Marjorie Page 18

  CHAPTER XVIII

  THE NIGHT AND MORNING

  It seemed such a heart-breaking thing to be hitched in that place, soimmovable, while the seas were slapping us and the wind so foullymisbehaving, that I declare I could have wept for bitterness of spirit.But it was no time for weeping; we had other guesswork on hand, and webuckled to our work with a will. We agreed that the straightest courseopen to us was to cut away the mainmast, and this we promptly set aboutdoing. There are few sadder sights in the world than to see stoutfellows striving with all their strength to hew down the mainmast of agoodly ship. The fall of a great tree in a forest preaches its sermon,but not with half the poignancy of a noble mast which men who love theirvessel are compelled to cast overboard. As the axes rose and fell itseemed to me as if their every stroke dealt me a hurt at the heart. Asthe white wood flew it would not have surprised me if blood hadfollowed upon the blow--as I have read the like concerning a tree insome old tale--so dear was the ship to me. A man's first ship is like aman's first love, and grips him hard, and he parts from neither withoutagony. When at last our purpose was accomplished, and the mast swayed toits fall, I could have sat me down and blubbered like a baby.

  And yet in another moment, so strange is the ordering of human affairsand so much irony is there in the lessons of life, we who were all readyto weep for the loss of our mainmast would have been only too glad tosay good-bye to it. For while its fall augmented the shock, and made usin worse case that way, we were not lightened of it for all our pains,for it was so entangled with the rigging that we could not for all ourefforts get it overboard. We were now in sheer desperation, for it didnot seem as if we could ever get our ship free, but must needs bidethere in our agony until she broke and gave us all to the waters. But alittle after there came a gleam of hope, for the furious wind and rainabated, and finally fell away altogether, and at last the longest nightI had ever known came to an end, and the dawn came creeping up to thesky as I had often seen it come creeping when I awakened early lying onmy bed in Sendennis. Oh, the joy to hail the daylight again, and yetwhat a terrible condition of things the daylight showed to us! There wasour ship stuck fast on the bank; there was her deck all encumbered withthe fallen mast and the twisted ropes and the riven sails. Every man'sface was as white as a dish, and there was fear in every man's eyes. Norwas it longer possible to pacify all the women-folk or the children, nowthat the daylight showed them the full extent of their disaster, andevery now and then they would break forth into cries or fits of sobbingwhich were pitiful to hear. Marjorie did much to calm their terrors, asdid Barbara Hatchett, both of whom showed very brave and calm; and,indeed, the only pleasing memory of all that time of terror is thethought of those two women, the one in all the pride of her dark beauty,the other in all the glory of her fair loveliness, moving about likeministering angels amongst all those people whom the sudden peril ofdeath had made so fearful and so helpless. The beautiful woman and thebeautiful maid--none on board had braver hearts than they!

  You may imagine with what eagerness we scanned the sea for any sight ofland. But though Captain Amber searched the whole horizon with hisspy-glass, we could find nothing better than an island which lay offfrom us at a distance of about two leagues, and what seemed to be asmaller island, which lay further from us. This did not offer any greatpromise of refuge to us, but as it was apparently the only hope we hadwe all strove to make the best of it, and to pretend to be greatlyrejoiced at the sight of even so much land.

  Captain Amber immediately ordered Hatchett to man one of the ship'sboats and to make for those islands to examine them, a task that nowpresented no difficulty, for the wind had fallen away and the sea wassmooth as it had been turbulent. I would fain have gone with the boatfor the sake of the change, for I was sick at heart of the moaning andthe groaning of the poor wretches on board, but Captain Amber did notsend me, and I had no right to volunteer; and, besides, I was stilltroubled by a confused sense of something that I had to tell him; somedanger that I was instinctively seeking to ward off from him--and fromher.

  There was something piteous in the sight of that single boat creepingslowly across the sea towards those distant islands, and I watched it asit grew smaller and smaller, until it was little more than a mere speckupon the waters.

  Everything depended for us upon the fortunes of that boat, upon thetidings that it might bring back to us. I am proud to say that mythoughts went out across that sea to the home where my mother was, whoprayed day and night for her boy's safety, and that my lips repeatedthat prayer she had taught me while I supplicated Heaven with allhumility of heart, if it were His will, to bring us out of that peril.

  We spent the time during the boat's absence in clearing the decks aswell as we might, in renewing our efforts to pacify our women-kind, andin fresh attempts, which, however, were unavailing, to get our mastoverboard. Captain Amber had gathered together those of his men who wereold soldiers, and, having addressed them in a stirring speech, whichmade my blood beat more warmly, he set them to various tasks inpreparation for what now appeared to be inevitable--our leaving theship. The brave fellows behaved as obediently as if they had been onparade, as courageously as if they had been going into action. They werepicked men of fine mettle, and they were yet to be tested by severertests, and to stand the test well.

  At about nine o'clock or a little later the boat returned. We could seeit, of course, a long way off, as it made its course towards us, butnone of those on board made any sign to us, which we took, and rightly,too, to be a sign of no great cheer. Then our hopes, which had begun torun a little higher, ebbed away again, and we waited in silence for theboat to come alongside and for Hatchett to climb on board and to makehis report to Captain Marmaduke. This he did in private, CaptainMarmaduke taking him a little apart, while we all looked on and hungeredfor the news.

  We had not long to wait, and when it came it was not so bad as we hadfeared, if it was not so good as some of us had hoped for.

  Captain Amber came forward to the middle of the deck, where everybodywas assembled waiting for the tidings.

  'Friends and companions,' he said, 'our explorers report that yonderisland is far from inhospitable. It is not covered by the sea at highwater, as we feared at first; it is much larger than it seems to us atthis distance; there will be ample room for us all during the short timethat we may have to abide there before we sight a ship. I must indeedadmit to you that the coast is both rocky and full of shoals, and thatthe landing thereupon will not be without its difficulties, and even itsdangers, but we came out prepared to face difficulties and dangers ifneeds were, and these shall not dismay us. As for the further island, wemay learn of that later.'

  He looked very gallant as he said all this, standing there with themorning sunlight shining upon his brave face and upon his fine coat--forby this time he was fully habited and in his best, as beseemeth theleader of an expedition when about to disembark upon an unfamiliarshore. All around him had listened in silence while he spoke, but now,at the close, some of the soldier-fellows set up a kind of cheer inanswer to his speech. It was not very much of a cheer, but it was betterthan nothing in our dismal case. It served to set our bloods tingling alittle, so Lancelot and I caught it up, and kept it up too, with thewhole strength of our lungs, till the example spread, and soon we hadevery man on deck huzzaing his best, while Cornelys Jensen and Hatchettswung their caps and lifted their voices with the best. It was a strangesound, that hearty British cheer ringing out through that lonely air; itwas a strange sight, all those stout fellows marshalled as best theymight on the sloping deck and fanning their scanty hopes into a flamewith shouting, while the ruined mast, thrust over the side, pointedcuriously enough straight in the direction of those islands whosehospitable qualities we were soon to try.

  It was soon decided, after a brief conference between Captain Amber andCornelys Jensen, that we should transfer our company as fast as might beto the near island, for there was no knowing when the smooth weathermight shift again and how long ou
r Royal Christopher would hold togetherif the waves, which were now lapping against its sides, grew angrier. Itwas resolved that the most pressing business was to send on shore atonce the women and children and such sick people as we had on board, forthese, as was but natural, were the most troublesome for us to deal within our difficulty, being timorous and noisy with their fears, andsetting a bad example.

  So when it was about ten of the clock, or maybe later, for the timeslipped by rapidly, we got loose our shallop and our skiff and loweredthem into the water, and got most of the women and the children and thesick folk into them and sent them off, poor creatures, across the wasteof waters to the islands. Barbara Hatchett went with them, for herfirmness and courage served rarely to keep them quiet and inspire themwith some little fortitude. As for Marjorie, she would by no means leavethe ship so long as Lancelot was on board, so she stayed with us, atwhich I could not help in my heart being glad, in spite of the dangerthat there was to everyone who stuck by the ship.

  While these first boat loads were away we on board made efforts for theprovisioning of our new home, getting up the bread and such viands as wecould, and packing them in as portable a manner as might be for the nextjourney. But by this time unhappily we began to be threatened by a freshtrouble. No sooner were we free from the women-folk and the children,whose presence had hampered us so sorely, than a far more pressingvexation came upon us. For certain of the sailors, who up to this pointhad behaved well enough, suddenly flung aside their good behaviour. Theyhad got at the wine, of which, unhappily, in the first confusion of ourmischance no care had been taken, and many of them were roaring drunk,and capable of doing little service beyond shouting and cursing at oneanother. When Cornelys Jensen saw this he did his best to prevent them,and though some of them were too sullen to obey him, he did at lastcontrive with threats and oaths to keep such of the sailors as werestill sober away from the liquor. By this time Lancelot, facing the newdanger, got from his uncle the key of the storeroom where the arms werekept, and served out weapons to all those on board who had been soldiersand who loved Captain Amber. A pretty body of men they made, each with amusket on his shoulder, a hanger by his side, and a brace of pistols inhis belt. They were all reliable men--many of them, indeed, hadexperienced religion, and had in them something of the old Covenantingspirit, which had worked such wonders under General Cromwell.

  I could see that Cornelys Jensen was very ill-pleased with this act onour part, but he could say nothing, for the thing was done before hecould say or do aught to prevent it, and very fortunate it was that wehad done so betimes, for now Captain Marmaduke had under him a body ofsober, disciplined, well-armed men, who would obey him and stand by himto the last extremity. I myself had slung a hanger by my side and thrusta brace of pistols into my girdle, and I believe that I well-nighrejoiced in the peril which gave me the chance to carry those weaponsand to make, as I fancied, so brave a show. Lancelot armed himself tooin like fashion, for he served as second in command of our little troopunder Captain Amber. For my part, I held no rank indeed in the littlearmy, but I looked upon myself as a kind of _aide-de-camp_ to myCaptain.

  With half a dozen of those men we gathered together all the cases ofwine that had been brought out and placed them back in the spirit room,over which we mounted two men as guard. It was idle to try and lock thedoor, for the lock had been shattered, possibly when we ran aground, andwould not hold. But we locked the door of the room where our weapons andammunition were, and placed another guard there.

  I think many of the sailors were mightily annoyed at this action ofours, and gladly would have resented it. But there was nothing theycould do just then, and though Cornelys Jensen was more savage than anyof them, he wore a smooth face, and kept them in check by his authority.Though we did not dream of it then, it was a mighty blessing for us,that same shipwreck, for if it had not come about just when it did worsewould have happened. As matters now stood, our little party--for it wasbecoming pretty plain that there were two parties in the ship--waswell-armed, while the sailors had no other weapons than their knives.