Part 8 (2/2)
”Our captain, our captain,” cried some of the rescued crew; ”oh, how can we save him? how can we save him?”
He seemed a fine old man, with a n.o.ble forehead and grey hair. He reached a spar, and threw his arms over it. Thus supported, he lifted himself out of the water, and looked calmly around, as if considering how he might best reach the sh.o.r.e. The spar was sent rus.h.i.+ng on towards the beach. Many of his crew, all indeed who were uninjured, got ropes ready to dash forward to his a.s.sistance. He seemed to observe the efforts preparing to aid him. Digby was struck with the wonderful calmness of the old man. Death and destruction on every side, he seemed not for a moment to have lost his presence of mind. He fancied even that he could see him smile, as the fishermen and his own people made a rush towards him. It proved unsuccessful. He looked in no way disconcerted. Another wave came on and carried him forward; now he beckoned them to come to him; on they dashed. It was the work of a moment. They seized him by the collar of his coat, and Digby saw that they had him safely landed on the beach. Digby could not help running forward and saying--
”I am very glad that you are saved, sir.”
”Thank you, my boy,” answered the old master, ”if I mistake not, you are one of the lads who saved my young Haviland there. His father will thank you, I know. I saw it all from the wreck. n.o.bly done, it was!”
Digby felt highly pleased at being thus praised; not that he thought that he had done any great thing after all.
The master having thus expressed himself, called the rescued people round him, and spoke a few words to them, telling them how thankful they ought to be at being saved. When he looked round and missed so many of his late s.h.i.+pmates, he dashed his hand across his eyes as if he felt severely their loss. ”G.o.d's will be done,” he said, in a voice trembling with agitation. It was clear that, though his nerves were strong, his heart was tender.
Mr Nugent, who had all along been attending to those who most required his aid, now came forward and invited the gentleman who had been saved and his son, as well as the old master, to his house. The chief magistrate and other authorities of Osberton undertook to look after the crew, while Toby and Holmes were appointed to take charge of the cargo which might be washed on sh.o.r.e.
Mr Haviland and his son, as well as Captain Burton, gladly accepted Mr Nugent's invitation, greatly to the delight of the boys, who were eager to know where the s.h.i.+p had come from, and how she had been wrecked. Mr Nugent hurried them up to his house, where he had beds immediately made ready for them, into which he insisted on their getting, although the old captain protested that, for his part, he was not a bit the worse for his ducking.
That evening all the family, with the rescued strangers, were seated round Mrs Nugent's tea-table. Mr Haviland seemed to be a very gentlemanly person, and his son, Arthur, quickly won the regards of all the party by his kind and gentle manners, his intelligence, and the affectionate and dutiful way in which he treated his father. Captain Burton was a fine old seaman; he had been so knocked about in the world, and had met with so many adventures and mishaps, that he seemed to make very light of the mere wreck of his s.h.i.+p, much as he grieved for the loss of so many of his crew.
”We seamen know well what we have to expect one day or other. We may well be thankful when we are able to reach the sh.o.r.e alive in a civilised land,” he remarked; ”sad is the fate of the poor fellows who may be cast on a barren coast, or one inhabited by savages, cannibals may be, who may knock them on the head as soon as they set foot on sh.o.r.e. Now I hope in a few days to be at home with my wife and family, and soon to forget all my misfortunes.”
The s.h.i.+p had come, he told them, from South America. Owing to the thick weather, they had not made the land; though he knew that he was running up channel, he was not aware how near the sh.o.r.e he was when he was struck by the gale and dismasted. The s.h.i.+p in that condition, no seamans.h.i.+p was of any avail to preserve her.
The next morning he and his crew took their departure from Osberton, after he had collected all the articles of his private property which had come on sh.o.r.e.
Mr Haviland gladly accepted Mr Nugent's invitation to remain some days longer, that he might sufficiently recover his strength to enable him to travel to London. Again and again he expressed his grat.i.tude to Digby for having rescued his son from the waves, and Arthur himself endeavoured to show how much he felt, and how unable he was to repay him.
Mr Haviland was able to repay both Toby and Holmes, as well as the other men, in a more substantial mode, for the gallant way in which they had exerted themselves to save him. Remittances from London supplied him amply with funds; and all those who had a.s.sisted on the occasion of the wreck declared, that so liberal a gentleman had never before appeared in their town.
CHAPTER FIVE.
SEA-SIDE SPORTS--TOBY TUBB'S NAVAL YARN--A PIC-NIC, AND WHAT OCCURRED AT IT.
”You must come and stay with us when we settle,” said Arthur Haviland to Digby, the morning on which the former, with his father, was to take his departure from Mr Nugent's. ”I am to go to school, but papa intends to take a house to receive me in the holidays, when we shall expect you, and then I will tell you more about the Brazils, and the wonders of other parts of South America.”
Digby replied that if he could get leave he should be delighted to accept the invitation for a part of the holidays. ”I tell you that I should not like to be away the whole time: I could not miss seeing my dear little sister Kate, and Gusty and the rest at home, on any account.
I don't fancy that I should like to be anywhere so much as at home.
Oh, it is such a dear, jolly place. You must come to my home, Arthur, some day, and then you'll see that I am right.” Such were the terms on which Digby and Arthur Haviland parted.
Digby felt very sorry and quite out of spirits when his new friend had gone. He liked Marshall, and Eastern, and Power, indeed all his companions, very much, but there was something so gentle, and amiable, and intelligent about Arthur; in many respects he was so different to himself, that he had been insensibly attracted towards him. He had been the means of saving Arthur's life, too, and though his friend was so much older than himself, he ought to be his protector and guardian. ”I wish that we had been going to the same school,” he said to himself; ”Arthur is just the sort of fellow the boys will be apt to bully. How Julian would sneer at him and tease him. Even Power and Easton couldn't help now and then having a laugh at his notions. How I should like to stand up for him, and fight his battles. I'm not very big, but I would not mind a thras.h.i.+ng for his sake.”
The summer was drawing to a conclusion, but still the weather was very warm. One evening Mr Nugent had been called out to visit a sick person. On his return he invited his pupils to accompany him to the beach.
”I have seldom seen the water so beautifully luminous as it is to-night,” he observed. ”Bring two wide-mouthed bottles, my naturalist's water nets, and a long pole, and we will go and fish for night s.h.i.+ners.”
Digby was puzzled to know what his uncle meant. The nets which Marshall produced were in shape like a landing-net, but smaller and lighter--fine gauze being used instead of the twine net. It was a dark night, and the party stumbled along over the not very well-paved streets of the little town till they reached the water. Great was Digby's surprise to see the whole ocean covered with glowing flashes; while, as the gently rippling wavelets came rolling in, a line of light was playing over them, and as they reached the sh.o.r.e it broke into still greater brilliancy, leaving, as they retired, thousands of s.h.i.+ning sparkles glittering on the smooth beach.
”What is it?” he exclaimed, after gazing for some time in mute astonishment. ”What has come over the ocean?”
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