Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 277 — page 22: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“~~ = “<r ere * iy ‘ a ready,and that he wish poe iy ft aaa rs rie he was 22 ee a —— or os ee When Lieutenant Vanderwerk went over the side at last, he left behind him one heart, full of relief and thankfulness, in Eaton’s bosom. CHAPTER XXII, THE BRITISH SQUADRON. THs gale that bad caught the schooner off the Babamas lested for three days, and drove the little vessel out of her course into the middle of the Atlantic ocean, where she was buffeted about like a chip in the rapids of a mill-stream. She had not the resisting power of a large ship, and her rig was not meant for such storms; but, for a schooner, she behaved with such stoutness that her men became prouder of her thar ever; ready to swear that the Saucy Jane could tace a burricane, and live through it, witbout shipping a drop of water. The pumps were sounded at the end of the gale, and the schooner was found to be as dry as abone. She had not strained a single seam. When Eaton aunounced this to Blair, he found the owner of the privateer in the cxbin, attend- ing to his wife, who had been much frightened during the storm, and very sea-sick. Eaton bad cause, very soon after his arrival in the cabin, to bless the forethought of Biair in turning over the command of the sch oner to him before the storm set in; for assoon as Lady Jane beard that the captain was in the cabin, sbe came out to scold bim, witb such persistence, that Eaton, who had admired her for her beauty, blessed his stars that he had not mar- ried a woman, however beautiful, with a temper like her dictatorial little ladyship. “I want this schooner put on her way to the nearest land, at once,” she told Eaton, as soon as she could get out of her state-room and pre- sent a respectable appearance, after her severe trials. ‘‘I want the vessel sent back at once, sir. I cannot remain in this miserable condition any longer. I have vearly been dying for the last three days, and it is infamous that you can’t find some way to put things into a better shape, when you bave a woman on board.” Lady Jane was evidently a spoiled child, and had been so used to having her own way, that it was a novelty. to ber to find herself in a posi- tion where she could not command every one she saw. ’ Eaton stood his ground with sufficient firm- ness to say: “| hope your ladyship does not think that the vessel has been run into this gale with any malice on my part. LI assure you that itis just as unwelcome to me as to you, and that 1 am getting out of the way of it as fast as I can.” Lady Jane looked at her husband, and saw that he bad a smile on bis face that he could not repress, at the notion of her complaining to Ea- ton of astorm which was beyond his control, and on look made her answer ina more mollified ne: ** Well, I suppose that you cannot help the storm—” -**T assure your ladyship that the storm comes and goes without asking leave of any one, even the King of Great Britain and Ireland.” * Well, L know that; but what 1 don’t know, and want to know is this, when are we going to to America?” “That IL cannot tell your ladyship, at this moment; but, as soon asI have worked out the dead-reckoning on the chart I shall be able to, say, within a few miles, whereabouts we are; and, if | get a look at the sun, to-day, I can make the thing certain.” Lady Jane looked wise, and answered the young officer with a great dealof dignity: ‘Very well, sir; wheu you have ascertained the place, 1 wish to know just where we are, and when we sball get toour home. Il am tired of this kind of life,’ Blair gave Eaton a rueful look as he went out. It was the look of a man who, having a happy bachelor, finds bimself, for the first time in his life, subject to the dominion of a person who cannot be reasoned with, but who is wholly governed by feelings. © Eaton shrugged his shoulders, and went on deck, thinking to himself as he went: ** Poor Blair! It is not always prize toa marry an earl’s daughter, What a difference in my “the morning after the storm was a cloudy one, and no sight of the sun was obtained till after th. meridian was passed, which made it necessary to take two sets of observations, and to wait for over an hour, before the last set, which decided the tion of the vessel, was taken. During this whole time Lady Jane ‘Blair was sending out messages to the young captain by the steward, asking, ‘“‘when he would be finished,” and ‘‘ when he would be ready to tell her what she wanted to know,” till in his impatience, sent back word that **he would let lady know when he was that she would re- member that he was in command of the schoon- safety, er, responsible for her lad rom ut and that he could not perform p _ This quieted her ladyship fora time; and, The Saucy —L<— LLL lta a tit when Eaton had finished his calculations, he went down to the cabin, and put the chart on the table, saying: “Here, Lady Jane, is our position, and you can see for yourself just where weare. We are in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, and it will take us at least a week of fair winds, or a three-days’ gale, to get back the ground we have lost during the past storm.” Lady Jane looked at the chart with dismay, after she had found out, by poring over the figures, that the schooner was as least two thousand miles from land and out of the track of vessels, as indicated on the map; but she made shift to thank Eaton for his courtesy very | gracefully, and seemed, from that time, to have overcome her first dislike to the sea, and even to be gradually acquiring a liking for it, as the days rolled along and the breezes that followed the storm wafted them toward the American coast, It was a time of year when the Atlantic is given to ligbt winds and baffling calms, and the Saucy Jane, which had come the distance, with a gale behind her, in three days, was de- tained for more than a week, out of sight of land, till, one morning Eaton was able to an- nounce tober ladyship that he hoped to show her land by the next noon. The news actually drew a sigh from Lady Jane, who observed to her busband: ‘* Well, I declare, I shall be sorry to leave the little schooner that bas brought us so safely, But where shall we land, Captain Eaton?’ ‘We are in latitude—” he began. ‘Oh, I really beg your pardon; but I don’t understand in the Jeast about latitude and longi- tude,” said the lady, witha saucy curl of the lip. “ Be good enough to tell me what place in ee will be nearest to.us, when we first see and?” ‘Somewhere near the city of New York, Lady Jane.” ‘Thank you, sir.” And with that, Lady Jane went on deck, and passed the rest of the afternoon in watching the horizon for any symptom of land, and asking her husband, every second minute, whether such and such a low fog-bank on the water was not *‘ land at last.” But the®land never comes to the impatient, any quicker than the winds will carry the vessel in sight: and Lady Jane was doomed to disap- pointment that day. The hours rolled on, and the heat increased, with alight breeze from the northeast, and a good deal of fog on the face of the sea, when the lookout called aown to the deck: “ Sail ho?” Lady Jane uttered a cry of astonishment. ‘* Where in the name of goodness J can’t see anything.” Blair pointed out to her, just emerging from a bank of fog in the south, a largeship, ‘‘ under easy canvas,” as it is called, with her topsails and topgallantsails set, and her mainsail brailed up, banging in graceful folds. ‘* That is the same vessel we spoke at the be- ginning of the gale, Jenny,” be told dis wife. “Tbat is the Constitution; a regular Yankee frigate, my love; if you never saw one be- ore,” The English girl gazed at the strange. vessel with much curiosity. Lady Jane was still an Eoglishwoman in all her prejudice; theugh she had run away witha Yankee. She hal heard a ss many sheers at the Constitution, which had been stigmatized, in British publications, as ‘‘a bunch of pine boards under a bit of striped bunting, not fit to stand before one of his majesty’s ships for a mo- ment.” Something of this, perhaps, was in her thoughts. as she said to Blair: ‘‘ Whata pity it is, that she will have to be captured, and taken to London! She is such a pretty ship!” Indeed, the Constitution was a remarkably handsome _ in those days of bluff bows and clumsy models. She was gracefully molded, and her lines were fine for a frigate; while there was an appear- ance of majestic strength about her, that had already given her the name she was to make so famous, *“ Old Tronsides.” As she came out of the fog, she was moving very slowly, the wind being so light as to be almost imperceptible; at times sinking to adead calm. The sailsof the Saucy Jane were spread to their ubmost capacity, but she was hardly mov- ing, though she was a vessel meant to show her best points in light winds, The winds that day were too light even for the Saucy Jane. hen they first sighted the Constitution she was moving under the influ- ence of a ‘‘cat’s paw,” which carried her for- ward with deceptive rapidity, but failed aftera little and left ber motionless on the sea. A lit- the later the same or a different “ cat’s-paw ” caught the schooner and drove her forward in the direction of the frigate, The Constitution hoisteda signal which Eaton read from the signal-book to the number of the frigate, and he replied with the name of the Saucy Jane, spelt out with a good deal of trou- ble. Then the. two vessels continued to ap- Jane, Privateer. proach each other in the light winds till they were near enough to speak. As they came together the head of an officer was put over the side of the American frigate, and he demanded: “Is that the Saucy Jane again? Who com- mands her now?” ‘‘ The same person as before,” replied 4f« von, looking up. “Is that you, Van?” ‘*Ay, ay,” was the responsein the voice of bis friend. ‘‘How are you, again? If you will come on board and dine with our mess, we shall he very happy to entertain you, Captain Eaton; and Captain Hull authorizes me to say that no one on board the old Constitution has any idea that you were treated with anything like jus- tice in your trial. Will you come on board?” Eaton flushed slightly at the speech. Lady Jane Blair was on deck, and she opened her eyes wide at the speech of Vanderwerk. He even saw her turn and whisper to her bus- band, and the bot flush of shame come to his cheek, to think tbat this odious trial was to come up to him at every turn, fo curse bim just when be was beginning to think that it was all forgotten. He managed to answer constrainedly: ‘**Many thanks, old fellow; but I cannot leave my schooner. I am the only navigator on board, except the owner, and I can’t expect him to do amg | work for me,” Here Blair interposed with his usual kindness: ‘‘ Go on, man, if you want tosee your friends, I can take care of the schooner for a little while. There is nothing to do in this sort of weather except to keep the sails from banging to slats in the calm. Go on and see your friends,” Thus urged, Eaton had noresource but to con- sent, and in a Jittle while after he was standin on the deck of the Constitution and had his han clasped by more than a dozen of his friends of old times, all seemingly anxious to assure him that they felt for him and respected bim as much as ever. He was so much overcome with their kind- ness that the tears came into bis eyes, and he could hardly speak for a minute. But when he was burried aft to the poop, and brought into the awful presence of the captain, he felt ready to sink through the deck with con- fusion; for in Captain Hull he recognized one of the members of the court martial which bad found bim guilty of cowardice on the testimony of perjurers, and he was surprised beyond m as- ure when the captain held out his hand, and siid, in the frankest manner: ‘‘Mr, Eaton, I am glad to see you on board the Constitution, and to assure you that, if you go on as well as you are doing now, the time will come when I shall be only too happy to join ina pee to Congress for the reversal of what 1 now think was a most unjust sen- tence, sir.” Eaton could hardly believe his ears: but the kind pressure ofthe old captain’s hand con- vinced him that he was awake, and he made shift to say, in a faltering voice: ““T am sure, sir, that I hope that it may come; but L have given up alJl confidence on the subject, sir. Itbank ycu for your good will in the matter.” Then he was carried away by the officers, and made a guest at their table, in all the style of which a frigate’s gun-room was capable in those days, when manners were simpler, and salt provisions the bulk of what was consumed at sea, To Eaton, who had been so long away from the scenes in which he bad passed his early years, the change from the ite rschocaer was very striking. Not that the Saucy Jane was in any way a worse vessel to live in than a frigate, but the mere matter of size was in the frigate’s favor; and she had but lately been in port, so that there were fresh vegetables on board, of which the gun-room officers were sure to have their share. So they bad a jolly time at dinner, in the gun-room of ‘Ola Ironsides,” and all hands were pledging Eaton’s restoration to. the navy- list with honors, in a few months, when the ipe of the boatswain on deck was followed by he boarse shout down the hatchway: “ALL HA-A-ANDS!!! ALL HANDS MAKE SAIL!!!” Vanderwerk jumped up with an oath: ‘‘Confound it! the_old man has got another conniption, I guess, I swear we no ner geb comfortabie than it’s ‘all hands something or other,’ and I don’t believe there is the least use for the whole thing. Come on, boys!” For with all his grumbling, the lieutenant was one of the first on deck. There were no sbirks in ‘* O'd Ironsides,” Eaton, who imagined that the call of “all hands ” must mean wind coming, went on deck to look after his own eraft, and saw what had caused the commotion on board. There were four sails in sight, and in those times a sail meant an enemy. There was no more ap nce of wind than before; but out in the northeast there was a thick bank of fog. | Ria “a agi of Rng agora gd were sen sails e 0 r | skyiail masts, with every dard pi Pen Le ut to OKS EGomicbo