It must be understood that our party on the Belle Helène was divided
into two, or rather, indeed, three camps, each somewhat sharply
defined and each somewhat ignorant of the other's doings in detail.
The combination of either two against the other, in organized mutiny,
might very well prove successful, wherefore it was my task to keep all
apart by virtue of the authority which I had myself usurped. The
midship's cabin suite, of three rooms, was occupied by myself and my
two bold young mates--when the latter were not elsewhere engaged. We
made what might be called the ruling classes. Forward of our cabin,
and accessible only from the deck, was the engine-room where Williams
worked, and off this were two bunks, well ventilated and very
comfortable, occupied by Williams and Peterson. Forward of this, and
also accessible only from the deck, lay the dining saloon, with its
fixed table, its cupboards, dish racks and wine-room. In her bows and
below the saloon was the cook's gallery, a dumb-waiter running
between; and the sleeping quarters of John, the cook, and Willy, the
deck-hand, were in the forecastle below. This left the two captives
all the after part of the ship pretty much to themselves, and as the
after-suite of cabins was roomy and fitted with every modern nautical
luxury, they lacked neither freedom nor comfort, so far as these may
obtain on shipboard. Obviously, I said little to the ship's crew,
except to Peterson, and my two mates had orders to keep to their own
part of the ship, under my eye.
Thus, like ancient Gaul, divided into three parts, we sailed on our
wholly indefinite voyage; and all I could do was to live from day to
day, or hour to hour. I was content, for Helena was there. Indeed, I
question if, these last three years, her image had not been always
present in my consciousness; such are the fevers of our unreasoning
blood, such the power of that madness known as love.
But, thus divided as was our company, I had none such excellent
opportunity for often seeing Helena, as might at first be supposed.
She and her aunt refused to join us at any meal in the dining saloon;
although, now and then, they came for breakfast to what Auntie Lucinda
with scorn called the "second table". It was not feasible for me,
often, to do more than call of a morning to inquire if all was well
with them; and conversation through a lead-glass transom is not what
one would call intimate. Helena could bar her door if she liked in
more ways than one; and against the fences that she raised against me
one way or another, what with headaches, whims or Aunt Lucinda, I had
now no chance to meet her alone save as she herself might dictate. So
that, after all, though now I stood as commander of the Belle Helène
in place of yon varlet, Cal Davidson, although I ate his ship's
stores, wore, indeed, his waistcoats and his neckties when that was
humanly possible, I was his successor only and not his equal. He
could--nay, had done so--meet Helena as he liked, at meals, on deck,
on a thousand errands, whereas I was helpless to do so. He could talk
with her all over the ship, take her alone on deck of a moonlit night,
listen to her sing, gaze--oh, curse him!--on the little curls on
Helena's neck--but no! I could not endure that thought. The round
white neck, the white shoulders, the soft curves beneath the
peignoir's careless irreverences--why, it was an intolerable thought
that any man should raise eye or heart or thought to Helena, save
myself. So, this morning, after that rare and unconventional meeting
on the after deck, one easily may see how much I wished all Gaul were
divided into but two parts, and that the occupants of the reserved
after cabin would come to lunch in the saloon with their captors,
Black Bart, Jean Lafitte and Henri L'Olonnois.