this was an incident to give one a deal to think and talk about. certainly little imaginable could be stranger than that we, being in chase of a fore-and-aft schooner yacht, should fall in with a vessel so resembling the object of our pursuit as to deceive the sight of men who professed to know the ‘shark’ well. i should have been glad to ask the dutchman about his craft, yet it was a matter of no moment whatever. the thing had happened, it was passing strange, and there was an end. likely enough she was an english vessel purchased for some opulent trader in the island of cura?oa, and on her way to that possession in charge of the porpoise who had honoured us with a visit. the incident signified only as a disappointment. all dinner time i had been fretting over it, for since sunrise i had been thinking of the vessel ahead as the ‘shark’; counted, in a sort of unreasoning, mechanical, silent way, upon capturing lady monson out of her, which, of course, would mean a shift of helm for us, and home again.
wilfrid bore the blow better than i had dared to expect. he made a good dinner, for which he had the excuse of having fasted since breakfast, and broke into a noisy roar of laughter out of the air of gloomy resentment with which he had arrived from his cabin on my describing the dutchman, and repeating his questions and my answers. in short, his weak mind came to his rescue. with the schooner had vanished an inspiration of thought that had served his intellect as an anchor to ride by. his imagination was now fluent again, loose, draining here and there like water on the decks of a rolling ship; and though he spoke with vehement bitterness of his disappointment, and with indignation and rage even of finn’s ignorance in pursuing a stranger throughout the day, he dwelt very briefly at a time on the subject. indeed, his talk was just an aimless stride from one thing to another. if he recurred to the dutch schooner, it was as if by mere chance; and, though the subject would blacken his mood, in a very short while he had passed on to other matters with a cleared face. miss laura afterwards said to me that the strain of the day had been too great for him, and that when the tension was relaxed the strings of the instrument of his mind dropped into slack fibres, out of which his reason could fiddle but very little[179] music. well, i could have wished it thus for everybody’s sake. better as it was than that he should have shrunk away scowling and hugging a dark mantle of madness to him, and exaggerated the abominably uncomfortable behaviour i had witnessed in him all day.
he arrived on deck after dinner to smoke a cigar, and whilst i sat with miss jennings—for it was a quiet night after the stormy blowing of the day, with a tropic tenderness of temperature in the sweet gushing of the southerly wind, the curl of moon gone, and the large stars trembling through the film of their own radiance like dew-drops in gossamer—i could hear my cousin chatting briskly near the wheel with finn with intonations of voice that curiously proclaimed the variableness of his moods to the ear, sometimes speaking with heat, sometimes in a note of sullen expostulation, sometimes surprising the attention with a loud ha, ha! that came floating back again to the deck in echoes out of the silent canvas, whilst finn’s deep sea-note rumbled a running commentary as the baronet talked.
‘what do you think of this chase now?’ said i to miss laura.
‘i wish it were over,’ she answered. ‘i want to see my sister rescued from the wretch she has run away with, mr. monson; but this sort of approaching her recovery is dreadful.’
‘it is worse than dreadful,’ said i; ‘it is tedious with the threat of a neat little tragical complication by-and-bye—any day indeed—if wilfrid doesn’t stow that gun in his hold or heave it overboard. the dutchman might very well have answered our shot had he mounted a piece or two or driven alongside and plied us, as they used to say, with small arms. now one isn’t here for that sort of thing, miss jennings.’
‘no. is there no way of losing the cannon?’
i laughed. ‘if wilfrid will reserve his fire until he is sure of the “shark” instead of blazing away at the first craft that resembles her, the weapon might yet prove something to usefully serve his turn; for i doubt if anything will hinder the colonel from cracking on when he catches sight of us, short of iron messages from the forecastle there. but we shall not meet with the “shark” this side the cape, if there.’
‘i fear it will prove a long voyage,’ said she, with the sparkle of the starlight in her eyes.
‘you will be glad to return?’
‘not without my sister.’
‘but shall you be willing, miss jennings, supposing us to arrive at cape town without falling in with the “shark,” to persevere in this very singular and unpromising sea quest?’
‘i will remain with wilfrid certainly,’ she answered quietly. ‘my duty is to help him in this search, and where he goes i shall go.’
‘but he will be acting cruelly to carry you on from the cape[180] unless able to certainly tell where to find the fugitives, fixing the date too for that matter.’
‘i see you will leave us at the cape, mr. monson,’ she exclaimed with an accent that could only come from the movement of the lips in a smile.
‘not unless i prevail upon you to accompany me home,’ said i.
she shook her head lightly, but made no answer. perhaps it was her silence that rendered me sensible of the unpremeditated significance of my speech. ‘well,’ said i, lighting a second cigar, ‘whilst you feel it your duty to stick to my cousin i shall feel it mine to stick to you. not likely i should leave you alone with him. no.’
at that instant the harsh, surly voice of old jacob crimp hailed the skipper, who still stood aft talking with wilfrid. all was in darkness forward; it was hard upon two bells; the canvas rose as elusive to the eye in its wanness as a dim light in windy gloom far out at sea, and the shadow of it plunged a dye as opaque as blindness into the obscurity from the mainmast to the forecastle rail, where the stars were sliding up and down like a dance of fire-flies to the quiet lift and fall of the close-hauled yacht upon the invisible folds brimming to her port bow.
‘capt’n,’ sung out crimp’s melodious voice—plaintive as the notes of a knife upon a revolving grindstone—from the heart of the murkiness somewhere near the galley.
‘hallo!’ answered finn.
‘can i speak a word with ye?’
‘who is it wants me?’
‘the mate.’
‘tell him to come aft,’ wilfrid bawled out. ‘if there’s anything wrong i must know it. step aft, crimp, step aft, d’ye hear?’ he cried.
old jacob’s stunted figure came out of the darkness and walked along to where finn stood.
‘what is the matter, i wonder?’ said miss laura.
i cocked my ear, for there is something in a hail of this sort at sea on a dark night to put an alertness into one’s instincts and nerves. besides, there was no sounder snorer on board than old jacob, and his merely coming up on deck during his watch below, though he should have stood mute as a ghost, was something to raise a little uneasy sense of expectation. his voice rumbled, but i could not hear what he said. wilfrid shouted ‘what d’ye say?’ with an expression of astonishment and incredulity. finn laughed in a sneering way, whilst old jacob again rumbled out with some sentence. then my cousin bawled out, ‘charles, charles, come here, will you?’
‘what the deuce is the matter now?’ said i, and miss laura followed me as i went over to the group.
‘here’s a nice pickle we’re in, charles,’ cried wilfrid. ‘what think you? crimp swears the yacht’s haunted.’
[181]
‘so she be,’ said crimp.
‘pity your mother didn’t sell vinegar, jacob, that you might have stayed at home to bottle it off,’ exclaimed finn. ‘haunted! that may do for the marines, but you won’t get the sailors to believe it.’
‘that’s jist what they do then,’ remarked crimp. ‘all the watch below have heard it, and can’t sleep in consequence.’
‘heard what?’ i asked.
‘the woice,’ answered jacob, ‘the same as you and me heard t’other night.’
‘have you heard a voice, charles?’ exclaimed wilfrid, suddenly fetching a deep breath.
‘a mere fancy,’ said i.
‘ye didn’t like it anyhow,’ said crimp gruffly, as though speaking aside.
‘for god’s sake, tell me about this voice, charles,’ cried wilfrid, agitated all on a sudden and restless as a dog-vane, with the twitching of his figure and the shifting of his weight from one leg to another.
i related the incident, making light of it, and tried to persuade him that the mere circumstance of my having said nothing about it proved that i regarded it as a deceit of the hearing.
‘did you know of this, laura?’ said wilfrid.
‘as a joke only,’ she answered.
‘a joke,’ cried he, breathing deep again. ‘the voice sounded off the sea, hey? and two of you heard it? what did it say?’ and i could see him by the starlight looking towards the starboard quarter in the direction whence the syllables had floated to us. ‘what did it say?’ he repeated.
‘why, that this here yacht was cussed,’ rattled out jacob defiantly, ‘and dum me if i don’t think she be now that the blooming corpse belonging to the wreck is a-jawing and a-threatening of all hands down in the forepeak.’
‘what is this man talking about?’ i exclaimed, believing that he must either be drunk or cracked.
‘he’s come aft to tell us, mr. monson,’ answered finn, ‘that he and others of the watch below have been disturbed by a woice in the hold saying that there’s a ghost aboard, and that the only way to get rid of him is to sail straight away home and end this woyage which, saving the lady’s presence, it calls blarsted nonsense.’
i observed old jacob’s head vigorously nodding.
‘you’ve heard the voice, too, charles?’ said wilfrid, flitting in short, agitated strides to and fro beside us.
‘mr. monson heard it twice,’ growled jacob, ‘off the wreck as well as off the quarter.’
‘speak when you’re spoken to,’ cried finn. ‘why, spit me, mr. monson, if it ain’t old jacob’s grandmother as has signed on instead of crimp himself.’
[182]
‘look here,’ said crimp, ‘let them what disbelieves step forrards and listen themselves.’
‘charles, inquire into this matter with finn, will you?’ exclaimed wilfrid. ‘i—i—’ he stopped and passed his hand through miss jennings’ arm, immediately afterwards saying with a short, nervous laugh, ‘the sound of a supernatural voice would cost me a night’s rest.’
‘come along, finn,’ said i. ‘come along, crimp. if there be a ghost, as our friend here says, he must promptly be laid by the heels and despatched to the red sea.’
‘what did ’ee want to go and tell sir wilfrid about that woice you and mr. monson heard t’other night?’ grumbled finn, as we moved forwards into the darkness towards the forehatch.
‘cause it’s true,’ answered crimp in his sullenest manner. ‘’sides, it’s time to end this here galliwanting ramble, seems to me, if we’re going to be talked to and cursed by sperrits.’
finn made no answer. we arrived at the forehatch and descended. the ‘bride’s’ forecastle was a large one for a vessel of her size. on either hand abaft was a small cabin partially bulk-headed off from the sailors’ sleeping-room, respectively occupied by jacob crimp and cutbill. whether the mate ate with the captain, whose berth was just forward of the one that had been occupied by muffin, with access by means of a sliding door to a small living room through which he could pass into the forecastle, i cannot say. it was a rough scene to light upon, after the elegance, glitter, and rich dyes of the fittings of our quarters aft, but the more picturesque for that quality as i found it now, at least on viewing the homely and coarse interior by the light of a small oil lamp of the shape of a block-tin coffee-pot with a greasy sort of flame coming out of the spout, and burning darkly into a corkscrew of smoke that wound hot and ill-flavoured to the upper deck. there were bunks for the seamen and two or three hammocks slung right forward; suits of oilskins hung by nails against the stanchions, and swung to the motion of the vessel like the bodies of suicides swayed by the wind. the deck was encumbered by sea-chests cleated or otherwise secured. here and there glimmering through the twilight in a bunk i took notice of a little framed picture, a pipe rack, with other odds and ends, trifling home memorials, and the artless conveniences with which poor jack equips himself. there were seamen lying in their beds, a vision of leathery noses forking up out of a hedge of whisker, with bright wide-awake eyes that made one think of glow-worms in a bird’s nest; other equally hairy-faced figures in drawers and with naked feet, huge bare arms dark with moss and prickings in ink, sat with their legs over the edge of their bunks. it was with difficulty that i controlled my gravity when on casting a hurried glance round the forecastle on entering it my gaze lighted on the visage of muffin, whose yellowness in the dull lamplight showed with the spectral hue of ashes. his bunk was well forward; his bare legs hung from the edge like a couple of broomsticks:[183] his hands were clasped; his head slightly on one side; his posture one of alarm, amid which, however, there still lurked a native quality of valet-like sleekness with a suggestion of respectful apology for feeling nervous. sweet as the ‘bride’ was, no doubt, as a pleasure vessel compared with other craft of those times, the odour of this interior, improved as it was by the flaring snuff of the lamp, not to mention a decidedly warm night, was by no means of the most delicious. added to this was the lift and fall of the yacht’s bows which one felt here so strongly, that, coming fresh from the tender heavings of the after-deck, you would have imagined a lively head sea had sprung up on a sudden. that muffin should have stood it astonished me. sleeping as he did, right in the ‘eyes,’ he got the very full of the motion. besides, such an atmosphere as this must needs prove the severer as a hardship after the luminous and flower-sweetened air of the cabin. finn took a leisurely survey of the occupants of the bunks.
‘well, lads!’ said he, ‘what’s the meaning of this here talk about a woice? mr. crimp’s just come aft to tell me there’s somewhat a-speaking under foot here.’
‘that’s right, sir,’ remarked cutbill, who stood bolt upright like a sentry in the entrance to his little berth. ‘i beg your pardon, mr. monson, sir, but it’s nigh hand the same sort o’ speech as hailed us from the wreck.’
‘’tis the same!’ said a deep voice from one of the bunks.
‘rats!’ quoth finn contemptuously.
‘never yet met with the rat as could damn a man’s eyes in english,’ grunted crimp.
‘nor in any other lingo, mr. crimp,’ said a singular-looking seaman, whose face i had before taken notice of as resembling the skin of an over-ripe lemon. he lay on the small of his back blinking at us, and his countenance in that light, that was rendered confusing by the sliding of shadows to the swing of the yacht, made one think of a melon half buried in a blanket.
‘well, but see here, my lads,’ exclaimed finn in a voice of expostulation, ‘what did this here woice say? that’s what i want to know. what did it say, men?’
‘i told ’ee,’ growled crimp.
but old jacob’s interpretation did not tally with that of the others. the sailors were generally agreed that the voice had exclaimed in effect that the yacht was cursed, and that their business was to make haste and sail her home; but some had apparently heard more than others, whilst a few again manifestly embellished, with a notion, perhaps, of making the most of it; but there could be no question whatever that human syllables, very plainly articulated, had sounded from out of the hold; all hands were agreed as to that, and proof conclusive as to the sincerity of the men might have been found in the looks of them, one and all.
‘silence, now!’ cried finn; ‘let’s listen.’
we all strained our ears. nothing broke the silence but the[184] sulky wash of the sea outside, seething dully, the half-stifled respirations of the sailors, who found it difficult to control their hurricane lungs, and the familiar creaking noises breaking out in various parts of the fabric to her swayings. impressed as i was by the agreement amongst the men—and i had come besides to this forecastle with the memory very fresh in me of the mysterious voices i had before heard—i could scarcely hold my face as i stood listening, with my eye glancing from one hairy countenance to another. the variety of the jacks’ postures, the knowing cock of a head here and there, the unwinking stare, the strained hearkening attitude, the illustration of superstitious emotions by expressions which were rendered grotesque by the swing of the lamp, the half-suffocated looks of some of the fellows who were trying to draw their breaths softly, formed a picture to appeal irresistibly to one’s sense of the ridiculous.
three minutes passed, it might have been hours, so long the time seemed.
‘seems it’s done jawing, whatever it is,’ said finn.
we listened again.
‘tell ’ee it’s rats, lads,’ said finn.
‘as the cuss was meant for this ’ere craft,’ exclaimed the deep voice that had before spoken, ‘perhaps if her owner was to come below, the sperrit, if so be it’s that, ’ud tarn to and talk out again.’
‘tell ’ee, it’s rats!’ cried finn scornfully.
‘rats!’ exclaimed crimp, with great irritation, ‘if that’s all why don’t sir wilfrid lay forrard and listen for hisself?’
‘won’t he come?’ said one of the men.
‘come! no,’ rattled out crimp, ‘and why? ’cause he knows it’s the truth.’
‘well,’ exclaimed cutbill, ‘speaking with all proper respect, seems to me that what’s meat for the dawg ought to be meat for the man in the likes of such a humble-come-tumble out of the maintop into the main-hold sort o’ job as this.’
there was now some grumbling. crimp had enabled the men to guess that wilfrid was afraid to enter the forecastle, and sundry sarcasms, with a mutinous touch in them, passed from bunk to bunk.
‘avast!’ roared finn; ‘listen if he’ll speak now.’
but no sound resembling a human syllable entered the stillness.
‘it’s rats, i tell ’ee,’ shouted the skipper, making to go on deck. ‘come along, mr. monson. blamed now if i believe that jacob is the only grandmother as has signed articles for this here woyage.’
but as i followed him the exclamations i caught determined me on advising wilfrid to come forward. he had left miss jennings standing alone at the rail, and was walking swiftly here and there with an irritability of gesture that was a sure symptom in him[185] of a troubled and active imagination. on catching sight of me as i emerged out of the blind shadow on the forward part of the yacht, he cried out eagerly, ‘well, what have you heard? is it a voice, charles?’
‘there is nothing to hear,’ i answered. ‘finn disrespectfully calls it rats.’
‘what else, your honour?’ exclaimed finn, ‘the squeaking of rats ain’t unlike a sort o’ language. put the noise they make along with the straining of bulkheads and the like of such sounds and let the boiling be listened to by a parcel of ignorant sailors, and i allow ye’ll get what might be tarmed a supernatural woice.’
wilfrid burst into one of his great laughs, but immediately after said in a grave and hollow tone, ‘but you, charles, have before heard something preternatural in the shape of a hail off yonder quarter, and from the dead man you found on the wreck.’
‘fancy, mere fancy,’ i said. ‘gracious mercy! am i making this voyage to carry home with me a belief in ghosts? but i wish you’d go into the forecastle with finn, wilfrid, and listen for yourself. make your mind easy: there’s nothing to be heard. a visit from you will pacify the men. they hold that you admit the truth of what they allege by declining to satisfy yourself by listening. their temper is not of the sweetest. they should be soothed, i think, when it is to be so easily done.’
he hung in the wind and said in a hesitating way, ‘what do you think, finn?’
‘well, sir wilfrid, since, as mr. monson says, there’s nothen to hear and nothen therefore to cause ye any agitation, i dorn’t doubt that a wisit from you would please the sailors and calm down their minds. i’m bound to say they’re oneasy—yes, i’m bound to say that.’
‘come, then,’ cried my cousin, and he strided impetuously into the darkness, followed by the skipper.
i gave miss laura my arm and we started on a little walk. the awning was furled and the dew everywhere sparkled like hoar frost. the quiet night wind sighed in the rigging, and the yacht, a point or two off her course, and every sheet flat aft, softly broke through the black quiet waters with dull puffs of phosphor at times sneaking by like the eyes of secret shapes risen close to the surface to survey us. the sheen of the binnacle light touched a portion of the figure of the fellow at the wheel, and threw him and a segment of the circle whose spokes he held, out upon the clear, fine, spangled dusk in phantasmal yellow outlines, dim as the impression left on the retina by an object when the eyelid is closed upon it.
my fair companion and i talked of the incidents of the day. one thing was following another rapidly, i said. ’twas like a magic-lantern show; scarcely had one picture faded out when something fresh was brightening in its room.
‘what manner of sound could it be,’ she asked, ‘that the sailors have interpreted into cursings and dreadful warnings?’
[186]
‘it was no fancy on my part anyway,’ said i, ‘let me put what face i will on it to wilfrid. if what the men profess to hear be half as distinct as what i heard, there must be some kind of sorcery at work, i’ll swear.’
i led her to the starboard quarter, where i had stood with crimp, and repeated the story. the darkness gave my recital of the incident the complexion it wanted; a tremor passed through her hand into my arm. it was enough to make a very nightmare of the gloom, warm as it was with the dew-laden southerly breathing, and delicate too with the small fine light trembled into it by the stars, to think of a hail sounding out of it from a phantasm as shapeless as any dye of gloom upon the canvas of the night. ten minutes passed; i then discerned the figures of wilfrid and finn coming aft. my cousin’s deep breathing was audible when he was still at a distance.
‘well, what news?’ i called cheerily.
wilfrid drew close and exclaimed, ‘it is true. i have heard it.’
‘ha!’ said i, turning upon finn.
‘by all that is blue, then, mr. monson, sir,’ exclaimed the worthy fellow, ‘there is somewhat a-talking below.’
‘what does it say?’ asked miss jennings, showing herself all on a sudden thoroughly frightened.
‘what i heard,’ said wilfrid in his most raven note, ‘was this, “the yacht is cursed. sail her home! sail her home!”’
‘’twas as plain, mr. monson, as his honour’s own voice,’ said finn, in a profoundly despondent way.
‘d’ye think, finn,’ said i, ‘that it is a trick played off upon the crew by some skylarking son of a gun forward?’
his head wagged against the stars. ‘i wish i could believe it, sir. the woice was under foot. there’s nobody belonging to the ship there. there’s no man a-missing. ’sides, ’tain’t a human woice. never could ha’ believed it.’ he pulled out his pocket-handkerchief and polished his brow.
‘well,’ i exclaimed, ‘so long as the thing, whatever it be, keeps forward—the deuce of it is, i’ve heard such sounds myself twice. it can’t be fancy, then. yet, confound it all, wilf, there can be nothing supernatural about it either. what is it? shall i explore the yacht forward? give me a lantern, and i’ll overhaul her to my own satisfaction anyway.’
‘you may set us on fire,’ said wilfrid; ‘let the matter rest for to-night. to-morrow, finn, you can rummage the yacht.’ he started violently: ‘what can it be, though? are we veritably haunted by the ghost of the portuguese?’ he tried to laugh, but the dryness of the utterance seemed to half choke him.
‘well, let us wait for daylight, as you say,’ cried i.
‘i am going below for some seltzer and brandy,’ said wilfrid. ‘finn, you may tell the steward to give the men a glass of grog[187] apiece. what can it be?’ he muttered, and his long figure then flitted to the companion, through which he vanished.
it was evident the thing had not yet had time to work in him. he was more astonished than terrified, but i guessed that superstition would soon be active in him, and that there was a bad night before him of feverish imaginings and restless wandering. i could not have guessed how frightened miss jennings was until i conducted her below, shortly after wilfrid had left the deck, where i was able to observe her scared white face, the bewildered expression in her eyes, and a dryness of her cherry under-lip, that kept her biting upon it. her maid shared her berth, and i was mighty thankful to feel that the sweet creature had a companion. indeed, had she been alone, one might have wagered she would not have gone to bed that night. my cousin drank freely, but for all that a gloom of spirits settled upon him as slowly and surely as a fog thickens out the atmosphere and darkens down upon the view. he talked with heat and excitement of the strange voice at the first going off, but after a little he grew morose, absent-minded, with symptoms of temper that made me extremely weary, and i fetched a breath with a positive sigh of relief when he abruptly rose, bade us brusquely good-night, and went, in long, melodramatic strides, to his cabin.
i did my best to inspirit miss jennings, but i was not very successful. it may be that i was more half-hearted in my manner of going to work than i was conscious of. it never could come to my telling her more than that we might be quite sure, if we could only solve the mystery of the sounds which had frightened all hands forward, and aft, too, for the matter of that, we should be heartily ashamed of our fears in the face of the abject commonplace of the disclosure. she shook her head.
‘it might be as you say,’ she said; ‘but if this strange voice continues to be heard, indeed should it not speak again and yet remain unriddled, what shall we think? i am frightened, i own it. i do not believe in spirits, mr. monson, in haunting shadows, and other inventions of old nurses; but i cannot forget that you have heard such a voice as this twice—you who are so—so——’
‘stupid,’ said i.
‘matter of fact, mr. monson.’
but talking about the thing was not going to help her nerves. she went to bed at ten o’clock, and feeling too sleepy for a yarn with finn i withdrew to my cabin. i found myself a bit restless, however, when i came to put my head upon the pillow, and would catch myself listening, and sometimes i fancied i could hear a faint sound as of a person talking in a low voice. then it was i would curse myself for a fool and turn angrily in my bed. yet for all that, i would fall a-listening again. it was quiet weather still, as it had been since sundown. in the blackness of my cabin i could see a bright star sliding up and down the ebony of the glass of the scuttle, with a pause at intervals, when it would beam steadfastly[188] and intelligently upon me as though it were a human eye. now and again the water went away from the side in a stifled sob. i could have prayed for such another squall as i have described to burst upon us for the life that would come to the spirit out of the lightning flash, the roar of thunder, the shriek of wind, the fierce blow of the black surge, and the tempestuous hiss of its dissolving spume. i cudgelled my wits for a solution of the voice, but to no purpose. it was ridiculous to suppose that a man lay hidden below. for what sailor of the crew but would not be quickly missed? and then again i had but to consider, to understand what i had not thought of on deck, i mean that even if a pair of hurricane lungs were secreted in the hold it was scarce conceivable that their utmost volume of sound could penetrate through the thick, well-caulked planking of the forecastle deck.
at last i fell asleep.
