The Last Entry

tor, still leaving a wide expanse of water to be measured. The weather had been of a constant tropic

iligent use of her parasol and swift flights from his scorching eye to the shelter of the awning. It had delicately spangled the fair flesh of her

through a cloudless splendour of sky into a glorious sunset, and a

renced by a th

ver the ji

e fast waning crimson. A number of stars sparkled in the east. Mr. Vanderholt looked at t

with the fragrance of a land of flowers. It was a sweetness that made you think of the Arabian gale of the poe

ough the gathering dusk to the music of broken waters. Miss Vanderholt sat in the cabin, under the lamp. She was reading, and appeared to be intere

that an unnatural stillness was in the little vessel. He still preserved the forecastle faculties, and carried the eye, whilst he could bend th

and blinding glories of the day, might well prove a temptation to the hands whose turn it wa

inous. At intervals somebody away in the bows would speak. The voice was a growl, and it would be answered by a growl, and it seemed to the o

ted himself, and called to Captain G

eem very q

. This is a yacht, and w

lady, surely I'm the last man to be opposed to a little harm

was not far off, and

s sort. I singled them out myself, and had good hopes of them, and there's no fault to be found with them

one, then I suppose they're sa

ent, and no easy job under the sun, that's going

ew. You're talking to a man who h

command, you'd know t

e is a manner of talking to sailors.... I've heard of a captain who never would address a sailor if he

ng the voyage, and made a widow of his wife by sending him adrift in an open boat. I've had char

e, perhaps, a taut hand, but I do not say unnecessar

's love like?' s

deck. Captain Glew placed a c

night!' exclaimed the young lady.

sing, miss,' excl

though the luminary had been a mighty casting in the African sands, and was now sent aloft red-hot by some thrust of giant shoulde

n, Vi,' said Mr. Vanderholt, after contemp

ll make people sullen. The sailors have to work in the sun, and, after all,

t laughed

s and five pounds a month, Vi. Why, I've been signing on, whe

ssatisfied?' inq

said the captain, 'that they've been trying to make

y note in his voice, as though a

Vanderholt. 'The cheque that was made

thing more than anothe

ll work their way right through till they come to t

eard that the men are dissatis

oubles, sir? You're on a cruise for your health, an

en, mind. I was long fed on pork and beef, and my palate has memory enough to distinguish

ors' grievances is uninteresting at all times, and peculiarly uninviting on a fine moonlight night.

her glory most abundantly. She made a fairy vision of the Mowbray, etherealizing her into a fabric o

her knuckles to the moon to see the diamonds in her rings sparkle. 'He i

f low sailors' boarding-houses. I know the breed-the right sort of men for a jaunt of this kind-and I'm very well satisfied with them. But they have the look of growlers, and the man Jones, who should be the most trustworthy of

e eyes dwelt upon the fa

moon make the world of waters! They speak of the awe bred of darkness-the awe, the uncertainty-yes, I have kno

' said Miss Violet; 'you a

beard. 'He beholds many strange appearances; he dreams strangely. Mysterious fancies thicken upon the d

at come not at

rt when morta

visionary e

ains aghast, and

the moon, and seemed very well plea

ble lines,' s

s. Ach! What delight

orious night like this to talk of poetry, and the visio

f you had been stuck here

igh, 'the Equator is not very far off n

e 25th,' answered Mr. Vanderholt. 'We shall be ho

l have started-

om the deep shadow cast by the deck-house on the planks, and went aft to relieve the helm. Captain Glew stood on the yacht's quarter, and was as visible in the moonshine as t

u staring at

ut slowly, persisted in stari

?' repeated Glew, in a s

e wide open; he had no wish that h

aboard this bloody ship?' sai

d the captain, stiffen

owly towards the forecastle, audibly mut

e, a sailor, who was squatting in

s he a-s

a-staring at because

s like cutting the scab's heart out of him! We're not men in his sight. We're muck. He thinks of us as muck, and he tal

stay-foresail, as he turned his gaze aft, where the figure of the captain walked. A man came out of the deck-h

my trick,' said Dabb. 'The captain sai

, defiant, mirthless roar but for the sleepers in the deck-house, ha

Scott, 'you lay a man's going to be spoilt by the plea

ore clear. He spoke of sailors as had scuttled their ships, as had broke the cap'n's heart by ruinating his voyage, and

ce fo

r a handspike? You'll find he's a-trying to excite a disgust against us sailors in the mind of

put the skipper up to ill-treating of us, reckoning upon saili

er, yo

t the stores were shipped without the Dutchman knowing of their

ises of the wind were as fresh as dew on grass, with the sound as of the plashing of many fountains. In

nt sail were half aback; the l

ard! Ease away the weather braces! Get a drag on your jib-sheets!' And it was clear, by the manner in which he deliver

earth slipped off the eastern horizon, and the schooner floated into another

as Decembe

occasions as an able seaman, so that his sympathies were wholly with the forecastle, went to the harness-cask, and,

an. 'Here's stink enough. T

d the steward, Gordon, dabbing the

arate, I suppose. The stench'll break the young

's your business,' said Gor

oing to

uld about that lump,' said Gordon, snatching up a knife and slight

ose pipe it is you're a-thinking of, I wouldn't mind telling you

, he flourished it at Gordon's mouth, poisin

of the little cab

named Legg was at the helm. His figure, airily clad in duck and calico and wide straw hat, stood out like a

n the sea. She viewed it listlessly. The monotony of that eternal girdle was growing shocking. It seemed to bind up her very soul. She thought to herself: 'They speak of t

chair, observed a couple of men a little before noon stagger with sweating faces out of the galley, bearing in t

ted a cruet-stand in their midst, and placed knives and forks on either hand, for the hearts

aught so much as a glimpse of the interior of the crew's dwelling-house, she had figured into conviction a

, 'it is the monotony of the sea that repels. It must have its good side. Plenty to eat and drink, and, as father sa

de of the opening. It was the head of the boatswain of the schooner, James Jones, carpenter and second mate-but as second mate he had never been called upon to serve. He was uncovered, and his hair was wild. His expr

w to appear. The captain was bound to arrive in a minute or two, for already Mr. Tweed, who had glanced at the boatswain without appearing to se

he two to come on deck. His daugh

all your life, such a wicked

teeth with a silver toothpick, and gazing along

ng like that for the last three or four minutes, hatless, looking aft, with t

orway,' said Mr. Vanderholt, who was a li

captain was on deck. Glew at that moment rose through the hatc

ter tells me is formidable with temper. I do not clearly see all that way off. I hope it will mean no fresh troub

ew. Glew's attitude was immediately and insensibly charged with malice and danger, with passions quickly growing and

if he troubles me to-day we must have him out of it, Mr. Vanderholt, in the approved ol

te ans

ons, sir, and the carpenter is, unf

Glew, 'and ask the man to

upon Glew, and who was clearly a listener. 'We must have no talk of irons

's answer, 'we may find it impossible to get forward

!' said Mr. Vande

y, sir,' and turned his face to

s, disclosing the muscles of a carthorse. He sprang, in a single bound, through the door of the deck-house, grasping his mess-k

Jones, in a voice of thunder; and he put

of mate for the cabin

ts of pork and pea-soup over the smooth planks. Never was an uglier affront offered to the master of a ship. Never had mutinous insolence been carried to a greater height. Captain Glew turned white as milk, but not w

those m

e answered, with

o the companion-hatch, and stood beside