LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1834, 8 January 1880, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE FATE OF THE SOHELDE.

[Abridged from the German of Rosenthal Bonin.] (Continued.)

'North-north-east, captain?' 1 answered, questioning, as if astonished. ' North-north-east,' he repeated, with an angry stamp of his foot. * Captain, that's towards Laurwig, in Norway,' I ventured, driven by jealousy to reply offensively. • Who's captain here ?' Koltherm broke out. ' It's my place to command, yours to obey.' With a furious jerk I turned the wheel. The ship rocked, and as in this interohange of words the order for the sails had been forgotten, the long awkward wooden hull almost capsized, while the rudder gave a suspicious crack and the ship pitched so that four barrels of tar went overboard and carried away a piece of the bulwarks. ' Shall I shoot you down like a mad dog V shouted Koltherm. 'That isn't necessary,'l answered, with forced calmness. ' I know it isn't my place to command here, so I can't look after the sail*.'

The captain stared at me. I looked back at him. In this meeting of our eyes, for almost a minute, it was [understood that we two knew more about eaoh other than was desirable.

The North Sea has generally a very bad name in September and October, and the neighbourhood where we were demands the greatest caution and careful steering. The captain's uncertain attitude had infected the whole crew, and the ship's service was not as prompt as if everything had been smooth and right. In my quarrel with the captain I had the sympathy of the discontented men, and such an old experienced sea-dog as Kol therm of course saw that, and so his rancor toward me grew more bitter.

The next order given was 'Due north!' and we fairly shot forward, driven by the so-called * Kok ' wind that was just springing up. I put her head to the north, but she wouldn't lay her course. AH day the sky had been clear ; in the afternoon, however, there appeared yellowish strips of light clouds, the Bure sign of a blow. The clouds spread round ns faster and faster; the sunbeams disappeared, it grew dark, and toward the east we sighted the Wiek light. The sea, that had been a heavy, even roll, took a short choppy motion, We all knew these signs of a threatening storm, and expected every moment an order from the captain to steer east and make the haven of Wiek. With inexplicable stubbornness, and apparently provoked by my look of expectancy, he still delayed A cold gust of wind now bronght some drops of|rain, then hailstones and a few scattered flakes of snow. It was a stormy night, and as ugly a one as I'd seen. Lamps were lighted, and the uncertain gleam o* the red and white lanterns falling on the wet rolling deck discovered the gloomy faces and strange behaviour of the crew. Through the oreaking, whistling, and flapping on board, and all the fury raging around us, there, was still a sense of something ominous and threatening, and this increased when there appeared on deck the cause of all the trouble—the lovely stranger, who was evidently frightened by the violence of the storm and the sudden darkness.

Ab the ice-cold wind swept oyer the ship, the lady, coming alone by the bulwarks, sought shelter behind the binnacle, and so approached the wheel. Just then I should have had eyes for nothing but my compass, but, instead, I gazed, spellbound, upon the entrancing figure, and, involuntarily, watohed her every movement. Suddenly I noticed that one of the sailors, a black-haired fellow from Trieste, slipped from his post, for'ard by the captain, and made a sign to two others. Immediately a shrill whistle, blown through some one's fingers, sounded, and in a moment the whole crew stood around the Trieste fellow, as if they had sprung up out of the deck. With two strides, the crowd of dark, determinedlooking men surrounded the shrinking figure of the woman.

•Don't let's be blinded by the devil,' hissed the Trieste man. ' She's a witch — she's got the evil eye. The captain has ruined himself and usj too in taking her aboard. She'll send the ship to the bottom. It's life and death to us! Throw the white devil overboard.'

' The devil sent her! She shall jump into the sea. She won't drown, and she's sinking us ! ' echoed the crowd, and pressed round the poor terrified girl. • Let the woman go ! ' I shrieked— so loud that my throat almost split. ' Let he* go ; she's harmless. It's murder,' I shouted ; ' a murder on board will hurt us more than all the storm.'

'Ha ! she's caught him, too—the devil's imp!* taid the Trieste sailor. 'The witch has turned his head, too. Throw him overboard after her, and she'll feed the sharks.' The powerful rascal grasped her by the long braids that came loose, and tried to pull her away from the larboard rail, where she stood clinging paralysed with fear.

The poor girl_ gave a heartrending cry sad held on with superhuman strength. Two other men sprang forward and loosened her grasp from the stays. My reason almost left me. I had already taken my hand from the wheel when there came a sudden flash, a dull report, the group fell apart, and there stood the captain, white as a corpse, with streaming hair and eyes on fire, a revolver in his hand, and the woman's trembling form 'clinging to him in convulsive terror. At his feet lay the Trieste sailor weltering in blood, writhing in agony, and groaning wildly. Over all this the flickering glare of the red and white lanterns, the howling of the storm, the raging of the sea, and the black night about us. It was a fearfnl scene.

• I've five more shots,' hissed tho captain, strnggling for breath ; ' all good heavy slugs; that means five dead men. A ball through the head of every man who doesn't go straight to his post.' A great wave, a furious pitching of the 'ship, the Trieite sailor was overboard, and all trace of him lost in the darkness, but Koltherm, with the women in his arms, lay on the slippery deok grasping for something by which to pull himself up. ■ As if by word of command, the crew threw themselves upon the helpless captain. Through the noise of the sea and storm I ■jonld hear him gna»h his teeth like a wild animal. Some, with the exertion of all their strength, held him down on the deck ; others seized the woman and dragged her towards the made by the tarbarrels.

T p to this moment I had kept myself in hand, but now all presence of mind forsook me. This fair young oreature was being dragged to her death—the woman that I lored thrown into the pitiless sea. Should I stay by and look on ? •No !' I shrieked, 'it shan't be!' I let go my wheel; it turned round groaning and creaking. I threw myself on the crew like a madman, grasping their hair and striking their heads together in my fury. dries of rage came from where the captain lay ; cries of rage from us. The ship was lifted up and almost capsized, and we four struggling men were thrown heavily down. ' Breakers ahead!' The hoarse cry sounded over the deck, and those two words worked like a spell upon men half frantic with anger, rage, superstition, fear, and lore.

The cry meant we were staring in the face of death beforo a yawning grave, our safety, the safety of the ship, hanging, as it were, upon a mere thread that had slipped from our hands in a moment, but which might, after all, prove our salvation, if we could only get the ship under control again, and this was only passible by every man being at his post and working with all his might. How I got back to the wheel I don't know; I stared out helpless into the darkness at the captain, who, in the weird light of a red lantern, stood by the engine-house, holding on with one hand, and with the fingers of the other measuring the aro of an anale and looking with wild eyes on the quadrant. ' JFast due east ! ' ordered Koltherm with the voice of a lion.

I laid hold, I hung the whole weight of my body on the wheel, bnt it was too late. We conld no long p»rry the force of the storm. Like bursts of thnnder it broke upon cur port side; a great mass of water rushed over the ship, before she could be brought round, A crash ; the topsail and topmast swept overboard at the same moment I was dashed from the stern. Creaking, groaning, whistling, flew the ship over the mountains of water ; up and down, hither and thither, and when I had worked my way back to the wheel and grasped it, it turned round light as a feather. Shaking from head to foot with terror I cried ont; 1 Rudder carried away.' Like a crazy man the captain came rushing aft. He tried the wheel; it ran throuch his hands. He hurried to the bowsprit. What did he want there ? He could only stare down helplessly into the roar of the angry waters. All restraint, order, and discipline now began to give way. My usefulness was over, and perfectly mute, I sat down under the wheel and clung fast to the cold iron.

{To oe continued.)