"What is that?" I exclaimed to Griffiths, who had charge of the deck.
"A dismasted ship, sir," was the answer. "I have seen her for some time, and as she lay almost in our course, I steered for her, as I thought as how you"d like to overhaul her, sir."
"You did well," I answered. "Rouse all hands, and see a boat clear for boarding her. But what is that away there just beyond the wreck? By heavens, it"s the "Rover," and becalmed too. Grant the wind may not reach her!"
Awoke by hearing the people called, Harcourt and O"Malley were by my side. I pointed out the wreck and the cutter to them.
"Well," exclaimed O"Malley, "the big ship there may still float, but the breeze which has been sending us along, may at last reach the sails of the "Rover;" so I propose we make sure of her first."
To our joy, however, we found that the wind, instead of reaching her, was gradually falling away, and by the time we were up with the wreck, the sea was as calm as a sheet of gla.s.s. We were in hopes also that keeping, as we had done, the wreck between us and the "Rover," we might have escaped observation, and in the grey light of morning we might come upon her unawares. There were several people on board the ship, who cheered as they saw a.s.sistance at hand; and reason they had to be glad, for from the clear streams of water which gushed from her sides, they had evidently great labour to keep her afloat. No time was to be lost, the gig was soon in the water, and Harcourt, O"Malley, and I, with eight men fully armed, pulled towards the "Rover," while old Griffiths, the master, boarded the ship in the other boat. My friend"s heart beat quick as we neared the cutter. She was the "Rover," there was no doubt, but whether Sandgate would attempt to defend his vessel was the question. A moment more would solve it. We dashed alongside; the men, stowed away in the bottom of the boat, sprang up, and before the crew of the "Rover" had time to defend themselves, we were on board. Except the man at the helm and the look-out forward, the watch on deck were all asleep, and those two, as it afterwards appeared, were glad to see us approach. The noise awoke Sandgate, who, springing on deck, found himself confronted by O"Malley and me, while half his crew were in the power of my people, and the fore-hatch was battened over the rest. A pistol he had seized in his hurry was in his hand; he pointed it at my breast, but it missed fire; on finding which, he dashed it down on the deck, and before we could seize him, retreated forward, where some of his crew rallied round him. With fear and hope alternately racking his bosom, Harcourt hurried below. He p.r.o.nounced his own name; the old nurse opened the door of the main cabin--a fair girl was on her knees at prayer. She sprang up, and seeing him, forgetful of all else, fell weeping in his arms. I shall pa.s.s over all she told him, except that Sandgate had behaved most respectfully to her, informing her, however, that he should take her to the United States, where she must consent to marry him, and that, on their return to England, he would put her in possession of a large fortune, to which by some means he had discovered she was heiress, and which had induced him to run off with her. It was, I afterwards learned, his last stake, as the reduction of duties no longer enabled him to make a profit by smuggling; and as he had no other means of supporting his extravagant habits, he was a ruined man.
Sandgate"s people seemed resolved to stand by him, but not to proceed to extremities, or to offer any opposition to our carrying off Miss Manners and her attendant. He evidently was doing all he could to induce them to support him; and I believe, had he possessed the power, he would, without the slightest compunction, have hove us all over board, and carried off his prize in spite of us. As it was, he could do nothing but gnash his teeth and scowl at us with unutterable hatred. Handing the young lady and the old nurse into the boat, we pulled away from the "Rover." Of course, we should have wished to have secured Sandgate; but as we had come away without any legal authority to attempt so doing, we saw that it would be wiser to allow him to escape. We should probably have overpowered him and his lawless crew, but then the females might have been hurt in the scuffle, and we were too glad to recover them uninjured to think at the moment of the calls of justice.
What was our surprise, as Harcourt handed her on to the deck of the yacht, to see her rush forward into the arms of an old gentleman who stood by the companion-hatch.
"My own Emily!" he exclaimed, as he held her to his heart.
It was Colonel Manners.
"My father!" burst from her lips.
A young lady was reclining on the hatch near him; she rose as she saw Emily, and they threw themselves on each other"s neck.
"My sister!" they both exclaimed, and tears of joy started to their eyes.
There were several other strangers on board, who, by Griffiths"
exertions, had been removed from the wreck. Our boats were busily employed in removing the others, for there was no time to lose, as the ship was settling fast in the water. All the people being placed in safety, we proceeded to remove the articles of greatest value and smallest bulk on board the two vessels, which became then very much loaded, when, a breeze springing up, another sail hove in sight: she bore down towards us, and, in a short time, the little fat figure of Mr Warwick Ribbons graced the deck of the "Amethyst." His delight at seeing Emily in safety was excessive, but, though he looked sentimental, he said nothing; and, when he heard that the colonel was alive, and that there was another sister in the case, his face elongated considerably.
From motives of charity, I hurried him, with several of the pa.s.sengers and part of the cargo, on board the "Dido," and the three vessels made sail together for Falmouth. Just as we were leaving the ship, a deep groan issued from her hold, and, her head inclining towards the water, she slowly glided down into the depths of the ocean. Landing all our pa.s.sengers at Falmouth, except the colonel and his daughters, we had a quick run to Cowes. Colonel Manners established his claim to his property. O"Malley had made such good use of his time during the voyage, that he won the heart and hand of Julia Manners; while, as may be suspected, Emily owned, that if Harcourt loved her, their affection was reciprocal; and the same day saw them joined respectively together in holy matrimony.
Such was the result of my friend Harcourt"s summer cruise, and I think you will all agree that the narrative is not altogether unworthy of the name of a romance. The last time I saw little Ribbons he was on board the "Dido," which lay high and dry on the mud off Ryde, and I afterwards heard that he married a Miss Bosley, who, I conclude, was a daughter of old Bosley"s.
"And what became of the rascal Sandgate?" exclaimed Hearty; "by Neptune!
I should like to come up with the fellow, and to lay my craft alongside his till I had blown her out of the water. Fancy a scoundrel in the nineteenth century venturing to run off with a young lady!" We laughed at his vehemence. Hearty always spoke under a generous impulse.
"Oh, it"s not the first case of the sort I have heard of," said Carstairs; "more than one has occurred within the last few years in Ireland; but I agree with Hearty, that I should like to catch Mr Sandgate, for the sake of giving him a good thrashing. Though I hadn"t the pleasure of knowing Miss Manners, every man of honour should take a satisfaction in punishing such a scoundrel." Bubble and Porpoise responded heartily to the sentiment, and so strong a hold did the account take of the minds of all the party, that we talked ourselves into the idea that it would be our lot to fall in with Sandgate, and to inflict the punishment he had before escaped. "Will Bubble had taken an active part in fitting out the yacht, and in selecting most of the crew; he consequently was on rather more intimate terms with them than the rest of us; not that it was the intimacy which breeds contempt, but he took a kindly interest in their welfare, and used to talk to them about their families, and the past incidents of their lives. Indeed, under a superficial coating of frivolity and egotism, I discovered that Bubble possessed a warm and generous heart,--fully alive to the calls of humanity. I do not mean to say that the coating was not objectionable; he would have been by far a superior character without it. Indeed, perhaps all I ought to say is, that he was capable of better things than those in which he too generally employed his time. He returned aft one day from a visit forward, and told us he had discovered that several of the men were first-rate yarn-spinners. The master," said he, "seems a capital hand; but old Sleet beats all the others hollow. If it would not be subversive of all discipline, I wish you would come forward and hear them in the forecastle as one caps the other"s tale with something more wonderful still."
"I don"t think that would quite do," said Hearty; "if we could catch them on deck spinning their yarns, it would be very well. But, at all events, I will invite Snow, into the cabin and consult him."
According to Hearty"s proposal, he invited Snow down. "Mr Snow," said Hearty, "we hear that some of the people forward are not bad hands at spinning yarns, and, if you could manage it, we should be glad to hear them, but it would never do to send for them aft for the purpose."
"You are right, sir, they would become tongue-tied to a certainty,"
answered Snow; "just let me alone, and I will manage to catch some of them in the humour. Several of them have been engaged, one time or another, in the free-trade, and have some curious things to tell about it."
"But I thought smuggling had been knocked on the head long ago,"
observed Hearty.
"Oh, no, sir! of late years a very considerable blow has been struck against it; but even now some people find inducements to follow it,"
answered the master. "I found it out to be a bad trade many years ago, and very few of those I know who still carry it on do more than live, and live very badly too; some of them spending many a month out of the year in prison, and that is not where an honest man would wish to be."
However, I have undertaken to chronicle the adventures of the "Frolic,"
and of those who dwelt on board her, so that I must not devote too much of our time to the yarns, funs, witticisms, and anecdotes and good sayings with which we banished any thing like tedium during our voyage.
No blue devils could stand for an instant such powerful exorcisms.
It was not, however, till some time after this that we benefited by Snow"s inquiries among the crew.
CHAPTER TWELVE.
THE "FROLIC" IN A GALE, IN WHICH THE FROLICKERS SEE NO FUN--A SAIL IN SIGHT--HER FATE--AN UNEXPECTED INCREASE TO THE CREW--BUBBLE SHOWS THAT HE CAN THINK AND FEEL--INTELLIGENCE OBTAINED.
"What sort of weather are we going to have, Snow?" asked Hearty, as we came on deck after dinner one afternoon, when the cutter was somewhere about the middle of the Bay of Biscay.
"Dirty, sir, dirty!" was the unenlivening answer, as the old master looked with one eye to windward, which just then was the south-west. In that direction thick clouds were gathering rapidly together, and hurrying headlong towards us, like, as Carstairs observed, "a band of fierce barbarians, rushing like a torrent down upon the plain." The sea grew darker and darker in hue, and then flakes of foam, white as the driven snow, blew off from the hitherto smooth surface of the ocean.
The sea rose higher and higher, and the cutter, close-hauled, began to pitch into, them with an uneasy motion, subversive of the entire internal economy of landsmen.
"The sooner we get the canvas off her the better, now, sir," said Snow to Porpoise, who had come on deck after calculating our exact position on the charts.
"As soon as you like," was the answer. "We shall have to heave-to, I suspect; but that little matters, as we have plenty of sea-room out here, and she may dance away for a fortnight with the helm a-lee, and come to no harm."
The topmast was struck; the jib was taken in, and a storm-jib set; the foresail was handed, and the mainsail meantime was closely reefed.
Relieved for a time, she breasted the seas more easily; but the wind had not yet reached its strength. Before nightfall down came the gale upon us with all its fury; the cutter heeled over to it as she dashed wildly through the waves.
"The sooner we get the mainsail altogether off her the better, sir,"
said Snow. This was accordingly done, and the trysail was set instead, and the helm lashed a-lee.
"There; we are as snug and comfortable as possible," exclaimed Porpoise, as the operation was completed. "Now all hands may turn in and go to sleep till the gale is over."
The landsmen looked rather blue.
"Very funny notion this of comfort!" exclaimed Carstairs, who had the worst sea-going inside of any of the party. "Oh, oh, oh! is it far from the sh.o.r.e?"
"Couldn"t get there, sir, if any one was to offer ten thousand guineas,"
said Snow. "We are better as we are, sir, out here--by very far."
The cutter, which in Cowes Harbour people spoke of as a fine large craft, now looked and felt very like a mere c.o.c.kle-sh.e.l.l, as she pitched and tumbled about amid the mighty waves of the Atlantic.
"Don"t you feel very small, Carstairs?" exclaimed Hearty, as he sat convulsively grasping the sides of the sofa in the cabin.
"Yes, faith, I do," answered the gentle giant, who lay stretched out opposite to him. "Never felt so very little since I was a baby in long-clothes. I say, Porpoise, I thought you told me that the Bay of Biscay was always smooth at this time of the year."
"So it should be," replied our fat captain. "No rule without an exception though; but never mind, it will soon roll itself quiet; and then the cutter will do her best to make up for lost time."
The person evidently most at his ease was Will Bubble. Blow high or blow low, it seemed all the same to him; he sang and whistled away as happily as ever.
"Oh, oh, oh! you jolly dog, don"t mock us in our misery!" exclaimed Carstairs with a groan.
"On no account," answered Will, with a demure look. "I"ll betake myself to the dock, and smoke my weed in quiet."