The Wreck of the Nancy Bell; or, Cast Away on Kerguelen Land

By John Conroy Hutcheson___________________________________________________________

A well-written nautical novel by J. C. Hutcheson. The "NancyBell" appears to be a well-found ship, on its way out fromthe United Kingdom to New Zealand, but she is beset earlyon by a severe storm which leaves her rudderless andmastless. One of the passengers was an ex Royal NavyCommander who, for some reason, was travelling incognito. He had offered the Captain advice which was rejected as theCaptain thought it came from a landsman. Very possibly, had he heeded that advice, the whole train of disastersmight not have occurred. 

Hutcheson has a habit of introducing characters who speakin their own form of English. In this case he has aJamaican, an Irishman, and a Yankee, all speaking withtheir own native versions of the language. For goodmeasure there is also a Norwegian, who has to make himselfunderstood in a mixture of German and English. All thismakes for a rather difficult book to transcribe, but I hopewe have got it right. 

Eventually the vessel is wrecked just off Kerguelen Island, where the crew and passengers land and build themselves ashelter to take them through the winter. There had been amutiny just before the wreck, and some of the crew hadlanded elsewhere, but eventually one or two men who had notbeen the actual mutineers, but who had got caught up inevents, make their way back to the main party. 

When spring arrives they make their way to the other sideof Kerguelen Island, by a route which includes an overlandtraverse by boat, portaging where necessary. Eventually avessel comes in, and they are saved. 

Hutcheson is very good at getting his characters to appearquite real, and for this reason he is a good author tofollow. 

___________________________________________________________

THE WRECK OF THE NANCY BELL;OR, CAST AWAY ON KERGUELEN LAND

by JOHN CONROY HUTCHESON

CHAPTER ONE. 

OUTWARDS BOUND. 

"How's her head?" exclaimed Captain Dinks, the moment his genial, rosy, weather-beaten face appeared looming above the top-rail of the companionway that led up to the poop from the saloon below, the bright mellowlight of the morning sun reflecting from his deep-tanned visage as iffrom a mirror, and making it as radiant almost as the orb of day. 

"West-sou'-west, sorr, " came the answer, ere the questioner could setfoot on the deck, in accents short, sharp, prompt, and decisive, albeitwith a strong Milesian flavour, from the chief mate. He was the officerof the watch, and was standing alongside the man at the wheel on theweather-side of the ship, with a telescope under his arm and a keen lookof attention in his merry, twinkling grey eyes. 

"Ha-hum!" muttered the captain to himself reflectively. "I wish thewind would shift over more to the nor'ard, and we'd then be able toshape a better course; we're going far too much to the west to pleaseme! I suppose, " he added in a louder tone, addressing the mate again, "she isn't making any great way yet since daylight, McCarthy, eh?"

"No, sorr, leastways, Captain Dinks, " replied that worthy, a genuinethorough-going Irishman, "from the crown of his head to the sole of hisfut, " as he would have said himself, and with a shaggy head of hair andbeard as red as that of the wildest Celt in Connemara, besides beingblessed with a "brogue" as pronounced as his turned-up nose--on whichone might have hung a tea-kettle on an emergency, in the hope that itssurroundings would supply the requisite fire and fuel for boilingpurposes. "No, sorr, no way at all at all, sure! Not more'n fiveknots, cap'en honey, by the same token, the last time we hove the log atsix bells, bad cess to it!"

"Everything drawing, too, slow and aloft!" said the captain, with just ashade of discontent in his cheery voice, as he took in with a quick, sailor-like glance the position of the ship and every detail of theswelling pyramids of canvas that towered up on each mast from deck tosky--the yards braced round sharp, almost fore and aft, the huge squaresails flattened like boards, the tremulous fluttering of the flying jib, and occasional gybing of the spanker, showing how close up to the windthe vessel was being steered. "You couldn't luff her a bit more, McCarthy, could you?" he added, after another glance at the compass anda murmured "steady!" to the steersman. 

"Not a ha'porth, sorr, " replied the mate sorrowfully, as if it went tohis heart to make the announcement. "I had the watch up only jist aminit ago; an' if you'll belave me, Cap'en Dinks, we've braced up theyards to the last inch the sheets will run, bad cess to thim!"

"Well, well, I suppose we'll have to put up with it; though it's ratherdisheartening to have this sou'-wester right in one's teeth before wehave cleared the Chops of the Channel, after all our good luck in havingso fair a wind down with us from the Nore!"

The captain still spoke somewhat disconsolately; but, his temperamentwas of too bright and elastic a nature to allow him long to look merelyon the dark side of things. Soon, he saw something to be cheerful over, in spite of the adverse influence of Aeolus; and this was, as itappeared to him, the wonderful progress the ship was making, althoughsailing, close-hauled as she was, with the wind right before the beam. 

"Now, isn't she a beauty, though, McCarthy, " he said presently, with asort of triumphant ring in his speech, after gazing for a few moments insilence over the taffrail astern at the long foaming wake the vessel wasleaving behind her, spread out like a glittering silver fan across theillimitable expanse of greenish-tinged water. "Isn't she a beauty tobehave as she does under the circumstances! There are not many shipsladen like her that would make five knots out of a foul wind, as she isnow doing, eh?"

"That there ain't, sorr, " promptly returned the other with heartyemphasis, only too glad to have the opportunity of agreeing with hisskipper. "An' jist you wait, sorr, till we get into the nor'-easttrades; an' by the powers we'll say the crathur walk away from us, likeone of thim race-horses on the Skibbereen coorse whin you're a standin'still and a watchin' thim right foreninst you. "

"Aye, that we will, McCarthy, " chimed in Captain Dinks, now all goodhumour again, chuckling with anticipated pleasure and rubbing his handstogether gleefully. "I wouldn't wish for a better ship under me in fairwind or foul than the _Nancy Bell_. Bless her old timbers, she'sstaunch and sound from truck to keelson, and the smartest clipper thatever sailed out of the London Docks--when she has anything like decentweather!"

"That she is, sorr, plaze the pigs!" chorused the Irishman to this paeanof praise, which might have run on to an interminable length if it hadnot been just then interrupted by the mate's suddenly raising his gilt-banded cap in nautical salute to a new-comer, who now appeared on thescene. 

Captain Dinks, at once "cutting short" any further rhapsodical encomiumshe may have contemplated anent the merits of the _Nancy Bell_, turnedround. 

"Ah, good morning, Mr Meldrum, " said he in cordial tones, raising hiscap politely like his chief officer. "You are early on deck: an oldsailor, I presume!"

"Good morning, Captain Dinks, " smilingly replied the gentlemanaddressed, one of the few saloon passengers who patronised the cuddy ofthe New Zealand clipper on her present voyage. He had only just thatmoment come up from below, tempted to turn out by the genial brightnessof the lovely June morning; and, as he emerged from the companionhatchway, he bent his steps along the poop towards the binnacle, bywhich the captain and his aide-de-camp were standing. "Yes, " hecontinued, in answer to the former's question, "I have had a voyage ortwo in my time, and one is accustomed to keep early hours at sea. "

"Begorrah, ye're right, sorr!" ejaculated the Irish mate, with anempressment that showed his earnestness. "An' a dale too airly for someov us sometimes. Sure, an' a sailor's loife is a dog's loife entirely!"

"Shut up, you old humbug!" said the captain with a laugh, turning to thepassenger; "Why, to hear him you would think McCarthy to be one of thoselazy lubbers who are never content unless they are caulking below, snoozing their wits away whilst the sun is scorching their eyes out;whereas, he's the most active and energetic seaman I ever met with inall my experience at sea, man and boy, for the last thirty years. Lookyou, Mr Meldrum, he never waits to be roused out by any chance whenit's his watch on deck; while, should the weather be at all nasty, youreally can't get him to go below and turn in--it is `spell ho' with himwith a vengeance, night and day alike!"

"Don't you belave his blarney, sorr, " put in the mate eagerly, burstinginto a roar of merriment, although blushing purple with delight thewhile at the skipper's compliment. "Why, sorr, whin I go to slapesometimes, the divil himself couldn't wake me!"

"Ah!" rejoined Captain Dinks, "that may be when you're ashore, Tim, butI know what you are when you're aboard ship and duty calls! I don'tforget, old man, how, under Providence, " and this the captain addedreverently, taking off his cap and looking up to heaven as he spoke, "you saved the _Nancy Bell_ on our last voyage home--no, Tim, I don'tforget!"

"Aye, aye, Cap'en Dinks, " replied the other, not to be beaten, "true foryou, sorr; but, where was yoursilf the whilst, I'd like to know, andwhat could I have done without your hilp sure, wid all yourblatheration?"

"Nonsense, Tim, " returned the captain, giving the mate a slap on theback which must have taken his breath away for the moment, as it madehim reel again, and then holding out his hand, which the other graspedwith a vice-like grip, in a paw that resembled more in size and shape aleg of mutton than anything else--"Tip us your fist, my hearty, and letus say no more about it!"

It would have done anyone's heart good to see the way in which these twobrave men--sailors both every inch of them--then looked each otherstraight in the eyes, a smile of satisfaction illumining their faces, asif each had reason to be proud of the other, their hands locked in afriendly clasp that was true to the death!

As for Mr Meldrum, the passenger, who was a delighted observer of thegood feeling existing between the captain and second in command of thevessel in which, like Caesar, he had "embarked himself and all hisfortunes, " and was now journeying across the surface of the deep--a goodfeeling that was fairly indicative of everything going well on thevoyage--he was so carried away by the spirit of the moment that he feltinclined to ask that the general hand-shaking might be "passed round forthe good of the crowd. " What is more, he immediately put his "happythought" into execution; whereupon, much fist-squeezing ensued betweenthe trio, the steersman looking on with a grin of complacency at thefraternal exhibition, and gripping the spokes of the wheel more firmly, as it were, out of a sort of fellow-sympathy, as he kept the ship "fulland by!"

"Tim McCarthy and I are old shipmates, " said Captain Dinks presently, asif apologising for the little ebullition of sentiment that had justtaken place, "and we've seen some rough times together. "

"Pray don't mention it, " said Mr Meldrum; "your friendly feelings doyou both honour! But, how are we getting on, captain, " he added, tochange the subject, "the ship seems to be slipping along through thewater?"

"Pretty well, but not so well as I could wish. We've got an obstinatehead-wind against us, and cannot quite lay on our proper course; so Idon't think we'll be able to log much of a run when we take the sun atnoon. The wind looks like shifting now, however, so the next twenty-four hours may tell a different tale. "

As the captain spoke, the sails flapped ominously against the masts;and, in obedience to a motion of the mate's hand, the steersman had tolet the vessel's head fall off a little more to the westward, in orderto fill the canvas again and make it draw. 

"I think, cap'en, we'd better thry her on the other tack, " said theIrishman after a pause. "The wind's headin' us sure!"

"All right, McCarthy, " answered the captain, "go forwards and call thewatch, and we'll see about getting her about. "

Handing the captain the telescope, which he had retained until now underhis left arm, apparently regarding it as the badge of his authority asofficer of the watch--an authority which he now relinquished to hischief--the mate was down the poop ladder and on the deck below in "abrace of shakes;" and, in another moment, his voice was heard instentorian tones ringing through the ship fore and aft. "Hands 'boutship!"

The cry was like the wave of an enchanter's wand in the realms of Fairy-land; for, where all had been previously quiet and easy-going, with onlythe helmsman apparently doing anything on board so far as the vessel'sprogress was concerned, there was now a scene of bustle, noise, andmotion, --men darting forwards to flatten the headsails and aft to easeoff the boom sheets, and others to their allotted stations, waiting forthe well-known orders from the captain, who stood in the centre of thepoop, with the passenger beside him, looking on with a critical eye atthe way in which the manoeuvre should be executed. 

"All ready forward?" shouted the captain, as soon as he saw the crew attheir several posts. 

"Aye, aye, sorr, " replied Mr McCarthy. 

"Ready, aye ready, " repeated the captain--it was a sort of catch-word ofwarning to prepare the men for the next word of command, like the"'Tention!" of the drill sergeant to his squad of recruits--and he thenwaved his hand to the man at the wheel to put up the helm. 

"Helm's a lee!" was the next cry; and, instantly, the jib and foresailbegan to shiver and shake as the ship's bows came up to the wind, andthe square sails flattened against the masts, while the boom of themizzen swung to and fro until the vessel should get out of stays and payoff on the port tack. 

"Raise tacks and sheets!" came in rotation, and the topgallant-bowlineswere let go, ready for the next move. 

"Mainsail haul!"--and the ponderous mainyard was swung round, bringingwith it the maintopsail and topgallant yards with all their acreage ofcanvas: the foreyards followed suit, when the captain shouted, "Haul ofall;"--and, after the final order, "Brace sharp!" the _Nancy Bell_ mighthave been seen heading a sou'-south-east course in lieu of her formerdirection to the westwards, and gaining more southing by the change. 

The mate had just returned to the poop, after seeing the watch trim theforward sails and curl down the slack of the ropes, while Captain Dinkswas wondering why the steward had not yet summoned them down tobreakfast, considering that it was past eight bells. He was just indeedasking Mr Meldrum whether he felt hungry or not, when suddenly a greatcommotion was heard down the companion hatch, as of voices inaltercation, a crash of crockery following in rapid sequence. 

"I'd like to know what that stupid lubber is up to now, " ejaculated thecaptain. "He's an ignorant ass, and as slow as a mute at a funeral. I'm sorry I had to ship him; but I had no alternative, for my oldsteward was taken suddenly ill, and I had to put up with this substitutewhom he sent me just as we were leaving Plymouth. "

"Perhaps, " began the passenger, as if he were about to offer some good-natured excuse for the man's awkwardness, but his observations weredrowned by a louder clatter below than ever; and, ere the captain coulddescend to ascertain the cause, the new steward rushed up the companionladder, with his eyes half-starting from his head, his hair standing onend, and his face pale with terror. 

"Howly Moses!" exclaimed the mate. "Be aisy, can't ye. What's thematter wid ye, you spalpeen, to be rooshin' on deck like a bull in achina shop? Spake, you blissid omahdawn, or I'll shake the loife out ofye!"

And the Irishman, putting his brawny hands on the terrified man'sshoulders, appeared about to carry out his threat, when the unfortunatewight stuttered out in stammering accents, "Lor-ord, sir, do-oo-oo comebelow. The-eer's a ghost in the cabin; an-an-and he wants to m-m-murderme!" the man looking the while as if he was going to faint. 

"A ghost in the cabin?" said the passenger, laughing; "and in daylightto? Why, Captain Dinks, he must be a sort of _rara avis_--not _interris_, however, in this instance. "

"A ghost in the cabin?" repeated the captain, in a serious tone ofvoice, with a frown on his forehead that somewhat disturbed the usualgood-humoured expression of his countenance; "we must see about this. Idon't allow any ghosts aboard my ship!"

And, with these words he dived down the companion, followed closely bythe mate and passenger; the panic-stricken steward contenting himselfwith remaining at the top of the hatchway at a safe distance from theobject that had alarmed him, although he could not help peering downbelow and listening with bated breath as to what might ensue in thecabin--heedless of the entreaties of the man at the wheel, in whomcuriosity had overpowered the sense of duty for the nonce and made tospeak in defiance of discipline, to "tell him all about it!"

CHAPTER TWO. 

STOWED AWAY. 

When the "party of observation" under the leadership of the captainarrived at the foot of the companion way, nothing very alarming waspresented to their notices as there were no signs of disturbance to beseen in the steward's pantry, which was close to hand on their right;although, judging by the crashing sounds they had heard when on deck, one and all would have almost sworn that a "free fight" had taken placein that sanctum, causing its complement of crockeryware to come toirretrievable grief. 

Nor was anything wrong to be perceived, at first sight, on enteringwithin the cuddy. 

On the contrary, everything there seemed in due order. The doors of thecabins on either side, as well as those of the state-rooms at thefurther end of the saloon, were closed in their ordinary way--with theexception of one, which was opened for an instant, to allow of a night-capped head, evidently of female ownership, peering forth for amomentary peep round, and then immediately slammed to again; and, thelong table, which ran fore and aft the vessel the entire length of theapartment from the foot of the mizzen mast, was neatly spread over witha snow-white cloth, on which knives and forks were laid equi-distantlywith trim regularity, as well as other prandial paraphernalia, inpreparation for breakfast; while to complete the category, the swingingtrays above, that oscillated to and fro as the ship gave an occasionallurch and roll to port or starboard, betrayed no lack of their properquota of wine-glasses, decanters, and tumblers. No, there was no traceof any disorder here, nothing to account for that noise of a struggleand of breakages below that had preceded the sudden uprush of thesteward to the poop. What could possibly have caused all that clatterand commotion?

Evidently so thinking, the captain, mate, and passenger looked at eachother in a bewildered fashion, as if each were endeavouring to solvesome knotty conundrum, and had ultimately come to the conclusion to"give it up!"

They had not long to wait, however, for an explanation to the mystery. 

All at once, a deep, sepulchral groan came from abaft the mizzenmast, asif some one was being smothered in the hold below; and, almost at thesame instant, there echoed from the adjacent cabin--that whence thenight-capped head before mentioned had popped out--a shrill scream, asof a female in distress, succeeded by the exclamation, "Graciousgoodness, help us and save us! We shall all be murdered in our beds!"

"Be jabers, " ejaculated the mate, following up the captain, who hadimmediately rushed aft to the spot whence the groan had proceeded; "sureand that's the Meejor's swate voice! I'd know it onywheres, aven in theBog of Allen!"

On the captain reaching the end of the cuddy table, which had, ofcourse, interfered with his view, the crash of crockery which they hadheard, and which had been hitherto inexplicable, became at once clear;for, there on the floor of the deck was the debris of a pile of platesand scattered fragments of cups and saucers which had been suddenlydropped by the steward in his fright and were smashed to atoms; while, in the centre of the scene of devastation, was the dungeon-like cavityof the after-hatchway, the cover of which had been shifted from itscoamings by the man, in order for him to get up some of the cabinprovisions from the hold, whose gloomy depths were only faintlyillumined by the feeble rays of a lantern, which as it lay on its siderolling on the deck, participated in the general upset. 

Captain Dinks promptly took up the lantern, holding it over the openhatchway; and, as he did so, a second groan came from below, more hollowand sepulchral than before. 

"Who's there?" shouted the captain down the hatchway. 

There was no reply, save a fainter moan, apparently further away in thedistance, followed by a sort of gurgling sound, and then the fall ofsome heavy object was heard in the hold. 

"Who's there below?" repeated the captain, endeavouring to pierce thecimmerian darkness by waving the lighted lantern about and holding it asfar down the hatchway as his arm could reach. "Speak or I'll fire!"

This was an empty threat of the skipper's, as he held no weapon in hishand save the lantern; but it had the necessary effect all the same. 

"It's only me, massa, " said a thick guttural voice from below; "onlyme, " repeated the voice pleadingly. "Goramighty, massa, don't shoot!"

"And who's me?" interrogated the captain sternly, as the mate and thepassenger looked at each other inquiringly, a smile creeping over MrMeldrum's face, while the Irishman screwed up his left eye into apalpable wink. 

"Me, Snowball, sah--a 'spectable collud genleman from Jamaikey, massa, "replied the voice in the hold. 

"And what the dickens are you doing aboard my ship?" asked Captain Dinksin an angry tone; but the others could see that he was half-laughing ashe spoke. 

"Me want passage, sah, back home. Very bad peoples, sah, in Plymouth;tieve all poah niggah's money and make him drunk. Snowball starbing; soum see lubly fine ship goin' way and get aboard in shore boat wid umlast shillun: eb'ryting scramble and jumble when come on deck; soSnowball go get in cabin, and den down in hold, where he see stewardstow um grub, and lie quiet till ship sail. When hold open, he try getout, but can't; box fall on um foot, and Snowball holler wid pain;steward tink um de Debbel and knock down tings. Snowball done no harm;um bery bad wid um leg!"

"Sure, an' it's an impedent schoundrel he is, the spalpeen!" said themate. "Of all the cheeky stowaways I ever came across, he bates the lotentirely. Shall I rouse him up with a rope's end, cap'en?"

"No, wait a bit, McCarthy, " said the captain; "we'll try a littlepersuasion first. Here, `Snowball, ' or whatever else you call yourself, just sling your hook out of that, and come up here. I fancy I shall beable to accommodate you with something, besides a free passage at myowner's expense!"

"Can't, massa, " replied the stowaway, after making a movement, as theycould hear, below, succeeded by a suppressed cry of pain; "um leg jammed'tween box and cask: Snowball feel bery bad--tink leg go squash: can'tmove um nohow. "

"Be jabers!" exclaimed the good-natured Irishman, "sure an' the poorbaste's hurt, and, by your lave, cap'en, I'll go down and say what's thematther. "

"Do, " said Captain Dinks; but ere he could get out the word, the mate, taking his consent for granted, had caught hold of the hatchway coamingswith his powerful hands and swung himself down on to the lower deck;reaching up afterwards for the lantern, which the captain handed him, and then disappearing from view as he dived amongst the heterogeneousmass of boxes and casks, and bales of goods, mingled with articles ofall sorts, with which the place was crammed. 

After a moment's absence, he came back beneath the hatchway. 

"Plaze, git a blanket or two out of one of the cabins, cap'en, to hoisthim up, " said he; "the unlucky beggar sames to be injured badly, and Ithink his ribs are stove in, besides a heavy box having fallen on hisleg. He hasn't got such a chape passage this toime as he expected; forhe has been more'n half suffocated in the flour hogshead where he firststowed himself away; and, begorrah, to look at him now, with his blackface all whitened, like a duchess powthered for a ball, and his woollyhid, and the blood all over him, as if he had been basted wid ashillelagh at Donnybrook Fair, why, his own mother wouldn't know him. It's small blame to that fool of a steward to be afther taking him forsomethin' onnatural, sure!"

While the mate had been giving this explanation of the stowaway'scondition Captain Dinks had not been idle. 

With an agility of which none would have thought him capable, looking athis thick-set and rather stout figure, he had rushed in a second to hisown cabin, which was near aft; and, dragging out a couple of railwayrugs and a coil of rope had pitched them below to the Irishman, concluding his operations by jumping down alongside him, to aid inreleasing the injured man from his perilous position--telling thepassenger as he quitted him to "sing out" for assistance. 

"Steward!" shouted Mr Meldrum up the companion, in obedience to thecaptain's injunction; but never a bit did that worthy stir in response, nor did the ringing of a hand-bell, which the passenger saw in one ofthe swing-trays above the cuddy table expedite the recalcitrantfunctionary's movements, albeit it brought others to Mr Meldrum's aid. 

"What is the matter, papa dear?" said a tall, graceful, nice-lookinggirl, of some eighteen summers, as she emerged from the state-room onthe starboard side of the saloon and came towards Mr Meldrum. "Florryand I heard a heavy crash which woke us up, and then a cry of alarm, anda rush of feet along the deck which frightened us, for we could not tellwhat had happened. I dressed as fast as I could, but I wouldn't havecome out if I had not heard your voice. As for poor Florry, she saysshe won't get up, and is now hiding her head under the clothes, as shethinks there's a mutiny going on or something dreadful!" and the girllaughed merrily as she spoke, disclosing the while a set of pearly teeththat were beautifully regular, and coral lips that would have put arosebud to the blush; but, when she came up beside her father, wholooked very young to be her parent, for he barely seemed forty years ofage, she placed her hand on his arm in a caressing way, looking up intohis face with a more serious expression, as if she had merely assumedthe laugh to disguise a fear that she really felt. 

"Oh, there's nothing very dreadful happening, Kate, " replied MrMeldrum; "only a stowaway in the hold whom the steward took for a ghost, to the serious detriment of the breakfast things which you heard beingsmashed; so, pray go back to your cabin, my dear, and soothe `poorFlorry's' alarms. We are just getting our unexpected guest up from histemporary quarters under the saloon, and I'll call you when the coast isclear. " This he said that she might not be shocked at the sight of thewounded man; and he felt far more comfortable when she had retired intoher state-room and shut the door of communication that opened from itinto the cuddy. 

His comfort, however, was not of very long duration. 

"I'd like to know what all this terrible hullabaloo is about?" exclaimeda gaunt and elderly female with sharp features and a saffron-huedcomplexion, coming out from the cabin on the opposite side of the deck, where she had previously appeared for an instant when in deshabille, asher night-capped head had evidenced. "It is positively scandalous, disturbing first-class passengers like this in the middle of the nightand frightening them out of their wits!"

"My dear madam, " said Mr Meldrum blandly; "why, it is just on thestroke of eight o'clock, and we'll be soon having breakfast. "

"Don't `my dear madam' me, sir, " returned the lady indignantly; "my nameis Mrs Major Negus, and I insist on being treated with proper respect. Where is the captain of the vessel, sir?"

"Down there, " said Mr Meldrum laconically, pointing to the openhatchway. 

"And why is he not at his post, looking after the welfare of hispassengers?" demanded the lady sternly, with the voice of a mercilessjudge. 

"Really I think you had better ask him, " replied Mr Meldrum laughing;"it strikes me he is now looking after the welfare of one of hispassengers, unexpected though the sable gentleman may be!"

What Mrs Major Negus might have rejoined to this, cannot unfortunatelybe told, for at that moment, just as she had drawn herself up to herfull height of some five feet ten inches, or thereabouts, and appearedprepared to demolish Mr Meldrum for his temerity in laughing at her--inlaughing at her, forsooth; the wife of the deputy assistant comptroller-general of Waikatoo, New Zealand--the captain called out to him to beara hand to raise the wounded darkey from out of his self-selected prison. Mr Adams, the second mate, turning out of his cabin at the same timeto take his watch, the two managed to raise "Snowball"--the captain andthe Irishman easing the burden by lifting him from below. As for thegrand Mrs Major Negus, she had to content herself with looking on withan undisguised contempt at the whole proceeding, wondering all the whilethat they should dare to introduce a negro into the saloon in thatmanner without having first asked her permission!

Help generally comes when it is not specially wanted; so, by the timethe stowaway had been lifted and placed on a berth in one of the vacantcabins, having his wounds, which were somewhat serious, seen to andbound up, some others of the passengers appeared on the scene. 

Notably amongst these was Mr Zachariah Lathrope, of Providence, RhodeIsland, an American gentleman of a particularly inquisitive nature, butwho, professing some knowledge of medical craft, was really of some usein this instance, as there was no regular ship surgeon on board; and, secondly, young Master Negus, a "born imp of mischief, " whoseacquaintance will be further improved as the voyage proceeds; while, Llewellyn, the steward, summoned courage at last to descend thecompanion, in company with his wife the stewardess, who had been forwardto the cook's galley in search of some early tea for the ladypassengers. Seeing her husband on the poop she had brought him below, being, as Mr McCarthy observed, "twice the man" that her presumptive"lord and master" could possibly have been supposed, even by his warmestadmirer. 

The mystery being thus satisfactorily explained, and the stowaway madecomfortable for the while in a much more sumptuous lodging than he everexpected--Captain Dinks waiting to call him to account until he shouldhave recovered from his injuries--the debris of broken crockeryware wascleared away, and the saloon party piped to breakfast, throughout whichmeal, it need hardly be added, Llewellyn got chaffed immeasurably anenthis supernatural visitor, never having a moment's peace about hisdiscovery of the "ghost in the cabin" and subsequent terrific fighttherewith. 

And, all this while, the ship was tacking every now and then to make themost out of the wind, which was shifting from the west to the south, andveering occasionally from the east to the north; rising as it shiftedand blowing with an ever-increasing force, till the vessel was runningunder reefed topsails and foresail, with her spanker half brailed up, her spread of canvas having been reduced by degrees, in preparation forthe threatening gale that seemed coming from the south-west, that is, ifthe appearances of the sea and sky were to be trusted. 

CHAPTER THREE. 

A NARROW SQUEAK. 

During the forenoon watch, the deck was in charge of Mr Adams, thesecond mate--a plain, steady-going, matter-of-fact sort of man, withnone of that buoyant spirit and keen sense of humour which characterisedhid senior shipmate McCarthy, although he was a thorough sailor to thebackbone, and believed the human race to be divided into two classes, those who were seamen and those who weren't. The wind now took a morefavourable turn, settling itself in the south-east quarter as if itmeant to remain there, thus enabling the ship to steer a better course;and, meanwhile, the sky clearing up a bit, the threatening cloudsdrifted to leeward and the sun shone out again just as it did when thecaptain first came on deck in the early morning. 

Taking advantage of the change, the reefs were shaken out of thetopsails, the courses let fall again, the jib and flying-jib hoisted, and the topgallants set; and soon, with her head steering south-west anda half south, the _Nancy Bell_ was bounding over the waves under allplain sail, as if anxious to make up for the time she had lost intacking about against the head-wind that had barred her southwardprogress ever since she took her departure from the Lizard Point on theprevious day when she hauled out from the Channel. 

The breeze was freshening, and there was a nasty sort of chopping sea, when the captain came on the poop at noon to take the sun, in order toascertain his longitude--an operation which would have been much moredifficult in the hazy weather that had prevailed some few hoursprevious, with the zenith every now and then overcast by the fleecystorm wrack and flying scud that came drifting across the sky as thewind veered; but the ship was making good running, and everything badefair for her soon crossing the boisterous Bay of Biscay, on whosetroubled waters she had now entered. 

"She's slipping along!" said Captain Dinks to Adams, rubbing his handstogether gleefully, as he put down his sextant on the top of the saloonskylight for a moment and gave a glance aloft and then over the side towindward. 

"Yes, sir, " replied the second mate. "Going fine--eleven knots lastheave of the lead. "

"Ah, nothing can beat her on a bowline!" said the captain triumphantly. "She's a clipper and no mistake when she has the wind abeam: bears hercanvas well, too, for a little un!" he added, with another glance aloft, where the sails could be seen distended to their utmost extent andtugging at the bolt-ropes, while the topgallant-masts were bent almostinto a curve with the strain upon them and the stays aft were stretchedas tight as fiddle-strings. 

"Yes, sir; she does, " agreed Adams; "but, don't you think, sir, she'scarrying on too much now that the wind has got up? I was just going tocall the hands to take in sail when you came on deck. "

"Certainly not, " replied Captain Dinks, struck aghast by the verysuggestion of such a thing. "I won't have a stitch off her! Why, manalive, you wouldn't want me to lose this breeze with such a lot ofleeway as we have to make up?"

"No, sir; but--"

"Hang your `buts'!" interrupted the captain with some heat. "You are abit too cautious, Adams. When you have sailed the _Nancy Bell_ as longas I have you'll know what she's able to carry and what she isn't!"

With these pregnant words of wisdom, the captain resumed possession ofhis sextant and proceeded to take the altitude of the sun, shouting outoccasional unintelligible directions the while through the skylight toMr McCarthy, who was in his cabin below, so that he might compare theposition of the solar orb with Greenwich time as marked by thechronometer. Then telling Adams at the end of the operation to "make iteight bells, " whereupon the tinkling sounds denoting twelve o'clock wereheard through the ship, he himself also hurried below, to "work out hisreckoning. "

On Captain Dinks coming up again, he reported that the _Nancy Bell_ haddone better than he expected for her "first day out, " considering theadverse circumstances she had had to contend with, for she had loggedmore than a hundred and fifty miles; but he did not look quite sojubilant as he had done before going below, nor did McCarthy, who nowaccompanied him on deck to relieve the second mate, whose watch hadexpired. 

"What's the matter, captain?" asked Mr Meldrum, with a smile, "are younot satisfied; or, did you expect the ship to have done more?"

The passenger was patrolling the poop, in company with his twodaughters, Kate and Florry--the latter a rompish little girl, sometwelve years old, with long golden-brown hair which the wind was makingwild havoc of, dashing it across her face as she turned, and streamingit out to leeward behind her in picturesque confusion. The girls hadsome little difficulty in walking along the deck, as it was inclined toa considerable angle from the vessel's heeling over; but, by dint ofclutching hold of their father, which they did with much joking andmerriment and silvery laughter, each taking an arm on either side, theymanaged to preserve their equilibrium, keeping pace in regular quarter-deck fashion. 

"No, " replied Captain Dinks to Mr Meldrum's chaffing question, "I can'tsay that I am satisfied, for I'm sorry to tell you that the barometer isgoing down. "

"Indeed!" said the other, "and with the wind from the south-east! I'dadvise you, captain, to take in sail at once. "

"Why, you're as bad as Adams, " returned Captain Dinks rather huffily; "Isuppose you'd like me to strip the ship just when we're getting thefirst fair breeze we've had since leaving Plymouth! Excuse me, MrMeldrum, I know my business; and, I presume, you'll allow a sailor to bebetter acquainted with his duties than any landsman can possibly be. "

"Oh, certainly, Captain Dinks, " said Mr Meldrum with a bow, "and I'msure I beg your pardon for interfering! Of course, as you say, alandsman has no knowledge of these things and has no right to speak. "

"Oh, papa!" exclaimed Kate Meldrum reproachfully, "how could you saythat?" while Florry pinched his arm and seemed convulsed with laughter, which she endeavoured to choke down in vain, at some secret joke orother; but Captain Dinks, quite restored to his usual good-humour andpoliteness by Mr Meldrum's apology, did not notice the girls, andpresently all were chatting together with the utmost cordiality, thecaptain enlarging on the excellent run he hoped to make to New Zealand, and promising the young ladies that they should see Madeira ere the weekwas out, for he anticipated that the south-easterly breeze they now hadwould carry them well past the Spanish coast and into the north-easttrades, when their voyage would be all plain sailing down to theEquator. 

How true, however, is the old adage, "Man proposes and God disposes!"

While the captain was chatting gaily with his passengers, another changewas taking place in the appearance of the heavens. The heavy, threatening clouds, which had risen up after breakfast and been sweptaway to leeward by the south-east wind as it got up, were now slowlybeing banked up along the horizon to the northward and westward, thehaze extending down to the south right ahead of the vessel's track, while a lot of scud began to be seen flying aloft at a very considerablerate--not from but towards the point from which the breeze was blowing, a sign that betokened not merely another shift of the wind, but asquall, and one not to be trifled with either!

The obscuring of the sun by the drift was the first thing that calledthe captain's attention to the altered state of the weather, and he atonce gave the order--"All hands shorten sail!" the mate rushing forwardsto see the details properly carried out. 

The order did not come an instant too soon. 

All at once, in a moment, the wind, which had previously been blowingstrongly from the south-east, died away and it was dead calm; while thesea--already rough enough with the short chopping waves of the morning--began to run with those huge billows that seem to get up almost withoutpreparation on the advent of a gale, every second growing moremountainous. 

At the captain's word of command, re-echoed by Mr McCarthy, the crewhad sprung aloft immediately; and, working with a will, had furled thetopgallant-sails, taken in the flying-jib, hauled up the mainsail andmizzen-trysail and squared the after yards, when the ship resembled agladiator, entering the arena of the prize-ring stripped for a fight, asshe thus awaited the approach of the storm. 

In the south-east the sky was clear and cloudless, but in the oppositedirection dark heavy purple masses of vapour rolled over each other, more unnatural in appearance owing to a lighter cloud covering thecurling, wreathing fluid as if with a veil. Shooting from this darkpile of clouds, some few were detached and became separated, rising to ahigher region of the air, in which they were dissipated and blown outlike mares'-tails that passed rapidly across the zenith; whilst on thewater, and about a mile or so from the vessel, the sea appeared coveredwith a thick white mist, before which ran a dark line of black. 

Mr Meldrum had sent the girls below the moment Captain Dinks had givenhis orders to shorten sail, in spite of their entreaties to be allowedto remain on deck with him and "see the storm;" so, being now alone, hestationed himself near the binnacle close to the captain. 

As he stood watching the lull before the break of the squall, he felt ahand touching his shoulder; and looking round he found his fellowpassenger, Mr Zachariah Lathrope, by his side. 

"Jee-hosophat! mister, " said the American; "I guess we're goin' to havea blizzard, and no mistake!"

"What's a blizzard?" said Mr Meldrum, smiling at the other's nasalintonation, which was more marked than usual, even for a citizen of theland of the setting sun. 

"Why, darn my moccasins, deon't yew know what a blizzard is?"

Mr Meldrum shook his head in the negative: he felt that he should laughoutright in the other's face if he opened his mouth to speak, and he didnot wish to appear wanting in politeness. 

"Waal, " said the American, drawing himself up, as if proud of hissuperior knowledge and ability in being able to enlighten a backwardBritisher. "A blizzard's a hurricane and a tornader and a cyclone, allbiled inter one all fired smash and let loose to sweep creation. Wehave 'em to rights out Minnesota way; and let me tell you, mister, whenyou've ten through the mill in one, you wouldn't kinder like to hev ashare in another. Snakes and alligators! Why, a blizzard will shaveyou as clean as the best barber in Boston, and then friz the marrow inyour bones an' blow you to Jericho. It's sarten death to be caught outon the prairie in one of 'em: your friends won't find your body till thesnow melts in the spring. I guess you wouldn't like to try one, streenger!"

"No, I think not, " said Mr Meldrum, shivering at the description, forhe had heard before of these "Northers" of the Far West; but, the nextmoment, the thoughts of blizzards and all belonging to them werebanished from his mind by what he saw, for the storm was upon them. 

It came with a blast that shook the ship from truck to keelson andalmost turned her over, the wind being accompanied by a shower of hailand rain that pelted those on deck like grape-shot and completely tooktheir breath away. 

"Let go everything!" shouted the captain. Fortunately, the halliardsbeing cast off in time, the ship was not taken aback; and the steersmanputting the helm down, she paid off from the wind and ran off forsometime directly before it, tearing through the water at the rate oftwenty knots an hour, with everything flying by the run. 

"Thank God!" exclaimed Mr Meldrum, in heartfelt thanksgiving to Him whocontrols the winds and storms, as he sprang to aid the man at the wheel, seeing that he had a hard task to keep the helm over. 

"Ya-as, I guess that were a narrow squeak, " said the American; "and Ikalkerlate I'll make tracks down south fore another of them snorterscome!" So saying, Mr Lathrope dived down the companion-way, hisdeparture being accelerated by a heavy sea which washed over the quarterand floated him below. 

"Way aloft there!" shouted the captain; and, although his words couldnot be heard from the howling of the wind, which shrieked and raved likepandemonium broken loose as it tore through the rigging, the men knewwhat was wanted and scrambled up the shrouds as well as they could, sometimes stopping for breath as a stronger blast than usual pinned themto the ratlines, where they stuck as if spread-eagled for sport. 

After a good half-hour's hard work, the courses were clewed up andfurled, the jib hauled down, and the topsails close-reefed, a staysailbeing set to steady her, when the men came down from aloft pretty wellworn out with their exertions. 

Hardly had they got below, however, than the captain, seeing a secondsquall coming, ordered them up again, to strip the ship of her remainingsail. 

But, he was too late this time. 

Before the men could ascend the shrouds the wind struck the vessel, likean avalanche, on her starboard broadside, heeling her over to port as ifshe had been canted by the caulkers in dock. Then, another followingsea pooped her and cleared the decks fore and aft, sweeping everythingloose overboard, the maintopsail being split to pieces at the same time;while the foretop-mast stay-sail was blown clean away to leeward, floating in the air like a white kite against the dark background of thesky. Finally, the foretop-gallant mast was carried by the board tocomplete the ruin, leaving the ship rolling like a wreck upon thewaters, though, happily, no lives as yet were lost. 

CHAPTER FOUR. 

SAVED!

While all this turmoil and confusion was going on above on deck--withthe ship labouring and straining through the heavy seas that raced afterher as she ran before the wind, one every now and then outstripping itsfellows and breaking over her quarter or stern-rail with a force thatmade her quiver from end to end, and "stagger like a drunken man, " asthe Psalmist has so aptly described it, the thud of the heavy wavesplaying a sort of deep bass accompaniment to the shrieking treble of thewind as it whistled and wailed through the shrouds and cordage, and theragged remnants of the torn topsail flapping against the yard, with thesound of a stock-driver's whip, in a series of short, sharp reports--those below in the cuddy were far from having a pleasant time of it;for, they were almost in the dark, the captain having caused thecompanion-hatch to be battened down, and a heavy tarpaulin thrown acrossthe skylight to prevent the tons of water that came over the poop atintervals from flooding the saloon as the waves swept forward in acascade of foam. 

This was just after Mr Zachariah Lathrope, the American passenger, hadso well illustrated Virgil's line, _facilus descensus averni_, in comingdown the stairway by the run, on the top of a "comber;" and, althoughthe steward had lit one of the swinging lamps over the cuddy table, itonly served, with its feeble flickering light, to "make the darknessvisible" and render the scene more sombre. 

The _Nancy Bell was_ a wooden ship, clipper built and designed for thepassenger trade; but, being only of some nine hundred tons or soburthen, she had not that wealth of accommodation below that some of thefirst-class liners running to Australia and New Zealand possess, especially in these days of high-pressure steamers and auxiliary screws, which make the passage in half the time that the old-fashioned sailingvessels used to occupy. 

She was, however, as well fitted up as her size permitted; and, as herlist of passengers was by no means filled, there was plenty of space forthose who now had possession of the main saloon, most of whom have beenalready introduced to notice. If she had had, indeed, as proportionatean amount of cargo as she had passengers it might have been all thebetter for her seaworthiness. Instead of this, however, she was, byfar, too deep in the water, having a lot of deadweight amid-ships, inthe shape of agricultural implements and other hardware, which she wastaking out to Otago, that seriously interfered with her buoyancy, makingher dip to the waves instead of rising over them, and depriving her ofthat spring and elasticity which a good ship should always have. 

Now, she was groaning and creaking at every timber, as if in the lastthroes of mortal agony; and the manner in which she rolled when she gotinto the trough of the sea, between the intervals of the followingbillows, would have dispelled any idea one might have possessed as toher proper angle of stability, and made the observer feel inclined totreat it as "a vanishing point. "

Added to this, she pitched every now and then as if she were going todive into the depths of the ocean; and, when she rose again inrecovering herself, it seemed as if she were going down bodily by thestern, the surge of the sea along the line of ports in the cabin bearingout the illusion as it swelled up above her freeboard. 

With the glass and crockeryware in the steward's cabin rattling, as ifin an earthquake, and trunks and portmanteaus banging from side to sideof the saloon, or floating up and down in the water that had accumulatedfrom the heavy sea that had washed down the companion when Mr ZachariahLathrope so gracefully made his rapid descent below, the place was apicture of discomfort and disorder such as a painter would have beenpowerless to depict and words would utterly fail to describe. 

Kate and Florry Meldrum had retired to their berths, having experienceda slight suspicion of squeamishness which the unwonted movements of thevessel had brought about. They thought in such case that "discretionwas the better part of valour, " especially as they felt no alarm as tothe safety of the ship, having perfect confidence that their fatherwould look after them if there was any danger; but Mrs Major Negus, onthe contrary, was firmly convinced that the _Nancy Bell_ was going tothe bottom. She sat in the captain's seat at the head of the cuddytable, tightly clutching on to the sides to preserve her equilibrium ateach roll of the ship, loudly bewailing her untimely fate; and betweenthe paroxysms of her grief she found time now and again to scold her sonMaurice, who was enjoying himself most delightfully amongst the floatingbaggage, narrowly escaping destruction every moment from the wreck ofthe debris on the cabin floor, as it banged to and fro with the swish ofthe water and the roll of the ship. 

During one of the lulls in the series of squalls that swept over thevessel in rapid sequence, Mr McCarthy came below by the direction ofthe captain--who, of course, could not leave the deck--to see how thepassengers were getting on, as well as to have the dead-lights put up inthe state-rooms, in case of the stern-ports being battered in by thewaves; for these had now swollen to an enormous size, and seemedveritably mountains high, rising up far above the cross-jack yardsometimes. 

"And how are we getting on now, Mrs Meejor?" said he, good-humouredlyaddressing the lady at the head of the table, as he made his way to theaftermost end of the saloon, followed by a couple of sailors, who hadaccompanied him to aid him in his task of barricading the ports. 

"Sir, " replied she, endeavouring to speak with as much dignity as herinsecure position and her qualmishness would allow, "I am surprised atyour asking me such a question and displaying levity when I feel as if Iam dying, and we are all going down to the bottom--stee-ured!"

"Yes, mum, " said that worthy from the pantry door, to which he washolding on, surveying the scene of desolation before him with the air ofa connoisseur. 

"Bring a basin, please--oh, my!"

"Yes, mum; coming, mum. "

"Maurice!"

"Yes, ma. "

"Get up out of that mess there, and come to me at once!"

"What, ma?"

"Come to me here, im-mediately!"

"Sha'n't!"

"I'll--oh, Lord; oh, dear! Steward, send the stewardess to me, and helpme into my cabin. I'm dying, I know I am! Oh, gracious goodness, whydid I ever come to sea?"

"Faix, the ould lady has had to give in, " said the mate to one of thesailors with him. "I thought she wouldn't hould out much longer!"whereat, of course, there was a general laugh from the men. 

"The Major"--as everybody on board spoke of the lady, almost after aday's acquaintance with her peculiarities and haughty airs--was justthen endeavouring to rise from the captain's chair, when the vessel, after a deeper pitch forward than usual, settled down suddenly by thestern, accompanying the movement by a lurch to starboard that carriedaway the lashings of the chair; and, in an instant she and the stewardand stewardess, along with Master Negus, were rolling to leeward on thefloor amongst the dunnage, the whole quartette sputtering and splashingin the sea-water, and vainly endeavouring for some time to rise, for the"Major, " first clutching one and then the other as they were scramblingto their legs, hampered their efforts without improving her own positionin the least. 

At last, by the aid of Mr McCarthy and the sailors, the good lady waspulled up on to her feet and assisted into her cabin, where lying backin her berth, she loudly inveighed against the conduct of everyone, particularly selecting the Captain, in her outpour of indignation, forputting to sea when he must have known, as she held, that a storm wascoming on; he had only done it, she was certain, in order to annoy herand put her life in peril!

In the midst of her diatribe--which was listened to by no one, for themate and sailors had returned on deck after completing the job that hadbrought them down in thorough ship-shape fashion, and the steward andstewardess, now that they had got my lady to her bunk, were trying tomake matters more comfortable in the saloon--Mrs Major Negus suddenlybethought herself of her young hopeful, of whose existence she had beenawhile oblivious while attending to her own woes. 

"Maurice!" cried she, in accents whose shrillness rose above the roar ofthe waves and the groaning of the ship's timbers, "Maurice, come here atonce, sir, I order you!"

But, lo and behold! no Maurice made his, appearance; nor did he respondto his mother's heart-rending appeal. The young scamp had sneaked upthe companion, unperceived by the mate, and was now on deck in high gleeat his freedom from maternal thraldom, watching the battle of theelements and the struggle of the ship against the supremacy of the windand waves, that were vying with each other to overwhelm her. 

The boy stood on the lee side of the poop, and was looking over the sideat the wreck of the fore-topgallant mast, which was still attached tothe ship by the stay and braces of the yard, the men not yet having timeto cut it adrift--all hands being busy in doing what was possible tosave the main-topgallant mast, that had begun to show signs of givingway. 

Nobody knew he was there, or that he was on deck at all, till MrMeldrum happened suddenly to cast his eye in his direction, when he atonce motioned him to come away. 

But, "the imp" took no notice of the warning, and Mr Meldrum washesitating whether he should leave his station by the binnacle, where hehad been doing yeoman's service in aiding the helmsman ever since thefirst squall burst over the ship, when a heavy wave came over thequarter to windward, and, dashing violently against the port bulwarks, carried a large portion away into the sea; and, along with the brokentimber-work, away went young Master Negus!

Mr Meldrum hesitated no longer as to crossing the deck; but another wassooner at the scene of action. 

Frank Harness, the "third mate, " as he was euphemistically called--adashing young fellow of nineteen, and just completing his sea-time asmidshipman before passing the Trinity House examination for hiscertificate in seamanship--who had been aloft bearing a hand in makingthe mizzen-topsail snug, the leech of the sail having blown out throughthe violence of the gale, was just on his way down the rigging again tosee where he could be of use elsewhere, when he noticed the boy's perilas quickly as the passenger; and, with one bound, he alighted on thedeck. 

In a rapid eye-glance he took in the situation. 

Raised on the top of a curling wave, the fragments of the brokenbulwarks and stanchions had got entangled with the wreck of the fore-topgallant mast, some twenty yards or so to leeward of the ship; and, clinging to the mass, Frank could see the boy holding on with a grip ofdesperation and terror, drenched with his ducking and the surf thatwashed over him, and with his mouth wide open as if yelling forassistance--although never a sound reached those on board for the roarof a giant could not have been heard against the wind. 

Taking a turn of the signal halliards round his wrist, Frank Harness atonce leaped into the sea and struck out gallantly for the boy; those onthe poop cheering him as he cleaved through the foaming billows andquickly neared the wreckage, forgetful for a moment of their ownimmediate peril in the exciting scene before them, and waiting anxiouslyfor their turn to assist the rescuer and the rescued on board again. 

In the meantime, Mrs Major Negus--alarmed at the disappearance of heryoung hopeful from below, neither the steward or stewardess being ableto give any account of him after searching the cabins in vain--hadmanaged to scramble up the companion-way, nerved to desperation by thedivine power of a mother's love; and by some means or other shecontrived to slide back the hatch and step out on to the poop-deck, where, holding on by the rail, she eagerly looked to the right and leftin quest of Maurice. 

Seeing the group on the lee-side gazing steadfastly at the scene in thewater, she staggered towards them, clutching hold of the tarpaulin overthe skylight to steady herself. 

"My boy! my boy!" she exclaimed frantically. "Where is he? Oh, he'slost, " she added with a piercing scream, --"fiends, monsters, are yougoing to let him drown before your eyes?"--and she made an effort as ifto plunge overboard to where she could see the curly head of her darlingrising just above the waves. 

"Hold!" cried Captain Dinks kindly, grasping her arm firmly and drawingher back. "He's being saved, and we'll have him on board again in aminute. There, don't you see, some one has plunged in after him and isjust gripping him; we'll have them up together as soon as he has madefast!"

"Bless him, the brave fellow!" exclaimed the poor lady, whosepeculiarities and bad temper were now forgotten by all in sympathy withher natural alarm and anxiety, for she spoke in a voice broken with sobsand tears. "Who is he? I'll fall down on my knees and thank him forsaving my boy!"

"Frank Harness, " said the captain; "but I'm sure the gallant fellow willnot want any thanks for doing a brave action! Look alive forwardthere!" he called out to the men in the waist, "and ease off thosetopgallant braces a bit and let the wreck drift alongside. So--easythere--belay! Another minute, and we'll have them. "

Frank had reached the wreckage while Maurice's mother had been speaking, and without an instant's delay had looped the end of the signalhalliards round the boy's waist as he held on himself to the end of thetopgallant yard, to which the lee braces were attached. A quick motionof his arm had then apprised Captain Dinks what to do, and in anotherminute or two the wreckage had been floated in under the ship's quarter, and a dozen hands were helping the brave lad and the boy whom he hadrescued up the side--Maurice, indeed, being hauled up by the bight ofthe signal halliards first. 

His mother almost went into hysterics when he was restored to her, as iffrom the very gates of death; but her joy did not allow her to forget tothank his rescuer, which she did far more enthusiastically than Frankliked, with all the men looking on!

The gale continued raging with unabated force all that evening; buttowards midnight it lulled sufficiently for some sail to be set on theship, which was then kept more on her proper course. 

CHAPTER FIVE. 

A CALM. 

It was a lovely dawn the morning after the storm in the Bay of Biscay. 

Even Mr Adams, plain, matter-of-fact, simple, and unsympathetic sailoras he was, without a particle of poetry or imagination about him, couldnot but gaze with admiration at the glory of God's handiwork, as henoticed the grand panorama of change that marked the progress fromdarkness to light, from night to day!

Soon after his watch began, the twinkling stars had gone to rest, putting out their tiny lanterns, as they had arisen, one be one; andnow, the violet blue of the firmament paled gradually into sea-green andgrey, soft neutral tints mixed on the great palette of Nature to receivethe roseate hue that presently illumined the whole eastern sky, heralding the approach of the glorious orb of day. Next, streaks oflight salmon-coloured clouds shot across the horizon, their edgesdecorated with a fringe of gold that gleamed brighter and more intenseeach moment, the water glowing beneath the reflection as if wakeninginto life: and then, the majestic sun stepping up from his ocean bed--all radiant--"like a bridegroom out of his chamber, " and moving withgiant strides higher and higher up the heavens, as if "anxious to runhis course, " and make up for the lost time of the night--shone throughthe transparent purple mist of the morning like a blush rose behind aglittering veil of dewdrops!

By the time the breakfast hour arrived--"eight bells"--the blue sea wasdancing merrily in the sunshine, the waves calming down to only acrisping curl of their foam-flecked summits, and the _Nancy Bell_ wasspeeding along under a pile of canvas fore and aft from deck to truck, Mr Adams having made good use of his time while others were sleeping toget up the spare topgallant-mast forward and set all the upper sail hecould; so the passengers, roused up to new life by the cheery influenceof the bright summer day, coming after all the gloom and misery andstorm and tempest of the past, mustered round the cuddy table in fullforce. 

Mr Meldrum and the American were there as a matter of course; but, bythe side of her father, on the right of the skipper, appeared now forthe first time at the table since the ship had left port, the gracefulform of Kate Meldrum accompanied by the slighter figure of Florry, supported on the other side of the table by Mrs Major Negus and heryoung hopeful; while Mr Adams faced Captain Dinks--it being the chiefmate's turn of duty on deck--having brave Frank Harness close alongside. 

They formed a very joyous coterie altogether, and enjoyed themselves allthe more from their natural revulsion of spirits after all thediscomfort and misery they had passed through, Captain Dinks himselfsetting an example and provoking the merry laughter of the girls withhis absurd jokes, although the young ladies seemed brimful of fun, especially Miss Florry, who the skipper said might make a good match formischievousness with Master Negus--whereat a grim smile was seen tosteal across the face of "the Major, " lightening up her sallowcountenance and making her "come out in new colours. "

As for Mr Zachariah Lathrope, he was too busy with the ham and eggs todo much talking; although, like the monkeys, he probably thought themore, for ever and anon he would pass encomiums on the viands and passup his plate for a fresh helping, the steward having enough to do insupplying his wants quickly enough. 

After breakfast, a visit was paid to "Snowball, " the darkey Stowaway, who was found much better and progressing so favourably that the captainordered his removal to the "fokesail, " to complete his convalescence;which it may be here added he satisfactorily accomplished in a few days, when he was installed in the galley as cook, in the place of a Maltesesailor who was glad to get forward again before the mast. The negro hadslept continually from the time he had been released from durance vilein the after-hold, neither the racket below nor the turmoil on deckduring the storm having disturbed his slumbers. This, no doubt, hadhastened his recovery, for Mr McCarthy was positive that three of hisribs at least had been broken. 

"Why is Snowball like a worm, Miss Meldrum?" said Captain Dinks to Kate, after telling her that he intended installing the darkey in the galleyas cook; "do you know, eh!"

"Oh, if that's a conundrum, captain, " replied she with a piquant laughthat lit up her whole face, making it quite beautiful, Frank Harnessthought, "I give it up at once. I'm a bad hand at guessing riddles. "

"Well, you see, " said Captain Dinks, with that cheery "ho, ho!" of alaugh of his, which always preceded any of his good things, "the worm orgrub develops into the butterfly; but Snowball made the butter fly whenhe tumbled over that cask in the steerage, and now he is going todevelop into the grub line and turn cook!"

"That's too bad!" said Kate laughing. "I never heard a worse sort ofpun in my life. "

"Then it's all the better, my dear, " replied he; and as everybody elselaughed too, they possibly shared the captain's opinion. 

After this, there was a move on deck--not before it was needed perhaps!

At noon, Captain Dinks, after manipulating his sextant and adjusting thesights, seemed to be much longer taking his observation than usual; andwhen he went below to his cabin to work out the reckoning he certainlyremained a most unconscionable time. 

By and by, however, he came up the companion again, his face beamingwith delight. 

"What do you think, Mr Meldrum?" said he, somewhat excitedly, to thatgentleman, who, along with the remainder of the saloon party, wasstanding on the poop leaning over the taffrail to windward, looking overthe apparently limit less expanse of water, that stretched away to thehorizon, and basking in the sunshine, which was tempered by a mellowbreeze that seemed just sufficient to keep the sails of the _Nancy Bell_full--and that was all. 

"I'm sure I can't say, " replied Mr Meldrum good-humouredly. "Foundanother ghost in the cabin, eh?"

"No, no; couldn't have two in one voyage, " said the skipper. 

"Made another conundrum?" again inquired the other slily, poking fun atthe captain's previous attempt in the riddle line. 

"Oh, no, " said Captain Dinks, laughing out at this. "That was too goodto be repeated: I've got better news than that, Mr Meldrum--somethingreally to surprise you!"

"I'm all attention, " said Mr Meldrum, "but pray do not keep us long insuspense. Don't you see we're all anxious!"

"Why, " exclaimed Captain Dinks triumphantly, "the _Nancy Bell_ has madenearly five degrees of latitude since I last took the sun, there!"

"Oh dear!" said Florry ruefully; "I thought you were going to tell ussomething funny!" and she looked so disappointed that Kate laughed ather and Master Maurice Negus grinned; whereupon Florry, in a pet, smacked the young gentleman's face, for which she was reproved by herfather and ordered below, although the sentence of banishment wasremitted later on at Mrs Major Negus's especial request. 

This little interlude over, the captain proceeded with his explanation. 

"Yes, " said he, "we're now in latitude 44 degrees 56 minutes north, andlongitude 9 degrees 42 minutes west; so that we've run pretty close onfour hundred miles since yesterday at noon. Just think of that, now!"

"A pretty good distance, " said Mr Meldrum; "but, you must recollect wehad the gale to drive us on. "

"Aye, sorr, " said Mr McCarthy, joining in the conversation, "and didn'tit droive us too! Begorrah, there was some times that the wind tuck theship clane out of the wather and carried us along in the air like one ofthem flying-fish you'll say when we gits down to the line!"

"It was fortunate it was in our favour, " observed the captainreflectively. "We couldn't have tried to beat against it; and, heavily-laden as we are, it would have been madness to have tried to lay-to!"

"You're right, " said Mr Meldrum, "and it was equally fortunate that thegale carried us so far and no further! Another twelve hours of it andwe would have been high and dry ashore on the Spanish coast. "

"I think you're not far out, " replied the captain, scratching his headand pondering over the matter, "for we'll only just shave past CapeFinisterre now keeping our course; and if we hadn't made so much westingwhen we got out of the Channel I don't know where we should have been!"

"Faix and it was grumbling at it you were all the toime, cap'en!" saidMcCarthy with a knowing wink; "though you do now say it was all for thebest, as the man said when they buried his wife's grandmother!"

"Aye, you're right, " said Captain Dinks more seriously, "all is for thebest, if we could only know it at the time!"

Thenceforward, the weather kept fine; and the fates seemed favourable tothe _Nancy Bell_ in her pilgrimage across the sea. 

There was no lack of incident in the voyage, however. 

One day, about a week after they had bidden farewell to the Bay ofBiscay with all its terrors and troubled waters, as the ship wasapproaching that region of calms which lies adjacent to the Tropic ofCancer, her rate of progression had grown so "small by degrees andbeautifully less, " that she barely drifted southward with the current, until at length she came to a dead stop, so far as those on board couldjudge, lying motionless on the surface of the water "like a painted shipupon a painted ocean, " as the situation is described in Coleridge's_Ancient Mariner_. 

Round about the vessel, dolphins disported themselves, and "Portuguesemen-of-war" floated over the sea with their gelatinous sails unfurled, and everything seemed lazy and enjoyable to the passengers--although thecaptain and crew did not evidently relish the state of inaction whichthe calm brought about, for they were looking out in all quarters forthe wished-for wind. 

Not a ship was in sight--nothing happening to break the peaceful reposeof the deep for hours. 

The captain was "having a stretch" below; the men snoozing away on thedeck forwards in all sorts of odd corners; the officer of the watchblinking as he squinted aloft to see if the dog-vane stirred with anypassing breath of air; even the steersman was nodding over the helm, asthe wheel rotated round to port or starboard as it listed, according asthe ship rose or fell on the long heavy rolling swell that undulatedover the bosom of the deep; and most of the passengers were in the samesomnolent state--when all at once an event occurred that soon broke themonotony of the afternoon, waking up the sleepy ones to fresh vitality, for an object of interest had at last arisen in the uneventful daysufficient for the moment to enchain their attention. 

The listless lotus eaters had to thank Master Negus for the excitement, in the first instance. 

That young gentleman was possessed of a keen desire for knowledge, whichhis more prosaic seniors were in the habit of misconstruing, deeming itto arise, as they said, from an insatiable and impertinent curiositycombined with an inherent love of mischief. Be that as it may, thisdesire for knowledge on Master Maurice's part frequently led him intoplaces where, to put it delicately, his presence was undesirable in manyways; his love for investigation taking him especially to certaindangerous localities whither he was peremptorily forbidden to go both byhis mother and the captain. 

Among such tabooed spots in the ship was the forecastle; and here, consequently, as a matter of course, Master Maurice most delighted tosteal away when neither the maternal eye of Mrs Major Negus was uponhim nor any of the other people aft were watching him. He did not mindthe sailors, for they made a point of encouraging him forward and tookmuch pleasure in developing his propensities for mischief. 

This afternoon, he was enjoying himself after the desire of his heart-climbing about the rigging in a way that would have made his motherfaint, when, in one of his scrambles up to the foretop, he saw somethingin the water which was hidden from the sight of the others on board, through the head-sails of the ship shutting out their line of view. 

"Oh, crickey, " shouted out Master Negus at the top of his voice, at oncebetraying his whereabouts in his excitement, "there's a fight going onin the water, and two whales are leathering each other like fun!"

CHAPTER SIX. 

THE BLACK FISH AND THE THRESHER. 

"Good gracious me!" exclaimed Mrs Major Negus, jumping up in a frightfrom the comfortable nap which she had been taking in a lean-back chairon the poop; "where is that unhappy boy? He'll be the death of me someday!"

"I'm here, ma!" shouted out Maurice from the forecastle. "Do come, everybody. It's such fun! Ah, there, the big one has just got such awhack and is in a terrible wax. He's hunting about for the little one, who has dived away from him out of reach!"

"Fokesall, ahoy!" hailed Mr Adams, who had charge of the deck; "what'sthe matter forward!"

"Only a fight, sir, between a black-fish and a thresher, " answered BenBoltrope, the carpenter, an old man-o'-war's man, and one of the mostefficient hands of the _Nancy Bell's_ crew. 

"A fit!" exclaimed Mr Zachariah Lathrope, drawing his long telescopiclegs together and rising into a sitting posture on the top of the cabinskylight, where he had been taking his usual afternoon siesta instead ofputting himself to the trouble of going below and turning into his bunk, as was his usual wont after luncheon. "A fit! Wa-al I guess I'm on. Iallers likes to hitch in with a muss!" and, so saying, the lankyAmerican was soon scrambling down the poop-ladder and making his wayforward, followed by all the remainder of the passengers--Mrs MajorNegus, of course, going to look after her darling boy, while FrankHarness accompanied Kate Meldrum, as he said, to "take care of her, "although, as her father was not far distant, it might have been supposedthat his protecting arm was not so absolutely necessary as he thought!

A very strange spectacle was seen, when the party, after diving beneaththe slackened sheets of the mainsail, that flapped about an inert messof canvas above their heads, and picking their way past the galley andwindlass, at last climbed up into the bows of the ship, where themajority of the crew had already assembled and taken up vantage pointsin the rigging, half-way up which was Master Maurice, waving his hatwildly in a great state of excitement, and the master as it were of thesituation. 

"There they are!" said he pointing to where the water was lashed up andbroken into foam, about half a mile ahead of the ship, amidst which acouple of dark bodies could be seen tumbling about--one occasionallyjumping up high in the air and coming down on the other with a thud, anda smack that sounded like the crack of a whip, or report of a rifle. "There they are, Miss Meldrum, I saw them first!"

"Come down out of that, sir, at once!" screamed out his mother, with apant and a puff between each word, her breath having been almost takenaway by her unusually quick movements in getting forwards. "Have I notordered you never to go up those ropes?"

"Oh, bother, ma!" exclaimed the young hopeful, paying not the slightestattention to his mother's command. He had been so spoilt, petted at onetime and scolded another, that all her authority over him was lost savein name. "There! bravo, little one--oh, my, wasn't that a good one, now?"

And so, Mrs Major Negus--abandoning any expectation of making Mauricedescend from his perch in the shrouds, where, however, she could seethat he was in no imminent danger, for he had one of the sailors oneither side of him who would catch him should he slip--was obligedperforce to do as all the rest were doing and gaze at the thrillingmarine drama that was being acted out with such tragic earnestness onthe surface of the deep before their eyes. 

A black-fish--which, it may be mentioned here, for the benefit of theuninitiated, is a species of cachalot, although differing from the truespermaceti family of whales in having the spout-holes placed on the topof the head, in place of on the snout, and the pectoral fins shorter--was being assailed by its bitter enemy the thresher or "fox shark. "This latter is one of the most peculiar fishes to be seen throughout thelength and breadth of the ocean, that world of living wonders; for ithas a most extraordinary face, or head, which is more like that of anape than of one of the piscine tribe; while its tail is divided into twolobes or blades, one of which is small and insignificant, and the otherlarger than the body of the animal, curling up at the end like the tail-feather of a bird of paradise. 

There could be no comparison between the two combatants, in respect tosize at least; for, while the whale was some fifty feet long--nearly athird of the length of the _Nancy Bell_--the thresher could not haveexceeded thirteen feet; and as for girth, the former was in proportionlike a portly, Daniel-Lambert sort of man put by the side of a starvingstreet urchin of seven. The only advantage the thresher apparentlypossessed was in its eyes, which, when one could get a glimpse of them, looked like those of a hawk; while the unwieldy cetacean had little tinyoptics, not much bigger than those of a common haddock, which wereplaced in an unwieldy lump of a head, that seemed ever so much biggerthan its body, with a tremendous lower jaw containing a row of teeth, each one of which was nearly a foot long. 

The thresher, seemingly, had only the advantage of his antagonist in theproportionate size of his eyes; but, "just wait till you have seen himuse his long feather-like tail!" as Maurice Negus said, and you willarrive at the conclusion that the combatants were not so very unequallymatched after all. 

The very size of the black-fish militated against his chances for, whileit took him more than his own length to turn in the water, the thresherdarted, here, there and everywhere, like an eel--just getting out of hisreach when the other thought he had got him and had opened his ponderousjaws to crush him. It was at this moment that his agile tormentor, seizing his opportunity, would leap out of the water and give the whalea "whack" on his side behind the fin, one of his tenderest spots, theblow resounding far and wide over the water and probably leaving a wealif not an indentation in the animal's side. 

Mr Zachariah Lathrope got quite interested, bobbing from one side ofthe topgallant-forecastle to the other, and trying to obtain the bestview he could of the contest. 

"Bully for the little scorpion, marm!" he exclaimed to "the Major, " ashe shoved his hands down into his trouser pockets and seemed to lifthimself up in his eagerness. "I'll bet my bottom dollar he'll fix thatair whale to rights! By gosh, that wer a sockdolager; I guess the bigvarmint is kinder gettin' riled!"

The whale here spouted and fluked his tail, diving down for a momentbeneath the surface; but, he did not long disappear, and when he came upshortly afterwards nearer the ship, the spectators could see that thewater around him was dyed with blood. 

As the black-fish rose, the thresher, who evidently had been waiting forhim and knew the precise spot where he would reappear, threw himself upin the air, turning a sort of summersault; and, "whack!" came his whip-like tail round his victim's body, the whale seeming to writhe under theblow as if driven half mad with pain. 

"Look, look!" exclaimed Florry Meldrum, "the thresher isn't alone; whatare those long-nosed fishes swimming about under the whale? They seemto be helping the other one!"

"You're right, Florry, " said her father, "they are swordfish. What youthink are their noses are long projecting saw-like blades, and they arethe whale's deadliest enemy. I never saw them, however, attacking onein company with a thresher before: they must have formed an alliance forthe express purpose, as they have really nothing in common. "

"It reminds me, mister, " said the American, putting a chew of tobacco inhis mouth pensively, "of a bull fit I once see in Carthagena when I wasto Spain some years ago. That air thresher is jist like the feller allfixed up with lace and fallals called the Piccador, who used to stir upthe animile with squibs and crackers and make him fly round like a dawgwhen he's kinder tickled with a flea under his tail; and the sword-fish, as you calls them outlandish things, are sunthen' like the Matador thatgives the bull his quietus with his wepping. That air power of bloodthat you see, I guess, is from them, and not from t'other's cow-hide ofa tail!"

"Golly, massa, you speaks for true, " said Snowball, who formed one ofthe party of lookers-on, abandoning his coppers in the galley in orderto see the fun. "Bress de Lord! see how dat long snout chap dere gibhim goss now!"

It really seemed an organised attack. 

As soon as the back of the black-fish appeared above the surface, thethresher, springing several yards out of the water, descended with greatviolence on the object of its rancour and inflicted what sounded like ahearty slap with its tail, the sword-fishes in their turn striking thewhale from below; so that, try how he might, the unhappy monster of thedeep could not escape his persevering foes. 

"Sure and be jabers it bates Donnybrook Fair entirely!" said MrMcCarthy, who had also come up from below, the news having also reachedhim of what was taking place. "The poor baste will soon be bate into acocked hat with all them ragamuffins on to him at once! It's liking tohelp him I'd be if I saw the chance!"

But the doom of the black-fish was evidently by this time sealed andhuman aid was powerless to assist him: all could see for themselves thatthe last act in the drama was close at hand!

Suddenly, the thresher gave another violent bound upwards into the airfrom the surface of the ensanguined water, leaping almost over thewhale; and, as he fell back again into the sea, his tail, which was bentlike a bow, delivered a terrible lash, surpassing any of its previousattempts. At the same time, as if by a concerted movement, those onboard could see--for the combatants were now so close alongside the shipthat the bight of a rope could have been easily hove over them--one ofthe sword-fish made a dart at the exposed flank of the whale, buryingits ugly saw-like weapon almost up to the head and inflicting a woundthat must have been mortal. 

The black-fish instantly emitted a sort of hollow muffled roar; and, sending up a fountain of watery spray mixed with blood from its spout-holes, splashed the sea violently with its formidable flukes, afterwhich it rolled over, rocking from side to side in its last dying flurryor death agony. 

"I guess he's a gone coon!" said the American, hitching up his trousersagain and turning over the quid of tobacco in his mouth. "It seems aterrible pity to waste him though. There's a powerful sight of blubberin that air animile!" and the speaker appeared to gaze sadly at thecarcase of the conquered cetacean as it floated by. 

"It's all over, " said Mr Meldrum, turning from the now pitifulspectacle with disgust. "Come away, girls!" But Kate had long sinceleft the scene, the sight not having been of a nature to suit her tenderheart; and, she was now far away aft with Frank Harness, sitting in asecluded corner of the poop, where she could see nothing of thesanguinary ending of the contest. Florry, on the contrary, had remainedto the last, as well as Mrs Major Negus--who, it may be observed, hadwatched the struggle from its commencement to its close with almost asmuch interest as her enthusiastic son and heir; and Mr Meldrum had muchdifficulty in tearing the little girl away from her rapt contemplationof the dead whale. 

"Stop a minute, papa, " she urged when he took hold of her arm to drawher from the rail. "Do look! they have all left him now they havekilled him. I wonder what they quarrelled about?"

"Sure, an' just for the same rayson, missy, that Christians hate sichother, " said Mr McCarthy, "just for no cause at all, but bekaze theycan't help it, alannah! And now that the little divils have kilt him, sure they've swum off and left the poor crathur to die, just the same assome ov us does to sich other, more's the pity, by the same token!"

It was true enough. 

The thresher and his active allies had all at once disappeared, how, when, or where, none of those looking on could tell; the lifeless bodyof the black-fish only remaining in evidence of the battle that hadtaken place. 

There it was, floating sluggishly on the heavy rolling swell of theocean, in solitary grandeur; for the dolphins and "Portuguese men-of-war" that had been seen earlier in the afternoon had taken themselvesoff as soon as the light began--evidently preferring calmer scenes andnot relishing the proximity of such inveterate enemies of their severalspecies as the late combatants. 

CHAPTER SEVEN. 

FIRE!

The calm continued for four days, during which time not a breath of windcame from any point of the compass to waft the ship on her way;although, of course, she could not help drifting a few miles everytwenty-four hours southwards, under the influence of the greatequatorial current. 

However, if there was no wind, there was no lack of novelty to those ofthe passengers who had never been to sea before; for, from their beingnow within the tropical region, the ocean around, albeit so still andglassy, seemed to swarm with life. Thousands of flying-fish were to beseen fluttering on either side of the vessel, while skipjacks andbonetas also showed themselves occasionally; and the dreaded shark, withhis close attendant and valet the pilot-fish, was not an absentee, forhe was continually cruising about astern on the constant look-out. 

"How funny those flying-fish look!" said Florry Meldrum, watching ashoal of them that rose from the water just like a covey of white larks, and which, after skimming past the _Nancy Bell_, again settled in thesea, quite tired out with their short flight. 

"You should see them nearer, " said Frank Harness, who was between thetwo girls, looking out over the gangway aft--"and then you would callthem funnier. Ah! here is one, " he added, catching one of the littlefluttering creatures that had become entangled in the mizzen rigging;"you see, it doesn't have wings as you think, but only a membranebetween its fins, just like what a bat has. "

"Yes, " said I "I see. It is curious, though, that they should look sowhite at a distance, when their backs are dark and blueish, like amackerel!"

"Ah! that is because the under part of their wings is only then visible. Look, now, at that lot there that have just risen to escape the boneta. They seem exactly like a fall of snowflakes!"

"Poor things!" said Kate. "The boneta seems to be their inveterateenemy, or rather consumer, as he appears to be in good condition on thediet. It's a pity, though, that he's such a glutton; for he's a nice-looking fish, all purple and gold, and he oughtn't to be so cruel!"

"Oh! he's not the only enemy of the flying-fish, Miss Meldrum, " answeredFrank; "you should see the albatross after them down near the Cape. Thebird hunts them as soon as they rise in the air, and the boneta whenthey're in the water; so, between the two, they have little chance ofescape--just like the fight, the other day, between the black-fish onthe one side and the thresher and sword-fish on the other. "

"Ah!" exclaimed Kate with a shiver, "I couldn't look at that long! Theboneta hunt the flying-fish in a fairer way, and they do look so prettywhen they jump out of the water! How disappointed the boneta must thenfeel when they see them take unto themselves wings and fly away?"

"They needn't be disappointed long, " said Frank Harness, laughing, "for, they must know that they're bound to catch them up in the long run. But, look at that cloud there, Miss Meldrum, slowly creeping up the sky. `I guess, ' as our American friend says, that we're going to have somerain. "

"Do you think so?" she answered, smiling at Frank's rather goodimitation of Mr Lathrope's nasal intonation of voice; "I thought itlooked too bright for that. "

"We'll have it soon; just you see, " said Frank. 

"All right, Mr Positive, I suppose we must bow to your superiornautical skill. "

"Oh, Miss Meldrum, don't laugh at me, if I am only a poor sailor, " saidhe reproachfully; "you always seem to taunt me with my profession!"

"I!" exclaimed Kate in surprise. "Why, I would not make fun of you, orhurt your feelings, for the world!"

Frank seized her hand and pressed it, as if he were about to saysomething in response; but, just at that moment, the rain, withoutoffering the apology of a warning drop or two to give notice of itsapproach, came down in a perfect deluge, making them rush for shelterbeneath the poop awning. 

This was just after lunch, early in the afternoon; and the rain lasteduntil the dinner-bell sounded, coming down in regular sheets of water, as if emptied out suddenly from some enormous reservoir above. 

All sorts of tubs, buckets, kegs, and open casks, including the scuttlebutt, were ranged along the spar-deck, below the break of the poop, tocatch the welcome shower, tarpaulins being spread over the openhatchways, where exposed, to prevent the flood from going below: whilethe ends of the after awning were tied up in a sort of huge bag for therain to drain off into it, so that none of it might be wasted--thecanvas being let down, when the receptacle was pretty full, to empty thecontents into the water-puncheons--for the pure liquid was a preciousgodsend, being an agreeable relief to the brackish supply which the shipcarried in her tanks. 

As might have been imagined, Master Negus and Miss Florry watched allthese operations with the greatest interest, for they would have beenonly too glad if their respective guardians had allowed them to take amore active part in the watery campaign than that of merely looking on. 

Mr Zachariah Lathrope, however, was his own master, and he made himselfvery busy amongst the dripping sailors, who were hopping about on thewet decks as if enjoying their ducking, much amusement being caused whenMr McCarthy, for a joke, let the leach of the awning once go by therun, when, the American passenger being off his guard, some hundredgallons of water came down on him, giving the worthy gentleman animpromptu shower-bath. 

It was grand fun while the rain lasted, all the men folk paddling aboutin it to their hearts' content and ducking each other when they had thechance; while the ladies observed the sports from the shelter of thepoop, seeming to take equally as much pleasure in the skylarking. Itwas amazing, too, to notice the amount of dirt and rubbish which thedownpour washed away into the scuppers. What with the continualswilling and scrubbing and swabbing that the decks underwent everymorning, it ought to have been an impossibility for any dust or debristo exist; but, there it was, to prove the contrary--the rain "exposingthe weakness of the land, " and making a clean sweep of everything thatwas dirty which lay about in the odd corners fore and aft the ship. 

The day after the rain, just when all on board--sick of the calm, thelistless monotonous roll of the ship, the flapping of the idle sailsagainst the masts, and the sight of the same cloudless sky and endlessexpanse of tumid sea, with surface unbroken by the tiniest ripple, savewhen a dolphin leaped out of the water or a fairy nautilus glided by inhis frail shell craft--were longing for the advent of the north-easttrades, which Captain Dinks had expected them to "run into" ever sincethey lost their first favourable wind, there came a visitor to the_Nancy Bell_, the most dreaded of all the perils of the deep--Fire!

Eight bells had just been struck in the morning watch; and thepassengers were just preparing for breakfast--that is, such as were laterisers, like Mrs Major Negus and Mr Lathrope, neither of whom turnedout earlier than was necessary. Those who knew what was the healthiestplan, like Mr Meldrum and his daughters, had been up and out more thanan hour before, walking up and down the poop and getting up a vigorousappetite for the first meal of the day. 

The captain had not long come up the companion; and, after looking aloftand to the northward, scanning the horizon around, had stepped up to thebinnacle, where he stood contemplating the compass hopelessly, as if hehad given up all idea of the wind coming, while the hands of the watchon duty were listlessly idling about the waist of the ship, dead wearyof having nothing to do. 

The cook, apparently, was the only really busy person on board at thetime, for he could be seen popping in and out of his galley forwards, handing dishes to Llewellyn, the steward, to bring aft for the cuddytable. The darkey seemed bathed in perspiration, and looked as if hefound cooking hot work in latitudes under the constellation of the Crab, whither the vessel had drifted. 

All at once, however, a change came over the scene. 

As the steward was passing the main hatch in his second journey aft tothe saloon, he noticed a thin column of smoke ascending from the mainhold, where the principal portion of the cargo was stowed. Like a fool, although it might have been pleaded for him that he was constitutionallynervous, he let fall the dishes he was carrying on a tray, in his frightat the sight of this evidence of a conflagration below, instead of goingquietly up to the captain and telling him what he had seen; and, to makematters worse, he called out at the same time in terrified accents, asloud as he could bawl--"Fire! fire! the ship's on fire!"

Had a thunderbolt burst on board, or had the vessel struck on a rock inthe middle of the ocean, the alarm that was instantly spread on boardcould not have been greater; and where all had been listless inactivitybut a moment before, was now all life, motion, and excitement. 

"A fire! whar?" exclaimed Mr Zachariah Lathrope poking his head out ofthe companion-way, judiciously concealing the remainder of his lankyperson, as he had not yet quite finished his toilet. "Snakes andalligators, Cap'en, but I'm terrible skeart at fires! I hope it ain'tup to much chucks?"

"Oh, no!" said Captain Dinks, reassuringly, expressing what he wishedmore than what he felt. He had remained aft in order to somewhat allaythe alarm which the outcry of the steward had excited; but he wasitching to get to the scene of action himself, although he had sent MrMcCarthy there already, besides ordering the crew to their respectivestations, and having the hose-pump manned. --"Oh, no, nothing at all, only one of that ass, Llewellyn's, happy discoveries, another sort ofghost in the cabin! Here, Harness, " he added aside to Frank, who hadjust come up from below, dropping his voice to a whisper. "Just stop onthe poop a minute, and keep these people quiet. I must go down to thehold myself to look after matters; don't say anything more than you canhelp. "

So saying, the captain scuttled down the poop ladder on to the spar-deckin a jiffey, and in another second he was descending the main hatch, whence the smoke could be now clearly seen, coming up in clouds. 

Mrs Major Negus's voice was also heard at this juncture. The good ladyhad ascended the companion behind the American, who still remained atthe spot where he had first made his appearance, and was just thenadjusting his braces; and almost at the same instant that her dulcetaccents reached the ears of those on deck she burst upon them, as itwere by storm, carrying Mr Lathrope along with her, still _endeshabille_, it is true, as regarded his coat and waistcoat, butfortunately now with his trousers, or as he called them "pants, "properly arranged. 

"Goodness gracious, man!" she exclaimed frantically--"do get out of theway. Lord a mercy! where's the fire? Oh dear, oh my! We shall all beburnt alive? Maurice, my darling boy! come to your mother's arms andlet us die together. Maurice! Where's my boy?"

"You'd better stop that screechin' and say your prayers, marm, " said MrZachariah Lathrope, sententiously. "The b'y is all right below, sleepin' in the corner of the sofy, and I'd advise you to go and rousehim up, instead of rushing up har like a mad bull in fly time, aknocking folks down and hollerin'. "

Mrs Major Negus took his advice; for, without withering up the Americanwith her scorn, as she would probably have done another time, she atonce rushed back below to the cuddy as quickly as she had come up, towake up Maurice; while Kate Meldrum, seizing the opportunity which thediversion afforded, sidled up to Frank Harness unperceived. 

"Is there any danger really?" she asked the young sailor in a low tone, so that no one else could hear; and her face was pale, but composed andresolute, as she looked into his. 

"Could you bear to be told the truth?" said he hesitatingly. 

"I could, " she replied; and he saw that she meant it. 

"Well, there certainly is danger, although it is best not to alarmeverybody, for when people get frightened they interfere and hinder whatis being done to save them. I wouldn't like to tell the crew, MissMeldrum, what I tell you; but I know you are brave, and see that you canbear to be told the truth. A lot of woollen goods are on fire in themain hold, and must, from the extent of the area already consumed, havebeen smouldering for days. We are doing all that men can do to quenchit, and we may succeed, as there is no wind and nothing to fan theflames; but the only thing that hinders us is our being unable to get tothe seat of the mischief, which is in the very centre of the cargo. However, the men are now breaking in the deck above, and as soon as weare able to get the end of the hose down and pass buckets, all may bewell. Keep a good heart, Miss Meldrum, there's no absolute danger yet;when there is I will tell you. So, please, prevent that `Mrs Major'from going into hysterics!"

"I will, for I trust you, " said Kate with a somewhat sad smile on herpale face. "Here, Florry, come below away from the smoke and sparks;Mr Harness says the fire will soon be out and that there is no danger, and I don't want you to spoil your new frock!"

So courageously speaking, the brave girl then went below with hersister; and by her presence and example assuaged "the Major's" fears, thus preventing that lady from going back on deck and spreadingconsternation amongst the crew by her cries, as would otherwise havebeen the case. Mr Zachariah Lathrope, too, came down to the cuddy, attracted by the smell of breakfast, which the captain had directed thesteward to go on getting as if nothing had happened--thus to punish thepoltroon in a sort of way for his cowardly alarm; hence, the coast wasleft clear for the officers and men to put out the fire without beingflurried by the fears and importunities of the passengers. 

Meanwhile, Captain Dinks with Mr Meldrum, who was the first tovolunteer--their efforts well supported by the exertions of McCarthy andthe second mate and Frank Harness--were working like Britons in the_Nancy Bell's_ hold. 

The fire had broken out, as Frank had stated, almost in the centre ofthe ship; for two bulkheads had to be battered down and the main deckcut through, before the source of it could be reached. However, by dintof arduously plying the axe and crowbar, an opening was at length madewhence the fire could be got at. Flames immediately burst forth themoment air was admitted into the hold, but these were pressed down withwet blankets, and, the fire-hose being carried down and the pumps mannedby the watch on deck, a copious stream of water was directed throughoutthat portion of the ship where all the light woollen and textile goodswere stowed. The hose, too, was supplemented by a continuous relay ofbuckets full of water passed rapidly along the lower deck and down thehatchway by the starboard watch--whose turn it was below, but whom thealarm of fire had caused to rouse out again to duty--so that in half anhour from the discovery of the outbreak all danger was over and the lastspark quenched. 

"Thank God!" said Kate Meldrum, with heart-felt earnestness, her lovelyeyes full of tears as she looked up into Frank's face when he came totell her the news. "I thought all hope was gone, you were so long incoming!"

"But were you not certain I would come?" asked Frank anxiously. 

"Yes, I had confidence in your promise. "

"Thank you, " was all he replied; but his look spoke volumes. 

At the same time another mutual "confidence game" was being played in adifferent part of the ship; but in this the understanding was betweenMr Meldrum and Ben Boltrope, the ship's carpenter and ex-man-o'-war's-man. 

"Aye, aye, sir, " said the latter when the two were parting on the maindeck after the termination of their labours in the lower hold. "Irecognised your honour the moment you came on deck that morning of thestorm in the Bay of Biscay. I couldn't mistake the cut of your honour'sjib, sir, begging your pardon. "

"Well, I'm sure I did not recognise you, or you may be sure I would havespoken to you. Still, you need not blurt out my identity to everybody, you know. "

"Sartinly not, your honour. I'll keep mum, sir, never you fear, thoughI don't forget the old--"

"Stop, " said Mr Meldrum, changing the subject. "I've no doubt allhands are pretty dry after all the heat we've been in down below, so, with the captain's permission, I'll send something forward for them tosplice the main brace with. "

"Aye, aye, your honour, " replied Ben; "a nod's as good as a wink to ablind horse. "

And the two parted, the one going forward to the forecastle and theother aft into the saloon. 

CHAPTER EIGHT. 

AN OCEAN WAIF. 

"Wa-al, Cap, " said Mr Lathrope after dinner that day, when he wassipping his coffee on top of the skylight, which he had selected for hisfavourite seat when on the poop, the "location, " as he expressed it, having the advantage of possessing plenty of "stowage room" for his longlegs--"I guess we've had a long spell o' calms, and a tarnationslitheration of a del-uge, 'sides being now a'most chawed up by a fire;so I kalkerlate its 'bout time we hed sunthen' of a breeze. Thunder, mister, it's kinder gettin' played out, I reckon, knocking about inthese air latitoods, without nary going ahead even once in a blue moon!"

"Oh, the wind isn't far off now, " replied Captain Dinks, "you see thoseporpoises there, passing us now and playing astern? Well, they are acertain sign of a breeze soon coming from the quarter towards whichthey're swimming. "

"Wa-al, I dew hope so, " drawled the American, with a sigh and a yawn ofweariness, "guess I shall snooze till it comes;" and he proceeded tocarry his thought into execution. 

Captain Dinks turned out a true prophet. 

A little later on in the day a breeze sprang up, that subsequentlydeveloped into the long-wished-for south-east trade-wind, thus enablingthe good ship to bid adieu to the Doldrums and cross the equator, whichfeat she accomplished two days after the fire. 

From the line--which Master Negus was able to see distinctly with theaid of one of Mr McCarthy's fine red hairs neatly adjusted across theobject-glass of his telescope--the ship had a splendid run over to theSouth American coast, following the usual western course adopted byvessels going round the Cape of Good Hope, in order to have theadvantage afterwards of the westerly winds and get well to the south;and, when she had reached the thirty-fourth parallel of longitude andlatitude 18 degrees 22 minutes south--that is, about midway betweenBahia and Rio Janeiro, her head was turned to the south-east with lightwinds from the northward and eastward, and she began to make way towardsthe "Cape of Storms, " after getting to the southward of which she wouldhave a straight run due east to New Zealand. 

The _Nancy Bell's_ bows, however, were not long pointed in the directionof the rising sun, when another incident occurred to vary the monotonyof the voyage--although, fortunately, this time not a second fire, norany peril from the sea to those on board. 

It was the second day of her south-easterly course; and from the windblowing fresh from the north-east, right on her port quarter, with finebright weather, the ship was running pretty free, all sail being set, atthe rate of over twelve knots an hour, leaving a wake behind her like amill-race. 

"Arrah, sure, and I call, that goin'!" exclaimed the first mateexultantly, as he walked up and down the poop quickly--just as if hisdoing so helped the vessel along, in the same way as one sees thecoxswain of a boat bending backwards and forwards to keep time with therowers!

"Yes, like one o'clock!" chimed in Captain Dinks, showing an equalenthusiasm. "The old girl is walking away with us at a fine rate, McCarthy. I wouldn't be surprised if we logged three hundred by noon. "

"And fifty more tacked on it, sorr, " said the mate. "Why, we've donetwelve knots ivry hour of my watch; and Adams tould me she wor runningthe same at eight bells. By the piper that played before Moses, it's abeauty she is--she'd bate aisy the fastest tay clipper from Shanghai!"

"Aye, that she would!" chorused the captain. "What do you think of theship now, Miss Kate?" he added to that young lady, who was leaningagainst the bulwarks to leeward, looking out over the sea. She was allalone with her thoughts, Frank Harness being away forwards attending tothe cutting out of a new main-topgallant sail to replace the one theyhad lost in the storm, the one they were now using being old and unableto stand any further rough usage. --"You are not ashamed of the old_Nancy_, now, eh?"

"Oh no, Captain Dinks, " answered Kate, "I never was, even in her worstmoments when we were becalmed; and I'm sure I couldn't be now, when sheis sailing along so beautifully; but, what is that speck out there, captain, away to the right--is it a bird, or what?"

"Eh, my dear?" said the skipper, looking in the direction the girl hadpointed--"a bird? no, by Jove, it looks like a sail of a boat well downon the horizon. Here, McCarthy, hand me your glass. "

Captain Dinks seemed even more excited than he had been a moment beforewhen he spoke of the vessel's progress; for, taking the telescope thatthe mate handed him, he scrutinised eagerly the object Kate had noticed. 

"Good heavens, it is a boat!" he exclaimed presently, "and I think I cansee a man in the stern-sheets, though I'm not quite sure: at all events, I'll run down and overhaul it, for it would never do to abandon a poorfellow in distress; no English sailor would think of such a thing! Thisis all your doing, Miss Kate, you and your pretty eyes, which have thebest sight of any on board. We'll have to put the ship about, McCarthy, " he added to the mate; "we can't fetch that boat on thistack. "

"Hands 'bout ship!" roared the mate, in response to the captain'simplied wish; and, immediately, there was much running to and fro on thedecks, and a yelling out of orders and hoarse "aye ayes" in reply--astriking difference to the quiet that had reigned a moment or twobefore, when the ship was slipping along through the water with the windon her quarter, never a sail having to be shifted or a rope pulled, andonly the man at the wheel for the time being having anything to do outof the thirty odd hands on board. 

"Helm's a lee!" cried the captain, and the head-sheets were let go;"raise tacks and sheets!" and the fore-tacks and main sheets were castoff; while the weather crossjack braces and the lee main braces werebelayed, ready to be let go at a moment's notice, and the oppositebraces hauled taut. "Mainsail haul!" then sang out the captain whenthese preparations were completed; when the braces being let go, theyards swung round like a top. The after yards were subsequently bracedup and belayed, the main sheet hauled aft, the spanker eased over toleeward, and the watch stood by the head braces. 

"Let go and haul!" was the next word of command; upon which the weatherfore-braces were let go and those to leeward hauled in by the menforward under the personal supervision of Mr McCarthy, after which themen boarded the fore-tack and hauled down the jib-sheet, clapping atackle on it as it blew fresh; and the _Nancy Bell_, braced round on thestarboard tack and with the wind a little more aft than when she wasrunning eastwards just now, stood towards the boat that Kate had beenthe first to perceive, drifting a bout upon the wild ocean so far awayfrom land. 

At this juncture, Frank Harness sprang up into the fore cross-trees tocon the ship, by Captain Dink's directions; and presently his orders tothe steersman could be heard ringing out clear and distinct above thecreaking of the cordage and the wash of the sea alongside--those on thepoop, listening to all they could hear with intense eagerness, andwaiting for the moment when they could see for themselves the object ofthe ship's quest. 

"Keep her up a bit--steady!"

"Aye, aye, sir; steady it is!"

"Port!"

"Port it is!"

"Steady!"

"Steady it is!"

"Luff!"

"Aye, aye, sir!"

"Keep her so!"

"There is a man in her, sir!" Frank now called out in a different toneof voice; "I can see him distinctly! He is trying to wave ahandkerchief or something. He looks almost dead, poor fellow!"

The excitement on board at hearing this piece of news became all themore intensified. 

"Are we nearing him?" shouted out Captain Dinks. 

"Oh yes, sir; the boat bears now broad on the weather beam. Keep hersteady as she is, and we can round-to close alongside. Look out, we'regetting pretty close now!"

"Look out forward there!" cried the captain: but several hands werethere already with the first mate at their head, a coil of rope in hishand, on the watch to heave it over the boat as soon as she wasapproached near enough. 

"Time to come about, sir, " hailed Frank from the cross-trees; and, "Hands 'bout ship!" roared out Captain Dinks, almost in the same breath. 

During the bustle that ensued, those on the poop could not see what wasgoing on forward; but when the _Nancy Bell_ paid off again from the windon the port tack--thus resuming again what had been her previous coursebefore the boat had been sighted--it was found that the object for whichthey had gone out of their way was safely alongside. 

It was a shocking sight!

Four dead bodies were stretched, in every conceivable attitude of agony, across the thwarts and in the bottom of the boat, which from its shapehad evidently belonged to some whaling vessel; while, sitting up in thestern-sheets, close to the helm, which his feeble hands were powerlessto grasp, was the living skeleton of another sailor, whose eyes seemedstarting out from their deep sockets and whose lips appeared feeblyendeavouring to shape the syllables of "wa-ter!"

In a second, Mr McCarthy had leaped down into the floating coffin as ittowed alongside; and, lifting the body of the solitary survivor fromamidst the corpses of his dead comrades, handed the light load--for thepoor, starved creature did not weigh more than a child of ten, althougha man of over six feet in height--up to hands that as carefully receivedhim; and then, leaping back again on board himself, the whale-boat wasscuttled by a plank being knocked out of her bottom and cut adrift, tosink with her mortal freight into the common grave of those who die onthe deep, the stench from the remains being horrible and permeating thewhole ship while the boat was in contact with her. 

The rescued sailor was placed in a cot and given at first a smallquantity of thin soup which Snowball was busily concocting for the cabindinner, and after that, nourishment at intervals. By these restorativemeasures, in a day or two, he recovered sufficiently to be able to tellwho he was and how he came to be in such a sad plight. 

He was a Norwegian sailor, he said, and belonged to an American whalerwhich had been on her voyage home after a three years' whaling cruise inthe South Pacific. On rounding Cape Horn, they had encountered afearful storm which had nearly dismasted the ship and washed the masterand five hands overboard. He and four others had launched the only boatthey had left over the side, trying to pick up their shipmates; but, thesea was too heavy for them, and when they endeavoured to return, theyfound they could not fetch their vessel again, which perhaps was just aswell, for soon afterwards they saw her go down stern foremost. Afterthat, they ran before the wind for several days and nights--how long hecould not tell--until his four comrades had died from exhaustion, and hehimself, he believed, was just on the point of giving up his life whenprovidence sent the _Nancy Bell_ to succour him. 

"Ach der goot Gott!" said the man in his half German, half English way, speaking brokenly and with tears in his eyes. "Der lieber Gott! Ishall nevare vergersen sie nevare!"

They had had, he said, a breaker of water in the boat when they quittedthe whaler, but this was soon drunk out, and although they hadoccasionally something to eat, catching several fish, they sufferedterribly from thirst. It was that which had killed his comrades mainly. As for him, he bore it better than them, but it must have been eightdays since a drop of liquid had passed his lips. 

"Golly, dat am bad, " said Snowball in the galley that evening, when someof the hands gathered round the caboose to have a comfortable pipe andtalk over the events of the day. "Dat orful bad, eight day widout grubor liquor! dis niggah not able 'tomach dat for sure!"

"Lor', Snowball, that's nothing when you are used to it, " said BenBoltrope, the man-o'-war's-man, who was pretty well king of theforecastle by reason of his service in the navy and general smartness asa seaman. "What is eight days in a boat without grub, when you've gotto go ten, as I've done, besides wandering about on a sandy shore afterswimming for a day and night to save my life? Why, that's nothing!"

"Goramighty, Massa Boltrope, you no swim ten day widout habin' notin' toeat, nor no water, hey?" said Snowball in astonishment. 

"No, you blessed donkey, I didn't say that, " replied the worthy Jacktar. "I said as how I had gone without grub or water for ten days afterswimming for more than twelve hours. "

"Dat berry rum for sure, " said the darkey--"don't know how to beliebdat, no how!"

CHAPTER NINE. 

THE CAPE OF STORMS. 

The steady nor'-east wind that was driving the good ship so gallantly onher way when Captain Dinks put her about in order to rescue theNorwegian sailor, continued for days, accompanied by such magnificentweather, that the _Nancy Bell_ was enabled to make very rapid progressdown to those lower parallels it was necessary for her to reach beforeshe could stretch forward, in a straight line eastward towards her portof destination. 

"I guess, Cap, " said Mr Zachariah Lathrope, noticing the quick changeof temperature in the air, day by day, as they left the tropics behind--the mornings and evenings becoming gradually colder--"she air making asstraight tracks fur the south as them northern carpet-baggers did afterour little onpleasantness, what you folks called the civil war in theStates; when they used to rush down from Washington arterpostmasterships and other sich like offices, which wer to be hed, theykinder thought, fur the asking! She air goin' slick, and that's afact!"

"Yes, " replied the worthy captain, whose face beamed with good humourand satisfaction at the splendid run the vessel was making; "we aregoing ahead, working down our southing, and will soon be able to steerfor New Zealand. She does walk along, and no mistake!" And then hewould look aloft, perhaps, and give an order for a brace to be tautenedhere, or a sheet slackened there--the hours thus flying by in halcyonmoments, as far as the wind and sea, and the course of the ship, and allon board were concerned--collectively and individually. 

The nights in these southern latitudes were simply beautiful beyondcompare. 

The moon had no sooner died out than she revived again, as if giftedwith perpetual youth--not an evening passing without her presence, sooner or later, on the scene--and appeared, too, to have more dignityof position and greater size than in the frigid north, ascending rightup to the very zenith, instead of merely skirting the heavens, as shesometimes does here, and shining down from thence like a midnight sun inradiant splendour. The Scorpion, also, amongst the variousconstellations, was similarly promoted, occupying a place nearer thecentre of the firmament; while the Southern Cross, quite a newacquaintance, followed by Castor and Pollux, began to descend towardsthe sea, becoming more diagonal as the days drew on than when originallyobserved, and finally vanishing from view head foremost. 

As for the North Star, it had long since entirely disappeared; and onlythe horses in Charles' Wain yet remained above the horizon towards thatpoint of the compass. 

To Kate Meldrum's eyes, the sunsets were especially grand; for, as soonas the time came for the glorious orb of day to sink to rest in thegolden west, a series of light amber-tinted clouds would arrangethemselves all round the horizon, as if with a studied pictorial effect, like the stage grouping in what theatrical people term "a set piece;"and then, by degrees, these clouds would become tinged with theloveliest kaleidoscopic colours, all vividly bright--while the far-offheaven that lay between them was of the purest palest rose-hued gold, and the sky immediately above of a faint, ethereal, blueish, transparentgreen. 

In the daytime, especially as the ship drew nearer to the meridian ofthe Cape, there was more life in, on, and about the ocean; and onpassing the Island of Tristan da Cunha, which the _Nancy Bell_ sailed bysome three hundred miles to the northward, Master Maurice Negus wasgreeted with the sight of a sperm-whale. 

This fellow was much smaller than the black-fish which had come to suchan untimely end when assailed by the thresher, being scarcely longerthan thirty-two feet. Maurice was especially credited with thecetacean's discovery, because, when he noticed the spout of spray theanimal threw up from his blow-holes in the distance, he surprisedeverybody by calling out that he could see one of the Crystal Palacefountains--getting much laughed at, as might have been expected, for thenaive announcement. 

As those on board watched, they could see the whale every now and thenheave himself out of the water, half the length of his long dark body, and fall "flop" down again, with a concussion that sent up the wateraround him in white surf, like breakers. After this little diversion, he amused himself with swimming backwards and forwards past the ship, asif just showing what he could do, at a great rate; exposing only a thinstreak of his back and the fin and tail, but making the sea boil up asif a plough were going through it, and leaving a wake behind him likethat of a paddle-wheel steamer--finally starting off suddenly due north, as if he had all at once recollected an appointment in that direction, when he soon disappeared from sight. 

The flying-fish and dolphins, bonetas and sharks, like the "Portuguesemen-of-war, " were long since all left behind; but their places weretaken by the albatross, the Cape pigeon, the shearwater, and a sea-birdcalled the "parson, " dozens of which flew about the ship every day. 

The shearwater was a larger species of tern, or sea-swallow; the"parson, " so called for his sombre appearance and sedate manner, was akind of sable gull about the size of an English crow. His colour, however, was not black, but a dusky brownish black, as if the reverendgentleman's coat had got rusty from wear. These birds had a very odd, "undertakerish" air about them, which amused Maurice and Florry verymuch, and some having venerable white heads, which appeared as ifpowdered with flour, like a footman's for a party, were so much moreeccentric looking, that even the grave Mrs Major Negus could not helpsmiling at their appearance and queer ways. 

"Do look, papa!" exclaimed Kate--who during the voyage would at one timebe in the highest spirits, and the next pensive, as if occupied by aworld of thought--"I declare if that one isn't the very image of MrTrotter, our curate at Allington! He has the same little tuft of hairon top on his head; and, besides, he has the identical same way ofpopping it on one side when he used to speak, and staring at you withhis little round eyes. Is he not like Mr Trotter, father?" and shepointed out one especially jaunty little "parson" to his notice. 

"Well, there is a little resemblance, certainly, " said Mr Meldrum, joining in Florry's laughter at the remark. "I don't suppose, though, my dear, we'll ever see poor Mr Trotter or Allington again. "

"Dear old Allington!" murmured Kate with a sigh; and, in a moment, hermemory flew back to the past, with all its sad associations. 

The Cape pigeons were the prettiest of all the birds that visited theship, being very like the common wood pigeon in the shape of their headand bill, but having webbed feet to suit their aquatic habits. Theywere much plumper, too, than either the shearwaters or parsons--whichlatter, by the way, unlike the fat cleric of popular opinion, were ofvery slender and delicate proportions. 

In the matter of plumage, the Cape pigeons were white and downy, withthe head and wings striped with brown like butterflies, a large speciesof which they strongly resembled when flying away from the ship, withtheir pinions spread. 

But, of all the birds they saw, the albatross was the most wonderful toobserve. Not much larger than a goose in the size of its body, it hadenormous thin-edged wings, that enabled it to float about in the air, atwill apparently, without any perceptible motion, for hours at a stretch. It seemed to direct its course by the slightest possible turning of itsbody, so as to alter the inclination of its wings, which, extending outstraight and firm, bore the bird up or down, or away many miles off in asecond of time, in the most surprising manner. 

The albatross floats, or skims along the air, but does not fly accordingto our ideas, although it has an extraordinary power of launching itselffrom enormous heights down to the level of the sea with the velocity oflightning. 

"Just like a white-winged messenger of light, " as Kate Meldrum observedin the hearing of Captain Dinks, "sent out from the angelic host aboveon some divine mission to suffering humanity below!"

"Ah; that sounds very pretty, missy, " said the captain; "but thealbatross' mission happens to be fish; and I fancy that spoils thesentiment a bit!"

Eighteen days after passing the line, some seven weeks from her start, the _Nancy Bell_ crossed the meridian of Greenwich, or longitude zero--at which precise time her position could not be said to be either eastor west--in latitude 38 degrees south, a couple of degrees below theCape; and the wind, which had kept steadily from the north-east andnorthward ever since the South American coast had been left astern, nowgot well round to the south-west, enabling every stitch of canvas todraw, from the spanker to the flying jib. Seeing this Captain Dinkscaused the upper yards to be squared a bit and the main and fore top-gallant studding-sails set, thus helping the vessel on her way. 

This sort of weather lasted for five days, the ship being steered eastby south, meeting the sun and losing an hour a day by the chronometerand going twelve knots each hour out of the twenty-four; when onreaching the longitude of the Cape "a change came o'er the spirit" ofthe _Nancy Bell's_ "dream. "

The wind shifted suddenly from the south-west to the north-east; and theheavy rolling sea, peculiar to the Southern Ocean, set in, accompaniedby showers of rain, and hail, and snow. Soon, sail had to be reduced, and the ship, with all her gay canvas stripped off her, had as much asshe could do to stagger along under reefed topsails and foresail, themizzen staysail being set to give her more power aft, her steeringbecoming very wild after a bit although two men were at the helm. 

From merely looking squally, the clouds gathering on the horizon grewthicker and thicker, till they got as black as ink. The sea, also, darkened to a dark leaden hue, and the swell increased so rapidly inheight that when the vessel sank down into the intermediate valley not aglimpse could be obtained of anything beyond the watery mountains oneither side. 

"I guess we're going to have it pretty rough, Cap, eh, " said theAmerican to Captain Dinks; "it looks all-powerful squally, it dew!"

"You're right, " said the captain. "We're now in the vicinity of theCape of Storms, and we've got to look out. "

So saying, Captain Dinks showed his determination of "looking out, " byhaving all the lighter spars of the ship sent down from aloft, besidescausing everything to be made secure on deck and below for the expectedstorm. 

Not long after the _Nancy Bell_ was made snug the tempest burst uponher. The high, smooth rolling waves were torn and wrenched asunder, asit were; and their summits wreathed into masses of foam, which curledover as they advanced against the wind, and, breaking away in fragments, blew off in masses of snowy whiteness to leeward. The ship was meetingthis swell nearly head on; and as the rollers caught her fairly on thebows she struck them with a sound as heavy as that with which the weightfalls in a pile-driving machine, taking in some of the sea over theforecastle and carrying it aft as far as the break of the poop--washingabout everything in its course until the water finally found vent fromthe deck through the scuppers. 

One of these waves--a regular mountain of a sea, the water all green, and standing up like a huge pellucid wall before it toppled over--comingin over the bows, made a clean sweep of all that was movable lyingforward of the mainmast, carrying over the side all the hen-coops, sheep-pen, water casks, as well as spare spars that had been stowedalong the deck, nothing being left to show that they had ever beenthere! Even Snowball's galley was upset and rolled about in the waistto leeward, the sea having not been quite strong enough to carry itoverboard, while its unhappy occupant, half drowned in the scuppers andnot able to extricate himself from his perilous position, was loudlycalling for aid. 

Ben Boltrope--who had been having a confab with the darkey, and probablya "drop of something hot, " his special failing, in the galley when thesea washed over the ship and fetched it away--was promptly at hand tohelp his sable friend; when the galley was reinstated in its properplace, and so tightly lashed down to the ring-bolts that a sea wouldhave had to carry away the deck itself to have lifted it again. But, sad to relate, the sheep and the poultry had disappeared for ever fromhuman ken, along with their pens and coops, and the saloon passengerswould thenceforth have to fare without any such delicacies as roastmutton and boiled fowl--a terrible piece of news for Mr Lathrope whenit was brought to his ears!

As the evening closed in and night came on, the force of the wind andsea both seemed to increase, and it appeared incredible that a fabricformed by human hands should have been capable of sustaining the rudeshocks and ponderous blows which the ship received again and again asshe battled with the waves; but the captain had in the end to let thevessel fall off her course and scud before the gale, going whither theelements listed. 

"Oh, father, " said Kate to Mr Meldrum, the two remaining on deck longafter the others had gone below, "what confidence sailors must have inthe qualities of their ship, not to be overcome with dread at such ascene, especially if they direct a thought to the frail timbers thatonly separate them from the watery abyss!"

"Aye, my child, " replied he; "but, what greater confidence in God'sprotecting power!"

"True, father, " said Kate, and after that she remained silent until MrMeldrum declared it was time to go below. They did not retire, however, until it was as dark as pitch, when nothing could be seen beyond thewall of water on either side of the taffrail--the tumid mass lookinglike a black avalanche about to overwhelm them, while the roaring of thewind and rattling of blocks and creaking of cordage, in conjunction withthe groaning of the ship's timbers, and crashing sounds of the waves asthey broke against the quarter, as if trying to beat the vessel's sidesin, made such a discord and concert altogether that it drownedconversation, even had either been inclined to talk in the presence ofsuch a display of the mighty power of Him who rules the waves. 

Down in the cuddy, the scene was certainly more cheerful; and, what withthe bright light of the swinging lamps, and the well-spread tablecomfortably arranged for tea, with the cups and saucers placed between"fiddles" to prevent them from slipping adrift when the vessel pitchedor rolled, it afforded a strong contrast to the barren bareness andgloomy discomfort of the deck, especially on such a cold night, withsuspicions of hail, and sleet, and snow at intervals. But, still, herealso everything was not quite so rose-coloured as might have at firstappeared; for stormy weather at sea discounts what might be called themarket value of the comforts and conveniences of everyday life to a mostsurprising extent!

The cups and saucers were all right, or so they seemed at first sight intheir abnormal position; but, the moment those who sat down at the tablebegan to use them, they took to flying about like shuttles in a carpet-loom. Bread-baskets and cake-dishes discharged their contents likecatapults against the panelling of the cabin doors, while jugs ofcondensed milk--which was used not from any special liking for thearticle, but through default of there being a cow on board--were emptiedmost impartially on to the shirt-fronts and dresses of the gentlemen andladies who unfortunately sat opposite to them. 

"Durn my boots!" ejaculated the American once; "but if them air sheephadn't gone overboard to feed the fishes, I guess we'd hev hed capersenuff goin' on down har to sarve for sass to the biled mutton!"

All put up, however, with these petty annoyances gleefully enough, onlytoo glad to be able to joke and make capital out of them and pleasedthat their present calamities were not too serious for laughter; andwhen they separated at bedtime, it was with the cheerful wish that theweather might be a trifle brighter on the morrow. No one seemed tothink for a moment of danger, or took heed of the bustle on deck, or ofthe quivering and shaking of everything in the saloon, which seemedsuffering from what Mr Lathrope styled a "seaquake"--incontradistinction to earthquake. 

But, hardly had six bells been struck in the first watch when the order"out lights" was given and the welcome gleam of the cuddy lampdisappeared summarily, plunging all in darkness--than a suddenstupendous shock assailed the ship startling the sleepers. 

There came first a stunning blow, apparently from a wave, rightamidships; and then, the vessel seemed to go down to the very water'sedge on one side, heeling over as rapidly immediately afterwards to theother. 

Away went everything that was movable below, flung backwards and thenforwards right across the ship--the thumping noise made by the heavyboxes falling in the cabins and state-rooms, combined with the crashingand smashing of glass and crockeryware in the cuddy, where the table andsettle-seats had been carried away by the run, and the outcry of thesailors yelling and stamping above, not to speak of the grinding andgroaning of the bulkheads and shuddering of the ship's timbers betweendecks, all making up a babel of sound and confusion that was worse by athousand fold than what had previously occurred during the first stormwhich the vessel, experienced in the Bay of Biscay. 

Naturally, the majority of those below thought that all was over, andpiercing cries of terror and appeal for help resounded through the ship. 

CHAPTER TEN. 

CAUGHT IN A CYCLONE. 

A storm at sea is bad enough in the daytime, but at night it isterrible; for then, the peril unseen is so magnified by the terror-stricken mind as to become far more appalling than a much greater dangerseen face to face and realised:-- the latter can be grappled with, butthe former, by its very intangibility and "unreachableness, " daunts thebravest heart and paralyses the strongest arm!

Llewellyn, the steward, managed to procure a light, which he did onlyafter much delay--the racket and uproar having apparently sent hislittle wits wool-gathering--the cuddy looked the very picture ofdesolation, almost leading to the belief that the sea had made a cleanbreach through the sides of the ship in one of its rude onslaughtsdashing everything to pieces. 

Fortunately, however, this was not the case, although the saloonskylight had been carried away, gratings and all, and a considerableamount of water had come down through the opening, which loomed nowabove the semi-lighted space like a large hole broken in the deck; but, by reason of the carrying away of the table and seats from theirlashings and ring-bolt fastenings and now being washed in a jumbled heapto one side of the cuddy, the cabins to leeward were so completelybarricaded that their occupants were prevented from issuing forth. Itwas from this quarter that the cries for help proceeded--the voice ofMrs Major Negus, it need hardly be mentioned, predominating, althoughthe American passenger, who had a berth alongside that distinguishedlady, also sang out pretty loudly. 

"Hullo, steward!" called out Mr Meldrum on seeing the light, havingalready opened the door of his state-room, which had a sliding panel andwas undamaged as far as he could notice. "Why, what's the matter!"

"Only shipped a sea, sir, " answered Llewellyn rather gruffly, for he wasannoyed at being roused from his sleep, "though from the row they're a-making one would think we were all going to the bottom!"

"Much mischief done, eh?" asked Mr Meldrum, taking in at a glance thehavoc in the cuddy--"I mean on deck, " he added. 

"Can't say, sir, " replied the other; "ain't had time to look about hereyet, much less to go up and see! It's a bad berth that o' steward to alot of bawling females on a passenger ship; I'd liefer--"

But, his grumblings were stopped for the moment by the renewed loudscreams of Mrs Major Negus--who was his pet aversion on board onaccount of her giving him more trouble than all the rest combined, whileMaster Maurice really was the plague of his life. 

"Steward--stew-ard!" she cried, "Come here at once and get me out! I'mall smothered and drowned, and nobody will help me! Stew-ard! I'mdying--I'll tell the captain with my last breath. Stew-ard!"

"Sure I'm coming, mum, as fast as I can, " sang out Llewellyn aloud, adding _sotto voce_ for his own satisfaction, "Hang that Major Madam!I'd never have shipped in the _Nancy Bell_ if I had a-knowed she wascoming aboard! Bless you, mum, I'm coming--everything is all right andthere isn't no cause for alarm!"

"Isn't there?" indignantly demanded the lady in a queer sort of halfsuffocated voice from behind the barred door of her cabin. "If you werejumbled in a pool of water, with all your luggage on top of you, I don'tthink you'd think everything right. Help, man! release me at once, orI'll be drowned and flattened into a pancake!"

"Say, you Mister Steward, you jest hurry up and git the lady out of hermuss, and come and fix me up, " chimed in the voice of Mr ZachariahLathrope. "I guess I've had my innards a'most squoze out agin thedurned bunk, an' feel like a dough-nut in a frying-pan. If you leave memuch longer I kalkerlate this old boss'll be cold meat, you bet, andyou'll have the funeral to pay!"

Mr Meldrum coming to Llewellyn's aid, the steward managed at length toclear away the wreckage from before the door of Mrs Major Negus' cabin, and then from that of the American, when both the occupants were foundmore seriously hurt than either of their rescuers had imagined, theythinking that their outcries had proceeded more from alarm than any realinjury. 

The wife of the deputy-assistant comptroller-general of Waikatoo waslying, all purple in the face, with a heavy portmanteau on the top ofher, on the deck of her cabin in nearly a foot of water; and by the timethey got her up from her perilous position she fainted dead away in thesteward's arms. 

"Here, Mary!" called out Llewellyn to his wife, the stewardess, whoquickly appeared on the scene half-dressed. "Attend to this lady, whilewe go and see after Mister Lathrope. "

The American was in a much worse plight; for, whereas Mrs Major Negushad only swallowed a lot of sea-water and had been only nearlyfrightened to death, Mr Lathrope's sallow face was so unearthly palethat Mr Meldrum was certain he had received some severe injury; as hewas tightly jammed between his bunk and the washing-stand, while a heavypacking-case had tumbled out of the top berth on to one of hisshoulders, preventing him from moving. 

"I guess, mister, you jest come in time, " said the poor fellow with asickly smile, as they pulled away the case and wash-stand, and helpedhim into a sitting position on the bunk, "another minnit and it wouldhave been all up with Z Lathrope, Esquire!" And he gasped for breath, putting his hand to his left side, as if feeling pain there. 

"Oh, papa, are you there?" said Kate, coming out, in a charming state ofdishabille, from the state-room she shared with her sister on theopposite side of the saloon, alongside to that of Mr Meldrum. "Isanybody hurt?"

"Yes, my dear, " answered her father, "you'd better bring some salvolatile or something. Mrs Negus has fainted; and I'm afraid poor MrLathrope is in a bad way. "

The plucky girl did not delay, or exhibit any of that feminine weaknessor nervousness which might have been expected under the circumstances. Retiring for a moment, to throw a shawl round herself and get what wasrequired in the emergency, she quickly reappeared again at the door ofthe state-room, --which she closed behind her to prevent Miss Florry, inquisitive as usual, from coming forth; and then proceeded to cross thefloor of the cuddy as well as she was able--a somewhat difficult taskconsidering the rolling and pitching of the vessel, and the fact thatthe table and seats, which generally formed points of vantage forholding on, had been swept away, so that there was nothing for her tocling to. 

Half running, half sliding, she, however, reached the opposite side andwas quickly engaged in the Samaritan task of bathing Mr Lathrope'stemples with Eau de Cologne. 

"Don't you bother, miss, " said the American faintly, "I guess I ain't somuch hurt arter all!" but he couldn't help groaning as he spoke, whereupon Mr Meldrum laid him down gently and sent the steward for somebrandy, which revived him somewhat. 

"I got a pretty considerable gouge in the ribs from that air wash-stand, " said he, pointing out the objectionable piece of furniture as heuttered the words; "but I guess I'll be all right presently. How'sMadam Negus!"

"Oh, she was more frightened than hurt, " said Mr Meldrum laughing; "shewas in a nice pickle on the floor of her cabin. You should just haveseen her. I really don't think she could ever be dignified to me anymore!"

"For shame, papa, to laugh at misfortune!" said Kate; "and now, as MrLathrope seems better, I'll go and look after his fellow-sufferer. " Sosaying, the girl clambered along by the side of the saloon to where MrsMajor Negus was ensconced in state, in the adjoining cabin--now revivedfrom her fainting fit and with Mary Llewellyn ministering to her wants, although "the Major" could not help scolding the latter at intervals, asif she were the cause of the disaster. 

In the midst of all this, down came Mr McCarthy, the first mate, fromthe poop. 

"Be jabers and it's a foine time you are having of it, any way!" said heby way of greeting, looking round with a quizzical cock of his eye atthe dismantled cuddy. "I only thought you'd have had a drop of watheror two whin the skoilight got adrift, and we've rigged up tarpaulinsover it and battened it down comfortably, so that ye'll not be throubledany more by the say washing down. But, how did the table git carriedaway! It was fixed down so strong it's a puzzle to me entirely!"

"Goodness only knows, " said Mr Meldrum; "there came a tremendous crashamidships soon after midnight, and away it went!"

"Ah that was whin that gossoon Adams had howlt of the helm. Theomahdawn, he was looking up at the spars and tellin' the cap'en abouttaking the topsails off her, as she was carrying too much sail, insteadof mindin' his own business and lookin' to the steering; and, faix, helet the ship broach to, bad cess to him!"

"And how are you getting on now, on deck?" asked Mr Meldrum. 

"Will, sorr, " said the mate, speaking more earnestly than was his usualwont, and dropping his voice so that no one else could hear him. "Tospake the truth and shame the divil--faix it's no lie I'm telling--we'reright in the centre of a cyclone, and the Lord only knows if we'll ivergit out of it!"

"I thought so, " murmured Mr Meldrum; "my poor children!"

"Sure and be a man now!" whispered the mate as Kate came out of MrsMajor Negus' cabin. "I wouldn't have tould you if I had thoughtcontrariwise!"

"I was not thinking of myself, " said Mr Meldrum sternly; "what sail areyou carrying?"

"Sail!" exclaimed Mr McCarthy; "faix and its joking ye are! Iverystitch of canvas, sure, was blown to smithereens when the ship broachedto, and the foretop-mast was thin took out of her, too, by the sametoken! The divil a hap'orth are we carrying, save a piece of tarpaulinlashed in the weather rigging to kape her hid to the say, and that's allwe can do till daylight comes, if we iver say it, please God, for it'sas dark now as a blue dog in a black entry, and you couldn't say yourhand before your face to set any sail, if ever a man could git up therigging--but whist now about that! Steward, " he added in a louder key, "come, look alive here and git the cuddy to rights in shipshape fashion!By the powers, but the skipper'd be in a foine rage if he saw it allmops and brooms like this! Bear a hand, man, and be smart, and I'llsend the carpenter to help you as soon as the watch is relayed. " Withthese words he bustled on deck again, after changing his oilskin, whichwas all knocked to pieces, for a rough pea-jacket, and saying to MrMeldrum that he thought the latter would be more handy, for it wasblowing enough to take one's hair off!

"Papa, " said Kate as soon as the mate had ascended the companion, "whatwas that Mr McCarthy was saying when he spoke so low to you?"

"Eh, my dear?" answered her father a little confusedly, with somehesitation in his voice. "Oh, only that the storm was raging violentlyand did not seem to lull at all yet. "

"Did he say that there was any danger?"

"Danger, eh? no, I--I can't say. I think I'll just step up and see formyself;" and, anxious to escape this cross-examination, as well asreally to judge whether the position of the ship was as precarious asthe chief mate had indicated, Mr Meldrum likewise went up on to thepoop, finding some trouble when he reached the top of the companionstairs, in opening the hatch. 

For a moment, after emerging on to the deck, all was terribly dark--asblack as ink, as Mr McCarthy had said; but, the next instant, the wholeawful scene was lit up by the most intense and vivid flash of lightningMr Meldrum had ever beheld--the electric fluid being quiteunaccompanied by any peal of thunder, although that might have beendrowned by the continuous roar and shriek of the howling wind whichappeared to have gone mad with the unbridled fury of a demon. 

During the brief space of time in which the zigazag stream of fire fromthe vault of heaven momentarily lit up the surroundings of the ship, which it did with a brightness that eclipsed the light of day, MrMeldrum could see the vessel tumbling about amid a chaotic mass ofwaves, which it was no exaggeration to term mountains high, as if shewere in the vortex of a whirlpool; while dense opaque black cloudshovered over her, vomiting forth wind, apparently from every quarter ofthe horizon, the gusts tearing at the ship with harpy-like clutches, asif they would rend her to pieces--she, like a poor human thing rackedwith pain, labouring and groaning, and bending this way and that toescape the relentless wind, so well aided by the clutching billows frombelow that leaped up to engulf the vessel when they themselves were notabsolutely flattened to the surface of the water, as they weresometimes, by the force of the hurricane. 

The scene was literally awful!

The next moment all was darkness again; with the night black as Erebus, and Mr Meldrum unable, as the mate had said, to see his hand before hisface. 

Captain Dinks, however, had noted his arrival on deck; and approachedhim without being seen. 

"I advise you to go below, Mr Meldrum, " said he, "you can do no goodhere, nor any of us, indeed, until morning, when I hope we'll havebetter weather. It's a terrible night, the worst I have ever seen atsea in all my time!"

"Aye, terrible, " replied the other, shouting in the ear of the captain, but, as he was facing the wind, his voice seemed to the latter only likea whisper. "I'll take your advice, as I see I could be of no use;still, if I can be of any service, mind you call me!"

"Aye, aye, " said Captain Dinks, "you go down and go to sleep. We areall in God's hands now, though I'll do all that man can--good night!"

"Good night, " said Mr Meldrum; and he then went below again to givewhat report he could to Kate, who was waiting anxiously for his expectedreappearance, as he had said he should not be gone long when he lefther. 

She had been certain the ship was in great danger; and she now read theconfirmation of her worst fears in her father's face. 

"Oh, papa!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms round his neck as soon ashe came down the companion, without waiting to hear a word from him. "Ithought so, I thought so!"

"Hush, my child!" said he soothingly, leading her towards her state-roomand opening the door, "go in to your cabin and pray!"

And thus the weary night passed away. 

CHAPTER ELEVEN. 

IN UNKNOWN LATITUDES. 

When daylight came, through the exertions of Ben Boltrope, thecarpenter, and a couple of the crew sent to aid him, the cuddy offered amore presentable appearance than it had done just immediately after themidnight scare; for, the table and seats were fixed back in theiroriginal positions, the debris cleared away, and a portion of theskylight restored--all of which so brightened up the interior that whathad passed but a few hours before seemed but a dream, at first, to thoseof the passengers who turned out early. The continuous sustained roarof the wind and waves had so drowned the noise of the men hammering andmoving about that the repairs appeared to have been accomplished bymagic. 

As soon as Mr Meldrum went on deck, however, he could see littlealteration for the better there. 

The great rolling billows, as Maury has described them, were runninghigh and fast, tossing their white caps in the air, looking like thegreen hills of a western prairie capped with snow, and chasing eachother in sport; while the wind was still blowing a hurricane, and theship, resembling a crippled bird with her foretop-mast gone, was runningnow before the gale under a single storm-staysail, that looked no biggerthan an ordinary sized pocket-handkerchief, at a greater rate of speedthan she would have done in a stiff breeze with all her canvas spread. 

The outlook around, too, was by no means cheering. 

The horizon was piled up with masses of blue-black clouds, whose raggededges meant mischief, and scraps of greyish white scud were flyingacross the sky in all directions--now towards the same point as thewind, now against it, as if there were contending currents aloft andthey could not decide what precise course to travel. 

Captain Dinks, who, with the other officers, had been on deck all night, looked haggard and care-worn. The men, too, seemed worn-out, whichcould not be wondered at, as no sooner had the watch whose turn it wasto be relieved, got below than they were roused up again at the call of"All hands"--when, of course, they had to tumble on deck again, withouta moment's time for the rest and repose they needed after the exposurethey were subjected to in battling up and down the rigging in thetempest of wind and rain and hail that had lasted through the livelongnight. 

"Not a very bright look-out!" said the captain, trying to speakcheerily, but failing miserably in the attempt. "Old Boreas, too, I'mafraid, is going to put on a fresh hand to the bellows, for thebarometer has fallen again. "

"Indeed?" answered Mr Meldrum. 

"Yes, " continued Captain Dinks; "it stood at 29. 50 at three o'clock thismorning, and when I looked just now it was at 29. 25. "

"That's bad, " said the other; "it shows we've not got the worst of thecyclone yet. "

"No, " replied the captain; "we've got that all to come! Luckily, I sentdown the topgallant-masts yesterday evening, or we'd have had everystick out of her by now:-- they would have been safe to go when theforetop-mast went, if not before. However, there they are, all lashedtogether by the longboat, not gone yet; and I hope we shall have someuse for them yet bye and bye. "

"I only hope so, " said Mr Meldrum sadly, the despondent way in whichCaptain Dinks spoke affecting him too. 

The ship seemed easier running before the wind than when lying-to, although there was the risk of the heavy following seas pooping her, acontingency that had already happened when a portion of the bulwarkswere carried away at the time the saloon skylight was smashed, leavingan ugly gash in the ship's side; but a spare hawser had been triced upand secured fore and aft to prevent the men being washed overboardthrough the aperture, and life lines were rove and passed along the deckfor the same purpose. 

"It's safer to carry on, " observed Captain Dinks, seeing the anxiousglance Mr Meldrum bent to windward. "I've heard of a ship outrunning ahurricane before; and so might we again. "

"So have I, " said Mr Meldrum; "but not a cyclone! Look there, ahead, at that bank of storm-clouds; perhaps we're running into a worse galethan the one we've got. "

"Well, we can only act for the best, " replied the captain curtly, apparently not relishing this criticism of his seamanship from alandsman--as he thought--who knew nothing about the matter; and he thenmoved back to his post by the binnacle, leaving Mr Meldrum standing bythe head of the companion, where he was presently joined by FrankHarness, the first and second mates being both forward, superintendingthe bending of preventer stays to secure the masts, which seemed to beready to jump out of the ship from the leverage exercised even by thelittle sail she was carrying. 

By noon, when it was utterly impossible to take an observation, theheavens being black all round, with showers of hail and snow coming downat intervals, and the wind, blowing over the Antarctic ice-fields, seemed to cut the face as with a knife--the temperature of the air hadbecome bitterly cold, while the barometer fell to 29 inches. The veryspirit of destruction appeared to brood over the ill-fated _Nancy Bell_. 

Mr Meldrum, after a brief visit below to look after his daughters andsee how the American passenger was progressing since his accident, hadreturned on deck, accompanied by Kate, who pleaded so earnestly to beallowed to come that he could not resist her entreaties. She now stood, sheltered behind him, in the mouth of the companionway, watching thebrewing of the fresh storm with which the vessel was about to beassailed--Frank Harness close to her side as if for additionalprotection, although the captain had told him he might go below and havea spell off after being up all night. The young sailor, as soon as shecame up, had taken off his own monkey-jacket and fastened it round hershoulders to protect her from the wind and hail, despite all Kate'sprotests, to which he was obliged to turn a deaf ear by reason of theforce of the gale. 

Suddenly, the dark looming mass of clouds in front of the ship appearedto split asunder, showing gaping ragged edges fringed with white, justlike a shark's mouth. 

Mr Meldrum at once rushed to where Captain Dinks was standing close tothe wheel-house, where two men had all they could do to control thehelm, although they were the strongest hands on board, the one being BenBoltrope, the ex-man-o'-war's-man, and the other Karl Ericksen, theNorwegian sailor who had been rescued from the boat, and who was aperfect giant now that he was restored to health and strength--standingover six feet, and with long brawny arms that seemed as powerful asthose of a windmill when he threw them about. 

"For God's sake, Captain, " exclaimed Mr Meldrum, "round the ship to, ifyou can! If that squall that's coming right forward catches her in theteeth, she will go down stern foremost in a second!"

"Nonsense, Mr Meldrum!" answered Captain Dinks hotly. "Who are you? alandsman, to give orders to a trained seaman! I don't allow passengersto interfere with me in working my own ship. "

"Considering I have been in the royal navy all my life, and left theservice with the rank of commander, " said Mr Meldrum quietly, not awhit angered by the captain's somewhat reasonable indignation, "I thinkI am something of an authority on the point. But, don't let us arguethat matter now, Captain Dinks. I apologise for interfering; but I haveseen and been through a good many cyclones in the China seas, when I wasin command of a gunboat there, and I advise you to do as I've said. "

"Trust his honour, Capting, sir, " chimed in Ben Boltrope, for onceforgetting his sense of discipline, and speaking to his superior officerwithout leave; "I've sarved with Commander Meldrum, and knows what heis. "

"I'm sure, sir, Mr Meldrum, I hardly know how to address you, " saidCaptain Dinks, his old polite sell again, and smiling as if there was nostorm near. "I beg your pardon for not recognising that you were of thesame craft; but what could I think, or how could I judge?"

"Oh, never mind that now, " said Mr Meldrum eagerly. "Put her about atonce, as you value all our lives. "

"All right!" replied Captain Dinks; "down with the helm there, sharp!"

The men strained every sinew to get the wheel round, the muscles on theNorwegian's arms standing out in relief like wire ropes, and BenBoltrope using his utmost strength and assisting him with a will. 

"Look out forward!" shouted the captain in the meantime, to warnMcCarthy and the men what was going to be done so that they might holdon; "were going to 'bout ship. " And although they could not hear a wordhe said, they judged what he meant by his motions and preparedthemselves accordingly. 

The manoeuvre was executed at last, but very nearly a moment too late. 

As the ship came round, she met the sea full butt, and was for theinstant almost buried--the water coming in high over the forecastle andfalling like a cataract into the waist, engulfing the men there in awell of green wave and foam; while, at the same moment, the squall aheadstruck her on the port bow, the vessel, between the two opposing forces, being like a piece of iron 'twixt hammer and anvil. The concussion wastremendous, knocking everybody off their feet just as if the ship hadstruck on a rock. 

Crash went the remains of the foremast over the side, carrying with itthe maintop-mast and the solitary scrap of sail that was set; and for amoment the ship broached to, heeling over as if she were going tofounder. 

However, the same expedient that had been tried in the night, that of atarpaulin in the weather-rigging, was again resorted to; and the helmbeing kept down, the vessel's head was got to the sea, the wreck of theforemast, which had swung clear of the ship although still kept attachedby the gear forwards, acting as a sort of breakwater, and tempering downthe strength of the waves, so that after a time she rode somewhat easy. 

Meanwhile, Kate had a terrible fright. 

As the shock came when the _Nancy Bell_ was put about, Frank Harnessthrew his arm round Kate's waist to prevent her from being thrown down, holding on himself at the same time like grim death to the rail of thecompanion; and on the ship steadying, he released the girl and let gohis hold. At that moment, however, a wave came over the poop, and he, being taken off his guard, was rolled over on the deck and washedtowards the opening in the broken bulwarks. 

Kate instantly, without hesitating for a second, made a snatch at hiscollar; and, clutching hold of it, in the very nick of time, saved himby a miracle--had he been carried overboard, no earthly power could haverescued him!

"Oh, Frank!" she exclaimed, "I thought I had lost you!" And, as hescrambled to his feet, pale with the suddenness of his peril and hereffort to rescue him, the brave girl sank down, apparently lifeless, onthe deck--all of a heap. 

"Good heavens, she is dead!" cried Frank. "She has been killed intrying to save me!" and in the desperation of grief he looked as if hewere going to throw himself into the sea. 

"No, no, my boy, " said Mr Meldrum, who had witnessed the incident fromthe wheel-house, and had now come to his aid; "she has only fainted fromrevulsion of feeling and the strain on her nerves. Help me to carry herbelow. "

And, as the two descended the companion-way with their apparentlyinanimate burden, the young sailor could not help furtively kissing thefloating tresses of dark brown hair that swept across his face as hetenderly supported Kate's head on his shoulder, guarding it jealously inthe passage below. His anxiety was soon afterwards relieved by MrMeldrum coming out from the cabin where they had deposited poor Kate, and telling him that she was getting better. 

It was a bad case with the ship, however; worse than anyone thought. 

Soon after Frank and Mr Meldrum had left the deck, Ben Boltrope, whowas still in the wheel-house with the Norwegian, called out to CaptainDinks:-- "I think there's something wrong with the rudder, sir, " hesaid. 

"Wrong with the rudder!" repeated the captain. "What do you mean?" andhe came nearer to look himself at the steering gear. 

"Why; the wheel goes round either way, just as you please, without anystrain at all, as if the ropes were parted, or the rudder gone adrift!"

"Mercy on us! That would be a calamity!" exclaimed Captain Dinks; and, watching his opportunity, when the stern of the ship rose up in the air, he looked over the rail below. "It is really the case!" he said, ingrave accents. "The rudder and rudder-post have both been carried away. What a blessing that they did not go before we got her about; if theyhad, nothing could have saved us. "

"True for you, sir, " responded Ben in acquiescence; while the Norwegiannodded his head and said, "Ja! ja!"

"Come away from there, my men, " presently said the captain after a longsilence, as if he were thinking to himself what should be done; "it's nouse your stopping there any longer. But, stay, it is best not to alarmthe crew too soon. You stop, Norwegee, " calling that sailor by the namethe men had dubbed him; "and you, carpenter, go and sound the well tosee what water we have taken in. Mind and do it quietly, now, so as notto be seen; and you need not tell any of the hands about the loss of therudder, you know. "

"Aye, aye, sir, I twig, " said Ben, going forwards and then down the mainhatchway, slipping off the cover for the purpose. 

Presently he returned aft, looking very serious. 

"There's four feet water in the hold, sir, " said he. 

"Only four feet?" replied Captain Dinks, pretending to treat the matterwith great unconcern; "why, I thought she would have had ever so muchmore in her, with all the straining she has gone through in the lasttwenty-four hours, besides the lot of seas she took in before we had thehatches battened. Still we'd better get rid of it, carpenter, asthere's no use our carrying more cargo than we are obliged, eh?"

"No, sir, " said Ben somewhat dubiously, not taken in by the captain'smanner. 

"Just what I think, " said Captain Dinks. "Here, McCarthy, " he cried outto the first mate, who, ever intent on duty, was busily engaged intrimming matters amidships, having the lashings of the longboat andspare spars overhauled in readiness for the next sea that might floodthe decks--for nothing could be done about the wreck of the foremasttill the gale moderated, as to loose it now would be to lose theirsheet-anchor. "McCarthy, just have the chain-pumps rigged and pump outthe hold to get rid of all that water we have taken on board. "

"Aye, aye, sorr, " was the hearty response, and the "cling, clang" of thepumps was soon heard resounding with a will through the ship, the menencouraged by the mate to do their best. 

Still, it was a bad look-out. 

The ship had first been scudding due east, and then to the northward, goodness only knew how many miles off her course; and now, here she was, drifting southwards, dismasted and rudderless, a hopeless wreck inunknown waters, at the mercy of the elements!

CHAPTER TWELVE. 

ICE AHEAD!

Although the wind and sea had being doing their utmost, without, totransform the previously trim ship, that had sailed from Plymouth sogallantly, into the veritable semblance of a battered hulk, no furtherdamage had been done below: so that, in the cuddy, all was comparativecomfort--in contrast to the scene on deck. 

Mr Zachariah Lathrope, who made light of his injuries, albeit his leftarm was in a sling--confessing, too, that his side "felt kinder painful, as if some coon had given him a sockdolager in the ribs, or a grizzlybar put his hug on"--was seated at the replaced table, pitching into asort of heavy lunch, to make amends for his missed breakfast, while thesteward was cutting up a plentiful supply of ham for him on his plate, so that he could use his solitary hand with a fork and so feed himself. Mrs Major Negus was busily engaged in her cabin, and with theassistance of Mary Llewellyn, the stewardess, was rearranging all hernumerous goods and chattels that had been so ruthlessly banged about inthe night; and Master Maurice, whom the turmoil had not disturbed in theleast, was still sleeping in the top bunk as composedly as he hadcontinued doing all through the period of his mother's struggles on thefloor and narrow escape from suffocation, unawakened either by the noiseor her loud calls for help--the worthy lady as soon as she came toherself having earnestly cautioned Kate and the stewardess not to arouseher darling boy, for "he would be so frightened, you know, if he saw melike this!"

Kate herself, recovered from her faint, but yet feeling weak and languidfrom the effects of all she had gone through, was mechanically assistingFlorry to dress, wondering the while, in a dull apathetic way, whethershe would ever again have to tender the same offices to her littlesister, for she was prepared for the worst and believed that the shipwas in imminent danger--although she hoped still, with the ardent natureof youth, that they might be delivered, trusting to the loving mercy andwatchful care of that God to whom she had prayed during the night, evenbefore her earthly father's counsel, and before whose footstool she hadalready that morning bent the knee more than once. 

As for Mr Meldrum--who had remained below from the consciousness thathe could not be of any service in the immediate present on deck and froman unwillingness to having the appearance even of shoving himselfforward and interfering with the management of the ship after whatCaptain Dinks had said--he had tumbled out a portmanteau in his state-room in order to overhaul some old papers; and he presently came outinto the cuddy with a chart in his hand. 

"Hillo, mister, " said the American as soon as he noticed him, "jestroused up, hey? I thought you wer havin' a bit of snooze, and wonderedwhen you were goin' to turn out!"

"Ah, " said Mr Meldrum gravely, "it's no time for sleeping now for anyone on board. The ship is in far too perilous a position for that!"

"Is she?" asked Mr Lathrope, most unconcernedly apparently. 

"She really is, " replied Mr Meldrum. 

"Wa-al, if she is, " returned the other, lifting a huge morsel of ham onthe end of his fork, and surveying it critically with much relish of eyebefore placing it in his capacious mouth, "why, it's a bad business, that's all I ken say; and I'm right down sorry fur it, I am--things wasgoing on so slick and pleasant! But if we can't help it, mister, what'sthe sorter use in grievin'? I don't see the good in cryin' over a spiltpetroleum can, I don't! Now, dew, mister, draw up har and make yourselfcomf'able; you'll find this bacon prime, for I knows it's the gen-u-ineChicago brand and came out of the States. "

"No, thanks, " said Mr Meldrum, smiling at the other's imperturbablephilosophy and epicureanism that seemed proof against everything, eventhe sense of mortal peril, "I had something to eat earlier, and do notcare about anything now. "

At that moment, Captain Dinks came down the companion and looked intothe saloon, when, seeing Mr Meldrum, he beckoned to him. 

"Would you mind coming on deck for a few moments, " said he hurriedly, "Iwant to speak to you about something?"

"Certainly, " said Mr Meldrum, at once getting up from the table, onwhich he had spread out the chart he had brought from his cabin and wasengaged with a pair of compasses in picking out the ship's possibleposition. 

"Say, mister--" commenced the American. 

"Pray, excuse me, " interrupted Mr Meldrum, "I'll speak to you when Icome down again; I must join the captain now, as you see;" and hehurried to the companion-way, Captain Dinks standing aside and motioningto him to go up first. 

"Say, Cap--" called out Mr Lathrope, not to be baffled. 

"Can't stop now, " curtly replied Captain Dinks; and he, too, disappearedin the rear of Mr Meldrum. 

"Now, I do jest wonder what them two coons hev on hand?" said theAmerican, when they had thus left him with his curiosity unslackened;"I'm durned if I don't go up myself and see: people must rise prettyairly o' mornin's to take a rise out of this old hoss!"

A roll of the ship, however, coming as soon as he had risen from hisseat, settled his inquisitiveness. "I guess I'd better bide har, " hemurmured to himself, uttering his thoughts aloud. "This air vessel's adurned sight too skittish on her footing to please me, an' that airramshackly arm o' mine might git squoze agin if I went on deck! No, Iguess I'll bide har in the land of Gilead--Steward!" he added, raisinghis voice. 

"Yes, sir, " answered Llewellyn, coming out of his pantry. 

"Hev you got any coffee or tea fixins?"

"No, sir, that lazy nigger Snowball says he can't light the galleyfire. "

"Does he? I'd make him smell fire if I'd got him out on the plantationwhar I was riz! Then, bring me a glass of brandy and water, and make itstiff: I allers go in fur temperance drinks when I can get them, that isbefore sundown; but if I'm obleeged to take pizen, why, I likes itstrong!"

When Mr Meldrum gained the deck, in company with the captain, he foundthe wind still blowing with terrific force and a dangerous sea on, although as the gale had not shifted during the last hour from thenorth-west, to which quarter it had finally veered, there was some hopethat they had escaped from the worst of the cyclone and were now beinghurried along its outside edge. In one of the last onslaughts of thewind, however, the mainyard truss had been carried away, and the yardswung so violently to and fro after snapping the braces like pack-threadthat it seemed as if the main-mast would go; but, fortunately, in one ofits mad gyrations, as it moved about like the arms of a semaphore, theyard-arm had caught in the standing rigging on the starboard side, where, through the gallant exertions of Frank Harness and the Norwegiansailor, who performed the task at the peril of their lives, it wasfirmly lashed and secured from doing further mischief. This operationeased the ship considerably, and certainly saved the masts. 

The worst piece of news that the captain had to tell Mr Meldrum waswith reference to the manner in which the ship was leaking. 

"We had four feet water in her when the carpenter sounded the well atsix bells, " said Captain Dinks; "and after rigging the pumps we reducedit considerably; but since then, she has made nearly two feet again--allclear and clean without any bilge in it--which shows she's taking it infresh and fast. "

"There must be a big leak somewhere, " said Mr Meldrum, "and the soonerwe see about stopping it the better. "

"Yes, " said the captain, "we might keep it down certainly by an hour'sspell in each watch; but it tires out the men so. I think it is comingin somewhere astern; the rudder-post must have started some of thetimbers when it got wrenched off. "

"Very probably, " said the other; "but then, the ship has had a good dealof straining the last day or two, besides from the storm in the Bay ofBiscay. "

"Ah! she felt that, " replied Captain Dinks. "That's what, no doubt, weakened the rudder and made it go so easily this morning; but I'll callthe carpenter. "

The port watch had gone below with Mr Adams, to have a little rest, forthere was no need of all the crew being on deck, the ship riding out thegale to leeward of the floating anchor which providence had sent them inthe shape of the broken foremast, and there being nothing to do; so, ona hail from the captain, Mr McCarthy passed the word forwards for BenBoltrope, who soon made his appearance out of the fo'c'sle--scramblingaft as well as he could by holding on to every rope in his way, for thevessel rolled and pitched most uneasily, rendering upright walking alongthe deck an utter impossibility. 

"Sarvent, sir, " said he, touching his hat to Mr Meldrum on coming upthe poop ladder; "glad to see you on deck. "

"What about this leak, carpenter?" said Captain Dinks. "Please tell MrMeldrum all you know. "

"Well, your honour, " said Ben, "all that can be said lies in a nut-shell! She's making water as fast as it can pour in; and if we don'tfind the leak and stop it, she'll founder pretty soon. "

"Have you any idea where it is coming in?" inquired Mr Meldrum. 

"Well, sir, the cap'en say it's by the rudder-post; but I myself thinksit's amidships or else forrud: I'd have looked, but I couldn't shift thecargo without help. "

"This must be seen to at once, Captain Dinks, " said Mr Meldrum. "Asyou have asked my aid, I would advise your calling the watch below; andI'll go down with the carpenter and see whether we can spy out theleak. "

"Oh, by all means, if you think that will do any good, although I'm ofthe opinion that the leak is in the stern. McCarthy, call the portwatch up to go below and break cargo!"

"All hands, ahoy!"

This cry soon brought up the weary sailors, who had only just retiredafter more than twenty hours of duty, before they had had time to closetheir eyes in their first sleep, but they came out of the forecastlewillingly enough, well knowing the peril the ship was in; and, downbelow the main-hatch they bumbled after Mr Meldrum and the carpenter, glad that it was not for another spell of pumping for which they hadbeen called up. 

Ben Boltrope was found to be right. After tossing to one side the balesand boxes and heavy masses of iron that filled the midship section ofthe hold, they found a great gap between the timbers through which thewater was spouting in at the rate of some hundred gallons an hour--thecause of the hole being apparent enough in a long iron girder which hadgot jammed against the side of the ship, end outwards, and in theworking of the ship had made its way clean through the strakes andplanking--just as if it had been an auger, the hole had been bored soround and neat!

This orifice was now carefully plugged and battened over; and when thepumps were again rigged and the vessel cleared it was found that she hadceased to make water to any appreciable extent. 

"Thank God for that!" said Captain Dinks heartily. "I own I was wrong, for I was certain that the rudder-post was the seat of mischief:-- theship was bound to leak there!"

"It was a very natural thought of yours, " said Mr Meldrum, to soothehis sense of defeat. "I would have held to the same but for thecarpenter. "

"Ah! he's a roight good man, sorr, " chimed in Mr McCarthy, "and acridit to the sarvice that brought him up. Sure, an' he's a sailor ivryinch ov him, from the crown of his hid to the sole of his fut!"

The sky was still obscured by clouds and the stormy billows were tossingabout, striving to bear down the ship and beat her to pieces; but shebravely held her own, head to sea, and rode out the gale all that dayand night, as if she had been at anchor, although drifting steadily thewhile in a south-easterly direction, the impulse of the waves and theforce of the wind on her hull carrying her thither. 

It was the same the next day; but, on the third morning, the galesomewhat moderated, although still blowing with considerable force fromthe northward and westward, and under Mr Meldrum's advice, whichCaptain Dinks now eagerly sought on every occasion, sail was got uponthe ship and she was allowed to run before the wind, hoping that thevessel might reach smoother latitudes and fine weather, when they wouldbe able to repair damages and continue their voyage. 

It was but a poor pretence of making sail, however!

All they could set was a close-reefed mizzentop-sail and a forestaysail, which latter was hoisted on a jury-mast rigged forwards inplace of the foremast; while the missing rudder was replaced by aningenious makeshift, the joint handiwork of Mr Meldrum and thecarpenter, composed of lengths of a spare hawser and some of the smallerspars, sawn up, lashed together, and then planked over, so as to offer ayielding surface to the sea, and secured under the stern by guys andtackles leading from the quarter galleries, the steering gear being thenattached. 

This contrivance was found to work admirably in guiding the ship beforethe wind, although if they had tried to wear her or put her about by it, there might have been some difficulty and danger in the operation. 

Towards the evening of this day, while the crippled _Nancy Bell_, soruthlessly shorn of her fair proportions, was going along prettybravely, nevertheless, at some six knots an hour or more under thelittle sail she was carrying, with the sea still rough and wintry andthe sky all clouded over, the thermometer was noticed to go down againseveral degrees; and Mr Meldrum, who alone had made the discovery forthe wind having been bitterly cold for days past the feeling in the airwould not have specially attracted attention--at once warned CaptainDinks that they had run so far southwards that he was certain they werenear ice, and consequently it would be best to keep a strict look-out. 

"Ice?" exclaimed the captain aghast. "Why, we aren't much below thelatitude of the Cape, I take it!"

"You'll find you are wrong when we're able to get an observation, "replied Mr Meldrum. "I wouldn't be surprised to find that we were farbelow `the Forties, ' with all that drift and leeway we've had! However, wherever we are, we're not far from ice, take my word for it, whether itbe a wandering berg out of its latitude or the drift from the Antarcticice-fields. "

"All right, sir, " said Captain Dinks laughing, "I'll take your word forit; though an iceberg hereabouts, to my thinking, is a rather rumvisitor this time of year, and I'll believe it when I see it!"

However, the captain was wrong again. 

Just before dark, the look-out in the maintop reported something ahead, which presently turned out to be an enormous iceberg, fortunately faraway to leeward out of the course of the ship. It was an immenseirregular mass several miles long and of great height, appearing toreach up into the clouds above as it heaved up and down on the heavyrolling sea; and its top and points, covered with snow, stood outdistinctly against the dark horizon. 

"Ah, we are well away from that fellow!" said Mr Meldrum rubbing hishands; but his congratulations were cut short in a moment by the look-out man forward--the Norwegian sailor, who as an old whaler wasaccustomed to Antarctic sights and sounds--shouting out that there wasfield-ice ahead, and that from the crashing of the floes he thought theship must be near the pack. 

"Take in sail at once, " said Mr Meldrum, "and keep a sharper look-outthan ever. If the vessel runs against the ice woe betide us all!"

CHAPTER THIRTEEN. 

"LAND HO!"

"Let go the mizzentop-sail halliards, and man the fore staysail down-haul!" shouted out Captain Dinks the moment Mr Meldrum had spoken; and, the helm being put down at the same time, the ship was again broughthead to wind, almost sooner than it has taken to describe the operation. However, as it was observed after a little while that the vesseldrifted so rapidly to leeward, through the mere force of the wind on herexposed hull and remaining spars, not to speak of the wash of the sea, and thus ran in quite as great danger of colliding with the ice as ifshe had been going ahead, the fore staysail, reefed into the mostattenuated proportions, was set again--so that the ship might be understeerage way and be able to avoid, under judicious control, the numeroussmall bergs that now hove in sight like miniature islands in everydirection, making the navigation perilous in the extreme. 

As night came on, too, the dangers surrounding the _Nancy Bell_increased tenfold; for, the wind not only blew with greater strength, but it was accompanied by blinding showers of hail and snow, while athick fog rose from the freezing water, more like steam than anythingelse, obscuring everything and preventing the floating ice from beingseen until it was immediately under the bows. 

It was just about the beginning of the second dog-watch at four bells--six o'clock in the evening--that the mist came; so, after a briefconsultation with Mr Meldrum, Captain Dinks told the chief mate to callthe hands aft. 

"We are in as tight a hole, McCarthy, " said he, "as the poor old shipwas ever placed in, and it will take us all our time to get out of it;so, it's best to let all the hands know it, that each may do his bestfor the good of all. "

"Aye, aye, sorr, " answered Mr McCarthy; "it's no sight o' use beatingabout the bush when danger's under weigh. Till 'em the truth, Cap'en, and shame the divil!" Soon afterwards, his ringing voice calling, "allhands ahoy!" was heard forwards. 

The crew were not long tumbling aft; and, when they had assembled on themain deck, Captain Dinks addressed them from the break of the poop. 

"Men, " said he, "I'm sorry to say the _Nancy Bell_ is in a position ofthe greatest peril. We are now, after fighting with a cyclone for fivedays, being carried along by a rising gale into the midst of scatteredicebergs, any one of which may knock a hole in the ship; while if weshould run upon one of the bigger ones we must go to pieces at once. You know how, throughout the bad weather we've had, I have tried, tospare you as much as I could, conveniently with the proper working ofthe ship, and I've always allowed the watches their regular spell below;but to-night, and as long as we are surrounded by the ice, I can't allowa man off duty! None of us can tell whether the _Nancy Bell_ will beafloat and we alive by morning; so, no single hand must leave the deckwithout special permission. You may be certain I sha'n't set theexample, and you can now go forwards. I am about to set fresh look-outs, and each man will have his station. "

The majority of the crew gave a cheer at this, Ben Boltrope's lustyvoice being conspicuously to the fore; but some, amongst whom was a lazylout named Bill Moody, who was the chief grumbler in the forecastle, expressed their discontent audibly; saying that they "hadn't signedarticles to be worked like dogs!"

Captain Dinks' ears were pretty sharp, and he heard what was said; so hecalled the men back. 

"I know who spoke, " said he, "and I wouldn't disgrace the rest of thecrew by supposing that they share his feelings; but I'll add this forhis benefit, that anybody who may be discontented will find me easy-going enough when I am stroked the right way, but a pretty toughcustomer when anybody falls athwart my hawse!"

While this little incident was taking place, of course, the usual look-out was not neglected, the Norwegian being still aloft in the maintop, with Frank Harness and Mr Adams on the forecastle; but now, extra menwere detailed for the duty. Karl Ericksen, called down from the maintopwhere his range of view had become limited through the increasingdarkness and snowstorm, was placed between the knight-heads; a man oneach bow; Frank Harness on the fore scuttle; Mr McCarthy and Adams onthe port and starboard quarters; and Ben Boltrope at the wheel--CaptainDinks being here, there, and everywhere to see that everybody was on the_qui vive_, even ascending the mizzen rigging sometimes into the top, tohave an outlook from there and try whether his eyes could pierce themisty vapour that hung over the sea by dint of looking down into it. 

Thenceforward, throughout the weary night, there was little to do savelooking out and conning the ship. 

When a large cake of ice or berg was seen drifting perilously near, orbearing down upon the vessel, the word was passed along the deck fromforward to aft and her head turned one way or the other, the yards ofthe mizzen-mast--now the only ones left on the ship, with the exceptionof the fouled main-yard--being squared or braced up to help herinclination to either side, which was also assisted by the loosemizzentop sail. This latter had only been hauled up by the clewlinesand buntlines when sail was shortened, so as to be available to bedropped and sheeted home at a moment's notice in any sudden emergencywhen it might be necessary to get way on the ship to prevent her runningfoul of some giant iceberg that was trying to overtake her. Frommidnight the only break in the monotony of the silent watch, throughoutthe anxious hours that elapsed before daylight, was the warning cry ofthe look-outs' forward "Ice ahead!" or "Ice on the lee bow!" with thesailing directions of the captain to the steersman, quickly followingthe words of warning, "Hard up with the helm!" or else, "Keep her off alittle, my man!" or the single word, --sometimes the most important orderof all, --"Steady!"

In the cuddy, naturally, it was an equally anxious time throughout thetrying night; indeed, more so, considering the state of mind of thoseconcerned. 

Mr Meldrum, on going below, had told of the course of things above, explaining the perilous position of the ship without unduly alarming thenervous susceptibilities of the women folk, and after his periodicalvisits to the deck he brought back the cheering news that all was as yetgoing on well; but still, the very fact of being unable to do anythingsave watch and pray, was even more exhausting and wearying than in beingexposed to the bitter weather like the crew and officers of the shipwere--for the sense of duty and something constantly calling on theirattention prevented the latter from thinking, as those could only do whohad no cause or call for action. 

The American passenger did not, however, appear in the least put out ormore than ordinarily impressed with the gravity of the situation, takingit, as it were, as a matter of course. 

"It's no use making a muss over what can't be helped, " he said with theutmost sang-froid. "The ship's in good hands, and as I can't doanything, why I guess I'll let things ride and be as comf'able as Iken. " So he ate and drank with just as good an appetite as ever whendinnertime came--though it was later than usual, through Snowball nothaving been able to light the galley fire till nearly dark; and, on thearrival, according to Mr Zachariah Lathrope's reckoning, of bedtime, hecurled himself up in his bunk, going to sleep as composedly as if he hadbeen safe and sound ashore, with the comforting assurance to the others, as he said "good-night, " that "if things should kinder turn outonpleasant, why, I guess they'll rouse me up!"

Florry Meldrum, too, and Master Maurice Negus were not one whit the morealarmed by the critical condition of the _Nancy Bell_ either; but, neither Maurice's mother nor Kate closed their eyes for a moment thelivelong night. 

When some feeble rays of light at length strayed down through theskylight, causing the lamps over the cuddy table to burn more dimly, when the scuttles in the cabins, seen through the half-opened doors, became illumined by some reflection from without, showing that the long-wished-for morning had broken at last, Kate, unable to endure thesuspense any longer, put on her cloak and went on deck. 

The scene and all its surroundings had very much altered since she hadlast been up the companion-way; so that when she got on the poop now, sogreat a transformation had occurred that it seemed to her as if she werein a species of nautical fairyland. 

The ship herself was cased in ice--hull, spars, and standing rigging, and all--with long pendulous icicles hanging from the main and mizzenyards. The fog or mist having also cleared away and the clouds vanishedfrom the sky, every object glittered like jewels in the golden rays ofthe rising sun. 

But the _Nancy Bell_ was not the only object of attraction and interest. 

She was surrounded by icebergs in every direction--to the right, to theleft, right in front, and astern--some little mites not bigger thancockle-shells in comparison with the larger ones, baby bergs, so tospeak, and others as lofty as mountains, extending as far as the eyecould reach to the horizon; the ship racing by them and threaded her wayin and out between the moving masses with the dexterity of a Highlanderexecuting the sword-dance. The wind was still blowing more than half agale from the northward and westward, and the vessel was running beforeit under the fore staysail and mizzentop-sail, which had been droppedagain with the reef points shaken out, making eight knots good, too, atthat. 

Where there was no ice, the rolling sea was of an intense ultramarineblue, reflecting the colour of the distant sky; while, as the sun cameup higher, different tints were displayed by the icebergs, whose shapewas as various as their sizes--bergs that in their gorgeous architectureand fairy magnificence, with fantastic peaks and airy pinnacles, whichglittered now in the full light of day with all the varied colours ofthe rainbow, flashing out scintillations and radiances of violet andiris, purple and turquoise, and sapphire blue, emerald green and orange, blush rose and pink and red--all mingled with soft shades of crimson andcarmine, and interspersed with gleams of gold and silver and a frostingover all of bright white light. 

"Ah!" ejaculated Kate, uttering her thoughts aloud, so carried away wasshe by the vivid beauty of the scene, "those who haven't seen an icebergat sea at sunrise, have no idea of the grand loveliness of God'shandiwork in nature!"

"They look beautiful enough now, missy, " said Captain Dinks, who hadcome to her side unnoticed, and seemed much jollier than he had done thenight before, when he thought the ship in her last extremity; "but wedidn't think them so a little while ago, when it looked as if the poorold _Nancy Bell_ would lay her old bones amongst them!"

"Ah! Captain Dinks, " replied she, "there was One above looking after usthen, as he is now!"

"You are right, " said he earnestly; "or we should never have escaped aswe did; once or twice, when we grazed a berg, I thought it was all upwith us. "

"Oh!" exclaimed Kate with a shudder, "it was a terrible night; and youand the poor fellows on deck must have found it bitterly cold. "

"Not a doubt of that, " said Captain Dinks laughing. "I was almost half-frozen in the mizzen rigging; and as for poor Frank Harness, when hecame off the fore-scuttle, where he was stationed all night to pass theword from the look-outs forward, he could hardly move his limbs! If ithadn't been for the hot coffee our friend Snowball served out every twohours to warm us up, I don't believe any of us would have been alivethis morning. But here comes your father. How sly your were all tokeep it so carefully concealed that he was in the navy; and I taking himall the time for a lubberly landsman! I'll never forgive myself; foryou must all have laughed at me, especially you, Miss Kate, and yourroguish little sister. Ah! good morning, Mr Meldrum, " added thecaptain turning to that gentleman; "I was just thinking about you. Iwanted to have a consultation about our course. My dead reckoning isall at sea, and I hardly can guess where we are now; but I trust weshall be able to get an observation of the sun at noon, and then we willbe able to prick off our position on the chart. "

"I sincerely hope so, " said Mr Meldrum; "for I think we're going fartoo much to the southward. "

"Do you, still, eh?" replied Captain Dinks. "I don't quite agree withyou. I thought it best to keep the ship before the wind, not onlybecause it eases her but on account of the gale being bound to slackendown soon; and if we run down to a lower latitude, as I have frequentlydone in this part of the ocean before, we will probably get fine weatherand be able to tinker up the old craft and make her look all a tauntoagain. "

"Ah!" said Mr Meldrum, "you are just as likely to run on to somethingelse, not quite so pleasant as fine weather! Mark my words, CaptainDinks, I am as certain, and more so now than I was three days ago, as Itold you then, that we are far down in the Forties; and what with theeasting we have made since passing the meridian of the Cape and theleeway we have drifted, we must be pretty close to the Crozet Islands orKerguelen Land. "

"Kerguelen Land!" ejaculated the captain; "nonsense, man; why we arehundreds of miles to the westward of it. "

"Are we?" replied Mr Meldrum. "Well, just wait till twelve o'clock andwe'll see who is right, you or I!"

Hardly, however, had the words escaped his lips than the look-out man inthe maintop--who had been replaced as soon as day broke, when theprospect around the ship became more extended, thus rendering hisservices useful--shouted out a cry that had almost been forgotten, andwhich made every heart on board leap with mingled feelings ofoverpowering joy, consternation, surprise, dismay! Every pulse stoppedfor a second spellbound! The cry was--"Land ho!"

CHAPTER FOURTEEN. 

SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS. 

"Land!" called out the captain. "Where away?"

"On the weather-beam, " answered the man aloft, who still spoke in avoice which sounded as if he had been greatly startled. "It's risingrapidly every moment, sir, out of the water. "

"The fellow must be blind!" exclaimed Captain Dinks. "There is no landthere in that direction, if I know it. He must be taking one of thosebig icebergs for an island; that's about the matter. Hanged if I don'tgo up and see for myself!"

Running down the poop ladder, the captain soon started up the shrouds onthe port side towards the maintop where the lookout man was stationed. It was not Karl Ericksen this time, whose word he would have implicitlytaken, but Bill Moody, one of the worst of the crew, and who, it may beremembered, had already evinced an unsailorlike spirit by hisinsubordination on an occasion when the pluck and endurance of everyonerequired to be tested. From this fact alone, Captain Dinks was the lessinclined to trust him. 

The captain, however, found mounting the ratlines not so easy a task ashe might have imagined, for the rigging was all frozen hard and asunbending as iron; but he persevered unflinchingly, and disdaining tocreep through the "lubber's hole, " climbed over the top in the usualsailor's way, although he puffed and panted a good deal when he gotthere, which proved to him that the flesh he had gained on his plumplittle person, since he had been a youngster and first shinned up therigging, had not improved his climbing powers. 

"Now, where's this wonderful land of your's!" he asked, as soon as hegot alongside of Bill Moody, taking his glass out of his pocket andadjusting the focus ready for action. 

"There, " answered the man surlily, pointing towards the north-east, where a faint blue bank seemed to rise out of the ocean above and beyondthe ice-fields. It could be seen with the naked eye to be of adifferent colour to even the most distant bergs, the distinction beingquite marked. 

"By Jove, the man's right!" ejaculated Captain Dinks with surprise. 

"I knew I were, " said Bill Moody in a bragging sort of way. "I think Ican see a hole in a ladder as well as most people; and if that ain'tland, why, I'll eat it. "

"There, that will do, " interposed the captain to stop any furtherremarks, while he proceeded to inspect the hazy object with keenattention for some minutes, after which he replaced his glass in hispocket and prepared to descend to the deck again. 

"Keep a sharp look-out, " he said to Moody as he disappeared over theside of the top, "and sing out, as soon as we get any nearer, whetheryou can see a line of breakers at the foot of the island; for island itis, sure enough!"

"Aye, aye, " grunted out the man; and Captain Dinks went down the riggingeven more carefully than he had ascended, finding great difficulty inpreventing his unaccustomed feet from slipping off the ratlines, whichwere like rungs of the smoothest and most polished ice. 

"You were right, and I was wrong, " he said to Mr Meldrum, as soon as hehad regained the poop. "There is land in sight, sure enough, although Ican at present only see it faintly towards the north-east. It must be, as you say, either the Crozet Islands or Kerguelen Land, for there'snothing else between us and the Australian continent, as we haven't yetgot quite so far south as the Antarctic regions. "

"It's probably Kerguelen Land, " observed Mr Meldrum, "for you couldn'tsee the Crozets nearly so far off; but I hope there's not going to beanother change of the weather. It seems clouding over again. "

"Not before we get an observation, I trust, " replied the captain; "Idon't like knocking about any longer without knowing where I am. "

"Nor I, sorr, " put in the first mate heartily. "Sure it's like goin' inthe dark to Bandon Fair, for all the worruld over. "

"It's not what we like, " interposed Mr Meldrum somewhat dryly. "Wehave got to put up with what we can get. "

"True for you, sorr, " said Mr McCarthy, not to be beaten; "sure, butisn't it best to make the best on it. "

"That's incontestable, " replied Mr Meldrum with a laugh; and there theconversation ended, Kate and her father going below to breakfast. 

The weather got thicker, with the wind coming in gusts and now and thenshifting a bit, so that the solitary mizzen-topsail of the _Nancy Bell_had now again to be close reefed, and her course directed more towardsthe land, which they did not seem to near so rapidly as they had thoughtthey would--owing probably to some current that was all the timecarrying them southwards while they were steering towards the east. 

They were actuated, however, by no vulgar curiosity to inspect thisocean land in thus seeking to approach it. 

On an ordinary occasion they would most certainly have given it a prettywide berth; but now, should the sky cloud over so much as to preventtheir getting an observation of the sun by which to correct theirlatitude and longitude, the identification of the land would at onceprove their position on the chart without further trouble. This was whythey wanted to near it. 

After breakfast, when Mr Meldrum came on deck again, the wind hadfreshened considerably, although still blowing from the north-west, while the outlook was generally squally; but the sky above still keptclear, with the sun shining down at intervals, when the scud, which wasbeginning to fly about again, did not interpose to hide its beams. Theland, the while, was steadily rising to the northward and eastward. 

"It's Kerguelen Land, sure enough, " said Mr Meldrum, when, afterimitating Captain Dinks and paying a visit to the maintop toreconnoitre, he returned to the poop. "I can see the outlying rockstowards its north-west extremity called `The Cloudy Isles, ' and away tothe east I noticed the snow-white peak of Mount Ross, which stands inthe centre of the island and is over six thousand feet high. "

"Well, you've good eyesight to see that at the distance, " observedCaptain Dinks in a chaffing way. "I wish my optics were as clear. "

"I can see pretty well, " replied the other; "and if you had had to lookout as sharply as I've had to do for pirate junks up the Gulf ofTonquin, I fancy you would have had your eyesight improved!"

"All right, Mr Meldrum, " said Captain Dinks frankly. "I'm sure I didnot doubt your word for a moment. I've never been so far south before, and feel a little out in my reckoning. However, it will soon be time totake the sun, and that will decide the point. "

A few stray snowflakes came fluttering down on the deck just then, andboth he and Mr Meldrum looked aloft. No cloud was to be seen exactlyoverhead, but a heavy bank of haze was creeping up from the southtowards the zenith that looked ominous. 

"We shall have a repetition of yesterday again, I'm afraid, " said MrMeldrum presently with much concern, after a long interval of silencebetween the two. 

"I'm afraid so, " was Captain Dinks' reply; "but I hope it won't come foranother hour at least. " He then hailed the steward down the companion-way, telling him to bring up his sextant from the cabin. 

Fortunately, it just kept clear enough for an observation to be taken;and when Captain Dinks had worked it out, both he and Mr Meldrum actingindependently so as to test the accuracy of the reckoning, it was foundthat the ship was in 48 degrees 50 minutes south latitude, and 68degrees 40 minutes east longitude. Consequently, the land they wereapproaching could be none other than Kerguelen Land. 

"As we now know where we are, " said Mr Meldrum, when the fact wasestablished, "we must give the island as wide a berth as we can, for thecoast is most dangerous; and in winter-time, as it is now, July beingthe December of the antipodes, the most fearful storms are said tospring up at a moment's notice in its vicinity. As the wind is stillfrom the north-west, and we are well up to the northward, I should tryto weather it if possible; and, if we can't do that, we must pass to thesouth of the land. "

"Very good, " replied the captain. "Only, you know the poor old _Nancy_cannot sail as well now, as she could when in full trim. I don't at alllike the look of the weather, though, Mr Meldrum. It seems to me thatono of those coast storms you were speaking of is brewing up. The ice, too, is getting thick round us again; and if a fog comes on again we'llbe in a worse position than yesterday, for then we'd plenty of sea-roomat any rate, while now, we have that blessed island almost dead toleeward. "

"We must trust in Providence, " said Mr Meldrum, "and keep a sharp look-out if the fog thickens; but try to beat to windward we must, ifpossible!"

During the bright morning, the hands, working diligently under thesupervision and help of the first mate and Adams, the second, had beentrying to make the _Nancy Bell_ a little more shipshape, and, althoughthey had been greatly hampered through the ropes and running gear beingfrozen so stiff that it was almost impossible to unbend or run them, they succeeded finally in trussing the mainyard again and splicing thebraces, so that they now were able to set the mainsail reefed, a welcomeaddition to the limited sailing power of the ship in working towindward. 

All things were proceeding very satisfactorily in the afternoon, bywhich time they had got the land to bear well on the lee-beam, and itlooked as if they could weather it; when, suddenly, there came on athick snowstorm, mingled with showers of hail, and the same kind of mistwhich had risen almost at a precisely similar hour on the previous dayagain enveloped them in its folds, shutting out all view of the water ateven a short distance from the vessel's side. 

The _Nancy Bell_ was then steering nor'-nor'-east and some ten miles offthe land, with the wind coming from the northward and westward insqualls. Presently, it blew so fresh that the lately set mainsail hadto be taken in again, and next the mizzen, for the ship heeled over somuch that it was thought at one time she would not recover herstability; but, even under the reefed fore staysail, which was stillretained to enable her to weather the land, she tore through the waterat such a rate, that, in spite of the continual watch, it was mostdifficult to avoid the heavy masses of floating ice that seemed tospring up on all sides again, and which she had appeared to have beenleaving behind her in the morning. 

"Sure and it's a worse look-out than last night, sorr, " said the firstmate to Mr Meldrum, who was peering out anxiously to windward, the galeveering round just at the most critical time to the northward. "Faix, and I don't think we can weather them islands now, with all this iceabout too. "

"Nor do I, " replied Mr Meldrum. "Captain Dinks, we'll have to run forit. Do you think you can wear her?"

"If your rudder holds out, " said the captain. 

"I'll guarantee the rudder, " answered Mr Meldrum. "The only thing is, I fear the spars will go. "

"We must risk those, my friend. It's a case of neck or nothing now. Listen! Can you hear anything?" and the captain bent his ear toleeward. 

Yes, Mr Meldrum could hear something. They all could hear somethingabove the shrieking of the wind, and the roar of the waves, and thecrash of the cakes and bergs of ice tumbling against each other. It wassomething that sounded like the death-knell of the _Nancy Bell_, andmade their faces blanch with fear. It was the noise of breakers, distant yet, but still as plainly distinguishable as if quite near--breakers breaking on a lee-shore, the most terrible sound of all soundsto a sailor's ear!

"Stand by to wear ship!" shouted Captain Dinks, and he himself took holdof the spokes of the wheel as he uttered the words, easing it round, while the mate rushed forwards, calling the hands. 

"Tumble up, men, tumble up!" cried Mr McCarthy; "don't stop for yourclothes. All hands wear ship. "

Frank Harness and Mr Adams had already darted towards the braces; and, the men soon joining them, the yards were braced round, the mizzen andmainsail being again dropped and sheeted home to enable her to pay offfrom the shore, which the vessel soon did on the other tack, althoughthe canvas made her bury her bows in the sea and almost heel over tillthe mainyard dipped. 

"Let her carry on, she'll bear it, " said the captain. "We cannot do toomuch to get away from those confounded breakers; I'd sooner hearanything than them!"

"So would I, " responded Mr Meldrum, still looking pale, for the _NancyBell_ had had a narrow squeak of going to the bottom when wearing; "butwe are rushing into almost as terrible a danger as the lee-shore. If wecome in contact with one of these icebergs, going at the speed we nowdo, the shock will sink us to a certainty. "

"Well, " said the captain, "of the two dangers that is the least. Bykeeping a good look-out we may avoid the ice, which we could never dowith the lee-shore, save by getting away from it, as we are doing now. By Jove, isn't she walking along--the beauty, crippled as she is--justas if she knew the peril she was in!"

"Better not holler till yer out of the wood, " observed Mr McCarthy; "asfor myself, I wish it was mornin' agin, sure!"

He'd no sooner uttered the words, however, than the look-out man forwardsuddenly gave vent to a frightened exclamation, drawn from him by thesight of something unexpected and terrible. 

"Ice on the lee bow!" shouted he. "Port your helm hard!"

But the warning came too late. 

Almost at the same instant as the cry reached the ears of those aft, the_Nancy Bell_ struck full butt against a dark object that loomed up outof the fog right ahead of the ship, and which had been unperceived amoment before. 

There was a grinding rending crash and sound of breaking timbers, thevessel quivering from stem to stern; and then, the main and mizzenmasts, with all their yards and the sails which had so lately beenurging the ship on to her destruction toppled over the sides, whilst awave, washing back from the base of the iceberg and coming in over thebows, swept the decks fore and aft. 

CHAPTER FIFTEEN. 

MAKING THE BEST OF IT. 

All hands were on deck at the time of the collision; and, with oneconcentrated cry of alarm which was more a yell than anything else, themen rushed in a body amidships to where the long-boat was stowed. 

Captain Dinks, however hesitating and undecided as he had shown himselffrequently of late in the navigation of the ship, now all at oncebrought out in this emergency that courage and capacity for commandwhich he had really at bottom but which had been before dormant. 

"Back for your lives, men, to your stations!" he shouted. "Although thebows are stove in, the bulkhead forward will prevent the water fromflooding us beyond the fore compartment and give us time to run the shipashore, when we can all escape. No boat could live in the sea that'snow on; and if it did, it would run a worse chance of being stove in bythe ice than our poor vessel had!"

His words made the men hang back, all save Bill Moody and a couple ofothers, who began casting off the lashings of the longboat; but MrMcCarthy rushing down on the main deck and seizing a capstan bar withwhich he threatened to brain the first man who resisted the captain'sauthority, the unruly ones desisted for the time, slinking forwardsgrumblingly. 

"Carpenter, " called out Captain Dinks, "sound the well and see whatdamage has been done; and, Mr Adams, send the port watch aft to clearaway this top hamper. It is thumping away alongside and may makeanother breach in our timbers!"

The captain's apparent calmness, combined with the sense of dutyparamount on ship-board, made the men set to work with a will; besideswhich, they well knew that by acting together in harmony they had abetter chance of escape than by any mere individual effort. MrMcCarthy, too, and Adams showed themselves equally as capable as CaptainDinks in lending a hand and encouraging the crew--Frank Harness beingnot one whit behindhand either; so that, within a very few minutes afterthe consternation which the catastrophe had caused on its firsthappening had passed away, all, recovering that equanimity habitual tosailors in almost any predicament or calamity, were engaged in carryingout the orders given them, as coolly as if the _Nancy Bell_ were snug atanchor in some safe harbour. But, in what a sadly different positionwas she now!

Battered as she had been by the storm in the Bay of Biscay and crippledby the terrible cyclone off the Cape, which had left her tossingrudderless and almost dismasted on the deep, her then condition wasfavourable in comparison with her present state--that of a completewreck, with her bows stove in, her masts all carried by the board, andher decks swept fore and aft of everything!

Fortunately, as the mainmast had fallen over the side, it had jammedagainst the iceberg with which they had collided, so fending off thevessel's head that she had sheered to starboard and thus passed by thefloating mountain; otherwise, probably, the poor _Nancy Bell_ would havebeen ground down by the pressure of the ice below the surface of thesea. Ben Boltrope, too, returning from forward after a survey of thedamage, in accordance with the captain's command, reported another pieceof good news. The bows had been stove in, it was true, and the bulkheadsmashed, filling the fore compartment and bringing the ship's head somuch down that it would be almost impossible to sail her even in asmooth sea; but the jury-mast, which had been rigged forward in place ofthe lost foremast, had gone over on the port bow, instead of falling tothe starboard side of the ship like the other masts, and the forestaysail attached to it, dragging overboard, had got sucked into thehole which the iceberg had made, thus stopping the inrun of water to anyappreciable extent Ben said that he believed they would be able so topatch up the damaged place in the bows after a time, thanks to thiscircumstance, that they might hope to make a shift of rigging up a sailagain to run the ship ashore with. 

"Bravo!" said Captain Dinks on hearing this. "Take what men you likeand commence the repairs at once, for there's no time to be lost MrMeldrum, what say you to this?"

But, Mr Meldrum had gone below to his daughters, well imagining thestate of alarm they would be in and rather surprised that Kate had notalready made her appearance on deck. When he reached the cuddy, thereason of her absence was explained. 

Poor Florry had met with an accident, the concussion when the ship hadstruck the iceberg having thrown her out of her berth, cutting her headagainst the cabin door; and Kate, assisted by Mr Lathrope, was bindingup the wound and comforting the sufferer. 

"I guess, mister, " said the American, looking up as Mr Meldrum enteredthe main saloon, "I've had to act the good Samaritan, same as your galdid to me when I got jammed together t'other day in my innards agin thewash-stand! We're fixin' up the little miss finely. 'Tain't much of aninjoory, I kalkerlate, missy, though thar be a sight of blood, and it'llsoon git closed up agin!"

"Thanks for your kind services, " said Mr Meldrum. "I would have beendown before, but was too busy on deck. "

"I know, " replied the other, nodding his head--"helping the captain outof the muss, eh? That wer an allfired smash, though! Done much hurt?"

"Yes, " said Mr Meldrum guardedly, with a glance at the girls; "but themischief's over now for the present, though. "

"I see, I see, " whispered Mr Lathrope; "I don't need nary notherexplanation, mister. I hev shed my eye-teeth, I hev, and thar's no usein skearin' folks. That madam the Meejur, now, has been going on tree-men-jus, an' it has ben as much as your gal could kinder dew to get herto quiet down. Jee-rusalem! but she wer goin' to have the cap'en up oncourt-martial, an' the steward tarred and feathered, an' the Lord knowswhat! Then, too, ther wer that b'y of hern, squalling like a frog in afit, the durned young imp, I'd lief have skinned him! If it hadn't beenfor your gal, they'd have raised thunder aboard, they would: you oughterbe kinder proud, mister, to hev sich a sensible young woman fur yerdarter! She warn't a bit skeart when the shock came; but braced herselfup as cool as a cowcumber, and thar she's ben, keeping them noisy folksquiet, and tendin' her little siss like a Christian!"

"Indeed I am proud of her, " said Mr Meldrum, gazing at Kate fondly;"but you say nothing about yourself. You've been making yourself of usetoo. "

"Snakes and alligators, mister, I ain't worth a corn-chuck alongside ofyour gal! In course, I wer a bit flabbergasted when we collided justnow--with one of them hammocks of ice, I guess, hey!"

"Yes, " said Mr Meldrum, "we ran against an iceberg, and a pretty bigone too. "

"I thought so, " continued the other. "But you knows me by this time. Inever gets upsot by no matter what happens, so I jest fixes on one ofthem life-belts I always has handy whenever I travels on them high-pressure steamboats we hev on the Mississippi--whar you run the chanceof getting busted up regular every trip--and thar I turned out of mycabin slick for anything, so I wer able to help miss, har, in shakingdown that dreadful old screech-owl yander, and plaster up little missyarterwards. "

"How's your arm now?" asked Mr Meldrum kindly. 

"Oh, the durned thing's all right, only a bit stiff. Madam gave it asquoze jist now when I histed her off the floor, whar she got throweddown and wer bellowin' like a mad bull in fly time. That made the paingrip me agin; but I dessay it's all right now for a scrimmage if needsbe. "

"And where's Mrs Negus, eh?"

"Thar she is, with that young imp clasped in her arms, sobbin' her heartout in her cabin; and if you go fur to comfort her, as I did just now, why, she bites your nose off like a crocodile, she dew! She sez we'llall go to the bottom; and that the cap'en and everybody else have runnedthe ship ashore just to spite her--she knows, she sez, it's ben onlydone fur that!"

And the American laughed with a keen relish of the joke, which no senseof his own peril could subdue. 

"She isn't far out in thinking the ship going down, " said Mr Meldrumgravely. "The vessel has a hole knocked in her bows, through which youmight drive an omnibus, and her fore compartment is full of water. We'll soon have to abandon her, although, I've no doubt, she'll keepafloat for some hours yet. I advise you, Mr Lathrope, to put on thewarmest suit of clothes you've got, and get together any few littlethings that may be of use in a boat, as I'm going to do. Kate, mydear, " he added, addressing his daughter, who had been listeningattentively while he had been talking to the American, at the same timethat she hushed and soothed Florry, who was moaning with pain from herinjured head, "you'd better do likewise; and see also to poor MrsNegus, who appears utterly helpless and unable to look after herself. Where are the steward and stewardess?"

"The stewardess went on deck some time ago, papa, to try and get a cupof tea for Mrs Negus from the galley, and she has not yet returned, "answered Kate; "I think the steward is asleep in his pantry. "

"I thought him too big a coward to keep so quiet when the ship was inany danger, " said her father. "However, he'll have to rouse up now, whether he likes it or not. "

"Hi, Llewellyn!" shouted he, going up to the door of the pantry, whichwas closed, and rapping outside with his fist loudly several times. 

But there was no answer; so, turning the handle of the lockunceremoniously, he looked within and saw to his astonishment the objectof his quest coiled up in a corner of a locker that ran across one sideof the pantry, with a heap of blankets drawn tightly over his head. 

Mr Meldrum entered and proceeded to shake the human bundle, calling theman again by name; when, after a little while, he disinterred histerrified face from amidst the folds of his coverings, looking as paleas a Niobe in marble. 

"Wha-wha-what do you want?" Llewellyn stammered out, with his usualstutter when spoken to sharply. 

"Rouse up, man, and turn out at once, " said Mr Meldrum. "What do youmean by hiding yourself here, cowering in a corner like a frightenedhound, when the ship's in danger and there's work for all hands to do. "

"I thought she was going down, sir, and--and--"

"And you hadn't the pluck to face your fate like a man, eh!" continuedMr Meldrum, finishing his sentence for him. "But you must know thatbrave men don't allow cowards to hamper their movements! Get up atonce, sir, and see about raising up all the tinned meats and cabinstores you can fetch out of the steerage. Now, look sharp!"

"Ye-e-es, sir, " replied Llewellyn, crawling unwillingly out of hiscorner; "but, Cap'en Dinks said--"

"No matter what Captain Dinks said, " interrupted Mr Meldrum, "I've gothis authority for what I am doing, and order you at once to set aboutgetting the provisions up for the boats. We'll shortly have to abandonthe ship; and, if you don't obey my orders, you shall be left behind. "

"I'll do it at once, sir, " answered the steward with alacrity, thethreat of being abandoned in the sinking vessel being quite sufficientto expedite his movements; and he at once made for the after hatch toget down into the hold, Mr Meldrum satisfying himself that he had setabout the task before leaving him, and then, with a kindly word or twoto Kate and Mr Lathrope, going on deck again. 

On gaining the poop, Mr Meldrum found that the snow had ceased to fall, the gale having gone down a bit. There was also a clear sky overhead, and a few stars were shining out; but the heavy misty fog still hungover the water, like a curtain, preventing the view of anything beyond alimited range from the sides of the ship, while the sea was extremelyrough, the waves being nasty and choppy, as if some current or tidewaywas working against the wind, causing the rollers to break over thebattered bows every now and then in sheets of foam. 

However, the outlook was better than he expected; and, besides, he couldsee, on looking round, that no time had been lost by Captain Dinks andthe crew since he had been below. 

The wreck of the main-mast and mizzen-mast, with the yards and sailsattached, which had been knocking about in the water alongside theship--bumping against the timbers and threatening a danger almost as badas the collision--had been cut adrift, the smaller spars being firstcast loose and hoisted on board in case of need for jury-masts. Thecarpenter and some of the hands, meanwhile, had braced up the brokenbulkhead with stout beams placed across, so as to prevent it from givingway under the strain and allowing the contents of the fore compartmentto flood the main hold; for, it was utterly impossible for the presentto clear it of water, although the pumps, which had been kept constantlygoing, sufficed to keep the rest of the ship pretty free and avert thedanger of sinking for a time. It was only a question of time!

The captain was just then overhauling the longboat, which, with thejolly-boat, that had been stowed inside of the former for safety andconvenience, were the only two boats that had been left, the othershaving been washed off the beams at the time that the cook's caboose hadbeen carried away during the cyclone; and Mr Meldrum, going down on tothe main-deck, approached the skipper. 

"We'll have to take to the boats soon, " said the captain, turning roundas he came up, "that is, when the sea moderates a bit. I don't seeanything else that can be done--do you?"

"If I were you, " suggested Mr Meldrum, "I would try and run her ashorefirst and beach her. We're not far from Kerguelen Land, and though itis now winter time on the island and desolate enough, it would be betterour stopping there than wandering about the ocean in the boats, tryingto get into the track of the Australian liners, or else making for theCape, the only place we could steer for. "

"It's a bad look-out any way, " said the captain despondently. 

"Yes, I grant that, " replied the other; "but, if we land there andmanage to hold out till September or October, only three months at theoutside, a lot of whaling craft generally put into Kerguelen for theseal-fishery about that time, and I daresay we could get one of these totake us to the Cape. "

"Perhaps that would be the best, " said Captain Dinks, reflecting amoment--"but what would you advise now--how are we to get ashore, eh!"

"Why, rig up a jury-mast or two at once and make for the land!" answeredMr Meldrum promptly. "The island must be close to us now to leeward;and with this wind we ought to be able to reach the shore by daybreak, when we would be able to look about us better. It is certainly not theslightest good our remaining here doing nothing till then, for thecarpenter tells me, it is only just as much as the men can do to keepdown the water by constant pumping, so by the morning they'll be prettynigh exhausted and we be no better off. Besides, as you can observe foryourself, it would be madness while that sea is on to try to launch theboats, unless we are absolutely compelled to do so in order to save ourlives; whereas, if we run the old craft ashore, we will have the boatsfor a last chance. "

"I suppose you're right, " said Captain Dinks, "though I can't say that Ilike to leave the poor old thing's bones to bleach on this outlandishcoast. What say you, Mr McCarthy, eh?"

"I agree, sure, with Mr Meldrum, son. He spakes like a sailor; and ashe's a naval officer he ought to know best, " answered the chief mate. Mr Adams and Frank Harness, who were both also admitted to the "councilof war, " having given a similar opinion, Mr Meldrum's advice wasimmediately acted upon. 

Without delay, a small jury-mast was rigged up aft, attached to thestump of the mizzen-mast, and one on the main-deck, close to where themain-mast bitts yet remained, as it was thought better not to step thejury-masts too far forward, for fear of the vessel plunging her bowsunder. After this, the mizzen-topsail and topgallant-sail, which hadbeen cut off from the yards and saved from the wreck, were hoisted onroughly improvised yards; when, the _Nancy Bell_ being brought roundwith the wind abeam, was cast loose from the wreckage and headed dueeast towards the land--in the very direction whence had been heard thesound of breakers, and which all on board had been so anxious to give awide berth to but so few short hours before. What had been her direperil was now looked on as a haven of safety!

CHAPTER SIXTEEN. 

ALMOST A MUTINY. 

Towards midnight, the slight surface fog, which had up to that time hungover the sea, lifted, when it could be seen that the ice had almost alldisappeared--drifting towards the south, where some towering bergs, amongst which probably was the one that had done all the mischief to theill-fated vessel, were conspicuous in the distance. 

The wind, also, had diminished considerably in force, blowing now from apoint to the westward of north, although the waves were still rollingheavily, as they always do for some time after a storm in the southernocean, setting in towards the land that was just faintly visible rightahead of the _Nancy Bell_, and whither she was now proceeding steadily, but, of course, making but very slow progress through being waterloggedforwards and possessing such small sail-power. 

There was no moon, to complete the description; but the heavens abovewere twinkling with bright stars that gave sufficient light to illuminethe horizon for miles round, for they touched up the crests of the waveswith coruscations of silver, and made the broken spray gleam like jetsof flame above the dark expanse of water. Everything, in a word, lookedfavourable for their enjoying a quiet interval on board after all theanxiety and hard work of the preceding day and night. 

Seeing that no pressing danger was imminent, and that nothing more couldbe done for the present, Mr Meldrum tried to induce Captain Dinks, whohad been on deck for over forty-eight hours, to go below and have somerest, as he had a good deal yet before him to go through, and lookedfagged and worn-out. 

But the captain would not hear of the suggestion for a moment. 

"No, " said he; "I mistrust that mutinous chap, Bill Moody, and the lotwho sided with him in making a rush for the boats when we struck. Iknow they would be up to some mischief or other as soon as my back isturned. "

"But there is McCarthy your chief mate, " replied Mr Meldrum, "surely hecan take command of the vessel, as he has so often done before, whileyou have a spell off?"

"Ah, McCarthy, though as good an officer as ever stepped a plank, isn'tmyself, Mr Meldrum; and as for Adams, he wants backbone, while FrankHarness is too young a lad for the men to obey him if any difficultyarose. Besides, there are a lot of things to see to that want mysupervision, which must be given while I have this breathing time--theboats have to be prepared and provisioned, for instance. "

"Talking of that, " interrupted the other, "I have roused up that lazysteward of yours and set him to work collecting all the tinned meats andcabin stores he can find, and getting them up out of the steerage. "

"That's right, " said the captain. "It was very thoughtful, and justwhat I had intended doing myself, only I forgo it! I have got our oldfriend Snowball, the cook, busy here in the same way, boiling as muchsalt beef and pork as he can cram into his coppers, so that it may beready-cooked when wanted and save time. The darkey has got the galleyfire in full blast now. "

"A good precaution, " said Mr Meldrum; "but I do wish I could get you togo below. If you like I'll remain on deck in your stead?"

But, no! Captain Dinks would not hear of leaving the deck until thefate of the poor _Nancy Bell_ was settled for good or ill; and there heremained amidships--the mates sticking by him and lending a willing handso as to inspire the crew with an equal energy--superintending theconstant pumping operations which were necessary to keep the water fromgaining, one watch at a time being engaged solely on the task. Otherswere preparing the longboat and jolly-boat for service, which was atedious job, for the gunwales and bottom planking of both had beendamaged greatly by the knocking about they had sustained since leavingEngland, even if they had been properly seaworthy then--a veryproblematical point, for many of the boats of merchant ships which carrypassengers on distant voyages are never taken off the chocks or testedfrom year's end to year's end, in spite of all marine codes andPassenger Acts or Board of Trade ordinances to the contrary, and MrPlimsoll's effort notwithstanding!

When Mr Meldrum got below again he found that matters had quieted downin the cuddy. Mrs Negus, persuaded at last that the ship was notimmediately going to engulf herself and her darling boy, had beeninduced to take some refreshment--Snowball sending in a splendid hotsupper by the direction of the captain, as the regular routine of themeals in the cuddy had been somewhat revolutionised through thecalamities of the vessel. If she had any scruples, Mr Lathrope set thegood lady a praiseworthy example in looking after the necessities of theinner man. 

"S'pose we air gwine down to Davy Jones's Locker, " said the American, with a comical twinkle in his cunning grey eyes; "thar's no reason whywe shouldn't go with a full stummick as well as one like an empty mealsack, hey? Look at me, marm. I treats it philosopherically, I dew, furI find thars nothin' like feedin' to keep up a coon's grit. "

Mrs Major Negus murmured something about "somebody" being "shockinglyvulgar, " but, whether inspired by Mr Lathrope's "philosopherical"remark or not, she could not resist a second helping of some capital"lobscouse" which the darkey cook had dished up most appetisingly; afterwhich the good lady retired to her cabin for the night in much morecheerful spirits. 

Florry's cut head was easier, too, and by Mr Meldrum's directions sheand Kate turned in comparatively early. They really both wanted a goodnight's rest, and their father was not long in following out his ownprecept, advising Mr Lathrope to do likewise, to which he was nothingloth; so that, soon after eight bells had struck, all the occupants ofthe saloon were buried in repose and the ship quiet--with the exceptionof an occasional tinkering sound from the main-deck, coupled with the"clink-clank" of the chain-pumps and the wash of the waves past thesides, all of which were almost inaudible aft. 

About four bells in the morning watch, Mr Meldrum awoke; and, withoutdisturbing any of the others, he rose and went on deck. 

He seemed to have a presentiment of something happening. 

It was quite dark now, the stars having gone in and the sky becomeclouded over; while the wind had changed and was blowing in short sharpgusts from the southward, which, with the chopping sea, made the shiplabour a good deal, taking in lots of water forward. She seemed to buryher head in every wave, her bows being so depressed from the forecompartment being full; and this compelled the crew in consequence towork double spells at the pumps, which caused much grumbling, for themen were almost dead beat, although Captain Dinks still kept them hardat it. 

The disaffection had almost reached a head before Mr Meldrum came up, on account of the captain keeping the port watch, in which was Moody andtwo of his special chums--at the unpleasant task, without allowing thema turn off below, as he had done the other watch, the members of which, however, had had their spell of duty before "all hands" had been called, and thus were fully entitled to the relief. But, the grumblers, inconsidering their own grievance, did not recollect this, and theappearance of the passenger, whom some of them were already inclined todislike from something Ben Boltrope had dropped of his being a navalman, and the fact of his now ranging himself alongside of the captain, as if to support his authority, brought matters to a crisis. 

"Spell ho!" shouted Bill Moody defiantly, dropping his arms and strikingwork. "I'm hanged if I pump another stroke! The blessed old hulk cango to the bottom as soon as she likes. "

"Nor I, " exclaimed another, likewise leaving off. "Nor I!" chorusedhalf a dozen more; and, in a second, the pumps were at a standstill. 

Adams, the second mate, who was in charge of the men on the main deck--Mr McCarthy and Frank Harness having been sent below by Captain Dinksalong with the starboard watch--stood meanwhile, staring aghast at thedelinquents and not knowing what to do, "like a stock fish, " as MrMeldrum thought, looking on the scene. 

It was a critical moment. 

Captain Dinks, of course, hearing the steady "clink, clank" of the pumpsstop, knew that something had occurred, and guessed the cause; but hewaited to hear what the second mate would say before he interfered, nudging Mr Meldrum to call his attention, although the latter wasalready listening with keen interest. 

"Do, my men, " they could hear Adams entreat the rebellious gang, "do putyour hearts into it and start work again! It won't be for long, youknow. "

"A cursed sight too long for me!" said Moody, interrupting him with acoarse laugh. "You aren't a going to come over us with your softsawder, nor the skipper neither! I, for one, ain't agoing to have anymore o' this slave-driving work! Why should we sweat our hearts outtrying to keep the old tub afloat and drive her to shore, when we canreach there quite as well in the boats, without half the trouble? Ivotes for quitting her at once--what say you, mates?" and he turnedround to the others, seeking their support. 

"Aye, aye!" shouted several voices together with acclamation. "Let ushave no more pumping or slaving; but quit the ship at once and leave thecussed thing to sink. To the boats! To the boats!"

Captain Dinks thought he had allowed the matter to go far enough. Thetime for action had arrived, and he was ready. 

"Hold!" cried he, in clear ringing tones that penetrated fore and aftthe vessel and which could be heard above every other sound, advancingto the top of the poop ladder and drawing a revolver from his pocket ashe spoke. "The first man who touches either of those boats without myorders, I'll shoot like a dog!"

At the first sound of his voice the men had stopped speaking, and nowthere was a dead silence in which you could have heard a pin drop. Nota movement was made by any of the men--all standing still as if turnedto stone. 

"Do you know that what you are doing, men, is rank mutiny?" continuedthe captain, taking advantage of the occasion. "Return to your duty atonce, however, and I'll think no more about it. What I am making you dois for the good of us all, and I wouldn't give you a moment'sunnecessary work if I could avoid it!"

"But, " interposed Bill Moody. 

"Ah, I thought it was you, you scamp, ever trying to foment discordamongst the crew--a lazy hound, always grumbling and skulking, you'renot worthy the name of a sailor--you are only a thing aboard a ship!I'll soon settle your reckoning, my hearty!" And, little man as he was, Captain Dinks sprang down the poop ladder in one bound; and, dashing upto where Moody was standing, knocked him senseless to the deck with ablow from the butt end of the pistol which he held in his hand rightacross his temples. 

"There!" exclaimed he, when the ringleader of the gang was thus disposedof, kicking his body on one side and spurning it with his foot. "That'sthe way I deal with mutineers! Now, man the pumps again, my lads, andset to work with a will. As Mr Adams told you just now, it will not befor long that you'll have to stick at it, for we'll soon be able tobeach the vessel, and then your task will cease!"

Cowed by his summary treatment of Moody, rather than encouraged by hiswords, the men started pumping again, although without any heartiness, clink-clanking till daylight, when they were relieved by the other watchand went below, taking Moody with them--that worthy having regained hisconsciousness after a time, in consequence of the water in the leescuppers, where he was lying, washing over him and acting moreefficaciously than the application of smelling-salts or sal volatilewould have done under other circumstances. 

Before the mutineer went below, however, he turned his scowling facetowards the poop, the blood all streaming down from a rather ugly cut onthe left temple, and shook his fist in the direction of Captain Dinks, although the latter did not see the gesture, for his face was turned atthe moment to the binnacle. 

But, Mr Meldrum saw it. 

"You'll have some more trouble yet from that fellow!" said he to thecaptain, relating what he had seen and telling how Moody looked. 

"Pooh!" exclaimed the captain. "He's only a bully and a lazy grumbler;and all bullies and grumblers are curs at heart!"

"Ah, " said the other, "but those sort of sneaking chaps are just aslikely to knife you as not when your back's turned, though they would beafraid to face you pluckily, like a man. "

"Let him knife away, " replied Captain Dinks. "That is, if I give himthe chance! I fancy he'll remember that little tap I gave him just now;and if he gives me any occasion for it he shall have another!" Theskipper then went away laughing, but Mr Meldrum, from the vindictivelook he had seen on the man's face did not think it a laughing matter atall. 

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. 

THE BARRIER REEF. 

As the light increased, the land in front could be seen more distinctlyrising steadily out of the seal with the high elevated peak in thecentre which Mr Meldrum had identified the day before as the Mount Rossmarked on the chart. The mountain, however, showed now on the port bow;so, the ship must necessarily have run down a considerable portion ofthe western coast, after they had abandoned the idea of weathering theisland on the port tack--which they had done as soon as they werealarmed by the sound of breakers, letting her drive to leeward--beforethe collision with the berg. This was a discovery which did not appearto give Mr Meldrum much satisfaction. 

"It's a great pity, " he said to the captain, "that we could not getround that northerly cape I pointed out to you, before the snowstorm andsea-fog set in! There were one or two good bays there marked on thechart, such as Christmas Harbour and Cumberland Bay, which have beenproperly sounded and have the points laid down; but of this westerncoast little appears known, and it has been only from surmise that theoutlines of the map have been sketched in. I really don't think anyexploring party has ever visited it since Monsieur Lieutenant deKerguelen-Tremarec briefly surveyed it in 1772--more than a hundredyears ago. "

"And it might have changed a lot since then, " observed Captain Dinks. 

"Yes, " continued Mr Meldrum; "for the French discoverer narrated allsorts of wonders about a raging volcano, with geysers and hot springslike those of Iceland; and if volcanic agency has been at work sincethen, no doubt the place is very much altered. "

"If there is a live crater there, it can't be so very cold then, eh?"

"I don't know about that, " replied Mr Meldrum. "Away in the north, Ihave seen boiling water freeze as soon as it was exposed to the outsideair; so I don't suppose it will be much warmer here than we can expectfrom all accounts. "

But, warm or cold, it was the only haven of refuge for the sinking ship, which slowly, and more slowly still, by reason of the stormy sea andshifting wind, the latter of which grew gustier as the morning advanced, made her laboured way towards the land in crab-like fashion--halfsailing, half drifting, and burying her bows deeply every now and thenin the heavy rollers she was powerless now to ride over, and risingagain from the water so sluggishly that it sometimes seemed impossiblethat she would recover herself, but must founder, whenever she took adeeper plunge than usual. 

Bye and bye, Mr Lathrope came on deck escorting Kate Meldrum; althoughour heroine looked more like escorting him, for he was very pale andappeared much thinner than before--if that were possible to onebelonging to the order of "Pharaoh's lean kine!"

It was the first appearance of the American outside the cuddy since theaccident that had crippled him, and he could not help noticing thealtered state of the ship--having last seen her just before sheencountered the cyclone. 

"Snakes and alligators, Cap, but you hev hed it rough, and no mistake!"said he to Captain Dinks, gazing with surprise at the broken bulwarks, which had been torn away when the masts went by the board, the wreckedforecastle, and the unsightly stumps to which the jury-masts had beenattached, which now occupied the place of the tall graceful spars andneatly-braced yards, with the canvas smoothly stowed away in shipshapefashion, that he had left so trim when he went below that stormy night. "Why, you're busted up entirely, I guess!"

"Not quite yet, I hope, " replied Captain Dinks, smiling mournfully ashe, too, looked around; "but, the old _Nancy_ has been sadly batteredabout. Ah, Mr Lathrope, if she hadn't been a stout built one, she'dhave gone to the bottom before this!"

"You bet!" said the American, humouring this little remaining bit ofpride the old seaman had in the ship he had commanded for so many years, a pride that was mingled with a sorrow at her approaching end, which hecould foresee and mourn over, as if the vessel had been a livingthing--"she's been a clipper in her time, and made a smart fit for it;but, the winds and the waves have licked her at last, same as they doneme, when they squoze in my durned ribs t'other day. "

But, the captain could not laugh at what the other had said as a jokeabout himself, just in order to banish the poor skipper's gloom. Itseemed to him a sort of sacrilege towards the _Nancy Bell_ to liken hermortal injuries to the mere temporary ones of the American; so he turnedthe conversation. 

"I hope you feel better now?" he said. 

"Wa-al, I ain't downright slick and hearty agin, that's a fact; fur myinnards got a'most druv into smash! But I'm picking up, I guess, andfeed reg'ler; so I s'pose I'll do, Cap, for an old hoss, eh? Durned ifI don't feel kinder peckish now. Hullo, my lily-white friend, " addedhe, catching sight of Snowball, who was bustling about the galley closeto him, for Mr Lathrope had gone down on the main-deck along withCaptain Dinks, to inspect the damage to the ship more narrowly than hewas able to do on the poop. "Ain't it near breakfast-time? I hopeyou've got something for us as good as that lobscouse last night: it werprime, and no mistake!"

"Golly, massa, no time for um 'scouse dis mornin'--too busy bilin' beef;but breakfast in um brace of shakes, " replied the darkey, grinning fromear to ear and showing his white teeth and full lips to great advantage. 

"I'm durned glad to hear it, " said Mr Lathrope. "Look alive, Ivories, fur I feels a kinder sinkin' in my stummick that tells me it's time tostow in grub. You're a prime cook, let me tell you, darkey, and hevdone me a heap of good since I've ben aboard!"

"Glad massa like um cookin', " replied Snowball; and he bustled back intohis galley with the intention of continuing to deserve the high encomiumhe had received from such an authority on eating as the steward hadreported the American to be, while the latter proceeded to remount thepoop ladder and join Kate. She, however, was not now alone, FrankHarness having seized the opportunity of seeing her on deck to come upand speak to her; and the two parted with some little embarrassment assoon as Mr Lathrope approached. 

Towards mid-day, the _Nancy Bell_ had closed with the land so much thatits features could be distinguished. A bare, inhospitable coast itlooked!

It seemed nothing but a series of abrupt cliffs and headlands, six toeight hundred feet high--as well as could be judged from the distancethey were off--at the base of which the waves thundered, sending upcolumns of spray, without any bay or opening into which they could runthe ship with any chance of getting ashore in safety. 

There was, certainly, a projecting cape stretching far into the sea, like an arm, to the southward, to which point the coast-line trended, and beyond that there might probably be a harbour of some sort for itwas to the lee of the island; but then, the wind was now blowing fromthe southward and westward--the very direction almost they ought to taketo give the point a wide berth--and thus, unless it chopped round, itwould be utterly impossible for the crippled vessel to round theheadland, save by a miracle. 

Captain Dinks and Mr Meldrum looked at each other in blank dismay; for, the gale seemed to be rising again, while the sea got rougher androugher every moment, and dark masses of cloud began to pile themselvesup along the horizon to seaward. If they were unable to beach the shipsoon it was but only too apparent that she would sink from under them indeep water, when--God help those on board!

Suddenly, however, when hope abandoned them both, there was a break inthe dark sky just overhead and a bit of blue was to be seen, followedpresently by a gleam of sunshine which sent a ray of comfort into theirhearts and bid them not utterly despair. This caused one, at least, topluck up his courage again. 

"It is close on noon now, " said Mr Meldrum, speaking cheerfully, "wehad better take an observation, so as to see where we precisely are. "

"And what good will that do us?" asked the Captain disconsolately; "noamount of observations are of any use to us now. "

But he fetched out his sextant all the same, as well for the mere sakeof doing "something" as to oblige Mr Meldrum; and taking advantage of afavourable opportunity, he "took" the sun. 

"We're in 49 degrees 10 minutes south latitude, " he observed after ashort interval during which he had been calculating his reckoning, "and68 degrees 45 minutes east longitude--if that information can help us!"

"I'll soon tell you, " answered Mr Meldrum stretching out on thebinnacle a chart of Kerguelen Land which he had brought up from thecabin, and marking on it the position of the ship with a pencil. "Yes, it's exactly as I thought just now. You see that headland, there tostarboard? That is the promontory put down here as Cape Saint Louis;and if we can get round it, there, as you see in the chart, we'll findourselves in a large sheltered bay, safe from the ocean swell, where wecan run her ashore with ease. Why, it is the very thing! howprovidential it was that I put in this chart by accident along with someothers of the Pacific I had amongst my papers! I didn't know I had ittill the other day. "

"Ah, " said Captain Dinks, returning to the main question, "but how arewe going to weather the point, eh? That's the difficulty. "

"We may do it yet, " replied Mr Meldrum, whose hopes appeared to risethe more the Captain seemed determined to look gloomily on the outlook. "You can see for yourself that we are drifting equally as much to thesouth as we are sailing towards the coast, and making about the sameprogress each way. From this circumstance I have little doubt thatthere is a considerable current running southwards; and if so, it maycarry us round the cape--especially should the wind shift to thenorthward. "

"Aye, if it should!" said Captain Dinks sarcastically. 

"I do not really see why it should not, " persisted Mr Meldrum, "it hasalready veered about a good deal this morning; and, if you remember, both yesterday afternoon and on the previous day it shifted shortlyafter sunset to that very direction. "

"Yes, I recollect, " said the other with grim humour, "and the shiftbrought a snowstorm and a fog with it on each occasion! I hope, really, with all my heart, Mr Meldrum, " he added more heartily, "that theweather may be as accommodating as you seem to fancy; but, as a matterof precaution, I will go and see that the boats may be ready, in case wehave to abandon the ship soon, which I think will be the end of it all. They are both patched up now, so as to be pretty serviceable; andfortunately, there'll be no difficulty in getting them over the side, asthe bulwarks have been swept away, and all we'll have to do will be tolaunch them into the water. I am just going to superintend the stowageof the provisions and water casks. They are piled on the main-deckquite handy; and I will see, too, that the oars and sails are notforgotten. "

"Very good, " answered Mr Meldrum. "But I hope we sha'n't want themafter all; and, while you are down there, I'll remain here and lookafter the pilotage of the ship--that is, if you'll send some one belowin my place to see to my daughters and their arrangements. I have toldKate already that she must only take the barest necessaries with her, incase we have to embark in the boats, and above all, not to forget warmclothing for herself and Florry; so you'd better advise whoever you senddown, to see that Mrs Major Negus does the same. Mr Lathrope is smartenough to look after himself. "

"Aye, aye, " said Captain Dinks, as he turned to descend to the main-deck, "I think I'll send down Frank Harness. He's the most of a ladies'man on board the ship, and I imagine that he and Miss Kate will get onpretty well together, eh, Mr Meldrum?"

But the other made no reply to this remark. He was too busily engagedjust then in looking out across the rolling sea astern, and watching ahaze which appeared to be creeping up over the water to the northward, with a dark line of cloud hovering over it, both coming rapidly towardsthe ship. 

"Hurrah!" he exclaimed at last in an ecstasy of joy, when his faint hopebecame confirmed into a certainty; "the wind's shifting, and choppinground to the north in our favour!"

"You don't say so?" said Captain Dinks equally excited, abandoning theprovisioning of the boats and skipping up the poop-ladder like a youngtwo-year-old; "why, yes, really! It's the best piece of news I everheard! Put the helm amidships!" he added to the man at the wheel. "We'll have to ease her round and run before it a bit for the last time;and if the wind only holds to the northward for a short spell, we'll getround the point yet and lay her old bones ashore decently. Steady, Boltrope, steady!"

"Steady it is!" laconically answered the carpenter, whose trick it wasat the wheel, obeying the captain's directions implicitly. 

"Look alive, McCarthy, and square the yards, " was the captain's nextcommand; "but do it gingerly, my man, do it gingerly! If we lose thejury-masts now it will be all up with us. "

"Aye, aye, sorr, " was the response of the chief mate, as he aidedhimself in carrying out the order; and the vessel's head coming roundsouth by west, under the impulse of the helm and the shifting of thesails, she began to exhibit some of her old powers and claw off theland, bringing the cape now to bear upon her port bow well to leeward. 

In addition to this, it was perceived that she made much better waythrough the water than when she had been steering direct for the shore, as, from the breeze being now well abeam, it made her heel over on herside, thus elevating her broken bows somewhat and preventing her fromdipping her head so frequently in the waves. 

It was a moment of intense interest and suspense, everybody being ondeck to witness the struggle the ship was making against the oddsopposed to her. 

If she got round the point, they would be comparatively safe--at leastthey thought so; whereas, if the wind failed, or a brace started, or therudder proved powerless to guide her at a critical period, the vesselwould be driven against the iron-bound cliff they were approaching in anoblique line--against whose base the heavy rollers were now thunderingwith a crashing roar that each instant became louder as they neared thepoint, throwing their spray high up its precipitous face; and then--Why, they were lost!

Frank Harness was at this time standing by the side of Kate and Florryon the poop; but nearer to the former, who had just asked him to saveher little sister should the ship strike. 

"I will, " said he in a whisper close to her ear, "God helping me! andyou, too; but call me `Frank' again, Miss Meldrum. You did so once, youknow, when you caught me that time I was nearly washed overboard, andsaved me!"

"Do you remember that?" asked Kate. 

"I do, " said he; "how could I forget it? Do not fear, I'll save you andFlorry too!"

"Thank you, `Frank, ' then for your promise, " whispered she--in accentsso low that they were almost drowned by the noise of the waves dashingagainst the cliff; but he heard her, and his face lightened up asbrightly as if he had been redeemed from all peril and saw heaven beforehim. 

Onward the ship sped, ever drawing closer to that terrible wall of rockand yet gaining at the same time inch by inch on the promontory, thatjutted out into the sea like an arm stretched forth to stay herprogress; while, as the anxious moments flew by, the northerly windwhich had come so opportunely to their rescue gradually rose into agale, threatening to destroy them--the _Nancy Bell_ approaching thecliff so closely, as she skirted by, that it seemed to those on boardthat they might have touched it by merely stretching out their handsover the side. The sky, too, was growing darker and darker everymoment. 

They were now quite near the southerly point of the cape, and withinhalf a cable's length of its precipitous face: five minutes--threeminutes--one minute--would settle the question. 

"Luff, man, luff!" shouted the captain, as all held their breath withexcitement. 

It was a case of touch and go!

"Hurrah! down with the helm! she's done it!" called out Captain Dinksagain, as the vessel glided by the last spur of the promontory, and, rounding to on the other side, she seemed to get into smoother water--afine beach stretching out in the distance a few miles away and no rocksbeing apparent--"the old ship has conquered, and won the race afterall. "

His triumph, however, was as short-lived as it was premature. 

Hardly had the _Nancy Bell_ rounded the cape, than the air grew densearound them, and snow began to fall heavily; while a thick fog rising, shut out the shore and every object from view. Then, as Captain Dinksand Mr Meldrum were deliberating whether it would be better under thecircumstances to run the ship straight for the beach--which they hadcalculated to be some five miles in front of them to the south-east orthe cape they had just passed--or else to continue pumping until theweather got lighter and they could see better where they were going, thematter was settled for them, in a very unexpected manner, by the shiprunning on to a sunken ridge of rock immediately under her forefoot;and, in a moment, there she stuck hard and fast, bumping and scrapingher bottom, with a harsh, grating sound and a quivering and rending ofher timbers, as if every plank below the water-line was being torn outof her piecemeal. 

The _Nancy Bell_ had struck on some barrier reef, which guarded at adistance the desolate and inhospitable shore, just at the very momenteverything was deemed secure and all danger past! And, as she stranded, the thick-falling white snow which had already covered the decks seemedto be busy wreathing a shroud for the ill-fated ship, while the surgessang her requiem in their dull, heart-breaking roar--the sea-fog hangingover the scene of the calamity the while like a sombre pall. 

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. 

A FOUL BLOW!

Every one was on deck at the time--the crew, the officers, thepassengers; but, with the exception of a slight scream from Mrs MajorNegus, which passed unnoticed, not a single exclamation of terror oralarm was uttered. All seemed completely stupefied by the unexpectedshock, their consternation being too great for words--they stood as ifspell-bound!

Captain Dinks was the first to break the silence. 

"God forgive me!" he cried out to everybody's surprise. "It is all myfault!"

"Your fault!" repeated Mr Meldrum; "how--why?"

"I should have had a man forward, sounding with the lead, but I quiteforgot it--quite forgot it; and this has happened. "

"Nonsense, man!" said the other to cheer him up--the captain appearingto be more concerned at his own neglect, as he regarded it, than he wasat the actual fact of the ship's striking on the reef--"such aprecaution would have been utterly useless! We were probably in deepwater a minute before; and even if a man had been stationed in thechains, he could scarcely have had time to have swung the lead and sangout the marks, before she was on the rocks! It is one of thoseunforeseen calamities that are inevitable and which can never beprevented by any human foresight. I for one, and I've no doubt everyone else here agrees with me, entirely exonerate you from all blame. "

The captain was endeavouring to make some broken reply, as far as hisdeep emotion would allow, when Mrs Major Negus interrupted him. 

"Speak for yourself, please, Mr Meldrum, " she exclaimed, elbowingherself forwards in front of the group, her shrill high-pitched voicesounding almost like another scream, as she waved her arms wildly aboutand addressed Mr Meldrum and Captain Dinks alternately. "Speak foryourself, please, for I don't agree with you at all! I say it is thecaptain's fault; and he knows it, though it's rather late in the day forhim to acknowledge it! And I'd like to know, sir, how I and my darlingboy are going to get on shore now in this blinding snowstorm--in such ableak and dreary outlandish place, too! A nice captain you are; and youbargained to take us safe to New Zealand when you took our passage-money. My poor Maurice, oh my dear boy, you'll never, never see yourfather now, for we'll all be drowned, and Captain Dinks is the cause ofit!"

So shrieking, she proceeded to weep and wail in a way that made MrMeldrum lose all patience with her. 

"Peace, woman!" cried he indignantly. "This is no time for hystericsand such violent displays: you'd better keep them till the fine weathercomes, and remain quiet now! The best thing you can do if you hope toescape, is to allow the captain to see about getting the boats ready totake us off, for the ship will probably break up soon. "

His latter remark, while it reduced "the Major" to a state of limpcollapse that made her silent and subdued, had the effect he intended, of rousing the captain to action--thus causing him to forget for a timehis grief at the _Nancy Bell's_ disaster in having to exert himself soas to provide for the safety of those on board. 

"Main-deck ahoy there!" he shouted. 

"Aye, aye, sorr, " answered the first mate, who had remained there, looking to the trimming of the sails while the ship was working up tothe cape. 

"Have the men finished storing those things in the boats yet?"

"They're jist at it now, sorr. We were all a bit flabbergasted when thepoor crathur struck; but we're working hard now, sorr, and the boatswill soon be ready to launch into the wather. "

"That's right, McCarthy, we've no time to lose. Send one of the handsforwards to see how her head lies. "

"Aye, aye, sorr. Mr Adams has gone already sure: an' I've sint thecarpenter, Boltrope, to sound the well. "

"He'd better by far sound alongside, to see what depth of water we're inand which would be the best side for launching the boats off!" repliedCaptain Dinks. "But stay, Harness, " he added, "you can do that. Heavethe lead aft here, and then amidships, telling me what soundings youget. "

On returning from his mission forwards, Mr Adams reported that thevessel's bows were fixed hard and fast between two conical points ofrock, which were covered by about four fathoms of water; while FrankHarness, who had been sounding round the ship as the captain directed, stated that there were twenty fathoms of water aft and the same on theport side amidships, but on the starboard, or right-hand side, the leadonly gave the same depth the second mate had found forward--consequently, the ship's stern, being so much lighter than the floodedfore-compartment, had slewed round with the sea towards the reef, onwhich therefore the _Nancy Bell_ must have projected herself more thanhalf her length. Probably, had her bows not been so depressed, shewould have gone over it altogether with a scrape, merely taking off herfalse keel and dead-wood without doing any material damage. 

As it was, however, there she was; and the question now was whether thetide was at the ebb or flow at the time she struck. If the former, thelikelihood was that as soon as the tide began to rise, the vessel wouldfloat off and founder, Boltrope having reported that there were eightfeet of water in the hold and that it was gaining fast--the pumpingoperations, of course, having long since been stopped, but, should shehave run on the reef at high water, there she was immovably fixed aslong as she held together; and in that case they would be able to getashore to the mainland in comfort, almost at their own convenience, should the weather remain calm, in addition to saving many articles fromthe wreck that would be of use to them, and a much larger proportion ofthe ship's provisions and stores. 

After the first bumping and scraping that had immediately succeeded herstranding, the _Nancy Bell_ had remained quiet, as if the old ship wasglad to be at rest after all the buffeting about and bruisings she hadreceived from the boisterous billows. Hence, the natural alarm that hadbeen excited by the ship's striking had calmed down, there being nothingin her present situation to heighten the sense of danger; for the vesselwas sheltered from the wind under the lee of the cape, and the sea, incomparison with the rough water she had recently passed through and thestormy waves she had battled with when beating round the point, wasalmost calm. Everybody, therefore, inspired by the example set them byMr Meldrum and the captain, remained perfectly cool and collected, thecrew obeying the orders given them with alacrity and working as heartilyas if the poor old _Nancy Bell_ were still the staunch clipper of yore, careering over the ocean in the full panoply of her canvas plumage andprosecuting her voyage, instead of lying, a broke and battered hulk, hard and fast ashore on an outlying reef of rocks at Kerguelen Land, the"Desolation Island"--name of ominous import--of Antarctic whaling ships!

Even Bill Moody, mutinous as he had shown himself before and lazy to adegree, now appeared metaphorically to "put his shoulder to the wheel, "as if to make amends for the past, lending a willing hand to thepreparations that were being made by Mr McCarthy for equipping theboats and laying down ways for launching them from the main-deck--therebeing no davits now, nor any means for rigging a derrick to lift themover the side. Indeed, when Mr Adams ordered a gang to man the pumpsagain on the carpenter's reporting that the water was gaining in thehold, the whilom mutineer was one of the first to step forwards for theduty, although Captain Dinks at once countermanded the order, seeing itsinutility, and saying that there was no use in working a willing horseto death!

"They could never clear her now, Adams, " said he, "pump as hard as theycould; and if they did it would be useless, for she'll never floatagain. However, if you want to give the men something to do, you canset to work breaking cargo and lightening her amidships, for then we'llswing further up on the reef and get fixed more firmly. "

"Very good, sir, " replied the second mate; and the hands were thereforeat once started to open the hatches, getting out some of the heavy goodsfrom the hold below, especially the dead-weight from just abaft themain-mast, that had so deducted from the ship's buoyancy when sailing ona wind during the earlier part of her voyage. 

Moody's change of demeanour had not escaped the notice of the captain;and he commented on it to Mr Meldrum, saying that he thought the lessonhe had given him had had a very satisfactory result. "There isnothing, " said he, "so persuasive as a knock-down argument!"

The other, however, did not believe in the rapid conversion. 

"I've heard of shamming Abraham before, " said he. "The rascal may havesomething to gain, and wishes to put you off your guard by his apparentalacrity and willingness to work. If you had seen the scowl he gave youwhen your back was turned that time after you knocked him down, youwouldn't trust him further than you could help! I believe all this goodbehaviour of his is put on, and that you'll see the real animal come outby and by. "

"All right!" said Captain Dinks as cheerfully as if the matter were ofno moment to him; "we'll see! But we must first observe the tide andthe ship's position on the rocks; I think we'll be able to decide thosepoints before the other matter can be settled, by a long way!"

When the _Nancy Bell_ struck, it had been close upon six bells in thesecond dog-watch--seven o'clock in the evening--the entire afternoonhaving passed away so rapidly while those on board were anxiouslywatching the struggle of the vessel against the wind and sea in herendeavours to weather the cape, that, in their intense excitement asthey awaited the denouement which would solve all their hopes and fears, they took no heed of the flight of time. It seemed really but a fewbrief minutes, instead of hours, from the period when Captain Dinks hadtaken the sun at noon to the terrible moment of the catastrophe. 

Now, it was midnight, or approaching to it, the intervening periodhaving glided by much more speedily through the fact of everybody havingbeen engaged in doing something towards the common safety of all. Noteven the lady passengers had been exempted from the task, Mr Meldrumhaving told Kate to go below and collect whatever she saw in the cabinsthat might be of use to them on the island; while Mrs Negus, droppingher dignity for once, cordially assisted. As for Florry and Mauricethey participated in the work with the greatest glee, looking upon thewreck as if it had been specially brought about for their enjoyment, like an impromptu picnic--it was the realisation of their wildestchildish dreams. 

All this while the ship lay quiet, as has been stated, save that after atime she took a slight list to starboard, as if settling down on therocks, a fact which confirmed the captain in his belief that it had beenhigh water when she went on the reef. This increased his satisfaction. 

"She won't move now, " said he to Mr Meldrum. "She's wedged as securelyforwards as if she were on her cradle; and, unless a storm comes, she'lllast for a week. "

"How about when the tide flows again?" asked the other. 

"Oh, she can't float off. That weight of water in the fore compartmenthas regularly nailed her on the rocks, thus preventing the only danger Ifeared--that of her slipping off into deep water as the tide ebbed. Asshe struck when it was flood and jammed herself firmly then on the reef, there she'll remain when it flows again; so, we have plenty of timebefore us to transport the whole cargo ashore if we like!"

"I hope so, I'm sure, " replied Mr Meldrum; "but you should recollectthat, from the experience we've already had, the weather is not to betrusted for very long hereabouts. If it comes on to blow again from thesouth and the sea should get up, we'll be in a nasty position. "

"Don't croak, " said Captain Dinks, who seemed to have quite recoveredhis spirits as the others around him became despondent. "Look, thesnowstorm has ceased already and the sea-fog is rising and driftingaway. Why, we'll have a fine bright night after all!"

It was as the captain had stated. The fog had lifted up and the snowstopped falling; but, his hopes of a fine night were doomed to bedisappointed, for, although the sky above cleared for a short spell andallowed a few stray stars to peep out, while an occasional gleam ofmoonshine lit up the ship's surroundings, the heavens were soon obscuredagain with thick driving clouds, the wind shifting to the southward andwestward and blowing right into the bay behind Cape Saint Louis, wherethe _Nancy Bell_ was aground. 

Presently, a heavy rolling sea began to sweep in upon her from theoffing; and as the tide rose again, her stern swung more to thestarboard side, being driven up higher on the rocks, while her wholeframe became uneasy, rocking to and fro and quivering from abaft themain hatch, the fore part of her grinding and working about in a waythat threatened to tear her soon to pieces. 

"I'm afraid she won't last till morning, " said Mr Meldrum, who hadnever left the deck, but was watching the course of events. "We'dbetter take to the boats while we can. By and by it may be too late!"

"Oh no, " replied Captain Dinks, "she'll hold out all right, and it'sbest for us to land by daylight. Besides, I've allowed the hands toturn in, save two or three who are keeping a sort of anchor watch, andI'm not going to rouse them out again unnecessarily--poor fellows, they've had a hard time of it the last few days!"

"Not many of them have taken advantage of your permission, " said MrMeldrum drily. "I fancy they feel like myself, too uneasy to sleep, with this fresh gale springing up again and the ship rocking about so!"As he spoke, he pointed to a group amidships, where at least half thecrew were gathered about the boats, while some others were standing bySnowdrop's galley and having a warm, for the night was intensely cold. 

"They can please themselves, " replied the captain sententiously. "Ifthey don't choose to turn in, they needn't; but I'm not going to launchthe boats yet and leave the ship while it is safe. I'm considering whatis best for us all, Mr Meldrum; and, excuse me, but as long as thevessel holds together I'm captain of her, and don't intend to give overmy duty to anybody else. "

This was speaking pretty plainly, so Mr Meldrum had perforce to remainsilent and nurse his uneasiness; the two pacing up and down the poop onopposite sides, without ever a word passing between them for some time, just as if each ignored the other's presence. 

At two o'clock in the morning, however, the wind increased and the heavywaves began to break against the windward side of the ship, dashing overher amidships in columns of spray. She also lurched more to starboard, as if thrown on her bilge, the deck inclining to an angle of forty-fivedegrees. 

At the same time, too, the group of men forward could be dimly seen inthe half light moving about excitedly. They were evidently tired oftheir forced inaction; for, their voices could be heard occasionallybetween the lulls of the breaking waves and sound of the wind whistlingby. They were grumbling in tones of dissatisfaction. 

The climax was put to the matter by the sudden rushing up on deck of MrMcCarthy, whom Captain Dinks had told to go below until the morningwatch. 

"Be jabers, cap'en, " he exclaimed, "she's druv in her starboard streeksagainst the rocks, and the wather is pouring in like winking. Faix, itis breaking up she'll be before were out of her, sure!"

Thus urged, the captain at length gave the order to launch the boats. This was, now, a very difficult task, for the water was boiling ineddies round the ship to leeward even on her sheltered side, although acouple of hours before it had been as calm there as a mill-pond, so thata Thames outrigger might have been floated off in safety. 

As soon as the men heard the tardy word of command, there was a tussleand a rush towards the long-boat, seeing which Captain Dinks, who wasstanding just over the break of the poop, ran down the ladder-way andstood amongst the excited group, with his arm uplifted to enforce hisorders. 

"Avast there!" cried he; "get away from that long-boat, and prepare torun in the jolly-boat. I want that launched first for the ladies andpassengers, and I must see them all safely out of the ship before a manJack amongst you leaves her! Go down, McCarthy, " he added to the firstmate, "and ask the ladies to come on deck, sharp; we'll have the boatprepared by the time you come up with them. "

The crew still hustled round the long-boat, however, and showed signs ofinsubordination, whilst a voice called out, "Let the passengers be! Isay every man for himself now!"

"What is that I hear?" exclaimed the captain. "Are you men--are youBritish seamen--to abandon women and children in time of peril and seekyour own safety?"

"My life's as good as anyone else's, passenger or no passenger, " criedout Bill Moody defiantly, pressing closer to Captain Dinks. 

"Ah!" ejaculated the latter, "I thought it was you--what! you haven'tlearnt your lesson yet, eh?" and he made a grab at the man's neck as ifto grasp it. 

But, Bill Moody was prepared this time. The captain did not catch himunawares, as he had done on the previous occasion when he had knockedhim down with the butt-end of his pistol. 

Raising a sheath-knife, which he must have had ready drawn for thepurpose in his hand, the man plunged it with all his force into thebreast of the captain as he approached him. 

Captain Dinks was borne back and half turned round by the strength withwhich the blow was delivered. Then, staggering first on to his knees, and exclaiming, "Murder! I'm a dead man! The villain has stabbed me!"he fell forwards on the deck in a pool of blood. 

CHAPTER NINETEEN. 

DESERTED!

There was a cry of consternation from the men on seeing the captainfall, for, although the majority of them evidently supported Moody inthe rush for the boats, none had dreamt of going to the lengths he did;still, not a man stepped forward to seize the assassin, who, coollythrowing overboard the bloody blade with which the foul blow had beendealt, proceeded to carry out his original intention of casting loosethe lashings of the long-boat and launching it over the side, severalassisting him as he began the task. 

However, Mr Meldrum had seen what had happened from the poop, nothaving followed Captain Dinks too closely, for fear of being againaccused of interfering with the duties of the ship. 

Now, single-handed as he was, he at once dropped on to the lower deck, rushing to where Moody was standing, but the other men got in betweenand hustled him away; so, seeing that he could do nothing towardsarresting the miscreant for the present, he bent over the poor captainand lifted him on his knee to see whether life was quite extinct. Happily he still lived! moaning faintly as Mr Meldrum raised him in hisarms; consequently, as it was too dark--for it was just under the breakof the poop where the wounded man was lying--for him to see what was theextent of the injury he had received, Mr Meldrum called out loudly forassistance, that he might be able to carry him below to the saloon andbind up the wound properly. It was vitally necessary to staunch theblood speedily, as it was flowing copiously and had already saturatedthe coat-sleeve of Mr Meldrum's supporting arm. 

"What are you calling out for?" shouted out the miscreant Moody inderision. "None of them will hear you through the bulkhead. Let thecursed brute bleed to death and be hanged to him! I'm sorry I didn'tsettle him, right out, as I intended!"

Somebody did hear, however; for at that moment, Frank Harness--who hadbeen told to go below along with McCarthy and Adams at midnight by theunfortunate captain, who said he would take the sole duty of the ship onhimself until the morning watch was called--rushed up the companion wayon to the poop. 

"Did you call, Captain Dinks--Mr Meldrum!" he cried, looking about andseeing nobody there. "I thought I heard someone call out for help!"

"I'm here below on the main-deck, " shouted Mr Meldrum. "Call forassistance and come and help me at once. Poor Captain Dinks has beenstabbed by one of the crew, and I fear he's dying!"

"Good heavens!" exclaimed Frank in startled surprise, staggered for themoment; but he did not stop long to think or act. 

"Mr McCarthy!--Mr Lathrope!" he called loudly down the companion. "Come up here at once and leave the ladies for the present. Somethingdreadful has happened!"

Then, without uttering another word, he jumped down alongside of MrMeldrum on the lower deck; where, catching up a marlinspike that washandy, he rapped vehemently against the coamings of the hatchway, someof the hands having gone to bunk down there since the cargo had beenpartly removed, on account of the forecastle being quite untenable fromthe water that had accumulated there, besides which the waves were nowwashing over it freely. 

"All hands ahoy!" sang out Frank. "Tumble up, men! Tumble up just asyou are! There's murder afloat!"

"Stow that yelling!" cried the group around Moody, who did not wish tobe interrupted yet awhile with their plans; but Frank took no notice oftheir observations, save that a contemptuous smile passed over his faceas he compressed his lips. 

"Who did it?" asked he of Mr Meldrum, looking down at the latter as hebent over the poor captain, supporting his head and shoulders still onhis knee so that he might breathe more freely. 

"That man there, " was the answer, Mr Meldrum pointing to where Moodywas standing in the centre of some ten others of the same kidney. "Thesame man whom Captain Dinks knocked down the other day forinsubordination, and whom I saw threaten him afterwards, as I can swear. If the captain dies, he will be tried for wilful murder, and hung, forit was no accidental blow, but a deliberately premeditated deed!"

"Oh, Bill Moody? I thought it was that scoundrel!" exclaimed Frank; andin a moment he had leaped fearlessly amidst the throng--with themarlinspike fortunately still in his hand, for he was otherwiseweaponless. 

"Stand back!" shouted one of the men warningly, pushing him away--not inany rough fashion, but as if to keep him out of harm's way. "We don'twish to do you any hurt, Mr Harness, but I'd advise you to leave Moodyalone! He's desperate now and might cause you an injury; besides which, he's one of us, and we don't intend to give him up!"

"Don't you?" exclaimed Frank, flaming up and struggling with the man whoheld him back; while the would-be murderer, drawing another knife fromhis belt, stood apparently at bay waiting for him to come on. 

"Hillo! what's all this yere muss about?" called out Mr Lathrope, appearing on the poop at this juncture; "whar's everybody!"

"Here, help!" said Frank. "The crew have mutinied and the captain hasbeen stabbed. I'm trying to get hold of the murderer; but they're toomany for me. Help, Mr Lathrope, help!"

"You will have it then, you young devil!" screamed out Moody savagely, making a plunge at Frank with the formidable knife that he had nowdrawn, which had a much longer blade than that with which he hadstricken down the captain. "I'll soon stop your cursed yelling, myjoker, and give you something better to cry for!"

"I guess not, sez Con, " drawled out the American, the crack of his six-shooter echoing through the air at the same time that the knife fell tothe deck from the miscreant's hand, which had been neatly perforated bya bullet. The instant he raised it above his head to strike Frank, MrLathrope catching sight of it, had "drawn a bead on it, " as he wouldhave expressed it, without delay. "No, sirree, I guess not, as long asold Zach hain't forgot to handle the shootin'-irons!" he continued. "Ifancy, mister, I've spiled your murdering little game; an' now we'll goin for a rough and tumble, I opine!"

So saying, the American, not shooting again for fear of wounding Frank, was down on the main-deck in a jiffey and by the side of the brave youngsailor who was tackling the mutineers so gallantly--Mr Meldrum alsojoining in the struggle, first laying down the now nearly lifeless bodyof the captain again on the deck, however, and drawing off his coat toplace it under his head so as to raise it up. The trio were shortlyafterwards reinforced by the arrival of Mr McCarthy, panting and out ofbreath, with the side of his monkey-jacket half torn off by Major Negus, who had caught hold of it in trying to prevent his rushing up thecompanion ladder on hearing Frank's cry for help, the good ladyimploring him not to leave her to be murdered!

The first mate's brawny fists, hitting out right and left, did yeoman'sservice in the melee that ensued, and so did Mr Lathrope, while Frankand Mr Meldrum also fought well; but the four were powerless againstMoody's gang, who numbered a round dozen and had, by battening down themain-hatch, prevented the loyal portion of the crew from coming to theirassistance--when, of course, the tables would have been turned. 

Fortunately, there was no knife used in the fray, beyond the one whichMoody had so unceremoniously dropped, and thus further bloodshed wasprevented; but some hard knocks were given and received, and the partyfrom the poop did not come off scathless, Mr Lathrope having his ratherlong nose somewhat flattened and almost turned to one side by a blowfrom the sledge-hammer fist of one of the mutineers. Mr Meldrum hadalso been considerably mauled about, and Frank had a splendid black eye. As for the first mate, who had gone into the very thick of it, he"hadn't a sound bone in the howl of his body from the crown of his headto the sole of his fut"--that is, according to his version of it!

The struggle did not last very long, the opposing forces being sounequally matched; so, as soon as Frank and his coadjutors had beenborne down by the sheer weight of numbers, their conquerors hustled theminto the corner of the deck under the break of the poop, where thecaptain was still lying, throwing them down beside him and telling themthey had better keep quiet now they had had the worst of it, that is ifthey valued their lives. It was no empty threat, either; for, themutineers emphasised the order by leaving two of their number on guardover them, with belaying pins in their hands, with which they were toldto "knock them on the head" should they stir or call out--a commandwhich they looked quite capable of executing. 

The gang then proceeded to drag the long-boat to the opening in thebroken bulwarks on the starboard side of the ship and launch her intothe water, for it was a little smoother there on account of beinginclosed like a sort of lagoon between the vessel and the reef. It wasa ticklish job, for an occasional roller swelled into the boat fromround the stern of the ship; while as the waves that broke over theforecastle and weather quarter of the _Nancy Bell_ washed through thevessel, they poured like a cascade from the inclined deck, threatened toswamp the little raft as she lay tossing uneasily alongside until themutineers could complete their arrangements for embarkation. 

There was not much to do, for, thanks to Captain Dinks' precautions, provisions and small water casks, or barricoes, had already been stowedin the bows and along the sternsheets of the long-boat; so, afterchucking in one or two articles which they had brought up from belowbeforehand on the sly, amongst which was a good-sized barrel of rum, they proceeded to drop down into the boat one by one, Moody going firstand the others following until the whole number, a round dozen in all, had got in--the two who had remained as sentries over the poop partybeing the last. 

Then the little craft, which appeared loaded down to the gunwales, wasshoved off with a cheer of bravado from the side of the ship, and wassoon lost to the sight of those left behind. The latter, however, eagerly looked after the boat as it was rapidly borne towards the shorebetween the heavy rolling waves that raced after it, until it finallydisappeared in the night gloom. 

"Sure an' it's a good riddance they are!" exclaimed Mr McCarthy, risingto his feet and shaking out his legs to see how far they were capable ofmovement after the mauling he had received. "May joy go wid them!"

"I hope the hull durned crowd will git swallowed up in Davy Jones'Locker afore they git ashore, I dew!" said the American fervently, stroking his nose tenderly and speaking more nasally than ever throughthe injury the organ had received. "Of all the tarnation mean skunks Iever kim across from Maine to California, I guess they're 'bout theright down slick meanest--not nary a heathen Chinese would ha' done whatthey hev! I'd tar and feather them, I would sure, if I hed the chance, right away!"

"Never mind them, " interposed Mr Meldrum, whose first care after themutineers had released him and gone over the side, was to raise up poorCaptain Dinks' head again and feel his pulse. "I have no doubt theywill meet with their proper deserts! Let us see to the captain now. Ithink he had better be moved into the cabin, for this night air is doinghim no good; and, besides, we'll there be able to see to his woundbetter. However I shall want some assistance. "

"I'll hilp you in a minit, sorr, " ejaculated Mr McCarthy, who, as soonas he had satisfied himself that his limbs were pretty sound, haddevoted his energies to opening the hatchway--"that is as soon as I'veunkivered this limbo and let the other hands come up. Faix, an' if themdivils had not battened it down and Boltrope and the Norwegee could agot at thim, it's too many for tbim we'd ha' been, I'm thinking!"

"I didn't see what they were after, " said Frank, "or I would haveslipped the cover before they secured it; but I wonder where Mr Adamsis all this time? Surely he must have heard the row! He ought to havecome to our aid. "

"By the powers, " exclaimed the first mate, "I niver thought of him tillthis blessid minnit! Where, in the name of Moses, can he be? I believehe wint down and turned into his cot when I did. "

"He ain't jined them copperheads and left us in the lurch, hey?"inquired the American. "I didn't kinder think it on him, though he wersorter quiet and sly-like. "

"No, sorr, " replied Mr McCarthy, "Adams is a first-rate seaman and agood officer too! He would be the last man to join a mutiny. Somethingmust have happened to him, I'm thinking. "

"I wonder, too, " said Mr Meldrum, "that my daughter Kate has not comeup before from the saloon! She must have known that something unusualwas taking place on deck from our calls for help and the report of yourpistol, Mr Lathrope?"

"I'm durned if I know! I'm all in a tangle, I guess, " answered theAmerican; "but I'll go down and see, mister. "

All this while, Mr McCarthy had been fumbling at the fastenings of thehatchway, where the remainder of the crew were supposed to beimprisoned; but when he and Frank Harness, who lent his assistance, hadat last got off the cover by a violent effort, not a soul appeared, rushing up as they expected, nor was there any response to theirsummons--"All hands on deck!"

What could have become of them all?

The mysterious silence below was a proof that something unforeseen hadhappened!

CHAPTER TWENTY. 

NOTICE TO QUIT!

The mystery, however, was soon solved. 

Hardly had the strange disappearance of the crew from below beendiscovered, than the whole of the missing men, with Mr Adams at theirhead and Kate Meldrum bringing up the rear, rushed up the companion-ladder on to the poop with a loud "hurrah, " as if with the intention oftaking part in the contest with the band of mutineers:-- theirmortification may be imagined when they found that, as the first mateexpressed it in his happy Irish way, "they were jist in toime to be toolate, sure!"

But, had the mutineers not so rapidly abandoned the ship, the arrival ofhis rescue party on the scene of action would no doubt have tended toconsiderably alter the complexion of events; and the credit oforganising the force and bringing the men from such an unexpectedquarter with so great a dramatic effect had to be shared equally betweenMiss Kate Meldrum and Snowball, the cook--Mr Adams being only admittedas a partner in the scheme at the last moment. 

It seems that Snowball, while in the galley about midnight, had heardMoody talking to two or three of his especial "pals" in the port-watch;and, thinking from his knowledge of the man that he was up to somemischief, the darkey had listened--thereby indulging a propensity whichwas Master Snowball's weak point, that of being inordinately curiousabout other people's business!

He listened, however, to some purpose on this occasion, for he heardenough to learn that a large proportion of the crew intended, as soon asthey saw a favourable opportunity, to seize the long-boat--whichcontained nearly all the provisions that had been got up from the hold--and desert the ship before morning. 

What was their intention in doing this the cook could not guess, but heimagined that they must have thought that they would perhaps have towork to save the cargo if they remained on board, whereas if they wentoff, as they planned, they would escape all supervision from theofficers and be under their own control. Besides, he knew that Moodywas anxious to pay off the grudge he had against the captain, for heheard him specially chuckle over the fact that if they took away thelong-boat, the "old man" would never be able to leave the ship with allthe remaining hands and the passengers, and the rest of them would allthus "sink together, and a good job too, " as the bloodthirsty ruffiansaid. 

Primed with this news, Snowball at first hardly knew how to make use ofit for the benefit of those the mutineers intended to abandon; for, themen were all hanging about the galley, where he pretended to be asleep, and if he attempted to go aft then, where nothing was stirring and whenno one called him there, it would have at once aroused their suspicionsand, probably, precipitated matters. 

Snowball was in a quandary. He could see no way of warning theunsuspecting captain; and yet, even while he waited, the cowardly gangwho thus purposed to desert their shipmates might carry out theirintention!

Presently, he heard Captain Dinks tell the mates and starboard watchthat they might go below, and Mr McCarthy and the others went to theircabins aft while the "star-bowlines" tumbled down the main hatchway, allglad to have a spell of rest and be out of the bitter cold night windwhich almost seemed to freeze their bones and pierce them through andthrough. 

"Its just like the grinding old tyrant, " he heard Moody mutter at thisto another of his gang, "to keep us here on deck when there ain't noneed for it!" But Snowball was quick to notice that, when the captainsubsequently called out that all the rest of the hands might turn in ifthey liked, save two or three to keep an anchor-watch, not one of them, in spite of all their grumbling at the hardship of having to stop ondeck previously, now stirred to go below. He also saw Moody and some ofthe others, when the captain was not looking at them, stealthily shiftround the bows of the long-boat on to the top of the hatchway, inaddition to battening it down on the quiet, so that those who had gonebelow could not easily get up again, and they would thus have things allin their own hands. 

Moody's gang evidently intended to carry out their nefarious plan; buthow was he to prevent it?

At last, while the mutineers were watching for their opportunity, he sawhis; and at once took advantage of it. 

During the excitement that ensued when Mr McCarthy rushed on deck, declaring that the vessel had bilged in to starboard--at which timeCaptain Dinks at length gave his tardy order to launch the boats--Snowball crept out of the galley; and making his way aft, entered thesaloon. 

He was so frightened and confused, and full of what he had heard, thathe did not know what to do at first, and this had prevented his speakingto the captain as he should have done; while, when he grew collectedagain, there was Frank Harness shouting down the companion and MrMcCarthy and the American passenger bolting up on to the poop, and noone to speak to, that he could see, who could do any good. He calledout for the steward, but he had disappeared; and the darkey feared thathis plan for defeating the schemes of the mutineers would turn outfruitless from his failing to find any one to help him in undertakingit, when all at once he saw Kate Meldrum, for whom he had a profoundrespect on account of her plucky behaviour during the storm and herkindness to him when he was discovered as a stowaway and so injured inthe hold. 

"Lor, missy, " exclaimed he, "help me sabe ship and capting, and all; ordey all go way and leab us drown on board!"

"Why, what do you mean?" said Kate, who was pale and excited, for shecould not help hearing Frank's call for assistance; and was just aboutproceeding to ascend the companion ladder to see for herself what wasgoing on and if she could be of any aid, when Snowball thus ran againsther. "What is the matter on deck; and why do you come here?"

"Dat debbel Bill Moody, an' all him gang in port watch, say dey is goin'murder capting and go way in long-boat, and leab us drown on board!"

"But won't the other men prevent them?" asked Kate anxiously. 

"Dey can't, missy! Dey is down in main-hold; an' Moody shut um underhatchway so dat dey can't get up. "

Just then the report of Mr Lathrope's revolver sounded above, and Katealmost screamed; but she controlled herself by a strong effort. 

"And what can you or I do to help the captain and the others?" she saidas calmly as she could, longing all the while to go above, although herpresence there would be useless. 

"Dat jus why I come here, " replied Snowball eagerly. "We can get downsteerage, whar I'se stow away dat time--I knows de place well--clear waytraps in de way, and knock down bulkhead; starboard watch come troo deopenin' and up on poop; den Moody's gang knock all of a heap, catch ithot, missy! But, really, poah Snowball not able do it all alone downdere!"

Such were the darkey's spasmodic utterances, as they came out in gasps, amidst the sound of the struggle going on on the main-deck and thehoarse cries of those engaged, which could be plainly heard in thecuddy. Kate at once comprehended the situation. 

"I see, " said she, as eagerly now as Snowball. "There's Mr Adams inhis cabin asleep. He was so worn out, I suppose, that he couldn't hearFrank--I mean, " she corrected herself blushing unconsciously--"MrHarness call! Rouse him up at once, and I'll get a light for you to gobelow. "

The darkey did as she told him, although he found it a difficult task toawaken the second mate, who was so fast asleep that he had to be pulledout of his cot before he opened his eyes. 

He was already dressed, however, and would have rushed up on deck themoment Kate told him what had occurred had she not laid her hand on hisarm and prevented him, pointing out how much better Snowball's planwould result in bringing material assistance to the little party whowere still struggling with the mutineers, and fighting desperately, asthey could hear. 

"Do be quick and go down at once, " she pleaded. "A moment's delay maysacrifice a valuable life; and then, it will be all your fault!"

So urged, Mr Adams consented against his will almost; and, followingSnowball down into the after hold with the lantern Kate had procuredfrom the steward's pantry, which she found tenantless, Llewellyn havingmysteriously vanished out of the saloon, the two proceeded as rapidly asthey could to work their way through the packing-cases and casks thatwere stowed right under the cuddy floor, towards the bulkhead thatdivided this portion of the ship from the main hold. 

Arrived here, Snowball soon recognised the advantage of having Mr Adamsalong with him; for, in addition to the fact that the second mate, as isusual in merchant vessels, knew where each and every article of thecargo was stowed, he also was acquainted with the circumstance of therebeing a sliding door in the bulkhead, which the darkey was unaware ofand had thought they would have to break it down, which would have beena rather long job. 

Consequently, in far less time than either he or Kate had imagined, theimprisoned crew, who had been long aroused by the trampling on deck andthe noise of the struggle immediately over their heads, and had beenknocking madly at the hatchway cover and trying vainly to lift it up, were released. Eager for the fray, from which they had so long beendebarred from taking part, they rushed up through the cuddy and up thecompanion to the poop, prepared to take summary vengeance on those whohad incarcerated them but with what result has been already described. 

While Kate was giving this explanation to her father of the course ofevents below and how the affair was planned--Frank Harness listening toher the while with glistening eyes, and squeezing her hand furtively ashe pressed to her side--it was amusing to watch the demeanour of thedarkey cook. 

His mouth was spread open from ear to ear in one huge grin at therecital of his well-planned scheme for the defeat of the mutineers'machinations and release of the imprisoned crew. His chest expanded, too, with pride at the praise bestowed on him for his pluck andperspicacity; and when, finally, Ben Boltrope, who, of course, with KarlEricksen, had remained loyal and been locked down below with the rest ofthe starboard watch, proposed "three cheers for Snowball, " the cookcould contain himself no longer, but burst into a loud guffaw, thustaking a prominent part in the demonstration in his own honour. 

In the meantime nobody had been idle. 

Poor Captain Dinks had been carefully lifted into the saloon, where, onremoving his clothes, it was discovered that Moody's stab, althoughinflicting a dangerous cut across the chest, had touched no vital part, the sufferer's exhaustion proceeding more from loss of blood than fromany imminent risk. He was therefore placed in his own cot and the woundstrapped up, after which he sank into a feverish sleep, with Katewatching by his side. 

Mr Meldrum, who had been urgently asked by Mr McCarthy and Adams totake command of the ship while the captain was incapacitated, a requestthat the crew heartily endorsed and which Captain Dinks himselfconfirmed as soon as he recovered consciousness proceeded in the interimto devise the best means he could for saving all on board; and, in thefirst place, he ordered the men to renew the lashings of the jolly-boat. This was their sole remaining means of escape, and was now in danger ofbeing washed overboard by the heavy seas that were breaking over theship in cataracts of foam. 

Immediately the mutineers had got away in the long-boat it had come onto blow harder; and, shortly after they were out of sight in the hazethat hung over the land, a tremendous squall had swept over the water inthe direction they were last seen, the billows mounting so high as theyraced by the stranded vessel that it was very problematical whether theboat would ever reach the shore. Mr Meldrum could not help observingthat those left on board had much greater chance of saving their lives, in spite of the waves breaking over the ship, which trembled through herframe with the repeated shocks she was subjected to as she was jolted onthe rocks as if coming to pieces every minute. 

"The poor captain was right after all, " said he to Mr McCarthy. "Thosescamps in the long-boat had better have waited till morning, as he said. I don't think they'll ever get to land. "

"Nor I, sorr, " replied the first mate; "but it sarves them right, badcess to 'em!"

"Well, " said the other, "if they have gone down, they've gone with alltheir sins on their heads, for they certainly believed that they left usto perish, and did so purposely, too!"

"Jist so, the murtherin' villins!" ejaculated Mr McCarthy. 

Mr Lathrope at that moment came up from the cuddy. 

"Whar's that sanctimonious cuss of a steward!" inquired he. "I'veshouted clean through the hull ship, and I'm durned ef I ken find him togit some grub; for I feels kinder peckish arter that there muss. Iguess the critter has sloped with them t'other skunks!"

"We'll muster the hands and see, " said Mr Meldrum. 

This was soon done; but the steward did not answer to his name--norcould he be found anywhere on board, although parties of the men huntedthrough every portion of the ship fore and aft for him. 

"Snakes and alligators, mister, " said the American, "I guess it's jestas I sed, and the slippery coon has skedaddled with the rest of thevarmint!"

"Perhaps so, " answered Mr Meldrum; "but I think it far more probablethat he has accidentally tumbled over the side!" In this belief, it maybe added, the stewardess shared, bewailing her loss accordingly, although she was not quite so much overwhelmed with sorrow as might havebeen imagined to be proper on the loss of a helpmate by thoseunacquainted with the domestic relations of the pair. 

In addition to securing the safety of the jolly-boat, Mr Meldrumordered preparations to be made for constructing a large raft, uponwhich an additional stock of provisions, which were brought up frombelow to replace those taken away by the mutineers in the long-boat, were stowed; but no attempt was made as yet to leave the ship, allhoping that the sea would go down as the tide fell, besides which, theythought that when daylight came they would be able, as Captain Dinks hadtold them, to "see their way better. "

And so they waited in hope till morning should come. 

Just before four bells, however, and when the faint light of day wasbeginning to streak the eastern sky, bringing out in relief the snow-white peaks of some mountains on the mainland, which were a littledistance to the left of where the vessel was lying on the reef, a largerwave than any of the rollers that had yet assailed her struck the shipright amidships; and the timbers dividing under the strain, the poor old_Nancy Bell_ broke in two. Still, the two sections of the hull did notimmediately separate, the seas apparently losing their force andreserving their powers after delivering such a telling blow. 

"I guess, mister, " said Mr Lathrope, who took the catastrophe as coollyas he did every other incident of his life apparently, "this air smashis a kinder sort o' notice to quit, hey?"

But Mr Meldrum made no reply. He saw that the end was coming. 

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. 

GETTING ASHORE. 

Fortunately, the jolly-boat had been safely secured abaft the mainhatchway, the very point at which the ship parted amidships; and, beinglashed to ring-bolts athwart the deck, close to the break of the poop, the little craft remained uninjured in the general rending of timbersand splintering of planks that ensued when the beams gave way under thestrain upon them. The poor _Nancy Bell_, indeed, seemed to fall topieces in a moment; for, as soon as the keel broke in two and the lowerworks of the vessel began to separate, the hold opened out like ayawning gulf, dividing the bows and foremost sections from the stern bya wide gap. Through this the sea made a clean breach, washing out thecargo--the waves bearing away such articles as were floatable toleeward, whilst the heavier portion of the freight, after being tossedabout and battered out of shape, quickly sank down to the bottom out ofsight. 

Some of the men had been on the forecastle immediately before thishappened; but roused by Mr Meldrum's cry of warning they had just timeto escape the inrush of the sea and scramble aft to where the otherswere grouped together on the poop, which was now considerably elevatedabove the level of the water, the stern having been gradually forced upmore on the rocks as the fore part sank down, until it was now nearlyhigh and dry. This circumstance enabled all hands to proceed all themore expeditiously with the construction of the raft that had beenalready commenced, and which they had luckily begun here, instead of onthe main-deck that had just been broken up, where they would have lashedit together but for the accidental fact of the mizzen jury-mast formingthe base of the raft, and their being unable to drag it forward beforethe keel of the vessel began to give way. The extra quantity ofprovisions, too, which had been got out of the hold had also remained onthe poop; and thus everything providentially was in their favour. 

Certainly, their chances of escape now seemed more hopeful!

No time, however, was to be lost; for, although their haven of refuge, the stern section of the ship, was high up on the reef and almost out ofreach of the remorseless waves that had already done such damage, stillthere was no knowing what another tide would effect if the wind shouldagain get up. It behoved them all therefore to take advantage of theopportunity afforded them and make their preparations for getting ashorebefore it should be too late. Thus urged, the seamen, working with awill under the supervision of Mr McCarthy and Adams, had completed asubstantial raft by eight o'clock, at which hour a spell was cried andall hands piped to breakfast. 

Meanwhile, the morning had advanced; and the sky being pretty free fromclouds, Mr Meldrum was able to obtain a good view of the land thatsurrounded the bay in which the _Nancy Bell_ had come to grief. 

The ship had, evidently, not merely been carried to leeward of the capeby the strong current before striking, but had also been taken somedistance inshore as well; for the reef on which she was lying seemedmore than two miles to the eastward of the projecting point which shehad so much difficulty in rounding, close in to a range of rock-boundcoast similar to that which they had passed to the northward andextending almost due east for from eight to ten miles--as nearly as MrMeldrum could judge--the line of the shore then trending off to thesouth-west at an acute angle, as far as the eye could reach. High abovethis latter stretch of coast rose a series of snow-crowned hills, arranged in terraces the one above another, gradually increasing inheight until their peaks culminated in one that towered far beyond all, like a giant amongst pigmies; while, to the right of this mountain, andapparently much nearer, on a spur of the chain projecting into the seanearly south of the vessel's position, was one solitary peak, whichoccasionally emitted thin columns of smoke and which, from the fact ofits summit being denuded of snow, most likely marked the site of somevolcanic crater in active operation. 

Altogether, the prospect was sad and dispiriting in the extreme, for, nothing was to be seen in the immediate foreground but the bare blackbasaltic cliffs, against whose base the angry billows broke in endlessrepetition, throwing up clouds of spray and tracing out theirindentations with lines of creamy foam; and, beyond the cliffs, werehigh table-lands and hills all clad in the spectral garb of winter--withnever a tree or a single prominent feature to vary the monotony of thelandscape!

"We must endeavour to make for that curve in the bay to the north-east, where the shore breaks off and leads southward, " said Mr Meldrum to thefirst mate, who, having seen the raft completed, had now come to hisside for further instructions. "It is only there, as far as I can see, that there is likely to be any sort of harbour where we can land insafety. "

"Be jabers, I can't say, sorr, " returned McCarthy; "sure an' it'syoursilf that knows bist. I belave, however, it'll be the wisestcoorse; for the divil a harbour can anyone say ilsewhere; and, by thesame token, sorr, the current is setting shoreward in that verydirection. Look at thim planks there, sorr, sure an' if that's the caseit'll hilp the rhaft along foinely!"

"You're right, " said Mr Meldrum, glancing in the direction to which MrMcCarthy pointed, where some of the broken timbers of the ship, afterbeing carried away to leeward, were now steadily drifting past heragain--although now in an easterly direction and in a parallel line withthe cliffs to the left. "The sooner, too, that we take advantage ofthat same current the better, as it will be hard work for the jolly-boatto have to tow us all the way. Let us see about getting the raft overthe side at once, Mr McCarthy. The sea is much calmer now, and I thinkwe'll be able to launch and load it without much difficulty. The jolly-boat won't give us half the trouble to float that the raft will, for thedeck forms an inclined plane with the water and we can run her in whenwe please. "

"Aye, aye, sorr, " answered Mr McCarthy, and breakfast being nowfinished--a cold one for all parties, Snowball and his galley havingparted company, and the waves now rolling between the two sections ofthe ship--the tough job of floating the raft alongside was proceededwith; purchases being rigged so as to lower it down easily, and preventit afterwards from breaking away when it had reached the surface of thesea, which was still rough and boisterous. 

The weather keeping calm and bright, and the wind lulling instead ofincreasing in force as the sun rose in the heavens, the task was atlength satisfactorily accomplished. 

It was not done, however, until after two hours of continuous labour, inwhich all hands were engaged, even Mr Lathrope assisting as well as hisstill injured arm would permit. By six bells in the forenoon watch, too, the jolly-boat had also been lowered into the water safely. Now, nothing remained but to get the provisions and whatever else they couldcarry that was necessary on board; for, Mr Meldrum sternly negativedany attempt at taking private property, thereby incurring Mrs MajorNegus's enmity, for he refused passage to three large trunks of herswhich she had declared were absolutely indispensable, but which, onbeing opened, were found to contain only a lot of tawdry finery whichmight possibly have helped to astonish the natives of Waikatoo, but wasperfectly useless, even to herself, on the inhospitable shores where thepassengers of the _Nancy Bell_ were about to seek refuge from thesinking ship. 

Kate Meldrum was far more sensible, taking only those articles of warmclothing which her father recommended for the use of herself and Florry;and, indeed, leaving behind many things that he would probably havepermitted as necessaries, in order that she should not overburthen theraft with what would not be serviceable to all. Unlike the "Major, "Kate thought that it would be selfish on her part merely to consider herown and her sister's wants!

As for Mr Zachariah Lathrope, his luggage consisted chiefly of an oldfur cloak, in addition to the clothes he stood up in, besides hisinseparable "six shooter" and a rifle--which latter he stated had beengiven to his grandfather by the celebrated Colonel Crockett of "coon"notoriety, and was "a powerful shootin' iron. " The rest of the men folktook with them almost as little; but Mr Meldrum did not forget chartsand nautical instruments, besides a compass and the ship's log-book andpapers. These latter he removed from Captain Dinks' cabin, at hisespecial request, that, should he ever see England again, he might beable to give a circumstantial account as to how the vessel was lost, andsatisfy both his owners and Lloyd's. 

In reference to the general provisioning of the raft, it may be brieflymentioned that all the bread and flour that had not been washed out ofthe after-hold had been collected, in addition to several casks of saltbeef and pork, and such of the tinned meats and other cabin stores thathad not been stowed in the long-boat--for the benefit, as itsubsequently turned out, of the mutineers. 

Some casks of water were also embarked; but not many, for, in the eventof a fresh supply not being found on landing they could easily melt downthe snow and thus manufacture what they required from time to time. 

While considering the important question of a proper supply of food, thepertinent fact was not lost sight of, that they would be exposed to aclimate of almost arctic severity for, probably, many months to come;and, consequently all the blankets in the ship were collected and put onboard the raft, besides spare bedding and some hammocks. Snowball also, true to his culinary calling, took care to secure his cooking utensils, clambering back into the dilapidated forecastle for the purpose, almostat the peril of his life--the darkey subsequently bewailing much hisinability to remove the ship's coppers, which were too firmly fixed inthe galley for him to detach them from that structure. 

Finally, one or two small spars and sails were added to the general pileof heterogeneous articles that had been heaped up in the centre of theraft, whose buoyancy had been much increased, since it was first madeand launched overboard, by the accidental discovery in the steerage ofsome empty puncheons, which were carefully bunged-up so that no watercould get into them and lashed underneath the floating platform; thecatalogue of stores being then completed by heaving on the heap all thecordage that could be got at and cut away, in addition to some blocksand a few odds and ends--the tarpaulin from off the broken cabinskylight, which was certain to be of the greatest use, being, like otherequally serviceable articles, only thought of at the last moment. 

By the time all these things were stowed on board, and the raft immersedas deeply as it was considered advisable with safety--as few things aspossible being put in the jolly-boat, which was kept light in order thatshe might be more usefully employed in towing the other--it was close ontwelve o'clock. 

This was the hour Mr Meldrum had fixed for abandoning the ship, as thenthe tide would be at the half flood, and they would be able to utilisenot only that but the current as well, which would about that time setinshore--at least, judging by its influence on the previous day incarrying the _Nancy Bell_ in that direction of the reef. By thesevarious means Mr Meldrum thought the raft might be floated onwardtowards the curve in the coast-line which he had pointed out to thefirst mate as a probable place where they might expect to discover somesmall bay or harbour to land at. 

Besides this, Mr Meldrum believed that by starting on the half tide, inthe event of the stream turning before they were able to reach anavailable beach in some sheltered cave--for the current which he hadnoticed took a southerly direction with the ebb--the retiring tide couldnot possibly drift them out to sea. At the very worst, it would onlysweep the raft down the coast in the direction of the volcanic peak thathad been observed to cap the spur of the mountain chain which stretchedout right into the water at an angle with the land; and, here, there wasevery probability of their finally finding an opening in the breastworkof adamantine rocks that ranged along the coast-line as if to preventany intrusive strangers like themselves from getting on shore!

Before Mr Meldrum gave the order for embarkation, however, he had onelast duty to perform on board the _Nancy Bell_. 

It was just noon; and, the sun being for a wonder unobscured, hedetermined to take a final observation to fix their position, or ratherthat of the reef on which the ill-fated vessel was doomed to leave herbones. This was an eventuality which evidently could not take long inits accomplishment, for the forward portion of the ship was beingrapidly broken to pieces, and it would not be any great time before thestern followed suit, some of the cabin furniture below having alreadybeen shaken down, while the poop did not offer a very firm foothold, trembling every now and then from the washing in and out of the wavesbelow, as if, the poor thing were seized with a submarine ague fit!

After a brief calculation, as briefly worked out, Mr Meldrum found thatthe ridge of rocks, which bore north-west by south-east, was inlongitude 68 degrees 45 minutes east, and latitude 49 degrees 16 minutessouth. These facts indisputably settled the point of their being to thesouthwards of Cape Saint Louis, put down on the chart as the westernmostpoint of Kerguelen Land, and that the highest of the snow-coveredmountain peaks to the south-east was Mount Ross. The information, hethought, might possibly be of much assistance to them hereafter indirecting their course, should such a step become necessary, to thosebetter known portions of the island on the eastern side which whalersand seal-hunting craft were reported to be in the habit of frequentingduring the short summer season of that dreary region. This period, however, would not come round for the next three or four months, as itwas now only the first week in August, the midwinter of antarcticclimes. 

The last observation made, and the ship's ensign hoisted, upside down, on the stump of the mizzen-mast--not so much for the very unlikelychance of any passing vessel observing it, as from the special requestof Mr McCarthy, that, as he expressed it, the poor _Nancy Bell_ should"have a dacent burial"--Mr Meldrum at length gave the word for allhands to embark, an operation which occupied even less time than that ofhis "taking the sun. "

First, in due order of precedence, the ladies were lowered down in achair by a whip from a boom rigged out over the stern right on to theraft, where a comfortable place had been arranged in the centre andbarricaded round with chests and barrels. Next, Captain Dinks waslowered down in his cot, which had been removed bodily from its slingsin his cabin below, so that he might be shifted without disturbing him;then, Mary Llewellyn, the now husbandless stewardess, followed suit;and, after her, Mr Lathrope and the children. Eight of the remainingsixteen men of the crew were then directed to take their places aroundthe ladies' inclosure, along with Mr Adams and Frank Harness, while theother eight hands, under the command of Mr McCarthy, were told off tothe jolly-boat, which was provided with double-banked oars and attachedto the raft by a stout tow-rope--it being the intention of Mr Meldrum, who remained on the raft as deputy commander-in-chief of the whole partyin poor Captain Dinks' place, to relieve the rowers every alternatehour, so that all should have an equal share in the arduous task oftowing, a job which would tax all their strength. 

Everything being ready, the signal was given to start, when, away wentthe jolly-boat, smartly at first, but more slowly afterwards as soon asthe strain of the tow-rope was felt, moving gradually from the wreck ofthe old ship, and tugging after her the unwieldy raft, which seemedsomewhat loath to go. But, not an exclamation was uttered, not a wordspoken, as the survivors of the wreck glided off through the watertowards the shore, leaving behind them the wave-scarred craft that hadso long been their ocean home. 

It was like a funeral procession. 

The thoughts of all were too deep for words. 

Even the children were awed into silence by the seriousness of theirelders;--a seriousness that was as much owing to the uncertainty oftheir own fate as to their regret at parting the last link that boundthem to their English home and civilisation, from which they seemed tohave been cut adrift for ever in casting off from the poor, old, ill-fated _Nancy Bell_!

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. 

DESOLATION ISLAND. 

Kate Meldrum was the first to break the melancholy silence that reignedas they rowed away from the old ship, all looking back sadly at herbattered hull, whose crippled condition could now be better seen--thebows all rent and torn by the violence of the waves, the gaping sides, the gutted hold washed out by the water, and the sea around covered withpieces of shattered planking from the 'tween-decks, besides the curvedknees and other larger parts of the timber work, that had been wrenchedoff during the vessel's battle with the elements, and numbers ofpacking-cases and empty casks and barrels that were floating about, theflotsam and jetsam of the cargo. 

"Papa, " said she, speaking low in order that none of the others couldhear her, "did you see anything of the long-boat, or of the men who wentaway in her, when you were looking round the coast this morning--Iforgot to ask you before. "

"No, my dear, " he answered. "There was not a trace of them, as far as Icould see with the glass; either along the shore in the direction inwhich we are going now, or down to the southwards off there to theright!"

"Do you think they have landed in safety, papa?"

"Hardly, Kate. There was a terrible squall which came on shortly afterthey deserted us, and I believe they must have gone down in it. But, why do you ask the question, my dear? I don't suppose you have muchsympathy with the treacherous scoundrels!"

"No, papa, " said she; "but I thought that if we got on shore at the sameplace that they did there might be a quarrel, or that something dreadfulwould happen; and I'm sure we had enough of horrors on board the poorold ship!" and Kate shuddered, as she spoke, at the recollection. 

"You need not be afraid of that, my dear, " replied her father kindly. "If the mutineers have managed to run in the boat anywhere during thefrightful sea that was on at the time they deserted us, it must havebeen miles away from any spot near here, for the wind was blowing inquite the contrary direction. Besides, my child, only a few could havesaved their lives; so that, in case we should ever come across them, they would be quite powerless against the strong force we have now tooppose them, in the very impossible event of their trying to molest us. I hope, however, that we may not meet. "

"Isn't it shocking, " observed Kate presently, as if reflecting over whathad happened, "to think that, companions in misfortune as we are, weshould be so anxious now to avoid them!"

"Yes, " replied her father; "but the fact only exhibits a common phase ofhuman nature, and thus affords but another proof of the inherentselfishness of the animal man. Wickedness, my child, ever begetswickedness!" Mr Meldrum then lapsed again into silence. 

The raft proceeded but very slowly, in spite of the exertions of thetowing party in the jolly-boat. This was on account of the current andthe tideway neutralising each other, instead of being both in theirfavour, as Mr Meldrum had expected; so, in order to fight against thedrawback, he ordered Ben Boltrope to get up a sail on one of thestudding-sail booms which was rigged as a yard across the mizzentopgallant mast that had been stepped in the centre of the platform. However, the wind was so light from their low elevation in the water, that the influence of this new motive power was only faintlyperceptible, the shore seeming almost quite as far off after an hour'shard rowing as before, and the ship equally near. 

This would never do. 

At such a rate of progress, nightfall would probably still find themafloat in the centre of the bay, in danger, should the sea again get up, of being dashed to pieces against the precipitous cliffs to the left;while, in the event of their escaping that peril, the raft might run onto some hidden shoal or reef down southwards in the darkness, or else beswept out into the offing, where they would be the sport of the waves, and could never hope to reach the land again. 

They had hitherto been keeping well out from the adjacent coast, byreason of their seeing its inhospitable look, and the scanty chancethere was of their effecting a landing there. This fact, indeed, wasself-evident, for they could see the surf breaking in one continuousline, as far as the eye could reach, against the steep rocky face of thecliff. Besides, Mr Meldrum had thought it the best plan to take theshortest course towards the curve he had selected, where the southernshore branched off at an angle with the eastern one, in the hope ofthere being some sort of a beach in that vicinity. Now, however, hedetermined to try another way of gaining his end; and that was by going"the longest way round. "

"Pull in to the left, " he sang out to Mr McCarthy, "and let us see howthe current will then affect us. I fancy we'll feel it all the more aswe get inshore. "

"Aye, aye, sorr, " replied the first mate, directing the head of thejolly-boat right towards the face of the frowning cliff nearest to them;but still, for some time, there was no increase in their rate of speed, the short chopping waves that formed the backwater of the surges, whichhad already expended their strength on the rocky rampart of the coast, militating against any slight advantage they gained by the currenttaking them along with it. 

At last, however, after three hours' hard work, and when the fourthrelay of men had just begun to handle the oars in the jolly-boat, theraft appeared all at once to move along more briskly and smoothly, while, at the same time, the sea grew calmer. 

Things looked promising. 

They had approached close inshore to the rocky wall of the cliff; and, if it had seemed formidable at a distance, it looked ten times moreimposing now that only a few hundred yards of sea divided them from it. Its bold precipitous face appeared to ascend right up into the clouds, while the counterscarp, or base, seemed to dive abruptly into the deepwithout a slope. It was really just like a gigantic iron wall, straightup and down and quite even in contour, without a fissure or break as faras could be seen; and the surf made such a thundering din as it dashedfretfully against the lower part of the cliff, that it was almostimpossible for the shipwrecked voyagers to hear each other speak. 

Indeed, the whole scene could not but force their imagination to picturewhat might be their fate should a storm arise just then and give themover into the power of the billows. These were only in play now, so tospeak; but if their demeanour changed to one of dreadful earnest, themad waves would easily toss them as high and as savagely as they did theyeasty fragments of spindrift, which circled up into the air likesnowflakes--flung off from the tops of the breakers after eachunsuccessful onslaught on the rocky barrier that balked their endeavoursto annihilate it. 

However, there was little fear of such a catastrophe at present. Thanksto the aid of the current, combined with the towing powers of the jolly-boat's crew--the sail having been found useless in the little wind therewas and lowered again--the raft was proceeding steadily along at therate of some three miles an hour; keeping all the while at a safedistance from the cliffs, in order to avoid any undertow, and rapidlylosing the hull of the _Nancy Bell_--albeit, the flag of the ship couldyet be seen distinctly far away astern to seaward, fluttering in theslight breeze that expanded its folds. 

Each moment, too, the coast on the starboard hand rose up nearer andnearer, closing in sharply with that to port, thus showing that theywere approaching the embouchure which Mr Meldrum had marked out. Soon, a little more exertion on the part of the rowers would decide whetherthe naval officer had judged rightly or wrongly as to there being a baythere--a veritable "harbour of refuge" it would be for them. 

"I guess, mister, " said Mr Lathrope, who had been for some time quieterthan usual, "that air animile ain't far off its roosting peg; and wharhe lands I kalkerlate we can dew too. "

As he spoke, the American pointed out a species of black shag orcormorant, which had evidently been on a fishing expedition and wasreturning home with the fruits of his spoil in his bill for thedelectation of the home circle. 

"You are very likely right, " said Mr Meldrum. "That sort of sea-fowlgenerally selects a flat shore for its habitat, in preference to highplaces--just as the penguins do, so that they may the sooner tumble intothe water when desirous of taking to that element. I would not besurprised to find a landing-place as soon as we round that further pointof the cliff, where the line of surf seems to end. Stretch out withthose oars, men, " he added, speaking in a louder tone to those in thejolly-boat. "One more long pull altogether and we'll be able to getashore. "

"Aye, aye, sorr; go it, my hearties, " sang out Mr McCarthy; and, thehands, giving a responsive cheer and putting their backs into eachstroke, made the boat race along--dragging the raft behind it at a speedthat caused it to rock from side to side, and slightly startle theladies, while the boat, too, shipped a little water that came in overthe bows as it dipped forward from the jerk of the tow-rope. 

At length the limit of the cliff line was reached. It terminated asabruptly as it rose from the water; for, when the boat had pulled pastthe last of the breakers, a long narrow fiord or inlet of the sea openedbefore the eager eyes of the castaways, stretching far inland andbordered on each side by shelving slopes of hills that from their shapemust have been composed of the same basaltic rock as that of the cliffs, although now completely covered with snow. A sight that pleased themmore, however, was a broad beach of black sand--extending up to theslope of the higher land--on which they could ground the raft in safety. It was the very thing they sought!

"Hooray boys!" exclaimed the first mate, taking off his cap and wavingit round his head in excitement. "Sure an' we've rached the land atlast!"

A shout of joy came from all, in sympathetic response. 

A few strokes more, and the jolly-boat had touched the shore; when, themen jumping out, and those on the raft following suit, although thewater was icy cold and almost up to their arm-pits, the raft was quicklyhauled up close to the beach and everybody scrambled on shore. EvenMrs Major Negus was so delighted to stand once more on _terra firma_that she did not mind getting her feet wet for once, and was almost oneof the first to jump off the raft. 

"Thank God!" exclaimed Mr Meldrum as he stood up in the centre of thegroup, taking off his hat reverently in acknowledgment of the divinemercy of that watchful providence which had guided them safely throughall the perils of the deep and now permitted them to land without harm--the untaught seamen around him appearing to sympathise with hisheartfelt thanksgiving as they, too, bowed their heads in silence; whileKate fell upon her knees also in an ecstasy of gratitude to Him whoruled the wind and waves and had protected them to the last!

Then, all began to look about them. However, as they surveyed thestrange scene, they found to their surprise that they were not the onlyinhabitants of "Desolation Island, " as Captain Cook so aptly named, whenhe first saw the place, the land which had been previously discovered byMonsieur de Kerguelen. 

From the beach, the land rose up on both sides of the fiord in a gentleslope to the hills above, which latter were broken away in some places, forming flat level tables of basaltic debris that had tumbled from thetops of the cliffs; and, these stretches of table-land being under thelee of the hills, were sheltered from the snow that otherwise coveredevery place in sight, valley and mountain peak alike. 

On these tables of bare black ground, numerous colonies of penguins hadestablished themselves--the tenants already in possession of the island, to prove that it was not altogether deserted. 

The birds were standing about in crowds in the queerest and mostungainly attitudes in the world, croaking and barking, according totheir usual wont, at the unexpected visitors who had so unceremoniouslycome to disturb the quietude of their island home. They lookedexcessively funny, waddling about awkwardly on their short legs andflapping their wings as if grumbling at the intrusion, much resembling alot of little dumpy old women with grey tippets on; and Maurice Negusand Florry Meldrum went into fits of laughter at their appearance. 

The penguins were not very busy at that time of year evidently. 

They were simply idling about the beach and "loafing, " as if they hadnothing particular to do but gossip with each other as to what meant theoutlandish creatures, who had invaded their territory. Occasionally, two or three would proceed out together to fish in the quiet waters ofthe creek, and these would pass another party coming back from the sameerrand, when they would croak a greeting; but the majority did nothingbut strut about from one position to another in order to stare thebetter at the intruders--an inspection which, it need hardly be told, the latter returned with an equal interest. 

However, the survivors from the _Nancy Bell_ had a good deal to dobesides watching the penguins, for it was now late in the afternoon andgrowing dark, with the wind rising again. A few premonitory scatteredflakes of snow, too, that fell flutteringly down in a half hesitatingway every now and then, pointed out what the weather might be expectedto be bye and bye and reminded them that it would be just as well forthem to be under shelter of some sort before night came on to interrupttheir labours. 

A word from Mr Meldrum was sufficient, the first mate then giving thenecessary orders for setting the whole party to work. 

"All hands shift cargo!" he cried, stepping back upon the raft; when, the men following him, he divided them into two gangs, the first of whomhe directed to carry out Mr Meldrum's instructions under Frank Harness, while the second remained with him to remove the stores on to the beach, where Mr Adams supervised their landing. But, before anything else wasdone, the cot containing poor Captain Dinks--the only one who had not asyet been ashore--was carefully lifted up from the raft and transportedto a spot high up from the water and shielded by a spur of the hills onthe right from the winds. This Mr Meldrum had selected as a favourableplace for their camp, and Snowball was already engaged there in buildingup a fire with some wood that he had fortunately brought from thewreck--for not a scrap of brush or twig, or the sign of any tree, couldbe seen in the neighbourhood of the fiord, nor a single bit of drift onthe beach!

The stores being all landed and piled up on the shore some littledistance beyond high-water mark, Mr McCarthy's portion of the crew thenproceeded to take the raft to pieces and carry up the timbers of whichit was composed likewise to a place of safety, for fear lest the wavesshould bear them away in the night-time when the tide again came in;besides which, the material was wanted for other purposes--as MrMeldrum had foreseen when causing the raft to be constructed--althoughit was now too late in the day to utilise it to that end, for, evenwhile they were landing the things, the evening had closed in and it wasnearly dark. 

Meanwhile, the second body of men, working under Frank Harness'sdirection and Mr Meldrum's personal supervision, were equallyindustrious. 

The site for the camp having been chosen, a couple of the largest sparsthat had been brought ashore on the raft were erected as uprights, sometwenty feet apart, close under the scarp of the cliff; and a block andrunning tackle having been previously attached to the top of each ofthese, a third spar was hoisted up and lashed across them at rightangles. After this, a spare top-sail, which had been brought with themin the jolly-boat, was pulled over the framework; and, the ends of thisbeing tied down by the reef points to stout pegs driven in the ground, the structure formed a good sized tent which would do well for temporaryaccommodation for a night or two. Of course, something more substantialwould be required if the shipwrecked people were forced to remain longon the island--which, indeed, seemed more than probable, considering thetime of year, and the faint hope of their rescue by any whaling vesselbefore the month of November. 

"I guess it air prime, " said Mr Lathrope, looking at the tent with muchsatisfaction as he walked round it. He evidently took considerablepride in the construction, in which, indeed, he had some share, hisexperience "out west" having been of great use in suggesting the shapeand location of the shelter. 

"Yes, " replied Mr Meldrum, who was still busy at work on the details. "I think it will do till we can rig up something better. "

"Wa-ll, all you've got to do neow, I guess, " said the other, "is tostretch a rope across the hull consarn, and fix up a blanket or two toscreen off the femmels from the menfolk; and the thing's done slick andhandsome. "

"Right!" responded Mr Meldrum, taking his advice and dividing the tentacross into two portions, one of which was reserved for the ladies;when, the spare bedding and blankets having been brought up from theraft, the improvised apartments were made to look as comfortable ascircumstances permitted. Really, the interior, on being lighted up bythe ship's lanterns, which had not been forgotten, appeared quite cosy, especially when Snowball's fire, which was now burning up briskly fromthe chips shovelled on to it, could be seen sparkling and leaping up inspurts of flame through the open flap that had been left to serve for adoorway. 

"And now, I kalkerlate, it's time for grub, " said the American when thetent was finished and the ladies' comfort provided for--Captain Dinks, still in his cot, being ensconced in a warm corner--"I hope that blesseddarkey has got something good, for I feel powerful holler, I dew!"

He need not, however, have been in any doubt as to Snowball's capacity. That worthy allowed nothing to interfere with the exercise of hisculinary skill; so, when the first mate by Mr Meldrum's directions had"piped down" all hands, he had ready a repast which appeared to thehungry castaways more like a splendid banquet than an improvised meal, and one as well cooked as if Snowball had all the facilities of thegalley on shipboard to prepare it. His chief dish was a well-seasoned"Irish stew, " compounded of salt beef and preserved vegetables, whichseemed on that cold evening a perfect _chef-d'oeuvre_, and would, as MrLathrope "guessed" after a third helping, have "made a man leave hisgrandmother for his wife's mother's aunt, any day!"

Soon after the meal was finished, night came on, when the snow began tofall heavily and the wind to blow piercingly from the north'ard andwestward, just as it had done the evening before when the poor _NancyBell_ was struggling round Cape Saint Louis and rushing on to her doom;but the castaways happily were now sheltered from the inclemencies ofthe weather, and as they one and all nestled into their blankets as soonas bedtime came;--man and woman, Jack tar and landsman alike!--thankedGod fervently that they were now no longer on board ship. 

Towards morning, a slight alarm was created by some of the melted snowfinding its way down upon the sleepers through the sail that served forthe roofing of their tent; but this was soon remedied by lashing over itthe old tarpaulin from off the cabin skylight, which, it may berecollected, was only thought of at the last moment, although such auseful article. The leak in the roof stopped, all turned to sleep againwith the greater zest, enjoying such a night's rest as they had not hadfor the last week at sea--not a soul indeed waking up till long afterdaybreak, all were so dead tired out with the fatigue and anxiety theyhad undergone. 

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. 

NEARLY A CATASTROPHE!

SLept till long after daybreak, did they?

Why, it was getting on for noon when Mr McCarthy roused the crew fromtheir unusually long caulk amongst the blankets in the corner of thetent reserved for them with his cheery call of "All hands ahoy! Tumbleup there! tumble up!" coupled with the information that the sun was"scorching their eyes out"--which latter observation, it may be casuallyremarked, was a slight stretch of his imagination, considering thefeeble power of the solar orb at that time of the year on the snow-covered wastes of Kerguelen Land!

Still, late or early as they might be in rising, the first point towhich everybody turned their gaze on getting out into the open, was thelittle spot on the horizon to seaward where they had left the ship, where she had been last seen on the previous afternoon just as theevening was beginning to close in. Since they had quitted her, however, the wind had been blowing pretty stiffly all night, although it hadcalmed down again towards the morning; while the last thing they hadheard, ere they had sunk into the sound dreamless sleep all had enjoyedthrough the complete exhaustion of their frames, had been the roaringnoise of the breakers thundering against the base of the cliffs beyondtheir sheltering fiord. So, it was with but very faint hopes ofperceiving the remains of the poor old _Nancy Bell's_ hull still fixedon the treacherous reef of her destruction, that they looked wistfullyout into the offing!

But, lo and behold! in spite of all their forebodings, there in thedistance they could yet dimly descry the stern section of the ill-fatedvessel still intact, as far as they could judge with the naked eye, amidst the rocks; and about it the waves played and circled and the surfshowered its spray. Above the wreck, too, there still fluttered feeblythe flag which Mr Meldrum had attached to the stump of the mizzen-mast, as if defying the powers of the wind and the waters to destroy thegallant old ship and her belongings, strive how they might in all theirmajesty!

Every heart felt glad at the sight. 

"It does me ra-al good, mister, it dew!" said Mr Lathrope to the firstmate, who was intently watching the object of general interest, as if hecould not take his eyes off it. "When I riz just neow, I felt kinderlonesome, a thinking we'd parted company with the old crittur fur everand wouldn't never see her no more; but thar she is still as perky asever, in spite of last night's gale, which I thought would ha' blown allher timbers to Jericho!"

"Ah, sorr!" replied Mr McCarthy with a heavy sigh and a troubled lookin his usually merry twinkling grey eyes, "you'll never say another shipthe likes of her again! If you'll belave me, Mister Lathrope, sorr, she'd sail ten knots on a bowline; and I'd like to know where you'd batethat now?"

"I'll not deny she had her good pints, " said the Americansympathisingly; "but I guess the poor thing'll soon be bruk up. "

"Yes, son, more's the pity, " responded the other; "sure an' I wish wehad her safe ashore here and we'd save ivory plank of her. "

"It wouldn't be a bad notion, " observed Mr Meldrum, who just then cameup to where the two were talking, "to take another trip out to the shipin the jolly-boat and see whether we could not land some more thingsthat might be of use to us?"

"Sure the hould's gutted now enthirely, " said the Irish mate sadly, "andthe divil a hap'orth we'd get by going. Look at the say that's running, too; and considther the long pull out there and back again--not that Iwouldn't be afther going, sorr, if you were to say the word!"

"Oh, no, never mind, " replied Mr Meldrum. "There's not the slightestnecessity for it, for I believe we brought away all the provisions thatwere left in her, and we'd find little enough now! I only thought wemight secure some more of the timber work, as there doesn't seem to be aparticle of wood on the island. "

"We'd better wait till she breaks up, sorr, " said Mr McCarthy; "sureand it'll float in thin to us, widout the throuble of fetching it. "

"All right!" answered the other. So the contemplated last trip to thestranded vessel would have been abandoned, had not Florry at that momentrushed up to her father. 

"Oh, poor puss!" she exclaimed, half-crying and almost breathless withexcitement as she clung to his arm and looked up into his faceentreatingly. 

"Puss!" repeated Mr Meldrum in astonishment; "what puss?"

"The--the--poor pussy cat we used to play with in the cabin, " sobbedFlorry. "It was shut up by the stewardess, and has been left behind inthe ship!"

"Yes, sir, " said Mary Llewellyn, who with Kate had followed Florry. "Iclean forgot the creature in the flurry of coming away. I locked it inthe pantry, as it seemed frightened and was scurrying about the cuddy;and when we went on deck, I didn't think to take it out, so there it'llbe starved to death, or drownded!"

"It was my fault as well, " interposed Kate, looking quite as unhappy asher sister and the stewardess. "I told Mary to lock it up. "

"Be jabers!" ejaculated the first mate, "it'll never do to lave itthere. Sure and we'd be onlucky altogether if a cat came to harm in theold ship! I didn't know it was aboord at all, at all. Sure an' there'sno knowing but what all our misfortunes have been brought about by thesame baste, bad cess to it?"

"Oh, Mr McCarthy!" exclaimed Kate, "how can you believe that?"

"Sure, and I mane it, " answered the Irishman promptly, as if he put thegreatest faith in the superstition. 

"Well, " said Mr Meldrum, "I'm sorry for the poor animal; but it willhave to stop there now! The sea is very rough, and I would hardly liketo risk men's lives to save a cat!"

"I'll go back for it, sir, " volunteered Frank Harness with a look atKate, which said as plainly as looks could speak that he was ready to doa good deal more than that to please her. "You were speaking just nowof sending off the jolly-boat to fetch what we could from the wreck; sowe can bring the poor cat on shore at the same time. "

"Yes, I certainly did suggest that just now, " said Mr Meldrum; "but, asMr McCarthy pointed out, there is a good deal of sea on, and--"

"Sure, but I said, sorr, I'd go if you liked, " interrupted the firstmate eagerly, not wishing to be behindhand when Frank had offered; "and, faix, I'm ready at once. "

"Let the durned animile slide, " put in Mr Lathrope. "It ain't worth acent, much less such a tall price as yar life. "

"No, we won't, " said Mr McCarthy, all anxiety now to start. "Who'llvolunteer to go back to the wreck and save the cat!" he called outaloud. 

"I will, " and "I, " and "I, " cried out several of the seamen, laughingand passing all sorts of chaff about the expedition; and soon there weremore than enough offers to man the jolly-boat twice over if all had beentaken who offered. 

Ben Boltrope was one of the first to stand out; but Mr Meldrum at oncemotioned him back. 

"You must not go, " said he. "I shall want your carpentering aid verysoon, and can't spare you. " It was the same with some others amongstthe hands, Mr Meldrum picking them out as they stepped forwards. 

Before long, however, a crew was selected; when, the jolly-boat beingrun down into the water by the aid of a dozen other willing hands, besides her own special crew, she was soon on her way back to the sceneof the wreck of the _Nancy Bell_--McCarthy steering her, and FrankHarness, who would not relinquish his privilege of going in her afterhaving been the first to volunteer, pulling the stroke-oar, no idlersbeing wanted on board. Kate looked at him and waved her hand in adieuas the boat topped the heavy rolling waves and got well out into theoffing; and, after that, Frank did not mind what exertion he had to gothrough. 

It was a long pull and an arduous one, although, in spite of MrMcCarthy's warning to the contrary, there was nothing dangerous in theaccomplishment of the feat. The first mate had probably felt a littlelazy when he endeavoured to set Mr Meldrum at first against theexpedition, for after a couple of hours' hard work, having the tide tocontend with most of the way, they easily managed to approach the reefand bring up the boat under the vessel's stern, where the side ropes andslung chair, which they had omitted to remove on board the raft remainedjust as they had left them, swinging about to and fro as the windbrushed by, causing them to oscillate with its breath. 

On climbing up to the deck, they found the poop pretty much the same, but the forward portion of the ship had all broken to pieces, hardly atimber being left, save part of the forefoot or cut-water, which had gotjammed in between the rocks along with the anchor-stock, the heavy massof iron belonging to which must have fallen down below the surface whenthe topgallant forecastle was washed away. 

Going down into the cuddy, Frank could hardly at first believe that itsformer tenants had quitted it for good and all, for the cabin doors werethrown wide open, and dresses and other articles of feminine attirescattered about--one special shawl of Kate's, which he readilyrecognised as the one she had on her shoulders the night they hadwatched the stars together in the South Atlantic, being placed over theback of the captain's chair at the head of the table, as if the ownerhad just put it down for a minute and was coming back to fetch it. Heat once took charge of this, besides collecting sundry other littlearticles which he thought Kate might want; but he was soon interruptedin his quest of feminine treasure-hunting by a mewing and scratching atthe door of the steward's pantry, which made him recollect all at oncewhat had been the ostensible object of his mission on board the vessel. 

"Gracious goodness!" he exclaimed, speaking to himself, for Mr McCarthywas busy raking amongst his clothes in his own cabin, also oblivious tothe fate of the poor feline for whom they had come aboard the ship. "Ialmost forgot the cat after all. Puss, Pussy, poor Puss!" and hewrenched open the pantry door, setting the animal free. 

If ever mortal cat purred in its life, or endeavoured to express itspleasure and satisfaction by walking round and rubbing itself against aperson, raising and putting down its fore-feet alternately, with thetoes extended, as if practising the goose step or working on some felinetreadmill, why that cat did then. The poor animal could not speak, ofcourse, but it really seemed to utter some inarticulate sounds that musthave been in cat language a paean of joy and praise and thanks at itsdeliverance; and, finally, in a paroxysm of affection and endearment, itturned itself head over heels on the cabin floor in front of Frank. 

"Poor Puss; poor little thing!" said the young sailor, taking it up inhis arms. "I believe I would have come back for you even if it hadn'tbeen to oblige Kate--my darling!" and he kissed the fur of the animal ashe held it in his arms, as if he considered it for the time being herdeputy. 

Judging by several well-picked bones that could be noticed lying on thedeck of the pantry, Frank assured himself that Puss had not been starvedsince she had been locked up; and, indeed, she could not have been inany serious want, as there was a freshly-cut ham on one of the shelvesand a round of spiced beef, which she had not touched, both of whichFrank took the liberty of appropriating for the benefit of those onshore. 

Then, still in company with Puss, who would not leave his side, heimitated the example of the first mate, and selected a coat or two and achange of clothes from out of his own sea-chest. He did not forget theothers either, but gathered together various garments which he saw lyingabout in the captain's cabin and that of Mr Meldrum, thinking that bothmight perhaps be glad of them bye and bye. 

Beyond what Frank had found in the pantry, however, neither he nor MrMcCarthy could discover any provisions, or other things that might beuseful on shore, save the unbroken half of the cuddy skylight. Thisthey carefully lowered down into the jolly-boat, for the glass framingwould come in handy for the windows of any house they built--Mr Meldrumhaving hinted on the previous evening of some more substantial structurebeing necessary than the tent, which had been only put up for temporaryaccommodation on their first landing on the island. 

The several articles that had been collected being now put on board thejolly-boat, in addition to the accommodation chair, which was cut fromthe slings, at McCarthy's especial request, and lowered down onboard--"jest to plaze the meejor, " as he said, alluding to Mrs Negus'sweakness for sitting in high places during the voyage. Frank thendescended with the cat in his arms and took a seat in the stern-sheets, the first mate very good-naturedly pulling the stroke-oar on the returnjourney in his place; and, all these little matters being thus arranged, Pussy's rescuers started again for the shore. The tide, luckily, waswith them all the way; so they accomplished the distance back to thebeach inside the fiord in very nearly half the time they had taken inrowing out to the ship--getting everything ashore and the jolly-boathauled up safely beyond high-water mark with none of the trouble theyhad anticipated on setting out, the wind and sea having both calmed downin the interim. 

Kate's thanks to Frank need not be alluded to:-- they were simplyinexpressible; but, if Puss is described to have been pleased when shewas first released from captivity and an untimely end on board theshipwrecked vessel, what can be said for her raptures now that she waslanded on _terra firma_--which she probably had never expected to seeagain--especially when she recognised the bevy of old friends amongstwhom she found herself alive once more. 

"I guess, " said Mr Lathrope, as he watched her affectionate antics, "the stoopid old cuss will purr herself to potato parings, and rub allher darned fur inter a door-mat with joy!"

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR. 

AN AFTERNOON CALL. 

"I'm glad you brought the skylight, " said Mr Meldrum to the first matewhen the excitement attending the return of the boat's crew with MissPussy had somewhat calmed down. "Its the very thing we'll wantpresently!" He then proceeded to show Mr McCarthy what he and thosewho had remained ashore had done during the absence of the others. 

Adjoining the site of the tent, and under the lee of a sort of gable-endof the cliffs, a piece of ground had been cleared of the snow close to afreshwater tarn some little distance above the sea-shore, where it wasnot affected by the tide; and here the land had been levelled in theform of a parallelogram, some thirty feet long by twenty wide, roundwhich a trench had been dug about a foot deep. 

At the four corners of this, stout posts, selected from some of thedeck-beams of the _Nancy Bell_ that had been secured for the under-structure of the raft, were set up in holes excavated of such a depththat they would firmly resist any lateral pressure brought to bearagainst them by the wind; and, round the top of these uprights, ascantling of deal had been nailed on, thus making the framework of agood-sized cottage. 

Mr McCarthy was quite surprised at the progress made. 

"You've been pretty busy, sorr, " he said. "Be jabers, you'll have acabin built in no time!"

"Yes, " replied Mr Meldrum, "we have got along; but you must rememberwe've had fourteen hands at work besides the carpenter, including MrLathrope and myself; and such a number of men, when their labour hasbeen systematically divided, can accomplish a good deal in a short time. I wish we had some more timber, though! We've got the roof yet tomake, and a partition or two in the inside for the proper division ofthe building. I have planned out a separate room for the ladies, andone for us men; in addition to a general sort of apartment, where we canall have our meals together, and which will serve as a store-room aswell. "

"Sure an' you don't think, sorr, we'll have to live here long!" said thefirst mate, a little alarmed at the magnitude of the other's plans. 

"Indeed I do, " answered Mr Meldrum. "It is now only the beginning ofAugust, which is the worst season here, as I mentioned to poor CaptainDinks; and the winter will probably last from four to five months;during which time, according to all accounts that I've read of theplace, we may expect to experience the most bitter weather, and have todepend entirely on our own resources; for, none of the whaling schoonersthat go seal-hunting in these parts ever visit the island, as far as Iknow, before November or December--and even then they go generally tothe eastern side and do not come here! Before that time, however, thatis as soon as the snow melts and the spring sets in, we'll have to tryand cross over the land to one of the harbours which the whalersfrequent, and which I've got marked on the chart. Until that period, Mr McCarthy, as you must perceive, we will have to remain here; so itis best for us to try and be as comfortable as we can under thecircumstances. Last night, as you know, it was cold enough in allconscience; but that will be nothing to what we may expect later on whenthe regular gales and sea-fogs and snowstorms set in, and they continuefor weeks, I believe!"

"Begorrah, it's a bad look-out!" said the mate, --"a bad look-out, anyway!"

"It is; there's no good of our blinking the fact, " replied theother, --"but, still, other shipwrecked crews have borne worse hardshipsthan we'll have to contend with, and, you know, what men have done menmay do! I wish we had some more of the poor old ship's planks, however. Besides their being necessary for completing our house properly, weshall want a large supply of them for fuel during the next four months. "

"Sure and they'll float ashore, " said the mate. 

"I don't know about that, " responded Mr Meldrum. "You said just now, when you returned in the jolly-boat, that all the bows and forward partsof the vessel had been washed to pieces; and yet, of all that wreckagenot a single scrap came ashore here to tell the tale before you broughtthe news:-- what do you think of that, eh!"

"Be jabers, it's all that blissid current that takes it back agin! Surean' I've sane it floating in foreninst the land myself. "

"Well, we'll have to try and baulk the current, then, " said Mr Meldrum. "We must keep a good look-out on the ship; and, as soon as we see thatthe stern has broken up, the jolly-boat will have to be manned andcruise about to pick up and tow ashore whatever timber and stray planksmay be seen. "

"Right you are, sorr, " replied Mr McCarthy. "I'll say to that!"

"Say, mister, " interposed the American, who had remained silent duringthe deliberations of the other two, although he was supposed to bepresent at the council and a deliberative member. "How'll the grub lastall that air time! Twenty-seven folks all told, as I've kalkerlated'em, take a powerful lot of feedin' in four months!"

"Ah!" said Mr Meldrum, "that's a serious consideration. However, withthat lot of penguins there, "--and he pointed to the little colony of thequaint birds, which were still croaking and grumbling at them, nothaving yet become accustomed to their strange visitors, --"I don't thinkwe'll starve! Besides these gentry, too, there will be lots more sea-fowl, and perhaps some land ones as well. Still, it will be advisable, Mr Lathrope, as you have introduced the subject, to take stock of allthe stores we have, and Master Snowball must be instructed to be notquite so lavish in his display at dinner-time as he was yesterday. "

"Sorry I spoke, " said Mr Lathrope, rather chop-fallen at the way inwhich his suggestion had been taken. "I didn't want you to cut shortthe vittles, but only to kinder kalkerlate!"

"I'm just doing that, " replied the other, "and we'll see what we've gotto depend upon at once. "

As the American had remarked, they were just twenty-seven souls in all:_Imprimis_, Captain Dinks--whose wound evidently was progressingfavourably, for he had lost all those feverish symptoms that wereapparent the day previous and was now in a sound sleep, after eatingsome thin soup which Snowball had concocted for him by Mr Meldrum'sdirection--Mr McCarthy, Adams, Frank Harness, Ben Boltrope thecarpenter, and Karl Ericksen the rescued Norwegian sailor, besidesSnowball and thirteen others of the crew of the _Nancy Bell_, makingtwenty of those belonging to the ship; while, of the passengers, therewere six--Mr Meldrum, Kate, Florry, Mrs Major Negus and her son andonly hope Maurice, and lastly, though by no means least, Mr Lathrope--the grand total, with the stewardess, who must not be forgotten, comingexactly to seven-and-twenty. 

Now, to feed all this large family, they had brought ashore on the raftthree barrels of salt beef and four of pork, six hams uncooked, besidesthe one which Frank had removed from the steward's pantry along with theround of spiced beef on his visit to the ship in search of the cat; somefour dozen eight-pound tins of preserved meats and vegetables; about acouple of hundredweight of flour; five bags of biscuit; a few bottles ofspirits; and sundry minor articles, such as pickles and salt, and one ortwo pots of preserves--not a very considerable amount of provender, considering the number of souls to be supplied, and the length of timeMr Meldrum thought it wise to estimate that the provisions would haveto last. 

Just as they were rolling back the casks under the shelter of the tent, Maurice Negus rushed up to Mr Meldrum in company with Florry, both ofthe children being intensely excited evidently about something they hadseen or heard. 

"Oh crickey!" cried out the former before he had quite got up to theparty, so as to have the first voice in the matter, --"Do come! There'san awful long thing just crawled out of the sea, and it is creeping upto the tent as fast as it can!"

"Yes, " chorussed Florry, "and it's like the seals we saw in theZoological Gardens; only it's twice as big and has a long trunk like anelephant!"

"Jeehosophat!" exclaimed Mr Lathrope, feeling for his revolver. "Itmust be a rum outlandish animile, if it's like that!"

"Zee-oliphant, " said Karl Ericksen, the Norwegian sailor, in his brokenEnglish. "He is not harmful:-- he good for man eat. "

"Snakes and alligators! that's prime anyhow, I reckon, " put in MrLathrope. "I guess this air animile'll save your old stores, mister, hey?"

"I hope so, " answered Mr Meldrum. "Although I've never tasted sealbeef myself, I have heard it's very fair when you can't get the genuinearticle; the whalers generally use it, at all events, some of them eventhinking it a dainty. But, let us go and see this sea-elephant that thechildren have discovered!"

They did not have to go far; for, the queer-looking amphibious creaturehad by this time crawled up on to the rocks close outside the tent, andwas quite near to where they were standing--the Norwegian sailor havingalready seen and recognised its species before he spoke. 

The animal was a gigantic sort of seal, some twenty-five feet in lengthand quite five high. If big, it was certainly also most unwieldy, forit appeared to waddle up from the shore with the greatest difficulty. Its body was covered with a short brown fur, with lighter hair of a duncolour under the throat; and, what gave it the singular appearancewhence its name of "sea-elephant" was probably more derived than fromits size, was the pendulous nostrils, which hung down over its mouth, just like the proboscis or long trunk of the children's old friend, "Jumbo. "

Karl Ericksen had managed to rummage out a harpoon one day amongst theodds and ends in the forecastle of the _Nancy Bell_, and the sailorhaving been familiar with its use from long whaling experience, had notforgotten to bring it ashore when they abandoned the wreck--looking uponthe weapon with almost as much veneration as Mr Lathrope regarded therifle he had inherited from the celebrated Colonel Crockett. 

This harpoon Karl now brought forth, approaching the seal with theobvious intention of despatching it summarily; when another evidence ofits elephantine character was displayed, well justifying its title. 

As the sailor came up to it and raised the harpoon to strike, the animalraised itself on its fore-flappers, snarling and emitting a hollow roarwhich startled everybody near, causing them to jump away, and give it awide berth; while at the same time it erected its nose so that it stoodout quite stiff, more than a foot long, and, opening its mouth, itexposed the bright scarlet palate and gullet, from the bottom of whichits hoarse bellow proceeded. Karl, however, was not frightened by thesea-elephant's rage, but with a single swinging blow from his harpoon onthe snout stretched it lifeless on the ground, when all were better ableto appreciate its enormous size. Its girth alone exceeded sixteen feet, and the animal appeared all the more imposing when dead than alive. 

The Norwegian sailor cut out the tongue, telling Mr Meldrum that thisportion of the sea-elephant and the snout were considered greatdelicacies by the whalers; but none of the party relished either, although Snowball served up both at dinner in his most recherchefashion. The flesh of the body, too, was of a blackish hue, and had anoily taste about it, which made the sailors turn up their noses at itand wish to fling it away; but this Mr Meldrum would not allow. 

"We will probably be glad enough to get it bye and bye, " he said; and hethen caused the despised seal "beef" to be cut up in pieces and salteddown in one of their spare casks in case of future need. 

During the time Mr Meldrum had been taking stock of their stores, before the coming of the sea-elephant--"to pay them an afternoon call, "as Florry said--the carpenter, with a number of the hands working underhim, had been proceeding with the house-building operations; but he hadto stop at last, more from want of the proper timber wherewith tocomplete the job than through the darkening of the afternoon on accountof the approach of night. 

"I can't get along nohow, " Ben explained to Mr Meldrum, who was nowregarded as the head of the party, and the one to look to in everydifficulty. "I'm at a standstill for planking, sir. I can manage theroof part pretty well, by breaking up those old puncheons we broughtunder the raft and using the staves for shingles; but the joists andrafters bother me, sir. "

"Well, we must hope to get some more to-morrow from the wreck, " said MrMeldrum. "The ship cannot last much longer; but, recollect, we can'tget any ashore till she breaks up. "

"Aye, aye, sir, I knows that, " replied Ben. "Still, I hopes it won'tall drift away to sea when she do go to pieces. "

"We'll try to prevent that, Boltrope, " said the other. "Mind, MrMcCarthy, and have a look-out stationed in the morning to keep an eye onthe ship, with a man to relieve him watch and watch, the same as onboard! She's all firm now, for I saw the flag still waving when Ilooked before the light began to fail; but if the wind and sea get upagain, as they very likely will towards midnight, tomorrow will tell avery different tale!"

"I'll have a look-out, never fear, sorr. "

"And, McCarthy--"

"Yes, sorr!"

"See that the jolly-boat is ready and a crew picked for it to put offthe moment any wreckage is observed floating inshore. We must notneglect any chance of securing all the timber we can for fuel, puttingthe house out of the reckoning entirely!"

"Indade I will, sorr, " answered the mate cheerily; and then, all struckwork for the day and retired into the tent, not sorry to have anothereasy night's rest. Every one was anxious to turn in, for really therewas nothing else to be done. 

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE. 

BREAKING UP OF THE VESSEL. 

They did not sleep so soundly, however, on this occasion as they haddone the first night of their landing on the island; for, soon afterdark, the wind rose into a tempestuous gale, making the tent flap aboutin such a way that it seemed as if it were about to be carried offbodily!

As it was, indeed--through the blowing in of the sides, and the jumpingup and down of the tarpaulin on the roof every now and then as theboisterous gusts got under it--a lot of snow, which had begun to fallbefore they retired to rest and was now coming down in a regular storm, as fast and furious as the flakes could succeed each other, managed tofind its way inside, not contributing much to their comfort; and this, combined with the roar of the breakers against the base of the cliffs, which seemed louder than ever now that the men were lying down withtheir ears to the ground, tended to keep the majority of the castawaysawake and made them long for the morning to come again. 

At last, the day broke; and, as the faint light gleamed through thechinks in the tent, telling all that the dreary night was past, theyquickly bestirred themselves--Snowball being one of the first to turnout, and at once hastening to kindle up the fire, which he had leftcarefully banked up the previous evening, besides wisely hedging it inwith heavy pieces of stone so that the wind should not scatter it away, as would otherwise probably have been the case. 

"Soon get drop hot coffee, massa, " said he to Mr Meldrum, who was anearly riser too and not far behind the darkey; "Um berry good for detomack fust thing in mornin'!"

But the other was too much concerned about the fate of the ship to thinkof coffee then; and, long before Snowball had finished his remark, hewas actively ascending the highest rock near to get a good view out toseaward. Here he was shortly joined by Mr McCarthy and Ben Boltrope, who were also equally anxious in the matter; although the others, nothaving been called, did not hurry themselves to leave the warmatmosphere of the tent for the cold and raw air without. 

The lookers-out, however, could not see much as yet; for the usualsurface fog--which in these regions generally creeps up in the eveningand hangs over the sea till broad daylight--had not yet completelycleared away; and so, a curtain of haze shut out the offing from theirgaze. Still, as far as the eye could reach, the sea was very rough, with heavy rollers rolling in landward. The gale of the night had notabated much, albeit the wind was not so gusty as it had been, while itsforce seemed to be lessening as the morning drew on. 

"I'm afraid, " said Mr Meldrum, after vainly trying for a long time topeer through the impenetrable veil of mist which hid the reef fromsight, "that this last blow has settled the old ship. "

"Faix, and I'm thinking just that very same, " responded the first mate. "It blowed tremenjus towards four bells, sorr, an' the poor crathur mustbe clane smashed up by now!"

"It's very unfortunate if that has happened, " replied the other. "Thesea is running too high for us to launch the jolly-boat, and so we'lllose all chance of saving the wreckage. "

"True for you, sorr, save and onless it drifts ashore. "

"There's not the slightest hope of that, " replied Mr Meldrum. "Nothinghas come up on the beach here yet, that I've been able to perceive!"

"But, sure an' the wind's bin blowing on to the land, sorr, all night. P'r'aps that might make a difference!"

"Perhaps it might, " said the other; "but I very much doubt it. "

"Well, sorr, we'll say, " retorted the mate. However, the argument wassettled offhand by Ben Boltrope, who had clambered up to a higher ledgeof rock from whence he could see further out to seaward over the fog, which hung low on the water and did not extend to the upper regions ofthe air. 

"There she is, your honour, bless her old heart!" he exclaimed. "She'sstill hard and fast on the reef, and never another plank sprung from thestarn, as far as I can see!"

This was good news; and Mr Meldrum, with the mate, hastened to join thecarpenter on his perch above. 

Yes, there in the distance, rising out of the mist, could be seen theupper portion of the poop of the _Nancy Bell_, although the wreck wasstill occasionally obscured by a wave breaking over it; and, presently, on the lifting of the fog, as the clouds cleared off from the face ofthe sky and a gleam of sunshine stole out, lighting up the sea andlandscape around, it could be observed that the remains of the vesselwere nearly in the same condition, apparently, as when last noticed onthe evening before--save that the poor ship was now surrounded by a lineof breakers which dashed over the stern continually, looking as if theymeant to pull it in pieces before they had done with it!

"She's shifted more on to her side, " said Mr Meldrum, who had taken outa glass from his pocket and was now inspecting the remains of the oldship more carefully. "I can see the deck clearly. The waves arespurting up through the hole where the skylight was removed, so thecabins must be pretty well washed out by this time. "

"Ah! that's the rayson we couldn't say the flag, sorr, " observed themate. 

"It is there still, " replied Mr Meldrum; "although it is now all toport, instead of right amidships as it was when we left. This is onaccount of the mizzen-mast stump leaning over into the water, for Icouldn't see it myself till I took the glass. She can't last muchlonger, though. Those seas are breaking over her with frightful force, judging by the amount of surf they send up, and they must soon make anend of her!"

"I hope it'll calm down a bit, sir, " said Ben Boltrope. "I'm nervousabout them timbers for the roof of the house. "

"Be aisy with you, man, " put in Mr McCarthy. "Sure an' all the anxietyin the worruld won't dhrive a pig to market! If we're to have thecrathur's planks we'll have thim sure enough; and if we aren't, why wewon't, that's all about it!"

"The sea may run easier at low water, Boltrope, " said Mr Meldrum toconsole the carpenter; "and if she should be broken up by that time, we'll send out the jolly-boat and pick up what we can. "

"Begorrah, you won't have to wait long, " cried the mate; and almost ashe spoke, a heavy roller was seen to lift up the wreck on the top of itscrest and roll it over, after which the dark body they had observed onthe reef with the little scrap of a flag fluttering over it was there nolonger!

The _Nancy Bell_, or rather the remaining fragments of her hull, haddisappeared at last beneath the waves!

"I'm afraid we sha'n't be able to save anything, " said Mr Meldrum, after a moment of silence, in which each of the three witnesses of thevessel's end had drawn a deep breath, showing how affecting had been thesight. "It is such a long distance out there, and the sea is running soheavily besides, that I wouldn't like to risk the boat. "

"Sure and we could thry, sorr, " pleaded the first mate eagerly. 

"No, Mr McCarthy, it would be hazardous in the extreme; and we oughtnot to peril the men's lives unnecessarily! Still, if you want to dosomething--"

"Bedad I do, " interrupted the other, as if ready at once to dive intothe sea if required. 

"Well, " continued Mr Meldrum, "you can post a man on the watch here andone or two other places along the cliff, to notice if anything floatsinshore; and then, of course, we'll make an effort to bring it to landshould the wreckage drift near. "

"Aye, aye, sorr, you may dipind upon me that same, " said Mr McCarthy;and, rushing down from the rock, he was soon in front of the men'scompartment of the tent, rousing them out with a cry of, "Ahoy there!All hands on deck to save ship! Tumble up, tumble up there, myhearties, there's no time to lose!"

The men coming out with alacrity, half bewildered by such a hail underthe circumstances and surroundings, four were picked out and posted tolook out like sentinels--two on the beach and two on the ridge above--and all with strict injunctions to report anything they saw at once, just as if they were put to the same duty on board ship. 

"Now, mind ye kape a good watch, " said the first mate, as he left themto their own devices, "and out if you say a single hincoop floating inthe say foreninst ye--though it's little enough of them you'll say, sure, considerin' they were all washed overboard off the Cape!--I maneif ye say any timbers or spars from the wrack drifting inshore, just youhould your eye on thim, or the divil a mother's son ye'll have a roofover his hid or a pace of foire to warm his-self! Faix, ye needn'tsnigger, ye spalpeens; it's the truth I'm afther tellin' ye!" and MrMcCarthy then went off, shaking his fist good-humouredly at those wholaughed at his quaint speech. 

Four other men he selected as a crew for the jolly-boat, which washauled down on the beach in readiness to shove off as soon as any of thewreckage was reported in sight; the remainder of the hands beingdirected to place themselves under the orders of the carpenter untiltheir services should be required to relieve the look-out men at the endof their watch. The duty of these latter, however, was for some time asinecure, as the breakers were still breaking angrily against the cliffsand keeping up the hoarse diapason in which they expressed theirimpotent rage; while the wind, though blowing with less force thanduring the night time, was yet strong enough to sweep off the tops ofthe billows when it caught them well abeam, carrying the spindrift awayto leeward and scattering the surge with its blast as it transformed itinto fairy-like foam bubbles and wreaths of gossamer spray. 

Noon came before there was any change. 

Then, soon after the end of the ebb and just as the tide began to flowagain, the wind died away into a dead calm; and the sea settling downsomewhat--the rollers still rolling in, but only breaking when theyreached the shore, instead of jostling one another in their tumultuousrushings together and mimic encounters out in the open--every eye was onthe _qui vive_. It was either "now or never" that they might expectanything coming inshore from the wreck!

"Sail ho!" at length shouted one of the look-out men on the ridge. Thesailor evidently could not help using the nautical term from old habit, although he well knew that there was little chance of his seeing a"sail" that quarter!

"Where away?" called out Mr McCarthy, who had the jolly-boat's crewround her, running her into the water the moment he heard the cry. 

"Right to leeward of the reef, sir, about a mile out, " answered thelook-out, adding quickly afterwards, "it looks a pretty biggish bit oftimber, sir, and rides high in the water. "

"All right, my man, " said the mate; "mind you kape still on the watch, and fix any other paces of planking you may say in your mind's eye! Youcan till me where to look for thim whin I come back agin within hail. Shove off, you beggars!" he then cried out to the boat's crew, as hejumped in over the side. "Arrah put your backs into it, for we're boundto save ivery scrap of the ould vessel we can come across, in order sureto tow it ashore!"

Watching for an opportunity, the boat's head was shoved out on top of areturn wave, when, the oars being plied with sturdy strokes, the littlebuoyant craft was soon well out of the broken water and making steadyprogress in the direction that had been pointed out. No object, however, could be seen as yet by Mr McCarthy; for the rollers werestill so high that when the boat was sunk in the hollow between themnothing could be noticed beyond the curving ridge of the next wave andthe broken wash of the one just overtopped. 

"Go it, boys, kape at it with a will, " cried the mate, rising up in thestern-sheets after a while to look round better, steadying himself byholding on to the yoke-lines and leaning forwards. "Ha! I can say itnow, right in front! We'll soon have it--one more stroke, and we'll bethere, sure!"

"Aisy, now--avast--row of all!" he cried out in turn; and then, with asullen, grating sound the boat brought up against a large mass of brokentimberwork which the men had no difficulty in recognising as the largerportion of the poop deck. It had the combings of the companion andskylight still attached, as well as a part of one of the ladder-ways, and was in every sense a treasure trove. 

"Sure we're in luck, boys, anyhow, " said Mr McCarthy joyfully. "Bejabers, I niver expected to git so much ov it all at once without anytrouble!"

The first mate proceeded without delay to attach the small hawser whichthey had used for towing the raft to a ring-bolt, left as if for thepurpose on the floating mass; and then the men, backing water on oneside, and pulling sharp on the other, soon had the boat on her way backto the land, with the mass of broken timberwork trailing behind her. Itwas in itself, without picking up another plank, more than sufficient tosupply all the carpenter's needs for the roof of the house, "besoidesmaking the ladies a prisint of a staircase for the front door, " as MrMcCarthy observed!

It was fortunate they came across this, for little more of the wreckagewas secured, the tide having evidently carried out the lighter portionsof the planking too far to sea for it to be brought back again by thereturning flood. It was probably only owing to the weight of the poop-deck that they had been able to make certain of that. 

Still, on making a trip out to the reef later on, to see whether anymore of the timbers remained there, a "find" was discovered whichgreatly rejoiced Snowball's heart when it was brought on shore. 

This was nothing less than one of the ship's coppers, which had becomedetached from the galley framework and in falling on to the reef hadmanaged to get securely fixed between the rocks, just a little below thesurface of the water. A couple of the men were easily able to pull itup into the jolly-boat, where, on being inspected, it was foundperfectly sound and as good as ever!

"Golly, massa, " exclaimed the darkey, when Mr Meldrum presented himwith the recovered copper--which Snowball looked upon almost as theapple of his eye--"me able cook pea-shoop now, sah, and bile de beef in'spectable style, sah! Dat sospan, massa, no good for ship's company. Um bile, and bile, and bile, and nebbah bile enuff!"

"Ah! mind you don't go cooking too extravagantly, " said Mr Meldrum. "If I see you wasting anything, I'll taboo the copper. "

"Lor, massa, I'se too careful for dat, " replied the negro cook, with agrin which displayed his ivory-mounted mouth from ear to ear; "when demen sing out for more thoop, why, sah, I just water um grog! Yah, yah!ho, ho!" and he burst into a roar of laughter in which those aroundcould not help joining, the darkey's hearty merriment was so contagious. 

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX. 

KERGUELEN CABBAGE. 

While Mr McCarthy and the jolly-boat's crew were thus trying to saveall the "flotsam and jetsam" they could from the wreck, Ben Boltrope andthose of the crew told off to help him, as "carpenter's mates, " were asbusy as bees house-building, if running up the shanty which Mr Meldrumhad designed could be so designated; while the rest of the party werelending all the aid they could in fetching and carrying what the actualworkers required. 

It was only a rough wooden hut, or rather "composite" structure; but asit was more than probable that it would have to be the home of theshipwrecked people for some five months at the least, no trouble orpains were spared in endeavouring to make it as substantial andcomfortable under the circumstances as Ben and his active assistantscould effect with the limited means at their command. 

The gable-end of the cliff, under whose lee the hut was erected, so asto gain shelter from the southward and westward winds, which seemed tobe the most prevalent on the coast, presented a flat and even face, justlike a slab of black slate standing up perpendicularly from the ground. The wall of rock, which was of a hard volcanic material that wasevidently not porous, was made to serve for the back of the building, aniche or groove being excavated along it, about ten feet from thebottom, for the insertion of the ridge poles. This was a task of somedifficulty, owing to the toughness of the stone; but it was a necessaryone in order to prevent the moisture from above trickling down into theinterior between the roof and the face of the cliff. The lower ends ofthe ridge poles, which sloped down from the top at an angle of somefifteen degrees, were then firmly fastened to the posts placed in theholes dug for them and lashed together with stout seizings of rope andsennet, so strongly that it would almost have taken a hurricane to haveblown them away. 

The next proceeding was to fix, at equal distances apart across therough framework of the roof, a series of slender scantlings cut from thedeck planks by splitting them with an axe, which Ben was forced to makeuse of on account of his having no saw, that and other similar usefulinstruments having been left in his tool-chest, which had been placed inthe long-boat when the first preparations were made for abandoning the_Nancy Bell_. 

The scantlings were secured to the ridge poles diagonally, not only forgreater security but on account of the shortness of some of the piecesof timber they had and the necessity there was for their economising it;and, over the scantlings were laid in due order, the one overlapping theother to prevent any crevices in between, the shingles which theingenious carpenter had improvised out of the staves of the emptycasks--although, as the space to be covered amounted to some sevenhundred superficial feet or thereabouts, every one of the casks had tobe broken up save the six containing their beef and pork and the salted-down flesh of the sea-elephant, Ben even then hardly having enoughshingles for his purpose. 

However, casks or no casks, the roof of their house was a considerationthat stood at the moment before all others; and, being now properlyshingled, it was rendered additionally watertight by spreading over itthe old tarpaulin and sail that had already temporarily done duty abovetheir tent, and then giving them a good coating of pitch. A supply ofthis article had been fortunately thrown on to the raft along with theother odds and ends that had came in so usefullys and it was now melteddown in Snowball's recovered copper. The finishing touch was given tothe structure by piling several big boulders over the upper row ofshingles along the ridge pole, for greater stability and to preventboisterous Boreas from playing any of his rude tricks to itsdisadvantage. 

The roof done, all hands turned their attention to raising the sides ofthe shanty. This was a much easier job, consisting in nailing roughpieces of planking at intervals across the corner-posts from end to end, both inside the building and without, and then filling up theinterstices, or intervening hollows, with the basaltic debris that wasscattered around--just as rubble is thrown in between skeleton brickworkby what are termed "jerry-builders" to form party-walls of moderntenements. The side walls were then carried up to within a foot or soof the eaves of the roof, the sail-covering of which after being allowedto lap over was now tucked in at the top, thus closing up the chinks andmaking all snug. 

The front of the shanty was afterwards finished off in the same way, although more planking was employed as greater nicety of detail wasnecessary in order to arrange for the doorway and windows, for whichlatter the remains of the cabin sky-light Frank thought of bringingashore supplied the material; but it took a couple of days to completethe building to the satisfaction of Ben and Mr Meldrum, notwithstandingwhich drawback the whole party took possession of it the night after thewreckage had been landed, the recovered timber enabling the carpenterand his crew to proceed with the work--all declaring that the house wasperfect and ever so much better than the discarded tent, in spite ofmany things being still wanting. 

In the interior, of course, a flooring had been dispensed with, from thesimple fact of their having no wood to spare for such a luxury; butotherwise it was made to look very comfortable. 

Through the aid of canvas curtains suspended from the roof, it wasdivided, as Mr Meldrum had originally planned, into three tolerablycommodious apartments, the cosiest and most sheltered of which, at theextreme end of the building, was apportioned to the ladies somesailcloth being spread on the bare ground to render it warmer; while themiddle and larger room was reserved as a store and place of generalassembly for eating and carrying on such avocations as were requiredwhen the weather was too rough for out-of-door work. 

The third apartment, at the beach end of the building, was devoted tothe dormitory accommodation of the men folk, who slept on the bare rockbelow in their blankets--Mr Meldrum, with the American and the officersof the ship swinging above the crew in hammocks. 

They had a tight fit of it altogether, some one-and-twenty sleeping in aspace of not more than twenty feet by eight, according to the dimensionsof the floor; but Captain Dinks' cot was hung for the present in thegeneral compartment, on account of his wounded condition and thenecessity of his having free air and ventilation, lest there should be areturn of his feverish symptoms, which a confined atmosphere might havebrought about. 

When all these arrangements were completed, and the stores neatly rangedround the central division, which Ben Boltrope had further adorned witha rough deal table and some settles placed in the centre, the placepresented quite a homelike appearance to the castaways. The children, indeed, declared that it was like the cuddy of the poor old _NancyBell_--that is, when things went well with the vessel. This resemblancewas especially apparent on the second night after taking possession ofthe new house, when it was "declared open" in state, on which occasionit was lit up by no less than two of the ship's lanterns as a sort ofhouse warming in honour of the event. Snowball was also allowed by MrMeldrum to spread the festal board with as luxurious a feast as theirscanty supplies permitted, a bottle of wine being subsequently producedfor the ladies and grog served out to the men. 

"I guess, mister, " said Mr Lathrope, who took quite as much pride asMr Meldrum in the building--indeed had an equal share in planning itsconstruction, although he did not work quite so hard in carrying out thedetails--"I'd a sight rayther have this air shanty than a brown stonefront in Philadelphy--yes, sir!"

"Well, we've got a roof over our heads at all events!" replied MrMeldrum, "and I confess I was anxious about that point. We've hadexceptionally fine weather for the time of year here, however, andthere's no knowing how soon it will turn off; so, now that our house isfinished, the next thing to be considered is the state of ourprovisions. "

"Ah!" said the American, "I kalkerlate that's coming to hum. "

"The food question is a vital necessity in most cases, and especiallynow in ours, "--continued the other--"taking into account the many mouthswe have to feed. "

"But the Lord filleth the hungry, we're told, " said Mrs

Major Negus, who had developed, since landing on the island, what hadevidently been a strong religious trait previously dormant in hercharacter, if quoting Scripture texts were any proof of thisdisposition. 

"Ah ma'rm, " responded Mr Lathrope, "don't you believe it, unless thehungry work for it. "

"And much you've done to earn your food!" said the lady tartly. 

"Wa-al, ma'rm, if it warn't for me, as Mr Meldrum here will tell you, I've no doubt yer wouldn't have a chimbley, nor nary fire to sot byinside haar!"

"A fine smoky chimney it is too!" retorted Mrs Major Negus. "It isquite suffocating, I declare. "

"That's better nor bein' friz, " said the American, with some littleheat. He was rather annoyed at having his special contrivance sneeredat, for it was only after repeated attempts and failures that thebuilding party had at last managed to rig up a fireplace against theback wall of the shanty--running up through the roof of the "general"room a chimney-shaft of loosely piled stones, enclosed within aframework of planks to which was nailed on the sea-elephant's skin inorder to prevent the wood from catching fire. This served the purposeof warming the whole of the interior, as the other apartments openedinto this room, which indeed also provided the only means ofcommunication with the outside of the hut, the principal and solitarydoor of the establishment being here. 

"I'd sooner be smoked any time fur chice, myself, than friz!" said MrLathrope again, as if to provoke his opponent. 

"No wonder, " retorted the lady, eager to have the last word, "whenyou're at it all day long, smoking your brains out with that viletobacco!"

"What were you going to say about the provisions, papa?" interposed Kateat this juncture, in order to give a turn to the conversation, whichseemed to be getting a trifle too personal between Mr Lathrope and "theMajor. "

"Well, my dear, " said her father, glad of the interruption, "I was aboutto call a council of war. What we have can't last us very long, at ourpresent rate of consumption. We shall have to eke it out, as far as itis practicable, by the native products of the island. "

"That's snow and pumice-stone, as fur as I ken see, " put in MrLathrope; "and I guess I must be durned peckish fore I tackle those!"

"You forget the seals and the penguins, " said Mr Meldrum. 

"Waal, mister, " rejoined the American, "we've only seed one seal, as Ireckon. That was that air `Sea Olly-fant, ' as the Norwegee called it, and the animile's meat warn't 'zackly what this child ken stomach! Asfor them penguins, I guess they're kinder fishy. "

"My dear sir, we can't be squeamish, " said the other. "Perhaps we'll beonly too glad to get anything we can presently! Besides the seals andbirds, however, there's something else I shall have to look after to-morrow. It is what I should have thought of before, only we were sobusy about the house--some vegetable food to eat with our salt beef. Wemust use some antiscorbutic; and we haven't a tin of our preserved stockleft, I think. "

"And whar'll you find vegetables haar, mister?"

"Why, there's one specially distinctive of the island and I daresaywe'll not have to hunt far for it. From the accounts I've read it oughtto grow quite close to the seashore. "

"And what's that, mister?" asked the American. 

"Kerguelen cabbage, " promptly answered Mr Meldrum. 

"Snakes and alligators, mister! Do you expect to find sich kitchenstuff haar?"

"I do, " replied the other; "and intend to search for it to-morrowmorning, as soon as I turn out!"

"It was lucky we have poor puss, papa, " said Florry just then. "Wewould have had all our things eaten up by the mice only for her. "

"Dear me!" ejaculated Mrs Major Negus, drawing her skirts closer to herin alarm, "you don't say so? Mice! gracious goodness that I ever shouldhave come to such a place. Of all the things I hate, those nastycreatures are the worst. "

"Ah! ma'rm, " put in Mr Lathrope, seeing his chance of revenge for thelady's comments on his chimney; "if all Mister Meldrum kalkerlates comestrue about the shortness of our provisions, I guess you'll be glad toeat 'em bye and bye! I've seed the Chinee immigrants gobble 'em up inCaliforny often enough!"

"Disgusting!" ejaculated Mrs Major Negus, raising her nose in the airwith an expression of intense scorn. "I for one, sir, will neverdescend to adopt Chinese fashions and live on rats and mice, whateveryou may have learnt to do in your travels. "

"Pray, do not alarm yourself, " interposed Mr Meldrum, laughing. "Can'tyou see that Mr Lathrope is only joking! I do not dread our beingreduced to such a sad extremity as he pictures! Are you sure about themice, Florry?"

"Oh yes, papa, " answered that young lady. "Pussy killed four not longago, and brought them purring, one after another, to Kate and me--as ifto show us what she had done! Besides, I'm sure I heard them squeakingbehind the boxes last night. "

Florry's statement was true enough, for on hunting amongst the stores itwas found that the corners of the bags containing the small supply ofbiscuits they had left had been nibbled through and their contentsscattered on the ground; in addition to which there were other evidencesof the presence of the little depredators. The mice must have beenoriginally introduced into the island by some whaling ship; and, theyhad evidently multiplied considerably since then, for they were now verynumerous and puss would have all her work cut out for her in keepingthem down. 

In spite of the mouse diversion, Mr Meldrum did not forget what he hadsaid about the "Kerguelen cabbage. "

Instituting a search next day, it was not long before he came across theplant in a little hollow, close to the fresh-water tarn adjoining theirhut and just peeping out from a thin covering of half-melted snow thatlay on the ground. 

This peculiar vegetable production, which was first noticed by CaptainCook a century ago and is indigenous to the island, is termed bybotanists the _Pringlea antiscorbutica_, and belongs to the order ofplants classed as the _Cruciferae_, which embraces the common cabbage ofevery household garden, the radish, and the horse-radish--to the latterof which the Kerguelen cabbage is the most closely allied, on account ofits hot pungent taste when eaten raw as well as from its habit and modeof growth. 

Mr Meldrum could not have failed to discover and recognise it at firstsight from the description he already had, for the leaves of the plantgrew thick about the root and put forth an upright stem, some two tothree feet high, from which proceeded shoots, like broccoli sprouts onan enlarged scale, the outer petal-like leaves of which were six toeight inches long, and of a dark olive-green hue and fleshy nature, rounded and ciliated at the margin; while the inner leaves were of apaler green that approximated to yellow in the centre, where they werecrumpled together, exactly like as in the "heart" of the well-knowncabbage, to which the vegetable bore a very close likeness on beingfirst seen. 

"Begorrah, it's a cabbage, all the worruld over!" exclaimed the firstmate, who had accompanied Mr Meldrum in his quest. "Sure you'd hardlyknow the hid ov the baste, if it was cut off, from one grown inConnemara!"

"Not quite so strong a resemblance, perhaps, " replied Mr Meldrum, smiling. "Still, there's likeness enough to recognise its membership tothe general cabbage family; but, we have yet to try how it tastes!"

"Aye, aye, sorr, " said Mr McCarthy. "The proof of the pudden's in theaiting, sure!"

However, the Kerguelen cabbage stood this test well enough. 

It was tried that very day at dinner; and, although tasting slightlyacrid and hot flavoured when raw, on being cooked in the same water inthe copper in which some salt pork had been boiled, it seemed not verymuch dissimilar to the native home-grown article commonly known as"greens. "

"I guess, mister, it air downright prime, an' no mistake, " said MrLathrope, passing opinion on its qualities; "and more'n that, it fills afeller up fine!"

"Begorrah, it's jist like bacon and greens!" observed Mr McCarthy. 

The majority of the men, too, relished it greatly. It was a long timesince any of them had tasted fresh meat much less vegetables, by reasonof the _Nancy Bell_ not having stopped at any port on her way afterleaving England; so, thenceforth, both on account of its antiscorbuticas well as from its "filling up" qualities, the plant invariably formeda leading feature in the dietary scale of the castaways; Snowball neverfailing to have a plentiful supply of "cabbage" to cook when meal timescame round, or else he or somebody else in fault for its absence, wouldhave to "tell the reason why!"

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN. 

COLONEL CROCKETT'S RIFLE. 

Captain Dinks was gradually getting better; but his recovery was so veryslow that it would be weeks before he would be able to quit his cot. His wound had been a severe one, and had narrowly missed his heart. 

Under these circumstances, therefore, Mr Meldrum still retained theposition of chief of the party--not only the first mate and Mr Adamsacquiescing in the arrangement, which the poor captain desired; but thegeneral bulk of the men themselves, who were prejudiced in his favourfrom Ben Boltrope's frequent yarns of his ability when an officer in thenavy, requested his continuing to be their leader by acclamation, whenhe expressed a wish of surrendering the command as soon as they hadlanded safely from the wreck and things had been made comfortable forthem on the island. This was only a repetition of what they had donewhen they were in peril of their lives on board the _Nancy Bell_, atwhich momentous time, it may be remembered, Mr McCarthy, speaking onbehalf of all, had asked him to assume the direction of things andendeavour to extricate them from danger, looking upon him as the mostcompetent person to guide them in the emergency. 

Just so, now, on his speaking of relinquishing the leadership, he wasrequested to retain it for the common benefit, at least until CaptainDinks should be able to get about. This was the more desired from thefact of Mr Meldrum having managed matters so well for them already thatthey expected him to "see them through" all present difficulties. 

As on the previous occasion, Mr Meldrum did not hesitate to retain thepost, believing from his training and experience in commanding bodies ofmen that he really would be the best leader they could have, in defaultof the captain; but, before consenting to the general wish, he addressedall hands, impressing on them the necessity of implicit obedience to hisorders and a rigid attention to whatever duties he might set them--adding that they might be certain he would not tell them to do anythingwhich was not, to the best of his impression, for their own good. 

To this the men assented with a cheer of acquiescence, and he thendismissed them with the assurance that he would endeavour to deserve theconfidence they had displayed in him. But, prior to separating from MrMcCarthy and Adams, Mr Meldrum drew up a code of rules for theirguidance, premising that where a large party of seamen such as they hadunder them were thus thrown ashore with no regular duties to perform, such as they had on board ship, it was most urgently necessary thatemployment of some sort should be made for them; not only to keep themout of that mischief which the evil one is proverbially said to find"for idle hands to do, " but also to prevent them from dwelling on themisery of their situation. 

"We must keep watches, turn and turn about, " Mr Meldrum explained, "just the same as we did on board the ship; for, although there'll be nosails to attend to, in the cold nights which we will shortly have thefire will need careful looking after to prevent it from going out andleaving us all perhaps to freeze to death, while, in the daytime, therewill be seal-hunting and water fetching to employ the hands, besidesseeing to keeping the rooms clean. These and such similar duties mustbe performed regularly, so that through their aid the long hours willpass the more rapidly, until we are able--as I trust we shall aboutNovember, when the snow melts here, I believe, and we can travel--tostart towards the other side of the island, where I hope we'll fetchsome harbour where the whalers touch, and get taken on board and landedat the Cape or some other civilised spot. But, mind, in order to dothis, " he added in conclusion, "we must all work together in harmony;and, to prevent discord, and all sorts of unpleasantness, we must keepthe men constantly employed--not too onerously, but so that they shallalways have something to do--in order that the weary time of waitingshall not hang heavy upon them. However, my friends, to encourage them, you must likewise find something to be busy at for yourselves, as Ishall find for myself! Excuse this little bit of a sermon, gentlemen, "said Mr Meldrum at the end of his discourse; "but I thought itnecessary to say it, as I've seen the evil of having a lot of men aboutme with nothing for them to do on a foreign station before now, and I'velearnt wisdom by experience!"

"True for you, sorr, " replied Mr McCarthy, stretching out his brawnyfist; "and there's my hand on it to say I'll attind to your orders, ifit's to holystone the face of that ould cliff there. "

"All right, my friend!" said Mr Meldrum, shaking the hand outstretchedcordially. "I see we understand each other; and, believe me, I'll notbe a hard taskmaster. "

"I'm certain of that, sir, " responded Mr Adams; and the trio thenparted company to carry these arrangements into effect, the first resultof which was that everybody looked more cheerful than they had beensince the completion of the house, after finishing which some dulnessand lassitude had been observable in the men, coupled with a tendency toidle about and mope. 

This soon disappeared now when the first mate and Mr Adams, inpursuance of Mr Meldrum's directions, made them bustle about here andthere. 

They did all sorts of jobs. They scraped the jolly-boat's planking, andpitched her inside and out; after which they collected all the strayblocks of basalt they could find and built a "shebeen, " as Mr McCarthycalled it, to contain her, and then housed it and her over with all thespare planks they could get hold of--marching miles along the blacksandy beach for the purpose of seeing what stray timber might bestranded. In addition to this work achieved, they rigged up a flagstaffon the head of the cliff and used to signal from thence at stated hoursof the day. In fact, they were employed in doing everything that couldbe thought of to give employment to their minds and bodies, McCarthy andAdams finding them fresh jobs continually. 

Amongst all these various tasks, however, the very needful one ofreplenishing their gradually diminishing larder was not forgotten. 

"We've got some green-stuff, " said Mr Lathrope--whom the question ofeating, or rather what to get to eat, seemed more materially to affectthan anyone else--"and I ain't a-going to gainsay but what it's fust-rate green-stuff of the sort, and right down prime filling stuff too;but, mister, we ain't all ben brought up to live on sauerkraut, likethem German immigrants as I've seed land at Castle Garden, New York. I, fur one, likes a bit o' somethin' more substantial, that a feller canchew. 'Spose we goes a-huntin', hey?"

"Very good, " replied Mr Meldrum to this exordium; "but what shall wehunt!"

"Anything you durned please, siree, " said the other. "There's seals andthem penguins besides lots of cormorants and sichlike. "

"Well, I don't think the seals will want much hunting or shooting, " saidMr Meldrum; "for, if we come across any, a stroke over the nose with astick will settle them, and the same can be said of the penguins--although I don't want them to be disturbed yet, as it will soon be theirbreeding season and I hope to get a lot of eggs from the little colonyadjacent to us. As for the cormorants, if you complained about theformer birds having a fishy taste, you'll find these fishier still. However, to relieve your mind, I believe that there are a number of wildrabbits on the island, so we'll try to shoot some of those. "

"Bully for you!" exclaimed Mr Lathrope. "We'll go rabbit-hunting, mister, as soon as you please. If there wer one thing I liked in theold country it wer rabbit-pie, and it kinder made me lonesome to thinkI'd never fix my grinders through another 'fore I got played out!"

"I've heard, too, " continued Mr Meldrum, "that there's a very fine sortof tern or duck here that is good eating; and I fancy I saw a brace flyacross the creek the other day. We might come across some!"

"If we dew, " said the American complacently, tapping the barrel of theold rifle he had brought ashore as his most valued possession, andspoken of as the gift of his deceased grandfather, "I guess ColonelCrockett haar ken give a sorter good account of 'em. When I draws abead with that thaar rifle, mister, what I shoot at's as good as a gonecoon!"

"I hope you'll have plenty of practice with it then, to the advantage ofour dinner-table, " replied Mr Meldrum pleasantly, preparing for theexpedition by loading carefully a double-barrelled gun which he too hadsaved from amongst the various goods and chattels he had left on boardthe wreck. "You can have all the rabbits I kill if you let me have theducks. "

"That's a bargain, mister, " said Mr Lathrope; "though I guess you'llgain by the swop. "

"Sure and it sames to me you're both countin' your chickens aforethey're hatched, " observed the first-mate with a huge grin at his ownjoke. 

"You're not far wrong, Mr McCarthy, " said Mr Meldrum. "I, for one, don't expect to come back overladen with game; but of course I can'tanswer for my friend here, who may be another American `Deerslayer, ' forall I can tell, though he'll find rabbits his biggest quarry on thisisland. "

"Sir, " retorted Mr Lathrope, "I ain't goin' to let out all I ken dew, fur a leaky sieve's gen'rally bad for holdin' water, I guess; but, youjest wait and see what you jest see!"

"Arrah sure and we will, sorr, " said Mr McCarthy, bursting into aregular roar of laughter, in which Mr Meldrum and the others joined--Mrs Major Negus being especially prominent in her merriment, as shealways was when anything was said to the American's disadvantage, hebeing apparently her direct antipathy. "But I hope, sorr, though itgoes agin my own counthry to say it, what you bring back won't be asmuch as Paddy shot at. "

"You slide along with your durned brogue, " was all the retort that MrLathrope condescended to make to this hit. It touched him, however, onhis tenderest point, for he certainly prided himself on his proficiencyin the use of "the lethal weapon;" so, when he turned round and observedthat Master Snowball had heard the remark and was indulging in a quietguffaw at his expense, he rounded on him a little more sharply. "Iguess you'd better stow that, you ugly cuss!" said he menacingly; "orelse I'll soon make you rattle your ivories to another toon!" Whereuponthe darkey reduced his grin to a proper focus and endeavoured to look asgrave as he could. 

This appeased Mr Lathrope at once. 

"Oh! durn it all, nigger, laugh away, " he said, his wrath passing awayas quickly as it had risen. "I guess those ken laugh who win;" and hehanded Snowball a chaw of tobacco to show that he did not harbour anyill-will. 

Leaving their house on the creek--which, by the way, Florry hadchristened "Penguin Castle, " in consequence of its propinquity to thecolony of queer sea-fowl--Mr Meldrum and Mr Lathrope, with FrankHarness, who was also of the shooting party as well as two men to helpin carrying back home the fruits of the sport, all pursued their way incompany up the valley in a north-easterly direction to the right of thecliff against which the house was built. 

The ground here rose gradually as they went along, and the walkingbecame rather heavy after a time, in consequence of the snow havingpartly thawed and the soil beneath it being of some sort of peatysubstance, into which their feet sank deeply at each step. 

Presently, Frank, to whom Mr Meldrum had lent a second gun he hadbrought ashore, saw a bird just like a little bantam cock, which he atonce shot. 

This bird was pure white, with strong yellowish feet, that were notwebbed like those of aquatic habits, rather short wings like those of agame bird, a strong black bill, stout spurs, and a bold black eye, whichlatter seemed to reproach Frank when he went to pick it up. Mr Meldrumsaid it was what was called a sheathbill, and not good for eating, whichmade Frank regret all the more having killed it, especially when itsmate hopped up to him presently--as if asking him why he had shot herhusband!

It was next Mr Lathrope's turn, a wild duck flying right over his head;but, somehow or other, "Colonel Crockett's rifle" didn't happen to bejust ready in time, and the duck would have escaped but for MrMeldrum's bringing it down with his right barrel. It was really verycurious. 

The same thing resulted when a second teal, or widgeon--the wild duckappearing to partake of the characteristics of both varieties--came by. Strange to say, the American's weapon again missed fire, and Mr Meldrumhad to kill the bird with his left barrel. These repeated failures tobring down anything made Mr Lathrope use rather strong language anentthe rifle. 

"Burn the old thing!" said he; "I can't make out what's come over it. My old grandfather's shot scores of deer with the tarnation weppin, andI guess it's jest cranky, that's all. I bet I'll shoot the next fowlthat comes across haar, or I'll bust it. "

Unfortunately, however, no more ducks were to be seen; but as theyascended a rather steep and bare hill at the back of their own cliff, and somewhat sheltered, like that, from the ocean winds, they noticedone or two little objects, jumping up and down out of holes in theground and then scuttling back again--not from any alarm at theirappearance, but as if only in play, for they did not interrupt theirpastime for a moment as the shooting party approached. 

"By Jove! there are the rabbits, " said Frank, levelling his gun. 

"Jeerusalem! so they air, " exclaimed Mr Lathrope. "Dew let me hev thefirst shot!"

"All right; fire away!" replied Mr Meldrum, who was ready to aim at acouple of the little creatures that were sitting up on a fragment ofrock right opposite the three sportsmen, apparently combing theirwhiskers and eyeing them curiously the while. So near were they, indeed, that the most unskilful marksman in the world could hardly havemissed them. 

"Here goes, mister!" ejaculated Mr Lathrope, pulling the trigger of hispiece with as strong an effort as if he were wrenching back a gate-post. "I guess you'll soon see the fur fly. "

Instead of this, however, the phenomenon was witnessed of the fragmentsof the rifle dispersing in all directions the moment it was discharged, the American being at the same time knocked backward to the ground bythe kick of the weapon, which went off with a loud report. 

"You're not hurt, I hope?" asked Mr Meldrum, who with Frank had at oncehurried to the American's side and taken hold of his hand to raise himup. 

"No, I guess not, " replied Mr Lathrope slowly, getting up on to hisfeet and proceeding to feel himself carefully all over. "No, I ain'thurt; but I feels flummuxed by the durned old shootin'-iron. Ikalkerlate my grandfather was a fraud, and took me in on that job. Iwould ha' betted my bottom dollar on the weppin, and now it ain't wortha cent!"

There was a pretty good laugh round at "Colonel Crockett's rifle, " andwhat it had brought down, but the American took it all with very goodtemper. After that, Mr Meldrum and Frank handing him their gunsalternately, so that they all three could have a fair number of shotsapiece, they managed to make a very good bag out of the rabbits, whichwere not in the least dismayed either by the bursting of the rifle inthe first instance, or by the rapid disappearance of their companionssubsequently, although each discharge of the sportsmen's guns laid manyof them low. 

Indeed, they might have shot the lot had not Mr Meldrum observed thatthey had secured enough; besides which, the two sailors who accompaniedthe party said they could not cram any more into the sacks they hadbrought. Thereupon all set about counting the spoil, and found thatthey had bagged no less than sixty-three brace. 

These, with five wild ducks--Mr Lathrope bringing down a pair right andleft, on their way back, in a fashion which amply retrieved hischaracter as a shot, and Frank securing the odd one--were the nettresult of the day's sport, in addition to the little sheathbill; and theshooting party returned to the house under the cliff as well satisfiedwith their own prowess as the home party were to welcome them, especially as they were now so plentifully provided with what all hadbeen longing for since the last sheep had been washed overboard the_Nancy Bell_ when she was off the Cape--fresh-meat!

That very day Mr Lathrope had a pie made for his own specialdelectation by Snowball as a sort of _amende honourable_ for thedarkey's laughter at Colonel Crockett's celebrated rifle, which had cometo such a deplorable and dangerous end; and, for some time after, theentire community of "Penguin Castle, " with the exception of the penguinsthemselves, feasted upon bunnies _ad libitum_, until they could say, asdid the servants of that parsimonious nobleman who fed them withoutchange on similar fare:--

 "Of rabbits young and rabbits old, Of rabbits hot and rabbits cold, Of rabbits tender and rabbits tough, Thank the Lord, we've had enough!"

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT. 

A CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION. 

In spite of the abundance of their supply of rabbits, however, MrMeldrum would not allow them to be prodigally wasted. 

Wisely "providing for a rainy day, " he caused a considerable quantity tobe split open and cleaned; and, after the skin was removed, had themrubbed over with dry salt, of which fortunately they had plenty. Thecarcasses were subsequently hung up on lines across the general room, adjacent to the fireplace, the warmth of which in a short time curedthem like hams, so that they would keep for weeks, and even months ifnot required for culinary purposes earlier--as, it eventually turnedout, they were. 

It was a lucky thing that the shooting party went on their excursionwhen they did. Had they delayed it, as might have been the case, untilthey had turned their attention to the seals--which it had been MrMeldrum's intention first to have hunted, in order to obtain as manyfurs as possible before the severe cold weather, that he expected soonto set in--they might have starved; for, the very day that succeeded theone on which they brought home the rabbits, a heavy fall of snowcommenced that completely blocked up all the approaches to the creek, and compelled them to remain indoors during the ensuing week. The windblew so terribly keen and strong from the north-east, right over thecliffs on the opposite side of the bay, during the whole time the snowcontinued to fall, that it was painful in the extreme to be exposed toit; while, if the door of the house happened to be left open but for afew minutes, the driving snow-flakes made their way within and bankedthemselves up like a heap of frozen drift in their midst. 

"Ah!" said Mr Meldrum, "I told you that the fine weather we had wasvery exceptional, and could not last. It was providential that we wereprepared for this, or we should have been in a miserable plight. "

"You're right, boss, " observed Mr Lathrope. "This air snow-storm isjest like one of them blizzards I told you about when we were aboard theold ship that I had noticed in Minnesota. I didn't kinder think thenthat I should come across another o' them this side of the globe! I'dha' bet agin it any day. "

"Aye, " responded the other, "it is a fortunate thing for all of us thatwe cannot foresee the future, and that our strength is apportioned bydegrees to the burdens sent us to bear. The great majority of us wouldsuccumb at once if we only knew the struggle that lay before us, thegriefs, the trials, the mental weariness, the physical pain!"

"Oh, papa, " said Kate, "don't speak so sadly! Let us rather think ofthe joy and unlooked-for happiness which so frequently comes to our lotwhen we have the least cause to expect them; and--and--" but here thegirl's voice faltered. 

Kate well knew the reason of her father taking so sombre a view of life, and she shared the sorrow that filled his heart, for her mother had butdied a short period before they left England. 

"Think, papa, " she added, after a pause, "of the glorious hope ofeternity, and the city within the golden gates, where we shall all of usmeet the loved ones who have gone before!"

"Thank you, my child, " replied Mr Meldrum, drawing her fondly to hisside, and speaking as if they were alone together. "You have taught mea lesson, and I will repine no longer about the immutable. It is bestto look forward, as you say. We ought to recollect that all our daysmust not necessarily be gloomy because for the moment they may happen tobe overcast!"

"No, sirree, " interposed Mr Lathrope, "and I guess this air blizzardain't going to last for ever:-- it looks now railly as if it wer' goin'to leave off snowing. "

"I think you are right, " said Frank Harness, who had been sitting on theother side of Kate, listening quietly to the conversation between herand her father. "I don't see any flakes now coming through the chinksof the door, as they were doing a short time ago. It is either leavingoff, or the wind has chopped round to the southward and westward again. "

So saying, Frank got up and went to peer without the portal, the othersthat were in the general room not stirring, for the greater number ofthe seamen were asleep in their dormitory. It was getting towardsevening and most of the limited duties which it was possible to give themen to do, now that they were continuously confined indoors, had beenalready got through for the day. 

Only Ben Boltrope and Karl Ericksen, amongst the hands, were up andawake; and they were engaged in playing a game of chequers with a set ofcounters which the Norwegian had skilfully carved out of black basaltand white pumice-stone, both of which had been found lying closetogether at the bottom of the creek. The board that they played on wasmade by the carpenter, but it had been divided into proper squaresthrough the aid of Mr Meldrum's compasses and parallel ruler, wieldedby Mr Lathrope; so that all of them, so to speak, had a hand in theconstruction of the complete article. 

Both Mr Lathrope and Frank were right as to the weather, for, althoughthe snow-flakes came down more slowly and were much smaller than theyhad been, the shifting of the wind had created the change. This was nowblowing into the bay straight from the sea; and while the gale was stillas high and fierce as at the beginning of the snow-storm, it was notquite so cold. 

The waves, however, were rolling against the cliffs just as they haddone when the _Nancy Bell_ struck on the reef, and the reverberation oftheir roar was fearfully grand out in the open. The piled-up snowagainst the sides of the house had so deadened the sound within, thatthe party ensconced there could hear little beyond the whistling of thewind round the eaves of the house. 

Frank returned to those within, after carefully closing the door againbehind him, just like the dove messenger came back to Noah and hisimprisoned family in the ark!

Like the bearer of the olive branch, he too was a herald of gladtidings. 

"There is a change, " said he, addressing himself to Mr Meldrum, "and Ithink, sir, we'll soon be able to get out again. "

"I'm glad to hear that, " replied the other, getting up to look; but hecame back even sooner than Frank, and did not seem quite so jubilant. 

"I'm afraid the shift of the wind will not do us much good, as far asgetting about is concerned, " he said. "It will only tend to drift thesnow where it has not penetrated before; and may very probably shut usin more firmly than ever. I notice one good thing, however, that thesnowstorm has done. It has covered over the house, and we will be allthe warmer should it start freezing again!"

"But won't it break down the roof?" said Mrs Major Negus, alarmed atthis. 

"Oh, no!" replied Mr Meldrum, "the roof is too strongly built for that;besides which, we're under the lee of the cliff that protects us fromthis very wind. Still, I hope we'll have a chance of getting some moreKerguelen cabbage before the snow commences to fall heavily again, asI've no doubt it will. I ought to have laid in a stock when we wentrabbit shooting that time. In this sort of treacherous climate oneshould take advantage of every fine day and provide for the next. "

"You forget, " said Mrs Major Negus, "sufficient for the day is the evilthereof!"

"But it don't say the good, only the evil, ma'rm; mind that, " put in MrLathrope. "Some folks seem to take a pleasure in twisting Scripturecontrariwise, jest to suit theer own squintin'-one-eye-skimmin'-the-pot-and-t'other-lookin'-up-the-chimbley sort of conscience!"

"Some people, " retorted the lady, "never apply the parable of the moteand the beam, because they can't see their own faults. "

"We should live and let live, " said Mr Meldrum, trying to put a stop toa sort of argument which was endlessly going on between the pair ofcombatants, much to his annoyance generally, when Florry created adiversion. 

"Look!" she exclaimed. "Puss has caught another mouse!"

"Thar, boss, " said Mr Lathrope laughing, "is a case in pint, toillustrate yer saying about lettin' folks be. I'm afeard me and MissisMeejur is unkimmon like the mouse and the cat!"

"Speak for yourself, please, " interposed the lady, thinking that hemeant to designate her as the feline animal. "If you've a mind to likenyourself to one of those dreadful creatures that are always nibbling, Idon't choose to be called a cat. "

"I aren't a bit pertickler what you call me, ma'rm, " replied theAmerican very good-humouredly, "although I confess I am a bit partial tonibblin' when thar's anything good to eat!"

"That's you all over, " said Mrs Major with much satisfaction; when, asshe appeared pleased, Mr Lathrope allowed the conversation to restthere, which satisfied Mr Meldrum also, as he did not like thesecontinual bickerings going on before the younger members of the party, besides their being, as has been said, especially distasteful tohimself. 

The next day it stopped snowing altogether; consequently a vegetable-hunting expedition was organised, a small party which started up thevalley managing to bring back with some difficulty a few heads ofcabbage, which with the dried rabbits alone now constituted their dailyfare--both the beef and pork getting so low that Mr Meldrum had to stoptheir issue, although the men were not so hard pressed yet as to take tothe salted sea-elephant. 

Had the cabbage not been out of the line of drift, in a more secludedportion of the creek, the vegetable-seekers would have been unable tofind it; for, the entire landscape was covered with a deep snow that wasevenly distributed over hollow and hill alike--the lower lying land andthe higher eminences so running into one another that they could not bedistinguished. The tops of the loftiest peaks, indeed, seemed to bedwarfed down to the monotonous level of the plain; and, where elevatedat all, they resembled more a cluster of little round mounds like sugar-loaves than anything else!

During the cessation of the snow-storm, the castaways contrived tosecure another sea-elephant which visited the bay, Karl Ericksenharpooning him in the water. This time the men did not despise theflesh, but appeared to relish it very much when Snowball fried itfresh--a considerable portion of it being eaten in this way; while allthe fat and blubber was melted down, and the remainder of the meatsalted and packed in the cask with the other seal beef which was as yetuntouched. 

On one of these days, too, Ben Boltrope went fishing from the lowercliffs, just above the bay at the head of the creek--on account of thesea there being calmer, and no breakers ruffling the water near. 

This pursuit would have been tried before, only that amongst the variousarticles that had been brought away from the ship there was not a singlefish-hook The old man-o'-war's man, however, had at length managed toovercome the difficulty, manufacturing in his leisure moments a verygood substitute by beating out some small nails that he had previouslymade malleable by putting them in the fire. After spending some hoursangling, Ben returned home with some half a dozen fish about the size ofa small haddock. These had their heads armed with stout strong spines;but in spite of this peculiarity, they proved under Snowball'smanipulation to be very palatable, and Mr Lathrope, "for one, " as hehimself said, regretted that the carpenter had not caught more; he"guessed" he would have "gone for 'em!"

The interregnum of fine weather did not last long; for, soon the snowset in falling again as if it would never stop. The days, consequently, grew unutterably dreary, from the misfortune of all being perforceconfined, as before, to the house by the bitter cold wind; and, to makematters worse, the snow-flakes now seemed to penetrate through thetiniest crevices within the hut, so that the air in the interior of thedwelling was of the temperature of freezing, no matter how great a firewas kept up!

While this lasted, Mr Meldrum devised all sorts of amusements for themen. 

Amongst other things tried was music, one of the crew having made abanjo, the strings of which were twisted from the smaller intestines ofthe last sea-elephant they had killed; and by the aid of this instrumentharmonic meetings were organised in the evenings, Mr Lathropedeveloping an almost forgotten talent he possessed, and coming out as acomic singer. He absolutely bewitched even the "Major, " with hisversion of "Buffalo Gals, " and the "Cackle, cackle, flap your wings andcrow, " chorus of the Christy Minstrels, who certainly, in his person, did perform on this occasion out of London!

It was at this period, when the days seemed as if they would never endand the nights longer, that a memorable event occurred for two, atleast, of the party. 

Ever since that night of the storm on board the _Nancy Bell_, when shehad, as he firmly believed, saved his life by catching hold of him as hewas on the point of being washed away by the sea, Frank had becomedeeply attached to Kate; and the more he saw of the true-hearted girl--her fond affection for her father, her anxious solicitude towards herlittle sister, her kind sympathy for everybody--the more his affectionripened, until at length he thought he could conceal his dawning love nolonger. 

Then came the wreck; and, in the trying scenes which subsequently arose, in which the two were each in their own way actors, the more Frank sawto admire in his fairy ideal, the prompt courageous woman of action. Subsequently they were thrown more closely together in the enforcedcompanionship of the castaway community on the desolate shores ofKerguelen Land, when every moment increased their intimacy, while itenabled him to study more closely those salient points of her characterwhich appeared to develop themselves as circumstances called themforth--her filial love, her devotion to her sister, her unconquerablefaith, her unbounded hope and cheerfulness in the most despondentsituations--but, above all, her innate sense of religion, a feeling thatseemed to underlie her nature and yet which in no wise detracted fromher superabundant animal spirits, which harmonised themselves to themoods and weaknesses of all. Seeing all this, and noting what he sawand reverenced, Frank could not but love Kate Meldrum with all thewarmth and passion of his heart. So loving her, and dying for the wantof some response to the wealth of affection he had so long treasured upin his breast, he could not refrain from seeking from her a word ofhope. 

It was one evening when, save to him and her, it appeared to be thedreariest of all the dreary ones they had already passed in theirextemporised dwelling--"home" they called it, as people will style anyshelter to which they can retreat from all the trials and exposures ofthe outside world, "no matter how homely!"

The seamen had all retired to their dormitory, as had likewise MrMcCarthy and Adams; while Mr Lathrope was nodding in one corner of thegeneral room by the fireplace, and Mr Meldrum immersed in thought inthe other. 

Florry and Maurice Negus had both gone to sleep long since. Mrs"Major, " and the stewardess had also retreated to their sleepingchamber; and thus, Frank and Kate were, so to speak, alone. Theopportunity was propitious. 

They had been talking for some time in a low tone of voice, so as not tointerrupt the others. In a desultory way, they had thus chatted aboutall sorts of things and had at last lapsed into silence--a silence thatremained for some time unbroken. 

At length Frank spoke. 

By a strong effort, he at once went to the point

"Kate, " said he suddenly, in a voice rendered so thick by emotion thatshe could not help starting, although she made no reply. 

"Kate, do you remember you promised to call me `Frank' that night on thewreck when we expected every moment that the _Nancy Bell_ would go downwith us and every soul aboard?"

"Ye-es, " she murmured, very softly and in a hesitating way. 

"Well, I want you to call me always so--that is to have the right--youknow what I mean. "

Her tender blue eyes were raised to his inquiringly. 

"I love you, " he cried passionately, "and I want you to promise--"

"Hush!" said she, putting her hand over his lips; but he only kissed thehand, and went on with what he was about to say when she had interruptedhim. 

"I want you, Kate, my darling, to promise to be my wife!" he said. "Ilove you more than I can tell--I have loved you since ever I first sawyou--and I shall love you till my dying day; will you promise, Kate, tobe my wife? but, if you can't yet do all I ask, will you try to love mea little? Oh, Kate, I do love you so dearly!"

Her head bent lower and lower, so that he had to bend his too in orderto see what her face said, for she would not speak; and, as thefirelight danced upon the dear face and lightened up the blue eyes whichso shyly looked into his, Frank seemed to read an answer there that wasfavourable to his hopes, for he passed his arm round her waist withoutanother moment's hesitation, and ventured to imprint a kiss upon herlips. 

"My darling, my darling!" he murmured in an ecstasy of joy; but justthen Mr Meldrum raised his head from between his clasped hands andlooked at the pair. 

He evidently realised what had happened, and, as evidently, he was nottaken by surprise at the event. Nor, indeed, would anyone else havebeen in the whole community; for Frank's love to Kate had been aspalpable to all as the famed ostrich of the story was when it hid itshead in the sand and imagined itself invisible to its pursuers!

"My children, " said he kindly, coming over to them and holding out hishand to Frank, who at once grasped it, "I expected this; and I cannotsay I am displeased. I know you have an affection for each other--"

We love each other, " interrupted Frank eagerly. 

"Well, you love each other, if you prefer it being so put; but you areboth very young, and you must wait for some time even after we arereleased, as I hope we shall be by and by, from this desert isle. Ihave seen enough of you, Frank Harness, to feel confident that I cantrust my daughter's happiness to your keeping; but you must first securea name and a competence for yourself before you can dream of asking herto be your wife. You see, my boys I may perhaps have overheard more ofyour whispered conversation than you thought! I can give Kate nothing, for I am a ruined man, and was going out to New Zealand to try andretrieve my lost fortune when this untoward disaster happened!"

"Mr Meldrum, " said Frank respectfully, standing up by the side of theother and facing him like a man, "I want nothing but Kate. She is thegreatest fortune I could ever crave! My father is a rich man, one ofthe largest ship-owners in Liverpool, and my taking to the sea has beenstrongly against his wish, although he consented to it when he saw howbent I was upon being a sailor. He could make me independent to-morrowif I asked him. "

"I prefer you as you are, Frank, " responded Mr Meldrum; "and I'm sureso does Kate, eh?"

Yes, " said she shyly, and blushing as she looked up for an instant. 

"Then keep as you are, my boy, "--continued her father--"and as soon asyou are captain of a vessel of your own--and Mr McCarthy tells me youare quite competent to pass the Trinity-House examination for a first-mate's certificate; why, you may come to me and claim Kate's hand!"

"Is that a bargain?" asked Frank anxiously, looking from one to theother. 

"It is, " replied Mr Meldrum, while Kate faintly whispered another"yes. "

"Then, " said Frank triumphantly, "she shall be my wife before anotheryear goes over our heads; for, I can pass as soon as I go home for afirst officer's certificate, and get a ship to command immediatelyafterwards if I like. Look out for me to make my claim within thattime, according to your promise!"

"And I guess I'm witness to that thaar agreement, " exclaimed MrLathrope, starting up. 

The artful old fellow had been "playing 'possum, " as he termed it, allalong; only waiting for the denouement of the little drama beforedisclosing himself. However, he seemed so genuinely pleased with whathad taken place that neither of the principal performers could be angrywith him for listening. 

"I'm downright real glad, " said he after a bit, congratulating them bothand wringing poor Frank's hand well nigh off in the exuberance of hisdelight. "Say, if yer don't believe me, may I never eat another clamchowder agin--durn my boots if I ever will, thar!"

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE. 

BLACK SNOW!

By the middle of September, the worst of the winter weather was over, the snow gradually ceasing to fall and the drifts that had accumulatedin the valley up which the creek entered, and where the shipwreckedpeople from the _Nancy Bell_ had built their house--beginning to meltunder the influence of the milder winds and increasing warmth of thesun's rays. 

But, everywhere the landscape still remained wrapped in the same whitemantle it had worn ever since the castaways had first taken up theirresidence on the island, the bare spots then apparent in some places, which was a circumstance owing to the shelter of the cliffs and crags inthe immediate vicinity of the sea, having been subsequently covered bythe heavy storms at the end of August. 

It would take a long time, all saw, for the snow to clear away even ifthe most rapid thaw were now to set in; and this the climate did notpermit of, the transition from winter to spring being carried through acourse of progressive stages that were as disagreeable as they wereprolonged. 

There was balm in Gilead, however. 

Not long after the last of the heavy snowfalls, and when the days beganto grow brighter, thus enabling the castaways to crawl out in the openand have a little more exercise than they could obtain within doors, thebird colony adjacent to "Penguin Castle" became largely increased, theirnumbers swelling continually by fresh accessions; so that, in a shorttime, it was impossible for any of the people to stir out of theirhabitation without stumbling across a batch of penguins, evercontinually grumbling, croaking, chuckling, and otherwise expressingtheir indignation at being, as they seemed to think, so unjustlyinterfered with by the castaways. 

It was evident that the building season of the birds had arrived; and itcould not certainly have come at a more auspicious time, for theirprovisions were almost exhausted and Mr Meldrum was in great straitshow to supply the party with food. The despised flesh of the sea-elephants, even, had by this time been consumed and all hands placed onshort allowance, it being impossible to go out hunting again as yet, orto penetrate up the valley to the rabbit warren, on account of the snowblocking the way and rendering the ascent of the hills impracticable. 

The influx of the penguins, therefore, for which he had been looking outfor the last few weeks and had almost despaired of, was hailed by MrMeldrum with the deepest joy, for it solved his greatest difficulty atonce, taking away the fear of starvation that had been haunting him. With such a plentiful supply of the birds, they might now hope to lastout until they could procure more palatable food; and those who were"squeamish" in objecting to the fishy odour of the penguins themselves, would _faut de mieux_ find plenty of sustenance in the eggs that therewas no doubt would soon be laid in much greater abundance than theyeither required or could consume. 

As the penguins mustered their forces, each day seeing some fresharrivals to fight for the occupation of the rookery, they were aconstant source of amusement to the snow-bound party, who, not beingable to stir far from the doorway of the "castle, " had nothing hardly tooccupy their attention save the movements of the birds. 

The penguins, they observed, were of four different classes orvarieties, although all belonged to the same family, partaking of thecommon characteristics of such; but, even as they differed in size andappearance, so they presented diverse modes of conducting their domesticarrangements and varied in their habits. 

Some were of the most retiring nature. These, isolating themselves in aseparate encampment, drew a strong line of demarcation between the abodeof their neighbours and their own retreat, as if they were of tooexclusive a temper to associate with the common herd; while others, ofquite a different species, appeared to have no false pride whichprevented them from associating with the rest, of whatever class theymight belong to, for they were "hail fellow well met" almost on theirarrival with every bird in the rookery. 

"Them's republicans, I guess, " said Mr Lathrope, noticing this trait ofcharacter. "They don't care a cuss for social distinctions!"

Mr Meldrum, having had some previous acquaintance of the penguin familywhen on board a ship which had been employed in surveying duties in theStraits of Magellan and round the Falkland Islands, was able to give theothers a good deal of information about the birds. 

There were four varieties, he said, on Kerguelen Land, as far as hecould see, namely:-- the "king penguin, " the aristocrat of thecommunity, who kept aloof from the rest; a black-and-white species thatwhaling men call the "johnny;" a third, styled the "macaroni penguin, "which had a handsome double tuft of rich orange-coloured feathers ontheir heads; and a fourth variety, distinct from the last-mentioned onlyfrom its smaller size, and the fact of its plume or crest being singleinstead of double, and of a pale sulphur yellow in lieu of orange. 

Amongst the penguins, too, were to be seen numbers of littlesheathbills--just like small bantams, similar to the specimen FrankHarness had shot, and which he was so sorry about. The little birdswent about in pairs and appeared to act as the scavengers of the largerones, for they haunted their breeding-places, scraping about the nestsand dung, clearing out the rotten eggs, and making free with the insectsthat properly appertained to the penguins. Indeed, they were impudentenough sometimes to seize upon the freshly-laid egg that some ladymacaroni had laid, right under the eyes of its owner, feloniouslyappropriating it to their own use; while they thought nothing of givingan occasional peck to one of the king penguins if he got in their way, regardless of his exalted position!

Flocks of shags, or cormorants, also visited the bay at the same time. These were found good eating, although not so fleshy as the penguins;and, before the end of the month, there came a large family of seals, which would probably have taken up their abode in the creek had not someof the sailors frightened them away so effectually by theirindiscriminate slaughter that they never returned, nor did any otherscome subsequently to the place. 

The coats of these seals were of a fine iron-grey hue, something likethat of an otter, only with much more delicate hair. Mr Meldrum wasvery anxious to secure as many of them as was possible, so he was muchchagrined when they disappeared and left him fur-less. 

Another visitor was the pretty little Cape pigeon, which Kate recognisedas an old friend and was delighted to see. It reminded her, she toldFrank, of "old times, " when they grew acquainted with each other onboard the _Nancy Bell_ and watched the stars at night--and all the restof it!

But the penguins were the great attraction. 

They were "food for the mind and food for the body as well!" theAmerican would say, as he watched Snowball picking the feathers off somescores of the birds when preparing the dinner. The darkey would persistin putting himself to this trouble every day, in spite of Mr Meldrumtelling him that the easiest plan was to skin them, when the featherswould come off in a lump in a quarter of the time; but Snowball wouldnot be persuaded to adopt this course, although the majority of thesailors did so when preparing the penguins for storing up, and there wasconsequently a large accumulation of skins, which came in very handypresently for tailoring purposes. 

Through constant wear, the trousers of the majority of the menfolk wereinto such a dilapidated condition that it became absolutely necessary totry and restore them--none of the entire party having a single change ofclothing with them, excepting the ladies; while the only materialavailable for their rehabilitation was sailcloth, which, besides notbeing enough for all, was rather too stiff a material for either comfortor warmth. 

In this dilemma, the happy thought struck Mr McCarthy of fashioning apair of "unmentionables" out of penguin skins; and he had no sooner"hatched the idea" than he carried it into practical effect byinstructing Ben Boltrope, who was by a long way the smartest and mostready-witted of the men, to make him the trousers. 

The deed was accomplished; and, really, the garments did not look at allbad when finished, for, on the removal of the outside feathers, the skinof the bird was found to be coated with a fine down like that of theeider-duck, which lent an originality of appearance to the trousers thatcould hardly be described. 

"They're just like Barnum's woolly horse, " said Mr Lathrope, criticising them calmly. "If I were you, Mac, I wouldn't go nigh therookery with them on, or them birds will take you for a fledgeling, mister, I guess!"

"Begorrah, I don't care, for they're worrum and comfortable, " said MrMcCarthy, "and it's raal white ducks they are, anyhow!"

They certainly looked it; but, as the first-mate would not be put out ofany conceit with the garments, in spite of their appearance, and asothers began to be similarly in need, they had perforce to follow hisexample, when penguin trousers may be said to have "become the rage" onthe island--even Mr Lathrope, who had laughed at Mr McCarthy forwearing them, having to follow the fashion and don the "ducks. "

Owing to this new demand on the feathered colony it would seem likeexaggeration to state how many thousands came to an untimely end, inaddition to the numbers that were killed to supply the daily necessitiesof the table and the large quantity which Mr Meldrum had caused to beprepared and dried, like the rabbits, "for a rainy day;" while, as tothe eggs that were eaten--well, the least said about these the better!

From all of this it may be gathered that the penguins made a bad movewhen they came back to their old breeding-place; but the stupid birdsnever seemed to be aware that they could at any time save themselves byflight if they liked, although they must have been somehow or otheracquainted with the deplorable fact--in a bird-like way--that theirrookery was becoming rapidly depopulated! No, notwithstanding that theysaw their friends and relatives repeatedly slaughtered before their veryeyes--their penguin parents, children, godfathers, godmothers, and firstcousins thus perishing at the hands of miscreants in human form, andsubsequently converted into food and clothing and to other "base uses"by those who took their innocent lives--they never appeared to make aneffort in self-defence, either by executing a "strategical movement" orotherwise!

The spirit of penguinism, so to speak, was dead, the bird colonycontenting themselves by grumbling, an infallible resource for allsimilarly constituted creatures--in which respect, as Mr Lathrope waspleased to put it, they resembled a class of modern politicians who neednot be alluded to here. 

Amongst those included in the list of penguin slayers was one whopursued them to the death--although rather through a desire formalicious sport and self-gratification than from any actual necessity--and this vindictive enemy was Master Maurice Negus. 

The young gentlemen had developed many pleasing traits of characterduring the comparatively short period during which he was brought intopublic notice as one of the passengers of the ill-fated _Nancy Bell_;but in none of these had he so well exemplified his natural andingenious bias of mind as in the little predilection, if it may be sotermed, for bird slaughter _in ovum_, which first saw the light inKerguelen Land. 

Soon after the penguins came to breed there, Master Maurice noted themcarefully, and it pleased him much thereafter to go "bird-nesting, " ashe called it. He would go by himself and remain away for hours, no oneknowing what "the imp, " as all spoke of him, was up to; but one day itwas discovered that the fancy for "collecting eggs, " according to hisown explanation, consisted in swallowing as many raw ones as he couldget hold of unseen--he being observed on the occasion in question to getrid of a round dozen of the eggs deposited by the penguins, just as hewould have done so many oysters, saying afterwards when taxed with thegluttony that he felt delicate, and had heard that eggs were recommendedby doctors for consumptive patients!

But, later on, the young gentleman "caught a tartar. "

On his last bird-nesting excursion he happened, fortunately orunfortunately, to shove a half-hatched egg down his throat; and, theembryo bird nearly choking him, his poultry-fancying propensity wastransformed into an inveterate dislike towards the entire penguintribe--a slightly lucky mistake for the creatures in question, asthereby the list of their enemies became decreased by one. 

Time thus slipped by with the inhabitants of the house on the creek. 

Melting by degrees, the vast piles of snow began to vanish from thevalleys and low-lying lands, although still clothing the distant hill-sides and mountain-peaks, from the loftier ones of which it probablynever entirely cleared away even in the height of summer; but, theground around was naturally so damp and marshy, and had become sosoddened now with moisture, that it was almost as impracticable for MrMeldrum or any other of the party to get away from the vicinity of thehut, as it had been during the heavy storms of August when the snow haddrifted up the gullies and levelled the country. 

In fact it was more so, for, the accumulated water, proceeding from thethaw and the rain, which came every now and then to aid it, had swelledthe fresh-water tarn near them so greatly that it had overflowed itsbanks, which now extended on the right to the base of the furthest hillsat the head of the valley that penetrated the creek; while, to the left, the water was pouring down, a foaming torrent, into the sea--the housebeing almost surrounded and separated by the newly-made river from thelittle building in which the jolly-boat had been housed on the beach. 

They were thus threatened with a flood, for the water was rising everymoment and slowly creeping up to their feet, narrowing the littlepeninsula on which their habitation stood. 

That was not the worst either!

While they were pondering as to the best means for extricatingthemselves from the danger of being washed away, a new one arose. 

Through the melting of the snow on the mountains above, a sparklingcascade commenced all at once to leap down the face of the cliff at theback of the house, right on to the roof over their heads. 

This was serious; for, should this peril not be guarded against and somesort of pent-house put up as a shield, the slight timber work of theroof would soon be crushed in and swept away by the ever-increasingweight of the falling water. 

In the midst of these imminent dangers, a phenomenon occurred which forthe moment appalled everybody, not even excepting Mr Meldrum--it was sostrange, so awe-inspiring!

It commenced snowing again; but there was nothing unusual in that. Whatwas unusual was, that the flakes which fell, instead of being white, were as black as ink!

What could the awful portent foretell?

It was inexplicable. 

CHAPTER THIRTY. 

AN APPARITION!

"Goodness gracious me!" exclaimed Mrs Major Negus in accents of genuineterror, "the world's coming to an end!" and she sank down in a heap onthe ground, close to the door of the general room, where she had beenstanding uncertain whether to go out or in. 

There was ample reason for the good lady's consternation, for dangerseemed staring her in the face in either direction. 

On the one hand, the flood in the valley appeared approaching as if toswallow up the hut and all its belongings; while, on the other, thedeafening noise of the water pouring down from the cliff above on to theroof made everybody feel impelled to quit the house. 

Mary Llewellyn, the stewardess, generally a quiet and retiring person, was driven into a fit of hysterics by the concatenation of horrors thatall at once surrounded them. 

As for the children, they shared the fright of their elders, Florryclinging convulsively to Kate, who had dropped on her knees and waspraying in the corner--believing really that the last supreme moment wasat hand. 

The men, too--they had been hastily called together the moment thedangerous predicament of the roof was noticed, and had begun to knocktogether a sort of wooden shield to interpose between the cliff and thetop of the house, so that the water might rim over it in the fashion ofa spout--stopped in their task with one accord, staring as if bewilderedat each other the moment the terrible black snow began to fall from thesombre pall-like clouds which hung over the creek. This was immediatelyafter the cascade of water came down the cliff; and so frightened werethey, that not one of them uttered a word, nor did Mr McCarthy, who hadsummoned them together, urge them on with their work. All remainedspell-bound and tongue-tied. 

"It air orfull, " said Mr Lathrope, drawing a deep breath, and lookingup at the sky as if to peer into its mysteries. "I guess I never seedsuch a fall before--no, nor nobody else in the land of the living!"

No one answered him, however; for, at that moment, there was a strangeconcussion in the air, the earth shaking beneath their feet, and theywere all thrown to the ground. At the same time, the black flakesdescended faster and faster as if to bury them, and some of the men, imitating the example of the women, cried out in positive alarm. 

Mr Meldrum was the first to recover his self-command. 

"Silence!" he shouted, making his powerful voice heard above the chorusof groans and shrieks that arose from the frightened men and screamingwomen. "It's only an earthquake; and God will protect us here againstthe perils of the land, the same as he did through the tempests of thedeep! Let us meet what may be in store for us with the courage of bravemen and faith of Christians!"

His words at once checked the tumult--even the stewardess and Mrs Negushushing down their wailing outcry to an occasional moan or faint muffledsob, which they could not quite stifle; but the strange rocking motionof the ground, which seemed as if they were again on shipboard, prevented the yen from at once regaining their feet, only a few beingable to scramble up into an erect position by holding on to the supportsof the house, which fortunately stood the shock of the subterraneancommotion without giving way. 

"The worst is past now, " said Mr Meldrum presently, as the throbs ofthe earthquake grew less and less potent and the quivering sensation, which appeared to jingle through every nerve in their bodies, died awayinto a faint rumbling in the distance, that finally disappeared a fewseconds afterwards--the whole thing not lasting longer than a minutealtogether, although it seemed more than an hour to the terror-strickenpeople. "I don't think we'll have another shock. "

He stood up firmly as he spoke; and those of the men who were stilllying on the ground rose too. 

"But the snow, sir, " said one. "What does that mean?"

"Why, look--can't you see!" replied he, drawing his hand over his faceand showing it to the speaker. 

"Lor' bless us!" ejaculated the sailor. "It's only smut from thechimbley. "

"Ah! it came from a bigger chimney than we have here, " said Mr Meldrum. "There has been a volcanic eruption on the island; and what we allthought was black snow was only the ashes thrown up from the crater, andthese have now been brought down from the higher air by the descendingram. "

"Snakes and alligators!" exclaimed Mr Lathrope, who was one of the lastto get on his long legs and when he did so appeared to touch the groundas tenderly "as if he were a cat treading on hot eggs, " as Mr McCarthysaid. "If I wurn't clean took in, and thought the outlandish thing wernat'ral, like the red rain I've heerd folks tell o' seeing in some partsof the world! I guess you was startled, too, mister, and kinder frit!"

"I confess I was, at first, " replied Mr Meldrum, "till I felt theearthquake. Then I recollected about the volcano. "

"Oh! the one down south, that we seed to leeward when the old ship pokedher nose on the reef?"

"The same, " said the other. "It was smoking then; and we've just hadthe eruption. It is pretty nearly over, I think, however, for the ashesare not falling quite so thickly now. "

"I'm glad to hear that, " said Mr Lathrope. "Gin it didn't stop soon, we'd all be transmogrified inter blacker niggers than the cook haar!"

"I ain't no nigger, massa!" interposed Snowball, feeling his dignityinsulted by the remark. 

"My crickey!" ejaculated the American, emitting a shrill whistle ofastonishment at the naive assertion. "Then what, in the name of GeorgeWashington and Abe Lincoln rolled into one, air you, sir-ree!"

"I'se a 'spectable collud genlemun, " replied the darkey pompously. 

"I guess you'll do, " said Mr Lathrope laughing. "Jest hear that, now!Waal, never mind, my Ethiopian serenader, " he added good-humouredly. "You're none the worse fur your colour, as fur as I ken see; and I willsay this fur you, that you're the slickest and smartest ship's cook Iever came across from Maine to Californy; and that's saying something!"

"Tank you, massa, " replied Snowball, much flattered by the compliment. "I make you one good rabbit-pie next time I'se get rabbits. "

"That's a bargain!" said Mr Lathrope; and there the incident ended. 

"Rouse up there with that spout!" shouted out Mr McCarthy, who had atonce turned back to tackle the roof as soon as the alarm caused by theearthquake had passed away. "Bedad, if you don't look pretty sharp, there'll be no ruff to put it on, at all at all!"

"That's right!" said Mr Meldrum. "In the fear of a greater calamity, Ihad forgotten the lesser danger! Do you think the roof will bear thepressure on it?"

"Sure, sorr, " replied the other. "It has borne it all this toime, andthe ould house has stood the airthquake; so, there's hopes that it'lllast out yit! It is more frightened of the flood coming up and swapingit away I am, than that the wather'll do it any harm. "

"Then we're safe, thank God!" said Mr Meldrum. "The river has notswelled any more since I last marked it. It seems to have worn achannel deep enough to carry off all the overflow from the valley, without spreading further and threatening the house. I think we are outof danger now. "

"We've much to be thankful for, papa, " observed Kate thoughtfully. 

Frank had joined her within, after the last shock of earthquake, havingbeen engaged before in helping Mr McCarthy on the roof; so his prayershad ascended to heaven along with hers, the two kneeling side by side insilent worship and praise to Him who had watched over them. 

Coming out of the house together, they had approached the spot where MrMeldrum was standing. 

"Yes, my child, we have much to be thankful for, " said he in answer toKate's observation. "You need not fear now, my dear, " he added. 

"I was not frightened, even when the earth trembled, papa. "

"No!" said he inquiringly. 

"No, not a bit, " she answered quietly; "although, I confess, I thoughtwe should all be killed. I can't tell what sort of feeling seemed topossess me; but I felt quite peaceful and happy, as if I were preparedto die!"

"Ah!" said her father, "you had that peace which the world cannot give!I--I--"

"I felt happy, papa, " continued Kate, as if uttering her thoughts aloud, "because I thought we would see mamma again--you, and I, and Florry. "

"And didn't you think of me too, Kate; and wish me to be with you?"asked Frank eagerly. 

"Yes, you too, " said she. "Don't you belong to me now?" Mr Meldrumdid not hear Frank's answer; for his attention was at that moment calledaway by Ben Boltrope, who had come up to report that the roof had beenmade snug, the water from the cliff now arching over it in a cascade, and not pouring down directly on to it as it had done before, when itfell with terrific force right upon the shingles, displacing some whichwere now repaired as soon as the spout was put up. 

The weather improved very much after this, the sun appearing and shiningwith increasing power each day, while the snow disappeared entirely fromthe valleys and lower portions of the hills. The water below, however, did not drain off sufficiently to allow of any excursion for some daystowards the rabbit warren they had visited before, or of their goinganywhere, indeed, far from the little stretch of beach before the creek. 

But, in spite of this drawback, the castaways' stock of provisions wasmost unexpectedly added to, a very agreeable change of diet from penguinfricassees being introduced, by the coming of large flocks of wildducks, which visited the valley a few days after they were all in dangerof being flooded out. The water evidently was the attraction, for, previously, none of the water-fowl had ever come near the place--withthe exception of a solitary couple of teal that Mr Meldrum had noticedflying over the creek shortly after they landed from the wreck. 

The first day that they had roast duck for dinner, everybody thoughtthat Mr Lathrope would have said something about the unexpected treat;but he did not, and Mrs Major Negus seemed somehow or other much vexedat his silence in the matter. 

"You generally speak a good deal about eating, " said she at lastimpatiently. "I wonder why you've nothing to say now!"

"Ah! marm, " replied Mr Lathrope, "don't you be surprised at anything!I'd advise you never to measure other people's corns by your ownchilblains! Because you happen to set your fancy on a thing, that's noreason for other folks to do the same!"

"No, " said she; "though I can't see the application of your remark aboutchilblains, for I never had one in my life. "

"Ah! that's a sort of metaphorical conundrum, which I leave you to findout bye and bye! But, if you'd really like to know why I ain'tsatisfied with having roast duck to dinner, I'll tell you; it makes mefeel kinder lonesome, it dew!"

"Why!"

"'Cause there ain't no green peas with it, marm, " said Mr Lathrope, with a melancholy smile. "I guess I'm a whale on peas, I am!"

It was now the end of September; but the month was not fated to passwithout another event happening to break the monotonous life of thelittle party. On its very last day, something occurred which took themall by surprise. 

It may be remembered that when Mr Meldrum assumed the command of theparty in the place of Captain Dinks, who was still on the sick list andrecovering slowly but yet far from well, he established certainregulations for the employment of the men. 

Amongst the several duties they had to perform, in accordance with theseregulations, was the one of keeping watch, as if on guard, for a certainstated number of hours at the foot of a short flagstaff which had beenerected on the top of a little eminence overlooking the beach in frontof the creek--a man being stationed here regularly to report anythingthat might come in sight. This duty, it may be added, had been asinecure from the date of its institution, nothing having ever sincebeen seen. 

On this last day of September, however, all hands were electrified bythe look-out man calling out, just about noon. 

"Sail ho!"

"A sail!" cried Mr Meldrum, quite as much astonished as the rest; andhe hurried out to scan the offing. However, he could not see anything, and thought the man must have been asleep at his post and dreaming. "Doyou know what you are saying?" he called out to the look-out. "Whereaway is this sail, my man!"

"Far off on the port side of the reef, sir, " answered the sailor, speaking quite composedly. 

"What do you make it?" asked the other, as he hastened to the look-outstation, which commanded a larger stretch of the coast than could beseen from the house--Mr McCarthy and the others following after himwith anxious curiosity. 

"Looks like a boat's sail, sir; but, it's so far to leeward, I can'tquite make it out yet. "

"I see, " said Mr Meldrum, who had now reached the man, taking his glassfrom his pocket and looking in the direction pointed out. "Yes, thereis a small boat, sure enough. By Jove, " he added presently, "I wouldn'tbe surprised if it were the missing mutineers in the longboat turned upat last! Look, McCarthy, and see if you don't recognise the _NancyBell's_ boat by the white streak below the gunwale. "

The first-mate took the telescope and gazed intently at the approachingobject for some few moments. He then turned round and stared at MrMeldrum. 

"Be jabers, it is the longboat, sorr!" he exclaimed at length; "andfaix, sorr, I belave I can say that baste Moody lookin' out over thegunwale, as if tellin' thim where to steer, with his long black hair andugly mug, and the cut across his hid which the cap'en giv him wid thebutt end of his pistol! The murtherin' villin! won't I be aven wid himif iver he comes ashore, and pay him out--bad cess to him!"

"Are you sure, " said Mr Meldrum, "that it is the long-boat?"

"As sartin as there's mud in a ditch, son--the divil a doubt of it!"

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE. 

A TERRIBLE TALE!

By this time, the news having rapidly spread amongst the littlecommunity that the longboat was in sight, every one--save of course poorCaptain Dinks, who could not yet move--had come out of the house. 

The castaways were gathered together in little groups, some near MrMeldrum and the first-mate, who stood by the flagstaff, others along theridge which ran from thence above the beach, and the remainder on theshore; but all were intent on one object, and looking down the bay atthe little speck in the distance that was said to be the boat, which wassteadily making its way towards the creek. The tide was on the ebb andagainst its onward progress, although the wind was in its favour, so itapproached only very slowly. 

Mr Meldrum's first intention on having his suspicions confirmed by themate's opinion, had been to haul down the flag--a little white ensignmade out of portions of some old silk handkerchiefs which had beenmustered amongst the party and sewn together by Kate; but, he dismissedthe idea as soon as the thought occurred to him. 

"No, " said he to Mr McCarthy, belaying the halliards again, "it is toolate now, for they must have seen it. Besides, what have we to fear ifthey do come? We can easily prevent them from landing, if we like, forwe're nearly two to one against them in numbers should they try force;and we are stronger by far in moral as well as physical courage!"

"True for you, sorr, " replied the first-mate. "It's a good larruppingthey'd git, if they thried that on anyway. Bedad, I'd die aisy an' Icould only give that baste Moody the bating I've had in store for himsince he and his gang abandoned us, the dhirty schoundrels!"

"We must forget the past, considering we've been so mercifullypreserved, " said Mr Meldrum. "Perhaps it was all for the best that wewere not able to leave the ship when they did. "

"Maybe; but faix, they didn't have the dacency to ax us!"

"Well, we'll see what they have to say for themselves when we've achance of speaking to them, " said Mr Meldrum. "The boat's coming on abit quicker now. It has got out of the set of the tide and has the windwell abeam, just the thing for that lugsail she carries. "

"Sure and she's a smart sailer, sorr, " observed Mr McCarthy after a fewminutes' interval, during which time the longboat, which had beenheading up the coast, hauled her wind and was steered towards theentrance of the little creek at the top of the bay, close by where theflagstaff was erected and the Penguin Castle people were on the look-out. 

As she came nearer, however, it could be seen that Mr McCarthy'simagination had been quicker than his eyesight, for there was no onelooking out over the gunwale--least of all Bill Moody, whose tallherculean form and peculiar visage would have been easily recognisableeven at some distance off. 

Indeed, there seemed to be very few persons in the boat at all, only twobeing observed in the stern-sheets, one of whom was steering with anoar, while a third was sitting on one of the forward thwarts attendingto the sheet of the lugsail, slacking it out as the wind came aftoccasionally, and hauling it in taut again when the sail jibed on theboat's head falling off a point or two through the alteration of hercourse now and again. 

The castaways were all in a state of the greatest expectation andsurmise, as the longboat gradually grew more visible and the smallnumber of its occupants became noticeable; for, as she rounded the pointof the ridge, those on the beach could now observe her as well as MrMeldrum and the first-mate, who were by the side of the look-out man atthe signal station on the higher ground and were the only ones able atfirst to see the boat. 

"They look as if they'd had hard times, " said Ben Boltrope, who was oneof those who could now have a look at the boat, "and some of them seemto have lost the number of their mess. "

"And a durned good job, too!" exclaimed Mr Lathrope; "the mean skunks, to scoot away and leave a lot of wemmen and children to drown, as theythought. They've well arned any troubles they've come by, I guess!"

"Poor creatures!" said Kate, who was standing near the American, withFrank, of course, the inseparable, by her side; "please don't say that!If all of us only just got what we deserved, we should have a sorryreckoning!"

"Very proper, and just what I think, " observed Mrs

Major Negus in a sort of condescending and approving way. "I do notconsider it right myself to condemn others, and never do it onprinciple, for--"

"Thar you go agin, measurin' other folks' corns right away by your ownchilblains, marm, " interrupted Mr Lathrope. "It's allers what you'ddo; and you never kinder give a thought to what t'other people wouldhave to say in the matter! I guess you're a bit narrow-minded, excuseme, marm. "

"Narrow-minded, humph!" snorted "the Major, " highly indignant at theaccusation. "The idea of the thing! to be sure, Mr Lathrope, I oughtnever to be surprised at anything you choose to say; your manners andconversation are so very--ah, well--elegant!"

"Much obleeged, marm, I'm sure, " said the other, chuckling at making herangry. "I took fust-class when at school in the States for elegancy anddeportment. "

"I'm sure I wish you had stopped there!" retorted the lady; but anyfurther amenities were arrested from passing between them by the nearerapproach of the longboat, and the fact of Mr Meldrum and those with himcoming down from the ridge so as to be on the beach when theirunexpected visitors got in to shore. 

Closer and closer the boat came, until at last its keel touched ground, when, slewing round broadside on, it was left stranded on the beach. 

"Snakes and alligators!" exclaimed Mr Lathrope, the lugsail swingingaside and enabling him and the others to see into the boat clearly, athing which had been previously impossible from the boat's coming up endon. "They air a ruin lot, mister! Of all the starved, God-forsakencritturs as I've ever seed they're 'bout the worst!"

They were. 

Only the man who had been steering with the oar and the one who was onthe thwart amidships were apparently able to sit up, for three otherfigures were observed stretched in the bottom of the boat in a lumptogether; while one was by himself in the bows, doubled up in acrouching posture, quite dead and with his ghastly eyes staring outsightless from the retreating sockets. The closely-drawn features andgeneral appearance of this latter miserable object showed that he musthave expired in the last stage of starvation!

"Why, this is almost worse than you were when we picked you up offPernambuco, " said Ben Boltrope to Karl Ericksen. 

"Ja, ja!" replied the Norwegian. "It var sehr kalt, and we was exposeas mooch as starve; but it vor bad, very, and so is dese, it remind me, oh! so much;" and he turned away his head, as Kate had already done, from the hideous spectacle, quite unable to gaze any longer at it fromits association with his own rescue from a similar horrible death. 

The men by Mr Meldrum's side, however--forgetting the past conduct ofthe survivors of those in the longboat and the fact of their not onlyhaving deserted them but even locked them below to drown in the hold ofthe sinking ship--rushed into the water, eager, in the common exerciseof that humanity which is common to us all, but especially noticeable inEnglish sailors, to relieve the misery that was so apparent, and toseparate those who were living from those who had ceased to suffer; and, of all these Good Samaritans, Mr McCarthy, who had been so bitter inhis denunciation of the mutineers, was the first to go forward, withFrank and Mr Meldrum, you may be sure, not very far off. 

"Only six out of the dozen that left the ship!" exclaimed Mr Meldrum tothe man in the stern-sheets, to whom he extended his hand to aid him ingetting out of the boat. "Where are the rest of your number?"

But the emaciated wretch--who seemed to have suffered considerablebodily injury as well as want of food, for one of his arms hung downpowerless at his side, and there was a broad cut across his face fromsome weapon--was as incapable of speech as he was apparently of moving. His lips only worked feebly, without any sound coming from them, and hestumbled and fell forwards on his face when he tried to rise by the aidof Mr Meldrum's arm. 

"Bedad, they're in a bad way, sorr, " said Mr McCarthy sympathisingly, coming up and helping Mr Meldrum to lift the man out and place him onthe beach, where he had already laid down the corpse that had been inthe bows, throwing a bit of the sail over it to hide it for the timefrom observation. "The poor divil can't spake, sure. I wondther whichof them it wor? I'm blest if I can make him out, and I knew all the menpurty well, most of them being in my own watch, by the same token. "

But just then, the stewardess saved him from puzzling over the man'sface any further. 

"It's Llewellyn, my husband!" she cried out, pushing Mr McCarthy away, and taking the almost lifeless figure he was supporting tenderly in herarms, oblivious of everything save of her natural womanly pity and love. "The poor fellow! the poor fellow!" and she burst into tears over themiserable semblance of the man, who, coward and deserter as he hadproved himself to be, had yet once been dear to her as her husband. 

"Ah! then he accompanied them too!" said Mr Meldrum reflectively to thefirst-mate, as the last man was raised from the bottom of the boat andcarried as tenderly ashore as if he had been one of their own party anda loved shipmate. "So there were thirteen of them altogether, insteadof twelve, as I thought! That makes seven unaccounted for. I wonderwhat became of them!"

"Sure and the divil only knows, " replied the first-mate laconically, "for Bill Moody, the baste, must be along o' them, as he's not withthese here; and he was sartain to be will looked afther by the ouldgintleman in black down below!"

"Hush!" said Mr Meldrum. "If he is dead, let him rest in peace!"

"Aye, aye, sort; so say I, " answered Mr McCarthy; "and may joy go withhim, for he was the broth of a boy!"

Bye and bye, when Llewellyn, the steward, recovered sufficiently to beable to speak, he had a terrible tale to tell. 

On the outbreak of the row on board the ship, he said, between CaptainDinks and Moody, he was about to slip forward to join Snowball in thegalley to have a warm, for he found it cold in his pantry; and, besides, he had no one to speak to there, and he felt dull and cheerless. 

Frightened at the altercation and afraid of getting hurt in the scufflethat arose, he hid himself in the bows of the longboat; and, as luckwould happen, he was there when the boat was launched and went away fromthe side of the vessel with the mutineers, for he could not scramble outin time. 

Bill Moody, said the steward, wanted to chuck him over board when he wasdiscovered; but the rest of the men overruled him, and he was allowed toremain. 

The boat was carried far to leeward, and so pitched about by the heavysea which was running, that every moment they thought she would beswamped. They had to bale her out continuously, for the waves brokeover her each moment, half-filling her on many occasions. 

Fortunately, they were not dashed ashore in the darkness against thecliffs, which they could faintly see through the haze to be quite close;and towards daylight they were able to get up the fore-sail and steerher along the land, which stretched far away down to the southward, miles away from where they had left the ship. The mutineers tried allthey could to find some place where they could beach the boat withoutrisk of getting her stove in on the rocks; but their efforts were vain. 

At last, they came past a mountain which was smoking, and as the shoreseemed to shelve down here, Moody determined to endeavour to land there, saying that they would find the vicinity of the volcano warm andcomfortable--better than some frozen ice-glaciers which they had noticedfurther north. 

After many attempts and failures, they managed to run the boat on to ablack sandy stretch of beach which opened out beyond the smokingmountain; and here, they unloaded her in safety. 

They had then more provisions than would have lasted them for monthswith care. 

"All of ourn!" ejaculated Mr Lathrope, interrupting the steward at thispoint of the narrative. "We would ha' swopped some o' them penguins andKerguelen cabbage fur the lot, I guess. "

But, continued Llewellyn, the men wasted all the stores, recklesslydestroying much more than they ate; for they pitched away half-consumedcans of preserved meat, opening fresh ones with the greatestcarelessness before requiring them. 

Besides all this, there was the drink--a curse which followed them fromthe ship. 

Moody had contrived to secrete a cask of rum in the boat before quittingthe wreck, and this was opened soon after landing, he and most of themutineers drinking themselves drunk and indulging in the wildest orgieswhilst it lasted. 

One evening, about a week after they had got ashore, in the middle of adrunken debauch Moody set fire to a tent, which they had constructed outof some of the spare sails placed in the boat. It was completely burnt, many of the men being almost roasted alive before they could extricatethemselves and three dying subsequently from the injuries they had thenreceived. 

This was not the worst, however; for, in addition to the tent, theirentire stock of provisions, which were stored inside, was consumed; and, beyond a few of the half-eaten tins that had been previously thrownaway, they had nothing afterwards left to eat. 

Starvation stared them in the face. 

"Did you not search about and find the cabbage that we got here?" askedMr Meldrum. 

"No, " replied the steward; "the whole land thereabouts, before the snowfell, was as bare as a brick-field, and just as black and burnt uplike. "

"And did no seals or birds come?"

"Some animals swam in one day, " said Llewellyn, "but the men were drunkat the time and frightened them away; so they never came back again whenwe needed them. Only a stray gull or two occasionally flew by, so farout of reach that none of us could catch them. "

"Well, go on to tell the story in your own way, " said Mr Meldrum. 

Their hunger got so great, the man proceeded to say, that they huntedabout for stray ham-bones, and even gnawed the soles of their boots; andat last Bill Moody said they would have to cast lots and sacrifice oneof their number for the good of the rest. 

"Oh, the dhirty cannibal!" interposed Mr McCarthy. "He'd be quitecapable of that; bad cess to the baste!"

There were now only ten of them left, with himself, continued Llewellyn, and he could see that Moody wanted him to be killed, it being all apretence about casting lots. Some of the men saw through the plot, too, as well as he did and took his part. It was then that a fight cameabout, and in it he got that slash across his face which they hadnoticed. 

Moody's own particular adherents amongst the party were only four innumber; but they had all got pistols, which the others did not possess;and Llewellyn's party would probably have got the worst of it had not anawful thing happened. 

Just at the moment the fight began, the smoking mountain blew up!

"An eruption of the volcano, " said Mr Meldrum. 

The steward did not know anything about that. He explained that, whilethey were in the midst of the struggle, a lot of fire and stones camedown upon them, and Moody and some of the other mutineers were crushedto death outright. The survivors, with himself, then managed to pushdown the longboat into the sea again, and made off from the terribleplace--coasting back along the coast in the hope of coming across one ofthe settlements of the whaling vessels, which some of them had heardfrequented the island. 

When they were suffering the last extremities of hunger and thirst--thelatter being a fresh privation, for they had had plenty of water todrink on the volcano beach, however much they had wanted food--they sawthe flag of the "Penguin Castle" settlers, and made towards it as wellas they were able. 

"And, thank God, I'm here with you all!" concluded the steward when hehad brought his narrative to this point. "I have been saved from ahorrible death. "

"Arrah, sure, all's well that inds will!" said Mr McCarthy; "but I'mglad you weren't a desarter, as I thought you were; and I'm roight glad, too, that that thafe of a Moody has mit with his desarts at last!"

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO. 

PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE. 

It was a fortunate circumstance, not only for the surviving mutineerswho had turned up so strangely, but for the little community at PenguinCastle as well, that they did not make their appearance on the sceneearlier; for, had they came at the trying period, when famine, so tospeak, reigned in the land, they certainly would not have been "welcomeguests!" Of course, even then, Mr Meldrum and the others would havefelt bound to do as much for them as they could; but as at that time thecastaways were almost near upon starvation, they could ill have affordedto help others in the same predicament, however much charity might haveconstrained them. 

But, now, things were very different in regard to their larder, wildducks being plentiful enough and another heavy "bag" of rabbits havingbeen secured as soon as the road to the warren had become passablethrough the partial subsidence of the flood in the valley; while, inaddition to those stores of substantial food, there was Kerguelencabbage _ad libitum_ at their disposal--all the fresher and more juicythrough being covered up by the snow and watered by the spring rains--besides an abundance of the haddock-like, spike-headed fish to be hadfor the catching in the bay, not to speak of the dried penguins as alast resource, should the other articles of diet fail to suit or pall onthe palate after a time. Indeed, as Mr Lathrope observed frequentlywhen seated at the central table of their general room and disposing ofthe savoury residue of some gipsy stew of Snowball's concoction, duringthis period of plenty, which came in such pleasing contrast to theirrecent scarcity of provender, they were "living like fighting cocks, andno mistake!"

Such being the state of things at "Penguin Castle, " it was not longbefore the emaciated men, who arrived in the longboat almost at death'sdoor through want, were restored to health. Mr Meldrum, however, tookthe precaution of binding them down by the most stringent conditions asto their obedience and orderly conduct before admitting them on the sameterms as the rest to the common membership of the community--it beingclearly put before them that the least _lache_ or inattention to orderswould subject them to expulsion, when they would have to shift forthemselves and give a wide berth to those of the settlement. 

Captain Dinks had recovered so far now that he was able to sit up for ashort time each day; but the length of his illness and the amount ofblood he had lost had so aged and pulled him down that he wastransformed, from the smart energetic sailor he had been, into a feebleold man, utterly incapable of ever resuming his former position shouldevents ever place it in his power to take command of a ship again--atleast so it seemed from his general state of prostration. 

Under these circumstances, therefore, Mr Meldrum was unquestionablystill looked upon as the head of the party, quite apart from anyappointment as such, from the simple reason that everybody recognisedthat it would be only through his advice and forethought that they couldever hope to escape from the island and see home once more. 

Although he had as yet never spoken directly to the point on thesubject, all could gather, from stray hints and observations whichoccasionally dropped from his lips, that this thought was ever beforehim; and that, when he considered that the proper time for action hadarrived, he would lay his plans before them. 

They were not mistaken. 

One evening, about the third week in October and the third month oftheir residence on Desolation Island, when all were assembled in thegeneral room after the principal meal of the day--gathered together fora social chat over the little petty details of their life since themorning and cogitating as to what was best to be done on the morrow, aswas their invariable custom each night before separating at bedtime--MrMeldrum unbosomed himself, just when they least expected it. 

Mr Lathrope was having a spirited contest with the first-mate over thechequer-board that he had assisted in making; Kate was reading out of alittle pocket Bible to the poor captain as he lay back in his cot; whilethe others, grouped around, were talking and otherwise amusingthemselves--some of the men knitting a net, which it was intended to useas a seine for catching fish some day when finished, and the stewardassisting Snowball in cutting up some cabbage which they were going topickle and lay by for emergencies--when Mr Meldrum, after a preliminary"hem, " to attract their attention, addressed the little gathering. 

"Friends, " said he, "it was my intention to speak to you some littletime back about our future prospects here, but I waited for the weatherto become more settled. Now that the spring has fairly set in, however, it is better not to delay our preparations any longer, for time isprecious and we shall have to accomplish a great deal in the shortperiod which will be at our disposal. "

"I 'spose, " put in Mr Lathrope, "you mean about shifting our diggings, mister, hey?"

"Precisely, " replied the other. "The season was not sufficientlyadvanced before; but now that it is, the rain having stopped fallingpersistently and the weather showing signs of clearing up, why, thesooner we are up and stirring, the greater chance we shall have ofgetting rescued!"

"Waal, " drawled the other in his usual nasal way, "you've only got tosay the word, boss, and I guess we're on the move!"

"All right! I'm coming to that, but I want you to understand thesituation. Here is a map of Kerguelen Land, " and Mr Meldrum unrolledthe old admiralty chart which has been alluded to before, as he spoke. "You will see, from the rough outline given of the island, that it isformed of two peninsulas, running nearly north and south respectivelyand both of nearly equal size, but divided by a comparatively narrowneck of land. The whole island is, taking its outside limits, aboutninety miles long by sixty broad in its widest part, although at thenarrow point or neck which I have mentioned--see, just here where Iplace my finger--the distance from sea to sea between the eastern andwestern sides does not exceed fifteen miles. "

"I say it clearly, sorr, " said Mr McCarthy, all attention when hisespecial element was mentioned. 

"Well, it so happens, " continued Mr Meldrum, "that our position here, the correctness of which I have carefully ascertained from observationsthat I have taken and worked out, is, very fortunately for us, on thewestern side of this isthmus, and not at the extremity of the broaderportion of the island. Consequently, we shall only have to traverse theshort width of this neck of land in our endeavours to get across to theeastern side, whither we must go if we hope for any vessel to pick us upand take us to a civilised port--none ever touching here on account ofthe dangerous character of the coast, which we already know to ourcost!"

"Bedad, I can't say how ye are going to get the boats over fifteen milesov solid ground, more or less, " said the first-mate, scratching his headvigorously, as he always did when puzzled by anything. 

"I'll tell you, " answered Mr Meldrum. "You may have noticed since thesnow melted and the rains came, how the waters of that originally smalllake at the bottom of the creek have become extended so that they nowreach up the base of the furthest hills in the valley?"

"Yis, sorr, " said Mr McCarthy, stopping from disturbing his auburnlocks any further with his fingers and now all eagerness again, as ifonly just then beginning to comprehend what the other was driving at. 

"All right, then, " continued Mr Meldrum, "so far, so good! Now, to-day, I went prospecting up to the top of the cliff here, and I see thatthe waters of the swollen tarn are united in the extreme distance--tothe left there on the map--with a river, or some other lake, which comesround that further hill. Hence, this very width of fifteen miles whichwe have to cross may be but half of it land and half water, so that, really, in that case, we should have only to haul the boat, or boats, over the intervening bits of _terra firma_ in passing from sea to sea. "

"I guess, mister, " said Mr Lathrope, "you mean what the lumber men onthe Susquehanna and Red River call `making a portage, ' hey?"

"I don't quite follow you, " observed Mr Meldrum. 

"Why, when they come across a rapid in the river, they jest tote uptheir canoes and carry 'em along the bank, or through the forestsometimes, till they gits to whar the stream runs free agin, when theyfloats 'em and sails along as slick as you please!"

"Exactly, " said Mr Meldrum, "you have just hit what I wished todescribe. Well, friends, whether we have to carry the boat a shortdistance or a long one, we shall have to cross this isthmus; and, thesooner we commence making our preparations, the better. "

"You sid only a boat, sorr; aren't ye going to take the pair ov 'em?"asked Mr McCarthy. 

"No, " replied the other, "one will be about as much as we shall be ableto manage, and the smaller of the two at that. "

"Be jabers!" exclaimed the first-mate in surprise; "and how, thin, willyou carry the lot ov us?"

"When we have to cross land, " said Mr Meldrum, "of course we'll have towalk, and can go in a body or not, just as we please; but when we haveto take to the water again, why the boat will have to do it in so manytrips--taking over a certain number first and returning for a freshload, until all shall be taken over; and repeating the process fromstage to stage. "

"It kinder strikes me, mister, " said Mr Lathrope, reflectively, "thatyou'll find that thar jolly-boat a heap bigger and a pile heavier thanthem birch-bark canoes of the lumber men and Injuns I was a talkin'about; and yet, they're heavy enough to cart along fur any raal sort o'distance, you bet, fur I've tried 'em!"

"I've already thought of that, " said Mr Meldrum, "and to-morrow thecarpenter and I will have a talk about a little job which will, perhaps, relieve your mind in the matter; but, take the boat we must, by hook orby crook! Do you know that, after crossing the isthmus and getting intothe open sea on the other side, we shall have to coast along for anotherfifty or sixty miles before we can expect to reach Betsy Cove, thelittle harbour out of Hillsborough Bay or sound, which--you can see ithere on the chart--is the rendezvous of the whalers. Thither, I tellyou, we must go if we hope to meet any of these in order to be taken offthe island. Now, if we can't get there by water we should have to go byland; and the distance, by the circuitous route we should have to adopt, would exceed two hundred miles, the way, too, taking us across mountainswhich the ladies at least would find impassable!"

"And when are you thinking of starting?" asked Captain Dinks, speakingfor the first time. 

"As soon as possible. The whalers are said generally to arrive at BetsyCove about the beginning of the summer, that is in November; and, whatwith the difficulties we may meet in traversing the isthmus here, andthe subsequent long distance we should have to go by water--for we mayhave to make repeated trips in order to transport all the members of ourparty to the point I am aiming at--it will take us all our time to reachthere in a month. "

"All right!" responded the captain, who looked for the moment morecheerful at the idea of moving away, "make all the arrangements youlike, Mr Meldrum; I'm only a useless old hulk now, and can do nothingto help you. "

"Bedad you'll be all right agin, cap'en, " said Mr McCarthy. "That is, faix, when you say the say on t'other side, sure. Cheer up, my hearty, and niver say die!"

"Thank you, Tim, " said Captain Dinks, actually smiling, which was thebest sign he had shown for weeks; "your face is as good as a tonic anyday, old friend, and you make me feel better already!"

The very next day all began to prepare for the contemplated shifting oftheir quarters, Mr Meldrum so contriving that each had his quota ofwork to perform in making ready for the start. 

Ben Boltrope was commissioned to manufacture as speedily as he could, out of what spare timber he could get hold of--and, if necessary, he wasempowered to break up the longboat in default of finding any elsewhere, for they would not want to use it again--a small light carriage withlarge broad wheels similar to those commonly used in transporting life-boats from place to place along the coast, when their services aresuddenly required at some spot remote from their station and it wouldtake too long to send them round by sea. 

This carriage, of course, was for the accommodation of the jolly-boat, whenever it should be found necessary for it to abandon its morecongenial element the water, for the land; and as the wheels requiredsome delicacy of manipulation, it was a lucky thing that the mutineershad forgotten to take Ben's tool-chest out of the longboat, and that ithad been restored to his possession. Otherwise, the old man-o'-war'sman would have been unable to have completed satisfactorily thedifficult task set him with only an old axe and a hammer for hisavailable tools, as had been the case when the house was being built. 

Such of the party as were not assisting the carpenter were set to workcollecting and curing everything in the shape of food, or provisions ofany sort that came to hand--the rabbit warren being depopulated and wildducks slaughtered to such an extent that the latter abandoned thevalley; while, the last remaining birds in the penguin colony, old andyoung alike, were sacrificed to appease the craving gods of the commonlarder. 

Neither were the ladies idle; for, Kate Meldrum and Mrs Major Neguswere employed making canvas bags for the stowage of all these goodthings in proper ship-shape fashion. Even Master Maurice--the whilom"Imp, " who had almost been reformed by his experience amongst thepenguins--and Miss Florry, had their services requisitioned in one wayor other. 

One and all, without exception, had each something to do!

"I guess, mister, " said Mr Lathrope a week later on, when he and MrMeldrum were returning from an unsuccessful foray on the adjacentmarshes that had been the haunt of the wild fowl--without once getting ashot, much less bagging a duck to reward their trouble, --"this'll be atall moving; and the sooner we make tracks the better now, since all thegame's skeart. I don't see nary a grasshopper to aim at!"

"The arrangements are all completed, " replied the other, "and I havedetermined to start to-morrow. As you say, there's nothing to be gainedby our waiting any longer; so, as we've now as much provision collectedas we shall either want or can carry, and as Ben has finished the boat-carriage, I don't see any reason for delaying our departure a singleday!"

Mr Meldrum was as good as his word. He gave out an intimation of theprojected start on the morrow to the household the same evening, as soonas the two reached the little dwelling by the creek which they wereabout to abandon so remorselessly after the long shelter it had giventhem in their adversity!

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE. 

ACROSS COUNTRY. 

It was a lovely morning, the loveliest that the shipwrecked people hadseen since their landing on Kerguelen Land, when the little partystarted away from Penguin Castle, bidding adieu to the spot which for somany long months had given them a shelter and a home. 

The sun was shining out brightly, the sky without a cloud, and the airfelt quite warm, although with a freshness in it that just gave zest tomovement; while the atmosphere had that peculiar opalescent translucencyabout it and an almost imperceptible colouring--in the faintest tints oflight mauve and amber, with a shade of tender apple-green--which israrely seen in more northern latitudes, excepting in those regions thatare well within the borders of the Arctic circle. 

Out in the bay opposite the creek, the water was as smooth as glass, undisturbed by the slightest breath of wind so as to cause a ripple; andnumbers of baby puffins and young penguins, their spruce little downybodies clad in bright new coats of silky feathers, were scattered ingroups over the mirror-like expanse, diving and coming up again in amoment in the centre of a series of expanding circles that graduallygrew wider and wider in diameter, as when a stone is flung into a stillpond, only to disappear the next minute. Others were flitting alongover the surface with the pinions of their little wings just dipped inthe water, so that they flicked it up, in the short flights they tooknow and then in play and mimic pursuit of each other, like as rowing mendo when they "feather" their oars too soon in lumpy water. Sometimes, the generally restless birdlets would rest tranquilly for a brief whileon the bosom of the sea, chattering away like so many aquatic magpies inminiature mottled flocks; but this was only for a very short spell. 

To the right of the creek, rising abruptly out of the sea, the blackbasaltic cliffs which formed such a bold headland to the bay stretchedfar out to where the extreme point of Cape Saint Louis could be seen, embracing within the compass of its arm the reef on which the _NancyBell_ had been lost; and to the left, beyond the ridge at the back ofthe castaways' dwelling, the higher ranges of the inland mountains, which seemed to run down to the southwards and eastwards as far as theeye could reach, stood up--towering in the distance above the hillsimmediately near in the foreground and lifting their snow-clad summitsinto the blue vault of the heavens. 

The "travelling caravan, " as Mr Lathrope had styled the jolly-boat whenhe saw it first mounted on its broad-flanged, awkward-looking carriage, had been packed the night before with all the impedimenta of thepilgrims. Their few "goods and chattels and household effects" werestowed in and about below the thwarts, with the canvas bags containingthe dried birds and Kerguelen cabbage which formed their stock ofprovisions ranged round the gunwales and crammed in anywhere; while aspecial place was kept clear and reserved in the stern-sheets for theaccommodation of poor Captain Dinks, who was deposited here in his cot. 

Pussy, who had been so happily saved from the wreck at the last momentand had since done such good service in demolishing the mice whichinfested the house, was placed alongside of the captain to keep himcompany, and he had also in charge a tame, or rather an educatedpenguin, that Master Maurice Negus had displayed considerable ability intraining and which Mr Meldrum had allowed to be taken along with theother things as a reward for the "imp's" services of late in assistingat the preparations of the expedition. 

For some days prior to this, Mr Meldrum had been very busy taking shortexcursions in various directions, but all tending to the same point ofthe compass. He was endeavouring to find out which route would be themost practicable for reaching the eastern seaboard; and, aftercollecting all his observations into one harmonised whole anddeliberating over the matter with Mr Lathrope and the first-mate, whohad severally accompanied him in his various prospecting tours, thefinal course of the party was at length agreed on. 

The bright morning appeared to all as an augury of success; so it waswith light hearts that they set out. 

They abandoned Penguin Castle in all its entirety, Mr Meldrum sayingthat possibly they might have to seek its shelter again; but, if happilythere should arise no occasion for that eventuality, the building mightstill be of service to other shipwrecked men in a like extremity tothemselves. Thus it came to pass that the place was left "allstanding, " with rooms, furniture--such as it was--Snowball's copper andthe cooking range all intact. Even the flagstaff with Kate's ensign atthe peak was left hoisted, as if to show, that if deserted now, the spothad once been inhabited!

They were thirty-two souls in all now, reckoning the steward and theother four men of the mutineers who had come back in the longboat--whichhad to be broken up, by the way, after all, to form the jolly-boat'scarriage; and it was just "six bells in the forenoon watch" when theystarted, a team of the sailors, tethered in traces like a pack ofEsquimaux dogs, hauling away at the boat-carriage and running it alongmerrily with a chorus of "cheerily men, cheerily ho!" The otherstramped behind the queer vehicular conveyance, without respect ofpersons; only poor Captain Dinks being allowed a seat in the boat, whileit travelled on land, and that only by reason of his helplessness andinability to move without assistance. When they had to take to thewater, of course, the jolly-boat would have to carry more passengers. 

On the way, sometimes, they had serious difficulties to encounter, forthe ground in many places was moist and spongy, causing the feet of themen hauling to sink deeply into the soil as they tugged at the towing-rope of the jolly-boat's carriage; but, as frequently Mr Meldrumremarked, to rouse the seamen's energies, "difficulties were only madefor brave men to conquer, " so at it they went with a will which soonovercame the dead weight of the load they had to drag behind them--afresh towing team relieving the first at the expiration of every halfhour, so as not to weary the men out by a too prolonged strain at suchunusual exertion. 

Bye and bye, they arrived at the end of their first "portage, " theshores of the little lake which Mr Meldrum had noticed trending in aneastward direction. This water would now considerably aid their passageacross the isthmus by allowing the jolly-boat to take to its nativeelement, on whose bosom it would be borne some miles on the onward way. 

Here a halt was called and a short luncheon taken, after which thejolly-boat was safely launched on the water by backing it down on itscarriage. This plan was easy as well as expeditious; for, as soon asthe boat had reached its proper point of immersion, it floated off thewheels. 

The ladies then got into the stern-sheets, alongside of the captain, accompanied by Mr Meldrum, while four of the seamen took their placeson the thwarts in order to row them across--the remainder of the partystopping where they were, along with a portion of the packages that hadbeen removed from the boat so as to make room for Mrs Major Negus andthe others who went with her. The carriage belonging to the boat wasalso left behind until the latter should have deposited its first cargoon the other side of the lake and return to fetch a fresh load. 

Three trips were taken before the whole party were thus transported overthe lake, the boat's carriage being then towed over at the lastcrossing. 

It would be needless repetition to recount in detail all the differentportages of the jolly-boat over the strips of land which lay between thechain of lakes that were spread over the line of their route; or, totell the number of the trips by water that had to be made. 

There were many unloadings of the little craft, and many packings-upagain. 

Many weary miles the poor unaccustomed pedestrians had to tramp, sometimes up-hill, sometimes down dale, through marshy lands and overstony boulders that blistered their feet; and all the while they had todrag after them that terrible Frankenstein-like monster, the jolly-boatmounted on its carriage, which seemed to the worn-out men sometimes aspecies of Juggernaut car, crushing out their spirits and sapping theirevery energy. 

Suffice it to say, that, at the end of a fortnight's time, they atlength reached a magnificent stretch of blue water, which Mr Meldrumsaid was Hillsborough Bay, on the eastern side of Kerguelen Land. 

Hurrah--they had crossed the isthmus, and arrived so far towards the endof their destination!

As they toiled over this neck of land which united the two principalpeninsulas into which the island was divided, they could mark how, ashad been noticed along the coast, the country was composed of a seriesof terraced hills, rising above a chain of lakes and lagoons thatindented it deeply on either side and forming an endless succession ofdeep fords and harbours, the hills being almost invariably covered, fromtheir crests down to a certain altitude, with perpetual snow. Belowthis line, their sides were clothed with green verdure, composed chieflyof a species of azorella and a rough spinated grass; while, thestrangest feature of all was, that not a single tree, or plantapproaching to the dimensions of a shrub, could be seen on any portionof the island!

The most charming characteristic of the scenery noticed, was theprofusion of cataracts, cascades, and waterfalls, which leaped andsparkled from terrace to terrace of the basaltic net-work of peaks andridges that ran here, there, and everywhere across the isthmus, enclosing the valleys and scarping the sea--the splashing of thesenatural fountains making soft music everywhere as the water gurgled downinto tiny rivulets and brooks below, which stole their way along banksbordered by chickweed and liverwort into the lakes, and from the lakesinto the ocean, only to be sucked up again by the clouds and depositedon the hills in the form of rain, forming the cascades and cataractsanew; and so on, _da capo_. 

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR. 

RESCUED. 

"Snakes and alligators, mister!" exclaimed Mr Lathrope when the wholeparty were gathered together on the shore of Hillsborough Bay, unitedonce more after the boat-carriage had been lugged over its finalportage, and the boat itself had accomplished its last separate shorttrip before adventuring again on the open waters of the sea--"I guessyour fifteen miles has come to a considerable sight more'n fifty, youbet. "

"Oh! please be a little more moderate in your estimate, " laughed MrMeldrum. "I confess I somewhat understated the probable distance; butreally, now, fifty miles is a little too much. "

"Wa-al, then, let us call it five-and-twenty, " said the American with agenial grin over his sharp-cut features, which were almost as elongatedas his legs. "You can't grumble at that anyway, I reckon, boss!"

"That's pretty much like the story of the five hundred cats which camedown, I believe, to two, if I'm not mistaken, " slily put in Miss Kate, smiling. 

"Now, don't you be too rough on a feller, missy, " said Mr Lathrope, pretending to be very serious over the matter, in his humorous way. "Icave in to the fifty, that's a fact, as I kinder wanted to pile on theagony; but when I took my stand to be euchred on twenty-five miles, Imeant the distance we've tramped over, and nary a bit of the waterpassage, for my old boots hev got busted up, I guess, and the sooner Igit a noo pair the better for this child. "

"Bedad, that's the same case wid mysilf, " interposed Mr McCarthy, exhibiting the articles he wore as he spoke, which, from their repeatedpatchings and general state of dilapidation, would certainly havecarried off the prize at a curiosity show. "Sure, and it's walkin' onmy fut I've bin the last foor days entirely. "

"You'd have ben a smart coon to have done the contrary, I guess, mister, anyhow, " said the American drily. 

"Sure, an' it's the sole of me fut I mane, sorr, " explained the first-mate in Hibernian fashion. 

"Jest so, " said Mr Lathrope, laughing at the blunder; "and it wouldpuzzle you to walk different, I kalkerlate, that is onless you tried thesole of your head!"

"Well, here we are, no matter what distance we have travelled, " said MrMeldrum, going back to business; while Frank and Kate, who had not beenable to get much conversation together of late, were having a veryinteresting little _tete-a-tete_ confabulation in a corner, out of ear-shot of the rest. "We shall, however, soon have to separate our forcesagain, for we must make the next start on our journey by water, whichwill now be our travelling medium all the way. "

"Be jabers, and it's glad I am to hear that same!" exclaimed MrMcCarthy, interrupting the speaker in his jubilation at not being forcedto walk any more, a means of locomotion to which, from his long life atsea, the first-mate was strangely averse. 

"As I was saying, " continued Mr Meldrum, "we must now make up our mindsfor a short separation, the rest of our journey having to be performedby water. I'll tell you what I think will be the best plan, if you willlisten:-- From here to Betsy Cove, the harbour I have mentioned wherethe whalers call every year, is in a bee-line just about thirty-fivemiles right ahead across the stretch of sea there; but as we may have tomake a detour in order to avoid reefs and any rocks or islands which maycome within this straight line, we'd better call it fifty miles. "

"Better say a hundred, mister, while you're at it, " said Mr Lathrope, with a wink to the others; "you kinder forget the fifteen miles you madeit across the isthmus 'fore we started, hey?"

"There's no fear of my making that mistake here, " replied Mr Meldrum. "This is all plain sailing, with correct latitude and longitude to goby! It won't be more than fifty, indeed, even if we have to creep roundthe coast of the bay all the way, instead of shaping a course rightacross it, as I intend doing. Well, all things considered, it will bebest for the boat first to take half of us this distance to Betsy Cove, going all the way in the one trip; and then to return for the otherportion of the party. We have lightened her considerably of theprovisions during the last ten days, and being able to carry twelve orfourteen hands ordinarily, she will now easily take us across the bay intwo trips--that is, if some of you don't mind a little squeezing. "

"Will--will--it be quite safe?" said Mrs Major Negus in a hesitatingway, looking at the bright, frisking little wavelets which covered theblue sea of the bay with some slight alarm. She had imbibed a perfecthorror of the water and all pertaining to it ever since the wreck. 

"Quite, " answered Mr Meldrum. "We've had peril enough without myseeking to endanger your safety now! I suppose, " continued he, going onto explain the arrangements, "the boat will take a day, say, in gettingto Betsy Cove, and another day coming back on the return voyage for therest. --We'll call it three days, to allow for contingencies; so that, weshall not be apart more than four days at the outside, allowing due timefor the boat reaching the Cove again after her second trip hither. "

"Fancy!" whispered Frank to Kate. "Four whole days that I may not beable to see you! I know it will be just my luck that I shall have tostay behind at the camp; for, your father will most probably take allthe ladies with him in the first trip, as he did at setting out. "

"Oh, dear!" said Kate smiling, "that will be a terribly long separation, won't it?"

"You darling tease!" exclaimed he; "I don't believe you care for me halfas much as I do for you!"

"Don't I!" she said softly; and her melting blue eyes would havedisclosed a secret if Frank had been looking into them at the moment--which very probably he was!

However, the sad eventuality he had conjectured did not occur. MrMeldrum, knowing the condition of matters between the lovers, did nothave the heart to separate the two, even temporarily; and so Frank hadthe supreme and unexpected felicity of accompanying Kate in the firsttrip the jolly-boat took across the bay to Betsy Cove--Mrs Major Negusand Maurice, Mr Meldrum and Florry, Mr Adams and Captain Dinks, ofcourse, besides six of the seamen, being their fellow-passengers. 

Mr Lathrope remained at the head of the inlet, with Mr McCarthy, incharge of the camp and the remaining hands until the jolly-boat cameback to fetch them; and it really seemed, from the many earnest "good-byes" exchanged between those starting off and the ones left behind asif the castaways were parting for ever, the separation seemed to causesuch a wrench after they had been so long together!

Thanks to the fine fresh breeze, and the fact of their being almost inthe open sea now--for the sides of the bay diverged so greatly after atime that the opposite coasts could not be seen--the boat was under sailinstead of being pulled along; and the motion was ever so much morepleasant than when it was oscillated to and fro by the sharp jerkystrokes of the rowers. 

The weather still continued fine and clear, with the sun shining on thewater and a bright blue sky overhead; and as the boat glided along, heeling over to the wind every now and then and tossing the spray fromher bows as she came down with a flop on the crest of some little wavewhich got in her way, Frank wished that he and Kate could glide on sofor ever. Everything seemed so delightful around them after the drearywinter they had so recently passed through. 

Nature herself was smiling again upon them in the bright summer dawn!

Even the penguins seemed to enjoy the change of season, for they racedafter the boat as she pursued her way, moving through the water like ashoal of albacore, and rarely showing more than their heads above thesurface for a little while. Then, all of a sudden, as if playing a gameof leapfrog amongst themselves, they would spring out of the sea in longlines, one after another, showing their steel-grey backs and silverysides, so that Kate could hardly believe they were not fishes jumping upin sport, like as she had frequently seen the bonito do when off theAfrican coast in the Atlantic. 

The jolly-boat had such a spanking breeze from the north-west all theway with her, right abaft the beam, that she accomplished the distancebetween the head of the inlet and Betsy Cove before nightfall, MrMeldrum shaping her course so well by the old chart he had that shefetched the harbour in a bee-line almost from their point of departure, steering east by south. 

There was no mistaking the place. 

Betsy Cove was a second bay within a larger one, called "Accessible Bay"on the chart and marked by a curious isolated mountain-peak which raiseditself on the very extremity of a low spit of land that ran out into thesea, a long way out from the main shore. 

On the beach were several old wooden huts and a large iron boiler thathad evidently been used for "trying out" seal and whale oil from theblubber; while further up the shore was a small graveyard, a rathermelancholy-looking spot with a few wooden crosses and piles scatteredabout it bearing dreary legends relating to the untimely end ofdifferent seamen who had either died there on shore, or had lost theirlives at sea in the immediate vicinity. However, the most importantpoint to our little party, was the fact that there were no signs of anyvessels having recently visited the place; and, consequently, MrMeldrum had carried out his original plan to the letter, havingevidently arrived there in time before the annual coming of the whalers. 

Early the next morning the jolly-boat was sent back to fetch the others, and towards the evening of the day following the whole of the party wereonce more together. 

A week passed by without any event of note happening, during whichperiod the little community did not suffer from any want of food orother necessaries, for they found a store of provisions in one of thehuts that had evidently been placed there in case of need similar totheir own; so, things jogged on evenly enough. Still, all were in astate of high-strung suspense, looking out eagerly from morning tillnight for the promised vessel that every one expected was coming todeliver them. 

"I guess they'd better look alive, mister, if they're coming, " said MrLathrope, "or else the summer'll be gone afore we git away, and then weshall have to go back to Penguin Castle for another winter. I'd soonera durned sight be thar than haar if it comed on to blow!"

"Patience, my friend!" replied Mr Meldrum. "Don't you recollect thatold French proverb, `Everything comes to him who waits!'"

"Don't reckon I dew, mister, " answered the other. "I guess, though, itwarn't a waiter at one of them hotels that said that, hey?"

"Perhaps not, " said Mr Meldrum, smiling at the American's hit; "butI've no doubt we shall be rescued this year, even if we have to wait. "

He was not disappointed. 

On the Monday morning of the following week the look out man--for theyhad set up another signal station here at the head of the harbour thesame as at Penguin Castle--sang out the welcome call--"Sail ho!"

And, soon after, a large fore-and-aft rigged schooner was seen enteringthe bay. 

She proved to be the _Matilda Ann_ of New London. She was engaged inthe whale and seal fishery between Kerguelen Land and the neighbouringHeard Islands; and as she was empty, having transferred her oil to ahomeward-bound whaler belonging to the same owners, her captain readilyaccepted the offer made him by Mr Meldrum on behalf of Captain Dinks, to charter the schooner to convey the survivors of the passengers andcrew of the _Nancy Bell_ to the Cape of Good Hope, whence they wouldeasily be able to get a passage back to England or to their originaldestination in New Zealand. 

"I guess that air prime, " said Mr Lathrope; "but I've hed enuff v'ygingfur a spell, and I kinder kalkerlate I'll make tracks to hum. I don'tmind either, darkey, if I take you along o' me! I've got a fust-ratebrown-stone front in Philadelphy, and I'll chuck you in as cook, if youlike, hey?"

"Golly, massa, you don't mean dat, suah!"

"Guess I dew, " said the American deliberately. 

"Tank you, massa; den you ken take down de bill, I ain't no longer tolet--I'm on, yah, yah!" shouted Snowball, giving way to the mostobstreperous merriment, in order to testify his satisfaction at MrLathrope's engaging him in his service, the darkey having always had ahankering after the American from his thorough appreciation of hiscookery. 

Mrs Major Negus was true to the last. 

"What an extremely fishy smell!" she exclaimed as she went on board thewhaler which had so opportunely come to rescue them from the solitude ofDesolation Island. "I'm sure I wish Captain Dinks had secured a passagefor us in a more respectable ship after choosing to cast away his own!"

But little more remains to be added. 

The whaling schooner reached Table Bay in safety, without encounteringany storms similar to that which had led to the loss of the _NancyBell_, and all the rescued castaways were shortly afterwards landed atCape Town. Here, Captain Dinks, who had recovered much from his woundsince he was taken off the island, secured a passage home to England forhimself and officers and such of the passengers of the lost ship asdesired to go back thither, sending on to New Zealand, at the owners'expense, those who preferred proceeding to their original destination. 

Amongst these latter was Mrs Major Negus and her son, "the Major" beingextremely anxious to join her husband at Waikatoo as soon as possible. Mr Meldrum and his family also went on; the ex-commander in the RoyalNavy having sold out the little property he had at home and capitalisedhis pension with the object of settling in New Zealand, had now nodesire to return to England, or the means to live there if he had such awish. 

Frank did not forget his engagement with Kate, however. 

Although he was obliged to accompany Captain Dinks back to England, itwas not long after his arrival in London before he passed the TrinityHouse Board, obtaining a certificate licensing him to act as chief mate, in which capacity he went out to New Zealand on his very next voyage. 

This will not be his last trip to the Antipodes either, for rumour hasit that, not improbably, Frank Harness, promoted to the rank of a masterin the mercantile marine, will proceed shortly again to Otago in commandof a ship of his own, when, possibly, he will have one especial item ofhuman freight to bring home with him on his own account!

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE. 

THE LAST OF THE OLD SHIP!

There is one thing more to tell. 

It all arises from the unpardonable stupidity of that donkey of asteward, Llewellyn, who forgot the memorandum concerning thecircumstance and left it down below in the cabin--and that, too, inspite of Ben Boltrope's telling him to be certain to bear it mind, besides his wife, Mary, having continually jogged his memory on thesubject! Had it not been for this, the omission would never haveoccurred, as the matter would have been mentioned in its proper placesome time ago. 

Shortly after the _Matilda Ann_ set sail from the little whaling stationat Betsy Cove with the rescued castaways of Kerguelen Land on board, andjust as she was weathering the Cloudy Islands, as they are called--agroup of rocks that lie to the north-east of the mainland--the look-outman in the fore cross-trees, who was keeping a keen watch for breakers, the navigation at this point being rather ticklish on account of thetreacherous reefs and stray currents that wander about there, suddenlyshouted down to the man at the wheel to put the helm down, which ofcourse he immediately did. 

"What is it?" called out the steersman, who happened to be the master ofthe schooner himself. He noticed no sign of breakers anywhere near andwondered at this sudden alteration of the vessel's course--"Where's thereef?"

"'Tain't no reef, sir, " sang out the man aloft in answer, "but I seesomething like a man in the water. "

"Man be hanged!" exclaimed the schooner's skipper in a rage. "And wasit for such an absurd idea that you've nearly made me shiver the mastsout of her? If it be a body, it can only be a corpse; for no man couldswim out here from Kerguelen, and I'm blessed if he could live on thoserocks of islands beyond!"

"There!" shouted the look-out man again, taking no notice of the other'supbraiding, and seeming to be very anxious about whatever he had seen inthe water. "It is quite close now on the lee bow. "

"Well, just to oblige you, " said the skipper, speaking loud enough forall on board to hear, "and to let you see for yourself what a confoundedfool you are, I'll fetch her up to it!"

"Bully for you, cap'en!" exclaimed Mr Lathrope, who with the others ofthe rescued party was on deck, not liking the rather fusty odour of theschooner's cabin--which, to do justice to Mrs Major Negus, did smellmost abominably of seal-oil, and even worse scents!

The floating object was soon approached on the schooner's bearing awaytowards it; and a man in the bows, who had a boat-hook ready in hishand, quickly grappled it and pulled it alongside. 

It was no man, however, as the look-out had thought; but only a piece ofsquare timber which had evidently once formed some portion of a vessel'sbelongings, and it was carved out roughly on the uppermost side torepresent a female head and bust. 

"I wasn't far out in thinking it were a man in the water, " said thelook-out man, gazing down on the object from his perch above, as theschooner's skipper, giving the helm in charge of some one else, cameforward to have a look over the side at the innocent cause of all thisunnecessary fuss, as he thought. 

"You'd better say no more, " replied the skipper, scornfully shoutingback up to the man. "I always thought you were a fool, and now I knowyou are one! A drowning man, indeed! why, it's only the brokenfigurehead of some old vessel or other!"

"Look, Mr McCarthy!" cried Mr Meldrum to the Irishman, who just thencame up to see what all the commotion was about. "Don't you see what itis?"

"Be jabers, I do!" responded the ex-mate, quite as much excited as theother. "Sure, an' it's the last of the ould ship! I wondtherhowsomedever it iver floated all the way here?"

It was the figurehead of the ill-fated _Nancy Bell_.