The Last Entry

e breast of the stream. Mr. Vanderholt had no intention of going ashore. He had ordered Captain Glew to bring up off Gravesend to avoid t

ughter, walked up to Captain Glew and expressed a wish that he would eat with them at their table. Glew touched his cap without any expression of surprise

terior was a pretty little picture of hospitality; two handsome lamps shone purely and brightly. The burnished swing-trays reflected the beams of the lamps.

this vessel,' said Vanderholt, examini

rs, and has done a deal of

,' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'It is always bad food for

get to eat?' aske

,' answered Glew: 'pork, junk, p

of this ship?' sa

' said th

?' inquired Mi

enters daily her situation, the state of the weather

. 'The nearest romantic stroke that I can recollect was this entry: "A dreadful d

rholt, 'that you will have met with

l any,' answer

e ale; 'that extraordinary affair of some early love.' Miss Vi looked extremely confused, and gazed with entreaty at her father. 'T

ry be, sir?' said Capta

ather repeated the story. Captain Glew drained his wine-glass

Captain Dyson, who was found dead in his bed three years

holt burst

ontinued Captain Glew. 'If my wife gets to hear of it-a

own,' said Mr. Vanderholt. 'But I confess I nev

haled along the bends of the schooner in the note of surf washing on shingle heard at a distance. How dismal, flat and gaunt looked the treeless Tilbury shore in that sad light! The very stars shining over it seemed to tremble with the spirit of mud and cold desolation.

a deck-house, with three windows of a side, and spikes of light shot from those windows, occasionally glancing on the figure of a passing man, and

rholt, pressing his daughter's arm affectionately against

laimed the young lady. 'I

He can't be in India and

holt. 'Oh, how delicious the voyage would then be!

hall be alone, and you'll die of some distemper, engendered by what is there called "a station." No good in titular dignity. The land teems with captains

ars on the bow, and suddenly a long, sharp-stemmed boat, apparentl

oner

over the side, at a respectful distance from the

come aboa

alongside, and a couple o

like his companion, wore a tall, glazed hat, and

owned. What's your busin

rching the shipping for a man named S

derholt, coming with his daughter on h

' was th

creamed. Her fath

t be on board of us. If he is, I do not sail. Capta

amen standing in a line, with the runners in their glazed hats flashing the light of their lanterns over their rough, bearded, weather-blackened faces. They had assented very easily to this mustering and examination, for the man was wanted for murd

ended the short ladder, and Captain Glew stood atop waiting. The bullies of Bow Street swung their lamps carefully. Suddenly one of them, delivering a low gasp, said: 'Catch hold of this light, Tom

don't 'urt me, gemmen! I meant n

ve got down there?' s

ed one of the officers, in a voice that t

ut me ashore, and I promise never to offend again,' c

jacket, and plentiful black hair loosened by dragging, she showed as a saucy, handsome wen

l went

murderer is on board our ship! They have got him. So,' he cried in a v

, sir,' said

straight up to the group as they came along, and, putting his face clos

girl. 'I never meant no 'arm, and

ed round about the lighted skylight, 'don't you think it's just possible that this person who's been in hidi

rl, extending both hands towards Miss Vio

hen,' said M

a scent of drink in the cabin atmosphere, cannot, after all these years, be settled with any degree of certainty. They seated themselves, and

e?' began C

Bell in Cable Street,

with tears. Her aspect, in the clear light of the lamp, was extraordinary. She seemed half a gipsy. Her be

long of Bill,

talking about since you was lugged

a Maul comes and 'angs about me, and Bill, he falls jealous. Bill and me 'ad a row over this 'ere Maul. He says to me: "I know the ship he's signed for; yer'd better foller him." "By God!" cries I, mad with feeling that he oughtn't to have said it, "say that again, and I'll do it." He says it again.' Here the unfortunate woman raised her voice till the little cabin rang; but though

dy lot, I allow, for a select hevening party. When I

erciful heart of her sex, fetched some hairpins from her cabin, and gave them to the girl, who, with a curt

lady's hat,' said Mr. Va

k their glasses of cold brandy and wa

shore, won't yer

f one of them; 'and here's for a knot of gay ribbons for you, miss,' said he, laughing

hes pocket, muttering 'Thank you, sir,'

u're coming; for we're o

n and a very finely-dressed, handsome young lady. She wore an expression that was like asking 'Where am I? How did I get here? What's it about?' And then, pausing an instant at th

t, casting himself upon a sofa. 'They're not what you wo

id she

ad with jealousy, "stand by," as Jack says. She'd have ha

motion on deck-loud cries of men,

ied Mr. Vanderholt; and

girl tearing with outstretched claws at one of the men as though she would rend him in pieces. His trouble was to get away. He butted and dodged behind his elbow, shouting: 'S'elp me Bob, Polly, it worn't no fault o' mine'! And then she would shriek out: 'Yer drove

pitfire? Help her into the boat, Mr. Officers;' and plunging, they bore the girl out of

he deck-house, and a grunt of

been a-doing to

my 'at?'

ick?' sung out a sailor named

g of what I've left behind me,

ure,' said the deep-throated Jack who had on an

the land beyond Canvey Island with lightning that fell in showers of fiery bayonets. It was a majestic, sublime, terrible storm. The girl, standing in the companion-way, was fascinated. The sun peeped at a corner of this purple-black bank of vapour, off which rags of tempest, gilded b

th behind her. And now did nothing noticeable happen for some days. They met with heavy weather in the Channel. The wind darkened with snow, and the Mowbray, under small canvas, ratched, panting ov

heave. I am a good sailor in seas where the head and the stomach swing together, but when the stomach leaps at

allowed a glass of b

at home. He would have no women, he said; they would be going forward among the men, and breeding trouble. Was it not good for Violet that she should learn to help herself? Could not she do her ow

r still lay grunting, incapable of smoking, and gray as his beard. She waited upon him, and stood upright with ease up

, 'or, as God is my witness, we would

are w

ys shows its teeth,' answered Mr. Van

. A man has stepped ashore after a voyage to Australia. Would not you suppose him seasoned? Yet, on crossing the Channel in one of the small steam

with a lurking hope that, if her father's sickness conti

then I shall be all right. I like a tall sea. Man and boy, I never could stand th

of green, which crumbled into foam. The torn scud flew fast. Every hollow was the wide and seething valley of Atlantic waters; and as the hull of the schooner sank

She seemed a foundered craft, till, in a minute, up she'd soar, with marble-hard breasts of canvas, leaping like some creation or possession of the deep to the height of a surge,

e schooner had been liberally provisioned with fresh meat and loaves of bread for the forecastle use, and, so far, the men had sat down to a fresh mess every day. But carcasses and quarte

at his dinner by the sun, at the same time, no matter in what ocean he floated-and three or four me

man, named Simon Toole, afte

o chuck something to eat and drink into her, and there they was, afloat under a broiling sun. By-'n-by, wan of thim, feeling thirsty, goes for a drink, and what d'ye think they found they had shipped for w

'now there's no fresh beef le

's always t'other ways about in this world. What couldn't I sit down

n Glew, who stood with a sextant upon the quarter. 'He's fed so w

tand it if I shook a single reef out of yer? Why, then, all right"; and then he'd bawl out the order to the men. Next he'd step back right aft, paying no heed to the fellow at the wheel, and looking aloft, would say to his mizzen taws'l, "I think a reef can com

looking, he slunk b

on sea-chests, the kids were upon the deck, and the sailors plunged their sheath-knives into the pale, fa

had shipped as boatswain and carpenter, 'if I don't think the Dutchm

rsel of pork, and

h a sullen laugh. 'The flavour of roast

ontinuing to squint dangerously at the piece

oy, I stood at my father's gate, with a kitten on my shoulder. A man on horseback stops and says: 'I likes to see little boys kind to animals.

e Dook. He's my god

of this meat,' said the

d of his knife, he stepped ou

vel with his face, a piece of meat at the end of his knife, to guess that his errand was thunder-charged with the old-fashioned forecastle growl. The captain's face was incapable of any play of expression. It was hard beyond the holding of any further meaning the

n, with but one leg exposed, as though the crew had been changed into one of those many-headed giants you read of in fairy tales, embellished the

yer want

is piece of meat, sir. It

his sextant sink from

. This is a gentleman's yacht. Don't disturb our quie

sed; the sorter stuff, if consumed, to lay the whole ship's

e, with the pork on

the captain; 'it always is; it alw

king the dollop off the point of his knife, and seeming t

and leave me to get an observation,' said C

once more to his eye, w

the piece of pork to him; then saying, 'There goes my dinner,' he je