CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
MORE ABOUT THE SEA.
Once more we beg our reader to accompany us to sea--out into the thickdarkness, over the wild waves, far from the abodes of man.
There, one night in December, a powerful steamer did battle with atempest. The wind was against her, and, as a matter of course, also thesea. The first howled among her rigging with what might have beenstyled vicious violence. The seas hit her bows with a fury that causedher to stagger, and, bursting right over her bulwarks at times, sweptthe decks from stem to stern, but nothing could altogether stop heronward progress. The sleepless monster in the hold, with a heart offervent heat, and scalding breath of intense energy, and muscles of ironmould, and an indomitable--yet to man submissive--will, wrought on nightand day unweariedly, driving the floating palace straight and steadilyon her course--homeward-bound.
Down in the cabin, in one of the side berths lay a female form.Opposite to it, in a similar berth, lay another female form. Both formswere very limp. The faces attached to the forms were pale yellow, edgedhere and there with green.
"My dear," sighed one of the forms, "this _is_ dreadful!"
After a long silence, as though much time were required for theinhalation of sufficient air for the purpose, the other form replied:--
"Yes, Laura, dear, it _is_ dreadful."
"'Ave a cup of tea, ladies?" said the stewardess, opening the door justthen, and appearing at an acute angle with the doorway, holding a cup ineach hand.
Miss Pritty shuddered and covered her head with the bed-clothes. Aileenmade the form of "no, thanks," with her lips, and shut her eyes.
"_Do_ 'ave a cup," said the stewardess, persuasively.
The cups appeared at that moment inclined to "'ave" a little game ofhide-and-seek, which the stewardess nimbly prevented by suddenly formingan obtuse angle with the floor, and following that action up with aplunge to starboard, and a heel to port, that was suggestive--at leastto a landsman--of an intention to baptise Miss Pritty with hot tea, andthereafter take a "header" through the cabin window into the boilingsea! She did neither, however, but, muttered something about "'ow shedo roll, to be sure," and, seeing that her mission was hopeless, leftthe cabin with a balked stagger and a sudden rush, which wasappropriately followed up by the door shutting itself with a terrificbang, as though it should say, "You might have known as much, goose!Why did you open me?"
"Laura, dear," said Aileen, "did you hear what the captain said to someone just now in the cabin, when the door was open?"
"N-no," replied Miss Pritty, faintly.
"I distinctly heard some one ask how fast we were going, but I could notmake out his reply."
"Oh!" exclaimed the other, brightening for a brief moment; "yes, I _did_hear him. He said we were going six knots. Now I do _not_ understandwhat that means."
"Did you mean that?" asked Aileen, turning her eyes languidly on herfriend, while a faint smile flickered on her mouth.
"Mean what?" said Miss Pritty, in evident surprise.
"No, I see you didn't. Well, a knot means, I believe, a nautical mile."
"A notticle mile, Aileen; what is that?"
"A _nau_tical mile; dear me, how stupid you are, Laura!"
"Oh! I understand. But, really, the noise of that screw makes itdifficult to hear distinctly. And, after all, it is no wonder if I _am_stupid, for what between eating nothing but pickles for six weeks, andthis dreadful--there! Oh! It comes ag--"
Poor Miss Pritty stopped abruptly, and made a desperate effort to thinkof home. Aileen, albeit full of sympathy, turned her face to the wall,and lay with closed eyes.
After a time the latter looked slowly round.
"Are you asleep, Laura?"
Miss Pritty gave a sharp semi-hysterical laugh at the bare idea of suchan impossible condition.
"Well, I was going to say," resumed Aileen, "that we cannot be very farfrom land now, and when we do get there--"
"Happy day!" murmured Miss Pritty.
"We intend," continued Aileen, "to go straight home--I--I mean to ourold home, sell everything at once, and go to live in a cottage--quite atiny cottage--by the sea somewhere. Now, I want you to come and visitus the very day we get into our cottage. I know you would like it--would like being with me, wouldn't you?"
"Like it? I should delight in it of all things."
"I knew you would. Well, I was going to say that it would be such akindness to dear papa too, for you know he will naturally be verylow-spirited when we make the change--for it is a great change, Laura,greater perhaps than you, who have never been very rich, can imagine,and I doubt my capacity to be a good comforter to him though I have allthe will."
Two little spots of red appeared for the first time for many weeks onMiss Pritty's cheeks, as she said in a tone of enthusiasm:--
"What! _You_ not a good comforter? I've a good mind to refuse yourinvitation, since you dare to insinuate that I could in any degreesupplement _you_ in such a matter."
"Well, then, we won't make any more insinuations," returned Aileen, witha sad smile; "but you'll come--that's settled. You know, dear, that wehad lost everything, but ever since our jewel-case was found by--by--"
"By Edgar," said Miss Pritty; "why don't you go on?"
"Yes, by Mr Berrington," continued Aileen, "ever since that, papa hasbeen very hopeful. I don't know exactly what his mind runs on, but Ican see that he is making heaps of plans in regard to the future, andoh! You can't think how glad and how thankful I am for the change. Thestate of dull, heartbreaking, weary depression that he fell into justafter getting the news of our failure was beginning to undermine hishealth. I could see that plainly, and felt quite wretched about him.But now he is comparatively cheerful, and so gentle too. Do you know, Ihave been thinking a good deal lately of the psalmist's saying, `it isgood for me that I have been afflicted;' and, in the midst of it all,our Heavenly Father remembered mercy, for it was He who sent ourjewel-box, as if to prevent the burden from being too heavy for papa."
Miss Pritty's kind face beamed agreement with these sentiments.
"Now," continued Aileen, "these jewels are, it seems, worth a great dealof money--much more than I had any idea of--for there are among them anumber of very fine diamond rings and brooches. In fact, papa told methat he believed the whole were worth between eight and nine thousandpounds. This, you know, is a sum which will at least raise us abovewant, (poor Miss Pritty, well did _she_ know that!)--though of course itwill not enable us to live very luxuriously. How fortunate it was thatthese pirates--"
"Oh!" screamed Miss Pritty, suddenly, as she drew the clothes over herhead.
"What's the matter?" exclaimed Aileen; "are you going to be--"
"Oh! No, no, no," said Miss Pritty, peeping out again; "how could youbring these dreadful creatures to my remembrance so abruptly? I hadquite forgotten them for the time. Why, oh why did you banish from mymind that sweet idea of a charming cottage by the sea, and all itslittle unluxurious elegancies, and call up in its place the h-h-horrorsof that village-nest--pig-sty--of the dreadful buccaneers? But it can'tbe helped now," added Miss Pritty, with a resigned shudder, "and we havethe greatest reason to be thankful that their hope of a good ransom madethem treat us as well as they did;--but go on, dear, you were sayingthat it was fortunate that these p-pirates--"
"That they did not sell the jewels or take any of them out of the box,or send them into the other prow which was sunk in deep water, where thedivers could not have gone down to recover them."
"Very true," assented Miss Pritty.
At this point the cabin door again burst open, and the amiablestewardess appeared, bearing two cups of fresh tea, which she watchedwith the eyes of a tigress and the smile of an angel, while her bodykept assuming sudden, and one would have thought impossible, attitudes.
"Now, ladies, _do_ try some tea. Really you must. I insist on it.Why, you'll both die if you don't."
Impressed with the force of this reasoning, bo
th ladies made an effort,and got up on their respective elbows. They smiled incredulously ateach other, and then, becoming suddenly grave, fell flat down on theirbacks, and remained so for some time without speaking.
"Now, try again; do try, it will do you so much good--really."
Thus adjured they tried again and succeeded. Aileen took one sip oftea, spilt much of the rest in thrusting it hurriedly into the readyhands of the all but ubiquitous stewardess, and fell over with her faceto the wall. Miss Pritty looked at her tea for a few seconds,earnestly. The stewardess, not being quite ubiquitous, failed to catchthe cup as it was wildly held towards her. Miss Pritty thereforecapsized the whole affair over her bed-clothes, and fell back with adeadly groan.
The stewardess did not lose temper. She was used to such things. IfMiss Pritty had capsized her intellect over the bed-clothes, thestewardess would only have smiled, and wiped it up with a napkin.
"You'll be better soon, Miss," said the amiable woman, as she retiredwith the debris.
The self-acting door shut her out with a bang of contemptuous mockery,and the poor ladies were once more left alone in their misery.
Under the Waves: Diving in Deep Waters Page 23
