Mary Gaunt

“ Above them was the loom of the land showing only like thick cloud bank against the horizon, and the bright light beckoning, it seemed, with friendly hands.
"Ready about!" shouted the skipper.
"O—o—oh, o—o—oh, o—o—oh!" sang the men at the braces in mournful monotone. Bang went the wet sail against the mast, and the second mate from his vantage point watched her slowly come up to wind. Slowly—slowly—the towering seas came pouring aboard—she took it in by the deck house by ton loads and the men all hung on to the nearest thing handy for dear life. Slowly, slowly, her nose came up to the wind. ”

“ One by one he watched the men go, he watched the breeches buoy swallowed up in the raging waters, he watched them received on shore as men risen from the dead, and he counted eagerly the moments till his turn should come. They knew now on shore the name of the ship. Was that woman on shore looking seaward his Susy? She had a red shawl he remembered, as we do remember trifles in the supreme moments of our life. That must be Susy, and she was thinking of him. Only six now. And now only five. For one brief moment he felt as if he were tasting the bliss of perfect happiness. ”

“ The foremast and the mainmast were gone and their stumps stood up jagged and torn, but the mizzen lower mast still remained, and the men—those of them that were left—were in the rigging, for the deck every moment was becoming more untenable. The wheel was broken and the Russian Finn lay dead beside it, killed by a falling gaff, his swarthy face, white now in the bright light, turned up to the stormy sky; and a little farther for'ard, close to where Harper himself was standing, lay the skipper, jammed against the skylight by a heavy hencoop. ”

“ One moment all was hidden by the raging seas, the next by the faint moonlight he saw the cracks widening—widening—then came another great sea and he felt the ship bump heavily on the rocks. No, it was the poorest chance that she should last till morning, they—these men hanging to the rigging—had no chance whatever of living in the sea that boiled around them. Wider and wider grew the cracks on deck, the water was pouring into the hold and the cargo was being washed out of her. One bale of wool—two—three—rose up on the next wave. A bale of wool—— What is a bale against a man's life? ”

“ Gradually the ship paid off, slowly her nose came round, and Harper, looking at the foaming line of breakers, thought how perilously close they were. But—but—surely after all she would come through scot free, a moment more—only a moment more. The moon came from behind the heavy clouds paling the light ashore before her bright rays, and showing them just for a second the seething white water all around. So close was the danger, every man held his breath. ”

“ The man who stood beside her was a sailor every inch of him. Not handsome perhaps, but certainly good-looking, with honest blue eyes and a steadfast, strong, face. A man who had read and thought, and even though now at five-and-twenty he was but second mate of the Vanity had lived his life to some purpose, for the fates had been against him; it had been an uphill struggle always, and in uphill struggles we have little time for the niceties of life. ”

“ And yet on shore the fire leaped and danced. Kindly anxious hands were feeding it, and it was impossible not to think that the men who would stay out on such a bitter night were not doing all they knew for the help and succour of these helpless men. There were rocket apparatus stationed along the coast, and if the ship would only hold together long enough why should they not all be saved? If she only would. Ben Harper was feverish in his desire for life now. He must live; he must see Susy once again, he must—he must! ”

“ A step forward and he was looking down at the snow-white breakers thundering at the foot of the cliff. The sea was his home, the cruel, fickle sea, he would go back to it and leave the woman he loved in peace. What right had he to come into her life to spoil it? He would go back whence he came and all should be as it had been before. Go back?—ah! we none of us can go back; surely the Greeks of old were right when they said that not even Omnipotence itself can alter the past. ”

“ They were the average crew of a sailing ship, men from every nation under the sun, and as they passed slowly round the capstan, their shoulders hunched to their ears, each man answered sullenly to his name. Not that they bore the second mate any ill-will, but Jack ashore spends his last weeks in riotous living and suffers a slow recovery for the first few days of the voyage. Besides the night was bitter cold, the wind that whistled shrilly through the rigging already bore on its chill breath drops of icy rain ”

“ The old skipper's voice was silent, and the second mate feared he too must have been carried overboard by the last sea.
"Jump for a blue light," he said to a boy next him, who was clinging to the broken skylight, "they're in the locker in the cabin."
The lad hesitated, then swung himself down, and in a minute or so returned clambering back through the skylight holding two blue lights in his hand. He struck the end of one and illuminated the whole place with the ghastly glare. The Vanity, but a few minutes before a trim, smart ship, lay there on the reef a total wreck. ”

“ It was only another way of saying "Blessed be drudgery," only a reminder that work is a universal panacea for all ills and heartaches. And after all the second mate of a sailing-ship is not likely to have much time for idle dreams—regretful or otherwise—for the life of such men is monotonous enough; and two days later when they had come through the Rip, and were out in the Southern Ocean sailing along eastward, there was little enough to remind Ben Harper of the events of a week before. True it was on this stern, forbidding coast lay the Mackie selection ”

“ Harper said nothing. If it had been possible he would have prayed the boy to keep the knowledge from her; but he knew it was not possible. If any man escaped from this wreck, he would surely tell of the light they had mistaken for the new leading mark, and if they all perished—well—then there would be no need to plead for silence. The sea keeps her own secrets.
"Susy is gone on ye, sir," said the boy again, "why wouldn't ye have her?" ”

“ Hands 'bout ship!" Then he turned to the man at the wheel, who was the Russian Finn the bo'sun objected to as unlucky, "Keep her clean full for stays."
The men came tumbling out from the holes and corners where they had stowed away, and the watch below came up growling audibly at having their rest disturbed, but none apparently understanding the danger of the situation. It is all in the day's work that a sailor should be disturbed before he has had more than a taste of the bliss of sleep. ”

“ It is no good. We are so different altogether. I can't believe—as you believe—I cannot. I'll do my best to be a good man—I'll never lie to you or——"
"It is no use," she moaned, "no use at all. We cannot prevail by our own strength." ”

“ And he must see Susy again—just hold her in his arms once again. Sweetheart, sweetheart, who so dear in all the world? It was his right to go, he told himself again. Then he cut the lashings with which they had bound the skipper to the mast, the breeches buoy was so close now and it was easier for him to do it. The old man might find a difficulty by himself and he would want to be all clear when next the buoy came back. When next the buoy came back! He looked at the stranded rope and knew that the buoy would never come back. Hardly would it reach the shore. ”

“ It was only a little nearer the inevitable end, and if she had given him thought—if she had given him her heart, it was in despite her better judgment, her narrow up-bringing had won the day, and only that morning he had thought that life was not worth living without her. ”

“ You're hurt, and you'll find it hard to manage by yourself."
The old man demurred a moment—staunch old sailor, he would have stuck to the ship to the last, but the mate said again,
"It only makes the difference of a minute or two, sir. That's nothing."
He could not send a message—not one. Why should he? They would never understand. That fair-haired girl would never know how he had longed for her this night. ”

“ Mither, she wanted it in the parlour; but Susy, she was saying we were living in the kitchen and it made things brighter like. Dad, he was for sayin' it was a snare o' the Evil One; but Susy, she had her way."
So after all it was his sweetheart's natural girlish longing after pretty bright things that had lured them to destruction. Should he die to-night it was her innocent hand that had dealt the blow. The boy beside him was thinking the same thing and presently he said,
"When she comes to know what'll she say?" ”