The Cruise of the "Esmeralda" Part 21

This truly royal breeze continued to blow with scarcely diminished strength, enabling us to reel off our fifteen knots per hour for hours at a time, while our speed seldom sank below twelve; the result of which was that a little before midnight of the fifth day from its first reaching us we glided into the roadstead of Honolulu, and came to an anchor.

On the following morning, immediately after breakfast, I went ash.o.r.e, taking with me my pa.s.sengers and Cooper, the mate of the _Golden Gate_; and while Sir Edgar with his party made their way to the best hotel in the place, preparatory to the planning of an expedition which would permit of their seeing as much as possible of the beauties of the island during our stay there, Cooper and I sought out our respective consuls.

Neither of them were difficult to find; and while I partook of a second breakfast with our hospitable British representative, I learnt from him--after telling him as much of my story as I deemed needful--that an Aberdeen ship had unfortunately driven ash.o.r.e and gone to pieces there only a fortnight previously, and that her crew were then awaiting an opportunity to work their way home, the master and chief mate having already left for England _via_ San Francisco, in a steamer. Upon further inquiry I found that there were thirteen of the crew in all, namely, the second mate, steward, cook, and ten seamen. This suited me exactly; for, although there were more men than I really needed, we had accommodation for an even greater number in the _Esmeralda's_ roomy forecastle and deck-house. Moreover, I had had all that I wanted of such an unpleasant experience as that of being short-handed. I therefore determined to ship them all, if they were willing, and recompense myself for my recent hardships by enjoying the luxury of a fully manned ship. The men were easily found--were indeed on the lookout for me, having learned early in the morning that an English barque had arrived in the roadstead some time during the night--and upon interviewing them I learned that they were, one and all, most anxious to make a start for home. They were as quiet, sober, and steady-looking a crew as I could possibly desire to meet with, or have under me; I therefore shipped the whole of them, on the spot, and directed them to hold themselves in readiness to join the ship as soon as they should receive instructions from me to that effect.

Meanwhile, Cooper had had an interview with his consul, the result of which was an arrangement that the crew of the _Golden Gate_ should land forthwith, as there were several American vessels in the port, and, consequently, ample facilities for despatching the men home. As a consequence of this the Americans left the _Esmeralda_ that same afternoon, while the new crew went on board and took up their quarters on the following morning.

The luncheon hour had arrived by the time that all these arrangements were completed, and I therefore hastened away to Sir Edgar's hotel for the double purpose of satisfying a certain inward craving that had already begun to make itself felt, and of acquainting the baronet with the character of the business upon which I had been engaged during the morning. The several members of the party were, naturally enough, much pleased to learn that there was to be no undue detention among the lovely Sandwich Islands; but, on the other hand, they expressed so earnest a desire to see something of Oahu, now that they were actually upon it, that I cheerfully consented to delay my departure until the evening of the third day. A tour of the island was thereupon arranged, in which I was very cordially invited to join, and a most delightful excursion was the result; but as this is not a guide-book, and nothing out of the ordinary way occurred during its progress, I will not inflict the details of it upon the indulgent reader. Upon our return to the ship we found that Forbes, following my instructions, had re-watered her, and laid in a generous supply of fruit, pigs, poultry, and other necessaries; our crew were all on board, and there was nothing to detain us longer in this Pacific paradise; we therefore got our anchor forthwith, and stood out of the roadstead in the crimson wake of the setting sun just as that luminary sank magnificently beneath the horizon, painting the whole western sky with the flaming hues of his dying effulgence.

There is but little more to tell, for the rescue of the _Golden Gates_ crew proved to be the last adventure that befell us on this extraordinarily eventful voyage. We made a very rapid run across to the China coast, and were detained but a short time in the Canton river, freights happening to be rather high and tonnage somewhat scarce--for a wonder--about the time of our arrival; I therefore met with no difficulty in obtaining a freight, with quick despatch, and within three weeks of our arrival we were once more at sea, this time Homeward-Bound!

I must not forget to mention, by the way, that almost my first act, upon arriving at Hong Kong, was to write home two somewhat lengthy letters--one to my mother, acquainting her with the successful result of my quest, together with a full and detailed narrative of my adventures since leaving Sydney; and the other to my old and trusty friend, Mr Richards, acquainting him also with my success, and requesting him to undertake certain rather delicate negotiations for me, as well as to make certain preparations against the time of the _Esmeralda's_ arrival in the English Channel. Our homeward pa.s.sage was as prosperous as it was uneventful. We were no sooner clear of our moorings than we caught a favourable breeze that followed us all the way until we had rounded the Cape of Good Hope and had caught the south-east trades, which in their turn carried us right up to, and indeed a few miles to the north of, the Line. Here we met with the usual light baffling airs, with plenty of rain and perhaps rather more than the average allowance of thunder and lightning. But this weather lasted only a trifle over forty-eight hours, when a small easterly air came to our rescue and fanned us along to the northward until we finally fell in with the north-east trades, the beneficent influence of which carried us as far north as the parallel of twenty-eight degrees. Here again kind Fortune favoured us; for when at length the trade-winds failed us, the wind gradually hauled round from the southward, and thence from the westward and north-west, hardening all the time, until at length it blew quite a fresh gale, which sent us bowling and staggering away to the northward and eastward under single-reefed topsails with topgallant sails over them, reeling off our fourteen knots hour after hour, and enabling us to hold our own for a whole day with one of the West Indian mail-boats, homeward-bound, much, no doubt, to the chagrin and astonishment of her officers. The breeze continued to freshen, however, and the sea to rise, necessitating first the handing of our topgallant sails, and, a little later on, the further reefing down of our topsails, when the great steamer gradually drew away from us, and by next morning was out of sight. This slant lasted us for four days, when the wind gradually softened into a moderate sailing breeze, veering all the time until it finally worked round from the southward once more, bringing with it mild, genial, sunshiny weather, that carried us right up the Channel to Portland Roads, which we entered on a lovely summer evening, nine months, almost to a day, from the date upon which we had quitted it, at the commencement of the voyage.

I was of course careful to have the ship's number and burgee conspicuously displayed as we entered the roadstead, and I also observed the precaution of standing far enough over towards the Weymouth side of the bay to permit of the flags being distinctly made out before bringing the ship to an anchor; the result of which was that, before the canvas was well clewed up, a small steam launch emerged from Weymouth Harbour, and in due time deposited my dear mother and my very good friend Mr Richards upon the _Esmeralda's_ deck.

Of the joyous meeting that ensued--of my dear mother's smiles and tears and caresses and e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns of grat.i.tude at my safe return--and of Mr Richards' hearty congratulations at my successful achievement--I will say nothing; the picture may very well be left to the vivid imagination of the reader. I need only state that, after the first bustle and excitement of the meeting had pa.s.sed over, Mr Richards drew me carefully aside and remarked--

"It is all right, my dear boy; everything is arranged. I have put the whole affair into the hands of Tom White--a man whom I would trust with my very life--and he will come off to you with half a dozen 'lerrets'

and a strong gang of thoroughly reliable men at two o'clock to-morrow morning. Hand over your cases of treasure to him without hesitation, and he will take care of them for you. He knows exactly how to manage the business, trust him, for he was a smuggler in his youth, when smuggling was still a paying business, as were his forbears for generations before him; so it is in the man's blood, you see."

And as Mr Richards had said, so it proved. The night was, luckily, _very_ dark, and therefore exactly suited to our purpose; and promptly at two o'clock, the man White, with his fleet of "lerrets," came gliding noiselessly alongside out of the darkness, and in less than half an hour every ounce of the treasure was out of the ship, with n.o.body a bit the wiser. The next morning a man came alongside offering crabs for sale, and before leaving the ship, he slipped a crumpled, dirty piece of note-paper, smelling strongly of fish, into my hand; upon opening which I, with some difficulty, deciphered the following communication:--

"Deer Sur the boxis be awl rite yours to command T. White."

Is there anything else to tell? Well, yes; there is just one further item of information that may interest some at least of my readers. I remember remarking, in the course of my narrative, that toward the latter part of my acquaintance with Miss Merrivale--dating particularly from the capture and recapture of the ship at the treasure island--that very charming young lady's demeanour toward me underwent a certain subtle, indefinable, puzzling, but exceedingly agreeable change; and after we had left China and were on our homeward voyage--when, in short, I had leisure to give a proper amount of thought and attention to so important a matter--I determined to ascertain what it meant.

Now, this is not a love story, so I will not enter into the particulars of how I first of all fell to questioning myself as to _why_ this change of manner should have proved so agreeable to me; nor will I describe the mental process by which I quickly arrived at the conclusion that it was because Agnes Merrivale was, beyond all question, the sweetest and most lovable, as well as the most charming and lovely woman it had ever been my good fortune to encounter. Nor will I attempt to describe the devious methods and the complicated stratagems by which--having arrived at this conclusion--I painfully sought to obtain some slight inkling or clue to the sweet girl's sentiments toward myself. Let it suffice to say that they were all signally, _miserably_, unsuccessful. _You_, my dear reader, would of course have managed infinitely better; I am well aware of that. But remember, if you please, that I was only a plain, unpolished sailor; a man who, maybe, could handle a ship fairly well, take care of her in a gale of wind, and navigate her successfully from port to port, but who had until now had no experience of women and their ways. Moreover, I would have cut off my right hand rather than have said or done anything to offend one of the s.e.x worthy the name of woman.

So, for the first time in my life, I was fairly nonplussed and unhappy; knowing full well what I wanted, but not knowing what steps I ought to take in order to insure to myself a fair chance of obtaining it. Such a state of mind, however, is not likely to be long tolerated by a sailor; my good sense came to my aid, and whispered that if my love loved me, I had only to give her the opportunity to say so, and all would be well.

So one night--how well I remember it! it was pitch-dark, and we were just clear of the Straits of Sunda, rolling merrily along before a fresh easterly breeze under every rag that we could pack upon the ship--I got the dear girl to myself for a while upon the p.o.o.p, and told her in simple, sailorly language exactly what were my feelings and hopes. We were promenading the p.o.o.p together, arm in arm, while I spoke, and she heard me to the end without a word. Then she stopped, and placing both her hands in mine, said, with an unmistakable quiver of emotion in her voice--

"Thank you, Jack, for the most priceless gift a man can offer a woman-- the gift of a loyal, loving heart. I accept it gratefully, dear, and will do my best to make you happy; for I believe I have loved you from the very first, my darling."

THE END.