The Vanished Yacht

Front matter

THE VANISHED YACHT. m ' ' Draw his knife out ofthe sheath; cried R i THE " DAPHNE." T.vN'E.LSON & 50N5 EDINBURGH THE Vanished Yacht BY E. HARCOURT BURRAGE AUTHOR OF GERARD MASTVN, THE SLAVE-RAIDERS OF ZANZIBAR, " WHITHER BOUND, ETC. etc. THOMAS NELSON AND SONS London, Edinburgh, and New York CONTENTS. i. A STORMY NIGHT, 9 JIM GRUFF DOESN'T KNOW ANYTHING, VANISHED, II 15 in 24 IV. BLOWER COMES AGAIN TO THE FRONT, THE DEPARTURE OF THE "IRIS,".... LEON DE TEREUL, 30 V. 30 17 VI, VII THE ACCREDITED AGENT DOES A DISCREDITABLE THING, 54 VIII. THE HAUNTED FORT, BAD FOR DE TEREUL, A DESPERATE FEAT, FLIGHT AND PURSUIT, 58 IX, 65 73 X. XI. 81 THE " IRIS " SHOWS HER SAILING QUALITIES, FOUR MONTHS LATER, .... '.12 XII. XIII. XIV. 98 A SPECK ON THE OCEAN, 106 Ill XV. BLOWER BRINGS IN A DISAPPOINTING REPORT, THE GREAT WAVE, XVI. 118 THE FATE OF THE "IRIS," FINDING A STRANGER, ....

THE STORY OF THE "DAPHNE," A GALLANT DEFENCE, 125 XVII. XVIII. XIX. 131 140 XX, VI CONTENTS. 155 XXI. THE SIEGE RAISED, THE RATTLE OF A CHAIN, A HAZARDOUS ENTERPRISE, RESCUED, 163 XXII. 169 XXIII. XXIV. 174 TOWNER WICKRAMS PLANS, THE RECOVERED YACHT, 180 XXV. 187 XXVI. THE BREAKING OUT OF SANTIOFF, THE GRATITUDE OF RUFFIANS, JUSTICE IS METED OUT TO A BAD LOT, HOMEWARD BOUND, 193 XXVII. XXVIII. 201 209 XXIX. 217 XXX. XXXI. THE VISION SEEN BY JORKINS, A LOSS AT THE FALKLANDS, AWAY FOR BUENOS AYRES, 224 230 XXXII. XXXIII. XXXIV. 235 THE ARRIVAL OF THE "RATTLESNAKE," KNAVES IN COUNCIL, 240 XXXV. 246 XXXVI. XXXVII. XXXVIII. THE " DAPHNE " AT BUENOS AYRES, 252 JORKINS IS REINSTATED ON THE "DAPHNE," AT THE HACIENDA, 259 266 A MESSAGE TO THE " RATTLESNAKE," BERTIE'S MYSTERIOUS LETTER, 273 XXXIX. XL. 2S4 XLI.

ON BOARD THE "DAPHNE," 291 ON BOARD THE "RATTLESNAKE,".... THE LAST OF THE " RATTLESNAKE," THE DEED OF A DESPERATE MAN, THE RETURN TO BUENOS AYRES, .... A CONSULTATION, XLII. 296 XLIII. 302 XLIV. 307 XLV. 317 XLVI 323 XLVII. XLVIII. THE TIGERS OF THE PLAIN, 330 THE FIGHTING AT THE HACIENDA, THE FINDING OF THE LOST ONE, .. HOME AGAIN, .... 336 XLIX. 342 L, LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. "'DRAW HIS KNIFE OUT OF THE SHEATH,' CRIED RALPH, .... .... .... Frontispiece THE "DAPHNE," Vignette "BENEATH HIM HE SAW THE WATER WILDLY EDDYING AROUND," 124 " ' AH, MY DANDY YACHTSMAN,' HE SAID, ' I'VE GOT YOU,"' .... 197 " THEY TOOK UP A POSITION AMONG THE ROCKS, AND OPENED FIRE ON THE 'DAPHNE,'" 206 THE DEED OF A DESPERATE MAN, 30'J THE VANISHED YACHT.

Chapter I

A STORMY XIGHT. THE wind swept by with a roaring sound, and heavy rain swished against the windows of a house in Little Crampton, facing the sea. It was night, the season autumn, and very few people were abroad. There was very little in the way of amuse ment in the quiet seaside place to tempt the inhabit ants or visitors to leave their homes. For three days the equinoctial gales had been rao-insc, arriving earlier than usual, to the intense annoyance of Ralph Brooking and Lyon Lyster, the owners of two yachts, respectively named the Daphne and the Iris. These two troubled gentlemen sat in the house above referred to, brooding over the arrival of the untoward storm. They had just dined well, in spite of their per turbed feelings, for they were young, on the bright side of twenty-five, and blessed with abounding health.

Some comfort had been obtained from the partaking of an excellent dinner, but their brows were bent as a terrific gust of wind set the windows rattling like big castanets. Ralph got up from the table, and crossing the room, turned aside the window blind. " Bar the lamps," he said, " flickering and fluttering thanks to the wind, it is as dark as the bottom of the Mammoth Cave. I can see neither the harbour nor the yacht lights. I hope they have been attended to. A fisherman's boat blundering into port might easily run against a craft at anchor." Lyon Lyster lit a cigar and forced a smile, a poor imitation of what he would have shown in his happier moments. His friend dropped the blind and resumed his seat. Both were silent for a while, and Ralph followed the example of Lyon by filling and lighting a briar pipe.

" It was for Carrie's sake that I thought of the trip up the Mediterranean," said Lyon presently. " I don't think for a moment that there is anything very serious the matter with her. All she wants is a change to a warmer climate for a few months. Bertie too was anxious to see a little of the world ; and as you were willing to accompany us in the Daphne, making a double trip of it, all promised so well ; and now we get these bothering gales. We ouiiht to have started a week ago." " It is my fault," said Ralph ; " I listened to Santioff, who made so many objections to the old men that I arranged for the fresh crew. Everything else is ready, and I ought to have retained my old men, as the right fellows have been difficult to get — so Santioff says." You trust a great deal to Santioff." Too much, you think ?

Well, he is a Spaniard, and I am not fond of the race. " He has been all over the world," said Ralph, " and is a thorough seaman. I can't help looking upon him as a modern Columbus ; he has discovered so many places where the ordinary navigator has never been." " So he says," rejoined Lyon dubiously. Ralph smiled, as if he understood Lyon's doubt of the Spaniard. It was, in his opinion, a matter of mutual dislike, an instinctive feeling which to him was unaccountable. " You will understand Santioff better by-and-by," he said. " The man is reserved, and there is a lot of the old Spanish Don in his manner ; but he is, as you are, Ly, a thorough good fellow in the main. He assured me to-day that he believed he had the right crew in tow at last, and if the weather breaks to morrow, we can be off and away over the ever restless sea."

A slight tap upon the door heralded the entry of the landlady to announce the arrival of one " Blower," who was at the door below and wished to speak to Mr. Brooking, " very particular." Blower was one of those men who in river districts are known as " waterside characters." They have much to do with the rivers, but seldom go on them, confining their labours to assisting votaries of the aquatic sport in getting in and out the boats. He performed a similar office at Little Crampton for the venturesome youths and maidens who went down to the sea in rowing vessels, obtainable on payment at the rate of a shilling per hour. Blower was well known to both the yachtsmen, for he was not the man to put his light under a bushel, or to throw away a chance of " making him self agreeable and useful to the gentlemen ; " but why he should present himself at Ralph Brooking's tem porary place of residence at that hour, and on such a night, was incomprehensible.

" Ask him what he wants, Mrs. Cox, will you, please ? " said Ralph. " I have asked him," replied the landlady, bridling a little, " but he said he had something to say that wasn't to be sent in second hand. Like all them loafers, he's got more than his share of impudence." " See him," said Lyon indifferently ; " probably he hasn't picked up a sixpence for three days and finds himself stranded. Putting aside a penny for a rainy day is not one of the virtues of Blower." Ralph went into the hall and found Blower on the other side of the front door, which had been closed against him, nominally on account of the wind, by the landlady. In reality, she objected to Blower on general grounds, as one of a class whom she looked upon as idle and worthless. On opening the door Ralph saw the man, with a thick cloth cap tied about his ears, and his body imperfectly shielded from the rain by a collection of odd pieces of sack -cloth and cast-off mackintoshes.

He was drenched, and presented a very woebegone appearance, save in the face, which bore a look of cheerful indifference to the weather. " You had better come in — as far as the mat," said Ralph, as a gust of wind and a considerable sprink ling of rain swept into the hall, the former playing havoc with the contents of the hat-stand, and whisk ing the almanac of the Southern Independent from its nail by the parlour door. Blower came in, touching his cap first, and then removing it with a dexterous twist from behind. " I beg your pardon, Mister Brooking," he said hoarsely, "but sum mat's gone wrong with Jim Gruff. I found him on the beach lyin' onsensible, and we've took him to the Blue Lion, where the doctor's exam ining him. He says Jim's been drugged. I put it down to his having had a drop."

Jim Gruff was the petty officer of the Daphne, a sort of boatswain and assistant navigator in one — a handy man in nautical matters, a very faithful servant, and a great favourite of Ralph's. The intelligence brought by Blower was very disturbing. " You are sure it is Gruff ? " Ralph asked. " I know him, sir, as I would my own brother," replied Blower, adding, after a moment's pause, " if I had one." " Gruff ought to be aboard the Daphne," muttered Ralph ; " I don't understand it. Wait a moment, Blower. I'll get you to show me the way to the Blue Lion, not being acquainted with that hostelry." " It's used by men — in my line, sir," said Blower. Ralph went back to Lyon with the startling piece of news, and a short discussion ended in both putting on their mackintoshes to accompany Blower to the inn patronized by him and others of his class.

As the trio left the house, a fierce blast of wind sent them staggering back a pace, and Blower, who was engaged in restoring his cap to his head, had it torn from his grasp and borne away into the darkness. " It don't singify," he said ; " I shall find it some wheres nigh the fort in the morning. Them as sees it lyin' about ain't likely to 'propriate it." Advising the young men to keep close to the houses and " walk a bit sideways so as to cut the wind a little," Blower took the lead, bearing in the direction of the west end of the town.

Chapter II. Jim Gruff Doesn't Know Anything

UP a narrow street, fairly respectable in all probability, but of a class well-dressed people would instinctively avoid, Blower led the way. Here and there on the road a man or a woman was passed, but for the most part the thoroughfares were given over to the wind and rain. The Blue Lion was old fashioned, dingy outside and cramped within. Two steps from the street led downward into the bar, and on the right was the common room, into which it seemed Jim Gruff had been taken. He was lying on a settle, with some pillows under his head, near a fire recently lighted. The doctor sat by his side, and a woman servant stood near to execute any orders he might give. All other persons had, by the doctor's orders, been excluded from the room. The practitioner knew the young men and shook hands with them.

In response to Ralph's anxious inquiry about the condition of the patient he shook his head. "You see he is a short, thick-set man," he said, "stronoenough in a muscular way, but heavy about the neck. Is he given to drinking ? " " Thoroughly sober — never touches anything that I know of," rejoined Ralph ; " surely he is not intoxi cated ? " " No," said the doctor, " he has been drugged — hocussed is the cant word for it — but where and by whom is a mystery." " Can it be anything in the way of a fit ? " suggested Lyon. " No," said the doctor ; " I can smell the drug, and could give you its name if Blower wasn't here. But perhaps he know7s what it is." They all looked at Blower, eapless and with his stubbly hair and rugged face dripping with rain. He was not handsome, his nose being a pug and his eyes small and close together.

His mouth, on the other hand, left nothing to be desired in its dimensions. He was also very liberally furnished in the matter of ears. Not at all the sort of man, all round, to be certain of escaping from unjust imputations. " I never knowed nothing about drugs," he said doggedly. " What were you doing on the beach on such a night as this ? " asked Ralph. " Looking for floatsum and jutsum, as some people call it," answered Blower ; " a man like me has to pick up a livin' all times of the year, and at day or night. A southerly gale brings bits of timber ashore. Them's my firin'. It don't run to reg'lar 'lowances of coals with me. Boats get adrift too from the stern lash ings of the yachts, and if they comes ashore I takes care of 'em and gets something for that. I don't go about pisoning people."

He was not aggressively indignant, but mildly remonstrative. The general belief was that he was innocent of any wrong towards Jim Gruff. Ralph assured him he was not suspected. " I merely asked you a question," said the doctor. " An uncommon pinted one," said Blower. " Say I'd hocussed him. Should I drag him 'arf way here, hollerin' for help ? Would that be nateral conduct, or the doing of a lu— natick ? " " What can you do for poor Gruff ? " Ralph wanted to know as they turned again to the insensible man. " I can do nothing," replied the doctor ; " the drug must work itself off He will be as well here as any where, and somebody ought to sit up with him, of course." " I'll do so," said Ralph " By somebody I mean a medical man," answered the doctor smiling. " As soon as he comes round a little, he will require quick and skilful treatment ; and if you will call at my place on your way back and ask my assistant to come here, you will oblige me, and do all you can for the present.

He won't die, you need not be apprehensive about that. But in my (943) iS JIM GRUFF DOESN'T KNOW ANYTHING. opinion it will be a full day — two or perhaps three — ere he will be able to give an intelligible account of the way he was drugged, and in what company he has been." Ralph offered Blower a few shillings for his ser vices. To his surprise the money was refused. " I don't want to be paid," he said. " I lives by odd jobbings, gineral help, and the floatsums and jutsums aforesaid ; and I can give my help free when it's a feller creetur in want of help." He persisted in taking up the position of a man of higher feeling than a mere loafer who wanted to be paid for everything he did, and they left him, con vinced that Blower was a better fellow than his appearance gave him credit of being.

Having called at the doctor's house, in a street hard by, and left the message for the assistant, they turned homeward. " Come to my place," said Lyon Lyster ; " Carrie and Bertie will be glad to see }"ou." The Lysters rented a small furnished house fronting the sea. It was about two minutes' walk be3rond the residence of Ralph Brooking. The proposal was agreeable, for between him and Carrie there was something more than friendship. They understood each other, but there was no declared engagement. That, howTever, was a matter which rested with Carrie. When Ralph, earlier in the year, asked her to be his wife, she told him he should have an answer when she returned from the trip to the Mediterranean. It had been on the tapis since the spring. It was after that that Ralph suggested his going with them in a sense, by voyaging in company with the Iris, in his own yacht.

His reason, though undeclared, was intelligible to her. They would see much of each other at the places where the yachts might put in, and all through he would be near her. It would be possible, too, under favourable circumstances, to sail in close company, and at intervals exchange sig nals of a comforting and sustaining nature. They would not feel as if they were entirely severed. Ralph did not suspect the reason why Carrie wished to postpone the engagement. He knew he had won her heart as surely as he had lost his owrn, and charged it to the natural delicacy of a pure minded woman in 'dealing with a matter so momen tous to her future. But Carrie's hesitation had a deeper root than that. She thought of the possibility of her never regaining her health. At intervals, with a break of two or three generations, the terrible malady of consumption had claimed a victim of her family, and if it was to be her lot to lose her life through its baneful influence, she hoped that Ralph, not bound to her, would feel the loss of her less than he would do if they were positively engaged.

It was a piece of delicately thoughtful consideration which you would have readily given her credit for, if you had seen her that evening as she met her brother 2o JIM GRUFF DOESN'T KNOW ANYTHING. and her wooer. It was not her beauty exactly, though that naturally had its influence at all times, but her manner, so sweet, gentle, and yet indicating a strong reliance on herself to bear and murmur not, that won the hearts of all who knew her. No sense of being in peril of dying ere she had tasted the full sweetness of life was visible as she gave Ralph her hand, and with a smile asked him what induced him to come out in such weather. " Something has happened," he replied ; " how are you, Bertie ? " Bertie was in the room with his sister, engaged in reading a book of travels. Absorbed in a thrilling narrative, he failed to notice the coming of his brother and Ralph until Carrie spoke.

Like his sister and brother, he was fair, and was almost as tall as Lyon, who was five feet nine, and several inches taller than Carrie. The slimness and general imperfect development of form, natural to a boy of seventeen, marked the most noticeable difference between him and his brother. " The yachts have been driven from their anchorage," Bertie said, turning pale. Visions of wreck, a hope deferred and a dreary winter at home, with bis disappointment weighing on his breast, uprose before him. He was soon, to an extent, relieved by hearing the facts, but he was very sorry for Gruff. He and the old boatswain had been great friends almost from their first hour of meeting, and the harmonious feeling was three years old. " Perhaps he came ashore and got into bad company," he suggested ; " and yet that isn't at all like Gruff."

" We may know all about it in the morning," said Lyon. They talked over the mysterious affair, but all the theories they advanced ended in their being rejected as at least improbable. At ten o'clock Ralph rose to take his leave, and then it was observed that the gale had very materially abated. " We may be able to sail to-morrow," said Bertie. " I may have to wait for Gruff," replied Ralph, with a wdstful look at Carrie ; " but if you stay for me at Gibraltar, we can still do the Mediterranean in com pany." Outside, he found the sky had cleared and the stars were shining. Away in the distance there was a moaning of the retiring wind, but little of it remained to disturb the sea at Little Crampton. High waves still rolled in, but less aggressively, and their roar had lost something of the angry tone of the past three days.

Ralph went home and to bed. He was restless at first, but eventually dropped off and knew nothing of things around him until the early grey of the morning. He arose and looked out of the window. A fog rested on sea and land, but the air was still, and there was the promise of a fine day. He dressed, and hastened to the Blue Lion, anxious about Jim Gruff. The house was open, and a man was sweeping out the bar, odorous with the fumes of beer and tobacco consumed by departed guests. Ralph entered the common room, and found Gruff seated before a blazing fire with a wet towel round his head. By the table sat the doctor's assistant reading a book. " Why, this is hearty, Gruff," said Ralph joyfully. "I've come round, sir," answered Gruff; "but I've got a head full of bees swarming, it seems to me.

How I come into this fix beats me hollow." " Do you know nothing about it ? " " No, sir. The last thins? I remembers is drinking a cup of tea in my cabin. It tasted bitter, and I thought a mossel of soda had got into it. The tea chest stands next to the one with soda in the store room. I'll change that when I go back. But who brought me ashore ? " " Steady now," said Ralph gravely ; " you have no recollection of leaving the Daphne ? " " I am certain I didn't come on my own account, sir," replied Gruff; "my head's a-singing and a-buzzing, but it's clear enough on that point." " Either some drug accidentally got into the tea," remarked the doctor's assistant as he closed his book, " or he was deliberately hocussed and landed. That's the solution of his coming ashore, I'm inclined to think." " Hocussed ?

" said Ralph. " You adhere to that ? " " Most assuredly," returned the assistant ; " and he must be a man of iron constitution, with vast recupera tive powers, to have recovered so quickly." " You have not quarrelled with any one ? " inquired Ralph of Gruff. " I had a few words with the Don, sir. He's brought a rough lot on board for a crew. There's only ten of them, it is true, but they are. ugly enough for fifty. Foreign crews ain't nothing strange in these days, but we don't want them aboard a gentle man's yacht." " Humph ! " Ralph was troubled. He feared that the " few words " mentioned by Gruff had been a serious quarrel between the boatswain and Don Jose Santioff, and the Spaniard had revengefully drugged him and put him ashore with the hope it would end in his disgrace. The pair had never got on well together.

" It seems to me, Gruff," he said, " that a most unseemly jest has been played upon you. I'll see into it as soon as the fog lifts. Do you think you can bear a ride home to my place ? " " I believe I could walk," said Gruff, but on rising to his feet he found that was as yet beyond his powers. So Ralph asked the man in the bar to get a cab, and having liberally paid for Gruff's night at the public-house, they left the place, dropping the assistant at the doctor's door, on the way.

Chapter III. Vanished

SO it was Blower as found me, sir," said Gruff, as he sat by the window in an easy-chair ; " but for him I might have died, and some people would have thought I lay about like a drunken rascal and perished in the storm. There's a lot of nateral good in Blowrer, sir." " Do you think so ? " remarked Ralph carelessly. Blower was all very well in his way, but he knew very little about him beyond that he was one of the shore " characters." " If I had him afloat for a year, I'd make a man of him," mused Gruff ; " he's never had a fair chance, drifting into loafing through having no parents. He began it as a boy, and that's what made the man." " Will you have another cup of tea ? " asked Ralph. He was at breakfast. Gruff had not eaten anything — food was repulsive to him ; but he could drink tea, and he had another cup.

The fog's clearing a bit, sir," he said ; " about ten VANISHED. 25 o'clock we shall see the yachts. If I might be so bold as to object to anything aboard, I'd ask you not to have the crew the Don's rummaged out from some wheres. It may be all very well for him to think of his countrymen, but my first thought is to have men who can handle the yacht." " I'll look into the matter," said Ralph. " Perhaps I've allowed Don Santioff to have his own way too much. But he will learn that I am master aboard my own vessel." A message had been sent to Lyon Lyster, and he presently came round with Bertie. The fog was getting lighter every moment. As the window com manded a view of the harbour, they would soon see the yachts at anchor. All four gathered by the window. The air cleared quickly, and then, as a curtain rises, the remnant of the fog vanished skyward.

" There's the Iris" cried Bertie, "and — why, where's the Daphne ?" They all stared at the spot where the Daphne had been on the previous day. But it had vanished. Other craft, of varied sizes, lay about at anchor, but the Daphne, with her graceful hull and tapering masts, was not to be seen. " Surely she can't have sunk in the night," gasped Gruff. The silence that followed was unbroken for a while. Ralph looked at Lyon, who stared at him. Then the VANISHED. word " lost " burst simultaneously from their lips. They turned, and picking up their hats darted out of the room, leaving Bertie and Gruff together. " What a terrible thing, Gruff! " " Mister Bertie, there's something more to learn. The Daphne ain't gone down. Not she ! Lying where she did, she escaped the brunt of the wind ; and if she had been forced from her moorings, she'd have drifted ashore.

Do }Tou think that could ha' happened and we know nothing about it ? 'Tain't reason." " What then can have become of her ? " said Bertie, breathless still with amazement. " Took away — stolen by that Santioff," replied Gruff " That was what he brought that crew of rascals aboard for. I've had my suspicions for days that he was up to something. Hang him for a scoundrel ! Mr. Brooking being straisditforrard him self, never can see anything wrong in others until it's forced upon him by their villany. But it was a daring thing to do, for the sea was high outside ; and with the wind in the south-west, I don't see how he cleared the harbour." It is north-east — what there is of it," said Bertie. " That accounts for it," said Gruff angrily. " It shifted last night, and he got the Daphne out without any bother."

" But where's he gone to ? " " The mischief only knows," replied Gruff, clasping his head with his hands; "it's enough to send a man VANISHED. 27 distracted. He hocussed me, the villain ! put me ashore with the fear of committing murder on him. He's a coward at heart — I've seen it in his shifting eye. His being good-looking and carrying himself like one of the royal parties you see with a circus didn't take me in. I felt he was a bad 'un. Here comes the gentlemen back again. " o o Ralph and Lyon entered the room, their faces white and set with the amazement created by the vanishing of the yacht. " Gruff, have you ever — of late, especially — had reason to think the Daphne was at all unsound in her timbers ? " asked Ralph. " There isn't a sounder boat in the world, sir," replied Gruff emphatically.

" And, besides, if she has gone down, where are her masts ? It's low tide ; but, low or high, they would be sure to show above the water. We anchored in eight fathoms." " A most inexplicable mystery," exclaimed Lyon. " Gruff thinks Santioff has stolen the yacht," said Bertie. " For what purpose ? He would find some difficulty in selling her. In these days of ocean cables we can send a description of her all over the world," said Ralph. " He took her," asserted Gruff. The conviction stimulated him to anger, and, rising, he declared he was fit and -well to go out and help in making inquiries. " I shall never rest," he declared, VANISHED. " until I come across that treacherous villain, and shake the life out of him." Gruff put on his hat, and accompanied the others as they returned to the open air.