The Cruise of the "Esmeralda" Part 6

Saying which, he opened the closed log-book that I had already noticed lying on the table, and drew my attention to the entries, one after the other, in consecutive order. I looked them all over most carefully, and was bound to admit that they had all the appearance of being genuine.

"A most fortunate circ.u.mstance for the hands forward that the mate took the precaution to make those entries," I remarked.

"Yes, indeed," agreed Baker. "And now," he continued, opening the book at a fresh page, "this is the entry I made shortly before I saw you pulling on board us. I want you to have the goodness to confirm the statement by appending your signature."

I read the entry, and found it to consist of a brief statement of the facts connected with the loss of his own s.h.i.+p; of his crew and himself having been taken off the sinking wrecks by us; of his brief sojourn on board the _Esmeralda_; of the barque having been boarded by a boat from the _City of Calcutta_, and of all the circ.u.mstances that followed. At the foot of this, and under Captain Baker's signature, I added the following note:--

"I hereby certify that the above statement is true in every particular.

"John Saint Leger, Master of the British barque _Esmeralda_."

This done, accompanied by Captain Baker, I entered the cabin where the madman was confined; and there saw a sight which I shall probably not forget to my dying day. It was one of the saloon cabins--the door of the poor fellow's own state-room having been beaten in by the crew in their endeavour to rescue the mates from his clutches--and was a very fine, roomy, airy, well-lighted apartment, containing two berths and a sofa, a folding wash-stand, large mirror, a handsome silver-plated lamp with a ground-gla.s.s globe, and a bra.s.s pole over the top of the door carrying bra.s.s rings, from which depended a crimson curtain. The lower berth was made up, and upon it, lying face downwards, was the form of a stalwart, well-built man, with irons on his legs. I thought for a moment that the poor fellow was asleep; yet, as we stood gazing upon him in silence, I was suddenly impressed by the perfect immobility of the figure, and the oppressive silence that pervaded the cabin. Let a man be sleeping ever so peacefully, you will notice some slight movement due to the inspiration and expiration of his breath; and there will also be the _sound_ of his breathing, as a rule; with perhaps an occasional sigh, or faint, inarticulate murmur--_something_ to tell you unmistakably that the figure you are gazing upon is that of a living man. But here there was nothing of that sort--a circ.u.mstance which seemed to force itself upon the attention of Baker and myself at the same moment, for we suddenly turned and gazed inquiringly into each other's faces, and then, reading there the reflection of our own dreadful suspicions, without a word we simultaneously stepped forward and turned the figure upon its back. The ghastly truth at once became apparent in all its unspeakable horror; the miserable madman had crowned his folly and wickedness by cutting his own throat! It was a sight to turn one sick and faint--at least, it had that effect upon me; and doubtless Baker felt as I did, for when I turned to look at him he was white as chalk to the very lips. For a moment we stood gazing at each other, speechless; then, closely followed by me, Baker staggered out of the berth into the saloon, and thence on deck, shouting for the steward, who happened to be forward at the galley. The fellow hurried aft at once, evidently prepared, by the tone of Baker's voice, to find that something was wrong.

"Steward," inquired Baker, "how long has Captain Clarke been left to himself?"

"About a quarter of an hour, sir," was the answer. "Dennis has been looking after him, sir; but, finding the captain quite quiet, he went forward to get his supper with the rest, asking me to keep an eye on him meanwhile. And I did, sir, for the minute or two before this gentleman,"--indicating me--"came aboard; then, when you both went into the saloon, I took the opportunity to step for'ard to arrange with the doctor," (the cook) "about the supper for the saloon. I hope nothing has gone wrong, sir."

"Captain Clarke has cut his throat, and is stone dead," said Baker.

"Call Dennis aft at once."

The steward hurried away; and in less than a minute the man Dennis made his appearance, followed as far aft as the mainmast by all hands. He was at once rigorously examined by Baker as to the condition and behaviour of his charge; and his replies went to show that when he went on watch at eight bells he found the patient perfectly quiet, but evidently--so at least he judged--quite unaware of his situation and surroundings. The captain, he said, was then seated on the sofa in the cabin, with his hands clasped before him, his elbows resting on his knees, his body inclined forward, and his eyes fixed upon the carpet at his feet; in that att.i.tude he had remained continuously, and in that att.i.tude he had been when he (Dennis) left him. This was all that was to be got out of the man, except protestations that when he left the captain alone he believed he might do so with perfect safety, and expressions of the deepest regret at the dreadful thing that had happened.

A few of the men--Captain Baker's two mates, the boatswain, carpenter, and sailmaker of the s.h.i.+p, and one of the able seamen--were then conducted into the cabin to view the body and have explained to them its position when we entered, and so on; and then another entry in the official log, detailing the tragedy, became necessary; which entry I also attested.

By this time it was getting dark, and one of the men came to the saloon door to report that a small air of wind was coming down from the eastward; as therefore my business on board the _City of Calcutta_ was concluded, I prepared to leave the s.h.i.+p. Nothing now remained to be done but to hand Baker some letters from the _Esmeralda_ to post on his arrival home--a matter I had almost forgotten in the excitement induced by the dreadful discovery in which I had partic.i.p.ated--and to bid good-bye to my late guests; which done, I hurried down over the side and stepped into my gig, glad to be out of a craft on board which such horrible tragedies had so recently been enacted.

The s.h.i.+p presented a n.o.ble picture as we left her there in the swift gathering dusk of the calm tropical night, her long shapely hull, taunt spars, and milk-white canvas reflected upon the gla.s.sy surface of the sleeping wave upon which she oscillated ponderously to the long heave of the almost imperceptible swell; and it was grievous to think that the man--quite a young man, too, with all his best years apparently before him--who had been deemed worthy the trust and charge of so fine a fabric, and of all the costly merchandise that she contained, should have been so miserably, contemptibly weak as to have allowed himself to be conquered by the vile demon of drink, and his life brought to so disastrous and shameful a close. Ah, me! the pity of it; the pity of it!

The breeze had reached the _Esmeralda_ by the time that the gig arrived alongside, and the dainty little barque was lying to with her mainyard aback, waiting for us. She seemed very small in comparison with the _City of Calcutta_, coming so directly as I had done from the s.p.a.cious decks and cabins of the latter; but it was a relief to get away from the big s.h.i.+p, and the tragedy of which she was the scene; and I was more than thankful that the breeze had come so opportunely to enable us to part company with her. The wind--which, after all, was the merest zephyr--was very light and partial, playing about the surface of the water around us in occasional cat's-paws, and failing to reach the barque altogether so long as the fast-fading twilight permitted us to see her, while, a quarter of a mile to windward and right out to the horizon, the water was quite blue with ripples. We accordingly braced sharp up and luffed our way to the spot where the breeze was steady, and then bore away upon our course, rejoicing; the nimble little barque getting off her five knots per hour with ease, although the wind had scarcely weight enough in it to lift the heavy cloths of her courses.

As the night closed down upon us, however, the breeze acquired a little more life, and we increased our pace until, at four bells in the first watch, we were reeling off our eight knots by the log. About midnight we pa.s.sed through quite a large fleet of craft, homeward-bound; and when day dawned, some seven or eight vessels were in sight ahead of us, steering to the southward.

At eight o'clock that morning we crossed the Line, by my reckoning; and, the breeze holding bravely, we had an opportunity to test our sailing powers against the craft ahead of us; a most exhilarating race resulting, in which, to the intense satisfaction of all hands on board the _Esmeralda_, that tidy little barque eventually proved the victor.

Now, it must not be supposed that, because I have abstained from any mention of the cryptogram since the outset of the voyage, I had forgotten all about it; on the contrary, it occupied nearly all the attention I could spare from the ordinary business of the s.h.i.+p, and the claims of my pa.s.sengers upon it. But, so far, without the slightest useful result. When we crossed the Line I was just as far from its interpretation as I had been when I first abstracted it from its place of concealment in the sword-belt of my respected ancestor. Many an hour had I spent in the privacy of my own cabin, with the precious doc.u.ment outspread upon the little folding-table secured to the bulkhead, framing tables of letters corresponding with the figures of the cryptogram, and trying every possible combination I could think of, but not a particle of sense could I make of it; indeed, I had failed to get any result that bore even the most remote resemblance to anything like a language. I even at last went to the length of telling Sir Edgar and Lady Desmond and Miss Merrivale of my difficulty; and, acting upon the laughing suggestion of the latter that the attempt to solve the puzzle would be a welcome recreation, made three copies of the first line of the doc.u.ment, and handed one to each of them, in order that they might have an opportunity of trying their wits upon it. This was on the day that we crossed the equator; and, during the whole of that day, when their attention was not diverted by the overtaking of one or another of the craft in company, and the frequent exchange of signals--and, indeed, for many days afterwards--they devoted themselves with great earnestness and gravity to the matter, but ineffectually; and at length they gave it up as a bad job, and declared the cypher to be untranslatable.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

THE STRANGE FATE OF THE "NORTHERN QUEEN."

The welcome breeze that wafted us out of the neighbourhood of the ill-starred _City of Calcutta_ held good, and, gradually freshening and working round more from the southward, eventually resolved itself into the south-east trade, under the beneficent influence of which, with our larboard tacks on board and our yards braced flat up against the starboard rigging, we merrily wended our way to the southward.

One morning, when we were about in the lat.i.tude of the islands of Martin Vaz and Trinidad, we discovered, at daybreak, a large s.h.i.+p broad on our weather-bow, the topsails of which were just clear of the horizon. The trades were at this time blowing fresh, and the barque was thras.h.i.+ng along under her main-topgallantsail, with the flying-jib stowed. No sooner, however, did Roberts come on deck and espy the stranger--which was steering the same way as ourselves--than he must needs give orders to loose and set the fore-topgallantsail and flying-jib; and while I was in the saloon at breakfast, I heard him give orders to set the two royals. Under this additional canvas, which caused the little hooker to bury her lee side to her covering-boards, and to plunge to her hawse-pipes into the long ridges of swell that came rolling up from the southward and eastward, while she sent an acre of milk-white foam roaring and hissing away from under her lee bow, we rapidly overhauled the strange sail until we had brought her square abeam. Then, having allowed us to reach this position, her people gallantly responded to our obvious challenge, and made sail until they showed precisely the same canvas to the breeze that we did. The stranger, s.h.i.+p-rigged, was at this time about eight miles away from us, broad on our weather-beam, her hull just showing above the horizon when she rose upon the crest of a sea; and, after taking a good look at her through our gla.s.ses, we came to the conclusion that she must be a vessel of about twelve hundred tons. That she was a remarkably smart craft under her canvas soon became evident, for though we were going eleven and a half knots by the log, we found it impossible to gain an inch upon her after she had got her additional canvas fairly set and trimmed; indeed, there were times when it seemed impossible to resist the conviction that she was, if anything, gaining the merest trifle upon us. If so, however, it was only when the breeze came down with a little extra strength; for so surely as it softened at all we immediately appeared to recover the trifle that we seemed to have previously lost.

But though we were unable to forereach upon our big neighbour, it became evident, as the morning now wore on, that the two craft were very gradually nearing each other, the extraordinary weatherly qualities of the _Esmeralda_ coming conspicuously into notice in this thrash to windward on a taut bowline, now that we had the opportunity of comparing them with those of another vessel. At noon the stranger showed her colours, British, and, upon our responding, exhibited her number; from which and other signals we learned that she was the _Northern Queen_, of Glasgow, bound to Cape Town. Then followed an exchange of lat.i.tude and longitude, ours and hers agreeing within a mile or two; and before the signal flags were finally hauled down and stowed away we had accomplished quite a long conversation, to the intense delight of my pa.s.sengers, especially the fairer members, to whom this sort of thing was still quite a novelty.

Thus the day wore on, the bright and pleasant hours being whiled away in a friendly trial of speed that, though we guessed it not, was hurrying our companion onward to a strange, sudden, and awful doom.

At length the sun went down in a bewildering blaze of gold and crimson and purple splendour; and almost simultaneously the full-orbed moon rose majestically above the eastern horizon, flooding the sea that way with liquid silver, and showing our friend, the _Northern Queen_, hull up in the very heart of the dazzle, the entire fabric, hull, spars, and canvas, standing out black as an ebony silhouette against the soft blue-grey and ivory of the cloud-dappled sky. She was at this time square upon our weather-beam; but with the rising of the moon the breeze acquired new life, as it often does, and came down upon us with a weight sufficient to render it advisable to clew up and furl our royals--which we did; the _Northern Queen_ continuing to carry hers, as of course she could, being a much bigger craft than ourselves, and fitted with much stouter spars. She was thus enabled to draw gradually ahead of us, much to the chagrin of our worthy chief mate, who a.s.serted, with quite unnecessary vehemence, that it was absolutely the first time that the _Esmeralda_ had ever been beaten by _anything_ in moderate weather. It thus came to pa.s.s that at midnight our companion was dead to windward of us, and about seven miles distant.

My lady pa.s.sengers had retired to their berths about an hour before; but Sir Edgar, tempted by the beauty and cool freshness of the night, lingered on deck, and--both of us being shod with rubber-soled shoes in order that we might not disturb the repose of the sleepers below--was pacing the weather side of the p.o.o.p with me, and relating some of his former adventures as a traveller, before he had settled down as a sober, steady, respectable Benedict--as he laughingly put it. Suddenly, as we turned in our walk, within arm's length of the binnacle, we became conscious of a vivid increase of light, and at the same moment an indescribable, deep, hurtling roar smote upon our ears above the startled cry of the helmsman, the loud hum of the wind in our rigging, and the sobbing wash of the sea. The sound and the light so obviously came from overhead that we both involuntarily halted and directed our gaze aloft, when we became aware of an enormous meteor, fully four times the apparent diameter of the moon, and of such dazzling effulgence that our eyes could scarcely endure the brightness of it, while the whole s.h.i.+p, with every minutest detail of spars, rigging, and equipment, was as brilliantly illuminated as at noonday. It was pa.s.sing, at no very great apparent speed, immediately over our mastheads, in a south-easterly direction, leaving a long trail of evanescent sparks behind it, and as we watched we could see that it was falling toward the sea.

"G.o.d of mercy--the s.h.i.+p, the _s.h.i.+p_!" gasped Sir Edgar, clutching my arm in a grip that left its mark on the skin for days afterward; and, as he spoke, the huge incandescent ma.s.s fell full upon the hull of the _Northern Queen_. There was a flash like that of a bursting sh.e.l.l on board her, and ere we could draw a breath the stately fabric of her spars and sails collapsed and vanished into the deep before our eyes!

For some seconds we were all, fore and aft, so paralysed with horror and dismay that not a sound escaped our lips. Even the weird night music of the wind and sea appeared to be hushed for the moment, or our startled senses failed to note it, and presently there came floating down to us upon the pinions of the breeze a m.u.f.fled, booming _crash_, as confirmatory evidence of the appalling disaster.

"Gone--in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Sir Edgar, with quivering, ashen lips, as he strained his eyes toward the point so recently occupied by our companion. "Oh, captain, can _nothing_ be done? Is there _no_ hope that out there some few survivors at least may be floating on a sc.r.a.p or two of wreckage? You will go there and see, will you not?"

"a.s.suredly I will," said I. "I will tack the moment that I think we can fetch the spot where the s.h.i.+p disappeared. Meanwhile," continued I, to the second mate, who had charge of the deck, "get up three rockets and fire them, as a signal to the possible survivors that we have observed the disaster, and intend to look for them. They will, no doubt, understand what we mean."

The rockets were brought on deck and fired; by which time I judged that we had gone far enough to justify us in tacking s.h.i.+p. We accordingly went about, and two hands were then stationed on the fore-topsail yard to keep a lookout for wreckage, while a third laid out as far as the flying-jib-boom end for the same purpose.

We had been on the starboard tack some three-quarters of an hour, and I had just hailed the lookouts, warning them to be especially vigilant, as we must now be near the scene of the catastrophe, when the man on the flying-jib-boom end cried out with startling suddenness--

"There's something floating out there to wind'ard, sir; broad on the starboard bow!"

"Yes, yes," added both the men aloft, with one consent. "It looks like something alive--like a man, sir, waving his arm!"

"Don't take your eyes off it for an instant, either of you, on any account," I answered, with a strange thrill in my voice at the idea of our being perhaps close to one or more survivors of that awful visitation of G.o.d that we had witnessed. "Back your main-topsail, Mr Forbes, and then man and lower the port quarter-boat."

"Ay, ay," was the brisk response. "Man the weather main-braces, my lads; lively, now. Cast off to leeward; round-in to windward. Well there; belay. Shall I take charge of the boat, sir?"

"Certainly," I said; "it is your turn this time, Mr Forbes, and I hope you will be as successful as Mr Roberts was when we last had occasion to lower a boat. You will probably not be able to see the man when you are in the boat and under way, so I will stand on the wheel grating abaft, where you will be able to distinctly see me, and will indicate to you how to steer in accordance with the directions which I may receive from the hands aloft. If you can only manage to pick up the man they have seen, he will, perhaps, if he is still sensible, be able to direct you how to prosecute your further search. Now, if you are ready, go; and G.o.d speed you."

The boat pushed off, and in less than ten minutes had picked up the man, who was found to be floating comfortably enough in a life-buoy.

Questioned as to whether he thought there were any more survivors, he replied that he feared not, as, feeling sure that the catastrophe had been observed by us, and that we should make for the scene as promptly as possible--which a.s.surance had been quickly confirmed by the sight of our rockets--he had simply clung to the life-buoy without making the slightest effort to shorten the distance between himself and us, believing that his best hope of deliverance consisted in remaining as near as possible to the scene of the disaster; and that, if there were any other survivors, they would most probably act in the same way, in which case he would almost certainly have seen or heard something of them in the interim; which had not been the case. Forbes, however, very properly pulled about the spot for more than an hour, the boat's crew shouting at intervals, and then lying on their oars and listening for a reply. But it was all of no avail; for, though he fell in with and picked up two buckets marked with the name of the _Northern Queen_, and pa.s.sed through a few small fragments of floating wreckage, clearly indicating that he was prosecuting his search in precisely the right spot, nothing more was found, and he was at length reluctantly constrained to abandon further efforts.

The rescued man--who, when brought on board, appeared not an atom the worse for his terrible adventure--gave his name as Joe Martin, and informed us that he had held the rating of carpenter on board the ill-fated _Northern Queen_. He gave us full particulars concerning the port of registry of the s.h.i.+p; the port from which she had sailed; the number of days out; the number of the crew, and their names, so far as he knew them--in short, all the information necessary to the identification of the s.h.i.+p and those on board her; and then he described the catastrophe as it had impressed itself upon him. He said that at midnight the deck had been relieved in the usual manner; and that, it being his trick at the wheel, he had arrived aft just in time to hear the "old man" (the captain) bid the mate good night, after laughingly enjoining him not to go to sleep and allow the little barque to leeward to slip past him. The night being fine and the breeze steady, the watch on deck, with the exception of the lookout, had quickly found snug corners for themselves, in which they had coiled themselves away for a quiet cat-nap; the mate had lighted his pipe and established himself in the skipper's wicker armchair; and perfect peace and quiet reigned throughout the s.h.i.+p. Suddenly the whole sky seemed to brighten, and, glancing involuntarily over his right shoulder--from which direction the light appeared to emanate--Martin saw the meteorite in the sky immediately over our mastheads, and at the same moment became conscious of the screaming roar of its pa.s.sage through the air.

"The moment I set eyes on it," said he, "I knew--I felt _certain_, somehow--as the thing meant to strike us; and I shouted to the mate, to warn him; and then--not knowin' why I did it--I let go the wheel and makes a spring for the life-buoy hangin' at the taffr'l, whippin' the knife out of my sheath at the same time. I'd got hold of the buoy, and the edge of my knife was on the seizin', when it seemed to me as if the sun hisself was a-bearin' down on us, the light and the heat got that dreadful fierce; then there came a most fearful smash as the thing struck us fair atween the fore and main masts, cuttin' the s.h.i.+p clean in two, if you'll believe me, gentlemen; and as my knife went through the seizin' by which the buoy was lashed to the iron rail, I felt the poor old hooker double herself up together, just as if she was writhin' with the pain of her death-wound; and with that, holdin' the buoy in my hand, I makes a single spring overboard; and the next thing I knows, I finds myself bein' sucked down with the wreck. If you'll believe me, gen'lemen, it seemed _years_ afore I felt that dreadful suction let go of me, and found myself risin' to the top of the water again; and when I got there at last and caught my breath once more, it seemed to me as if another single second 'd ha' done for me. I remembers congratulatin'

myself as the water was so warm and pleasant, and the breeze the same, as I settled myself comfortable in the middle of the buoy; and then, when I'd cleared the water out of my eyes, and slipped my knife back into his sheath, I set to work to look round and see if there was anybody else that had escaped besides myself. But I couldn't see n.o.body; and while I was peerin' round here and there into the black hollows between the seas, I catches sight of another flash in the sky, and looks up fully expectin' to see another o' them awful fire-b.a.l.l.s.

But it was only one o' your rockets burstin' up aloft; and lookin'

underneath the place when I floated up to the top of a sea, there I sees your to'ga'nts'ls and the upper half of your taups'ls; and I understood in a minute as you'd obsarved what had happened and meant to come and see if there was any of us left. Then I began hailin', in hopes of hearin' a reply from some of the lads; but there weren't a sound come to me exceptin' the moan of the wind and the hiss of the sea round about; so at last I knew that all hands exceptin' myself had gone to the bottom with the good s.h.i.+p, leavin' me alone to tell the tale."

"What an extraordinary cla.s.s of men sailors are!" remarked Sir Edgar, as the man Martin, having brought his narrative to a conclusion, and being dismissed by me, turned and shambled away forward with the usual careless, leisurely gait affected by forecastle Jack. "Here is a man who has just escaped--and is, moreover, the only survivor of--a catastrophe absolutely unique, I should say, in naval history, yet he is as unconcerned and undemonstrative over it as though the destruction of a s.h.i.+p by a meteorite were quite an everyday occurrence. Is such extraordinary _sang-froid_ usual, or is this an exceptional example?"

"Oh dear, no," I laughingly replied; "there is nothing in the least unusual in Martin's demeanour, which, however, is doubtless partly a.s.sumed. It is not regarded as quite correct form to exhibit any excitement whatever over an adventure of which one's self has been the hero; but, apart from that, sailors are so accustomed to carry their lives in their hands, and become so hardened to danger by being constantly brought face to face with it--often without a second's warning, and sometimes in the most unexpected shapes--moreover, they witness from time to time such startling and inexplicable phenomena, that it is really difficult to provoke anything like a display of genuine, unmitigated surprise or excitement on their part. Whatever happens--unless it be something very distinctly suggestive of the supernatural--Jack is always prepared for it."

"So it would appear," a.s.sented the baronet. "But candidly now, captain, is not this present voyage of ours rather an eventful one?"

"Undoubtedly it is," replied I. "Singularly so, thus far. A man might follow the sea all his life without witnessing so many casualties as have come under our notice since we sailed. Yet such casualties are constantly occurring in some part of the world. The only remarkable thing about those of which we have become cognisant is that so many should have occurred in so short a time, and within an area so small as to have permitted of our being in the vicinity of each just when it happened. Even the dreadful occurrence that we witnessed to-night, though it is the first case of the kind that I ever heard of, may be after all nothing very unusual in kind, and may possibly explain the loss of many of the craft that disappear and leave no sign behind them.

For instance, it is safe to say that the only human eyes that witnessed the destruction of the _Northern Queen_ are on board this s.h.i.+p, and if we had not seen it the chances are a hundred to one that her fate would never have been known. Martin's prospects of escape would certainly have been remarkably small; for although, in this fine weather, he might have remained afloat for some time, he might have been pa.s.sed unnoticed by a s.h.i.+p within a very short distance. Then, after exposure in the water for a certain number of hours, his strength would rapidly fail him, and he would die miserably of starvation, if he did not lose his hold upon the buoy and sink, or be dragged out of it by some hungry shark."

"Upon my word, you would be an uncommonly cheerful companion for a nervous man," remarked Sir Edgar, half jestingly, half in earnest. "I declare I shall never in future be able to look at that man without recalling the grim picture you have sketched of him floating helplessly in his life-buoy. You sailors certainly ought to be exceptionally religious men, for it seems to me that not one of you--not one of _any_ of those who go down to the sea in s.h.i.+ps--can count with certainty upon his life from one minute to another. Just look around you now, for instance. How gentle and peaceful is the whole aspect of nature at this moment, and how absolutely _safe_ we seem to be! It was just as peaceful--just as apparently safe--three hours ago; yet in the interim a n.o.ble s.h.i.+p and her whole crew save one has perished; and what has befallen her may befall us or any other s.h.i.+p that floats, or ever will float, quite as suddenly, quite as unexpectedly. I hope that what we have witnessed to-night will enable us to realise more fully and vividly than ever, how completely we are in the hands of G.o.d, and how absolutely dependent upon His mercy. Good night, captain!"

I returned the salutation; and, as the baronet slowly and thoughtfully descended the companion, I mechanically turned away and began to pace the deck, with my thoughts busy upon the solemn words I had just heard, and the occasion that had given rise to them. And, as I did so, albeit I am perhaps no worse than the average man, the carelessness and indifference of my own conduct in the past rose up in judgment against me and condemned me of the grossest ingrat.i.tude for countless past mercies; the most shameful disobedience; the most criminal neglect to render to my Creator that honour and glory which is His due. And I there and then registered a solemn vow that from that moment I would lead a new and a better life; a vow that, I grieve to say, was afterwards far too frequently forgotten.

On the following day, after breakfast, Mr Roberts informed me that Martin had asked to be put into a watch; and he wished to know whether I was willing that such an arrangement should be made. I, of course, had no objection whatever to the proposal, as I by no means believe in idle people in the forecastle. So I told Mr Roberts to arrange the matter, and at the same time to keep an eye on the man; it being my intention to regularly s.h.i.+p him, if he proved worth having and should be willing to sign articles; the second mate's being one hand weaker than the larboard watch.