The Vizier of the Two-Horned Alexander | Page 3

The captain had reached the rail.
"Is every one in the boats?" he shouted, in French and in English. "Is
every one in the boats? I am going to leave the vessel."
I made a start as if to rush toward him, but Crowder held me by the
arm.
"Don't you do it," he whispered very earnestly. "I have the greatest
possible desire to save you. Stay where you are, and you will be all
right. That overloaded boat may capsize in half an hour."
[Illustration: "'DON'T YOU DO IT.'"]
I could not help it; I believed him. My own judgment seemed suddenly
to rise up and ask me why I should leave the solid deck of the steamer
for that perilous little boat.
I need say but little more in regard to this shipwreck. When the fog
lifted, about ten o'clock in the morning, we could see no signs of any of
the boats. A mile or so away lay the dull black line of the derelict, as if
she were some savage beast who had bitten and torn us, and was now
sullenly waiting to see us die of the wound. We hoisted a flag, union
down, and then we went below to get some breakfast. Mr. Crowder
knew all about the ship, and where to find everything. He told me he
had made so many voyages that he felt almost as much at home on sea
as on land. We made ourselves comfortable all day, and at night we
went to our rooms, and I slept fairly well, although there was a very
disagreeable slant to my berth. The next day, early in the afternoon, our
signal of distress was seen by a tramp steamer on her way to New York,
and we were taken off.
We cruised about for many hours in the direction the boats had
probably taken, and the next day we picked up two of them in a sorry
condition, the occupants having suffered many hardships and privations.

We never had news of the captain's boat, but the others were rescued by
a sailing-vessel going eastward.
Before we reached New York, Mr. Crowder had made me promise that
I would spend a few days with him at his home in that city. His family
was small, he told me,--a wife, and a daughter about six,--and he
wanted me to know them. Naturally we had become great friends. Very
likely the man had saved my life, and he had done it without any act of
heroism or daring, but simply by impressing me with the fact that his
judgment was better than mine. I am apt to object to people of superior
judgment, but Mr. Crowder was an exception to the ordinary superior
person. From the way he talked it was plain that he 'had much
experience of various sorts, and that he had greatly advantaged thereby;
but he gave himself no airs on this account, and there was nothing
patronizing about him. If I were able to tell him anything he did not
know,--and I frequently was,--he was very glad to hear it.
Moreover, Mr. Crowder was a very good man to look at. He was
certainly over fifty, and his closely trimmed hair was white, but he had
a fresh and florid complexion. He was tall and well made, fashionably
dressed, and had an erect and somewhat military carriage. He was fond
of talking, and seemed fond of me, and these points in his disposition
attracted me very much.
My relatives were few, they lived in the West, and I never had had a
friend whose company was so agreeable to me as that of Mr. Crowder.
Mr. Crowder's residence was a handsome house in the upper part of the
city. His wife was a slender lady, scarcely half his age, with a sweet
and interesting face, and was attired plainly but tastefully. In general
appearance she seemed to be the opposite of her husband in every way.
She had suffered a week of anxiety, and was so rejoiced at having her
husband again that when I met her, some hours after Crowder had
reached the house, her glorified face seemed like that of an angel. But
there was nothing demonstrative about her. Even in her great joy she
was as quiet as a dove, and I was not surprised when her husband
afterward told me that she was a Quaker.

[Illustration: "HIS WIFE WAS A SLENDER LADY."]
I was entertained very handsomely by the Crowders. I spent several
days with them, and although they were so happy to see each other,
they made it very plain that they were also happy to have me with them,
he because he liked me, she because he liked me.
On the day before my intended departure,