THE LAST OF THE PROSERPINE.

Waikato Times, Volume VI, Issue 319, 30 May 1874, Page 3

THE LAST OF THE PROSERPINE.

IV TWO PARTS.— PART IX. The receipt of tho curt but forcible letter which Gregg had thought proper to send to me left me in a state of pcrpleixty which lasted long. The urgent and renewed appeals to me. on the part of the Proserpine, to renounce my intention ef going on with her to New Orleans, mi^ht indeed be due to the mere whim of a man half crazed by drink, but then on the other hand the advice might be good and sound Gregg wished me well ; of that I felt assured. I had served him, and he wus grateful for such slight kindness as it had been in my power to render to one worse oft' than myself. Why "was be so evidently anxious that I should leave tho vessel ? Was it that he knew of iome peril personul to myself, which would bo avoided were I to take my passage down the river by another boat, and if so, why was he not more explicit in stating it? It was plain that the newly appointed skipper of the steamer would not, or could not, speak out frankly to apprise me of the reasons for his enigmatical hints and obvious uneasiness, and therefore I decided that it would be useless to go to him and demand an explanation of tho affair. Besides, of what should Ibe afraid ? I had no enemy, to my knowledge, in all America. The little cash I carried was not enough to tempt the cupidity of any very dangerous gang of • sportsmen, 1 such as sometimes infest a river-boat known to carry specie to a large amount,, and few indeed were awaro that I had even those few hundreds of dollars about my person. Was Gregg cognisant of Mr Harman's altered sentiments towards me, and did he apprehend some violent quarrpl as the sequel of our chance meeting on board the vessel of which my ex-employer was the owner ? Scarcely, for Mr Harman and myself had been too well accHstomed to the habits of civilised society to resort to knife and pistol, as the swaggering brawlers of San Francisco are apt to do. Or could it be that Gregg's pretended amazement when he saw me at Grand Gulf was a feint tt blind me to the fact that he was acting by the orders of Mr liarman, in whose pay he was, and that tho merchant having in some manner become acquainted with my intentions, had taken steps to remove from out of his way my distasteful presence ? In any case, I determined that I would stand my ground, and not quit the steamer without better grounds for doing so than I was then conscious of. We reached Vidalia ; but I was not among the two or three passengers who landed there, nor did Gregg attempt to renew his warning. To all appearance he did not even keep watch to see whether I should or not comply with his oracular advice, doing his duty with great vigilance and steadiness, and frequent as were his visits to tho drinkingbar, betraying no signs of intoxication. That he was an excellent sailor and well us«l to tho river, I knew • and in case his sobriety did not fail him, I saw little risk of accident, whether" from snag, sawyer, or landbank. Well iteered, tho boat kept her course smoothly enough ; and if I fancied that her old timbers strained and creaked too much under the impetus of the machinery, there was still nothing to cause alarm. The Proserpine was a very large boat. Her stowage was considerable ; and when I praised t •« lavuh use of decoration, the gilding, painting, mirrors, marbles, and velret of her freshly adorned saloons, Lysander, the sub-steward told me that the best of what was on boird was in the hold. ' French goods dey are — nil belong Mmsa Harman — seventy — ninety — hundred tousand dollar '* he declared, rolling his opal eyes with all an African's enjoyment of the imposing sum total. The cargo, the captain, and the veisel were all alike puzzles to. me. Harman Brothers had in the period of commercial prosperity that had preceded the war, been chiefly exporters of cotton and importers of the wares and agricultural produce of the North. This was the first time that I had heard of any transactions oh the part of the firm in what are technically, styled French goods ; but, to be sure, the principal had always kept a large part of the business wholly in his own hands, and no clerk was ever consulted on matters out3ide his own department. At any rate, Mr Harman mu>t be the best judge of his own affairs ; und with thii reflection I left the mulatto, whose prattle began to weary me, and went once more en deck. And now, as the day wore on, and evening drew near, I could not but remark that an unusual activity prevailed in the engineroom. The deck handi were constantly at work in carrying down fresh loads of wood to feed tho fires, the hoarse roar and ruddy glare of which told that the furnace-heat must be very considerable. Once and again the head engineer came up the ladder to exchange a few words, in a subdued tone, as if in respectful remonstrance, with Gregg ; but alter each of these interviews the efforts to get up a fuller head of steam were redoubled. The aged vessel groaned and shivered in every timber, as the machinery worked faster and faster, and the wash occasioned by our rapid passago increased, until we seemed to be chafed by a long line of tawny billows.

Still nono of the paesengerf, so far as I nould see, e\ rnc^d the smallest anxiety as to tlio unnecessary speed of the steamer. Going at lm| -haznrd pace is so habitual in American travel, and suits so well with thp national wajs ot thought, that caution is apt to be \oted etlete. When I rentuted to remark to one fellow-voyager, a bearded Miabounan, who stood beside me, looking across at the deep woods on one> bank and tlio trim plantations on the olhi'i shore, lying level and dim behind tlio projecting ' levee,' that tlie engine* were working dungeroualv last, considering the ago of tlio boat find tlie approaching dnrkne69, he cireles-ily nude answer • 'Guess we'll bo a ltho sooner at Now Oilcans, squire. Let her rip!' And with this proverbial expression of social philosophy, he turned away. On we went, while night crept in upon us, and from the swampy shore and the mud flats of the river there arose n dense white mist, that mingled with the long gray Spanish moss which hung in fantastic pendants, like tho honry beards and streaming hair of an army of giants, from the primeval trees of the Louisiana shore. Tlie long sad cry of the whip-poor-will was quickly answered by the whoop of the owl and the whirring wings of the bats, while the shrill and mournful howls of wild animals arose at intervals from the tangled forest. Thero seemed to be an awakening, ns day died out, of tho birds and beasts that only leave their lairs under the shadow of night; but of man and his works nothing was visible except the white gleam of the embankment that kept out the waters from tlie cultivated land. I was glad when the wan moon, not yet half full, threw hor silvery gleam upon the sullen river, above which the mist hung l'ko a giant veil. Seldom before, in a life that had not been wholly unadventurous, had I felt the same dull sense of a shapeless peril near at hand, against which it behoves me to guard. And yet what risk could thero be, unless from the reckless hurry with which tho fire was heaped with fuel, and the steamer forced along; and I had been too often m Mississippi boats madly racing in tho struggle to be the first at some given point of arriTal, to apprehend much clanger on that score, if only no collision should occur. Captain Gregg, who still avoided me, was unremitting in tho discharge of his duty, and the Proserpine dashed on, under careful steering, unharmed by tho floating timber that hero and thero specked the surface of the flood, or the more formidable obstruction of the sunken trees, iirinl} r embedded in tlie mud of the shallows, and whoso jagged and spear-like heads protruding from the water have proved fatal to many a craft. 'Hift! just itop where you ure, master, for a minit,' said a deep voice, lowered to a hoarse whisper, in my ear : ' don't pay attention now, but keep still, and I'll be back in a jifly, The skipper has eyes like a cat's.'