Part 6 (2/2)
The result of their inquiries Captain Fleetwood had not yet learned; but the description given by the Greeks answered so exactly to that of the Prince Argiri Caraht, that he could not help being struck by it
”I did not altogether like the style of the fellow,” he h, certainly; but there was an impudent, sinister expression about his countenance which one does not observe in that of an honest ht he has to the title of prince There are some few chiefs in Greece, who call themselves princes, but they are very rare Who they are can easily be ascertained, and I must learn if such a title exists Let me see, he was introduced, too, by that fellow Dunnup He is a _ht very shy of his friends at all events What could have taken the gentleman on board that craft then! That puzzles ly when the speronara let draw her foresail, and stood out of the harbour, he retraced his steps along the ramparts towards port Saint Elmo, to a position whence he could command a clear view to seaward
”She is a pretty lively craft that,” he observed to himself, as he saith the pleased eye of a sealided over the crisp curling waves ”The fellows kno to handle her too; but what is she about noonder? I thought, by the way she first steered, she was bound for Sicily, but there she goes running off to the south-east I cannot be lance at her with his telescope ”Yes, that is her, there can be no doubt about the matter”
Now lovethe object of their affection, and Captain Fleetas certainly not a man to be less so than any other person
The sudden change in the course of the speronara had given rise in his mind to sundry suspicions They were not very serious, and probably, under other circumstances, he would not have entertained theued, and he could not help connecting theof the _Zodiac_, on board which vessel Ada and her uncle were that evening to coe He did not, however, suppose that a craft of her character would venture to attack an ar of the size of the _Zodiac_, unless she could take her by surprise, nor could she have any chance of success against so brave and good a seaman as Captain Bowse, and so fine a crew as his; but at the saht it would be e hiainst the speronara
”I never heard of one of those fellows co trick--perhaps he expects to fall in with soht, to run theood-looking fellow of a Greek prince, if that is him, on board some craft or other bound eastward However, I ht sail and convoy the brig; but the adive me leave if I was to ask him--he would only think it was an excuse to be near Miss Garden”
These thoughts passed through his mind as he hurried down to the quay, where his boat aiting for hi into her, he started for the _Zodiac_ He hadthat the colonel and his niece were going by his vessel, and he had been every day on board to assist in arranging Ada's cabin, and to suggest ht conduce to her comfort and convenience
Captain Boas on board with every preparation , and only awaited the arrival of his passengers The iven by the naval officer without any alarh at the same time he owned that there was some cause for suspicion; and he promised to keep a sharp look-out, and to take all the precaution in his power to prevent being surprised When he heard that the Greek stranger had gone on board the speronara, he re his description, on the previous evening, to his vessel, and he felt glad that he had not been induced to take hiue, that he saw that there would be no use trying to do anything with the _Zodiac_ and he has gone to lay his plots against some other craft,” he observed ”That's my view of the case, sir, and I don't think that you need at all alarh we are safe ourselves, that is no reason that we should not think of others; and if I was you, sir, I would ive notice to the authorities of what you have observed You can tell, sir, of his wanting to take a passage to Greece, on board here, and then shi+pping off suddenly in a Sicilian craft There ; and to one”
Wishi+ng a prosperous voyage to thehi, and had got so, which he divined contained her he loved best on earth, with her uncle and his attendants
How could he resist the te his boat a sweep, he pulled round to the other side of the _Zodiac_, froway ladder was shi+pped, and lay on his oars, trusting to the chance of seeing Ada on deck, while her uncle was below
There were fewer packages than most families travel with, for the colonel was a martinet, and would allow none of his womankind, as he called them, to have more traps than was absolutely necessary; and thus no tioods on board Besides the colonel and his niece, there was a little Maltese girl, as an attendant, and the colonel's own man, Mitchell, who, like his master, was a character not unworthy of note Boho understood pretty well the state of affairs, soon contrived to get the colonel belohile he detained Ada on deck, and then pointing out Captain Fleetwood's boat to her, beckoned him on board He was much too judicious to show in any other way that he are of the feelings of the parties; but leaving theether, he rejoined the colonel in the cabin, deter hieentle many of them, he was indebted for them to the man for whom he had conceived so hearty an aversion What the lovers said need not be told
Those few moments were sweet but sad, and both felt that they would on no account haveshould induce her to give him up, and he repeated his promise to hasten and claim her in spite of all opposition The appearance of Bowse's honest face up the conal for hiet over the side, when the colonel appeared on deck
”What are you gazing at there,up the harbour ”Oh, ay, thinking of your partners at the ball, I suppose” She did not answer; but as she turned her face with a reproachful look at her uncle, her eyes were full of tears
As soon as Bowse cah The cable was already hove short, the topsails were loose The men went about the ith alacrity, and in a style very different to that of eneral They were all prime hands, mostly old men-of-war's men turned adrift, as shi+ps were paid off, and had all before served with Bowse
He carried on the duty, therefore, as far as circumstances would allow, in the fashi+on to which they had been accusto was consequently looked upon as as fine a vessel as any sailing out of the port of London To the cheery sound of the pipe, theyin chorus to a merry strain, away they ran swiftly round A hand was sent to the helm, and theout, as the cable appearing up and down showed that the anchor was under the forefoot As the wind blew out of the harbour, the jib and fore-topmast-staysail were now hoisted to cast her
With renewed exertions the crew hove round, and the shout they uttered gave the signal that they had dragged the anchor fro the power of her head sails, now paid slowly off
”Heave and in sight,” theout, as the anchor appeared above water Another turn ran it up to the bows The foretopsail was next sheeted home and hoisted, and the head yards braced forward to help her round more quickly In the meantime the anchor was catted and fished ready for sea, and as the wind came abaft the beaarnets being let run, the ponderous folds of the foresail were allowed to fall towards the deck, just as the as brought right aft Both sheets were then hauled aft, and the increasing breeze no longer finding escape beneath it, blew it out in a graceful shich made it appear as if it were about to lift the vessel bodily out of the water to carry her gliding over the waves The fore-top of use, was hauled down, and her fore-topgallantsail and royal, with the after sail, were next set, followed by studden-sails on either side, till the brig presented the appearance of a tall tower of white canvas shi+ning brightly in the rays of the sun, which was setting directly astern, and which threw on them, in confused lines of tracery-work, the shadows of the
Ada, ould not be persuaded by her uncle to go below, as he said, to get her out of hars, and with admiration at the method by which, in so short a tihted in everything connected with the sea She was a sailor's daughter, and she loved a sailor; but even before she had known Captain Fleetwood she felt an affection for things nautical, and certainly he had done ard She enjoyed too the physical pleasures of the sea, the fresh free breeze, and the light dancing wave, which to her was a source of no inconvenience While others suffered, she was on deck enjoying existence to the full It is true that she had as yet only seen the ocean in its suale, which she looked upon rather as giving a zest to the pleasure of a voyage, she knew little of its wintry teers and horrors Bowse observed the interest she took in all that was going forward, and, like a true sailor, felt as hter, and under his especial protection Jack, the cabin-boy, was coiling away a rope near hi to him, he sent him down for a comfortable chair, which, on its appearance, he placed before her
”There, miss,” he observed, ”I think you will be able, more at your ease, to sit and look at the little island we are leaving behind us
It's always a pleasure to take the last look at the place we are going from”
Ada thanked him with a sweet smile for the chair which he had judiciously placed on the starboard side of the poop, and looking partly aft, so that she could command a full view of the harbour, where the _Ione_ lay, and of the fortifications of Valetta The _Zodiac_ was now running out between forts Saint Elmo and Ricasoli; and as she cleared the for rather more to the northward Her yards were, therefore, braced forward, and her mainsail hauled out; and noith the wind on her quarter, a point in which every sail a square-rigged vessel can carry draws best, with a fine rattling breeze she rapidly left the shores of Malta astern
CHAPTER SEVEN
Never did a vessel leave port under more propitious circumstances than did the _Zodiac_, with a fair, steady breeze, a smooth sea, and at a time of the year when there was every prospect of the continuance of fine weather