The Last Entry

ed, and some small wings of scud flew south-east, bronzed by the western splendour dim

royal yard, and the answer, hoarse

in sigh

on the face of the deep, and the last red scar had died out of the starless sky, the Mowb

ver the taffrail, he saw the cold, green lights of the sea revolving and sl

burnt a flare; the crimson flames rose quivering, and the smoke drove, black as a thunder-cl

nd beautiful vision, and the noise of the sea, and the sense of the infinity of the deep, that was running and seething out of sight,

, and, even whilst it burnt, a man came aft to the call of the mate and sent up a couple of rockets. The fir

, smouldered, and was exting

. This brought the hour to about a quarter past ten. The sea was again searched, its ghastly face had stolen

cheerfully, 'let's hope we'll find her in the next. If the boat's wit

tain Parry. 'If we make them a head wind, and

I heave to the drift will put me out. With your k

ndeed, a young man of about eight-and-twenty, with a face full of sallow fluff, and an old man's look in

ordinary seaman, then, if you were eighty years old, and could scarcely creep over t

t for a little in the cabin,

flares and rockets,' said the capt

roach us to

the schooner of their piracy and

by exposure. Anyhow,' said Mr. Blundell, 'if we can only coax her this s

rholt be able to survive the exposure of even a day and a night?'

e, cave in quickly; they are the shriekers. They cannot bear terror, and it kills them on rafts and in boats. But your thoroughbred lady is always the one that I've seen, heard of,

kly grave again, with the distress of his imaginations. At that m

ship a-bearin

ouded as with steam the thickness of the night, and the scene of heaven and sea was mystical wi

either hand you might have heard the low, constant thunder of the bow-wave of the ship as she washed through the brine, making a light for herself with her sides and white heights, but showing no lights. On a sudden the human silence was broken by a short, gruff command, weak with

oner

s voice far into the darkness over the sh

at you are sending up roc

Have you met with a boat cont

silenc

hooner a

, the Thames, when we recover

e have been rescued. We passed a schooner's long-boat yesterday

ndell quickly to Captain Parry, 'there'

are at the tall, pale shadow, upon whose decks nothing was visible in that thic

er was hai

answered

he was within a mile or two of the long-boa

ear from us now?

is compass-stand to consider the required bearings. A midnight hush came down upon the deep then, spite of

d of a surge into a melting hill of silver. The night seemed to sweep with a deeper dye of blackness from either

he beheld the bowsprit and jibbooms forking out like a huge spear, poised for hurling in the grasp of a giant, and betwixt that extreme point of jibboom and masthead f

schooner w

. Don't take this as if it was an observation. Try about forty mile on that course, and if nothing heaves into view, sweep the sea. The derelic

o fire along the visionary length of her, when, with a soft stoop of her bow to some in

Blundell, stepping to the compass. 'Sh

inly!' answered

canvas, till it comes dayli

and the schooner, carrying the midnight breeze abeam, slided so

k with Mr. Blundell, who had heroically resolved not to turn in that night-not to t

ng the lady with them. It is true that the long-boat had been fallen in with adrift; but then, as Mr. Blundell put it,

he shelter of it, where they could stretch their arms and take the kinks out of their legs. The painter which held the boat slipped, and she drifted softly off, and when they saw that she was gone she was a dozen ships' lengt

aptain Parry. 'If they have murdered Miss V

xamples of your Jack Muck. We are seven. To bring them on board we should be obliged to fetch them. But, sir, we can't leave the schooner des

undell,' broke in Capta

proved he could be abashed, 'that we should have to leave three of our people to l

,' exclaimed

ols,' sai

'Will they be content,' he went on after a hard suck or two at his cigar, 'to continue washing about in a wreck that

hange

ill we've got them under h

te of gloom. 'It'll be a job. Eight of 'em, an

fixed bayonets. He did not quite gather that, if he headed the boarders, he should be leading into glory three timid seamen who were entirely averse to selling their lives at any price. Moreover, Captain Parry was not a sailor. He could not imagine how diff

e they going to find the half-foundered brig? Would the e

t bellies amazingly whitened the silver of that ocean. Now and again, round about the horizon, a spark of lightning flashed in the heart of a violet shadow of vapour, and now and again a lo

Captain Parry refreshed himself with a bucket of cold green brine, and tried to make some breakfast. Mr. Blundell ate hea

recommend asking them to allow us to receive her aboard-we leaving

should be glad to get easily rid of her as a witness. If they are short of food, we can supply them with

to dive to get at the grub in those derelicts. I'm counting upon hunger courting them into the s

before noon, just at the moment when Mr. Blundell was coming out of his

lundell, springing thro

away down upon the port-b

undell to the little figure aloft, a sa

the height of the truck, seemed shot with the lights of several dyes, and aga

points,' wa

from the deck. The mate got an observation of the sun, and went below to work it out. Wh

uestionably,' said the capta

instant hailed afre

high in air, his hoarse voice softening in falls as it reached the ear from the hollows

le as the dawn with exc

would certainly lose my left arm with cheerfulness to know at th

said the mate, with scarce conscious dryness. 'Hunger an

rolled in from the westward, running lightning flashes through the water. No man could say it was the Mowbray's long-boat till they had luffed and shaken the wind out of the schooner close alo

hook her,' sh

ttle ledge of the main chains. The schooner was slightly man?uvred; the boat was bro

signify?' said

arried all the stores they left the yacht with aboard the wreck, or

a valuable boa

e are some questions concerning the s

oard?' exclaimed Captain Parry. 'Does it not look a

ght as easily mean that she was let slip from a ship

a minute, whilst they overhung the

of that,' said the m

he boathook, turning up a face as d

ight aft, jammed away down

oathook could not get it and keep a hold of the boat, too; s

dy's,' sai

aimed Captain Parry, observing

ained it, as though the lip, n

erchief, and speaking softly, as though to himself. 'If it is a

They might have bound her, and drowned her at the side of the schooner, and yet a handkerchief of hers might have found its way into the boat. The handkerchief, then, proved nothing. Nevertheless, Parry found a sinister significance in the blood-marks. Was not this blood-stained token most tragically portentous, as

high, but rolled with the sickly sluggishness of the waterlogged hulk. As the schooner approached, features of the wreck grew plain. She carried a deck-load of timber, and her hold was evidently full

g in squatting postures, were upon the sea-broken deck-load of timber. There was no captain, no command, the fingers of famine had effaced distinctions. Then one would die with a groan, falling sideways with his

ned, a yawning frame, sodden by weeks of washing to and fro. Thus it seemed to the eyes aboa

ance made up of relief and extreme curiosity; 'but I don't see th

one of hopeless misery; 'and it may be months and years

had been sea-plants whose roots were a thousand fathoms deep; it rose hissing to the drag, and sank, like baffled snakes, when she came wearily over again. It made the heart sick to watch her, to figure one's self as alone upon her; the loose timbers clattering through the long, black night, the dark water w

tain Parry stood beside him with tightly-folded arms, death-w

dy aboard that

e captain answer

in that little green deck-house. If there were eight men sitting in t

the captain. 'They have been taken on board

en access of temper and

lower that boat. I'll board the brig.

ers in your pocket, si

spect an ambush. She had old-fashioned channels, platforms by which her lower rigging was extended and secured to dead-eyes. These platforms remaine

chance, sir,' said one of the sea

you

and keep her clear of them chains. If they come down upon

ld flourish of his arm brought his hand safely to an iron belaying-pin in the rail a

him, until a minute or two of sympathetic feeling into the life of the fabric sh

was a horrible litter and muddle of heaped-up timber and smashe

er, there's a

enough to anybody belonging to the schooner Mowbray. He was James Jones, the boatswain of the yacht. His cheeks were gaunt and grimy, and his eyes blazed in their hollows. His hair lay in

ocket where the pistol lay. He suspected this man to be one

flaming eyes, made his face horrible. 'I tell ye what I've just found out. There ain't no death! "How do I know that?" says you. Why, ye

s, stood Miss Vanderholt. She was robed in white, and wore a small straw hat. She was pale, as though exhausted, perhaps from the want of food

et, I have found you!' cried P

ill and clasping her hand

Why don't you cast your eyes aloft and view the Royal Standard a-flying? The Princess Victoria is within. Didn't I k

wed with every mark of profoun

Parry, pulling out his revolver

been kind to me! Oh, my God! George, am I dream

nchion, against which she leaned. The madman conti

wild to clasp the girl, whose reel and motion of hands had stabbed his heart; 'we want to get at this young lady at once, to take her

h the Princess Victoria without falling down upon his bended knees

. She shrieked with laughter; she s

my lad,' said he, crooking his finger into a fish-hook at the man, 'you just make way for the gent to c

dinary. The boatswain watched the figure of the captain with fiery suspicion whilst he pass

!' shouted the captain, and he spra

to the seaman, who had fixed him with a stare, and was, with singular judgmen

on produced a very good effect. She controlled herself, and then they were able to talk in swift ques

job, mate? Here stands the man as has got rid of the terror of the world. Hark you, bully! Ye

as white, but clearly not from want of food. Up in a corner of the deck-house stood a little load of tins of meat and biscuit, remov

hat a wonderful meeting!' he cried, devouring her with his eyes. 'What a miracu

he door, and the mad

ss the Duchess taught me how to behave myself in the eye of Royalty when I was a young un, and this is how it's done,' said he, giving Captain Parry a shove that drove him some feet from Miss Vanderholt; then,

aptain and the seaman saw what was to happen

e the Standard a-flying? The Princess Victoria is aboard, and we've got to back

again, and, flourishi

ig

sailor, with a half-wink at Captain

adman, and yet he durst not approach Miss Vanderho

concluded that his ship

to himself, 'is Bill a-jawing about, wi

d right up i

lor, with a glance at the madman. 'As her 'Ighness must go first,

e boatswain. 'Bow her to th

were sailors, and presently Miss Vanderholt was in the boat. Captain Parry sprang into the

d his brow as one who would drive a pain out of his brain,

lay he'll know what to do!'

sir,' said the seaman. 'Step right over the s

aloft at the vision of the Standard, which blew in rich fold

ter her Royal 'Ighness'

you return,' said the sailor. 'Hark!

is boat!' cried the girl in the loudest, most imper

lence dropped into the chains, followed by the sailor

grin of stupefaction. His burning eyes rolled over the Mowbray, and a

s, 'My father! my poor father!' And she began to cry. The dreadful scene r

ddress Mr. Blundell, and for a little while she needed the privacy of the cabin and her lover's company. Present

her lie afloat; but all were agreed that she must be abandoned. Then Miss Vanderholt found out that they were undecided what

We can lash the helm amidships. She's got plenty to eat and drink.

e that she should not be abandoned to her fate. She was an Englishwoman; he was an English seaman. By Go

mselves. They all left in the long-boat. The boatswain next morning went quite mad, and took Miss Vanderholt to be the Princess Vict

and himself in command, seeking the vessel that her Gracious Highness, as he frequently called her, might sail round the world

al for help, if help should heave into view. They emptied the long-boat; but that same evening of their entering the derelict, about an hour before sundown, a smal

mate adrift, and that, though they perceived the figures of the boatswain and the young lady on the brig, yet, on the Mowbray's men tel

driving her cutwater through it, and her clipper-stem rose the white brine raving to her hawse-pi

E

SONS, PRINTE