Moonfleet

by John Meade Falkner

  CHAPTER 18

  IN THE BAY

  Let broad leagues dissever Him from yonder foam,O God! to think man ever Comes too near his home--_Hood_

  The ship that was to carry us swung at the buoy a quarter of a mileoffshore, and there were row-boats waiting to take us to her. She was abrig of some 120 tons burthen, and as we came under the stern I saw hername was the _Aurungzebe_.

  'Twas with regret unspeakable I took my last look at Europe; and castingmy eyes round saw the smoke of the town dark against the darkening sky;yet knew that neither smoke nor sky was half as black as was the prospectof my life.

  They sent us down to the orlop or lowest deck, a foul place where was noair nor light, and shut the hatches down on top of us. There were thirtyof us all told, hustled and driven like pigs into this deck, which was tobe our pigsty for six months or more. Here was just light enough, whenthey had the hatches off, to show us what sort of place it was, namely,as foul as it smelt, with never table, seat, nor anything, but roughestplanks and balks; and there they changed our bonds, taking away the bar,and putting a tight bracelet round one wrist, with a padlocked chainrunning through a loop on it. Thus we were still ironed, six together,but had a greater freedom and more scope to move. And more than this, theman who shifted the chains, whether through caprice, or perhaps becausehe really wished to show us what pity he might, padlocked me on to thesame chain with Elzevir, saying, we were English swine and might sink orswim together. Then the hatches were put on, and there they left us inthe dark to think or sleep or curse the time away. The weariness ofYmeguen was bad indeed, and yet it was a heaven to this night of hell,where all we had to look for was twice a day the moving of the hatches,and half an hour's glimmer of a ship's lantern, while they served us outthe broken victuals that the Dutch crew would not eat.

  I shall say nothing of the foulness of this place, because 'twas toofoul to be written on paper; and if 'twas foul at starting, 'twas tentimes worse when we reached open sea, for of all the prisoners onlyElzevir and I were sailors, and the rest took the motion unkindly.

  From the first we made bad weather of it, for though we were below andcould see nothing, yet 'twas easy enough to tell there was a heavyhead-sea running, almost as soon as we were well out of harbour.Although Elzevir and I had not had any chance of talking freely for solong, and were now able to speak as we liked, being linked so closetogether, we said but little. And this, not because we did not valuevery greatly one another's company, but because we had nothing to talkof except memories of the past, and those were too bitter, and came tooreadily to our minds, to need any to summon them. There was, too, thebanishment from Europe, from all and everything we loved, and the awfulcertainty of slavery that lay continuously on us like a weight of lead.Thus we said little.

  We had been out a week, I think--for time is difficult enough to measurewhere there is neither clock nor sun nor stars--when the weather, whichhad moderated a little, began to grow much worse. The ship plunged andlaboured heavily, and this added much to our discomfort; because therewas nothing to hold on by, and unless we lay flat on the filthy deck, weran a risk of being flung to the side whenever there came a more violentlurch or roll. Though we were so deep down, yet the roaring of wind andwave was loud enough to reach us, and there was such a noise when theship went about, such grinding of ropes, with creaking and groaning oftimbers, as would make a landsman fear the brig was going to pieces. Andthis some of our fellow-prisoners feared indeed, and fell to crying, orkneeling chained together as they were upon the sloping deck, while theytried to remember long-forgotten prayers. For my own part, I wondered whythese poor wretches should pray to be delivered from the sea, when allthat was before them was lifelong slavery; but I was perhaps able to lookmore calmly on the matter myself as having been at sea, and not thinkingthat the vessel was going to founder because of the noise. Yet the stormrose till 'twas very plain that we were in a raging sea, and the streamswhich began to trickle through the joinings of the hatch showed thatwater had got below.

  'I have known better ships go under for less than this,' Elzevir said tome; 'and if our skipper hath not a tight craft, and stout hands to workher, there will soon be two score slaves the less to cut the canes inJava. I cannot guess where we are now--may be off Ushant, may be not sofar, for this sea is too short for the Bay; but the saints send ussea-room, for we have been wearing these three hours.'

  'Twas true enough that we had gone to wearing, as one might tell from theheavier roll or wallowing when we went round, instead of the plunging ofa tack; but there was no chance of getting at our whereabouts. The onlything we had to reckon time withal, was the taking off of the hatch twicea day for food; and even this poor clock kept not the hour too well, foroften there were such gaps and intervals as made our bellies pine, and atthis present we had waited so long that I craved even that filthy brokenmeat they fed us with.

  So we were glad enough to hear a noise at the hatch just as Elzevir haddone speaking, and the cover was flung off, letting in a splash of saltwater and a little dim and dusky light. But instead of the guard withtheir muskets and lanterns and the tubs of broken victuals, there wasonly one man, and that the jailer who had padlocked us into gangs at thebeginning of the voyage.

  He bent down for a moment over the hatch, holding on to the combing tosteady himself in the sea-way, and flung a key on a chain down into theorlop, right among us. 'Take it,' he shouted in Dutch, 'and make the mostof it. God helps the brave, and the devil takes the hindmost.'

  That said, he stayed not one moment, but turned about quick and was gone.For an instant none knew what this play portended, and there was the keylying on the deck, and the hatch left open. Then Elzevir saw what it allmeant, and seized the key. 'John,' cries he, speaking to me in English,'the ship is foundering, and they are giving us a chance to save ourlives, and not drown like rats in a trap.' With that he tried the key onthe padlock which held our chain, and it fitted so well that in a triceour gang was free. Off fell the chain clanking on the floor, and nothingleft of our bonds but an iron bracelet clamped round the left wrist. Youmay be sure the others were quick enough to make use of the key when theyknew what 'twas, but we waited not to see more, but made for the ladder.

  Now Elzevir and I, being used to the sea, were first through the hatchwayabove, and oh, the strength and sweet coolness of the sea air, instead ofthe warm, fetid reek of the orlop below! There was a good deal of watersousing about on the main deck, but nothing to show the ship was sinking,yet none of the crew was to be seen. We stayed there not a second, butmoved to the companion as fast as we could for the heavy pitching of theship, and so came on deck.

  The dusk of a winter's evening was setting in, yet with ample light tosee near at hand, and the first thing I perceived was that the deck wasempty. There was not a living soul but us upon it. The brig was broachedto, with her bows against the heaviest sea I ever saw, and the wavesswept her fore and aft; so we made for the tail of the deck-house, andthere took stock. But before we got there I knew why 'twas the crew weregone, and why they let us loose, for Elzevir pointed to something whitherwe were drifting, and shouted in my ear so that I heard it above all theraging of the tempest--'We are on a lee shore.'

  We were lying head to sea, and never a bit of canvas left except onestorm-staysail. There were tattered ribands fluttering on the yards toshow where the sails had been blown away, and every now and then thestaysail would flap like a gun going off, to show it wanted to followthem. But for all we lay head to sea, we were moving backwards, and eachgreat wave as it passed carried us on stern first with a leap andswirling lift. 'Twas over the stern that Elzevir pointed, in the coursethat we were going, and there was such a mist, what with the wind andrain and spindrift, that one could see but a little way. And yet I sawtoo far, for in the mist to which we were making a sternboard, I saw awhite line like a fringe or valance to the sea; and then I looked tostarboard, and there was the same white fringe, and then to larboard, andthe white fringe was there too. Only those who
know the sea know howterrible were Elzevir's words uttered in such a place. A moment before Iwas exalted with the keen salt wind, and with a hope and freedom thathad been strangers for long; but now 'twas all dashed, and death, that isso far off to the young, had moved nearer by fifty years--was moving ayear nearer every minute.

  'We are on a lee shore,' Elzevir shouted; and I looked and knew what thewhite fringe was, and that we should be in the breakers in half an hour.What a whirl of wind and wave and sea, what a whirl of thought and wildconjecture! What was that land to which we were drifting? Was it cliff,with deep water and iron face, where a good ship is shattered at a blow,and death comes like a thunder-clap? Or was it shelving sand, where thereis stranding, and the pound, pound, pound of the waves for howls, beforeshe goes to pieces and all is over?

  We were in a bay, for there was the long white crescent of surf reachingfar away on either side, till it was lost in the dusk, and the brighelpless in the midst of it. Elzevir had hold of my arm, and gripped ithard as he looked to larboard. I followed his eyes, and where one horn ofthe white crescent faded into the mist, caught a dark shadow in the air,and knew it was high land looming behind. And then the murk and drivingrain lifted ever so little, and as it were only for that purpose; and wesaw a misty bluff slope down into the sea, like the long head of abasking alligator poised upon the water, and stared into each other'seyes, and cried together, 'The Snout!'

  It had vanished almost before it was seen, and yet we knew there was nomistake; it was the Snout that was there looming behind the moving rack,and we were in Moonfleet Bay. Oh, what a rush of thought then came,dazing me with its sweet bitterness, to think that after all these wearyyears of prison and exile we had come back to Moonfleet! We were so nearto all we loved, so near--only a mile of broken water--and yet so far,for death lay between, and we had come back to Moonfleet to die. Therewas a change came over Elzevir's features when he saw the Snout; his facehad lost its sadness and wore a look of sober happiness. He put his mouthclose to my ear and said: 'There is some strange leading hand has broughtus home at last, and I had rather drown on Moonfleet Beach than live inprison any more, and drown we must within an hour. Yet we will play theman, and make a fight for life.' And then, as if gathering together allhis force: 'We have weathered bad times together, and who knows but weshall weather this?'

  The other prisoners were on deck now, and had found their way aft. Theywere wild with fear, being landsmen and never having seen an angry sea,and indeed that sea might have frighted sailors too. So they stumbledalong drenched with the waves, and clustered round Elzevir, for theylooked on him as a leader, because he knew the ways of the sea and wasthe only one left calm in this dreadful strait.

  It was plain that when the Dutch crew found they were embayed, and thatthe ship must drift into the breakers, they had taken to the boats, forgig and jolly-boat were gone and only the pinnace left amidships. 'Twastoo heavy a boat perhaps for them to have got out in such a fearful sea;but there it lay, and it was to that the prisoners turned their eyes.Some had hold of Elzevir's arms, some fell upon the deck and caught himby the knees, beseeching him to show them how to get the pinnace out.

  Then he spoke out, shouting to make them hear: 'Friends, any man thattakes to boat is lost. I know this bay and know this beach, and wasindeed born hereabouts, but never knew a boat come to land in such a sea,save bottom uppermost. So if you want my counsel, there you have it,namely, to stick by the ship. In half an hour we shall be in thebreakers; and I will put the helm up and try to head the brig bows on tothe beach; so every man will have a chance to fight for his own life, andGod have mercy on those that drown.'

  I knew what he said was the truth, and there was nothing for it but tostick to the ship, though that was small chance enough; but those poor,fear-demented souls would have nothing of his advice now 'twas given,and must needs go for the boat. Then some came up from below who had beenin the spirit-room and were full of drink and drink-courage, andheartened on the rest, saying they would have the pinnace out, and everysoul should be saved. Indeed, Fate seemed to point them that road, for aheavier sea than any came on board, and cleared away a great piece oflarboard bulwarks that had been working loose, and made, as it were, aclear launching-way for the boat. Again did Elzevir try to prevail withthem to stand by the ship, but they turned away and all made for thepinnace. It lay amidships and was a heavy boat enough, but with so manyhands to help they got it to the broken bulwarks. Then Elzevir, seeingthey would have it out at any price, showed them how to take advantage ofthe sea, and shifted the helm a little till the _Aurungzebe_ fell off tolarboard, and put the gap in the bulwarks on the lee. So in a few minutesthere it lay at a rope's-end on the sheltered side, deep laden withthirty men, who were ill found with oars, and much worse found with skillto use them. There were one or two, before they left, shouted to Elzevirand me to try to make us follow them; partly, I think, because theyreally liked Elzevir, and partly that they might have a sailor in theboat to direct them; but the others cast off and left us with a curse,saying that we might go and drown for obstinate Englishmen.

  So we two were left alone on the brig, which kept drifting backwardsslowly; but the pinnace was soon lost to sight, though we saw that theywere rowing wild as soon as she passed out of the shelter of the ship,and that they had much ado to keep her head to the sea.

  Then Elzevir went to the kicking-wheel, and beckoned me to help him, andbetween us we put the helm hard up. I saw then that he had given up allhope of the wind shifting, and was trying to run her dead for the beach.

  She was broached-to with her bows in the wind, but gradually paid off asthe staysail filled, and so she headed straight for shore. The Novembernight had fallen, and it was very dark, only the white fringe of thebreakers could be seen, and grew plainer as we drew closer to it. Thewind was blowing fiercer than ever, and the waves broke more fiercelynearer the shore. They had lost their dirty yellow colour when the lightdied, and were rolling after us like great black mountains, with acombing white top that seemed as if they must overwhelm us every minute.Twice they pooped us, and we were up to our waists in icy water, butstill held to the wheel for our lives.

  The white line was nearer to us now, and above all the rage of wind andsea I could hear the awful roar of the under-tow sucking back thepebbles on the beach. The last time I could remember hearing that roarwas when I lay, as a boy, one summer's night 'twixt sleep and waking, inthe little whitewashed bedroom at my aunt's; and I wondered now if anysat before their inland hearths this night, and hearing that far distantroar, would throw another log on the fire, and thank God they were notfighting for their lives in Moonfleet Bay. I could picture all that wasgoing on this night on the beach--how Ratsey and the landers would havesighted the _Aurungzebe,_ perhaps at noon, perhaps before, and knew shewas embayed, and nothing could save her but the wind drawing to east.But the wind would hold pinned in the south, and they would see sailafter sail blown off her, and watch her wear and wear, and every timecome nearer in; and the talk would run through the street that there wasa ship could not weather the Snout, and must come ashore by sundown.Then half the village would be gathered on the beach, with the men readyto risk their lives for ours, and in no wise wishing for the ship to bewrecked; yet anxious not to lose their chance of booty, if Providenceshould rule that wrecked she must be. And I knew Ratsey would be there,and Damen, Tewkesbury, and Laver, and like enough Parson Glennie, andperhaps--and at that perhaps, my thoughts came back to where we were,for I heard Elzevir speaking to me:

  'Look,' he said, 'there's a light!'

  'Twas but the faintest twinkle, or not even that; only something thattold there was a light behind drift and darkness. It grew clearer as welooked at it, and again was lost in the mirk, and then Elzevir said,'Maskew's Match!'

  It was a long-forgotten name that came to me from so far off, down suchlong alleys of the memory, that I had, as it were, to grope and grapplewith it to know what it should mean. Then it all came back, and I was aboy again on the trawler,
creeping shorewards in the light breeze of anAugust night, and watching that friendly twinkle from the Manor woodsabove the village. Had she not promised she would keep that lamp alightto guide all sailors every night till I came back again; was she notwaiting still for me, was I not coming back to her now? But what a comingback! No more a boy, not on an August night, but broken, branded convictin the November gale! 'Twas well, indeed, there was between us that whitefringe of death, that she might never see what I had fallen to.

  'Twas likely Elzevir had something of the same thoughts, for he spokeagain, forgetting perhaps that I was man now, and no longer boy, andusing a name he had not used for years. 'Johnnie,' he said, 'I am coldand sore downhearted. In ten minutes we shall be in the surf. Go down tothe spirit locker, drink thyself, and bring me up a bottle here. Weshall both need a young man's strength, and I have not got it any more.'

  I did as he bid me, and found the locker though the cabin was all awash,and having drunk myself, took him the bottle back. 'Twas good Hollandsenough, being from the captain's own store, but nothing to the old Araratmilk of the Why Not? Elzevir took a pull at it, and then flung the bottleaway. 'Tis sound liquor,' he laughed, '"and good for autumn chills", asRatsey would have said.'

  We were very near the white fringe now, and the waves followed us higherand more curling. Then there was a sickly wan glow that spread itselfthrough the watery air in front of us, and I knew that they were burninga blue light on the beach. They would all be there waiting for us,though we could not see them, and they did not know that there were onlytwo men that they were signalling to, and those two Moonfleet born. Theyburn that light in Moonfleet Bay just where a little streak of claycrops out beneath the pebbles, and if a vessel can make that spot shegets a softer bottom. So we put the wheel over a bit, and set herstraight for the flare.

  There was a deafening noise as we came near the shore, the shrieking ofthe wind in the rigging, the crash of the combing seas, and over all theawful grinding roar of the under-tow sucking down the pebbles.

  'It is coming now,' Elzevir said; and I could see dim figures moving inthe misty glare from the blue light; and then, just as the _Aurungzebe_was making fair for the signal, a monstrous combing sea pooped her andwashed us both from the wheel, forward in a swirling flood. We grasped atanything we could, and so brought up bruised and half-drowned in thefore-chains; but as the wheel ran free, another sea struck her andslewed her round. There was a second while the water seemed over, under,and on every side, and then the _Aurungzebe_ went broadside on Moonfleetbeach, with a noise like thunder and a blow that stunned us.

  I have seen ships come ashore in that same place before and since, andbump on and off with every wave, till the stout balks could stand thepounding no more and parted. But 'twas not so with our poor brig, forafter that first fearful shock she never moved again, being flung so firmupon the beach by one great swamping wave that never another had power touproot her. Only she careened over beachwards, turning herself away fromthe seas, as a child bows his head to escape a cruel master's ferule, andthen her masts broke off, first the fore and then the main, with asplitting crash that made itself heard above all.

  We were on the lee side underneath the shelter of the deckhouse clingingto the shrouds, now up to our knees in water as the wave came on, nowleft high and dry when it went back. The blue light was still burning,but the ship was beached a little to the right of it, and the dim groupof fishermen had moved up along the beach till they were opposite us.Thus we were but a hundred feet distant from them, but 'twas the intervalof death and life, for between us and the shore was a maddened race ofseething water, white foaming waves that leapt up from all sides againstour broken bulwarks, or sucked back the pebbles with a grinding roar tillthey left the beach nearly dry.

  We stood there for a minute hanging on, and waiting for resolution tocome back to us after the shock of grounding. On the weather side theseas struck and curled over the brig with a noise like thunder, and theforce of countless tons. They came over the top of the deck-house in acataract of solid water, and there was a crash, crash, crash of rendingwood, as plank after plank gave way before that stern assault. We couldfeel the deck-house itself quiver, and shake again as we stood with ourbacks against it, and at last it moved so much that we knew it must soonbe washed over on us.

  The moment had come. 'We must go after the next big wave runs back,'Elzevir shouted. 'Jump when I give the word, and get as far up thepebbles as you can before the next comes in: they will throw us arope's-end to catch; so now good-bye, John, and God save us both!'

  I wrung his hand, and took off my convict clothes, keeping my boots on tomeet the pebbles, and was so cold that I almost longed for the surf. Thenwe stood waiting side by side till a great wave came in, turning thespace 'twixt ship and shore into a boiling caldron: a minute later 'twasall sucked back again with a roar, and we jumped.

  I fell on hands and feet where the water was a yard deep under the ship,but got my footing and floundered through the slop, in a desperatestruggle to climb as high as might be on the beach before the next wavecame in. I saw the string of men lashed together and reaching down asfar as man might, to save any that came through the surf, and heard themshout to cheer us, and marked a coil of rope flung out. Elzevir was bymy side and saw it too, and we both kept our feet and plunged forwardthrough the quivering slack water; but then there came an awful thunderbehind, the crash of the sea over the wreck, and we knew that anothermountain wave was on our heels. It came in with a swishing roar, a rushand rise of furious water that swept us like corks up the beach, till wewere within touch of the rope's-end, and the men shouted again tohearten us as they flung it out. Elzevir seized it with his left handand reached out his right to me. Our fingers touched, and in that verymoment the wave fell instantly, with an awful suck, and I was sweptdown the beach again. Yet the under-tow took me not back to sea, foramid the floating wreckage floated the shattered maintop, and in thetruck of that great spar I caught, and so was left with it upon thebeach thirty paces from the men and Elzevir. Then he left his ownassured salvation, namely the rope, and strode down again into the veryjaws of death to catch me by the hand and set me on my feet. Sight andbreath were failing me; I was numb with cold and half-dead from thebuffeting of the sea; yet his giant strength was powerful to save methen, as it had saved me before. So when we heard once more the warningcrash and thunder of the returning wave we were but a fathom distantfrom the rope. 'Take heart, lad,' he cried; ''tis now or never,' and asthe water reached our breasts gave me a fierce shove forward with hishands. There was a roar of water in my ears, with a great shouting ofthe men upon the beach, and then I caught the rope.