TALES & SKETCHES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 753, 6 August 1886, Page 6

TALES & SKETCHES.

BEL RUBIO; OR, THE CHILDREN of the EARTHQUAKE A ST9RY OF THE NEVILLES OF GUY’S TOWER. BY CAPT. FREDERICK WHITTAKER* CHAPTER XXIV. RtTSTNTNG THE BLOCKADE. When Lord Neville arrived at the headquarters of the governor he was received with a frigid reserve that showed the general was offended. 4 1 am glad to see your lordship,’ he said* with a stress on the title, 4 for I began to think that you held yourself above orders. I regret to be obliged to remind your lordship that the son of an English nobleman is expected to set an example before English soldiers, which shall not be subversive of discipline. Rank has its duties as well as> its privileges, my lord ; and one of them is to obey orders yourself, in order that others may obey yours, when it conies your turn to command.’ Lord Neville listened in silence to the rebuke, and it struck him in a tehder spot,' for he was naturally conscientious. 4 1 beg your excellency’s pardon,’ he said, his sulfcmess vanishing, 4 for having kept you waiting; but I had leave to go to my quarters, and did not expect to be needed again to-night.’ 4 Where did you go, my lord, after leaving your quarters ?’ demanded the governor in the same grave, dignified tones. Lord Neville hesitated, and then threw np his head defiantly, as he answered : 4 1 went to the hospital, and my cousin found me there, in conversation with a young lady.’ The governor raised his brows. 4 Indeed ? lam glad you can find time to waste in pleasure, when the garrison is in such a situation as it is. My lord, there must be a clear understanding between ns. Your father's rank and position in England are too high to be imperilled by scandals raised by his son and heir. I have placed you on my staff on account of your rank, hoping that you would show the other officers that an English nobleman can be the best soldier in the garrison. If you are disposed to waste the time that should be devoted to duty to philandering after young ladies, the sooner you return to England the better. I need men on my staff who will serve the king, and not make the service a convenience.’ And this time Neville hung his head and had not a word to answer; for he felt ashamed. The governor watched him keenly, and continued : 14 Are you willing to give me your word of honor to perform nothing but your duty, for the rest of the time you remain on my staff ? If not, I must announce your dismissal, in orders, which will be a needless mortification to your father. The discipline of the garrison must be maintained.’ Lord Neville flushed and paled alternately, as he answered in a low voice : 4 Your excellency must decide that.’ The appearance of a threat had only hardened" him, though he knew he was wrong. Elliott compressed his lips for a moment, as if he were growing angry ; but something perhaps his long experience—made him try another course before he gave up the wild young man as incorrigible. Social rank has its advantages with the sternest of martinets. He changed his manner to one of almost fatherly kindness, as he laid his hand on the young man’s shoulder, saying : 4 My boy, you are not doing what a gentleman should to-night. Have I not enough on my mind, with the safety of this great fortress resting on my single efforts, without adding to my troubles by insubordination ? I have been young, and in love, toe. I know how hard it is for a youngster like you to give up all his pleasure in the face of duty ; but I ask you to do it as a personal favor to me. Neville, my boy, I depend on you not to desert me.’ The impetuous youth faltered and the tears came into his eyes, as he said, in a smothered kind of way : 4 General, I’ve done wrong, but it shall not happen again. -I’ll do my duty hereafter, and think of nothing else, on the honor of a gentleman.’ . The governor shifted his hand from Neville’s shoulder and held it out, shaking the other's hand heartily. 4 That is what I expected from year father's son. Now listen. I have despatches to send to sea at once, and I depend on yon and that brig to take them. Admiral Howe is somewhere at sea, and I want to get word to him that we are in the greatest danger we have been in since the siege opened. You are to go to sea and cruise till you find Howe ; then to come back here at once, with news whether he is coming or not. Is that definite enongh V Lord Neville’s face had grown sadder as he listened, but he bowed as he answered : 4 That is definite enough, General. I will take the orders. When are we to go ?’

4 To night, before the light makes the escape difficult. I have sent for all the pilots and men who know the currents here, and they tell me that half an hour from now is the best time, for a fog is coming in, and they can evade the blockaders by taking advantage of the current on this shore. Here are the despatches for Howe. You are to read them ; and if there is any chance of your being captured on the_ way you are to destroy them, after making yourself ao-

•quainted with their contents. You underrstand, my lord ?' Neville took the papers and bowed low. ‘I understand, General; and the orders •Shall he executed.’ He was turning to leave, when the goveriror added, as if the thought struck him : t Remember that, no matter what happens, you are to go straight on board of the brig -from hence, and sail at once. Never mind your luggage. I have had that sent on -board already, and the master of the brig is •warned of what he has to do. I have wasted no time. So you have nothing to do but go aboard. No farewells, you understand. Your cousin will know it soon enough. Neville bit his lips, but bowed again. < Your excellency can trust to me to keep my word,’ he said, rather coldly. Then he went out of the room, and Elliott said to himself, with a smile : _ . * Those youngsters need a tight rein, but ■one mustn’t put on the curb too soon. He’ll •keep his word now. But those confounded women are the bane of the service. Iu the meantime the young lord took bis way towards the port slowly and reluctaih.e 'words of the governor— e No farewells, you understand,’—had nettled him somewhat, for he knew what they were intended to cover; but he had given his word, and was not the man to break it, however sullen he might be over the implied rebuke. , He went down Waterport street to the harbor, and found that the fog was already beginning to roll in from the sea, obscuring the outlines of the blockaders, and rising higher every moment. A boat was lying by the water-stairs, and the moment he made his appearance the men got to the oars, showing they were waiting for him. , , An officer who stood at the bottom of the steps asked : ‘ Is it Lord Neville ?’

* Yes/ answered he. ‘Then the boat is ready to take your lordship to the Sea Bird/ was the reply. « She has hove short, and is ready to go to sea at once. I have had your luggage taken to her, by the governor’s ■orders.’

Neville nodded coldly. ‘ All right. I see nothing has been neglected to insure that I get off in time/ he said. Then he stepped into the boat, and it shot out towards the brig, which he found with loosened sails flapping in the light eastern airs that eddied round Point Europa against the western breeze which had brought in the £q£. The boat deposited him there ; and he had no sooner got on deck than Steve Hodge, who seemed to have been expecting him, gave the orders for hoisting the anchor, which was already nearly out of the ground, while the boat returned to the garrison. The young officer went to the stern of the brig, where he leaned against the taffrail in silence, watching the preparations for leaving the harbor. '*•.•. , A bitter feeling came over him at the hard duty put on him ; for he was young* and deeply in love, while the only certain thing to bim, at that moment, in all the world, was that he was going away from Concha might never see her pgain. But it was useless to repine, and the brig was already slipping out of the port heading by compass through the fog, which grew thicker every moment, so that the outline of the rock faded away rapidly, and in two minutes after he might have been in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean for all the objects that were visible, as he was borne onwards. Steve Hodge did not notice him, for he had all he could do to attend to his vessel, in the light airs that prevailed, where his progress depended on getting into a current he knew of, which ran to the Spanish side of the bay, and by which he hoped to steal out into the Atlantic, in the fog, past the blockaders. If once the brig got into Eie middle of the straight, in the fog, there was no knowin»! where she might find herself in the morning—most probably in the Mediterranean Sea, with the whole fleet between her and safety. Steve steered by compass, and the sailors kept silence as the brig glided through the water; the only sound audible being the ripple of the waves against the stem and the occasional flap of a sail as the gentle breeze failed them. They had gone on this way for some time, when Lord Neville, who was beginning to take interest in his surroundings, was startled to hear rapid firing in the direction -of the stern. He had lost his points of observation in the fog, and anxiously inquired of Steve : * Where did that come from Y

The mariner, at the moment, was bothered with his duties, and shook his head impatiently. * Don’t know, my lord. Please don’t talk.’ Neville stepped hack and listened ; but the firing died away in a short time, and silence reigned round the brig once more, till the dash of oars came to them, through the fog, and the young officer eagerly leaned over the side to find whence it proceeded. ~ ~ ‘ Silence fore and aft/ said the warning voice of Steve ; and one could have heaid a pin drop on the decks of the brig as she glided forward : the oars of the boat, so near her, being plainer every moment. Then Lord Neville heard the voice of a man, talking in Spanish, from the water, as if addressing some one in the boat, but did not understand a word. The locality of the boat and voice were so uncertain, in the fog, that he hardly knew which side to lean from. , Then he gave a violent start and muttered : ‘Mv God ! Can it be possible ? He heard a woman’s tones answering, and no one else had such a deep, melodious contralto as Concha Diaz. She, too, was speaking Spanish, and he would have given a pood deal could he have understood her. *No tengo nada a decir.’ (I’ve nothing to say.) ■ The voice was quiet and scornful, and he knew not what to say himself.

Was Concha in danger or not ? She did not seem to be, from her calm tone ; but what was she doing out in the bay, in a Spanish boat ? Could it be possible that he had been mistaken, and that she was turning traitor to the English ? Then the man’s voice came again, and this time he recognised the tones of Jose Gomez as the spy spoke, in his rapid Spanish, with a laugh of triumph. The only word Neville could catch was when Jose closed with ‘salvados.’ Lord Neville understood enough Latin, from his Eton experience, to make out that ‘salvados’ means ‘saved.’ Saved from what ? The answer came, in a cry, from somewhere nearly over his head : ‘ Qui va la ?’ He knew French enough to understand it as a challenge to some one, probably the boat.

Steve, too, heard the challenge, and stole to the helm as softly as a cat, when he took the wheel and shifted the spokes himself, so as to give the brig a sheer, which came none too late for hi 3 safety. The next moment they glided past the stern of a ship that towered high above their heads as the little brig went by, and only the circumstance that the boat had engaged the attention of the watch on the Frenchman saved them from being noticed. Lord Neville was unconscious of this, in the eagerness with which he listened to the oars of the boat ; but Steve gave a sigh of relief as the spars of the ‘ liner ’ faded away into the fog, and he muttered in Lord Neville’s ear : ‘ That was a close shave, my lord.’

Neville eagerly asked him : ‘ Did you hear those voices ? One of them was a man who tried to stab me on shore, and the other was a lady I know. Do you think it would he possible to go back, and find out whether anything has happened to her ?'

Steve stared at him in the fog. He made no answer for a moment, and when he replied, it was in the driest of tones : ‘ No, my lord, it wouldn’t ; unless you want to have a taste of French prison fare. We aint got sich an easy job on hand now, that we can afford to go huntin’ for more risks.’ Neville was silenced, for his reason told him that Steve was right. Gradually the sounds of voices ceased, as the Spanish boat was received at the French frigate, and the brig was alone in the fog. The danger wa3 by no means over, however ; as they found out when the spars of another and another ship stole into sight through the mist, taking all of Steve’s care to avoid going close enough to be recognised.

The time passed away before they knew it, and it was an hour and a half after they left the Old Mole, when. a rumbling sound broke on Neville’s ears, and he asked Steve, who stood by him, leaning on the rail : * What’s that ?’

‘ Just what I was listenin’ for, my lord,’ thß sailor replied, iu tones of relief. ‘lt’s the surf on the Spanish shore, and we aint out in the middle current. Now, please, my lord, don’t say a word ; for we’re cornin’ to the most ticklish part of the whole business.’

So it proved ; for they had to run close to the breakers, in risk of striking on the rocky bottom, to gain the full advantase of the contrary current that was to carry them seaward.

If once they got into the middle of the straight, where the westerly current from the Atlantic caught them, they were sure to be swept into the midst of the fleet of blockaders they were so anxious to avoid.

But Steve had been there before, and showed that he knew what he was about.

When the surf had grown so loud that he realised he could go no further in that direction, he hauled his wind and ran along the edge of the Spanish coast, steering by sound and following the line of the coast. At last a light, red and dim, shone through the fog on the bow of the brig, and the captain once more changed his course, aud stood out from the shore till the light faded away. As soon as it had almost disappeared, he took his course, keeping what could be seen of it on his right hand ; for he knew it to be the lighthouse ou the most prominent point of the coast; after which his way to the. westward was not likely to be intercepted. An hour later the Sea Bird had cleared the fog, with a light easterly breeze behind her ; and the long swell of the Atlantic Ocean was lifting her on its billows, south of Tarifa Point.

Then Steve drew a loDg breath, and said with emotion :

* Thank God, my lord, we are well out of that. I thought we was gone, one time, when that boat and we come together, by the liner. If your lordship had spoken above a whisper, there, we’d have been took, sure. What was it your lordship said, jest then? I didn’t understand, what with the ship so near, and the other things on my mind.’ Then Lord Neville told him what he had heard, and even repeated the Spanish words, as well as he could, not understanding them. Steve, who, like most sailors, had picked up a smattering of all sorts of languages, interpreted the words he had heard. ‘ She said she’d nothink to say, my lord, and he said summat about bein’ saved. That’s as near as I can make it out. Who was the lady, my lord ?’ Then Lord Neville, who had known the sailor since he had been a child in short frocks, told Steve the whole story of what he had done on land, not forgetting all about Bel Rubio, and concluded :

‘lf anything has happened to Concha Diaz, I shall never get over it, Steve ; for I love her more than I ever loved any woman in all my life/ He was surprised that the sailor did not show more emotion at the recital ; but Steve only said : *lf I was your lordship, I wouldn’t worry over it. If its to he, its to be. More wonderful things has happened afore, my lord. Put your trust in God, and do your dooty/

(To be continued.)