THE SOUND OF A SCURRYING ON DECK CAUSED ME TO START UP SUDDENLY.
Strange noises sounded all about me. Every plank overhead and on each side seemed to have a voice of its own. It was the first time I heard these sounds. Some loud bawling and the sound of scurrying from on deck caused me to start up suddenly, and I almost cracked my skull against a beam. After that I could not sleep, and lowering myself from the bunk I dressed and climbed out to the air.
I had imagined, from the patter of many feet, that I should find the whole crew trying to save the ship from some distress, and I was not prepared for the calm sight which met my eyes. It was moonlight, and all sail was set. The brig rose and fell steadily, occasionally taking a sea-chug under her broad bows with a jar which made her quiver, and the water would fly up in a gleaming sprinkle and scatter along the wet rail. Only four men were in sight—one at the wheel, two gathered in the lee of the forward deck-house, and the first mate leaning back against the skylight, smoking a long clay pipe.
(Oh, I have forgotten to mention that I had noticed the captain snoring in his bunk as I left the cabin, which had been reassuring.) The cool breeze and the damp on my cheeks were grateful to me, and then and there I fell in love with the sea (and I have truly never lost it). I staid on deck breathing a strange freedom until the morning watch.
About noon of this day the breeze had freshened, and we were carrying only our lower sails. The planter and his wife both kept the cabin, suffering much from the unusual motion, but as for myself I can here record I have never felt a touch of that sickness which is expected to accompany a first voyage or to follow a long stay ashore. I revelled in the swinging of the vessel, and wished it would blow harder, which it did.
At four o'clock in the afternoon a sail was made out to the northward, and holding the course that we already were we would have passed close by her, as she was bearing down on us before the wind. I noticed, however, that as the stranger became clearer, and her lower courses could be seen, the first mate went aloft with a glass, and hurrying down held consultation with Captain Morrison. In pursuance to orders, the brig's course was altered a few points, and we stood to the eastward to give the approaching vessel a wider berth. But no sooner had we done so than the latter held up a trifle, as if it were her intention to intercept us, and an hour's more sailing brought her into plain view.
She was a vessel the like of which I had never seen up to that day. Her hull appeared as large as one of the many-windowed warehouses of the wharves of Baltimore, and her towering tiers of canvas gleamed white in the sunlight. A smother of foam rolled under her forefoot.
A few more turns of the wheel now, and we were holding a course due east, sailing close on the wind.
"She means to head us off," said Captain Morrison, looking about with a scowl.