CHAPTER LVII.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 234, 24 December 1887, Page 2

CHAPTER LVII.

TN A FISHERMAN'S COTTAUE. Let us return for a moment to that awful night which Avitnessed the destruction of the steamship Messenger by fire ia the Straits of Dover. Let us recall the terrible scene in the last hour of the disaster — the midnight sea strewn with fragments of the wreck, to which miserable human beings clung tor dear life, while the boats from the Mary Jane tossed in and out among 1 them, picking up the drowning wretches as fast as practicable ; when Gerald Fitzgerald, in a paroxysm of moral insanity, abandoned Ills young wife to her fate, and hastened to rescue Geraldine. At the same moment, however, the . abandonment and awful peril of Gertrude was witnessed by another individual. Sail ust Rowley, supporting himself on his hencoop, was floating slowly along, waiting his turn to be picked up by one of the boats from the relief ship, when he saw a young- gill deserted and left to peiish. lie did not even recognise her as Gertrude. He did not e\en suspect her identity. He did not suppose that he had e\er seen the girl in his life before. Remember this : that Sallust Rowley had been absent from his home for nearly two ycais, dining which he had neaily circumnavigared the globe, and consequently he hud heard little or nothing of what was on in his native country. When he had fled the neighbourhood, he had left Gerald and Geraldine betrothed loveis, on the very eve of marriatre ; and although he had witnc^ed Geraldine's violent outburst of temper at the unc.\ plained absence of Geiald, yet he did not know of the sub.sequently bioken engagement; and therefoie, when lie met the t\so on the deck ot the steamer, he naturally supposed them to be a manicd couple on their travels. He had not seen Gertrude at all, and knew nothing of her presence on the "teamei ; indeed, whenever he thought of the little fen y-<rhl, lie pictured her as still at the feny pK in;£ her trade. Consequently he had not the faintest idea that the \oung cieaturc so cruelly abandoned to her fate was his adiniied Geitiude. Ife only .-aw in her >nrae poor, unknown giil, whom Gerald Fit/gereld had been kindly tiying to t>ave, but whom he had left to perish as .ioon as he i-aw hit. own wife in danger. But though he did not lecognisc Gerti udc when !>he pan the >oung o ii 1 left to diown, struggle, succumb and sink, in an instant be diopped his hencoop, swam to the spot, dived for her, icco\ eied her. and brought her to the siuface. He saw that "she wa.- unconscious, but he nevei for an infant imagined her to bo dead. He knew that she could not have been drowned (had in .-o shovt a time. Holding her by one hand, ho swam towards the diifting hencoop, hoping to reco\erit, and use it for a support for both until .some boat should letum and pick them up. Butthecha«e after the diifting hencoop seemed a hopeless toil. Burdened with the weight of the unconscious gill, hi&progie-s was ncce-=>arily \evy s-low, and ever as he came within reach of the hencoop, and stretched out his arm to catch it, it diifted off further from hid pasp. At length his strength began to fail, and it became a que=tion whether to drop his helpless burden or to hold her at the post of his own life. " Bui, no ! I won't bo such a sneak as to let a woman drown for the «=akc of sowing myself ! To be pure, no one would ever know anythingabout it except that lidiculons fellow b'allust Rowley; but! bo dunned if I would'nt be ashamed ever to look him in the face again !" thought the young man to himself, as he struggled with all his strength to help himself and his helpless burden from sinking. " Boah ! this is perfectly futile ! I cannot possibly save her, even by the sacrifice of my own life ! If I hold on to her, we both must perish. If I drop her she can but perish, as she must do in any case, and then 1 might save myself. No u.-e in throwing away my life for nothing ! If theie was a single hope of saving her, now ; but there isn't, not even by the sacrifice of my own j life," he reflected, as he felt his strength utterly failing him. But just at that moment a sudden blaze of the burning ship lighted up the scene with a vivid brilliancy. Gertrude was floating on her back with her right hand clasped in the left hand of her preserver, and with no part of her form visible above the water but her face. Sallust, thinking to drop the girl whom he could not possibly gave, turned his head with some difficulty to look at her in that sudden bright flame. And then, to his unbounded amazement, he recognised her to be Gertrude. I In his consternation he forgot the situation and came near drowning both himself and her. He recovered his faculties as he said to himself : "It is Gertrude ! that is certain. However ! she came to be on that unlucky steamship ! I can't drop her ! No, sir-r-b ! She Bared my life— (what a brick that girl was !) — she saved my life, and I must save hers or drown with her, or never dare to look Salulst Rowley in the face again !" He held her with a firmer hold, and cast his despairing eyes all over the surface of the flame-lit waters in the hope of seeing some boat. He saw not one. The sea was deserted. " Help ! help ! help !" His call died away in silence, and thei'e was no response. He waited a minute, and then repeated the call : "Help! Help! Help!" And again his cry expired in silence, and there came no answer. How, indeed, could an answer come from the 'solitary sea? Once more, however, he raised hip hopeless voice, crying : "Help! Help! Help!" And this time there came a reply : " Aye ! Aye ! Hold on ! Where are you ? ' ' ' Here !" shouted Sallust. " Bully boy ! Keep calling till we find you !" shouted back the other voice. I Sallust threw his glance as well as hje could all over the' sea, but the flame of the burning ship had died down, leaving tfre scene in a murky-red gloom. ; "This way !" called Sallust, at random', and at the same instant he faintly discerned what seemed to be a spark of fire on i the darkening sea, and the next moment hje it as a lighfc carried afc the proty smaJJUsail-boafe, which, was rapidly Jiearingdawn jipon.him. . - | How he wished' theh for some means df showing a guiding light ! But how vain was his wish ! He called aloud at the utmost) strength of his lungs : '

" HERE ! HERE ! For Heaven's sake, make haste ! I cannot keep up a minute longer P '- Courage ! We see you ! Wo are coming !" yelled a voice from the sail-boat, which, as it drew nearer, Sallusb recognised — by the smell -as one of those small fishing smacks so common along the coast. With strength^ renewed by hope, §allusfc Rowley mado a 'last desperate effort, swam to meet the advancing boat, towing his unconscious companion after him. In another moment he was spent, sinking, breathless ; but—he was alongside the fishing smack, and friendly hands were held j out to receive him. "For Heaven's sake take the girl! I'm gone, I b'lieve !" he breathlessly exclaimed. " Bully boy I Never say die I Give us your fist. Bear a hand, Ned ! Lay hold on the lass and lift her on board. Give us your fist, I say, lad! So! All right! There you are," cried the cheery voice of one who seemed to be the- master of the little craft, as, with the help of his mate, he drew the two shipwrecked passengers on board the boot. The little dock was loaded with fish and fibbing tackle ; but there was a small cabin no bigger than a dog kennel. S'allust Rowley and his insensible companion, when hauled in, were dumped down upon a pile of fish as though they also had been only fish of a larger size. "For Heaven's sake, look to the girl ! She is not dead, but she may die if left to herself !"' sighed Sallust, in a fainting voice. " Hallo ! bear a hand here, Ned ! Lift the lass and bring her into the cabin. Where's the whisky "bottle ? Lend me your peajacket here, lad ! And hark ye, Tom, hoist the sail and steer for the shore ! The sooner we get the gal in the missus's care the better."' The man called Ned came forw aid, and the two men carefully lifted the deathly cold, unconscious form of Gertrude, and carried it into the cabin, where they laid it on a rude j berth, and covered it -with the pea-jacket and all the other loose clothing that the limited resources of the little craft could a fiord. The vessel made good headway to the &and. As the ciaft nearcd the beach the fisherman said : '•Ned, you'ic the strongest. Lift the las-> carefully ; keep her co^red as well a* you can, and carry her on after Tom." "All lisrlit, master," replied the man called Ned, as he dived into the cabin to do his errand. "Now, you, bir ! Can you stand ? Aye, soh !— Can you wall:, too ? To be sure ! All lieht then ; lean on my arm, and I will convey you satoly to the cottage of peace — which that i.-. what the mi >mis cm Us. it,"' continued tho fi^hoi man, as he dicw the arm of his exhausted protege thumgh hi*> own and led him on .shore and up to his 1 iido home. "A good haul to-nijjht, Jenny!' he shouted a-> he euteied the door — "an uncommon good haul ! a boat-load of li-h and a young man and 'oman a top o' them! ' What do ye think o' thai, old 'oman V" " Blessed he the Lml, Dick, as you were to pmiloged as to vivo them both!' aiiNWCied a heaity voice from an interior lighted by an open fire of diiftwood. "Ah ! a bad night for some, old gill. A we»sel— dunno who she was— bin nt down to the uatei's edge "bout thiec miles from .shoie, and many a life lo.it, 1 do expect." "Ah! the poor souls ! What an awful thing! Rut there, Dick, I haven't got time" to talk now. lam teeing to the young lady, Dick,*' icplied tho fishei man's wife, adding: "You bring the young man in and make him welcome. Little Mary will sec to you both till 1 come.'' And with this the good woman disappeared within an inner chamber, u here it seemed they had taken Geitrude. The fMioiman and his guest were left alone in the outer loom, which was but dimly shown by the fiic on the hearth. .After changing his clothes and partaking i of a hearty meal, Sallust was thankful to adopt his host's advice and go to bed, where lie soon sank into a deep .sleep. In the morning the fishennan'b frugal meal was t caicely over before he was called upon by some of the men from the coastguard. ' They had received news of the burning of the steamship Me&eenger, off St. Margaret's Bay, and they had come down to the little * fishing village to inquire whether any of the crew of passengers had been, picked up by their boats, and the fisherman told them of the two he had saved. "Do you know who they are ? ' inquired the messenger of the coast-guard. " Yes, sir ; the gentleman's a Mr Samuel Rowlins, and my man. Tom, tells me this morning as the lady is his wife, which to be sure she ?'•»•, because the missus says she's got a wedding-ring on her finger." The messenger took it down in his notebook, and thus it happened that the names of Mr and Mrs Samuel Rollins appeared fn the published list of tho saved, at the same time that the names of Mr Sallust Rowley and Mrs Gerald Fitzgerald appeared in the list of the lost. The fisherman re-entered his cottage, where he found his wife busy in preparing gome food in a saucepan over the fire. "How's your patient, Jenny?*' he inquired, Jenny Reynolds, a fresh, rosy, blue-eyed woman of about thirty years of age, replied, cheerily : "Oh ! she will do now. I can't just say as she's come to herself yet, but she breathes easy enough, and is in a gentle perspiration. 1 can tell you better when she comes to herself, which she &hows signs of doing this morning." Jenny returned to her patient, who was lying motionless on her back, with her dark hair parted over her forehead and flowing down each side upon her bosom, and her arms lying over the outside of the white coverlet, on a coarse, hard but clean bed. As Jenny came up to the bedside Gertrude moved slightly, sighed and opened her eyes. Jenny shrank back out of her sight, yet where she could watch the reviving patient, whom she did not wish to startle with the too sudden sight of a stranger. Ac first Gertrude looked around her in evident bewilderment and pain ; then she put her hands up to her eyes and rubbed them gently, as if to clear their \ision, and then re-opened them and looked around again. But the expression of her face grew even more perplexed than before as she gazed upon the rough-hewn, unplastered stone walls and the rude wooden furniture of her new suiroundings. . She pressed her hands to her forehead and tried to reflect. Then, as she recovered the faculty t of memory, the last terrible scene in which she lost consciousness arose before her mind's eye. She saw .again the midnight sky, the 'burning ship, the flame-lit sea, the struggling and drowning wretches, the -relief boat passing. in and out among them, picking them up ap fast as , possible. She saw herself and her husband together, hfe swimming strong she floating "tjy- hip side 'and holding., lightly, on, his..;slight clothing. She saw Geraldine >drifti along' supported by a plank, saw her drop the plank and shriek to Gerald for help. She felt the blow of the plank as it whirled around and struck her off from her

hold upon her husband. She saw Gerald turn his back upon her, his wife, and hasten to ttfe -fjuccour of Geraldine, seize her, and swim with her towards the relief boat. She saw all this, and remembered that then and there, overwhelmed with an infinite anguish and despair., she lost strength and consciousness at the same .moment, and knew no more until she found, herself in this strange, uncouth bed-cham-bec It was like dying and coming back to life — to such an unutterable agony of life ! <j)h 1 that she could close her eyes and die in peace again, she thought. She felt no anger against the beloved and honoured husband who had left her to perish beneath the waves while ho hastened to rescue her rival. She felt only amazement and sorrow too vast and deep for utterance. Jenny Reynolds thought that she might venture to approach the invalid. " I thank the good Lord, my dear, as you are spared to us and to your dear husband. You are with friends, my dear, and so is he," said the good woman, kindly and sweetly. Gertrude looked up into the pleasant face of tho hostess in much sorrowful perplexity. She did not answer for some moments. When &he did speak she uttered bub two -woi'ds in doubt and questioning : " My husband !" " Yes, dear. Ho is all right. He is here," replied Mrs Reynolds. "My husband — heie ?"' inquiredGeitrude, with a dazed look. " Yes, my lamb. Of course he is. Where should he bo V" " But— how came he here? And— how came I here?" doubtfully, breathlessly inquired Gertrude, as a strange, wild hope lose trembling in her heart. " To hear the child ask questions 1" exclaimed the fisherman's wife. "To hear the child as»k questions ! Why, my dear, you see my man was out w ith his boat last night, and lie picked up your dear husband and yourself, when the dear gentleman was nigh spent with swimming and holding up your dead weight, for you were liko one dead when they hauled you in the boat, and he wasn't much better." "Stay! You say mv husband was supporting me when v>e were picked up ?*' inquired Gertrude, with a bewildered, delighted, ecstatic look. " Why, of course I say so, my dear ! What else could 1 say ? What more natural than that he, you own dear husband, should sa\ o you ?"' "YVheic is he now?' 1 she asked in a ma/c of joy. "Oh, lie is asleep upstairs, where, my mrfh says, he must not be disturbed until lievnikc s*,5 *, because, you see, dear, he was a-, good as done for in trying to support you until our boat ai rived and picked you up." "Let him rest !" said Gertrude. " Dear Geiald !" she murmured, tenderly, to herself — "dear dear Gerald, I knew you would not abandon me to death ! I hieio it all the time ! And now I understand your act. You heard Geraldine call for help at the Kime moment in which I lost your suppoit. You knew Geraldine could nofc swim at all, and must diown if she was not helped, and you knew that /could swim and might support myself some time in the water. You forgot how weak I had become. You natmally rushed to Geraldine's support. But when I saw that and misunderstood it, and 10-slstienglhand consciousness together, and you saw me sink, you sped to my aid, and dived for me and reco-veied me ! Oh ! how could I have wronged you by a moment's distrust, when I knew or nwjht ha\e known how it all was." As she murmuicd these words to herself, the look of happiness that had been stealing over her face with every word uttered by her hostess, now became a smile of perfect rapture, so that her brow grew radiant.