My Danish Sweetheart, Volume 3 of 3

tew! Strike me bald, Mr. Tregarthen, if the hexecution of this here trepan

ense of safety speedily rallied me. Helga stood at the wheel, steering the barque. I flourished my arm to her, and she kissed her hand to me. Close against the securely covered hatch stood the two boatmen, and

upposed that such artful chaps as them darkies was so easy to be took in! A hay wan piece of a

o the coaming by a strong iron-hinged bar fitting to a staple in which lay a padlock. The after-lid was kept down by an iron batten, so that, once secured, the hatch-cover was in all respects as impenetrable from above or below as the deck itself. Nor were we under any apprehension that the immured men could find other means of escaping. The bulkhead of the forecastle was a massive wall of wood. There wa

urderers though they be, Heaven knows one can't but pity them, seeing what t

the opening under the top-gallant deck. It stood as high as a man; my mouth was on a level with the orifice,

t, and thrice did I utter this su

a reply-thin, reed-like, unreal,

ill blow down to you through this chimney. Take notice: you are securely imprisoned. There is no possibility of your escaping. At the

ith us?' was the faint cr

ared back. 'Keep you quiet,

nd I came away very well satisfied to know that Nakier, at all ev

a Cruz, we might count upon getting all the help we required. We briefly arranged that Jacob should keep watch at the hatch. At the first sound of disturbance below he was to call us. There was small n

s which had been pressing heavily upon us for many days, now leapt in me, a full and abounding emotion, and, taking her in my arms, I held her to me, and kissed her once, and yet again. Abraham, grasping a spoke of

est is always best, my love, in such matters. You are mine by right of the p

went to the rail and overhung it for a f

the ship round, and you shall tell us

re by so much as a feather-tip of cloud. Helga, still wearing a rosy face, but with the very spirit of happiness and hope radiant in her eyes-and no better sign of how it was with her heart could I have asked of her-fetched the chart, and, having determined the course, took the

elieve fairly represent the distance. The light wind softly humming in our rigging out of the north-east would not suffer the barque to lie her course for the islands by a point or two, but this was a matter of little moment. We might surely count from one hour to another now on heaving some sort of sail into sight, and in expectation of this we took the English ensign out of the locker and bent it on to the peak halliards with

nsible of the slenderness of our little crew of three men and a girl-who, to be sure, in her boy's clothes would have been the nimblest of us all aloft, but who could do no service in that way in her woman's dress-when I sent my gaze up at the quiet breasts of sail s

ouple of those poor devils below-Punmeamootty, for example, a

the trick they've been sarved! Lord love 'ee! the first thing them two men 'ud do whensoeve

and, as poor old Tommy 'ud ha' said, we don't want to make

onvinced me, and I dropped the subject, making up my mind to this-that, if the wind should freshen, there w

as very earnest in this work. It was easily imagined that the interior in which the men lay imprisoned would be desperately hot, with no more air to get to them than such as sulkily sank out of the listless breeze through the zigzag chimney, and with the planks of the deck above their heads like the top of an

e intended for them. We must open the hatch at our peril while w

water, and dared take no notice of it until we were prepared. The three of us-Helga being at the wheel-armed ourselves with a heavy iron belaying-pin

h! In the name

s had before sounded, yet not the same. Thi

only one man must show himself to receive the things. If more than one of you shows him

my ear as though it were half a mile distant. '

be Punmeamoo

g, with poised weapon, prepared for the first hint of a scramble up from below. I remember the look in his face: it was as though he were already fighting for his life. I slipped the

e, Punmeamoot

,' pronounced in a su

r I feared that he might have his knife dra

ice of opening like those of a drowning man above water, a

est of you

Allee standing back!'

three or four bags of ship's biscuit and a number of large pieces of boiled salt horse. But the water-cask, or breaker rather, gave me some trouble. What its capacity was I do not know. It was too heavy for me to deal with single

en closed the hatch, catching a loud cry from below as I did so; but I dared not pause to ask what it was, and a moment lat

of this meal the name they carry at sea-one or the other of us holding the wheel that Abraham might obtain some sleep in the cabin, when the man Ja

perate hard against the hatch, and their voices has been a-pouring through th

. I went to the mouth of the funn

ied. 'What is wron

!' was the response. 'Some men die

ak, sick voice belonged.

,' I cried, 'or they're all d

t but to open the h

gh to freely ventilate the forecastle. But how to contrive that they

titude that is part of the education of t

s heart an honest and humane one, and in a trice he was coming forward holding a couple of boat stretchers-that

he, 'and save half an hour of s

of scope for air, but through which it would have been impossible for the slenderest human figure to squeeze. Between us we bound these stretchers so

you?' I cried, thr

the poor wretches had drawn together under the hatch to breathe. I desired to be satisf

voice of Nakier: 'It is allee right now. Oh, how sw

nstant, and it could merely grieve my heart to the quick, without staggering my resolution, to listen to the protes

is one of Friday, November the 3rd, was the fullest of anxiety, the most horribly trying. The wind held very light; the darkness was richly burthened with stars, there was much fire in the sea too, and the moon, that was drawing on to her half, rode in brilliance over the dark world of waters which mirrored her light in a wedge of rippling silve

dventured his life to save hers, who had suffered grievously in that attempt-as one, moreover, whom bereavement, whom distress, privation, all that we had endured, in short, had rendered intimate to her heart as a friend, and, as it might be, now that her father was gone and she was a girl destitute of means, her only friend. All had happened since October the 21st: it was now the 3rd of November. A little less than a fortnight had sufficed for the holding of this wild, adventurous, tragical, yet sweet passage of our lives. But how much may happen in fourteen days! Seeds sown in the spirit have

had worked in my face, as I might tell by no other mirror than Helga's eyes, whose gaze was full of concern as we viewed each other by the spreadin

on the previous evening, then left the hatch a little open as before; and now, so far as the provisioning of the fellows was concerned, our work for the day was ended, seeing that they had beef and biscuit enough to last them for several days. They made no complaint as to the heat or want of air; but after we had lowered the little cask, and we

urmur, a sound as of some shallow fretting stream on either hand the vessel; and, above all, it soothed us with a sense and reality of motion, for to it the barque broke the smooth waters bravely, and the wake of her, polished and iridescent as oil, went away astern to the scope of two or three cables. A few wool-white clouds floated along the slowly darkening blue like puffs of steam

nd the sea as she talked. Abraham, with a pipe in his mouth, his arms folded, and his head depressed, was slowly marching up and down beside th

ction in it, and the western splendour lay in a line of pinkish radiance upon the surface of the wood. This line, along with a portion of the spar, to the height, perhaps, of eighteen or twenty feet, seemed to be slowly revolving

sel is o

laimed; 'that blu

Abraham, with his face turned our way, came

s smoke a-filtering up

l my lungs for Jacob to come on deck. As I ran forward I saw smoke thinly rising in bluish wreaths and e

fok'sle, sir,' cried Abraham, throwin

ship!' I cried. 'Does smo

t now!-ye may see

th one or two clearer voices, as though a couple of the fellows had got their mouths close against the

ried. 'Where is this

dark skin blended with the gloom out of

by haccident set fire to de cargo by putting de lamp troo a ho

rick?' cried

it by opening the ma

first rise of the after-hatch cover that we laid our hands upon up belched a volume of smoke, with so much more fol

ll humanity at sea, but rendered in our case inexpressibly more horrible yet, to my mind, by the existence of the pent-u

abroad than Abraham's. 'Ask yourself the question. The we

Malays to peris

rst, anyways,' cried Abraham; and

the wheel! Come to us he

unning alo

rward are not to be burnt-and oh, my Gord! listen to them a-singing out!-we must provision a quarter-boat and get away, an

bey! That must be moy

of a buoy, an'

I tell ye!' passi

e poor creatures!

There would be no need for this horrible haste bu

battle. The noise was scarcely human. It seemed to proceed from famished or wounded jackals and hyenas. But to liberate them-ever

we took from each boat the breaker that belonged to her, filled them both with water, and stowed them. The sail belonging to the boat lay snugged in a yellow waterproof cover along the mast; there wer

readful noise of lamentation, of cries, of entreaties. It was a sound to goad

savages on our liberating of 'em, we must cut them there falls.' And he

o!' s

h the ends of the falls. This effectually put an end

out,' shouted Abraham, running across the deck to us. 'T

ob. 'I don't believe she is on fire. The

ing ready?'

hands, 'I have forgotten my little

bout to f

d to recollect that while looking for a lead-pencil in the chief mate's berth, on the previous day, I had found a small bag of sovereigns and shillings, the unhappy man's savings-all, perhaps, that he possessed in the world-the noble fruits of Heaven knows how many years of hard suffering and bitter labour! I was without a halfpenny in my pocket, and entered the cabin to take this money, which I might hope to b

ame of mercy, if only to free those wretche

e left for me to learn in those days of the handling and management of a boat-and myself standing in the bow, holding on by the end of the painter, which I had passed through

t his boots, then his cap, then his coat, and then his waistcoat. 'I'll ju

very slow leewardly trend. The breeze held the water briskly rippling, but the plain of the

pull a stouter oar than Miss Nielsen. Suppo

tering the bows Abraham and I seized an

I had no fear for Jacob; I guessed that the imprisoned wretches would be too dazed by the glaring sunshine and by the fresh air and by their deliverance from the stifling, smoke-thickened gloom of the forecastle to

it seemed an hour. Then in a hoarse ro

out,

shrieked

the line that

astarn

r; his body whizzed through the air, his arms and head striking the water as clean as a knife; then uprose his purple face at a distance of three boat's lengths. A thrust of the oar brough

bottle of brandy in the stern-sheets. Take

Malays?' excl

I chucked the stretchers off and sung d

akier!' cr

Punmeamoott

eared others joined them, and before our boat had fairly got way upon her I counted the whole eleven of them. They stood in a body with Nakie

ied Abraham. 'Are they waiting for us

again on to the forecastle and piped out some orders in his melodious voice, in which, assuredly, the most attentive ear could have detected nothing of the weakness that I had noticed in his cries to us through the half-closed hatch. Instantly the men distributed themselves, one of them running to the wheel; and while we

ecastle. The fellows had been much too clever to accept the risk of suffocation as a condition of their escape. Abraham had assured me that the bulkhead which divided the forepeak from the main hold was as strong as any timber wall could well be; but there was

of vapour dense enough to fill her crew with consternation and drive them to the boats. While the fellows kept the hatch of the forepeak closed the smoke could hardly filter through into the forecastle.

roared at the receding figure of the ship as though she were hard by, and the men aboard attentively listening to him. Jacob, soaking wet, his black hair plaster

Abraham bawled out tha

ldly pointing at the barque, 'a job that might ha' been worth three or four hundred pound a man? And to be tricked by such creatures! to be made to feel sorry by their howling and wailing! to watch 'em a-sailing aw

e paused for breath Jacob fel

her gunwale was within a hand's-breadth of the water, was buzzing along at a speed that was fast dwindling the heap of square canvas astern into a toy-like

castle filled with a crew of fellows whose first business would have been to slaughter us three men on their breaking out had weighed intolerably upon my spirits. It was a dreadful danger, a horrible obligation now passed, and my heart felt comparatively light, forlorn and perilous as our situation still was. Then, again, I found a sort of support in the experiences I had passed through on the raft and in the lugger. The mind is always sensible of a shock on leaving the secure high deck of a ship, and looking abroad upon the vast, pitiless breast of old Ocean from the low elevation of a boat's side. I have heard of this sort of tra

ituation. Helga surrendered the helm to Abraham, and the boat blew nimbly along over that summer stretch of sea; Abraham steering with a mortified face; Jacob leaning upon the weather gunwale with his chin upon his arms, sullenly gazing into vacancy; and Helga and I a little way forward, talking in a low voice over the past. What new a

, and of a violet dimness eastward, where a streak or two of delicate cloud caught the

, resuming his seat after a long look roun

n worse weather than t

aid I. 'The boat sails finely. A straight course for

raft, then the foundering of the Airly Marn, then the feeding of Mussulmen with pork, then the skipper-as was a proper gentleman, tew-afalling in love, and afterwards being murdered; then that there fire, and now this here boat-and all for what? Not a blooming penny to come out of the whole

her canvas looked as though formed of ivory. We had brought a bull's-eye lamp with us, and this we lighted that we might tell how to steer by a small compass which Abraham had taken from the Captain's cabin. We made as fair a meal as our little stock of provisions would yield, sitting in the moonshine eating and talking, dwelling

hispering. At times I would start with the conviction that it was a ship's light my eyes had fastened upon out in the silvery obscure; but never d

ng that I was startled from what was more a tranc

g at last!' cried the h

he triangle of red, green, and white seemed directly in our wake, and so light was the breeze, and so still the surface of the ocean, that the pulsing

,' shouted Abraham, 'or she'

o the stern-sheets an

gain. 'Ship ahoy!-to make one word of it. Now then!-wan, tew,

ga

ar and desire of preservation. Six or seven times did we thus hail that approaching lump of shadow, defined

green light

s us!' excla

ssel whose engines had stopped, the great mass of shadow came shaping and forming itself out within her own length of us into the aspect of a large bri

What is wron

k us up!' roared Abraham. 'Stand

n minutes later she was veering astern and the four of us, with such few articles as we had to hand up, safe