Dick Leslie's Luck Part 7

It was fully ten minutes after this that the girl, clad entirely in white, made her appearance on deck; and as Leslie stole a covert glance at her face, and noted its absolute composure, he told himself that he had been mistaken; she had certainly _not_ been crying; and he wondered what in the world it was that could have put so ridiculous an idea into his head. She appeared to be frankly and unfeignedly interested in the gambols of the porpoises, laughing heartily from time to time; and altogether seemed so absolutely happy and free from care that Leslie, while he could have kicked himself for being such a fool, felt quite rea.s.sured.

At sunset, that night, the breeze still held as fresh as ever; but no sail had yet been sighted, either meeting or overtaking the brig; a circ.u.mstance that somewhat disconcerted Leslie, for he was aiming to cross the equator in the longitude of 30 degrees West, at which point it is quite usual for a number of outward and homeward-bound ships to meet; and the _Mermaid_ was now so near that point that, with the wind holding so fresh and steady as it did, he would not have been in the least surprised to fall in with quite a procession of craft proceeding in either direction. It was disappointing, this bareness of the horizon in every direction; for he felt that his companion and charge must be intensely anxious to exchange into something that would be taking her either back to her home, or out to her friends; and he was keenly desirous to relieve her anxiety at the earliest possible moment. And yet, at the back of his mind, behind his earnestness of desire, he was ashamed to discover that there existed a certain feeling of satisfaction that the moment for parting with the girl was still deferred. He had found his connection with her very pleasant--the strong and virile man always _does_ find it pleasant to have something or somebody to protect and be dependent upon him--she was the only intellectual companion now left to him; and with her would go the only individual with whom he could exchange an idea worth uttering. Yes, he admitted to himself, he would miss her when she was gone, miss her badly; ay, and more than badly. Well, it couldn't be helped; she must go, of course; and this curious feeling of depression that was worrying him at the thought was but an additional imperative reason for her departure with the least possible delay. If by any chance her departure were to be delayed much longer it might be that by then he would feel that he did not want to part with her at all! He stamped his foot on the deck in impatient anger at the novel and unpleasant turn that his thoughts were taking; and sprang into the fore-rigging on his way to the royal-yard, to take a last look round ere darkness fell. He soon reached his destination, and swept the whole circle of the horizon with an eager intensity of gaze.

And so clear and transparent was the air that had there been anything in the nature of a sail within thirty miles he could have seen it. The horizon, however, was as bare as it had been from the deck; and he presently descended from his post of observation with an obstinate feeling of relief that made him intensely angry with himself.

Three times, that evening, during the dog-watches, did Leslie try the door of Purchas's cabin, in an endeavour to gain access to the man and ascertain his condition. On the first two occasions he failed, the door remaining locked against him; but when for the third time he found the door still fastened, he lost patience and, setting his shoulder to the obstruction, burst it open; having arrived at the conclusion that the fellow ought not to be left to himself any longer.

He found the cabin, as he had quite expected, reeking with the fumes of rum, and Purchas still insensible in his bunk. It had been a matter of astonishment to him how the man had contrived to keep himself supplied with drink; for although Leslie, Miss Trevor, and the steward were constantly in and out of the main cabin--from which alone access was to be gained to the lazarette, wherein the ship's stores and the spirits were stowed--no one had seen him moving about. Stifling therefore the feeling of loathing and nausea that possessed him, he proceeded to inst.i.tute a search of the cabin with the object of ascertaining whether the drunkard had secreted a supply therein. The search resulted in the speedy discovery of twelve bottles, seven of them empty, an eighth about a quarter full, and four still unbroached. The whole of these he at once got rid of by opening the port in the side of the cabin, and launching them through it into the sea. Then, leaving the port wide-open to sweeten the air somewhat, and a.s.sist in the revivification of the man in the bunk, he retired from the cabin, closing the door behind him, and went on deck.

The prolonged incapacity of the new skipper rendered it necessary for Leslie to make some arrangement whereby he could secure a proper amount of rest; and therefore, the carpenter being a steady and fairly reliable man, he arranged with him that the latter should take charge of the starboard watch during Purchas's "indisposition." It was Leslie's eight hours in, that night, and consequently he was free to retire to his cabin between the end of the second dog-watch and midnight; but the weather was now so hot that the comparative coolness of the night air on deck proved irresistibly attractive to Miss Trevor, who, "sleeping in"

all night, was naturally indisposed to go to bed at so early an hour as eight o'clock in the evening; and as she evinced a disposition to keep the deck for an hour or two, Leslie also remained on deck to bear her company.

For some time the two walked the weather side of the brig's flush deck, between the stern grating and the mainmast, conversing more or less intermittently upon various topics, until at length Leslie's attention was attracted to the man at the wheel, who, he noticed, was continually glancing over his shoulder with a perturbed air at the water astern, instead of keeping his eyes upon the compa.s.s card. It seemed also to Leslie that the man was trying to attract his attention, although he was too bashful, in Miss Trevor's presence, to speak.

So when the pair next reached the stern grating in the course of their promenade, Leslie paused, and said--

"What is the matter, Tom? You seem to be bestowing quite an unusual amount of attention on the wake of the ship; is there anything remarkable to be seen there?"

The man straightened himself up with the satisfied air of one who, after much striving, has at length achieved success.

"Well, I don't exactly know, sir, as you would call it _remarkable_" he answered; "but there's something visible over the starn as perhaps the lady might like to see."

"Oh!" answered Leslie. "Then let us have a look at it."

And offering his hand to Miss Trevor, he a.s.sisted her to mount the grating and led her to the taffrail, over which they both leaned, gazing down into the black profundity beneath them.

The brig was travelling at the rate of about six knots; at which speed she was wont to create a considerable amount of disturbance in the element through which she ploughed her pa.s.sage; the water was brilliantly phosph.o.r.escent, and as a result of this the wake of the brig was on this occasion a ma.s.s of sea-fire, the foam that she churned up on either side of her glowing and sparkling with luminous clouds interspersed with thousands of tiny stars that waxed and waned with every plunge of the vessel. The water was almost as transparent as air itself, and by leaning out over the taffrail it was possible to see the rudder, the brig's "heel," and a considerable amount of her "run," all aglow with bluish white light that streamed away far astern like a miniature Milky Way. It was a beautiful spectacle, and one at which an imaginative person might have gazed for a full hour or more without tiring. But Tom, the helmsman, was not an imaginative man, and the spectacle of a ship's wake glowing and scintillating with sea-stars was one that he had beheld so often that it had long ceased to appeal to him as anything at all uncommon. It was something else that had attracted his attention, and that he had thought might interest "the lady." For there, in the very thickest of the swirling ma.s.s of clouds and discs and circles and stars of sea-fire, at a depth of perhaps six feet below the surface, was to be seen, brilliantly illuminated by its own movement through the water, the glowing shape of an enormous shark, fully twenty feet in length, keeping pace with the brig as steadily as if he were being towed by her. The whole bulk of the monster was clearly, startlingly, distinct, much more so than would have been the case at daytime, for his body showed against the black water like a shape of white fire, while with every sweep of his powerful tail he scattered a trail of glowing sparks behind him that const.i.tuted of itself quite a respectable wake.

"Oh, what a dreadful creature!" exclaimed Miss Trevor, shrinking back in dismay at the sight. "It is like a nightmare! That must surely be a shark; is it not? It is the first shark I have ever seen, Mr Leslie; and I am certain that I never wish to see another. I had no idea that sharks were such monstrous creatures; I always thought that they were about the same size as the porpoises that we were looking at this afternoon."

"Yes," laughed Leslie, "very possibly. This, however, is rather an exceptionally fine fellow, although I have seen even bigger specimens than he. Do not look at him too long," he continued, "or possibly you may dream of him, in which case he would be likely to prove a nightmare to you indeed."

"He've been followin' of us for the last hour, sir," remarked the helmsman. "And they _do_ say that when a shark hangs on to a ship like that, somebody's goin' to die aboard of her."

"Yes," answered Leslie, carelessly, "I have heard that story myself; but I don't believe it, for I have been in ships that have been followed for days on end by sharks, without anything coming of it--except that we have generally managed to catch the sharks themselves at last. No; this fellow is following us because he happens to be hungry, and hopes that the cook will heave overboard enough sc.r.a.ps to take the sharp edge off his appet.i.te. But the dew is falling very heavily, Miss Trevor; had not you better fetch up a wrap?"

"No, thanks," answered the girl, as she moved away and extended her hand for him to help her down off the grating on to the deck; "it is growing late, so I will bid you good night and go to my cabin."

"Sorry to hear that Mr Purchas is bad, sir," observed Tom, tentatively, when Miss Trevor had vanished down the companion ladder. "Hope it ain't nothin' serious?"

"Oh dear, no," answered Leslie, perceiving with annoyance that the man was connecting the presence of the shark under the counter with Purchas's invisibility; "merely a rather sharp bilious attack, which is now over, I am glad to say. He will probably be on deck again to-morrow."

Then, as the carpenter--who had been keeping out of the way during Miss Trevor's presence on deck--came aft, Leslie gave over the charge of the brig to him, and turned in.

The remainder of the first watch, and the whole of the middle watch, pa.s.sed without incident save that, when Leslie went on deck at midnight, he found that the wind had softened down somewhat--as was indeed to be expected, with the brig drawing so near to the equator--the vessel's speed having dropped to about four knots. But the weather held superbly fine, and the barometer remained absolutely steady; Leslie therefore retired to his bunk at the end of the middle watch with a perfectly easy mind, and the fixed determination to have Purchas on deck and under the head pump at seven bells, when he himself would be called.

It was still quite dark when he was startled out of a profound sleep by a sudden loud outcry on deck, followed by a rushing and scuffling of feet overhead accompanied by the flapping of canvas, as though the brig had been suddenly luffed into the wind.

Leslie was well acquainted with the vagaries of equatorial weather, and therefore, under the apprehension that a squall was threatening, he sprang from his berth and dashed up on deck without waiting to exchange his pyjamas for other clothing. As he emerged from the companion he came into violent contact with some one who was evidently about to make a hasty descent of the ladder; and when the pair had recovered from the shock, he discovered that he had collided with the carpenter, who betrayed every symptom of the most violent agitation; while the entire crew, apparently, shouting to each other excitedly, were grouped upon the stern grating. The brig had been luffed into the wind, and everything, including studding-sails, was flat aback. It was well for the craft, and all concerned, that the wind had fallen light, or there would have been mischief up aloft, and plenty of wreckage among the lighter spars.

"What in the world is the matter, Chips?" demanded Leslie testily, as with a single glance he took in the full condition of affairs.

"Oh, Mr Leslie, sir, something awful has just happened!" exclaimed the man addressed, stammering with agitation and excitement. "I were standin' as it might be just there," pointing to a spot on the deck about midway between the skylight and the mainmast, "fillin' my pipe, when out of the corner of my heye I seen somebody step out of the companion on deck; and fust of all I thought 'twas you; but, lookin'

again, I see as it was the skipper--not Cap'n Potter, you'll understand, sir, he bein' dead and buried; but Cap'n Purchas. I were just goin' up to him to say how glad I were to see 'im about again, when he steps over to the binnacle, takes a peep into the compa.s.s-bowl, and then, afore a man could say 'Jack Robinson,' up he jumps on to the starn gratin', from there to the taffrail--an' overboard! Scotty, there, who was at the wheel, owns that he more'n half guessed, from the queer look in the skipper's heyes, that somethin' was wrong, and made a grab at 'im as 'e pa.s.sed; but Mr Purchas were miles too quick for 'im, and Scotty on'y reached the taffrail in time to see the pore man strike the water. And the next second that devil of a shark that have been followin' of us had 'im!"

Leslie reeled as though he had been struck a heavy blow. Here was another tragedy; the second that had happened within the short s.p.a.ce of time that had elapsed since he had joined this unlucky brig. And even as he had blamed himself for being in some sort responsible for the first, so now he reproached himself as being in a measure responsible for this. He felt that he had been remiss. In his anxiety to shield the unhappy man from the observation and unfavourable comment of the crew, he had carefully concealed from everybody the true cause of Purchas's retirement, leaving the man alone to recover from his drunken bout instead of telling off somebody to watch him. Had he done this, he reflected in self-reproach, this dreadful thing would not have happened.

The need for concealment was now past, however; so, rallying his faculties, he called all hands to group themselves round him, as he had something to say to them.

"My lads," he began, "I believe that you all profoundly regret the awful thing that has just happened; for Mr Purchas was a most kind and considerate officer to every one of you. But none of you can regret his terrible end so much as I do; for I feel that I am to some extent to blame for it. A certain wise man has said, 'Of the dead speak nothing but good;' and it is well to carry out this precept, so far as is possible. There are occasions, however, when the truth--the whole truth--must be told, even though it reflect discredit upon those who are gone; and this is one of them. I am sorry to be obliged to tell you that what really ailed Mr Purchas was--drunkenness! Very little more than a week had elapsed after Captain Potter's death when I discovered in Mr Purchas a tendency to take rather too much rum. I spoke to him about it, with the result that he promised to be more moderate in his potations. But he did not keep his promise, and upon one occasion, at least, he was so thoroughly intoxicated that he slept through his entire watch, stretched out upon a hencoop."

"Ay, ay, sir; that's gospel truth. I remember it perfectly," murmured two or three of the men, interrupting.

"Of course," a.s.sented Leslie, "you could not have avoided noticing it.

It was after that occurrence that I remonstrated with him; and for a few days thereafter he was better. Then he began again, finally giving way altogether, with the melancholy result that you have all witnessed. I knew how injurious to his interests it would be, and how seriously it would weaken discipline if you men should once come to understand that your skipper was a drunkard; so I let it be understood among you that Mr Purchas was confined to his cabin through a slight illness; while, as a matter of fact, he was all the time lying there in a drunken stupor.

"_Now_, when it is too late, I feel that I committed an error of judgment in attempting to conceal from you all the actual facts.

Instead of being so keenly anxious to shield him that I could think of nothing else, I ought to have antic.i.p.ated the possibility that upon his return to consciousness he might be tempted to do something foolish; and, antic.i.p.ating this, I ought to have told off a man from each watch to sit with and keep an eye upon him."

"Ay," observed the carpenter, "it might ha' been a good thing to ha'

done that, certingly. But you haven't got nothin' to reproach yourself with, sir; you done what you did with a good and kind intention; and you wasn't to know that the fust thing he'd do when he come back to his senses 'd be to up and jump overboard. Oh no, sir, you ain't to blame in noways for what's happened. What do _you_ say, bullies?"

"No, no; in course the gen'leman ain't to blame; n.o.body what's seen how the land lay--like we have--and how Mr Leslie have been a-doin' all he could to help the skipper, could ever say as he's any way to blame. Not he!" answered one and another of the men, each of them in one way or another endorsing the carpenter's verdict.

"Thank you, men," returned Leslie; "it is a great relief to me to feel that you think as you do in this matter. Now, that being disposed of, there is a further point to be considered; and it is this. The shocking fate of Mr Purchas leaves us with no navigator on board save myself. I have no great desire to proceed in this brig all the way to Valparaiso; but, nevertheless, there are reasons that, to me, seem to make it desirable that I should do so. I may tell you that we are now very near the Line; so near, indeed, that we may fall in with other craft, aiming to cross it at the same point as ourselves, at any moment. Now if we should fall in with a ship, would you wish me to communicate with her and ask her captain to place a navigating officer on board this brig, to take her to Valparaiso; or would you prefer that I should take charge-- with Chips, here, as mate--and navigate you to Valparaiso myself?"

"Speakin' for myself," answered the carpenter, promptly, "I don't want n.o.body better'n what you are, Mr Leslie, in command of this here hooker. We knows you, sir; and we've seen what you can do--we've took your measure, sir--if you'll forgive the liberty of my plain speakin'-- and we're all agreed as you're a prime seaman--one o' the best as _I've_ ever sailed under--and I'd a precious sight sooner see you in command than what I would a stranger. And, if I ain't mistook, that's the feelin' with all hands of us. Am I right, mates, or ain't I?"

"Right you are, Chips; no stranger for me."

"Mr Leslie's the skipper for us; we don't want n.o.body else." Thus, and in similar terms, the entire crew expressed their perfect agreement with the view enunciated by the carpenter; and there and then the matter was settled.

It was with a very considerable amount of trepidation that, next morning, Leslie undertook the task of communicating to Miss Trevor the news of Purchas's death--taking care to suppress the full horror of the tragedy by simply stating that the unfortunate fellow had committed suicide by jumping overboard, omitting all mention of the shark. But although the girl was naturally much shocked at the occurrence of a second death on board, following so quickly upon that of Potter, this was the full extent of her emotion; Purchas was not at all the sort of man to appeal to her or to arouse in her any sort of interest or feeling beyond that of disgust at his weakness in surrendering himself to the seduction of so degrading a vice as that of drink; and she received the information quite calmly, much to her companion's relief.

Meanwhile, and quite contrary to expectation, the breeze again freshened an hour or so before sunrise, with the result that when Leslie took his observation at noon he found that the brig was within a mile of crossing the equator. And, what was a much more remarkable circ.u.mstance, the horizon was still absolutely bare, not a single sail of any description being in sight, even from the main royal-yard!

Upon ascertaining this last disconcerting fact, Leslie turned to Miss Trevor, who was on deck, and said--

"Fate appears to have a grudge against you, and to be determined that you shall not yet leave us. I had confidently reckoned upon falling in with something hereabout to which I could transfer you; but the continuance of this breeze--which most sailors would regard as a stroke of marvellous good fortune--has enabled everything bound south to slip across the Line without suffering the exasperating experience of a more or less prolonged period of calm; while, as your ill-luck will have it, there happens to be nothing northward-bound on the spot just when we are most anxious to meet it. Furthermore, every mile that we now sail will lessen your chance of effecting a trans-shipment, because our course will be ever diverging from that of northward-bound shipping. Of course, now that I am in command, I can continue to steer for a day or two longer in such a direction as may enable us, with luck, still to fall in with a homeward-bounder, but--"

"Is my presence on the ship then, so _very_ embarra.s.sing to you, Mr Leslie?" she interrupted with the ghost of a smile. "It would certainly appear so; for the burden of your conversation, ever since we came on board, has been my trans-shipment!"

"Embarra.s.sing!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Leslie, in extreme surprise. "Most certainly not; on the contrary--" he interrupted himself. "That is not the point at all," he continued. "I have a.s.sumed--very naturally, I think--that you are anxious either to return home and make a fresh start, or else to continue your outward journey, according as circ.u.mstances may determine; and I, on my part, have been most anxious to meet what I conceived to be your wishes. But, as to your presence aboard the brig being an _embarra.s.sment_ to me, I a.s.sure you that the longer you are compelled to remain here, the better I shall be pleased."

"Thank you," answered the girl; "I suppose I must accept that admission as a compliment. Well, Mr Leslie, of course you are quite right in a.s.suming that, if a favourable opportunity should offer, I would gladly avail myself of it. But my greatest anxiety is to allay that of my friends; which, I imagine, they will not begin to experience until some little time has elapsed after the date at which the _Golden Fleece_ might reasonably be expected to reach Melbourne. And about that time I should think we ought to be at Valparaiso, ought we not? Very well. In that case, it will be easy for me to despatch from there a rea.s.suring cable message to my Australian friends, following it up with a letter of explanation, and all will be well. Moreover, though you would perhaps never suspect it, I am of a decidedly roving and adventurous disposition, and I shall not at all object to visiting Valparaiso; you need, therefore, worry yourself no further upon that feature of the matter. But, of course, if you would rather not have me--"

"Pray say no more, I beg you," interrupted Leslie. "Your continued presence on board this brig can only be a source of the keenest pleasure and satisfaction to me; and if you can be content to remain, I shall be more than content that you do so."

And thus was settled a matter that was destined to exercise a most important influence upon the lives of these two people.