Part 25 (1/2)
”Hummph! I'm afraid I can't afford to lose a good officer for a fault he--will--never--repeat”
It blew hard all night and till twelve the next day. The _Agra_ showed her weak point: she rolled abominably. A dirty night came on. At eight bells Mr. Grey, touched by Dodd's clemency and brimful of zeal, reported a light in Mrs. Beresford's cabin. It had been put out as usual by the master-at-arms; but the refractory one had relighted it.
”Go and take it away,” said Dodd.
Soon screams were heard from the cabin. ”Oh, mercy! mercy! I will not be drowned in the dark.”
Dodd, who had kept clear of her so long, went down and tried to rea.s.sure her.
”Oh, the tempest! the tempest!” she cried. ”AND TO BE DROWNED IN THE DARK!”
”Tempest? It is blowing half a gale of wind; that is all.”
”Half a gale! Ah! that is the way you always talk to us ladies. Oh, pray give me my light, and send me a clergyman.”
Dodd took pity, and let her have her light, with a mids.h.i.+pman to watch it. He even made her a hypocritical promise that should there be one grain of danger, he would lie to; but said he must not make a foul wind of a fair one for a few lee lurches. The _Agra_ broke plenty of gla.s.s and crockery though, with her fair wind and her lee lurches.
Wind down at noon next day, and a dead calm.
At two P. M. the weather cleared; the sun came out high in heaven's centre; and a balmy breeze from the west.
At six twenty-five, the grand orb set calm and red, and the sea was gorgeous with miles and miles of great ruby dimples: it was the first glowing smile of southern lat.i.tude. The night stole on so soft, so clear, so balmy, all were loth to chose their eyes on it: the pa.s.sengers lingered long on deck, watching the Great Bear dip, and the Southern Cross rise, and overhead a whole heaven of glorious stars most of us have never seen, and never shall see in this world. No belching smoke obscured, no plunging paddles deafened; all was musical; the soft air sighing among the sails; the phosph.o.r.escent water bubbling from the s.h.i.+p's bows; the murmurs from little knots of men on deck subdued by the great calm: home seemed near, all danger far; Peace ruled the sea, the sky, the heart: the s.h.i.+p, making a track of white fire on the deep, glided gently yet swiftly homeward, urged by snowy sails piled up like alabaster towers against a violet sky, out of which looked a thousand eyes of holy tranquil fire. So melted the sweet night away.
Now carmine streaks tinged the eastern sky at the water's edge; and that water blushed; now the streaks turned orange, and the waves below them sparkled. Thence splashes of living gold flew and settled on the s.h.i.+p's white sails, the deck, and the faces; and with no more prologue, being so near the line, up came majestically a huge, fiery, golden sun, and set the sea flaming liquid topaz.
Instantly the look-out at the foretop-gallant-mast-head hailed the deck below.
”STRANGE SAIL! RIGHT AHEAD!”
The strange sail was reported to Captain Dodd, then dressing in his cabin. He came soon after on deck and hailed the lookout: ”Which way is she standing?”
”Can't say, sir. Can't see her move any.”
Dodd ordered the boatswain to pipe to breakfast; and taking his deck gla.s.s went lightly up to the fore-top-gallant-mast crosstrees. Thence, through the light haze of a glorious morning, he espied a long low schooner, lateen-rigged, lying close under Point Leat, a small island about nine miles distant on the weather bow, and nearly in the _Agra's_ course, then approaching the Straits of Gaspar, 4 lat.i.tude S.
”She is hove-to,” said Dodd very gravely.
At eight o'clock, the stranger lay about two miles to windward, and still hove-to.
By this time all eyes were turned upon her, and half a dozen gla.s.ses.
Everybody, except the captain, delivered an opinion.
She was a Greek lying-to for water: she was a Malay coming north with canes, and short of hands: she was a pirate watching the Straits.
The captain leaned silent and sombre with his arms on the bulwarks, and watched the suspected craft.
Mr. Fullalove joined the group, and levelled a powerful gla.s.s, of his own construction. His inspection was long and minute, and, while the gla.s.s was at his eye, Sharpe asked him half in a whisper, could he make out anything?