"The man's coolness disgusted me, sticking such a thing in my teeth, after just reckoning on my services with the very same breath—and all when it wasn't required, too! And by Heaven! thought I, had she shown me favour, all the old nabobs in Christendom, and the whole world to boot, shouldn't hinder me from speaking to her! What I said apparently puzzled him, but he gave me a grand bow in his turn, and I had my hand on the door, when he said, 'I suppose, sir, as a naval officer, you have no objection to give me your name and rank. I forget what——' Here I remembered my mistake with the mate, and on the whole I saw I must stick by it till I was clear of the whole concern; as for saying my name was Westwood, that I couldn't have done at the time for worlds; but I quietly handed him another card, meaning, of course, to give Westwood the cue as shortly as possible, for his own safety. The judge started on seeing the card, gave me one of his sharp glances, and made a sudden step towards me. 'Have you any relation in India, Mr Westwood?' said he, slowly, to which I gave only a nod. 'What is he, if I may inquire?' asked he again. 'A councillor or something, I believe,' said I, carelessly. 'Thomas Westwood?' said Sir Charles. 'Ah,' said I, wearied of the thing, and anxious to go. 'An uncle, probably, from the age?' he still put in. 'Exactly, that's it!' I said. 'Why—what!—why did you not mention this at first?' he broke out suddenly, coming close up; 'why, Councillor Westwood is my very oldest friend in India, my dear sir! This alters the matter. I should have welcomed a nephew of his in my house, to the utmost! Why, how strange, Mr Westwood, that the fact should emerge in this curious manner!' and with that he held out his hand. 'Of course,' said he, 'no such restriction as I mentioned could for a moment apply to a nephew of Councillor Westwood!'
"I stared at him for a moment, and then—'Sir,' said I, coolly, 'it seems the whole matter goes by names; but if my name were the devil or the Apostle Paul, I don't see how it can make a bit of difference in me: what's more, sir,' said I, setting my teeth, 'whatever my name may be, depend upon it, I shall never claim acquaintance either with you or—or—Miss Hyde!' With that I flung straight out of the cabin, leaving the old gentleman bolt upright on the floor, and as dumb as a stock-fish, whether with rage or amazement I never stopped to think.
"I went right forward on the Indiaman's forecastle, clear of all the awnings, dropped over her head out of sight of the men, and sat with my legs amongst the open woodwork beneath the bowsprit, looking at the calm—nobody in sight but the Hindoo figure, who seemed to be doing the same. Westwood! thought I, bitterly; then in a short time, when the mistake's found out, and he got safe past the Cape, perhaps—it'll be nothing but Westwood! He'll have a clear stage, and all favour; but at any rate, however it may be, I'll not be here, by Heaven, to see it. That cursed councillor of his, I suppose, is another nabob—and no doubt he'll marry her, all smooth! Uncles—I little thought, by Jove! when I knocked off that yarn to the mate about my uncle—but, after all, it's strange how often a fellow's paid back in his own coin!
"The heat at the time was unbearable—heat, indeed! 'twasn't only heat—but a heavy, close, stifling sort of feeling, like in a hot-house, as if you'd got a weight on your head and every other bit of you: the water one time so dead-blue and glassy between the windings of it, that the sky seemed to vanish, and the ship looked floating up into where it was—then again you scarce knew sea from air, except by the wrinkles and eddies running across each other between, toward a sullen blue ring at the horizon—like seeing through a big twisted sieve, or into a round looking-glass all over cracks. I heard them clue up everything aloft, except the topsails—and they fell slapping back and forward to the masts, every now and then with a thud like a thousand spades clapped down at once over a hollow bit of ground—till all seemed as still between as if they'd buried something. I wished to Heaven it were what I felt at the time, and the thought of Violet Hyde, that I might be as if I never had seen her—when on glancing up betwixt the figure-head and the ship's stern, it struck me to notice how much the land on her starboard bow and beam seemed to have risen, even during the last hour, and that without wind; partly on account of its clearing in that quarter, perhaps; but the nearest points looked here and there almost as if you could see into them, roughening barer out through the hue of the distance, like purple blotches spreading in it. Whereas, far away astern of us, when I crossed over her headworks, there were two or three thin white streaks of haze to be seen just on the horizon, one upon another, above which you made out somewhat like a dim range of peaked land, trending one couldn't say how far back—all showing how fairly the coast was shutting her in upon the south-east, as she set farther in-shore, even while the run of the current bade fair to take her well clear of it ahead; which was, of course, all we need care for at present. Her want of steerage-way, however, let the Indiaman sheer hither and thither, till at times one was apt to get confused, and suppose her more in with the landloom than she really was. Accordingly the mate proved his good judgment by having a couple of boats lowered with a tow-line, to keep her at least stem-on to the current, although the trouble of getting out the launch would have more served his purpose, and the deeper loaded the better, since in fact there were two favourable drifts instead of one, between every stroke of the oars. The men pulled away rather sulkily, their straw hats over their noses, the dip of the hawser scarce tautening at each strain, as they squinted up at the Seringapatam's idle figure-head. For my part I had thought it better to leave him by himself, and go below.
CHAPTER XIV
"When I went into the cuddy, more for relief's sake than to dine, the passengers were chattering and talking away round the tables, hot and choking though it was, in high glee because the land was in sight from the starboard port-window, and they fancied the officers had changed their minds as to 'touching' there. Every now and then a cadet or two would start up, with their silver forks in their hands, and put their heads out; some asked whether the anchor had been seen getting ready or not; others disputed about the colour of tropical trees, if they were actually green like English ones, or perhaps all over blossoms and fruit together—the whole of them evidently expecting bands of negroes to line the shore as we came in.
"One young fellow had taken a particular fancy to have an earthworm, with earth enough to feed it all the rest of the voyage, otherwise he couldn't stand it; and little Tommy's mother almost went into hysterics again when she said, if she could just eat a lettuce salad once more, she'd die contented; the missionary looking up through his spectacles, in surprise that she wasn't more interested about the slave-trade, whereof he'd been talking to her. As for Westwood, he joined quietly in the fun, with a glance now and then across to me; however, I pretended to be too busy with the salt beef, and was merely looking up again for a moment, when my eye chanced to catch on the swinging barometer that hung in the raised skylight, right over the midst of our noise. By George! ma'am, what was my horror when I saw the quicksilver had sunk so far below the mark, probably fixed there that morning, as to be almost shrunk in the ball! Whatever the merchant service might know about the instrument in those days, the African coast was the place to teach its right use to us in the old Iris. I laid down my knife and fork as carelessly as I could, and went straight on deck.
"Here I sought out the mate, who was forward, watching the land—and at once took him aside to tell him the fact. 'Well, sir,' said he coolly, 'and what of that? A sign of wind, certainly, before very long; but in the meantime we're sure to have it off the land.' 'That's one of the very reasons,' said I, 'for thinking this will be from seaward—since towards evening the land'll have plenty of air without it! But more than that, sir,' said I, 'I tell you, Mr Finch, I know the west coast of Africa pretty well—and so far south as this, the glass falling so low as twenty-seven, is always the sign of a nor'-westerly blow! If you're a wise man, sir, you'll not only get your upper spars down on deck, but you'll see your anchors clear!' Finch had plainly got furious at my meddling again, and said he, 'Instead of that, sir, I shall hold on everything aloft, to stand out when I get the breeze!' 'D' ye really think, then,' said I, pointing to the farthest-off streak of land, trending away by this time astern of us, faint as it was, 'do you think you could ever weather that point, with anything like a strong nor'-wester, besides a current heading you in, as you got fair hold of it again?' 'Perhaps not,' said he, wincing a little as he glanced at it; 'but you happen always to suppose what there's a thousand to one against, sir. Why, sir, you might as well take the command at once. But, sir, if it did come to that, I'd rather—I'd rather see the ship lost—I'd rather go to the bottom with all in her, after handling her as I know well how, than I'd see the chance given to you!' The young fellow fairly shouted this last word into my very ear—he was in a regular furious passion. 'You'd better let me alone, that's all I've got to say to you, sir!' growled he as he turned away; so I thought it no use to say more, and leant over the bulwarks, resolved to see it out.
"The fact was, the farther we got off the land now, the worse, seeing that if what I dreaded should prove true, why, we were probably in thirty or forty fathoms of water, where no anchor could hold for ten minutes' time—if it ever caught ground. My way would have been to get every boat out at once, and tow in till you could see the colour of some shoal or other from aloft, then take my chance there to ride out whatever might come, to the last cable aboard of us. Accordingly I wasn't sorry to see that by this time the whole bight of the coast was slowly rising off our beam betwixt the high land far astern and the broad bluffs upon her starboard bow; which last came out already of a sandy reddish tint, and the lower part of a clear blue, as the sun got westward on our other side. What struck me was, that the face of the water, which was all over wrinkles and winding lines, with here and there a quick ripple, when I went below, had got on a sudden quite smooth as far as you could see, as if they'd sunk down like so many eels; a long uneasy ground-swell was beginning to heave in from seaward, on which the ship rose; once or twice I fancied I could observe the colour different away towards the land, like the muddy chocolate spreading out near a river-mouth at ebb-tide—then again it was green, rather; and as for the look of the coast, I had no knowledge of it. I thought again, certainly, of the old quartermaster's account in the Iris, but there was neither anything like it to be seen, nor any sign of a break in the coast at all, though high headlands enough.