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The heavy groaning, produced by the water, in the timbers of the Ariel, at
that moment, added its impulse to the raging feelings of Dillon, and he cast
himself headlong into the sea.
The water, thrown by the rolling of the surf on the beach, was necessarily
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returned to the ocean, in eddies, in different places, favourable to such an
action of the element. Into the edge of one of these counter-currents, that
was produced by the very rocks on which the schooner lay, and which the
watermen call the  under-tow, Dillon had, unknowingly, thrown his person, and
when the waves had driven him a short distance from the wreck, he was met by a
stream that his most desperate efforts could not overcome. He was a light and
powerful swimmer, and the struggle was hard and protracted. With the shore
immediately before his eyes, and at no great distance, he was led, as by a
false phantom, to continue his efforts, although they did not advance him a
foot. The old seaman, who, at first, had watched his motions with careless
indifference, understood the danger of his situation at a glance, and,
forgetful of his own fate, he shouted aloud, in a voice that was driven over
the struggling victim, to the ears of his shipmates on the sands--
 Sheer to-port, and clear the under-tow! sheer to the southward!
Dillon heard the sounds, but his faculties were too much obscured by terror,
to distinguish their object; he, however, blindly yielded to the call, and
gradually changed his direction, until his face was once more turned towards
the vessel. The current swept him diagonally by the rocks, and he was forced
into an eddy, where he had nothing to contend against but the waves, whose
violence was much broken by the wreck. In this state, he continued still to
struggle, but with a force that was too much weakened, to overcome the
resistance he met. Tom looked around him for a rope, but not one presented
itself to his hands; all had gone over with the spars, or been swept away by
the waves. At this moment of disappointment, his eyes met those of the
desperate Dillon. Calm, and inured to horrors, as was the veteran seaman, he
involuntarily passed his hand before his brow, as if to exclude the look of
despair he encountered; and when, a moment afterwards, he removed the rigid
member, he beheld the sinking form of the victim, as it gradually settled in
the ocean, still struggling, with regular but impotent strokes of the arms and
feet, to gain the wreck, and to preserve an existence that had been so much
abused in its hour of allotted probation.
 He will soon know his God, and learn that his God knows him! murmured the
cockswain to himself. As he yet spoke, the wreck of the Ariel yielded to an
overwhelming sea, and, after an universal shudder, her timbers and planks gave
way, and were swept towards the cliffs, bearing the body of the simple-hearted
cockswain among the ruins.
CHAPTER VII.
 Let us think of them that sleep,
Full many a fathom deep,
By thy wild and stormy steep,
Elsinore!
Campbell
Longand dreary did the hours appear to Barnstable, before the falling tide had
so far receded, as to leave the sands entirely exposed to his search for the
bodies of his lost shipmates. Several had been rescued from the wild fury of
the waves themselves, and one by one, as the melancholy conviction that life
had ceased was forced on the survivors, they had been decently interred, in
graves dug on the very margin of that element on which they had passed their
lives. But still the form longest known and most beloved was missing, and the
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lieutenant paced the broad space that was now left between the foot of the
cliffs and the raging ocean, with hurried strides and a feverish eye, watching
and following those fragments of the wreck that the sea still continued to
cast on the beach. Living and dead, he now found, that of those who had lately
been in the Ariel, only two were missing. Of the former, he could muster but
twelve, besides Merry and himself, and his men had already interred more than
half that number of the latter, which, together, embraced all who had trusted
their lives to the frail keeping of the whale-boat.
 Tell me not, boy, of the impossibility of his being safe, said Barnstable,
in deep agitation, which he in vain struggled to conceal from the anxious
youth, who thought it necessary to follow the uneasy motions of his commander,
as he strode along the sands.  How often have men been found floating on
pieces of wreck, days after the loss of their vessel? and you can see, with
your own eyes, that the falling water has swept the planks this distance; ay,
a good half league from where she struck. Does the look-out, from the top of
the cliffs, make no signal of seeing him yet?
 None, sir, none; we shall never see him again. The men say, that he always
thought it sinful to desert a wreck, and that he did not even strike-out once
for his life, though he has been known to swim an hour, when a whale has stove
his boat. God knows, sir, added the boy, hastily dashing a tear from his eye,
by a stolen movement of his hand, that was occasioned by the doubtful
character of his years,  I loved Tom Coffin better than any foremast-man in
either vessel. You seldom came aboard the frigate but we had him in the
steerage among us reefers, to hear his long-yarns, and share our cheer. We all
loved him, Mr. Barnstable, but love cannot bring the dead to life again.
 I know it, I know it, said Barnstable, with a huskiness in his voice, that
betrayed the depth of his emotion;  I am not so foolish as to believe in
impossibilities; but while there is a hope of his living, I will never abandon
poor Tom Coffin to such a dreadful fate. Think, boy, he may, at this moment,
be looking at us, and praying to his Maker that he would turn our eyes upon
him; ay, praying to his God, for Tom often prayed, though he did it in his
watch, standing, and in silence.
 If he had clung to life so strongly, returned the midshipman,  he would
have struggled harder to preserve it.
Barnstable stopped short in his hurried walk, and fastened a look of opening
conviction on his companion; but, as he was about to speak in reply, the
shouts of the seamen reached his ears, and, turning, they saw the whole party
running along the beach, and motioning, with violent gestures, to an
intermediate point in the ocean. The lieutenant and Merry hurried back, and,
as they approached the men, they distinctly observed a human figure, borne
along by the waves, at moments seeming to rise above them, and already
floating in the last of the breakers. They had hardly ascertained so much,
when a heavy swell carried the inanimate body far upon the sands, where it was
left by the retiring waters.
  Tis my cockswain! cried Barnstable, rushing to the spot. He stopped
suddenly, however, as he came within view of the features, and it was some
little time before he appeared to have collected his faculties sufficiently to
add, in tones of deep horror-- what wretch is this, boy! his form is
unmutilated, and yet observe the eyes! they seem as if the sockets would not
contain them, and they gaze as wildly as if their owner yet had life--the
hands are open and spread, as though they would still buffet the waves! [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]