'What the blooming blazes,' he thought to himself, 'is Bill a-jawing
about, with his Ryle yachts and Ryle Standards?'
And he looked right up into the sky.
'Stand by now, Tom, to receive her Ryle 'Ighness!' shouted the sailor,
with a glance at the madman. 'As her 'Ighness must go first, there's no
harm, I hope,' said he, 'in her walking face foremost?'
'She always do,' shouted the boatswain. 'Bow her to the rail, and hand
her over.'
Nothing could have been better. The swell gave them a good deal of
trouble, but two of them were sailors, and presently Miss Vanderholt was
in the boat. Captain Parry sprang into the chains, and, watching his
opportunity, leapt, and was by his sweetheart's side in a minute.
The madman overhung the rails, staring greedily. He knuckled his brow as
one who would drive a pain out of his brain, then began to laugh when
Captain Parry jumped into the boat.
'Bring him along, Bill. You lay he'll know what to do!' cried the sailor
in the boat.
'Her Ryle 'Ighness commands you to attend her, sir,' said the seaman.
'Step right over the side into the chains, and don't jump back'ards.'
The boatswain drew himself stiffly erect, and, after gazing aloft at the
vision of the Standard, which blew in rich folds under the swelling
clouds to his insane eye, he exclaimed:
'Who's going to look after her Royal 'Ighness's yacht if I leave her?'
'She'll lie quiet enough, mate, till you return,' said the sailor.
'Hark! Her Ryle 'Ighness is a-calling of you.'
'Pray attend upon me! I command your presence in this boat!' cried the
girl in the loudest, most imperious voice her condition would permit her
to manage.
The poor creature bowed low over the rail, then in silence dropped into
the chains, followed by the sailor, and in a minute or two both were
seated in the boat.
All went quietly. The boatswain shifted restlessly in his seat, with a
grin of stupefaction. His burning eyes rolled over the _Mowbray_, and
again and again he pulled his hair with hands that sweated like tallow.
Miss Vanderholt's first exclamation, when she was handed over the side,
was, 'My father! my poor father!' And she began to cry. The dreadful
scene rose before her mental vision, and she shook with old sensations
of terror.
Captain Parry, passing his arm through hers, gently and tenderly led her
below. She had been too much moved to address Mr. Blundell, and for a
little while she needed the privacy of the cabin and her lover's
company. Presently, whilst they sat below, she told Captain Parry the
story of the mutiny, and her adventures down to this hour.
It seems that some of the men were for going away at once in the
long-boat, after scuttling the yacht; others were for letting her lie
afloat; but all were agreed that she must be abandoned. Then Miss
Vanderholt found out that they were undecided what they should do with
her. Most of them, she gathered, were for leaving her in the yacht, to
take her chance of being picked up.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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