Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1880 — THE BRIDEGROOM’S FATE. [ARTICLE]

THE BRIDEGROOM’S FATE.

BY RUFUS HALE.

New York Ledger. twin you l*e my wife, Bessie?” It was Harry Belton, a good-looking Nantucket mate, who put this important question one night to the captain's niece, airoanl the whale-ship Wanderer, tlien in the Arctic Otiean. • Bessie Barker, who was a pretty ycjuug woman, turn si toward the speaker, her rosy face anti hlack eyes, liglltened bv tlie lantern in the rigging, and answered with the frank spirit of a true Nantucket lass: “I will la* your wife, Harry, but v<ru may as well ask uncle if he is willing.” “Of course you can have her,” said lilt? good-natured skipper, when the first olllcer entered the cabin anti told liis errand; “and if you like, you can Is* married aboard the ship,” “I would like that, sir, if Bessie wduld.” “But I tow will Darkle feel?” said the captain, alluding to his second mate, who had also wanted Bessie,Nut whom she had refused. “He lias a savage temper.” “I care nothing for his temper,” said Belton, “lie would not dare to interfere.” , -

Stsui after, lie went on deck anti sis»ke to Bessie about Is-ing marrietl aboard the ship. She coiisenUsl, ami it was agreed that the wedding should take place a fortnight thereafter. Mr. dray, a missionary, who had taken passage at the Sandwich Islands at><»ar<l the \N aliderer, for the tK-uefit of ids health, could perforin the ceremony. On an afternoon, atsmt two days liefore the one fixed for the wedding, the man at the masthead gave notice that lie saw.fur astern through an opening amongst a fiehl of Boating icetiergs, something whicli hMikisl like a I \v fpek. Tlic captain, surveying it through liis glass, pronbunceil It to he a schooner, half sunken in the sea, with ! only the forward, part of ncr Hull ami , the'stump of her foremast visible. “Take » lsiat, Mr. Darkle,” lie said to his second - mate, “ami find out what eraft she is. IxM>k about'you, and see if nn>* of lier crew an.> in sight.” “Ay, ay, sir,” answered Darkle. “I hone It (m not my lirotiier’* cnift j —the Mt. Vernon,” remarked Belton, “the last time I lieard from him he said lie was going to cruise up Imre. 1 should like'to go too, sir.” “You may go,” said the skipimr. Throwing over liis shoulders a comfortable cloak lie usually wore when on duty; and which was neatly trimmed with black and white fur, Belton | sprang into the boat whicli was now down, with the second mate in the stem sheets. Darkle wort* no cloak, but in oilier respects liis attire was like that of the first officer, to whomin fact, in size and complexion, lie bore some resemblance, although the l>enriiig and manner of the two were essentially different. Night had fallen by the time the I Hint reached the wreck, and in the fast gathering gloom Belton, who had brought no lantern, luid some trouble to discover the name of the craft. “It is not the Mt. Vernon,” he cried, finally making out “Laura,” in gilt letters on the bow. He sprang aboard, followed by Darkle.

“Pull hack to the ship,” said the latter, soon after, to the crewV‘and •ret instructions. I. see a light just tieyoml that headland,” he added, pointing to an election looming up rtlsiut half, a mile from the wreck. “Ask the captain if he will not send two or three boata, that we may take >ti the crew of this craft, who arc doubtless ashore there, witli tlieir effects.” He gave the onlers while Belton, who was down in the forecastle looking alioiit him, could not hear what he said. The l»oat disappeared in the gathering shadows, ana when Belton came up he was surprised to find it gone. Darkle explained why he sent it away. There was a fierce frown on iiis brow as he sjnike, and the first mate could see his eyes flashing like thoee of a wild lieast through the partial gloom. AH at once he threw himself upon his companion, striking ut him with a handspike he had picked up. “Unseal you shall never marry her!” lie pried. “I will kill you first!” hHold then*, Darkle— : gre you out of your sense*. What is ths use of lieiug angry about it?” cried Belton. Dodging the handspike, at the same time he dealt the second officer a blow between the eyes with his clinched fist.

Darkle sprang quickly back.and'ere his opponent could avoid it brought the implement he held down upon his head. Half stunned, Belton staggared towards the broken bulwarks. With a cry of savage exultation, the rival followed him up, and seizing him by the throat with one band, h dried him overissu'd. Belton fell on an iceberg drifting l»ast the wreck. The next moment he wgs out of Darkle’s sight in the ginopb f*Th«n» J I hope lam rid of him for ever,” he muU«rpfl. "I will probably lie suspected, hut *gibjng can lie proved aerainst me. f win say that Belton slipper! and fell overboard accidentally!” Tiie captain was surprised to see the float’s crew ooiUG back witli-out their officers. When informed why Darkle bad sent them, the skipper shrugged his shoulders, He at once veered ship, and headed in the direction of the wreak, but, before he could And it, an unexpected gale came howling and roaring upon them. Bessie was now alarmed. Pale with aniety on her lover’s account, she grasped her_uncle’s arm, saying she

feared he would now be lost, as the wreck would certainly go to pieces in such a blow. The captain endeavored to cheer her, telling her there was a bare chance that Belton and Darkle might save themselves by getting on the iee. “They will freexe to death there,” gasped the unhappy girl. To this her uncle made no reply. The dismal creaking of the snip’s timbers and the weird shriek of the gale in the shrouds, were the only response to her remark. As there would Tie danger of the vessel’s going ashore, if he kept 'on his present course, the skipper was now obliged to head in another direction. The night and the next day passed, and the one which was to liave seen Bessie a happy bride dawned upon the sea. No sign of the wreck —no sign of either of the two young officers. The girl went down into her cabin I ami gave way to her grief. The gale still roared, and the ocean was white with foam and flying spray. Occasionally an icefierg was observed in the distance, and the captain scrutinized it with his glass, but saw no one upon it. Hours passed; the gale abated, enabling him to alter his course towards the land. Now a number of bergs were seen, far ahead. Bessie, worn and haggard with grief, was by"her uncle’s side as he again pointed, the glass. 1 All at once she saw him start. “You see something?” she gasped. “Yes, a human form on one of those bergs!” As the vessel drew nearer to it the agitated girl took the glass from her uncle’s hand. He steadied it for her in the right direction. “It is he!” she shrieked; “but oh, uncle, is he alive? Remember it is two days since he left us!”

The captain made no reply, but his j hand trembled as he again' took the glass. Bessie knew that he shared her fears. “It is really Belton,”lie said, as he had hoped he hud been mistaken. “Oil, yes,uncle,l recognize his cloak i —life one lined with white and hlack fur.” . Nearer came the ship to the berg. “He does not move!” whispered the third mate to the skipper. “Bessie, 1 think you had better go below,” said lier uncle in a faultering voice. She made no answer; she stood as if traufixed, her gaze riveted on the figure on the l»erg. The vessel was soon near enough for the form to lie plainly sect) with the naked eye. Seated in a niche near the summit I of the l»erg, that form did not move a muscle, Straight and. rigid it sat, propped against the crystal wall behind it,only tin* mustache, the ears, ami the upper part of the head visible above tin* high collar, which was drawn well up over the face. The hair projected outward, 'stiffened with ice, the coat was glazed with frosty particles as if sheathed in thin scaly armor. , “I will go, tool” cried Bessie, when j the captain necked the main yard and lowered a Iniat. He objected, hut she insisted on going, djuf he allowed her to have her way, thinking that after all it wen* I best ahe should learn the worst as soon as possible, for the suspense she would sutler, if left alsiard, would lie terrible to ln?ar. The boat approached the lierg. “Belton!” called the captain, when [ within sjieaking distance, There was I no reply. I , “Harry, oh, Harry, speak lo me!” sell ricked Bessie.

Still no response —still no movement of the form, “(}od help you. niece, it is as I thought!” cried the captain. “He is dead!” “Ay, ay, frozen to death!” murmured one of*the crew. The girl uttered a dispairing moan, and liowed lier face on lier hands. Sobs of anguish escaped lier—she shook like a leaf. Not a man was there in the boat whose eyes did not pioistob Behind them the ship’s bell sounded four strokes. Dismal fell itsvlang upon the ears of all. » It was the hour when Bessie and Belton were to have been married! Now it was a knell of death! At length the boat grated alongside tlie berg. . . The captain, with his men, clambered to the side of tlie motionless form. Bessie stood below, her despairing gaze turned up to it. •Slowly and sadly her uncle pulled the stiffened, crackling collar away from the face. Then there could tie no doubt that the unfortunute man was dead! The glazed eyes, the white ami rigid features, and, the flesh as hard as a stone, told tlie fearful story, f" He was frozen to death! For a moment tlie spectators gazed upon that ghastly visage; then a wild, simultaneous cry broke from them, for the face, now revealed, was,’ not Belton’s, Hut that of the sepopd officer, Darkle! Bo intent had all been upon their sad errand that they had not noticed a l>oat approaching from shore. Bessie was the first to see it, and amongst tlie crew in it she recognized lier lover, Harry Belton { A moment later he wua out upon the ice, and the girl wasclasped to liis breast.

As the captain and his men gathered round him to shake hands, lie explained how he had lieen attacked and hurried from the wreck by Darkle. • When he fell, his cloak caught in a spike on the schooner’s side, and thus left btddipl biPh it must afterwards have been found bv Darkle, and have been used by him in vain to keep himself from freezing to death. The berg on which Itpltop had fallen drifted to land before the gale came up and the young man, shivering amt in a pitiable plight, made his way towards a light lie saw, and which proved to be that of a fire, round which were gathered the castaway crew of the wrecked schooner. They received him kindly, and he remained with them until his ship hove ip sjght, when, as shown, he came off with them in thg boat. As to Darkle, Helton and the costaways, thinking he might possibly have reached the shore on the ice, after the wreck broke up, had looker! for him, hut had seen nothing of him until to-day, when they started for the ship. It was evident that, when the wreck was going to pieces, the unfortunate man succeeded in getting on the iceberg, which the grip niqsjt carried past the highland, opt to sea. Hubsequently it had drifted with the current to its present locality, and thus it met the gaze of the watchful qaptain, too late for its occupant to he saved. The body' was buried from the vessel that samerafternoon. A Week later Bessie and Belron were married, with the crew of the wrecked schooner added to the other witnesses of the ceremony. , Although an ocean bridal, it proved to be a very pleasant wedding, and thene were npuiy cheers fqr'ilie happy young cdqplp. •