TALES & SKETCHES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 860, 24 August 1888, Page 8

TALES & SKETCHES.

[NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.]

THEDEATH SHIP-

A STRANGE STORY.

AN agcount of a cruise in the flying DUTCHMAN COLLECTED FROM THE PAPERS OF THE LATE MR GEOFFREY FENTON, OF POPLAR, MASTER MARINER.

By W. Clark Russell,

Author of * The Wreck of the Grosvenor, * The Golden Hope,’ &o. &c.

[All Rights Reserved.]

CHAPTER XXIV. The Death Ship’s Forecastle. Next morniDg being very fine, the first bright day that had broken since I had been in the ship, I thought, since it was early, an hour to breakfast, Yanderdecken in his cabin and Arents alone on the poop-deck with the man who steered, that I would look a little closely into the vessel, and ascertain if possible where and how the men slept, where they dressed their food and the like.

I spied the corpulent figure of Jans, the boatswain, forward of the foremast. He was standing with his aru s folded, staring ahead. His posture somehow suggested a vacancy of mind, and you thought of him as looking into God knows what distance, with the unmeaningness you observe in the fixed gaze of a babe suckling. I could not say whether the decks had been washed down ; they seemed damp, as if newly swabbed. One, whom I supposed to be the ship’s carpenter, was Bawing wood near the house in which were the live stock. Two others, hard by him, sat upon a sail, stitching at it. There was a seaman in the foretop, but what doing I could not see ; little more than his head showed above the barricade. I walked forward to where the boatswain stood, and, on observing that he took no notice of me, I touched him lightly ou the shoulder. He turned his round face, ghastly as death, yet as fleshy and plump as life, and gazed at me. I felt nervous—it was dreadful to accost these conformations, which were neither men nor devils —but I was resolved to go through with the business I had on hand, impelled by the thought that if I was suffered to come off with my life from this experience, there would be that to relate to the world beyond anything which seamen havp told of tho ocean life. I said to him, ‘ Good morning, Herr Jans. Hero, to be sure, is a fine sky, with noble promise.’ * True, sir,’ he answered, seeming to step out of the mystery of hi 3 stillness and vacancy without effort. ‘ She looks fairly up ; but so tedious a nor’-wester should be followed by a southerly gale !’ ‘ Heaven grant it !’ cried I, gathering courage from his civility. ‘You will be glad to see old Amsterdam again, no doubt!’ * Ay,' said he, ‘ I warrant you ; and my wife, Amano, too, and my daughter, Tobina, ha ! ha !’ His laugh was like that of the parrot, mirthless ; and not a wrinkle stirred upon his countenance to give reality to his shocking merriment. To come at what I wanted—for I did not wish Vanderdecken to arrive and see me forward—l said, ‘ Yes, meetings are made sweeter b y. a little delay. Pardon me, Herr : I am an Englishman not well acquainted with the shipboard usages of the Dutch. In the ship of which I was second mate, we had what is called a top gallant forecastle in which the orew slept ’ He interrupted with a shake of the head. * I do not understand,' said he. This was not strange, for as I did not know the Dutch words, I called it topgallant forecastle in English. ‘ They slept under a deck resembling the poop,’ said I. ‘ Ha !' he exclaimed. 1 Where do your crew sleep ?’ ‘Down there,’ he responded, pointing to a hatch answering to the forescuttle of these times. ‘ Is it a comfortable cabin ?’ said I. He made a face and spat behind his hand, which caused me to see that sailors in all times have been alike in the oapacity of grumbling, and that even in this man, who by virtue of the age he had attained had long ceased to be humane and was kept alive only by the Curse it was his lot to share with the skipper, the instincts of the seaman still lived, a few sparks among blackened embers.

‘ Judge for yourself if you will,’ said he. ‘My last ship"was the Maagt van Eukhuysen, and though hor forecastle raised a

mutiny among us for its badness. I tell yon, mynheer, ’twas as punch is to stale cold water, compared to this.’ He motioned me to descend, but I asked him to go first, for how was I to guess what would be nay reception if the men saw me entering their abode unaccompanied ? * Very good,’ said he, and catching hold of the coaming he dropped his great figure through the hatch, and I followed. We descended by a ladder in perfect correspondence with the rest of the fittings of this ship—the hand-rails carved, and the steps a sort of grating, different, indeed, from the pieces of coarse, rough wood nailed to the bulkhead, which in these days form the road down through the foresouttle. The light of the heavens fell fair through tho hatch, but seemed powerless to penetrate the gloom that lay around. I was blinded at first, and stood a moment under the hatch idly blinking and beholding nothing. Then stepping out of the sphere of the daylight, til ere stole upon my sight the details of the place one by one, helped by the wan spluttering and smoking flame of a lamp shaped like a coffee-pot, the waste: or mesh, comingout of the spout fed by what the nose readily determined to be slush. Jans stood beside me. 1 Can you see, mynheer ?' said he. ‘ Ay, 'tis growing upon me by degrees,’ I replied.- ‘ Master,’exclaimed a hollow voice, pro. ceeding from the darkest part of this forecastle, * if you could help me fill the bowl of a tobacco-pipe I should be grateful.’ Very luckily I had the remains of what sailors term a prick of tobacco in my pocket, which Prins when he dried my jacket had very honestly suffered to remain there. The piece had been so hard pressed in the making, and rendered so water-proof by tho rum in it, that my falling overboard had left it perfectly sweet and fit for smoking. By a stingy and cautious use of the knife there was enough of it to give all hands a smoke. I pulled it out and handed it to Jans to deliver to the man who had addressed me. Jans smelt it and said ‘ Yes, it was tobacco, but how was it to be smoked ?’ I pulled out my knife, and stepping into the light under the hatch, put the tobacco upon one of the ladder-steps and fell to slicing or rather shaving it, and when I had cut enough to fill a pipe bowl, 1 rolled up the shreds in my hands, and taking a sooty clay pipe from Jans, charged it, and bade him light it at the lamp. He did so, speedily returning, smoking heartily, puffing .out great clouds, and crying out, ‘ Oh, but ’tis good ! 'tis good !’ It is tiring work cutting up this kind of tobacco, and Jans now understanding how it was done, took the knife and the tobacco and shred about an inch of it, there being in all about three or four inches. Whilst this was doing I had leisure to gaze about me. No sooner had Jans lighted his pipe, so that all could see he was smoking, than from several parts of that gloomy interior there slided a number of figures who clustered around the ladder, over one of whose steps or treads the boatswain leaned, pipe in mouth, whilst he sliced and shaved. The daylight fell upon some of them, others were faintly to be seen in the dim illumination which the lustre, passing through the hatch, feebly spread. From rows of old hammocks, that died out in the gloom, these men had dropped, and mariners half-perished with hunger could not have exhibited more delirious eagerness for food than did these unhappy creatures for a pipeful of the tobacco Jans was at work upon. A dismaller and wilder, nay, a more affrighting picture, I dety the imagination to body forth. It was not only that many of these unhappy people were half-naked—most of them still swinging in their hammocks when 1 descended—it was their corpse like appearance, aB though a grave-yard had disgorged its dead, who had come together in a group, quickened and urged by hunger, lust, or need common to the whole, and expressing in many varieties of countenance the same desire. All about Jans they crowded, some fifteen or twenty men , some thin, with their ribs showing, others with sturdy legs of the Dutch kind, some nearly bald, some so hairy that their looks and beards flowed down their backs and chests, some dark with black eyes, others round-faced and blueeyed ; but every man of them looking as if he was newly risen, Lazarus like, from the tomb, as though he had burst the bondage of the coffin, and come into this forecastle dead yet living, his body formed of the earth of the grave, and his soul of the curse that kept him alive. I had particularly hoped to see some of them sleeping, wondering what appearance they presented in slumber; also whether such as they ever dreamed, and what sort of expression their faces wore. But the place was too dark to have yielded this sight, even had I been at liberty to peer into their hammocks. When my eyes grew used to the twilight of the blush-lamp and I could see plain, I found there was not much to wet curiosity. Here and there stood a box or sea-chest. Against tho aged sides, hanging by nails or hooks, were coats, trousers, oilskins, and the like, most of them differingin fashion, Bwaymg with the heaving of the ship. Some odds and ends of shoes and boots, a canvas bucket or two, a tall basket, in which were stowed the dishes and mugs the men ate and drank with, completed, with

the hammocks overhead, all the furniture that I could distinguish of this melancholy, rat-gnawed, yea, and noisome forecastle. By this time Jans was wearied of slicing the tobacco, and the fellow called Meindert Kryns was at work upon what remained of it. All who had pipes filled them, and I was surprised to fiud how well off they were in this respect, though my wonder ceased when I afterwards heard that amongst other articles of freight Vanderdecken had met with in a derelict were cases o£_ long clay pipes. It was both moving and diverting to watch these half-clad creatures smoking, their manner of holding the smoke in their mouths for the better tasting of it, the solemn joy with which they expelled the clouds ; some in their hammocks with their naked legs over the edge ; others on the chests, manifestly insensible to the chilly wind that blew down through the hatch. No man spoke. If ought of mind there was amongst them, it seemed to be devoted to keeping their pipe bowls burning. Jans stood leaning against the fore mast, Duffing at his pipe, his eyes directed into the gloom in the bows. That he had forgotten the errand that brought him below, that I had no more existence for him than would have been the case had 1 never fallen from the rail of the Saracen, was clearly to be gathered from his strange wrapped posture and air. I touched him again on the shoulder, and he turned his eyes upon me, but without startiug. ’Twas the easiest, nimblest way of slipping out of a condition of trance into intelligence and life that can be ooneeived.

I wished to see all I dared a3k to look at, and said, * Where do you cook your food ? ’ ‘I will show you,’ he answered, and walked to some distance abaft the forescuttle.

I followed him painfully, for I.’could scarce see ; indeed, here would have been total blackness to one fresh from the sunlight. There was a bulkhead with an opening on the larboard hand; we passed through it, and I found myself on a deck pretty well filled up at the after-end with coils of cable, casks, and so forth; a windward port was open, and through it came light enough to see by. In'the middle of this deck was a sort of caboose, situated clear of the ropes and casks. ’Twas, in short, a structure of stout scantling, open on either side, and fitted with brick-work contrived for a furnace, and coppers for boiling. A man—the cook, or the cook’s mate—his feet naked, his shanks clothed in breeches of a faded blue stuff, and his trunk in a woollen shirt—was at work boiling a kind of soup for the crews breakfast. Another man stood at a dresser rolling paste. This fellow was a very short, corpulent person, with a neck so fat that a pillow of flesh lay under the back of his head. Never in my time had I viewed a completer figure of a .Dutchman than this cook. You would have supposed that into this homely picture of boiling and pie-making -there would have entered such an element of life and reality as was nowhere else to be found in that accurst ship. Yet so little was this so, that I do not know that in all the time I had been in the Braave I had beheld a more ghastly picture. It was the two men who made it so ; the unreality of their realnesa ! to comprehend which, If this phrase should sound foolishly, think upon the vision af an insane man, or some wondrous picture painted upon the eyes of the dying or opening upon the gaze of some enthusiast.

The flames of the furnace shot a crimson glare upon the first of the two men I have described ; he never turned his head to look at me, but went on stirring what was in the copper. The place had much of the furniture of one of our present cabooses or galleys. There was a kind of dresser, and there were racks for holding dishes, an old brass timepiece that' was as great a curiosityin its way as the clock in the cabin, a chair of the last ceutury, a couple of wooden bellows, and such matters. I was moving, when the little fat cook suddenly fell a-sniffling, and turning to Jans, said, 4 Is there tobacco at last ’ ’ ‘No,’ answered Jans, ‘this Heer had a piece which he has distributed. 'Tis all gone. But there is a smoke left in this pipe ; take it.’ , . , He dried the sooty stem upon his sleeve, and handed it to the cook, who instantly began to puff, uttering one or two exolama.

tions of pleasure, but with an unmoved countenance.

‘ Is there no tobacco on board ’ ’ said I, following Jans into the forecastle. 4 The skipper has a small quantity, but there is none for the crew,’ he answered. ‘ Had your ship supplied us with a little stock ’twould have been a godsend ; wolcomer, sir, than the powder and shot you wantonly bestowed upon our boat.’ TVe were now in the forecastle, and this reference to the action of the terrified crew of the Saracen, in the hearing of the seamen who overhung their hammocks, or squatted on their cheats, smoking, alarmed me ; so with a quickly uttered ‘Good morning,’ addressed to them all, I sprang up the ladder and gained the deck.

CHAPTER XXV. We Sight a Ship.

It waa like coming out of of a sepulohre to step from that forecastle on deok, where the glorions sun was, and the Bwaying shadows, and where the blue wind gushed in a soft breathing over the bulwark rails, with weight enough in it to hold the canvas stirless, and to raise a gentle hissing alongside like the seething of champagne. I spied Vanderdecken on the poop, and near Imogene, so I hastened aft to greet the girl and salute the great bearded figure which nobly towered beside her, She looked fragrant and sweet as a white rose in the dewy morn, wore a straw hat turned up on one side and looped to stay there with, a particoloured rosette; and though this riband was faded with age, and the straw yellow and dull through keeping, the gear did suit her most divinely ;and I could have knelt and kissed her hand, so complete a princess did she appear in her countenance and shape. To turn from a spark of her violet eye, rosiness of her lip, the life that teemed in the expression of her face, like a blushiDg light shining through fragile porcelain, to turn from her to the great silent figure standing near her, with piercing gaze directed over the taff-rail, his beard trembling to the down-rush of air from the mizzen, was to obtain a proper contrast to enable you to realise in the aspect of that amazing person the terrible conditions of his existence and the enormous significance of his sentence. With a smile of pleasure at the sight of me, Imogene bade me good-morning, saying, ‘I am before you for the first time since you have been in the ship.’ 4 1 was out of my cabin half-an-hour ago, perhaps longer,’said I. ‘ What think you I have been doing ? Exploring the sailors’ quarters and inspecting the kitchen.’ And I tossed up my hands and turned up my eyes that she might guess what I thought of those places. Then meeting Vanderdecken’s gaze, which he had brought to bear upon ice with a frowning roll of the eyes, I took off my hat, giving him a bow. He greeted me in his imperious stormy way, and asked me wbat I thought of his ship. I replied, ‘ She is a very fine vessel, sir/ ‘Did they lift the hatches to show the cargo to you ?’ he exclaimed. 1 answered smartly, ‘No,’ perceiving that he was aware I had been below in the forepart. 4 How does my forecastle show to your English prejudice ?’ he asked. 4 Ob, mynheer !’ said 1, smiling with a look at Imogene, whose eyes were fixed in the quarter over the stern into which Vanderdecken had been staring, * so far from Englishmen being prejudiced, at all events in naval matters, we are continually taking ideas from other nations, particularly from the French, whose ships of war we imitate and admire. ‘Perhaps,’ said I, ‘ that is one of the reasons why we are incessantly capturing the vessels of that nation.’ But the conceit was lost, because this man had flourished before we had become the terror of the French that our admirals have since made the English flag to be. Imogene cried out in Dutch, 4 Do you know, Mr Fenton, that there is a sail in sight ?’ My heart gave a bound, and following the indication of her ivory-white forefinger, which pointed directly astern, I saw the tiny gleam of what was unquestionably a ship’s canvas, resembling the curved tip of a gull’s wing. 4 Ay, to be sure, yonder’s a sail J’ I ex* j

olaitned, after keeping my eyes fixed on it for a while to make sure, and I added iu Dutch, ■ Which way, madam, does the captain say she is steering ‘Directly after us,’ she replied. 4 Judge for yourself, sir,’ said Vanderdecken, motioning with his hand toward a telescope that stood against the deck-house. It was the ancient, heavy tube I had observed iu his cabin. I picked it up, rested it upon the rail -ifc was too weighty for the support of my left hand— aDd worked away with it at the sail astern. It was a feeble old glass, magnifying, I should suppose, to the proportion of a crown to a groat. In fact I could see as well with the uaKed eye. Ifc was Vandetdecken’s telescope, however, and a curiosity, and still feigning to view the sail, I secretly ran my eye over the tubes, noticing, in vory faint letters, the words •Cornelius Van der Decken, Amsterdam, 1650,’ graved iu flowing characters upon the large tube. < She is heading after us, you think, mynheer ’* said Vanderdecken as I arose. ‘I could not say, sir. Has she grown since you first observed her.

‘ Yes.’ He took the glass aod levelled it vory easily, and I met Imogene’s gaze as she glanced from him tome, as though she was aura I could not but admire the massive, manly figure of that man, drawn to his full height, and in such a posture as one would love to see him painted in. ‘ She is certainly steering onr course,’ said he, speaking with his eye to the tube, ‘I hope she may not prove an English man-of war. Who can tell ? If a merchantman, be her nationality what it may, we’ll speak it for tobacco, for that’s a commodity we must have.’

I looked earnestly and with a face flushed with hope at Imogeue; but she glanced away from me to the sail, signalling to me by this action in a manner unmistakable, to be wavy. Vanderdeoken put down the glass, oast a look aloft at the set of his canvas and the trim of his yards, and then called to Arenfcs to heave the log. Some seamen came aft, in response to the second mate’s call, and, bringing out a reel and sand-glas3 from the deck-house, measured the speed of the vessel through the water, precisely as we at this day do, so ancient is this simple device of telling a ship’s speed of passage through the water by paying out a line marked with knots to the running of sand I I heard Areuts say that the vessel was going three knots and a half.

‘At that rate.,’said Ito Imogene, whilst Vanderdecken remained aft, watching in a soulless manner the automaton-like motions of the men engaged in hauling the line in and reeling it up, ‘ that vessel yonder, if she be actually heading our way, will soon overhaul us.’ ‘Mr Fenton,’ said she, with subdued energy in her soft voice. ‘ I earnestly pray yon neither by word, look, or sign to give . Captain Vanderdecken the least reason to suspect that you mean to escape from his ship and rescue me whenever the chance shall offer. I will tell you why I say this : just now he spoke of you to me, and said if an opportunity offered he should put you on board any vessel that would receive you, no matter where she was bound to, and then he asked what you and I chiefly talked about. There was more sternness in his manner than ever I recollect in h in when addressing me. ‘lf I thought him capable of human emotions,’ said I, ‘I should reckon him jealous.’ * But he has human emotions—he loves his wife and children,’ she replied. 4 Ay, but who is to know that that love is not left to linger in him as a part of his curse ?’ said I. 4 By which I mean, if he was not suffered to remember his wife and children and love them, he might not show hiqiself very eager to round the Cape. Possibly not because he dislikes me as a man, hut because that malignant baboon, Van Vogelaar, may have speaking against me, putting fears into his head touching his treasure, and workiug upon duty as a Hollander—a compatriot of De Ruyfcer, God help him —to hate me as an Englishman.’ ‘But he loves me too, Mr Fenton,’ said she. ‘As a father might,’said I, not liking this, yet amused by her sweet tenaciousness. 4 Yes, as a father ; but ifc shows he has capacity for other emotions outside those which you deem necessary for the duration of the Sentence.’ 4 1 ought to believe so if he hates me,’ said I, looking his way and observing that he had turned his back upon us and was watching the sail astern. 4 Be all this as it will, you shall find me as careful as you can desire.’ ‘ If,’said she, plaintively, ‘he should become even faintly suspicious of your intentions, he might set you ashore, should we not meet with a ship to receive you, and then what would become of you ?—and what would become of me, Mr Fenton ’’ ‘ Have no fear,’ said I, ‘he shall discover nothing in me to make him suspicious. As to his setting me ashore, and whether I. should be able to outwit him in such a manoeuvre, I cannot tell; but in no other way could he get rid of me, unless by throwing me overboard.’ ‘He would not do that,’ she exclaimed, 'shaking her head ; nor do I think he would force you from this ship if he couid find no ground for distrust. But something affecting you has worried his mind, I am certain, or he would not have declared his intention of sending you to another vessel. He believes he is going straight home. Why, then, should he be not willing to carry you ? Maybe he heard from Arents that you were below exploring the ship. Oh, Mr Fenton, be cautious ! If not for your own sake, then for mine 1’

She involuntarily brought her little hands together into a posture of prayer with the earnestness of her entreaty, and her warmth flowed rosily to her cheeks, so that, though she spoke low, her manner was impassioned, and I saw how her dear heart was set upon my delivering her, and how great was her terror lest my thoughtlessness should end in procuring onr separation. However, I had no time to then reassure her, though I resolved henceforth to walk with extraordinary circumspection, seeing that the people I had fallen amongst were utterly unintelligible to me, being so composite in their dead-alive.

ness that it was impossible to come at their motives and feelings, if they possessed any resembling ours. I. say I had not time to reassure her, fer Prins arrived to report breakfast, which brought Vanderdecken to us. Little was said at table, but that little was quite enough to make me understand the wisdom of Imogene’s fears, and to perceive that if I did not check my curiosity to inspect the ship so as to be able to deliver a true account of this strange and fearful fabric, I stood to lose Imogene the chance of escape, which my presence in the vessel provided her with. No matter which of the two mates had the watch on deck, Van Vogelaar always aat down to meals first, Arents following. He was beside me this morning as usual, coming fresh from his cabin ; and when we were seated, Vanderdecken told him there waa a ship astern. 1 How heading, skipper’’ 4 As we go, without doubt. She hath grown swiftly since first sighted, yet hangs steady in the same quarter.’ 4 Let her hoist any colours but those of this gentleman’s country!’ said Van Vogelaar, with an ugly sneer. * Should that happen, captain, will you fight her ?’ I asked quietly. 4 If she be a ship of war—no ; for what are our defences against the culvorins and demiculverins of your ships, and how shall we match perhaps four hundred sailors with our slender company’’ replied Vanderdecken, with an evil glitter in his eyes, and grasping his beard as his custom was when wrathful thoughts surged in him. ‘She may prove a harmless merchantman perhaps a sturdy Hollander, that will give you -plenty of tobacco for a little of your silver,’ said Imogene, striking in with her sweet smile and melodious voice, like a sunbeam upon turbulent waters. 4 lf you are in doubt, why not shift your helm, gentlemen ’’ said I. 4 Ah, skipper !’ cried Van Vogelaar, sardonically, ‘we have an adviser here. It is fit that a Dutch ship should be served by an English pilot !’ I held my peace. At this moment the clock struck, and the parrot, as though some fiend was in her green bosom prompting her to breed trouble, cried out “ 321 i) Bmx al Ferßomfl !” with fierce energy, severely clawing her wires, and exhibiting more agitation than seems possible in a fowl of naturally dull and leaden motion. I I believe she speaks the truth,’ exclaimed Van Vogelaar, turning his face towards the cage. ‘ The parrot hath been known to possess a witch-like capacity of forecasting and divining.’ ‘ Oh, but you know, Heer, that she had that sentence by heart when the captain bought her,’ said Imogeue, with a mixed air of distress and petulance in her face. 4 1 know, madam,’he replied, 4 that yonder bird never spoke those words with such energy as she now puts into them before this gentleman arrived.’ Vanderdecken looked at him and then at me, but did not speak. ‘ What do you Buapect from the increased energy of the bird’s language ?’ said I, fixing my eyes upon the mate. He would not meet my gaze, but answered with his eyes upon his plate, 4 What is your motive in examining this ship, sir ?’ ‘ The harmless curiosity ©f a sailor,’ I replied. He was about to speak, but I lifted my hand, meaning to entreat silence whilst I continued, but he, mistaking the gesture for a threat, shrank very abjectly from his seat, proving himself a timorous, cowardly fellow, and the more to be feared, perhaps, for being so. ‘Captain Vanderdecken,’ said I, keeping my hand lifted that he and his mate might understand that I intended no menace, ‘ I know not what base and degrading charges Herr Van Vogelaar would insinuate. I am an honest man and mean well,’ and, sir, add to that the gratitude of one whosb life you have preserved. You were pleased on one occasion, to speak kindly of my couutrymen, and regret that feud should ever exist between two nations whose genius seems to have a common root. I trust that your sympathy with Britain will cause you to turn a deif ear to the unwarrantable hints against my honour as an Euglisk seaman, dropped by your first mate.’ To this speech Vanderdecken made no reply ; indeed, I would not like co swear that he had heeded so much as a syllable of it. Van Vogelaar resumed the posture on his seat from which he had started on my raising my hand and went on with his meal. Shortly after this Imogene left the table and entered her cabin ; on which, weary of the' sullen and malignant company of the mate, and the ghostly silence and fiery eyes of Captain Vanderdecken, I rose, bowed to the skipper, and went on deck. Lost in thought, I continued gazing until presently I grew sensible of the presenae of someone standing close beside me. It was Imogene. On the weather quarter was Van Vogelaar, surveying the sail with folded arms and stooped head. His face wore a malignant expression, and in his stirlessness he resembled an effigy, wrought with exquisite skill to a marvellous imitation of apparel and shape. ‘ Where is the captain V I asked. 4 He ia smoking in the cabin,’ Imogene answered. ‘ Yonder rascal is evidently my enemy,’ Baid I. • All will be well if you show no curiosity,’ she replied, softly. *Do you not remember that I cautioned'you at the very beginning ? My belief is that the mate is mad that you should know of the treasure in this ship, and will be eager to get rid of you lest you should contrive to possess it.’ ‘But.how?’

4 By acquainting the master of the ship you are transferred to with the wealth in this vessel. Add to this fear—for he has a share in all they recover from wrecks, and in a portion of the cargo—his hatred of you for your men firing at him.’ 4 1 begin to see,’ said I, 4 that there are several strokes of human nature to be witnessed among these unhappy wretches, spite of their monstrous ago, the frightfulness of the Curse they are under, and their being men who are alive in death —corpses reflecting vitality just as the dead moon shines. But needs must where the Devil

drives ; speculating will not serve ; wsmasfc wait.’

I watched hei whi'ut she looked at the sail iu our wake ; emotion darkened and lightened in the violet of her eyes as the blue folds of Heaven seem to deepen and brighten with the breathing of the wind ; through her delicate lips her rose sweet breath came and went swiftly. She started, looked at Van Vogelaar, alolfc at the canvas, round the deok, with a sharp tremble running through her light form, and cried out with an hysteric swiftness, and in a voice full of tears, * You will not leave me to this wretched fate, Mr Fenton ! You will not leave mo in this dreadful ship 1’ I grasped her hand. ‘I swear before the Majesty of that offended God, whose eye is on this ship as we thus stand, that if I am forced to leave you it will be at the cost of my life ! ’ >

(To be continued.)