My Danish Sweetheart Volume II Part 8

'Say for smuggling, Tommy, say for smuggling, or them parties as is a-listening 'll think the ould man did something wrong,' said Jacob.

Helga took me by the arm.

'Hugh, silence them!--they will come to blows.'

'No, no,' said I quickly, in a low voice. 'I know this type of men.

There must be much more shouting than this before they double up their fists.'

Still, it was a stupid pa.s.sage of temper, fit only to be quickly ended.

'Come, Abraham,' I cried, waiting till he had finished roaring out some further offensive question to Thomas, 'let us get sail on the boat and make an end of this. The trial of temper should be mine, not yours. Luck seems against the lady and me; and let me beg of you, as a good fellow and an English seaman, not to frighten Miss Nielsen.'

'What does Tommy want to sarce me for?' said he, still breathing defiance at his mate, out of his large nostrils and blood-red visage.

'What's my rent got to do with you?' shouted the other.

'And what's moy father got to do with you?' bawled Abraham.

'I say, Jacob!' I cried, 'for G.o.d's sake let's tail on to the halliards and start afresh. There's no good in all this!'

'Come along, Abey! come along, Tommy!' bawled Jacob. 'Droy up, mates'

More'n enough's been said;' and with that he laid hold of the halliards, and, without another word, Abraham and Thomas seized the rope, and the sail was mastheaded.

Abraham went to the tiller, the other two went to work to get breakfast, and now, in a silence that was not a little refres.h.i.+ng after the coa.r.s.e hoa.r.s.e clamour of the quarrel, the lugger buzzed onwards afresh.

'We shall be more fortunate next time,' said Helga, looking wistfully at me; and well I knew there was no want of worry in my face; for now there was peace in the boat the infamous cold-blooded indifference of the rogues we had just pa.s.sed made me feel half mad.

'We might have been starving,' said I; 'we might have been peris.h.i.+ng for the want of a drink of water, and still the ruffians would have treated us so.'

'It is but waiting a little longer, Hugh,' said Helga softly.

'Ay, but how much longer, Helga?' said I. 'Must we wait for Cape Town, or perhaps Australia?'

'Mr. Tregarthen--don't let imagination run away with ye!' exclaimed Abraham, in a voice of composure that was not a little astonis.h.i.+ng after his recent outbreak; though, having a tolerably intimate knowledge of the 'longsh.o.r.e character, and being very well aware that the words these fellows hurl at one another mean little, and commonly end in nothing--unless the men are drunk--I was not very greatly surprised by the change in our friend. 'There's nothen' that upsets the moind quicker than imagination. I'll gi' ye a yarn. There's an old chap, of the name of Billy b.u.t.tress, as crawls about our beach. A little grandson o' his took the gla.s.ses out o' his spectacles by way o' amusing hisself. When old Billy puts 'em on to read with, he sings out: "G.o.d bless me, Oi'm gone bloind!" and trembling, and all of a clam, as the saying is, he outs with his handkerchief to woipe the gla.s.ses, thinking it might be dirt as hindered him from seeing, and then he cries out, "Lor' now, if I an't lost my feeling!" He wasn't to be comforted till they sent for a pint o' ale and showed him that his gla.s.ses had been took out. That's imagination, master. Don't you be afeered. We'll be setting ye aboard a homeward-bounder afore long.'

By the time the fellows had got breakfast, the hull of the barque astern was out of sight; nothing showed of her but a little hovering glance of canvas, and the sea-line swept from her to ahead of us in a bare unbroken girdle.

CHAPTER IV.

A SAILOR'S DEATH.

The day slipped away; there were no more disputes; Thomas went to lie down, and, when Jacob took the tiller, Abraham took a little book out of his locker and read it, with his lips moving, holding it out at arms'

length, as though it were a daguerreotype that was only discernible in a certain light. I asked him the name of the book.

'The Boible,' said he. 'It's the Sabbath, master, and I always read a chapter of this here book on Sundays.'

Helga started.

'It is Sunday, indeed!' she exclaimed. 'I had forgotten it. How swiftly do the days come round! It was a week last night since we left the bay, and this day week my father was alive--my dear father was alive!'

She opened the parcel and took out the little Bible that had belonged to her mother. I had supposed it was in Danish, but on my taking it from her I found it an English Bible. But then I recollected that her mother had been English. I asked her to read aloud to me, and she did so, p.r.o.nouncing every word in a clear, sweet voice. I recollect it was a chapter out of the new Testament, and while she read Abraham put down his book to listen, and Jacob leant forward from the tiller with a straining ear.

In this fas.h.i.+on the time pa.s.sed.

I went to my miserable bed of spare sail under the overhanging deck shortly after nine o'clock that night. This unsheltered opening was truly a cold, windy, miserable bedroom for a man who could not in any way claim that he was used to hards.h.i.+p. Indeed, the wretchedness of the accommodation was as much a cause as any other condition of our situation of my wild, headlong impatience to get away from the lugger and sail for home in a s.h.i.+p that would find me shelter and a bed and room to move in, and those bare conveniences of life which were lacking aboard the _Early Morn_.

Well, as I have said, shortly after nine o'clock on that Sunday I bade good-night to Abraham, who was steering the vessel, and entered my sleeping abode, where Jacob was lying rolled up in a blanket, snoring heavily. It was then a dark night, but the wind was scant, and the water smooth, and but little motion of swell in it. I had looked for a star, but there was none to be seen, and then I had looked for a s.h.i.+p's light, but the dusk stood like a wall of blackness within a musket-shot of the lugger's sides--for that was about as far as one could see the dim crawling of the foam to windward and its receding glimmer on the other hand--and there was not the faintest point of green or red or white anywhere visible.

I lay awake for some time: sleep could make but little headway against the battery of snorts and gasps which the Deal boatman, lying close beside me, opposed to it. My mind also was uncommonly active with worry and anxiety. I was dwelling constantly upon my mother, recalling her as I had last seen her by the glow of the fire in her little parlour when I gave her that last kiss and ran out of the house. It is eight days ago, thought I; and it seemed incredible that the time should have thus fled. Then I thought of Helga, the anguish of heart the poor girl had suffered, her heroic acceptance of her fate, her simple piety, her friendlessness and her future.

In this way was my mind occupied when I fell asleep, and I afterwards knew that I must have lain for about an hour wrapped in the heavy slumber that comes to a weary man at sea.

I was awakened by a sound of the cras.h.i.+ng and splintering of wood. This was instantly succeeded by a loud and fearful cry, accompanied by the noise of a heavy splash, immediately followed by hoa.r.s.e shouts. One of the voices I believed was Abraham's, but the blending of the distressed and terrified bawlings rendered them confounding, and scarcely distinguishable. It was pitch dark where I lay. I got on to my knees to crawl out; but some spare sail that Abraham had contrived as a shelter for me had slipped from its position, and obstructed me, and I lay upon my knees wrestling for a few minutes before I could free myself. In this time my belief was that the lugger had been in collision with some black shadow of a s.h.i.+p invisible to the helmsman in the darkness, and that she might be now, even while I kneeled wrestling with the sail, going down under us, with Helga, perhaps, still in the forepeak. This caused me to struggle furiously, and presently I got clear of the blinding and hugging folds of the canvas; but I was almost spent with fear and exertion.

Someone continued to shout, and by the character of his cries I gathered that he was hailing a vessel close to. It was blowing a sharp squall of wind, and raining furiously. The darkness was that of the inside of a mine, and all that I could see was the figure of a boatman leaning over the side and holding the lantern (that was kept burning all night) on a level with the gunwale while he shouted, and then listened, and then shouted again.

'What has happened?' I cried.

The voice of Jacob, though I could not see him, answered, in a tone I shall never forget for the misery and consternation of it:

'The foremast's carried away, and knocked poor old Tommy overboard. He's drownded! he's drownded! He don't make no answer. His painted clothes and boots have took him down as if he was a dipsy lead.'

'Can he swim?' I cried.

'No, sir, no!'

I sprang to where Abraham overhung the rail.

'Will he be lying fouled by the gear over the side, do you think?' I cried to the man.

'No, sir,' answered Abraham: 'he drifted clear. He sung out once as he went astern. What a thing to happen! Can't launch the punt with the lugger a wreck,' he added, talking as though he thought aloud in his misery. 'We'd stand to lose the lugger if we launch the punt.'

'Listen!' shouted Jacob, and he sent his voice in a bull-like roar into the blackness astern: 'Tom-mee!'

There was nothing to be heard but the shrilling of the sharp-edged squall rus.h.i.+ng athwart the boat, that now lay beam on to it, and the slas.h.i.+ng noise of the deluge of rain, horizontally streaming, and the grinding of the wrecked gear alongside, with frequent sharp slaps of the rising sea against the bends of the lugger, and the fierce snarling of melting heads of waters suddenly and savagely vexed and flashed into spray while curling.

'What is it?' cried the voice of Helga in my ear.

'Ah, thank Heaven, you are safe!' I cried, feeling for her hand and grasping it. 'A dreadful thing has happened. The lugger has been dismasted, and the fall of the spar has knocked the man Thomas overboard.'

'He may be swimming!' she exclaimed.

'No! no! no!' growled Abraham, in a voice hoa.r.s.e with grief. 'He's gone--he's gone! we shall never see him again.' Then his note suddenly changed. 'Jacob, the raffle alongside must be got in at wonst: let's bear a hand afore the sea jumps aboard. Lady, will you hold the loight?

Mr. Tregarthen, we shall want you to help us.'