Marooned. Chap

M A R O O NED W . C LARK RUSSELL ” “ ‘ A T H OR T H E O L EN H O P E T H E W RE K F T H E G ROSV ENOR U OF G D , C O 3) ” ’ HE L AD A D A SEA UEEN A C K S C O UR T SH IP T Y M U , ! , ! 3 , T H E R Z EN P IR A T E ET . ET . F O , C C — M A R OON TO pu t a perso n asho re o n an unmhabi te d island Na u tz ca l IN THREE V OL UM ES V L I O . flonhun M A C M i L L A N fUH D C O . AND NEW Y ORK 1 8 89 7‘ ‘ ' 27x R 2g7z z o f Trai sa Zzo n a nd R ep? 2s Reserved R ( HARD CLAY AND SONS L IM IT E D C , , LO N D ON AND B UNGAY . Rfl fl m w m l C O N T E N T S C H I APT E R . RECEIVE A LETTER C H E II AP T R . gM ISS AURELIA GRANT CHAP T ER I I I . THE IRON CR OWN P C HAP T ER IV . 2 WE EM BARK CHAP T E R V . THE VOY AGE BEGINS vi C ONTENTS . C H P T V I A E R . AN INCIDENT IN THE CHANNEL C H P V II A TE R . B OTHWELL CHIE F M ATE C HAPT E R V I I I . THE HALF-BLOOD ’ S PUNI SH M ENT C HAP T ER IX . THE HALF-BLOOD IS RELEASED H C AP TER X . A M IDNIGHT ALARM C H P E A T R X I. A TRAGEDY CH P X II A T E R . M UTINY C ONTENTS . vii CH X III AP T E R . BROADWATER PROVES OBSTINATE C HAP T E R X IV . T E L R’ S L ST TOSS H SAI O A . C HAP T E R X V . WE SAIL THR OUGH A STRANGE LIGHT C H P XV I A T E R . BROADWATER’ S PROP OSAL M A R NE D O O . C HAP TER I . I I A REC E VE LETTER . I RETURN ED to my lodgings in London o ne night in ! une in the year eighteen hundred and something , and found a letter lying upon the a w as A t ble . I t from my cousin , lexander s w as Fra er, and dated at Rio ! aneiro . This was a man Whom I had neither seen nor heard Of for some years . We had been sent to sea ’ the as boys in East I ndia Company s service , and together had made three voyages in the same ship to Bombay which in those ambling ’ o f f days trade , when a our months passage to o f the Bay Bengal was considered a good run , meant a long and intimate association . Through V OL . I. B C . MAROONED . HAP the death Of my dear mother I came into money so enough to render me independent , and I a quitted Old ocean after three ye rs Of seafaring . Fraser made a fourth voyage and I then lost o n sight Of him . When later I wrote to his sisters in the north Of Scotland , I was told he had left his ship at Bombay to accompany a - w ho tea grower , had been a passenger in the vessel , to his plantations . That was the last o f AS I heard him . I held his letter in my - hand , memory recalled him as a fair , blue eyed , n - bronzed you g fellow , exceedingly good looking , b fo r a very nim le and alert seaman , fitter the n fo r - avy indeed than the tea waggon service , full of spirit and resolution and extremely impulsive . f : H e wrote to the following ef ect first Of all , o f he said , he had heard me and Obtained my address from a friend o f mine w ho had sailed a L few months before for ima , but whose ship had been obliged to put into Rio to . repair some damage she had sustained in a heavy gale Off Cape Agostino . H e had a long story to relate about his misfortunes in I ndia , how he had been villainously deceived in the character Of his a a ssociate and lmost ruined by him , and how , I I RECE VE A LETTER . 3 as he had no wish to die Of starvation , he had shipped as a foremast hand aboard a Yankee vessel , from which he ran on her arrival at Pernambuco—where he fell in with a sugar w ho f grower belonging to Rio , Of ered him a good berth o n his estate in the neighbourhood o f that town . H e had not been long settled o f when he made the acquaintance a M r . and M rs d A . Grant , with whose only aughter , urelia , he immediately fell in love . M r . Grant was a Scotchman who had married a Spanish lady of o n noble birth , and their daughter , Fraser went sa w as to y, the most majestic , stately , and beautiful woman that ever walked the earth . The parents consented to their betrothal , but obj ected to the marriage until Fraser was in a O condition to support a wife in comfort . ne M rs night , very suddenly , . Grant died . H er u h sband , who adored her, found her dead at SO his side , and the shock was great that both his h ealth and his mind gave way . H e declared that he could not support life in a town where every Object which met his eye reminded him Of ’ his loss ; and within a month of Mrs . Grant s death he broke up his home and sailed with B 2 4 MAROONED CHAP . A f r urelia o England . Fraser added that folks O f - - at Rio spoke M r . Grant as a well to do man , and talked Of Aurelia as an heiress but the truth o ut w as w as came when he gone , and it then understood that so far from being rich he had just contrived to come to a stand within a fe w fathoms Of the brink Of insolvency . The lovers Of course agreed to write by every w as su ship . Fraser cocksure Of being able to p o ut port a wife before another year had run , and it was settled that he was to send for o r fetch her at the expiration of the twelvemonth , as there was not the least likelihood Of M r . Grant returning to Rio . Eight months after the arrival of the girl in England the father died . She wrote to acquaint Fraser with her loss , and hinted quite enough to intimate that she was not only friendless in ” L A no w ondon , but in poverty . nd , continued w ho my cousin , I want you , were as a brother sea to me when we were together at , to stand me in a brother ’ s stead again in about as trying and perplexing a passage as ever formed part f ’ O a man s life . The business I have charge Of so is tender , it needs such cherishing , such per I R I RECE VE A LETTE . 5 sistent personal attention , that I am persuaded were I to let go Of it to fetch Aurelia I should return to find myself bankrupt . The population o f Rio comprises a great number Of rogues , and though the people I employ are not worse than the rest , they are rascals nevertheless , and I make no doubt whatever that if I were to turn my back upon them for three months they would ruin me . Now , my dear Dick , this is what you ” will do fo r me : yo u will call upon Aurelia —here came in the address advance what she ever money may require , engage a cabin fo r he r in the next ship that sails for Rio , furnish her with all such delicacies and comforts as your seafaring experiences , backed by a fastidious appetite , will suggest , and then , all this being acco m an éer o u rsel Y o u ! done , p y y f start But , ! a my dear boy , you will do this y, indeed you ’ u t Y o u fo r see o u m s . will d ye , y , Dick will need but glance at her to perceive instantaneously that she cannot be suffered to embark alone . A nd consider how happy it will make her , thrown as no t she must needs be into the company , Of — o ur polished glittering species the sparkling — dandies of ! ohn Company but o f men with 6 O A . MAR ONED . CH P - faces like walnut shells , with voices hoarse and raw with hard drinking , whose language is thick ened and stiffened with horrid Objectionable —ho w words happy , I say , it will make her to feel that she has the protection Of her sweet ’ o w n O f heart s cousin , a man muscle and nerve , who can tell the toughest salt Of themall where the flying-jibboom ends and ho w many gudgeons ’ a liner s r udder hangs on Consider the ease Of mind that I shall enjoy through knowing that o u y are at her side .

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