Part 35 (1/2)

”I'll soon know,” cried Dodd. ”Lower the gig; I'll go myself.”

The gig was lowered, and six swift rowers pulled him to windward, while the s.h.i.+p kept on her course.

It is most unusual for a captain to leave the s.h.i.+p at sea on such petty errands: but Dodd half hoped the man might be alive; and he was so unhappy; and, like his daughter, who probably derived the trait from him, grasped instinctively at a chance of doing kindness to some poor fellow alive or dead. That would soothe his own sore, good heart.

When they had pulled about two miles, the sun was sinking into the horizon. ”Give way, men,” said Dodd, ”or we shall not be able to see him.” The men bent to their oars and made the boat fly.

Presently the c.o.xswain caught sight of an object bobbing on the water abeam.

”Why, that must be it,” said he: ”the lubber! to take it for a man's head. Why, it is nothing but a thundering old bladder, speckled white.”

”What?” cried Dodd, and fell a-trembling. ”Steer for it! Give way!”

”Ay, ay, sir!”

They soon came alongside the bladder, and the c.o.xswain grabbed it.

”Hallo! here's something lashed to it: a bottle!”

”Give it me!” gasped Dodd in a voice choked with agitation. ”Give it me! Back to the s.h.i.+p! Fly! fly! Cut her off, or she'll give us the slip _now._”

He never spoke a word more, but sat in a stupor of joyful wonder.

They soon caught the s.h.i.+p; he got into his cabin, he scarce knew how: broke the bottle to atoms, and found the indomitable Cash uninjured.

With trembling hands he restored it to its old place in his bosom, and sewed it tighter than ever.

Until he felt it there once more, he could hardly realise a stroke of good fortune that seemed miraculous--though, in reality, it was less strange than the way he had lost it;* but now, laid bodily on his heart, it set his bosom on fire. Oh, the bright eye, the bounding pulse, the buoyant foot, the reckless joy! He slapped Sharpe on the back a little vulgarly for him:--

”Jonah is on board again, old fellow: look out for squalls.”

*The _Agra_, being much larger than the bottle, had drifted faster to leeward in the storm.

He uttered this foreboding in a tone of triumph, and with a gay elastic recklessness, which harmonised so well with his makes.h.i.+ft rudder, that Sharpe groaned aloud, and wished himself under any captain in the world but this, and in any other s.h.i.+p. He looked round to make sure he was not watched, and then tapped his forehead significantly. This somewhat relieved him, and he did his duty smartly for a man going to the bottom with his eyes open.

But ill luck is not to be bespoken any more than good: the _Agra's_ seemed to have blown itself out; the wind veered to the south-west, and breathed steadily in that quarter for ten days. The topgallant sails were never lowered nor s.h.i.+fted day nor night all that time, and not a single danger occurred between this and the Cape, except to a monkey, which I fear I must relate, on account of its remoter consequences. One fine afternoon, everybody was on deck amusing themselves as they could: Mrs. Beresford, to wit, was being flattered under the p.o.o.p awning by Kenealy. The feud between her and Dodd continued, but under a false impression. The lady had one advantage over the gentler specimens of her s.e.x; she was never deterred from a kind action by want of pluck, as they are. Pluck? Aquilina was brimful of it. When she found Dodd was wounded, she cast her wrongs to the wind, and offered to go and nurse him. Her message came at an unlucky moment, and by an unlucky messenger: the surgeon said hastily, ”I can't have him bothered.” The stupid servant reported, ”He can't be worried;” and Mrs. Beresford, thinking Dodd had a hand in this answer, was bitterly mortified; and with some reason. She would have forgiven him, though, if he had died; but, as he lived, she thought she had a right to detest him, and did; and showed her sentiments like a lady, by never speaking to him, nor looking at him, but ignoring him with frigid magnificence on his own quarter-deck.

Now, among the crew of this s.h.i.+p was a favourite goat, good-tempered, affectionate, and playful; but a single vice counterbalanced all his virtues: he took a drop. A year or two ago some light-hearted tempter taught him to sip grog; he took to it kindly, and was now arrived at such a pitch that at grog-time he used to b.u.t.t his way in among the sailors, and get close to the canteen; and, by arrangement, an allowance was always served out to him. On imbibing it, he pa.s.sed with quadrupedal rapidity through three stages, the absurd, the choleric, the sleepy; and was never his own goat again until he awoke from the latter. Now Master Fred Beresford encountered him in the second stage of inebriety, and, being a rough playfellow, tapped his nose with a battledore. Instantly Billy b.u.t.ted at him; mischievous Fred screamed and jumped on the bulwarks. Pot-angry Billy went at him there; whereupon the young gentleman, with all eldrich screech, and a comparative estimate of perils that smacked of inexperience, fled into the sea, at the very moment when his anxious mother was rus.h.i.+ng to save him. She uttered a scream of agony, and would actually have followed him, but was held back, uttering shriek after shriek, that pierced every heart within hearing.

But Dodd saw the boy go overboard, and vaulted over the bulwark near the helm, roared in the very air, ”Heave the s.h.i.+p to!” and went splash into the water about ten yards from the place. He was soon followed by Vespasian, and a boat was lowered as quickly as possible. Dodd caught sight of a broad straw hat on the top of a wave, swam l.u.s.tily to it, and found Freddy inside: it was tied under his chin, and would have floated Goliath. Dodd turned to the s.h.i.+p, saw the poor mother with white face and arms outstretched as if she would fly at them, and held the urchin up high to her with a joyful ”hurrah.” The s.h.i.+p seemed alive and to hurrah in return with giant voice: the boat soon picked them up, and Dodd came up the side with Freddy in his arms, and placed him in his mother's with honest pride and deep parental sympathy.

Guess how she scolded and caressed her child all in a breath, and sobbed over him! For this no human pen has ever told, nor ever will. All I can just manage to convey is that, after she had all but eaten the little torment, she suddenly dropped him, and made a great maternal rush at Dodd. She flung her arms round him, and kissed him eagerly, almost fiercely: then, carried away wild by mighty Nature, she patted him all over in the strangest way, and kissed his waistcoat, his arms, his hands, and rained tears of joy and grat.i.tude on them.

Dodd was quite overpowered. ”No! no!” said he. ”Don't now, pray, don't!

There! there! I know, my dear, I know; I'm a father.” And he was very near whimpering himself; but recovered the man and the commander, and said, soothingly, ”There! there!” and he handed her tenderly down to her cabin.

All this time he had actually forgotten the packet. But now a horrible fear came on him. He hurried to his own cabin and examined it. A little salt water had oozed through the bullet-hole and discoloured the leather; but that was all.

He breathed again.

”Thank Heaven I forgot all about it!” said he: ”it would have made a cur of me.”