Tales and Sketches.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 120, 2 August 1873, Page 16

Tales and Sketches.

THE LAST OP THE -PROSEEPINE. [TJiOM CHAMBEES’S JOTTENAI.] (CONCIiTXSION.) PAST 11. The receipt of the curt but forcible letter which Gregg had thought proper to send to me left me in a state ot perplexity which lasted long. The urgent and renewed appeals to me, on the part of the commander of the Proserpine, to ■ renounce my intention of going on with her to New Orleans, might indeed be due to the whim of a man half crazed by drink, but then on the other hand the advice might be good and sound. Gregg wished me well; of that I felt assured. I had served him, and he was grateful for such slight kindness as it had been in my power to render to one worse off than myself. Why was he so evidently anxious that I should leave the vessel? Was it that he knew of some peril personal to myself, which would be avoided were I to take my* passage down the river by another boat, and if so, why was he _ not more explicit in stating it p It was plain that the newly appointed skipper of the steamer would not, or could not, speak out frankly to apprise me of the reasons for his enigmatical hints and obvious uneasiness, and therefore I decided that it would be useless to go to him and demand an explanation of the affair. . ~ 0 T Besides of what should I be afraid P 1 had no enemy, to my knowledge, in all America. The little cash I carried was not enough to tempt the cupidity of any very dangerous gang of * sportsmen, such as sometimes infest a river-boat known to carry specie to a large amount, and few indeed were aware that I had even those few hundreds of dollars about bit person. Was Gregg cognisanof Mr Harman’s altered sentiments, tot wards me, and did he apprehend some violent quarrel as the sequel of our chance meeting on board the vessel of which my ex-employer was the owner? Scarcely, for Mr Harman, and myself had been too well accustomed to the habits of civilised society to resort to knife and pistol, as the swaggering brawlers of San Francisco are apt to do. Or could it be that Gregg’s pretended amazement when he saw me at Grand Gulf was a,feint to blind me to the fact that he was acting by the orders of Mr Harman, in whose pay he was, and that the merchant, having in some manaerbecome acquainted with my intentions, bad taken steps to remove from out of his way my distasteful presence ? In any case, I determined that I would stand my ground, and would not quit the steamer without better grounds for doing so than I was then conscious of. We reached Yidalia; but I was not among the two or three passengers who landed there, nor did Gregg attempt to renew his warning. To all appearance he did not even keep watch to see whether I should or not comply with his oracular advice, doing his duty with great vigilance and steadiness, and frequent as were his visits to the drinking-bar, betraying no sign of intoxication. That he was an excellent sailor and well used to the river I knew ; and in case his sobriety did not .fail him, I saw little risk of accident, whether from snag, sawyer, or sandbank. Well steered, the boat kept her course smoothly enough ; and if I fancied that ber old timbers strained and creaked too much under the impetus of the machinery, there was still nothing to cause alarm. The Proserpine was a very large boat. Her stowage was considerable; and when I praised the lavish use of decoration, the gilding, painting, mirrors, marbles, and velvet of her freshly adorned saloons, Lysander the sub-steward told me that the best of what was on board was in the bold. * French goods dey are —all belong Massa Harman Seventy—ninety—hundred tousand dollar!’ he declared, rolling his opal eyes with all an African’s enjoyment of the imposing sum-total. . The cargo, the captain, and the vessel were all alike puzzles to me. Harman Brothers had, in the period of commercial prosperity that had preceded the war, been chiefly exporters of cotton and im- ■ porters of the wares and agricultural produce of the North. This was the first time that Iliad heard of any transactions on the part of the firm in what are technic illy styled French goods ; but, to be sure, the principal had always kept a large part of the business wholly in bis own hands, and no clerk was ever consulted on matters outside his own department. At any rate, Mr Harman, must be the best judge of his own affairs; and with this reflection I left the mulatto, i whose prattle began to weary went once more on deck. the day wore on, and evening I could not but remark that activity prevailed in the The' deck hands were in carrying down fresh loads of feed the fires, the horse roar glare of which told that the must be very considerable. . Ont* again the head-engineer .came ladder to exchange a few words, subdued tone, as if of respectful remqH

stance, with Gregg, but after each of these interviews the efforts to get up a fuller head of steam were redoubled. The aged vessel groaned and shivered in every timber as the machinery worked .faster and faster, and the wash occasioned by our rapid passage increased until we seemed to be chased by a long line of tawny billows. Still, none of the passengers, so far as I could see, evinced the smallest anxiety as to the unnecessary speed of the steamer. Going at haphazard is so habitual in American travel, and suits so well with the national ways of thought, that caution is apt to be voted effete. When I ventured to remark to one fellow-voyager, a bearded Missourian, who stood beside me, looking across at the deep woods on one bank and the trim plantations on the other shore, lying level and dim behind the protecting ‘ levee,’ that the engines were working dangerously fast, considering the age of the boat and the approaching darkness, lie carelessly made answer : * Guess we’ll be all the sooner at New Orleans, squire. Let her rip !’ And with this proverbial expression of social philosophy, he turned away. On we went, while night crept in upon us, and from the swampy shore and the mud flats of the river there arose a dense white mist, that mingled with the long gray Spanish moss which hung in fantastic pendants, like the hoary beards and streaming hair of an army of giants, from the primeval trees of the Louisiana shore. The long sad cry of the whip-poor-will was quickly answered by the whoop of the owl and the whirring wings of the bats, while the shrill and mournful howls of wild animals arose at intervals from the tangled forest. There seemed to be an awakening, as day died out, of the birds and beasts that only leave their lairs under the shadow of night; but of man and his works nothing was visible except the white gleam of the embarkment that kept out the waters from the cultivated I was glad when the wan moon, not yet half full, threw her silvery gleam upon the sullen river, above which the mist hung like a giant veil. Seldom before, in a life that had not been wholly unadventurous, had I felt the same dull sense of a shapeless peril near at hand, against which it behoved me to guard. And yet what risk could there be, unless from the reckless hurry with which the fire was heaped with fuel, and the steamer forced aloDg ; and I had been too often in Mississippi boats madly racing in the struggle to be the first at some given point of arrival, to apprehend much danger on that score, if only no collision should occur. Captain Gregg, who still, avoided me, was unremitting in the discharge of Lis duty, and the Proserpine dashed on, under careful steering, unharmed by the floating timber that here and there specked the surface of the flood, or the more formidable obstruction of the sunken trees, firmly embedded in the mu»l of the shallows, and whose jagged and spear-like heads protruding from the water have proved fatal to many a craft. ‘ Hist ! just stop where you are, master, for a minit,’ said a deep voice, lowered to a hoarse whisper, in my ear : ‘ don’t pay attention now, but keep still, and I’ll be back in a jiffy. The skipper has eyes like a cat’s.’

The voice and the words alike sounded strangely to me, but two or three of the firemen and deck-hands were passing rear me at the time, staggering under their burdens of fuel to replenish the greedy fires below, and one of them must have been the speaker. Mechanically complying with the advice of my unknown friend, I remained quietly where I was, feigning unconsciousness, and leaning on the bulwark, continued to watch the evening stars peeping with their tremulous lustre through the shimmering haze, and the cold gleam of the white moonlight on the turbid river. The captain, who had been standing at no great distance from me, soon moved away, and in another minute a stealthy figure came creeping among the bales and hencoops, as a lizard crawls among the stones, and stood at my side. By the dim light I could see that he was one of the crew, a wiry little man, with crisp gray hair curling under his tattered straw hat, but who had an unmistakable air of seamanhood about him, in spite of his dirty jacket of butternut-colored homespun. Deck hands of a Mississippi steamer are usually a miscellaneous collection of waifs and strays, Germans and Irish predominating, and there was something singular in finding a genuine sailor in such a position. ‘All right, sir. Mr Alfred —my eyes are better nor yours, old as I am’ —said the intruder, very cautiously ; ‘ or else, which is likely, your face is less altered Ajmthat of Sam Kentish’ HHBfcMflffi^^Kentish! the name, long to

* On board my uncle’s yacht,’ said I eagerly. ‘ Of course I remember you now, Sam ; and I am glad to see an old friend again ; but bow on earth’ . ‘How did I come to be here?’ interrupted the seaman ; * and how, too, did I come to be the broken-down, old, worthless waister I am ! Well, it is a long story, master, and I’ve neither time nor taste to spin much of a yarn. I wept to the bad, never mind why, and that’s the long and short of it, lost my character as a yacht’s blue-jacket, shipped foreign, knocked about for years in the China seas and off the Guinea coast — no matter where, so as rum was plenty and wages high—then was a man-’o-war’s man, and got my three dozen for drunkenness and desertion; and next came down to coasters in the Antilles, and then to this. My own fault, partly, I daresay ; but never mind that now. Your uncle, his honor the general, had a sort of regard for me, you may remember, sir’ ‘Anil you deserved it, I am sure, Sam,’ I answered kindly, as I looked down on the wreck of what had once been as fine a sailor as ever hauled at a rope, and who had seemed to me when, aa a boy, I had had the occasional treat of a cruise in my uncle’s small yacht, a perfect treasury of accomplishments. ‘ I think I did, sir,’ said Sam, shaking his head sorrowfully ; ‘ but the blackguard must have been precious strong in me all the time, or it isn’t here I’d end my days, among a parcel of raffs that don’t know stem from stern. Well, Mr Alfred, I didn’t come here to whimper, but to say a word in season to the nephew of my kind old master, his honor. There’s worse nor me aboard : another chap of the same kidney, but twice as bad.’ ‘ You mean Gregg, the captain ?’ said I, as my heart beat fast and thickly. ‘ Ay, ay !’ returned the seaman, in studiously low tones ; ‘ I mean him, and no other. I’ve sailed with him and I know the stuff he’s made of, and when he means mischief. He means it now ; I can read it in his eye, plain as print; and Hark ye, mister—do you think it was wood we carried down last to feed the fires ?’ * I suppose so,’ returned I, in surprise. ‘No, sir,’ said Sam drily; ‘it was a load of hams, prime Kentuck, and as fat bacon as ever came out of Tennessee. The fires are that hot the stokers hardly dare open the iron doors, and the engines are straining, so that two niggers keep throwing water to cool the bearings. That’s not all, for beside the loafing lubbers we carry for deck hands, there are six seafaring men—two former shipmates of mine among ’em—chaps better known than trusted—and their orders are to keep together, and be ready to man a boat.’ * To man a boat ?’ said I, greatly perplexed. ‘Yes,’ answered Sam Kentish, with an impatient jerk of the head, as if my dulness annoyed him ; ‘ that boat up yonder, to starboard, swinging in the tackles. Bight as a trivet she is, with the oars in her, and quite clear of poultry and lumber. The other two boats,’ lie added in a whisper, ‘are littered with coops and awnings and what not, and what’s more—the plugs are out!’ ‘ The plugs out!’ said I, hardly able to believe my ears : ‘ for what purpose ?’ ‘ Ax no questions, Mr Alfred,’ replied my informant. * I only know this —one of the sailors whispered to me, he did : ‘ Old Sam, jrnu’ve been my shipmate, so I’ll tell you this : keep your weather eye open, and in case of anything happening’ —he didn’t say what —‘ jump into the starboard boat and be coxswain.’ I give the office to you—for old days’ sake, Mr Alfred.’ ‘But Gregg?’ returned I, bewildered. ‘ Gregg would not leave much of the roof on my skull if he guessed what I’ve been saying,’ rejoined the old man. ‘ Now I must go about my duty; but hark ye, Mr Alfred, if you think what I tell you all moonshine, and that we are cracking on for no reason, just’—dropping his voice —‘ go and look at the steam-guage !’ And he was gone. I stood for a few moments with my brain in a perfect whirl of conflicting thoughts. The repeated warnings which I had received, the ominous signs that mischief of some kind was brewing, which had attended my voyage in the Proserpine, crowded in upon me with a force that compelled conviction. Gregg was a bold and unscrupulous man, as I well knew, and it might well be that his designs were of a nature to harmonise with bis own character ; but then what could be his object in this instance? and why had Mr Harman been so strangely imprudent as to confide his valuable property, to say nothing of himself and his only child, to such a vessel commanded by such a captain ? To explain these incongruities seemed hopeless. * Whereabouts are we ?’ I asked of one from his spell of

hour or less, at our rate of going ; that s about.it, mister.’ I went down to the cabin, and consulted a chart of the Mississippi, on a large scale, that hung on the pannelled wall. Yes, there were the places named ; while between the Point and the Calumet Island a jagged line of dots indicated the Banc des Moines, a dangerous shoal, the scene of many a catastrophe, and which had gained its name, tradition averred, from the drowning of a boatload of missionary monks in the reign of Louis XIY. I quitted the cabin and hurried at once to examine the steam-gauge; but it had. been broken, ‘ by accident, as a scowling boatman in a red shirt gruffly assured me. No doubt it had been deemed expedient to prevent that useful register of the pressure at which the steam was applied from being readily accessible to prying eyes. Mv next care was to visit; the boats. That to starboard was, as Sam bad correctly stated, in perfect order, the oars shipped, and ready for instant use. The others were littered with miscellaneous objects, huddled together with seeming carelessness ; and by the dim light I found itno easy matter to verify the information which had been given to me. At last, however, by groping with my ungloved band among the rubbish, I succeeded in ascertaining that the old sailor had told the truth. The plugs were out. My worst suspicions were thus confirmed. I was face to face with base, cruel treachery, and all our lives hung as it were by a, thread. A tumult of feelings assailed me, and I grew hot and cold by turns, as the cruel truth forced itself upon me ; but it was no unmanly fear that I experienced. The thought of my own peril was all but swallowed up in my anxiety for her whom. I loved so well. Alice in danger of what I knew not—Alice on board this illomened vessel, under the guidance of such an unprincipled dare-devil as Captain. Gregg! I could now fathom this man S eagerness to prevent me from embarking. Doubtless, soiree caprice of gratitude towards myself had made him reluctant that I should be involved in the general doom, whatever it might be, of the unlucky voyagers on board the Proserpine. Yet, with the weight of this apprehension upon me, I found it hard indeed to decide on the proper course to pursue. Should I go frankly to Mr Harman, apprise him of the character of his captain, state the whole train of suspicious circumstances, and demand an immediate inquiry into Gregg’s conduct ? There was every chance that the old merchant would misconstrue my motives, and refuse to credit my assertions. Would it be better to assemble the more able-bodied of the male passengers, reveal all I knew, and if necessary, take forcible possession of the ship? Had I been alone, I might have adopted this alternative, hazardous as it was ; but I shrank from the idea of exposing Alice to unnecessary risk, and I well knew that if I denounced Gregg openly, bloodshed, in that wild region, was certain to follow, to whichever side victory might incline. The perfidious captain of the seamer was brave enough, and the desperadoes whom he had purposely mingled among the crew would of course sustain their leader, while I could not say what auxiliaries might at any moment paddle forth from creek or bay to cooperate in the plunder of the richly laden vessel. The Mississippi pirates had been sorely thinned by the rough-and ready justice of Begulators’ Courts, but there was still existing in the decaying townships of the Cotton States a residum of scoundrelism ripe for any violence that promised great gains quickly made. To speak to Gregg himself would possibly be the wisest plan. The man’s heart was not, as I fancied, entirely hardened, and I thought that I bad that morning observed signs of his being secretly averse to the evil work in which he was engaged. If his blood were once up, he would probably cast all scruples of conscience to the winds, but it was perhaps not wholly hopeless to appeal quietly his better feelings. And yet should I fail, I should very likely have precipitated the very misfortunes against which I sought to guard. What was that dark figure standing beside the helmsman ? —Gregg himself; and surely this must be the chiefengineer again coming from the neighborhood of his fires to confer with the commander. Half unconsciously I drew near, and my ears caught the last words, spoken imperatively, and as if to put an end to the discussion, with which Gregg dismissed his subordinate: * Old woman’s nonsense, Mr Beale, I tell you. Crack on ! . ‘ It’s off my shoulders anyhow,’ muttered the engineer beneath his clenched teeth, as he passed me; and the furious force with which the huge engines drove us along, making the old craft reel and tremble at every giant pulsation, furnished an eloquent commentary to his words. Gregg now stopped, and gave some orders to the helmsman, speaking in a low voice. ‘ Ay, ay, sir,’ answered the man. Gregg turned, and I caught a glimpse of his pale, liMMyUy resolute face. His mouth looked had been of __ in his Booking out

into the night, that he did not observe my approach until I was quite close to him. Then indeed he started, and as our eyes met he seemed to divine my thoughts. ‘You clear cut !’ he said, with a suppressed fierceness that boded no good, and thrusting, his hand as he spoke into the breast of his coat. * I gave you your choice, Britisher ! WHiat! You’ve been spying, have you P Better keep a quiet tongue, for fear I should be tempted to remember the old proverb, dead men tell do tales.’ And I heard the quick low clicking of a pistsl’s lock as he glared upon me. ‘ Broken water, forward there !’ sang out the voice of the look-out man at the bow. ‘Breakers ahead!’ ‘Reverse the engines !’ * Stop her, for heaven’s sake !’ *We are on the Moines !’ cried half a dozen of the terror stricken passengers, whom the sultry heat of the saloons had tempted to remain on the breezy deck. I looked eagerly out, and could plainly see the long curved line of white foam ahead of us.

‘Down helm!’ thundered Gregg, and the scared steersman, obeyed the fatal order, the execution of which was followed by an outcry of half-incredulous horror and dismay from the affrighted passengers as on we went, rushing upon the reef at the full speed of our maddened course. An instant more, and with a crash and a shock that threw most <sf~us from our feet, the steamer grounded on the shoal, heeling over as she did so, while spars, siderails, and paddle-boxes cracked and •plintered like reeds in a whirlwind. The screams of women, the oaths and outcries of men, made the scene a very babel of confusion.

Conspicuous among a group of passengers on the hurricane-deck were Mr Har man and his daughter ; the latter of whom in evident terror, clung to her father’s arm. I sprung towards her, difficult as it was to tread the slippery slope of the deck, over which the waves of the Mississippi now broke, as if the wrecked vessel had been but a dam exposed to the fury of the current. The clamors that reached my ears as X made my way onwards were significant enough. * She’s going down.’ ‘ The ship’s settling in the water.’ * She’s stove in, fore and aft.’ ‘The boats —the boats !’

‘This way, this way!’ exclaimed I. offering my hand to Alice as Bhe stumbled in the effort to traverse the reeling deck. ‘Pardon me, Mr Harman, but this is no time for ceremony.’ The old merchant angrily repulsed me. *We need none of your assistance, sir,’ he said, in a high harsh voice. ‘ Miss Harman is with her father, and requires no other protector. Xiet me pass, sir.’ And he pressed on, supporting Alice, who seemed half fainting,>nd approached the place where the starboard boat was being lowered over the steamer’s side by half a dozen stalwart fellows of unmistakably saltwater aspect. Several of the crew, with a number of the frightened passengers, now tried to crowd into the boat, the rather that the steamer rolled beneath us, and careened as if going down bodily. Gregg, who seemed quite cool, drove them back again. The other boats, he said, would be manned and lowered immediately. Courage and self-assertion seldom fail in a moment of supreme danger to enforce submission, and the mob of terrified creatures made a rush in the direction of the other boats, which had been wilfully rendered useless, while Gregg and his confederates profited by the opportunity to lower away the starboard cutter, into which they quickly sprang, while Mr Harman and his daughter were hurried over the side. ‘Now, sir ! whispered old Sam as he nimbly swung himself into the stern sheets, and, unbidden, grasped the tiller-ropes. ‘ Alfred ! Alfred !’ cried Alice, breaking silence for the first time, and looking up at me with her innocent eyes dilated by terror, as she was placed in the boat, ‘ come with us.’ ‘Push off!' ordered Gregg, as the foaming water broke over the gunwale, and the men grasped their oars: ‘ we’ve room for no more.’

4 But by this time the fact that the other boats were unservicable had been discovered, and the crowd of passengers, firemen, and deck-hands came rushing wildly to the side, eagerly imploring the captain to save them. The shrieks, prayers, and entreaties of the females mingled with passionate exclamations of the men, several of whom did not hesitate to accuse the commander of the Proserpine of treachery. Gregg, however, mocked at all entreaties, and pushed off. I was now violently flung forwards, and found myself struggling for life in the frothing, tumbling water, the centre, so it seemed, of a chaotic mass of torn woodwork and rent iron, of splintered beams, miscellaneous rubbish, empty casks, loose oars, and whatever was light enough to float; while mixed with the wreck were human forms, some clinging to pieces of timber, some hopelessly entangled in the ruins of what had been the shapely veisyj I knew by the destruction around me tjfl the Proserpine that death jn busy

It Wl

it did into its brief compass sights and sounds of horror. Bruised and all but stunned by the blows of the pieces of woodwork which drifted against me as I swam, X twice incurred more imminent risk, as I felt the clutch of some drowning wretch tighten upon me, and threaten to drag me down. But the grasp relaxed, and I found myself in open water, and could draw breath again, and look around. A sad and terrible spectacle it was on which the wan white moon looked down. There were the breakers chafing on the shoal, the broad stretch of turbid river, the confused mass of the wreck, whence proceeded moans and cries that grew gradually more feeble, as victim after victim sank beneath the rushing water. What was that, full in the silvery track of the moonlight ? A boat, surely, bottom upwards, and near it, clinging to a halfsubmerged oar, a slender figure, just visible. I thought I recognised the light colored muslin dress that Alice wore, as it floated up to the surface ; and without an instant’s delay I struck out for the spot. lam a strong swimmer, but it was all that I could do, by straining every nerve, to make head against the force of the stream, and it was by extreme exertion that at last, spent and breathless, I reached the sinking girl and drew her towards the boat. My hand slipped from its hold the first time as I tried to grasp the keel but a second effort succeeded, and then I felt that we were safe.

‘"i ou are not hurt ?’ asked I eagerly, as I assisted Alice to obtain a firm hold of the drifting boat. ‘Not hurt? But what is this ?’ I continued in alarm, for the blood was trickling from the soft white wrist that I grasped.

‘ It is nothing,’ she answered earnestly ; ‘ a mere scratch. But, Alfred, ray father, my poor father, he, I fear, is badly injured, for I heard his voice calling for help as if in pain, as I was washed away.’ At this instant I felt firm ground beneath my feet, and, to my great joy, I perceived that the boat had floated into shallow water on the verge of the shoal. We scrambled as best we could upon the sloping shelf of the sandbank, where the boat stuck fast, while the swift current flowed frothing and bubbling down the channel beyond. We were now in comparative security ; but I had not the heart to refuse the piteous entreaties of Alice that I would save her father ; and bidding her keep up her courage, and enjoining her on no account to allow the boat to be drifted off into the stream, I plunged again into the seething water, and made for the wreck. Well did I know that I was risking my own life to save that of one who had no claim on me ; but the thoughts of Alice in her grief nerved my arm, and after a hard struggle I reached the place where the shattered fragments of the Proserpine were yet beating on the bar.

‘ Wall done, mister,’ said a harsh voice, that of the gaunt Missourian to whom I had previously confided my apprehensions as to the result of the steamer’s headlong speed. * You’re in the nick of time to bear a band. The nigger and me have done what we could to rig up a raft and save one or two of the poor wounded critters, but were most wore out, being no swimmers, at that.’

And true enough I found that the speaker, aided by my friend Lysander, had contrived to lash together four or five hencoops and pieces of light wood, on which were supported the helpless forms of three of the wounded passengers. One of these, apparently in a dying state, was a woman, but the other two were men, and I at once knew one of the two to be old Mr Harman. As I bent over him he muttered feebly : ‘ Leave me—let me die —I deserve’ And then ceased to speak. In a few hurried words I explained to the Missourian the position of the boat, and where I had left Alice. To pilot the frail raft to that part of the shoal would be a work of much difficulty and danger, yet it offered our best chance of safety. Accordingly we pushed boldly off into the stream, and after a long and arduous struggle succeeded in touching shore near the point where Alice stood. The combined strength of the Missourian, the mulatto, and myself just sufficed to right the boat; and then as we were lifting in the ghastly load of the poor wounded, a strange faintness came over ine ; there was a buzzing in mj r ears as if I had been in the centre of a swarm of bees, and I sank helplessly down at the bottom of the boat. When I regained my senses, it was broad daylight; I was lying on a mattress in a mean room, the raftered roof a’ d wattled walls of which told that I was in the dwelling of some settler in that wild region ; while beside me, with ray wrist clasped in the professional gripe of his bony fingers, stood the tall Missourian, looking down upon me with a friendly smile. ‘l’m a

drink a brandy-smash in his company. I kinder take to you, youngster. You saved all our lives, but you got a nasty knock or two in doing it, and I was most ’fraid I’d have to trepan you yesterday; but your head must be plaguy hard, and that’s the fact.’

I smiled feebly at this ambiguous compliment, and, lifting my band to my head, which felt heavy, and hung listlessly back on the rude pillow' stuffed with maizestraw, I was suprised to find that my brows were enveloped in a bandage. ‘ ’Twar a bit of floating rail,’ the doctor explained, * that hit you thar, just on the temple, and you were bleeding smart when you set foot on the sandbank, but somehow in the flurry and heat of the business you seemed to feel nothing until we were right with the boat. Then off you went, slick away in the death-swoon, and I believe the poor young lady thought you were cleared off creation, she took on so, pretty th ng.’ ‘You mean Alice—Miss Harman,’ I said anxiously. *ls she' * Make your mind easy ; she’s all right,’ said the rough but kindly surgeon ; ‘ tis but an hour ago she said to me : ‘ Yes, doctor, but are you sure he’ll live?— meaning you, squire; and when I answered there was no fear, if you’ll believe me, she took my hand and kissed it, she was that pleased !’ And the Missourian raised his large brown paw T , and contemplated it with a sort of wonder, as if the connection of ideas between his weatherbeaten digits and a tender young lady was too inscrutable for the human intellect. ‘ But her father —Mr Harman ?’ I faltered out.

The good doctor was manifestly embarrassed. He felt my pulse again, and then blurted out: ‘Dead, Mr Mainwaring. He was cruelly hurt, and ’twas a mercy for him to cease to suffer. The poor lady we picked up is dead too. There’s but four alive out of the wreck yonder—you, me, Miss Alice, and the nigger Lysander. The third wounded person we brought ashore, though you didn’t know it, war the captain.’ ‘ What ! Gregg ?’ exclaimed I, raising myself ou my elbow. The surgeon nodded. ‘Yes, that villian, Paul Merriou Gregg. He just lived long enough—a ghastly sight he was, with every rib crashed in—to confess. Mr Harman made a confession too.’

And the doctor placed before my eyes a sheet of paper, on which were traced, in feeble characters, such as a dying man’s hand might pen, but in the wellknown handwriting of my former employer: ‘Too late —ask—forgive—treat Alice well—my full consent —when her husband—make restitution —goods— insured— fraud— the Proserpine— save good name.' That was all. ‘ To cut a long story short/ said the surgeon kindly, seeing my bewilderment: *Mr Harman, who was, you know, as proud as Lucifer, was in pecuniary difficulties, and saw no honest way out of them. By ill luck he fell in with Gregg, and the two between them concocted the precious scheme that has nearly made a finish of us all. The old Proserpine was bought, vamped up, aud laden with a worthless cargo of damaged goods, which were insured for an enormous amount, as really valuable property ; while the plan was, that Gregg was to get the steamer cast away on the Banc des Moines, when the insurance companies would be cheated out of enough to keep the old firm above water. Mr Harman, was aboard with his daughter—l needn’t say she knew no more of the plot than seraphs did —to disarm suspicion ; and they were to be landed safe, and all strangers left to chance it, to heighten the horror of the shipwreck ; but the boiler burst when the engines ceased working, and the pair of accomplices were caught in their own trap. The old man repented before he died ; and if you want to hear more, here is Miss Alice herself.’

Alice it was, careworn, pale, and sad, but with hope and love ineffable in her pure eyes, as she bent over me, and her tears fell upon my face. * Live for me, dear Allred,’ she said simply ; ‘ we shall be poor—but I will be a true wife to you if you will have me, dear. I have no one left now but you.’ My story is told. I have for years been happy as the husband of Alice ; and although the debts of the firm were heavy, and to do justice to the defrauded insurance companies was, of course, my first duty, I have found means, by hard and honest work, to keep the credit of the firm intact, and do not yet despond of seeing Harman Brothers, like a phoenix, revive to somewhat of its old prosperity.