So, even had the crew been willing to speak a ship that the lady Aurora might be transferred, no opportunity to do so came along; nothing hove in sight but a star of sail in the liquid distance, and this only at long, long intervals.
I’ll not tell you of the weather we fell in with between Cape Horn and the distant island we were steering for; what do you care about the weather and the weather of so long ago as Waterloo year? Otherwise I could fill you several pages with pictures of hard gales, in one of which the brig lay for a wild, terrifying time with her lee rail under, her hull scarce to be seen for the smother that filled her decks, and I could please you with pictures of soft calms in which our stem tranquilly broke the cold gray water that reflected on either hand of the vessel the silver sheen of her overhanging wings; and I could give you pictures of merry breezes that swept us onward fast as the melting head of the blue surge itself ran. Enough!
One afternoon I sat upon the edge of the skylight frame with my arms folded and my eyes fixed upon the sea. The sun was warm, the breeze brisk. A pleasanter day had not shone upon us for a fortnight past. My lady Aurora seated on a cabin chair at a little distance from me was intent on an English book, one of the new volumes which had belonged to Greaves. Her posture was very easy and reposeful; her dark eyes wandered slowly down the printed page; often she was puzzled by the meaning of a word and frowned at it; you would have supposed her a person without a single cause for anxiety, a lady who was sailing to her home, which might now not be very far off.
Yan Bol was in charge. He had been standing for some considerable time beside the wheel, occasionally exchanging a sentence in guttural Dutch with Wirtz, who held the spokes. At last he came along the deck and stood in front of me.
“Vhat might hov been der situation of der brick at noon, Mr. Fielding?” he inquired.
I gave him the ship’s place.
“Dot vhas close!” he said.
“It was,” I answered.
“Donnerwetter!” he thundered, “der island vhas aboardt!” and he looked ahead at the sea as though he expected to behold the Island of New Amsterdam.
The lady Aurora, leaving the book opened upon her lap, raised her eyes and listened.