The Cruise of the "Esmeralda" Part 7

About a week after this, little Edgar Desmond came up to me and, slipping his hand into mine, as was his wont when he desired to have a chat with me, began, in the straightforward way usual with children--

"Captain, where do you think will be a good place for me to sail my boat, when she is finished?"

"Your boat?" said I. "I didn't know that you are making one."

"Oh no," said the child; "I am not making one; it is that new man, Martin, who is making it for me. And he is making it _so_ nicely; just like a _real_ boat. Come and see it, will you?"

Willing to humour the child, I walked forward with him; and on reaching the forecastle found Martin busy about some ordinary job connected with the usual routine work of the ship. As we halted before him he touched his forehead with his forefinger, in the usual style of the forecastle hand, and paused in his work to hear what we had to say to him.

"Good morning, Martin," began Master Edgar. "I have brought the captain to see my boat. Will you show it him, please?"

"Well, you see, sir," remonstrated Martin, obviously embarra.s.sed by my presence, "'tain't hardly fair to ask me to hexhibit the boat until she's finished. There ain't much of her yet, and what there is, is all in the rough. It's a little job, sir," he continued, turning in an explanatory way to me, "as I've undertook to do for this young gentleman in my afternoon watch below; and, as I said, she's all in the rough at present--what there is of her."

"Never mind that, Martin," said I, seeing a shade of disappointment resting upon the child's features; "bring her up, and let us have a look at her."

Thereupon, the man dived below into the forecastle, and presently reappeared, bearing in his hand the skeleton of a miniature yacht, about two and a half feet long, half planked down. My first sensation, when I set eyes on the model, was surprise at the dainty, delicate character of the workmanship exhibited in it, which was greatly increased when, upon taking it into my hands and more closely inspecting it, I had an opportunity of examining its lines. They were as nearly perfect as anything I had ever seen; in short, it was evident that, when finished, the model would be a faithful miniature reproduction of a crack racing yacht of the most approved form.

"Why, Martin," said I, greatly pleased at this example of his skill, "this is excellent. Where in the world did you learn to model lines like these?"

"Well, sir," explained Martin, "you see, I was five years in the yard of the Fifes at Fairlie, yacht buildin', before I shipped in the _Northern Queen_; and before that again I was more than three years with Summers and Payne, of Southampton; so I ought to know a little about the shape of a yacht, didn't I, sir?"

"a.s.suredly you ought," said I; "and evidently you _do_, if one may judge by this." And I replaced the model in his hand, fully determined to regularly ship him if I could, now that I had seen what a handy, clever fellow he promised to be. For I may here tell the reader, in strict confidence, that there is nothing I more thoroughly enjoy than boat-sailing, and very few things that I more highly appreciate than a good model of a ship or boat. A few days after this I made the proposition to Martin that he should ship for the remainder of the voyage, offering him the same pay that I was giving our own carpenter; and he at once gladly a.s.sented. This arrangement, as will be _seen_ later on, was destined to lead to more important results than either of us at the moment antic.i.p.ated.

At length, after a phenomenally good pa.s.sage as far south as the twenty-eighth parallel, we lost the trades, and immediately picked up a strong westerly wind, before which we bore away, under every rag we could spread, to round the Cape. When off Agulhas the wind southed upon us, and we fell in with the tremendous swell that is almost invariably met with about this spot. I had pa.s.sed over the same ground ten times already--five times outward-bound, and five times on the homeward pa.s.sage--and had _always_ found a heavy swell running, but on this last occasion it was far heavier than I had ever before beheld it. To convey some idea of the enormous bulk and height of these liquid hills I may mention that while off the Agulhas Bank--where the swell was by no means at its highest--we overhauled and pa.s.sed a barque of about our own size, at a distance of less than a cable's length, yet so high was the swell that, when we both settled into the trough, she was completely hidden from us, to her topmast-heads!

In longitude 26 degrees East, with a moderate breeze from south-east, we bore away for the Straits of Sunda; and a few days afterwards met with a piece of exceptional good fortune. It was during the forenoon watch, the weather being beautifully fine, and a very gentle breeze blowing, under the influence of which we were slipping through the water at a speed of about five knots. The watch were busy, in a deliberate fashion, about various odd jobs on deck and aloft; and the occupants of the p.o.o.p were lounging in their deck-chairs, amusing themselves according to their several fancies. As for me, I was engaged--as was indeed often the case--in a severe mental effort to find the key to d.i.c.k Saint Leger's cryptogram. The gentle motion, the warm, genial sunshine, and the soft splash of the water along the bends, with the absence of any hurried movement on board or sharply spoken orders, seemed to have wrought in the entire ship, fore and aft, a condition of half-dreamy, blissful listlessness, from which we were suddenly startled by a man crying out, from halfway up the lee fore-rigging--

"Luff! luff hard! down with your helm, or you'll be into it!"

"Into what?" shouted I, springing to my feet and running forward.

"I don't know, sir, what it is, but it is something floating. Here you are, sir; it is just coming abreast of us now."

As the ship shot up into the wind, with all her canvas flapping and rustling, I sprang upon the lee rail, and saw a ma.s.s of dirty greyish-white substance, mottled and streaked like marble, floating slowly past at a distance of some half a dozen yards from the ship's side. Of course everybody else on deck must needs, in the excitement of the moment, rush to the lee rail, to gaze upon the cause of the sudden alarm; and, among them, the boatswain, an old whaler, who no sooner set eyes on the object than he exclaimed--

"Why, sir, that's a lump of ambergrease, worth more'n a hundred pound, I'll be bound. That's worth pickin' up, that is!"

I had never before seen a piece of ambergris, but had, of course, often heard of it, and knew it to be valuable; I accordingly ordered the mainyard to be laid aback, and sent the boatswain away with a crew in the gig to pick up the piece of "flotsam." In about a quarter of an hour they returned to the ship with their prize, which proved to be a large lump--much larger than it had appeared to be when floating past-- of hard, fatty matter, of a light, dirty grey colour, veined and mottled somewhat like marble, and giving off a peculiar sweet, earthy odour.

Its weight seemed to be, as nearly as we could estimate it, about one hundred and fifty pounds; and the boatswain--who claimed to be an authority--confidently a.s.serted that I should have no difficulty in getting a sovereign per pound for it at Hong Kong. Ambergris--I may as well mention, for the information of those who do not know--is said to be a secretion formed in the intestines of the sperm whale, as a result of disease. It is greatly in demand in the East generally, for a variety of purposes--medicinal, among others--but its chief use seems to be in the manufacture of perfumes. It is not often found, and, the supply being very limited, it commands a high price in the market.

Strangely enough, we fell in with and secured a second and still larger piece a few days later; the total quant.i.ty amounting to no less than three hundred and twenty-seven pounds, which I afterwards disposed of without difficulty at twenty-five shillings per pound, remitting the proceeds home to my old friend, Mr Richards, in part liquidation of my debt to him.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

THE CHIEF MATE HAS A PRESENTIMENT.

Nothing further of importance occurred during our pa.s.sage across the Indian Ocean, which was accomplished under exceptionally pleasant circ.u.mstances; the weather being gloriously fine, and the wind, if not absolutely fair, always favourable enough to permit of our laying our course.

Java Head was made just before sunset, under a clear sky, with a light air breathing out from the north-west--so light an air, indeed, that when the sun rose next morning the headland was still on our starboard bow. Some two hours later, however, we got a strong breeze out from the north-east, under the influence of which we worked up toward the mouth of the straits in fine style, until noon--by which time we were fairly within the straits--when the wind softened down, finally dwindling away to nothing about an hour before sunset.

We had sighted several sail during the day, three of them being European, bound to the westward, while the rest were country craft-- small coasters and fishing vessels for the most part. The Malays have probably, next to the Chinese, the worst reputation in the world for honesty; but it is only just to say that, with one solitary exception, all the native craft we had that day fallen in with had behaved in a manner that left no room whatever for suspicion. The exception was in the case of a large proa that had pa.s.sed us closely, running out before the wind toward the mouth of the straits during the forenoon, but which, having run to leeward of us for a distance of some six miles, had then hauled her wind and stretched in toward the southern sh.o.r.e, on reaching which she had lowered her canvas, thrown out her sweeps, and made her way to windward with the aid of the latter alone. It was not so much this circ.u.mstance, however, though it had a somewhat incomprehensible look about it, as the fact that she pulled twelve sweeps of a side-- proving her to be heavily manned--that caused us to regard her and her movements with a certain amount of doubt and suspicion. We were now in waters that, from the numerous acts of piracy that have been committed within them, have acquired a more sinister reputation than is borne by any other spot of ocean of similar area in the whole world; and it was therefore only natural that the fact of our being becalmed in such a spot should have been productive of a certain uneasiness and disquiet of mind throughout the ship.

At sunset, and for an hour or two afterwards, there was every prospect of a fine clear night; but at about two bells in the first watch a thin veil of vapour began to gather in the sky, gradually thickening and blotting out the stars until they were all completely hidden, when the darkness became profound. At this time--or rather, when we had last had an opportunity of distinguishing distant objects--there were only some eight or ten craft, all native, in sight, the nearest of which was fully four miles distant; and they all, without exception, presented an appearance of perfect honesty. Three or four of them were, like ourselves, drifting idly, with their heads pointing in as many different directions; the others had rigged out a sweep, or in some cases a pair, and were slowly making their way insh.o.r.e.

The baronet and I were reclining in contiguous chairs, placidly smoking our post-prandial cigars; the ladies were below, Miss Merrivale being seated at the piano, accompanying her sister, who--having by this time quite recovered her health and spirits--was singing some quaint, old-fashioned ballad in a full, rich contralto voice that could be distinctly heard from one end of the ship to the other, and probably far beyond. As for the chief mate, he was pacing the deck thoughtfully and steadily to and fro with an energy that, taking the heat and closeness of the night into consideration, seemed to bespeak an uneasy mind.

After a while he halted alongside the binnacle, gazed abstractedly into it for about half a minute, and then, turning to the nodding helmsman, inquired whether he knew where he was running the ship to.

"She hasn't had steerage-way on her since I came aft, at eight bells, sir," was the reply.

"She hasn't, eh?" remarked Roberts. "Well, if that's the case, the compa.s.s isn't of much use to you, is it? So," pulling off his jacket, "as it's hardly worth while to proclaim our exact whereabouts to everybody, we'll just mask the light until a breeze springs up."

Saying which, he laid his jacket very carefully over the hood of the binnacle, completely obscuring the not very brilliant light that shone therefrom.

"What is Roberts' idea in hiding the binnacle light in that fashion?"

asked Sir Edgar, turning to me, as the mate again walked forward, pausing for some minutes near the head of the short p.o.o.p ladder, and apparently peering anxiously round him into the obscurity.

"Well," said I, "I think he perhaps feels a little uneasy at our being becalmed just here, and in such an intensely dark night, too. The Malays have the name of being born pirates, you know, and should they happen to take it into their heads to attack us just now, it would be rather awkward, since we could do absolutely nothing to avoid them while this calm lasts."

"Do _you_ think there is any danger of such an occurrence, captain?" he asked, with manifest anxiety.

"Not very much," I replied. "There were no suspicious craft visible at nightfall. Still, an attack is by no means an impossibility, especially on such a dark night. The circ.u.mstances are precisely those which I imagine would be deemed highly favourable by people piratically inclined."

"Then why, in Heaven's name, my good sir, do you not make preparation for such an eventuality?" exclaimed my companion, excitedly.

"For the simple reason," I replied, "that all the preparation possible could be made in five minutes; and, as a matter of fact, I was only waiting until you had all retired, when I intended at once making them.

Two slashes of a sharp knife would suffice to release those boarding-pikes from the boom; and you can easily calculate for yourself the length of time it would take to serve out a brace of revolvers and a cutla.s.s to each of our small crew."

"Um!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the baronet. "And have you no rifles on board?"

"I have one," said I; "but of what use would it be on such a dark night as this?"

"True; too true," muttered Sir Edgar. "Nevertheless, I think I will go down and put my Winchester together, upon the off chance of work being found for it. Confound this calm, say I. If it were not for the fact of my wife and bairns being on board there is nothing I should enjoy more than a brush with the rascals--for my feeling is that pirates deserve no mercy--but, as it is--" An expressive shrug eloquently concluded the sentence; and the baronet at once rose and went below.

A minute or two later the piano became silent, and I heard the sound of the instrument being closed, as Sir Edgar remarked, laughingly--

"Thank you, Emily. If you go on at this rate you will soon recover your old form. I thought, just now, as I sat on deck listening to your singing, that your voice had never sounded sweeter. But, as your chief medical adviser, I really must forbid your using it any more to-night; we must progress gradually, you know, and not overtax nature at the outset (is not that the correct professional jargon?) Joking apart, however, I think you have done enough for to-night; and--ah, there goes four bells--ten o'clock--take my advice, 'turn in,' both of you, and get a good long night's rest."

"I think I will," replied Lady Emily; "this hot weather makes me feel very languid and tired. And you, Edgar--what are you going to do? You will not remain on deck very late, will you?"

"Well," hesitated Sir Edgar, "that depends on circ.u.mstances. I shall not turn in until I feel that there is some chance of getting to sleep.

And if this calm continues I think I shall sleep on deck; it is too insufferably hot altogether for one down here, just at present. Leave the ports open in your cabins, both of you, so that if there is any air stirring you will get the benefit of it. And now I think I will say good night to you both. Good night, sweetheart, and pleasant dreams.

Good night, Agnes."

I heard the click of the latches of the cabin-doors as the two ladies retired, and presently Sir Edgar came on deck again, with a fresh cigar in his mouth, and seated himself once more beside me, remarking--

"There! I have packed my womankind off to bed, and have laid my rifle, with a good supply of cartridges, in my own bunk--an act which has somewhat relieved my mind. So now, captain, as the coast is clear down below, there is nothing to prevent your making your preparations as soon as you please."