My Danish Sweetheart Volume III Part 4

'It is so bad,' she exclaimed, 'that I feel persuaded it cannot last.'

'Let us go on deck. If we linger here he may rejoin us. How tragical it all is one may know by the humour of it.'

We went softly to the companion-steps, and I recollect that I looked over my shoulder to see if he was following us--than which I can recall no better proof of my perfect recognition of our helplessness.

The new moon had followed the sun, and the planet would not be showing by night for two or three days; but in the south, and over our mastheads, the sky was richly spangled with stars, which burnt in one or two dyes of glory, and very sharply, whence, from recollection of a like sight at home, I supposed that hard weather was at hand. There was some little lightning, of a delicate shade of violet, in the north-east, which, indeed, would have been no noticeable thing down in this part of the world but for the mountainous heaping of cloud it revealed, a black sullen ma.s.s stretching along the sea-line in that quarter, and putting a hue as of ink into the dusk which swept in glittering obscurity to the shadow of it. There was a great deal of greenish fire in the sea, and it broadened and shrank in wide s.p.a.ces in the lift of the noiseless running swell as though the rays of a tinted lantern were cast upon the water.

The dew was plentiful, and lay along the rails and upon the skylight, crisp as frost in the stars.h.i.+ne.

It was Abraham's watch, and I spied his figure flitting c.u.mbrously in the neighbourhood of the wheel, at which stood the shape of some coloured man, motionless as though carved in ebony, faintly touched by the sheen of the binnacle lamp. I was in no humour to converse with the boatman. His stupid talk that afternoon in response to my questions had vexed me, and I was still angry with the fool, as I chose to think him, spite of the claims he had upon my kindness and grat.i.tude.

I put Helga's hand under my arm, and we quietly patrolled the deck to leeward. Our conversation wholly concerned our position--it would only tease you to repeat it. There was nothing to suggest, no plan to propose; for think, advise, scheme as we might, it could only come to this: that if the Captain declined to part with us, then, unless the men took our side and insisted on putting us aboard a pa.s.sing s.h.i.+p, we must stop. But if the crew took our side, it would be mutiny with them; and bewilderingly disagreeable as our situation was, preposterously and ridiculously wretched as it was, yet a.s.suredly it was not to be mended by a revolt among those dusky skins forward.

Yet the fancy of stirring up the Malays to befriend us was in my mind as I walked with the girl.

'G.o.d forbid,' said I, 'that I should have a hand in it; yet, for all that, I believe it is to be done. I had a short talk with Nakier to-day, and there was that in his questions and his manner which persuades me that the train is ready, and nothing wanting but the spark.'

'A mutiny is a terrible thing at sea,' said she; 'and what would men like the crew of this s.h.i.+p stop at?'

'Ay, nothing more terrible, Helga. But are we to be carried to the Cape?'

'The Captain has no intention of putting into Santa Cruz,' said she.

'_That_ we may be sure of. But does the fellow intend that you shall pa.s.s week after week with no other apparel than what you stand up in?'

I was interrupted by Abraham sending a hurricane shout into the blackness forward for some hands to clew up the fore and main royals, and for others to lay aft and haul down the gaff-topsail.

'It's agoing to blow to-night, Mr. Tregarthen,' he called across to me.

'Yes; and you may see where it is coming from, too,' I replied, not knowing till then that he had observed us.

In a few moments the silence that had hung upon the vessel, with nothing to disturb it but an occasional sob of water and the beating of canvas hollowing into the mast to the roll of the fabric, was broken by the strange howling noises raised by the coloured seamen as they hauled upon the gear.

'Get them sails furled, my lads!' bawled Abraham; 'and the rest of ye lay aft and take this 'ere mizzen off her.'

'It is wonderful that the fellows should understand the man,' said I.

'There's the Captain!' exclaimed Helga, instantly halting, and then recoiling in a way that dragged me a pace back with her.

He rose through the companion-hatch, his outline vaguely visible in the dim radiance sifting through the cabin skylight. Abraham addressed him.

'Quite right, Wise, very wise of you, Wise!' he exclaimed. 'There is a marked fall in the barometer, and I perceive lightning in the north-east, with a deal of rugged cloud down there.' His shadowy form stepped to the binnacle, into which he peered a moment. 'I think, Wise,'

said he--and, to use a Paddyism, I could _see_ the man's fixed and singular smile in the oiliness of his accents--'that you cannot do better than go forward and rouse up all hands. I can rely best upon my crew when the weather is quiet.'

Abraham trudged forward, and a minute later I heard him thumping heavily on the fore hatch, topping the blows with a boatswain's hoa.r.s.e roar of 'All hands shorten sail!'

'The Captain's politeness,' I said, 'will end in making that Deal boatman sit at his feet.'

'He is afraid of his crew, perhaps,' answered Helga, 'and is behaving so as to make sure that the two men will stand by him should difficulties come.'

'It was a bad blow that sunk the fellows' lugger. We might have sighted that steamer of to-day and be now homeward bound at the rate of fourteen knots an hour.'

'And it is all my fault!' she cried, in tones impa.s.sioned by regret and temper. 'But for me, Hugh----'

I silenced her by taking her hand as it lay in my arm and pressing it.

She drew closer to me, with a movement caressing but wistful too, though finely and tenderly simple.

I did not doubt that the Captain perceived us; nevertheless, he hung near the wheel, never coming farther forward than the companion-hatch, while we kept at the other end of the little p.o.o.p, where the shadow of the port-wing of mainsail lay heavy.

Shortly after Abraham had summoned the men, the decks were alive with sliding and gliding shapes, and the stillness of the ocean night was clamorous with parrot-like cries. The lightning had ceased, but the darkness was fast deepening, and overhead the stars were beginning to languish in the projected dimness of the growing ma.s.s of cloud that, now that there was no play of violet fire upon it, was indistinguishable in its own dumb, brooding obscurity.

'Whatever is to come will happen on a sudden,' said I.

We neither of us cared to keep the deck now that the Captain had arrived, and descending the ladder, we entered the cabin. Under other conditions I should have been willing, and indeed anxious, to a.s.sist the crew, but now I was resolved not to touch a rope, to maintain and present as sullen a front as I could contrive, to hold apart with Helga, to mark my resentment by my behavior, and so, perhaps--but G.o.d knows I had no hope of it--to intimidate the fellow into releasing us by obliging him to understand that he had already gone a very great deal too far. There was much noise on deck; Mr. Jones was bawling from the forecastle, and Abraham from the waist, and the songs of the Malays might easily have pa.s.sed for the cries of people writhing in pain.

Apparently the Captain was alarmed by the indications of the gla.s.s and the look of the weather in the north-east, and was denuding his little s.h.i.+p as speedily as might be. His own voice began to sound now, and, though it was perfectly distinguishable, there was nothing nasal, bland, or greasy about it. On the contrary, his roars seemed to proceed from a pair of honest sealungs, as though what was nautical in him had been worked up by the appearance of the weather, and was proving too strong for the soapy exterior of his habitual manner.

'He can be natural when he forgets himself,' said I.

'It is quite possible that he swears at times,' said Helga.

'One touch of nature in the fellow would make me feel almost comfortable,' I exclaimed.

'He is not a true sailor: he never could be natural for any length of time,' said Helga.

The pattering of the naked feet of the crew was like the noise of a shower of rain. Helga seemed to be able to follow what was being done, as though she were on deck directing the crew.

They have furled this sail--they are reefing that sail--now they are hauling down such and such a jib--now they are stowing the mainsail, she would say, giving the canvas its proper names, and looking at me with a little smile in her liquid blue eyes, as though the interest in the sailors' work made her forget our troubles.

'Be as nautical as you like with me,' said I. 'I love to hear you p.r.o.nounce the strange, uncouth language of the sea; but guard your lips before the Captain. The more sailorly you are, the more he will admire you.'

'What would make him hate me?' she exclaimed, with the light of the smile going out of her eyes, and her white brow contracting. 'How is he to be sickened?'

'Oh, what can you do? What can a pretty girl do that will not heighten the pa.s.sion of a man who has fallen in love with her?'

'Call me pretty if you will,' said she, with a maidenly droop of her eyelids; 'but do not speak of me as a girl with whom anybody has fallen in love.'

'By George!' said I, starting and heaving a long sigh, with a look at the clock, the hands of which were now at nine, 'the road to Kolding gets longer and longer. But we shall measure it--we shall measure it yet, Helga!' I quickly added, heartily grieved by the sorrow that entered her face.

'What a strange dream has all this time been!' she half murmured, pressing her eyes. 'My father stood by my side last night; I felt his kiss--oh, Hugh! it was colder than the salt water outside.' She uttered an exclamation in Danish, with a little pa.s.sionate shake of the head.

'I hope you are quite comfortable below,' exclaimed a much too familiar voice, and, looking up, I spied the long whiskers and smiling countenance of Captain Bunting framed in the open cas.e.m.e.nt of the skylight.

Helga rallied as if to a shock, and stiffened into marble, motionless, and with a hardening of her countenance that I should have thought impossible to the gentle, ingenuous prettiness of her face.

'I fear,' he continued, talking through the skylight, 'that we are in for some nasty weather; but my barque is stripped and nearly ready for the affray. I am grieved not to be able to join you, Miss Nielsen. It is necessary that I should remain on deck. You are partaking of no refreshment. I will send Punmeamootty to you. Pray give him your orders.'

His whiskers floated out into the obscurity like two puffs of smoke, and he called, but in genteel accents, for Helga was now listening, and he knew it, to Abraham to send Punmeamootty 'to wait upon his guests in the cabin.' A moment after his whiskers reappeared.

'I have to beg, Miss Nielsen, that you will consider yourself mistress here. And before you withdraw to rest--and, whatever may happen, pray slumber securely, for _I_ shall be watching the s.h.i.+p--may I entreat you to occupy Mr. Jones's berth, which you will find so very much more airy and comfortable than the dark, confined steerage?'