Bermuda Islands -- Fiction; Prisoners -- Fiction; Short stories
Then there came a loud shout along the shore, and all those on the
platform, whose eyes had been fixed so closely on that terrible struggle
beneath them, rushed towards the rocks on the other coast. The sound of
oars was heard close to them,—an eager pressing stroke, as of men who
knew well that they were rowing for the salvation of a life. On they
came, close under the rocks, obeying with every muscle of their bodies
the behests of those who called to them from the shore. The boat came
with such rapidity,—was so recklessly urged, that it was driven somewhat
beyond the inlet; but in passing, a blow was struck which made Caleb
Morton once more the master of his own life. The two men had been
carried out in their struggle towards the open sea; and as the boat
curved in, so as to be as close as the rocks would allow, the bodies of
the men were brought within the sweep of the oars. He in the bow—for
there were four pulling in the boat—had raised his oar as he neared the
rocks,—had raised it high above the water; and now, as they passed close
by the struggling men, he let it fall with all its force on the upturned
face of the wretched convict. It was a terrible, frightful thing to
do,—thus striking one who was so stricken; but who shall say that the
blow was not good and just? Methinks, however, that the eyes and face of
that dying man will haunt for ever the dreams of him who carried that
oar!
Trow never rose again to the surface. Three days afterwards his body was
found at the ferry, and then they carried him to the convict island and
buried him. Morton was picked up and taken into the boat. His life was
saved; but it may be a question how the battle might have gone had not
that friendly oar been raised in his behalf. As it was, he lay at the
cottage for days before he was able to be moved, so as to receive the
congratulations of those who had watched that terrible conflict from the
shore. Nor did he feel that there had been anything in that day’s work
of which he could be proud;—much rather of which it behoved him to be
thoroughly ashamed. Some six months after that he obtained the hand of
Anastasia Bergen, but they did not remain long in Bermuda. “He went
away, back to his own country,” my informant told me; “because he could
not endure to meet the ghost of Aaron Trow, at that point of the road
which passes near the cottage.” That the ghost of Aaron Trow may be seen
there and round the little rocky inlet of the sea, is part of the creed
of every young woman in Bermuda.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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