CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.
MR. TURNBULL AND I GO ON A PARTY OF PLEASURE--IT TURNS OUT TO BE ANADVENTURE, AND WINDS UP WITH A BLUNDERBUSS, A TIN-BOX, AND A LADY'SCLOAK.
We pulled leisurely up the stream, talking, and every now and thenresting on our oars to take breath; for, as the old captain said, "Whyshould we make a toil of pleasure? I like the upper part of the riverbest, Jacob, because the water is clear, and I love clear water. Howmany hours have I, when a boy on board ship, hung over the gunwale of aboat, lowered down in a calm, and watch the little floating objects inthe dark blue unfathomable water beneath me; objects of all sizes, ofall colours, and of all shapes--all of them beautiful and to be admired;yet of them, perhaps, not one in a hundred millions ever meet the eye ofman. You know, Jacob, that the North Seas are full of these animals--you cannot imagine the quantity of them; the sailors call them blubbers,because they are composed of a sort of transparent jelly but the realname I am told is Medusae, that is the learned name. The whale feeds onthem, and that is the reason why the whale is found where they are."
"I should like very much to go a voyage to the whale fishery," repliedI; "I've heard so much about it from you."
"It is a stirring life, and a hard life, Jacob; still it is an excitingone. Some voyages will turn out very pleasant, but others are dreadful,from their anxiety. If the weather continues fine, it is all very well;but sometimes when there is a continuance of bad weather, it isdreadful. I recollect one voyage which made me show more grey hairsthan all the others, and I think I have been twenty-two in all. We werein the drift ice, forcing our way to the northward, when it came on toblow--the sea rose, and after a week's gale it was tremendous. We hadlittle daylight, and when it was daylight, the fog was so thick that wecould see but little; there we were tossing among the large drift ice,meeting immense icebergs which bore down with all the force of the gale,and each time we narrowly escaped perishing: the rigging was loaded withice; the bows of the ship were cased with it; the men were more thanhalf frozen, and we could not move a rope through a block withoutpouring boiling water through it first, to clear it out. But then thelong, dreary, dreadful nights, when we were rising on the mountain wave,and then pitching down into the trough, not knowing but that at eachsend we might strike upon the ice below, and go to the bottomimmediately afterwards. All pitchy dark--the wind howling, and as itstruck you, cutting you to the back-bone with its cold, searching power,the waves dancing all black around you, and every now and thenperceiving by its white colour and the foam encircling it a huge mass ofice borne upon you, and hurled against you as if there were a demon, whowas using it as an engine for your destruction. I never shall forgetthe _turning_ of an iceberg during the dreadful gale which lasted for amonth and three days."
"I don't know what that means, sir."
"Why, you must know, Jacob, that the icebergs are all fresh water, andare supposed to have been detached from the land by the force of theweather and other causes. Now, although ice floats, yet it floats deep:that is, if an iceberg is five hundred feet high above the water, it isgenerally six times as deep below the water--do you understand?"
"Perfectly, sir."
"Now, Jacob, the water is much warmer than the air, and in consequence,the ice under the water melts away much faster; so that if the iceberghas been some time afloat, at last the part that is below is not soheavy as that which is above; then it turns, that is, it upsets andfloats in another position."
"I understand you, sir."
"Well, we were close to an iceberg, which was to windward of us, a verytall one, indeed, and we reckoned that we should get clear of it, for wewere carrying a press of sail to effect it. Still, all hands wereeagerly watching the iceberg, as it came down very fast before thestorm. All of a sudden it blew twice as hard as before, and then one ofthe men shouted out--`_Turning, turning_!'--and sure enough it was.There was its towering summit gradually bowing towards us, until italmost appeared as if the peak was over our heads. Our fate appearedinevitable, as the whole mountain of ice was descending on the vessel,and would, of course, have crushed us into atoms. We all fell on ourknees, praying mentally, and watching its awful descent; even the man atthe helm did the same, although he did not let go the spokes of thewheel. It had nearly half turned over, right for us, when the icebelow, being heavier on one side than on the other, gave it a moreslanting impetus, and shifting the direction of its fall, it plungedinto the sea about a cable's length astern of us, throwing up the waterto the heavens in foam, and blinding us all with the violence with whichit dashed into our faces. For a minute the run of the waves waschecked, and the sea appeared to boil and dance, throwing up peaked,pointed masses of water in all directions, one sinking, another rising,the ship rocked and reeled as if she were drunk; even the current of thegale was checked for a moment, and the heavy sails flapped and clearedthemselves of their icy varnishing--then all was over. There was aniceberg of another shape astern of us, the gale recommenced, the wavespressed each other on as before, and we felt the return of the gale,awful as it was, as a reprieve. That was a dreadful voyage, Jacob, andturned one-third of my hair grey; and what made it worse was, that wehad only three fish on board on our return. However, we had reason tobe thankful, for eighteen of our vessels were lost altogether, and itwas the mercy of God that we were not among the number."
"Well, I suppose you told me that story to prevent my going a voyage?"
"Not a bit, Jacob; if it should chance that you find it your interest togo to the North Pole, or anywhere else, I would say go, by all means;let neither difficulty nor danger deter you; but do not go merely fromcuriosity; that I consider foolish. It's all very well for those whocome back to have the satisfaction to talk of such things, and it is butfair that they should have it; but when you consider how many there arewho never come back at all, why, then, it's very foolish to pushyourself into needless danger and privation. You are amused with myrecollections of Arctic voyages; but just call to mind how many years ofhardship, of danger, cold, and starvation I have undergone to collectall these anecdotes, and then judge whether it be worth any man's whileto go for the sake of mere curiosity."
I then amused Mr Turnbull with the description of the picnic party,which lasted until we had pulled far beyond Kew Bridge. We thrust thebow of the wherry into a bunch of sedges, and then we sat down to ourmeal, surrounded by hundreds of blue dragon-flies, that flitted about asif to inquire what we meant by intruding upon their domiciles. Wecontinued there chatting and amusing ourselves till it was late, andthen shoved off and pulled down with the stream. The sun had set, andwe had yet six or seven miles to return to Mr Turnbull's house, when weperceived a slight, handsome young man in a skiff, who pulled towardsus.
"I say, my lads," said he, taking us both for watermen, "have you a mindto earn a couple of guineas with very little trouble?"
"Oh, yes," replied Mr Turnbull, "if you can show us how. A fine chancefor you, Jacob," continued he, aside.
"Well, then, I shall want your services, perhaps, for not more than anhour; it may be a little longer, as there is a lady in question, and wemay have to wait. All I ask is, that you pull well and do your best.Are you agreed?"
We consented; and he requested us to follow him, and then pulled for theshore.
"This is to be an adventure, sir," said I.
"So it seems," replied Mr Turnbull; "all the better. I'm old now, butI'm fond of a spree."
The gentleman pulled into a little boat-house by the river's side,belonging to one of the villas on the bank, made fast his boat, and thenstepped into ours.
"Now, we've plenty of time; just pull quietly for the present." Wecontinued down the river, and after we had passed Kew Bridge, hedirected us in shore, on the right side, till we came to a gardensweeping down to the river from a cottage _ornee_, of large dimensions,about fifty yards from the bank. The water was up to the brick-wall,which rose from the river about four or five feet. "That will do,st---, st---, not a word," said he, rising
in the stern sheets, andlooking over. After a minute or two reconnoitring, he climbed from theboat on to the parapet of the wall, and whistled two bars of an airwhich I had till then never heard. All was silent. He crouched behinda lilac bush, and in a minute he repeated the same air in a whistle asbefore; still there was no appearance of movement at the cottage. Hecontinued at intervals to whistle the portion of the air, and at last alight appeared at an upper window: it was removed, and re-appeared threetimes. "Be ready now, my lads," said he. In about two minutesafterwards, a female, in a cloak, appeared, coming down the lawn, with abox in her hand, panting with excitement.
"Oh, William, I heard your first signal, but I could not get into myuncle's room for the box; at last he went out, and here it is."
The gentleman seized the box from her, and handed it to us in the boat.
"Take great care of that, my lads," said he; "and now, Cecilia, we haveno time to lose; the sooner you are in the boat the better."
"How am I to get down there, William?" replied she.
"Oh, nothing more easy. Stop, throw your cloak into the boat, and thenall you have to do is, first to get upon the top of the wall, and thentrust to the watermen below and to me above for helping you."
It was not, however, quite so easy a matter; the wall was four feet highabove the boat, and moreover, there was a trellised work of iron, abovea foot high, which ran along the wall. Still, she made every effort onher own part, and we considered that we had arranged so as to conquerthe difficulty, when the young lady gave a scream. We looked up andbeheld a third party on the wall. It was a stout, tall, elderly man, asfar as we could perceive in the dark, who immediately seized hold of thelady by the arm, and was dragging her away. This was resisted by theyoung gentleman, and the lady was relinquished by the other, to defendhimself; at the same time that he called out--"Help, help! Thieves,thieves!"
"Shall I go to his assistance?" said I to Mr Turnbull. "One must stayin the boat."
"Jump up, then, Jacob, for I never could get up that wall."
I was up in a moment, and gaining my feet, was about to spring to thehelp of the young man, when four servants, with lights and with arms intheir hands, made their appearance, hastening down the lawn. The ladyhad fainted on the grass; the elderly gentleman and his antagonist weredown together, but the elderly gentleman had the mastery, for he wasuppermost. Perceiving the assistance coming, he called out "Look to thewatermen, secure them." I perceived that not a moment was to be lost.I could be of no service, and Mr Turnbull might be in an awkwardscrape. I sprang into the boat, shoved off, and we were in the streamand at thirty yards' distance before they looked over the wall to seewhere we were.
"Stop, in that boat! stop!" they cried.
"Fire, if they don't," cried their master.
We pulled as hard as we could. A musquetoon was discharged, but theshot dropped short; the only person who fell was the man who fired it.To see us he had stood upon the coping bricks of the wall, and therecoil tumbled him over into the river: we saw him fall, and heard thesplash; but we pulled on as hard as we could, and in a few minutes thescene of action was far behind us. We then struck across to the otherside of the river, and when we had gained close to the shore we tookbreath.
"Well," said Mr Turnbull, "this is a spree I little looked for; to havea blunderbuss full of shot sent after me."
"No," replied I, laughing, "that's carrying the joke rather too far onthe river Thames."
"Well, but what a pretty mess we are in: here we have property belongingto God knows whom; and what are we to do with it?"
"I think, sir, the best thing we can do is, for you to land at your ownhouse with the property, and take care of it until we find out what allthis is about; and I will continue on with the sculls to the hard. Ishall hear or find out something about it in a day or two; they maystill follow up the pursuit and trace us."
"The advice is good," replied Mr Turnbull, "and the sooner we cut overagain the better, for we are nearly abreast of my place."
We did so. Mr Turnbull landed in his garden, taking with him thetin-box (it was what they call a deed-box) and the lady's cloak. I didnot wait, but boating the oars, took my sculls and pulled down to Fulhamas fast as I could. I had arrived, and was pulling gently in, not toinjure the other boats, when a man with a lantern came into the wherry.
"Have you anything in your boat, my man?" said he. "Nothing, sir,"replied I. The man examined the boat, and was satisfied.
"Tell me, did you see a boat with two men in it as you came along?"
"No, sir," replied I, "nothing has passed me."
"Where do you come from now?"
"From a gentleman's place near Brentford."
"Brentford? Oh, then, you were far below them. They are not down yet."
"Have you a job for me, sir?" said I, not wishing to appear anxious togo away.
"No, my man, no; nothing to-night. We are on the lookout, but we havetwo boats in the stream, and a man at each landing-place."
I made fast my boat, shouldered my oars and sculls, and departed, not atall sorry to get away. It appeared that as soon as it was ascertainedthat we were not to be stopped by being fired at, they saddled horses,and the distance by the road being so much shorter, had, by galloping ashard as they could, arrived at Fulham some ten minutes before me. Itwas, therefore, most fortunate that the box had been landed, or I shouldhave been discovered. That the contents were of value was evident, fromthe anxiety to secure them; but the mystery was still to be solved. Iwas quite tired with exertion and excitement when I arrived atStapleton's. Mary was there to give me my supper, which I ate insilence, complained of a headache, and went to bed.
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