not necessary to tellyou what we, a crew of British seamen, were called upon to do. Thewords were scarcely spoken before I had given the order, "Stand by theboats," and sent every man to his station. Excited the hands were, thatI will not deny; excited and willing enough to tell you about it ifyou'd asked them; but no man among them opened his lips, and while theystood there, anxious and ready, I had my glass to my eye and tried tomake out the steamer and what had befallen her. Nor was Mister Jacobbehind me, but he and Peter Bligh at my side, we soon knew the truthand made up our minds about it.
"There's a ship on the reef, sure enough, and by the cut of her she'sthe Santa Cruz we spoke this afternoon," said Mr. Jacob, and added, "adangerous shore, sir, a dangerous shore."
"But full of kind-hearted people that fire their guns at poorshipwrecked mariners," put in Peter Bligh. I wouldn't believe him atfirst, but there was no denying it, awful truth that it was, when a fewminutes had passed.
"Good God," cried I, "it can't be so, Peter, and yet that's a rifle'stongue, or I've lost my hearing."
Well, we all stood together and listened as men listen for some poorcreature's death-cry, or the sounds which come in the stillness of thenight to affright and unnerve us. Sure enough, you couldn't havecounted ten before the report of guns was heard distinctly above thedistant roar of breakers; while flashes of crimson light, playing aboutthe reef, seemed to tell the whole story without another word from me.
"Those devils ashore are shooting the crew," cried I; "did man everhear such bloody work? I'll have a reckoning for this, if it takes metwenty years. Lower away the boats, lads; I'm going to dance to thatmusic."
They swung the two longboats out on the davits, and the port crew werein their seats, when Mister Jacob touched my arm and questioned myorder--a thing I haven't known him to do twice in ten years.
"Beg pardon, sir," said he, "but there's no boat that will help theSanta Cruz to-night."
"And why, Mister Jacob--why do you say that?"
"Because she's gone where neither you nor I wish to go yet awhile,Mister Begg."
I stood as though he had shot me, and clapping my glass to my eye Itook another look towards the northern reef and the ship that wasstranded there. But no ship was to be seen. She had disappeared in atwinkling; the sea had swallowed her up. And over the water, as aneerie wail, lasting and doleful, came the death-cries of those whoperished with her.
"God rest their poor souls and punish them that sent them there," saidPeter Bligh fervently; but Mister Jacob was still full of his prudenttalk.
"We're four miles out, and the moon will be gone in ten minutes, sir.You couldn't make the reef if you tried, and if you could, you'd findnone living. This sea would best the biggest boat that ever a shipcarried--it will blow harder in an hour, and what then? We've friendsof our own to serve, and the door that Providence opens we've no rightto shut. I say nothing against humanity, Captain Begg, but I wouldn'thunt the dead in the water when I could help the living ashore."
I saw his point in a moment, and had nothing to say against it. Nosmall boat could have lived in the reefs about the northern end of theisland with the sea that was running that night. If the devils whofired down upon the poor fellows of the Santa Cruz were still watchinglike vultures for human meat, fair argument said, the main island wouldbe free of them for us to go ashore as we pleased. A better opportunitymight not be found for a score of months. I never blame myself, leastof all now, when I know Ruth Bellenden's story, that I listened thatnight to the clearheaded wisdom of Anthony Jacob.
"You're right, as always, Mister Jacob. I've no call to take these goodfellows on a fool's errand. And it's going to blow hard, as you say.We'll take in one of the boats, and those that are for the shore willmake haste to get aboard the other."
This I said to him, but to the men I put it in a few seaman's words.
"Lads," I said, "no boat that Southampton ever built could swim inyonder tide where it makes between the reefs. We'd like to helpshipmates, but the chance is not ours. There's another little shipmateashore there that needs our help pretty badly. I'm going in for hersake, and there's not a man of you that will not do his duty by theship when I'm gone. Aye, you'll stand by Mister Jacob, lads, I may tellhim that?"
They gave me a rousing cheer, which was a pretty foolish thing to havedone, and it took all my voice to silence them. Lucky for us, there wasa cloud over the moon now, and darkness like a black vapour upon thesea. Not a lamp burned on the Southern Cross; not a cabin window buthad its curtain. What glow came from her funnel was not more than ahazy red light over the waters; and when five of us (for we took HarryDoe to stand by ashore) stepped into the longboat, and set her head duewest for the land, we lost the steamer in five minutes--and, God knows,we were never to see her again on the high seas or off.
Now, I have said that the wind had begun to blow fresh since sunset,and at two bells in the first watch, the time we left the ship, the searan high, and it was not oversafe even in the longboat to be cruisingfor a shore we knew so little about. I have always accounted it moregood luck than good seamanship which brought us to the cove at last,and set us all, wet but cheerful, on the dry, white sand about theladder's foot. There was shelter in the bay both for man and ship, andwhen we'd dragged the longboat up on the beach we gave Harry Doe hisorders and left him to his duty.
"If there's danger fire your gun," said I--"once, if you wish to callus; twice, if you think we should stand off. But you won't do thatunless things are at the worst, and I'm hoping for the best, when youwon't do it at all."
He answered, "Aye, aye," in a whisper which was like a bear's growl;and we four, Peter Bligh, Seth Barker, and the lad Dolly, besidesmyself, climbed the ladder like cats and stood at the cliff's head. Tosay that our hearts were in our mouths would not be strict truth, for Inever feared any man, beast, or devil yet; and I wasn't going to beginthat night--nor were the others more ready, that I will answer forthem. But remembering the things we had seen on the reef, the wordswhich Ruth Bellenden had spoken to me, and that which happened to thelad and myself last time we came ashore; remembering this, it's not tobe wondered at that our hearts beat a bit quicker, and that our handswent now and again to the pistols we carried. For, just think ofit--there we were at nine o'clock of a dark night, in a thick wood,with the trees making ghosts about us, and the path as narrow as aship's plank, and no knowledge who walked the woods with us, nor anytrue reckoning of our circumstance. What man wouldn't have held histongue at such a time, or argued with himself that it might end badly,and he never see the sun again? Not Jasper Begg, as I bear witness.
Now, I put myself at the head of our fellows and, the better to findthe track, I went down on my hands and my knees like a four-footedthing, and signalling to those behind with a bosun's whistle, I ledthem well enough through the wood to the wicker-basket bridge; andwould have gone on from there straight down to the house but forsomething which happened at the clearing of the thicket, just as Istood up to bid the men go over. Startling it was, to be sure, andenough to give any man a turn; nor did I wonder that Peter Bligh shouldhave cried out as he did when first he clapped eyes upon it.
"Holy Mother of Music," says he, "'tis the angels singing, or I'm adirty nigger!"
"Hold your tongue," says I, in a whisper; "are you afraid of two youngwomen, then?"
"Of three," says he, "which being odd is lucky. When my poorfather----"
"To hell with your father," says I; "hold your tongue and wait."
He lay low at this, and the rest of us gaped, open-mouthed, as thoughwe were staring at a fairy-book. There, before us, coming down from theblack rocks above, leaping from step to step of the stone, were threeyoung girls; but, aye, the queerest sort that ever tantalized a manwith their prettiness. You may well ask, the night being inky dark, howwe managed to see them at all; but let me tell you that they carriedgood rosin torches in their hands, and the wild light, all gold andcrimson against the rocks, shone as bright as a ship's flare and asfar. Never have I seen such a thing, I s
ay, and never shall. There werethe three of them, like young deer on a bleak hillside, singing andlaughing and leaping down, and, what's more, speaking to each other inan odd lingo, with here a word of French and there a word of German,and after that something that was beyond me and foreign to myunderstanding.
"God be good to me--saw man ever such a sight? And the dress of 'em,the dress of 'em," whispers Peter Bligh. But I clapped my hand upon hismouth and stopped him that time.
"The dress is all right," said I; "what I'm wondering is how three
The House Under the Sea: A Romance Page 7
