CHAPTER V.
DAWN.
There was refreshment, however, to every sense, beyond language toexpress, in the shelter which this deck-house provided after our longterm of exposure to the pouring of the raging gale, into which was putthe further weight of volumes of spray, that swept to the face likeleaden hail, and carried the shriek of the shot of musketry as it slungpast the ear. It was calm in this deck-house; the deafening soundswithout came somewhat muffled here; but the furious motion of the vesselwas startlingly illustrated by the play of the hanging lantern, and theswing of the illuminated globe was made the wilder and more wonderful bythe calm of the atmosphere in which it oscillated.
'I do not think the sea is breaking over the ship,' said the girl,gazing at me in a posture of listening. 'It is hard to tell. I feel notremble as of the falls of water on the deck.'
'She is battling bravely,' said I; 'but what now would I give for even acouple of those men of yours who jumped into the lifeboat! It is ourbeing so few--two of us only, and you a woman--that makes our situationso hard.'
'I have not the strength of a man,' said she with a smile, and fasteningher soft eyes on my face; 'but you will find I have the heart of one.Will you come now and see my father?'
I at once rose and followed her. She knocked upon a little door wherethe bulkhead partitioned off the inner cabin, and then entered, biddingme follow her.
A cot swung from the upper deck, and in it sat a man almost upright, hisback supported by bolsters and pillows; a bracket lamp burnt steadilyover a table, upon which lay a book or two, a chart, a few nauticalinstruments, and the like. There was no convenience for dressing, and Iguessed that this had been a sort of chart-room which the captain hadchosen to occupy that he might be easily and without delay within hailor reach of the deck.
He was a striking-looking man, with coal-black hair, parted on one side,lying very flat upon his head, and curling down upon his back. He wore along goat beard and moustaches, and was somewhat grim with several days'growth of whisker upon his cheeks; his brows were thickly thatched, hisforehead low, his eyes very dark, small, and penetrating. He was of adeathlike whiteness, and showed, to my fancy, as a man whose days werenumbered. That his disease was something more than rheumatism there wasno need to look at him twice to make sure of. His daughter addressed himin the Danish tongue, then, recollecting herself, with a half-glance atme of apology, she exclaimed:
'Father, this is Mr. Hugh Tregarthen, the noble gentleman who commandedthe lifeboat, who risked his life to save ours, and I pray that God ofHis love for brave spirits may restore him in safety to those who aredear to him.'
Captain Nielsen, with a face contracted into a look of pain by emotion,extended his hand in silence over the edge of his cot. I grasped it insilence too. It was ice cold. He gazed for awhile, without speech, intomy eyes, and I thought to see him shed tears; then, putting his handupon mine in a caressing gesture, and letting it go--for the swing ofthe cot would not permit him to retain that posture of holding my handfor above a moment or two, he exclaimed in a low but quite audiblevoice: 'I ask the good and gracious Lord of heaven and earth to blessyou, for _her_ sake--for my Helga's sake--and in the name of those whohave perished, but whom you would have saved!'
'Captain Nielsen,' said I, greatly moved by his manner and looks, 'wouldit had pleased Heaven that I should have been of solid use to you andyour men! I grieve to find you in this helpless state. I hope you do notsuffer?'
'While I rest I am without pain,' he answered, and I now observed thatthough his accent had a distinctly Scandinavian harshness, such as wassoftened in his daughter's speech by the clearness--I may say, by themelody--of her tones, his English was as purely pronounced as hers. 'Butif I move,' he continued, 'I am in agony. I cannot stand; my legs areas idle and as helpless as though paralyzed. But now tell me of the_Anine_, Helga,' he cried, with a look of pathetic eager yearningentering his face as he addressed her. 'Have you sounded the well?'
'Yes, father.'
'What water, my child?' She told him. 'Ha!' he exclaimed, with a suddenfretfulness; 'the pump should be manned without delay; but who is thereto work it?'
'We two will, very shortly,' she exclaimed, turning to me: 'we require alittle breathing time. Mr. Tregarthen and I,' said she, still talkingwith her soft appealing eyes upon me, 'have strength, or, at all events,courage enough to give us strength; and he will help me in whatever wemay think needful to save the _Anine_ and our lives.'
'Indeed, yes!' said I.
'Pray sit, both of you,' cried Captain Nielsen; 'pray rest. Helga, haveyou seen to the gentleman's comfort? Has he had any refreshment?'
She answered him, and seated herself upon a little locker, inviting mewith a look to sit beside her, for there was no other accommodation inthat cabin than the locker.
'I wish I could persuade your daughter to take some rest,' said I. 'Herclothes, too, are soaked through!'
'It is salt water,' said Captain Nielsen; 'it will not harm her. She isvery used to salt water, sir;' and then he addressed his daughter inDanish. The resemblance of some words he used to our English made mesuppose he spoke about her resting.
'The pumps must be worked,' said she, looking at me; 'we must keep thebarque afloat first of all, Mr. Tregarthen. How trifling is want ofsleep, how insignificant the discomfort of damp clothes, at such a timeas this!'
She opened her jacket and drew a silver watch from her pocket, and thentook a bottle of medicine and a wineglass from a small circular trayswinging by thin chains near the cot, and gave her father a dose. Hebegan now to question us, occasionally in his hurry and eagernessspeaking in the Danish language. He asked about the masts--if they weresound, if any sails had been split, if the _Anine_ had met with anyinjury apart from the loss of her two boats, of which he had evidentlybeen informed by his daughter. A flush of temper came into his whitecheeks when he talked of his men. He called the carpenter Damm avillain, said that had he had his way the barque never would havebrought up in that bay, that Damm had carried her there, as he nowbelieved, as much out of spite as out of recklessness, hoping no doubtthat the _Anine_ would go ashore, but of course taking it for grantedthat the crew would be rescued. He shook his fist as he pronounced thecarpenter's name, and then groaned aloud with anguish to some movementof his limbs brought about by his agitation. He lay quiet a little andgrew calm, and talked, with his thin fingers on his breast. He informedme that the _Anine_ was his ship, that he had spent some hundreds ofpounds in equipping her for this voyage, that he had some risk in thecargo, and that, in a word, all that he was worth in the wide world wasin this fabric, now heavily and often madly labouring, unwatched, amidthe blackness of the night of hurricane.
'Your daughter and I must endeavour to preserve her for you,' said I.
'May the blessed God grant it!' he cried. 'And how good and heroic areyou to speak thus!' said he, looking at me. 'Surely your great Nelsonwas right when he called us Danes the brothers of the English. Brothersin affection may our countries ever be! We have given you a sweetPrincess--that is a debt it will tax your people's generosity to repay.'The smile that lighted up his face as he spoke made me see a resemblancein him to his daughter. It was like throwing a light upon a picture. Hewas now looking at her with an expression full of tenderness andconcern.
'Mr.--Mr.----' he began.
'Tregarthen,' said his daughter.
'Ay, Mr. Tregarthen,' he continued, 'will wonder that a girl should beclad as you are, Helga. Were you ever in Denmark, sir?'
'Never,' I replied.
'You will not suppose, I hope,' said he, with another soft, engagingsmile that was pathetic also with the meaning it took from his whiteface, 'that Helga's attire is the costume of Danish ladies?'
'Oh no,' said I. 'I see how it is. Indeed, Miss Nielsen explained. Thedress is a whim. And then it is a very convenient shipboard dress. Butshe should not be suffered to do the rough work of a sailor. Will youbelieve, Captain Nielsen, that she went out upon the bowsprit, and cutadrift
or loosed the staysail there when your barque was on herbeam-ends in the trough of the sea?'
He nodded with emphasis, and said, 'That is nothing. Helga has been tosea with me now for six years running. It is her delight to dressherself in boy's clothes--ay, and to go aloft and do the work of aseaman. It has hardened and spoilt her hands, but it has left her facefair to see. She is a good girl; she loves her poor father; she ismotherless, Mr. Tregarthen. Were my dear wife alive, Helga would not behere. She is my only child;' and he made as if to extend his arms toher, but immediately crossed his hands, again addressing her in Danishas though he blessed her.
I could perceive the spirit in her struggling with the weakness thatthis talk induced. She conquered her emotions with a glance at me thatwas one almost of pride, as though she would bid me observe that she wasmistress of herself, and said, changing the subject, but not abruptly,'Father, do you think the vessel can struggle on without being watchedor helped from the deck?'
'What can be done?' he cried. 'The helm is securely lashed hard a-lee?'She nodded. 'What can be done?' he repeated. 'Your standing at the wheelwould be of no use. What is the trim of the yards?'
'They lie as they were braced up in the bay,' she responded.
'I have been in ships,' said he, 'that always managed best when leftalone in hard weather of this kind. There was the old _Dannebrog_,' hewent on, with his eyes seeming to glisten to some sudden stir of happymemory in him. 'Twice when I was in her--once in the Baltic, once in theSouth Atlantic--we met with gales: well, perhaps not such a gale asthis; but it blew very fiercely, Mr. Tregarthen. The captain, my oldfriend Sorensen, knew her as he knew his wife. He pointed the yards,lashed the helm, sent the crew below and waited, smoking his pipe in thecabin, till the weather broke. She climbed the seas dryly, and no whalecould have made better weather of it. A ship has an intelligence of herown. It is the spirit of the sea that comes into her, as into the birdsor fish of the ocean. Observe how long a vessel will wash about afterher crew have abandoned her. They might have sunk her had they stayed,not understanding her. Much must be left to chance at sea, Helga. No;there is nothing to be done. Damm reported the hatch-covers on andeverything secure while in the bay. It is so still, of course. Yet itwill ease my mind to know she is a little freed of the water in her.'
'I am ready!' cried I. 'Is the pump too heavy for my arms alone? Icannot bear to think of your daughter toiling upon that wet and howlingdeck.'
'She will not spare herself, though you should wish it,' said herfather. 'What is the hour, my dear?'
She looked at her watch. 'Twenty minutes after two.'
'A weary long time yet to wait for the dawn!' said he. 'And it is Sundaymorning--a day of rest for all the world save for the mariner. But it isGod's own day, and when next Sabbath comes round we may be worshippingHim ashore, and thanking Him for our preservation.'
As he pronounced these words, Helga, as I will henceforth call her,giving me a glance of invitation, quitted the berth, and I followed herinto the cabin, as I may term the interior of the deck-house. She pickedup the bull's-eye lamp and trimmed the mesh of it, and, arming herselfwith the sounding-rod, stepped on to the deck. I watched her movementswith astonishment and admiration. I should have believed that Ipossessed fairly good sea-legs, even for a wilder play of plank thanthis which was now tossing us; nevertheless, I never dared let go withmy hands, and there were moments when the upheaval was so swift, thefall so sickening, that my brain reeled again, and to have saved my lifeI could not have stirred the distance of a pace until the sensation hadpassed. But excepting an occasional pause, an infrequent grasp at whatwas next to her during some unusually heavy roll, Helga moved withalmost the same sort of ease that must have been visible in her on alevel floor. Her figure, indeed, seemed to float; it swayed to therolling of the deck as a flame hovers upright upon the candle yousharply sway under it.
After the comparative calm of the shelter I stepped from, the uproar ofthe gale sounded as though it were blowing as hard again as at the timeof our quitting the deck. The noise of the rushing and roaring waterswas deafening; as the vessel brought her masts to windward, thescreaming and whistling aloft are not to be imagined. The wind wasclouded with spray, the decks sobbed furiously with wet, and it wasstill as pitch black as ever it had been at any hour of the night. Helgathrew the light of the bull's-eye upon the pump-brake or handle, and wethen fell to work. At intervals we could contrive to hear each otherspeak--that is to say, in some momentary lull, when the barque was inthe heart of a valley ere she rose to the next thunderous acclivity,yelling in her rigging with the voice of a wounded giantess. For howlong we stuck to that dismal clanking job I cannot remember. The watergushed copiously as we plied the handle, and the foam was all about ourfeet as though we stood in a half-fathom's depth of surf. I was amazedby the endurance and pluck of the girl, and, indeed, I found half mystrength in her courage. Had I been alone I am persuaded I should havegiven up. The blow of the wheel that had dashed me into unconsciousness,coming on top of my previous labours, not to speak of that exhaustion ofmind which follows upon such distress of heart as my situation and thememory of my foundered boat and the possible loss of all her people hadoccasioned in me, must have proved too much but for the example andinfluence, the inspiriting presence of this little Danish lioness,Helga.
In one of those intervals I have spoken of she cried out, 'We have doneenough--for the present;' and so saying she let go of the pump-handleand asked me to hold the lamp while she dropped the rod. I had supposedour efforts insignificant, and was surprised to learn that we had sunkthe water by some inches. We returned to the deck-house, but scarcelyhad I entered it when I was seized with exhaustion so prostrating that Ifell, rather than seated myself, upon the locker and hid my face in myarms upon the table till the sudden darkness should have passed from myeyes. When, presently, I looked up, I found Helga at my side with aglass of spirits in her hand. There was a wonderful anxiety andcompassion in her gaze.
'Drink this!' said she. 'The work has been too hard for you. It is myfault--I am sorry--I am sorry.'
I swallowed the draught, and was the better for it.
'This weakness,' said I, 'must come from the blow I got on deck. I havekept you from your father. He will want your report,' and I stood up.
She gave me her arm, and but for that support I believe I should nothave been able to make my way to the captain's berth, so weak did I feelin the limbs, so paralyzing to my condition of prostration was theviolent motion of the deck.
Captain Nielsen looked eagerly at us over the edge of his cot. Helgawould not release me until I was seated on the locker.
'Mr. Tregarthen's strength has been overtaxed, father,' said she.
'Poor man! poor man!' he cried. 'God will bless him. He has sufferedmuch for us.'
'It must be a weakness, following my having been stunned,' said I,ashamed of myself that I should be in need of a girl's pity at such atime--the pity of a girl, too, who was sharing my labours and danger.
'What have you to tell me, Helga?' exclaimed the captain.
She answered him in Danish, and they exchanged some sentences in thattongue.
'She is a tight ship,' cried the captain, addressing me: 'it is goodnews,' he went on, his white countenance lighted up with an expressionof exultation, 'to hear that you two should be able to control the waterin the hold. Does the weather seem to moderate?'
'No,' said I; 'it blows as hard as ever it did.'
'Does the sea break aboard?'
'There is plenty of water washing about,' said I, 'but the vessel seemsto be making a brave fight.'
'When daylight comes, Helga,' said he, 'you will hoist a distress colourat the mizzen-peak. If the peak be wrecked or the halliards gone, theflag must be seized to the mizzen shrouds.'
'I will see to all that, father,' she answered; 'and now, Mr.Tregarthen, you will take some rest.'
I could not bear the idea of sleeping while she remained up; yet thoughneither of us could be of the least use
on deck, our both resting atonce was not to be thought of, if it was only for the sake of thecomfort that was to be got out of knowing that there was somebody awakeand on watch.
'I will gladly rest,' said I, 'on condition that you now lie down andsleep for two or three hours.'
She answered no; she was less tired than I; she had not undergone what Ihad suffered in the lifeboat. She begged me to take some repose.
'It is my selfishness that entreats you,' said she: 'if you break down,what are my father and I to do?'
'True,' I exclaimed, 'but the three of us would be worse off still if_you_ were to break down.'
However, as I saw that she was very much in earnest, while her fatheralso joined her in entreating me to rest, I consented on her agreeingfirst to remove her soaking clothes, for it was miserable to see hershivering from time to time and looking as though she had just beendragged over the side, and yet bravely disregarding the discomfort,smiling as often as she addressed me and conversing with her father witha face of serenity, plainly striving to soothe and reassure him by anair of cheerful confidence.
She left the cabin, and Captain Nielsen talked of her at once: told methat her mother was an Englishwoman; that he was married in London, inwhich city he had lived from time to time; that Helga had received apart of her education at New-castle-on-Tyne, where his wife's familythen lived, though they were now scattered, or perhaps dead, only onemember to his knowledge still residing at Newcastle. He took Helga tosea with him, he said, after his wife died, that he might have her underhis eye, and such was her love for the sea, such her intelligentinterest in everything which concerned a ship, that she could do as muchwith a vessel as he himself, and had often, at her own request, takencharge for a watch, during which she had shortened canvas and put thecraft about as though, in short, she had been skipper. The poor manseemed to forget his miserable situation while he spoke of Helga. Hisheart was full of her; his eyes swam with tears while he cried, 'It isnot that I fear death for myself, nor for myself do I dread the loss ofmy ship, which would signify beggary for me and my child. It is forher--for my little Helga. We have friends at Kolding, where I was born,and at Bjert, Vonsild, Skandrup, and at other places. But who will helpthe orphan? My friends are not rich--they could do little, no matter howgenerous their will. I pray God, for my child's sake, that we may bepreserved--ay, and for your sake--I should have said that,' he added,feebly smiling, though his face was one of distress.
He was beginning to question me about my home, and I was telling himthat my mother was living, and that she and I were alone in the world,and that I feared she would think me drowned, and grieve till her heartbroke, for she was an old lady, and I was her only son, as Helga was hisonly daughter, when the girl entered, and I broke off. She had changedher attire, but her clothes were still those of a lad. I had thought tosee her come in dressed as a woman, and she so interpreted the look Ifastened upon her, for she at once said, without the least air ofconfusion, as though, indeed, she were sensible of nothing in herapparel that demanded an excuse from her: 'I must preserve my sailor'sgarb until the fine weather comes. How should I be able to move aboutthe decks in a gown?'
'Helga,' cried her father, 'Mr. Tregarthen is the only son of hismother, and she awaits his return.'
Instantly entered an expression of beautiful compassion into her softeyes. Her gaze fell, and she remained for a few moments silent; thelamplight shone upon her tumbled hair, and I am without words to makeyou see the sweet sorrowful expression of her pale face as she stoodclose against the door, silent, and looking down.
'I have kept my word, Mr. Tregarthen,' said she presently. 'Now you willkeep yours and rest yourself. There is my father's cabin below.'
I interrupted her: 'No; if you please, I will lie down upon one of thelockers in the deck-house.'
'It will make a hard bed,' said she.
'Not too hard for me,' said I.
'Well, you shall lie down upon one of those lockers, and you shall becomfortable too;' and, saying this, she went out again, and shortlyafterwards returned with some rugs and a bolster. These she placed uponthe lee locker, and a minute or two later I had shaken the poor captainby the hand, and had stretched myself upon the rugs, where I laylistening to the thunder of the gale and following the wild motions ofthe barque, and thinking of what had happened since the lifeboat summonshad rung me into this black, and frothing, and roaring night from mysnug fireside.
It was not long, however, before I fell asleep. I had undergone somelifeboat experiences in my time, but never before was nature soexhausted in me. The roaring of the gale, the cannonading of thedeck-house by incessant heavy showerings of water, the extravagantmotions of the plunging and rolling vessel, might have been a mother'slullaby sung by the side of a gently-rocked cradle, so deep was theslumber these sounds of thunder left unvexed.
I awoke from a dreamless, deathlike sleep, and opened my eyes againstthe light of the cold stone-gray dawn, and my mind instantly coming tome, I sprang up from the locker, pausing to guess at the weather fromthe movement and the sound. It was still blowing a whole gale of wind,and I was unable to stand without grasping the table for support. Thedeck-house door was shut, and the planks within were dry, though I couldhear the water gushing and pouring in the alleys betwixt the deck-houseand the bulwarks. I thought to take a view of the weather through one ofthe windows, but the glass was everywhere blind with wet.
At this moment the door of the captain's berth was opened, and Helgastepped out. She immediately approached me with both hands extended inthe most cordial manner imaginable.
'You have slept well,' she cried; 'I bent over you three or four times.You are the better for the rest, I am sure.'
'I am, indeed!' said I. 'And you?'
'Oh, I shall sleep by-and-by. What shall we do for hot water? It isimpossible to light the galley fire; yet how grateful would be a cup ofhot tea or coffee!'
'Have you been on deck,' said I, 'while I slept?'
'Oh yes, in and out,' she answered. 'All is well so far--I mean, the_Anine_ goes on making a brave fight. The dawn has not long broken. Ihave not yet seen the ship by daylight. We must sound the well, Mr.Tregarthen, before we break our fast--my fear is there,' she added,pointing to the deck, by which she signified the hold.
There was but little of her face to be seen. She was wearing anindiarubber cap shaped like a sou'-wester, the brim of which came low,while the flannel ear-flaps almost smothered her cheeks. I could nowsee, however, that her eyes were of a dark blue, with a spirit of lifeand even of vivacity in them that expressed a wonderful triumph of heartover the languor of frame indicated by the droop of the eyelids. Alittle of her short hair of pale gold showed under the hinder thatch ofthe sou'-wester; her face was blanched. But I could not look at thepretty mouth, the pearl-like teeth, the soft blue eyes, the delicatelyfigured nostril, without guessing that in the hour of bloom this girlwould show as bonnily as the fairest lass of cream and roses that everhailed from Denmark.
We stepped on to the deck--into the thunder of the gale and the flyingclouds of spray. I still wore my oilskins, and was as dry in them as atthe hour of leaving home. I felt the comfort, I assure you, of my highsea-boots as I stood upon that deck, holding on a minute to thehouse-front, with the water coming in a little rage of froth to my legsand washing to leeward with the _scend_ of the barque with the force ofa river overflowing a dam.
Our first glance was aloft. The foretopgallant-mast was broken off atthe head of the topmast and hung with its two yards supported by itsgear, but giving a strange wrecked look to the whole of the fabric upthere as it swung to the headlong movements of the hull, making thespars, down to the solid foot of the foremast, tremble with the spearingblows it dealt. The jibbooms were also gone, and this, no doubt, hadhappened through the carrying away of the topgallant-mast; otherwise allwas right up above, assuming, to be sure, that nothing was sprung. Butthe wild, soaked, desolate--the almost mutilated--look, indeed, of thebarque! How am I to communicate the impression pr
oduced by the soakeddark lines of sailcloth rolled upon the yards, the ends of rope blowingout like the pennant of a man-of-war, the arched and gleaming gear, thedecks dusky with incessant drenchings and emitting sullen flashes as thedark flood upon them rolled from side to side! The running rigging layall about, working like serpents in the wash of the water; from time totime a sea would strike the bow and burst on high in steam-like volumeswhich glanced ghastly against the leaden sky that overhung us in strataof scowling vapour, dark as thunder in places, yet seemingly motionless.A furious Atlantic sea was running; it came along in hills of frothinggreen which shaped themselves out of a near horizon thick with storms ofspume. But there was the regularity of the unfathomed ocean in the runof the surge, mountainous as it was; and the barque, with herlashed helm, not a rag showing save a tatter or two of thefore-topmast-staysail whose head we had exposed on the previous night,soared and sank, with her port bow to the sea, with the regularity ofthe tick of a clock.
There was nothing in sight. I looked eagerly round the sea, but it wasall thickness and foam and headlong motion. We went aft to the compassto observe if there had happened any shift in the wind, and what thetrend of the barque was, and also to note the condition of the wheel,which could only have been told in the darkness by groping. The helm wasperfectly sound, and the lashings held bravely. I could observe now thatthe wheel was a small one, formed of brass, also that it worked therudder by means of a screw, and it was this purchase or leverage, Isuppose, that had made me find the barque easy to steer while she wasscudding. The gale was blowing fair out of the north-east, and thevessel's trend, therefore, was on a dead south-west course, with thehelp of a mountainous sea besides, to drive her away from the land, beamon. I cried to Helga that I thought our drift would certainly not beless than four, and perhaps five, miles in the hour. She watched the seafor a little, and then nodded to me; but it was scarcely likely that shecould conjecture the rate of progress amid so furious a commotion ofwaters, with the great seas boiling to the bulwark rail, and rushingaway to leeward in huge round backs of freckled green.
She was evidently too weary to talk, rendered too languid by the bittercares and sleepless hours of the long night to exert her voice so as tobe audible in that thunder of wind which came flashing over the side inguns and bursts of hurricane power; and to the few sentences I uttered,or rather shouted, she responded by nods and shakes of the head as itmight be. There was a flag locker under the gratings abaft the wheel,and she opened the box, took out a small Danish ensign, bent it on tothe peak-signal halliards, and between us we ran it half-mast high, andthere it stood, hard and firm as a painted board, a white cross on redground, and the red of it made it resemble a tongue of fire against thesoot of the sky. This done, we returned to the main-deck, and Helgasounded the pump. She went to work with all the expertness of a seasonedsalt, carefully dried the rod and chalked it, and then waited until theroll of the barque brought her to a level keel before dropping it. Iwatched her with astonishment and admiration. It would until now haveseemed impossible to me that any mortal woman should have had in her themakings of so nimble and practised a sailor as I found her to be, withnothing, either, of the tenderness of girlhood lost in her, in speech,in countenance, in looks, spite of her boy's clothes. She examined therod, and eyed me with a grave countenance.
'Does the water gain?' said I.
'There are two more inches of it,' she answered, 'than the depth I foundin the hold last night when I first sounded. We ought to free hersomewhat.'
'I am willing,' I exclaimed; 'but are you equal to such labour? A coupleof hours should not make a very grave difference.'
'No, no!' she interrupted, with a vehemence that put her air ofweariness to flight. 'A couple of hours would be too long to wait,'saying which she grasped the brake and we went to work as before.
No one who has not had to labour in this way can conceive the fatigue ofit. There is no sort of shipboard work that more quickly exhausts. Itgrieved me to the soul that my associate in this toil should be a girl,with the natural weakness of her sex accentuated by what she hadsuffered and was still suffering; but her spirited gaze forbaderemonstrance. She seemed scarcely able to stand when utter wearinessforced her at last to let go of the brake. Nevertheless, she compelledher feeble hands again to drop the rod down the well. We had reduced thewater to the height at which we had left it before, and, with a faintsmile of congratulation, she made a movement towards the deck-house; buther gait was so staggering, there was such a character of blindness,too, in her posture as she started to walk, that I grasped her arm and,indeed, half carried her into the house.
She sat and rested herself for a few minutes, but appeared unable tospeak. I watched her anxiously, with something of indignation that herfather, who professed to love her so dearly, should not come between herand her devotion, and insist upon her resting. Presently she rose andwalked to his cabin, telling me with her looks to follow her.