Chapter XXVIII.

Otago Witness, 31 August 1888, Page 29

Chapter XXVIII.

Golden Hope," &c, &c,

[ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.]

Vandeidecken Walks in his Sleep. T was as I had feared, and had the captain of the man-of-war promised to blow his ship and men into a thousand atoms if the boat's crew, refused to obey his orders to board us, they would have accepted that fate in pre-

ference to the hideous alterna-

tive adventure. In a trice the pinnace was alongside the frigate, the crew over the rail, and the boat hoisted. The yards on the main flew round, royals and topgallant sails were set, studding sails were run aloft, and before 10 minutes had elapsed since the boat had started to board us, the frigate, under a whole cloud of canvas, was heeling and gently rolling and pitching over the brilliant blue sea, with her head northeast, her stern dead at us, the gilt there and the windows converting her betwixt her quarters into the appearance of a huge sparkling square of crystal, the glory of which flung upon her wake under it a splendour so great that it was as though she had fouled a sunbeam and was dragging the dazzle after her.

I looked at Imogene ; her beautiful eyes had yearned after the ship into the dimness of tears.

" My dear, do not fret," said I, again calling her " my dear," for I still lacked the courage to call her "my love " ; " this experience makes me clear on one point: we shall escape, but not by a ship." " How, if not by a ship 7 " she cried, tremulously." Before I could reply, Vanderdecken looked round upon us, and came our way, at the same time telling Van Vogelaar to swing the topsail yard and board his main tack.

" 'Tis in this fashion," he exclaimed, "that most of the ships I meet serve me. It would be enough to make me deem your countrymen a lily-livered lot if the people of other nations, my own included, did not sheer off before I could explain my needs or learn their motives in desiring to board us. What alarmed the people of that ship, think you, mynheer ? " " Who can tell, sir ? " I responded in as collected a manner as I could contrive. "They might suspect us hardly worth the trouble of capturing " He motioned an angry dissent. " Or," I continued, abashed and speaking hurriedly, " they might have seen something in the appearance of your crew to promise a bloody resistance."

"By the Holy Trinity !" he cried with the most vehement scorn, " if such a thing were conceivable I should have been glad to confirm it with a broadside I "

And his eye came from' the frigate that was fast lessening in the distance to his poor show of rust-eaten sakers and green-coated swivels.

It was an hour after our usual dinner-time, and Prins arrived to tell the captain the meal was on the table. He put Imogene's hand under his arm caressingly, and I followed them with one wistful look at the frigate that was already a toy and far off, melting like a cloud into the junction of sapphire ether and violet ocean. I saw Vanderdecken level a glance at her too, and as we entered the cabin he said, addressing me, but without turning his head, and leading Imogene to the table : "It will be a disappointment to you, mynheer, that your countrymen would not stay to receive you 1 " "If was your intention," said I, "that I should go with them ? "

" Certainly," he answered, confronting me slowly and eyeing me haughtily ; " you are an Englishman, but you are not my prisoner."

"We may be more fortunate next time," I said coldly.

" 'Tis to be hoped 1 " said Van Vogelaar, who had followed last, speaking in his harshest and sourest tone.

I turned to eye him ; but at the moment the parrot, probably animated by our voices, croaked out, hoarsely :

on which the fellow broke out into a coarse, raw " Ha ! ha 1 " yet never Btirring a muscle of his storm-hammered face. 'Twould have been like fighting with phantoms and fiends to war in words with these men. lam here, thought I, and there is yonder sweetheart to rescue before I am done with this Death Ship ; and with a smile at her earnest halfstartled eyes, I seated myself. I remember when the evening came on that same day we had been chased and abandoned by the Centaur, walking up and down the lee-side of the short poop alone, Arents, who had charge, standing silent near the helmsman. I had worked myself up into great confusion and distress of mind. Dejection had been followed by a fit of nervousness, and when I looked around me at the unmeasurable waste tif ocean darkling in the east to the growing shadows there, at the ancient heights of canvas above me, with the dingy rusty red of the westfin light slipping from the hollow breasts and off the sallow spars, till the edges of ihe sails melted into a spectral faintness upen the gradual gloom, at the desolate gra-sy appearance of the decks, the dull motion, the death-like posture of the three or four men standing here and there forward.— l felt as if the curse of the ship had fallen upon my heart and life too — that it was my doom to languish in her till my death — to love and yet be denied fruition — to yearn for our release with the same impotenoy of dealre, that governed the navigation ol this

Death Ship towards the home it was the will of God she was never to approaoh. On turning from a short contemplation of the sea over the stern, I observed Imogene at the head of the ladder conducting from the poop to the quarter-deck, watching me. It was the first opportunity which had offered for speaking with her alone since dinner-time. - . " Captain Vanderdecken has gone to his cabin to take some rest," said she. " I knew you were above by your tread." " Ah 1 you can recognise me by that 1 " " Yes, and by the dejection in it, too," she answered, smiling. "There is human feeling in the echo ; the footfalls of the others are as meaningless as the sound of wood smitten by wood." " I am very dull and weary-hearted," said I. " Thanks be to God that you are in this ship to give me hope and warmth."

" And I thank Him, too, for sending you to me," said she.

I took her hand and kissed it ; indeed, but for Arents and the helmsman,*l should have taken her to my heart with my lips upon hers.

" Let us walk a little," said I. "We will step softly. We do not want the captain to surprise us."

I took her hand, and we slowly paced the deck.

" AH the afternoon," said I, " I have been considering how we are to escape. There is no man among this ghostly crew who has a friendly eye for me, and so whatever is done must be done by me alone." "You must trust no one," she cried quickly ; " the plan you light upon must be our secret. There is a demon imprisoned in Vanderdecken ; if it should be loosed he might take your life."

" I don't doubt it. And .suppose I went armed, my conflict would be with deathless men I No, no, my plan must be our secret, as you say. But what is it ? If but a gleam of light sank its ray into this darkness I should take heart."

She pressed my hand, saying : " The frigate's abandoning of us has depressed you. But an opportunity will surely come."

"Yes, the behaviour of the frigate has depressed me. But why ? Because she has made me see that the greatest calamity which could befall us would be our encountering a ship willing to parley with us." " Is it so 1 "

" I fear ; because Vanderdecken would send me to her, and separate us." Then bethinking me, by observing, her head sink, how doleful and unmanly was such reasoning as this, such apprehension of what might be, without regard to the possibility of our salvation lying .in the very circumstance or situation I dreaded, I said, heartening my voice : " Imogene, though I have no plan, yet my instincts tell me that our best, perhaps our sole chance of escaping from this ship will be in necessity arising for her to drop anchor off the coast for careening, or for procuring provisions and water. Think, my dear, closely of it. We dare not count upon any ship we meet taking such action as will ensure our joint deliverance. No body of seamen, learning what vessel this is, would have anything to do with hen Then, as to escaping from her at sea, even if , it were in the power of these weak, unaided arms to hoist one of those boats there over the side unperceived, I know not whether my love for thee, Imogene — whether, O forgive me if I grieve you "

She stirred her hand as if to remove it, but I held it the tighter, feeling in the warm and delicate palm the dew that emotion was distilling there.'

She was silent, and we came to a stand. She said in a weak and trembling voice : " You do not grieve me. Why should I grieve to be loved ? " " You are beautiful and good, and a sailor's child, my dearest," said I. " And friendless."

" No I bid me say I love thee." She bade me whisper, drawing closer to me. I swiftly kissed her cheek that was cold with the evening wind. Great heaven ! what a theatre this was for love-making. To think of the sweetest, in our case the purest, of emotions having its birth in, owing its growth to, the dreaded fabric of the Death Ship I Yet I, that a short while ago was viewing the vessel with despondency and fear and loathing, now for a space found her transfigured I The kiss my darling had permitted, her gentle speech, the caress that lay in her drawing close to me, had kindled a lighten my heart, and the lustre was upon the ship: a faint radiance viewless to the sight; but of a power to work such transformation, that instead of a gaunt phosphoric structure sailing through the dusk, there floated under the stars a fabric whose sails might have been of satin, whose cordage might have been formed of golden threads, whose decks might have been fashioned out of pearl.

We were silent for a while, and then she said, in a coyly-coquettish voice, with a happy note of music in it : " What were you saying, Mr Fenton, when you interrupted yourself ? " 41 Dear heart ! '* cried I, " you must call me Geoffrey now ? "

'•What were you saying, Geoffrey ?" said she.

"Why," I replied, " that even were it possible for me to seoure one of those boats and launch it unperceived, my love would not suffer me to expose you to the perils of such an adventure."

"My life is in your keeping, Geoffrey," she said. " You need but lead— l will follow. Yet there is one thing you must consider ; if we escape to the land, which seems to me the plan that is growing in you "

I said, " Yes," watching the sparkling of the stars in her eyes, which she had fixed on mine.

" Are not the perils which await us there greater than any the sea can threaten, supposing we abandoned ourselves to its mercy in that little boat yonder ? There are many wild beasts on the coast; often in, the stillness of the night, when we have been lying at anchor, have I heard the roaring and trumpeting of them. And more dreadful and fearful than leopards, wild elephants, and terrible serpents— all of which abound, dear— crocodiles in the rivers, and poieonou», tempting fruit and herbs— are the savages, the hideous, unclothed Kaffirs, and the barbarous tribes wbioh I have heard my father

tell of as occupying the land for leagues and leagues from the Cape to the coast opposite the Island of Madagascar."

A strange shudder ran through her, and Jetting slip my hand to take my nrrn — for now that she knew I loved her she passed from her girlish coyness into a bride-like^ tenderness and freedom, and put a caressing manner into her very walk as she paced at my side — she cried : h

" Oh, do you know, Geoffrey, if ever a nightmare freezes my heart it is when I dream I am taken captive by one of those black tribes, and carried beyond the mountains to serve as a slave ! "

The dusk had thickened into night, the stars swung in glory to the majestic motion of the mastheads, there was a cuil of moon in the west like a paring of pearl designed for a further enrichment of the jewelled skies, the phosphor trembled along the decks, and all substantial outlines swam into indistinctness in an atmosphere thtfc seemed formed of fluid indigo. Visible against the luminaries past the quartergallery was the figure of the mate ; but the helmsman near him was bhrouded by the pale haze that floated sinokelike about the binnacle. Flakes of the sea glow slipped slowly past upon the black welter as though the patches of Stardust on high mirrored themselves in this silent ebony water. From time to time a brilliant meteor flashed out upon the night and sailed in a ball of fire that far outshone the glory of the greatest- stars. The dew fell lightly, the crystals trembled along the rail and winked to the stirring of the wind with the sharp sparkle of dia- ' monds; and though we were in the cold season, yet the light breeze, having a flush, of northing in it, was pure refreshment without touch of cold ; so that a calmer, fairernight than this I do not conceive ever descended upon a ship at sea.

Thrice the clock struck in the cabin,- and! whenever the first chime sounded I would start as if we were near land and the sound' was the note of a distant cathedral bell; and punctually with the last stroke would come the rasping voice of the parrot, reminding all who heard it of their condition. Occasionally Arents moved, but never by more than a stride or two ; forward all was dead blackness and stillness, the blacker for the unholy elusive shinings, the stiller for the occasional sighing of the wind, for the thin, shaling sound of waters, gently stemmed, - for the moan that now and again floated muffled out of the hold of the ship. Twice Imogene said she must leave me ; but I could not bear to part with her. The night was our own, yea, even the ship, in her solitude wrought by the silent figures aft and the tomb-like repose forward seemed our own ; and my darling, being in her heart as loth as I to separate, lingered yet and yet till the ailver sickle of the moon had gone down, red, into the western ocean, and the 1 clock below had struck half- past 11.

Then she declared it was time, indeed, for her to be gone. Should Vanderdecken come on deck and find her with me he might decide to part us effectually by sending me forward, and forbidding me to approach the cabin end; so, finding her growing alarmed, and hearing the quick beating of her heart in her speech, I said " Good-night," kissing her hand, and then releasing her. She seemed to hurry, stopped, and looked behind ; I stood watching her; seeing her stop, I held out my arms, and went to her, and she returned to me. With what love did I kiss ,her upturned brow, and hold her to my heart !

She was yet in my arms, when the gieat figure of Vanderdecken rose about the ladder, and ere I could release her lie was close to us, towering in shadow like some giant spirit. The start I gave caused her to turn ; she saw him, and instantly grasping my hand drew me against the bulwark, where we stood waiting for him to speak. Love will give spirit to the most pitiful recreant, and had I been the most craven-hearted of men the obligation to stand between such a sweetheart as Imogene and one whom she feared, though he stood as high as Goliath, would have converted me into a hero. But I was no coward ; I could look back to my earliest experiences and feel that with strictest confidence. Yet, spite the animating presence of Imogene, the great figure standing in front of us chilled, subdued, terrified me. Had he been mortal I could not have felt so ; nay, had his demeanour, his posture, been that which intercourse with him had made familiar, I should not have suffered from the superstitious fears that held me motionless and made my breathing laboured. But there was something new and frightful in the pause he made abreast of us, in the strange and menacing swinging of his arms, in the pose of his head defiantly held back, and in his eyes, which shone with a light that owed nothing to the stars, in the pallid gloom of his face. His gaze seemed to be riveted on the ocean-line a little abaft of where we stood, and therefore did he appear to confront us. The expression in his face I could not distinguish, but I feebly discerned an aspect of distortion about the brow, and clearly made out that his under-jaw was fallen so as to let his mouth lie open, causing him to resemble one whose soul was convulsed by some hideous vision. Imogene pressed my hand. I looked at her, and she put her white forefingei to her mouth, saying, in accents so faint that they were more like the whispers one hears in memory than the utterance of human lips : "He is walking in his sleep. In a moment he will act a part. I have seen this thing once before;" and so fairly speaking she drew me lightly towards the deeper gloom near the bulwarks where the mizzen rigging was.

For some moments he continued standing and gazing seawards, slowly swinging his arms in a way that suggested fierce yet almost controlled distress of mind. He then started to walk, savagely patrolling the deck, sweeping past us so close as to brush us with his coat, then crossing athwartships and madly pacing the other side of the deck, sometimes stopping with a passionate, violent suddenness at the binnacle, at the card of which he seemed to stare, then with denunciatory gesture resuming his stormy striding, now lengthwise, now crosswise, now swinging his great figure into an abrupt stand to view the sea, first to starboard, then to larboard, now standing aloft, and all with airs, and gestures as though.. -he shouted orders to the crew and cried aloud to himself, thoug-h saving his swift deep breathing that,

when he passed us close, sounded like the 1 panting of bellows in angry or impatient hands, no syllable broke from him.

" Home spell is upon him 1 " I exclaimed.

" I see how it.is ! — he is acting over again the behaviour that renders this ship accurst."

" I saw him like this two years ago ; 'twas earlier in the night," whispered Imogene. "He so scared, me that I fainted."

That Arents and the helmsman took notice of this strange somnambulistic behaviour in their captain I could not tell ; he approached them as often as he approached us, and much ' of the dumb show of his rage was enacted, close to them ; but so far as I could judge f>nm the distance at which we stood, their postures were as quiet as though they were, lay figures, or passionless and insensible creatures without understandings to be touched. it was a heart-subduing spectacle beyond woids to tell of. Bit by bit his temper grew, tiil his motions, his frenzied racings' about the deck, his savage glarings aloft, his 1 fury when, in this distemper of sleep, his perusal o£ the compass disappointed him, wero those of a maniac. I saw bhe white I roth on his lips as he approached us close to level a flaming glance seawards, and had he been Satan himself I could not have shrunk from him with deeper loathing and' colder terror. The insanity of his wrath, as 1 expressed by his gestures — for he was as mute as one bereft of his voice by agony — was rendered the wilder, the more striking and terrible, by the contrast of the night, the peace of it, the splendour of the stars, the silence upon the deep rising up to those 1 luminaries like a benedictory hushl For such an infuriated figure as this you needed, the theatre of a storm-tossed ship, with the billows boiling all about and over her, and 1 the scenery of a pitchy sky, torn by violet lightning and piercing the roaring ebony of ! the reas with zig-zag fire, and the trumpet-; iugs of the tempest deepened by a ceaseless crashing of thunder.

He continued to lash himself into such a fury that for very pity, misery, and horror youlonged to hear him cry out, for the relief expression would give to his soul, strangling in; awful throes. Suddenly he fell upon his' knees; his hands were clenched, and helifted them on high ; his face was upturned ;' and as I watched him menacing the stars with infuriated gestures I knew that even as he now showed so did he appear when he blasphemously dared his Maker. A soft gust' of the midnight air blew with a soft moan' through the rigging. Vanderdecken let drop; his arms, swayed a while as if he would fall,> staggered ,to his feet, and, with his handspressed to his eyes as though some sudden 1 stroke of lightning had smitten him blind, came with wavering gait, in which was still; visible a sullen and disorderly , majesty, to the poop ladder, down which he slightlessly went, steered by the wondrous, unintelligible' faculty that governs the sleep-walker.

I pulled off my hat and wiped 'by forehead, that was damp with sweat. " Great God !" I cried. " What a sight to ! behold ! What anguish is he made to suffer.! How is it that his human form does not scatter, like one broken on the wheel, to the rending of such infernal passions as possess' him ?"

Imogene was about to answer when on a* sudden the first stroke of midnight came 1 floating up in the cathedral note of theclock.

", Hark!" she exclaimed. "It is 12.' Arents will now be relieved by Van Vogelaar. If that malignant creature spies me here at, this hour with you, oh, 'twould be worse through the report he would give than if Vanderdecken himself had surprised us. Good night, Mr Fenton."

She quickly slipped from my grasp, and faded down the ladder. As she vanished I, put my hand to my heart to subdue its beating, and whilst I thus stood a moment the last note of the clock vibrated into the still-, ness on deck, and scarcely less clear thanhad the accursed croak sounded close beside' me, rose the parrot's detestable cry :