CHAPTER VII.
ON BOARD 'THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.'
At that moment the man whom the Captain styled Nakier entered the littlecuddy, followed by the steward. He made a singular gesture, a sort ofsalaam, bowing his head and whipping both hands to his brow, but withsomething of defiance in the celerity of the gesture. He was the manwhom I had seen haranguing the two boatmen. He had a large, fineintelligent eye, liquid and luminous, despite the Asiatic duskiness ofits pupil; his features were regular and almost handsome: an aquilinenose, thin and well chiselled at the nostrils, a square brow, small earsdecorated with thick gold hoops, and teeth as though formed of china.The expression of his face was mild and even prepossessing, hiscomplexion a light yellow. He bore in his hand what had apparently beena soldier's foraging cap, and was dressed in an old pilot jacket, a redshirt, and a pair of canvas breeches held by a belt, to which wasattached a sheath containing a knife lying tight against his hip. Hetook me and Helga in with a rapid roll of his handsome eyes, then lookedstraight at the Captain in a posture of attention, with a littlecontraction of the brow.
'I want a couple of the berths below cleared out at once,' said theCaptain. 'Goh Syn Koh seems one of the smartest among you. Send him.Also send Mow Lauree. He can make a bed, I hope? He is making a bed forhimself! Bear a hand and clear this table, Punmeamootty, so as to beable to assist. You'll superintend the work, Nakier. See all clean andcomfortable.'
'Yaas, sah,' said the man.
He was going.
'Stop!' exclaimed the Captain, smiling all the time he continued totalk. 'Did you eat your dinner to-day!'
'No, sah.'
'What has become of it?'
'Overboard, sah,' answered the man, preserving his slight frown.
'Overboard! As good a mess of pork and peasoup as was ever served out toa ship's company. Overboard! For the third time! If it happensagain----' he checked himself with a glance at Helga: 'if it happensagain,' he went on, speaking with an air of concern, 'I shall be obligedto stop the beef.'
'We cannot eat pork, sah--we are Mussulmans----' he was proceeding.
The Captain silenced him with a bland motion of the hand.
'Send the men aft, Nakier,' said he, with a small increase of nasaltwang in his utterance, 'and see that the cleaning and the clearance outis thorough.'
He gave him a hard, significant nod, and the man marched out, directingan eager look at me as he wheeled round, as though for my sympathy.
Punmeamootty was clearing the table with much ill-dissembled agitationin the hurry of his movements: his swift glances went from the Captainto me, and then to Helga. They were like the flashing of a stiletto,keen as the darting blue gleam of the blade, and they would be asmurderous, too, I thought, if the man could execute his wishes with hiseyes. I believed the Captain would now make some signal to leave thetable, but he continued to sit on.
'Did you observe that man just now?' said he, addressing Helga. Sheanswered 'Yes.' 'Handsome, do you think?' said he.
'He had a mild, pleasant face,' she answered.
'His name,' said he, 'is Vanjoor Nakier. He is boss of the native crew,and I allow him to act as a sort of boatswain. It is hard to reconcileso agreeable a countenance with the horrible and awful belief which mustmake him for ever and ever a lost soul, if he is not won over in plentyof time for repentance, for prayer and mortification.'
'You seem to have the fellows' names very pat,' said I. 'Are youacquainted with the Malay tongue?'
'Ah!' cried he, with a shake of the head; 'I wish I were. I might thenprove a true missionary to the poor benighted fellows. Yet I shall hopeto have broken heavily into their deplorable and degraded superstitionsbefore I dismiss them at Cape Town.'
I caught sight of the shadowy form of the steward lurking abaft thecompanion-steps, where he seemed busy with some plates and a basket.
'It is your hope,' said I, 'to convert the Mussulmans?'
'It is my hope, indeed,' he answered; 'and, pray, what honester hopeshould possess a man?'
'It is an admirable desire,' said I, 'but a little dangerous perhaps.'
'Why?' asked he.
'Well,' said I, 'I am no traveller. I have seen nothing of the world,but I have read, and I have always gathered from books of voyages, thatthere is no class of men more bigoted in their faith and moretreacherous in their conduct than Malay seamen.'
'Hush!' cried Helga, putting her finger to her lips and looking in thedirection of the steward.
The Captain turned in his chair.
'Are you there, Punmeamootty?'
'Yes, sah;' and his figure came swiftly gliding into the light.
'Go below and help the others! They should be at work by this time.'
The man went out on to the quarter-deck, where, close against the cuddyfront, lay the little hatch that conducted to the steerage.
'You are quite right,' exclaimed the Captain, lying back and expandinghis waistcoat. 'Malay seamen are, undoubtedly, treacherous. In fact,treachery is part and parcel of the Malay character. It is the people ofthat nation who run amuck, you know.'
'What is that?' inquired Helga.
'A fellow falls crazy,' answered the Captain, smiling, 'whips out aweapon called a creese, and stabs and kills as many as he can encounteras he flies through the streets.'
'They are a people to live on good terms with,' said Helga, looking atme.
'They are a people,' said the Captain, nasally accentuating his words,'who are to be brought to a knowledge of the Light; and, in proportionas the effort is dangerous, so should the worker glory in his task.'
He gazed at Helga, as though seeking her approval of this sentiment. Butshe was looking at me with an expression of anxiety in her blue eyes.
'I gather,' said I, with curiosity stimulated by thought of the girl'sand my situation aboard this homely little barque, with her singularskipper and wild, dark crew--'I gather, Captain Bunting, from what haspassed, that the blow you are now levelling at these fellows'superstitions--as you call them--is aimed at their diet?'
'Just so,' he answered. 'I am trying to compel them to eat pork. Whoknows that before the equator be crossed I may not have excited a reallove for pork among them? That would be a great work, sir. It will sapone of the most contemptible of their superstitions, and provide me witha little crevice for the insertion of the wedge of truth.'
'I believe pork,' said I, 'is not so much a question of religion as aquestion of health with these poor dark creatures, bred in hotlatitudes.'
'Pork enters largely into their faith,' he answered.
'So far, you have not been very successful, I think?'
'No. You heard what Vanjoor Nakier said. The wasteful wretches have forthe third time cast their allowance overboard. Only think, Miss Nielsen,of wilfully throwing over the rail as much hearty excellentfood--honest salt pork and very fair peasoup--as would keep a poorfamily at home in dinners for a week!'
'What do they eat instead?' she asked.
'Why, on pork days, biscuit, I suppose. There is nothing else.'
'You give them beef every other day?' said I.
'Beef and duff,' he answered; 'but I shall stop that. Famine may help mein dealing with their superstitions.'
It was not for me, partaking, as Helga and I were, of this man'shospitality, using his ship, dependent upon him, indeed, for my speedyreturn home with Helga--it was not for me, I say, at this early time atall events, to remonstrate with him, to tell him that, exalted as hemight consider his motives, they were urging him into a very barbarous,cruel behaviour; but, as I sat looking at him, my emotion, spite of hisclaims upon my kindness, was one of hearty disgust, with deeper feelingsworking in me besides, when I considered that, if our evil fortuneforced us to remain for any length of time on board _The Light of theWorld_, we might find his theory of conversion making his ship a theatrefor as bad a tragedy as was ever enacted upon the high seas.
On a sudden he looked up at a little timepiece that was ticking againsta beam just ove
r his head.
'Have you any acquaintance with the sea, Mr. Tregarthen?' he asked.
'Merely a boating acquaintance,' I replied.
'Can you stand a watch?'
'I could keep a look-out,' said I, a little dismayed by these questions,'but I am utterly ignorant of the handling of a ship.'
He looked reflectively at Helga, then at me, pulling down first onewhisker, then the other, while his thick lips lay broad in a smile underhis long hooked nose.
'Oh, well' said he, 'Abraham Wise will do.' He went to the cuddy doorand called 'Forward there!'
'Yaas, sah,' came a thick Africander-like note out of the forecastleobscurity.
'Ask Abraham Wise to step aft.'
He resumed his seat, and in a few minutes Abraham arrived. Helgainstantly rose and gave him her hand with a sweet cordial smile thatwas full of her gratification at the sight of him. For my part, it didmy heart good to see him. After the tallowy countenance and odd talk ofthe Captain and the primrose complexions and scowling glances of hisMalays, there was real refreshment to the spirits to be got out of thehomely English face and English 'longshore garb of the boatman, with theman's suggestions, besides, of the English Channel and of home.
'And how is Jacob?' said I.
'Oh, he's a-feeling a little better, sir. A good bit down, of course, aswe both are. 'Taint realizable even _now_.'
'Do you refer to the loss of your lugger?' said Captain Bunting.
'Ay, sir, to the _Airly Marn_,' answered Abraham, confronting him, andgazing at him with a steadfastness that slightly increased his squint.
'But surely, my good fellow,' cried the Captain, 'you had plenty oftime, I hope, to feel thoroughly grateful for your preservation from thedreadful fate which lay before you had Providence suffered you tocontinue your voyage?'
'Oi dunno about dreadful fate,' answered Abraham: 'all I can say is, Ishould be blooming glad if that there _Airly Marn_ was afloat again, orif so be as we'd never fallen in with this here _Light of the World_.'
'It is as I told you, you perceive,' exclaimed the Captain, smiling andaddressing Helga and me in his blandest manner: 'as we descend thesocial scale, recognition of signal and providential mercies growsfeebler and feebler, until it dies out--possibly before it gets down toDeal boatmen. I want a word with you, Abraham Wise. But first, how haveyou been treated forward?'
'Oh, werry well indeed, sir,' he answered. 'The mate showed us where totarn in when the time comes round, and I dessay we'll manage to gitalong all right till we gets clear of ye.'
'What have you had to eat?'
'The mate gave us a little bit o' pork for to be biled, but ye've got ablack cook forrads as seemed to Jacob and me to take the dressing ofthat there meat werry ill.'
The Captain seemed to motion the matter aside with his hand, and said:
'My vessel is without a second mate; I mean, a man qualified to takecharge of the deck when Mr. Jones and I are below. Now, I am thinkingthat you would do very well for that post.'
'I'd rather go home, sir,' said Abraham.
'Ay,' said the Captain, complacently surveying him, 'but while you arewith me, you know, you must be prepared to do your bit. I find happinessin assisting a suffering man. But,' added he nasally, 'in this world wemust give and take. You eat my meat and sleep in what I think I mayfairly term my bedroom. What pay do I exact? Simply the use of your eyesand limbs.'
He glanced with a very self-satisfied expression at Helga. It seemed,indeed, that most of his talk now was _at_ her when not directly _to_her. She had come round to my side of the table after leaving Abraham,and giving her my chair, I stood listening, with my hand on the back ofit.
'I'm quite willing to tarn to,' said Abraham, 'while I'm along with ye,sir. I ain't afeared of work. I dorn't want no man's grub nor shelterfor nothen.'
'Quite right,' said the Captain; 'those are respectable sentiments. Ofcourse, if you accept my offer I will pay you, give you the wages thatWinstanley had--four pounds a month for the round voyage.'
Abraham scratched the back of his head and looked at me. This proposalevidently put a new complexion upon the matter to his mind.
'You can handle a ship, I presume?' continued the Captain.
'Whoy, yes,' answered Abraham with a grin of wonder at the question: 'ifI ain't been poiloting long enough to know that sort o' work, ye shallcall me a Malay.'
'I should not require a knowledge of navigation in you,' said theCaptain.
Abraham responded with a bob of the head, then scratching at his backhair afresh, said:
'I must ask leave to tarn the matter over. I should like to talk with mymate along o' this.'
'I'll put him on the articles, too, if he likes, at the current wages,'said the Captain. 'However, think over it. You can let me knowto-morrow. But I shall expect you to take charge during the middlewatch.'
'That I'll willingly dew, sir,' answered Abraham. 'But how about themCeylon chaps and Malays forrads? Dew they understand sea tarms?'
'Perfectly well,' answered the Captain, 'or how should I and Mr. Jonesget along, think you?'
'Well,' exclaimed Abraham: 'I han't had much to say to 'em as yet. Onechap's been talking a good deal this evening, and I allow he's got agrievance, as most sailors has. There's some sort o' difficulty: I allowit lies in the eating; but a man wants practice to follow noicely whatthem there sort o' coloured covies has to say.'
'Well,' exclaimed the Captain, with another bland wave of the hand indismissal of the subject, 'we understand each other, at all events, mylad.'
He went to the locker from which he had extracted the biscuits, produceda bottle of rum, and filled a wineglass.
'Neat or with water?' said he, smiling.
'I've pretty nigh had enough water for to-day, sir,' answered Abraham,grinning too, and looking very well pleased at this act of attention.'Here's to you, sir, I'm sure, and wishing you a prosperous woyage. Mr.Tregarthen, your health, sir, and yourn, miss, and may ye both soon gethome and find everything comfortable and roight.' He drained the glasswith a smack of his lips. 'As pretty a little drop o' rum as I've hadthis many a day,' said he.
'You can tell Jacob to lay aft presently,' said the Captain, 'when thesteward is at liberty, and he will give him such another dose. That willdo.'
Abraham knuckled his forehead, pausing to say to me in a hoarse whisper,which must have been perfectly audible to the Captain. 'A noice gemman,and no mistake.'
'I am going below,' said the Captain when he was gone, 'to see afteryour accommodation. Will you sit here,' addressing Helga, 'or will yougo on deck for a few turns? I fear you will find the air chilly.'
'I will go on deck with you, Hugh,' answered Helga.
The Captain ran his eye over her.
'You are without luggage,' said he, 'and, alas! wanting in almosteverything; but if you will allow me----' he broke off and went to hiscabin, and before we could have found time to exchange a whisper,returned with a very handsome, almost new, fur coat.
'Now, Miss Nielsen,' said he, 'you will allow me to wrap you in this.'
'Indeed my jacket will keep me warm,' she answered, with that same lookof shrinking in her face I have before described.
'Nay, but wear it, Helga,' said I, anxious to meet the man, at allevents, halfway in his kindness. 'It is a delightful coat--the verything for the keen wind that is blowing on deck!'
Had I offered to put it on for her she would at once have consented, butI could observe the recoil in her from the garment stretched in theCaptain's hands, with his pale fat face smiling betwixt his longwhiskers over the top of it. On a sudden, however, she turned andsuffered him to put the coat on her, which he did with great ostentationof anxiety and a vast deal of smiling, and, as I could not helpperceiving, with a deal more of lingering over the act than there wasthe least occasion for.
'Wonderfully becoming, indeed!' he exclaimed; 'and now to see that yourcabin is comfortable.'
He passed through the door, and we mounted the companion steps.
The night was so dark that there was very little of the vessel to beseen. Her dim spaces of canvas made a mere pale whistling shadow of heras they floated, waving and bowing, in dim heaps through the obscurity.There was a frequent glancing of white water to windward and a dampnessas of spray in the wind, but the little barque tossed with dry decksover the brisk Atlantic heave, crushing the water off either bow into adull light of seething, against which, when she stooped her head, theround of the forecastle showed like a segment of the shadow in a partialeclipse of the moon. The haze of the cabin-lamp lay about the skylight,and the figure of the mate appeared in and vanished past it withmonotonous regularity as he paced the short poop. There was a haze oflight, too, about the binnacle-stand, with a sort of elusive stealinginto it of the outline of the man at the helm. Forward the vessel lay inblackness. It was blowing what sailors call a top-gallant breeze, with,perhaps, more weight in it even than that; but the squabness of this_Light of the World_ promised great stiffness, and, though the wind haddrawn some point or so forward while we were at table, the barque roseas stiff to it as though she had been under reefed topsails.
'Will you take my arm, Helga?' said I.
'Let me first turn up the sleeves of this coat,' said she.
I helped her to do this; she then put her hand under my arm, and westarted to walk the lee-side of the deck as briskly as the swing of theplanks would suffer. Scarcely were we in motion when the mate came downto us from the weather-side.
'Beg pardon,' said he. 'Won't you and the lady walk to wind'ard?'
'Oh, we shall be in your way!' I answered. 'It is a cold wind.'
'It is, sir.'
'But it promises a fair night,' said I.
'I hope so,' he exclaimed. 'Dirty weather don't agree with dirty skins.'
He turned on his heel and resumed his post on the weather-side of thedeck.
'Dirty skins mean Malays in that chief mate's nautical dictionary,' saidI.
'Hugh, how thankful I shall be when we are transferred to another ship!'
'Ay, indeed! but surely this is better than the lugger?'
'No! I would rather be in the lugger.'
'How now?' cried I. 'We are very well treated here. Surely the Captainhas been all hospitality. No warm-hearted host ashore could do more.Why, here is he now at this moment superintending the arrangement of ourcabins below to ensure our comfort!'
'I do not like him at _all_!' said she, in a tone which her slightlyDanish accent rendered emphatic.
'I do not like his treatment of the men,' said I; 'but he is kind tous.'
'There is an unwholesome mind in his flabby face!' she exclaimed.
I could not forbear a laugh at this strong language in the littlecreature.
'And then his religion!' she continued. 'Does a truly pious nature talkas he does? I can understand professional religionists intruding theircalling upon strangers; but I have always found sincerity in matters ofopinion modest and reserved--I mean among what you call laymen. Whatright has this man to force upon those poor fellows forward the foodthat they are forbidden by their faith to eat?'
'Yes,' said I; 'that is a vile side of the man's nature, I must own;vile to you and me and to the poor Malays, I mean. But, surely, theremust be sincerity too, or why should he bother himself?'
'It may be meanness,' said she: 'he wants to save his beef; meanness andthat love of tyrannizing which is oftener to be found among the captainsof your nation, Hugh, than mine!'
'Your nation!' said I, laughing. 'I claim you for Great Britain byvirtue of your English speech. No pure Dane could talk your mother'stongue as you do. Spite of what you say, though, I believe the mansincere. Would he, situated as he is--two white men to elevenyellow-skins (for we and the boatmen must count ourselves out ofit)--would he, I say, dare venture to arouse the passions--the religiouspassions--of a set of men who hail from the most treacherous communityof people in the world, if he were not governed by some dream ofconverting them?--a fancy that were you to transplant it ashore, wouldbe reckoned noble and of a Scriptural and martyr-like greatness.'
'That may be,' she answered; 'but he is going very wickedly to work,nevertheless, and it will not be his fault if those coloured sailors donot dangerously mutiny long before he shall have persuaded the mosttimid and doubting of them that pork is good to eat.'
'Yes,' said I gravely; for she spoke with a sort of impassionedseriousness that must have influenced me, even if I had not been of hermind. 'I, for one, should certainly fear the worst if he persists--and Idon't doubt he _will_ persist, if Abraham and the other boatman agree toremain with him; for then it will be four to eleven--desperate odds,indeed, though as an Englishman he is bound to underrate theformidableness of anything coloured. However,' said I, with a glanceinto the darkness over the side, 'do not doubt that we shall betranshipped long before any trouble happens. I shall endeavour to have atalk with Abraham before he decides. What he and Jacob then do, theywill do with their eyes open.'
As I spoke these words, the Captain came up the ladder and approachedus.
'Ha! Miss Nielsen,' he cried, 'were not you wise to put on that warmcoat? All is ready below; but still let me hope that you will changeyour mind and occupy Mr. Jones's berth.'
'Thank you; for the short time we shall remain in this ship the cabinyou have been good enough to prepare will be all I require,' sheanswered.
He peered through the skylight to see the hour.
'Five minutes to eight,' he exclaimed. 'Mr. Jones!' The man crossed thedeck. 'I have arranged,' said the Captain, 'with the Deal boatmanAbraham Wise to take charge of the barque during the middle watch. It isan experiment, and I shall require to be up and down during those hoursto make sure of him. Not that I distrust his capacities. Oh dear no!From the vicious slipping of cables, merely for sordid purposes ofhovelling, to the noble art of navigating a ship in a hurricane amid theshoals of the Straits of Dover, your Deal boatman is the most expert ofmen. But,' continued he, 'since I shall have to be up and down, as Ihave said, during the middle watch, I will ask you to keep charge of thedeck till midnight.'
'Very good, sir,' said the mate, who appeared to me to have been on dutyever since the hour of our coming aboard. 'It will keep the round of thewatches steady, sir. The port watch comes on duty at eight bells.'
'Excellent!' exclaimed the Captain. 'Thank you, Mr. Jones.'
The mate stalked aft.
'Mr. Tregarthen,' he added, 'I observe that you wear a sou'-wester.'
'It is the headgear I wore when I put off in the lifeboat,' said I, 'andI am waiting to get home to exchange it.'
'No need, no need!' cried he; 'I have an excellent wideawake below--not,indeed, perfectly new, but a very serviceable clinging article for oceanuse--which is entirely at your service.'
'You are all kindness!'
'Nay,' he exclaimed in a voice of devotion, 'I believe I know my duty.Shall we linger here, Miss Nielsen, or would you prefer the shelter ofthe cabin? At half-past eight Punmeamootty will place some hot water,biscuit, and a little spirit upon the table. I fear I shall be at a lossto divert you.'
'Indeed not!' exclaimed Helga.
The unconscious irony of this response must have disconcerted a lessself-complacent man.
'I have a few volumes of an edifying kind, and a draughtboard. Myresources for amusing you, I fear, are limited to those things.'
The sweep of the wind was bleaker than either of us had imagined, and,now that the Captain had joined us, the deck possessed no temptation. Wefollowed him into the cabin, where Helga hastily removed the coat asthough fearing the Captain would help her. His first act was to producethe wideawake he had spoken of. This was a very great convenience to me;the sou'-wester lay hot and heavy upon my head, and the sense of itsextreme unsightliness added not a little to the discomfort it caused me.He looked at my sea-boots and then at his feet, and, with his head onone side, exclaimed, in his most smiling manner, that he feared hisshoes would prove too large for me, but that I was very welc
ome to theuse of a pair of his slippers. These also I gratefully accepted, andwithdrew to Mr. Jones's berth to put them on, and the comfort of beingthus shod, after days of the weight and unwieldiness of my sea-boots, itwould be impossible to express.
'I think we shall be able to make ourselves happy yet,' said theCaptain. 'Pray sit, Miss Nielsen. Do you smoke, Mr. Tregarthen?'
'I do, indeed,' I answered, 'whenever I can get the chance.'
He looked at Helga, who said to me: 'Pray smoke here, Hugh, if theCaptain does not object. My father seldom had a pipe out of his mouth,and I was constantly in his cabin with him.'
'You are truly obliging,' said the Captain; and going to the locker inwhich he kept his rum, biscuits, and the like, he took out a cigar-box,and handed me as well-flavoured a Havannah as ever I had smoked in mylife. All this kindness and hospitality was, indeed, overwhelming, and Ireturned some very lively thanks, to which he listened with a smile,afterwards, as his custom was, waving them aside with his hand. He nextentered his cabin and returned with some half-dozen books, which he putbefore Helga. I leaned over her shoulder to look at them, and speedilyrecognised 'The Whole Duty of Man,' 'The Pilgrim's Progress,' Young's'Night Thoughts,' a volume by Jeremy Taylor; and the rest were of thissort of literature. Helga opened a volume and seemed to read. When Iturned to ask the Captain a question about these books, I found himstaring at her profile out of the corner of his eyes, while with hisright hand he stroked his whisker meditatively.
'These are all very good books,' said I, 'particularly the "Pilgrim'sProgress."'
'Yes,' he answered with a sigh; 'works of that kind during my longperiods of loneliness upon the high seas are my only solace, and lonelyI am. All ship-captains are more or less alone when engaged in theirprofession, but I am peculiarly so.'
'I should have thought the Church, Captain, would have suited you betterthan the sea,' said I.
'Not the Church,' he answered. 'I am a Nonconformist, and Dissent isstamped upon a long pedigree. Pray light up, Mr. Tregarthen.'
He took his seat at the head of the table, put a match to his cigar, thesight of which betwixt his thick lips considerably humanized him in myopinion, and, clasping his pale, gouty-looking hands upon the table,leaned forward, furtively eyeing Helga over the top of his cigar, whichforked up out of his mouth like the bowsprit of a ship.
His conversation chiefly concerned himself, his past career, hisantecedents, and so forth. He talked as one who wishes to stand wellwith his hearers. He spoke of a Lady Duckett as a connection of his onhis mother's side, and I observed that he paused on pronouncing thename. He told us that his mother had come from a very ancient familythat had been for centuries established in Cumberland, but he wasreticent on the subject of his father. He talked much of his daughter'sloneliness at home, and said he grieved that she was without acompanion--someone who would be equally dear to them both; and as hesaid this he lay back in his chair in a very amplitude of waistcoat,with his eyes fixed on the upper deck and his whole posture suggestiveof pensive thought.
Well, thought I, this, to be sure, is a very strange sort ofsea-captain. I had met various skippers in my day, but none like thisman. Even a trifling expletive would have been refreshing in his mouth.From time to time Helga glanced at him, but with an air of aversion thatwas not to be concealed from me, however self-complacency might blindhim to it. She suddenly exclaimed, with almost startlinginconsequentiality:
'You will be greatly obliging us, Captain Bunting, by giving orders toMr. Jones or to Abraham to keep a look-out for ships sailing northduring the night. We can never tell what passing vessel might not bewilling to receive Mr. Tregarthen and me.'
'What! In the darkness of night?' he exclaimed. 'How should we signal?How would you have me convey my desire to communicate?'
'By a blue light, or by burning a portfire,' said Helga shortly.
'Ah, I see you are a thorough sailor--you are not to be instructed,' hecried, jocosely wagging his whiskers at her. 'Think of a young ladybeing acquainted with the secret of night communications at sea! Ifear--I fear we shall have to wait for the daylight. But what,' heexclaimed unctuously, 'is the reason of this exceeding desire to returnhome?'
'Oh, Captain,' said I, 'home is home.'
'And Mr. Tregarthen wishes to return to his mother,' said Helga.
'But, my dear young lady, _your_ home is not in England, is it?' heasked.
She coloured, faltered, and then answered: 'My home is in Denmark.'
'You have lost your poor dear father,' said he, 'and I think Iunderstood you to say, Mr. Tregarthen, that Miss Nielsen's poor dearmother fell asleep some years since.'
This was a guess on his part. I had no recollection whatever of havingtold him anything of the sort.
'I am an orphan,' exclaimed Helga, with a little hint of tears in hereyes, 'and--and, Captain Bunting, Mr. Tregarthen and I want to returnhome.'
'Captain Bunting will see to that, Helga,' said I, conceiving hersomewhat too importunate in this direction.
She answered me with a singularly wistful, anxious look.
The conversation came to a pause through the entrance of Punmeamootty.He arrived with a tray and hot water, which he placed upon the tabletogether with some glasses. The Captain produced wine and a bottle ofrum. Helga would take nothing, though no one could have been morehospitably pressing than Captain Bunting. For my part, I was glad tofill my glass, as much for the sake of the tonic of the spirit as forthe desire to appear entirely sociable with this strange skipper.
'You can go forward,' he exclaimed to the Malay; and the fellow wentgliding on serpentine legs, as it veritably seemed to me, out throughthe door.
No further reference was made to the subject of our leaving the barque.The Captain was giving us his experiences of the Deal boatmen, andrelating an instance of heroic roguery on the part of the crew of agalley-punt, when a noise of thick, throaty, African-like yowling washeard sounding from somewhere forward, accompanied by one or two callsfrom the mate overhead.
'I expect Mr. Jones is taking in the foretop-gallant sail,' said theCaptain. 'Can it be necessary? I will return shortly.' And, giving Helgaa convulsive bow, he pulled his wideawake to his ears and went on deck.
'You look at me, Hugh,' said Helga, fixing her artless, sweet, andmodest eyes upon me, 'when I speak to Captain Bunting as though I dowrong.'
I answered gently, 'No. But is it not a little ungracious, Helga, tokeep on expressing your anxiety to get away, in the face of all thishospitable treatment and kindly anxiety to make us comfortable and happywhile we remain?'
She looked somewhat abashed. 'I wish he was not so kind,' she said.
'What is your misgiving?' said I, inclining towards her to catch abetter view of her face.
'I fear he will not make haste to tranship us,' she answered.
'But why should he want to keep us?'
She glanced at me with an instant's surprise emphasized by a briefparting of her lips that was yet not a smile. She made no answer,however.
'He will not want to keep us,' continued I, talking with the confidenceof a young man to a girl whom he is protecting, and whose behaviourassures him that she looks up to him and values his judgment. 'We mayprove very good company for a day or two, but the master of a vessel ofthis sort is a man who counts his sixpences, and he has no idea ofmaintaining us for a longer time than he can possibly help, depend uponit.'
'I hope so,' she answered.
'But you don't think so,' said I, struck by her manner.
She answered by speaking of his treatment of his crew, and we were uponthis subject when he descended the cabin ladder.
'A small freshening of the wind,' said he, 'and a trifling squall ofrain.' There was no need for him to tell us this, for his long whiskerssparkled with water drops, and carried evidences of a brisk shower. 'Thebarque is now very snug, and there is nothing in sight,' said he, with asort of half-humorous, reproachful significance in his way of turning toHelga.
She smiled, as thou
gh by smiling she believed I should be pleased. TheCaptain begged her to drink a little wine and eat a biscuit, and sheconsented. This seemed to gratify him, and his behaviour visibly warmedwhile he relighted his cigar, mixed himself another little dose, andresumed his chat about Deal boatmen and his experiences in the Downs.
My Danish Sweetheart: A Novel. Volume 2 of 3 Page 7