Twice during that long night I must have roused myself. I recall well a heaven of stars, and a moonlit sea glowing with the pale light; while looking down upon me were the eyes of a madman, who clutched the sides of the dinghy with trembling and claw-like hands, and had a scream upon his lips. And again at the second time I looked upward to behold a faint break of grey in the leaden sky, and to feel warm raindrops beating upon me. But I heard no sound, and scarce turning in my heaviness, I slept again; and all through my sleep I dreamed that there was the echo of a voice, as of the voice of the damned, calling to me from the sea, and that, though I would have helped the man whose hand was above the waters, I could not move, for an iron grip, as the grip of Fate, held me to my place.
When I awoke for the third time, the dinghy was held firmly by a boat-hook, and was being drawn towards a jolly-boat full of seamen. I rose up, rubbing my eyes as a man seeing a vision; but, when the men shouted something to me in German, I had another exclamation on my lips; for I was alone in the boat, and Black had left me.
Then I looked across the sea, and I saw a long black steamer lying-to a mile away, and the men dragged me into their craft, and shouted hearty words of encouragement, and they put liquor to my lips, and fell to rowing with great joy. Yet I remembered my dream, and it seemed to me that the voice I had heard in my sleep was the voice of Black, who cried to me as he had cast himself to his death in the Atlantic.
* * * * *
Was the man dead? Had he really ended that most remarkable life of evil enterprise and of crime; or had he by some miracle found safety while I slept? As the Germans rowed me quickly towards their steamer, and comforted me as one would comfort a child that is found destitute by the way-side, I turned this thought over again and again in my mind. Had the man gone out of my life wrapped in the mystery which had surrounded him from the first? Did he still live to dream dreams of vengeance and of robbery? Or had he simply cast himself from the dinghy in a fit of insanity, and died the terrible death of the suicide? I could not answer the tremendous question; had no clue to it; but I had not reached the shelter of the steamer which had saved me before I made the discovery that the belt of linen which had been about Black's waist was now about mine, tied firmly with a sailor's knot, and when I put my hand upon the linen I found that it was filled with some hard and sharp stones, which had all the feel of pebbles. Instinctively I knew the truth: that in his last hour the master of the nameless ship had retained his curious affection for me; had made over to me some of that huge hoard of wealth he must have accumulated by his years of pillage; and I restrained myself with difficulty from casting the whole there and then into the waters which had witnessed his battles for it. But the belt was firmly lashed about me, and we were on the deck of the steamer before my benumbed hands could set the lashing free.
It would be idle for me to attempt to describe to you all I felt as the captain of the steamship Hoffnung greeted me upon his quarterdeck, and his men sent up rounds of cheers which echoed over the waters. I stood for some minutes forgetful of everything, save that I had been snatched from that prison of steel; brought from the shadow of the living death to the hope of seeing friends, and country, and home again. Now one man wrung my hand, now another brought clothes, now another hot food; but I stood as one stricken dumb, holding nervously to the taffrail as though none should drag me down again to the horrors of the dinghy, or to that terrible loneliness which had hung over my life for so many weeks. And then there came a great reaction, an overpowering weakness, a great sense of thankfulness, and tears gushed up in my eyes, and fell upon my numbed hands. The good fellows about me, whose German was for the most part unintelligible to me, appreciated well the condition in which I was; and, with many encouraging pats on the back, they forced me down their companion way to the skipper's cabin, and so to a bunk, where I lay inanimate, and deep in sleep for many hours. But I awoke as another man, and when I had taken a great bowl of soup and some wine, my strength seemed to return to me with bounds, and I sat up to find they had taken away my clothes, but that the belt which Black had bound about me lay at the foot of the bunk, and was unopened.
For some minutes I held this belt in my hand with a curious and inexplicable hesitation. It was not heavy, being all of linen finely sewed; but when at last I made up my mind to open it, I did so with my teeth, tearing the threads at the top of it, and so ripping it down. The action was followed by a curious result, for as I opened the seams there fell upon my bed some twenty or thirty diamonds of such size and such lustre that they lay sparkling with a thousand lights which dazzled the eyes, and made me utter a cry at once of surprise and of admiration. White stones they were, Brazilian diamonds of the first water; and when I undid the rest of the seam, and opened the belt fully, I found at least fifty more, with some superb black pearls, a fine emerald, and a little parcel of exquisite rubies. To the latter there was attached a paper with the words, "My son, for as such I regard you, take these; they are honestly come by. And let me write while I can that I have loved you before God. Remember this when you forget Captain Black."
That was all; and I judged that the stones were worth five thousand pounds if they were worth a penny. I could scarce realise it all as I read the note again and again, and handled the sparkling, glittering baubles, which made my bunk a cave of dazzling light; or wrapped them once more in the linen, using it as a bag, and tying it round my neck for safety. It seemed indeed that I had come to riches as I had come again to freedom; and in the strange bewilderment of it all, I dressed myself in the rough clothes which the skipper had sent to me, and bounded on deck to greet a glorious day and the fresh awakening breezes of the sun-lit Atlantic. It was difficult to believe that there was not a reckoning yet to come: that the nameless ship had gone to her doom. Had I in reality escaped the terrors of the dinghy? This question I asked myself again and again as the soft wind fanned my face; and I went to the bulwarks, looking away where soon we should sight the Scillies, while the honest fellows crowded round me, and showered every kindness upon me. Yet for days and weeks after that, even now sometimes when I am amongst my own again, I wake in my sleep with troubled cries, and the dark gives me back the life which was my long night of suffering.
The Hoffnung was bound for Königsberg, but when the skipper and I had come to understand each other by signs and writing, he, with great consideration, offered to put into Southampton and leave me there. This took a great weight from my mind, for I was burning with anxiety to hear of my friends again; and when we entered the Channel on the third night, I found sleep far from my eyes, and paced the deck until dawn broke. We dropped anchor off Southampton at three in the afternoon, and when I had insisted on Captain Wolfram taking one of my diamonds as a souvenir for himself, and one to sell for the crew, I put off in his long-boat with a deep sense of his humanity and kindness, and with hearty cheers from his crew.
I should have gone to the quay at once then, but crossing the roads I saw a yacht at anchor, and I recognised her as my own yacht Celsis, with Dan pacing her poop. To put to her side was the work of a moment, and I do not think that I ever gave a heartier hail than that "Ahoy, Daniel!" which then fell from my lips.
"Ahoy!" cried Dan in reply, "not as it oughtn't to be Daniel, but with no disrespect to the other gent—why, blister my foretop, if it ain't the guvnor!"
And the old fellow began to shout and to wave his arms and to throw ropes about as though he were smitten with lunacy.
CHAPTER XXVII.
I FALL TO WONDERING.
I had sprung up the ladder, which was always at the side of the Celsis, before Dan had gathered his scattered wits to remember that it was there. It was worth