CHAPTER XXIII.—TELLS HOW THE DANIEL MAKES A SECOND START.

Otago Witness, Issue 2762, 20 February 1907, Page 63

CHAPTER XXIII.— TELLS HOW THE DANIEL MAKES A SECOND START.

Burdened by many tons beyond her easy carrying, the Daniel wobbled reluctantly down the Gut and vanished into the night. On the edge of the Firth *he yapping, testy tugboat slacked its towluie, then hauled it in, screamed from its iron throat a rusty farewell, and left her to the will of the winds. As the brig slowly forged ahead there uprose from her deck and spars a hard, guttural chorus, chesty cries of command and response, patter of obedient feet, wail and rasp of running gear, rip and rattle of flapping sail. Gathering way, the Daniel lumbered off to meet the warring currents of the Irish Sea. Daylight found her heading due south ; at noon her bow was pointed towards the north, and she was beating up against the wind, engaged in the queerest game that Sol way brig had ever played. Her manifest, stowed away in Goliath's cabin, declared unto all whom the matter concerned that the ship was bound from Allerdale to the Black \Sea, but her >wn rig-zagging suggested that her destination was nowhere in particular. When the rim of the sun dropped again upon the sea, the prophet poised upon the bows was staring through his wooden eyes on the Mull of Galloway's awesome bluff, and after that he yawed across the red- | gold waters and struck the homeward track. With the night again about him, and the harbour lights of Allerdale twinkling a league and a-half to leeward, the anchor rattled out beneath his feet. Tagging at the dripping cable, the Daniel swung round with the set of the tide, and thereafter three men clambered across her quarter, and soon the clinkclank of rowlocks in diminuendo spoke of a boat speeding shorewards. More like a figure of bronze or stone than being of flesh and blood, Goliath, stood on the poop, hifl huge hands tightly gripping the rail, his ears strained for the rasp of iron until it no longer -ang upon the ajr. By his side, sharing his vigil, was the squat form of one whose name was oer-

tainly not entered on the log as a member of the crew. An hour passed in silence, save for the lapping of the waves against the hull, the far-off booming of the surf, and the vague indefinable mutterings of the sleeping land." One hour, two, and then again the metallic beating of the rowlocks. Galvanised into activity, the men on the poop swiftly separated. One of its units sped to the aft companion, pausing at the top to take the skipper by the hand and utter a whispered plea. In the light that flashed up the well, Goliath's eyes shone as the stars above the Daniefs masts, his swarthy brow was thickly studded with beads, and when he respondid his voi^J was as that of another man. His companion gone, the skipper hastily descended from the poop, and, leaning out over the taffrail, strenuously scanned the unresponsive waters, over the hills and hollows of which the boat was speeding. Now the iron scraped close at hand, nob more than a couple of cable lengths away, now the little craft shot through the veil, now, the water creaming in ncr wake, she rounded under the Daniel's counter, and— now the captain saw. Three men had left the ship ; four had, returned. Now, too, it became clear that for the. skipper's loss of nerve, for the beaded brow, the quivering limbs, and tJW changed voice, suspense must bear the blame, and not fear of a task to be faced', for when the brig dipped with the surga and David Graham scrambled -on board, Goliath: had himself in hand- again. "Whatever's the matter?" David demanded of him. "What does all this mystery mean? Jerry Dudgeon tells me that you've had to pub back and thatl you must see me, but not another word 1 have I been able to get from the three ' of them. What's gone wrong? You look ship-shape enough." \ Hurriedly he glanced around him, but 1 in the darkness the 6hip afforded no sign of disaster. "Don't you see what's wrong, Master David?" the skipper asked ; and when the other hotly bade him "Cea6e his riddlings and explain, 1 ' he started forward, begging his master to "Come till t' fo'c's'le ait see for himself." Curiosity, a slight measure of annoyance, and a profound trust in the fidelity whicl had never yet been betrayed, all conspired to blind him as he obeyed the invitation and when the skipper paused by the hooq and deferentially, as of old, gave him th< lead, he slipped down the ladder, un< troubled by a shade of suspicion. His feet upon the fo'c's'le planking, ha glanced around the dingy chamber, but it, like the deck, had not secret to reveal, andf he turned to meet the skipper and listens to his tale. But instead of revelation,' amazement gripping him hard and} tight. The ladder was moving — even a» he looked it thumped upon the deck — andf in its place, framed in the black patch on whose edge it had rested, the beseeching face of the skipper appeared. "Casson, what d'ye mean by this fooleryS Drop that ladder at once !" he angrily, cried, and the sailor, remembering that the youtli down there was his master, was Jacob Graham's son, almost surrendered— almost ; but in time recalled the promiss he had made. "'Now, just bide quiet for a bit, Master David," he implored ; ''sit you down an? put your mind at rest, for we mean no harm to you — an' I'll come an' explain., We had to do it like thie, you see, ta. save any noise,'' he apologetically added;; "for we didn't want to fetch them oastguard chaps about our ears." "Casson, I insist " But Casson was gone. The doors snapped together, the hood grated on its slide, and David Graham was a prisoner, interned in the depths of one of his own ships. "Casson — Goliath — Goliath !" The wooden walls hurled the words back in his teeth. •'Dudgeon — Blair!' Only the gurgling of the outer waters made answer to hut call. By turns he clamoured for every member of the crew. Overhead the feet of the men pattered along the deck. Again his voice took up the skipper's name, but this time his cry was drowned by a deafening loar ; the ship dipped and jerked, and ha knew that the anchor had been lifted* Now hi 6 dungeon quivered and 6wayed, the water babble rose to an angry swish, the ripping to an impetuous surge ; the Daniel's head was coming round, away from the land whence treachery had lured him. .> A wild, unreasoning rage gripped him., and. like a monarch of the forest newlj trapped, he rushed around his tiny cag« and beat upon its bitts and berths and sea-bound walls until the blood burst from his fingers ; and after that despair came, and he sank on one of the mariner's chest i and. dropping his head in his hands, sought an answer to the riddle. But all in vain. On one point only na<l he a clear perception of fact — without' demonstration he saw that his abduction must be part -of the sordid drama wherein he had lately paraded in thei \ leader's part. After that, all was dark, unfathomable. He could discern/ nothing in his conduct to justify vengeance 6O "complete as this. Oh, but h« would make Goliath pay when he returned? to Allerdale, as return he would. He hadl no fear of personal harm — these men would | never dare to challenge anything but his [ liberty, and even granting their daring, they could gain nothing by any outrage or! injury. flow perfectly men played the fool. Here was Goliath, whom he hadl marked' out for the command of one of hi 9 East India clippers when the Graham line;' - had been established, and now — oh, yes,; Goliath should pay. For L-he present, escape from captivity 5 , was his only concern. What a hateful hole in which to imprison a man who had! set his heart on \ kingdom, -who, one ofi these days, would rule as one of the Princes of the Sea. How foetid the atmos--phere!—never bad he imagined that ai fo'c'-s'le could be so> foul. "Faugh, he could taste it x its breath was ia bis nostrils, hia