CHAPTER VI.
HELGA'S PLOT.
Before summoning Helga, I resolved to take a peep at the berths, lestthere should be some sight in one or the other of them too shocking forher to behold. I was made to think of this by the great bloodstain onthe deck close against the cabin-door. Its true complexion showed in thedaylight. Abraham again backed away on seeing it; but time was precious.This was an opportunity to make the most of, and pushing open the door,I peered in. It was as I might have conjectured. The Captain had beenassassinated by twenty strokes of the fellows' knives as he lay in hisbunk asleep. Not one, not half a dozen stabs could have made such ahorror of the bedclothes and the square of carpet on the deck as wegazed at. It was not an interior fit for Helga to enter.
I looked into the mate's berth, and found it as the man had left it--theblanket lying as it had been tossed when he arose. There was nothingfrightful here; but our business lay in the Captain's cabin, and, fullof loathing, I re-entered the horrible room and shut the door.
'A piteous sight! a piteous sight, sir!' exclaimed Abraham, lookingabout him in a stupefied way, and biting upon his under-lip to moistenit.
'Now attend!' said I. 'Collect your wits, for our stratagem signifieslife or death to us.'
It took me but a few minutes to communicate Helga's plan. He grasped thething with sailorly promptitude, nodding eagerly, with the bloodreturning to his cheeks to my hurried whispering; and when I had made anend and drew back to mark his judgment in his face, he struck his thigha mighty blow, but said in a voice cold with resolution, despite hiscountenance being all awork with agitation:
'It will do, sir. It can't fail. It is only the getting 'em together;but it's to be done with a little patience.'
'Now,' said I, 'let us see what is here. Will the poor fellow have had arevolver?'
But we searched in vain for such a weapon. With hasty, desperate hands,never knowing but that at the next moment Nakier might enter, or someprobing yellow face stare in upon us through the little window thatoverlooked the quarter-deck, we ransacked the lockers, explored a largeblack sea-chest, examined the shelves--to no purpose.
'He was too good a Christian man,' said Abraham hoarsely, 'to own apistol. Had he been a Nova Scotiaman there'd be veapons enough here torig out a regiment of the line vith.'
'It cannot be helped,' said I, keenly disappointed nevertheless, for Ihad counted upon finding a revolver, scarcely doubting that a man incharge of such a ship's company as these coloured fellows formed wouldgo to sea well armed.
With all haste possible we transferred to the mate's cabin a bag ofcharts, a couple of sextants, a chronometer, and other matters of a likesort, and then with sickened hearts closed the door upon that tragicinterior of the Captain's berth. I looked through the contents of thebag, and found a large blue-backed chart of South Africa, with marginalillustrations of the principal ports, harbours and headlands.
'This will do,' said I, and rolling it up, I put it under my arm, and,accompanied by Abraham, stepped through the cuddy door.
My eye once more as I passed fell upon the dreadful stain ingrained inthe plank of the deck, and observing Punmeamootty speaking with anotherman a little forward of the mainmast, I was about to call and order himto scrape out the odious shocking blotch. But at the same instant itcrossed my mind to let it be: it was a detail to fit into our stratagem,and I whispered the fancy to Abraham as we quitted the cuddy. I believedthat all this while Helga was below in her cabin, and I was leaning overthe little hatch that led to our quarters to call to her, when shepronounced my name from the deck overhead, and on looking up I saw herstanding at the brass rail with Nakier.
'Shall Oi go forward an' get my breakfast or keep along with you, Mr.Tregarthen?' said Abraham.
'Keep with me for a little time,' I answered, and he followed me on tothe poop.
Nakier's fine eyes glowed, and his face was lighted up with anexpression of admiration and pleasure. It was manifest at the firstglance that Helga had not spared her simple pretty arts in conversingwith him.
Her first words to me were:
'Nakier has been talking to me about his native country. Oh, what ahappy land of flowers and birds and a thousand other delights must itbe!' She clasped her hands as though in rapture, and added: 'I shallhope some of these days to visit that shining country.'
'This is all very clever and happily devised, and well done,' thought I,stealing a peep at Nakier, who was steadfastly regarding withundissembled admiration the girl's sweet fresh face, that was faintlyflushed by her enactment; 'but if we three men should be made awaywith----' I choked off the hurry of ugly fancies that swarmed on top ofthe thought of that dark princely-mannered villain falling in love withher, and exclaimed:
'Yes, the country of the Malays is a paradise, I believe! Here, Nakier,is a chart of South Africa.'
We went to the skylight to spread it.
'Now,' said I, 'where is this Mossel Bay that you were speaking about?'
I pored upon the chart in a posture of eager interest. He immediatelypointed to the place with a forefinger as delicately shaped as awoman's.
'Ha!' said I. 'Yes; that is to the eastward of Agulhas. See,' Icontinued, pointing to one of those marginal illustrations I havereferred to, 'here is a picture of the bay. It is a long walk to CapeTown!' I continued, looking round at Nakier.
'Oh no; plenty coach, plenty horse, plenty ox,' he responded, showinghis teeth and speaking without the least hesitation--a quality ofassurance that made me hopeful, for it was everything indeed that heshould believe us credulous enough to suppose that Mossel Bay was thedestination he had in his mind.
'Here is the picture, Helga!' said I. 'D'ye see it, Abraham? A fine openroadstead, not to be easily missed by you and Miss Nielsen. There are acouple of excellent sextants and a good chronometer below, and allnecessary instruments for a safe navigation.'
'Oy, a first-class bay, and no mistake!' exclaimed Abraham.
Bending his squint upon the chart in a musing way, he scored along theline of coast with his square-cut thumb, as though calculating coursesand distances. Miserable as I felt, I could have burst into a laugh atthe face he put on.
'Oi've long had a notion,' said he, still squinting at the chart, 'ofwisiting these 'ere foreign parts. Oi've heered tell of Cape Town as aproper city, plenty o' grapes a-knocking about and sherry vines and thelikes of them drinks to be had for the asting, everything A1 and up tothe knocker. But see here, Nakier,' said he, in a wonderfully familiarand friendly, shipmate-like sort of way. 'Oi'm a pore man, and so is mymate Jacob. Tell ye what Oi'm a-thinking of: ain't there no chance ofour taking up a few pound for this here run?'
His apparent earnestness must have deceived a subtler eye than everNakier could have brought to bear on him. I uttered a word or two, asthough I would remonstrate.
'You and me, Misser Vise, will speak on dat by-um-bye. We allee wantmoney, and we get it,' responded Nakier, nodding significantly.
I partly turned away, as though there was nothing in this conversationto interest me.
'Ye don't know what hovelling is, Nakier, Oi suppose,' said Abraham.'This here wessel is what we should call a blooming good job down ourway----'
I interrupted him, fearful lest he should overdo his part: 'You might goforward and get some breakfast now, Abraham. You can relieve me herewhen you have finished the meal. Is there anything more you wish to knowthat this chart can tell us about, Nakier?'
'No, sah. Now you sabbee where Mossel Bay is, it is allee right.'
Abraham was descending the poop ladder. Under pretence of giving him thechart to replace in the mate's berth, I whispered, 'Mind you tell Jacobeverything,' and then walked aft with Helga, leaving Nakier to goforward.
Throughout that morning the weather continued wonderfully brilliant andquiet. The heavens were a sweep of blue from line to line, and the sunas hot as we might have thought to find it ten degrees farther south.But shortly after ten o'clock the weak wind, that had been barely givingthe _Light o
f the World_ steerage way, entirely failed; the atmospheregrew stagnant with the dry, parched hollowness that one sometimesnotices before a storm, as though Nature sucked in her cheeks beforeexpelling her breath through her feverish lips. I put my head into theskylight to look at the barometer, not knowing but that there might bedirty weather at the heels of this passing spell of sultry silence; butthe mercury stood high, and the lens-like sharpness of the line of thehorizon along with the high fine-weather blue was as ample aconfirmation of its promise as one could hope to find. By eleven o'clockthe calm was broken by a delicate rippling of wind out of thenorth-east--the first fanning of the north-east trade-wind I took it tobe. The yards were trimmed to the change by Abraham, who followed onwith some orders about the foretopmast-studdingsail. I was on deck atthe time, and hearing this, rose hastily and thrust past him, sayingbetwixt my teeth, so vexed was I by his want of foresight:
'Keep all fast with your studdingsail gear, you fool! Are we threeEnglishmen a line-of-battle ship's company? Think before you bawl out!'
He saw his blunder, and, after a leisurely well-acted view of the sea,as though the weather had raised a debate in his mind, he called out tothe three or four fellows who were clambering aloft to rig the boom outon the foreyard:
'Never mind about that there stun'-sail! Ye can lay down, moy lads!' andhe bawled to me (who had returned aft), by way, no doubt, of excusinghimself to Nakier, who was on the forecastle, and who appeared to bekeeping a keen look-out upon the ship on his own account, 'There's nouse, Oi think, Mr. Tregarthen, aworriting about stun'-sails ontil thishere breeze hardens. It'll only be keeping the men agoing for no good.'
'Unless we are speedy,' I whispered to Helga, as we stood within earshotof the helmsman, 'that man Abraham will ruin us. Think of the fellowpiling canvas at such a time! What a curse is consequentiality when outof season! Here is a poor, miserable Deal boatman with the privilege ofordering a few black men about, and he doesn't know how to make enoughof his rights.'
From time to time I would gaze mechanically round the sea in search of aship, but with no notion of finding encouragement in the gleam of a sailor in the shadowing of a steamer's smoke. My hope lay in a verydifferent direction. But custom is strangely strong on shipboard, and Icontinued to look, though I was without the wish to see.
Shortly before noon I fetched the two sextants, one of which I gave toAbraham and the other to Helga. The boatman seemed hardly to know whatto do with the instrument; it was a new, very handsome sextant,sparkling with brass and details of telescope, coloured glass, and thelike, and bore as little resemblance to the aged, time-eaten quadrantthat had gone down with the _Early Morn_ as to the cross-staff of theancient mariner. I marked him putting it to his eye, and then fumblingwith it, and, noticing several fellows forward, Nakier among them,attentively watching us, I called to him softly:
'Keep it at your eye, man! Let them believe that you thoroughlyunderstand it!'
'Roight ye are,' he answered, putting the instrument to his face; 'butwho the blazes is agoing to bring the sun into the middle o' such amuddle o' hornamentation as this here?'
The attention of the men, however, was in reality fixed upon Helga. Shestood at the rail within full view of them, and there was, indeed,novelty enough in the sight to account for their staring, apart from thehope they had of her as the one that was to navigate their ship to thecoast on which, as I took it, they meant to wreck her. Her well-fittingdress of dark serge showed no signs of wear as yet. No posture that shemight have artfully adopted could so happily express the charms of herfigure as this, when she turned her face sunwards, with the shiningsextant raised to her eye. The delicate pale gold of her short hair wasthe right sort of tint to fascinate the dusky gaze that was fastenedupon her. In her conversations with me she had made little or nothing ofher knowledge of navigation, but it was easy to see in an instant'sglance that she was a practised hand in the art of coaxing the sun'slimb to the sip of the sea-line.
I spied Nakier forward watching her with an air of breathless interest.He and the rest of them might have doubted her capacity, knowing of itonly from such off-hand talk as Punmeamootty had been able to collectand repeat from the cabin table. But now she was justifying theirexpectations, and by this time the whole of the crew--ten of them, withJacob in the waist and a Malay at the wheel--were staring as one man;the cook from the door of his galley, Nakier on the forecastle swingingoff from a rope, the rest of them in groups here and there.
'It is eight bells,' cried Helga in her clear voice, accentuated, as italways was, with a faint harshness of Scandinavian articulation.
'Height bells!' roared Abraham, though it might have been midnight tohim, so far as the indications of _his_ sextant went.
'Eight bell!' piped the melodious voice of Nakier, like a belated echoof Helga's cry; and the chimes floated along the quiet decks.
I told Abraham to go below to the mate's cabin, and bring materials ofink, paper, log-book, and so forth, to enable Helga to work out thesights; also the chronometer and the Nautical Almanack. This was a partof our plot; otherwise, as you may suppose, the chronometer was not athing to be carried here and there, least of all by such hands asAbraham's. The men were now passing in and out of the galley, conveyingtheir dinner of smoking beef and ship's 'duff' into the forecastle. Theytalked eagerly, and with a gratulatory tone. That Helga had been able tofind out what o'clock it was by the sextant, was the fullest warranty ofher sufficiency as a navigator the poor wretches' ignorant souls couldhave demanded.
Nakier remained on the forecastle, watching us. I summoned him with themotion of my forefinger, and he came rapidly gliding to the poop.
'I wish you to remain here,' said I, 'while Miss Nielsen calculates thebarque's position, that you may be able to tell the rest of the men theyare in friendly hands, and that we look for the same friendly behaviourfrom you all.'
He answered with a motion of his hand, that was as expressive as aFrenchman's gesture.
'It would have been more convenient for the lady,' I continued, 'to havemade her calculations in the Captain's cabin, but----' I looked him fullin the face. He did not seem to understand. 'That berth is not fit forher to enter.'
'Ha!' he exclaimed, 'dat shall be put right. I have forgot.'
'By-and-bye. No hurry now. Tell Punmeamootty to bring us our dinnerhere. Miss Nielsen does not care to use the cuddy. She is a younglady--impressionable--you understand me, Nakier? When all is madestraight the feeling will pass with her. But for the present----'
I broke off as Abraham arrived, bringing with him the articles I haddespatched him to procure.
'Whose trick at the wheel is it?' I asked the boatman carelessly. 'It isnoon, and that man yonder has been at the helm since ten.'
'It'll be Jacob's, sir. Oi allow he's waiting to finish his dinner.'
'No, no,' said I, 'that's not true ship's discipline. Fair must be fairaboard us,' and with some demonstration of warmth in my manner, I wentto the poop rail and bawled for Jacob to come aft. The man promptlymade his appearance, and the moment he had gripped the spokes of thewheel the ginger-coloured fellow who had been steering fled along thedecks for his dinner, fleet as a hare with hunger. Abraham, with penciland paper in hand, leaned upon the companion-cover while he pretended tobe lost in calculating. Nakier and I stood looking on at Helga, who wasseated on one side the skylight, the lid of which, being closed andlying flat, provided her with a table on which stood the chronometer,the volumes, the charts, and the other appliances she needed. She knewexactly what to do, and worked out her problems with a busy face and theblue of her eyes sweetened into violet by the shadow of her lashes.Deeply worried, miserably anxious as I was, on the eve of a project thefailure of which was bound to signify an inhuman butchery of the threeof us by the dark-skinned creatures we designed to betray, I could stillfind heart for admiration of the wonderful heroism of this girl. She wasactively to share in our enterprise, and if failure followed, her doommight be even more fearful than ours; yet had her face
been of marblecarved into an incomparable counterfeit of a girl's countenance intenton a bit of arithmetic and nothing more, its passionlessness, itsmarvellous freedom from all expression of agitation, could not have beencompleter.
When she had completed her reckoning, she opened the chart which boreCaptain Bunting's 'prickings,' as it is termed, and with rules andpencil continued the line to the situation of the ship at noon.
'That is where we are at this moment,' she exclaimed, pointing to thechart.
Nakier, with looks of astonishment and delight, peered.
'What d'ye make it, miss?' called Abraham.
She gave him the latitude--what it was has wholly escaped me.
'Roight,' he shouted, tearing up his bit of paper.
'Take these things below, Abraham,' said I, 'and then get your dinner.When you have done, come aft and take charge of the barque for half anhour. Miss Nielsen wishes to go to her cabin, and I am no sailor to beleft alone with this craft.'
'Send Punmeamootty here with something for us to eat, if you please,Nakier.'
He made a soft salaaming bow, and quitted us with shining eyes and ahighly pleased face. Presently the steward approached us with some coldsalt beef, biscuit, and a bottle of wine. He spread a cloth upon theskylight, and then brought a couple of chairs from the cabin. While hewas doing this I slipped into the mate's berth and took a tract-chart ofthe world from the bag and returned with it. I opened and pretended toexamine it with anxious attention, speaking in an aside to Helga in agrumbling, doubting voice, and with a shake of my head, whilePunmeamootty stood by waiting to learn if we had further orders. I toldhim we should require nothing more, and then, rolling up the chart,feigned to attack the repast before us. But as to _eating_!--not for tentimes the value of this _Light of the World_ and her cargo could I haveswallowed a morsel. Helga munched a biscuit and drank a little wine,eyeing me collectedly, with often a smile when my glance went to her.
'What a heart beats in you!' I cried gently, for it was impossible toknow but that some wriggling, nimble-heeled coloured skin had slippedinto the cabin, and was hanging motionless close under us, with his earat the skylight. 'But it is not too late even yet to reconsider. I cando without you.'
'Not so well as with me.'
'But if we fail----'
'We shan't fail.'
'If we fail,' I continued, 'they may spare you as not apparently in theplot, and they will spare you the more readily, and use you well too,since they must be helpless without you to navigate them.'
'Hush!' she whispered. 'The stratagem will be the surer for my presence.And what is the danger? There can be none if we manage as we havearranged.'
'When d'ye reckon on starting on this here job, Mr. Tregarthen?' calledJacob from the wheel.
I shook my fist as a hint to him to hold his tongue. I waited a fewminutes, during which I pretended to be busy with my knife and fork. Theyellow-faced cook stood in the galley door smoking: there were twofellows beyond him conversing close against the forecastle hatch. Therest of the seamen were below at their dinner. I now opened the chart;Helga came round to my side, and the pair of us fell to pointing andmotioning with our hands over the chart as though we were warmlydiscussing a difficulty. I raised my voice and shook my head,exclaiming: 'No, no! Any sailor will tell you that the prevailing galesoff Agulhas are from the east'ard;' and continued in this fashion,delivering meaningless sentences, always very noisily, and with a greatdeal of gesticulation, while Helga acted a like part. The three fellowsforward watched us steadfastly.
Just then Abraham rose out of the forecastle hatch and approached thepoop in a strolling, rolling gait, carelessly filling his pipe as hecame, and sending the true 'longshore leisurely look at the sea fromside to side. A couple of fellows followed him out of the hatch, enteredthe galley for a light, as I supposed, and emerged smoking. Helga and Istill feigned to be wrangling. Then Abraham joined us, and afterlistening a minute or two, raised his voice with a wrangling note in italso.
'Come, Helga,' I whispered; 'this fooling has lasted long enough. Nowfor it, and may God shield us! Abraham, stand by, my lad! Keep your eyeforward!'
I had courted a few occasions of peril in my time, and knew what it wasto have death close alongside of me for hour after hour; but then myblood was up, there was human life to be saved, and, outside thatconsideration, there was small opportunity for thought. It was otherwisenow, and I own that my heart felt cold as stone as I advanced to theforecastle with Helga. I prayed that my cheeks would not betray myinward perturbation. I did not greatly fear for the girl. Though weshould fail, I believed her life would be saved, horrible as theconditions of preservation _might_ prove to her. It was otherwise withme. Let but a suspicion of my intention enter the minds of the men, andI knew that in the space of a pulse or two I must be a corpse pierced byevery knife in that vessel's forecastle.
As I approached the hatch that led to the quarters of the crew, Nakiercame out of it. I suppose that the fellows who had been watching uscalled down to him, and that he came up to gather what the discussion onthe poop might be about. He looked astonished by our presence in thatforepart of the ship, and there was a mingling of puzzlement and ofcunning in his eyes as he ran them over us.
'I cannot satisfy myself that Mossel Bay is a safe and easy destinationfor this vessel.'
'It was settle, sah,' he exclaimed quickly.
'There are more accessible ports on the South African coast. What arethe views of your crew?'
'Dey are all of my 'pinion, sah.'
'The matter has not been discussed in their presence. Why do you wish tocarry us round Agulhas? Besides, do not you know that there are ships ofwar at Simon's Bay, and that there is every chance of our falling inwith one of her Majesty's cruisers off that line of coast you wish us tosail round?'
By this time the few men on deck gathered about us, and were listeningeagerly with their necks stretched and their eyes, like blots of inkupon ovals of yellow satin, but fire-touched, steadfast upon me.
'I do not agree with Mr. Tregarthen, Nakier,' said Helga. 'I believethere is nothing to fear from our sailing round the Cape. He speaks ofthe heavy seas of the Southern Ocean, and of strong easterly winds. Itis not so.'
'No, no,' he cried, with a passionate motion of the head; 'no easterwind dis time ob year. All fine-wedder sailing; beautiful smooth sea,allee same as now.'
'Now, see here,' said I, with a note of imperativeness in my speech. 'Ihave a right to express an opinion on this matter, and my contention is,that it is ridiculous to sail round to Mossel Bay, when you may getashore for your walk to Cape Town on this side of the stormy headland ofAgulhas.'
The fellow's eyes sparkled with irritation and mischief as he looked atme.
'Abraham and his mate are both of my way of thinking,' I went on. 'Thelady, on the other hand, has no objection to Mossel Bay. Here we are,then, undecided as yet. Do you follow me?' He nodded his head sideways,as much as to say, 'Go on!' 'The four of us, however, will agree tothis. The chart gives you a view of South Africa. Let all handsassemble, saving those two men aft there, who are willing to abide byyour decision. Let me show them this chart and explain my ideas to them.If after I have been heard, you and your men still insist upon ourcarrying this vessel to Mossel Bay, it shall be done.'
'Where can we lay the chart?' said Helga.
'Is there a table in your forecastle?' I asked, sending a look at thelittle hatch which yawned close by.
'Yaas, sah,' answered Nakier, glancing from Helga to the cuddy, as if hecould not understand us.
I met his eyes with a shake of my head, as though I could read histhoughts, and, approaching him by a stride, whispered: 'Not in thecuddy. You know why. I must have her by my side if we are to fairlyargue this difficulty.'
'I can easily descend,' said Helga, stepping to the forecastle hatch tolook down. 'I want to see the men's quarters, Nakier. I am as much asailor as any of you, and have slept in a hammock.'
The man's gaze glowed with the admira
tion I had noticed in it when sheworked out the navigation problems. Had he been the subtlest-witted ofhis race, what could he have witnessed in this desire of the girl and meto enter the forecastle to excite his suspicion? The other poor duskyfools, standing by with tawny, orange, or primrose faces, wrinkled theirrepellent masks with sailor-like grins of expectation; for whatever bethe colour of Jack's skin at sea, the least excitement, the leastdivergement from the miserable monotony of his life, is a delight tohim.
'Shall I go first?' said I.
Helga uttered a clear laugh. 'I should be ashamed,' she answered, 'notto be able to enter a ship's forecastle without help;' and so saying,she put her little foot upon the first of the pieces of wood nailedagainst the bulkhead and serving as steps, and descended. I followed,bidding Nakier, as I entered the hatch, to order every mother's son ofhis crew to attend, since it was a question for all hands, and theirdecision was to be final.
It was a time of emotions and sensations, and memory recalls but littlemore. I remember that one after another, in response to Nakier's call,the men who were on deck dropped below, till the forecastle was full ofdusky, grotesquely attired shapes. The daylight streamed down throughthe oblong yawn of hatch. The flame of a slush-lamp charged the interiorwith an atmosphere of greasy smoke. Some bunks went on either hand, anda few hammocks dangled from the upper deck. There was a square tablefixed to the stout after-bulkhead that divided this compartment from thehold. The men seemed to be without other wearing apparel than that theystood up in. I saw no sea-chests, no bags, merely here and there a shoe,a cap, a sou'-wester, an oilskin smock dangling at a nail. The murmur ofthe water, broken by the stealthily sliding stem, penetrated thestillness with a subdued sound of hissing like the swift respiration ofthe men, who gathered about Helga and me as we stood at the table withthe chart open before us. Hard by the table was a stove, the chimney ofwhich, in a zigzag, pierced the deck, showing its head well out of theway, close against the hollow under the top-gallant forecastle, wherethe windlass was.
Pressing my forefinger upon the chart, the curling corners of which wereheld down by Nakier on the one hand and Helga on the other, I fell toexplaining my views, as I chose to call them, meanwhile looking round toobserve that all hands of the Malays and Cingalese were present--for thecreatures had a trick of coming and going like shadows. I bade them alllisten, looking into one face after another, and I can see them now,shouldering one another and eagerly bending forwards--a strange, gloomyhuddle of discoloured countenances flashful with eyes, and of manyexpressions. Some of them barely understood English, apart from theplain sea-going terms, and these frowned down upon the chart, or at me,in their effort to understand my meaning. Upon every man's left hip wasstrapped the inevitable sheath-knife of the sailor, accessible in atwist of the wrist, and my breath for a little while grew laboured,while I cursed myself for not having acted upon the first motion of mymind after Nakier had laid the capful of naked blades at Helga's feet.
'See here, now!' I exclaimed, addressing the men generally: 'judge ofthe time and leagues we might be able to save by making for St. HelenaBay, or say Saldanha Bay, instead of Mossel Bay. Here is Simon's Town,and in this bight, as all of you know, lie several of her Majesty'sships. Figure a cruiser requiring us to bring to, and sending a boataboard us. What then?'
The few of the fellows who understood me breathed hard and looked atNakier. One of them, with a Dutch accent, exclaimed:
'Boss! how far it be from Saldanha Bay to Cape Town?'
Nakier said something almost fiercely to him in his native tongue. Theman responded in a dialect that certainly, to my ear, did not resembleNakier's--but this might have been owing to the swinish thickness of hisutterance--and, having spoken, he thrust one of his mates aside to getnearer to the table, and, putting his grimy thumb on the part of thechart where Simon's Bay was marked, he stared at Nakier, nodding with avehemence that seemed a sort of fury in him--immediately afterwardsrounding upon the others, and gesticulating with his hand to his neck,clearly signifying a halter.
'No, no!' cried Nakier.
'How far?--how far, boss?' shouted the other, addressing me.
'I cannot tell,' said I, 'without a pair of compasses. I forgot to bringthose measuring instruments with me. I will fetch them--I will be backamong you in a few minutes.'
Helga, with a well-acted start and look of alarm, said: 'You must notleave me alone here! Let me fetch the box!'
'Very good,' said I.
She lightly gained the deck, but even while she was making for the hatchI was covering her retreat by noisily talking and demonstrativelypointing, so that every man's attention was fixed upon me.
I held the corner of the chart, which Helga had pinned down with herfingers, while I spoke; the chart was stiff, and had not been oftenused, and when you let go it rolled itself up into a funnel. I perceivedthat my reference to the British ships of war at Simon's Bay had takena hold upon the imagination of a few of the fellows, and while I seemedto wait for Helga I made the most of this by asking the men if theycould tell me what vessels were on that station, if they knew how oftenand in what direction they cruised, and then I said:
'Suppose on our arrival at Mossel Bay we find an English frigate orcorvette there? Men, have you thought of that? It is not because I aminnocent of the blood of the Captain and the mate who were assassinatedlast night that I wish to be boarded by a lieutenant and a dozen Englishsailors from a man-of-war on our arrival, wherever it may be, or on thehigh seas. Can I be sure of proving my innocence if I am charged withhaving had a hand in this crime?' I cried, looking defiantly at Nakier,and raising my voice. 'Would you come forward and say that you and yourmen were guilty, and that I and the lady and the two Englishmen wereinnocent? You know you would not!' I thundered, heavily striking thechart a thump with my clenched fist. 'Why, then, do you want to sailpast this Simon's Bay? Is not this side of the coast safer, freer fromthe risks of falling in with a ship of war, and nearer by many miles toCape Town than Mossel Bay?'
'How much near?--how much near, boss?' cried the man who had alreadyasked this question.
'Here!' said I. 'Hold down this corner of the chart, will you, while Icall to Mr. Wise to bring me the box of instruments? Miss Nielsen cannotfind the things. Wise put the box away, and knows where it is.'
I left the table and stood under the hatch a moment to address a word toNakier in that wild mad spirit of defiance that will often in thetimidest mock at peril in the most terrible instant of it.
'Make your men understand,' I cried, 'that if we fall in with aman-of-war, every soul of them stands to be hanged by the neck until heis dead!'
As I said these words I sprang, caught the coaming of the hatch, gainedthe deck with another bound, and the next instant the slide of the hatchwas swept in a roar through its grooves by the powerful hands of the twoDeal boatmen.
My Danish Sweetheart: A Novel. Volume 3 of 3 Page 6