An Ocean Tragedy

Front matter

VOL. I. NEW NOVELS AT ALL LIBRARIES. BLIND LOVE. By Wilkie Collins. With Preface by Walter Besant. 3 vols. THE BELL OF ST. PAUL'S. By Walter Besant. 3 vols. FOR THE LOVE OF A LASS. By Austin Clare. 2 vols. FETTERED FOR LIFE. By Frank Barrett. 3 vols. PASSION'S SLAVE. By Richard Ashe King. 3 vols. A YANKEE AT THE COURT OF KING ARTHUR. By Mark Twain, i vol. THE DEAD MAN'S SECRET; or, the Valley of Gold. By J. E. Muddock. i vol. THE ROMANCE OF JENNY HARLOWE. By W. Clakk Russell, x vol. A NOBLE WOMAN. By Henry Greville. i vol. A LAST LOVE. By Georges Ohnet. i vol. London : CHATTO & WINDUS, Piccadilly, W. BY W. CLARK RUSSELL i AUTHOR OF ' THE FROZEN PIRATE ' ' THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR ' 'A BOOK FOR THE HAMMOCK' 'THE ROMANCE OF JENNY HARLOWE* ETC IN THREE VOLUMES VOL. I. UToituon CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY 1890 \The right of translation is reserved] PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE LONDON To HERMAN MELVILLE, Esq. Mr dear Herman Melville, In, words of beauty and of kindness you lately wished me health and content.

Health, alas I you cannot give me; but content you have filled me with. My boohs have done more than ever I had dared dream, by winning for me the friendship and approval of the Author of ' Typee,' ' Omoo,' 'Moby-Dick,' 'Redburn,' and other productions which top the list of sea literature in the English tongue. I beg you to accept this dedication as a further public avowal of my hearty admiration of your genius. In all faithfulness yours, W. CLARK RUSSELL. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME CHAPTEE PAGE I. Mt Cousin 1 II. The Bkide 23 III. Laura Jennings 40 IV. In the Solent 63 V. Long Tom 92 VI. Finn Tests the Crew's Sight 117 VII. Sail Ho ! 136 VIII. We Speak the 'Wanderer' 158 IX. A Squall 179 X. I Go Aloft 198 XI. The Portuguese Brig 217 XII. A Second Warning 247 XIII. I Interfret the Warning

Chapter I. My Cousin

- Sir Wilfrid Mo.xson, sir,' exclaimed my man. It was half-past ten o'clock at night, and I was in my lodgings iii Bury Street, St. James, slippers on feet, a pipe of tobacco in my hand, seltzer and brandy at my elbow, and on my knees the ' Sun ' newspaper, the chief evening sheet of the times. ' Sir Wilfrid Monson, sir.' My cousin ! thought I, starting, and looking round at my man with a fancy in me for a moment that he had got the wrong name. ' Show him in.' Sir Wilfrid entered in a sort of swift headlong way, full of nervousness and passion, as was to be seen easily enough ; and then he came to a dead stop with a wild look round the room, as if to VOL. I. B make sure that I was alone, and a frowning stare at my servant, who was lingering a moment on the threshold as though suddenly surprised out of his habits of prompt sleek attendance by a sit of astonishment.

He stood about six feet high ; he had a slight stoop, and was something awkward in arms and legs ; yet you were sensible of the indefinable quality of breeding in him the moment your eye took in his form and face, uncommon as both were. He was forty-four years of age at this time, and looked fifty. His hair was long and plentiful, but of an iron grey streaked with soft white. He had a protruding under-lip, and a nose, which might have been broken for the irregularity of its outline, with unusually high-cut nostrils. His eyes were large, short-sighted, and grey, luminous and earnest, but with a tremulous lid that seemed to put a quivering into their expression that was a hint in its way of cunning and mental weakness. He had a broad, intellectual forehead, brilliantly white teeth, high cheek bones, a large heavy chin, rounding into a most delicately moulded throat.

He was a man, indeed, at whom, as a stranger, one might catch one's self staring as at something sufficiently puzzlinoto be well worth resolving. Ill-looking he was not, and yet one seemed to seek in vain for qualities of body or mind to neutralise to the sight what was assuredly a combination of much that was un comely, and indeed, in one or two directions, absolutely grotesque. But then I had the secret. The long and short of it was, my cousin, Sir Wilfrid Monson, was not entirely straight-headed. Everything was made clear to the mind, after a glance at his strange, weak, yet striking profile, with the hint that there had been madness in his mother's family. He was the eighth baronet, and on his father's side (and that was my side, I am thankful to say) all had been sound as a bell ; but my uncle had fallen in love with the daughter of a Scotch peer whose family were tainted with insanity — no matter her real name : the Lady Elizabeth will suffice.

He was frankly warned by the old Earl, avIio was not too mad to be can did, but the lovesick creature grinned in his lord ship's face with a wild shake of the head at the disclosure, as though he saw no mere in it than a disposition to end the engagement. Then the honest old madman carried him to a great win dow that overlooked a spacious sweep of lawn, and pointed with a bitter smile and a despairful heave of the shoulders to three women Avalking, two of whom were soberly clad in big bonnets and veils down their back, whilst the third, who was between them, and whose arms were locked B in the others', glided forwards as though her feet travelled on clockwork rollers, whilst she kept her head fixedly bent, her chin upon her breast, and her gaze rooted upon the ground ; and as the amorous baronet watched — the Earl meanwhile preserving his miserable smile as he held his gouty forefinger levelled — he saw the down looking woman make an effort to break away from her companions, but without ever lifting her head. ' That's Lady Alice,' said the Earl, ' speechless and brainless !

Guid preserve us ! And the Lady Elizabeth is her seester.' ' Ay, that may be,' answers the other ; ' but take two roses growing side by side : because some venomous worm is eating into the heart of one and withering up its beauty, is the other that is radiant and flawless to be left uncherished? ' ' Guid forbid ! ' answered the Earl, and then turned away with a weak hech I hech ! that should have proved more terrifying to one's matrimonial yearnings than even the desolate picture of the three figures stalking the emerald-green sward. These were dim memories, yet they flashed into my head with the swiftness of thought, along with the workings of the eager conjecture and lively wonder raised in me by Wilfrid's visit, and by his peculiar aspect, too, during the few moments' interval of pause that followed his entrance.

My servant shut the door ; Wilfrid looked to see that it was closed, then approached me with a sort of listing of his face as of a man half choked with a hurry and passion of sentences which he wants to be quit of all at once in a breath, staggering as he moved, his right arm outstretched with a rapid vibration of the hand at the wrist ; and, without delivering himself of a syllable, he fell into a chair near the table, dashing his hat to the floor as he did so, buried his face in his arms, and so lay sobbing in respirations of hysteric fierceness. This extraordinary behaviour amazed and terrified me. I will not deny that I at first suspected the madness that lurked as a poison in his blood had suddenly obtained a strong hold, and that he had come to see me whilst seized with a heavy fit. I put down my pipe and adopted a steadier posture, so to speak, in my chair, secretly hoping that the surprise his manner or appearance had excited in my valet would render the fellow curious enough to hang about outside to listen to what might pass at the start.

I kept my eyes fixed upon my cousin, but without offering to speak, for, whatever might be the cause of the agitation that was convulsing his powerful form with deep sobbing breathings, the emotion was too overwhelming to be broken in upon by speech. Presently he looked up, his eyes were tearless, but his face was both dusky aud haggard with the anguish that worked in him. ' In the name of Heaven, Wilfrid,' I cried, witnessing intelligence enough in his gaze to instantly relieve me from the dread that had possessed me, ' what is wrong with you ? what has happened ? ' He drew a long tremulous breath and essayed to speak, but was unintelligible in the broken syllable or two he managed to utter. I poured what sailors term a ' two-finger nip ' of brandy into a tumbler, and added a little seltzer water to the dram.

He seized the glass with a hand that shook like a drunkard's, and emptied it. But the draught steadied him, and a moment after he said in a low voice, while he clasped his hands upon the table with such a grip of each other that the veins stood cut like whipcord : ' My wife has left me.' I stared at him stupidly. The disclosure was so unexpected, so wildly remote from any con clusion my fears had arrived at, that I could only look at him like a fool. ' Left you ! ' I faltered, ' what d'ye mean, Wilfrid ? Refused to live with you ? ' ' No ! ' he exclaimed with a face darkening yet, to the effort it cost him to subdue his voice, ' she has eloped— left me — left her baby for — for — ' he stopped, bringing his fist to the table with a crash that was like to have demolished everything upon it. ' It is an abominable business,' said I soothingly ; ' but it is not to be bettered by letting feeling overmaster you.

Come, take your time ; give yourself a chance. You are here, of course, to tell me the story. Let me have it quietly. It is but to let yourself be torn to pieces to suffer your passion to jockey your reason.' ' She has left me ! ' he shrieked, rising bolt upright from his chair, and lifting his arms with his hands clenched to the ceiling. ' Devil and beast ! faithless mother ! faithless wife ! May God ' I raised my hand, looking him full in the face. ' Pray sit, Wilfrid. Lady Monson has 1 eft you, you say. With or for whom ? ' 'Hope-Kennedy,' he answered, 'Colonel Hope- Kennedy,' bringing out the words as though they were rooted in his throat. ' My good friend Hope-Kennedy, Charles ; the man I have enter tained, have hunted with, assisted at a time when help was precious to him. Ay, Colonel Hope- Kennedy.

That is the man she has left me for, the fellow that she has abandoned her baby for. It is a dream — it is a dream ! I loved her so. I could have kissed her breast, where her heart lay, as a Bible for truth, sincerity, and all beautiful thought.' He passed his hand over his forehead and seated himself again, or rather dropped into his chair, resting his chin upon the palm of his hand with the nails of his fingers at his teeth, whilst he watched me with a gaze that was rendered in describably pathetic by the soft near-sighted look of his grey eyes under the shadow of his forehead, that had a wrinkled, twisted, even distorted aspect with the pain his soul was in. There was but one way of giving him relief, and that was by plying him with questions to enable him to let loose his thoughts. He extended his hand for the brandy and mixed himself a bumper.

There was little in spirits to hurt him at such a time as this. Indeed I believe he could have carried a whole bottle in his head without exhibiting himself as in the least degree oversparred. This second dose distinctly rallied him, and now he lay back in his chair with his arms folded upon his breast. ' When did your wife leave you, Wilfrid ? ' ' A week to-day.' ' You know, of course, Avithout doubt, that Hope-Kennedy is the man she has gone off Avith ? ' He nodded savagely Avith a smile like a scoavI passing over his face. ' But hoAV do you knoAv for certain ? ' I cried, determined to make him talk. He -pulled a number of letters from his side pocket, overhauled them, found one, glanced at it, and handed it to me with a posture of the arm that might have made one think it Avas some venomous snake he held. ' This Avas found in my Avife's bedroom,' said he, ' read it to yourself.

Every line of it seems to be written in fire here.' He struck his breast with his fist. What I am telling happened a long time ago, as you will notice presently. The letter my cousin handed to me I read once and never saw again, and so, as you may suppose, I am unable to give it as it Avas written. But the substance of it was this : It was addressed to Lady Monson. The writer called her, I recollect, my darling, my adorable Henrietta. It Avas all about the proposed elo*:>ement, a complete sketch of the plan of it, and the one document Sir Wilfrid could have prayed to get hold of, had he any desire to know what had become of his Avife, and on Avhat kind of rambles she and her paramour had started. The letter Avas signed, boldly enough, ' Frank Hope- Kennedy,' and Avas filled with carcfid instructions to her Iioav aud Avhen to leave her house.

Rail roads Avere few and far betAveen in those days. Sir Wilfrid Monson's estate was in Cumberland, and it was a long journey by coach and chaise to the tOAvn that Avas connected with the metropolis by steam. But the Colonel had made every arrange ment for her ladyship, and it was apparent from his instructions that she had managed her flight first by driving to an adjacent village, where she dis missed the carriage Avith orders for it to return for her at such and such an hour ; then, Avhen her coachman Avas out of sight, she entered a postchaise that was in readiness and galloped along to a town through Avhich the stage coach passed. By this coach she would travel some twenty or thirty miles, then post it to the terminus of the line that conveyed her to London. But all this, though it ran into a tedious bit of description, Avas but a part of the gallant Colonel's programme.

Her ladyship would arrive in London at such and such an hour, and the Colonel would be waiting at the station to receive her. They Avould then drive to a hotel out of Bond Street, and next morning proceed to Southampton, Avhere the 'Shark' lay ready for them. It Avas manifest that Colonel Hope-Kennedy intended to sail away with Lady Monson in a vessel named the ' Shark.' He devoted a page of small Avriting to a description of this craft, which, I might take it — though not much in that Avay Avas to be gathered from a landsman's statement — Avas a large schooner yacht OAA-ned by Lord Winterton, from Avhoui the Colonel had apparently hired it for an inde finite period. He assured his adorable Henrietta that he had spared neither money nor pains to render the vessel as luxurious in cuisine, cabin fittings, and the like as Avas practicable in a sea going fabric in those days.

He added that AA'hat his darling required for the voyage must be hastily purchased at Southampton. She must be satisfied Avith a very slender. Avardrobe ; time was pressing ; the madman to whom the clergyman who married them had shackled her Avould be off in wild pursuit, helter-skelter, flying moonAvards mayhap in his delirium on the instant of discovering that she AA-as gone. Time therefore pressed, and AA-hen once the anchor of the ' Shark' was lifted off the ground he had no intention of letting it fall again until they had measured six thousand miles of salt Avater. I delivered a prolonged whistle on reading this. Six thousand miles of ocean, methought, sounded intolerably real as a condition of an elopement. My cousin never removed his eyes from my face Avhile I read. I gave him the letter, which he folded and returned to his pocket, He was noAv looking somewhat collected, though the surging of the passion and grief in him Avould show in a momentary sparkle of the e3*e, in a spasmodic grin and twist of the lips, in a quick clenching of his hands as though he would drive his finger nails into his palms.

I hardly kneAv what to say, for the letter was as full a revelation of the vile story as he could have given me in an hour's delivery, and the injury and misery of the thing Avere too recent to admit of soothing Avords. Yet I guessed that it Avould do him good to talk. ' Have they sailed yet, do you knoAv ? ' I inquired. 'Yes,' he ansAvered, letting out his breath in a sigh as though some thought in him had arrested his respiration for a bit. ' How do you know ? ' ' I arrived an hour ago from Southampton,' he replied, ' and have got all the information I require.' 'There cannot be much to add to what the letter contains,' said I ; 'it is the completest imaginable story of the devilish business.' He looked at me oddly, and then said, ' Ay, it tells what has happened. But that did not satisfy me.

I have gone beyond that, and know the place they are making for.' ' It Avill be six thousand miles distant, anyhow,' said I. ' Quite. The villain reasoned Avith a pair of compasses in his hand. It is Cape Town — the other side of the Avorld ; when 'tis ice and northern blasts with us, it is the fragrance of the moon-lily and a warm heaven of quiet stars with them.' He struck the table, smothering some Avild curse or other behind his set teeth, next leaped from his chair and fell to pacing the room, now and again muttering to himself Avith an occasional flourish of his arm. I Avatched him in silence. Presently he returned to the table and mixed another glass of liquor. He sat lost in thought for a little, then Avith a slow lifting of his eyes, till his gaze lay steadfast on me, he said : ' Charlie, I am going to follow them to Cape ToAvn.' ' In some South African trader ? ' ' In my yacht.

You knoAv her? ' ' I have never seen her, but I have heard of her as a very fine vessel.' ' She sails two feet to the " Shark's " one,' he exclaimed, with a queer gleam of satisfaction glistening in the earnest stare he kept fastened on me. ' I gave her square yards last year — you Avill knoAv what a great hoist of topsail, and a big squaresail under it, and a large topgallant sail should do for such a model as the " Bride." The " Shark " is fore and aft only.' He fetched his leg a smack that sounded like the report of a pistol. ' We'll have 'em! ' he exclaimed, and his face turned pale as he spoke the Avords. 'Let me understand you,' said I; 'you propose to sail in pursuit of the Colonel and your Avife ? ' He nodded Avhilst he clasped his hands upon the table and leaned fonvard. ' What proof have you that they have started for Cape ToAvn ? ' He instantly answered : ' The captain of the " Shark " is a man named Fidler.

My captain's name is Finn. His Avife and Mrs. Fidler are neighbours at Southampton, and good friends. Mrs. Fidler told my captain's Avife that her husband was superintending the equipment of Lord Winterton's yacht for a voyage round the AA*orld, and that the first port of call would be Table Bay. She knew that the " Shark " had been let by Winterton to a gentleman, but at the time of her speaking to Mrs. Finn she did not know his name.' ' You said just now,' I exclaimed, ' that you had assisted this felloAv Hope-Kennedy when help AA*as precious to him. I suppose you mean that you lent him money ?

Hoav can he support the expense of a yacht, for, if I remember rightly, the " Shark's " burthen is over tAvo hundred tons? ' ' I lent him money before I was married ; Avithin the last three years he has come into a fortune of betAveen eighty and a hundred thousand pounds.' I paused a moment and then said, ' Have you thoroughly considered this project of chasing the fugitiA*es ? ' His eyes brightened to a sudden rage, but he checked the utterance of what rose to his lips and said Avith a violent effort to subdue himself : ' I start the day after to-morrow.' ' Alone ? ' ' No, my sister-in-laAV Avill accompany me ; ' then, after a breath or two, ' and you.' 'I?' ' Oh,' he cried, ' it would be ridiculous in me to expect you to say at once that you Avill come ; but before I leave this room I shall have your promise.' And as he said this he stretched his arms across the table and took my hand in both his and fondled it, meanwhile eyeing me in the most passionate, wistful manner that can be imagined. ' Wilfrid,' said I softly, touched by his air and a sort of beauty as I seemed to think that came into his strange face Avith the pleading of it, ' Avhatever I can do that may be serviceable to you in this time of bitter trial, I will do.

But let me reason with you a little.' ' Ay, reason,' he responded, relinquishing my hand and folding his arms, and leaning back in his chair. ' I have been a sailor in my time, as you know,' said I, ' and have some acquaintance Avith the sea, even though my experience goes no further than a brief spell of East African and West Indian stations ; aud, therefore, forgive me for inquiring your expectations. What do you suppose ? The " Shark " Avill have had three days' start of you.' ' Five days,' he interrupted. ' Five days then. Do you expect to overhaul her at sea, or is it your intention to crowd on to the Cape, await her arrival there, or, if you find that she has already sailed, to folloAv her to the next port, providing you can learn it ? ' ' You have named the programme,' he an swered. ' I shall chase her.

If I miss her I shall wait for her at Table Bay.' ' She may get there before you,' I said, ' and be under Avay for another destination whilst you are still miles to the nor'ard.' ' No,' he cried hotly, ' Ave shall be there first ; but Ave shall not need to go so far. Her course must be our course, and A\*e shall overhaul her ; don't doubt that.' ' But put it,' said I, ' first of all, that you don't overhaul her. You may pass her close on a dark night Avith never a guess at her presence. She may be within twenty miles of you on a clear, bright day, and not a creature on board suspect that a shift of helm by so much as half a point would bring Avhat all hands are dying to overhaul within eyeshot in half an hour.' He listened Avith a face clouded and froAvning Avith impatience ; but I was resolved to weaken if I could Avhat seemed to me an insane reso lution. ' Count upon missing her at sea, for I tell you the chances of your picking her up are all against you.

Well, noAV, you arrive at Table Bay and find that the " Shark " sailed a day or tAvo before for some port of Avhich nobody knows anything. What Avill you do then ? Hoav -will you steer your " Bride ? " For all you can tell, this man Hope -Kennedy may make for the Pacific Islands by Avay of Cape Horn, or he may head north-east for the Mozambique and the Indian Avaters, or south-east for the Australias. It is but to let fly an arroAV in the dark to embark on such a quest.' He lay back looking at me a little Avithout speaking, and then said, in a more collected manner than his face might promise, ' I may miss this man upon the high seas ; I may find his yacht has arrived and gone again A\-hen I reach Table VOL. I. C Bay ; and I may not knoAv, as you say, in what direction to seek her if there be no one in Cape Town able to tell me Avhat port she has started for ; but ' — he dreAv a deep breath — ' the pursuit gives me a chance.

You will admit that ? ' ' Yes, a chance, as you say.' ' A chance,' he continued, ' that need not keep me Avaiting long for it to happen. D'ye think I could rest with the knoAvledge that that scoundrel and the Avoman he has rendered faithless to me are close yonder ? ' he exclaimed, pointing as though there had come a vision of the Atlantic before his mind's eye and he saAv the yacht afloat upon it. ' Who's to tell me that before the month is out our friend the Colonel will not be drifting someAvhere fathoms deep with a shot through his heart ? ' ' If you catch him you will shoot him ? ' ' Oh yes.' ' And Lady Monson ? ' He looked clown upon his hands Avithout ansAvering. ' I am a single man,' said I, ' and am, there fore, no doubt disqualified from passing an opinion. But I vow to heaven, Wilfrid, if my Avife chose to leave me for another man, I Avould not lift a finger either to regain her or to avenge myself.

A chvorce Avould fully appease me. Who would not feel gay to be rid of a Avoman Avhose eA'ery heart-throb is a dishonour? What more unendurable than an association rendered an incomparable insult, and the basest lie under heaven, by one's Avife's secret abhorrence and her desire for another ? ' On a sudden he sprang to his feet as though stabbed. ' Cease for Christ's sake ! ' he shouted. ' The more truthful your Avords are, the more they madden me. If I could tear her from me,' clutch ing at his breast in a Avild, tragical Avay — ' if I could cleanse my heart of her as you would purify a vessel of Avhat has lain foul and poisonous in it ; if disgust Avould but fall cool on my resent ment and leave me loathing her merely ; if — if — if ! But it is if that makes the difference betwixt hell and heaven in this bad Avorld of unexpected things.' He sat afresh, passing the back of his hand over his brow, and sighing heavily. ' There is no if for me,' said he. ' I love her passionately yet, and so hate her besides that ' He checked himself Avith a shake of the head. ' No, no, per haps not Avhen it came to it,' he muttered as though thinking aloud. ' We are wasting time,' he cried, pulling out his watch. ' Charlie, you Avill accompany me ? ' ' But you say you start the day after to morroAV ? ' c ' Yes.' ' From Southampton ? ' ' Yes.' ' And, should you find the " Shark " gone when you arrive at the Cape ' 'Well?' ' Ay,' said I, 'that's just it.

We should be like Adam and Eve, with all the world before us Avhere to choose.' ' Charlie, will you come ? I counted upon you from the moment of forming my resolution. You have been a sailor. You are the one man of them all that I should turn to in such a time as this. Say you will come. Laura Jennings, my wife's— my — my sister-in-laAv I mean — will accompany us. Did I tell you this ? Yes ; I recollect. She is a stout-hearted little Avoman, as brave as she is beautiful, and so shocked, so shocked ! ' He clasped his hands upon his broAv, lifting his eyes. ' She would pass through a furnace to rescue her sister from this infamy. Come ! ' ' You give me no time.' ' Time ! You have all to-morrow. You may easily be on board by four o'clock in ther"after noon on the following day. Time ! A sailor knoAvs nothing of time.