THE HAUNTED CASK.

Waikato Times, Volume VII, Issue 386, 3 November 1874, Page 2

THE HAUNTED CASK.

Afternoon oh a bright, warm, voluptuons day, such as only the tropics can produce ; in the foreground, the great panorama of Bombay outspread in the dazzling sunshine ; behind, the broad blue sweep of the encircling sea, now in one of its holiday kumours, dancing and sparkling as if nothing so wicked as a storm had ever entered its min<i| and in the centre of the picture the good ship Aul?j tralian, bound from Bombay to Southampton, with freight and passengers as qer advertisement. The packet's time and steam are both very nearly up, and most of the homeward bound are already on board. Several bronzed and bearded shekarriefy laden with sking, not of wine, but of bears ana tigers, and nervously anxious about the comfortable stowage of their favorite uiles; a good many very yellow -looking disciples of the HE.L.CS. overwhelmed by an avalanche of pngree ; swarms of picturesque native servants, looking wofully chopfallen at the prospect of a voyage across the ' black water to that dismnl island where there is no sun, and a great deal to much fog ; a statistical M.P. who has been out here to gather materials for a hook upon the cost of the Indian Army, extracts from which he insists upon reading to e\ery onq he meets, a piactiee which hi>a already earned 1^ the name of the ' Ancient Mariner ; ' a diplomatic young engineer, \ih<>. having brought on board a Imue and feiocioua cockatoo, a* a present for his rich aunt at home, has. just, had bib thumb nearly bitten off by tl>e baxuge animal, aud is trying to look as if it I'id'nL hurt him ; two or three clergymen of various denominations, sedulously avoiding each other; sundry officers going home on leave; and, better than all an abundance of ladies. Sprightly ladies who have lost their husbands, comforting forlorn ladies who have not yob found them ; enterprismg ladies who have been all over the worldj patronising tuni< l ladies who daie not go 'onywhefl by themselves ;' strong minded ladiYs- v\ho havt come out with the intention of exterpating heathenism altogether (and are coming home without having dune it), declairaiug agamsb the wickec obstinacy of tlie ' beuighted idolaters; ' aud other* besides too numerous to mention. But, although the packet might seem to be pretty welt filled, the captain, evidently does not think ih( tale complete, to judge by the way in which be is leaning over the side looking shoieward. Plainly there is ' something more coming, 1 as children say towards the end of a. Christmas dinner ; and here sure enough comes the k something more ' at IaJM in the form of a slight, girlish-looking, prett^l youug lady in deep mourning, attended by two! maids and a whole boatful of luggage, conspicuous amid which to the visible amazement of the lookers on, is a huge, punchy, substantial-looking cask capable of containing enough, liquor to elevate the eutire ship's company. Glad to see you again, Mrs Errington ; hop* you'll he comfortable with us,' says the captain heartily, as his new passenger came timidly up the side. * I've got all ready for you down below, anc if there's anything else you'd like, you've only te name it.' ' Thank you very much Captain Prescott,' in s timid little voice liko the chirp of a shy cauary ' Will you be so ve/y kind as to have those things taken down to my state cabin— aud— and that cask, please, along with them ?' J ' This moment, ma'am,' answers the gallant skifl per, manfully keeping down the shade of surpriaa that, struggles into his face at this unexpected postscript -George, just pass that cask dowr along with the lady's luggage, aud see that it don't get hurt on the road.' Fortunately, most of the passengers were toe fully engrossed with their own concerns to notice the astounding 'lady's companion' which Mr« Errington thus commended to the captain's gooc offices ; but the sailors were more observant. Thej exchangod looks big with solemn meaning ; and M few hours later, when the shores of India hadj already begun to fade iuto the purple shadows jM the evening sky, the * cask-question ' was brougff forward for serious consideration by the Conscrip Fathers of the forecastle. ' Did yer ever ?' ' Ain't that a pretty start, jnsfc !' ' Who'd ever ba' thonght it V ' Well, lam blowed ! To think o' a mirainy piminy little creetur like ilmt 'ere, what yer inighi blow away wi a puff out o' a baccy-pipe, layin' h as much grog as 'ud serve a foremast-man for « twelvemonth !' I ' Well, what o' that?' remarks sententiously ol<fl Jack Davitt, the Soloman of the forecastle. 'MarM my words, my bo's: It's just them as yer would'ni j expect to do things, what allus docs do 'em !' I i ' It's a burnin' shame' anyhow — that's what it is strikes in Bill Sawyer, whose fiery complexioi shews that his interest in the liquor question is no purely theoretical. 'To think o' one little bit of i 'oonian a-keepin' all that ere good stuff to herself whilo there's hundieds of God's creeturs a-pinin (as one may say) for want on't 1 ' ' Ay, Bill, yer may well be grumpy ! sitch a lo o' lush aboard, and you not a-goin' to get none !' ' And then they talks o' our drinkin' I' pursue Bill, too indignant to notice this innuedo. ' Whß ever seed one o1o 1 us drink a whole cask to onceß And yet, I'll bet you n week's grog, as that '^fl young 'ooraan, whan she gets ashore at Sou'amptonl 'nil be a goin on to everybody 'bout the " habitooaß ' 'tobticition o' English sailors !" Now what, I nxeß J yor, what kind o' fair play d'ye call that 'ero ' I

And the orate: overwhelmed by the thought of such monstrous injustice,, relapses into gloomy silence. But this theory speedily proves to be aa unfounded at; popular theories usually are, The way in which the obnoxious cask, when once fairly ensconced in a corner of Mrs Ellington's state cabin, is walled in, or rather burried, by a mountain of trunks, boxes, and Bags, amply vindicates the sobriety of its charming owner ; for the most confirmed toper wou.d hardly haA c takeu the trouble to pull down and rebuild such a barricade every time that he might feel the need of • a drop of comfort.' 'But the failure of this solution only enhanced the interest of the puzzle, not merely with the sailors, but among the passengers likewise. And, moreover, the mystery seemed to concentrate itself exclusively upon the cask ; for with regard to herself, Mrs Errington (whose winning ways and delicate" beauty speedily made her a universal favorite) had no reserve whatever. It was soon known that she had come out from England about three "years before with her husband, a wealthy civilian, considerably older than herself ; that Mr Errington had died on one of the up country stations, bequeathing her the whole of his property; and that she was now returning to England with the intention of remaining there. This union of wealth, beauty, and friendlessness, combined with the charmingly helpless timidity of her manner, at once laid tb,e whole masculine section of the community at her feet — from pompous old Mr Chutney, of this great Calcutta house of Chutney and Ourrie, down fo mischievous little Ensign O'Naughtie, who was three years younger than herself — but the old adage ' of ' Love me, love my dog,' was in this case anything bui verified. Three-fourths of the bachelor passengers loved Mrs Errington, or said they did ; but they were very far from loving her cask likewise. Their only feeling towards it was one of direct personal hostility. An article so closely guarded by its mistress, and involving a secret which she- refused to impart to them, was clearly a dangerous rival ; and but for the manner in which this unpopular talisman was entombed beneath unnumbered packages, some of these audacious spirits would very probably have attempted its destruction, or, at anyrate, the probing of the mystery of its contents. 'Too bad, sir— altogether too bad! 1 said Mr Ohutney to his friend and confidant Noliver, of the H.E.I.C.S. ,* "We ought to memoralise the captain about it; 'pon my word we ought. It's intolerable that a community, of respectable Englishmen should be hag-ridden in this way by a confounded cask, that nobody knows anything about.' During the first part ot the voyage—namely, from Bombay to the Cape — this novel kind of Pandora's box had a clpar field ; for after the first bustle of settling down had subsided, the monotony of the passage was unbroken. No. shark was obliging enough to catch himself for the general amusement. The albicores and flying-fish, obstinately declined to * break the glittering surface with their elfin gambols > according to the form prescribed for them by would-be nautical novelists. Not a single waterspout could be induced to shew its. face ; and considerable excitement was created one morning by M.P. announcing that the steward had just mentioned to him having heard the second engineer say that one of the men thought he had seen, a sail. In this universal dearth of events, it was no surprising that Mrs Errington's mysterious possession should assume as prominent an interest as if it had been the casque of Mambrino himself* or that which crushed Master Conrad so unexpectedly in the Castle of Otranto. The letters of Junius, the Man with the Iron Mask, &ere not more absorbingly interesting, or more hopelessly unfathomable. It became the subject of more wagers than the Derby or Mar Wilkie Collins Dead Secret. Tke captain a*id first-mate discussed it nightly over their eight o'clock grog ; the blue-jacketed parliament in the cook's galley resolved itsslf into a< perpetual Committee of Inquiry on the subject, and always ended by moving that -there must be summut wrong 'bout it' — John Bull's invariable verdict upon anything which he cannot understand. The pretty Miss. Fisher, from Poonah, being * surprised by a wholly unexpected proposal' from Captain \Qriphast, of the — th Native Infantry, accepted him conditionally upon his ' finding out all about that torrid cask.' The literary M.P. gave it a place in his book upon the Indian Army. Judge Uppinlaw of the High Court, who was as fond of technical definitions as he was of brandy-pawnee, l summed: up ' Mrs Errington. as 4 a positive angel modified by a latent cask.' Young Mellaughdey, the poet of the Mullagatawny Club (going home on leave), actually worked it into a song, which he wrote off the Mauritius, commencing : My soul is like ft tpaoions citsic, With Lore hooped up within - r and Mr Chutney, after supping upon cold pork and Welsh rabbit, v»shed down with two bottles of stout, awoke yelling from a hideous dream of being crushed to death by the National Debt in the shape of a cask. The young engineer suggested that the mystic puncheon must contain -fame new fashion of crinoline, packed in that way to preserved its rounded proportions. One-of Mrs Errington's chosen female intimatesr— a lady of proverbial: courage — hit upon the brilliant idea of asking her, point-blank, what th» cask contained ; but the charming widow only cast down her eyes, and answered, with her most bewitchingly childish air, that it was a special keepsake,, which no one must know about yet.