CHAPTER XV
"Well," continued the commander, his voice making use of the breeze ashe stood aft of the group, "I could not have slept more than three orfour hours on a stretch, when I was woke by a fellow shoving his lanternin my face, and saying it wasn't me he wanted; for which I gave him ahearty objurgation, and turned over a swing of the cot to go asleepagain. The sailor grumbled something about the parson being wanted forthe captain; and all at once it flashed on my mind where we were, withthe whole of last night's ticklish work--seeing that, hard rub as itwas, it had clean left me for a time. 'Try the aftermost berth, then,'said I, slipping out in the dark to put on my trousers.
"The fact was, on going below to our state-room, I had found my own cottaken up by someone in the confusion; and as every door stood open atnight in that latitude, I e'en made free with the nearest, which I knewwas the missionary's. In a minute or two I heard Westwood meet the mate,who said he thought the captain would like to see him, and hoped theyhadn't 'disturbed the other gentleman.' 'Oh no, I daresay not,' saidWestwood, rather nervously, guessing, I daresay, what he was wanted for;while Finch slipped quietly past to listen at the state-room door, whereboth he and I might hear the 'other gentleman,' whoever he was, snoringpretty plain.
"When the first officer shut the door to, however, turned the key, andput it in his pocket, I nearly gave vent to a whistle. 'I see!' thoughtI; 'but, my fine fellow, it seemed you never were meant for a goodjailer, anyhow!' He was no sooner gone than I walked forward toward thecaptain's cabin, near the after-hatchway, anxious enough to see how thepoor man was, since I had had such a share in bringing him to a point,one way or another. Westwood was standing against the light out of theopen door, and I looked in along with him, at the cot slung high to thebeams like a lump of shadow, the lamp striking across below it on allthe captain's little affairs--his glazed hat and his wet coat, the namesof two or three old books even hanging in shelves against thebulkhead--and into the little state-room off the cabin, where thesurgeon was stooping to mix a draught.
"The hard-featured Scotch mate stood holding the captain's wrist withone clumsy flipper, as if trying to feel his pulse, fumbling about hisown face with the other, and looking more concerned than I'd thoughtpossible for him. 'Well, I've slept--a good deal,' said the captain, ina weak voice, putting up his hand slowly to rub his eyes, but seeminglyquite composed, and knowing nothing of what had happened--which rid meof the horrid notion I could scarce help before, that he had known whathe was about. His head was close shaved, and the look of a sailor cleangone off his face with the bluff, honest oak-colour it commonly had,till you'd have wished him decently in his bed thousands of miles off,with women slipping out and in; only the blood from his arm hanging downon the sheet, with the sharp point of his nose and the shape of hisknees coming up off the shadow, kept it all in one with the wild affairon deck a few hours gone.
"'She's on her course, you say?' added he, listlessly. 'Must be a _very_light breeze though, Mr Macleod.' 'So it is, sir; so it is, no doubt!'replied the second mate, soothing him; 'did ye say we'll _pent_ theship, sir?' 'Ay, before we go into port, Mr Macleod, to be sure,' saidCaptain Williamson, trying to put a cheerful tone into his voice; 'she'shad a good deal of buffeting, but we mustn't let 'em see it, you know!Didn't you lose a mizzen-topmast somehow, though, Mr Macleod?' ''Deeday, sir,' said Macleod, hastily, afraid he was getting upon the scent ofwhat had happened; 'the first officer's watch it was, sir--will _I_ tellMr Finch ye're wanting to speak to him about it, Captain Williamson?'and he began to shuffle towards the door.
"'Finch? Finch?' said the sick man, passing his finger over his eyesagain; 'what voyage _is_ this, Mr Macleod?' 'Why--why,' said theScotchman, starting, and rather puzzled himself. 'Oo, it's just _this_voyage, ye know, sir! Mr Finch, ye mind, sir?' 'No, no; don't let himleave the deck for a moment, Macleod!' said the captain, anxiously:'harkye, James, I'm afraid I've trusted overmuch to the young man allalong! I'll tell ye, Mr Macleod, I don't know whether I was asleep ornot, but I _heard_ him somewhere wishing he had the command of thisship! I shouldn't like him to take her off my hands! Have you seen theScilly lights yet, Mr Macleod?'
The mate shook his head; he had contrived to persuade the poor man wewere far homeward bound. 'If you'd only get the pilot aboard, MrMacleod,' the captain went on, 'I'd die contented; but mind thecharts--mind the charts--I've got the charts to mind for another sort ofvoyage myself, James!' 'Hoot, hoot, captain!' said the Scotchman, 'whatsets ye for to talk after that fashion--you'll be up an' about decksdirectly, sir! What were ye saying about top-m'sts now, sir?' CaptainWilliamson gave the second mate a glance that looked into him, and heheld down his head, for the man evidently believed fully, as none of uscould help doing, that there was death on the captain's face.
"'James, James!' said the captain, slowly, 'you've no notion how somethings weigh on the mind at a pass of this kind! Other things one don'tremember--but there's one in particular, almost as it wereyesterday--why, surely you were with me that voyage, Mr Macleod! when Ilet some o' the passengers take a boat in a calm, and all----' Here hestopped, seemingly overcome. 'There was one young creature amongst 'em,'he went on, 'the age of my own girl, Macleod--my own little Nan, youknow--and now--now I miss _her_--and, and----' The poor man gave a greatgulp, clutching the mate's arm, and gazing him in the face. 'Wasn't it along time ago?' said he, very anxiously; 'if it wasn't, I would go mad!They were all drowned--drowned--I _see_ that black squall coming down onthe swell _now_, man, and the brig, and all of us looking out to thewind'ard!' 'I mind something about it,' replied Macleod, stoutly, thoughhe looked away: ''twas none o' your fault, though, CaptainWilliamson--they were just _fey_, sir; and more than that, if ye mind,sir, they took the boat again' all orders--on the sly, I may say.'
"Westwood was on the point of starting forward to make known how thecase stood, on the strength of our finding the paper in the bottle, whenI pressed his arm, and whispered that it could only make things worse,and cheat the sick man of a notion more likely to do him good thanotherwise. 'It's a heavy charge, Mr Macleod, a heavy charge!' said he,falling back again; 'and one Mr Brown needn't envy.' 'Mr _Finch_, sir,ye mind,' put in the second mate, setting him right; 'but keep up yourheart, sir, for any sake!' 'I feel I'll last over the time o' next fulltide,' said the captain, solemnly. 'I don't want to know how far we'reoff, only if there's any chance at all, Macleod, you won't spare canvasto carry her in.'
"The Scotchman rubbed one of his hard cheek-bones after the other, andgrumbled something or other in his throat by way of agreement. The wholething was melancholy to see, after last night's stir, with the dim lampor two twinkling along the gloom of the steerage, the dead quietness ofthe ship, and the smothered sort of glare under the captain's cotbringing out the mere litter on the floor, to the very cockroachesputting their ugly feelers out of one of his shoes in a corner; he shuthis eyes, and lay for a minute or two seemingly asleep, only murmuringsomething about a breeze, and then asking them to shove out the port,'twas so close. The second mate looked to the surgeon, who signed to himto do it, as if it didn't much matter by this time; while he gave himthe draught of physic he was mixing, however.
"The Indiaman was beginning to swing slowly before the first of theflood, stern off at her anchors; and whenever the port was opened, 'twasso still otherwise that you heard the tide clearly in the cabin,rippling along the timbers to the copper upon her bows--plash, plash,and lap, lip, lap, like no other earthly sound that a man can hear--andyou even began to note it on something else a good bit off, though itseemed to be all quite dark out-board. The captain's eyes opened bydegrees, till we saw them looking at us out of the shadow of the cot,and the second mate started as if to mend his mistake; only 'twas plainenough, by that time, the captain _knew_ the sound, half raising himselfup and listening. A few early mosquitoes came in, and, after dancingabout to refresh themselves in the light and warmth under the cot, beganto bite savagely; everyone of us had a distant horn sounding in his ear,and each was rubbing it or hi
s nose, except the sick man; but not one ofthem settled on him. As the starboard port slued gradually opposite tothe nearest shore, a low, deep hum was carried in over the water, ebbingand flowing, and full of dim, creeping noises, like things stirring intheir sleep, as if the little cabin had been an ear to the ship. Attimes the tree-frogs broke out in a loud clicking chirrup; then, betweenthe fits of it, when all seemed still again for a moment or two, youheard a low, half-smothered, small sound, deeper down, as it were, fillup the break with its throbbing and trill-trilling, as if just _one_land-cricket or a grasshopper did it, till it came out as clear asthough it were a child's rattle close by, and all of a sudden stopped;when back floated the huge whispering hum again, with a damp smell ofleaves on a cold breath of the land-air, that died away as quickly as itreached us. The bewilderment on Captain Williamson's white face for thatminute's time was cruel to witness, and Macleod would certainly haveclosed the port, but for the captain's seizing his arm again, with awild, questioning sort of a look into the second mate's eyes. 'Oh, goodGod!' faltered out the captain, 'it's--it's _land_!----where--where----?''For goodsake, sir,' said Macleod, 'don't ask me the now--take a bit ofsleep, sir.'
"We could hear one another breathing, when ting-tang went four bells ondeck. You heard it going across to the shore, as it were; and a fewmoments after, out of the humming far and wide along the land, back camethe sound of another bell, toll upon toll, like some clock striking thehour a long way off. Then a third one followed on it, from a differentdirection, ringing clearer in the air; while the murmur and the rushseemed to swell up the more all round, and the plashing of the tide madethe ship heave at her anchors. The mate shivered, Westwood and Istarted, but some extraordinary notion or other gleamed over thecaptain's face as he sat up. He was quite in his senses, too,apparently, though it seemed to be neither more nor less than sheer joythat overcame him, for he let out a long breath, and his eyes wereglistening as if the tears stood in them. 'James--James Macleod!' saidhe quickly, with a husky voice,' you oughn't to've deceived one you'vesailed so long with; but you meant me a good surprise, and 'twas kindlydone of you! _I_ know the very run o' the clocks off Greenwich Reach,man; d'ye think one could mistake the sound of Lon'on town, fidgetingwhen it wakes, either?--we 're--we're _home_ already!'
"And he fell back in the cot, with the drops running down his cheek,smiling happily all the time at Macleod in a way that went to one'sheart; while the Scotchman stared helplessly to the surgeon, who slippedto the port and closed it. 'I know by your way, James,' continued thepoor man, 'you wanted to send up to Virginia Row for 'em _all_; butdon't send for an hour yet; better go up yourself and break it to'em--_break_ it to 'em, be sure of that, James; I shouldn't wonder but Ipulled up, after all. Ah--that first one we heard was GreenwichHospital--t'other is Dicksons' brewery or Redriff----' Here his eyelidsbegan to drop, owing to the sleeping-draught he had got, when suddenlythey opened wide again.
"'Ha!' said he, listening, and putting up a finger, 'but I haven't heardSt Paul's strike six yet; it's seldom so long after; ought to be heardfrom here of a morning; let's----' By little and little, however, thesick man's eyes closed, and you heard him murmuring, as his finger sankdown, 'Macleod, say--to her--say--luff, luff, my lad, keep her hercourse--' till his shrunk face was as quiet on the pillow as if he'dbeen really at home the first night after a voyage.
"'Oh man, doctor!' said the second mate, heaving a breath, 'isn't itterrible! Good forgive me for a lee to a dying man! Take an old seaman'sword for it, Dr Small, yon clock ashore was no mortal soond, sir; ye maykeep your drogues for them they'll do good to. 'Twas neither more orless than the captain's _dregy_!' 'Phoo!' answered the Scotch surgeon,who was one of your sceptical chaps, as I heard say, 'some other vesselshere, of course, that's all.' The sailor gave him only a smile of pityfor not being able to distinguish the sound of a ship's bell. 'Therecan't be a town hereabouts, Collins?' whispered Westwood. 'A town--no!'said I; 'it's the best wilderness sign you can have--the Africanbell-bird!'[22] 'Ah, ah!' said the surgeon, laughing, 'there now,Macleod--of course it can be explained naturally, like other things.'The second mate gave me a doubtful scowl; but seeing Westwood, whom hehad always seemed to think rather in the way before, his eye softened.
[22] _Sc._--The South African and South American _campanero_, or bell-bird, whose peculiar note may be heard two or three miles off, chiefly in the loneliest parts of the Brazilian or Benguela forest.
"'You'll be wanting to see the captain as soon as he wakes up, sir,'said he. 'I'm terrified to face him--but if ye'd just slip in when hecomes to himself, sir, I'm thinking, reverend sir, ye might wile him offyon terrible notion o' his.' Westwood shook his head, seriously, notknowing what to say. 'Ay, ay, sir,' continued Macleod, as he half closedthe door, 'no doubt a man ought to be upon better things; but it's hardfor him, when he's got a wife and weans six thousand miles away, andwants them alongside in a couple of hours--uncommon hard, sir! She's adouce, careful body, too, Mistress Williamson, like the captain's self;and I heard her fleech sore with the captain before we sailed, for tobide quietly ashore this time, for good. Poor woman! if she didn't e'engo the length o' pairtin' in anger the last morning, wae's me! till thevery moment when (he telt me himself, sir), she out with her arms roundhis neck, crying like to choke! An' all to--but if the captain had afault, 'twas the love o'--good forgive me, though, when it was butstudying his faim'ly, Mr Thomas! If it was only an auld tarry deevillike me, now, with neither kith or kin!' 'Except cousins, Mr Macleod,'said the surgeon, as he wiped his lancet on his coat-tail--'plenty ofthem in the High----' But he caught Westwood's eye, and was ashamed tofinish his heartless joke, though the rough second mate was too full ofhis feeling to hear it; when Westwood said something about our allthinking too little of these things beforehand, but how the captain wasplainly a man that had done his duty carefully, which no doubt wouldease his mind. The mate looked up, and eyed him sideways for a moment:'Eh? what?' said he bluntly; 'it's not so little I mind o' what I usedto hear at the kirk langsyne, as not to know that's not the rightdoctrine. D'ye think, sir, _that's_ what'll put him over, when he findsout this is not Greenwich Reach? There's the Methody minister with theglasses, though!' he broke out, when again a look of despair came overhis broad hard-favoured countenance. 'They're always upon works, too,I've heard!' said he, turning and murmuring to himself; 'oh, if I couldbut hoist out a bit screed o' the truth myself to comfort the poorfellow with! Lord, how didn't I think of the Shorter Carritch--let's seehow't went--"What is the chief end of"--no, it's "What is faithin--faith in the only rule to direct us"--no, no--"Baptism is asacrament--where--whereby"'--and he was still overhauling some oldcatechism in this fashion, twisting himself all the time as if he weretwisting a stiff rope the wrong way, with a look of misery none of uscould have had the heart to laugh at, when a middy's voice camesqueaking down the dark after-hatchway: 'Mr Macleod, sir, the chiefofficer wants you on deck.'
"Westwood slipped quietly off, and the young surgeon was beginning totalk easily, to rid his mind of something, perhaps, till I asked ifthere wasn't any chance. 'Oh, the captain, you mean?' said he; 'don'tthink there is--he's a bad subject! If we were out at sea now, MrCollins, the _calenture_ would make him think the waves all grass, orsomething as green as--as the cawdets used to call----' I looked at thefellow sternly, and he changed his key, though with a surprised air.
"'You're blessed early up, though, you two!' said he. 'I suppose thatcursed squall kept you idlers awake; but how they managed without thefirst mate I can't think. Clever fellow, Finch! but wasn't it a curioustrick of the poor skipper to box him up below here? I fancy he'd a guesswe would all soon be under the mate's command! It's a queer thing thebrain, isn't it, Mr Collins? For exaumple, now, there's the captain, itmakes him think something or other a clock near London, with everythingaccordingly! Macleod fancies it a soopernatural knell, and twaddlesabout some Calvinist stuff he learned at school. Then you and me, youknow, imaugines it's a bird--now, which is it after all?_N
othing_--maybe, eh?' The fellow capped all with a sneer, as much as tosay I was a fool, which I had stood from him several times before;though now I could have kicked him, more for his heartless way thanaught else. 'I tell you, Mr Small,' said I, 'what I think _you_--you'reneither more nor less than a----' but I turned on my heel. 'I'm off,however,' said he, 'to turn in again.'
"Through the half-closed door one could see the sick man's face sleepingso quiet in the shadow from the lamp, you heard not a breath. I lookedup the after-hatchway. It seemed still quite dark; and a patch of thedeep dark-blue sky showed high over the square opening, with two orthree keen sparks of stars, green ones and blue ones--you'd have thoughtthe ladder, short as it was, went up to somewhere clean above the world.But the moment I got on deck, I saw it was really lighter--the heavy fogcreeping slowly astern of the ship on both hands; the white mist rollingfaster over it before the sea-breeze against her bows, which had swungseaward by this time from the tide, that rushed like a mill-stream uponboth her tight cables; while the muddy river-water, bubbling, eddying,and fronting away past, spread far up in the middle, into the duskastern. _Such_ a jabbering, croaking, hissing, shrieking, and yelling,too, as burst into one's ears out of the dark, as if whole legions ofmonkeys, bull-frogs, parrots, paroquets, and what not, were comingtogether full upon us from both sides, one band nearer than the other;till the heavy boom of the surf round the point, and the roar of thetide coming in over the shallows about the river-mouth, pretty welldrowned it.
"The sudden change was a good relief, Babel though it seemed after thecloseness below, with what had been going on; and I looked ahead towardsthe sea, which lay away out off our larboard bow, round the headland,and over the opposite point; a cold watery streak of light showing itfrom where the breakers rose plunging and scattering along the sandybar, to the steady grey line of horizon, clipped by one of the two brownchops we had got into. It looked dreary enough as yet, the mouth of itbeing wider than I'd fancied it from seaward at night; though even withfull water over the long spit of sand in the middle, there was nodraught at all for the Indiaman except by the channel betwixt it and thebold point to our right; and pretty narrow it appeared from our presentberth, heaving, as it did, with the green swell that set in, whilemeantime the mist scudding across the face of the headland let us seebut the hard lump of bare black rock underneath.
"In less time than I've taken to speak, however, the full space of skyaloft was turning clear, the sea far away suddenly shone out blue, withthe surges tipped white; you saw a sparkling star high over it sinkslowly in, and the fog spread off the water near us, till here and thereyou caught the muffled-up shape of a big tree or two looming through,not half-a-mile off our starboard quarter; the mist creeping over theheadland till the sharp peak of it stood out against its shadow on theshoulder of a hill beyond, and old Bob Martin's single clump of cocoason the rise waving in landward from the brisk sea-breeze.
"One passenger after another came peeping sleepily out of thecompanion-hatch at the men clearing away the wreck of the spars, andswabbing the quarter-deck down; but scarce had Smith, one of the youngwriters, reached the poop, when he gave a shout that covered bothpoop-ladders in no time, with people scrambling over each other to getup. Next minute you'd have fancied them a knot of flamingoes with theirwings out, as the bright red daybreak brought out the edge of the woodsfar astern, through a hazy lane in the purple mist, topped so with straycocoa-nut trees and cabbage-palms, dabbled like brushes in the colour,that they scarce knew them to be woods at all, and not a whole lot ofwild savages fresh from other business of the kind, coming down with allsorts of queer tools upon us; more especially when one heard such achorus of unaccountable cries, whistling and screaming, as seemed tostruggle with the sound of the sea ahead of us, and the plash alongside.
"The huge round sun struck hot crimson along the far turn of the reach,with all manner of twisted blots upon _him_, as it were, and the verygrass and long reeds seemingly rustling into his face, so one didn't forthe moment know him either; while the muddy chocolate-coloured eddies,sweeping and closing beyond the ship's rudder, glittered and frothed uplike blood; and every here and there, along the streak of light, thehead of a log or a long branch came dipping up terribly plain--no wonderthe old _Seringapatam_ had apparently turned tail to it all, ready tobolt if she could.
"Almost as soon as you took your hands off your eyes, though, and couldsee without a red ball or two before them--_there_ was the nearest shoregrowing out toward our starboard bulwark all along, crowded with wetgreen woods, up into steaming high ground--all to eastward a dazzle oflight, with two or three faint mountain-peaks shooting up far off in it,and a woody blue hill or so between; while here and there a broad brighthazy spoke of the sun's great wheel came cutting down into the forest,that brought out a patch full of long big leaves, ten times greener thanthe rest, and let you look off the deck into the heart of it amongst thestems over the bank. The jabber in the woods had passed off all at oncewith the dusk, the water deepening over the bar, and the tide runningslower, so that everyone's confused face turned breathless with delightas it grew stiller and stiller.
"The whole breadth of the river shone out by this time, full and smooth,to the opposite shore three times as far away, where the wood andbulrushes seemed to grow out of the water; a long thick range of lowmuddy-looking mangroves, with a cover of dark green, rounding from thefarthest point one saw, down to some sandy hummocks near the mouth, anda ridge of the same drifted up by the wind off the beach. Beyond thatside there was nothing, apparently, but a rolling sweep of long coarsegrass, with a few straggling cocoa-nut trees and baobabs, like bigswollen logs on end, and taken to sprouting at top: a dun-coloured heaveof land in the distance, too, that came out, as it got hotter, in a longdesert-like, redbrick-dust sort of a glare. The sole living things to beseen as yet were some small birds rising up out of the long grass, andthe turkey-buzzards sailing high over all across, as if on the look-out.
"The air was so cool and clear, however, from the tornado overnight--nota cloud in the sky, and the strange scent of the land reaching us as thedew rose off it--you could see far and wide, with a delicious feeling ofit all, that kept everyone standing fixed on the spot where he firstgained the deck, even the men looking over their shoulders with theropes in their fists, and the fresh morning breeze lifting one's hair.Surprised as the passengers were, nobody spoke a word, except the threeor four children shouting, dancing, and pointing together, without beingnoticed, till, all at once, the whole poopful burst into one confusionof questions and exclamations, running hither and thither, shaking handsand jostling each other like distracted people.
"I had a spy-glass at my eye, making out the other shore, when, turninground in the middle of it, the first thing I saw was Violet Hyde's face,as she stood with one little foot on the stair-head behind me, holdingthe rail with one hand, her eyes sparkling, and her parted lipsmurmuring like one in a dream: 'Oh, Mr Collins!' exclaimed she,breathless; 'what is this? Where are we--is it Fairyland? A _river_!''Yes, in Africa,' I said; 'but whether it's the Bembarooghe or the----''That fearful, fearful evening!' continued she, shuddering: 'I saw thefrightful sky, and heard the storm--and now!--_Were_ we not in some verygreat danger, sir?' 'Yes, ma'am, we were,' replied I, as stiffly as Icould; 'but, happily, it's over now!' And I gave my cap a lift to moveoff, uneasy as I was, every moment, lest Sir Charles should catch mespeaking again to his daughter. However, Miss Hyde was gazing eagerlyat the land, and I had to wait. 'What lovely, lovely green!' she halfwhispered: 'oh, if one could only tread upon it!--so un-English thosestrange tall trees look! are they not cocoa-nut trees and--and----'Suddenly, her voice faltered, and she turned round with her bright blueeyes swimming in tears--'How--how thankful we should be that we arenot--like our poor, poor friends, who were lost!' exclaimed she. Ithought of the poor captain below in his cot, but next moment I wasexplaining, to her sheer amazement, how the real truth of the matterstood, though, if possible, it seemed to horrify her still more. 'Ican't think
what they may be,' I rapped out; 'but if I had the commandof this ship, I'd up anchor this very hour, and go out--at least as soonas the tide ebbed; but, at any rate, at the Cape I mean to get hold ofsome schooner or other, and if it were to China, why, I'll cruise after'em till I----' 'Then you think,' began she, and an arch inquisitivesort of look danced in both her eyes as she turned away to watch theshore again, saying slowly, 'You _are_ a--a naval gentleman then, MrWest--Mr Collins?' I tried to stammer out something by way of anexplanation, but it wouldn't do, and I said, 'At any rate, I'm nobetter, by this time, than an idler aboard _here_, ma'am!'
"All at once, I caught a side-look from her eyes, that wasn't meant forme, as she glanced over the poop-netting. Half provoking and half sweetit was, though, and it made my brain somehow or other seem to spinround, till a little after, before I well knew what I was about, I washolding the long spy-glass for her to see the bank of the river--herwarm breath coming on my ear as I stooped before her, near enough tohave kissed the muslin on her shoulder, while her rosy mouth changedwith every new spot that the glass brought near; and she had to hold onetaper forefinger on the other eyelid to keep it shut, so that I coulddwell on her face as if she'd been asleep. 'There, there!' exclaimedshe, 'are actually flowers--with such immense leaves! And now--anenormous tree, with roots hanging from the branches, and other stemsgrowing up into them. Why, yes!--is not that a banyan-tree, Mr----?' andshe looked away at _me_, when of course the tree was vanished, andinstead of that, the rather undeniable expression of a fellow in love,two or three inches off, bent fair upon her. Violet Hyde coloured alittle, and looked in again. 'And, I think,' continued she, 'I see--oh,two such beautiful creatures--deer, I think, coming out to drink fromthe river!' All this time, the ecstasies of the rest kept up the noiseand confusion; the young lady's-maid was gaping open-mouthed at theshore, not even noticing her young mistress's straw bonnet fall off, andI had just picked it up with one hand, to put it quietly over thatmatchless nut-brown hair of hers, shining suddenly in the sun, likesilk, when the judge's voice rang out sharp from the other stair,'Violet, child, you'll have a sunstroke. Kitmagar, you scoundrel,_beebee sahib punkah lao_, sirrah!' I held on to the telescope like grimdeath, while that eternal punkah was hoisted over us both, the judgeeyeing me somewhat coolly for the first moment. 'Well, well, MrWestwood,' said he, however, 'you've got rid of that proud freak ofyours; such behaviour as yours yesterday, I assure you, I shouldn't haveendured from anyone else, young man! But, my dear boy,' added he,suddenly, 'from what I can gather, indeed, saw myself last night, I amconvinced we owe you a very great deal--even, I suspect, the safety ofthe entire vessel!' Miss Hyde had left off using the glass, and, as Istood up, she gave me a quick glance of amazement. 'Mere chance, sir,' Istammered. 'Why,' said Sir Charles, 'I saw you at the steerage in themiddle of the hurricane, when I believe the actual officers of the shiphad left it in dismay. I tell you what, Mr Westwood, you're a boldfellow; and your uncle and I must see in India if we can't reward you insome way, my dear boy!' All this fondling style of thing, and for littlemore than a piece of luck, would have disgusted me if I hadn't been moretaken up with watching the side of Violet Hyde's face, as she listenedfor sounds in the woods ashore. 'Strange, wasn't it, Violet, my dear,'continued he to his daughter, 'that my friend the Councillor's nephewshould have gone out in the same Indiaman, so fortunately--though, ofcourse, after all, it _was_ the first this season.' 'Ah!' said she,starting, 'I beg pardon, papa--what did you--weren't you talking of theriver?' 'Don't you hear, child,' said the judge, 'I said it was acurious coincidence, Mr Westwood's going in this vessel.' 'Oh yes,indeed!' answered she, and couldn't help looking down a littleconfounded. But the lady's-maid was putting on her tiny slipper, whichhad come off, while her father mentioned that of course I'd hadpractical reasons for not owning my profession hitherto; meaning, Isuppose, that I didn't speak for fear of having to work, like themonkeys--though the sharp old lawyer must have had a better guess bythis time, and queer enough it must have been to see her face, listeningto him as he explained it all. I stood biting my lips, meanwhile--two orthree times on the point of telling him it was all nonsense about mybeing a nephew of any hanged old nabob whatever; when Sir Charles saidcarelessly he should leave the _Seringapatam_, if possible, at the Capeof Good Hope, as he couldn't trust safely to the present officers.
"Just then up got the merry chant of the men running round with thecapstan-bars, to get up anchor; the chief officer wishing, as it wasfound, to carry her farther into the river with the breeze--for the sakeof filling our water-casks the easier, according to him, but more likelyout of sheer spite at what had been done without him. What witheagerness in the cuddy to get on shore and see the woods, the breakfastbelow was a rare scene, no one minding what he did, even to rushing slapinto a couple of ladies' berths for his boots, or laying a couple ofloaded Joe Mantons into somebody's bed, swallowing biscuit and butter onthe way.
"Suddenly, we heard the splash of paddles in the water, with a hail insome foreign tongue or other, and hurried on deck in a body; where wefound the ship tiding it slowly up, under jibs and fore-topsail, andbeginning to open a longer reach where the river seemed to narrow in. Ablack-eyed, black-bearded fellow, with a tallow, yellow, sweaty sort ofcomplexion, in a dirty jacket, drawers, and short boots, and an immensegrass hat, shouting Portuguese louder and louder into the first mate'sear, till he actually put both hands together, and roared through them,pointing to himself now and then, as if surprised he wasn't known.
"All at once, evidently quite disgusted, he turned and looked over theside, saying something to one of the ugliest and most ill-lookingmulattoes I ever saw, who sat in the stern of a long rough canoe,hollowed out of some tree, with two naked black rowers, less of the realnigger than himself, as they leant grinning up at the bulwarks withtheir sharp teeth, that appeared as if they'd been filed to a point.The mulatto gloomed, but he gave no answer, and as one of the cadets andI knew a little Portuguese, we managed together to get something out ofthe fellow on deck, though, at noticing him for the first time thatmorning, I saw Finch turn red with surprise.
"We understood the man to ask if we wanted nothing particular in theriver, the meaning of which I saw better on bethinking me of the firealong the bush inside the headland, that had let me see the marks ofit--no doubt a signal to some craft they had taken us for. However, sosoon as he heard we needed no more than water and spars, after musing aminute, and speaking again to Rodriguez, as he called the mulatto, hesaid he would pilot us to a convenient berth himself, for two or threedollars; notwithstanding his title was, as he said, Don Jose JeronimoSanta somebody, commandant of the Portuguese fort something else. Theriver, we found, was the Nouries or the Cuanene, where they had asettlement called Caconda, a good way up; a remarkably bad country hegave us to know, and not worth staying in, from the number of flies, andthe elephants having got into a cursed way of burying theirtusks--except, he hinted, for the plenty of blacks, all anxious to besold and to see foreign countries; but the trade was nothingyet--absolutely nothing, said he, blowing his nose without apocket-handkerchief, and suiting the act to the word, as he mentionedhis notion of throwing it up and going farther north-west.
"By this time we had stood over to the lowest shore, till you could seethe thick coffee-coloured mud in among the roots and suckers of thedark-green mangroves, with their red pods bursting under theirrank-looking leaves--and over them, through the tall coarseguinea-grass, to the knots of feathery cocoas behind, swarming withinsects; when he gave the sign to go about, one of his blacks heaving alead, and grunting out the depth of water, as the ship made a longstretch across towards the woody side again, and Don Jose all the timetaking it as easy as if the quarter-deck were his own, while he askedfor a cigar and lighted it. Joke though he did, yet I couldn't like thefellow at all; however, as soon as she got pretty near the shore, abouta quarter of a mile from what seemed a wide creek, glittering up betweena high fringe of cane and bamboo clumps, he had the sails clued up, asingle anchor let go in fo
ur or five fathoms, and our Portuguese friendgot his money and bundled over the side, pulling quietly ashore.
The Green Hand: Adventures of a Naval Lieutenant Page 18