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The boy was trembling; but he did not give way. He pulled a little dirk from his belt.
"Yes; but I must defend you, Jessy; not you me. You have risked your life already. You must not do more. It is me they want--not you."
But the injured arm had no power to strike a blow. Jessy tenderly took the dirk from between the numbed fingers.
"Say your prayers, Tim, if you can remember any," said Jessy, between long breaths, "for we shan"t easily get out of this alive."
"There they are--see them? The witch-wench and the boy? Ah, ha, my fine maid, you"ll sing a more civil tune to-day I warrant. Give us over the boy, and maybe we"ll let you off easy!"
"The first man that touches him I"ll kill!" cried Jessy.
"Curse her for a witch," cried one of the men, recoiling before the fierce aspect of the girl; but Moffat was filled with the l.u.s.t of blood and of fury, and with a yell of menace, he pushed up the boat against the narrow shelf on which the pair were cowering.
"Hand over the boy."
A yell of pain interrupted him. Jessy, seeing better than she could be seen, had seized the moment and driven her dagger clean through the arm of the man who was seeking to clutch at the shelf.
Just for a few minutes the girl held her ground against the six furious men below, who, losing all sense of humanity at last, lifted their cutla.s.ses and struck her blow upon blow; some of which missed their aim, for Jessy was nimble as a wild cat, but some of which fell upon her flesh, and at last brought her blinded with blood to her knees.
A stifled gasp close at hand told her of another deed of cruel cowardice. She turned to see Moffat wiping his cutla.s.s, and little Tim lying stark and dead at her very feet.
At that sight a strange phrensy fell upon Jessy. Forgetting her wounds and her weakness, inspired as it seemed by some spirit other than her own, she rose to her feet, her eyes blazing in her head, and, with a loud and sonorous voice, she spoke the words of a terrible curse. She cursed the vessel whose crew had done this deed of infamy and shame; she cursed the men who had been the instruments of a bad man"s rage; above all, she cursed the master himself, turning her gaze upon Moffat with such fearful effect, that he slipped back into the boat, and his men pulled away in the direst terror they had ever experienced.
Next morning Jessy Varcoe was found by some fishermen, seated on a ledge of rock just above high watermark, with the corpse of little Tim, whose life she had sought to save at risk of her own, folded in her arms.
She begged them not to wake him; she called him her baby, her darling.
When they laid him to rest in the churchyard, she would spend long days sitting beside the mound, gazing over the sea for the sails of the _Black Prince_.
But from that day forward the _Black Prince_ was never seen or heard of again. Perhaps the crew, fearing to return to a place where they had done such evil work, changed its name and rig, and took up life elsewhere. Perhaps she foundered in a gale, or fell a prey to some enemy"s ship. But no news of her ever reached Morwinstow again.
Somehow the story of Jessy"s curse got abroad, and her reputation as a witch was made for ever; but she hardly knew it herself. From that day she never fully regained her faculties; and at last poor Jessy"s life was ended through a fall down the cliffs from the heights above, near to the grave of the little boy, and from whence she had kept a ceaseless watch for the return of the _Black Prince_; terrified alike at the thought of its return with the dreaded Moffat, or of its destruction in response to her curse.
The children will look fearfully down this chasm, and whisper that Jessy leapt down it to expiate the curse; but whether or not this was so, will hardly now be known, for her mind was never the same from the dreadful day when she risked her life to save that of the boy, and saw him slain at her feet.
URSULA PENDRILL
The Captain"s face was so grave, that instinctively the pa.s.sengers exchanged anxious glances. He had given out that he had something to say to them, and they had a.s.sembled in the large saloon in full force.
When he came amongst them the look on his face was different from anything they had seen before. The cheery expression was replaced by one of clouded anxiety; and the infection of it spread quickly amongst the group in the saloon.
It was not a very large number of pa.s.sengers that this steamer carried.
This was before the day of pleasure trips to and from India. Those who went to that land or returned from it, only did so when necessity compelled them. The voyage was not the speedy matter it has now become, and there were far more hindrances and hardships than since the days of the Suez Ca.n.a.l. Still there was a fair gathering to hear what the Captain wanted of them, and it was plain that the matter in his mind was a grave one.
"Oh, Captain, is there danger?" asked a lady, cowering upon one of the fixed seats, and holding a little boy clasped in her arms.
The keen blue eyes of the Captain turned upon her for a moment, and glanced away to the circle of strained eyes fixed upon him; he seemed to understand what it was that all these people were thinking, and hastened to rea.s.sure them.
"Danger? Nonsense! What put that into your head? The ship is right enough--nothing wrong there. It is quite a different matter from anything you are thinking of."
There was a distinct look of relief in the faces turned towards him, and yet the expression of care upon the Captain"s did not sensibly lighten.
"I have in the first place one unwelcome piece of information to give you," he said, "although I do not think that any of you need apprehend personal danger or inconvenience. Perhaps some of you remember the delicate-looking lady who was brought on board by her husband at Bombay, and whom you have none of you seen since?"
"Young Mrs. Varden?" queried a pa.s.senger who had just known the name of the lady before starting. "I asked the stewardess about her once, and heard that she was prostrated by sea-sickness. Some people never get over it all the voyage."
"Exactly; and that is what, until a couple of days back, we believed about her. She was always ill and ailing, quite unfit to sit up or leave her berth; but though the doctor saw her every day, he suspected nothing till a couple of days back,--when the stewardess, who was taking care of her, and luckily looked after n.o.body else, the ship not being very full, was taken with a sudden attack like convulsions, and died within two hours. That aroused his suspicions. He made a careful examination of Mrs. Varden"s condition, and his suspicions were strongly aroused. On the following morning there would have been no room for doubt in any case. The small-pox erruption was out all over her. To-day she is almost black with it."
There was a shudder of horror through the a.s.sembled pa.s.sengers. The thought that the ship was infected by that terrible disease was fearful indeed. The Captain spoke on doing his best to rea.s.sure them.
"Fortunately the lady has been kept very carefully isolated. She was so delicate when her husband brought her on board, that everything was done to ensure perfect quiet for her. She has occupied one of a little nest of cabins, all the rest of which were empty. The husband bespoke the sole attendance of one of the two stewardesses, and as my ship"s doctor is a cautious man, and was rather anxious about Mrs. Varden"s condition, he has used every precaution himself; though he suspected as little as the patient or her husband, that she carried in her the seeds of so dire a disease. I can a.s.sure you with good conscience that I do not believe any of you have run any greater risk of contracting the disease, than you might do by walking the street of any Oriental city."
Pa.s.sengers on shipboard come to trust their captains in a way which is creditable to that calling. Captain Donaldson"s words carried weight, and a sigh as of relief pa.s.sed through the group gathered to hear him.
But one gentleman put the question that was rising in each mind.
"And what is to be done now?"
The grave, anxious look returned to the Captain"s face. His eyes instinctively scanned those turned towards him.
"There is only one thing I can possibly do, compatible with my duty to my ship and its company and pa.s.sengers," he said; "Mrs. Varden must be put ash.o.r.e at dawn to-morrow morning."
"Where?--How? Is it possible to do it?"
Quite a little hubbub of questions arose; and the Captain made shift to answer them all.
"It will have to be done," he said; "I know the place where it must be done. We shall touch in, and send a boat ash.o.r.e. I have had to leave a sick sailor there before this. There is an old leper-house standing near to the margin of the sea. For a long time now it has been used in the fashion in which I purpose to use it. Fever-stricken sailors are left behind, and there are certain conditions they have to observe before they can be picked up again if they recover. But when a sailor is so left, some messmate remains with him to care for him, and submits to the loneliness and danger and discomfort, out of compa.s.sion for a comrade"s need. The thing is not so difficult when it is one of one"s own men who is the victim of disease."
He paused, and glances were exchanged by the bystanders; and one tall, rather rough-looking Irishman, who had come from Australia, and whose loud voice and hearty ways had made him something of a power on board, exclaimed eagerly:
"But look here, Captain, there is somebody there to look after the sick surely! You don"t mean they are just dumped down in an empty leper-house, and left to live or die as they can? There is somebody there to look after them, and give them food and medicine and all that?
Why, one wouldn"t treat a dog so--to throw him ash.o.r.e and leave him to his fate!"
"It is like this," answered the Captain gravely: "There is no trouble about food and water and a supply of such simple drugs as may be ordered beforehand. I can make certain arrangements as to that; and the food and fresh water and so forth will all be duly left each day at the leper-house by an Arab, who will be told off for the service. But as for getting help in nursing, that is simply impossible. I know what I am saying. Money would not purchase it; and it would be such service, even if attainable, as I think an English lady would sooner die than receive.
No; this brings me to the question which I have to put to her fellow-pa.s.sengers. Is there any lady on board willing to face the awful peril of taking the malignant disease, the awful loneliness of the leper-house upon the sandy sh.o.r.e, with only Arabs near, the awful doom of dying alone there, or of seeing her companion and patient die, and of being in that case quite alone during the necessary period of quarantine which must elapse before she can be taken off in another ship? Whatever man can do for making these conditions bearable, I will do. But none know better than I do the terrible nature of such a task as the one I ask from one of you. Nay, I do not dare to ask it! I feel that it is more than flesh and blood can stand; but yet the thought of putting ash.o.r.e, alone and unconscious, that poor young wife, just to die, without the presence of a human creature near her--that seems an equal impossibility. Ladies, I do not ask an answer yet. I would not take an offer were it given. It must not be an act of impulsive generosity, should one of your number be able to face the terrible thought of such a sacrifice. It must only be undertaken after much careful and deliberate thought."
The Captain with that turned on his heel and went his way, leaving the pa.s.sengers gazing mutely one at the other with pale faces and anxious eye. Just before he reached the companion, he turned round to say:
"Before putting the case to you, ladies, I have individually interviewed every woman in the steerage company, to see if it would be possible to procure the services of one of them as nurse. But all of them have husbands and children. I have failed entirely there, and I may not spare my one stewardess, even would she go, which I greatly doubt, knowing the fate of her companion only a few hours ago."
Amongst the pa.s.sengers who had listened to this pitiful and terrible tale was one young girl, travelling from India quite alone. Her name was Ursula Pendrill. She had stood rather apart during the Captain"s speech, and now, slipping away from the excited hubbub of talk that arose on all sides, she fled to her cabin almost as though some grisly phantom were at her heels, and, sinking down upon her knees on the floor, buried her head in her hands and rocked herself to and fro in a sort of agony.
"Must I do it? Must I do it? O my G.o.d help me to see my way!" were the words that fell brokenly from her lips. "How can I? How can any one? But oh that poor, poor creature--that awful death for her; for death it must be without any to care for her! O G.o.d help me!--help me! There is n.o.body else--only me--to do it. All the rest have children, friends, husbands, brothers. I am quite alone. O G.o.d help me! Help me!"
The broken words were merged in sobs, as the tears gushed forth, bringing a measure of ease to the overcharged heart. Ursula sat crouched up on the floor of her little cabin, with her face buried in her hands, and her loosened hair falling around her, but the sense of storm and strife was merging in one of a strange and settled peace. Down in the depths of her spiritual being it seemed to her as though a hand had been laid upon her, and as though a voice had spoken in her ear: