The Red Rover Part 49

"It is a ship!" echoed the General, across whose disciplined features a ray of something like animated satisfaction was making an effort to display itself.

"A full-rigged ship!" continued a third, relieving his eye in turn, and answering to the grim smile of the soldier.

"There must be something to hold up all those lofty spars," resumed their Commander. "A hull of price is beneath.--But you say nothing, Mr Wilder!

You make her out"----

"A ship of size," returned our adventurer, who, though hitherto silent, had been far from the least interested in his investigations. "Does my gla.s.s deceive me--or"----

"Or what, sir?"

"I see her to the heads of her courses."

"You see her as I do. It is a tall ship on an easy bow-line, with every thing set that will draw. And she is standing hitherward. Her lower sails have lifted within five minutes."

"I thought as much. But"----

"But what, sir? There can be little doubt but she is heading north-and-east. Since she is so kind as to spare us the pains of a chase, we will not hurry our movements. Let her come on. How like you the manner of the stranger's advance, General?"

"Unmilitary, but enticing! There is a look of the mines about her very royals."

"And you, gentlemen, do you also see the fashion of a galleon in her upper sails?"

"'Tis not unreasonable to believe it," answered one of the inferiors. "The Dons are said to run this pa.s.sage often, in order to escape speaking us gentlemen, who sail with roving commissions."

"Ah! your Don is a prince of the earth! There is charity in lightening his golden burden, or the man would sink under it, as did the Roman matron under the pressure of the Sabine shields. I think you see no such gilded beauty in the stranger, Mr Wilder."

"It is a heavy ship!"

"The more likely to bear a n.o.ble freight. You are new, sir, to this merry trade of ours, or you would know that size is a quality we always esteem in our visitors. If they carry pennants, we leave them to meditate on the many 'slips which exist between the cup and the lip;' and, if stored with metal no more dangerous than that of Potosi, they generally sail the faster after pa.s.sing a few hours in our company."

"Is not the stranger making signals?" demanded Wilder, thoughtfully.

"Is he so quick to see us! A good look-out must be had, when a vessel, that is merely steadied by her stay-sails, can be seen so far. Vigilance is a never-failing sign of value!"

A pause succeeded, during which all the gla.s.ses, in imitation of that of Wilder, were again raised in the direction of the stranger. Different opinions were given; some affirming, and some doubting, the fact of the signals. The Rover himself was silent, though his observation was keen, and long continued.

"We have wearied oar eyes till sight is getting dim," he said. "I have found the use of trying fresh organs when my own have refused to serve me.

Come hither, lad," he continued, addressing a man who was executing some delicate job in seamanship on the p.o.o.p, at no great distance from the spot where the groupe of officers had placed themselves; "come hither: Tell me what you make of the sail in the south-western board."

The man proved to be Scipio, who had been chosen for his expertness, to perform the task in question. Placing his cap on the deck, in a reverence even deeper than that which the seaman usually manifests toward his superior, he lifted the gla.s.s in one hand, while with the other he covered the eye that had at the moment no occasion for the use of its vision. But no sooner did the wandering instrument fall on the distant object, than he dropped it again, and fastened his look, in a sort of stupid admiration, on Wilder.

"Did you see the sail?" demanded the Rover.

"Ma.s.ser can see him wid he naked eye."

"Ay, but what make you of him by the aid of the gla.s.s?"

"He'm ship, sir."

"True. On what course?"

"He got he starboard tacks aboard, sir."

"Still true. But has he signals abroad?"

"He'm got t'ree new cloths in he maintop-gallant royal, sir."

"His vessel is all the better for the repairs. Did you see his flags?"

"He'm show no flag, ma.s.ser."

"I thought as much myself. Go forward, lad--stay--one often gets a true idea by seeking it where it is not thought to exist. Of what size do you take the stranger to be?"

"He'm just seven hundred and fifty tons, ma.s.ser."

"How's this! The tongue of your negro, Mr. Wilder, is as exact as a carpenter's rule. The fellow speaks of the size of a vessel, that is hull down, with an air as authoritative as a runner of the King's customs could p.r.o.nounce on the same, after she had been submitted to the office admeasurement."

"You will have consideration for the ignorance of the black; men of his unfortunate state are seldom skilful in answering interrogatories."

"Ignorance!" repeated the Rover, glancing his eye uneasily, and with a rapidity peculiar to himself, from one to the other, and from both to the rising object in the horizon: "Skilful! I know not: The man has no air of doubt.--You think her tonnage to be precisely that which you have said?"

The large dark eyes of Scipio roiled, in turn, from his new Commander to his ancient master, while, for a moment, his faculties appeared to be lost in inextricable confusion. But the uncertainty continued only for a moment. He no sooner read the frown that was gathering deeply over the brow of the latter, than the air of confidence with which he had p.r.o.nounced his former opinion vanished in a look of obstinacy so settled, that one might well have despaired of ever driving, or enticing, him again to seem to think.

"I ask you, if the stranger may not be a dozen tons larger or smaller than what you have named?" continued the Rover, when he found his former question was not likely to be soon answered.

"He'm just as ma.s.ser wish 'em," returned Scipio.

"I wish him a thousand; since he will then prove the richer prize."

"I s'pose he'm quite a t'ousand, sir."

"Or a snug ship of three hundred, if lined with gold, might do."

"He look berry like a t'ree hundred."

"To me it seems a brig."

"I t'ink him brig too, ma.s.ser."

"Or possibly, after all, the stranger may prove a schooner, with many lofty and light sails."

"A schooner often carry a royal," returned the black, resolute to acquiesce in all the other said.

"Who knows it is a sail at all! Forward there! It may be well to have more opinions than one on so weighty a matter. Forward there! send the foretop-man that is called Fid upon the p.o.o.p. Your companions are so intelligent and so faithful, Mr. Wilder, that you are not to be surprised if I shew an undue desire for their information."

Wilder compressed his lips, and the rest of the groupe manifested a good deal of amazement; but the latter had been too long accustomed to the caprice of their Commander, and the former was too wise, to speak at a moment when his humour seemed at the highest. The topman, however, was not long in making his appearance, and then the chief saw fit again to break the silence.

"And you think it questionable whether it be a sail at all?" he continued.