Singularly enough, within an hour of the occurrence of the above-recorded conversation, a sail was sighted ahead, steering north; which upon her nearer approach proved to be a South Sea whaler, homeward-bound. She was steering a course that promised to bring the two craft close alongside each other; and at Leslie"s suggestion Miss Trevor at once went below and hurriedly penned three letters--one to her people at home, one to her father in India, and one to her friends in Australia--briefly detailing the particulars of the loss of the _Golden Fleece_ and what had subsequently befallen the writer, together with her intention to proceed to Valparaiso, if necessary; after which she would act according to circ.u.mstances. At the same time Leslie wrote to the owners of the _Golden Fleece_ apprising them of the loss of the ship, and the fact that, as far as his knowledge went, there were but three survivors, namely, Miss Trevor, himself, and the seaman whom he had taken off the wreckage.
By the time that these letters were ready, the whaler was close at hand, upon which the brig"s ensign was hoisted, and the signal made that she wished to communicate. Thereupon both craft were brought to the wind, and hove-to; the brig"s quarter-boat was lowered, and the carpenter, with three hands, pulled alongside the whaler, taking the letters with him, with the request that the skipper would kindly post them at the first port arrived at. This the man readily agreed to do--such little courtesies among seamen being quite usual; and then, with mutual dips of their ensigns, the two craft proceeded upon their respective ways.
The _Mermaid_ was singularly fortunate in the weather experienced by her on this occasion of crossing the Line, as it often happens that ships in these lat.i.tudes are detained--sometimes for weeks--by persistent calms, during the prevalence of which, by constantly box-hauling the yards and taking the utmost advantage of every little draught of air that comes along, they may succeed in gaining a mile or two in the course of every twenty-four hours; whereas she carried a breeze with her that ran her, without a pause, from the north-east trades, across the calm belt, right into the south-east trade winds, which happened just then to be blowing fresh. She therefore made excellent progress to the southward after parting from the friendly whaler.
It was about a week later that the brig, thrashing along to the southward, close-hauled, and with her fore topgallantsail and main royal stowed, experienced a thrillingly narrow escape from destruction.
It was just two bells in the first watch, that is to say nine o"clock p.m. The night was fine, with bright starlight, and no moon, that luminary happening then to rise late. The wind was piping up strong and sending the trade clouds scurrying across the spangled sky at a great pace; and there was a fair amount of sea running, into which the _Mermaid_ dug her bluff bows viciously, smothering her forecastle with spray and darkening the weather clew of her fore-course with it halfway up to the yard. Miss Trevor was on deck, taking the air, and graciously favouring Leslie with her company for an hour or two prior to turning in for the night. The pair were promenading the deck together, fore and aft, between the stern grating and the mainmast, the girl availing herself of the support of Leslie"s arm to steady her upon the dancing deck.
Suddenly, as they were in the act of wheeling round abreast the main rigging, a flash of ruddy light illumined the tumbling surface of the sea, the deck they trod, the sails, and every detail of the brig"s equipment; and glancing skyward, they beheld a meteor trailing a long tail of scintillating sparks behind it, high aloft over the brig"s port quarter. With inconceivable rapidity the glowing object increased in size, its light meanwhile changing as rapidly from red to a dazzling white, until the light became almost as intense as that of the noonday sun. It was a magnificent spectacle, but one also full of unspeakable horror for those aboard the brig who stood gazing in speechless fascination at it; for it was evident that it was not only falling through the air at a speed far surpa.s.sing that of a cannon shot, _but was also coming straight for the brig_. A deep humming sound that, as it seemed, in the s.p.a.ce of a single moment increased to an almost deafening scream, marked the speed of its flight through the air; and as Leslie grasped the fact that in another second that enormous glowing ma.s.s--weighing, as he conceived, some hundreds of tons--must infallibly strike the brig and smash her to atoms, he instinctively interposed his own body between his companion and the gigantic hurtling missile--as though such frail protection could have been of any service to her!
Then, while it was still some two hundred yards from the brig--at which distance the heat of it fell upon their white upturned faces like the breath of a suddenly opened furnace--the dazzling white-hot ma.s.s burst with a deafening explosion into a thousand pieces, some of which flew hurtling over and about the brig, but happily without touching her; and the danger was over. It had come and was gone again in the brief s.p.a.ce of some seven seconds.
"That is the narrowest shave I have ever had in my life," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Leslie, catching his breath. "And you, Miss Trevor, have had an experience such as falls to the lot of few people, I imagine--the experience of being threatened with destruction by a falling meteor, and surviving to tell the tale! I wonder how many others, beside this little ship"s company, have ever beheld so appalling and magnificent a sight as we have this night witnessed?"
"Have you any suspicion, Mr Leslie, that this brig is especially marked out and chosen as the theatre for exceptionally thrilling experiences?"
quaintly demanded the girl. "Because if there is a probability that such is the case, I really think I shall be obliged to reconsider my decision to proceed to Valparaiso in her, and ask you to land me at the nearest port. The tragic deaths of those two men, Potter and Purchas, were quite thrilling enough to upset the nerves of any ordinary girl; but when it comes to being bombarded by meteors, I would really very much rather be excused."
"Of course you would," a.s.sented Leslie, laughingly. "All the same," he continued, "although I must confess that I have never heard of such a thing happening, it might as probably have occurred in the heart of London itself as out here at sea. That meteors actually fall to the earth we know, for there are numerous records of such happenings; they have been seen to fall, and have immediately afterwards been found partially buried in the ground and still hot from the friction of their flight through the air. Precisely where they will fall and strike is necessarily a matter of the merest chance; you are, therefore, so far as falling meteors are concerned, quite as safe here as anywhere else."
"Thank you," answered Miss Trevor, gravely, "it is rea.s.suring to learn that, no matter where I am, I am liable to have a huge incandescent ma.s.s of meteoric stone hurtling at me out of s.p.a.ce at any moment--for that is what your statement really amounts to, you know--isn"t it? And now I will bid you good night and retire to my cabin, with the fixed resolution not to dream of falling meteors."
And therewith she gave him her hand for a moment, and then vanished down the companion-way.
CHAPTER SIX.
THE MERMAID"S CREW WITNESS A CATASTROPHE.
The _Mermaid_ carried the south-east trade winds until she was well south of the parallel of Rio de Janeiro; and then she ran into the Doldrums; these being belts of calm, broken into at intervals by light baffling airs from various directions, with occasional violent squalls, or terrific thunderstorms, just to vary the monotony. These belts of exasperating weather are to be met with to the north of the north-east and the south of the south-east trade winds, interposed between the trade winds and those outer regions where a steady breeze of some sort may usually be reckoned upon.
And here the unfortunate crew of the brig encountered their full share-- and a little over, some of them said--of the annoyances that usually accompany a pa.s.sage across these belts; their first experience being a calm that lasted five days on end without a break, save for the occasional cat"s-paw that came stealing from time to time over the gla.s.sy surface of the ocean, tinging it here and there with transient patches of delicate evanescent blue. And as these cat"s-paws were all that they could rely upon to help them across the calm belt, it was necessary to maintain a constant watch for them, and to trim round the yards in such a manner as to make the most of them during their brief existence. This constant "box-hauling" of the yards was no trifling matter, accomplished as it had to be under the fierce rays of a blazing sun; and as it often happened that after laboriously tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the yards and sheets to woo a wandering zephyr, it either expired before reaching the brig, or capriciously turned in another direction, pa.s.sing her by without causing so much as a single flap of her canvas, it is not to be wondered at that the grumbling among all hands was both loud and deep.
At length, however, with the dawn of their sixth day of these vexatious experiences, there appeared to be a prospect of something more helpful than mere cat"s-paws coming their way; for although the calm still continued, the morning broke with a dark, lowering, and threatening sky through which the rays of the sun were unable to pierce. This last was in itself a relief to everybody; for although the heat was still so oppressive that the slightest exertion threw one into a profuse perspiration, the stinging bite of the sun was no longer to be reckoned with. Furthermore, the eyes of those on board the brig, weary of continually gazing upon a bare horizon since the day upon which the friendly whaler had vanished from their view, were now gladdened by the sight of another craft, a small barque, that had drifted above the southern horizon during the night, and now lay some five miles away from them.
As the morning wore on towards noon the aspect of the sky steadily, though by insensible degrees, a.s.sumed a more threatening character, the huge ma.s.ses of cloud that overspread the entire dome of the visible sky darkening in tint to such an extent that the scene became enwrapped in a murky kind of twilight. That wind, and plenty of it, was brewing, seemed evident from the fact that the clouds, although not drifting across the sky, were working visibly, writhing and twisting into the most extraordinary and fantastic shapes, as though influenced by some powerful impulse within themselves. One of the most frequent of these manifestations was the sudden darting forth of long sharp quivering tongues from the bodies of the blackest and most lowering of the clouds.
With the appearance of the first of these Leslie knew what to expect, for he had beheld the same phenomenon more than once before, and quite understood what it portended. So he turned to Miss Trevor, who was on deck interestedly watching the subtle changes in the aspect of the sky, and said to her--
"Have you ever seen a waterspout, Miss Trevor? No? Then the chances are that you will see several before you are many hours older. Have you noticed those long, black, quivering tongues that dart out and in from the bodies of the darkest clouds? Well, those are the forerunners of waterspouts. See, there is one now. Do you mark how it seems to be striving to reach down to the surface of the sea? Ah! it has shrunk back again. But sooner or later, unless I am greatly mistaken, one of those tongues will reach down, and down, until it begins to suck up a column of water from the ocean; and there you will have a full-grown waterspout."
He gazed round the sky intently; then went to the skylight and as intently studied the barometer--or "gla.s.s" as sailors very commonly call the instrument. The mercury in it had fallen somewhat since he had last looked at it, though not sufficiently to cause alarm. Nevertheless, short-handed as the brig was--such small craft are usually sent to sea with at least two hands too few in the forecastle--he deemed it best to err on the right side, if err he must; so as it was by this time noon he ordered eight bells to be struck; and when the watch had come on deck he set them to work to clew up, haul down, and stow everything save the two topsails and the fore-topmast staysail; after which he ordered them to go to dinner.
Dinner in the cabin was served at the same time as in the forecastle on board the _Mermaid_; when Leslie and Miss Trevor, therefore, went below, the deck was left in charge of one man only, namely the carpenter.
This, however, did not particularly matter, since the brig was well snugged down, while Chips might be trusted to keep a sharp look-out and give timely warning of the approach of anything of an alarming nature.
Nothing, however, occurred; and Leslie and his companion were allowed to finish their meal undisturbed.
It was now Leslie"s watch below, and in the ordinary course of events he would have retired to his cabin for the purpose of securing an hour or two of rest. But, with such a lowering and portentous sky as that overhead, he scarcely felt justified in entrusting the carpenter with the sole responsibility and care of the brig for so long a time; and he accordingly accompanied Miss Trevor on deck again.
They found the aspect of the sky more gloomy than ever; the clouds had formed themselves into heavier ma.s.ses, and donned a deeper tinge of black than they had worn during the forenoon, and they were displaying a still greater degree of activity. Tongues of cloud were still darting out and back again, but they seemed no nearer to the formation of waterspouts than during the morning; and Leslie began to think that, perhaps, for once in a way he was going to prove a false prophet.
Meanwhile, although during the whole of the morning and up to that moment, there had not been the faintest breath of wind, the two craft-- the barque and the brig--had closed on each other to within a distance of some three miles, in the mysterious manner characteristic of craft becalmed within sight of each other. The barque, Leslie noticed, had followed his own example, and stripped to precisely the same canvas as that exposed by the brig.
The conditions were not conducive to animated conversation; and judging from Miss Trevor"s brief replies to his remarks, that she would prefer to be left to her own thoughts for awhile, he presently left her leaning over the rail gazing at the barque--which the swing of the brig had now brought abeam--and seating himself upon the short bench alongside the companion, proceeded to fill a pipe. He was lighting it with an ordinary match, the unshielded flame of which burned as steadily as though he had been in a hermetically scaled room, when Miss Trevor suddenly cried out--
"Oh, look, Mr Leslie, look! Surely there is one of your waterspouts at last!"
Leslie sprang to her side and looked in the direction toward which she pointed, where, at a distance of some eight miles away, he beheld a fully formed waterspout moving very slowly and majestically in a southerly direction.
"Yes," he agreed, "that is a real, genuine waterspout, and no mistake.
But it is too far off for you to see it to advantage. Did you actually behold it come into existence?"
"No," she answered; "I was watching the ship yonder, and only caught sight of it accidentally, after it had become fully formed. I should really like to witness the genesis of a waterspout."
"Then keep your eye on that cloud," he recommended her, pointing to an especially black and heavy one that hung a few degrees from the zenith and apparently about half a mile astern of the barque. "If I am not greatly mistaken it is about to develop a very fine specimen in a few minutes. Do you note that black tongue that is slowly stretching down from it? Although it lengthens and shortens you will observe that it does not shrink back altogether into the cloud; on the contrary, every time that it lengthens it becomes perceptibly longer than it was before; and observe how steadily its root--where it joins the cloud--is swelling. Now watch, see how it continually stretches down, further and further towards the water. Ah, and do you see that little mound forming in the sea immediately beneath it? See how the water heaps itself up, as though striving to reach up and join the down-stretching tongue of cloud. Ah! there the two unite and you have the perfect waterspout.
And a very n.o.ble example of its kind it is. They will be having a splendid view of it from yonder barque, for, see, it is moving in her direction, and is about to pa.s.s close to her, rather too close to be altogether pleasant, unless my eyes deceive me!"
He sprang to the companion, and seizing the telescope, applied it to his eye.
"Why," he exclaimed excitedly, after a moment or two, with his eye still glued to the instrument, "what are they about aboard that barque? Why don"t they fire at the thing and break it? It will be upon them in another moment, to a dead certainty, unless it changes its course! No-- yes--yes, it is going to hit her! Heavens! look at that!"
And as he stood there gazing he saw that vast column of water sweep steadily down upon and over the barque, completely hiding her from view for a moment. Then it suddenly wavered in the middle and broke, collapsing with a tremendous splash and commotion of the sea, the sound of which came drifting down to the brig with startling distinctness some ten or twelve seconds later. And there, in the very midst of the tumbling circle of foaming whiteness left by the vanished waterspout there floated the barque, no longer trim and all ataunto as she had shown a few seconds before, but a dismasted, mangled wreck, with bulwarks gone, boats swept from her davits, all three masts snapped short off at the level of the deck and lying alongside with all attached, a mere tangled ma.s.s of wreckage still fast to the hull by the standing and running rigging.
Leslie stamped his foot upon the deck in sympathetic vexation at the ruin thus wrought in a moment, and again applied his eye to the telescope. The carpenter, whose watch on deck it now was, stood beside him, eagerly impatient to discuss with him the details of the catastrophe that they had just witnessed; while the watch, forward, leaned over the bows alternately muttering to each other their opinions, and glancing round in apprehension lest a waterspout should steal upon the brig unawares and treat them as the crew of the barque had been treated.
It was this same crew--or rather the entire absence of any sign of them--that was now disturbing Leslie.
"I can see nothing of them," he muttered impatiently, searching the wreck with the lenses of his telescope. "Here, Chips, take a squint, man," he continued, thrusting the instrument into the eager hands of the carpenter. "His decks are as bare as the back of my hand; there is not enough bulwark left standing to make a matchbox out of--nothing but the stumps of a few staunchions here and there. I can see the coamings of the hatches rising above the level of the planking; I can see the windla.s.s; I can just make out the short stumps of the three masts, and I can find where the p.o.o.p skylight stood; but hang me if I can see anything _living_ aboard her!"
The carpenter in turn applied his eye to the telescope, and gazed through it long and anxiously.
"No, sir," he agreed at length, "what you says is perfekly true; there ain"t n.o.body a-movin" about on that there vessel"s decks. Question is, what"s become of "em? Be they down below? Or have they been swep"
overboard? Stan"s to reason that when they found theirselves onable to steer clear o" that there spout they"d go below and shut theirselves up as best they could, knowin" as nothin" livin" could surwive a waterspout tramplin" over "em, as one may say; but where be them there chaps _now_?
If they was all right they"d be out on deck by this time--wouldn"t they?--lookin" roun" to see the extent o" the damage. Would the bustin"
o" the thing kill "em, d"ye think, sir--they bein" shut up below?"
"It is difficult to say," answered Leslie, meditatively. "It would depend almost entirely upon the strength of their defences. We can see for ourselves what it has done to the craft herself; it has made a clean sweep of everything on deck, and reduced her to the condition of a sheer hulk. Hang this weather! I don"t like the look of it; it is not to be trusted! If it were only a shade or two less threatening I should feel strongly tempted to send away a boat to see just what has happened aboard there. There may be a number of poor fellows somewhere on that wreck just dying for want of a.s.sistance. But--"
He paused, and again glanced anxiously round the horizon, noting that the aspect of the sky was still as full of menace as ever.
"No," he continued, "I dare not do it; it would be risking too much.
Ha! look there; here it comes! Fore and main-topsail halliards let go, and man your reef-tackles!" he shouted, as a long line of white foam appeared on the western horizon, slowly widening as it advanced.
The men sprang to their stations in an instant, galvanised into sudden and intense activity by the urgency that marked the tone of the commands, and the next instant there was a rattling and squeaking of blocks and parrells as the topsail-yards slid down the well-greased topmasts and settled with a thud upon the caps. Then, as the men began, with loud cries, to drag upon the reef-tackles, Leslie shouted--
"Call all hands, carpenter, to close-reef topsails. Look alive, lads; if you are smart you may have time yet to get those reef-points knotted before the squall strikes us. Well there with the reef-tackles. Belay!
Now away aloft with you all, and hurry about it. You, too," he added to the man who had been standing by the useless wheel, "I will look after her."
And, so saying, he mounted the wheel-grating while the whilome helmsman slouched along the deck, and, climbing the rail, began to claw his deliberate way up the main rigging.
It took the hands about five minutes to pa.s.s the weather and lee earings, by which time the squall was close to the brig, its approach being heralded by a smart shower of rain that drove Miss Trevor to the shelter of the cabin. Then, while the men were still upon the yards, tying the reef-points, the wind came roaring and screaming down upon the brig--fortunately from dead astern--and, with a report like that of a gun, her topsails filled and, with the foam all boiling and hissing around her and her bluff bows buried deep in the brine, the _Mermaid_ gathered way and was off, heading south-south-west; which was as nearly as possible her proper course.