THE DEATH SHIP. A STRANGE STORY;

Otago Witness, Issue 1912, 13 July 1888, Page 29

THE DEATH SHIP. A STRANGE STORY;

Black to move and win. Draughts in Mosgiel. One of the games played between Messrs Willinra Carswell and Thomas Neill in the lian. 1 tie for the silver medal. Game 1180—" Laird and Lady." Carswell's move. 1115 1017 15 18 6 9 12 19 10 15 17 23 23 19 21 14 29 25 24 20 23 7 25 22 30 26 8 11 610 2 6 9 13 310 5 9 Drawn 32 17 25 21 26 23 1410 27 23 2318 913 10 17 1317 714 18 27 14 23 17 14 2111 312 dl 9 1(5 32 23 23 10 Draughts at Pukeuri. We have pleasure in publishing the following lively game played between two ot tho members of the recently iormed club. GAME 1181—" Irregular." Boreham's move

An Account of a Cruise in the Flying Dutchman, collected pbom the papers of the late mr geoffrey Fenton, of Poplar, master mari-

By W. CLARK RU&SELL,

Author of " The WrecK of the Grosvenor," " The Golden Hope," &c, &0..

[ALL RIGHTS EBSEBVBD.]

SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS.

Chapters Ito IV.— The narrator of the etory is Geoffrey Fenton. from whose papers it is collected. He tells how he sails as second mate in the Saracen, under Captain Skevington. They "speak" the " Lovely Ntfncy " near the equator, and the captain, Samuel Bullock, of Rotherhithe, tells Captain Skevington of having seen the Phanton Shfp, which seemed to be under the command of a tall man with a great beard, and with a face as of a man who had died and when dug up resumed his death bed aspect. He warns him against the ship as a spectre to be shunned.

Chapters V to VII. — As the Saracen approaches Table Bay Captain Skevington speaks to Fenton in a depressed, superstitious sort of way of the Phantom Ship and fears that they will meet her. After encountering some rough weather, during which the carpenter breaks his leg, Fenton has a conversation with him as to the phenomenon, and as to speaking wiohthe Lovely Nancy, which had seen the Flying Dutchman. The carpenter is greatly unnerved by the narration, and says, " I never yet knew or heard of a ship reporting to another of having met the Dutchman without the other meeting the Ghost too afore she's ended her voyage." Chaptbes VIII to X.— Next day tho crew are horrified by the fact that Captain Skevington Is found in his cabin with his brains blown out, having evidently in a moment of delirium shot himself. Mr Hall, the mate, harangues the men, who express a desire that the ship shall be directed to Table Bay, where she can be purified from the effects of the " contagion " with the vessel that had seen the illfated Vanderdecken, by the prayers of a clergyman. Hall promises to atteud to it. but the next sensation is the sighting of a curious craft, silent and mysterious, and, as they approach nearer, one pious seaman remarks, with a kind of scream in hiß notes, " As I hope to be forgiven for Jesua' sake, yon's the ship that was cursed last century."

board side, where they stood looking at the ship and making, amid that silence, the strangest noise that ever was heard with their Jeep and fearful breathiag.

" Great thunder 1" broke in one of them presently. ' " D'ye know what that shining is, mates? Why, it's the glow of timbers that's been rotted by near 200 years of weather."

" Sofr,ly, Tom !" said another ; " 'tis hell that owns her crew. They have tho malice of devils, and they need but touch us to founder us."

"Wait, and you shall see her melt!" exclaimed one of the two foreigners who were among our company of seamen. "If she is as I believe, she will be manned by the ghosts of wicked men who have perished at sea. Presently a bell shall strike, and she must disappear."

As this was said there^was a commotion forward, and the carpenter, borne by two stout hands, was oarried into the midst of the crew, and propped up so that he might see the ship. I was as eager as any of the most illiterate sailors on board to hear what he had to say, and took a step forward the better to catch his words. A whole minute went by whilst he gazed ; so strained and anticipative were my senses that the moments seemed as hours. He then said, "Mates, yonder's the Death Ship right enough. Look hard, and you'll mark the steeve of her bowsprit with the round top at the end of it, and the spring of her aft in a fashion more ancient than is the ages of any two of the oldest men aboard, . Note the

after rake of her mizzen-mast, and how the heel of the foremast looks to step in the forepeak. That's the ship- born in 1650 — Yanderdecken master— what I've often heard tell I of — raise my head, mates !" And here, through pain or weakness, or horror, he fainted, but being laid upon the deck, and some water thrown over his face, he came to in a sbort while, and lay trembling, refusing to speak or answer questions. A slight thinning of the vapour that hid the moon had enabled us to remark those points in the ship the carpenter had named ; and whilst he was being recovered from his swoon, the moon looked down from a gulf in the mist, buther light was still very tarnished and dim, though blurred and distorted as was her appearance, yet there instantly formed round her the same halo or wan circle that was visible before she was hidden. But her apparition made a light that exquisitely answered to those two lines of Shakespeare — Therefore the moon, the governess of floods, Pale in her anger washes all the air. For such radiance as fell really seemed like a cleansing of the atmosphere after the black smother that had encompassed us, and now we could all see the ship distinctly as she lay on our quarter with her broadside somewhat to us, her yards trimmed like our own, and her sails hanging dead. It was the solemnest sight that ever mortal eye beheld. The light left her black, so there was no telling what hue she showed or was painted. Her bows lay low in the water after the old fashion, with head-boards curling to her beak, that doubtless bore an ornament, though we could not distinguish it. There she rose like a hill, broken with the bulwarks that defined her waist, quarter-deck, and short poop. This was as much as we could discern of her hull. Her foremast stood close to where the heel of her bowsprit came ; her mizzen-mast raked over her stern, and upon it was a yard answering to the rig of a felucca ; the clew of a sail came down clear of a huge lanthorn whose iron frame, for all the glass in it was broke and gone, showed like the skeleton of some monster, on her taffrail. It was a sight to terrify the stoutest heart to see the creeping of thin, worm or wire-like g-leamings upon the side she showed to us. I considered at first she was glossy, and that those lights were the reflection of the phosphoric fires in the water under her ; but it was soon made plain that this was not so, as though to be sure a greenish glare of the true sea-flame would show against or near her when she slightly leaned, as we did, to the swell, this charnel-house or touchwood glimmer played all along her without regard to the phosphorescence under her. " What think you of her, Fenton," said Mr Hall, speaking softly, but with much of his excitement and uneasiness gone. " Does she resemble the craft that the master of the snow told Captain Skevington he sighted hereabouts ? "

"Why, yes, I think so," said I; but it does not follow that, she is the Phantom Ship. The Plymouth hooker's yarn owed a good deal to terror, and it would not lose in its passage through the brain of a lunatic, as I fear poor Skevington was." " She has a very solid look— she is a real ship, but the like of her I have never seen save in old prints. Mark those faint, fiery stripes and spirals upon her. Ido not understand it. The wood that yields such light must be as rotten as tinder and porous as a sponge. It could not swim."

By this time the mysterious ship had floated out her whole length, unless it were our vessel that had slewed and had given us that view of her. No light save the lambent gleams on her sides was to be seen. We could hear no voices. We could discern no movement of figures, or distinguish any outline resembling a human shape upon her. On a sudden my eye was caught by an illumination overhead that made a lustre strong enough to enable me to see the face of Mr Hall. I looked up, conceiving that one of our crew had jumped aloft with a lantern, and saw at our main yardarm a corpus sant or St. Elmo's light, that shone freely like a luminous bulb, poised a few inches above the spar. Scarce had this been kindled, and whilst it was paling the faces of our seaman who stared at it, there suddenly shone two brightmeteors of asimilar kind upon the strange ship ; one on top of the topgallant-mast head that was the full height oE the main spars, and one on the summit of a mast that stood up from the round top at the end of the bowsprit and that in olden times, before it was discontinued, would have been called the sprit-topmast. They had something oi the glory of stars ; their reflection twisted like silver serpents in the dark waters ; and as though they had been flambeaux or lamps, they flung their spectral glow upon the strangely-cut sails of the vessel, upon her rigging and spars, sickling all things to their starry colour, dimly illuminating even the distant castle-like poop, showing clearly the dark line of bulwarks, whilst a deeper dye of blackness entered into the hull from the shadow between the corpiis sants on high and their mirroring beneath.

" Thanks be to God for the sight of those lights 1" exclaimed a deep voice, sounding out among the men. •« It's a saint's hand as kindles them, I've heard ; and there'll be a breeze with luck behind it presently." "See Mr Hall!" cried I, pointing; "do you observe the figures of men ? Look along the line of the forecastle— one, two, three — I count six there ; and look right aft on that bit of a poop. Do you mark a couple of shapes viewing us as if with folded arms ?"

".Yes!" He paused, staring, then added, "Those lights are familiar enough to me, I've seen them scores of times," 'speaking in whispers, which trembled back to their former notes of consternation, " but there's something frightful about them now— and yonder one," pointing to our yardarm, " and the sight they show. She's no natural ship," be said, pulling ofi his cap, and passing his hand over his forehead. Would to God a breeze would come and part us." " Hail him again, sir I"

" Hail him you, my throat is dry." I walked right aft to bring me more abreast of the silent motionless figures on the stranger's poop, and jumping on to the rail, caught hold of the yang of the spanker-gaS to steady myself, and putting a hand ,to my mouth, roared out, " Bhip ahoy ! What ship is that?" and stopped breathless, so that I

seemed to hear the echoes of my own voice among the sails of the stranger. , : 11 What, ship is that T now came back in a deep organ-like note, and the Wo figures separated, one walking forward and the other stepping, as I had, on to the bulwark over the quarter-gallery. " The Saracen, of London, bound to Indian ports," I responded. " I will send a boat ! " cried the man, in the same deep-throated voice. , , " If you do we'll fire into it," screamed a seaman on our deck. " Mates — Mr Hall, you see now what he is ! Keep them off ! — keep them off ! " at which there was a sudden hurrying of feet, with many clicking sounds of triggers sharply cocked, by which I knew our men had armed themselves

The corpus sani at our yardarm vanished ; in a few seconds it showed itself afresh midway up the mainmast, making a wild light all around it ; those on the stranger burned steadily, and I believed a third had been kindled on her, till I saw it was. a lantern carried along the deck. There was a stillness lasting some minutes. What they were about we could not see ; anon came a creaking, as of ropes travelling in blocks, then a light splash; the lantern dropped jerkily down the ship's side, plainly grasped by a man ; flashes of phosphorus broke out of the water to the dip of oars, like fire clipped from a flint. I felt a faint air blowing, but didnot heed it, being half-frenzied with the excitement and fear raised in me by what I could now see — thanks to the light of the St. Elmo fires and the mystic crawlings of flames on the vessel's sides — was a boat, square at both ends, with the gunwale running out into horns, rowed by two figures, whilst a third stood upright. in the > bows, holding high a lighted lantern in one hand, and extending his other arm in a posture of supplication. At this instant a yellow glare broke in a noontide dazzle from our owff ship's rail, and the thunder of 20 muskets fired at once fell upon my hearing. I started with the .violence of the shock breaking in upon me, heedlessly letgo the chain that I had been grasping with my left hand, and fell headlong overboard.

Chapter XII. I am Rescued by the Death Ship.

I rose to the surface from a deep plunge bat being a very indifferent swimmer, it was as much as I could do— clothed as I was— to keep myself afloat by battling, with my hands. I heard the rippling of 'the water about my ears,; and I felt a deep despair, settle upon my spirits, for I knew that the air that blew would carry my ship away from me and that I must speedily drown. I struggled hard to keep myself afloat, freely breaking the water in the hope that the light and whiteness of it might be seen. Four or five minutes thus passed, and I was feeling my legs growing weighty as lead, when I noticed a light approach me. My eyes being full of wet, I could see no more than the light, what held or bore it being eclipsed by the spikes or fibres that shot out of it, as you notice a candle flame when the sight is damp. I could also hear the dip and trickle of oars, and tried to shout ; but my brain was giddy, my mind sinking into a babbling state, and in truth I was so exhausted that, but. for the sudden life darted into me by the sight of the lamp I am sure I should then and there have clenched my hands above my head and sunk.

The lantern was flashed full upon my face, and 1 was grasped by my hair. He who seized me spoke, and I believed it was the voice of one of the men in my watch, though I did not catch a syllable of his speech. After which I felt myself grasped under each arm and lifted out of the water, whereupon I no doubt fainted, for there is a blank between this and what followed, though the interval was very short.

When I opened my eyes, or rather when my senses returned to me, I found myself lying 011 my back, and the first thing I noticed was the moon shining weakly amid thin bodies of vapour which the wind had set in motion, and which sped under her in puffs like the smoke of gunpowder after the discharge of a cannon. I lay musing a little while, conscious of nothing but the moon and some dark stretches of sail hovering above me ; but my mind gathering force, I saw by the cut of the canvas that I was on board a strange ship, and then did I observe three men standing near my feet watching me. A great terror seized my heart. I sprang erect with a loud cry of fear, and rushed to the rail to see if the Saracen was near that I might hail her, but was stayed in that by being seized by the arm. He who clutched me exclaimed in Dutch : " What would you do ? If you could swim for a week you would not catch her." I perfectly understood him, but made no reply, did not even look at him, staring about the sea for the Saracen in. an anguish of mind not to be expressed. Suddenly I caught sight of the smudge of her, and perceived she was heading away ,on her course ; she was out on our starboard beam. I cast my eyes aloft, and found the yards of,the ship I was in braced up" to meet the wind on the larboard tack, whence I kcew that every instant was widening the space between the two vessels. On mastering this I could have dashed myself down on the deck with grief and terror. One of the group observing me as if I should fall, extended his hand, but I shrunk back with horror, and covered my face, whilst deep hysteric sobs burst from my breast, for now without heeding any further appearances, I knew that T was on board the Phantom Ship, the Sea Spectre, dreaded of marines, a fabric accurst of God, in the presence ofmen dead and yet alive, more terrible in their supernatural existence, in their clothing of flesh whose human mortality had been rendered, undecaying by a fate that had shrunk up the soul in one to think of, than had they been ghosts — essences through which you might pass your band as through a moonbeam !

I stood awhile as tliough paralysed, but was presently rallied by the chill of the night wind striking through my streaming clothes. A lantern was near where the three men were grouped, no doubt theskme that had been carried in the boat, but the dim illumination wo old have sufficed for no more than to throw .out the proportion of things within its sphere, had it not, been helped by the faint moonlight and a. carpus tant that shone with the powers ot a planet

close against tbe blocks of the jeers of the ; 'mainyard. 'Twas a ghostly radiance to be- ! hold the men in, but I found nerve now to survey them.

There were three, as I have said ; one very tall, above six feet, with agrey — almost white — beard, that decended to his waist ; the second was a broad, corpulent man, of the true Dutch build, without hair on his face ; in the third man I could see nothing striking, if it were not for a ruprgedness of seafaring aspect. I could not distinguish their apparel beyond that the stout man wore boots to the height of his knees, whereas the tall personage was clad in black hose, shoes with large buckles, and breeches terminating at the knees ; their head-drosses were alike, a sort of cup of skin, with flaps for the ears.

"Do you speak Dutch 1 " said tho tallest of the three, after eyeing me in silence, whilst a man could have counted a hundred. Hi: i), was who had responded to my hail from flic Saracen, as my ear imraediaicly detoetwl — now that I had my faculties— by the d«<;p organ-like melodiousness and tremor of his voice.

I answered " Yes."

" Why were your people afraid of us ? We intended no harm. We desired bnb a little favour — a small quantity of tobacco, of which we are short."

This speech I followed, though some of the words, or the pronunciation of them, were different from what I had been used to hear at Eotterdara. He spoke imperiously, with a hint even of passion, rearing himself to his full stature, clasped his bauds behind him, and stared at me as some Indian king might at a slave. ■" Sir," said I, speaking brokenly, for I was a slow hand at his tongue, and besides, the chill of my clothes was now become a pain, •• first let me ask what ship is this, and who are you and yt>ur men who have rescued me from death 1 "

" The name of the ship is the Braave," he answered, in his deep, solemn voice. "I, who command the vessel, am known as Cornelius Vanderdecken ; the three seamen, tp whom you owe your life, are Frederick Houtman, John de Bremen, and this man," indicating the rough, uncouth person who stood on his left, "the mate, Herman, Van Vogelaar." I felt a sensation as of ice pressed to my chest when he pronounced his own name, yet, recollecting he had called his ship the Braave, I asked, though 'twas wonderful he could follow my utterance — " What port do you belong to ? " " Amsterdam." " Where are you from 7 " " Batavia." J

I said, " When did you sail 1 " " On the the twenty -second of July in last year I By the glory of .tbe Holy Trinity, but it is dreary work ; see how the wind heads us even yet 1 " He sighed deeply and glanced aloft in a manner that suggested grievous weariness.

" Last year ! " I thought, a sudden elation expanding my soul and calming me as ah opiate might. "If that be so, why, then, though this ship had made a prodigiously long voyage of" it from Java to these parallels, there is nothing wildly out of nature in such, tardiness." Last year ! Had I cauglit the true signification of the words he used?

" Pray, sir," said I, speaking in as firm a voice as the shivers which chased me permitted, ' what might last year be 1 "

The mate, Van Vogelaar, growled out some exclamation I could not catch, the captain made a gesture with his hands, whilst their burly companion said in thick, Dutch accents, "It needs not salt wat.er, but good, strong liquor to take away a Hollander's brain."

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

CIIAI'TBB XIII. Wy zan al Verdorad.

When he said this, I felt like one in whom there is suddenly wrought a dual action of the brain, where from one side, so to say, there is darted into the mind thoughts utterly illogical and insane, which the same side marvels at, and seeks to reject, though if the fit linger the whole intelligence may be seized.

I recollect of seeking for confirmation of the words of the man who styled himself Vanderdecken, in the ship, and of noticing for the first time that upon the planks of the deck which were out of the reach of the corpus unit, where the same crawling, elusive fires, as of phosphorus, creeping and coming and going upon a dark wall, which I had observed on the vessel's sides Several figures ot men moved forward. Close beside me was a small gun of the kind carried by ships in the beginning of the last century, termed a light saker, and discharging a sixpound ball. There were three of these on the larboard side, and, in the haze of the moonlight and the sheen of the jelly-like star that shone with a pure, pale gold over my head, I could discern upon the bulwarks of the quarter-deck and poop several swivels furnished with handles for pointing them. I also observed a short .flight of steps conducting ft> the quarter-deck, with two sets of a like kind leading to the poop, the front of which was furnished with a door and a little window.

These matters I took in with a sweep of the eye, for the light was confusing, a faint, erroneous ray glancing from imperfect surfaces and flinsrs half an imatj-e ; and then, an indescribable fear possessing me again, I looked in the direction where I had last beheld the smudge made by the Saracen, ami, not seeiug her, cried out wildly, in my broken Dutch, " Sirs, for the love of God, follow my ship, and make some signals that she may know I am here."

"Skipper," exclaimed the smooth- faced corpulent man, who proved to be the boatswain, Antony Jans, -'after their cowardly inhumanity in firing upon a small unarmed boat, and putting in peril the life of our mate, Van Vogelaar, we should have nothing more to do with her."

" Henceforth this Englishman will know that the Dutch are a merciful people," said Van Vogelaar, scornfully. • " Had our nationalities been reversed he would have been left to drown as a tribute to -the courage of his comrades." ' While this was said, Vanderdecken con-

tinued to regard me steadfastly and with great sternness, then on a sudden relaxing his frown, he exclaimed in that wondrous voice of his, which put a solemn music into his least utterance : " Come — you shiver with the cold and have the look of the Jans, send Prins to me; sir,* please .to follow.

He motioned in aliaughty manner towards the poop and walked that way. One desperate look I cast round the sea, and then with a prayer to God that this experience might prove some eclipse of my reason from which my mind would float out bright afresh ere long, I followed the great figure of the captain, but with a step so faltering from weakness and grief, that he perceiving my condition, took me by the elbow and supported me up the ladder to the cabin under the

Whether it was this courtesy or owing to a rot in n of my manhood — and I trust the reader will approve, the candour with which I have confessed my cowardice —whatever might be the reason, I now began to look about me with a growing curiosity. The interior into which Captain Vanderdecken conducted me was of a dingy yellowish hue, such as age might complexion delicate white paint with. An oil lamp of a very beautiful, elegant, and rare pattern, furnished with eight panes of glass, variously and all choicely coloured with figures of birds, flowers, and the like, through the opening at the bottom let the white light of the oil-flame fall fair on to the table and the deck, swung by a thin chain from a central beam. The cabin was the width of the ship, and on its walls were oval frames, dusky as old mahogany, each one, as I suspected, holding a painting. Over the door by which the cabin was entered ,was & clock, and near it hung a cage with a parrqt in it. Of ports I could see no remains, and supposed that by day all the light that entered streamed through the windows on either side of the door. .

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

All these things were matters to be quickly noticed. The captain, first removing his cap, pointed to a bench, and lifting his finger, wi fch a glance at the starboard cabin, said in a low tone, " Sir, if you speak, be it softly, if youplease,"andthen directed his eyestowards tho entrance from the deck, standing erect, with one hand on the table, and manifestly waiting for the person he had styled Prins to arrive. A ruby-coloured lustre was upon his faoe; his waist down was in the white lamplight. He had a most noble port, I thought, such an ilcVtiiiuii of the head, such disdainful and determined ercctness of figure, as made his posture royal. There was not tho least hint in his face of the Dutch flatness and insipidity of expression one is used to in those industrious but phlegmatic people. K',s nose was aquiline, the nostrils hidden by thi; moustachios which mingled with his noble Druidical beard. His forehead was square and heavy, his hair was scanty, yet abundant enough to conceal the skin of his he.id, his eyes were black, impassioned, relentless, and a ruby star now shone in eayh, which gave them a forbidding and formidable expression as they moved under tin} shadow ot his shaggy brows. He wore acoafc of stout cloth coniined by butions, an.l a belt round his waist. This, with his small clothes which I have described, formed a very puzzling apparel, the like of which I had never seen. There were no rents, nor dams, nor patches — nothing to indicate th it his attire was of great- age. Yet thore was something in this commanding person that caused me to know by feelings ceeper than awe or even fear, by instincts indeed not explicable, such as must have urged in olden times the intelligence to the recognition of those supernatural beings you read of in Scripture, that he wa<* not as I was, as are other men who bear their natural parts in the procession from the cr.idle to the grave. The tremendous and shocking fears of Captain Skevington recurred to me, and methought as I gazed at tho silent, majestic seaman that the late m.ister of the Saracen, who, by his ending, had showed himself a madman, might, as had other insane persons in theii time, have st;uck in one of bis finer frenzies upon a horrible truth. The mere fear of which caused me to press my hands to my eyes wSth a renewal of mental anguish, and to entreat in a swift prayer to that Being, whom he who stood before me had defied, for power to collect my mind and for quick deliverance from this awful situation.

Not a syllable fell from the captain till the arrival of Prins, a parched-faced, bearded man, habited in coarse woollen shirt, trousers of the stuff we call fearnought, and an old jacket. He made nothing of my presence nor condition, scarce glancing at me.

" Get this Englishman a change of clothes," said the captain. " Take what may be needful from my cabin. They will hang loose on him but must serve till his own are diy. Quick ! You see he shivers."

AH this was expressed in Dutch, but as I have said before of an antique character, and therefore not quickly to be followed ; whence I will not pretond that I give exactly all that was spoken, thiMcrh tho substance of it is accuratel y repoi I cd.

The man styled Puns went to the larboatd cabin at Ihe etui, whilst the cnptr.in g'oinpr to the tablt\ pulled from under it. ;i preat drawer, which I hud taken to be a chest, from which he lifted a- silver goblet and a strangely-fashioned stone bottle.

" Drink, sir," he exclaimed, with a certain arrogant impetuosity in 'his way of pouring out the liquor and extending the goblet.

'Twaa neat brandy, and the dose a large mouthful; I tossed down the whole of it, and placed the goblet, that was very heavy and sweetly chased, on the table with a bow of thanks.

" That will put fire into your blood," said he, returning the cup and bottle to the drawer^ and then folding his arms and look

ing at me under his contracted brows, with his back to the lantern whilst he leaned ag-iinst the table. " Are you fresh from your comtry?"

1 told him that we had sailed in April from thej Thames, and had lately come out of Table Bay.

" Is there peace between your nation and mi.ie?" he inquired, speaking softly, as though he feared to awaken some sleeper, though, let his utterance be what it would, 'twas always melodious and rich.

I answered, " No ; it grieves me to say it, but our countries are still at war. I will not pretend, sir, that Great Britain has acted with good faith towards the Batavian Republic; their high mightinesses resent the infraction of treaties ; they protest against the manner in which the island of St. Eu»tatia wr.s- devastated ; they hope to recover the Cape of Good Hope, and likewise their po {sessions in the Indies, more particularly th dr great Coromandel factory,"

•'Of what are you speaking?" he exclaimed, after a frowning stare of amazemi, nt ; then waved his hand with a gesture half of pity, half of disdain. " You have been perilously close to death," he continued, " and this idle babble will settle into good sense when you have shifted and slept." He smiled contemptuously with a half look around, as though he sought another of his own kind to address, and said as one thinking aloud, " If Tromp and Evertzens, and De Witt and De Euyter have not yet swept them off the seas, 'tis only because they have not had time to complete the easy task I "

As he said this the clock over the door struck 2. The chimes had a hollow, caihe-dral-like sound, as though indeed it was the clock of a cathedral striking in the distance. Glancing at the direction whence these notes issued, 1 was just in time to witness the acting of an extraordinary piece of mechanism ; that is to say there arose to the top of the clock-case, that was of some spscies of metal — the dial plate of blue enamel protected with horn instead of glass — there arose, I say, the figure of a skeleton, imitated to the life, holding in one hand an hour-glass on which he turned his eyeless sockets by a movement of the head, whilst with the other hand he grasped a lance or spear that, as I afterwards perceived, he flourished to every stroke of the clock -bell, as though he pierced something prostrate at his feet. The figure shrank into the inside of the clock when the chimes were over. As if to complete the bewilderment under which I laboured, scarce had the second chime of the clock rung its last vibration when a harsh voice croaked out in Dutch — •

I started and cried out involuntarily and faintly, " My God ! "

" Ifc was the parrot that spoke," said Captain Vanderdecken, with a softening of his looks, though he did not smile. •' 'Tis the only sentence she seems able to pronounce. It Was all she could say when I bought her."

" Have you had her long, sir 7" I inquired, feeling as though I lay a-dreaming.

" I bought her fom a Chinaman of Batavia two days before we sailed as a gift for my eldest daughter "

Here he was interrupted by the arrival of Prins. " The clothes are ready, skipper," said he.

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

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

The dress consisted of warm knitted stockings, breeches of an old pattern, and a coat with a great skirt embellished with metal buttons, several of which were missing, and the remains of some gold lace upon the cuffs. In addition, there was a clean linen shirt and a pair of South American hide boots, fawn-coloured. 'Twas like clothing myself for a masquerade to dress in such things, but for all that I was mighty pleased aud grateful to escape from my own soaked attire.

My costume made me feel ridiculous enough, for, whereas the boots might have belonged to a period when Shelvoke and Clipperton were plundering the Spaniards in the South Seas, the coat was of a fashion of about 30 years past, whilst the breeches were such as merchant captains and mates wore when I was first going to sea. However, being changed and dry, T stepped forth, bearing my wet clothes with me, but they were immediately laken from me by Prins, who had been standing near the door nnperceivert by mo, On my appearing. Captain Vanderdeckcn rose from the chair at the head of the table, but seemed to find nothing in my dress to amuse him. The varicoloured light was extremely confusing, and it was with the utmost pains that I could discern the expression of his face, but, so far as I made out, it was one of extreme melancholy, touched with lights and shade by his moods, which yet left the prevailing character unchanged.

" Will you go to rest ?" said he.

" I am willing to do whatever you desire," said I. " Your kindness is great and I thank you for it." " Ay," he replied, " spite of the war I'd liofer serve an Enlishman than one of any other country. The old and the young Commonwealths should be friends. On either hand there are mighty hearts—you in your Blakes, your Ayscues, your Monks ; we in our Van Tromp, whom the King of Denmark, to my great joy before I sailed, honourably justified to the people of Holland, and in Van Galen, Ruyfcer, wibh other skilled and lion-hearted men, whom I shall glory in greeting on my return 1" He seemed to reflect a moment, and suddenly cried, with a passionate sparkle in his eyes : "But 'twas cowardly in your captain to order his men to fire upon our boat. What did we seek? Such tobacco as you could have spared, which we were willing to purchase. By the vengeance of heaven, 'twas a deed unworthy of Englishmen I"

.' I did 1 not dare explain the true cause, and said, gently: " Sir, our captain lay dead in his cabin. The men, missing their chief, fell into a panio at the sight of this ship, for she

showed large in the du3k, and we feared you' meant to lay us aboard." "Enough!" he exclaimed, imperiously. " Follow me to your cabin." He led the way on *to the deck, and we descended the quarter-deck ladder.

(To be continued.')

Wyndham. Mataura. fins. Draws. Wins 2 J Stirling ... 1 X Anderson ... 1 1 WH Clark ... 1 W Pickens ... 3 1 J M'Lachlnn ... 0 T Young ... 4 4 R M'Kay ... 0 W Macandrew ... 4 2 AKidd ... 1 J Brittle ... 2 3 J Allen ... 1 KM'Laren ... 1 5 A Stewart ... 0 J Thompson ... 2 1 J Lumsden ... 1 A Dickie ... 1 4 I W Raymond ... 0 T M'Gowan ... 3 0 R Sloan ... 0 W Pagefc ... 2 5 H Purvis ... 0 A Collie ... 4 2 T Morr'son ... 0 W R Cameron ... 1 2 D M'Kay ... 2 H C.invron ... 4 3 J Maben ... 0 A M'Gibbon ... 0 2 J Greenshielda ... 0- JP.uk... ... 2 4 R Dodd ... 0 J S Shanks ... 2 2 TShiels ... 'i HM'ttowan ... 1 1 JM'Kav ... 2 DPryde ... 3 1 J Walker ... 1 U Winning ... 4 2 J Harming ... ~*l Alf Hiilcilesfcon ... 1 47 1 S 45

rit'.s. 6 A Stewart 4 J Harper 4 J Anderson 5 J Thomson 5 Lepettit 4 JBartlett 5 J Cheyno 4 L Young 2 WReid 5 WFraser Draws. ... 0 Bartlett ... 0 Ueveridgo ... 1 Warm... ... 1 R Harper ... 0 Cox ... ... 0 M'Nafcty ... 0 Williams ... 0 T Bartlett ... 0 Cosurove ... 0 G Kiugsland W tins. 0 2 1 0 1 4 1 1 4 1 44 2 13

1 15 J3 19 9 H 22 18 L 4 23 J7 11 7 23 )6 19 5 9 24 20 8 11 25 22 1115 3126 15 24 28 19 4 8 32 27 8 11 27 23 1115 19 16 •12 19 2316 15 19 26 23 19 20 30 23 610 8 4 18 22 10 15 14 7 23 19 17 13 16 12 327 4 8 IS 15 914 20 16 19 In 29 25 27 31 2.'i 21 15 IS 16 11 1 15 22 15 31 26 21 17 14 17 11 8 15 18 21 14 26 23 811 B. wins by Second Posifcion.