THE PERILOUS SWING; OR TOM BURKE’S LESSON.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 23, 20 April 1870, Page 7

THE PERILOUS SWING; OR TOM BURKE’S LESSON.

FROM THE GENTLEMAN’S JOURNAL.

Off the Line, the weather, as may be supposed, is too warm for a comfortable reverie or nap in the mere box of a forecastle <in board the whale-ship. iV ■ y time, in fact, the whaler’s forecastle is not a place in which one can very conveniently build tuV-castles, There is an eternal jargon of Spanish, Yankee, Portugese, Danish, Flemish—of almost every known language-dinging in your ears all about the whale-blubber, Captain So-and-so, and my last v’yage.” Your sweetest reveries are thus rudely trampled upon like dandelions crushed by the heel of a great boot; and as to thinking pleasantly of your lady-love, that is out of the question, as the clouds of to-bacco-smoko floating around you will give a copper-coloured hue to her skin, in spite of every effort of the fancy. Little blue-eyed Minnie Wharncliffe, passenger aboard the whaler Truxton, for Rio Janeiro, was the sweetest girl I ever saw, either on land or water. Her father, who was with her, had for many years been a sea-captain, but was now on his way to take possession of some property left for him at the place mentioned by a Portugese relative. I was at this time about eighteen years old, while Minnie was but fifteen. The silvery music of the girl’s laughter, her sweet ways, and the starry light dancing in her dove-like eyes, made upon me a powerful impression whenever I found myself near her. This happened often, as the captain was my third cousin, and would send for me to visit him in his own cabin. When away from the girl, I would go by myself to think of her, usually mounting into the maintop, or sitting upon the topsail-yard, for that purpose, as I could | not bear to muse on so gentle a subject [among my noisy shipmates. 1 One evening—we were then within a few days’ sail of Rio—• the wind came on Jo blow a gale, sending the seas roaring ind careering along, with crests gleaming i pite, and the phosphorescence shining apon them like showers of stars. ° I We were standing along with doublereefed topsails, foresail, topmost staysail, jand jib, rolling violently, and now and ithen plunging bows under, when I heard, a cry from Minnie, who had come up to tyyk at the scintillating waters. Turning mind—l stood at the time near the main hatch—l beheld the mrl’s hat—a little round one of velvet, with a jreen feather—whirling upward towards the main-royal mast. Watching it, I saw it finally catch on the royal yard, where it remained, the ribbon dangling from it having caught round the lift covered with melted tar, which caused it to stick fast. Of course the gallantry of the sailors was at once aroused; several, myself of the number, sprang for the main shrouds. Before we were in the rigging, however the captain sang out—j “ Hold there! that mast is sprung /” 1 When the gale first struck the ship, we 1 had heard a crackling noise, but had not known whence it came. The skipper, however, had gone aloft to investigate tlrq. matter, and came down just before Minnie lost her hat. \ There she stood upon the quarter-deck*, a pretty picture to look at, her little rosy mouth half open, her hands clasped, her eyes turned up towards the fluttering hat, the wind making merry with her long chestnut curls. “ Oh, no!” she exclaimed, turning to he captain, “do not let them go if there ■3 any danger.” My companions obeyed the captain’s rder, returning at once to the deck, but kept on. u Tom Burke!” roared the skipper, come down, I tell you !” Reluctlantly I obeyed, although I would much rather have preferred risking my life for the velvet hat with the green feather. » An hour later darkness was upon the sea. The wind still roared a gale, and the seas were as violent as ever. In calm or rough weather, it was my custom when in warm lattudes to sleep either,on deck or in the top. In a gale like the present I usually took the precaution to fasten a rope round my middle, that I might not be jerked overboard. Just as |he bell struck for my watch below, I counted, as usual, into the maintop, and mving secured my form with a rope, I stretched myself down with my lyad rgainst the mast. As may be imagined, I could not sleep, -wing to the violent grinding and jerking >f the spar. With eyes turned upwards nto the darkness, I lay musing about linnie Wharncliffe and the hat with the I yen feather. The pretty little head-piece la'iS probably still aloft on the end of that j .teful royal-yard, and the thought oc--1 rred to me that it would be a glorious i( i ievemcnt—would raise me considerably «V??yes of the fair passenger—if at the firs? 11 * 1 IJfffil °f my life I should procure resolved to try. The captain, who was I flow, would at present know nothing

about it; and as for the officer of the watch, ho would bo unable, owing to the intense darkness, to see me go aloft. It struck mo that the captain had shown an unchivalric indifference about that hat, because ha had not in some way contrived 1 to restore it to its owner, whereas I should 1 have remembered that he was an old sea- • man, and had good reasons for not making the attempt. Obeying the impulse of the moment, I darted rapidly up the topmast rigging, gained the top-gallant shrouds, and was soon close to the royal yard. At this time every spar in the craft was cracking with the violent motions of the vessel, and as I gained the yard she plunged with a suddenness and force that almost threw mo from my position. I looked for the hat, and saw it fluttering from the lift. With a quick movement, I secured it by darting on the foot-rope, and was about to move inward when there was another plunge of the ship, a crash, and to my horror, I felt the spar going over. I threw myself upon; the yard, grasping it firmly. Down went the mast at the same moment, hurling me from my position. As I fell, ray knees came in contact with the end of the maintop-gallant yard, and I endeavoured to grasp the lift. A roll of the ship made me miss it, and I was thrown off. Wildly I tossed my arms, and grasped a thin line, which I instantly comprehended was the topgallant gasket—a rope which is used to wind round and hold the sail when it is furled or stowed upon the yard. Sometimes during a gale this rope becomes loosened, especially when the sail is not very neatly furled, by the wind getting in beneath the creases of the canvas arid puffing it out. On this occasion such was the case ; but it must be understood that the gasket had not blown entirely clear, and that it was only one of the bights or turns which I had succeeded in grasping. The turns being all loosened, this bight slackened beneath my grasp, causing me to be precipitated head downwards. I expected to continue my course, but in an instant my progress was arrested by a circumstance which, while perfectly natural, was totally unexpected. My ankles had caught in two turns of the loosened gasket as I fell, and these becoming twisted round them by a turn of the ship, tautened and brought ray heels sharp up against the yard, as if they had been screwed there. It was my weight that preserved the twist of the rope—prevented its uncoiling ; and so there I hung, swaying aloft, head clown- • wards, nearly one hundred feet above the deck. A strange thrill of horror ran through me ; and the blood surging into ray brain soon confused and bewildered me. Through the darkness, the phosphorous gleaming from the white foam patches of roaring water resembled the eyes of miniature sea-demons, looking up and exulting in ray painfully perilous situation. As well as I could in my present position, I shouted to attract attention, but my voice was swallowed up in the thundering of sea and gale. To me the noise was as if hundreds of cannon were booming in my ears. Despair seized my soul. At the mercy of the plunging, rolling ship, I was tossed hither and thither like a pendulum. Far down—down—down beneath me in the darkness, the sea by my distorted vision was soon magnified into one great yawping., whirlpool, contrasting with which the (dim deck looked like a mere chip, Whirling round and round. I would rather the rope parted and let me go down into that whirlpool than hang thus much longer. I could not make myself heard—doubtless those below were still ignorant of my situation; and so there I was—the ship’s living pendulum, swinging so far aloft, with bursting eyeballs and brain filling with blood. Boom ! boom ! boom ! —-Swing ! swing ! swing !—Crack ! whiz ! whish-sh-sh ! How drearily monotonous sounded the noises of the rolling ship, the swashing water, the thundering gale ! How I prayed that the rope might part, and thus put an end to my misery ! There was something fearfully tantalizing in being held by the mere turns of a gasket, without any prospect of my rescue. But to be made yet more of a Tantalus was I doomed ; for beneath me, faintly discernable in the phosphor-lighted gloom, appeared the forms of two of my shipmates, standing near the mainmast, apparently conversing in the most quiet, unconcerned manner possible. The gloom, impenetrable above them, prevented their seeing me. They, with all the rest below, were even ignorant that the royal mast had given way, the noise having been drowned in the din of the tempest. Could I do nothing to attract the attention of my two shipmates I—to make my situation known to them 1 I again endeavored to shout, but now my long unnatural downward position had almost deprived me of the power of speech, and my brain was becoming more confused every moment. I felt that ray senses were deserting me. Ere consciousness left me, however, a sudden thought flashed into my brain. I clapped ray hand to the belt in which I kept ray knife, and discovered that thp instrument, thanks to the tightness of the |

sheath, was still there. I pulled forth the blade and dropped it, hoping that it would full closo to the two men, and thus excito their curiosity enough to make them discern from whence the weapon came. Alas ! I “knew by the manner in which the knife left my hand that I had not made sufficient allowance for wind—that the weapon was therefore whirled otf into the sea. And so there I was doomed to swing, while my two shipmates so far beneath mo—right beneath me—-still stood calmly talking together, ignorant of my peril. Oh, how my' head throbbed ! how hot became my eyeballs ! A sea was surging in my brain as well as below. Another thought! My pocket-knife ! I felt for it, tied round my neck by an old lau-yard, which I severed with one jerk. I dropped the knife ; and then—a twanging sound like that of a bow-string went through ray brain, and I knew no more. When I came to my senses, I was in the cabin, with the captain bending over me, a pair of soft eyes turned upon my face, and a soft hand upon my brow. She was by me, Minnie Wharucliffe, and I was happier than words can express. What more to add 1 i My last effort had proved successful; the knife, falling near the two men, led to a search aloft, and to my rescue, accomplished by means of ropes. “ D’ye see that?” enquired the captain, holding up a piece of x-igging. It was from the gasket, and there was but one tiny strand left, the other two having untwisted. “ That was all between you and etenxity when we hauled you in,” continued the captain. “ A moment more, and the strand would have parted.” “ Did Minnie get her hat?” “ Yes,” she answered, blushing, and with tears in her eyes, as she held it up ; “it was found tied to the button-hole of your jacket.” In due time Minnie became my wife. “.Take her,” said old Cap':. Wharncliffe, when I told him I wanted his girl; “ and although I shall feel eternally grateful for the peril you incurred on her account in the matter of the hat ■ with the green feathei’, still remember not to let your gallantry, my lad, run afoul, as it did in that case, with the wisdom of an old head that knows how to steer his cx-aft according to the weather.”