in his old chaffing tone, "and how are you, Ann? And how am I, you may well ask! Faith! I've been thrown about like a die in a box! My hat and cloak are gone, the Lord knows where, and what I have left feels to be in ribbons! Have you ever been flung against a tombstone? 'Tis a poor diversion. . . . I have often thought I might be blown up at sea, but I never looked for it on land, which is plaguey hard to fall on." He seated himself on the thwart beside her, and took her small hand in his own grimy palm. "Lud! You look very clean, Ann, even in the dark," said he. Where I am not black, I am turning blue, and tomorrow I shall be like Jacob's coat." "Poor Charles ! she said, and her voice shook a little. "You will always laugh, and I could laugh, too, now you are both safe. But in my heart I am thanking youyou" "Well, laugh, then!" he cried. "You have naught to fret over any more. The Rainborough Plot is gone aloft, and its author with it. And save for two poor madmen, and one of my fellows with a hole in him that will heal in a week, no one is more than bruised. 'Tis one of the most bloodless battles in history after all; and if you have any glaziers among your tenants, we have done them a mighty good turn, for we must have broke all the SAIL BEATS STEAM. BY SHALIMAR. I. THE ENGLISH CHANNEL, 1895. ONE morning in April 1895 the large clipper ship on which I was an apprentice lay becalmed off Start Point. We were homeward bound from Iquique to Dunkirk, and up to the time of approaching the Channel had made an excellent passage. We had carried favourable winds from the coast of Chile right round the Horn to the Line; by great good luck we had had practically no doldrums, having lost the southeast Trades and picked up the north-east in the one squall. The northeast Trades had been succeeded by strong westerly winds; indeed, from the Azores we had been scudding before them with as much canvas set as we could stagger under. Visions of a record passage came to us, but all of a sudden, in the vicinity of the Scilly Islands, the brave westerlies died away, to be succeeded by a light northeast wind almost a dead muzzler up-Channel. Even this had now failed us, and left a calm in its wake. To any one not engaged in trying to make a passage in a sailing ship it was a glorious morning. The sky was cloudless, though low down on the horizon there lay a haze. The sea was like a sheet of glass, but a gentle swell was rolling up from the south-west, causing the vessel to pitch slightly. Her useless canvas hung straight up and down, except when a heavier pitch than usual would cause it to slat heavily against the masts. Partly to avoid this, the lower sails, the courses, were hauled up. We were all looking forward to the end of the voyage, and anxious to get to our homes after an absence of fifteen months, so to be stopped like this, within a day's sail of our port, was disappointing. After all, however, a few more days meant little difference to us, whereas to the captain it most decidedly did; his professional reputation and his standing with his owners greatly depended on the passages he made. It was little wonder, therefore, that he was in a vile temper as he walked up and down the poop, now pausing to gaze round the horizon and whistle vainly for a breeze, again stopping to curse at any one within reach in whose work he had detected some shortcoming. We apprentices had already felt the rough edge of his tongue while handling the flags in an attempt to make our number off the Start. It was not our fault that there was no wind to make the flags stand out, but he apparently did not entirely acquit us of blame. Coming up behind, but rather closer into the land, was a tramp steamer with a red funnel with black top. When about a mile away on our port quarter she hoisted her number and ensign, which was acknowledged by the answering pennant on the flagstaff of the signal station. Before the signal was hauled down our old man had got his telescope on to it and read the flags. "Hand me that signal book, one of you," he ordered. I jumped for the book, and he rapidly turned over its pages until he found the steamer's name. "The Ripon of London," he exclaimed. "That's the boat my brother is in command of; at least he was there when I heard of him last. Curse those flags, why won't they blow out so that he could see them." His brother had, however, apparently recognised the ship without the flags, for we could see the steamer's course altered so that she would pass close to us. She did not ease down as she approached; the etiquette of the merchant service and the owner's interests would not permit of that, but she passed within easy hail. Hard luck." By this time the steamer was drawing away. "Well, see you in Dunkirk," shouted our old man. "Perhaps, but not at your present rate of progression," was the reply. "I've only got eight thousand tons to discharge there. Bye-bye." At this piece of sarcasm our old man shook his fist in the direction of his brother, then turned with a despairing gesture and gazed toward the western horizon. There seemed to be nothing there that pleased him, for he resumed his pacing up and down the poop, pausing once to swear at the young third mate for some supposed dereliction of duty. Occasionally with a gloomy eye he would note the progress of the Ripon as she ploughed her way up-Channel; then tired of his walking he sat down moodily on the wheel-box grating. Suddenly a light puff of wind and a dark ripple on the water to the south-west galvanised him into action. The vessel was lying with square yards, and at the time her head was idly pointing to the south-east. "Port fore brace," he shouted. 'Lively now; get the other yards round as soon as you can, and sheet home the courses. Then, as she gathered headway, to the man at the wheel, who ten minutes before he had called a square- over heavily, and the short, headed idiot an "East by south, my lad." Cheerfully we had jumped to carry out his orders, and soon with the yards well trimmed and every foot of canvas drawing to the light breeze on the quarter, she was leaning over slightly, while the sea rippled pleasantly past her sides. After about ten minutes of this there was ominous flap of the canvas aloft; sorrowfully we noted that the sea had become glassy again, and the wind had died away. It was, however, a false alarm; puff succeeded puff from the same direction; the ship never lost steerage way, and eventually the surface of the sea to windward became an unbroken series of tiny wavelets. Gradually these grew larger, and their crests began to break. By noon, when our watch on deck ended and we went below to our peasoup and salt pork, she was streaking along at eight knots, the wind was still freshening, and the sky gave every promise of more. stiff, Channel waves coming up on her quarter would occasionally roll her over to leeward with a lurch which would almost put the lee rail awash and cause the water to gush in through the scupper holes. Aloft every stitch of canvas, now dark and sodden with the rain, was doing its duty nobly, straining at bolt ropes and at sheets, while the weather rigging would twang like harpstrings as she lurched. Two men were at the wheel, for she was yawing heavily as she tore along in a broad smother of foam. We hove the log before going below at six o'clock, and found that she was doing twelve knots. We apprentices of the starboard watch were a cheerful little gang when we sat down on our sea-chests in the little half-deck for tea in the second dog watch. The day before had been "whack day, when our week's allowance of sugar and marmalade had been issued. Usually with all due care we could make these last for nearly five days; now we dived into them with reckless prodigality. With any luck we might be at home before the next whack day came round. We came on deck again at four o'clock to find that this promise had been fulfilled, and that we required our oilskins and sea-boots. Ragged clouds "Now this is just right," flew fast overhead; a thin said the senior apprentice, as drizzle had come along on the he lit his filthy briar which he wind, making it difficult to had filled with black plug see more than a few miles; and tobacco, and lay back on his the spray was flying over the sea-chest with his feet against weather rail. The tall vessel another to brace him against presented an exhilarating spec- the lurches. "The old man tacle; she was now leaning is so wild with his brother that "You didn't say that when he was cracking on that night off the Western Islands, and had to call all hands to get the sail off her," piped the auburnhaired youngest apprentice. 6 he will crack on all night. He his owners to take advantage has been sailing this packet a of the fair wind and get his bit too carefully for my liking vessel into port as soon as he lately." From his superior could; he had his chance, altitude of almost three years' and he meant to take it. Clad service the senior apprentice in a sou'-wester, long black felt quite capable of criticising oilskin coat and sea-boots, with the seamanship of any one. his night-glasses suspended from a leather strap round his neck, he was keeping his vigil on the weather side of the poop. Swaying easily as the vessel lurched, he would make his way to the binnacle to see how she was heading, and then to the rail, where he would peer to windward as if trying to estimate the strength of the wind, following this by a glance aloft to see how the sails were standing the strain. Carefully he examined every light that was reported. Self-reliant, competent, and wholly trustworthy, he looked what he was, a perfect type of the British sailingship captain. Those shrewd blue eyes which, despite himself, could not restrain a kindly twinkle, even as he swore, had for years been steadfastly regarding all the dangers of the seven seas. "Now you shut up, Coppertop,' or I'll be under the painful necessity of getting up and dotting you one. How often have I told you that first voyagers should be seen and not heard?" "Copper-top" subsided with a cheerful grin. If the wind held the voyage might be over by to-morrow, and when another one started he could no longer be designated a first voyager. It was dark when we came on deck again at eight o'clock, to find the lofty vessel still storming her way up-Channel through the murk and gloom. Away on our port quarter we Strange to say, there was no could see one of the shore sheet of water on the ocean that lights on the south coast of the windjammer sailor dreaded England winking cheerfully so much as his own English through the rain. We were Channel, and the reason is not still carrying every stitch of canvas, and although this may have seemed foolhardy, and due, as the senior apprentice had suggested, to the old man's annoyance at his brother's last remark, we knew that the former knew what he was doing. It was his duty to far to seek. Nowhere else can such traffic be found, and this traffic, suddenly encountered after leagues and leagues of lonely sea, had an unnerving effect. The look-out on the forecastle head had been doubled, but in addition to that every soul in the watch |