"Ha, true enough!" says Absalom, looking down on me and his eyes very bright. "But for my wise brother Adam I should ha' left thee ... never to have known the joy and wonder of thee. So, 'tis Adam gives thee to my love ... and so do I now thank God for thee, Adam."
"And oh," sighs she, "have you told him of your promise to me? If not speak it now that I may hear it again."
"Why then, Adam," says he, slipping hand within my arm, "when we're wed I'll go no more adventuring. I'll be done with the sea. Instead I'll buy me a plantation and slaves, raise tobacco and sugar cane, and bide with my sweet wife. And by Heavens,—should we be blessed with a son, his name shall be Adam." Now after this we were silent all, my poor heart being too full for speech and they regarding one another in a communion that went beyond need of words.
"A home!" says Ab. "What blessing to find home at last!"
"Home!" she whispered. "Oh, it will be so very nigh to heaven it frights me lest aught of earth prevent."
"And this," says he, "is why I would have our marriage soon ... to-night ... this very hour. I have spoke to Smy and——"
"No!" says she, with a catch in her dear voice. "This would seem no marriage."
"Yet," says he, very plaintive—humble, "true and lawful indeed, by the ancient law o' the sea and——"
"No!" says she again, and mighty resolute, "I love not your sea-laws."
"But, oh, my Antonia," says he, very heedful to whisper this beloved name, yet mighty ardent.
"Nay, Absalom," she answered, whispering also, and with note of such sweet pleading that I stole away and they all unaware, so lost were they to all in this world save each other.
June 13
Coming on deck very early I find Smy gazing heavenwards like one in an ecstasy, whereupon I looked up also but seeing no more than cloudless blue, asked what he so gazed at.
"Well," says he, shaking grim head at the universe, "I watch for that which is not yet and yet shall be, or curse me for papistical Spaniard! 'Tis well you've your sea legs, Adam, for my nose warns me of a change. I smell weather in the offing." I asked if he meant a storm.
"Worse!" says he. "Somewhen, soon or late, over to wind'ard yonder you shall see 'the ox's eye'." I asked what this might be. "Tempest," he answered, "that shows first much like the eye of an ox and not much bigger, yet cometh down swiftly and with such fury o' wind as shall blow a ship's canvas to rags all in a moment, dismast or drive her bows under—down to Davy Jones. I've seen many a stout ship served so ere now." I now asked him whereabouts we were by his estimation. "Why," says he, "yonder to looard bearing sou'-westerly lieth the Island Grande wi' Santa Catalina and coast o' Brazil beyond, and these be stormy regions at this season. Howbeit, Adam, I smell tempest, and for that matter so doth Lom. You shall see us scudding under bare poles afore long." The which dismal prophecy was fulfilled and sooner than I expected. For as I sat at my studies after day of stifling heat, I was conscious of a strange, chill air and a growing darkness, riven suddenly by vivid lightning flash followed immediately by such tremendous, stunning thunderclap as I had never heard, and this merged in odd, whistling roar that appalled me. I felt the ship quake, then plunge so sheer and dizzily it seemed she must be diving headlong to the veriest deeps of ocean. And lying where this so violent movement had flung me, I waited the stifling inrush that was to drown me. But somehow this brave ship righted herself and for a moment was a lull, a strange hush wherein I heard the voice of Absalom in loud command answered by other voices and the shrill summons of Bo'sun Ned's pipe. So up I stumbled and out to a swaying deck where wet, wind-blown figures moved amid the hissing spray of monstrous waves that raved all about us and a dreadful blur of cloudy blackness above our reeling mastheads. Even as I looked, the wind smote us again, lifting the seas to engulf us,—a great, foaming wave broke inboard, filling the waist and sweeping the quarterdeck with white water so that I thought we must surely founder. But once again this noble ship freed herself and rose defiant to this raging tempest. All night long Absalom kept the deck and I with him, since no chance had any man for sleep in this fierce turbulence. And in these terrible hours I loved Absalom for his bold heart and cheery spirit where he stood by the four steersmen, conning the ship to keep her before this howling fury of wind. Came dawn at last and the tempest increasing upon us so that looking from sheltered corner upon the terror of this raging sea all lashed to foam and flattened by this great ferocity of wind, I could not think how any ship might live therein, and yet by God His mercy we do. May He have us yet in His care and in especial Antonia.
June 16
For three days we have driven before this storm and no glimpse of sun or star, so that whither we are being carried none knoweth. The poor ship's labour so violent that no man may go save by life lines rigged fore and aft, or sit or lie but must hold on against her violent rolling. And I no chance to write these days.
June 17
This day in early forenoon with Ab. on the poop, and both nigh spent for lack of sleep, when comes such blast of wind as hurled me to the lee rail there to cling for my life. In which moment, and above even this raving tumult, I heard a rending crash and beheld our foremast beat overboard, followed a moment later by the main. So lay our poor brave ship rolling helpless, buffeted by merciless seas and now battered cruelly by the shackled wreckage of her masts that smote her amain, threatening to stove her with every rushing billow. And in this dreadful calamity I prepared myself for that sharp, brief struggle in these choking waters where life must change to death and this again (as I do believe) to more glorious life. Thus I gave up all hope for the ship, but not so Ab. In this dire peril he became to me and all men the inspiration to battle still 'gainst destruction. For clapping speaking trumpet to lip, he roared above the gale: "Forrard there! Stand by, my lads, I'm with ye!" And down swaying poop-ladder went he to haul himself forward by the life-lines along foam-swept decks, and after him went I. And now he cries for knives and axes to cut the wreckage adrift ere the thunderous blows of our drifting masts breach and sink us. So to work we went, blinded by spray, staggered by rolling deck, choked and half-drowned by the waves that broke over us, we yet wrought amain to hack and hew asunder the tangle of ropes and twisted cordage. Once a great sea nigh beat me overboard but a powerful arm stayed me and Bo'sun Ned's gasping voice cheered me. And so at last we cut ourselves free of these tossing masts that were pounding our poor ship so cruelly. Thus was this peril at least averted.
June 18
To-day, thank God, the wind abating, but seas still high and ship violent as ever. This morning as Antonia, Ab., divers others and myself were in the great cabin, making shift to eat and hold on the while against the ship's violent lurches, and she making this and our consequent awkwardness reason for merriment (like the valiant soul she is) to us cometh Smy with Bo'sun Ned and the carpenter to say the ship in rolling had opened all her upper-works and seams and started the butt-ends of her planking below the waterline, and was so leaking they doubted the pumps might ever free her. At this ill news away goes Ab. to set all pumps agoing and do all that skill and determination might for the saving of our brave, sore-wounded ship.
June 19
Sea and wind falling, but alas—too late for our benefit, it seems, for despite all efforts the leak gains upon us. All this day, off and on, I have taken my turn at the pumps, though we all know this wearisome labour vain and but a means to delay the inevitable. For the Bold Adventuress is doomed. I write this with grief and therewith pain of body, my hands being sore blistered from the pumps. And our ill-fated ship quite steady now save for long, sleepy roll ever and anon that proves her waterlogged and soon or late must sink.