Show 34 31 23 1 ija 3 33 3 3 3 33 i i C K RODNEY R 0 D D NE Y ia 6 I 1 j or the adventures r es of af ia ik k k ak I 1 on an eton boy UP k 10 i do L 6 0 11 BY JAMES ca i C F 6 it F C 6 C C F 6 C rr Z ik ir rc rr C F rr 4 E 6 C S C CC S rr e if it rr C IP fi C E rr W re rr CHAPTER IV continued on perceiving that I 1 was awake a hand bell was rung by the captain and hot coffee accompanied by the last slice ot of shore bread that remained was brought to me by billy the cabin boy and then after a time I 1 was requested to state craft that was from which I 1 had been taken my name and so forth that mr hislop might enter all the particulars among the remarks in his bis logbook log book I 1 soon satisfied them as to all this and where am I 1 now I 1 inquired pretty far out upon the open sea my lad ad replied the captain with a smile as he threw the end of 0 his cheroot into the empty grate the open sea ti till s the open sea I 1 reiterated with dismay which I 1 cared not to conceal yes we saw the last glimpse of the r rugged u aged start on the day before yesterday and this morning just an hour before picking you up we bade goodbye by to old england tor for the lizard light was bearing you had the dead watch hislop low how did it bear about twelve miles oft off on the weather quarter how shall I 1 return home they both lau laughed glied as I 1 despairingly made mad this inquiry by the way you left it I 1 suppose that Is by water said capt weston you spoke of the start what is that A cape of the channel on the southeast coast of devonshire about nine miles to the southward ot dartmouth he replied while casting a casual glance at a chart which lay on oil the table I 1 had thus before being rescued so brov providentially identically drifted more than a hundred miles from erlesmere and it was marvelous that the schooner had floated so tar far unseen well what is to be done now asked the captain we are bound tor for the west indies but we may put you aboard the first craft that passes us homeward bound or you are free to remain it if wo lae cannot do better for you I 1 I 1 thought of my mother my father my two sisters and my heart was so tull full of gratitude to heaven tor for preserving me to the end that I 1 might see and embrace them all again that I 1 had no words to reply atter after a time I 1 exclaimed home home let me go home to ri erlesmere esmere weeping as I 1 spoke for the thought of them all made me a very abild alu again the e captain and mate exchanged girna es of inquiry its no use piping your eye now my lad said the former coming toward my berth but answer me quietly you said that your name was rodney yes yea and you spoke of Erle erlesmere amere are you a son of old dr rodney the rector do you know my father then I 1 exclaimed cant say exactly that I 1 have the honor of being known to him but I 1 know of him right well why master blaster rodney I 1 have sailed your uncles ships many a time and know his gloomy old office in the city as well ns as the buoy at the nore so you are as sate safe and as welcome aboard the eugenie as it if in IA the old rectory house at home this avit was pleasant intelligence at all events but my earnest desire was to return a design which was not fated to be speedily gratified gratl fleo for several days we passed only out ward bound vessels or others which were at such a distance that the task of 0 signaling and speaking with them would have delayed the eugenie eugenic longer than capt weston could risk two that passed near us when we showed our ensign replied by displaying the tricolor of 0 france or the red and yellow bars of 0 spain so there was nothing for me now but to remain contentedly on board the eugenie Eug enle which was bound for or matanzas with a solid cargo of 0 steam machinery and coal the master had no doubt of getting a return freight direct for london thus six or eight months might elapse before I 1 could return to Eri erlesmere esmere I 1 gradually became reconciled to the novelty ot of m situation I 1 looked forward hopefully to the time when the sorrow borrow ot of those I 1 had left behind would be alleviated and began to enjoy to the utmost the prospect of a voyage in a spanking brig to the shores of cuba CHAPTER V the voyage to cuba I 1 resolved not to be an idler idle r or loblolly boy and was allowed by captain weston to take my watches and share of deck duty with the rest of the crew and at intervals I 1 worked hard at a spanish grammar with marc chislo P who would read don quixote in the original with a fluency that even my old tutor ut at eton might have envied we were now clear of the channel and alter after a hard battle with the wind and sea we left the long roll of the mighty atlantic on the third night after my rescue wee we encountered dark and cloudy weather r with a strong gale which set all the cabin afloat my bly watch was over and I 1 had d just turned in when I 1 heard the yoa voice of capt weston who was on deck shouting through bis big trumpet to close reef the maint hand the malli mainsail sall foresail and foret look alive there lads he added or as sure Ps es my name is sam weston I 1 ill give the volt to the last man olt off the deck this threat so unusual in one so good natured together with the bellowing of the wind the napping flapping ot of the wetted canvas the rattle ot of the blocks and cordage and the laboring ot of tho the brig which was so BO deeply laden that every timber groaned all gave such indications of a rough night that I 1 sprang from my berth and proceeded to dress again in haste baste to my astonishment at that moment I 1 heard the hoarse rattle of 0 the chain cable as it rushed with a roaring through the iron mouth of the hawse hole then I 1 was sensible of a violent shock which made the brig stagger and tumbled me headlong against the paneled bulkhead which separated the cabin from rom the Ili hislop slop who had been dozing on the cabin locker in his storm jacket started up with alarm in his face have we come to anchor I 1 asked anchor in more than three hundred fathoms of water he exclaimed as he rushed on deck whither I 1 followed and found that a very strange incident incident Inci deni had bad occurred in the murky obscurity of the stormy night a large dutch lugger in ballast apparently and running right before the wind with steering canvas set came suddenly athwart us and hooked the anchor from the on our larboard bow by some unwonted neglect it was not yet on board nor had the cable been unbent with her starboard fore tore rigging and thus bore away with it until the chain came to bear when there was a tremendous shock several feet of our bulwark were torn away and two seamen tattooed tom and an old mano man o wars man named roberts were nearly swept into the sea where in such a night and amid the contusion confusion of such an incident they would inevitably have perished unaided then we heard a shout mingled with a crash upon the bellowing wind as the Dutch mans foremast snapped by the board and then fortuna fortunately teli our anchor tumbled from rom his side into the sea where it swung at the whole length of 0 the chain cable we manned both windlass and capstan got the anchor which was drifting roused to the hoisted it on board unbent the cable and stowed it in the tier but long ere all this was done we had lost sight of our lubberly friend who when last seen was tossing about like a log in the darkness and drifting tar far astern of us but tor for some defect in the pawls bawls and notches notch es of the windlass collar I 1 am doubtful it if the chain would have run out so freely but as to this I 1 cannot say we had hard squalls and a sea that ran high until daybreak there was lightning too red and dusky it seemed at times to fill the whole horizon we could see bee tor for an instant the black summits of the waves as they rose and tell fell between us and the glare and when it passed away all again would be obscurity and gloom more canvas must be taken off the brig sir air suggested hislop looking aloft and then over the side where the foam flecked sea ken whirled past vs Us well in with the foretop sall sail and maln maint topsail ordered weston As the light of dawn stole over the angry sea through clouds of mingled mist and rain the gale abated and all but the watch went below calm weather and heavy rains succeeded the gale but the eugenie steadily kept her course and two days after when spanking along before a fine topgallant breeze we picked up a bottle which was described by the watch floating and bobbing in the water a lew few fat fathoms hoins distant from the brig she was at once hove in the wind and hislop went in the L tern boat to bring the bottle on board As the most trivial Int dent becomes ot of interest on board of ship where the dally daily occurrences are sd few and the circle ot of society so limited considerable concern was excited by the appearance pe arance of this thia bottle which seemed to have been freshly corked and on its being broken we found a scrap of paper torn apparently from a notebook whereupon a hurried and agitated hand had penciled this brief notice the mary clipper ship of boston nov momentarily expected to go down pumps worn out and the leaks gaining captain and first mate with all the boats washed away god help us the ot of november it was on that night wo we encountered the heavy gale said weston we had been on the skirt of the tempest as hislop maintained w while hile the yankee ship had probably an suffered offered all the fury ot of it from the maln main cross trees capt weston swept the sea with his telescope in vain for or any trace ot of her so it that melancholy scrap of paper told truth all was doubtless over long since with the mary blary and her crew in the cabin that night a conversation on the probabilities ot of her destruction st or escape led to a recurrence to the miraculous manner in which the unlucky dutch schooner had bad floated so long with me a and ad I 1 mentioned to weston and tho the additional terrors I 1 had endured by the tilt booi t of 0 imagination and a recollection of the strange incidents told me by capt Zeer vogel but they ridiculed the story of the poor man chiefly I 1 thought because it was the yarn of a hollander Hol landor though I 1 nm am a scotchman began hislop and come 0 of a people naturally superstitious gu suggested weston parenthetically As all large laree races are retorted the mate while filling his clay clay pipe with to bacce cc well what were you about to say asked weston but first nil fill your glass and pass pasa over the tobacco bag 1 I was simply about to reiterate that I 1 dont believe in ghosts or value them any more than I 1 do the yen yankee kee sea serpent a ropes end or a piece ot of old junk I 1 never saw one or knew a man who had seen one but every one has heard of a man that knew another man who saw or believed he saw a ghost it Is at variance with the laws of 0 nature which are so ordered that no such erratic spirit can be 1 I dont know about that replied weston earth and water have theli theft inhabitants so why not the air also and why not the fire alre there you go right before the wind into the troubled sea of argument you Scotch men are all alike ghosts are at variance with tilt thi workings of 0 divine wisdom and we al know what jones of nayland sayi say thereupon no we dont said weston wh the deuce was he what port did lit hi ba hall 11 from he who cannot see the workings wor kingi of a divine wisdom in the order ot of th abi heavens the change of 0 the seasons tha th flowing ot of the tides the operation ol 01 the wind and other elements the structure ot of the human body the circulation ot of the blood the instincts of 0 beasts and the growth of 0 plants Is blind and unworthy the name of man you hear bear him mr rodney hodney said weston now he hrs has got both his anchor and topsails top sails a trip he can pal out whole speeches in this fashion al at a breath as fast as the ehalt cabit running through the hawse pipe being fresh from eton I 1 was not no going to let our learned scotch mato mat have it all his own way when wes ton resumed it if you will listen you shall hear v s strange I 1 r ange story in which I 1 bore bora a prom anent part As the ghost said I 1 no but you will soon acknowledge whether or not I 1 had cause tor for tear fear and after he had replenished hii bil glass and pipe capt sam barn weston began in this manner about fifteen years ago I 1 found myself at matanzas in cuba the sam saint port we are bound tor for now adrift without a ship and almost without a 3 penny in my pocket among foreigners spaniards and mulattoes and quadroons quadro ons black white and nd yellow I 1 had bad gone there as second mate ot of a ashl shir from rom boston but the tyranny of 0 our oui skipper weli nigh drove me mad during the voyage he had nearly killed hilled three of 0 our men tor for being slow in sending down the topgallant top gallant yards on a squally equally night he beat them until they were blade black and blue with a handspike and kept them for forty eight hours lashed to ring bolts in the ice ace pers that the sea might break over them as he said and cure their sores when I 1 interfered to save a poor cabin boy whom he had hung up by the heels from the main boom and was waa scourging with a heavy colt till ili his back was covered with blood he P produced a bowle bowie knife and revolver threat ing to shoot or rip me up just at that moment we were page passing a spanish ship of 0 war which was at anchor in the tha bay about halt half a mile from up u and had the red and yellow jack of castile and leon flying dying at his gaff peak one of the poor fellows who wh 0 had been so severely beaten was then in the foretop ore top so I 1 ha hailed ailed him to make a signal of distress to the spaniard to be continued |