Works of Ellen Wood

by Ellen Wood

  “I shall not sail to-morrow — with your permission,” said he to Mr. James Freeman.

  “Yes, you will — if she’s ready,” returned the broker. “Gould says she will be.”

  “Gould may think so; I do not. But, whether she be ready or not, Mr. Freeman, I don’t intend to take her out to-morrow.”

  The words might be decisive words, but the captain’s tone was genial as he spoke them, and his frank, pleasant smile sat on his face. Mr. Freeman looked at him. They valued Captain Tanerton as they perhaps valued no other master in their employ, these brothers Freeman; but James had a temper that was especially happy in contradiction.

  “I suppose you’d like to say that you won’t go out on a Friday!”

  “That’s just it,” said Jack.

  “You are superstitious, Captain Tanerton,” mocked the broker.

  “I am not,” answered Jack. “But I sail with those who are. Sailors are more foolish on this point than you can imagine: and I believe — I believe in my conscience — that ships, sailing on a Friday, have come to grief through their crew losing heart. No matter what impediment is met with — bad weather, accidents, what not — the men say at once it’s of no use, we sailed on a Friday. They lose their spirit, and their energy with it; and I say, Mr. Freeman, that vessels have been lost through this, which might have otherwise been saved. I will not go out of dock to-morrow; and I refuse to do it in your interest as much as in my own.”

  “Oh, bother,” was all James Freeman rejoined. “You’ll have to go if she’s ready.”

  But the words made an impression. James Freeman knew what sailors were nearly as well as Jack knew: and he could not help recalling to memory that beautiful ship of Freeman Brothers, the Lily of Japan. The Lily had been lost only six months ago; and those of her crew, who were saved, religiously stuck to it that the calamity was brought about through having sailed on a Friday.

  The present question did not come to an issue. For, on the Friday morning, the Rose of Delhi was not ready for sea; would not be ready that day. On the Saturday morning she was not ready either; and it was finally decided that Monday should be the day of departure. On the Saturday afternoon Captain Tanerton ran down to Timberdale for four-and-twenty hours; Squire Todhetley, his visit to London over, travelling down by the same train.

  Verena Fontaine had not yet turned up, and Sir Dace was nearly crazy. Not only was he angry at being thwarted, but one absorbing, special fear lay upon him — that she would come back a married woman. Pym was capable of any sin, he told the Squire and Coralie, even of buying the wedding-ring; and Verena was capable of letting it be put on her finger. “No, papa,” dissented Coralie in her equable manner, “Vera is too fond of money and of the good things money buys, to risk the loss of the best part of her fortune. She will not marry Pym until she is of age; be sure of that. When he has sailed she will come home safe and sound, and tell us where she has been.”

  Captain Tanerton went down, I say, to Timberdale. He stayed at the Rectory with his wife and brother until the Sunday afternoon, and then returned to London. The Rose of Delhi was positively going out on Monday, so he had to be back — and, I may as well say here, that Jack, good-natured Jack, had invited me to go in her as far as Gravesend.

  During that brief stay at Timberdale, Jack was not in his usual spirits. His wife, Alice, noticed it, and asked him whether anything was the matter. Not anything whatever, Jack readily answered. In truth there was not. At least, anything he could talk of. A weight lay on his spirits, and he could not account for it. The strong instinct, which had seemed to warn him against sailing with Pym again, had gradually left him since he knew that Pym was to sail, whether or not. In striving to make the best of it, he had thrown off the feeling: and the unaccountable depression that weighed him down could not arise from that cause. It was a strange thing altogether, this; one that never, in all his life, had he had any experience of; but it was not less strange than true.

  Monday. — The Rose of Delhi lay in her place in the freshness of the sunny morning, making ready to go out of dock with the incoming tide. I went on board betimes: and I thought I had never been in such a bustling scene before. The sailors knew what they were about. I conclude, but to me it seemed all confusion. The captain I could not see anywhere; but his chief officer, Pym, seemed to be more busy than a certain common enemy of ours is said to be in a gale of wind.

  “Is the captain not on board?” I asked of Mark Ferrar, as he was whisking past me on deck.

  “Oh no, sir; not yet. The captain will not come on board till the last moment — if he does then.”

  The words took me by surprise. “What do you mean, by saying ‘If he does then’?”

  “He has so much to do, sir; he is at the office now, signing the bills of lading. If he can’t get done in time he will join at Gravesend when we take on some passengers. The captain is not wanted on board when we are going out of dock, Mr. Johnny,” added Ferrar, seeing my perplexed look. “The river-pilot takes the ship out.”

  He pointed to the latter personage, just then making his appearance on deck. I wondered whether all river-pilots were like him. He was broad enough to make two ordinarily stout people; and his voice, from long continuous shouting, had become nothing less than a raven’s croak.

  At the last moment, when the ship was getting away, and I had given the captain up, he came on board. How glad I was to see his handsome, kindly face!

  “I’ve had a squeak for it, Johnny,” he laughed, as he shook my hand: “but I meant to go down with you if I could.”

  Then came all the noise and stir of getting away: the croaking of the pilot alone distinguishable to my uninitiated ears. “Slack away the stern-line” — he called it starn. “Haul in head-rope.” “Here, carpenter, bear a hand, get the cork-fender over the quarter-gallery.” “What are you doing aft there? — why don’t you slack away that stern-line?” Every other moment it seemed to me that we were going to pitch into the craft in the pool, or they into us. However, we got on without mishap.

  Captain Tanerton was crossing the ship, after holding a confab with the pilot, when a young man, whom he did not recognize, stepped aside out of his way, and touched his cap. The captain looked surprised, for the badge on the cap was the one worn by his own officers.

  “Who are you?” he asked.

  “Mr. Saxby, if you please, sir.”

  “Mr. Saxby! What do you do here?”

  “Third mate, if you please, sir,” repeated the young man. “Your third mate, Mr. Jones, met with an accident yesterday; he broke his leg; and my friend, Pym, spoke of me to Mr. Gould.”

  Captain Tanerton was not only surprised, but vexed. First, for the accident to Jones, who was a very decent young fellow; next, at his being superseded by a stranger, and a friend of Pym’s. He put a few questions, found the new man’s papers were in order, and so made the best of it.

  “You will find me a good and considerate master, Mr. Saxby, if you do your duty with a will,” he said in a kind tone.

  “I hope I shall, sir; I’ll try to,” answered the young man.

  On we went swimmingly, in the wake of the tug-boat; but this desirable tranquillity was ere long destined to be marred.

  On coming up from the state-room, as they called it, after regaling ourselves on a cold collation, the captain was pointing out to me something on shore, when one of the crew approached hastily, and touched his cap. I found it was the carpenter: a steady-looking man, who was fresh to the ship, having joined her half-an-hour before starting.

  “Beg pardon, sir,” he began. “Might I ask you when this ship was pumped out last?”

  “Why, she is never pumped out,” replied the captain.

  “Well, sir,” returned the man, “it came into my head just now to sound her, and I find there’s two feet of water in the hold.”

  “Nonsense,” said Jack: “you must be mistaken. Why, she has never made a cupful of water since she was built. We have to put water in her to keep her sweet
.”

  “Any way, sir, there’s two feet o’ water in her now.”

  The captain looked at the man steadily for a moment, and then thought it might be as well to verify the assertion — or the contrary — himself, being a practical man. Taking the sounding-rod from the carpenter’s hand, he wiped it dry with an old bag lying near, and then proceeded to sound the well. Quite true: there were two feet of water. No time lost he. Ordering the carpenter to rig the pumps, he called all hands to man them.

  For a quarter-of-an-hour, or twenty minutes, the pumps were worked without intermission; then the captain sounded, as before, doing it himself. There was no diminution of water — it stood at the same level as before pumping. Upon that, he and the carpenter went down into the hold, to listen along the ship’s sides, and discover, if they could, where the water was coming in. Five minutes later, Jack was on deck again, his face grave.

  “It is coming in abreast of the main hatchway on the starboard side; we can hear it distinctly,” he said to the pilot. “I must order the ship back again: I think it right to do so.” And the broad pilot, who seemed a very taciturn pilot, made no demur to this, except a grunt. So the tug-boat was ordered to turn round and tow us back again.

  “Where’s Mr. Pym?” cried the captain. “Mr. Pym!”

  “Mr. Pym’s in the cabin, sir,” said the steward, who chanced to be passing.

  “In the cabin!” echoed Jack, in an accent that seemed to imply the cabin was not Mr. Pym’s proper place just then. “Send him to me, if you please, steward.”

  “Yes, sir,” replied the steward. But he did not obey with the readiness exacted on board ship. He hesitated, as if wanting to say something before turning away.

  No Pym came. Jack grew impatient, and called out an order or two. Young Saxby came up, touching his cap, according to rule.

  “Do you want me, sir?”

  “I want Mr. Pym. He is below. Ask him to come to me instantly.”

  It brought forth Pym. Jack’s head was turned away for a moment, and I saw what he did not. That Pym had a fiery face, and walked as if his limbs were slipping from under him.

  “Oh, you are here at last, Mr. Pym — did you not receive my first message?” cried Jack, turning round. “The cargo must be broken out to find the place of leakage. See about it smartly: there’s no time to waste.”

  Pym had caught hold of something at hand to enable him to stand steady. He had lost his wits, that was certain; for he stuttered out an answer to the effect that the cargo might be — hanged.

  The captain saw his state then. Feeling a need of renovation possibly, after his morning’s exertions, Mr. Pym had been making free, a great deal too much so, with the bottled ale below, and had finished up with brandy-and-water.

  The cargo might be hanged!

  Captain Tanerton, his brow darkening, spoke a sharp, short, stern reprimand, and ordered Mr. Pym to his cabin.

  What could have possessed Pym unless it might be the spirit that was in the brandy, nobody knew. He refused to obey, broke into open defiance, and gave Captain Tanerton sauce to his face.

  “Take him below,” said the captain quietly, to those who were standing round. “Mr. Ferrar, you will lock Mr. Pym’s cabin-door, if you please, and bring me the key.”

  This was done, and Mr. Pym encaged. He kicked at his cabin-door, and shook it; but he could not escape: he was a prisoner. He swore for a little while at the top of his voice; then he commenced some uproarious singing, and finally fell on his bed and went to sleep.

  Hands were set to work to break out the cargo, which they piled on deck; and the source of the leakage was discovered. It seemed a slight thing, after all, to have caused so much commotion — nothing but an old treenail that had not been properly plugged-up. I said so to Ferrar.

  “Ah, Mr. Johnny,” was Ferrar’s answering remark, his face and tone strangely serious, “slight as it may seem to you, it might have sunk us all this night, had we chanced to anchor off Gravesend.”

  What with the pumps, that were kept at work, and the shifting of the cargo, and the hammering they made in stopping up the leak, we had enough to do this time. And about half-past three o’clock in the afternoon the brave ship, which had gone out so proudly with the tide, got back ignominiously with the end of it, and came to an anchor outside the graving-dock, there not being sufficient water to allow of her entering it. The damage was already three-parts repaired, and the ship would make her final start on the morrow.

  “’Twas nothing but a good Providence could have put it into my head to sound the ship, sir,” remarked the carpenter, wiping his hot face, as he came on deck for something or other he needed. “But for that, we might none of us have seen the morning’s sun.”

  Jack nodded. These special interpositions of God’s good care are not rare, though we do not always recognize them. And yet, but for that return back, the miserable calamity so soon to fall, would not have had the chance to take place.

  Captain Tanerton caused himself to be rowed ashore, first of all ordering the door of his prisoner to be unfastened. I got into the waterman’s wherry with him, for I had nothing to stay on board for. And a fine ending it was to my day’s pleasuring!

  “Never mind, Johnny,” he said, as we parted. “You can come with us again to-morrow, and I hope we shall have a more lucky start.”

  Captain Tanerton went straight to the brokers’, saw Mr. James Freeman, and told him he would not take out Edward Pym. If he did, the man’s fate would probably be that of irons from Gravesend to Calcutta.

  And James Freeman, a thorough foe to brandy-and-water when taken at wrong times, listened to reason, and gave not a word of dissent. He there and then made Ferrar chief mate, and put another one second in Ferrar’s place; a likely young man in their employ who was waiting for a berth. This perfectly satisfied Captain Tanerton, under the circumstances.

  The captain was then rowed back to his ship. By that time it was five o’clock. He told Ferrar of the change; who thanked him heartily, a glow of satisfaction rising to his honest face.

  “Where’s Pym?” asked the captain. “He must take his things out of the ship.”

  “Pym is not on board, sir. Soon after you left, he came up and went ashore: he seemed to have pretty nearly slept off the drink. Sir Dace Fontaine is below,” added Ferrar, dropping his voice.

  “Sir Dace Fontaine! Does he want me?”

  “He wanted Mr. Pym, sir. He has been looking into every part of the ship: he is looking still. He fancies his daughter is concealed on board.”

  “Oh, nonsense!” cried the captain; “he can’t fancy that. As if Miss Fontaine would come down here — and board ships!”

  “She was on board yesterday, sir.”

  “What!” cried the captain.

  “Mr. Pym brought her on board yesterday afternoon, sir,” continued Ferrar, his voice as low as it could well go. “He was showing her about the ship.”

  “How do you know this, Mr. Ferrar?”

  “I was here, sir. Expecting to sail last week, I sent my traps on board. Yesterday, wanting a memorandum-book out of my desk, I came down for it. That’s how I saw them.”

  Captain Tanerton, walking forward to meet Sir Dace, knitted his brow. Was Mr. Pym drawing the careless, light-headed girl into mischief? Sir Dace evidently thought so.

  “I tell you, Captain Tanerton, she is quite likely to be on board, concealed as a stow-away,” persisted Sir Dace, in answer to the captain’s assurance that Verena was not, and could not be in the ship. “When you are safe away from land, she will come out of hiding and they will declare their marriage. That they are married, is only too likely. He brought her on board yesterday afternoon when the ship was lying in St. Katharine’s Dock.”

  “Do you know that he did?” cried Jack, wondering whence Sir Dace got his information.

  “I am told so. As I got up your ladder just now I inquired of the first man I saw, whether a young lady was on board. He said no, but that a young lady had come on boar
d with Mr. Pym yesterday afternoon to see the ship. The man was your ship-keeper in dock.”

  “How did you hear we had got back to-day, Sir Dace?”

  “I came down this afternoon to search the ship before she sailed — I was under a misapprehension as to the time of her going out. The first thing I heard was, that the Rose of Delhi had gone and had come back again. Pym is capable, I say, of taking Verena out.”

  “You may be easy on this point, Sir Dace,” returned Jack. “Pym does not go out in the ship: he is superseded.” And he gave the heads of what had occurred.

  It did not tend to please Sir Dace. Edward Pym on the high seas would be a less formidable adversary than Edward Pym on land: and perhaps in his heart of hearts Sir Dace did not really believe his daughter would become a stow-away.

  “Won’t you help me to find her? to save her?” gasped Sir Dace, in pitiful entreaty. “With this change — Pym not going out — I know not what trouble he may not draw her into. Coralie says Verena is not married; but I — Heaven help me! I know not what to think. I must find Pym this night and watch his movements, and find her if I can. You must help me.”

  “I will help you,” said warm-hearted Jack — and he clasped hands upon it. “I will undertake to find Pym. And, that your daughter is not on board, Sir Dace, I pass you my word.”

  Sir Dace stepped into the wherry again, to be rowed ashore and get home to his dinner — ordered that evening for six o’clock. In a short while Jack also quitted the ship, and went to Pym’s lodgings in Ship Street. Pym was not there.

  Mr. Pym had come in that afternoon, said his landlady, Mrs. Richenough, and startled her out of her seven senses; for, knowing the ship had left with the day’s tide, she had supposed Mr. Pym to be then off Gravesend, or thereabouts. He told her the ship had sprung a leak and put back again. Mr. Pym had gone out, she added, after drinking a potful of strong tea.

  “To sober him,” thought the captain. “Do you expect him back to sleep, Mrs. Richenough?”