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Updated: May 13, 2025
Moreover, upon closer examination, he might fancy an air of uneasiness among them, as ever and anon they turned their eyes toward the houses of the settlement, and the forest that lay beyond. The jolly Capt. Sparhawk was endeavoring, to the best of his abilities, to do the honors of his vessel, quite unabashed by the presence of either Dudley or Sir Christopher.
On the 25th of May, 1887, I sat alone upon the deck of the Sparhawk, a three-masted schooner, built, according to a description in the cabin, at Sackport, Me. I was not only alone on the deck, but I was alone on the ship. The Sparhawk was a "derelict"; that is, if a vessel with a man on board of her can be said to be totally abandoned. I had now been on board the schooner for eight days.
Here the companions of the captain interfering, and the citizens, in particular, insisting that on no account would they drink more, the refractory Sparhawk, after some growls at the "queer country," was obliged to submit, and soon after, paying the reckoning, took leave with his company. The scene was not altogether new to Arundel, who had looked on with amused interest.
On such occasions the large circle of his benevolence comprehended all mankind Indians as well as whites. As the two entered the public room of the inn, they heard rising above the confused din of voices, that of Captain Sparhawk, who seemed objecting to the preparations. "If they were good Christians," he said, "the sail would fit better to the yard.
And why did not one of them wave the signal and use the glass? The steamer was steadily but very slowly nearing the Sparhawk, when the woman removed the glass and stood up waist high above the rail of the steamer Now I could see her much better; I fancied I could almost discern her features. She was not old; she was well shaped; her bluish gray dress fitted her snugly.
Had I known that I was on a vessel which had been regularly relegated to the ranks of the forsaken, I should better have appreciated the importance of allowing passing vessels to see that there was a light on board the Sparhawk, and, therefore, in all probability a life. As day after day had passed, I had become more and more disheartened.
Captain Sparhawk, who toward the close of the Puritan's address, had been subdued into a most unwilling silence, manifested, as soon as it was finished, a desire to reply; but the host placed his hand on the recusant's mouth, and compelled him to be silent. "Art mad?" he whispered. "Dost wish to ruin me, and have thine ears nailed to the whipping-post, and perhaps cut off?
It was such a little object that the faint breezes which occasionally arose had more influence upon the Sparhawk than upon it, and so I gradually approached it.
"'You know, said Captain Guy to me, 'I couldn't do that, for I'd lost time enough already, and the wind was very light and variable; so all I could do was to vow to the ladies that when we got to Lisbon we'd be bound to find a steamer going south, and that she could easily keep a lookout for the Sparhawk, and take off the friend. 'That was a pretty big contract you marked out for the steamer going south, I said, 'and as for the Sparhawk, she's an old derelict, and I sighted her on my voyage north, and sent in a report of her position, and there couldn't have been anybody on board of her then. 'Can't say, said Captain Guy; 'from what I can make out, this fellow must have boarded her a good while after she was abandoned, and seems to have been lying low after that. Was that so, sir?
The wine is good, as can be proved by our own virtuous citizens, who have not injured themselves by early rioting, and are able, as a reward of their youthful temperance, to drink twice as much as this Captain Sparhawk, who hath probably, in a measure, injured his constitution by indulgence in bad liquors.
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