THE LAST OF PROSERPINE.

Waikato Times, Volume VI, Issue 320, 2 June 1874, Page 2

THE LAST OF PROSERPINE.

IN TWO PAKTS. — PART 11. Tim roico and the words alike sounded strangslt lo me, but two or three of the firemen and deck hmiidi wlr»pii«111? ncir me it the tini«, staggering under their bittdefe* of fuel to replenish the greedy flres below, and one of them must have been the speaker. Mechanically complying with the advice of my unknown friend, I remained quietly whereI was, feigning unconsciousness, and leaning on the bulwark, continued to watch tho evening stars peeping with their treacherous lustre through the shimmering haze, and thecold gleam of the white moonlight on the turbid river. The= ciptain, who had been standing at no great distance from me, soon moved away, and in another minute a ttoalthj figure came creeping among the bales ami hencoops, as » lizard crawls among stones, and stood at my side. By the dim light I could tee that he was one of the crew, a wiry little mnn, with crisp grey hair curKng »nd»r hi* tattered straw hat, but who had an unmistakable |air of seamanhood about him, in spite of his dirty jacket of butternut-colored homespun. Deck hands of a Mississippi steamer are usually a miscellaneous collection of waifs and strays, Germans aad IrWi predominating, and there was something singular in. finding a genuine sailor in such a position. ' All right, si r . Mr Alfred — my eyes are better nor yours,, old as I am ' — said the intruder, very cautiously ; 'or else, which is likely, your face is less altered than that of San> Kentish ' Kentish ! Sa«i Kentish I the name, long forgotten, had" onco been very familiar to me, and the- mention of it brought I >ack the confused memories of things, and persons, and place* in the dun past. ' You ain't forgotten roe ? ' rejoined the dd fallow in m tone of reproach. • I taught you to row, and to itetr, and' to reef n sail when half a capfull was blown', fresh in fron> sou th-west-by- west, off the Needles yonder, aboard bighonor's yacht.' •On board my uncle'i yacht,' said I eagerly. 'Of ei&urseI remember you now, Sam ; and I am glad to see an old friend again ; but how on earth ' 'How did I come to be here ? ' interrupted tbo seaman ;. ' and how, too, did I come to be the broken down, old',, worthless waister lam ? WeH, it iis a fong story, master,, and I've neither time nor taste to spin such a jam. I went to the bad, never mind why, and that's the long and thesliort of it, lost my character as a yacht's blue jacket,, shipped foreien, knocked about for years in the China seasnndofftho Guinea coast— no matter where,, so as rum wasplenty and ft ages higl. — I hen was a man-o'-warVman, and' got my three dozen for drunkenness and desertion ; and' next come down to coasters m the Antilles, and then to this. Vty own fault, partly, I daresay ; but never infnd that now, Your uncle, his honor the general, had a sort of regard for me, you may remember, fir y • And you deserved it, I am sure, Sam,' I answfred Kndly^. as I looked down on the wreck of what had once been asfine a sailor as ever huuled at a rope, and who had seemed to me when, as a boy, I bad hud the occasional 1 treat of « crnise in my uncle's small yacht, a perfect treasury of accomplishments. ' I think I did, sir,' said Sam, shaking bis heed sorrow* fully ; ' but the blackguard 'must bare Seen precious strong: in me all th time, or it isn't here I'd end my days, among a parcel of raffs that don't know stem from stern. Well,. Mr Alfred, I didn't come here to whimper, but to say a word in season to the nephew of my kind old mastery hishonor. There's worse nor me aboard j another chap of the same kindey, but twice as bad.' ' You mean Gregg the captain ? ' said I, as my heart beat fast nnd thickly. 1 Ay, ay ! ' returned tbe seaman, in studiously low tones j 'I mean him and no other. I've sailed with, him, and I know the stuff he's made of, and when he means mischief He means it now ; I can read it in his eye, plain as print v and Hark ye, roister — do you think it was wood we carried down last to feed the fires ? ' 1 No, sir,' said Sam drily ; 'it was a load of hams', prime Kentuck, and as iat bacon as ever came out of Tennessee. The fires ore that hot the stokers hardly dare open the iron doors, and the engines are straining, so that two niggers keep throwing water to cool the bearings. That's not all, for beside* the loafing lubbers we carry far deck band*, tbere nrp six seafaring men — two former shipmate's oi mine amonij 'cm — chaps better known tban trusted — and their orders are to keep together, and be ready to man a boat.' *To man a boat ? ' said I, greatly perplexed. 1 Yes,' answered Sam Kentish, with on impatient jerk of the head, as if my dulness annoyed him \ ' that boat up yonder, to starboard, swinging in tbe tackles. Riyß t as ai triTet she is, with the oars in her, and quite clear of poultry and lumber. The other two boats,' he added in a wbifper, ' are littered with coops and awnings and what not, and what's more — the plugs ore out I ' ' Tbe plugs out ! ' said I, hardly able to btlieve my ears : ' for what purpose ? ' 'Ax no questions, Mr Alfred, 1 replied my informant. 'I only know this — one of the sailors- whispered W> me, he did : "Old Sam, you've been my shipmate, so I'll tell, you this : keep your weather-eye open, and in ease of anything happening" — he didn't say what — "jump into the starboard boat, and be cockswain." I givt the office to you — for old day's sake, Mr Alfred.' * Gregg would not leave much of the roof on mj skull if he guessed what I've been saying,' rejoined the old man. ' Now I must go about my duty ; but hark ye, Mr Alfred, if you think what I tell yo u all moonshine, and that we are cracking on for no reason, just ' — dropping kis toice— ' gp and look at the tteam-gauge ! ' And he was gone. I stood for a few moments with my brain in a perfeot wh irl of conflicting thoughts. Tbe repeated warnings whicL I had received, the ominous signs that mischief of some kind was brewing, which had attended my voyage in thi Proserpine, crowded in upon me with a force that compelled conviction. Gregg was a bold and unscrupulous man, as 1 well knew, and it might well be that bis designs w«re of i nature to harmonise with his own character ; but then what could be his object in this instance ? and why had Mr Harman been so strangely imprudent as to- eonfids hit valuable property, to say nothing of himself and his only ohild, to such a vessel commanded by such a cajtain ? To explain three incongruities seemed hopeless. * Whereabouts are we ? ' I asked o( one of. ths orew, just relieved from his spell of work as helmsman. 1 Half-way between Natchez and the strand Couple, h< made answer. 'The light you see on the west bank is Three Island Point, and we shall sight Calumet bland and Si Anthony Tillage in half an hour or less, at our rate of going j that's about it, mister.' I went down to tbe cabin, and consulted a chart of the Mississippi, on a large scale, that hung on the pannelled wall. Yes, there were the places named ; whilt between the Point and Calumet Island a jagged line of dots indicated the Bane dcs Moinrs, a dangerous shoal, the scene of many a catastrophe, and which bad gained its name, trnditior averred, from the drowning of a boatload of miuionarj monks in the reign of Louis XIV. I quitted the cabin and hurried at once to examine the 1 steam-gauge ; but it had been broken*, ''by accident^ as t scowling boatman in n red shirt gruffly assuied me. No doubt it had been deemed expedient to prevent that useful register of th« pit ssure at which the steam was appliec from feeing readily accessible to prying eyes. My next car* was to visit the boats. That to starboard was, aa Sam bad correctly stated, in perfect order, \b* oars shipped, and readj for instant ns«. The others were littered with miseellaseeut objects, huddled together with seeming carelessness ; and bj the dim light I found it no easy matter to verify the information which had been given me. At last, however, bj groping with my ungloved hand among the rubbish, I- succeeded in ascertaining that the old sailor bad told the truth. The plugs were out. My worst suspicions were thus confirmed. I was face to face with base, cruel treachery, and all our lives hung as it were by a thread. A tumult of feelings assailed me, and I grew hot and cold by turns, as the cruel truth forced itself upon me ; but it was no unraanly fear that I experienced. The thought ot my own peril was all but swallowed up in my anxiety for her whom, I loved bo well. Alice in danger of what I knew not — Alice on board this ill-omened vessel, nnder the guidance of such an unprincipled dare-devil as Captain Gregg! I could now fathom this man's eagerness to prevent me from embarking. Doubtless, some caprice of gratitude towards myself had made him reluctant that, I should be involved in, the general doom, whatever it might be, of the unlucky voyagers on board of the Proserpine Yet, with the weight of this apprehension ttpon me, I found it hard indued to decide on the proper course to pursue. Should Igo frankly to Mr Harnsan, apprise him of the character of his captain, state the whole train of suspicious circumstances, and demand an immediate inquiry into Gregg's conduct ? There was every chance that the o!d merchant wauld misconstrue my motives, and refuse to credit my assertions. Would it be better to assemble the more able-bodied of the male passengers, reveal all I knew, and if necessary, take forcible possession of the ship ? Had I been alone, I might have adopted this alternative, hazardous as it was; but I shrank from the idea of exposing Alice to unnecessary risk, and I well knew that if I denounced Gregg openl>, bloodshed, in that wild region, was certaia tofollow, to whichever side victory might incline. The perfidious captain of the steamer was bad enough, and the desparadoes whom he had purposely mingled among the orew would of course sustam their leader, w bile I could not say what auxiliaries might at any moment paddle forth from, creek or baj to co-operate in the plunder of the richly laden-vc«-el. Tho Mississippi pirates had been sorely thinned by the rough-and-ready justice of Regulators' Courts, but therew«s still existing in the decaying townships of tbe Cottoa State* a residuum of seoundrali-m ripe for any wolenco.thafc promised great {jur.a quickly made.

To speak to Greg,j hinnelf would possibly bo the wisest plan. The nmn'i heart wns not, as I fancied, entirely hardened, and I thought that I had that morning observed signs of his being «oc-re(lv nverw to the ovil work in which he w&9 engaged. If his blood were once up, he would probably cast all scruples of conscience to the winds, but it was p-rhnps not wholly hopelcs to appeal quietly to his betterfot»l ms. And yet should I fail, I should very likely have p capitated the very misfortunes against which I sought to guard. What was that dark figure standing beside the helmsman? — Gregg himself ; and surely this must be the chief-engineer again coming from the neighbourhood of Ins iires to confer with the steamer's commander. Half unconsciously, I drew near, and my ears caught the last words, spoken imperatively, and as if to put an end to the discussion, with which Gregg dismissed his subordinate : ' Old •woman 1 - nonsense, Mr Beale, I tell you. Crack on ! '