"On my mentioning what sort of 'notions' were found in Mr Snout's berth, and the drowning of his heathen images, the worthy planter went into perfect convulsions, till I thought I should have to slap him on the back to give him breath. 'What the deuce!' said he at last; 'Daniel must really have something worth his while to expect before he'd fail to look after such a treasure!' 'Ah,' said I, not attending to him, as I heard a stir on deck, 'there we go at last, cluing up the topsails, I suppose.' 'Seriously, now,' continued Mr Rollock, 'I can not fathom that vessel and her designs; but I bless my stars at getting clear off from the company of that tall Frenchman with his moustache—can't bear a moustache, Collins—always reminds me of those cursed Mahrattas that burnt my factory once. Couldn't the man shave like a Christian, I wonder? I defy you to enjoy mulligatawny soup and not make a beast of yourself, with ever so much hair over your mouth. By-the-way, Collins,' added he, eyeing me, 'since I saw you last, you've let your whiskers grow, and look more like one of your nauticals than Ford himself!—should scarce have known you! Any of it owing to the fair one up yonder, eh?' And the jolly old chap, whose own huge white whiskers gave him the cut of a royal Bengal tiger, pointed with his thumb over his shoulder towards the round-house above, with a wink of his funny round eye, that looked at you like a bird's. 'What do you suppose the Frenchman to be then, sir?' asked I, gloomily. 'Oh, either a madman, a spy, or something worse! Just guess what he asked me suddenly one morning—why, if I weren't a distinguished savant, and wouldn't like to study the botany of some island! "No, monsieur, not at all," replied I, in fearfully bad French. "The geology, then?" persisted he, with a curious gleam in his fierce black eyes—"does the research of monsieur lie in that direction?" "Why, no," I answered, carelessly, "I don't care a sacré about stones, or anything of the kind, indeed; indigo is my particular line, which may be called botany, in a way—I'm perhaps prejudiced in favour of it, monsieur!" The Frenchman leant his tufted chin on his hand,' continued Mr Rollock, 'meditated a bit, then glanced at me again, as if he didn't care though I were studying seaweed in the depths of the ocean rolling round us, and stalked downstairs. Then he took to Mrs Brady again, and lastly to the Yankee, whose conversations with him, I fancy, had a twang of both commerce and politics.' 'What do you think of it all, Mr Rollock?' inquired I, rather listlessly. 'It didn't strike me at the time,' said the planter, 'but now I just ask you, Collins, if there ain't a certain great personage studying geology at present in a certain island, not very far away, I suppose, where there's plenty of it, and deuced little botany, too, I imagine?' To this question of the old gentleman's I gave nothing but a half-stupid sort of stare, thinking as I was at the same time of something else I cared more about.
"By Jupiter! though,' cried I, on a sudden, 'instead of heaving the ship to, I do believe we've set topmast-stu'nsails, judging from the way she pitches into the water; there's the brig nearing the wind a point or two in chase, too; why, the fellow that has charge of the deck must be mad, sir!' Next minute the fire out of one of her bowchasers flashed out behind the blue back of a swell, and the sudden thud of it came rolling down to leeward over the space betwixt us, angrily, so to speak; as the brig's fore-course mounted with a wave, the sun shining clear on the seams and reef-points, till you caught sight of the anchor hanging from one bow, and the men running in her lee stun'sail-booms upon the yard-arms. The planter and I went on deck at once, where we found a fine breeze blowing, far out of sight of land, the Indiaman rushing ahead stately enough; while our young fourth officer appeared to have just woke up, and the watch were still rubbing their eyes, as if every man had been 'caulking it,' after last night's work. Even Mr Finch, when he came hastily up, seemed rather doubtful what to do, till the salt old third-mate assured him the brig was a British sloop-of-war, as anyone accustomed to reckoning sticks and canvas at sea could tell by this time; upon which our topsails were clued up, stu'nsails boom-ended, and the ship hove into the wind to wait for the brig.
"When the brig's main-yard swung aback within fifty fathoms of our weather-quarter, hailing us as she brought to, I had plenty to think of, for my part. There she was, as square-countered and flat-breasted a ten-gun model as ever ran her nose under salt water, or turned the turtle in a Bahama squall; though pleasant enough she looked, dipping as we rose, and prancing up opposite us again with a curtsey, the brine dripping from her bright copper sheathing, the epaulets and gold bands glancing above her black bulwarks, topped by the white hammock-cloth; marines in her waist, the men clustering forward to see us, and squinting sharp up at our top-hamper. It made one ashamed, to take in the taut, lightsome set her spars had, tall and white, with a rake in them, and every rope running clean to its place; not a spot about her, hull or rig, but all English and ship-shape, to the very gather of her courses and topgallant-sails in the lines, and the snowy hollow her two broad topsails made for the wind, as they brought it in betwixt them to keep her steady on the spot.
"'His Britannic Majesty's sloop Podargus!' came back in exchange for our mate's answer; and though 'twas curious to me to think of meeting the uniform again in five minutes, I saw plainly this was one of the nice points that Westwood and I might have to weather. Your brig-cruisers are the very sharpest fellows alive, so far as regards boarding a merchant craft; if they find the least smell of a rat, they'll overhaul your hold to the very dunnage about the keelson; and I knew that, if they made out Westwood, they'd be sure to have me too; so you may fancy that, during the short time her boat took to drop and pull under our quarter, I was making up my mind as to the course. In fact, I was almost resolved to leave the ship at any rate, feeling as I did after what I'd heard; but while most of the passengers were running about and calling below for their shoes and what not, the judge and his daughter came out of the round-house, and I caught a single glance from her for a moment, as she turned to look at the brig, that held me at the instant like an anchor in a strong tideway.
"I kept my breath as the lieutenant's hand laid hold of the man-rope at the head of the side-ladder, expecting his first question; while he swung himself actively on deck, looking round for a second, and followed by another; the wide-awake looking young middy in the boat folding his arms, and squinting up sideways at the ladies with an air as knowing as if he'd lived fifty years in the world, instead of perhaps thirteen.
"The younger of the lieutenants took off his cap most politely, eyeing the fair passengers with as much respect as he gave cool indifference to the cadets; the other, who was a careful-like working first-luff, said directly to Mr Finch, 'Well, sir, you seem inclined to lead us a bit of a chase; but I don't think,' added he, smiling from the Indiaman to the brig, 'you'd have cost us much trouble after all!' Here Finch hurried out his explanation, in a half-sulky way, when the naval man cut him short by saying that 'Captain Wallis desired to know' if we had touched at St Helena. 'May I ask, sir,' went on the officer, finding we had preferred the Cape, 'if you command this vessel—or is the master not on deck—Captain—Captain Wilson, I think you said?' The mate said something in a lower voice, and the lieutenant bared his head more respectfully than before, seeing the Company's ensign, which had been lowered half-apeak while the boat was under our side; after which Finch drew him to the capstan, telling him, as I guessed, the whole affair of the schooner, by way of a great exploit, with hints of her being a pirate or such-like.
"The brig's officer, however, was evidently too busy a man, and seemingly in too great a hurry to get back, for listening much to such a rigmarole, as he no doubt thought it; they had been at the Cape, and were bound for St Helena again where she was one of the cruisers on guard; so that what with Finch's story, and what with the crowd round the second lieutenant, all anxious to get the news, I saw it wouldn't cost Westwood and me great pains to keep clear of notice.
"There were some riots in London, and three men hanged for a horrid murder, the Duke of Northumberland's death, not to speak of a child born with two heads, or something—all since we left England. Then there was Lord Exmouth come home from Algiers; and Fort Hattrass, I think it was, taken in India, which made every cadet prick up his ears; Admiral Plampin was arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, too, in the Conqueror, seventy-four, and on his way steering for St Helena, to take Sir Pulteney Malcolm's place. All of a sudden, I heard the young luff begin to mention a captain of a frigate's having been shot two months ago, by his own first lieutenant, on Southsea beach, and the lieutenant being supposed to have gone off in some outward-bound ship. 'By-the-by,' said the officer to Mr Rollock, 'you must have left about that time—did you touch at Portsmouth?' 'Why, yes,' answered the planter, 'we did. What were the parties' names?' I edged over to Westwood near the head of the companion, and whispered to him to go below to our berth, in case of their happening to attend to us more particularly; and the farther apart we two kept the better, I thought. The officer at once gave Captain Duncombe's name, but didn't remember the other; on which he turned to his first lieutenant with, 'I say, Mr Aldridge, d'you recollect the man's name that shot the captain of the N'Oreste, as they called her?' 'What, that bad business?' said the other; 'no, Mr Moore, I really don't—I hope he's far enough off by this time!' My breath came again at this, for it had just come into my mind that Finch, who was close by, had got hold of the name, although he fancied it mine.
"I was sauntering down the stair, thinking how much may hang at times on a man's good memory, when I heard the first lieutenant say, 'By-the-by, though, now I recollect, wasn't it Westwood?' 'Yes, yes, Westwood it was!' said the other. Then came an exclamation from Finch, and shortly after he and the first lieutenant stepped down together, talking privately of the matter, I suppose, to the cuddy, where I had gone myself. The lieutenant looked up at me seriously once or twice, then went on deck, and a few minutes afterwards the brig's boat was pulling towards her again, while the passengers flocked below to breakfast. I saw the thing was settled; the mate could scarcely keep in his triumph, as he eyed me betwixt surprise and dislike, though rather more respectfully than before. As for Westwood, he sat down with the rest, quite ignorant of what had turned up; notwithstanding he threw an uneasy look or two through the cuddy port at the brig, still curveting to windward of us, with her main-yard aback; for my part, I made up my mind, in the meanwhile, to bear the brunt of it.
"'Twas no matter to me now where I went; whereas, with Westwood, it was but a toss-up betwixt a rope and a prison, if they sent him back to England. No fear of my being tried in his place, of course; but if there had been, why, to get away both from him and her, I'd have to run the chance! There was a bitter sort of a pleasure, even, in the thought of taking oneself out of the way—to some purpose, too, if I saved a fellow like my old schoolmate from a court-martial sentence, and a man far worthier to win the heart of such a creature than myself: while the worst of it was, I was afraid I'd have come to hate Tom Westwood if we had stayed near each other much longer.