CHAPTER VIII.

Otago Witness, Issue 1911, 6 July 1888, Page 29

CHAPTER VIII.

[White.] White to play and mate in three moves.

A Tragical Death. OR some time after I had relieved the deck, as it is termed, that is to say, after the mate had gene below and left me in charge, I had the company of the captain, who seemed restless and troubled, often quitting my side as we paced, to go to to the rail and view the horizon

with the air of a man perturbed by expectation. I need not tell you that I did not breathe a word to him respecting my talk with the carpenter, not even to the extent of saying, how fancies about the Dutchman were flying about among the crew, for this subject he was in no state of mind to be brought into. The moon was rising a little before he joined me, and we stood in silence watching her. She juttod up a very sickly faint red, bl at brightened bub a little after she lifted her lower limb clear of the horizen, and when we had the full of her plain we

perceived her strangely distorted by the atmosphere — of the shape — if shape it can be called — of a rotten orange that has been squeezed, or of a turtle's egg lightly pressed ; she was more like a blood-coloured jelly distilled by the sky, ugly and even affrighting, than the sweet ice-cold planet that empearls the world at night, and whose delicate silver the lover delights to behold in his sweetheart's eyes. But she grew more shapely as she soared, though holding a dusky blush for a much longer time than ever I had noticed in her when rising off the mid-African main ; and her wake broken by the small, black curl of the breeze, hung in broken indissoluble lumps of feverish light, like coagulated gore that had dropped from the wound she looked to be in the dark sky. There was a f aintness in the heavens that closed out the sparkles of the farther stars, and but a few, and those only of the greatest magnitude, were visible, shining in several colours, such as dim pink and green and wan crystal ; all of which, together with one or two of them above our mastheads, dimly glittering amidst feeble rings, made the whole appearance of the night amazing and even ghastly enough to excite a feeling of awe in the attention it compelled, The captain spoke not a word whilst the moon slowly floated into the dusk ; and then, fetching a deep breath, he said : " Well, thank God. if she don't grow round it's because of the shadow on her. Keep a bright look out, Mr Fenton, and hold the ship to her course. Should the wind fail, call me — and call me too if it should head us."

With which he walked quietly to the hatcb, stood there a moment or two with his hand upon it and his face looking up as though he studied the trim "of the yards, and then disappeared. As the night wore on the moon gathered her wonted hue and shape, though her refulgence was small, for the air thickened. Indeed, at half past 10 all the lights of heaven, saving the moon, had been put out by a mist, the texture of which was illustrated by the only luminary the sky contained, around whose pale expiring disc there was now a great halo, with something of the character of a lunar rainbow in the very delicate, barely determinable tinctures, which made a sort of shadowy prism of it, more like what one would dream of than see. The ocean lay very black, there was no power in the moon to cast a wake, the breathings of the wind rippled the water and caused a scintillaton of the spangles of the phosphorus or sea-fire, the weight of the lower sails kept them hanging up and down, and what motion the ship had was from the swelling of the light canvas that rose very pale and ghostly into the gloom. I had gone to the taffrail and was staring there away into the dark, whither our short wake streamed in a sorb of smouldering cloudiness with particles of fire in it, conceiving that the wind was failing, and waiting to make sure before reporting to the captain, when I was startled by the report of a musket or some small arm that broke upon my ear with a muffled sound, so that whence it came I could not conceive. Yet for some minutes I felt so persuaded the noise had been seawards that, spite of there having been no flash, I stood peering hard into the dark, first one side then the other, far as the sails would suffer me.

Then, but all very quickly, concluding that the explosion had happened aboard and might betoken mischief, 1 ran along the deck where, close against the wheel, I found a number of seamen talking hurriedly and in alarmed toices. I called out to know what that noise had been. None knew. One said it had come from the sea, another that there had been a small explosion in the hold, and a third was giving his opinion, vhen at that instant a figure darted out of the companion hatch, clothed in his shirt and drawers, and cried out :

"Mr Fenton! Mr Fenton! For God's sake, where are you 1 "

I recognised the voice of Mr Hall, and bawled back, " Here, sir ! " and ran to him. He grasped my arm. " The captain has shot himself 1 " he answered. " Where is he 1 " said I.

11 In his cabin," he exclaimed.

We rushed down togther. The great cabin, where we messed, was in darkness, but a light shone in the captain's berth. The door was open, and gently swung with the motion of the ship. I pushed in, but instantly recoiled with horror, for, right athwart the deck lay the body of Captain Skevington, with the top of his head blown away. It needed but one glance to know that he had done this thing with his own hand. He had fired the piece with his foot by a string attached to the trigger, standing upward with his brow bent to the muzzle, for the bight of the string was round his shoe, and he had fallen sideway, grasping the barrel. The sight froze me to the marrow. Had I killed him by accident with my own hand I could not have trembled more. But this exquisite distress was short lived. It was only needful to look at his head to discover how fruitless would be the task of- examining him for any signs of life. Some of the seamen who heard Mr Hall cry out to me about this thing had followed us below, forgetting their place in the consternation roused in them, and stood in the doorway faintly groaning and muttering exclamations of pity. Mr Hall bid a couple of them raise the body and lay it in its bank and cover it with a sheet, and others he sent for water and a swab wherewith to cleanse the place. " You had better go on deck again, Fenton," says he to me; " the ship must be watched. I'll join you presently."

I was glad to withdraw ; for albeit there was a ghastliness in the look of the night, the sea being black as ebony, though touched here and there with little sheets of firr, and stretching like a pall to its horizon that was drawing narrower and murkier around us minute after minute, with the wing-like shadow of vapour that was yet* too thin to deserve the rame of fcg; though thpre was this ghastliness, I say, aided by tne moon that was now little more than a dim, tarnished blotch of shapeless silver, wanly ringed with an ashen tincture, yet the taste of the faint breeze was as helpful to my spirits as a dram of generous cordial after the atmosphere of the cabin in which I had beheld the remains of Captain Skevington.

Chapteb IX. , Mr Hall Harangues the Crew.

The news had spread quickly ; the watch below had roused out and most of the men. were on deck, and they moved abont in groups striving to find out all about the suicide.

Presently Mr Hall arrived on deck, fully dressed, and stepping over to where I stood in deep thought, exclaimed : " Did you have a suspicion that the captain designed this fearful act? "

" No, not a shadow of a suspicion," I answered.

" 'Tis enough to make one believe he was not far out when he talked of the ill-luck he eXpected from speaking: a craft that had sighted Vanderdecken," said he, very uneasily, which made me see how strong was the blow his nerves had received ; and running his eyes restlessly over the water here and there, as I might tell by the dim sparkle the faint moon haze kindled in them, " Oh, but," he continued, as if dashing aside his fancies, " the mere circumstance of his being so superstitious ought to explain the act. I have often thought there was a vein cf madness in him."

" I never questioned that," I replied. "'Tis an ugly-looking night," said he, with a little tremble running through him, " there is some menace of foul weather. We shall lose this faint air presently." He shivered again and said, " Such a sight as that below is enough to make a hell of a night of midsummer beauty 1 It is the suddenness of it that seizes upon the imagination 1 Why, d'ye know, Fenton, I'd give a handful of guineas, poor as I am, for a rousing gale — • anything to blow my mind to its beariugp, for here's a sort of business," looking aloft, " that's fit to suffocate the heart in your breast."

Such words, in so plain and literal a man, made me perceive how violently he had been wrenched, I begged his leave to go below and fetch him a glass of liquor. 11 No, no," said he, " not yet, anyhow. I must speak to those fellows there." Saying which he walked a little distance forward, calling for the boatswain. On that officer answering he said, " Are all hands on deck V

" I believe most of the crew are on deck, sir," replied the boatswain. " Pipe all hands," said Mr Hall.

The clear keen whistling rose shrill to the sails and made as blythe a sound as could have been devised for the cheering of us up. The men gathered quickly, some lanthorns were fetched, and in the light of them stood the crew near to the round-house.

Mr Hall made a brief speech. He explained to the men how'on hearing the report of a musket he had sprung from his bed, and perceiving powder smoke leaking through the][ openings of the door of the captain's cabin, through which some rays of light streamed, he entered, and seeing the body of the captain, and the horrid condition of the head, was filled with a panic, and rushed on deck. That the master had shot himself was certain, but there was no help for what had happened. The command of the ship fell upon him ; but it was for them to say whether he should navigate the ship to her destination or carry her back to Table Bay, where a fresh commander could be obtained.

He -was very well liked on board, being an excellent seaman ; and the crew, on hearing this, immediately answered that they wanted no better master to sail tinder than he, and that, indeed, they would not consent to a change ; but having said this with a heartiness that pleased me, for I liked Mr Hall greatly myself, and was extremely glad to find the crew so well disposed, they fell into an awkward silence, broken after a little by some hoarse whisperings. " What now ?" sayi Mr Hall. "Why, 6ir," answers the boatswain, respectfully, " it's this with the men : there's a notion among us that that there Plymouth snow has brought ill-luck to the ship, one bad specimen of which has just happened ; and the feeling is that we had better return to Table Bay, so as to get the influence worked out of the old barkev."

" How is that to be done?" says Mr Hall, coming easily into the matter, partly because of his shaken nerves, and partly because of the kindness he felt towards the hands for the way they had received his address to them.

Here there was another pause, and then the boatswain, speaking somewhat shyly, said :

"The carpenter, who's heard tell more about the Phantom Ship and the spell she lays on vessels than all hands of us put together, says that the only way to work out of a ship's timbers the ill-luck that's been put into them by what's magical and hellish, is for a minister of religion to come aboard, call all hands to prayer, and ask of the Lord a blessing on the ship. He says there's no other way of purifying of her." " Can't we pray ourselves for a blessing ?" says Mr HaH.

The boatswain not quickly answering, a sailor says, " It needs a man who knows how to pray — who's acquainted with the right sort of v/ords to use."

" Aye," cried another, " and whose calling is religion." Mr Hall half turned, as if he would address me, then checking himself, he said, " Well, my lads, there's no wind now, and small promise of any. Suppose we let this matter rest till to-morrow morning ; Mr Fenton and I will talk it over, and you forward can turn it about in your minds. I believe we shall be ea? ier when the captain's buried and the sun's up, and then we might agree ib would bo a pity to put back after the tough job we've had to get where we are. But lest you should still be all of one mind on this matter in the morning, we'll keep the ship, should wind come, under small sail, so as to make no headway worth speaking of during the night. Is that to your fancy, men?" They all said it was, and thereupon went forward, but I noticed that those who were ofE duty did not offer to go below ; they joined the watch on the forecastle, and I could hear the in earnest lalk, their voices tremlling through the stillness like the humming of a congregation in 'church following the parson's reading. Mr Hall came to my side and we walked the deck.

•' I am sorry the men have got that notion of this ship being under a spell," said he.

" This J3 no sweet time of the year in these seas ; to put back will, I daresay, be only to anger the weather that that's now quiet enough, and there's always the risk of falling into Dutch hands."

I told him of my talk with the carpenter, and said that I could not be surprised the crew were alarmed for the old fellow had the devil's own knack of putting his fancies in an alarming way.

" I laughed at some of his fancies," said I, " but I don't mind owning that I quitted his cabin so dulled in my spirits by hi 3 talk that I might have come from a death-bed for all the heart there was in me."

"Well, things must take their chance," said Mr Hall. "I'll speak to the carpenter myself in the morning, and afterwairls to the men; and if they are still wishful that the ship should return to Table Bay, we'll sail her there. 'Tis all one to me. I'd liefer have a. new captain over me, than be one."

We continued until five bells to walk to and fro the deck, talking about tho. captain'? suicide, the strangeness of it as following his belief that ill-luck had coino totli.- ship from the Plymouth vessel, with other such matters as would be suggested by our potation and the tragedy in the cabin ; and Mr Hall then said he would go below for a glass of rum ; but he refused to lie down — though I offered to stand an hour of his watch, that is from midnight till 1 o'clock — for he said he should not be able to sleep.

Most of the crew continued to hang about the forecastle, which rescued the deck from the extreme loneliness I had found in it ere the report of the fatal musket startled all hands into* wakef ulness and movement. The lanthorps had been carried away and the ship was plunged in darkness. There still blew a very light air, so gentle that you needed to wet your fingei and hold it up to feel it. From the darkness aloft fell the delicate sounds of the higher canvas soft.ly drumming the masts to the very slight rolling of the ship. I went to the binnacle and found that the vessel was heading her course, and then s'-epped to the rail, upon which I set my elbows, leaning my chin in my hands, and in that posture fell athinking.