"God of mercy—the ship, the ship!" gasped Sir Edgar, clutching my arm in a grip that left its mark on the skin for days afterward; and, as he spoke, the huge incandescent mass fell full upon the hull of the Northern Queen. There was a flash like that of a bursting shell on board her, and ere we could draw a breath the stately fabric of her spars and sails collapsed and vanished into the deep before our eyes!

For some seconds we were all, fore and aft, so paralysed with horror and dismay that not a sound escaped our lips. Even the weird night music of the wind and sea appeared to be hushed for the moment, or our startled senses failed to note it, and presently there came floating down to us upon the pinions of the breeze a muffled, booming crash, as confirmatory evidence of the appalling disaster.

"Gone—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye!" ejaculated Sir Edgar, with quivering, ashen lips, as he strained his eyes toward the point so recently occupied by our companion. "Oh, captain, can nothing be done? Is there no hope that out there some few survivors at least may be floating on a scrap or two of wreckage? You will go there and see, will you not?"

"Assuredly I will," said I. "I will tack the moment that I think we can fetch the spot where the ship disappeared. Meanwhile," continued I, to the second mate, who had charge of the deck, "get up three rockets and fire them, as a signal to the possible survivors that we have observed the disaster, and intend to look for them. They will, no doubt, understand what we mean."

The rockets were brought on deck and fired; by which time I judged that we had gone far enough to justify us in tacking ship. We accordingly went about, and two hands were then stationed on the fore-topsail yard to keep a lookout for wreckage, while a third laid out as far as the flying-jib-boom end for the same purpose.

We had been on the starboard tack some three-quarters of an hour, and I had just hailed the lookouts, warning them to be especially vigilant, as we must now be near the scene of the catastrophe, when the man on the flying-jib-boom end cried out with startling suddenness—

"There's something floating out there to wind'ard, sir; broad on the starboard bow!"

"Yes, yes," added both the men aloft, with one consent. "It looks like something alive—like a man, sir, waving his arm!"

"Don't take your eyes off it for an instant, either of you, on any account," I answered, with a strange thrill in my voice at the idea of our being perhaps close to one or more survivors of that awful visitation of God that we had witnessed. "Back your main-topsail, Mr Forbes, and then man and lower the port quarter-boat."

"Ay, ay," was the brisk response. "Man the weather main-braces, my lads; lively, now. Cast off to leeward; round-in to windward. Well there; belay. Shall I take charge of the boat, sir?"

"Certainly," I said; "it is your turn this time, Mr Forbes, and I hope you will be as successful as Mr Roberts was when we last had occasion to lower a boat. You will probably not be able to see the man when you are in the boat and under way, so I will stand on the wheel grating abaft, where you will be able to distinctly see me, and will indicate to you how to steer in accordance with the directions which I may receive from the hands aloft. If you can only manage to pick up the man they have seen, he will, perhaps, if he is still sensible, be able to direct you how to prosecute your further search. Now, if you are ready, go; and God speed you."

The boat pushed off, and in less than ten minutes had picked up the man, who was found to be floating comfortably enough in a life-buoy. Questioned as to whether he thought there were any more survivors, he replied that he feared not, as, feeling sure that the catastrophe had been observed by us, and that we should make for the scene as promptly as possible—which assurance had been quickly confirmed by the sight of our rockets—he had simply clung to the life-buoy without making the slightest effort to shorten the distance between himself and us, believing that his best hope of deliverance consisted in remaining as near as possible to the scene of the disaster; and that, if there were any other survivors, they would most probably act in the same way, in which case he would almost certainly have seen or heard something of them in the interim; which had not been the case. Forbes, however, very properly pulled about the spot for more than an hour, the boat's crew shouting at intervals, and then lying on their oars and listening for a reply. But it was all of no avail; for, though he fell in with and picked up two buckets marked with the name of the Northern Queen, and passed through a few small fragments of floating wreckage, clearly indicating that he was prosecuting his search in precisely the right spot, nothing more was found, and he was at length reluctantly constrained to abandon further efforts.

The rescued man—who, when brought on board, appeared not an atom the worse for his terrible adventure—gave his name as Joe Martin, and informed us that he had held the rating of carpenter on board the ill-fated Northern Queen. He gave us full particulars concerning the port of registry of the ship; the port from which she had sailed; the number of days out; the number of the crew, and their names, so far as he knew them—in short, all the information necessary to the identification of the ship and those on board her; and then he described the catastrophe as it had impressed itself upon him. He said that at midnight the deck had been relieved in the usual manner; and that, it being his trick at the wheel, he had arrived aft just in time to hear the "old man" (the captain) bid the mate good night, after laughingly enjoining him not to go to sleep and allow the little barque to leeward to slip past him. The night being fine and the breeze steady, the watch on deck, with the exception of the lookout, had quickly found snug corners for themselves, in which they had coiled themselves away for a quiet cat-nap; the mate had lighted his pipe and established himself in the skipper's wicker armchair; and perfect peace and quiet reigned throughout the ship. Suddenly the whole sky seemed to brighten, and, glancing involuntarily over his right shoulder—from which direction the light appeared to emanate—Martin saw the meteorite in the sky immediately over our mastheads, and at the same moment became conscious of the screaming roar of its passage through the air.

"The moment I set eyes on it," said he, "I knew—I felt certain, somehow—as the thing meant to strike us; and I shouted to the mate, to warn him; and then—not knowin' why I did it—I let go the wheel and makes a spring for the life-buoy hangin' at the taffr'l, whippin' the knife out of my sheath at the same time. I'd got hold of the buoy, and the edge of my knife was on the seizin', when it seemed to me as if the sun hisself was a-bearin' down on us, the light and the heat got that dreadful fierce; then there came a most fearful smash as the thing struck us fair atween the fore and main masts, cuttin' the ship clean in two, if you'll believe me, gentlemen; and as my knife went through the seizin' by which the buoy was lashed to the iron rail, I felt the poor old hooker double herself up together, just as if she was writhin' with the pain of her death-wound; and with that, holdin' the buoy in my hand, I makes a single spring overboard; and the next thing I knows, I finds myself bein' sucked down with the wreck. If you'll believe me, gen'lemen, it seemed years afore I felt that dreadful suction let go of me, and found myself risin' to the top of the water again; and when I got there at last and caught my breath once more, it seemed to me as if another single second 'd ha' done for me. I remembers congratulatin' myself as the water was so warm and pleasant, and the breeze the same, as I settled myself comfortable in the middle of the buoy; and then, when I'd cleared the water out of my eyes, and slipped my knife back into his sheath, I set to work to look round and see if there was anybody else that had escaped besides myself. But I couldn't see nobody; and while I was peerin' round here and there into the black hollows between the seas, I catches sight of another flash in the sky, and looks up fully expectin' to see another o' them awful fire-balls. But it was only one o' your rockets burstin' up aloft; and lookin' underneath the place when I floated up to the top of a sea, there I sees your to'ga'nts'ls and the upper half of your taups'ls; and I understood in a minute as you'd obsarved what had happened and meant to come and see if there was any of us left. Then I began hailin', in hopes of hearin' a reply from some of the lads; but there weren't a sound come to me exceptin' the moan of the wind and the hiss of the sea round about; so at last I knew that all hands exceptin' myself had gone to the bottom with the good ship, leavin' me alone to tell the tale."

"What an extraordinary class of men sailors are!" remarked Sir Edgar, as the man Martin, having brought his narrative to a conclusion, and being dismissed by me, turned and shambled away forward with the usual careless, leisurely gait affected by forecastle Jack. "Here is a man who has just escaped—and is, moreover, the only survivor of—a catastrophe absolutely unique, I should say, in naval history, yet he is as unconcerned and undemonstrative over it as though the destruction of a ship by a meteorite were quite an everyday occurrence. Is such extraordinary sang-froid usual, or is this an exceptional example?"

"Oh dear, no," I laughingly replied; "there is nothing in the least unusual in Martin's demeanour, which, however, is doubtless partly assumed. It is not regarded as quite correct form to exhibit any excitement whatever over an adventure of which one's self has been the hero; but, apart from that, sailors are so accustomed to carry their lives in their hands, and become so hardened to danger by being constantly brought face to face with it—often without a second's warning, and sometimes in the most unexpected shapes—moreover, they witness from time to time such startling and inexplicable phenomena, that it is really difficult to provoke anything like a display of genuine, unmitigated surprise or excitement on their part. Whatever happens—unless it be something very distinctly suggestive of the supernatural—Jack is always prepared for it."

"So it would appear," assented the baronet. "But candidly now, captain, is not this present voyage of ours rather an eventful one?"

"Undoubtedly it is," replied I. "Singularly so, thus far. A man might follow the sea all his life without witnessing so many casualties as have come under our notice since we sailed. Yet such casualties are constantly occurring in some part of the world. The only remarkable thing about those of which we have become cognisant is that so many should have occurred in so short a time, and within an area so small as to have permitted of our being in the vicinity of each just when it happened. Even the dreadful occurrence that we witnessed to-night, though it is the first case of the kind that I ever heard of, may be after all nothing very unusual in kind, and may possibly explain the loss of many of the craft that disappear and leave no sign behind them. For instance, it is safe to say that the only human eyes that witnessed the destruction of the Northern Queen are on board this ship, and if we had not seen it the chances are a hundred to one that her fate would never have been known. Martin's prospects of escape would certainly have been remarkably small; for although, in this fine weather, he might have remained afloat for some time, he might have been passed unnoticed by a ship within a very short distance. Then, after exposure in the water for a certain number of hours, his strength would rapidly fail him, and he would die miserably of starvation, if he did not lose his hold upon the buoy and sink, or be dragged out of it by some hungry shark."

"Upon my word, you would be an uncommonly cheerful companion for a nervous man," remarked Sir Edgar, half jestingly, half in earnest. "I declare I shall never in future be able to look at that man without recalling the grim picture you have sketched of him floating helplessly in his life-buoy. You sailors certainly ought to be exceptionally religious men, for it seems to me that not one of you—not one of any of those who go down to the sea in ships—can count with certainty upon his life from one minute to another. Just look around you now, for instance. How gentle and peaceful is the whole aspect of nature at this moment, and how absolutely safe we seem to be! It was just as peaceful—just as apparently safe—three hours ago; yet in the interim a noble ship and her whole crew save one has perished; and what has befallen her may befall us or any other ship that floats, or ever will float, quite as suddenly, quite as unexpectedly. I hope that what we have witnessed to-night will enable us to realise more fully and vividly than ever, how completely we are in the hands of God, and how absolutely dependent upon His mercy. Good night, captain!"

I returned the salutation; and, as the baronet slowly and thoughtfully descended the companion, I mechanically turned away and began to pace the deck, with my thoughts busy upon the solemn words I had just heard, and the occasion that had given rise to them. And, as I did so, albeit I am perhaps no worse than the average man, the carelessness and indifference of my own conduct in the past rose up in judgment against me and condemned me of the grossest ingratitude for countless past mercies; the most shameful disobedience; the most criminal neglect to render to my Creator that honour and glory which is His due. And I there and then registered a solemn vow that from that moment I would lead a new and a better life; a vow that, I grieve to say, was afterwards far too frequently forgotten.

On the following day, after breakfast, Mr Roberts informed me that Martin had asked to be put into a watch; and he wished to know whether I was willing that such an arrangement should be made. I, of course, had no objection whatever to the proposal, as I by no means believe in idle people in the forecastle. So I told Mr Roberts to arrange the matter, and at the same time to keep an eye on the man; it being my intention to regularly ship him, if he proved worth having and should be willing to sign articles; the second mate's being one hand weaker than the larboard watch.

About a week after this, little Edgar Desmond came up to me and, slipping his hand into mine, as was his wont when he desired to have a chat with me, began, in the straightforward way usual with children—

"Captain, where do you think will be a good place for me to sail my boat, when she is finished?"

"Your boat?" said I. "I didn't know that you are making one."

"Oh no," said the child; "I am not making one; it is that new man, Martin, who is making it for me. And he is making it so nicely; just like a real boat. Come and see it, will you?"

Willing to humour the child, I walked forward with him; and on reaching the forecastle found Martin busy about some ordinary job connected with the usual routine work of the ship. As we halted before him he touched his forehead with his forefinger, in the usual style of the forecastle hand, and paused in his work to hear what we had to say to him.

"Good morning, Martin," began Master Edgar. "I have brought the captain to see my boat. Will you show it him, please?"

"Well, you see, sir," remonstrated Martin, obviously embarrassed by my presence, "'tain't hardly fair to ask me to hexhibit the boat until she's finished. There ain't much of her yet, and what there is, is all in the rough. It's a little job, sir," he continued, turning in an explanatory way to me, "as I've undertook to do for this young gentleman in my afternoon watch below; and, as I said, she's all in the rough at present—what there is of her."

"Never mind that, Martin," said I, seeing a shade of disappointment resting upon the child's features; "bring her up, and let us have a look at her."

Thereupon, the man dived below into the forecastle, and presently reappeared, bearing in his hand the skeleton of a miniature yacht, about two and a half feet long, half planked down. My first sensation, when I set eyes on the model, was surprise at the dainty, delicate character of the workmanship exhibited in it, which was greatly increased when, upon taking it into my hands and more closely inspecting it, I had an opportunity of examining its lines. They were as nearly perfect as anything I had ever seen; in short, it was evident that, when finished, the model would be a faithful miniature reproduction of a crack racing yacht of the most approved form.

"Why, Martin," said I, greatly pleased at this example of his skill, "this is excellent. Where in the world did you learn to model lines like these?"

"Well, sir," explained Martin, "you see, I was five years in the yard of the Fifes at Fairlie, yacht buildin', before I shipped in the Northern Queen; and before that again I was more than three years with Summers and Payne, of Southampton; so I ought to know a little about the shape of a yacht, didn't I, sir?"

"Assuredly you ought," said I; "and evidently you do, if one may judge by this." And I replaced the model in his hand, fully determined to regularly ship him if I could, now that I had seen what a handy, clever fellow he promised to be. For I may here tell the reader, in strict confidence, that there is nothing I more thoroughly enjoy than boat-sailing, and very few things that I more highly appreciate than a good model of a ship or boat. A few days after this I made the proposition to Martin that he should ship for the remainder of the voyage, offering him the same pay that I was giving our own carpenter; and he at once gladly assented. This arrangement, as will be seen later on, was destined to lead to more important results than either of us at the moment anticipated.

At length, after a phenomenally good passage as far south as the twenty-eighth parallel, we lost the trades, and immediately picked up a strong westerly wind, before which we bore away, under every rag we could spread, to round the Cape. When off Agulhas the wind southed upon us, and we fell in with the tremendous swell that is almost invariably met with about this spot. I had passed over the same ground ten times already—five times outward-bound, and five times on the homeward passage—and had always found a heavy swell running, but on this last occasion it was far heavier than I had ever before beheld it. To convey some idea of the enormous bulk and height of these liquid hills I may mention that while off the Agulhas Bank—where the swell was by no means at its highest—we overhauled and passed a barque of about our own size, at a distance of less than a cable's length, yet so high was the swell that, when we both settled into the trough, she was completely hidden from us, to her topmast-heads!

In longitude 26 degrees East, with a moderate breeze from south-east, we bore away for the Straits of Sunda; and a few days afterwards met with a piece of exceptional good fortune. It was during the forenoon watch, the weather being beautifully fine, and a very gentle breeze blowing, under the influence of which we were slipping through the water at a speed of about five knots. The watch were busy, in a deliberate fashion, about various odd jobs on deck and aloft; and the occupants of the poop were lounging in their deck-chairs, amusing themselves according to their several fancies. As for me, I was engaged—as was indeed often the case—in a severe mental effort to find the key to Dick Saint Leger's cryptogram. The gentle motion, the warm, genial sunshine, and the soft splash of the water along the bends, with the absence of any hurried movement on board or sharply spoken orders, seemed to have wrought in the entire ship, fore and aft, a condition of half-dreamy, blissful listlessness, from which we were suddenly startled by a man crying out, from halfway up the lee fore-rigging—

"Luff! luff hard! down with your helm, or you'll be into it!"

"Into what?" shouted I, springing to my feet and running forward.

"I don't know, sir, what it is, but it is something floating. Here you are, sir; it is just coming abreast of us now."

As the ship shot up into the wind, with all her canvas flapping and rustling, I sprang upon the lee rail, and saw a mass of dirty greyish-white substance, mottled and streaked like marble, floating slowly past at a distance of some half a dozen yards from the ship's side. Of course everybody else on deck must needs, in the excitement of the moment, rush to the lee rail, to gaze upon the cause of the sudden alarm; and, among them, the boatswain, an old whaler, who no sooner set eyes on the object than he exclaimed—

"Why, sir, that's a lump of ambergrease, worth more'n a hundred pound, I'll be bound. That's worth pickin' up, that is!"

I had never before seen a piece of ambergris, but had, of course, often heard of it, and knew it to be valuable; I accordingly ordered the mainyard to be laid aback, and sent the boatswain away with a crew in the gig to pick up the piece of "flotsam." In about a quarter of an hour they returned to the ship with their prize, which proved to be a large lump—much larger than it had appeared to be when floating past— of hard, fatty matter, of a light, dirty grey colour, veined and mottled somewhat like marble, and giving off a peculiar sweet, earthy odour. Its weight seemed to be, as nearly as we could estimate it, about one hundred and fifty pounds; and the boatswain—who claimed to be an authority—confidently asserted that I should have no difficulty in getting a sovereign per pound for it at Hong Kong. Ambergris—I may as well mention, for the information of those who do not know—is said to be a secretion formed in the intestines of the sperm whale, as a result of disease. It is greatly in demand in the East generally, for a variety of purposes—medicinal, among others—but its chief use seems to be in the manufacture of perfumes. It is not often found, and, the supply being very limited, it commands a high price in the market. Strangely enough, we fell in with and secured a second and still larger piece a few days later; the total quantity amounting to no less than three hundred and twenty-seven pounds, which I afterwards disposed of without difficulty at twenty-five shillings per pound, remitting the proceeds home to my old friend, Mr Richards, in part liquidation of my debt to him.



CHAPTER EIGHT.

THE CHIEF MATE HAS A PRESENTIMENT.

Nothing further of importance occurred during our passage across the Indian Ocean, which was accomplished under exceptionally pleasant circumstances; the weather being gloriously fine, and the wind, if not absolutely fair, always favourable enough to permit of our laying our course.

Java Head was made just before sunset, under a clear sky, with a light air breathing out from the north-west—so light an air, indeed, that when the sun rose next morning the headland was still on our starboard bow. Some two hours later, however, we got a strong breeze out from the north-east, under the influence of which we worked up toward the mouth of the straits in fine style, until noon—by which time we were fairly within the straits—when the wind softened down, finally dwindling away to nothing about an hour before sunset.

We had sighted several sail during the day, three of them being European, bound to the westward, while the rest were country craft— small coasters and fishing vessels for the most part. The Malays have probably, next to the Chinese, the worst reputation in the world for honesty; but it is only just to say that, with one solitary exception, all the native craft we had that day fallen in with had behaved in a manner that left no room whatever for suspicion. The exception was in the case of a large proa that had passed us closely, running out before the wind toward the mouth of the straits during the forenoon, but which, having run to leeward of us for a distance of some six miles, had then hauled her wind and stretched in toward the southern shore, on reaching which she had lowered her canvas, thrown out her sweeps, and made her way to windward with the aid of the latter alone. It was not so much this circumstance, however, though it had a somewhat incomprehensible look about it, as the fact that she pulled twelve sweeps of a side— proving her to be heavily manned—that caused us to regard her and her movements with a certain amount of doubt and suspicion. We were now in waters that, from the numerous acts of piracy that have been committed within them, have acquired a more sinister reputation than is borne by any other spot of ocean of similar area in the whole world; and it was therefore only natural that the fact of our being becalmed in such a spot should have been productive of a certain uneasiness and disquiet of mind throughout the ship.

At sunset, and for an hour or two afterwards, there was every prospect of a fine clear night; but at about two bells in the first watch a thin veil of vapour began to gather in the sky, gradually thickening and blotting out the stars until they were all completely hidden, when the darkness became profound. At this time—or rather, when we had last had an opportunity of distinguishing distant objects—there were only some eight or ten craft, all native, in sight, the nearest of which was fully four miles distant; and they all, without exception, presented an appearance of perfect honesty. Three or four of them were, like ourselves, drifting idly, with their heads pointing in as many different directions; the others had rigged out a sweep, or in some cases a pair, and were slowly making their way inshore.

The baronet and I were reclining in contiguous chairs, placidly smoking our post-prandial cigars; the ladies were below, Miss Merrivale being seated at the piano, accompanying her sister, who—having by this time quite recovered her health and spirits—was singing some quaint, old-fashioned ballad in a full, rich contralto voice that could be distinctly heard from one end of the ship to the other, and probably far beyond. As for the chief mate, he was pacing the deck thoughtfully and steadily to and fro with an energy that, taking the heat and closeness of the night into consideration, seemed to bespeak an uneasy mind. After a while he halted alongside the binnacle, gazed abstractedly into it for about half a minute, and then, turning to the nodding helmsman, inquired whether he knew where he was running the ship to.

"She hasn't had steerage-way on her since I came aft, at eight bells, sir," was the reply.

"She hasn't, eh?" remarked Roberts. "Well, if that's the case, the compass isn't of much use to you, is it? So," pulling off his jacket, "as it's hardly worth while to proclaim our exact whereabouts to everybody, we'll just mask the light until a breeze springs up."

Saying which, he laid his jacket very carefully over the hood of the binnacle, completely obscuring the not very brilliant light that shone therefrom.

"What is Roberts' idea in hiding the binnacle light in that fashion?" asked Sir Edgar, turning to me, as the mate again walked forward, pausing for some minutes near the head of the short poop ladder, and apparently peering anxiously round him into the obscurity.

"Well," said I, "I think he perhaps feels a little uneasy at our being becalmed just here, and in such an intensely dark night, too. The Malays have the name of being born pirates, you know, and should they happen to take it into their heads to attack us just now, it would be rather awkward, since we could do absolutely nothing to avoid them while this calm lasts."

"Do you think there is any danger of such an occurrence, captain?" he asked, with manifest anxiety.

"Not very much," I replied. "There were no suspicious craft visible at nightfall. Still, an attack is by no means an impossibility, especially on such a dark night. The circumstances are precisely those which I imagine would be deemed highly favourable by people piratically inclined."

"Then why, in Heaven's name, my good sir, do you not make preparation for such an eventuality?" exclaimed my companion, excitedly.

"For the simple reason," I replied, "that all the preparation possible could be made in five minutes; and, as a matter of fact, I was only waiting until you had all retired, when I intended at once making them. Two slashes of a sharp knife would suffice to release those boarding-pikes from the boom; and you can easily calculate for yourself the length of time it would take to serve out a brace of revolvers and a cutlass to each of our small crew."

"Um!" ejaculated the baronet. "And have you no rifles on board?"

"I have one," said I; "but of what use would it be on such a dark night as this?"

"True; too true," muttered Sir Edgar. "Nevertheless, I think I will go down and put my Winchester together, upon the off chance of work being found for it. Confound this calm, say I. If it were not for the fact of my wife and bairns being on board there is nothing I should enjoy more than a brush with the rascals—for my feeling is that pirates deserve no mercy—but, as it is—" An expressive shrug eloquently concluded the sentence; and the baronet at once rose and went below.

A minute or two later the piano became silent, and I heard the sound of the instrument being closed, as Sir Edgar remarked, laughingly—

"Thank you, Emily. If you go on at this rate you will soon recover your old form. I thought, just now, as I sat on deck listening to your singing, that your voice had never sounded sweeter. But, as your chief medical adviser, I really must forbid your using it any more to-night; we must progress gradually, you know, and not overtax nature at the outset (is not that the correct professional jargon?) Joking apart, however, I think you have done enough for to-night; and—ah, there goes four bells—ten o'clock—take my advice, 'turn in,' both of you, and get a good long night's rest."

"I think I will," replied Lady Emily; "this hot weather makes me feel very languid and tired. And you, Edgar—what are you going to do? You will not remain on deck very late, will you?"

"Well," hesitated Sir Edgar, "that depends on circumstances. I shall not turn in until I feel that there is some chance of getting to sleep. And if this calm continues I think I shall sleep on deck; it is too insufferably hot altogether for one down here, just at present. Leave the ports open in your cabins, both of you, so that if there is any air stirring you will get the benefit of it. And now I think I will say good night to you both. Good night, sweetheart, and pleasant dreams. Good night, Agnes."

I heard the click of the latches of the cabin-doors as the two ladies retired, and presently Sir Edgar came on deck again, with a fresh cigar in his mouth, and seated himself once more beside me, remarking—

"There! I have packed my womankind off to bed, and have laid my rifle, with a good supply of cartridges, in my own bunk—an act which has somewhat relieved my mind. So now, captain, as the coast is clear down below, there is nothing to prevent your making your preparations as soon as you please."

"Very good," said I; "then I will set about them at once. And, by way of a start, I think we will 'blind' the skylights; as I fully agree with Roberts that there is no especial advantage in revealing four whereabouts to anybody to-night. Nothing but a steamer could run us down in this weather; and, should there happen to be one coming along, we should see her lights in ample time to give her warning of our position."

The mate was still promenading to and fro between the break of the poop and the binnacle; so when he next passed I requested him to have the canvas covers put over the skylights, also to direct the steward to turn down the lamps in the saloon and my own cabin, and to carefully draw the curtains before all the sidelights, so that no treacherous ray might gleam forth from the ship's side and betray our locality. This was soon done; and the noiseless movements of the mate as he went forward and gave the necessary orders in a whisper, instead of issuing them in stentorian tones from the break of the poop, sufficiently indicated his conviction of the existence of a lurking peril in our immediate vicinity.

The one thing that we had to fear, above all others—and to guard against—in the event of an attack, was the presence of the pirates on our own decks. Should they succeed in boarding us, it would certainly be in such overwhelming numbers as to render an effective resistance impossible; our small party would be quickly overpowered, and then the fate of everybody on board would be sealed. Our safety depended upon our keeping the foe at arm's length. Half a dozen fathoms of water would suffice; but the problem was how to accomplish this very desirable end. I had been giving a good deal of thought to this, even while chatting disconnectedly with Sir Edgar in the earlier part of the evening, and had at length hit upon a plan that I thought might be successful. We had on board a small fire engine, mounted on wheels, with a hose and jet attached, and a tank capable of containing some fifty gallons. This engine I now ordered to be uncovered, and prepared for action by securely lashing a small loose mop-head of oakum round the nozzle of the hose, taking especial care that the aperture of the jet should be left perfectly free. Roberts, who seemed at once to divine and understand my plan even before I had explained it to him, undertook this part of the work in person; and in about ten minutes he reported that all was ready, and invited me to inspect his workmanship.

It was by this time "five bells;" and the night was, without exception, the darkest, I think, that I had ever experienced. So dark, indeed, was it, that, well as we knew the ship, we had to feel our way along the deck with hands and feet, for it was absolutely impossible to see anything a foot beyond the end of one's nose. With such intense darkness as this it was evident that the heavens must be obscured by exceptionally heavy masses of cloud; which, with the hot, breathless condition of the atmosphere, led me to anticipate and hope for a thunderstorm, which would at least afford us sufficient light to inspect our surroundings, and so put an end to a state of suspense that was growing wearisome. And not only was the night intensely dark; it was also oppressively silent; for, the water being perfectly smooth, there was no life or motion in the ship to give rise to those sounds—such as the flapping of canvas, the creaking of timbers and bulkheads, etcetera, etcetera—that usually make a calm so irritating to people who happen to be troubled with nerves. All was silent as death itself; our own movements being hushed, in harmony with the prevailing stillness, so that we spoke under our breath, and moved about on tiptoe.

In this silent, groping way I followed Roberts forward to inspect the fire engine; and it was while thus engaged with the aid of a carefully shielded lantern, that the mate exclaimed, in a hoarse whisper, as he held up his hand, and bent his head in a listening attitude—

"Hark! did you hear that, sir?"

"No," said I, "I heard nothing. What was it?"

"Why," answered Roberts, "it sounded to me like the noise of an oar, or a sweep, creaking in a rowlock; and it seemed to come from away yonder,"—pointing, as he spoke, in the direction of the larboard bow.

We both listened intently, for fully a minute, without detecting any sound whatever confirmatory of Roberts' evident suspicions; and at length I said, turning once more to the examination of the fire engine—

"Tush, man, you were mistaken; you heard nothing. The fact is, Mr Roberts, you are not quite yourself to-night. You seem nervous, and fidgety, and anxious. The heat of to-day has upset you; and I think you had better let me give you a good stiff dose of quinine when you go below, at eight bells."

"Thank you, sir, no," answered Roberts; "I don't need any quinine, or anything else in the shape of medicine to brace me up. There's nothing the matter with me, bodily; but, to be perfectly candid, I do feel a little bit off my mental balance, as it were, to-night. The fact is—I know you'll laugh at me, sir, but I can't help that, and it don't matter, but I've got the feeling strong upon me that something's going to happen to me to-night. For three nights running—that is to say, last night, and the night before, and the night before that again—I've started up out of a sound sleep with the idea that my dear wife was calling me; ay, and with the very sound and tone of her sweet voice in my ears. Now, sir, do you think that is only a coincidence, as they say ashore; or isn't it more likely to be a sign that something is going to happen to me?"

"Why, what nonsense is this for a sensible, educated man like yourself to be talking!" I exclaimed half angrily. "Let me feel your pulse."

He held out his hand to me, and I laid my fingers upon his wrist. Contrary to what I had expected, I found the skin to be cool and moist, and the pulse beneath it beating with the steadiness and regularity of a machine.

"Umph! there doesn't seem to be very much wrong there," I admitted. "But I didn't know you were a married man, Roberts; I understood you once to say that you were quite alone in the world—not a soul belonging to you."

"Quite right, sir; that's the exact truth," returned the mate. "But I had a wife once, sir; as sweet, true, and tender-hearted a little woman as you ever met, I'll be bound. And pretty, she was, too. My little Nellie—I only had her six months, sir.

"We were spliced early in the spring; and I stayed ashore and spent the whole summer and well into the autumn with her; six months—six blessed, happy, joyous months with the sweetest woman that ever lived. We were all by ourselves, excepting for one servant maid, in a pretty little house on the outskirts of Teignmouth. Ah! that was a time for a man to look back upon for the rest of his life. Then by-and-by, when the autumn days began to grow short, the cash began to grow short, too; and I had to go to sea again to earn more. I'm not a particularly soft-hearted man, as a rule, Captain Saint Leger, but I tell you, sir, that that parting from Nellie was just as much as I could stand up against: to be obliged to untwine her loving, clinging arms from about my neck, and to deliberately turn away and leave her standing there by the gate, crying her dear eyes out, was cruel work, sir; it was like tearing my very heartstrings asunder. But it had to be done.

"Of course when we arrived at Durban—for it was while I was in the Natal trade, in this same little barque—there were a couple of letters waiting for me that had passed us on the road out; and every mail that arrived while we were lying in the harbour brought me another, each more cheerful than the last, because the time was passing away and bringing our reunion nearer.

"And when at last I got home again, sir, all that they had to show me was my darling's new-made grave. She had taken typhoid fever, died, and was carried out of the house in her coffin at the moment that the telegram announcing my arrival in England was handed in."

Something very like a sob seemed to rise in Roberts's throat and choke him at this point in his story; but before I had time to frame and arrange the words of sympathy that struggled to my lips—for I am not a quick man with my tongue—he resumed—

"I hope, Captain Saint Leger, that if my manner has seemed to you a little curious to-night, you will not put it down to timorousness, or faintheartedness, or anything of that sort. I do feel very queer, I admit; not ill, you understand, but strange; a kind of—well, it's more than a presentiment; I might say it's an absolute certainty that I'm going to die to-night, coupled with another absolute certainty that those treacherous fiends of Malays are gathering round us out there in the darkness. But if my presentiment should prove true, and it comes to a fight, have no fears on my account. I'll not fail you, sir, in the moment of need and danger. Danger has long ceased to be an enemy of mine, and Death lost all his terrors for me when I stood for the first time beside my Nellie's grave. I am quite ready to die whenever it may please the Almighty to call me; and if I can do so in defence of those dear, helpless women and children down below, it will suit me well enough."

"Thank you, Roberts; thank you, my friend," said I, grasping the hand he held out to me. "Yours is a very sad, pathetic story, and you have my hearty sympathy. As to doubting your courage, my good fellow, no such thought ever entered my head. But I am certain, despite all you say to the contrary, that you are not quite yourself to-night. Therefore, if you will not take any medicine, at least go below and try to get a little sleep; that perhaps will do you as much good as anything. I will keep the remainder of your watch for you; and should anything occur to confirm your suspicions as to the Malays, you may reckon on my calling you in good time."

The man was, however, obstinate—or, at least, so he seemed to me to be—resolutely declining to accede to either of my suggestions; so, leaving him to complete the few remaining preparations I deemed necessary to meet an attack, should anything of the sort be attempted, I returned aft to the poop, somewhat vexed that so thoroughly sensible a man as Roberts had hitherto proved should suffer himself to be so completely mastered, as I had seen him to be, by a morbid feeling of melancholy that was doubtless due in part to overmuch dwelling of late upon the death of his wife but which I firmly believed was to be still more directly traced to some slight derangement of the system that could easily be put right by the administration of a dose of medicine, could the fellow but be induced to take it. No doubt, too, the fact of our being becalmed, and therefore to a great extent helpless, in a spot notoriously haunted by a people, every mother's son of whom was but too ready to participate in any act of piracy that seemed to offer a reasonable prospect of success, had a large influence in producing the presentiment of death in the mate's mind; but that, I felt sure, would pass away with the impenetrable and oppressive darkness by which we were enveloped, or with the advent of a breeze of wind. While, therefore, I sincerely pitied the poor fellow for his disagreeable state of mind, I thought that perhaps it would be wisest to treat it as a matter of no importance, and to leave him to himself until the fit of depression should have passed away.

On groping my way back to the chair I had previously occupied, I found that Sir Edgar was still occupying the chair beside my own, meditatively pulling away at a cigar, the glowing spark of which would probably have still further increased Roberts's perturbation, had he seen it. As I seated myself beside him the baronet made a half-jesting inquiry as to whether our preparations had had the effect of reassuring the mate; so, to while away the time, and for want of something more interesting to talk about, I told him Roberts's story, and also described to him the peculiar state of mind under which the poor fellow was labouring. Sir Edgar fully agreed with me that the latter was simply the result of some slight and probably temporary derangement, and was proceeding to discuss the subject of presentiments in general, and the extreme rarity of really well-authenticated cases of verification, when the atmosphere became for an instant faintly luminous with the evanescent, quivering glimmer of the silent, summer lightning. The flash trembled but for a moment in the sky, and was gone again; but in that moment I saw that the firmament was packed with vast masses of dense, heavy, threatening, highly, charged electric cloud, the weird, contorted shapes of which clearly indicated that they were being powerfully acted upon by the mighty antagonistic forces that they carried within their bosoms, and gave unmistakable warning that an elemental strife was impending, for which it would be well to prepare. Beneath this louring canopy the surface of the water shone with the unwrinkled smoothness of polished glass, faithfully reflecting every detail, even to the most minute, of form and colour exhibited by the writhing cloud-shapes that overhung it; and also faithfully reflecting the shapes of four large proas that, in a somewhat scattered fleet, were revealed at a distance of some three miles to the northward and eastward of the spot occupied by ourselves. The barque happened at the moment to be lying with her head pointing about south-east; these proas were therefore broad upon our larboard beam, and they were the first objects that met my sight. Some, if not all, of these craft were working their sweeps; for, with the momentary quiver of the lightning, I had caught the glint of reflected light from wet oar-blades projecting from the dark, shadowy mass of the hull; and they were all heading up or down the straits—I could not tell which in the unexpected glimpse I had caught of them—for they all showed end-on, or nearly so, to us.

Meanwhile, Roberts had completed his task, and was in the act of mounting to the poop—for I caught sight of his figure out of the corner of my eye—when the flash came. As the opaque darkness once more enveloped us I heard his voice exclaiming sharply, and, as it seemed to me, with a note of exultation in it, as though proud at the prospect of at least one half of his presentiment being verified—

"Did you see that, sir?"

I rose from my chair and joined him, so that our voices might not disturb the sleepers below in the saloon, near the open skylight of which I had been seated.

"You mean the proas, I suppose," said I. "Yes, I saw them. But there are only four of them, thank goodness. And we are not sure that they are not heading up the straits, instead of toward us. If so, it was no doubt from one of them that the sound emanated that startled you a little while ago, as they must have passed us at no great distance."

"Four of them?" exclaimed Roberts; "I only saw three; and two of them were heading the same way as ourselves. They were all close together; not more than—"

At this moment the tremulous greenish glare of the sheet lightning once more lit up the scene, this time much more strongly than on the first occasion, and in the midst of the quivering radiance there was a single sudden, vivid gleam, like the instantaneous flash of a gigantic lantern behind the dense masses of cloud lying piled along the western horizon, the light being so brilliant as to be quite dazzling after the Cimmerian darkness to which our eyes had become accustomed. But, despite the dazzling brilliancy of the sudden illumination, the retina of my eyes caught and retained the vision of three large proas broad on our starboard quarter, about two miles distant, situated precisely as Roberts had described them; and that this vision was no illusion of my senses was instantly demonstrated by the mate, who interrupted himself to quickly exclaim—

"There they are again, sir."

"Yes, I saw them," said I. "And there are four more about three miles up the straits, on our port beam. That makes seven craft in our neighbourhood that were certainly not there when the darkness closed down upon us. Now, in order to get where they are they must have been using their sweeps; which, I must confess, has, to my mind, rather a bad look; as, from what I have heard of the Malays, they are not so fond of hard work as to resort to it for mere pastime. However, we shall soon know what they are after; if they are looking for us, that last flash has most probably enabled them to discover our whereabouts; and if they mean mischief they will all be heading for us when next we see them. Meanwhile, Mr Roberts, it is evident that we are about to be treated to a heavy thunderstorm; and as it may bring a violent wind-squall with it, we will make provision for the possibility by stowing all our light canvas. Ah!"—as another and still brighter flash burst forth, followed this time by the low muttering of distant thunder—"there they come; the rascals are certainly after us! Call all hands at once, if you please, Mr Roberts; there will be time to shorten sail, and to prepare a reception for the Malays before they can get alongside."

"All hands shorten sail!" shouted the mate, scrambling off the poop, and groping his way forward. "Clew up and furl the royals and to'ga'nts'ls; and see that you stow them in such a way that they won't blow adrift if a squall happens to strike us. Let go the main-royal and to'gallant and the mizzen-topmast staysail halliards, and man the downhauls; then you can stow the sails, as you work your way down. Is that you, Mr Forbes? Just see that the main and fore tops'l-halliards are all clear for letting run, will ye? And when your lads come on deck we will haul down and stow the flying-jib and get in the gaff-tops'l and mizzen. That's your sort, my bullies; now, away aloft and stow everything as quickly as you can."

The men, fearful that the anticipated squall might burst upon the ship before we were prepared for it, worked with a will, their efforts being greatly facilitated by the lightning that was now quivering and flashing all round the horizon with momentarily increasing splendour, and at such brief intervals that the illumination might almost be said to be continuous; while the deep, hollow rumble of the thunder might very well have been mistaken for the booming of a distant cannonade. The effect of the incessant flicker of the lightning was very weird; the tremulous greenish-blue glare illuminating the ponderous masses and contorted shapes of the black clouds overhead, the surface of the ink-black sea around us, the distant proas, and the hull, spars, sails, and rigging of the barque, with the moving figures aloft and at the jib-boom end, and suffusing everything with so baleful and unearthly a light that only the slightest effort of the imagination was needed to fancy ourselves a phantom ship, manned by ghosts of the unquiet dead, floating upon the sooty flood of the Styx, with the adamantine foundations of the world arching ponderously and menacingly over our heads and reflecting from their rugged surfaces the flashing of the flames of Phlegethon.



CHAPTER NINE.

AN EVENTFUL NIGHT.

The storm was approaching us rapidly; the rumble of the thunder grew momentarily louder, and soon became continuous; and presently a vivid flash of chain lightning streamed from the clouds low down upon the northern horizon, followed, in about half a minute, by a smart peal of thunder, much louder than any that we had yet heard. This was quickly succeeded by a second flash, perceptibly nearer than the first—for the interval between it and the resulting clap of thunder was noticeably shorter, while the volume of sound was much greater and sharper. And still the sheet lightning continued to play vividly and with scarcely a second's intermission among the Titanic cloud-masses around and above us, lighting up the entire scene from horizon to horizon; so that we now had no difficulty whatever in following the movements of the various proas in sight, the whole fleet of which were obviously converging upon us as upon a common centre.

It was evident, from the uneasy glances cast by the men from time to time upon these craft, that they fully shared my own and the chief mate's suspicions regarding them, and I have no doubt that the sight of the seven proas unmistakably sweeping down toward us had as much as the quickly gathering storm to do with the acceleration of their movements; at any rate, I had never seen men work more smartly; and the nearest proa was still fully three-quarters of a mile distant when the last man reached the deck—which he did by way of the main-topmast backstay—and our task of shortening sail was complete.

I thought it was now time to say a word or two to the hands. I therefore requested Mr Roberts to call everybody aft; and at the word they came shambling along the deck, bare-footed, and grouped themselves on the port side, between the main rigging and the capstan, while the two mates joined me upon the poop. I waited a moment until they were silent, and then said—

"My lads, the glances you have been casting at intervals in the direction of those proas assures me that not only have you all observed them, but also that, like myself, you have very grave doubts as to the honesty of their intentions. I may as well say at once that, so far as I am concerned, doubt has given place to certainty—the certainty that they mean mischief towards us. I believe that the large proa that passed us this morning, running out to seaward, and afterwards sweeping up the straits again, under the land, was simply bound upon a reconnoitring cruise; and that, on seeing us, her people arrived at the conclusion that we should prove a very suitable object for attack, should opportunity present itself; and that the presence of those seven proas is the result.

"Now, I need not waste time by telling you what sort of character the Malays bear, because you all know it. They are, almost to a man, born pirates, and a cruel, bloodthirsty set of rascals are they into the bargain. We may therefore be certain that if those fellows are once allowed to gain full possession of our decks, not a soul of us on board here will be left alive five minutes afterwards. Unfortunately, we mount no guns, so I fear there is little chance of our being able to keep them at a distance; but there is an arm-chest below containing a sufficient supply of cutlasses and revolvers for all hands, and these, with ammunition, shall be served out to you. I may tell you that Mr Roberts and I have been concocting a little plan by which we hope to prevent the rascals from actually boarding us; but, as I have never yet tried it, I am by no means certain that it will succeed. Should it fail, we shall undoubtedly be boarded, in which case we must fall back upon cold lead and cold steel, serving out both to the enemy with such zeal and good will that they shall be anxious only to get back on board their own craft with the utmost possible expedition. You will all fight, and fight well, I know—I never yet met with a Briton who would not fight—but it may perhaps put a little extra vigour into your arms if I remind you that you will be fighting, not only for yourselves, but also for the helpless women and children who are sleeping below. Now muster yourselves, the port watch on the port side of the deck, and the starboard watch on the starboard side, and Mr Roberts and Mr Forbes will serve out the arms to you. After which you will hold yourselves ready to promptly execute such orders as you may receive." The fellows raised a cheer as I finished speaking, and ranged themselves on either side of the deck with a steadiness and alacrity of movement that was very encouraging to me, as indicating a cool and undaunted frame of mind on their part; and the two mates at once dived below to bring up the arms and ammunition.

Meanwhile, I walked aft to Sir Edgar, who still retained his chair, puffing placidly at his cigar, but clearly evincing, by the way he had slued himself in his seat, and in his observant, listening attitude, the lively interest he was taking in the proceedings.

As I joined him he rose from his chair and, pitching the glowing stump of his cigar over the side, said—

"I am going below for my rifle now, captain. And I think that while I am there I had better awaken my wife and Miss Merrivale, and just give them a hint of what is impending. The firing is certain to awake them, if the thunder has not done so already, and I think it will be best that they should have a clear idea of what is about to happen, or when we begin firing we may have them rushing on deck in alarm to see what is the matter. Do not you agree with me?"

"Yes, certainly," said I. "I was about to suggest such a course to you. But there is every probability of there being some exceedingly warm work going on here on deck very shortly, and if you will allow me to express an opinion, it is that it would be decidedly more prudent for you to remain below and do what you can to encourage the ladies. An unlucky shot, you know, might—"

"Thanks," interrupted the baronet, "I think I can guess exactly what you would say, captain; but not another word, if you please. What? Would you have me skulk below while brave men are imperilling their lives in defence of those who are dearer to me than my own life? I could not possibly do it. Besides, if I am not greatly mistaken, you will need all the force you can muster before the end of the affair is reached. I shall be back again within five minutes, and I have to request that, from then until the fight is over, you will be pleased to consider me as completely under your orders as any other man in the ship."

So saying, Sir Edgar turned toward the companion and made his way below with a composure as imperturbable as though he had just bade me "good night" and were about to turn in, instead of looking forward to active participation in a struggle which there was only too much reason to expect would be of the most sanguinary and desperate character, and the result of which might well be anticipated with anxiety.

The baronet's head had scarcely vanished beneath the companion-slide when there came a flash and a puff of smoke, followed by a sharp, ringing report from the nearest proa—now directly astern of us, the barque having swung with her head once more pointing fair up the straits—and then the surface of the water was torn and lashed into momentary foam, some eight or ten fathoms away on our port beam, by the spattering of a heavy shower of bullets or slugs of some sort that had evidently formed the charge of the gun.

"That was well meant, at any rate," remarked Roberts, as he crossed the deck and placed himself at my side. "By the report of it I judge that it is a brass gun they are using, and they've got our range to a nicety, for a wonder."

"Yes," said I; "the men had better get under cover, Mr Roberts, for, if the next charge should happen to fall on board us, somebody may be hurt, and there are so few of us that we cannot afford to have any casualties before coming to close quarters. Be good enough to see to this, if you please, and while you are forward get one of the men to open and start a drum of petroleum into the tank of the fire engine, and put the nozzle of the hose into the tank to soak, so that our wick arrangement round the jet may get thoroughly saturated with oil against the time that we shall want to use it. At the same time you had better tell off two of the most reliable hands to attend exclusively to the working of the engine. And be pleased to remember that you and Mr Forbes are included among those who are to keep carefully under cover until otherwise required."

"All hands under cover," shouted the mate, as he made his way forward. "Stow yourselves away where no shot can get at you, my lads, but hold yourselves ready to answer smartly to a call. Harry, I want you and Joe Martin to—"

I heard no more, being by this time halfway down the companion-ladder in quest of my rifle, for the time was now at hand when it would be needed. As I entered my own state-room I heard Sir Edgar's voice speaking in reassuring tones in his wife's cabin, and as I emerged again with my rifle in my hand, a cutlass girt about my waist, and a pair of revolvers in my belt, he came into the saloon and from thence followed me on deck. As I placed my foot on the bottom step of the companion-ladder I heard the report of another discharge from the proa mingling sharply with the deep, volleying roll of the thunder overhead, but as there was no accompanying patter of shot on the deck I concluded that they had again missed us.

I was heartily glad that the Malays had unmistakably declared their intentions by opening fire upon us, for, to be perfectly candid, I had been in some perplexity as to how I ought to act towards them, should they make no hostile demonstration towards us while approaching. For while, on the one hand, there had scarcely been a shadow of doubt in my mind, from the moment when my eye first fell upon them, that the proas were piratical craft, with sinister designs upon the barque, there remained, on the other hand, a bare possibility—until they absolutely declared themselves to be otherwise—that they might be perfectly honest traders bound upon their own lawful business, and we should hardly be justified in taking the initiative and opening fire upon them as they approached, merely because their movements happened to present to us a suspicious appearance, and because their respective courses happened to be in our direction. But now that one of them—the craft nearest us— had actually assumed the offensive, we need entertain no further scruples, so far at least as she was concerned; and as for the others, now that the engagement might be said to have begun, we should soon discover, by their behaviour, what their intentions were.

"How is your rifle sighted?" asked Sir Edgar, as we stood together near the wheel, watching the approach of our antagonist.

"Up to a thousand yards," answered I. "And as that proa is now within half that distance, I shall take a shot at her without further ceremony. When you fire, Sir Edgar, aim at her bows, and as near the level of her rail as possible; there is doubtless a crowd of the villains grouped forward there about their gun, and in the eyes of her, watching us, and it is to that part of her, therefore, that we must direct our attention at first. Here goes for the first shot."

I levelled my weapon carefully, but had to wait for what seemed quite a long time to get a good aim; two or three very vivid flashes of lightning just then following each other in quick succession, and so effectually dazzling my eyes that I could see absolutely nothing for some few seconds afterwards. Then I fired, but there was no answering sign or sound on board the proa to tell that my shot had been effective.

"What distance were you sighted for?" inquired the baronet.

"Five hundred yards," answered I; "but I believe she is nearer than that."

"I think so, too," agreed Sir Edgar. "You fired too high, captain. I shall sight for three hundred,"—going to the binnacle, and uncovering the hood for a moment to do so. He waited perhaps a minute; then raised the rifle to his shoulder, paused a second or two, and, taking advantage of a strong and prolonged gleam of sheet lightning, fired. A shrill scream from the proa told us that his bullet had found a mark, and almost immediately afterwards she fired her gun again, the shot this time striking somewhere aloft, for we distinctly heard the thud of the bullets against the spars.

"We score first blood, at all events," composedly remarked Sir Edgar. "As for the enemy, it is evident that they have not altered the elevation of their piece since they first fired, and it is fervently to be hoped that they will still forget to do so. If that last shower of bullets had fallen on deck, captain, I am afraid it would have been bad for both of us."

"Very possibly," I agreed. "Still, those small, short guns, such as she appears to carry, scatter tremendously, and we might have the lead flying thick all round us, and still not be hit. Now, I wonder whether I shall have better luck this time."

I certainly had, for the sharp report of my weapon was instantly answered by quite an outcry on board the proa—a kind of compound yell made up of several distinct sounds, leading to the conclusion that my bullet had fallen in the thick of a group, and wounded several.

"Why, captain, you are improving," observed my companion approvingly. "If I could but manage to do the same, now—"

Crack! went his rifle, and the sound was followed by two distinct cries—a scream and a howl—manifestly uttered by different voices, and we thought we heard the sound of a heavy fall on the deck, but a sharp peal of thunder at the same moment prevented our being sure of this. While we were reloading they fired their brass gun once more, and again the charge flew high overhead—luckily for us, for the bullets seemed to be flying closer together this time. Then they began pelting at us with their gingals, first treating us to quite a respectable fusillade, and then blazing away, every man for himself, as fast as they could load and fire; some of their bullets singing past us so closely that I inwardly congratulated myself upon my wisdom in ordering everybody under cover.

And new, one after another, the remaining proas opened fire upon us with their brass guns, although certainly not more than two of the entire fleet were yet within range; while the vivid lightning flashed and tore athwart the heavens in continuous coruscations, and the thunder crashed and rattled and rolled and boomed overhead and all round the horizon in such terrific detonations that they absolutely caused the ship to perceptibly tremble and vibrate with the tremendous volume of sound.

At length the proa that had initiated the attack upon us closed to within a hundred yards, steering for our port quarter, with the evident intention of sheering alongside us somewhere about our mizzen-rigging. They were working ten sweeps on board her—five of a side—and calculating that each sweep required at least four men to handle it (for they were very long and heavy), I concluded that she would have, all told, at least sixty men on her deck, a formidable number to oppose with our small force on board the barque. I was not much afraid of them so long as we could keep a few fathoms of water between them and ourselves, but should they once succeed in gaining a footing upon our decks, a very few casualties on our side would suffice to determine the issue against us.

It was, accordingly, to prevent this that I had set my wits to work in conjunction with those of the mate, when we had first seen reason to anticipate an attack, my plan being to utilise our fire engine as a means of defence, and I had given instructions to have it prepared in a manner that I hoped would convert it into a really formidable weapon. The time had now arrived, or at least was close at hand, when an opportunity would be afforded us to test its efficacy; I therefore ordered it to be run aft as far as the capstan, and cautioned the two men, who had been told off to work it, to stand by the brake-handles. I had already fully explained my idea to the mate, and he now took in his hand the long brass nozzle—the tow attachment round the jet of which was by this time thoroughly saturated with oil—and prepared to act as circumstances might demand. Meanwhile the pirates had ceased to fire their brass gun, and the fusillade from their gingals had slackened considerably, thanks, no doubt, to the indefatigable manner in which the baronet and I had plied our rifles upon them.

The craft was now so near that, by the continuous flashing of the lightning, we could distinguish every detail, even to the most minute, of her hull and rigging, and we could see, too, that her deck was crowded with men, many of whom appeared to have tailed on, as extra hands, to the sweeps, which were now being worked with furious energy; for they lashed the water into a perfect swirl of luminous, phosphorescent foam, while quite a respectable little curl of luminous froth buzzed away on each side from her sharp bows. It was clear that they were giving her "way" enough to shoot alongside, prior to laying in the sweeps, in order that every man they had might be available for boarding purposes.

"Now, Sir Edgar," I exclaimed, "we will give her one more shot apiece; and then we must stand by with our cutlasses in case our fire engine fails."

"There is a tall fellow standing at the helm who offers a very decent mark; shall I see whether I can pick him off?" inquired the baronet.

"By no means," I answered hurriedly. "Take especial pains to shoot wide of him, if you please. I look to him to afford us very effectual help presently."

My companion turned and stared inquiringly at me for a moment, apparently doubting whether I was in earnest; when, seeing that I evidently was so, he muttered—

"Oh, very well," and, taking aim, fired simultaneously with me; and I saw two pairs of arms tossed into the air as their owners went down.

At the same moment, in obedience to a command that we distinctly heard given, the sweeps were very smartly laid in and thrown clattering on to the deck, while every man on board, save the helmsman, sank under cover behind the proa's low bulwark.

"Now, Mr Roberts, stand by with your hose, and give them the benefit of it the moment they show themselves," I cried.

"Pump, boys, and fill the hose," exclaimed the mate, plunging the nozzle into the flame of a lighted lantern that he had brought aft with him for the purpose. The tow band instantly burst into a fierce flame, casting a broad yellow glare on everything within its influence, and dripping burning drops into a bucket of water with which Roberts had taken the precaution of providing himself.

While this was doing, the proa's helm had been ported, and she now came driving along toward our port quarter, as I had expected. When within fifty feet of us another order was given on board her, in response to which her crew—some eighty in number, at the very least, and as fierce and relentless looking a set of cut-throats as I ever desire to see— rose to their feet, with their naked creeses grasped in their hands—the yellow glare falling strongly upon their keen steel and fierce gleaming eyeballs—and lined her rail in readiness to spring on board us on the instant that the sides of the two craft should touch.

"Now is your time, Mr Roberts; let them have it, fore and aft!" I shouted.

"Pump hard!" cried Roberts to the men, excitedly. The handles clanked smartly; the mate turned the tap of the jet; and in an instant a long thin stream of oil, ignited by its passage through the flame blazing round the orifice of the jet, poured in a flood of fire across the intervening space of water, and struck the proa fairly in the bows. To raise the nozzle sufficiently to touch the men was an action quick as thought, when it was so manipulated as to cause the stream to travel deliberately right along the entire length of the vessel's rail, from the eyes of her to the taffrail. The effect surpassed my most sanguine expectations; that stream of fire, thin as it was, could not be withstood; and in less time than it takes to tell of it the deck of the proa was full of shrieking men, who, with clothes ablaze, and suffering Heaven only knows what extremity of torture wherever the fiery spray had touched them, were plunging headlong below out of the way of the dreadful missile. The helmsman had, as I expected, instinctively put his helm hard a starboard the instant that the jet began to play, with the result that the proa, instead of touching us, forged slowly past us to port, and so ahead, with little tongues of flame creeping here and there about her hull wherever the flaming oil had fallen; Roberts keeping the jet remorselessly playing upon her until she had shot quite beyond its reach.

"Thank God, we are well rid of that danger!" I ejaculated; "and, unless I am greatly mistaken, we shall get a breeze before any of the others are near enough to attempt the same trick."

"Ay; and here it comes with a vengeance, too! Look there, sir, on our starboard beam," cried Roberts. "Avast pumping there, you two, and run the engine away for'ard, out of the way. Stand by the braces fore and—"

A terrific blaze of lightning at this moment enveloped the ship in a sheet of living flame, which was accompanied by a simultaneous crash of thunder that was indescribably dreadful and terrifying by reason of its awful intensity of sound. It literally stunned me for a few seconds, so completely that I knew not where I was; and when I recovered my senses I discovered that the tremendous shock of sound had rendered me stone deaf, so that I was utterly incapable of hearing anything. Fortunately for us all, this deafness passed off again in a few minutes; but while it lasted I found it exceedingly inconvenient and unpleasant.

My first act, on coming to my senses, was to glance instinctively in the direction indicated by the mate, when a complete transformation in the appearance of the heavens in that quarter met my anxious gaze. The heaped-up masses of cloud had there been rent asunder by the power of the imprisoned wind, revealing a large and rapidly widening patch of clear sky, with the stars brilliantly shining in the blue-black space; while beneath it the water was all white with the foam of the approaching squall.

"Man the port fore-braces!" I shouted at the top of my voice—though not the slightest sound reached my ear—"round-in smartly, men; well there; belay! Stand by your topsail halliards, fore and main! Why, what is this?" as in moving I stumbled over something on the deck that felt like a human body. I stooped to feel for the object—for the lightning had entirely ceased since that last baleful flash—and found that it was indeed a body. Had some one been struck by a bullet without our having noticed it? I hurriedly called for a lantern; but before it could be brought the squall burst upon us in all its fury; and though I could still hear absolutely nothing, I know that the Babel of sound must have been terrific, for the wind smote me as though it had been a solid body, jamming me hard against the larboard mizzen-rigging, while the staunch little barque bowed before it until her larboard rail was buried in the sea and her maindeck all afloat as far up as the coamings of the hatchways. I shouted an order to let go the topsail halliards, and signed to the man at the wheel to put the helm hard up; but he appeared to have already done so, for—the coat that had masked the binnacle light having gone to leeward upon the wings of the squall— I could see him to windward of the wheel, holding the spokes in his grasp and bearing against it with all his strength. Catching my eye, the fellow pointed ahead and said something—at least, I saw his lips move—and, looking in the direction toward which he pointed, I saw the proa that had engaged us driving away to leeward, broadside-on, with tongues of fire clinging to her bulwarks and deck here and there, which, even as I looked, were fanned into a devouring flame by the furious strength of the blast that swept over her. It was evident that Roberts's flaming jet had set her on fire.

But the barque was paying off rapidly, and had risen to an even keel by the time that we had brought the blazing proa well on our starboard bow, when away she flew like a frightened seabird before the gale, leaving the unfortunate Malays to a fate that, however dreadful, they had certainly brought upon themselves. Meanwhile, the topsail halliards having been let go, the yards had slid down upon the caps, while the topsails—being patent-reefing—had close-reefed themselves; so that, running, as we were, dead before the squall, we were snug enough for the moment; although there was a lee-shore at no very great distance, the existence of which occasioned me considerable anxiety.

The first danger over, I again called for a lantern, which was quickly brought; and its first rays revealed the shocking fact that it was the body of the chief mate that lay at my feet. Stooping hastily, I turned him over on his back to search for the wound that had laid him low; but, to my great surprise, was unable to find one, or to discover the slightest trace of blood. The features were perfectly placid and composed, with just the ghost of a smile upon them, giving him the appearance of having fallen suddenly into a pleasant sleep. I laid my fingers quickly upon his wrist fearing I knew not what, and failed to detect any movement of the pulse. Sir Edgar, meanwhile, had joined me, and now thrust his hand inside the waistcoat, over the region of the heart. He held it there a moment or two, and then started up, horror-stricken. "Good God!" he ejaculated, "the man is dead!"

It was so. There could be no doubt about it. Roberts's presentiment had actually been a true one; he had indeed been doomed to die that night. But it was no mortal bullet that slew him; God Himself had launched the bolt that had severed the thread of this staunch and faithful sailor's broken life. It was that last terrible flash of lightning that had killed him; and the poor fellow had died so instantaneously that he could scarcely have been conscious of the momentous change; certainly it must have been impossible that he could have experienced the least sensation of pain.

I was inexpressibly shocked and grieved at this terribly sudden death of my chief mate; not so much on account of the death itself—for, after hearing the poor fellow's sad story in the earlier part of the night, I could not for an instant doubt that death would be regarded by him as a thrice welcome friend—but it was the awful suddenness and unexpected character of it that appalled me. However, I had no time to dwell upon the matter just then, for, though perfectly safe at the moment, every fathom that the ship travelled carried her more nearly to a position of awful jeopardy. I therefore gave orders that the body should be taken below to Roberts's own state-room, and begged Sir Edgar to go below and see whether he could by any means restore vitality to it; hurriedly explaining the situation to him, and pointing out the impossibility of my leaving the deck until the safety of the ship should be assured. The kind-hearted fellow at once consented, and followed the men below, leaving me alone in the darkness and the turmoil of the storm to reflect on the words he had spoken on the night that witnessed the destruction of the Northern Queen: "How completely are we in the hands of God, and how absolutely dependent upon His Mercy!"

Our present situation was a further exemplification of this great truth, if indeed such were needed; for there was no sign whatever of any abatement of the strength of the gale; indeed, contrary to all my previous experience, the wind appeared to be increasing in violence with every fathom that we sped to leeward. True, the sky was clear away to windward and overhead, which was a good sign; but then I had before now known it to blow heavily for many hours on end out of a perfectly clear sky; while away to leeward, somewhere down in the thick blackness toward which the barque's bows were pointing, and in the direction toward which she was hurrying, lay the land—a rock-bound coast, for aught that I knew to the contrary, but, at all events, land—to touch which, under the circumstances, would certainly mean the loss of the ship, and, most probably, of all hands as well.

While I was meditating upon this, and debating within myself the possibility of bringing the ship to the wind without losing the masts, a cry arose forward—a shout of horror raised by many voices, as it seemed to me, but if any words were uttered I failed to catch them, so terrific was the uproar of the wind in the maze of rigging overhead. I sprang toward the break of the poop, crying out at the same time to know what was the matter, when, as I did so, I caught a glimpse of a darker shadow against the blackness of the sky ahead, lying right athwart our hawse; there was another cry from our forecastle; and as I turned my head to shout an order to the helmsman to put the wheel hard over I felt a shock—not a very severe one by any means, but as though we had touched the ground for a moment—a loud scream uprose out of the dark shadow beneath our bows, and a grating, grinding sensation thrilled along the whole ship from her bows to her stern-post, as though she were forcing her way over something solid. I sprang to the rail and looked over the side into the water; and there, sliding swiftly past the ship, and prone upon the glittering, phosphorescent, milk-white foam, lay distinctly limned the black outline of a mast with a long, tapering latteen yard and a strand or two of rigging attached to it; while here and there, dotted upon the hissing froth, I caught a momentary vision of certain round black objects that I knew were the heads of drowning men, intermingled with fragments of wreckage, tossing arms, and writhing bodies.

Even as I gazed, horror-stricken, at this picture of sudden, swift destruction, it drifted astern and was quickly lost to view; but I had seen enough to know exactly what had happened. We had unwittingly run down one of the proas that had essayed to attack us.



CHAPTER TEN.

ON A LEE-SHORE.

It was useless to think of heaving the ship to, or otherwise attempting to save the lives of the unfortunate Malays whose craft we had just destroyed; the thing was an absolute impossibility, and any such attempt would only have resulted in our own destruction; we had no option but to continue our headlong flight to leeward, leaving our enemies to save themselves, if they could, by clinging to the wreckage.

Immediately after the collision the carpenter came aft, and, without waiting for orders, carefully sounded the pumps. The result was a report that the hold was dry; we had therefore apparently sustained no serious damage to our hull; while, so far as spars and rigging were concerned, we did not appear to have parted a rope-yarn.

For fully half an hour the squall raged as madly as at the moment when it first burst upon us; all this while the ship was scudding helplessly before it, drawing nearer every moment to that deadly lee-shore that I knew must be close at hand, and which I every instant expected would bring us up all standing. At length, however, to my intense relief, the gale slightly but perceptibly moderated its headlong fury; and determining to at once avail myself of this opportunity, I called the hands to the braces, and prepared to bring the ship to the wind on the starboard tack. The moment that everything was ready I signed to the man at the wheel to put the helm gently over; when, as I was turning away again to give my orders to the men at the braces, one of them startled me with the cry of—

"Land ho! ahead and on the port bow!" I caught sight of it at the same instant, the air having momentarily cleared somewhat of the spindrift and scud-water that had hitherto circumscribed our horizon and obscured our view. Yes, there it was, a low, dark shadow against the now clear, starlit sky right ahead and stretching away to port and starboard on either bow. It could not be more than three miles distant from us—if so much—for the air, though somewhat clearer than it had been, was still thick, yet the loom of the land through it was clear enough; altogether too much so, indeed, for my liking. What it was like to the eastward I could not distinguish, for in that direction it faded quickly into the thick atmosphere that lay that way; but westward it terminated in a low point that already bore well out upon our larboard beam—a sight that caused me to most heartily congratulate myself that I had determined upon rounding-to on the starboard tack; for had I done so with the ship's head to the westward, without seeing this point, we could not possibly have weathered it, and must have taken our choice— when we did discover it—of going ashore upon it, or upon the land to leeward, should we attempt to wear the ship; for she would never have tacked in such a sea as was now running, with such a small amount of canvas as we were showing.

As the ship came to the wind we, for the first time since the outburst of the gale, gained something like a just idea of its tremendous strength and violence. With nothing on her but the two close-reefed topsails and the fore-topmast staysail, the poor little Esmeralda bowed beneath the fury of the blast until her lee rail was awash and her lee scuppers more than waist-deep in water. The howling and hooting of the gale aloft, as it tore furiously through the maze of spars and rigging opposed to it, produced a wild medley of sound that utterly baffles all attempt at description; while the savage plunges of the ship into the short, steep sea and the horrible way in which she careened during her lee rolls almost sickened me with anxiety lest the masts should go over the side and leave us to drive ashore, a helpless hulk. True, in such a case we might have attempted to anchor, but I had very grave doubts whether our ground-tackle, good though it was, would have brought us up in such weather. The masts stood well, however—they were magnificent sticks, both of them, while our standing rigging was of wire throughout—and, as to our canvas, had I not seen it, I could not have believed that any fabric woven by mortal hands would have withstood such a terrific strain. It did, however, and moreover dragged the ship along at a speed of which I should never have believed the little craft capable, under such very short canvas, and close-hauled, had I not been present to witness her performance. With her steeply heeling decks, her taunt masts and their intricacy of standing and running rigging taut and rigid as iron bars to windward, while to leeward they streamed away in deep, symmetrical curving bights, her braced-up yards, and the straining canvas of the close-reefed topsails and fore-topmast staysail all swaying wildly aslant athwart the blue-black expanse of star-spangled sky; with her lee rail awash; her decks a tumultuous sea in miniature with the water that came pouring in whole cataracts over her upturned weather-bow as her keen stem plunged headlong into and clove irresistibly through the heart of wave after wave, flinging a blinding deluge of spray right aft as far as the poop, and ploughing up a whole acre of boiling, luminous foam, to pour, hissing and roaring, far out from under her lee bow and flash glancing past in a bewildering swirl of buzzing, gleaming froth, while the din of the wild gale raved aloft, and its furious buffeting almost distracted one's senses, the gallant little barque thus fighting for her life would have presented an exhilarating spectacle to any one; while a seaman's appreciative heart would have thrilled with exultation at her bearing in the strife. But though travelling fast through the water, the poor little ship was at the same time sagging most frightfully to leeward, the staysail seeming to drag her head two or three points off the wind at every send, and bringing her almost broadside-on to the sea. And although we were heading fairly well out toward the open water, I could not conceal from myself the awkward truth that our excessive leeway was reducing our course to one practically parallel with the trend of the coast; and sometimes I even thought that we were slowly but surely setting in toward the land. The fact was that the ship needed more after-sail to enable her to hold a good luff; yet it seemed to me that it would be impossible for her to bear any more. She was indeed rather over-pressed than otherwise, as it was, and had I had plenty of sea-room I would have endeavoured to relieve her of the fore-topsail at once, even at the risk of losing the sail in the attempt to hand it. But with that relentless lee-shore in plain view I dared not do it; it was imperative that she should carry every thread we were then showing, and more if possible. While I was still inwardly debating the question it was settled by the lookout reporting land ahead! I staggered over to windward at the cry, and at the expense of a thorough drenching, despite the oilskins I had donned some time before, made it out, a bold lofty headland, jutting far out to seaward, and lying dead ahead of us. The ship was embayed! The land ahead was certainly not more than three miles distant, and the ship was setting bodily down toward it at every plunge. The time for hesitation was past; something had to be done, and done promptly, too, or another half-hour would see the last of the poor little Esmeralda. Our main trysail happened to be a nearly new sail, bent for the first time when starting on this voyage; it was made of good stout canvas, and was beautifully cut. I therefore determined to attempt the experiment of setting it, though I scarcely hoped it would endure the tremendous strain to which it would be exposed long enough to drag us clear of that terrible point. Mustering the hands, therefore, we got the sheet aft and the block hooked on to the eye-bolt; then, all hands tailing on to the fall, the lower brails were eased gently away, the sheet being dragged upon at the same time; and in this way we managed to get the foot of the sail extended without splitting it. The hauling out of the head was a much simpler matter; and in less than five minutes I had the satisfaction of seeing the entire sail extended without having parted a thread. The effect of this added canvas was tremendous; the lee rail was completely buried, and the deck was now so steeply inclined that during the lee rolls it was impossible to maintain one's footing without holding on to something. But we no longer sagged to leeward as before; the ship now held her luff, and the threatening headland was brought to bear nearly three points on our lee bow; if the trysail would only hold out long enough we might yet hope to scrape clear. But would it? Involuntarily I held my breath every time that the ship rolled to windward; for then the strain on canvas and spar and rigging was at its heaviest, and it really seemed to me as though nothing made by mortal hands could withstand it. Minute after minute passed, however, and still the good sail stood, while hope every moment grew stronger within my breast.