sailor to hagitato him. And besides that •" the old fellow paused and tried to look as if he had done talking. " Besides what P " said Mr Fortescuo. "Well, sir," exclaimed Stono with unnecessary energy, due to the effort he made to speak," "you heard Hiram call this voyage visionary. It is so, and there's no use denying of ifc. The Lord has spoke to man in dreams and : I don't doubt he spoke to you, sir. 1 There's nothen else to account for so many circumstances of your wision : proving true. But Hiram's got an intellect that can't rise so high up as 1 an occasion of this sort needs. To J speak the truth, which you'd always -I require of a man, and without a particle 1 of pffence, for his ideas oan't signify 1 anything to you, .he's still of opinion ■' thafc you're haeting under a delusion ; 1 and him and me talking of that, and < then his wondering how the voyage'll 3 end,_ has sot him speculatin' on me and t my island." t " But the island is no delusion P " i "Why, certainly, of course ifc ain't," 1 said Stone with a smile. "No more a t delusion than^ this here schooner is. t How could a 'man bo cast away on a s delusion, swaller sulphur-tastin' water 3 and catch turtles on a delusion, and sail 1 away .from a delusion and get the situation of ifc from tho master of the t wesscl that picked him up P " " Hero Hiram arrived on deck to " shoot the sun," and the conversation between ' v Portescue and Stone ceased, The clergy- s man walked forward into the eyes of tho " schooner, as was at i imos his custom I ivhen emotion got the better of him, for t there was a life here, a spirit of flashing s Hid thrilling vitality, such as ho found c in no other part of tho vessel, and that s liad often acted as a mental tonic when il tho solitudo of the cabin or the sameness p >f the quarter-deck would have been a without influence, The men, of course, i( took no notice of Jiim, if it were not for d the wriggle of a hand to a forehead as 10 passed; and, folding his arms, he s' caned upon tho rail betwixt the bow- h sprit and tho cathead, and fell into deep tl thought to the accompaniment of the vi roaring and hissing and boiling of the si Jivided waters, to whose frothing sur- si Pace' ho would often bo depressed by ci the leonine leap of tho flying schooner into a trough till he' could have grasped h l>is hands full of the sparkling spume, <

■■ .—ij. I— -■ ...— ti..'.' .ii 11 1.. . '.iinj.,...., ..■._..-■■■■.-„ — :.. ... It was perfectly reasonable that he should be deeply agitated and affected by what Hiram had said, and by his few words afterwards with Stone. There had been a brief time during the voyage when he had wondered if Stone was sincere ; if the island he had said he was shipwrecked on were real or corresponded with the island Mr Fortescue had boheld in his dream. Those doubts had now been set at rest. Hiram had .testified to Stone's honesty. Then ho had been now long enough intimate with tho old man to feol sure he was trustworthy up to the hilt. But ifc was to originate an altogether now misgiving, something widely remote from any former doubts, to suggest' thafc Stone might be under a delusion. Captain Weeks had put the point cleverly enough when he represented that Bill, as he called him, might be perfectly sincere in his fancy thafc he knew and had been cast away on tho island of Mr Fortescue's i dream, and act as if his delusion wero heaven's truth. Was such a thing possible? It might seem more so to a man of the temperament of the clergyman than to one of a less imaginative and nervous nature. He had himself read of, had heard instances of men, whose sanity was unquestionable, whose principles were unimpeachable, being governed by a belief in something they had seen, or something that had befallen them, which was as purely an illusion as the mirage, or the many ghosts which have been observed and run from since tho days of the witch of Endor. If this should be the case with Stone, if it had so happened that one of the printed " slips " the curate had caused to be circulated, should have fallen into the hands of the ono seaman living, who imagined he had been shipwreoked on such an island as the sketch portrayed, how frightful would be the disappointment ! ■ how hopeless the outlook ! for, though he knew the island of his dream to exist, where should he seek it ? and what would have been Agatha's fate by the timb he had found it, if discoverable ifc were, upon the mighty surface where he believed it lay j He asked himself could the plain, unlettered mind of Stone be possessed by- imaginations so- vivid and logical as the ono he had submitted' at Wyloo, when he told' the story of the chase of the Snow, her sinking, his' and his, mates'; sufferings, upon the island? He turned to look at the square figure of the old fellow standing near the tiller, then resumed his former attitude, and went on thinking. He said to himself, "Captain Weeks believes ,that I am being urged by a delusion. I know better : yet— -yet— it might prove so ! " A fancy that startled him; ifc seemed impious, and he looked up to tho blue sky as if for forgiveness ; yet it was a consistent thought, for he meant to reason to himself that just as his dream, real to himself, seemed a delusion 1 to Hiram, so might Stone's assertion of his shipwreok and the whereabouts of the island be absolutely real to the old sailor, and yet an inexpressible deception ! This was the programme. Old Stone said yes to it, knowing nothing of navigation. And certainly it was good enough, because Hiram know the schooner's wonderful sneaking qualities in light airs and powerful weatherly capacity in head winds; and he would I therefore disdain, as a master of a steamer in these days might, the beaten tracts of sober old tea .wagons which would put fifty or sixty degrees of longitude between them and tho Cape before turning their apple-shaped haws, towering bowsprits, and cut-waters as thick as an old oak tree, northward to the sun. Well, they were talking this programme over again, and Hiram said, " Tho woyage has been middling smart so far: there's nothen as y%t, I allow, to disapppoint Mr Fortescue ? " "Why, no," answered Stono; "tho schooner's behaved as I told him she would ; everything's gone right : there's ne'er a word to be said again the crew." "But what'll he think, Bill," said Hiram, chewing the marine cud mcdi : "tatively, whilst he cast an earnest lookwith his protruding eyes iipon ' his 'companion,' " ifwe,:shouldn''t be able to find that hisland of yours? " ' > ■ "Oh, we can't bo missin' of it," said , Stone. " What I sometimes thinks this: what'll he say if ho should land on the island an* discover that his girl ain't there, and never has been there, an' that it's all a wision, 1 jusfc as you believe it to bo P". "Well," responded Hiram, "my notion's so fixed on thafc matter that arguing of it's no use. What's been ocoupyin' my mind lately is this, Bill : supposin' we can't find that hisland?" "But I say we're bound to find it," replied Stono. "Ay, that's all werry well; but supposin' we don't?" exclaimed Hiram emphatically. "Why, if we don't, wo don't," said Stone, with an indescribable sourness in his voice and face such as will rise from the tho soul of the best-natured old seaman when he is contradicted. " But it won't bo for the island not being where ifc is." "In the Hindie Ocean?" " Sartinly. In the Hindie Ocean." "Well," said Hiram, "of course I shall sail to where you say it is ; but if it ain't to bo found by ratchin' about and overhaulin' the water where it's supposed to be, I hope the fault'll not be put down to my navigating of tho schooner, Bill." 11 Ye know the latitude and yo , know the longitude," said Stone, "andifye'll J put the schooner where them imaginary lines is drawed out upon tho chart tho island'll be close aboard if we aint ashore upon it." "The fact is," said Hiram, rubbing one eye and turning the other aloft to • mark perhaps the effect upon the canvas of an unusually heavy furl forward of the vessel at thafc moment by a sea that roared foaming along her sides as if it would unite its devided smother in the bows, "this here woyage is so extra- : hordinary, takin' it all round, that until : I sights that hisland of yours. Stone, 'I : shall consider it as strange as Mr For- 1 tescue's wision. It may be where you i say ifc is — that is, in the Hindio Ocean, | but not in the part I've wrote cjown, and 1 consequently if I don't find it, I'll tell i yo wnat'll happen. Mr Forfcescue '11 i think you've been deceiving him, and 1 that what we've agreed to call Stone's 1 island is all in my eye, or you'll say its < my fault, and thafc I didn't know whero s to find ifc, which may persuade Mr For- t fcescue that I dunno my business ; and 30 we shall find ourselves lauded in what 1 you may .call a reg'lar all round £ muddle." 1 "But what causes you to take vie ws 0 E s ;his kind now ?" exclaimed Stono. 1 ' Why not afore ? " 1 ' c " Because the time's fast coming when t ye shall be heaving your hisland in t light, if its there to heave," said Hiram. ' Because where's the harm in talking, a Bill? Suppose, as I've said, it ain't f ;here. I don't want to say more than s mppose," he exclaimed with a depre- v iatory wave of liis hand .seeing remon- d itrance strong in Stone's face. "Suppose v b ain't there. Suppose we mfss it. Sup- 0 )ose we can't find it. How are wo so to act £ md prowido as they says in litigatin' that d fc shall be onderstood we've done our si LutyP" ' " ' a "What I've said Til repeat," • an- q wcrcd Stone, "if you steers us to the 1 atitudo and longitude given you, a: he island '11 be thoro; if it ain't it it ron't bo becauso its sunk but because oi onothing '11 ha' gone wrong with your si extent and compasses, if it isn't the y reonometor that's out." .', • ' s\ It was a stupid argumonfc, and as Stono, as lad said, it came a deal too late ; but it tl ook significance from the oir'cujnstance k]

of Hiram thinking it his duty, to speak to Mr Fortescue ; the notion in his mind being that whether Stone's island was or was not as much a dream as the clergyman's vision, the whole, voyage was so singular that whatever might prove the result of it, it was his business to see "all clear" for himself, so that nobody should be able to say Ihe had been " hacted upon by delusions" — for it was in this language he thought. It took him some time to make up his mind, however, and many quids of tobacco were consumed ere his ruminations terminated in a resolution ; it was then a . forenoon watch ; after taking sights, Hiram intended to head the ship to the north and east for the island. He alono knew this, and was excited byit. Stone was on deck and Mr Fortoscue. The sky was clear, and there was a fresh westerly wind blowing, and the schooner was making noble way with her head pretty nearly dead east, the long Pacific surge following her, and her squaresail. pulling ' with tho- driving power of a marine engine. The curate, seated on the skylight, was watching with dreamy eyes the monotonous swing of the seas, noting how the intervals between them had the regularity of the stroke of a pendulum, as you might have told by counting during the sternwards heave, the leaning poise, the lurching leap across the half sea between, and then the dip of the nose of the schooner into the whitoness swirling out all around her bows : and he was admiring, to.i, if dreamily, the beautiful ; appearance of glass-like eminence each billow offered as it rose in a pure blue fold till its attenuated height let the sunshine strike a coloring of gold through it, ore, with that exquisite arching of brow you must go to the mighty Pacific to witness in perfection, it broke into snow and came creaming to the schooner, with the wondrous power that raised her, hidden under the yeasty boiling. Stone stood near looking at the dipping canvas of a sail hull down, and a mereflim to leeward. Hiram approached. " Mr Fortescue, in another hour we shall be shifting our helm for a straight course for the island Stone here was cast away upon." The clergyman started, turned a shade paler, and his eyes brightned as he oried, "In another hour !" There was a look of fear in his face which Hiram noticed and thought remarkable, because he had imagined tho news he had given would have delighted the curate. At least it seemed fear to Hiram and perhaps to Stone, but what if was went much further than that, though fear was in it ; it was the suddenly enforced realisation, so to speak, of the approaching end of his mission; nor could his deep conviction of the truth of the revelation made to him in his sleep still the agitation of the human instincts that hoped and feared and^ doubted, spite of the opiate of siipernaturalism, of tho soothing influence of a profoundly confiding mysticism. "In another hour!" ho exclaimed. "Idid not think we had made easting enough. But this is noble sailing, Captain Weeks." " Ay, it is ; noble's the word, sir. If ifc ain't twelve knots I'll pay a pound • a mile for what it's under. "What distance have we now to measure ?" said Fortescue, still preserving in his face the look that Hiram 1 regarded as fear. " Pretty nigh four thousand miles," answered Hiram, " supposin 1 , of course, Stone's island to be where Bill says it is." ' . ■ Stone was about to speak when Mr Fortescue said in >a voice in which he could not subdue the eagerness. " How long shall we take to sail that distance ?" " Calculatin' by what we've done, you may say we shall ha' fetched the place whero Stone's island is marked upon my chart by the beginnin' of June." "It will be a quick passage. It is a wonderful stretch of ocean when one comes to think of it as beginning at Gravesend," said Mr Fortescue. "In , another hour you head for the island !" he exclaimed, bringing his hands together in an involuntary passionate gesture. Yes, Mr Fortescue," answered Hiram with a raven note in- his voice due to his desire to speak impressively and addressing the curate with his eyes on Stone, " in another hour we head for tho island. But — supposin' it ain't there ?" The , clergyman sprang to his feet. " What do youmean by that ?" he cried, so breathlessly, you would have thought he had been struck heavily on the breast. Butsuch thoughts oametoo late. The significance of this was made frightfully 1 apparent to him when he turned his eye's upon the. liorizon, and reflected how farstretching it ,was and through what ocean the brave little schooner was now bearing him. Too late ! By many days, by many weeks too late for him to dare to dream that there was aught of delu- I siveness in any detail of this voyage. So far as Stono's sincerity went, so far as Hiram's capacity as a navigator went, he must bo patient. If they should come to a part of the ludian Oceaniand Hiram should say, "Here is tho place where the island should be," and no island should be visible, what then? They might deem the old seaman's bearings erroneous, and sail here and there for a weok or a fortnight, and still not find the island, what then ? ,Why, such an issue could simply prove that Stone was under tho delusion that Hiram had suggested ; but not that the vision that had won the clergyman to 1 this voyage was false. No! the Vorulam had been burnt. Agatha had esciped in one of the boats that had roached tho island after many days, and had gone to pieces in tho surf ; Agatha had been borne ashore by a courageous, unselfish hand, and upon the island, with streaming hair, with wild and burning eyes, with hollow ghastly face, with arms outstretched in agony of entreaty, she had appealed to him to come and save her ! It was all as true as that the sun was shining up there in the north with the mastheads of the speeding schooner reeling to and from him. What then was to follow failure of the discovery of the island? Tho poor follow lifted his glistening eyes to God. His refuge was there : he was in His hands ; tho wondrous inspiration that urged him would not fail him. If the island were not where William Stone declared ifc to be what could hedo but leave the piloting of his little ship to heaven, and go on searching till the island rose above the sea-line P These woro his thoughts which he might have prolonged for another hour; 30 many ana strange wero tho emotions liis imagination, his religious enthusiasm, his determined faith tinctured by mysticism, raised in him, but for Stono joining forward and saying " The captain's desired me to call your attention ;o that little vessel out youder ahead." He turned to look at the' old man first, md his face startled Stone, for it was lull of what was in his mind, an expreslion quite indescribable — comparable nay bo to what you see in one who beams with intense vividness a dream vliose fabric is full of the alternations if radiance and gloom, sweeping into ho heart hope and fear, delight and Iread, and joy full of sanctity swiftly - uddening into misgiving. It acted like , speech upon Stone, for he answered it luickly and with an emotionalism Mr g-j iortescuo had observed in him before, nd which' ho would now fearasindioatag qualities of mmd easily productive f delusion : "As God's livin 1 it's true, ]?] ir. Don't let what's been said worrit an ou. Thinkiu' '11 only harm, ye, and mi pcakjn,' to you as a man, Mr Fortescue, Cc s nib and Hiram are men, we'vo all *■* iree got to wait a spell yet afore we can & now who's right and whose wrong." I

Tho clergyman smiled with a singular gentleness and sweetness. "Aye, Mr Stone, ,it is as you say, we must wait. I have patience and hope, 'and time can only whet Captain Weeks' curiosity, so that he will be supported, too. What did you say to mo just now P" " Why, sir, that there was a saiL out there, D'ye see her ? A bit of a boat, thafc, Mr Fortescuc, for the swells and seas of such an ocean as this that goes all tho way round the world right past j Orstralia back again to th' Horn." It was the vessel that had provoked the cry of " sail-ho !" and that had been taken by Hiram to be hull down when in reality she was but a few milos ahead. - She was steering to the eastward as the . schooner was, and she was a little cutterrigsed craft of about 15 tons, a mere top ou the water, and for that reason, perhaps, of an indescribable gracefulness as she rose to the height of a sea, then vanished behind its fojd with her boom on the quarter, her milk-white canvas sweeping her onwards, as a sea-gull goes when it rounds to leeward and sails with' the wind — an image indeed, which the stretch of , cloths she showed would render perfectly appropriate, particularly the expansion of her squaresail and her half-topsail on the weather side, and, on the other, the hollows of the mainsail and gafftopsail, white •as suow in tho sun; for, they looked wings indeed, surveyed from the deck of the Golden Hope, when you saw the black blot of tho hull, foreshortened into the mere square of the stern running up the chasing volume of blue, where liko a poised bird the cutter seemed to linger a second, as if hesitating whether to fly skywards or leap into tho valloy opening under her stem. (To be continued.)