"Next minute I noticed over my shoulder, low down in the deep blue swell of the south, where the five bright stars of the Southern Cross were gleaming nearly upright over the top of a cocoa-clump on the opposite bank, for all the world like some diamond ornament; and I pointed it out to her, though I knew by the bearings of it how far the night was gone toward the middle. Its top and bottom stars flashed out of the pure face of heaven like jewels, each fit to buy the Great Mogul ten times over. The dark fringes of her two eyes showed brown over the light in them, while it looked like the hearts in violet flowers, as she turned. 'At sea,' said I, 'we mids used to know by it when eight-bells would come, to let us go below and turn in. Soon after you lose sight of the Pole-star you rise the Southern Cross—and the men had a notion it was a brooch the Virgin Mary lost from her breast, in the daylight, when she went up to heaven! 'Twas her son gave it her, they fancied, but 'twas always to be found in the dark—though, meanwhile, 'tis a sign to the Flying Dutchman, as he tries to weather the Cape, that he'll be forgiven at the day of judgment—so that's the reason it has the power of showing what's o'clock until then, and why the Cape is the Cape of Good Hope!' 'Yes, yes!' said she; 'in Paul and Virginia, I remember, when they were so unwilling to part, it——' But she stopped with a blush, as her eye met mine; and we were both so confused that, before I knew, I found myself beginning to stammer out all manner of tender words, I daresay, and to whisper her first name near her ear, she scarce seeming to mark the difference—in fact one bewildered sort of look was all she gave me at the moment, as if she were listening more to the hum rising out of the woods than to me.
"Once or twice the still shine of the lamp up through the open skylight-frame drew my eye to it in spite of me—it was the only light burning in the ship, and you saw the gleam of it from the starboard port-window of the cuddy, drawn in as it was for air, thrown on the dusky water, not many fathoms, apparently, off the jungly bank nearest the ship. I can't tell you how, but somehow or other the appearance of it there, like a yellow break in the misty shadow, letting one see the very froth floating over it, and the muddy tint of the river on its edges—with the hush below us in the cabin—awed me more than aught besides; and whether it was from mixing the thing with what happened afterwards, or how—perhaps the missionary moved inside—but when I noticed the gleam on the water quiver and darken for a moment, then shine out again, I felt I knew it was then the captain's spirit passed away. I slipped with a thrill of my blood to the skylight, and saw Macleod still asleep, the missionary settling his spectacles on his nose to read again, as if he had looked up too when I did; while the cot and bedclothes were hanging white in the shade as before, except that the knees were drawn up, and the head turned away. He might be dozing, though it came into my head I had heard the captain say he should last till the turn of the tide; and in fact all the sick men I ever knew die, unless there was something uncommon, died as the ebb came on. As I stepped back to the young lady's side, I could mark the Southern Cross by the after-edge of the mainmast, sparkling fairly upright above the cocoa-nut trees, and Orion high up nor'-westward seemed farther away—it was midnight. The thought flashed through me how something in the sky could draw up a man's soul, as the shot at his hammock-foot would sink his body down deep through blue water at sea—but the first light plash of the ebb alongside brought me back to the case in hand, and I gave Jacobs a quiet sign to look out sharp aloft.
"'Hark!' whispered Violet Hyde, suddenly, glancing sideways to me with her ear eagerly toward the shore, and putting back her hair with one hand to listen—'what is that?' I thought at first I could see a stir along the thick aloe-bushes, and make out the rustle of leaves; but the land-breeze was sighing in puffs through them already, and the fog beginning to creep out from over the bank, as if to meet the muddy stream from the other side; till next minute I heard what she meant, like wild cries from human creatures half choked, or out of breath, sounding along deep in the woods; then free out it rose in a clear chorus of savage screams and yells, and then seemed smothered up again. 'Twas only a pack of jackals hunting from thick bush to opening, but Violet pressed closer to me as the devilish noise drew nearer the river; and suddenly my hand met hers—to say what I felt, passes me—but the very next moment I had it fast clasped in my own, though I hadn't time enough to say what the thing was, before the entire pack of throats seemed to break out right upon the bank a little higher up than the ship, barking and yelping like the very hounds of Satan. ''Tis only the chase has taken to the water!' continued I, in a low voice, as the infernal uproar stopped at once.
"However, then, the sweet girl was trembling like a leaf; and, by Jove! madam, take it as you will, the man who wouldn't have had one arm round her before that, could have been no sailor—that's all. 'For God's sake, dear, dear Miss Hyde,' whispered I—'dearest Violet, let me take you under shelter—we may have dangerous work before long!'
"I started up from the bulwarks, in fact, for the river by this time was all aplash alongshore in the haze, and under the ship's bends, beginning to run past her side seaward, as the branches and loose stuff came floating out with the current off a point; the sedge and bulrushes opposite us moaning and clattering, as the breeze rushed through them, bringing the fog rolling down stream. The mist was closing overhead from both sides already, though the stars sparkled through the middle yet; and I knew the moon must be rising, fit to show us anything that came out of the upper reach. 'No—no!' faltered out Violet, in tears, as she slid herself quickly out of my hold, drawing the shawl over her with a shudder; 'I cannot go inside till we see them come back—my dear, dear father, I must see that he is safe!' 'By heaven! though,' exclaimed I, jumping upon the carronade to look out, 'those brutes are swimming after the deer, and the stream is bringing them down on our stern!' The Indiaman was swinging her stern down to the ebb, and through the dusk I fancied I just saw their black heads tipping here and there out of the water, amongst the driftwood and froth, where the light from the cabin port swung slowly into the mist, with the ship. However, they went past; and she hadn't got her bow fair to the current, when a man from the bow sung out, 'Hurrah! here's the boats now!'
"'Where, where?' said I, springing forward to the fore-chains, while the young lady stood as if her life hung on the next word. 'There, sir, right ahead almost as she swings,' said the sailor; and thick as the blue fog was close to us, the cream-coloured haze filling up the reach of the river beyond, was lighting up like white gauze with the moon, in which I saw two or three black objects come dropping out as if from the creek, their oar-blades flashing in it. But I thought they crowded together awkwardly, like maimed craft, and the weight seemed to keep them down, unless, as I hoped, they were waiting for the others. 'No, no, Mr Collins!' whispered Jacobs, suddenly sliding down a topmast backstay to my side, 'they're canoes, sir!' 'By the Lord! so they are,' said I, seeing a flourish of the paddles that betrayed them. 'They're hanging on yet, though, to catch us napping—keep cool, Bob, my man,' continued I, for my spirits rose, to find my fears mistaken as yet about our boats. 'But the cable—the cable!' added I hastily—'by George, they'll try to cut it, as sure as fate! Ready there—don't fire a shot till they're close—nothing but stupid nigger heathens after all, my lads! Quick, a couple of you,' said I, 'bowse up the jib at once, and down fore-topsail sheets—brace the yard sharp up, to cast her head down if they do cut! If we go aground, Jacobs, we're gone!'
"'Twas vain to think of hindering them, few as we were, and scarce able to see what they did for the fog; but the land-breeze already blew pretty fresh, and the ebb rushing on her bows made the Indiaman heave to it as her jib rose from the boom. I had no time to stand upon ceremony—to think of the pilotage again—with the savages, the narrow channel in the dusk, and the breakers together, was quite enough.
"In the very nick of such a breathless moment, I had just fancied I caught the stroke of their paddles coming on—when all at once, out of the open cabin-skylight aft, rose a sound, the like of which I never heard in my life—between a yell and a cry; but the mouth of the skylight seemed to send it up higher than the mast-heads, loud and long, into the slit of starlight between the fog. For a single second the marrow curdled in my bones, and I lost all thought even of the canoes ahead, 'twas so unearthly; till, catching a glimpse of Violet's white figure crouching in terror to the round-house door, I rushed aft, and looked down at the cuddy. It was all black as midnight below, the stink of the swinging lamp coming out; but by the horrible tumbling, staggering, struggling sound inside, you'd have thought it full of some awful thing, doing God knows what in the place—then a thump and a groan. I scarce believe I could have mustered heart to go down the companion and see—till next moment the Scotch mate's bare head and his shoulders came thrusting up out of the stair, wrestling wildly with three or four pitch-black naked figures—the narrow booby-hatch hindering them from sticking together to him, except one that leapt out almost on his back, aiming a fierce stroke with a club at his skull. Quick as thought, however, my coolness had come back to me, and I just sent the bullet from the ship's musket I had snatched up fair flash through his lungs, the blood spouting out of his mouth almost over us, as he spun round with his club in the air, and fell back—while smash after smash I brought the stock of my piece down on the crowns of the others, trying to get on deck too thick together; and Macleod was doing the same like a man, at the skylight, where they were catching at the edge of the frame. The shrieks of the ladies came off the poop above; and as for the men, they were dodging under the forecastle bulwarks as they fired at the canoes ahead, from the spears and arrows that came whistling over, and quivering into the planks near me. What else the fiendish wretches might be doing I didn't know, but I had no sooner managed to shove the scuttle over the booby-hatch, the second mate loading as fast as he could, and blazing away down into the skylight like a perfect devil, lighting up the black faces and sharp teeth of the savages below at every shot, rushing back, than I felt the Indiaman was broadside on to the tide and current, sweeping down to open the next reach with her jib and topsail full to the land-breeze. I sprang back to seize the wheel, near which Violet Hyde stood cowering with her two hands over her eyes, when, in the midst of it all, you may fancy my horror to catch a glimpse of one hideous black stealing round towards her in the shadow of the round-house, with a hatchet gleaming in one hand, and the other stretched out to clutch her. 'Twas the work of a second. I made one leap, and barely caught the blow on my gun-stock, as he took hold of her dress; then over he and I rolled on the deck, first one uppermost, then the other, till I found his strength was too much for me, breathless as I was.
"The fellow had his huge hand round my throat, choking me, and ready to spring up with the hatchet in his other fist—'twas the mulatto that had been with the Portuguese—when I saw Violet Hyde dart forward between me and the stars, throwing her large shawl round his head and arm from behind him, and holding it tight, her face turned away white as death. The mulatto loosened his grasp and jumped up, throwing her reeling back to the door; but I was on my feet as soon as he, twisting his hatchet from his grip, and sent the edge of it with all my force clean down into his brain, through cashmere and everything. Ere he had time to pull it off, he was stretched, breast and knees up, over the carronade-slide at my feet.
"The dear girl had fainted. I lifted her, and hurried with her to the sofa in the round-house, my heart swelling toward her in a way no man can tell, though there was not a moment to stay, for when I reached the wheel again, a sight broke upon me that showed the fearful danger we were in. The savages in the cuddy could be heard plunging out of the port to swim ashore; and though the ebb-tide was taking the ship apparently clear round the woody turn, she had no sooner opened the wide reach, where the fog was scattering before the breeze, than we began to see a stretch of the nearest bank, off our starboard bow, glimmering out to a huge fire on the edge, that lighted up the thick white haze like sulphur—throwing a bloody red glow on the eddies in-shore, with two or three black canoes dipping up and down in them; a crowd of dark naked negroes rushing round the fire, bringing logs and branches to throw in, till up it blazed again; the sparks flying into the smoke, the feathery black jungle sinking back behind, and the banyan branches shooting out into it, as if they were alive, licking the crimson gleams with their sharp leaves; while a horrible noise of tree-drums beating and buffalo-horns blowing floated off to us.