Overdue Part 4

I had just definitely arrived at the above conclusion when the boatswain joined me.

"I see Mr Wilde have been havin' another yarn with ye, Mr Troubridge,"

he remarked, as he seated himself at my side.

"Yes," I answered shortly.

"And is there any chance of his bein' able to persuade ye to give us the help we wants?" he enquired in conciliatory tones.

"There might be, perhaps, if all hands of you were willing to agree to my terms," I answered, stubbornly determined to drive the best bargain possible.

"Ah!" he exclaimed with an air of satisfaction; "that sounds better; yes, a good deal better, it do. You say what them terms of yours be, Mr Troubridge, and I dare say I could very soon give ye a hidea whether we'd be willin' to agree to 'em. You won't find us noways unreasonable, sir, I promise ye, because we wants your help badly, and there's no use in pretendin' that we don't. You've proved yourself to be a hefficient navigator, and me and Chips has quite made up our minds that we might go farther and fare a precious sight worse in the way of findin' somebody to take your place. Besides, we don't want no murder if we can anyways help it, and I know that all hands in the fo'c's'le'd be willin' to agree to a'most anything in reason to dodge that sort of thing."

"Do you really mean that, Polson?" I demanded. "Because, if so, it is a very great pity that you did not frankly say so when this matter was first broached. Besides, although you sailors may be inclined to listen to reason, you must remember that you cannot answer for Wilde and the rest of the emigrants--"

"Oh, but I think we can, Mr Troubridge!" interrupted the boatswain.

"Ye see, sir, it's this way," he continued. "We sailormen are the masters of the sittyation, as the sayin' is. Wilde and his lot can't do nothin' without our help; they can't navigate the ship, and they can't handle her; there ain't one of 'em knows enough to be able so much as clew up a r'yal, or take in the flyin' jib; so if they wants to carry out their plan, they'll have to agree to the same as what we does, d'ye see? And we're willin' to agree to anything reasonable as you may want to propose."

This sudden complaisance on the part of the boatswain put a very different complexion upon the whole affair, and was infinitely better than I had dared to hope. With the entire crew at my back I ought to have no difficulty in keeping Wilde and his lot in their proper places; and--well, the sea has many surprises for those who follow it, and who could know what might happen? But it was no part of my policy to betray to this man the extreme satisfaction which his words had given me, and thus, perhaps, subtly suggest to him the idea that he had displayed more flexibility than was actually necessary to secure my co-operation. I therefore said:

"Well, whichever way the affair goes, I am at least glad to hear you say that the ship's crew are willing to agree to any reasonable proposition that I may make; but that still remains to be seen. You and I may differ in our ideas as to what is reasonable, you know."

"Ay, of course we may; but I don't think it's at all likely as we shall, sir," answered the boatswain. "You state your conditions, Mr Troubridge, and I'll soon tell ye whether they seems reasonable or not."

"Very well," said I, "I will. If I understand the ins and outs of this affair, Wilde has persuaded all hands aboard this ship, seamen and emigrants alike, to seek out some suitable island, whereon you can try the experiment of living the ideal life of the Socialist. You are, one and all, absolutely determined to give this fantastic experiment a trial; and you desire me to help you to the extent of finding the island for you. Is that it?"

"That's it, sir; yes, that's it; you've got it hit off to a happigraphy," agreed the boatswain.

"Then listen to the conditions upon which I am willing to do what you require of me," said I. "The sort of island that you people desire is only to be found--if found at all--in an ocean that is at present comparatively unknown, and is full of dangers in the shape of rocks, shoals, and islands, the position of which is doubtful, as shown by the charts, while there are doubtless many others that have never yet been sighted, and which a ship, bound upon such an errand as ours, is liable to blunder up against at any hour of the day or night. To navigate successfully a ship among such dangers as these it is imperative that there should be one person--and one only--as the supreme head, to whom all the rest shall render the most implicit, unquestioning obedience; and I demand to be that one, with you and the carpenter as first and second mates. I must command the ship, and n.o.body must presume to interfere with or dictate to me in any way. Secondly, the crew must undertake to observe and maintain strict discipline, both among themselves and also among the emigrants if need be. And, thirdly, I decline--nay, I absolutely refuse--to acknowledge Wilde's authority. He may be your king, or president, or whatever he chooses to call himself, as soon as your island is found and all hands are ash.o.r.e; but until then--so far, at least, as I am concerned--he is only a pa.s.senger. Now, those are the terms upon which I am willing to undertake the service you require of me; and you may take them or leave them, just as you please."

"They seems reasonable enough, I won't deny it," admitted Polson, "and I dare say as everybody'll be willin' enough to agree to 'em, all except Wilde, I mean. I know he won't like the hidea of not bein' allowed to hinterfere until we arrives at the hiland. Can't ye make that there part a trifle easier, Mr Troubridge?"

"No," said I resolutely, "on no account whatever; on the contrary, that is the proviso upon which I shall insist most strongly. Wilde may be an excellent schoolmaster, for aught I know to the contrary, but he is neither a seaman nor a navigator; and I will never consent to his being allowed to interfere, either directly or indirectly, with matters of which he possesses no knowledge. You cannot have two captains to one ship, you know. If he is to be captain you will have no need of me; but if I am to be captain I will not allow anyone--and least of all a landsman--to interfere with me."

"Ay, ay, Mr Troubridge, yes, I can see now as you are quite right,"

agreed the boatswain. "It wouldn't never do to have him hinterferin'

and givin' horders about things he don't understand. If he was allowed to do it there's others as would soon want to do the same, and then we should soon all be in a pretty mess. D'ye mind writin' them conditions of yours down upon a sheet of paper, so as I can read 'em out to all hands, sir? And if they agree to 'em I'll get 'em to sign the paper and then I'll hand it back to you."

"Very well," said I; "that arrangement will do excellently. And, see here, Polson, if all you seamen are willing to sign, I don't care a bra.s.s b.u.t.ton whether the emigrants do or not. If you men for'ard are all agreed that those conditions of mine are just and reasonable, we need not trouble ourselves as to what the emigrants think of them, because, you know, they can't take the ship from us, however dissatisfied they may be."

"No, no, in course they can't, Mr Troubridge," agreed the boatswain, grinning appreciatively, as though the helplessness of the emigrants was a fact that had not hitherto occurred to him.

We had now thrashed the matter out, and I had succeeded in bringing Polson into a far more pliant frame of mind than I had ever dared to hope for. I therefore determined to clinch the matter at once, by putting my demands into black-and-white, and securing the signatures of the crew to them before the boatswain, who was evidently a man of influence among them, should find time to alter his view of the affair.

I consequently sprang to my feet and, bidding my companion await my return, descended to my own cabin, and, carefully wording the doc.u.ment, drew up a form of agreement between myself on the one part and the crew and pa.s.sengers of the _Mercury_ on the other. Then, returning with it to the p.o.o.p, I placed the paper in Polson's hand, after reading it over to him, and requested him to obtain first the signatures of the crew to it, beginning with himself and the carpenter, and then those of the emigrants; afterwards returning the doc.u.ment to me. It cost him nearly three hours strenuous work to secure the signatures of the entire crew and the emigrants to the agreement; for in the first place he found the occupants of the forecastle, one and all, very unwilling--as is the case with most illiterate people--to pledge themselves by attaching their signatures or marks to my memorandum, although it was read over and explained to them at least half a dozen times, so that they thoroughly understood the nature of it, and verbally expressed themselves as fully approving of each of the conditions.

At length, however, by dint of much persuasion the boatswain secured the signature or mark of every occupant of the forecastle, after which he entered the 'tween-decks and, summoning the whole of the emigrants to meet him, fully explained the situation to them, read over the agreement, and then, laying the doc.u.ment upon the table, demanded their signatures to it. But here, again, he encountered a quite unexpected amount of opposition, Wilde stepping forward and not only refusing to attach his own signature to the paper, but also forbidding any of the other emigrants to do so. Polson argued, pleaded, and cajoled, but all in vain. Nothing that he could say appeared to have the slightest effect upon his audience, although several declared their perfect readiness to sign if their leader would but accord his permission. It was not until at length, with his patience completely exhausted, he suddenly determined upon the adoption of what, to him, seemed a thoroughly desperate expedient, that he achieved even a partial success.

Dashing the paper down with vehemence upon the table, he exclaimed wrathfully:

"Now, listen to me, the lot of ye. Chips and me and all hands in the fo'c's'le has signed this here doccyment because, havin' thought it all over, we're agreed that Mr Troubridge is quite right in demandin' what he do. Mr Wilde there objects to it because he ain't allowed to interfere with and dictate to Mr Troubridge, and none of you won't sign because Mr Wilde won't let ye. Now, I'll give ye all ten minutes longer to make up your minds, and if you haven't signed by that time we sailormen won't have no more truck with ye, but'll go to Mr Troubridge and tell 'im he can take the ship to Sydney, where she's bound to."

This announcement, coming quite unexpectedly, fell like a bombsh.e.l.l among Polson's audience, who had dwelt upon the idea of life in an island where perpetual summer reigns, and where Nature offers many of her choicest gifts almost unsolicited, until it had taken such complete possession of them that it had come to represent to them the one desirable thing in the whole world, to lose which would be to lose everything. In a perfect pa.s.sion of consternation they turned upon Wilde and not only claimed their right to sign, but also insisted that he should conform to Polson's demand and be the first among them to affix his signature. Subjected to such pressure as this there was of course but one thing for him to do; and he did it; but the next moment he dashed up on deck, sprang up the p.o.o.p ladder, and, approaching me, shook his clenched fist in my face as he exclaimed, almost foaming at the mouth:

"You young scoundrel! I have signed that precious doc.u.ment of yours because that fool Polson left me no option. But wait until we arrive at the island and my power begins, and then I'll make you--"

"Hold your tongue, sir, and go down off this p.o.o.p!" I exclaimed, springing to my feet in a rage, for the fellow at the helm was grinning broadly at the scene. "And if you dare to come up here again without being sent for I'll kick you down on to the main deck, and then have you put in irons. Ay, and I'll do so now if you dare to answer me. Be off with you now, quick!"

I never in all my life saw a man so completely taken aback as was this crazy schoolmaster when I tackled him. Amazement, incredulity, wounded vanity, indignation, and bodily fear seemed all to be struggling together to a.s.sert themselves in his countenance and to find articulate expression upon his tongue; but fear was the strongest of them all--the fear that he might be actually subjected to the unspeakable indignity of personal violence. And when, as I uttered the final words, I advanced a step toward him, as though about to carry out my threat, he suddenly turned tail and slunk off like a whipped cur.

Some time later, when Polson, having at length accomplished his mission, brought me the signed agreement--which of course I knew was, as a binding doc.u.ment, not worth the paper upon which it was written, although I still hoped that it might be to some extent effective--I related to him the little incident that had occurred between Wilde and myself; at which he expressed some concern, although he fully agreed with me that the schoolmaster--at all events while aboard ship and at sea--must be held as amenable to discipline as anyone else, and that it would never do to give him the least bit more liberty than we were prepared to accord to every one of the other emigrants. Having secured which admission from the boatswain, I sent there and then for the steward and ordered him at once to bundle Wilde's belongings out of the cabin back to the 'tween-decks.

During the second dogwatch, that same evening, Wilde sought out the boatswain and carpenter, and complained to them of what he termed my tyrannical conduct, which, he represented to his two listeners, was of so grossly humiliating a character that it was calculated very seriously to detract from his influence with his followers. So serious a grievance did he make of it that at length Polson and Tudsbery approached me with something in the nature of a remonstrance, accompanied by a mildly offered suggestion that I should concede something to enable Wilde to preserve his dignity. Probably I should have been wiser to have accepted and acted upon this suggestion; but I had got the idea into my head that the matter had resolved itself into a struggle for supremacy between Wilde and myself, and I obstinately refused to yield a hairbreadth, thereby exciting the permanent hostility not only of Wilde himself, but also--as I afterward found--of several of his followers. The boatswain and carpenter were at first disposed to regard me as unnecessarily firm, but this feeling soon yielded to one of quiet gratification that they had, as leader, one who, young as he was, would not submit to dictation from anybody. And I feel convinced that whatever I may have lost in popularity I more than regained in the shape of power and authority, thereby averting--as I soon had reason to believe--many a serious dispute and quarrel between the widely conflicting elements that were confined so closely together in the ship.

The terms upon which I was to command the _Mercury_ having at length been arranged upon as satisfactory a basis as I could reasonably expect, I now found time to give consideration to my plans for the future. As my hope that the wild scheme of the conspirators might be frustrated, and the ship and her cargo restored to their lawful owners, rested almost entirely upon the possibility that we might fall in with a British man-o'-war, the first question to which I devoted my attention was that of the route which I should choose by which to reach the Pacific. There were two alternative routes open to me; one--and that, perhaps, rather the safer of the two from the navigator's point of view--to the south and east of Australia, then northward between the Solomon and Admiralty groups to the waters wherein our search for a sort of earthly Paradise was to be prosecuted; and the rather shorter but more dangerous route up the western coast of Australia, then through the Ombay Pa.s.sage into the Banda Sea, and thence, through the Boeroe Strait, into the Molucca or the Gillolo Pa.s.sage, the successful negotiation of either of which would bring us to the spot where our search was to commence. If the question of ease and safety of navigation had alone been concerned, I should have unhesitatingly chosen the former; but when I came to weigh the comparative chances of falling in with a British man-o'-war, it did not take me long to make up my mind that the closer I could hug the Philippines, and the longer I could remain in their neighbourhood, the more likely should I be to encounter something belonging to the China station, and I accordingly settled upon the second alternative. This choice had the further advantage that, being the shorter of the two routes, it gratified all hands, none of whom was intelligent enough to understand and appreciate the question of the comparative dangers of the two routes, or to consider that, by adopting the one which met with their approval, the risk of encountering a man- o'-war--and thus having all their plans knocked on the head--was very greatly increased. Naturally, I did not enlighten them.

It was the season of the north-east monsoon in the Indian Ocean, and a careful study of the chart and directory made it clear to me that the proper course to pursue was to run down our easting until 100 degrees east longitude should be reached, and then, still availing ourselves to the utmost of such westerly wind as might be met with, haul gradually up to the northward in the West Australian current, which has a northerly set. Accordingly, I kept the ship's bowsprit pointing steadily to the eastward, despite the violent remonstrances which Wilde addressed to the boatswain and the carpenter--he had never spoken to me since I had ordered him off the p.o.o.p and turned him out of the cabin. For the first few days I was rather afraid that I was going to have a little trouble with these two men, for whenever Wilde complained to them that I was unnecessarily prolonging the voyage by steering east instead of north- east--which, according to his crude notions, I ought to have done--they came to me, reiterating the man's complaints, and evincing so much curiosity and suspicion that it was perfectly evident they did not trust me. But I quickly arrived at the conviction that, let my relations with Wilde be what they might, it was absolutely necessary that I should possess the full confidence of the boatswain and the carpenter--and, through them, of the whole crew. I therefore took considerable pains to make them clearly understand my reasons for acting as I did, after which I had no further trouble with them.

I very soon had reason to congratulate myself upon the adoption of this policy; for while my relations with the crew daily grew more satisfactory--so that had it not been for the ridiculous hopes of a life of perfect liberty, equality, and immunity from hard work with which Wilde had addled their brains, I might easily have won their consent to take the ship to her legitimate destination--Wilde was devoting his entire energies to the task of stirring up and fomenting a spirit of lawlessness and insubordination among his fellow emigrants, chiefly--as it seemed to me--with the object of causing me as much annoyance and trouble as possible.

At length, however, matters came to such a pa.s.s that I perceived it would be absolutely necessary for me to seize the first opportunity that offered to a.s.sert myself and put an end to a state of affairs that was fast becoming utterly unendurable; and that opportunity was not long in coming.

It arose in this wise. There was among the pa.s.sengers a girl named Grace Hartley, about twenty-three years of age, of considerable personal attractions, well-educated, and of a very gentle and amiable disposition. She had been a governess in England, and had been engaged by an agent to proceed to Australia to take a similar position in a family out there; and it was, perhaps, the indifferent treatment which she had received at the hands of her former employers that had caused her tacitly to accept the alternative which Wilde's scheme offered her.

Be that as it may, she had apparently raised no protest when the scheme was first mooted, nor subsequently. What sort of life she was really looking forward to upon the island for which we were about to search I do not believe that even she herself could have explained. Probably her philosophy might have been expressed in the phrase: "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof". She soon discovered, however, that the future would not permit itself to be shelved in this offhand fashion; there were certain problems that persisted in thrusting themselves upon her notice with increasing frequency, and one of them was--marriage! The idea of creating a Utopia necessarily included that of establishing the home life and domestic happiness. There were two men in particular who forced her to give some thought to this detail, one of whom was Wilde, and the other an able seaman named Gurney--the latter quite as remarkable a man in his way as was Wilde in his, though the ways of the two men were totally dissimilar; for Gurney, while wonderfully popular with his mates in the forecastle, was so entirely different from them in every respect that they admiringly nicknamed him "The Swell", which will perhaps enable the reader to make a mental sketch of him. He and Wilde had both made formal proposals of marriage to Miss Hartley--the ceremony to be performed as speedily as might be after our arrival at Utopia; but she had thus far accepted neither, although, as might be expected, of the two men she was rather disposed to favour Gurney. Wilde, however, was not at all the sort of man to accept a rebuff tamely, indeed his vanity was so stupendous that he could not understand another being preferred before himself. He consequently plagued the poor girl so persistently that at length, in desperation, she came aft to me, laying all the circ.u.mstances before me, and begging my protection. I answered by directing her to remove herself, bag and baggage, to the after cabin, a.s.signing to her one of the spare staterooms therein, and permitting her to take her meals at the cabin table. Whereby I greatly strengthened Wilde's enmity toward me, but at the same time secured two devoted adherents, namely, the girl and Gurney; and a time came--as I sometimes suspected it would--when I was more than glad to have them on my side, instead of against me.

CHAPTER SIX.

THE DERELICT DUTCH BARQUE.

Nothing further of any importance occurred until, having worked our way slowly up past the west and north-west coast of Australia, we found ourselves to the northward of the Ombay Pa.s.sage, the entrance of which-- or, rather, Savou Island, which may be said to lie in the fairway of the southern entrance--I hit off to a hair, much to my own secret gratification and the admiration of the boatswain and carpenter. Then one night, toward the end of the middle watch, the wind having fallen very light, the carpenter, whose watch it happened to be, came down below in a great state of perturbation to inform me that, although nothing could be seen, all hands had been terribly alarmed by the sound of a bell tolling at no great distance.

My first thought upon hearing this news was of a bell buoy marking the position of some dangerous rock or shoal toward which we might be drifting; but I quickly dismissed that idea, for bell buoys were much less numerous in those days than they are now. Moreover there was no mention of any such thing on the chart or in the directory. I therefore came to the conclusion that there must be some other cause for the sounds, and, without waiting to don any of my day clothing, went on deck to investigate.

Upon stepping out on deck the reason why nothing could be seen at once became apparent, for the night was as dark as a wolf's mouth--so dark indeed, that, even after I had been up on the p.o.o.p long enough for my eyes to become accustomed to the darkness, nothing was visible save the feeble light of the low-turned cabin lamps shining through the skylight, the faint glow of the binnacle lamps upon the helmsman's face and hands and the upper part of the wheel, and the ghostly image of some twelve feet of the mainmast, part of the fife rail round it, and such portions of the running gear as were belayed to the pins therein, all glimmering uncertainly in as much of the cabin light as made its way out on deck, through the door by which I had emerged. Beyond these patches of dim illumination, and the coming and going of a spark on the forecastle, where one of the watch sucked meditatively at his pipe, all was opaque darkness, unrelieved by even the occasional glimpse of so much as a solitary star.

The night was as quiet as it was dark, for the wind, light all through the preceding twenty hours, had at length fallen away to nothing, and the ship was motionless, save for the slight heave of the swell which, stealing along through the blackness, would occasionally take her under the counter and give her a gentle lift that would cause all her spars to creak and her canvas to rustle with a pattering of reef-points, a jerk and rattle of hemp and chain sheets, and a faint click of cabin doors upon their hooks, the whole accompanied, perhaps, with a discordant bang of the wheel chains to the kick of the rudder as the black water swirled and gurgled round it. In the midst of it all there would come the clear, metallic clang of a bell--a single stroke, as though someone away out there in the offing were tolling for a funeral. It was a ship's bell that was being struck, there could be no doubt about that; but why was it being tolled? That was the question that puzzled me, and, as I could clearly see, had excited the superst.i.tious alarm of the carpenter and the hands forward. The sound was so clear and distinct that I felt convinced it must emanate from a craft at no very great distance, and Chips and I accordingly united our voices in a stentorian hail of "Ship ahoy!" repeating it at least half a dozen times. But no reply came to us out of the darkness, save the occasional "ting" of the bell; nor was any light shown to indicate the whereabouts of our mysterious neighbour.

This being the case, and feeling satisfied that the stranger could do us no harm so long as she came no closer to us than she was, I instructed Chips to report the matter to the boatswain when the latter came on deck at eight bells, requesting him to keep a sharp lookout during the remaining hours of darkness, and to call me at daylight, and then went back to my cabin and turned in again.

I had scarcely closed my eyes, as it seemed to me, when I was awakened by Polson, who was shaking me by the shoulder as he reported:

"It's just gone four bells, Mr Troubridge, and there's daylight enough abroad to show us that the ringin' that have been worryin' us comes from a barque 'bout half a mile to the east'ard of us. Her mizenmast is over the side, and she looks as if she might have been afire; but I don't see n.o.body aboard of her except the chap what's hangin' over the p.o.o.p rail, and it's him that seems to be tollin' the bell."

"All right, boatswain," I replied, "I'll be on deck directly, and take my bath as usual under the head-pump, after which we will have a good look at our neighbour."

Springing out of my bunk, I pa.s.sed through the main cabin out on deck, and so forward into the eyes of the ship, where one of the watch, having rigged the head-pump in readiness for washing decks, sluiced me for a couple of minutes with clear, cool, sparkling salt water. The refreshment from this exhilarating shower bath, after a night spent in a close sleeping-cabin, was indescribable; and having given myself a good towelling I returned aft to my cabin to dress for the day, taking a cursory glance at the strange barque as I went. As the boatswain had said, she was about half a mile distant from us, and her mizenmast was over the side, still fast to the hull by the rigging, which had not been cut away.

Half an hour later, having given the scrubbers time to get off the p.o.o.p, I once more hied me on deck, this time taking the ship's telescope with me; and now, seating myself upon a convenient hencoop, I proceeded to acquire as much knowledge of the stranger as was to be obtained with the aid of a reasonably good set of lenses. I saw that the vessel was a craft of probably a trifle over three hundred tons, her hull painted green, from her rail down to her zinc sheathing. She was lying in such a position that the _Mercury_ was broad on her port bow, and my first glimpse of her showed that she carried a name upon her head-boards, which name, after a while, I made out to be _Braave_. She was, therefore, doubtless Dutch. For a little while after that I was unable to make out anything further about her, for she lay right in the wake of the newly risen sun, the dazzle of which obliterated all detail; but after the lapse of about a quarter of an hour the sun crept a trifle away to the south of her, while some slight movement on the part of both vessels helped me. Then, although her port side was still in shadow, a dark stain on the green paint beneath one of her scuppers attracted my attention, and set me wondering what it could possibly be; for there was a sinister suggestiveness about its appearance that I did not want to accept.

I could still see n.o.body about her decks, although the time was now long past when her crew ought to have been stirring, nor was there the faintest film of smoke issuing from her galley chimney. Yet it seemed that she could scarcely be abandoned, for she carried two boats at her davits, one on each quarter, while there were two more, bottom-up, on the gallows abaft the mainmast, and, unless I was greatly mistaken, I could make out the longboat stowed on top of the main hatch, with the jollyboat in her. But I could not be certain of this, for the vessel's decks seemed to be lumbered up most unaccountably just in that part of her. As I was looking at her, she canted a bit, bringing her p.o.o.p into clearer view, and then I was able to see that, as the boatswain had said, there appeared to be a solitary figure up there hanging over the rail in a most extraordinary posture close alongside the ship's bell, which still most persistently tolled a single stroke at irregular intervals. Once, when the craft rolled toward us, I thought I caught a glimpse of what might possibly be a hole in her p.o.o.p deck, just where the mizenmast had once been stepped. But these imperfect glimpses, which were all that I was just then able to get, were so full of suggestion that, as soon as the watch had finished washing the decks, the weather still being fine, with no sign of wind, I had the smallest of our quarter boats lowered, and, jumping into her with a couple of hands, pushed off for the stranger, determined to pay her a visit, and thus either confirm or banish certain suspicions that were beginning to arise within my mind.