The Coxswains Bride | Page 2

Robert Michael Ballantyne
at the boat; but I forgot you could see nothin' but the blue
of Nellie's eyes."
"Of course not. Who'd expect me to see anything else when I'm beside
her?" retorted Bob. "But what has made you change your mind? I'm
sure the last time I tried to get you to hoist the blue-peter ye were
obstinate enough--dead against it."
"True, Bob; but since that time I've seed a dear woman that I was fond
of die from drink, an' I've seed Tom Riley, one of our best men, get on
the road to ruin through the same; so I've hoisted the blue flag, as ye
see."
"That's a good job, Slag, but don't you forget, my lad, that the blue
ribbon won't save you. There's but one Saviour of men. Nevertheless,
it's well to fight our battles under a flag, an' the blue is a good one--as
things go. Show your colours and never say die; that's my motto. As
you said, Slag, the glass is uncommon low to-day. I shouldn't wonder if
there was dirty weather brewin' up somewhere."
The coxswain was right, and the barometer on that occasion was a true
prophet. The weather which "brewed up" that evening was more than
"dirty," it was tempestuous; and before midnight a tremendous
hurricane was devastating the western shores of the kingdom. Many a
good ship fought a hard battle that night with tide and tempest, and
many a bad one went down. The gale was short-lived but fierce, and it
strewed our western shores with wreckage and corpses, while it called
forth the energies and heroism of our lifeboat and coastguard men from
north to south.
Driving before the gale that night under close-reefed topsails, a small

but well-found schooner came careering over the foaming billows from
the regions of the far south, freighted with merchandise and gold and
happy human beings. Happy! Ay, they were happy, both passengers
and crew, for they were used by that time to facing and out-riding gales;
and was not the desired haven almost in sight--home close at hand?
The captain, however, did not share in the general satisfaction. Out in
"blue water" he feared no gale, but no one knew better than himself that
the enemy was about to assail him at his weakest moment--when close
to land. No one, however, could guess his thoughts as he stood there
upon the quarter-deck, clad in oil-skins, drenched with spray, glancing
now at the compass, now at the sails, or at the scarce visible horizon.
As darkness deepened and tempest increased, the passengers below
became less cheerful, with the exception of one curly-haired little girl,
whose exuberant spirit nothing could quell. Her young widowed
mother had given in to the little one's importunities, and allowed her to
sit up late on this the last night at sea, to lend a helping hand while she
packed up so as to be ready for landing next day. Consent had been the
more readily given that the white-haired grandfather of little Lizzie
volunteered to take care of her and keep her out of mischief.
The other passengers were as yet only subdued, not alarmed. There
were men and women and little ones from the Australian cities, rough
men from the sheep farms, and bronzed men from the gold mines. All
were busy making preparations to land on the morrow. With the
exception of those preparations things on board went on much as they
had been going on in "dirty weather" all the voyage through.
Suddenly there was a crash! Most of the male passengers, knowing
well what it meant, sprang to the companion-ladder--those of them at
least who had not been thrown down or paralysed--and rushed on deck.
Shrieks and yells burst forth as if in emulation of the howling winds.
Crash followed crash, as each billow lifted the doomed vessel, and let
her fall on the sands with a shock that no structure made by man could
long withstand. Next moment a terrific rending overhead told that one,
or both, of the masts had gone by the board. At the same time the sea
found entrance and poured down hatchways and through opening

seams in cataracts. The inclined position of the deck showed that she
was aground.
The very thought of being aground comforted some, for, to their minds,
it implied nearness to land, and land was, in their idea, safety. These
simple ones were doomed to terrible enlightenment. Little Lizzie, pale
and silent from terror, clung to her grandfather's neck; the young
widow to his disengaged arm. With the other arm the old man held on
to a brass rod, and prevented all three from being swept to leeward,
where several of the women and children were already struggling to
escape from a mass of water
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