Read Ebook: The Voyage of the Arrow to the China Seas. Its Adventures and Perils Including Its Capture by Sea Vultures from the Countess of Warwick as Set Down by William Gore Chief Mate by Hains T Jenkins Thornton Jenkins Edwards H C Harry C Illustrator

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Ebook has 1116 lines and 59555 words, and 23 pages

I bowed.

"And as he will have to be in your watch, I want you to take every care of him that you possibly can, without, of course, interfering with the ship's duties or discipline. He will not be one who will try to shirk hard work." He said this with great warmth, and after pausing a moment to allow his words to have their effect, continued:

"I know that your misfortunes have soured your temper to a certain extent--No, no, don't misunderstand me," he put in, hastily, as he saw my look. "I know that you are only human and what you have been through would have ruined most men. At the same time you have a great deal to be thankful for."

"Yes," I growled, rather ill-naturedly, "I suppose I should be thankful that I haven't the smallpox, or the yellow fever, or a hundred other things. Being thankful for a number of things that don't happen to me does not make me thankful for some that have."

He was silent for a few moments, and then said, with a smile, "I see you wish me to believe you a philosopher. How old are you?"

"Twenty-nine," I answered.

"Have you ever been in love?" he continued, smiling broadly, and the merry twinkling of his eyes told me plainly that our business was finished.

"Never in my life," I answered, firmly, and I never knew until that moment that I could lie so easily.

"Of course, then, you have never married and don't know what it is to have a son of your own."

"Hm-m-m, well," I answered, "I've made several voyages to China and Japan, and it is always the custom out there to purchase a wife, if you can support her and--"

"Never mind, never mind about that," he interrupted, quickly; "I don't want any of your reminiscences at present. You understand what I want done with Mr. Brown, so we might as well go in and see if any one has arrived."

I was astonished, when we neared the door of the drawing-room, to hear a great hum of voices. We had been in the conservatory only a short time, but during that interval a number of people had arrived and were seated at small tables playing euchre.

Mr. Ropesend found a place for me at a table with Mr. Brown, Miss Anderson, and Captain Crojack's pretty niece, Miss Waters. How the evening passed I can hardly remember. I was a poor partner for Miss Waters, who kept telling me over and over again that she and her mother were going out with us to China. It was a great relief to me when some one suggested dancing, so I could get away.

I felt conspicuous among those people, for, after all, I was nothing but the mate of a deep-water ship. I could dance about as well as a Chinese mandarin, and my hands were so large and brown that they looked absurd among the rest of those at the card-table.

I looked around for Mr. Ropesend to say good night and see if he had any further orders for me. Not finding him, I separated from the rest and walked into the conservatory and sat down.

After a few minutes the good-natured person playing the piano grew tired and ceased. Then several couples came laughing into the conservatory and through it to the garden beyond. I thought I would wait until they all came out, and then go in and say good night, so I lounged back in my seat beneath the ferns and palms.

Presently Mr. Brown and Miss Anderson came out and stood just opposite me, but directly behind a thick bunch of palmettos. They were whispering earnestly, and the girl leaned heavily upon the young man's arm.

"How did it happen?" I heard her ask him, passionately.

"I don't know any more about it than you do, dearest," he answered. "I am the cashier, and I'll be held responsible. That is all, and that is why, I suppose, that I am going on this voyage. Mr. Ropesend seems to think it is absolutely necessary to hush the matter up."

"But I don't see--"

It seemed to me that I had made great progress in listening to matters that were none of my business. I reflected, however, that it was through no efforts of my own, and remained silent. I have always tried to be broad-minded, and this evening listening appeared to me to be anything but wrong. There was a short silence, and I caught a glimpse of the girl's beautiful face as she looked up at her lover's.

"Wherever I go, dear, I'll always--"

"And I'll be yours, Jack--"

And as she put up her beautiful mouth to be kissed, I gave a deep grunt of satisfaction before I realized what I was about. I turned away my head and heard a rustle of silk. When I looked up again, they were gone.

As soon as possible I found Mr. Ropesend and said good night. Then, without a word to any one else, I hurried away.

The little scene I had just witnessed impressed me strangely and haunted me all the way down to the ship. That beautiful, earnest face, with the trembling, sensitive lips repeating those last words--somehow it brought back to me an incident that--

I passed a beggar leaning against the side of a house, with his crutch before him, and, as I passed him heedlessly, I heard the deep curses he hurled after me. Turning quickly, I grabbed him before he could move half a fathom.

"Curse, you scoundrel!" I bawled; "curse every one who is up while you are down. Curse again, damn you; it does me great good. Curse again!" And I took the last dollar I had left and forced it into his hand. Then I released him and he fell to the ground, and as I walked away I could hear the word "devil" hissed in a frightened whisper.

I made my way to my stateroom in the forward cabin without meeting any one except the man on watch. Then, quickly stowing my shore togs, I turned in and was instantly asleep.

It is pleasant for a sailor to get his whole night's sleep once in awhile, although, for myself, I always wake up whenever eight bells strike. This, of course, is from habit, and while I usually lie awake for some minutes afterward, it never can be said to break the night's rest.

Twice, as the bells struck during the night, I awoke, and the vision of a beautiful face with loving eyes passed before me. I lay awake both times for several minutes, and cursed my luck heartily because I was still a mate.

Then, before I realized it, I found myself much prejudiced against Mr. Brown. His pale face annoyed me whenever I thought of it, and once I half made up my mind to make him wish he had never set foot on a ship's deck, if he came into my watch.

When I turned out in the morning my temper had a less sinister aspect. I heard the black moke of a "doctor" singing in the galley, while the odour of steaming coffee filled the air--

"Oh, I'se an ole Cape Ho'ner, An' I'se gwine round de co'ner, An' I'se gwine whar de sun doan nebber shine."

I drew several long, deep breaths of the fresh morning air and walked out on the main deck.

"Foine marnin', Mr. Gore," said O'Toole, as he came down the starboard gangway, "an' if that bloody naygur'll devote th' energy he's wastin', t'gettin' out some belly ballast for us, we'll be for shorring up as far as the main hatch by dark."

A little hinting from Mr. O'Toole as to some sundry personal disadvantages to the doctor that might arise if breakfast didn't appear suddenly on the cabin table, had the effect of silencing the moke and producing the steward with the hand-bell.

Captain Crojack seated himself at the head of the table and cast a suspicious glance at me over the rim of his cup, while he drank his coffee in silence. I said nothing about what I had overheard in the saloon the day before, and nothing about Mr. Ropesend's reasons for sending us an inexperienced officer. I tried to talk of the skipper's sister and niece, who were to be our passengers. Then the old man asked plainly if I knew that Mr. Brown was to sail as third mate, and I answered bluntly that I did.

It was so evident, from his tone, that he was trying to find out the reason why the young man should do this that I determined, out of pure combativeness, not to gratify his curiosity. I might also add that I could not have truthfully gratified it, even had I so wished, for all I had heard was but the gossip of clerks and Mr. Ropesend's transparent yarn about the young man's health.

When we were through breakfast, I went forward to relieve O'Toole. I found, then, that by keeping what I had heard to myself, my feelings were completely changed toward young Brown. I now felt as though I were his protector. This sudden turn of affairs caused such a revulsion from the prejudice I had against him--when I thought of that sweet, upturned face--that if he had stepped on board that minute I would have given him a welcome that would probably have astonished him.

I merely mention these senseless facts to show how even the best of us--if I may be allowed to give myself my own rating--are affected by trifling matters without realizing it.

That night we found that, by a little pushing, we would be steved and ready to sail by the next afternoon or following morning. The skipper then made arrangements to have a crew ready.

Pretty Miss Waters and her mother came on board to see about getting their baggage stowed, and in the morning Mr. Brown came down and reported for duty.

I had so much to attend to during that last day that I hardly had a chance to speak to the young man, but I found that he was as willing to work as Mr. Ropesend had said.

Some of these men were pretty drunk and hardly fit for work, and the second mate carried aft a dozen bottles of hidden liquor which he found in their outfits.

Crojack came on deck and gave the order to cast off. The lines were let go and two tugs pulled us slowly into the stream while a few loungers and longshoremen, who were attracted by the bustle and noise at that early hour, waved their hats and cheered as the Stars and Stripes broke from the peak of the monkey-gaff.

The headline was passed along the port side and stopped at the mizzen channels in order to turn the ship's head outward, when she cleared the dock. One of the men, a dark-faced Spaniard, who was so drunk that he could hardly understand an order, stood by to cast off the stop when the time came.

"Leggo!" bawled the skipper, from the poop, and the fellow started to cast off while standing outside the line which now had the full power of the tug on it.

In a moment away it went, catching him like a bowstring across the waist. He shot twenty feet into the air and, whirling over and over, landed with a splash in the river.

Crojack supposed that he would be dead or disabled when he rose, so he bawled for the tug to pick him up.

In a few seconds, however, up the fellow came and struck out lustily for the wharf, and, on reaching it, was hauled up by some of the longshoremen. He stopped a few moments to catch his breath, and waved his hand gracefully. Then, putting his thumb to his nose, he spread forth his fingers in a most aggravating manner at the skipper, who had the satisfaction of seeing him bolt through the crowd and make off with what little advance money he had left. This was followed by a yell of derision from his sympathizing friends on the wharf.

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