Marjorie Read online

  CHAPTER XVII

  A VISITATION

  My agitations were harshly interrupted. There came a crash out of thesilence, and before I could even ask myself what it meant I was flungforward and my legs were taken from under me. I pitched on to a coil ofrope, luckily for me, or I might have come to worse hurt, and I had myhands extended, which in a measure broke the force of my fall. But Irapped my head smartly against the wall of the passage--never had I morereason in my life to be grateful for the thickness of my skull--and fora few moments I lay there in the darkness, dizzy--indeed, almoststunned--and scarcely realising that there was the most horriblegrinding noise going on beneath me, and that the ship seemed to bescreaming in every timber. I could have only lain there for a fewseconds, for no human clamour had mingled with the sound of the ship'sagony when I staggered to my feet. My head was aching furiously, and myright wrist was numb from the fall, but my senses had now come back tome, and I knew that some great calamity had befallen the ship. Indesperation I pulled myself together and ran with all speed, heedless ofthe darkness, to the end of the passage where the ladder was, and so upit and on to the deck.

  The weather was fair, and a moon like a wheel made everything as visibleas if it were daytime. The decks shone silver and the sky was as blue asI have ever seen it; but the sea, as far as eye could reach, appeared tobe wholly covered with a white froth, which rose and fell with the waveslike a counterpane of lace upon a sleeper. All that there was to see Isaw in a single glance; in another second the deck was full of people.

  Captain Marmaduke came on deck clad only in his shirt and breeches, andLancelot was by his side a moment after in like habit. At first thesailors rushed hither and thither in alarm and confusion, but CornelysJensen brought them to order in a few moments, while Hatchett and half adozen of the men proceeded to reassure the passengers and to keep themfrom crowding on to the deck. All this happened in shorter time than Ican take to set it down, and yet after a fashion, too, it seemedendless.

  Captain Marmaduke rushed up to the watch and caught him by theshoulder. 'What have you done?' he said; 'you have lost the ship!'

  The man shook himself away from the Captain's hand.

  'It was no fault of mine,' he said between his teeth. 'I took all thecare I could. I saw all this froth at a distance, and I asked thesteersman what it was, and he told me that it was but the sea showingwhite under the light of the moon.'

  Captain Marmaduke gave a little groan of despair.

  'What is to be done?' he asked. 'Where are we?'

  'God only knows where we are,' the man answered, still in that sullen,shamefaced way. 'But for sure we are fast upon a bank that I never heardtell of ere this night.'

  As they were thus talking, and all around were full of consternation, Isaw that Marjorie had come up from below and was standing very still bythe companion head. She had flung a great cloak on over her night-rail,and though her face was pale in the moonlight she was as calm as if shewere in church. When I came nigh her she asked me, in a low, firm voice,what had happened.

  I told her all that I knew--how the ship had by mischance run on somebank through the whiteness of the moonlight misleading the steersman.With another woman, maybe, I should have striven to make as light aspossible of the matter, but with Marjorie I knew that there was no suchneed. I told her all that had chanced and of the peril we were in, as Ishould have done to a man.

  "SHE HAD FLUNG A GREAT CLOAK ON."]

  When I had done speaking she said very quietly: 'Is there any hope forthe ship?'

  I shook my head. 'I am very much afraid----' I began.

  She interrupted me with a little sigh, and stepped forward to whereCaptain Marmaduke stood giving his orders very composedly. Lancelot wasbusy with Jensen in reassuring the women-folk and getting the men-folkinto order. I must say that they all behaved very well. With many of themen, old soldiers and sailors as they were, it was natural enough tocarry themselves with coolness in time of peril, but the women showed noless bravely. This, indeed, was largely due to the example set them byBarbara Hatchett, who acted all through that wild hour as a sailor'sdaughter and a sailor's wife should act. Her composure and her loud,commanding voice and encouraging manner did wonders in soothing thewomen-kind, and in putting out of their heads the foolish thoughtswhich lead to foolish actions.

  Marjorie went up to Lancelot and laid her hand upon his sleeve. Helooked at her with the smile he always gave when he greeted her, and hespoke to her as he might have spoken if he and she had been standingtogether on the downs of Sendennis instead of on that nameless reef inthat nameless danger.

  'Well, dear,' he said, 'what is it?'

  'What do you wish me to do?' she asked.

  'Comfort the women-folk, dear,' he answered. Then, catching sight as thewind moved her cloak of her night-rail, he added quickly: 'Run down anddress first.'

  'Is there truly time?'

  'Aye, aye, time and to spare. We may float the ship yet, God willing. Doas I bid you.'

  She lingered for a moment, and said softly:

  'If anything should happen, let me be next you at the last.'

  I was standing near enough to hear, and the tears came into my eyes.Lancelot caught his sister's hand and pressed it as he would havepressed the hand of a comrade. Then she turned away and slipped silentlybelow.

  I am glad to remember that good order prevailed in the face of ourcommon peril. Our colonists, men and women, kept very quiet, and thesailors, under Cornelys Jensen, acted with untiring zeal. I must say tohis credit that Jensen proved a cool hand in the midst of a misfortunewhich must have come as a special misfortune to himself. It is a curiousfact, and I know not how to account for it, unless by the smart knock onmy head and the confusion of events that followed upon it, but allmemory of what I had seen and heard In Jensen's cabin had slipped frommy mind. No--I will not say all memory. While I watched him working, andwhile I worked with him, my head--which still ached sorely after mytumble--was troubled, besides its own pain, with the pain of gropingafter a recollection. I knew that there was something in my mind whichconcerned Cornelys Jensen, something which I wanted to recall, somethingwhich I ought to recall, something which I could not for the life of merecall. What with my fall, and the danger to the ship, and the strain ofthe toil to meet that danger, that page of my memory was folded over,and I could not turn it back. I have heard of like cases and evenstranger; of men forgetting their own names and very identity after somesuch accident as mine. All I had forgotten was the evil scene inJensen's cabin, the three evil schemers, their evil flag.

  I was a pretty skilled seaman now, thanks to my Captain's patience andmy own eagerness, and I was able to lend a hand at the work with thebest. The first thing we did was to throw the lead, and sorryinformation it yielded us. For we found that we had forty-eight feet ofwater before the vessel and much less behind her. It was then proposedthat we should throw our cannon overboard, in the hope that when ourship was lightened of so much heavy metal she might by good hap bebrought to float again. I remember as well as yesterday the face ofCornelys Jensen when this determination was arrived at. He saw that itmust be done, but the necessity pricked him bitterly. 'There's no helpfor it,' he said aloud to Hatchett, with a sigh. Captain Marmaduke tookthe expression, as I afterwards learnt, as one of pity for him and hisship and her gear of war. But it set me racking my tired brain again forthat lost knowledge about Jensen which would have made his meaning plainto me.

  It was further decided to let fall an anchor, but while the men wereemployed upon this piece of work the conditions under which we toiledchanged greatly for the worse. Black clouds came creeping up all roundthe sky, which blotted out the moonlight and changed all that white foaminto curdling ink, and with the coming of these clouds the wind began torise, at first little and moaningly, like a child in pain, and thensuddenly very loudly indeed, until it grew to a great storm, thatbrought with it sheets of the most merciless rain that I had then everwitnessed. Now, indeed, we were in dismal case, wrappe
d up as we were inall the horrors of darkness, of rain and of wind, which added not merelya gloom to our situation, but vastly increased danger. For our ship,surrounded as she was with rocks and shoals, though she might have lainquiet enough while the sea was calm, now before the fury of the waveskept continually striking, and I could see that the fear of every manwas that she would shortly go to pieces.