Part 20 (2/2)

Wylie undertook that the house of Wardlaw & Son should indemnify the brig for all expenses and losses incurred.

Still the American hesitated; at last he honestly told Wylie he wished to keep the men; he liked them, they liked him. He had sounded them, and they had no objection to join his s.h.i.+p and sign articles for a three years' whaling voyage, provided they did not thereby forfeit the wages to which they would be ent.i.tled on reaching Liverpool. Wylie went forward and asked the men if they would take service with the Yankee captain. All but three expressed their desire to do so; these three had families in England, and refused. The mate gave the others a release, and an order on Wardlaw & Co. for their full wages for the voyage; then they signed articles with Captain Sloc.u.m, and entered the American Mercantile Navy.

Two days after this they sighted the high lands at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata at 10 P.M., and lay to for a pilot. After three hours' delay they were boarded by a pilot-boat, and then began to creep into the port.

The night was very dark, and a thin white fog lay on the water.

Wylie was sitting on the taffrail and conversing with Sloc.u.m, when the lookout forward sung out, ”Sail ho!”

Another voice almost simultaneously yelled out of the fog, ”Port your helm!”

Suddenly out of the mist, and close aboard the _Maria,_ appeared the hull and canvas of a large s.h.i.+p. The brig was crossing her course, and her great bowsprit barely missed the brig's mainsail. It stood for a moment over Wylie's head. He looked up, and there was the figure-head of the s.h.i.+p looming almost within his reach. It was a colossal green woman; one arm extended grasped a golden harp, the other was pressed to her head in the att.i.tude of holding back her wild and flowing hair. The face seemed to glare down upon the two men. In another moment the monster, gliding on, just missing the brig, was lost in the fog.

”That was a narrow squeak,” said Sloc.u.m.

Wylie made no answer, but looked into the darkness after the vessel.

He had recognized her figure-head.

It was the _Shannon!_

CHAPTER XIV.

BEFORE the _Maria_ sailed again, with the men who formed a part of Wylie's crew, he made them sign a declaration before the English Consul at Buenos Ayres. This doc.u.ment set forth the manner in which the _Proserpine_ foundered; it was artfully made up of facts enough to deceive a careless listener; but, when Wylie read it over to them he slurred over certain parts, which he took care, also, to express in language above the comprehension of such men. Of course they a.s.sented eagerly to what they did not understand, and signed the statement conscientiously.

So Wylie and his three men were s.h.i.+pped on board the _Boadicea,_ bound for Liverpool, in Old England, while the others sailed with Captain Sloc.u.m for Nantucket, in New England.

The _Boadicea_ was a clipper laden with hides and a miscellaneous cargo.

For seventeen days she flew before a southerly gale, being on her best sailing point, and, after one of the shortest pa.s.sages she had ever made, she lay to, outside the bar, off the Mersey. It wanted but one hour to daylight, the tide was flowing; the pilot sprang aboard.

”What do you draw?” he asked of the master.

”Fifteen feet, barely,” was the reply.

”That will do,” and the vessel's head was laid for the river.

They pa.s.sed a large bark, with her topsails backed.

”Ay,” remarked the pilot, ”she has waited since the half-ebb; there ain't more than four hours in the twenty-four that such craft as that can get in.”

”What is she? An American liner?” asked Wylie, peering through the gloom.

”No,” said the pilot; ”she's an Australian s.h.i.+p. She's the _Shannon,_ from Sydney.”

The mate started, looked at the man, then at the vessel. Twice the _Shannon_ had thus met him, as if to satisfy him that his object had been attained, and each time she seemed to him not an inanimate thing, but a silent accomplice. A chill of fear struck through the man's frame as he looked at her. Yes, there she lay, and in her hold were safely stowed 160,000 pounds in gold, marked lead and copper.

Wylie had no luggage nor effects to detain him on board; he landed, and, having bestowed his three companions in a sailors' boarding-house, he was hastening to the s.h.i.+pping agents of Wardlaw & Son to announce his arrival and the fate of the _Proserpine._ He had reached their offices in Water Street before he recollected that it was barely half past five o'clock, and, though broad daylight on that July morning, merchants' offices are not open at that hour. The sight of the _Shannon_ had so bewildered him that he had not noticed that the shops were all shut, the streets deserted. Then a thought occurred to him--why not be a bearer of his own news? He did not require to turn the idea twice over, but resolved, for many reasons, to adopt it. As he hurried to the railway station, he tried to recollect the hour at which the early train started; but his confused and excited mind refused to perform the function of memory. The _Shannon_ dazed him.

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