Book: In Luck at Last

W >> Walter Besant >> In Luck at Last




"'Either a yacht, sir, or a Government dispatch boat--something of
that kind, sir,' says I to Mr. Robinson, who was sitting near me with
the lady.

"He jumped up and took a look, and whilst he was working away with the
telescope, the breeze comes along right out of the red sky abeam where
the steamer was, with twice its former strength, roughening the blue
water into hollows, and bowing down the yacht till the slope of her
deck was like a roof. The crew jumped about shortening canvas, and the
yacht began to snore as she felt the wind. On a sudden, and as if the
steamer had only just then spied us, she altered her course by three
or four points, as one could see by the swift rising of her hull,
till, whilst the sun was still hanging a middling height over the sea
line, you could see the whole of the vessel--a long, low craft of
about one hundred and fifty tons--sweeping through the seas like an
arrow, the smoke streaming black and fat from her small, yellow
funnel, and her hull sinking out of sight one moment and reappearing
the next in a sort of jump of the whole foaming wash, as if, by Jove,
her screw would thrust her clean out of the water.

"The lady looked at her with a sort of indifference; but Mr. Robinson
was pale enough as he handed me the glass, and said, 'Williams, see if
you know her.'

"I took a look at her, and answered, 'It's hard to tell those steamers
till you see their names, sir; but if she's not the Violet,
belonging to General Coldsteel (of course these are false names),
she's uncommonly like her. But, law bless us! how they're driving
her! Why, there'll be a bust up if they don't look out. They'll blow
the boilers out of her!'"

'Indeed, I never before saw any vessel rush so. She'd shear clear
through some of the larger seas, and you didn't need watch her long to
make you reckon you'd seen the last of her. Then Mr. Robinson, talking
like a man half in a rage, half in a fright, orders me to pack sail on
the schooner; but it was already blowing a single-reef breeze, and I
had no idea of losing our spars, and so I told him very firmly that
the yacht had all she needed, and that more would only stop her by
burying her: and I had my way. But we were foaming through it, too; we
wanted no more pressure; the freshening wind had worked the schooner
into a fair nine knots, and it was first-rate sailing too, considering
the character of the sea and the weight of the breeze. 'Twas now
certain beyond all question that the steamer meant to close us, though
I thought she had a queer way of doing it, for sometimes she'd head
right at us, and then put her helm down and keep on a course parallel
with ours, forging well ahead and then shifting the helm for a fresh
run at us. There was no anxiety that I could see in the lady's looks,
but Mr. Robinson was quite mightily bothered and worried and pale
enough to make me suppose that all this meant a pursuit, with a
capture to follow; and it was certain that whatever intentions the
steamer had, there was nothing in the night which was approaching to
promise us a chance of sneaking clear, for the sky was pure as glass,
and it wouldn't be long after sundown before the moon would be filling
the air with a light like morning.

Well, sir, fathom by fathom the steamer had her way of us. She had
drawn close enough to let Mr. Robinson make out the people abroad. As
for me, I was at the helm; for there was something in the maneuvering
of the steamer that made me suspicious, and I wasn't going to trust
any man but myself at the tiller. We held on as we were; we couldn't
improve the schooner's speed by bringing the wind anywhere else than
where it was; and no good was to be done by cracking on, even though
it had, come to our dragging what we couldn't carry; for the steamer's
speed was a fair fourteen if it was a mile, and our yacht was not
going to do that, you know, or anything like it. The moon had arisen,
and the sea ran like heaving snow from the windward, and by this time
the steamer was about half a mile ahead of us, about three points on
the weather bow. She was as plain as if daylight lay on her. All the
time the party and Mr. Robinson had kept the deck, she taking a view
now and then of the steamer with an opera-glass.

"Suddenly I yelled out, 'Mr. Robinson, by all that's holy, sir, that
vessel there means to run us down! Lads,' I shouted, 'tumble aft
quick, and see the boats all ready for lowering!'

"The lady jumped up with a scream, and seized hold of Mr. Robinson's
arm, who seeming to forget what he was about, shook her off, and fell
to raving to me to see that the steamer didn't touch us. By thunder,
sir, there was the cowardly brute slanting her flying length as though
to cross our hawse, but clearly aiming to strike us right amidships.
I shouted to the men to make ready and 'bout ship, and a minute after
I shoved the tiller over, and the yacht rounded like a woman waltzing.
But before we had gathered way the steamer was after us. The lady sent
up scream after scream. Mr. Robinson stood motionless, seeing as plain
as I that if the steamer meant to sink us there was no seamanship in
this wide world that could stop her; and I saw the men throwing off
their shoes and half stripping themselves, ready for what was to come.

"The steamer headed dead to strike our weather-beam; she rushed at us
with the foam boiling over her bows; once more I chucked the schooner
right up into the wind, and the steamer went past us like a rocket
under our stern. I looked at her and sha'n't ever forget what I saw.
There was a white-haired man, with white whiskers and bareheaded,
roaring and raging at us in the grasp of three or four seamen. 'Twas
like a death-struggle. A chap who looked as if he had just seized the
wheel was grinding it hard over to get away from us; and so the
steamer fled past, more like a nightmare than a reality, and in a few
minutes was standing with full speed to the norrard, where, in less
than a quarter of an hour, she faded slick out of sight.

"It was some time after I had left the 'Evangeline' and was at home
before I got to know the meaning of this here wonderful adventure. The
party, it turned out, was no less than the wife of the general as
owned the 'Violet,' and she was running away with Mr. Robinson. May be
our men had talked about our going to the Mediterranean, but anyhow
the general who was in London at the time, got scent that his wife had
bolted with Mr. Robinson in the 'Evangeline,' and in less than
twenty-four hours he was after us in his steamer. He tracked us by
speaking the vessels we passed; and the light airs and calms we had
encountered easily allowed him to overhaul quickly. And it turned out
that when he had fairly sighted us, he sent the man at the wheel
forward, and took the helm himself. The crew dursn't express their
wonder aloud, though they knew he was no hand at steering, not to
mention the mad agitation he was in, and they let him have his way
when he headed the steamer for us, expecting that he merely wished to
close us in order to speak; but when I put my helm down and the
steamer passed, and they spied the general rounding his craft
evidently to run us down, they threw themselves upon him to save their
own lives as well as ours. That was the sight I saw as the steamer
rushed past. A few moments after they had gone clear the poor old
fellow was seized with an attack of apoplexy, which killed him right
off, and thereupon they headed right away to England with the dead
body aboard.

"What do you think of this for a yarn? Would any one suppose such
vengefulness could exist in a white-haired man that had known his
seventieth birthday? What did he want to go and try and drown me and
my mates for? _We_ weren't running away with the female party. But the
world's full of romantic capering, sir; and I tell you what it
is--'tain't all fair sailing even in yachts, modest and pretty as the
divarsion is."

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