Washed Ashore | Page 9

can any one want to hurt me?" he
asked.
"Ask your father, young sir. He may guess better than you can," replied
Peter, "But, I say again, go by Fairleigh. Be advised. The round will not
increase your ride by more than twenty minutes, and a wet jacket is of
less consequence than a broken head."
At the mention of a broken head, Stephen turned pale. He remembered
the warning he had from the girl in the morning, and he now no longer
hesitated to take Blind Peter's advice. Scarcely, however, thanking the
pedlar, he turned his pony's head down a road to the left, and galloped
on at full speed.
"He's a poor-spirited creature, or he would have had a word of thanks,
or may be a piece of silver for the poor blind man," said Peter to
himself, shaking his head as he spoke, and then hastened on towards
the tower. He had not gone far when down came the rain, driven by a
heavy gale which dashed it furiously in his face. Still he struggled on,
his faithful dog pulling at his leading-string to induce him to walk
faster, the animal's instinct telling him that the storm had but
commenced, and that it was increasing in strength.
Captain Askew had been watching the storm after Stephen left from the
window of his room in the tower, occasionally sweeping the horizon
with his glass, to see what vessels were passing up and down the
Channel, and exposed to its rage. Then he returned to his work, in
which he was much interested, and then he went back to the window
again. At length he remained longer than he had before done at the
window, earnestly looking through his glass. "She'll be lost to a

certainty if they don't succeed in getting up jury-masts," he exclaimed.
"No chance of that either, she's driving right ashore. She'll anchor, but
the ground will not hold her. I must get some of our fellows to go off to
her with me. They've courage enough, if they can be stirred up."
He was watching all this time a large ship, which, totally dismasted,
was being driven towards the coast. He quickly put on his
foul-weather-dress, as he called it, with water-proof boots, and a
sou'-wester, and went to his wife's room. He put his head into the room
and said, "Margaret, I am wanted out there. God protect you and
Margery. I pray that I may be soon back--so will you, I know, dear
wife--good-bye." He did not stay to say more, and before she could ask
any questions he had hurried from the room.
Tom saw his master leaving the house. "I know what you're after," he
said to himself, and with a rapidity which few but sailors can exercise,
he had stepped into his rough-weather clothing, and was hurrying after
him. Though the captain was superior to Tom in most things, Tom
having two real legs, and the captain only one, Tom went over the
ground the fastest, and soon caught him up. "You are not going without
me, sir, I hope," said Tom, in a tone which showed that his feelings
were deeply hurt. "Did you ever go without me, sir, where there was
anything to be done, and the chance of a knock on the head?"
"No! Tom--but you see in this sort of work two hands are wanted, and
you haven't got two, and that's the long and the short of it," answered
the captain.
"One of them was lost in saving my life. I don't forget that either."
"That's nothing, sir," answered Tom. "If I haven't two hands, I've got a
strong set of teeth, which are pretty well as useful as a hand; and who
can say that my on arm isn't as good as the two arms of many a man."
"Not I, Tom, not I!" answered the captain; "but it's just this--if anything
was to happen to me, what would my wife and child do without you,
Tom, to look after them?"

Tom still, however, argued the point. They were walking as fast as the
captain could move down to the beach. Suddenly the latter stopped,
looked Tom full in the face, and said--"It's just this. Are you captain, or
am I?"
"You, sir," answered Tom, touching his hat mechanically, as he was
wont in the days of yore.
"Then stay, and do as I order you," said the captain, walking on. "But
I'll tell you what, Tom; you may go and look out for volunteers, and
then come and help to launch the boat."
The appearance of the captain at the boat was the signal for the inmates
of the neighbouring huts to come out to know what he wanted. He
showed them the ship