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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9103, 11 July 1888, Page 3

the distant castle-like poop, showing clearly the dark line of bulwarks, whilst a deeper dye of blackness entered into the hull from the shadow between the corpus eants on high and their mirroring beneath. . " Thanks be to God for the sight of those lights I" exclaimed a deep voice, sounding out among the men. "It's a saint's hand as kindles them, I've heard • and , there'll be a breeze With luck behind it presently." " See, Mr. Hall I" cried I, pointing. "Do you observe the figures of men ? Look along the line of the forecastle—one, two, three—l count six there; and look right aft on that bit of a poop. Do you mark a couple of shapes viewing us as if with folded arms ?" "Yes !" He paused, staring, then added, "Those lights are familiar enough to me I've seen them scores of times," speaking in whispers, which trembled back to their former notes of consternation ; " but there's something frightful about them now—and yonder one," pointing to our yardarm, " and the sight they show. She's no natural ship," he said, pulling off his cap, and passing his hand over his forehead. '' Would to God a breeze would come and part us." " Hail him again, sir !" " Hail him you, my throat is dry." I walked right aft to bring me more abreast of the silent, motionless figures on the stranger's poop, and jumping on to the rail, caught hold of the vang of the spanker-gaff to steady myself, and putting a hand to my mouth, roared out, " Ship ahoy! What ship is that and stopped breathless, so that I seemed to hear the echoes of my own voice among the sails of the stranger. " What ship is that?" now came back in a deep organ-like note, and the two figures separated, one walking forward, and the other stepping, as I had, on to the bulwark over the quarter gallery. " The Saracen, of London, bound to Indian ports," I responded. "I will send a boat!" cried the man, in the same deep-throated voice. "If you do, we'll fire into it 1" screamed a seaman on our deck. " Mates— Hall, you see now what he is ! Keep them off! — keep them off!" at which there was a sudden hurrying of feet, with many clicking sounds of triggers sharply cocked, by which I knew our men had armed themselves.

The corpus sant at our yardarm vanished ; in a few seconds it showed itself afresh midway up the mainmast, making a wild light all around it; those on the stranger burned steadily, and I believed a third had been kindled on her, till I saw it was a lantern carried along the deck. There was a stillness lasting some minutes. What they were about we could not see ; anon came a creaking, as of ropes travelling in blocks, then a light splash ; the lantern dropped jerkily down the ship's side, plainly grasped by a man ; flashes of phosphorus broke out of the water to the dip of oars, like fire clipped from a flint. I felt a faint air blowing, but did not heed it, being half frenzied with the excitement and fear raised in me by what I could now —thanks to the light of the St. Elmo fires, and the mystic crawlings of flames on the vessel's sideswas a boat, square at both ends, with the gunwale running out into horns, rowed by two figures, whilst a third stood upright in the bows, holding high a lighted lantern in one hand, and extending his other arm in a posture of supplication. At this instant a yellow glare broke in a moontide dazzle from our own ship's rail, and the thunder of twenty muskets fired at once fell upon my hearing. I started with the violence of the shock breaking in upon me, heedlessly let go the chain that I had been grasping with my left hand, and fell headlong overboard.

CHAPTER XII) I AM RESCUED BY THE DEATH SHIP.

I rose to the surface from a deep plunge, but being a very indifferent swimmer, it was as much aa I could doclothed as I was— keep myself afloat by battling with my hands. I heard the rippling of the water about my ears, and I felt a deep despair settle upon my spirits, for I knew that the air that blew would carry my ship away from me and that I must speedily drown. I struggled hard to keep myself afloat, freely breaking the water in the hope that the light and whiteness of it might be seen. Four or five minutes thus passed, and I was feeling my legs growing weighty as lead, when I noticed a light approach me. My eyes being full of wet, I could see no more than the light, what held or bore it being eclipsed by the spikes and fibres that shot out of it ; as you notice a candle flame when the sight is damp. I could also hear the dip and trickle of oars, and tried to shout; but my brain was giddy, my mind sinking into a babbling state, and in truth I was so exhausted that but for the sudden life darted into me by the sight of the lamp, I am sure I should then and there have clenched my hands above my head and sunk. The lantern was flashed full upon my face and I was grasped by my hair. He who seized me spoke, and I believed it was the voice of one of the men in my watch, though I did not catch a syllable of his speech. After which I felt myself grasped under each arm and lifted out of the water, whereupon I no doubt fainted, for there is a blank between this and what followed, though the interval was very short. ' When I opened my eyes, or rather when my senses returned to me, I found myself lying on my back, and the first thing I noticed was the moon shining weakly amid thin bodies of vapour which the wind had set in motion, and which sped under her in puffs like the smoke of gunpowder after the discharge of a cannon. I lay musing a little while, conscious of nothing but the moon and some dark stretches of sail hovering above me; but my mind gathering force, I saw by the cut of the canvas that I was on board a strange ship ; and then did I observe three men standing near my feet watching me. A great terror seized my heart. 1 sprang erect with a loud cry of fear, and rushed to the rail to see if the Saracen was near that I might hail her, but was stayed in that by being seized by the arm.

He who clutched me exclaimed in Dutch, " What would you do ? If you could swim for a week you would not catch her." I perfectly understood him, but made no reply, did not even look at him, staring about the sea for the Saracen in an anguish of mind not to be expressed. Suddenly I caught sight of the smudge of her, and perceived she was heading away on her course ; she, was'out on our starboard beam. I cast my eyes aloft, and found the yards of the ship I was in braced up to meet the wind on the larboard tack, whence I knew that every instant was widening the space between the two vessels. On mastering this I could have dashed myself down on the deck with grief and terror. One of the group observing me as if I should fall, extended his hand, but I shrunk back with horror, and covered my face, whilst deep hysteric sobs burst from my breast, for now, without heeding any further appearances, I knew that I was on board the Phantom Ship, the Sea Spectre, dreaded of mariners, a fabric accurst of God, in the presence of men dead and yet alive, more terrible in their supernatural existence, in their clothing of flesh whose human mortality had been rendered undecayiug by a fate that shrunk up the soul in one to think of, than had they been ghosts—essences through which you might pass your hand, as through a moonbeam !

I stood awhile as though paralysed, bub was presently rallied by the chill of the night wind striking through my streaming clothes. A lantern was near where the three men were grouped, no doubt the same that had been carried in the boat, but the dim illumination would have sufficed for no more than to throw out the proportion of things within its sphere, had it nob been helped by the faint moonlight and a corpus sant that shone with the powers of a planet close against the blocks of the jeers of the mainyard. 'Twas a ghostly radiance to behold the men in, bub I found nerve now to survey them. There were three, as I have said ; one very tall, above six feet, with a greyalmost white—beard, that descended to his waist; the second was a broad, corpulent man, of the true Dutch build, without hair on his face ; in the third man I could see nothing striking, if it were not for a ruggednees of seafaring aspect. I could nob distinguish their apparel beyond • that the stout man wore boots-'to the height of his knees, whereas the tall personage was clad in black hose, shoes with large buckles, and breeches terminating at the knees; their head dresses were alike, a sort of cap of skin with flaps for the ears. " Do you speak Dutch ?" said the tallest of the three, after eyeing me in silence, whilst a man could have counted a hundred. He it was who had responded bo ray ha" from th.? Saracen, as my ear imuiedi-

ately detected—now that I had ray faculties—by the deep organ-like melodiousness and tremor of his voice. I answered "Yes."

"Why were your people afraid of us? We intended no harm. We desired but a little favour — small quantity of tobacco, of which we are short." , This speech I followed, though, some of the words, or the pronunciation of them, were different from what I had been used to hear at Rotterdam. He spoke imperiously, with a hint even of passion, rearing himself to his full stature, clasped his hands behind him, and stared at me as some Indian King might at a slave. Sir," said I, speaking brokenly, for I was a slow hand at his tongue, and besides, the chill of my clothes was now become a pain, " first let me ask what ship is this, and who are you and your men who have rescued me from death !" • "The name of this ship is the Braave,' he answered, in his deep, solemn voice. "I, who command the vessel, am known as Cornelius Vanderdecken ; the three seamen to whom you owe your life, are Frederick Houtman, John de Bremen, and this man, indicating the rough, uncouth person who stood on his left, " the mate, Herman Van Vogelaar." I felt a sensation as of ice pressed to my chest when he pronounced his own name, yet, recollecting he had called his ship the Braave, I asked, though 'twas wonderful he could follow my utterance : " What port do you belong to 2" "Amsterdam." " Where are you from ?" "Batavia." '■*

I said, " When did you sail ?" "On the twenty-second of July in last year ! By the glory of the Holy Trinity, but it is dreary work; see how the wind heads us even yet 1" He sighed deeply and glanced aloft in a manner that suggested grievous weariness. " Last year !" I thought, a sudden elation expanding my 60ul and calming me as an opiate might. "If that be so, why, then, though this ship had made a prodigiously long voyage of it from Java to these parallels, there is nothing wildly out of nature in such tardiness." Last year! Had I caught the true signification of the words he used?

"Pray, sir," said I, speaking in as firm a voice as the shivers which chased me permitted, " what might last year be?" The mate, Van Vogelaar, growled out some exclamation I could not catch, the captain made a gesture with his hands, whilst their burly companion said in thick, Dutch accents, "It needs not saltwater, but good, strong liquor to take away a Hollander's brain."

" Last year !" exclaimed Vanderdecken, unbending his haughty, imperious manner, "why, mynheer, what should be last year but 1653?"

CHAPTER XIII. WY ZYN AL VER.DMGMD.

When he said this, I felt like one in whom there is suddenly wrought a dual action of the brain, where from one side, so to say, there is darted into the mind thoughts utterly illogical and insane, which the same side marvels at, and seeks to reject, though if the fit linger the whole intelligence may be seized. I recollect of seeking for confirmation of the words of the man who styled himself Vanderdecken, in the ship, and of noticing for the first time, that upon the planks of the deck which were out of the reach of the corpus sant, were the same crawling, elusive fires, as of phosphorus, creeping and coming and going upon a dark wall, which I had observed on the vessel's sides. Several figures of men moved forward. Close beside me was a small gun of the kind carried by ships in the beginning of the last century, termed a light saker, and discharging a six-pound ball. There were three of these on the larboard side, and, in the haze of the moonlight and the sheen of the jelly-like star that shone with a pure, pale gold over my head, I could discern upon the bulwarks of, the quarter-deck and poop several swivels furnished with handles for pointing them. I also observed a short flight of steps conducting to the quarter-deck, with two sets of a like kind leading to the poop, the front of which was furnished with a door and little window.

Those matters I took in with a sweep of the eye, for the light was confusing, a faint, erroneous • ray glancing from imperfect surfaces and' flinging half an image and then, an indescribable fear possessing me again, I looked in the direction where! had last beheld the smudge made by the Saracen, and, not seeing her, cried out wildly, in my broken Dutch, " Sirs, for the love of God, follow my ship, and make some siignals that she may know I am here." "Skipper," exclaimed the smooth-faced, corpulent man, who proved to be the boatswain, Antony Jans, "after their cowardly inhumanity in firing upon a small unarmed boat, and putting in peril the life of our mate, Von Vogeftiar, we should have nothing more to do with her." " Henceforth this Englishman will know that the Dutch are a merciful people,' said Van Vogelaar, scornfully. " Had our nationalities been reversed, he would have been left to drown as a tribute to the courage of his comrades." Whilst this was said, Vanderdecken continued to regard me steadfastly and with great sternness, then on a sudden relaxing his frown, he exclaimed in that wondrous voice of his, which put a solemn music into his least utterance: "Come — you shiver with the cold and have the look of the drowned. Jans, send Prins to me ; sir, please to follow." He motioned in a haughty manner towards the poop and walked that way. One desperate look I cast round the sea, and then with a prayer to God, that this experience might prove some eclipse of my reason from which my mind would float out bright afresh ore long, I followed the great figure of the captain, but with a step so faltering from weakness and grief, that he, perceiving my condition, took me by the elbow and supported me up the ladder to the cabin under the poop, Whether it was this courtesy or owing to a return of my manhood—and I trust the reader will approve the candour with which I have confessed my cowardicewhatever might be the reason, I began now to look about me with a growing curiosity. The interior into which Captain Vanderdecken conducted me was of a dingy yellowish hue, such as age might complexion delicate white paint with. An oil lamp of a very beautiful, elegant, and rare pattern, furnished with eight pains of glass, variously and all choicely coloured with figures of birds, flowers, and the like, through the opening at the bottom let the white light of the oil-flame fall, fair on to the table and the deck, swung by a thin chain from a central beam. The cabin was the width of the ship, and on its walls were oval frames, dusky as old mahogany, each one, as I suspected, holding a painting. Over the door by which the cabin was entered was a clock, and near it hung a cage with a parrot in it. OIE ports I could see no remains, and supposed that by day all the light that entered streamed through the windows on either side of the door.

The deck was dark as with age. At the after end there were two state cabins bulkheaded off from the living room, each with a door. The several colours of the lamp caused it to cast a r >diance like a rainbow, and therefore it was hard to make sure of objects amid such an intricacy of illumination ; but, as I have said, the sides of the cabin was a sickly dismal yellow, and the furniture in it was formed of a very solid square table, with legs marvellously carved, and a box beneath it, two benches on either hand, and a black high-backed chair—the back of withered velvet, the wood framing it cut into many devices—at the head or sternmosb end of it.

All these things were matters to be quickly noticed. The captain, first removing his cap, pointed to a bench, and lifting his finger, with a glance at the starboard cabin, said in a low tone, Sir, if you speak, be it softly, if you please," and then directed his eyes towards the entrance from the deck, standing erect, with one hand on the table, and manifestly waiting for the person he had styled Pi-ins to arrive. A ruby-coloured lustre was upon his face ; his waist down was in the white lamplight. He had a most noble port, I thought, such an elevation of the head, such disdainful and determined erectness of figure, as made his posture royal. There was not the least hint in his face of the Dutch flatness .and insipidity of expression one is usjd to in those industrious bub phlegmatic people. His nose was aquiline, the nostrils hidden by the moustachios which mingled with his noble Druidical beard. His forehead was square and heavy, his hair was scanty, yet abundant enough to conceal the skin of his head, his eyes were black, impassioned, re-

lentless, and a ruby star now shone in each which gave them a forbidding and formidable expression as they moved under the shadow of his shaggy brows. He wore a coat of stout cloth confined by buttons, and a belt round his waist. This, with his small clothes which I have described, formed a very puzzling apparel, the like of which I had never" seen. There were no rents, nor darns, nor patches—nothing to indicate that his attire was of great age. Yet there was something in this commanding person that caused me to know, by feelings deeper than awe or even fear, by instincts indeed not explicable, such as must have urged 'in olden times the intelligence to the recognition of those supernatural beings you read of in Scripture, that he was not as I was, as are other men who bear their natural parts in the procession from the cradle to the grave. The tremendous and shocking fears of Captain Skevington recurred to me, and methought, as I gazed at the silent, majestic seaman, that the late master of the Saracen who, by his ending, had shown himself a madman, might, as had other insane persons in their time, have struck in one of his finer frenzies upon a horrible truth. The mere fear of which caused me to press my hands to my eyes with a renewal of mental anguish and to entreat in a swift prayer to that Being, whom he who stood before me had defied, for power to collect my mind and for quick deliverance from this awful situation. Not a syllable fell from the captain till the arrival of Prins, a parched-faced, bearded man, habited in coarse woollen shirt, trousers of the stuff we call fearnought, and an old jacket. He made nothing of my presence nor condition, scarce glancing at me. " Get this Englishman a change of clothes," . said the captain. "Take what may be neeedful from my cabin. They will hang loose on him but must serve till his own are dry. Quick ! You see he shivers." All this was expressed in Dutch, but, as I have said before, of an antique character, and therefore not quickly to be followed ; whence I will not pretend that I give exactly all that was spoken, though the substance of it is accurately reported. The man styled Prins went to the larboard cabin at the end, whilst the captain, going to the table, pulled from under ib a great drawer, which I had taken to be a chest, from which he lifted a silver goblet and a strangely fashioned stone bottle. " Drink, sir," he exclaimed, with a certain arrogant impetuosity in his way of pouring out the liquor and extending the goblet. 'Twas neat brandy, and the dose a large mouthful; I tossed down the whole of it, and placed the goblet, that was very heavy and sweetly chased, on the table with a bow of thanks.

"That will put fire into your blood," said be, returning the cup and bottle to the drawer, and then folding his arms and looking at me under his contracted brows, wish his back to the lantern whilst he leaned against the table. "Are you fresh from your country ?" I told him that we had sailed in April from the Thames, and had lately come out of Table Bay. " Is there peace between your nation and mine?" he inquired, speaking softly, as though he feared to,awaken some sleeper, though, let his utterance be what it would, 'twas always melodious and rich. I answered, "No; it grieves me to say it, but our countries are still at war. I will not pretend, sir, that Great Britain has acted with good faith towards the Batavian Republic; their high mightinesses resent the infraction of treaties; they protest against the manner in which the island of St. Eustatia was devastated ; they hope to recover the Cape of Good Hope, and likewise their possessions in the Indies, more particularly their great Coromandel factory." "Of what are you speaking?" he exclaimed, after a frowning stare of amazement ; then waved his hand with a gesture half of pity, half of disdain. " You have been perilously close to death," he continued, " and this idle babble will settle into good sense when you have shifted and slept." He smiled contemptuously with a half look around, as though he sought another of his own kind to address, and said as one thinking aloud, " If Tromp and Evertens and De Witt and De Ruyter have not yet swept them off the seas, 'tis only because they have not had time to complete the easy task !" ' As he said this the clock over the door struck two. The chimes . had a hollow, cathedral-lite sound, as though indeed it was the clock of a cathedral striking in the distance. Glancing at the direction whence these notes issued, I was just in time to witness the acting of an extraordinary piece of mechanism ; that is to say, there arose to the top of the clock-case, that was of some species of metal dial plate of blue enamel protected with horn instead of glass—there arose, I say, the figure, of a skeleton, imitated to the life, holding in one hand an hour-glass on which he turned his eyeless sockets by a movement of the head, whilst with the other hand he grasped a lance or spear that, as I afterwards perceived, he flourished to every stroke of the clock-bell, as though he pierced something prostrate at his feet. The figure shrank into the inside of the clock when the chimes were over. As if to complete the bewilderment under which I laboured, scarce had the second chime of the clock rung its last vibration, when a harsh voice croaked out in Dutch :— " <E2Rrj Sgn al Untmmfi!" I started and cried out involuntarily and faintly, " My God !" "It was the parrot that spoke," said Captain Vanderdecken, with a softening of his looks, though he did not smile. " 'Tis the only sentence she seems able to pronounce. It was all she could say when I bought her." " Have you had her long, sir ?" I inquired, feeling as though I lay a-dreaming. "I bought her from a Chinaman of Batavia two days before we sailed as a gift for my eldest daughter—" Here he was interrupted by the arrival of Prins. " The clothes are ready, skipper," said he.

On this Vanderdecken, motioning me to be silent—a piece of behaviour that was as puzzling as ail other things—conducted me to the cabin from which Prins had emerged, and viewing the clothes upon the bed, said :

" Yes, they will do ; wear them, mynheer, till yours have been dried. Leave this door on the hook, you will then get light enough for your purpose from yonder lamp."

The dress consisted of warm knitted stockings, breeches of an old pattern, and a coat with a great skirt embellished with metal buttons, several of which were missing, and the remains of some gold lace upon the cuffs. In addition, there was a clean linen shirt, and a pair of South American hide boots, fawn-coloured. 'Twas like clothing myself for a masquerade to dress in such things, but for all that I was mighty pleased and grateful to escape from my own soaked attire. My costume made me feel ridiculous enough, for, whereas the boots might have belonged to a period when Shelvoke and Clipperton were plundering the Spaniards in the south seas, the coat was of a fashion of about thirty years past, whilst the breeches were such as merchant captains and mates wore when I was first going to sea. However, being changed and dry, I stepped forth, bearing my wet clothes with me, but they were immediately taken from me by Prins, who had been standing near the door unperceived by mo. On my appearing Captain Vanderdecken rose from the chair at the head of the table, but seemed to find nothing in my dress to amuse him. The vari-coloured light was extremely confusing, and it was with the utmost pains that I could discern the expression of his face, but, so far as 1 made out, it was one of extreme melancholy, touched with lights and shade by his moods, which yet left the prevailing character unchanged. " Will you go to rest?" said he. " lam willing to do whatever you desire," said I. " Your kindness is great and I thank you for it." "Aye," he replied, "spite of the war I'd liefer serve an Englishman than one of any other country. The old and the young Commonwealths should be friends. On either hand there are mighty heart? —you in your Blak- -■. your Aysoues, your Monks ; we .in our Van Tromp, whom the King of Denmark, to my great joy before I sailed, honourably justified to the people of Holland, and in Van Galen, Ruyter, with other skilled arid lion-hearted men, whom I shall glory in greeting on my return !" He seemed to reflect a moment, and suddenly cried, with a passionate sparkle in his eyes, " But 'twas cowardly in your captain to order his men to fire upon our boat. What did we seek ? Such tobacco as you could have spared, which we were willing to purchase. By the vengeance of Heaven, 'twas a deed unworthy of Englishmen."

I did not dare explain the true cause, and said, gently, "Sir, our captain lay dead in his cabin. The men, missing the chief, fell into a panic at the sight of this ship, for she showed large in the dusk, and we feared you meant to lay us abo :,'/,'. , "Enough!" he excl; i, imperiously. "Follow me to your cabin. ' He led the way on to the deck and we descended the quarter-deck ladder. [To be continued.]