Salt Water Part 7

There was no time just then to ask questions. The companion-hatch had not been washed away, and as the seaman held up the lantern, its light fell on the figure of a man kneeling on the deck, bending over the fair face of a young girl, who reclined on a seat by the side of it.

"Rouse up a bit, sir; there's help come when we didn't expect it," said the seaman.

The gentleman, for such I saw that he was, had not his voice proved it, rose from his knees. "Heaven be praised, my child may yet be saved!" he exclaimed, clasping his daughter in his arms, and scarcely appearing to notice my presence. "Alice, dearest, bear up but a little longer; we may once more hope to reach the sh.o.r.e."

The young girl endeavoured, to raise herself, and feebly returned his embrace.

Then turning to me, he said, "You have arrived most opportunely. We had well nigh abandoned all hope of escaping death. What do you propose we should do?"

"As the people on board seem to say that the ship may go down any moment with slight warning," I replied, "I think, sir, the sooner you and the young lady get into the boat, the better. We will follow you when it becomes absolutely necessary. Meantime we must see what can be done on board."

I then told him that I belonged to a cutter, which could not be far off, and that I hoped by daylight we should see her, and that she would come to our a.s.sistance.

The gentleman, on this, took his daughter in his arms and carried her to the gangway.

"How are the poor men who were so ill?" I heard her ask.

"They are free from all pain," was the evasive answer; but it seemed to satisfy her.

We soon got them safely placed in the boat, in which I left two boat-keepers, with orders to be ready to shove off at a moment's notice.

The rest of the boat's crew came on board to lend a hand to what might be required.

I then set to work to see what was best to be done. There was no time to ask questions as to how the ship had got into her present condition.

My first care was to attend to the wants of the sick. The seaman who had received us and my own people went round with me. Unhappily, we found that most of the other poor fellows were beyond human aid. Three only were still alive, verging on the portals of death. We fortunately had a flask of spirits, a keg of water, and some biscuits in the boat; of these I served out sparingly among the crew. The food had the effect of speedily reviving them. I next took a lantern, and, accompanied by Jack, went below to discover, if I could, how much water the ship had in her. I was not quite comfortable during the time, for I thought she might take it into her head to go down before we could regain the deck.

The water we found was over the cabin floors; but, as far as we could judge, it was not gaining on her. Half of it might have got in while the sea broke over the ship. The contents of the cabin, bedding, and tables, and chairs, and crockery, and books, and clothing, were washing about together. Returning on deck, we went forward. The forepeak was much in the same condition.

"She'll not sink yet awhile, sir," said Jack. "Hark, now! don't you hear a bubbling sound right forward, there? Now, to my mind, if we were to get a sail thrummed and brought across her bows, we might carry her into harbour yet."

"If you think so, we'll try it, by all means," I answered, feeling no little pride at the prospect of saving the ship.

No time was to be lost in setting about the work, if it was to be done.

I had only three men; and the four we found able to move about on board were still too weak to be of much use. Officers there were none. I shall have to tell a sad tale on that subject, by-and-by. We had no little difficulty in getting at the sail-room; but, after much rummaging about, we discovered a spare topsail, with which we set to work as we proposed. What with searching for the ropes and getting the sail ready, it took us an hour before it was brought under the ship's bows.

Meantime the water gained very slowly on us. It was nervous work, for we could not tell at what moment the last bucketful might come in which would send her to the bottom.

"That will do, sir, I think," said Jack Stretcher, who, I must own, was the prime mover. "The leak seems to suck in the sail, and we may now try to clear her of the water."

With a will we manned the chain-pumps, and after an hour's hard work it became evident that we had materially lessened its depth. In the meantime the little girl and her father, with the weakest of those we found on board, had remained in the boat.

"You may come on board again, sir; I don't think the ship is going to sink this time," I sung out, as I looked down on them.

At first the gentleman would not venture to quit the boat, for he could not believe that the ship was not on the point of sinking. After some persuasion, however, I got him and his daughter on deck, and we wrapped her up comfortably, and placed her on the seat by the companion-hatch, for the cabin was too damp for her to occupy. The sick men we placed on the p.o.o.p, with a sail stretched over them, to shelter them somewhat from the night air. The dead were carried forward. We had no time, however, to spare from the pumps; but, with the aid of the fresh hands, we again set to for a spell, the gentleman helping, as far as his strength would allow him. As may be supposed, I was curious to know who he was; and while we were pumping away, I bethought me I would ask him his name.

"You may call me Marlow," he answered. "I ought to have mentioned that before."

The reply made me fancy that there was some mystery or other, and my imagination conjured up all sorts of romantic stories. "And that young lady," thought I, "is Miss Alice Marlow." "Alice Marlow--Alice Marlow; what a very pretty name," I kept repeating to myself, while my arms were aching with the exertion of pumping. Fortunately it remained very calm, or I suspect we should not have gained on the leak. Mr Marlow was anxious to get on sh.o.r.e for the sake of his daughter, and would willingly have abandoned the ship; but at the same time he was glad to save some valuable property he had on board. All hands worked with a will, spelling each other, till we were almost knocked up. I thought the night the longest I had ever spent. We had no time for conversation, so I was still ignorant of how the ship had been brought into her present condition. At last the cold grey light of the coming day appeared. I looked out in the hope of discovering the blue line of the land on the northern board; but the dull, leaden sea surrounded us on every side, fortunately, unruffled as a looking-gla.s.s. Neither the cutter nor any other sail was in sight. We had given our own provisions to the half-famished crew, and were becoming very sharp-set ourselves.

Some nutritious food had, I found--much to the credit of those on board,--been reserved for the exclusive use of the little girl, and this had been the means of preserving her life, notwithstanding all the hardships she had undergone. Mr Marlow, overcome with fatigue, had wrapped himself in a cloak, and lay asleep at his daughter's feet. Two of the ship's crew had fairly given in, and dropped off also; but my own fellows, urged on by Jack, worked away like Trojans at the pump.

"Do ye see, lads, if we get this here craft into harbour, we shall make a better job of it than of any prize we are ever likely to pick up in the whole course of our lives; but if she sinks, why, do ye see, we shall get nothing," he remarked, whenever he saw them inclined to flag in their exertions; and each time he spoke, the water always seemed to flow faster than before out of the scuppers.

Our prospect was not a very pleasant one. We had a boat certainly; but with any sea running she would scarcely carry the remnant of the crew and pa.s.sengers; and while the ship floated I would on no account desert her.

The beams of the sun, as he rose out of the ocean, fell on the little girl's face. I had fancied her rather pretty at night, but I now thought her very lovely. While my arms were resting I stood watching her, when the dazzling light of the sun aroused her from her sleep, and opening a very bright pair of blue eyes, she fixed them on me with a look of extreme surprise. It may be laid down as a general rule that a midshipman, especially an Irish one, does not take a long time to fall in love, nor, it must be confessed, to fall out again--which latter, taking all things into consideration, will be considered a very fortunate circ.u.mstance. I, accordingly, instantly conceived a very ardent affection for Miss Alice Marlow, and felt ready to go right round the world, and to perform all sorts of prodigies for her sake. She looked at me, and then around her, as if trying to collect her scattered senses.

"Where are we--where are we going?" she asked, in a very sweet and musical voice.

"We are in the Chops of the Channel; and we are going nowhere at present, but we hope soon to be," I answered. "We must try to rig a sort of a jury-mast, and if we get a little breeze from the southward, we may hope to fetch Plymouth."

The idea of getting up a jury-mast had only just occurred to me.

Her voice aroused Mr Marlow. It was pleasant to see the way in which the father and daughter greeted each other. I left them together, offering up their thanks to Heaven for having preserved them to see another day, while I went forward to propound my idea to Jack. He was about to propose the same to me, the only want being the spars with which to make the mast. A few remained, certainly, on deck, but they were short and broken. On putting them, however, together, we found that we might splice them so as to form a mast and a yard of sufficient length to answer our purpose. All hands set to with a will, in the hopes that a breeze might spring up from the southward or westward, and blow us on to the English coast. The ebb, I found, had drifted us down Channel, and the flood, now again making strong, sent us the way we wished to go. As the sun also rose, and the mist which had so long hung over the sea cleared off somewhat, we at length made out the land to the northward, which we had no doubt was the coast of Cornwall.

Things now began to wear a much more cheering aspect. We had to knock off mast building, however, every now and then, to take a spell at the pumps. Mr Marlow a.s.sisted us at either work to the best of his power; and even little Miss Alice seemed very anxious to lend a hand, and, though I own she could have been but of slight use, her presence encouraged us to perseverance. It did me at all events. I have all my life felt doubly energetic in the presence of a lady, and fancy, at all events, that there is not a deed which I would not dare for the sake of winning the smile of an amiable girl.

At last we got something like a mast built, and lashed to the stump of the foremast. We stayed it up, got a yard across it, and bent a topsail to it, which we fortunately found below. This was but very little sail: but it was all we could hope to be able to set, and without a wind even that was of no use to us.

The pumps, in the meantime, kept us fully occupied; clang--clang--clang they went, till I thought I never should get the sound out of my ears.

Jack every now and then turned his eye over the smooth, gla.s.sy sea to the northward, as if he observed some sign which I did not. Before long he gladdened our ears by exclaiming, "Here it comes! We'll stand by, sir, if you please, to hoist the sail." I went aft to the helm. A nice fresh, laughing breeze came rippling and curling up briskly the hitherto sullen waters. It struck us abeam on the larboard side. The sail was hoisted, the ship answered her helm, and I steered her in the direction in which I believed that Plymouth was to be found.

As the binnacle had been swept off the deck, and the only compa.s.s I could find in the cabin had been so damaged by water as to be of no use, I had only the distant blue land to steer by.

Our sail, fortunately, required but little attention, so that my whole ship's company were at liberty to work at the pumps, which was very necessary, as, whenever they relaxed in their efforts, the water again rapidly gained on us.

Miss Alice, being of no a.s.sistance to them, came and stood by me to help me to steer the ship, which, I a.s.sured her, was very kind of her.

As all danger appeared past, and the sun shone forth bright and warm, her spirits revived. Her voice was very sweet and low, and I thought that I had never heard anything more musical.

"What is your name, little officer?" she asked, putting her hands on the spokes of the wheel, and imitating my att.i.tude as I stood on the other side of it.

"Neil D'Arcy, little lady," I answered, not quite liking the epithet she bestowed on me.

"Oh, I so much wished to know it; for papa and I are so very, very grateful to you for coming to save our lives, and we can never thank you enough," said she.

"Oh, I have done nothing at all to be thanked for; I wish that I had," I replied. "I wouldn't mind any trouble or danger to serve you; and I would go right round the world for your sake, that I would."

"It's very kind of you to say so," said Miss Alice. "And I know that I shall like you some day very much--indeed I do so now--for the service you have been to us; but tell me, Mr Neil D'Arcy, are you a captain of a ship?"

"No, I am a midshipman," I replied, modestly.

"Is a midshipman higher than a captain?" she inquired, innocently.

"Sometimes; when he's mast-headed," I answered. This seemed to satisfy her; and I, not wishing to be lowered in her estimation, was anxious to change the subject. I therefore said, "It seems very odd that though I've been on board so many hours, and seem to be so well acquainted with you, I do not know where you have come from, or how you got into this terrible plight."

"Oh, I will tell you all about it, then," she replied. "You must know that papa has been a great merchant in the Brazils, where we have lived almost since I can remember. Dear mamma died there; and if it had not been for my sake, I believe papa would have died too. You cannot tell how fond he is of me, for I have no brothers or sisters, and there was no one else in that country for him to love. At last the doctor told him he must come to England, so he took a pa.s.sage in this ship, which is called the _Poictiers_. There were some other pa.s.sengers, and I had an old black nurse to take care of me. At first we had fine weather, and things seemed to go pretty well; but, sad to say, the captain was a very tipsy man, and we, I believe, lost our way, and the wind blew against us and kept us back a long time."

"Oh, I see! the master got out of his reckoning, and met with a succession of foul winds," I remarked.

"I don't know, but I know we were very uncomfortable, and had very little to eat, and what we had was very bad," she continued. "It was very horrid, was it not? A fever also, which one of the pa.s.sengers had brought from Rio, spread among the people on board. Several of the other pa.s.sengers and many of the crew died of it, and among others, my poor nurse Josefa. G.o.d was very kind, and saved dear papa and me. I do not think the captain caught it; but he was always very tipsy, and now was worse than ever. One night he fell into the sea and was drowned."

"Drinking brought on _delirium tremens_, and in his madness he jumped overboard probably," I remarked. "No wonder his ship was in so bad a condition; but go on."