"Five minutes or so after this, it didn't certainly surprise me much to see the Indiaman laid on the opposite tack, with her head actually north-by-east, or within a few points of where the light haze faded into the sky: the mate seeming by this time to see the matter clearly, and quietly making his own of it. The ship began to stand over towards the outer set of the current, which could now be seen rippling along here and there to the surface, as the breeze fell slowly: you heard nothing save the faint plash of it astern under one counter, the wafting and rustling of her large main-course above the awnings, for she was covered over like a caravan—the slight flap of her jibs far ahead on the bowsprit startled you now and then as distinctly as if you got a fillip on your own nose; the stunsail, high up beside the weather-leech of her fore-topsail, hung slack over the boom, and one felt each useless jolt of the wheel like a foot-slip in loose sand when you want to run—all betwixt the lazy, listless voices of the passengers, dropping and dropping as separate as the last sands in an hour-glass. Still, every minute of air aloft helped her nearer to where you saw the water winding about the horizon in long swathes, as it were, bluer than the rest, and swelling brimful, so to speak, out of a line of light; with the long dents and bits of ripple here and there creeping towards it, till the whole round of the surface, as far as you could see, came out into the smooth, like the wrinkles on a nutmeg.
"Four bells of the afternoon watch had struck—two o'clock, that is—when Rickett, the third mate, and one or two men, went out to the arm of the spritsail-yard across the bowsprit, where they lowered away a heavy pitch-pot with a long strip of yellow bunting made fast to it, and weighted a little at the loose end, to mark the set of the current; and as the pot sank away out on her larboard bow, one could see the bright-coloured rag deep down through the clear blue water, streaming almost fairly north. She appeared to be nearing the turn of the eddy, and the chief officer's spirits began to rise. Rickett screwed one eye close, and looked out under his horny palm with the other, doubtful, as he said, that we should 'sight the land off-deck before that. As for this trifle of an air aloft, sir,' said he, 'I'm afraid we won't——' 'Hoot, Mr Reckett,' put in Macleod, stepping one of his long trouserlegs down from over the quarter-deck awning, like an ostrich that had been aloft, 'ye're aye afraid; but it's not easy to see aloft, Mr Fench, sir.' 'How does the land lie now, Mr Macleod?' asked the first officer. 'Well, I wouldn't wonder but we soon dropped it, sir—that's to east'ard, I mean,' replied he; 'though it's what we call a bit mountainous, in Scotland—not that unlike the Grampians, Mr Fench, ye know!' 'Hang your Grampians, man!—what's ahead of us, eh?' said the mate hastily. 'Why, sir,' said the Scotchman, 'there is some more of it on the nor'-east, lower a good deal—its just flush with the water from here, at present, Mr Fench—with a peak or two, trending away too'ard north; but the light yonder on our starboard bow makes them hard for to see, I may say.'
"In fact, some of the men forward were making it out already on the starboard bow, where you could see the faint ragged shape of a headland coming out, as it were, of the dazzle beyond the water, which lay nickering and heaving between, from deep-blue far away into pale; while almost at the same time, on her starboard quarter, where there was less of the light, another outline was to be seen looming like pretty high land, though still fainter than the first. As for the space betwixt them, for aught one could distinguish as yet, there might be nothing there except air and water over against the ship's side.
"'Well,' said the mate briskly, after a little, 'we're pretty sure, now, to have the land-breeze to give us sea-room, before two or three hours are over—by which time, I hope we'll be in the eddy of this infernal current, at any rate!' However, I was scarce sure he didn't begin to doubt the plan I'd given him; whereas had he known the whole case in time, and done the thing then, it was certain enough—and the best thing he could do, even as it was: but what troubled me now, why, suppose anything happened to the ship, mightn't he turn the tables on me after all, and say I had some bad design in it? I loitered about with my arms folded, saying never a word, but watching the whole affair keener than I ever did one of Shakspeare's plays in the theatre after a dull cruise; not a thing in sea, sky, or Indiaman, from the ripples far off on the water to ugly Harry hauling taut the jib-sheet with his chums, but somehow or other they seemed all to sink into me at the time, as if they'd all got to come out again strong. You hardly knew when the ship lost the last breath of air aloft, till, from stealing through the smooth water, she came apparently to a standstill, everything spread broad out, not even a flap in the canvas almost, it had fallen a dead calm so gradually.
"However, my troubles weren't seemingly over yet, for just then up came the judge's dark kitmagar to the gangway where I was, and, from the sly impudence of the fellow's manner, I at once fancied there was something particular in the wind, as if he'd been seeking me about-decks. 'S'laam, mistree!' said he, with but a slight duck of his flat brown turban, 'Judge sahib i-send Culley Mistree his chupprass'—message, forsooth!—'sah'b inquire the flavour of gentlyman's Ees-Inchee Coompanee, two-three moment!' 'The flavour of my East-India Company, you rascal!' said I, laughing, yet inclined to kick him aft again for his impertinent look; 'speak for yourself, if you please!'
"In fact, the whiff of cocoa-nut oil, and other dark perfumes about him, came out in a hot calm at sea, when everything sickens one, as to need no inquiry about the matter; however, I walked straight aft to the round-house, and in at the open door, through which Sir Charles was to be seen pacing from one side of his cabin to the other, like a Bengal tiger in a cage. 'Harkye, young man,' said he sternly, turning as soon as I came in, with my hat in my hand, 'since I had the honour of your company here this morning, I have recollected—indeed, I find that one of my servants had done the same—that you are the person who molested my family by various annoyances beside my garden at Croydon, sir!' 'Indeed, Sir Charles!' said I coolly, for the bitter feeling I had made me cool: 'they must have been unintentional then, sir! But I was certainly at Croydon, seeing my mother's house happens to be there.' 'You must have had some design in entering this vessel, sir!' continued the judge, in a passion: ''gad, sir, the coincidence is too curious! Tell me what it is at once, or by——' 'My design was to go to India, sir,' answered I, as quietly as before. 'In what capacity?—who are you?—what—who—what do you want there, eh?' rapped out the judge. 'I'm not aware, sir,' said I, 'what right you've got to question me; but I—in fact, I'll tell so much to any man—why, I'm an officer in the Navy.'
"Sir Charles brought short up in his pacing and stamping, and stared at me. 'An officer in the Navy!' repeated he; 'but yes—why, now I think, I do remember something in your dress, sir—though it was the face that struck me! In short then, sir, this makes the case worse: you are here on false pretences—affecting the very reverse, sir—setting yourself up for a model of simplicity,—a laughing-stock indeed!' 'I had reasons for not wishing my profession to be known, Sir Charles,' said I; 'most special reasons. They're now over, however, and I don't care who knows it!' 'May I ask what these were?' said the judge. 'That I'll never tell to any man breathing!' I said determinedly.
"The judge walked two or three times fore and aft; then a thought seemed to strike him—he looked out as if at the decks and through below the awnings, then shut the door and came back to me again. 'By-the-way,' said he seriously, and changing his tone, 'since this extraordinary acknowledgment of yours, sir, something occurs to me which makes me almost think your presence in the vessel in one sense opportune. I have reason to entertain a high opinion of naval officers as technical men, professionally educated in His Majesty's regular service, and—you look rather a young man—but have you had much experience, may I ask?' 'I have been nine or ten years at sea, sir,' replied I, a little taken aback, 'in various parts of the world!' 'I have some suspicion lately,' he went on, 'that this vessel is not navigated in a—in short, that at present, probably, we may be in some danger—do you think so, sir?' 'No, Sir Charles,' said I, 'I don't think she is, as matters stand—only in a troublesome sort of quarter, which the sooner she's out of the better.' 'The commander is, I find, dangerously unwell,' continued he, 'and of the young man who seems to have the chief care of the vessel, I have no very high—well—that, of course I——Now, sir,' said he, looking intently at me, 'are you capable of—in short, of managing this Company's vessel, should any emergency arise? I have seen such, myself—and in the circumstances I feel considerable alarm—uneasiness, at least—Eh, sir?' 'Depend upon it, Sir Charles,' I said, stepping toward the door, 'in any matter of the kind I'll do my best for this ship! But none knows so well as a seaman, there are cases enough where your very best can't do much!'
"The judge seemed rather startled by my manner—for I did feel a little misgiving, from something in the weather on the whole; at any rate I fancied there was a cold-bloodedness in every sharp corner of his face, bilious though his temper was, that would have let him see me go to the bottom a thousand times over, had I even had a chance with his daughter herself, ere he'd have yielded me the tip of her little finger: accordingly 'twas a satisfaction to me, at the moment, just to make him see he wasn't altogether in his nabob's chair in Bengal yet, on an elephant's back.
"'Ah, though!' said he, raising his voice to call me back, 'to return for an instant—there is one thing I must positively require, sir—which you will see, in the circumstances, to be unavoidable. As a mere simple cadet, observe, sir, there was nothing to be objected to in a slight passing acquaintance—but, especially in the—in short, equivocal—sir, I must request of you that you will on no account attempt to hold any communication with my daughter, Miss Hyde—beyond a mere bow, of course! 'Twill be disagreeable, I assure you. Indeed, I shall——' 'Sir,' said I, all the blood in my body going to my face, 'of all things in the world, that is the very thing where your views and mine happen to square!' and I bowed.