Part 29 (1/2)

You are my country! I can give you lands, t.i.tle, rank, luxury-- Be pitiful to me, Mistress Katharine. What can I do or say or promise?

You shall grace the court of the king, and be at the same time queen of my heart,” he went on impetuously, his soul in his eager whisper. She turned and walked over to the lee rail, whither he followed her.

”I 'd rather be in that land off yonder than be the king himself. I hate the king, and I could not love the enemy of my country! No, no,”

she replied, ”it cannot be--it can never be!”

”Pshaw! Your country,--that's not the reason; you love him still,” he went on jealously, ”that sailor.”

”Yes, 't is true; I love a sailor--you are not he.”

”But he is dead! You left him lying there on the floor in the hall, you remember, and since then have heard nothing. He is surely dead.”

”It is cruel of you to say it,” she went on relentlessly, ”but I shall love his memory then. No, 't is useless--I respect you, admire you, am grateful to you, but my heart is there!” and she pointed away again.

”Won't you let me try to win you?” he persisted. ”Don't say me nay altogether, give me some hope. If he be dead, let me have a chance.

Oh, Katharine Wilton, I would give up anything for--”

A mids.h.i.+pman touched him on the arm. ”Captain wants to see first lieutenant, sir!” he said with a wooden, impa.s.sive face, saluting the while.

With a smothered expression of rage, Desborough sprang across the deck,--for such a summons is not to be disregarded for an instant; even love gives way to the captain, on s.h.i.+pboard at least. The little mids.h.i.+pman was a great favorite with Katharine, and, grateful for the interruption, she accordingly laid her hand lightly and affectionately on the shoulder of the Honorable Giles Montagu, aged thirteen, one of the youngest and smallest middies in the s.h.i.+p; but he stood very straight and rigid, the personification of dignity, and endeavored to look very manly indeed.

”Thank you, Mr. Montagu,” she said, somewhat to his surprise.

”Don't mention it, nothing at all, madam--orders! Got to obey orders, you know.”

Katharine laughed. ”You dear sweet child!” she said, and suddenly stooped and kissed him. The Honorable Giles turned pale, then flushed violently and burst into unmanly tears.

”Why, what is it? Don't you like to have me kiss you?” she said, amazed.

”It is n't that, Miss Wilton. I 'd rather kiss you than--than anything; but you call me a boy, and treat me like a child, and--and I can't stand it. I--I 've challenged all the men in the steerage about you already,” alluding to the other little fellows of like rank; ”they call me a baby there, too, because I 'm so little and so young. But I 'll grow. And--I love you,” he went on abruptly and determinedly, choking down his sobs and swallowing his tears, while fingering the handle of his dirk, and furtively rubbing his eyes with his other hand.

”Oh, madam, if you would only wait until I got a frigate! Won't you?

But no! You don't treat me like a man,” he exclaimed bitterly, stamping his foot and turning away.

”Well, I never!” cried the astonished and abashed Katharine, completely overawed for the moment by this novel declaration. ”What next?”

Truly, they made men out of boys early in those days. The next moment the hoa.r.s.e cries of the boatswain and his mates, and the beating drums, called all hands to clear the s.h.i.+p for action and startled everybody into activity at once. The Honorable Giles, the manly if lachrymose mids.h.i.+pman, sprang forward to his station as rapidly as his small but st.u.r.dy legs could carry him.

CHAPTER x.x.xIV

_Captain Vincent Mystified_

While the big s.h.i.+p was rapidly and methodically being stripped for the possible emergency, the captain was engaged in busy conversation with the colonel. They had steadily drawn near the reported sail until the lookouts could plainly make out a small fleet of small s.h.i.+ps. Never dreaming that they could be American s.h.i.+ps, Captain Vincent had his s.h.i.+p prepared for action, more through the habitual wariness of an experienced sailor than from any premonition of an impending battle.

But as the two forces drew near, the actions of the opposing fleet became suddenly suspicious; all but one of them tacked s.h.i.+p, and stood off to the northeast, in a compact group in close order, under all possible sail, though one, the smallest and a brig, it was noticed, lagged behind the rest of the group in a way which bespoke either very slow sailing qualities or deliberate purpose of delay. The remaining s.h.i.+p, the largest of them all, stood boldly on its original course.

This latter, it was plain to see, was a small frigate, possibly a twenty-eight or a thirty-two. Taking into account the respective rates of speed, the frigate, whose course made a slight angle with that of the s.h.i.+p of the line, would probably cross the bows of the latter within range of her battery. None of the opposing vessels showed any flags as yet, and their movements completely mystified Captain Vincent.

”Certainly a most extraordinary performance going on there!” he said, after a long look through his gla.s.s, which he then handed to the colonel. ”They show no flags, but I cannot conceive of their being anything but a squadron or a convoy of ours. What do you make them out, Colonel Wilton?”

Now, the colonel was morally certain that they were Americans, or, at least, that the first and nearest one was an American s.h.i.+p. He had been one of the naval committee which had taken charge of the building of the men-of-war ordered by Congress in '75; he had seen the Randolph frequently on the ways and after she was launched, and was entirely familiar with her lines. Perhaps the wish also was father to the thought, for the old soldier was not sufficiently versed in nautical affairs to detect at that distance the great disparity in force between the two s.h.i.+ps, to which for the moment he gave no thought, or he would not have entertained hopes for a release from confinement by recapture,--a patent impossibility to a seaman. So he answered the captain evasively, returning the gla.s.s and pleading his ignorance of nautical matters to excuse his indefinite opinion.