Chapter XI.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5092, 27 October 1894, Page 1

Chapter XI.

.—(Continued). I

Xl.—(Continued). I killed some time in brushing my hair And changing my dress. It was then jOearly dark, with a very pretty spirited play of delicate violet lightning over the aea far oft through the porthole. The ■wind was failing. Every sound had a lazy creaking note, and the ship, bereft Qf her spirit of life rolled wearily and slaepily upon the long swell. I looked into the saloon, and found the cabin pkylight still gilt with the light flowing over the bows out of the west, and was surprised to find the oloth laid, and well laid. The cabin lamps glowed. Covers were laid for three at the head of the table. Glass and silver sparkled, and •whilst I looked I saw a man-of-warsman .'with his hair carefully smeared over his ptoyr. come but of the pantry with a cruet jßtand, and survey the table with the anxiety of a head waiter. Whilst I looked the lieutenant appeared an the hatch. "Well, Jack," says he, .** how ace yon getting on ?" "That's as good a job a&I can make-of It, air." ; "There should be plenty. The ship's toot long out. The coops are fairly full, '«nd I understand she carried a number of 'tweendeok passengers. Bear a hand with ihe grub! I didn't know how hungry I was till I looked at this table.-" Then he saw me. "Pray, Misa Hayes,, Where's your father P" "In his cabin." " Before we dine," said,, he," I shonld like to have a few words-with Captain. Sinolair." I knocked on my stepfather's door, not insensible as I passed the lieutenant in The glowing light of the lamps that his eyes wandered over my figure. My step-father looked out, clad as for the deck, saving: that he was uncovered. " Lieutenant Jervis wants to speak ttx yon," Baid I. "Captain/ said the young lieutenant in ft frank, gay manner, as though, full of good spirits and happy in his change of ship and experience, " what cabin can I take without inconveniencing anybody aft?" "You are in command here: you have, tut to choose," answered the captain. ''Well, I'll not deprive you of your cabin, anyhow/ said the lieutenant. " All I require is the loan of your sextant and the use of your chronometer and charts." "When the first mate was turned out of the ship," said Captain Sinclair, "he left behind him all the sea-furniture you'll Heed, saving the chronometer and charts." "This was hiß cabin," said I walking to it, heartily vexed by my step-father's rude manner. " I see/ said the captain as the lieutenant followed me," that three places have been laid at that table, For whojn, sir P" "For you and for your step-daughter and myaelf," answered the officer. "No need to trouble yourself so far as I am concerned," answered the captain with hie grimmest look, and in his iciest, most repellanb matin*l. "I am no longer concerned in this ship. Since you are good enough to grant me the use of my oabin, ril live in It with your leave till we reaoh port. Nor will I require you* meorto wait upon me. The food I need I can myself procure." "It seems a pity " began the lieutenant, looking at him oompasßionately. " Ay, a pity indeed!" burst out my Btepfather. "That was the chief officer's cabin." He indicated it with his clenched fist,. pnd without another word cloßed the door Upon himself. The lieutenant made no remark, and I was glad to hold my peace. He entered Mr Gordon's cabin and stayed some time looking round. When he "came out he said aU he should find necessary was there caving the chronometer. Perhaps the captain would lend him one? We then sat down to dinner. I call this meal dinner, for it came nearer to that sort of repast than to the suppers we used to get before the Bhip was Beized. A man-of-warsman had cooked, and done his work finely. He sent us a very good dish of broth, roast fowl, and boiled bacon. He had boiled some vegetables too, so that what with these things and the cold meats and the pleasant little surprise of a damson pio, with a very good dry dessert routed out by the blue-jaoket who acted bb Bteward, I never enjoyed a meal more in nil my life. And then there was. the company of the young officer! Jack after waiting ably nnd briskly left us. He had put a decanter of sherry upon the table, and the lieutenant rose to open a pint bottle of champagne for me. I said no very earnestly, having already taken as much as I was used to, and we sat over the dessert under the skylight talking, sometimes watching the ■tars in the skylight vanish in a vast blue ■moke of sheet lightning. I will not pretend I regretted my stepfather's absence. In real truth I was very glad he kept away. Whilst the lieutenant; talked to me perhaps it would come aa a little damp to my spirits to think of the captain along in his oabin, a broken-hearted man bound to a port where they would make a felon of him if he did aot take my advice and vanish on Ids arrival. Yet I knew how it ■would have been had he dined with us. X had never sit in company with a more delightful young fellow than Lieutenant Jervia. He was a born gentleman, with all the easy grace of the sea in his beating. He had a merry laugh, wonderful white teeth, and played his dark eyes 10 finely that half his meaning lay in their turns and leers. Beyond enquiring about the passengers, the character of the mates, And the like, ha asked no questions about the voyage. Many would have thought bis talk frivolous: he told me of hunt halls at home, routs and high jinks and fine dinner parties in the West Indies, fend it wasaa agreeable aB reading a newspaper to listen to him. Indeed I was already sick of ships and the scenery and treachery of the sea and Ihe conduct of sailors, and it did me good to hear this young man talk of dancing, of the amuaementy they contrived for themselves in the frigate, and suoh things. He looked at the olock after we had been bver an hour at table, and exclaimed: " Will yottr atep-father let you come for t> turn with me on deok, Miss Hayes P " "I'll risk hia objecting to anything so harmless," aaid I, rising, and went for inyhat. The sea looked as calm as grease, black, ftnd of a smoky appearance. A pale light *was shining at one of the yard-arms, and the reflection of it worked like a luminous corkscrew in the water. I asked the / lieutenant what it was ? "A corposant/said he. " Fires kindled by the hands of Bpirits. I was aloft once t and heard a rush of invisible pinions; a ~v(Sght came close—such a light as yonder, «nd behind was the drowned face of a tailor, very pale and faint." "A Bailor in wings!" said I. ",0f course it was the fluttering of hia oose trousers," he answered. He now went to the wheel and looked at

the card, sniffed around the sea, gazing very earnestly, then left me to speak to a gigantic seaman who walked in the gangway keeping a look-out. Their talk rumbled. They evidently debated the weather and the sail to be kept on the ship. It was a strange sight, and mountainous with great blocks of blackness. Between, the stars shone purely, but there was much lightning, and about a mile off a squall of wet without a feather stir of air in it was Bhrieking in lumps of ice and huge raindrops into the ocean ; the fall was up and down, and the noise was like a score of locomotives blowing off steam. The lieutenant asked permission to light a cigar, and we paced the deok together. I never could have pictured so Btrange a night. Ships of dim vapour hung in the smoky obscurity, till you lookod at them straight, and then they disappeared. Lights gleamed out upon the sea, as though flickering lanterns were upheld .by the feeble hands of starving men in open boats. In the oily blackness alongside, every time the invisible heave made the ship stoop, a marvellous tapestry of the cold sea-glow was kindled. Lieutenant Jervis and I leaned over the rail watohing this show for a while. We saw in outlines of waning and gathering brightness what seemed like the turrets of castles, heads of sea horses, trees and fish, and many sights whioh were not like the things they reminded us of > In going alone to the skylight to look at the time, I spied the figure of my stepfather passing through the saloon; he was in his shirt sleeves, was ashy pale, and carried a dish of food. I wondered why he should act so irrationally. He would have found the lieutenant very good company, been treated aB a gentleman, and led a very comfortable life till we reached port, where he could have sneaked away as things stood. I roamed about the deck with the lieutenant, greatly enjoying his conversation and society. He told me that his father, a very aged man who lived at Bath, was Bear-Admiral Sir Thomas Collingwood Jervis. Young as he was, he appeared to have ssen some active service, particularly amongst slavers, had received three musket-balls in his legs, lost the tip of his left little finger, and whilst telling me the story took me to the binnacle lamp to show me a scar at the back of his neck. " A six-pound ball did that," said he. " Had the aim of the gun been truer by the diameter of its muzzle only, this head i would never have had the honour of inclining itself to you." I wondered if he was married, but did not know how to get at that truth. Bailors will not own they have wives ashore when they are flirting with girls ateea. I went below, after spending a very pleasant evening, partook of some wiae and biscuits, and with a half glance at my stepfather's berth, arresting my walk for an instant to the thought, " Shall I knock and bid him good-night ? " I withdrew to my berth. It had been surprisingly quiet on deck; The clouds appeared to have broken and aunk in masses of elusive dyes to the water's edge, where they floated like giant toadstools and huge busheß, with a sort of deceptive wreathing of lines of thickness round about the horizon, till the Bhip Beamed encompassed in the heart of what I cannot but compare to an enormous vaporous corkscrew, between the spirals of which shone the stars in two or three different colours, whilst dry pale gleams, Buch as are said to haunt churchyards, hung low down, and elsewhere the blaok surface sheeted fitfully in dim flashes. But there was a number of stout hearts in the forecastle, and a smart young officer aft: then again my stepfather was aboard to oounsel and help; so spite of the ugly look out of doors, I got into my bunk and Blept sweetly, and throughout the night dreamt most delioiously. In fact it was from one of the choicest of those dreams, fragrant with the smell of the bridal nosegay, that I was aroused by a rapping on the door. "Sorry to disturb you, Miss Hayeß," {laid the voice of the young lieutenant, when I had answered. "Is Captain Sinclair here P" "No/ T "Has he visited you in the night P " "No." # , . "His cabin door is open and— when you are dressed will you come to me P " His voice was cautious and'plaintive, and my heart foreboded trouble. Ifc was seven o'clock, a roasting, shining morning, a flat sea, and the heavens as I made out filled with heavy masses of white cloud. So then the thunderous frown of last night's weather had proved but the bully's scowl. I Aroused quickly and found the lieutenant walking up and down the saloon. "I hate to be a bearer of ill news," said he "but I must tell you we cannot find your Btepfather. We suspeot— — " "What?" uaid I, feeling myaelf pale and viewing him anxiously. "That he has made away with himself." "He had reason ! " I involuntarily cried. "Why do you think that he has committed Buioide?" "He is not in the Bhip and must therefore be overboard. He must have slunk overboard in a deliberate, suloidal manner} the splash of him would have been heard had he fallen by accident. We found his hat, waistcoat, and other garments in the mizzen chains, as though he had unclothed himself to seoure the silent dip of the unolothed skin." " Poor man 1 Where have you looked P " "In every likely place," he answered. "He would have no motive in hiding himself." "None." I ran my eye along the cabins and then went to the one my stepfather had used followed by the lieutenant. Here they had put the clothes they found in the mizzen chains. They lay on the deok, nearly a suit. I was indefinitely more shooked and startled by the eight of those olothes than by the news. !£he lienteaant's tale had put a faint image before me: but those clothes enabled me to think of a drowned man. I shuddered and sighed, and chancing to look into a mirror saw myself very white. That mirror was screwed over a sort of sea toilet table, and something catching my eye all on a second, I pioked it up : it was a letter addressed to me. I opened it and read this :— "Ship Mohock. " Laura,— l am a ruined man, and which ever way I look I see nothing but beggary and starvation. I have lived for many years an honourable life, and now go to God to answer for what I have done in my closing days. My will is at home. All that I possess my creditors must seize. But I do not expect they will trouble you until the time when they think I should return from New York, nor then if they get news of the piracy of the Mohock. They will await my return. You will find JE2OO in gold in the small cheat in the left of my cabin. The key of the chesb is in the drawer of the table on which you find this letter. Take the money, and with it return home in safety, and with the balance seoure, I beg of you, such littje possessions and memorials at home, aa your mother would wish you and youi Bister to have. Farewell, Laura. I did not know it would come to this or I should not have brought you with me.— Ameliiu Sinclair." My eyes were dim before I arrived af the signature. I handed the letter to the lieutenant, who merely Baid: " This puts the matter beyond all doubt, Poor old chap! I should have foreseen it I ought to have had him watohed. Hif manner was very strange yesterday." He returned the letter to me, and taking

the key from the drawer, opened the cheat, saying: "We will make aura of this money at once, Miss Hayes. There's no ■uoh friend abroad as our young Queen's head in geld." He opened the cheat, and we Saw a scanty stook of wearing apparel, coiled linen, an odd shoe or two. tip in a-corner was a canvas bag : a place had been made for it : it stood so that the eye should not miss it. The lieutenant took it up, and the instant he had it in his hand I observed a look 6f temper that was not wanting in archness and wonder. He glanced at me, then looked at the bag. On one side vras written in good bold figures "AiSOO." On the other side "For Laura with the same lore she bore me." " There iB no gold here,.l fear:" says the lieutenant, pulling out a pocket knife, and, snipping the string that nooßed the bag, he poured on to the deck aboub a pint of dried peas. "He was mad; but mean too/ said the lieutenant, after singing a bit of a song, and then togsing the bag into the chest and letting the lid fall: "A jolly stepfather's joke. But stay !"• he cried, "How do you know this it not a ruae, that the real money is not somewhere t He writes kindly and sincerely. Shall I rummage for you P" I bowed my head, being too exquisitely mortified to apeak, and going into the saloon, >at down at the table, and waited whilst the lieutenant hunted. " Never a stiver," says he, coming out with a cheerful laugh. " 'Tis strange too. Most sea-captains of his sort carry loobb cash to sea with them/ He went on deok to look after the ship, and tto my cabin to improve my toilet and prepare for breakfast. I waa never more stung and humiliated in all my life. It was not that I wanted the paltry two hundred pounds, but it was doubly irritating and offensive that Lieutenant! Jsrvis shonld see that my step-father put the value of a handful of peas on my love, and deemed me fit to be insulted in his dying humour by apiece of brutal cynioism beyond anything I should have thought even he was capable of. Bnt it did me good. Nothing could be more drastic to lay to such grief as I felt for him. If I had a tear now it was for myself. I put on a white muslin body trimmed with black. I found some black riband in a bos and trimmed my straw hat with it : then went on deck to look at the morning* It was roasting and silent : the sea was like steel nnder the sun, and the ship looked to rest in a bed of liquid glass, A slight swell put some life into her masts, and the shadows of the great white clouds which burnt sunwards with all sorts of golden and silvern splendours floated in islands of violet upon the sea and refreshed the eye. Lieutenant Jervis coming to the rail pointed to the mizzen channels, and told me that was where they had found the clothes. I looked down, shuddered, and ■withdrew my head. A fit of horror shook me then. The Bhip had scarcely stirred throughout the long night. Some grease and mess that had been flung overboard on the previous evening floated close by. I though that the body of my stepfather might rise and hang close in the brilliant clear brine even whilst I looked down, and it was that which dismissed me from the iaii with a Bick heart. The wreck of the mizzen topgallant mast had beenoleared away, but the ship carried a mutilated look aft. Whilst I stood converaing/jrith Lieutenant Jervis about my step-fanner, Jack, with his forehead of carefully smeared hair, reported breakfast, "There's no stage like shipboard for astounding performances," said the lieutenant, as we seated ourselves, "only think what a theatre this oraffc has proved in a-i few weeks." "What's to happen next?" Baidl. " Oh, Kingston, Jamaica, where we shall see you safely on board some homeward bounder. But before we part yon must give me leave to call upon you in England on my return." I felt the hot blood spring to my cheek -whilst I bowed to him. "Unless, indeed," said he thoughtfully, eyeing me, "they should detain you as a witness. No ! 'Tis a case they'll try at home. I expeot if the Trojan finds the people on the Great Salvage she'll push Straight on for England, for then she'll have everything on board for the machinery of the trial. In that case you may arrive too late, and so be Bpared an unpleasant experience." "I presume the British Consul at Kingston will assist me to get home ?" said I. "I'll see to that," said he, smiling. " Not that I want any charitable help," said I, flushing. "I am independent of anything my stepfather could have done for me. He got and spent most of my poor mother's money, but my father provided against my sister's and my ruin by any successor. How long shall we take to get to Jamaica P" " At this rate till the dead rite to the blaat of doom. I hope yon are in no hurry?" " Not I. The poor man brought .me this voyage to divert me, as he called, ifc. A nice time of diversion we have had down to the hour of your coming on board of us!" " Now he's dead, will you "tell ma," says the lieutenant, letting his eyes dwell upon mine with thatimportnnacy of gaze which, in such beauty as his, few girls can harden their hearts to, "if Captain Sinclair had any deeper hand in this buainesa than the atory as I have it goeß." I reflected a moment, still meeting his gaze. "He was the top and bottom of it," Baidl, "and shooked as I now am to think of his having destroyed himself, I am sure in the course of a few days I shall be believing it was the wisest thing be could have done." "There is a long blank morning before us/ said the lieutenant; "we will have an awning spread and get chairs in the cool of it, ana you Bhall spin me the yarn. Witf youP" (To be concluded.)