Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

ampton, and delivered into Pierce's hands this hasty despatch:

"Winter is found. He is on board a vessel that sails to-night or to-morrow morning for America. At present a terrific gale is blowing: it may detain the ship. I have not been able to get a boat to carry me on board: she is lying in the roads. I am now going in search of another boat. I must, if possible, get out before dark. It threatens

to be an awful night. Come can, directly you receive this.

down, if you

"E. G."

CHAPTER XIV.

THE two set off without loss of time. It was about nine in the evening when they reached Southampton. They went straight to the lodging-house where Edward Gregory had written his despatch. He had been there about an hour before, but had gone out again immediately, and had left no message with the people of the house. Pierce inquired of the sailors and customs' officers on the quays, what ships were bound for America. Several were to sail before the end of the week; but there was a vessel in the roads which ought to have gone out that day, she was only

kept by stress of weather. They believed she would sail at daylight if any change took place in the wind.

The two friends returned to Edward

Gregory's lodgings. They waited till ten o'clock; by which time they decided that he must have gone off to the ship; and, after some consultation, Pierce resolved, if possible, to hire a boat and go on board. Mr. Gregory thought it rash to venture out on so rough a night, and tried to dissuade his companion from the hazardous undertaking. Pierce, however, who had cruized all over the world, laughed at the danger, and turned a deaf ear to Mr. Gregory's entreaties. He bid the old man dismiss his alarm, and, muffling himself up in a stout pea-jacket, walked briskly to the quay.

The night was black as pitch; and there seemed no prospect of the gale abating. The ropes and rigging of the vessels rattled and creaked even within the

shelter of the docks. The spray mounted

VOL. III.

U

over the walls of the quay in huge clouds that would have drenched him to the skin

had he stood within their reach.

Not a boat

One lot of

was to be hired at any price. sailors he spoke to, advised him to wait till morning. The chances were, they said, such a sea would swamp a small boat before it got clear of the harbour. From another lot he learnt that a man, after offering large sums to watermen to take him out to the roads, had, about a couple of hours after dark, gone alone in a Ryde wherry.

[ocr errors]

"A Ryde wherry, to be sure," said they,

was as good a sea-boat as could be built for the size; but in such a gale she was more than one man could manage properly; and this gentleman was apparently not very strong nor healthy either."

At last he learnt that the captain of the outward-bound ship was then on shore. The vessel's long boat was lying at one of the wharfs waiting to take him off. Thither he hurried. The sailors belonging to the

boat though covered in tarpaulin jackets and "sou'-wester" hats, were wet through, and

cold and surly. They could not tell him when the captain would be down; and gave him no hopes of a passage even if he waited. A shilling or two, spent amongst these fellows in the nearest public-house, speedily created a more favourable impression of the treater. They now hoped the captain might give him a passage; but they had evidently no very high estimation of their master's amiability.

Pierce questioned them concerning their passengers. The steerage and poop-cabins were filled. They did not know much of them. There was only one man they knew anything about; and he was a particular friend of the captain's. The description they gave of this passenger coincided so accurately with the appearance and personality of Winter, that Pierce had no longer any doubt as to his being on board. He was about to push his inquiries, when the impatient voice

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »