Page 280 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

She opened her blue eyes and looked at him, but gave no
sign of recognition. Delirium had hold of her, and in the
hour of safety the child had forgotten her preserver. Rufus
Dawes, overcome by this last cruel stroke of fortune, sat
down in the stern of the boat, with the child in his arms,
speechless. Frere, feeding the fire, thought that the chance
he had so longed for had come. With the mother at the point
of death, and the child delirious, who could testify to this
hated convict’s skilfulness? No one but Mr. Maurice Frere,
and Mr. Maurice Frere, as Commandant of convicts, could
not but give up an ‘absconder’ to justice.
The ship changed her course, and came towards this
strange fire in the middle of the ocean. The boat, the fore
part of her blazing like a pine torch, could not float above an
hour. The little group of the convict and the child remained
motionless. Mrs. Vickers was lying senseless, ignorant even
of the approaching succour.
The ship—a brig, with American colours flying—came
within hail of them. Frere could almost distinguish figures
on her deck. He made his way aft to where Dawes was sit-
ting, unconscious, with the child in his arms, and stirred
him roughly with his foot.
‘Go forward,’ he said, in tones of command, ‘and give the
child to me.’
Rufus Dawes raised his head, and, seeing the approach-
ing vessel, awoke to the consciousness of his duty. With a
low laugh, full of unutterable bitterness, he placed the bur-
den he had borne so tenderly in the arms of the lieutenant,
and moved to the blazing bows.