The Three Lieutenants Part 9

"I spoke from the impulse of the moment. I really have no intention of leaving the navy, which I love as much as any man."

"I am glad of it," said Stella, giving him an approving smile.

Jack, who was decidedly matter-of-fact, was wondering what wrongs Stella wished him to redress, when their conversation was interrupted, and he had no opportunity of asking her till they had mounted their horses and were riding homeward. Jack at last put the question.

"In all parts of the world," answered Stella, with some little hesitation. "Look, too, over yonder vast continent." She pointed to the blue mountains of c.u.mana seen across the gulf. "From north to south wrong and oppression reigns. Even in those states nominally free, one set of tyrants have but been superseded by another as regardless of the rights of the people as the first."

"I have not often met young ladies imbued with sentiments such as yours," observed Jack.

"Few young ladies you have met, probably, have fathers like mine,"

answered Stella.

She stopped as if she was saying too much. Jack recollected the observations he had heard at Don Antonio's luncheon-room. Probably the colonel is engaged in one of the many revolutionary schemes connected with the late Spanish South American dependencies, he thought. "His daughter very naturally has faith in the justice of the cause he has espoused."

"Yes, I confess that I have adopted my father's sentiments," said Stella, as if she had known what was pa.s.sing in his mind. "It is but natural, for we are all in all to each other. My mother is dead, and I have no sister or brother. He might have enjoyed a well-won rest at home without dishonour; but he disdained, while possessing health and strength, to remain in idleness, and I entreated that he would not leave me behind, so we came out here some time ago; and while he has made excursions on the continent, I have mostly resided with our friends here, though I have occasionally accompanied him. We have made some long trips by sea, and I have ridden with him several hundred miles on horseback."

Jack, who believed that young ladies were most fitly employed in household affairs, or in practising the accomplishments they might have learned with an occasional attendance at a ball or archery meeting, thought his fair companion an enthusiast, a perfect heroine of romance, though he did not tell her so. She possibly considered him somewhat dull and phlegmatic. Jack's notion of duty was to gain as much professional knowledge as possible; to obey the orders he might receive, and to carry them out to the best of his ability.

The mids.h.i.+pmen had no reason to complain of the breakfast spread before them on their return to the house; meats and sweets and fruits, unknown even by name; and such coffee, and perfectly ambrosial cacao. The young ladies seemed to have nothing to do but to amuse them, and perfectly ready they were to be amused, in a quiet way though, for the heat in the middle of the day was too great for much skylarking.

Don Antonio and the other gentlemen had gone into the town but they returned in the evening with Captain Hemming, who invited all the party to take a cruise to the southern end of the island, as he wished to visit the Pitch Lake and the Indian settlements, and to perform certain official duties. The colonel and his daughter, and Don Antonio and his wife, with most of the young ladies, accepted it, and a very delightful trip they had; and, of course, a dance was got up on board, which was more interesting to the fair damsels and the naval officers than any of the natural curiosities the island could afford. It was whispered in the gunroom that they were to have some of their visitors on board for a much longer time, and it at last came out that the captain had promised a pa.s.sage to Colonel O'Regan and his daughter to Jamaica. Adair and Gerald rode out to wish their cousins good-bye. The old lady was as cordial as ever, and all of them made much of the mids.h.i.+pmen; but Terence had a slight suspicion that the younger ones were somewhat piqued that he and Jack had not laid their hearts at their feet. They were very pretty, charming girls, he acknowledged, and he was not certain what might have happened had he remained longer. Perhaps they were just a little jealous of Stella. He thought so when his sweet cousin Maria whispered, "No one will deny that she is very beautiful, but she is cold as the snow on Chimborazo, and it is said that while playing havoc with the affections of her admirers, she leaves them to their fate with the most callous indifference."

"Jack Rogers thinks very differently of her," remarked Adair. "He says that she is one of the most enthusiastic creatures he has ever met; but still I don't know that he can exactly make her out."

"No one can," answered Maria. "She seems very affectionate to us, and grateful for the attention we have been able to show her, and yet we do not know her better now than we did at first."

Just then the subject of their conversation approached, and directly afterwards Jack and his brother rode up to pay a short farewell visit, and to escort Stella to the town, where her father was waiting for her to go on board the frigate. The bustle of preparation prevented any further conversation. Donna Katerina a.s.sured Terence that he might rely on being welcomed as a relative should he return to Trinidad, and was equally civil to Jack when, in his usual hearty way, he wished his friends good-bye. He was watched narrowly as he handed Stella into the carriage, but the keenest eyes could not detect anything in his manner beyond the ordinary respect due to a lady.

The captain had come to the landing-place to escort his guests on board the frigate. They reached her side just as the sunset gun was fired.

Stella gave not the slightest start at the sound, but sat as unmoved as her soldier father. Jack remarked the grace and, at the same time, the confidence with which she stepped up the accommodation-ladder, and walked along the deck as if well accustomed to ascending a s.h.i.+p's side.

"I never met a girl better fitted to be a heroine than she is," he thought. "Still my sister Mary and Lucy are of the style I fancy best."

The young lady was followed by her only attendant, a black damsel, carrying her dressing-case, and other articles, which nothing would induce her to commit to the charge of the men who offered to take them.

"Missie Stella tell me not lose dem," she answered, with a knowing shake of her head. "No, no, tank yoo."

Stella retired at an early hour to the cabin the captain had fitted up for her, with a small one close to it for the faithful Polly. She wished to be on deck, she said, to see the s.h.i.+p get under weigh in the morning. She and the colonel were pretty freely discussed in the gunroom and mids.h.i.+pmen's berth. All acknowledged that she was handsome, but some thought her proud and haughty, and others that she was rather slow, whilst Gerald was of opinion that his cousins beat her hollow, in which Tom agreed with him heartily.

"Much more jolly girls they are," said Tom. "How they laughed at Spider's antics! I only wish we may find a batch of such cousins in every place we go to with as capital a country-house."

Terence p.r.o.nounced her a Sphinx. Perhaps he was bia.s.sed by the opinion the fair Maria had expressed. Jack did not altogether like to hear her talked about, especially by the master and purser, or the lieutenant of marines, who called her a monstrously fine woman. The colonel was fair game. No one could make out who he was, what brought him out to that part of the world, or why the captain was so polite to him. Perhaps it was for his daughter's sake. He was stiff and donnish, and had scarcely condescended to speak to any one. Jack and Terence defended him on this point, but still he did not appear to have made a favourable impression during the day he had been on board.

With a leading wind and on the brightest of bright mornings, the frigate was standing towards the Boca de Huevos, one of the dragon's mouths, which lead out of the Gulf of Paria into the open ocean. Everything looked brilliant--the s.h.i.+p herself, the sea, the sky, the land. The pa.s.sage seemed broad enough for a dozen s.h.i.+ps to sail out abreast, between the lofty tree-covered crags which formed the sh.o.r.es of the islands on either side. Still every precaution was taken; the lead was kept going, the crew were at their stations. Stella and her father stood on the deck watching the sh.o.r.e as the s.h.i.+p glided rapidly on.

Lieutenant Jennings was the only person at liberty to attend to them, and he was doing his best to make himself agreeable; but he found, after a few attempts, that he succeeded better with the colonel than with his daughter. "Grand cliffs those," he observed; "awkward for a s.h.i.+p to run against. No chance of our doing so, however."

"Not so certain of that," answered the colonel. "The wind is scant and has fallen."

The yards were braced sharp up, and the quartermaster was keeping the s.h.i.+p as close to the wind as possible.

"Why we are almost through the pa.s.sage; a few hundred yards more, and we shall be in the open sea," remarked the lieutenant.

"Without a breeze those few hundred yards will be too much for us," said the colonel.

As he spoke the sails gave a loud flap; now they filled, and the countenance of the captain brightened; now they flapped again, and it soon became evident that the frigate was drifting, stern first, away from the line of the open sea so nearly reached, towards the cliffs on the starboard hand, driven by a fierce current, which set in diagonally from the northward through the pa.s.sage. Slowly but certainly she floated back. Had it been directly through the pa.s.sage, it would not have mattered; but having no steerage way, she was at the mercy of the current, and that was taking her directly towards the cliffs. Many an eye was turned aloft to the canvas on which their safety depended. Just then the most coal-begrimed steamer would not have been despised. The captain gave the order for all the boats to be got ready for lowering; still he had hopes that the breeze would again freshen, but he could not hide from himself the danger the s.h.i.+p was in. All the boats towing ahead could not stem that fierce current. Ever and anon, too, the swell from the sea came rolling in smooth as gla.s.s, setting the s.h.i.+p towards the rocks. Not the faintest zephyr filled even the royals. Even should her head be got round to the southward, she would still be drifted bodily to destruction. Stella clearly comprehended the danger, and watched with admiration the cool and calm bearing of the officers. A cable was ranged for letting go as a last resource, but the depth of water where they then were precluded any hope of an anchor holding.

Nearer and nearer the s.h.i.+p drew to the towering cliffs.

"Lower the boats," cried the captain.

Their active crews sprang into them, and tow-ropes being pa.s.sed they began to pull, as English seamen are wont to pull, against the hot current; but all their efforts seemed of no avail in r.e.t.a.r.ding the sternward progress of the frigate. It appeared at length as if in another minute her spanker-boom would be driven against the cliffs, while the outer branches of the tall trees which towered on their summits seemed almost to hang over the mast heads. Smooth as was the water, an angry surf broke against the rocks at the foot of the cliffs, too clearly indicating what must be the fate of the proud frigate should she drive against them. The lead kept going, showed the depth of water still to be great. Suddenly the s.h.i.+p seemed to be brought to a standstill; the lead-line remained up and down. The hand in the chains announced the fact. It was evident that she had got into dead water, but she still felt the influence of the rollers; for although the boat's crews pulled as hard as ever, they could not move her ahead. It would be impossible for them also to continue their exertions much longer, while but a slight puff of wind from the opposite sh.o.r.e would hasten her fate.

"Well, I never thought there could be danger in smooth water and a calm, and the land close to us," said Tom, who observed the anxious faces of those around him.

"There are many things not dreamed of in your philosophy, youngster, which you'll learn in time," answered Higson. "Before many minutes are over we may chance to have the masts come tumbling about our ears, and I would advise you, and the rest not wanted on deck, to get below out of the way in good time."

"What, you don't mean to say that the s.h.i.+p is likely to be wrecked?"

said Tom.

"Ay, but I do, if one of two things don't happen," answered Higson.

"Let's hope that they may that the anchor may hold, or that a breeze may come from off the cliffs aboard of us."

"Let go," sang out the captain.

"All gone!" shouted Adair from forward.

At that moment Master Spider, having managed to get clear of his chain, seeing the green trees so near him, was off up the rigging with the evident intention of having a ramble among them. Tom and Gerald caught sight of their new pet at the same moment, and forgetting danger or discipline up the shrouds they sprang in chase.

"Might as well try to catch greased lightning as that long-armed beast,"

observed Higson, who did not, however, attempt to stop them. Spider quickly reached the main-topsail-yard-arm, but finding that the tempting trees were still utterly beyond his reach, up the topping-lift he swarmed, and in another instant was on the royal-yard. Thither the mids.h.i.+pmen followed, but Spider showed an inclination to defend his position, and sat grinning at them from the end of the yard, round which his prehensile tail was firmly curled. He had an advantage they did not possess, being able to hold on tightly, and yet have both his hands at liberty. As Tom, who led the way, put out his hand to catch the creature, he received so severe a bite that he almost let go. Still he was not to be defeated by a monkey. The two mids.h.i.+pmen, now getting out their handkerchiefs, formed nooses, in which they hoped to catch Master Spider's paws, and advanced together, forgetting that snake-like tail of his, with which he could keep at anchor, let them haul ever so hard.

Apparently, however, not liking their threatening front, before they could seize him he made a spring over their heads, and was in an instant calmly seated on the main-truck. They were about to follow, when Jack, catching sight of them, called them down instantly.

"What, all three of us, sir?" asked Gerald, unable to resist the joke, which set the men grinning fore-and-aft, in spite of the perilous position of the s.h.i.+p.

"No; the two biggest of you; let the smaller monkey take his own time to come down," answered Jack.

Tom and Gerald descended, looking rather foolish, and the former had to go to the doctor to have his finger dressed, for Spider had given it a severe nip.

The lead-line betokened fifty fathoms where the frigate had cast anchor.

The sails hung in the brails. Captain Hemming was on the watch for the slightest flaw of wind which might enable him to get out of his dangerous position. The boats were still kept ahead; the rest of the crew were at their stations, the marines and idlers ready to pull and haul. It was a time of breathless anxiety. No one could tell what might next happen. Spider might have fancied that the eyes turned aloft were directed at him, instead of towards the sluggish royals. Wistfully he gazed at the green branches, but he was too wise a monkey to suppose that he could reach them. Still, with his tail curled under it, he sat on the truck, as comfortably posted as he could desire.

Scarcely a word was uttered only occasionally Stella and her father exchanged observations. The colonel seemed positively to enjoy the anxiety.

"Ah! now we have an example of what strict discipline can accomplish,"

he said. "Spaniards or Frenchmen would have given way to despair and lost their s.h.i.+p. These fine fellows will save theirs, though they would have been wiser to have taken the wider pa.s.sage. Would that I had a thousand or two of such: there might be better hope for the regeneration of South America."

"You will succeed in spite of all difficulties," said Stella, looking up into her father's face with a proud, fond glance; "you will conquer them."

Ten, twenty minutes went slowly by, the bright sun beating down fiercely on deck, and on the heads of the people in the boats, till they felt as if their brains were frying. Mr Cherry sent the dingy ahead with a breaker of water to them. It was drained to the last drop. Suddenly the royals were seen slowly to bulge out; the topgallant-sails followed their example.

"Let fall! sheet home!" cried the captain, and on the word the whole crew were set in motion, those on deck tramping along at headlong speed with the sheets in their hands.