CHAPTER XXXVIII.

MAROONED.

It is impossible for me to describe the blank astonishment, or rather the intense consternation, of our men on the disappearance of this vessel, which was the object of so many hopes and wishes.

Some time elapsed before the poor fellows rallied sufficiently to speak on the subject; and meanwhile, there flashed upon my memory, some strange and weird old Celtic tales, which a Highland boy at Eton was wont to tell us, of ships which in the days of Ossian, traversed the steep hills and the salt lochs of Morven with equal facility.

"It is a ship--or rather the representation of a veritable ship--which cannot be far off the island, and is making for it at this moment," said Hislop, emphatically.

"How far off do you think she is, sir?" asked Hugh Chute, mockingly.

"Perhaps twenty miles--perhaps a hundred--it is impossible to say."

"Perhaps ten thousand?" queried Tom Lambourne, with great irritation.

"It was the ship of the Flying Dutchman!" said Probart, the carpenter.

"I've seen many a queer thing in my time, but never the like of this before!" exclaimed Carlton.

"Though foul weather don't matter much to us here, it will be sure to follow;--so I say, mates," resumed Probart, "it was the Flying Dutchman and nought else!"

"Vanderdecken or the devil come for Antonio," added Ned Carlton; "and whether he has shipped aboard that craft or not, hang me shipmates, if we should stay another hour on the island with it, or with him, or where such things are seen."

"Yes, yes," said all the rest; "let us take to the long-boat again, and sheer off."

"For where?" asked Hislop, coming forward.

"Anywhere," replied Lambourne, sulkily.

"Stuff! You must hang on by the island, or it will be the worse for you," responded the wary mate.

"How will it be worse for us?" asked Probart.

"In more ways than one."

"Indeed!"

"Yes. And moreover, it is my orders."

"Lookee, now, Master Hislop," said Henry Warren, our oldest seaman, with great gravity, "in everything that is reasonable, I have obeyed you, and I will still obey you all the same as if the deck of the _Eugenie_ was under our feet, and the blue water round us; but as for living on this here 'chanted island for a longer spell, with a murdering villain like the Spaniard Antonio, who can make ships sail on sea and land alike, for all the world like pictures in a lantern or a penny show, is more than flesh and blood can bear; so I say, mates, let us embark all our provisions, set sail, clap dry nippers on our oars, and make out Gough's Island, or Tristan da Cunha, leaving the devil and Antonio to keep company here as long as they please--and that is likely to be long enough, I can tell you."

"Tristan da Cunha can't be above three hundred miles off," added Probart; and the proposition met with such universal approbation, that Marc Hislop became seriously alarmed.

He begged the crew to listen to him; but they did so with evident reluctance and impatience, muttering the while, and twitching their hats and trousers.

He said every thing he could think of to assure them that the ship they had seen was quite an optical illusion; and his arguments, though they might have been convincing enough to the old Dominican friar, Antonio Minasi, who thrice saw the Fata Morgana in the Straits of Messina, or to Sir David Brewster, they totally failed to assure Tattooed Tom, old Probart our carpenter, Jack Burnet the cook, and others, that it was merely a natural phenomenon, to be accounted for through some form of dioptrical refraction, by means of which a ship sailing on one part of the ocean might be reflected on _another_, or, as we had just seen, even on the land itself.

"I assure you, my lads," he continued, "she was the representation of a vessel now under sail elsewhere. You all saw that the sea and bay were calm as glass, that the ship was braced sharp to the wind, with her port tacks aboard, while we had none, not even a catspaw on the water, or a leaf stirring on shore. You saw that she careened, as if beneath its influence, and rose and fell as if running through a heavy sea. You saw the cabin lights go out, and the flying-jib hoisted. Thus it was quite evident that by something indescribable in the state of the atmosphere, her form and motions were taken up elsewhere, and mirrored _here_."

"I don't understand all this fine talk," said Tom Lambourne, sulkily, "and I don't care if I never do. I ain't a scholar, but a hardworking foremast-man, that has seen every land under the sun. So by your leave, or without it, we shall make the long-boat ready for sea. Come, my lads; we shall fill the watercasks at the spring yonder, and get what remains in the bread bags, with all the other stuff we've collected, aboard."

"Hurrah!" cried the crew, "hurrah for blue water!"

"Get the mast stepped, and all the gear ready; we'll be at sea in an hour, or my name ain't Tattooed Tom Lambourne."

"Rodney," said Hislop, turning to me, bitterly, "Goethe says that painting and tattooing are natural symptoms--the savage hankering after the brute--and faith, I begin to think so."

Old Tom Lambourne only half understood the remark; but it stung him deeply.

"I don't deserve this at your hands, Master Hislop," said he; "and it ain't manly to upbraid a poor fellow with his misfortunes when shipwrecked among savages, and I tell you so--for all your book-learning," he added, bitterly.

"You are right, Tom, and I am wrong. Pardon me, old ship-mate," said Hislop, as they shook hands.

So thoroughly were our companions scared by the recent spectral appearance, which they connected in some way with the dreadful character of Antonio el Cubano, that they at once commenced with alacrity the preparations for putting to sea.

It may be that somewhat of the professional restlessness of sailors confirmed their resolution.

They were already tired of their sojourn on the island, and inspired by the desire of reaching Tristan da Cunha, which is inhabited by about eighty families of Portuguese, English, and mulattoes, among whom Hislop assured them they might linger long enough before they were taken off by a passing ship--quite as long as if they remained on the Isle of Alphonso--and where, for subsistence, they would be forced to work as day laborers in the savannas and on the highways.

As for the Island of Diego Alvarez, our Scotch mate, who seemed to know every thing, assured them that it produced only moss and sea-grass, and that if cast there they would die of starvation. Moreover, without chart or compass, how could they hope to steer with certainty in any direction?

They might all perish in detail by the most dreadful deaths in their open boat, gasping with unquenched thirst under the blaze of a tropical sun. He said much more; but they would listen to nothing save their own fears and restless impulses.

I, too, was weary of the island; and though feeling all the despondency that follows a severe disappointment on the disappearance of the illusory ship, I in no way shared the wild and ill-regulated wishes of the crew, though assured that I would be compelled to follow their desperate fortunes.

Hislop made a last effort to convince them that all they had seen was only the reflection of a real object produced by natural causes, such as the dead calm that prevailed upon the sea--the moon shining from a point where its incident ray formed an angle of 45° on the water--the influence of saline and other effluvia suspended in the air, producing, as in a catoptric theatre, a vision by reflection; but finding that they heeded all this no more than the wind, he fairly lost his temper, and bade them "go and be hanged for stupid dolts."

It was perfectly natural that all this should sound strange to unlettered seamen; so they continued their preparations with all speed and in silence, for they all loved Hislop, and were loth to offend him.

Two bags of bread which still remained, the kegs of rum, and four casks newly filled with fresh water, were put on board the longboat, together with all our arduously collected store of kids' flesh, boars' hams, and sea-fowls' eggs.

The oars, boat tackle, and blankets were also shipped, and the whole crew embarked at the mangrove creek, where the boat lay.

Hislop and I still lingered; so we were told peremptorily that if we did not come on board at once, they would shove off without us. Thus compelled, we stepped in most reluctantly and seated ourselves in the stern, and he assumed the tiller. The oars were run through the row-locks, and Lambourne was about to shove off, when Probart, who had the bow oar, suddenly remembered that he had left his hatchet near our wigwam, and asked me to get it.

I jumped ashore, and was proceeding along the beach for it, when suddenly I was confronted by Antonio, who from a thicket had been watching our operations and departure.

His tawny skin--for he was naked to the waist--his ferocious aspect, his head of matted hair, his colossal strength, and atrocious character were not without a due effect upon the boat's crew at this crisis.

"Shove off--shove off!" I heard several voices cry in the boat; "here comes that dog of a Cubano."

I struggled with Antonio; but he laughed loudly, and drew his pistol with the air of one who would enforce obedience; besides, his eyes, which the tangled masses of his hair overhung, were flashing with malignant fire, as all the slumbering devil was roused within him.

The whole crew saw this, and I perceived that Marc Hislop made an attempt to rise up and spring overboard to my succor; but as all their hopes of reaching Tristan da Cunha depended entirely upon his skill and knowledge of navigation, he was seized by Warren, Chute, and others, roughly thrust down in the stern sheets, and forcibly held there.

I saw now that the fear and selfishness of the rest prevailed over all that Hislop, Lambourne, and Carlton could urge; for amid a storm of contending tongues, I perceived the oars dipping in the water again and again, and flashing like silver blades in the moonlight as they were feathered; and the longboat with all my companions, shot from the creek into the bay, and bore away to seaward about two in the morning, leaving me on the beach alone--_marooned_ with the fiendish Cubano!