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A Middy in Command: A Tale of the Slave Squadron

by Harry Collingwood · English · Gutenberg #21064 · 593,386 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: A Middy in Command: A Tale of the Slave Squadron

Author: Harry Collingwood

Illustrator: E. S. Hodgson


        
Release date: April 13, 2007 [eBook #21064]

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21064

Credits: Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MIDDY IN COMMAND: A TALE OF THE SLAVE SQUADRON ***




Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England




A Middy in Command
A Tale of the Slave Squadron

By Harry Collingwood
________________________________________________________________________
Another excellent book by this talented nautical author.  As the title
implies, it is the tale of a young man who is a midshipman in the Royal
Navy's anti-slave-trade squadron.

There are the usual accidents and swimming events, but the young man
secures his promotion by his distinguished performance in the capture
of a slaver.

A well-written book by an author who from his actual trade understands
how sailing ships are designed and built, and whose works are by that
reason all the more worthy of reading.

It makes a very nice audiobook, of eleven and a half hours duration.
________________________________________________________________________
A MIDDY IN COMMAND
A TALE OF THE SLAVE SQUADRON

BY HARRY COLLINGWOOD



CHAPTER ONE.

OUR FIRST PRIZE.

The first faint pallor of the coming dawn was insidiously extending
along the horizon ahead as H.M. gun-brig _Shark_--the latest addition to
the slave-squadron--slowly surged ahead over the almost oil-smooth sea,
under the influence of a languid air breathing out from the south-east.
She was heading in for the mouth of the Congo, which was about forty
miles distant, according to the master's reckoning.

The night had been somewhat squally, and the royals and topgallant-sails
were stowed; but the weather was now clearing, and as "three bells"
chimed out musically upon the clammy morning air, Mr Seaton, the first
lieutenant, who was the officer of the watch, having first scanned the
heavens attentively, gave orders to loose and set again the light upper
canvas.

By the time that the men aloft had cast off the gaskets that confined
the topgallant-sails to the yards, the dawn--which comes with startling
rapidity in those latitudes--had risen high into the sky ahead, and
spread well along the horizon to north and south, causing the stars to
fade and disappear, one after another, until only a few of the brightest
remained twinkling low down in the west.

As I wheeled at the stern-grating in my monotonous promenade of the lee
side of the quarter-deck, a hail came down from aloft--

"Sail ho! two of 'em, sir, broad on the lee beam.  Look as if they were
standin' out from the land."

"What are they like?  Can you make out their rig?" demanded the first
luff, as he halted and directed his gaze aloft at the man on the main-
royal-yard, who, half-way out to the yard-arm, was balancing himself
upon the foot-rope, and steadying himself with one hand upon the yard as
he gazed away to leeward under the shade of the other.

"I can't make out very much, sir," replied the man.  "They're too far
off; but one looks like a schooner, and t'other like a brig."

"And they are heading out from the land, you say?" demanded the
lieutenant.

"Looks like it, sir," answered the man; "but, as I was sayin', they're a
long way off; and it's a bit thick down to leeward there, so--"

"All right, never mind; cast off those gaskets and come down,"
interrupted Mr Seaton impatiently.  Then, turning to me, he said:

"Mr Grenvile, take the glass and lay aloft, if you please, and see what
you can make of those strangers.  Mr Keene"--to the other midshipman of
the watch--"slip down below and call the captain, if you please.  Tell
him that two strange sail have been sighted from aloft, apparently
coming out from the Congo."

By the time he had finished speaking I had snatched the glass from its
beckets, and was half-way up the weather main rigging, while the watch
was sheeting home and hoisting away the topgallant-sails and royals.
When Keene reappeared on deck, after calling the skipper, I was
comfortably astride the royal-yard, with my left arm round the spindle
of the vane--the yard hoisting close up under the truck.  With my right
hand I manipulated the slide of the telescope and adjusted the focus of
the instrument to suit my sight.

By this time the dawn had entirely overspread the firmament, and the sky
had lost its pallor and was all aglow with richest amber, through which
a long shaft of pale golden light, soaring straight up toward the
zenith, heralded the rising of the sun.  The thickness to leeward had by
this time cleared away, and the two strange sail down there were now
clearly visible, the one as a topsail schooner, and the other as a brig.
They were a long way off, the topsails of the brig--which was leading--
being just clear of the horizon from my elevated point of observation,
while the head of the schooner's topsail just showed clear of the sea.
The brig I took to be a craft of about our own size, say some three
hundred tons, while the schooner appeared to be about two hundred tons.

I had just ascertained these particulars when the voice of the skipper
came pealing up to me from the stern-grating, near which he stood, with
Mr Seaton alongside of him.

"Well, Mr Grenvile, what do you make of them?"

I replied, giving such information as I had been able to gather; and
added: "They appear to be sailing in company, sir."

"Thank you, that will do; you may come down," answered the skipper.
Then, as I swung myself off the yard, I heard the lieutenant give the
order to bear up in chase, to rig out the port studding-sail booms, and
to see all clear for setting the port studding-sails--or stu'n'sails, as
they are more commonly called.  I had reached the cross-trees, on my way
down, when Captain Bentinck again hailed me.

"Aloft there! just stay where you are for a little while, Mr Grenvile,
and keep your eye on those sail to leeward.  And if you observe any
alteration in the course that they are steering, report the fact to me
at once."

"Ay, ay, sir!"  I answered, and settled myself down comfortably for what
I anticipated might be a fairly long wait.

For a few minutes all was now bustle and confusion below and about me;
the helm was put up and the ship wore short round, the yards were swung,
and then several hands came aloft to reeve the gear, rig out the booms,
and set the larboard studding-sails, from the royals down.  We rather
prided ourselves upon being a smart ship, and in less than five minutes
from the moment the order was given we were sliding away upon our new
course, at a speed of some five and a half knots, with all our studding-
sails set on the port side, and all ropes neatly coiled down once more.
But ere this had happened I had returned to my former post on the main-
royal-yard, for I quickly discovered that the shift of helm had caused
the head-sails to interpose themselves between me and the objects which
it was my duty to watch, and this was to be remedied only by returning
to the royal-mast-head.

The skipper, in setting the new course, had displayed what commended
itself to me as sound judgment.  We were at such a distance from the
strangers of whom we were now in chase that even our most lofty canvas
was--and would, for some little time longer, remain--invisible from
their decks.  This was highly desirable, since the nearer we could
approach them without being discovered, the better would be our chance
of ultimately getting alongside them.  The only likelihood of a
premature discovery of our proximity lay in the possible necessity, on
the part of one or the other of them, to send a hand aloft; but this we
could not guard against.  Captain Bentinck, therefore, hoping that _no_
such necessity would arise, had shaped a course not directly for them,
but at an intercepting angle to their own course, by which means he
hoped not only to hold way with them, but also to lessen very
considerably the distance between them and ourselves before the sight of
our canvas, rising above the horizon, would reveal our unwelcome
presence to the two slavers, as we believed the strange craft to be.  It
was also of the utmost importance that we should have instant knowledge
of their discovery of our presence in their neighbourhood, and of the
action that they would thereupon take; hence the necessity for my
remaining aloft to maintain a steady and careful watch upon their
movements.

I had been anticipating--and, indeed, hoping--that my sojourn aloft
would be a lengthy one, for I knew that, so long as the strangers
continued to steer their original course, it would mean that they
remained in ignorance of our proximity to them.  But this was not to be,
for I had but regained my original position on the royal-yard some ten
minutes, when, as I kept the telescope steadily fixed upon them, I saw
the brig bear up and run off square before the wind.  The schooner
promptly followed her example, and both of them immediately proceeded to
rig out studding-sail booms on both sides.

"Deck ahoy!" hailed I.  "The two strange sail to leeward have this
instant put up their helms, and are running square off before the wind;
they are also rigging out their studding-sail booms on both sides."

"Thank you, Mr Grenvile," replied the skipper.  "How do they bear from
us now?"

"About four points before the beam, sir," answered I.

"Very good.  Stay where you are a minute or two longer, for I am about
to bear up in chase, and I want you to tell me when they are directly
ahead of us," ordered the skipper.

"Ay, ay, sir!" shouted I, giving the stereotyped answer to every order
issued on board ship; and the next instant all was bustle and activity
below me, as the helm was put up and preparations were made to set our
studding-sails on the starboard side.  As I glanced down on deck I saw
the captain step to the binnacle, apparently watching the motion of the
compass-card as the ship paid off, so I at once directed my gaze toward
the strangers, and the moment they were brought in line with the fore-
royal-mast-head I sang out:

"Steady as you go, sir; the strangers are now dead ahead of us!"

"Thank you, Mr Grenvile; you may come down now," replied the captain.
And as I swung off the yard I saw the skipper and the first lieutenant,
with their heads together over the binnacle, talking earnestly.

Meanwhile the wind, scant as it was, seemed inclined to become more
scanty still, until at length, by "six bells"--that is to say, seven
o'clock--our courses were drooping motionless from the yards, the
maintop-sail was wrinkling ominously, with an occasional flap to the
mast as the brig hove lazily over the long low undulations of the
swell--and only the light upper canvas continued to draw, the ship's
speed having declined to a bare two knots, which gave us little more
than mere steerage way.  And loud was the grumbling, fore and aft, when,
a little later, as the hands were piped to breakfast, the breeze died
away altogether, and the _Shark_, being no longer under the control of
her helm, proceeded to "box the compass"--that is to say, to swing first
this way and then that, with the send of the swell.  Our only
consolation was that the strangers to leeward were in the same awkward
fix as ourselves; for if we had no wind wherewith to pursue them, they,
in their turn, had none wherewith to run away from us.

Nobody dawdled very long over breakfast that morning; for, in the first
place, the heat below was simply unbearable, and, in the next, we were
all far too anxious to allow of our remaining in our berths while we
knew that every conceivable expedient would be adopted by the captain to
shorten the distance between us and the chase.  It was my watch below
from eight o'clock until noon, and I was consequently off duty; but
although I had been on deck for eight hours of the twelve during the
preceding night, I was much too fidgety to turn in and endeavour to get
a little sleep; I therefore routed out a small pocket sextant that had
been presented to me by a friend, and, making my way up into the fore-
topmast cross-trees--from which the strangers could be seen--I very
carefully measured with the instrument the angle subtended by the mast-
head of the brig and the horizon, so that I might be able to ascertain
from time to time whether or not that craft was increasing the distance
between her and ourselves.  I decided to measure this angle every half-
hour; and, having made my first and second observations without
discovering any appreciable difference between them, I employed the
interval in looking about me, and watching the movements of two large
sharks which were dodging off and on close alongside the ship, and which
were clearly visible from my post of observation.  At length, as "three
bells"--half-past nine-o'clock--struck, I cast a glance all round the
ship before again measuring my angle, when, away down in the south-
eastern quarter, I caught a glimpse of very pale blue stretching along
the horizon that elsewhere was indistinguishable owing to the glassy
calm of the ocean's surface.

"Deck ahoy!" shouted I; "there is a small air of wind creeping up out of
the south-eastern quarter."

"Thank you, Mr Grenvile," replied the captain, who was engaged in
conversation with Mr Fawcett, the officer of the watch.  "Is it coming
along pretty fast?" he continued.

I took another good long look.

"No, sir," I answered; "it is little more than a cat's-paw at present,
but it has the appearance of being fairly steady."

"How long do you think it will be before it reaches us?" asked the
second luff.

"Probably half an hour, at the least, sir," I answered.

I noticed Mr Fawcett say something to the skipper; and then they both
looked up at the sails.  The captain nodded, as though giving his assent
to some proposal.  The next moment the second lieutenant gave the order
to range the wash-deck tubs along the deck, and to fill them.  This was
soon done; and while some of the hands were busy drawing water from over
the side, and pouring it into the tubs, others came aloft and rigged
whips at the yard-arms, by means of which water from the tubs was
hoisted aloft in buckets and emptied over the sails until every inch of
canvas that we could spread was thoroughly saturated with water.  Thus
the small interstices between the threads of the fabric were filled, and
the sails enabled to retain every breath of air that might come along.
By the time that this was done the first cat's-paws of the approaching
breeze were playing around us, distending our lighter sails for a moment
or two, and then dying away again.  But light and evanescent as these
cat's-paws were, they were sufficient to get the brig round with her
jib-boom pointing straight for the chase once more; and a minute or two
later the first of the true breeze reached us, and we began to glide
slowly ahead before it, with squared yards.  The men were still kept
busy with the buckets, however, for, in order that the sails should be
of any real service to us, it was necessary to keep them thoroughly wet,
and this involved the continuous drawing and hoisting aloft of water,
for the sun's rays were so intensely ardent that the water evaporated
almost as rapidly as it was thrown upon the canvas.

The breeze came down very slowly, and seemed very loath to freshen; but
this, tantalising though it was to us, was all in our favour, for we
thus practically carried the breeze down with us, while the two strange
sail away in the western board remained completely becalmed.  Of this
latter fact I soon had most satisfactory evidence, for, without having
recourse at all to my sextant, I was enabled, in that atmosphere of
crystalline clearness, to see with the naked eye that we were steadily
raising them, an hour's sailing having brought the bulwark rail of both
craft flush with the horizon at my point of observation.  By this time,
however, the breeze had slid some three miles ahead of us, its margin,
where it met and overran the glassy surface of the becalmed sea ahead,
being very distinctly visible.  At last, too, the wind was manifesting
some slight tendency to freshen, for, looking aft, I saw that all our
after canvas, even to the heavy mainsail which was hanging in its
brails, was swelling out and drawing bravely, while the little streak of
froth and foam-bells that gathered under our sharp bows, and went
sliding and softly seething aft into our wake, told me that we were
slipping through the water at a good honest six-knot pace.  With this
most welcome freshening of the wind the necessity to keep the canvas
continuously wet came to an end; and the men, glad of the relief, were
called down on deck to clean up the mess made by the lavish use of the
water.

Another half-hour passed, and the strange craft were hull-up, when the
captain hailed me from the deck in the wake of the main rigging.

"What is the latest news of the strangers, Mr Grenvile?" he asked.
"Has the breeze yet reached them?"

"No, sir; not yet," I answered; "but I expect it will in the course of
the next half-hour.  They are hull-up from here, sir; and I should think
that you ought to be able to see the mast-heads of the larger craft--the
brig--from the deck, by this time."

Hearing this, the skipper and Mr Fawcett walked forward to the
forecastle, the former levelling the telescope that he carried in his
hand, and pointing it straight ahead.  Then, removing the tube from his
eye, the captain handed over the instrument to the second luff, who, in
his turn, took a good long look, and returned the telescope to the
captain.  They stood talking together for a minute or two; and then
Captain Bentinck, glancing up at me, hailed.

"Mr Grenvile," said he, "I am about to send this glass up to you by
means of the signal halyards.  I want you to keep an eye on those two
craft down there, and report anything particular that you may see going
on; and let me know when the breeze reaches them, and whether they keep
together when it does so."

"Ay, ay, sir!"  I answered.  And when the telescope came up I made
myself comfortable, feeling quite prepared to remain in the cross-trees
for the rest of the watch.

The breeze, meanwhile, continued steadily to freshen, and when at length
it reached the two strange sail ahead of us we were buzzing along, with
a long, easy, rolling motion over the low swell, at a speed of fully
nine knots, with a school of porpoises gambolling under our bows--each
of them apparently out-vying the others in the attempt to see which of
them could shoot closest athwart our cut-water without being touched by
it--and shoal after shoal of flying-fish sparking out from the bow surge
and streaming away to port and starboard like so many handfuls of bright
new silver coins flung hither and thither by Father Neptune.

As the strangers caught the first of the breeze they squared away before
it; but I presently saw that, instead of steering precisely parallel
courses, as though they intended to continue in each other's company,
they were diverging at an angle of about forty-five degrees, the brig
bringing the wind about two points on her port quarter, while the
schooner, steering a somewhat more northerly course, held it about two
points on her starboard quarter.  Thus, while they were running almost
directly away from us, they were also rapidly widening the distance
between each other, and it would therefore be very necessary for the
skipper to make up his mind quickly which of the two craft he would
pursue--for it was clear that, by this manoeuvre on their part, they had
rendered it impossible for us to chase them both.

I was in the act of reporting this matter to the skipper and the second
lieutenant, who were walking the quarter-deck together, when Mr
Fawcett--who, with the captain, had come to a halt at my hail--suddenly
reeled, staggered, and fell prone upon the deck with a crash.  The
skipper instantly sprang to his assistance, as did young Christy, a
fellow mid of mine, who was pacing fore and aft on the opposite side of
the deck, and three or four men who were at work about some job in the
wake of the main rigging; and between them they raised the poor fellow
up and carried him below.  I subsequently learned--when I eventually
descended from aloft--that the surgeon had reported him to be suffering
from sunstroke, which was complicated by an injury to the skull
sustained by his having struck his head upon a ring-bolt in the deck as
he fell.

Meanwhile, during the temporary confusion that ensued on deck in
consequence of this untoward incident, I employed myself in the careful
measurement of the angle made by the mast-heads of the two strange sail
with the now sharply defined horizon, and noting the result upon the
back of an envelope which I happened to have in my jacket pocket.  I had
scarcely done this when the skipper hailed me, asking whether we seemed
to be gaining anything upon the strangers, or whether I thought that
they were running away from us.  I replied that the breeze had reached
them too recently to enable me to judge, but that I hoped to be in a
position to let him know definitely in the course of the next half-hour.
I then explained to him what I had done, and he was pleased to express
his approval.  Meanwhile we continued to steer a course about midway
between that of the two strangers, by which means it was hoped that we
should be able to keep both in sight, in readiness to haul up for that
one upon which we seemed to be most decidedly gaining.

The breeze still continued to freshen upon us, to such an extent that
when my watch told me it was time to re-measure my angle, we were
bowling along at the rate of nearly twelve knots, and the sea was
beginning to rise, while our lighter studding-sail booms were buckling
rather ominously.  I took my angle again, and, rather to my surprise,
found that we were slightly gaining upon the schooner, while the brig
was fully holding her own with us, if indeed she was not doing something
even better than that.  I reported this to the skipper, who seemed to
have made up his mind already as to his course of action; for upon
hearing what I had to say he instantly gave orders for our helm to be
shifted in pursuit of the schooner.  Then, seeming suddenly to remember
that it was my watch below, he hailed me, telling me that I might come
down.

Having reached the deck, I at once trotted below to make my preparation
for taking the sun's meridian altitude, for it was now drawing on
towards noon.

When, a little later, I again went on deck, I found that the wind had
continued to freshen, and was now blowing a really strong breeze, while
the sea had wrinkled under the scourging of it to a most beautiful deep
dark-blue tint, liberally dashed with snow-white patches of froth as the
surges curled over and broke in their chase after our flying hull.  Our
canvas was now dragging at the spars and sheets like so many teams of
cart-horses, the delicate blue shadows coming and going upon the cream-
white surfaces as the ship rolled with the regularity of a swinging
pendulum.  Every inch of our running gear was as taut as a harp-string,
and through it the wind piped and sang as though the whole ship had been
one gigantic musical instrument; while over all arched the blue dome of
an absolutely cloudless sky, in the very zenith of which blazed the sun
with a fierceness that made all of us eager to seek out such small
patches of fugitive shadow as were cast by the straining canvas.  The
sun was so nearly vertical that our bulwarks, although they were high,
afforded us no protection whatever from his scorching rays.

The two strange sail were by this time visible from our deck, and it was
apparent that, in the strong breeze which was now blowing, we were
rapidly overhauling the schooner, while the brig was not only holding
her own with us, but had actually increased her distance, as she
gradually hauled to the wind, so as to allow us to run away to leeward
of her.

The pursuit of the schooner lasted all through the afternoon, and it was
close upon sunset when we arrived within range of her, and plumped a
couple of 24-pound shot clean through her mainsail, whereupon her
skipper saw fit to round-to all standing, back his topsail, and hoist
Spanish colours, only to haul them down again in token of surrender.
Whereupon Mr Seaton, our first lieutenant, in charge of an armed boat's
crew, went away to take possession of the prize, and since I was the
only person on board possessing even a passable acquaintance with the
Spanish language, I was ordered to accompany him.

Our prize proved to be the _Dolores_, of two hundred tons measurement,
with--as we had suspected--a cargo of slaves, numbering three hundred
and fifty, which she had shipped in one of the numerous creeks at the
mouth of the Congo on the previous day, and with which she was bound for
Rio Grande.  Her crew were transferred to the _Shark_; and then--the
second lieutenant being ill and quite unfit for service--I was put in
command of her, with a crew of fourteen men, and instructed to make the
best of my way to Sierra Leone.  My crew of fourteen included Gowland,
our master's mate, and young Sinclair, a first-class volunteer, as well
as San Domingo, the servant of the midshipmen's mess, to act as steward,
and the cook's mate.  We therefore mustered only five forecastle hands
to a watch, which I thought little enough for a schooner of the size of
the _Dolores_; but as we hoped to reach Sierra Leone in a week at the
outside, and as the schooner was unarmed, Captain Bentinck seemed to
think that we ought to be able to manage fairly well.  By the time that
we had transferred ourselves and our traps to the prize it had fallen
quite dark.  The _Shark_ therefore lost no time in hauling her wind in
pursuit of the strange brig, which by this time had run out of sight,
and of which the skipper of the _Dolores_ professed to know nothing
beyond the fact that she was French, was named the _Suzanne_, and was
running a cargo of slaves across to Martinique.



CHAPTER TWO.

CAPTURED BY A PIRATE.

When, in answer to the summons of our 24-pounders, the captain of the
_Dolores_ rounded-to and laid his topsail to the mast, he did not
trouble his crew to haul down the studding-sails, for he knew that his
ship was as good as lost to him, and the result was that the booms
snapped short off at the irons, like carrots, leaving a raffle of
slatting canvas, gear, and thrashing wreckage for the prize crew to
clear away.  Thus, although we at once hauled-up for our port upon
parting company with the _Shark_, we had nearly an hour's hard work
before us in the dark ere the studding-sails were got in, the gear
unrove and unbent, and the stumps of the booms cleared away, and I
thought it hardly worth while to get a fresh set of booms fitted and
sent aloft that night.  We accordingly jogged along under plain sail
until daylight, when we got the studding-sails once more upon the little
hooker and tried her paces.  She proved to be astonishingly fast in
light, and even moderate, weather, and I felt convinced that had the
wind not breezed up so strongly as it did on the previous day, the
_Shark_ would never have overtaken her.

During the following two days we made most excellent progress, the
weather being everything that one could desire, and the water smooth
enough to permit of the hatches being taken off and the unfortunate
slaves brought on deck in batches of fifty at a time, for an hour each,
to take air and exercise, while those remaining below were furnished
with a copious supply of salt-water wherewith to wash down the slave-
deck and clear away its accumulated filth.  It proved to be a very
fortunate circumstance that Captain Bentinck had permitted us to draw
the negro San Domingo as one of our crew, for the fellow understood the
language spoken by the slaves, and was able to assure them that in the
course of a few days they would be restored to freedom, otherwise we
should not have dared to give them access to the deck in such large
parties, for they were nearly all _men_, and fine powerful fellows, who,
unarmed as they _were_, could have easily taken the ship from us and
heaved us all overboard.

The _Dolores_ had been in our possession just forty-eight hours, and we
were off Cape Three Points, though so far to the southward that no land
was visible, when a sail was made out on our lee bow, close-hauled on
the larboard tack, heading to the southward, the course of the _Dolores_
at the time being about north-west by west.  As we closed each other we
made out the stranger to be a brig, and our first impression was that
she was the _Shark_, which, having either captured or lost sight of the
craft of which she had been in chase, was now returning, either to her
station or to look for us and convoy us into Sierra Leone; and, under
this impression, we kept away a couple of points with the object of
getting a somewhat nearer view of her.  By sunset we had raised her to
half-way down her courses, by which time I had come to the conclusion
that she was a stranger; but as Gowland, the master's mate, persisted in
his assertion that she was the _Shark_, we still held on as we were
steering, feeling persuaded that, if she were indeed that vessel, she
would be anxious to speak to us; while, if she should prove to be a
stranger, no great harm would be done beyond the loss of a few hours on
our part.

The night fell overcast and very dark, and we lost sight of the stranger
altogether.  Moreover the wind breezed up so strongly that we were
obliged to hand our royal and topgallant-sail and haul down our gaff-
topsail, main-topmast staysail, and flying-jib; the result of the
freshening breeze being that a very nasty sea soon got up and we passed
a most uncomfortable night, the schooner rolling heavily and yawing
wildly as the seas took her on her weather quarter.  We saw no more of
the stranger that night, although some of us fancied that we
occasionally caught a glimpse of something looming very faint and
indefinite in the darkness away to windward.

Toward the end of the middle watch the weather rapidly improved, the
wind dropped, and the sea went down with it, although the sky continued
very overcast and the night intensely dark.  By four bells in the
morning watch the wind had died away almost to a calm, and with the
first pallor of the coming dawn the clouds broke away, and there, about
a mile on our weather quarter--that is to say, dead to windward of us--
lay the stranger of the preceding night, black and clean-cut as a paper
silhouette against the cold whiteness of the eastern sky, rolling
heavily, and with a number of hands aloft rigging out studding-sail
booms.  The brig, which was most certainly not the _Shark_, was heading
directly for us, and I did not like the look of her at all, for she was
as big as the sloop, if not a trifle bigger, showed nine guns of a side,
and was obviously bent upon getting a nearer view of us.  We lost no
time in getting our studding-sails aloft on the starboard side, bracing
the yards a trifle forward, and shaping a course that would give us a
chance ultimately to claw out to windward of our suspicious-looking
neighbour; but she would have none of it, for while we were still busy a
ruddy flash leapt from her bow port, a cloud of smoke, blue in the early
morning light, obscured the craft for a few seconds, and a round shot
came skipping toward us across the black water, throwing up little jets
of spray as it came, and finally sinking less than twenty yards away.

"Well aimed, but not quite enough elevation," exclaimed I to Gowland,
who had charge of the deck, and who had called me a moment before.
"Now, who is the fellow, and what does he mean by firing at us?  Is he a
Frenchman, think you, and does he take us for a slaver--which, by the
way, is not a very extraordinary mistake to make?  We had better show
him our bunting, I think.  Parsons," to a man who was hovering close by,
"bend on the ensign and run it up to the gaff-end."

"There is no harm in doing that, of course," remarked Gowland; "but he
is no Frenchman--or at least he is not a French cruiser; I am sure of
that by the cut of his canvas.  Besides, we know every French craft on
the station, and Johnny Crapaud has no such beauty as that brig among
them.  No; if you care for my opinion, Grenvile, it is that yonder
fellow is a slaver that is not too tender of conscience to indulge in a
little piracy at times, when the opportunity appears favourable, as it
does at present.  I have heard that, in contradiction of the adage that
`there is honour among thieves', there are occasionally to be found
among the slavers a few that are not above attacking other slavers and
stealing their slaves from them.  It saves them the bother of a run in
on the coast, with its attendant risk of losses by fever, and the delay,
perhaps, of having to wait until a cargo comes down.  Ah, I expected as
much!" as another shot from the stranger pitched close to our taffrail
and sent a cloud of spray flying over us.  "So much for his respect for
our bunting."

"If the schooner were but armed I would make him respect it," I
exclaimed, greatly exasperated at being obliged to submit tamely to
being fired at without the power to retaliate.  "But," I continued,
"since we cannot fight we will run.  The wind is light, and that brig
must be a smart craft indeed if, in such weather as this, we cannot run
away from her."

The next quarter of an hour afforded us plenty of excitement, for while
we were doing our best to claw out to windward of the brig she kept her
jib-boom pointed straight at us, and thus, having a slight advantage of
the wind, contrived to lessen the distance between us sufficiently to
get us fairly within range, when she opened a brisk fire upon us from
the 18-pounder on her forecastle.  But, although the aim was fairly
good, no very serious damage was done.  A rope was cut here and there,
but was immediately spliced by us; and when we had so far weathered upon
our antagonist as to have brought her fairly into our wake, the
advantage which we possessed in light winds over the heavier craft began
to tell, and we soon drew away out of gunshot.

So far, so good; but I had been hoping that as soon as our superiority
in speed became manifest the brig would bear up and resume her voyage to
her destination--wherever that might be.  But no; whether it was that he
was piqued at being beaten, or whether it was a strong vein of
pertinacity in his character that dominated him, I know not, but the
skipper of the strange brig hung tenaciously in our wake,
notwithstanding the fact that we were now steadily drawing away from
him.  Perhaps he was reckoning on the possibility that the breeze might
freshen sufficiently to transfer the advantage from us to himself, and
believing that this might be the case, I gave instructions to take in
all our studding-sails, and to brace the schooner up sharp, hoping thus
to shake him off.  But even this did not discourage him; for he promptly
imitated our manoeuvre, although we now increased our distance from him
still more rapidly than before.

Meanwhile the wind was steadily growing more scant, and when I went on
deck after breakfast I found that we were practically becalmed, although
the small breathing, which was all that remained of the breeze, sufficed
to keep the little hooker under command, and give her steerage way.  The
brig, however, I was glad to see, was boxing the compass some three
miles astern of us, and about a point on our lee quarter.

It was now roasting hot, the sky was without a single shred of cloud to
break its crystalline purity, and the sun poured down his beams upon us
so ardently that the black-painted rail had become heated to a degree
almost sufficient to blister the hand when inadvertently laid upon it,
while the pitch was boiling and bubbling out of the deck seams.  The
surface of the sea was like a sheet of melted glass, save where, here
and there, a transient cat's-paw flecked it for a moment with small
patches of delicate blue, that came and went as one looked at them.
Even the flying-fish seemed to consider the weather too hot for
indulgence in their usual gambols, for none of them were visible.  I was
therefore much surprised, upon taking a look at the brig through my
glass, to see that she had lowered and was manning a couple of boats.

"Why, Pringle," said I to the gunner, whose watch it was, "what does
that mean?  Surely they are not going to endeavour to tow the brig
within gunshot of us, are they?  They could never do it; for, although
there is scarcely a breath of wind stirring, this little beauty is still
moving through the water; and so long as she has steerage way on her we
ought to be able--"

"No, sir, no; no such luck as that, I'm afraid," answered the man.  "May
I have that glass for a moment?  Thank you, sir!"

He placed the telescope to his eye, adjusted it to his focus, and looked
through it long and intently.

"Just as I thought, Mr Grenvile," he said, handing back the instrument.
"If you'll take another squint, sir, you'll see that they're getting up
tackles on their yard-arms.  That means--unless I'm greatly mistaken--
that they're about to hoist out their longboat; and that again means
that they'll stick a gun into the eyes of her, and attack us with the
boats in regular man-o'-war fashion.  But they ain't alongside of us
yet, and won't be for another hour and a half if the wind don't die away
altogether--and, somehow, I don't fancy it's going to do that.  No, what
I'm most afraid of is"--and he took a long careful look round--"that in
this flukey weather the brig may get a breeze first, and bring it down
with her, when--ay, and there it is, sure enough!  There's blue water
all round her, and I can see her canvas filling to it, even with my
naked eye.  And there she swings her yards to it.  It'll be `keep all
fast with the boats' now!  If that little air o' wind only sticks to her
for half an hour she'll have us under her guns, safe enough!"

It was as Pringle said.  A light draught of air had suddenly sprung up
exactly where the brig happened to lie; and by the time I had got my
telescope once more focused upon her, she was again heading up for us,
with her weather braces slightly checked, and quite a perceptible curl
of white foam playing about her sharp bows.  But it only helped her for
about half a mile, and then left her completely becalmed, as before,
while we were still stealing along at the rate of perhaps a knot and a
quarter per hour.  The skipper of the brig allowed some ten minutes or
so to elapse, possibly waiting for another friendly puff of wind to come
to his assistance, but, seeing no sign of any such thing, he hoisted out
his longboat, lowered a small gun--to me it looked like a 6-pounder--
into her, and dispatched her, with two other boats, in chase of us.  The
dogged determination which animated our pursuers was clearly exemplified
by their behaviour; they made no attempt to cross with a rush the
stretch of water intervening between us and them, but settled down
steadily to accomplish the long pull before them as rapidly as possible
consistent with the husbanding of their strength for the attack when
they should arrive alongside.  As they pushed off from the brig she
fired a gun and hoisted Brazilian colours.

"The affair begins to look serious, Pringle," I said, as I directed my
telescope at the boats.  "There must be close upon forty men in that
attacking-party, and we do not mount so much as a single gun.  Now, I
wonder what their plan of attack will be?  Will they dash alongside and
attempt to carry us by boarding, think you; or will they lie off and
pound us with their gun until we haul down our colours, or sink?"

"They may try both plans, sir," answered Pringle.  "That is to say, they
may begin by trying a few shots at us with their gun, and if they find
that no good I expect they'll try what boarding will do for them.  But
they won't sink us; that's not their game.  It's the slaves they believe
we've got in the hold that they're after; so, if they bring their boat-
gun into play you'll find that it'll be our top-hamper they'll aim at,
so as to cripple us.  They'll not hull us if they can help it."

"Well, they shall not set foot upon this deck if I can help it," said I.
"Pass the word for the boatswain to come aft, Pringle, if you please.
He will probably be able to tell us whether there are any boarding-
nettings in the ship.  If there are, we will reeve and bend the tricing
lines at once, and see all clear for tricing up the nets."

"Ay," assented the gunner.  "I think you'll be wise in so doing, sir;
there's nothing like being prepared.  Pass the word for the boatswain to
come aft," he added, to the little group of men constituting the watch,
who were busy on the forecastle.

The word was passed, and presently the boatswain came along.

"Boatswain," said I, "have you given the spare gear of this craft an
overhaul as yet?"

"Well, sir, I have, and I haven't, as you may say," answered that
functionary.  "I knows, in a general sort of a way, what we've got
aboard of us, but I haven't examined anything in detail, so to speak.
The fact is, seeing that the trip was likely to be only a short one, and
we've been kept pretty busy since we joined the hooker, I've found
plenty else to do."

"Well, can you tell me whether there are any boarding-nettings in the
ship?"  I asked.

"Boarding-nettings!" answered the boatswain.  "Oh yes, sir; I came
across what I took to be a pile of 'em down below in the sail room,
yesterday."

"Good!" said I.  "Then let them be brought on deck at once, and see that
all is ready for tricing them up, should those boats succeed in getting
dangerously near to us."

"Ay, ay, sir!" answered the man.  And away he hurried forward to attend
to the matter.

Then I turned to the gunner.

"Mr Pringle," said I, "have the goodness to get the arm-chest on deck,
and see that the crew are armed in readiness to repel those attacking
boats."

"I hope it may not come to that, Mr Grenvile," said the gunner; "if it
does, I'm afraid it'll be a pretty bad look-out for some of us,
considerin' our numbers.  But, of course, it's the only thing to do."
He took a look round the horizon, directed his gaze first aloft, then
over the side, and shook his head.  "The sun's eating up what little air
there is," he remarked gloomily, "and I reckon that another ten minutes
'll see us without steerage way."  And he, too, departed to carry out
his instructions.

There seemed only too much reason to fear that the gunner's
anticipations with regard to the wind would prove true; but while I
stood near the transom, watching the steady relentless approach of the
boats--which were by now almost within gunshot of us--I suddenly became
aware of a gentle breeze fanning my sun-scorched features, and the
slight but distinct responsive heel of the schooner to it; and in
another minute we were skimming merrily away at a speed of quite five
knots under the benign influence of one of those partial breezes which,
on a calm day at sea, seem to spring up from nowhere in particular, last
for half an hour or so, and then die away again.  In the present case,
however, the breeze lasted nearly two hours before it failed us, by
which time we had left the brig hull-down astern of us, and had enjoyed
the satisfaction of seeing the boats abandon the chase and return to
their parent ship.

These partial breezes are among the most exasperating phenomena which
tax a sailor's patience.  They are, of course, only met with on
exceptionally calm days, and not always then.  They consist simply of
little eddies in the otherwise motionless atmosphere, and are so
strictly local in their character that it is by no means uncommon to see
a ship sailing briskly along under one of them, while another ship,
perhaps less than a mile away, is lying helpless in the midst of a
stark, breathless calm.  Or two ships, a mile or two apart, may be seen
sailing in diametrically opposite directions, each of them with squared
yards and a fair wind.  Under ordinary circumstances the fickle and
evanescent character of these atmospheric eddies is of little moment;
they involve a considerable amount of box-hauling of the yards, and
cause a great deal of annoyance to the exasperated and perspiring
seamen, very inadequately compensated by the paltry mile or so which the
ship has been driven toward her destination; and their aggravating
character begins and ends there.

But when one ship is chasing, or being chased by, another, it is quite a
different matter; for the eccentric behaviour of these same partial
breezes may make all the difference between capturing a prize, and
helplessly watching the chase sail away and make good her escape.  Or,
as was the case with ourselves, it may make precisely the difference
between losing a prize and retaining possession of her.  Thus we felt
supremely grateful to the erratic little draught of air that swept us
beyond the reach of the pursuing boats; but we piped a very different
tune when, some two hours later, we beheld the brig come bowling along
after us under the influence of a slashing breeze, while we lay becalmed
in the midst of a sea of glass and an atmosphere so stagnant that even
the vane at our mast-head drooped motionless save for the oscillation
imparted to it by the heave of the schooner over the swell.  We had, of
course, long ere this, got the boarding-nettings up and stretched along
in stops, with the tricing lines bent on, and everything ready for
tricing up at a moment's notice; but, remembering the number of men that
I had seen in the boats, I felt that, should the brig succeed in getting
alongside, there was a tough fight before us, in which some at least of
our brave fellows would lose the number of their mess; and I could not
help reflecting, rather bitterly, that if the breeze were to favour us
instead of the brig, a considerable loss of life would be avoided.  But
that the brig would get alongside us soon became perfectly evident, for
she was already within a mile of us, coming along with a spanking
breeze, on the starboard tack, with her yards braced slightly forward,
all plain sail set, to her royals, the sheets of her jibs and stay-sails
trimmed to a hair, and every thread drawing perfectly, while around us
the atmosphere remained absolutely stagnant.

I looked for her to open fire upon us as soon as she drew up within
range; but although her guns were run out--and were doubtless loaded--
she came foaming along in grim silence; doubtless her skipper saw, as
clearly as we did, that he had us now, and did not think it necessary to
waste powder and shot to secure what was already within his power.  His
aim was, apparently, to range up alongside us on our port quarter, and
when at length he had arrived within a short half-mile of us, with no
sign of the smallest puff of wind coming to help us, I gave orders to
trice up and secure the nettings, and then for all hands to range
themselves along the port bulwarks in readiness to repel the boarders.
It was now too late for us to dream of escape, for even should the
breeze, that the brig was bringing down with her, reach us, we were by
this time so completely under her guns that she could have unrigged us
with a single well-directed broadside.

Anxious though I was as to the issue of the coming tussle, I could not
help admiring that brig.  She was a truly beautiful craft; distinctly a
bigger vessel than the _Shark_, longer, more beamy, with sides as round
as an apple, and with the most perfectly moulded bows that it was
possible to conceive.  She was coming very nearly stem-on to us, and I
could not therefore see her run, but I had no doubt that it was as
perfectly shaped as were her bows, for I estimated her speed at fully
eight knots, and for a vessel to travel at that rate in such a breeze
she must of necessity have possessed absolute perfection of form.  She
was as heavily rigged as a man-o'-war, and her canvas--which was so
white that it must have been woven of cotton--had evidently been cut by
a master hand, for the set of it was perfect and flatter than any I had
ever seen before.  She was coppered to the bends, was painted black to
her rails, with the exception of a broad red ribbon round her, and was
pierced for eighteen guns.

When she had arrived within about half a cable's-length of us she
suddenly ran out of the breeze that had helped her so well, and
instantly floated upright, with all her square canvas aback in the
draught caused by her own speed through the stagnant atmosphere; and now
we were afforded a fresh opportunity to gauge the strength of her crew,
for no sooner did this happen than all her sheets and halyards were let
go, and the whole of her canvas was clewed up and hauled down together,
man-o'-war fashion.  And thus, with her jibs and stay-sails hauled down,
and her square canvas gathered close up to her yards by the buntlines
and leech-lines, she swerved slightly from her previous course and
headed straight for us, still sliding fast through the water with the
"way" or momentum remaining to her, and just sufficient to bring her
handsomely alongside.

"Now stand by, lads!"  I cried.  "We must not only beat those fellows
off, but must follow them up when they retreat to their own ship.  She
will be a noble prize, well worth the taking!"

The men responded to my invocation with a cheer--it is one of the most
difficult things in the world to restrain a British sailor's propensity
to cheer when there is fighting in prospect--and as they did so the brig
yawed suddenly and poured her whole starboard broadside of grape slap
into us.  I saw the bright flashes of the guns, and the spouting wreaths
of smoke, snow-white in the dazzling sunshine, and the next instant felt
a crashing blow upon my right temple that sent me reeling backward into
somebody's arms, stunned into complete insensibility.

My first sensation, upon the return of consciousness, was that of a
splitting, sickening headache, accompanied by a most painful smarting on
the right side of my forehead.  I was lying prone upon the deck, and
when I attempted to raise my head I found that it was in some way glued
to the planking--with my own blood, as I soon afterwards discovered--so
effectually that it was impossible for me to move without inflicting
upon myself excruciating pain.

My feeble movements, however, had evidently attracted the notice of
somebody, for as I raised my hands toward my head, with some vague idea
of releasing myself, I heard a voice, which I identified as that of the
carpenter, murmur, in a low, cautious tone.

"Don't move, Mr Grenvile; don't move, sir, for all our sakes.  Hold on
as you are, sir, a bit longer; for if them murderin' pirates sees that
you're alive they'll either finish you off altogether or lash you up as
they've done the rest of us; and then our last chance 'll be gone."

"What has happened, then, Simpson?" murmured I, relaxing my efforts, as
I endeavoured to collect my scattered wits.

"Why," answered Chips, "that brig that chased us--you remember, Mr
Grenvile?--turns out to be a regular pirate.  As they ranged up
alongside of us they poured in a whole broadside of grape that knocked
you over, and killed five outright, woundin' six more, includin'
yourself, after which of course they had no difficulty in takin' the
schooner.  Then they clapped lashin's on those of us that I s'pose they
thought well enough to give 'em any trouble; and now they're
transferrin' the poor unfortunate slaves, with the water and provisions
for 'em, from our ship to their own.  What they'll do after that the
Lord only knows, but I expect it'll be some murderin' trick or another;
they're a cut-throat-lookin' lot enough in all conscience!"

Yes; I remembered everything now; the carpenter's statement aided my
struggling memory and enabled me to recall all that had happened up to
the moment of my being struck down by a grape-shot.  But what a terrible
disaster was this that had befallen us--five killed and six wounded out
of our little party of fifteen!  And, in addition to that, we were in
the power of a band of ruthless ruffians who were quite capable of
throwing the quick and the dead alike over the side when they could find
time to attend to us!

"Who are killed, Simpson?"  I asked.

"Hush, sir! better not talk any more just now," murmured the carpenter.
"If these chaps got the notion into their heads that you was alive, as
like as not they'd put a bullet through your skull.  They'll soon be
finished with their job now, and then we shall see what sort of fate
they're going to serve out to us."

I dared not look up nor move my head in any way, to see what was going
on, but by listening I presently became aware that the last of the
slaves had passed over the side, and that the pirates were now
transferring the casks of water and the sacks of meal from our ship to
their own, which--the water being perfectly smooth--they had lashed
alongside the schooner, with a few fenders between the two hulls to
prevent damage by the grinding of them together as they rose and fell
upon the long scarcely perceptible undulations of the swell.  About a
quarter of an hour later the rumbling of the rolling water-casks and the
loud scraping sound of the meal-sacks on the deck ceased; there was a
pause of a minute or so, and then I heard a voice say in Spanish:

"The last of the meal and the water has gone over the rail, senor
capitan.  Is there anything else?"

"No," was the answer, in the same language; "you may all go back to the
brig.  And, Dominique, see all ready for sheeting home and hoisting away
the moment that I join you.  There is a little breeze coming, and it is
high time that we were off.  Now, Juan, are you ready with the auger?"

"Quite ready, senor," answered another voice.

"Then come below with me, and let us get this job over," said the first
voice, and immediately upon this I heard the footsteps of two people
descending the schooner's companion ladder.  Some ten minutes later I
heard the footsteps returning, and presently the two Spaniards were on
deck.  Then there came a slight pause, as though the pirate captain had
halted to take a last look round.

"Are you quite sure, Juan, that the prisoners are all securely lashed?"
asked he.

"Absolutely, senor," answered Juan.  "I lashed them myself, and, as you
are aware, I am not in the habit of bungling the job.  They will all go
to the bottom together, the living as well as the dead!"

"Bueno!" commented the captain.  "Ah, here comes the breeze!  Aboard you
go, Juan, amigo.  Cast off, fore and aft, Dominique, and hoist away your
fore-topmast staysail."

Another moment and the two miscreants had gone.



CHAPTER THREE.

THE SINKING OF THE "DOLORES."

As the sound of the hanks travelling up the brig's fore-topmast stay
reached my ear I murmured cautiously to the carpenter.

"Is it safe for me to move now, Chips?"

"No, sir, no," he replied, in a low, strained whisper; "don't move a
muscle for your life, Mr Grenvile, until I tell you, sir.  The brig's
still alongside, and that unhung villain of a skipper's standin' on the
rail, holdin' on to a swifter, and lookin' down on our decks as though,
even now, he ain't quite satisfied that his work is properly finished."

At this moment I felt a faint breath of air stirring about me, and heard
the small, musical lap of the tiny wavelets alongside as the new breeze
arrived.  The brig's canvas and our own rustled softly aloft; and the
cheeping of sheaves and parrals, the rasping of hanks, the flapping of
canvas, and the sound of voices aboard the pirate craft gradually
receded, showing that she was drawing away from us.

When, as I supposed, the brig had receded from us a distance of fully a
hundred feet, the carpenter said, this time in his natural voice:

"Now, Mr Grenvile, you may safely move, sir, and the sooner you do so
the better, for them villains have scuttled us, and I don't doubt but
what the water's pourin' into us like a sluice at this very moment.  So
please crawl over to me, keepin' yourself well out of sight below the
rail, for I'll bet anything that there's eyes aboard that brig still
watchin' of us, and cast me loose, so that I can make my way down below
and plug them auger-holes without any loss of time."

I at once made a move, with the intention of getting upon my hands and
knees, but instantly experienced the most acute pain in my temple, due
to the fact, which I now discovered, that the shot which had struck me
down had torn loose a large piece of the skin of my forehead, which had
become stuck fast to the deck planking by the blood which had flowed
from the wound and had by this time dried.  To loosen this flap of skin
cost me the most exquisite pain, and when at length I had succeeded in
freeing myself, and rose to my hands and knees, so violent a sensation
of giddiness and nausea suddenly swept over me that I again collapsed,
remaining insensible for quite ten minutes according to the carpenter's
account.

But even during my unconsciousness I was vaguely aware of some urgent,
even vital, necessity for me to be up and doing, and this it was, I
doubt not, that helped me to recover consciousness much sooner than I
should have done but for the feeling to which I have alluded.  Once more
I rose to my hands and knees, half-blinded by the blood that started
afresh from my wound, and crawled over to where the carpenter lay on the
deck, in what must have been a most uncomfortable attitude, hunched up
against the port bulwarks, with his wrists lashed tightly together
behind his back and his heels triced up to them, so that it was
absolutely impossible for him to move or help himself in the slightest
degree.

As I approached him the poor fellow groaned rather than spoke.

"Thank God that you're able to move at last, Mr Grenvile!  I was mortal
afraid that 'twas all up with you when you toppled over just now.  For
pity's sake, sir, cut me loose as soon as you can, for these here
lashin's have been drawed so tight that I've lost all feelin' in my
hands and feet, while my arms and legs seems as though they was goin' to
burst.  What! haven't you got a knife about you, sir?  I don't know
what's become of mine, but some of the men'll be sure to have one, if
you enquire among 'em."

Hurried enquiry soon revealed the disconcerting fact that we could not
muster a solitary knife among us; we had all either lost them, or had
had them taken from us; there was therefore nothing for it but to heave
poor Chips over on his face, and cast him adrift with my hands, which
proved to be a longer and much more difficult job than I could have
believed, owing, of course, to the giddiness arising from my wound,
which made both my sight and my touch uncertain.  But at length the last
knot was loosed, the last turn of the rope cast off, and Chips was once
more a free man.

But when he essayed to stand, the poor fellow soon discovered that his
troubles were not yet over.  For his feet were so completely benumbed
that he had no feeling in them, and when he attempted to rise his ankles
gave way under him and let him down again upon the deck.  Then, as the
blood once more began to circulate through his benumbed extremities, the
pricking and tingling that followed soon grew so excruciatingly painful
that he fairly groaned and ground his teeth in agony.  To allay the pain
I chafed his arms and legs vigorously, and in the course of a few
minutes he was able to crawl along the deck to the companion, and then
make his way below.

Meanwhile, taking the utmost care to keep my head below the level of the
bulwarks, in order that my movements might not be detected by any chance
watcher aboard the pirate craft, I cast loose the three unwounded men--
the carpenter being the fourth of our little band who had escaped the
destructive broadside of the pirates--and bade them assist me to cast
off the lashings which confined the wounded.  We were still thus engaged
when Simpson came up through the companion, dripping wet, glowering
savagely, and muttering to himself.

"Well, Chips," said I, "what is the best news from below?"

"Bad, sir; pretty nigh as bad as can be," answered the carpenter.
"They've scuttled us most effectually, bored eight holes through her
skin, close up alongside the kelson, three of which I've managed to plug
after a fashion, but by the time I had done them the water had risen so
high that I found it impossible to get at t'others.  I reckon that
sundown will about see the last of this hooker; but by that time yonder
brig 'll be pretty nigh out of sight, and we shall have a chance to get
away in the boats, which, for a wonder, them murderin' thieves forgot to
damage."

"There is no hope, you think, of saving the schooner, if all of us who
are able were to go below and lend you a hand?" said I.

"No, sir; not the slightest," answered Simpson.  "If I could have got
below ten minutes earlier, something might have been done; but now we
can do nothing."

"Very well, then," said I; "let San Domingo take two of the uninjured
men to assist him in getting up provisions and water, while you and the
other overhaul the boats, muster their gear, and get everything ready
for putting them into the water as soon as we may venture to do so
without attracting the attention of the brig and tempting her to return
and make an end of us."

While these things were being done, the wounded men assisted each other
down into the little cabin of the schooner, where I dressed their
injuries and coopered them up to the best of my ability with such means
as were to hand; after which, young Sinclair, whose wound was but a
slight one, bathed my forehead, adjusted the strip of displaced skin
where it had been torn away, and strapped it firmly in position with
sticking-plaster.

Meanwhile, the breeze which had sprung up so opportunely to take the
brig out of our immediate neighbourhood not only lasted, but continued
to freshen steadily, with the result that by the time that we had
patched each other up, and were ready to undertake the mournful task of
burying our slain, the wicked but beautiful craft that had inflicted
such grievous injury and loss upon us had slid away over the ocean's
rim, and was hull-down.  By this time also the water had risen in the
schooner to such a height that it was knee-deep in the cabin.  We lost
no time, therefore, in committing our dead comrades to their last
resting-place in the deep, and then proceeded to get the boats into the
water, and stock them with provisions for our voyage.

Now, with regard to this same voyage, I had thus far been much too busy
to give the matter more than the most cursory consideration, but the
time had now arrived when it became necessary for me to decide for what
point we should steer when the moment arrived for us to take to the
boats.  Poor Gowland was, unfortunately, one of the five who had been
killed by the brig's murderous broadside of grape, and I was therefore
deprived of the benefit of his advice and assistance in the choice of a
port for which to steer; but I was by this time a fairly expert
navigator myself, quite capable of doing without assistance if
necessary.  I therefore spread out a chart on the top of the skylight,
and, with the help of the log-book, pricked off the position of the
schooner at noon that day, from which I discovered that Cape Coast
Castle was our nearest port.  But to reach it with the wind in the
quarter from which it was then blowing it would be necessary to put the
boats on a taut bowline, with the possibility that, even then, we might
fall to leeward of our port, whereas it was a fair wind for Sierra
Leone.  I therefore arrived at the conclusion that, taking everything
into consideration, it would be my wisest plan to make for the latter
port, and I accordingly determined there and then the proper course to
be steered upon leaving the schooner.

The _Dolores_ had by this time settled _so_ deeply in the water that it
was necessary to complete our preparations for leaving her without
further delay.  San Domingo had contrived to get together and bring on
deck a stock of provisions and fresh water that I considered would be
ample for all our needs, and Simpson had routed out and stowed in the
boats their masts, sails, oars, rowlocks, and, in short, everything
necessary for their navigation.  It now remained, therefore, only to get
the craft themselves in the water, stow the provisions and our kits in
them, and be off as quickly as possible.

The boats of the _Dolores_ were three in number, namely, a longboat in
chocks on the main hatch, a jolly-boat stowed bottom-upward in the
longboat, and a very smart gig hung from davits over the stern.  The
longboat was a very fine, roomy, and wholesome-looking boat, big enough
to accommodate all that were left of us, as well as our kits and a very
fair stock of provisions; but in order to afford a little more room and
comfort for the wounded men I decided to take the gig also, putting into
her a sufficient quantity of provisions and water to ballast her, and
placing Simpson in charge of her, with one of the unwounded and two of
the most slightly-wounded men as companions, leaving six of us to man
the longboat.

Simpson's estimate of the time at our disposal proved to be a very close
one, for the sun was within ten minutes of setting when, all our
preparations having been completed, I followed the rest of our little
party over the side, and, entering the longboat, gave the order to shove
off and steer north-west in company.  There was at this time a very
pleasant little breeze blowing, of a strength just sufficient to permit
the boats to carry whole canvas comfortably; the water was smooth, and
the western sky was all ablaze with the red and golden glories of a
glowing tropical sunset.

We pulled off to a distance of about a hundred yards from the schooner;
and then, as with one consent, the men laid in their oars and waited to
see the last of the little hooker.  Her end was manifestly very near,
for she had settled to the level of her waterways, and was rolling
occasionally on the long, level swell with a slow, languid movement that
dipped her rail amidships almost to the point of submergence ere she
righted herself with a stagger and hove her streaming wet side up toward
us, all a-glitter in the ruddy light of the sunset, as she took a
corresponding roll in the opposite direction; and we could hear the rush
and swish of water athwart her deck as she rolled.  She remained thus
for some three or four minutes, each roll being heavier than the one
that had preceded it, when, quite suddenly, she seemed to steady
herself; then, as we watched, she slowly settled down out of sight, on a
perfectly even keel, the last ray of the setting sun gleaming in fire
upon her gilded main truck a moment ere the waters closed over
it.--"_Sic transit_!" muttered I, as I turned my gaze away from the
small patch of whirling eddies that marked the spot where the little
beauty had disappeared, following up the reflection with the order:
"Hoist away the canvas, lads, and shape for Sierra Leone!"

Five minutes later we were speeding gaily away, with the wind over our
starboard quarter and the sheets eased well off, the gig, with her finer
lines and lighter freight, revealing so marked a superiority in speed
over the longboat, in the light weather and smooth water with which we
were just then favoured, that she was compelled to luff and shake the
wind out of her sails at frequent intervals to enable us to keep pace
with her.  Meanwhile, the pirate brig, which, like ourselves, had gone
off before the wind, had sunk below the horizon to the level of her
lower yards.  I had, between whiles, been keeping the craft under fairly
steady observation, for what Simpson had said relative to the behaviour
of her captain, and the attitude of doubt and suspicion which the latter
had exhibited when leaving the _Dolores_, had impressed me with the
belief that he would possibly cause a watch to be maintained upon the
schooner until she should sink, with the object of assuring himself that
none of us had escaped to tell the tale of his atrocious conduct.  As I
have already mentioned, the _Dolores_ happened to founder at the precise
moment of sunset, and in those latitudes the duration of twilight is
exceedingly brief.  Still, following upon sunset there were a few
minutes during which the light would be strong enough to enable a sharp
eye on board the distant brig, especially if aided by a good glass, to
detect the presence of the two boats under sail; and I was curious to
see whether anything would occur on board the brig to suggest that such
a discovery had been made.  For a few minutes nothing happened; the
brig's canvas, showing up clear-cut and purple almost to blackness
against the gold and crimson western sky, revealed no variation in the
direction in which she was steering; but presently, as I watched the
quick fading of the glowing sunset tints, and noted how the sharp
silhouette of the brig's canvas momentarily grew more hazy and
indistinct, I suddenly became aware of a lengthening out of the fast-
fading image, and I had just time to note, ere they merged into the
quick-growing gloom, that the two masts had separated, showing that the
brig had shifted her course and was now presenting a broadside view to
us.  That I was not alone in marking this change was evidenced a moment
later when, as we drew up alongside the gig, which had been waiting for
us, Simpson hailed me with the question:

"Did ye notice, sir, just afore we lost sight of the brig, that he'd
hauled his wind?"

"Yes," said I, "I did.  And I have a suspicion that he has done so
because he had a hand aloft to watch for and report the sinking of the
schooner; and that hand has caught sight of the boats.  If my suspicion
is correct, he has waited until he believed we could no longer see him,
and has then hauled his wind in the hope that by making a series of
short stretches to windward he will fall in with us in the course of an
hour or two and be able to make an end of us.  He probably waited until
we had been lost sight of in the gathering darkness, and then shifted
his helm, forgetful of the fact that his canvas would show up against
the western sky for some few minutes after ours had vanished."

"That's just my own notion, sir," answered Simpson, "I mean about his
wishin' to fall in with and make an end of us.  And he'll do it, too,
unless we can hit upon some plan to circumvent him."

"Quite so," said I.  "But we must see to it that we do not again fall
into his hands.  And to avoid doing so I can think of nothing better
than to shift our own helm and shape a course either to the northward or
the southward, with the wind about two points abaft the beam; by doing
which we may hope to get to leeward of the brig in about two hours from
now, when we can resume our course for Sierra Leone with a reasonable
prospect of running the brig out of sight before morning.  And, as she
was heading to the northward when we last saw her, our best plan will be
to steer a southerly course.  So, up helm, Simpson, and we will steer
west-south-west for the next two hours, keeping a sharp look-out for the
brig, meanwhile, that we may not run foul of her unawares."

We had been steering our new course about an hour when it became
apparent that a change of weather was brewing, though what the nature of
the impending change might be it was, for the moment, somewhat difficult
to guess.  The appearance of the sky seemed to portend a thunderstorm,
for it had rapidly become overcast with dense masses of heavy, lowering
cloud, which appeared to have quite suddenly gathered from nowhere in
particular, obscuring the stars, yet not wholly shutting out their
light, for the forms of the cloud-masses could be made out with a very
fair degree of distinctness, and it would probably also have been
possible to distinguish a ship at the distance of a mile.  It was the
presence of this light in the atmosphere, emanating apparently from the
clouds themselves, that caused me rather to doubt the correctness of the
opinion, pretty freely expressed by the men, that what was brewing was
nothing more serious than an ordinary thunderstorm, for I had witnessed
something of the same kind before, on the coast, but in a much more
marked degree, it is true; and in that case the appearance had been
followed by a tornado, brief in duration, but of great violence while it
lasted.  I therefore felt distinctly anxious, the more so as it was
evident that the wind was dropping, and this I regarded as a somewhat
unfavourable sign.  I hailed Simpson, and asked him what he thought of
the weather.

"Why, sir," replied he, "the wind's droppin', worse luck; and if it
should happen to die away altogether, or even to soften down much more,
we shall have to out oars and pull; for we must get out of sight of that
brig somehow, between this and to-morrow morning."

"Undoubtedly," said I.  "But that is not precisely what I mean.  What is
worrying me just now is the question whether there is anything worse
than thunder behind the rather peculiar appearance of the sky."

He directed his glance aloft, attentively studying the aspect of the
heavens for a few moments.

"It's a bit difficult to say, sir," he replied at last.  "Up to now I've
been thinkin' that it only meant thunder and, perhaps, heavy rain; but,
now that you comes to mention it, I don't feel so very sure that there
ain't wind along with it, too--perhaps one of these here tornaders.  And
if that's what's brewin' we shall have to stand by, and keep our weather
eye liftin'; for a tornader'd be an uncommon awk'ard customer to meet
with in these here open boats."

"You are right there," said I, "and for that reason it is especially
desirable that the boats should keep together for mutual support and
assistance, if need be.  You have the heels of us in such light weather
as the present, and might very easily slip away from and lose sight of
us in the darkness; therefore I think that, for the present at all
events, in order to avoid any such possibility, you had better take the
end of our painter and make it fast to your stern ring-bolt.  Then you
can go ahead as fast as you please, without any risk of the boats losing
sight of each other."

This was done, and for the next two hours the boats slid along in
company, the gig leading and towing the longboat, although of course the
towing did not amount to much, since we in the longboat kept our sails
set to help as much as possible.

It was by this time close upon three bells in the first watch, and
notwithstanding the softening of the wind I came to the conclusion that
we must have slipped past the brig, assuming our suspicion, that she had
hauled her wind in chase of us, to be correct.  I therefore ordered our
helm to be shifted once more, and our course to be resumed in a north-
westerly direction.

Half an hour later the wind had dropped to a flat calm, and Simpson
suggested that, as a measure of precaution, in view of the possibility
that the brig might still be to the westward of us, we should get out
the oars and endeavour to slip past her.  But I had for some time past
been very anxiously watching the weather, and had at length arrived at
the conclusion that, if not an actual tornado, there was at least a very
heavy and dangerous squall brewing away down there in the eastern
quarter, before which, when it burst, not only we, but also the brig,
would be obliged to run; and, since she would run faster than the boats,
it was no longer desirable, but very much the reverse, that we should
lie to the westward of her.  I therefore decided to keep all fast with
the oars for the present, and employ such time as might be left to us
upon the task of preparing the boats, as far as possible, for the ordeal
to which it seemed probable that they were about to be subjected.

I was far less anxious about the safety of the longboat than I was about
that of the gig, which, being a more lightly built and much smaller
craft, and excellent in every way for service in fine weather and smooth
water, yet was not adapted for work at sea except under favourable
conditions; and in the event of it coming on to blow hard I feared that
in the resulting heavy sea she would almost inevitably be swamped.  I
therefore turned my attention to her in the first instance, causing her
to be brought alongside the longboat and her painter to be made fast to
the ring-bolt in the stern of the latter, thus reversing the original
arrangement; my intention being that, in the event of bad weather, the
longboat should tow the gig.  This done, I caused Simpson to unstep the
gig's single mast and lay it fore and aft in the boat, with the heel
resting upon and firmly lashed to the small grating which covered the
after end of the boat between the backboard of the stern-sheets and the
stern-post, while the head was supported by a crutch formed of two
stretchers lashed together and placed upright upon the bow thwart, the
whole being firmly secured in place by the two shrouds attached to the
mast-head.  Thus arranged, the mast formed a sort of ridge pole which
sloped slightly upward from the boat's stern toward the bow.  The
lugsail was then unbent from the yard, stretched across the mast, fore
and aft--thus forming a sort of tent over the open boat for about two-
thirds of her length from the stern-post,--and the luff and after-leach
of the sail were then strained tightly down to the planking of the boat
outside, by short lengths of ratline led underneath the gig's keel.  The
result was that, when the job was finished, the gig was almost
completely covered in by the tautly stretched sail, which I hoped would
not only afford a considerable amount of protection to her crew, but
would also keep out the breaking seas that would otherwise be almost
certain to swamp her.

So pleased was I with the job, when it was finished, that I determined
to attempt something similar in the case of the longboat.  This craft
was rigged with two masts, carrying upon the foremast a large standing
lug and a jib, and a small lug upon the jigger-mast.  These latter, that
is to say the jigger-mast and the small lug, we stretched over the
stern-sheets of the longboat in the same way as we had dealt with the
gig, leading the yoke lines forward on top of the sail, so that the
steering arrangements might not be interfered with.  And finally, we
close-reefed the big lug and took in the jib, when we were as ready for
the expected outfly as it was possible for people in such circumstances
to be.

That something more than a mere thunderstorm was impending there could
now be no possible doubt.  The strange light of which I have spoken, and
which had seemed to emanate from the clouds, had now vanished, giving
place to a darkness so profound that it seemed to oppress us like some
material substance; and the silence was as profound and oppressive as
the darkness--so profound, indeed, was it that any accidental sound
which happened to break in upon it, such as the occasional lap of the
water against the boat's planking, the scuffling movement of a man, or
the intermittent flap of the sail as the longboat stirred upon a
wandering ridge of slow-moving swell, smote upon the ear with an
exaggerated distinctness that was positively startling to an almost
painful degree.  I accounted for this, at the time, by attributing it in
part to the peculiar electrical condition of the atmosphere, and partly
to the fact that we had all been wrought up to a condition of high
nervous tension by the conviction that something--we did not quite know
what--was impending, for which we were all anxiously on the watch, and
that, in the Cimmerian darkness which enveloped us, we were obliged to
depend for adequate warning, upon our hearing alone, which caused us to
resent and be impatient of all extraneous sounds.  That this was to some
extent the case was evidenced by the fact that, our preparations
finished, we had, as with one consent, subsided into silence, which was
broken only in a low whisper if anyone felt it necessary to speak.

Suddenly, as we all sat waiting for the outburst of the threatened
storm, a long-drawn, piercing cry pealed out across the water,
apparently from a spot at no very great distance from us.  It was,
although not very loud, the most appalling, soul-harrowing sound that
had ever smote upon my ears, and a violent shudder of horror thrilled me
from head to foot, while I felt the hair bristling upon my scalp as I
listened to it.  Three times in rapid succession did that dreadful,
heart-shaking cry come wailing to our ears, and then all was silence
again for perhaps half a minute, when the men about me began to ask, in
low, tense whispers, whence it came, and from what creature.  To me, I
must confess, the sounds seemed to be such as might burst from the lips
of a fellow-creature in the very uttermost extremity of mortal terror.
But that could scarcely be, for how could mortal man have approached us
within a distance of some two hundred yards in that breathless calm,
unless, indeed, in a boat--of which there had certainly been no sign in
any direction half an hour before.  And if one were disposed for a
moment to admit such a possibility, whence could a boat come?  The
pirate brig had been the only craft in sight when darkness fell, and it
was scarcely within the bounds of probability that anything then out of
sight beneath the horizon could have drawn so near to us during the
succeeding hours of darkness.  Or again, admitting such a possibility,
what dreadful happening could have wrung from human lips such blood-
curdling sounds?  We were all eagerly discussing the matter, some of the
men agreeing with me that the sounds were human, while others stoutly
maintained that they were supernatural, and boded some terrible disaster
to the boats, when our discussion was abruptly broken in upon by the
sound of rippling water near at hand, as though a craft of some kind
were bearing down upon us at a speed sufficient to raise a brisk surge
under her bows, and the next instant the voice of San Domingo pealed out
in piercing tones, eloquent of the direst terror:

"Oh, look dere eberybody!  Wha' dat?"  And with a howl like that of a
wild beast he rose to his feet and made a frantic dash aft for the
stern-sheets, fighting his way past the other men, and trampling over
the unfortunate wounded in the bottom of the boat, quite beside himself
with fright.

And indeed there was some excuse for the negro's extraordinary
behaviour; for, intense as was the darkness that enveloped us, the water
was faintly phosphorescent, and we were thus enabled to discern
indistinctly that, less than a hundred yards distant from us, a huge
creature, which, to our excited imaginations, appeared to be between two
and three hundred feet long, had risen to the surface and was now slowly
swimming in a direction that would carry it across the bows of the
longboat at a distance of some fifty feet.  I frankly confess that for a
moment I felt petrified with horror, for the creature was streaming with
faintly luminous phosphorescence, and thus, despite the darkness, it was
possible to see that it was certainly not a whale, or any other known
denizen of the deep, for it had a head shaped somewhat like that of an
alligator--but considerably larger than that of any alligator I had ever
seen--attached to a very long and somewhat slender neck, which it
carried stretched straight out before it at an angle of some thirty
degrees with the surface of the water, and which it continually twisted
this way and that, as though peering about in search of something.
Suddenly it paused, lifted its head high, and looked straight toward the
boats, and at the same moment a whiff of air came toward us heavily
charged with a most disgusting and nauseating odour, about equally
suggestive of musk and the charnel-house.  Its eyes, distinctly
luminous, and apparently about two feet apart, were directed straight
toward the longboat, and the next instant it began to move toward us,
again stretching out its neck.

Instinctively I sprang to my feet and whipped a pistol out of my belt,
cocking it as I did so.

"Out pistols, men, and give it a volley!"  I cried; and the next instant
a somewhat confused pistol discharge shattered the breathless silence of
the night.  My own fire I had withheld, waiting to see what would be the
effect of the men's fire upon the monster.  Whether any of them had hit
it or not I could not tell, but beyond causing the creature to pause for
an instant, as though startled by the flashing of fire, the volley
seemed to have had no effect, for the horrid thing continued to approach
the boat, while the disgusting odour which it emitted grew almost
overpowering.  It must have been within ten feet of the boat when I
aimed straight at its left eye, and pulled the trigger of my pistol.
For an instant the bright flash dazzled me so that I could see nothing,
but I distinctly heard the "phitt" of the bullet, felt a hot puff of the
sickening stench strike me full in the face, and became aware of a
tremendous swirl and disturbance of the water as the huge creature
plunged beneath the surface and was gone.



CHAPTER FOUR.

THE BOATS IN A TORNADO.

We had scarcely begun to settle down again, and regain the control of
our nerves after this distinctly startling adventure, when the dense
canopy of black cloud overhead was rent asunder by a flash of lightning,
steel-blue, keen, and dazzlingly vivid, that seemed to strike the water
within a dozen fathoms of us, while simultaneously we were deafened by a
crackling crash of thunder of such appalling loudness and violence that
one might have been excused for believing that the very foundations of
the earth had been riven asunder.  So tremendous was the concussion of
it that I quite distinctly felt the longboat quiver and tremble under
its influence.  And the next instant down came the rain in a regular
tropical, torrential downpour, causing the sea to hiss as though each
individual drop of rain were red-hot, and starting us to work at once in
both boats with the balers, to save our provisions from being ruined.  I
happened to be looking away in a westerly direction when the flash came,
and despite its dazzling vividness I caught a momentary glimpse of the
pirate brig in that direction, and not more than a mile distant from us.
None of the others in the boats appeared to have seen her, for no one
said a word; and I only hoped that no eye on board her had happened to
be turned toward us at the moment, or they could not have failed to see
us; and she was altogether too near for my liking.  I said nothing, for
it seemed unnecessary to disturb the men by informing them of her
whereabouts; and I comforted myself with the reflection that when the
squall should come--as come it now must in a very few minutes,--she,
like ourselves, would be compelled to scud before it; and as she would
run two feet to our one, she would soon run us out of sight.

We had not long to wait.  After the deluge of rain had lasted some three
minutes it ceased as abruptly as it had begun, and for the space of
perhaps half a minute there was no sound to be heard save the trickling
and dripping of water from the drenched sails of the boats.  Then, far
away to the eastward there gradually arose a low moaning, and a sudden
fierce puff of hot air struck us for an instant, filling the sails of
the longboat with a loud flap and leaving them hanging motionless again.

"Here it comes, lads," cried I.  "Out with your starboard oars, and get
the boat's head round.  That will do.  Lay them in again; and one hand
tend the mainsheet here aft."

The moaning sound rapidly grew in intensity until it became first a deep
roar, like the bellowing of a thousand angry bulls, and finally a
deafening shriek, while away to the eastward a long line of white,
foaming water became visible, rushing down toward us with incredible
rapidity.  The next instant the squall struck us, and the white water
boiled up high over the sterns of the boats, burying us so deeply that
for a moment I thought it was all over with us, and that, despite our
precautions, we must inevitably be swamped.  But the good canvas of
which the longboat's sails were made fortunately withstood the strain,
as also did the stout hemp rigging which supported the mast, and as the
furious blast swooped down upon us we gathered way and were the next
moment flying to the westward before the hurricane, our bows buried
deeply in the boiling surge.  And now we had good reason to congratulate
ourselves upon the fact that we in the longboat had taken the gig in
tow, for the strain of the smaller boat kept the longboat's stern down,
and in a great measure counteracted the leverage of the mast which
tended to depress and bury our bows, but for which I feel convinced that
the longboat, stout craft though she was, would have been driven under
by the tremendous force of the wind and swamped by an inrush of water
over the bows.

The outfly was accompanied by a furious storm of thunder and lightning,
the illumination of which was most welcome to us, for it enabled us to
see where we were going, and incidentally revealed to us our enemy, the
pirate brig, scudding away to leeward under a goose-winged fore-topsail,
and with her topgallant-masts struck.

We now had reason to congratulate ourselves upon the foresight which had
suggested to us the idea of partially covering in the boats with their
sails as a protection against the inroads of the sea; for within ten
minutes of the outburst not only was the air full of flying sheets of
spindrift and scud-water that, but for the precaution referred to, would
have kept us busily baling, but in addition to this a short, steep,
tumultuous sea was rapidly rising, which at frequent intervals rose
above the boats' gunwales, and would have pooped us dangerously had the
boats been left in their ordinary unprotected condition.  As it was,
beyond a pint or so of water that occasionally made its way inboard
despite all our precautions, and needed to be baled out again, we had no
trouble.

The first fury of the squall lasted about a quarter of an hour.  During
that time the thunder and lightning were incessant, but afterwards they
gradually died away, while the wind moderated to a steady gale; and it
was by the illumination of the last flash of lightning that we caught
sight of the brig hove-to on the starboard tack, under a storm-staysail,
with her head to the northward.  The sight of her thus was a great
relief to me, for it seemed to indicate that we had been fortunate
enough to escape detection, and that we need have no great fear of
interference from her, since the fact of her having hove-to so early
indicated a keen desire on the part of her captain to remain as near as
possible to the coast.

As the night wore on the sea rapidly became higher and more dangerous,
our difficulties and embarrassments increasing in proportion.  Our chief
difficulty arose from the necessity to keep the gig in tow, for with the
rising of the sea this speedily became more dangerous to both boats,
from the frequent fierce tugs of the painter that connected the two
boats together.  The rope was a new and stout one, and there was not
much fear that the boats would break away from each other, but the
strain set up by the alternate slackening and tautening of the painter,
as first one boat and then the other was urged forward by the 'scend of
the sea, was tremendous, and strained both craft to a positively
dangerous degree.  Yet it was not possible for us to cast the gig
adrift, for, had we done so, we should at once have run away from and
lost her in the darkness; that is, unless she had set her own sails, and
this, of course, could not have been done without depriving her of the
protection of them as a covering against the breaking seas, which would
have resulted in her being instantly swamped.  But at length matters
became so serious with us both that it was evident that something must
be done, and that very quickly too; for some of the drags were so
violent that they threatened to tear the stern out of the longboat,
which was by this time leaking badly.  After considering the matter,
therefore, most carefully, I decided upon a course of procedure that I
hoped might better our condition somewhat.  It happened that among the
stores which we had hurriedly stowed away in the longboat when preparing
to leave the schooner was a drum of lamp oil, which we intended to use
in our binnacle lamps at night, and which we thought might perhaps also
prove very useful for other purposes as well, and this I now ordered the
men to find for me.  Fortunately it was easy to get at it, and it was
soon produced.  It was a full can, and had never been opened; therefore
I gave instructions that, instead of drawing the bung, it should be
punctured with a sufficient number of holes to allow the oil to ooze
through pretty freely.  This done, I instructed the men to clear away
the longboat's painter and to bend it securely round the boat's oars in
such a manner as to make a sort of sea-anchor of them, leaving about a
fathom of the end of the painter clear to which to bend on the oil-can.
Then, when everything was ready, I shouted to Simpson in the gig,
telling him what I proposed to do, and giving him his instructions,
after which we in the longboat hauled down the jib, and, watching our
opportunity, rounded-to, threw overboard our sea-anchor, with the oil-
can attached, and took in our remaining canvas.  This business of
rounding-to was a very delicate and ticklish job, for had the sea caught
us broadside-on we must inevitably have been capsized or swamped; but we
were fortunate enough to do everything at precisely the right moment,
with the result that the two boats swung round, head-on to the sea,
without accident, and without shipping very much water.

The oars, lashed together in the middle, and kept squarely athwartships
by means of a span, afforded, after all, only the merest apology for a
sea-anchor, and barely gave just sufficient drag to keep the boats stem-
on to the sea without appreciably retarding their drift to leeward; but
it was none the worse for this, since, with their drift scarcely
retarded, they rode all the more easily; and presently, when the oil
began to exude from the can and diffuse itself over the surface of the
water, there was a narrow space just ahead of us where the seas ceased
to break, with the result that in the course of ten minutes we were
riding quite dry and comfortable, except for the scud-water that came
driving along.  This, however, we soon remedied by converting our
mainsail into a kind of roof, strained over the lowered mast, similar to
the arrangement in the gig, after which, save for the extravagant leaps
and plunges of the boats, which were very trying to the wounded, we had
not much to complain of.

The gale reached its height about four o'clock on the following morning,
at which hour it was blowing very hard, with an exceedingly heavy and
dangerous sea, in which the boats could not possibly have lived but for
the precautions which had been taken for their preservation; and even as
it was, we repeatedly escaped disaster only by the merest hair's-
breadth, and by what seemed to be more a combination of fortuitous
circumstances than anything else.  Taken altogether, that night was one
of the most tense and long-drawn-out anxieties that I had ever, up to
then, experienced.  About two bells in the morning watch the gale broke,
and from that moment the strength of the wind moderated so rapidly that
by eight bells all danger had passed, the boats were riding dry, and we
were able to get breakfast in peace and comfort--all the greater,
perhaps, from the fact that when day dawned the pirate brig was nowhere
to be seen.  By nine-o'clock the wind and sea had both moderated
sufficiently to enable us to resume our voyage.  I therefore, with some
difficulty, secured an observation of the sun for the determination of
our longitude, and we then proceeded to re-bend our sails, step the
masts, and get under way, steering to the northward and westward under
double-reefed canvas.  Finally, about noon, we were able to shake out
our reefs and proceed under whole canvas, the sea by that time having
almost completely gone down, leaving no trace of the previous night's
gale beyond a long and very heavy swell, in the hollows of which the two
boats continually lost sight of each other.

But although, by the mercy of Providence, we had weathered the gale, we
had not by any means escaped scathless, for when we had once more
settled down and had found opportunity to overhaul our stock of
provisions, it was found that, despite our utmost precautions, an
alarmingly large proportion of them had become damaged by rain and sea
water, to such an extent, indeed, that about half of them had been
rendered quite unfit for use, and we therefore threw that portion
overboard, since there was obviously no advantage in wasting valuable
space in the preservation of useless stores.  And I did this the more
readily, perhaps, because I calculated that, despite this heavy loss, we
should still have enough left to carry us to our destination--provided
that we were not detained by calms on the way.

We made excellent progress all that day, our reckoning showing that at
three o'clock that afternoon we had traversed a distance of just forty
miles since getting under way that morning, which distance was increased
to fifty-eight by sunset.  Moreover we had done well in another way, for
the wounded had all been carefully looked after, and their hurts
attended to as thoroughly as circumstances would allow, with the result
that at nightfall each man reported himself as feeling distinctly
better, notwithstanding the night of terrible hardship and exposure
through which all had so recently passed.

The sunset that evening was clear, promising a fine night, while the
wind held steady and fair.  We were consequently all in high spirits at
the prospect of a quick and pleasant passage to Sierra Leone.  But as
the night advanced a bank of heavy cloud gradually gathered on the
horizon to the northward, and the wind began to back round and freshen
somewhat, so that about midnight it again became necessary to double-
reef our canvas, while the sea once more rose to such an extent that the
boats were soon shipping an unpleasant quantity of water over the
weather bow.  Moreover the wind continued to back until we were broken
off a couple of points from our course; so that, altogether, it finally
began to look very much as though we were in for another unpleasant
night, though perhaps not quite so bad as the one that had preceded it.
It is true that we were not just then in any actual danger, for, after
all, the strength of the wind was no more than that to which the _Shark_
would show single-reefed topsails.  But it was more than enough for us,
under the canvas which we were carrying, and I had just given the order
to haul down a third reef when one of the men who was engaged upon the
task of shortening sail suddenly paused in his work and gazed out
intently to windward under the sharp of his hand.  The next moment he
shouted excitedly:

"Sail ho! two points on the weather bow.  D'ye see her, sir?  There she
is.  Ah, now I've lost her again; but you'll see her, sir, when we lifts
on the top of the next sea.  There--now do you see her, sir, just under
that patch of black cloud?"

"Ay, ay, I see her," I answered; for as the man spoke I caught sight of
a small dark blur, which I knew must be a ship of some sort, showing
indistinctly against the somewhat lighter background of cloud behind
her.  She was about two miles away, and was steering a course that would
carry her across our bows at a distance of about a quarter of a mile if
we all held on as we were going; and for a moment I wondered whether it
was our enemy the pirate brig again putting in an appearance.  But an
instant's reflection sufficed to dissipate this idea, for, according to
all the probabilities, the pirates ought by this time to be well on
toward a hundred miles to the eastward of us, while the stranger was
coming down, with squared yards, from the northward.

"We must contrive to attract the attention of that craft and get her to
pick us up," I cried.  "Have we anything in the boat from which we can
make a flare?"

A hurried search was rewarded by the production of a piece of old
tarpaulin that we were using as a cover and protection to our stock of
provisions; and a long strip of this was hurriedly torn off, liberally
sprinkled with the oil that still remained in the drum, twisted tightly
up, and ignited.  The flame sputtered a bit at first, probably from the
fact that sea water had penetrated to the interior of the drum and
mingled to a certain extent with the oil; but presently our improvised
flare burst into a bright ruddy flame, which lighted up the hulls and
sails of the boats and was reflected in broad red splashes of colour
from the tumbling seas that came sweeping steadily down upon us.

All eyes were now eagerly directed toward the approaching ship, of
which, however, we entirely lost sight in the dazzling glare of our
torch.  But when, after blazing fiercely for about a couple of minutes,
until it was consumed, our flare went out and left us once more in
darkness, there was no answering signal from the stranger, which was
coming down fast before the steadily strengthening breeze.

"Make another one, lads, and light it as quickly as you can," I cried.
"We must not let her slip past us.  Our lives may depend upon our
ability to attract her attention and get her to pick us up.  But what is
the matter with them aboard there that they have not seen us?  Their
look-outs must be fast asleep."

"She's a trader of some sort, sir; that's what's the matter with her,"
answered one of the men.  "If she was a man-o'-war, or a slaver, there'd
be a better look-out kept aboard of her.  If I had my way them chaps
what's supposed to be keepin' a look-out should get six dozen at the
gangway to-morrer mornin'."

"Hurry up with that flare, lads," I exhorted.  "Be as quick with it as
you like."

"Ay, ay, sir! we shall be ready now in the twinklin' of a purser's
lantern," answered the man who was preparing the torch.  "Now, Tom,
where's that there binnacle lamp again?  Shield it from the wind with
your cap, man, so's it don't get blowed out while I sets fire to this
here flare."

The man was still fumbling with the flare when the stranger, which was
now about half a mile distant, suddenly exhibited a lantern over her
bows, which her people continued to show until we had lighted our second
flare, when the lantern at once disappeared.  A couple of minutes later
she was near enough for us to be able to make her out as a full-rigged
ship of some seven hundred tons; and presently she swept grandly across
our bows, at a distance of about a cable's-length, and, putting her helm
down, came to the wind, with her main-topsail to the mast, finally
coming to rest within biscuit-toss of us to windward.

As she did so we became aware of a man standing on her poop, just abaft
the mizzen rigging, and the next moment a hail through a speaking-
trumpet came pealing across the water.

"Ho, the boats ahoy!  What boats are those?"

"We are the boats of the slaver _Dolores_, captured by the British
sloop-of-war _Shark_, and subsequently attacked and destroyed by a
pirate," replied I.  "We have been in the boats nearly thirty hours, and
several of our people are wounded.  We hoped to make our way to Sierra
Leone, but narrowly escaped being swamped in a gale last night.  I
presume you will have no objection to receive us?"

The ship being apparently British, I naturally expected to receive an
immediate and cordial invitation to go on board; but, to my intense
surprise, and growing indignation, there ensued a period of silence as
though the man who had hailed us was considering the matter.  I was just
about to hail again when the individual seemed to arrive at a decision;
for he hailed:

"All right; bring your boats alongside."

We accordingly dowsed the sails, threw out our oars, and pulled
alongside.

As we approached the lee gangway, which had been thrown open to receive
us, and about which some half a dozen men were clustered, with lighted
lanterns, the man who had hailed us before enquired:

"Will your wounded be able to come up the side; or shall I reeve a whip
with a boatswain's-chair for them?"

"Thanks," I replied, "I think we may be able to manage, if your people
will lend us a hand."

"How many do you muster?" asked the stranger, presumably the master of
the vessel.

"Ten, all told," I answered, "of whom six are more or less hurt.  We
were fifteen to start with, but five were killed by the fire of the
pirate."

"I'm afraid you've had a bad time, takin' it all round," said our
interlocutor.  "Stand by, chaps, to lend the poor fellers a hand up over
the side."

"What ship is this?"  I asked, when at length I went up the side and
found myself confronted by a very ordinary-looking individual, attired
in a suit of thin, rusty-looking blue serge, with a peaked cap of the
same material on his head, who extended his hand in cordial welcome to
me.

"The _Indian Queen_, of and from London to Bombay, twenty-three days
out, with passengers and general cargo," he answered.

"Well," said I, "I am exceedingly obliged to you for receiving us; for,
to tell you the truth, after the experiences of last night, I am very
glad to find a good, wholesome ship once more under my feet.  Open boats
are all very well in their way, but they are rather ticklish craft in
which to face such a gale as we had last night."

"By the by," he said, "are those boats of yours worth hoisting in?"

"Yes," I said, "they are both very good boats, and it would be a pity to
send them adrift if you can find room for them."

"Oh, I dare say we can do that," he answered.  "Besides, the skipper
might have a word or two to say about it if we was to turn 'em adrift.
By the way, Mr--er--"

"Grenvile," I prompted, continuing--"I must apologise for not having
sooner introduced myself.  I am senior midshipman of the _Shark_, and
was prize-master of the slaver _Dolores_, which I had instructions to
take into Sierra Leone."

"Just so; thank'e," answered the man.  "I was going to say, Mr
Grenvile, that--well, our skipper's a very queer-tempered sort of a
man--he was second mate when we left home--and as like as not he may
kick up a row about my receivin' you aboard--indeed it wouldn't very
greatly surprise me if he was to order you all over the side again; so I
thought I'd just better give ye a hint, so as you may know what to
expect, and how to act."

"Indeed, I am very much obliged to you for your timely warning, Mr ---"
said I.

"Carter's my name--Henry Carter," was the reply.  "I'm actin' as chief
mate now, but I was third when we left London."

"I understand," said I.  "But this captain of yours--he is an
Englishman, I presume, and I cannot understand the possibility of his
raising any objection to your receiving a party of distressed fellow-
countrymen aboard his ship.  And how comes he to be in command, now, if
he was only second when you left home?"

"Well, sir, it's like this," answered Carter, starting to explain.  Then
he interrupted himself suddenly, saying:

"Excuse me, sir; I see that the hands are about to sway away upon the
tackles and hoist in the boats.  I'll just give an eye to them, if you
don't mind, and see that they don't make a mess of the job."

With the assistance of the _Shark's_ people the boats were soon got
inboard and stowed, after which my boats' crews were bestowed in the
forecastle and the steerage, there happening by good luck to be just
sufficient vacant berths in the latter to accommodate the wounded.  This
matter having been attended to, the mate remarked to me:

"There's a vacant cabin in the cuddy; but the stewards are all turned
in, and it would take 'em some time to clear it out and get it ready for
you; so perhaps you might be able to make do with a shakedown on the
cabin sofa for to-night; or there's my cabin, which you're very welcome
to, if you like, and I'll take my watch below on a sofa."

"Thank you very much for your exceedingly kind offer," said I, "but I
couldn't think of dispossessing you of your own cabin, even for a single
night.  The sofa will serve my turn admirably, especially as I had no
sleep last night, and not much during the night before.  But, before I
go below, I should like to hear how it comes about that the man who was
second mate of this ship when she left England is now master of her.  To
bring about such a state of affairs as that you must have lost both your
original skipper and your chief mate."

"Yes," answered Carter, "that's exactly what's happened.  We've had what
the newspapers would call a couple of tragedies aboard here.  First of
all, the skipper--who looked as strong and healthy a man as you'd meet
with in a day's march--was found dead in his bed, on the morning of the
fifth day out; and, next, the chief mate--who of course took command,
and was supposed to be a total abstainer--was found missin', as you may
say, when the steward went to call him, one morning--he'd only been in
command four days, poor chap; and the mate--that's our present skipper,
Cap'n Williams--gave it out that he must have committed suicide, while
in liquor, by jumpin' out of the stern window--which was found to be
wide-open, on the mornin' when poor Mr Mowbray was reported missing."

"Very extraordinary," commented I, stifling a prodigious yawn.  "And
now, Mr Carter, with your kind permission I will go below and lie down,
for I feel pretty well tired out."

"Ay, that I'll be bound you do," agreed Carter.  "This way, Mr
Grenvile, and look out for the coamin'--it's a bit extra high."

And, so saying, he led the way into a very handsome saloon under the
ship's full poop.

The craft was not a regular Indiaman--that is to say, she was not one of
the Honourable East India Company's ships,--but, for all that, she was a
very handsome and comfortable vessel, and her cuddy was most luxuriously
fitted up with crimson velvet sofas, capacious revolving armchairs
screwed to the deck alongside the tables, a very fine piano, with a
quantity of loose music on the top of it, some very handsome pictures in
heavy gold frames screwed to the ship's side between the ports, a
magnificent hanging lamp suspended from the centre of the skylight, with
a number of smaller lamps, hung in gimbals, over the pictures, a
handsome fireplace, with a wide tiled hearth, now filled with pots of
plants, a capacious sideboard against the fore bulkhead, a handsome
carpet on the deck, and, in fact, everything that could be thought of,
within reason, to render a long sea voyage comfortable and pleasant.
The saloon occupied the full width of the ship, the sleeping cabins
being below.

With pardonable pride Carter turned up the flame of the swinging lamp--
which was the only lamp burning at that hour of the night--to give me a
glimpse of all this magnificence.

I quite expected that, having, as it were, done the honours of the ship,
Carter would now turn down the lamp and leave me to myself; but he still
lingered in an uncertain sort of way, as though he would like to say
something, but did not quite know how to begin; so at length, to relieve
his embarrassment, I said:

"What is it, Mr Carter?  I feel sure you want to tell me something."

"Well," said he, "it's a fact that I have got something on my mind that
I'd like to get off it; and yet I dare say you'll think there's nothing
in it when I tells you.  The fact is, our present skipper's a very
curious sort of chap, as I expect you'll find out for yourself afore
many hours has gone over your head.  Now, I want you to understand,
Mr--er--Grenvile, that I'm not sayin' this because he and I don't
happen to get on very well together--which is a fact; I'm not jealous of
him, or of his position, because I couldn't fill it if 'twas offered to
me--I'm not a good enough navigator for that,--but I think it's only
right I should tell you that, as like as not, he'll not only blow me up
sky-high for pickin' you and your men up, when he finds out that you're
aboard, but, maybe--well, I dunno whether he'll go quite so far as that,
but he may refuse to let you stay aboard, and order you to take to your
boats again.  Now, if he should--I don't say he will, mind you, but if
he should do any such thing, take my advice, and don't go.  I don't know
how he may be to-morrow.  If he kept sober after he turned in he'll be
all right, I don't doubt; but if he took a bottle to bed with him--as
he's lately got into the habit of doin'--the chances are that he'll turn
out as savage as a bear with a sore head; and then everybody, fore and
aft--passengers and all--will have to stand by and look out for
squalls!"

"Thanks, Mr Carter, very much, for mentioning this," I said.  "You gave
me a pretty broad hint as to what I might expect, out there on deck,
just now, and you may rest assured that I shall not forget it.  And you
may also rest assured that, should he so far forget what is due to
humanity as to order me to leave the ship, I will flatly decline to go."

"Of course, sir, of course you will, and quite right too," commented
Carter.  "But I'm glad to hear ye say so, all the same.  It'll be a
great comfort to me--and to the passengers too--to feel that we've got a
naval officer aboard, if things should happen to go at all crooked.  And
now, Mr Grenvile, havin' said my say, I'll wish ye good-night, and hope
you'll be able to get a good sound sleep between this and morning."

And therewith Carter at length took himself off.  But before he was
fairly out on deck I was stretched at full length on the sofa, fast
asleep.



CHAPTER FIVE.

SOME STRANGE HAPPENINGS.

I was awakened by the entrance of the stewards, who, at six bells on the
following morning, came into the saloon to brush and dust up generally,
and lay the tables for nine-o'clock breakfast.  The head steward
apologised for waking me, and informed me that there was no need for me
to disturb myself, also that Carter had informed him of my presence, and
commended me to his care.  But I had slept like a log, and felt
thoroughly refreshed; I therefore went out on deck, and betook myself
forward to the eyes of the ship, where I stripped and indulged in the
luxury of a shower-bath under the head-pump.

It was a most glorious morning, the sun was shining brilliantly, with a
keen bite in his rays already, although he was but an hour high; and
there was a strong breeze blowing from the northward, under the
influence of which the ship was reeling off her ten knots, under a main
topgallant-sail.  But I was greatly surprised to see that, instead of
steering south, we were heading in for the coast, on a south-westerly
course.  I made some remark upon this to Carter, who again had the
watch, to which he replied:

"Well, you see, sir, it's a fancy of the skipper's.  He's got some sort
of a theory that, by hugging the coast close, and takin' advantage of
the sea and land breezes, as they blows night and mornin', we shall do
rather better than we should by thrashin' to wind'ard against the south-
east trade.  I don't know whether there's anything in it myself, but
it's the first time that I've ever heard of the notion.  But there he
is--and in a blazin' bad temper, too, by the looks of him!  Shall I take
you aft and introjuce you to him?"

"Certainly," said I.  "If we are to have any unpleasantness, let us have
it at once, and get it over."

There was, however, to be no unpleasantness--just then, at all events--
except in so far as poor Carter was concerned; for when he and I went
aft to where Captain Williams--a tall, powerful-looking, and rather
handsome man in a barbaric sort of way, with a pair of piercing black
eyes, and an abundant crop of black, curly hair, with beard and
moustache to match--was standing on the quarter-deck, just outside the
entrance of the saloon, the captain stepped forward, and, extending his
hand, bade me welcome to his ship with every sign of the utmost
friendliness.  But he gave poor Carter a terrific wigging for not having
called him when the boats were first sighted, and for receiving us on
board without first consulting him.

"For how could you know, Mr Carter," he said, "that the boats were not
full of pirates?  Less unlikely things than that have happened, let me
tell you; and when you come to know this coast as well as I know it, you
will be rather more chary of receiving a couple of boats' crews
professing to be distressed seamen."

"Oh," said I, "as to that, Mr Carter took pretty good care to satisfy
himself as to our _bona fides_ before permitting us to come alongside!
At all events he made sure that we were British, and I think there are
very few Britons who take kindly to piracy."

"Perhaps not, sir, perhaps not; at least I hope that, for the credit of
our countrymen, you are right," answered the skipper.  "At the same time
there are many foreigners who speak English well enough to answer a
hail, and I want to impress upon Mr Carter the fact that it was his
duty to call me, under the peculiar circumstances, and to allow me to
decide as to the advisability of admitting two boat-loads of strangers
aboard my ship.  Please don't do it again, sir."

Whereupon poor Carter promised to be more circumspect in future, and
slunk away with very much the aspect and manner of a beaten dog.  I felt
very sorry for the man, for, even admitting that the skipper was right--
as he certainly was--I thought it would have been in very much better
taste if he had taken an opportunity to point out to his subordinate, in
private, the imprudence of which he had been guilty, instead of
administering a reprimand in the presence of a stranger.  Apart from
that it appeared to me that there was not very much wrong with the man,
and the question arose in my mind whether, despite the protest that
Carter had thought it necessary to address to me, he might not be to
some extent prejudiced against his skipper.  And this feeling was
somewhat strengthened when, as, in compliance with Captain Williams's
request, I gave him an account of our recent adventures, he informed me
that the ship carried a doctor, and at once sent a messenger to that
functionary, informing him that some wounded men had been taken on board
during the night, and requesting him to give them his best attention
forthwith.

As the skipper and I stood talking together, the passengers, who had
learned from the stewards that we had been picked up during the night,
came hurrying up on deck, one after another, full of curiosity to see
the individuals who had joined the ship under such interesting
circumstances; and I was duly introduced to them.  To take them in what
appeared to be the recognised order of their social importance, they
were, first, General Sir Thomas Baker, his wife, Lady Hetty Baker, and
his rather elderly daughter, Phoebe, returning to India from furlough;
Mrs Euphemia Jennings, the young wife of an important official, who had
just left her only boy--a lad of five years of age--with friends in
England, for his health's sake, and with her a niece of her husband--a
Miss Flora Duncan, a most lovely girl of about sixteen.  Then came Mr
and Mrs Richard Morton, people of some means, who were going to India
to try their fortune at indigo planting, under the auspices of a friend
and former schoolfellow of the husband, and who had sent home glowing
accounts of the great things that might be done in that way by a man of
energy with a reasonable amount of capital; and with them went their
three children, Frank, Mary, and Susie, aged respectively eleven, eight,
and six years.  And finally, there were Messrs. Fielder, Acutt, Boyne,
Pearson, and Taylor--five young men ranging from seventeen to twenty-one
years of age, who were going out to take up appointments in the
Company's service.  All these people were very kind and nice to me, but
I could not help being secretly amused at the fiery energy with which
the general denounced what he characterised as "the criminal
carelessness" of Captain Bentinck in turning me adrift in an unarmed
schooner with a crew of only fourteen hands.

"By Jove, sir, I call it little short of murder," he shouted.  "The idea
of asking you--ay, and expecting you--to take a fully-loaded slaver into
port with only fourteen men to back you up, and no guns!  The man ought
to be ashamed of himself!  But it is just like you navy fellows; you are
constantly asking one another to do things which seem impossible!"

"Yes, sir," I said demurely, "and not infrequently we do them."

"Do them!" he exploded.  "Yes, I will do you the credit to admit that
you never know when you are beaten; and that, I suppose, is why the
blue-jackets so often succeed in performing the apparently impossible.
But that in no way weakens my contention that your captain was guilty of
a piece of most culpable negligence in sending you away without
furnishing you with a battery of guns with which to defend yourself and
your ship!"

Fortunately, at this moment the breakfast bell rang, and, the general
and his wife leading the way, we all trooped into the saloon and seated
ourselves at the elegantly furnished and bountifully provided breakfast
tables.

During the progress of the meal I of course had a further opportunity to
observe the behaviour of the skipper, and when I rose from the table I
was obliged to confess to myself that I was puzzled, for I had been
quite unable to arrive at any distinct impression of the character of
the man.  For while, on the one hand, his manner to me was cordial, with
the somewhat rough and unpolished geniality of a man of a coarse and
violent temperament striving to conquer his natural disposition and
render himself agreeable, I could find no fault with the arrangements he
proposed to make for my own comfort and that of my men.  And his
expressions of sympathy with us in our misfortunes were everything that
could be wished for; but, somehow, they did not ring true.  Thus, when
in the course of the conversation--which, as was very natural under the
circumstances, rather persistently dwelt upon my little party and our
adventures--Captain Williams chose to express his gratification at
having fallen in with us and rescued us from a distinctly perilous
situation, while his words were as kind and sympathetic as could have
been desired, the expression of his countenance seemed to say, almost as
plainly as words could speak: "I devoutly wish that you had all gone to
the bottom, rather than come aboard my ship!"  And I continually found
myself mentally asking the question: "Which am I to believe--this man's
words, or the expression of his eyes?  Is he sincere in what he says,
and is he the unfortunate possessor of an expression that habitually
gives the lie to his words; or is he, for some sinister purpose of his
own, endeavouring to produce a false impression upon us all?"  It was
quite impossible to find a satisfactory reply to these questions, yet I
found a certain amount of guidance in the manner of the passengers
toward him; I noticed that every one of them, with the exception of the
general, seemed to quail beneath his gaze, and shrink from him.  As for
the general, despite his somewhat boisterous manner, he was a gentleman,
a soldier, and evidently a man who knew not what fear was, and it
appeared to me that he was distinctly distrustful of Captain Williams.

At length, by patiently watching, I succeeded in finding an opportunity
to divert the conversation from myself and my party; I saw the skipper
glance upward toward the tell-tale compass that hung in the skylight,
and as his gaze fell again it encountered my own.  Instantly a most
malignant and ferocious expression swept into his eyes.  Undeterred by
that, however, I composedly remarked:

"I see, Captain, you are heading in toward the coast; and Mr Carter
informs me that you propose to test practically a rather interesting
theory that you have formed as to the advantages of the alternate land
and sea breezes over those of the regular trades."

"Yes," he growled, "I do.  But Mr Carter has no business to discuss my
plans or intentions with anybody.  I have warned him more than once to
keep a silent tongue in his head; but the man is a fool, and will get
himself into very serious trouble some day if he doesn't keep his
weather eye lifting!"

"Well," I said, "you must not blame him in this case, for the fault--if
fault there has been--was mine.  I observed the alteration in the ship's
course as soon as I stepped out on deck this morning, and remarked upon
it, and it was merely in reply to my remark that Mr Carter explained
your intentions."

"Well," he answered, "it is a rather fortunate thing for you that I
happen to have such intentions, for it affords you a chance to get
transhipped into one of your own craft, instead of having to go on with
us to Capetown, as you would almost certainly have been obliged to do if
I had followed the usual plan and stretched away over toward the South
American coast."

"Quite so," I agreed; "it certainly has that advantage, as occurred to
me the moment that Mr Carter explained your theory.  And it has the
further advantage that, should you find you do not make quite such good
progress as you hope, you will be well to windward when you eventually
decide to stretch offshore into the trade wind."

"Then you think my idea has something in it?" he demanded.

"Something--yes," I agreed; "but I doubt very much whether, taking
everything into consideration, you will find that the advantages are
worth consideration."

The skipper did not agree with me, and forthwith plunged into a fiery
defence of his theory which lasted until some time after we had all
risen from the table and adjourned to the poop.  In fact, he so
completely monopolised my attention up to tiffin time that I was
scarcely able to find time to go forward and enquire into the condition
of the wounded, and had no opportunity at all to improve my acquaintance
with the passengers.

After tiffin, however, the captain retired to his cabin, instead of
going on deck again, and as I stepped out of the saloon on to the
quarter-deck I felt a hand slide into my arm, and, turning round, found
the general alongside me.

"Am I right," said he, as he linked his arm in mine, "in the impression
that you do not think very highly of Captain Williams's rather peculiar
theory concerning the advantage of `keeping the coast aboard'--as I
believe you sailors term it--rather than following the usual rule of
making the most of the south-east trade wind?  You are pretty well
acquainted with this coast, I suppose, and your ideas on the subject
should be of value."

"Well," said I, "the fact is, Sir Thomas, that I do not think very
highly of the captain's theory.  In theory, no doubt, the idea appears
somewhat attractive, but in actual practice I should be inclined to say
that the uncertainty of the weather close inshore will probably be found
to tell against it.  If the sea breeze could be absolutely depended upon
to blow every day and all day long, and the land breeze to blow every
night and all night long, there would undoubtedly be something in it.
But my experience is that these phenomena are not to be depended upon.
It often happens that when, according to all the rules, either the sea
or the land breeze should be piping up strongly, there is an absolute,
persistent calm.  Nevertheless, from a purely personal point of view, I
am glad that the skipper intends to test his theory, because it will
afford me the opportunity to shift myself and my party into one of the
ships of the slave-squadron, some one of which we are pretty certain to
fall in with before long."

"Ah!" remarked the general, with a curious indrawing of his breath.  "I
was rather afraid that such might be the case."  He paused for a few
seconds, and then, taking a fresh grip of my arm, continued: "Do you
know, my young friend, I am rather hoping that we shall not fall in with
any of the ships of the slave-squadron, and that consequently you and
your men will be obliged to go on with us at least as far as Capetown.
It is, perhaps, a bit selfish of me to entertain such a wish, but I do,
nevertheless."

"Indeed!" said I.  "May I ask why, general?"

"Of course you may, my dear boy," he answered.  "It is a very natural
question.  Well, the fact is that certain very curious happenings have
taken place on board this ship since she sailed out of the Thames."  And
he proceeded to repeat to me the story that Carter had already told me
as to the disappearance of the original captain and his successor.
"Now," he continued, "Captain Matthews's death may have been a perfectly
natural one.  I don't say that it was not, but up to the hour of his
death he looked strong and healthy enough to have lived out the full
term of his life.  Moreover, he was a most temperate man in every
respect.  I have, therefore, found it very difficult indeed to discover
a satisfactory explanation of his very sudden demise.  And, between you
and me, although Burgess, the ship's surgeon, has never said as much in
words, I firmly believe that the occurrence puzzled him as much as it
did me; indeed, his very reticence over the affair only strengthens my
suspicion that such is the case.  But, puzzling as were the
circumstances connected with Captain Matthews's death, I consider that
those associated with the death of Mr Mowbray, who took command of the
ship in place of Captain Matthews, were at least equally so.  Mr
Mowbray was a man of some thirty-five years of age, very quiet,
unassuming, and gentlemanly of manner; a married man with, as I have
understood, a small family to provide for, and consequently very anxious
to rise in his profession; ambitious, in his quiet, unassuming way, and
evidently a thoroughly steady and reliable man, for I understand that he
had served under Captain Matthews for several years.  No one of us ever
saw him touch wine, spirits, or drink of any description; yet only four
days after he had attained to what we may consider the summit of his
ambition, by securing the command of this fine ship, he was missing.
Williams, our present skipper, offers us the exceedingly improbable
explanation that the poor fellow jumped out of his cabin window, and was
drowned, while intoxicated.  I do not believe it for a moment, nor do
any of the rest of us.  For my own part I very strongly suspect foul
play somewhere, and the very extraordinary explanation which Williams
offers of the occurrence only strengthens my suspicion that--well, not
to put too fine a point upon it, that he knows more of the matter than a
perfectly honest man ought to know.  And, in addition to all this,
Williams is a secret drunkard, and a man of most violent and
ungovernable temper, as you will see for yourself ere long.  You will
therefore not be very greatly surprised to learn that since he took the
command there has been a great deal of uneasiness as well as
unpleasantness in the cuddy; and I, for one, am rejoiced to find a naval
officer and a party of man-o'-war seamen on board.  For I know that
after what I have said you will keep your eyes and ears open, and will
not hesitate to interfere if you see good and sufficient reason for so
doing.  You navy fellows have a trick of cutting in where you consider
it necessary without pausing to weigh too nicely the strict legality of
your proceedings.  And if perchance you occasionally step an inch or two
beyond the strict limits of the law, you are generally able to justify
yourselves."

"What you have just told me, general," said I, "was also told me briefly
by Carter last night, and he, too, seemed to consider it necessary to
warn me that the skipper is a somewhat peculiar man.  Naturally, after
such a warning, I have been keeping my eyes and ears open, and I confess
that I find the man something of a puzzle.  Carter quite led me to
anticipate the possibility that Williams might order us down the side
into our boats again, instead of which, so far as words, and even deeds,
are concerned, I have not the least fault to find.  But all the time
that he was saying kind things to me this morning, his eyes and the
expression of his face belied him."

"Aha! so you noticed that, did you?" observed the general.  "Yes, it is
quite true; you have very precisely expressed what we have all noticed
at one time or another.  His eyes belie the words of his lips very
often, that is to say when he chooses to be civil, which is not always.
When I saw him this morning I quite believed we were in for a
particularly unpleasant day, for he had all the appearance of a man in a
very bad temper, but for some reason he has seen fit to behave himself
to-day.  But never fear, you will soon have an opportunity to see what
he is like when he chooses to let himself go.  His behaviour is then
that of a madman, and I am sometimes inclined to believe that he really
is mad.  But suppose that he should do as Carter suggests he may, and
order you and your men to quit the ship, will you go?"

"Most certainly not," said I.  "I will only leave this ship when I can
transfer myself and my men to some other by means of which I can
speedily rejoin my own ship."

"That's right, that's quite right, my boy," approved the general.
"Well, I am glad that I have had this little talk with you, for it has
eased my mind and put you on the alert.  And now, come up on the poop,
and make yourself agreeable to the ladies; they will not thank me for
monopolising so much of your time and attention."

I took the hint, and followed him up to the poop, where the whole of the
cuddy passengers were assembled, the ladies occupied with books, or
needlework, or playing with the children, while the men lounged in
basket chairs, smoking, reading, or chatting, or danced attendance upon
the ladies.  I first paid my respects to Lady Baker and her daughter, as
in duty bound, and then drifted gradually round from one to another
until I finally came to an anchor between Mrs Jennings and her niece,
Miss Duncan.  But I observed that in every case, whatever the topic
might be upon which I started a conversation, the talk gradually drifted
round to the subject of the skipper and his peculiarities, from which I
arrived at the conclusion that, after all, Carter and the general must
have had some grounds for the apprehensions that they had expressed to
me.

Now, of our party of ten who had been received on board the _Indian
Queen_, six of us were wounded, and of those six three were so severely
hurt as to be quite unfit for duty, and the other three, of whom I was
one, were able to do such deck duty as keeping a look-out, taking a
trick at the wheel, and so on, but, excepting myself, were scarcely fit
to go aloft just yet.  But I did not think it right or desirable that
those of us who were in a fit state to work should eat the bread of
idleness.  I had therefore seized the opportunity afforded by my talk
with the skipper that morning to suggest that my four unwounded and two
slightly-wounded men should assist in the working of the ship; as for
myself, I said that I should be very pleased to take charge of one of
the watches, if such an arrangement would be of any assistance to him.
This, of course, was quite the right and proper thing for me to do, and
although the ship carried a complement of thirty hands, all told, I was
not in the least surprised that Williams should accept, quite as a
matter of course, my offer of the men, three of whom he placed in the
port watch, and three in the starboard, the latter being under the
boatswain, a big, bullying, brow-beating fellow named Tonkin.  But he
declined the offer of my personal services, saying that he could do
quite well without them.  This arrangement having been come to, I made
it my business to speak to the boatswain, into whose watch the two
slightly-wounded men had been put, informing him of what had passed
between the skipper and myself, and requesting him not to send the
wounded men aloft, as I did not consider that they could safely venture
into the rigging in their partially disabled condition.  And I also
cautioned the men not to attempt to go aloft, should the boatswain
happen to forget what I had told him, and order them to do so, taking
care to give them this caution in Tonkin's presence and hearing in order
that there might be no mistake or misunderstanding.

I was therefore very much surprised, and considerably annoyed, when, as
we were all gathered together on the poop that same evening, during the
first dogwatch, I heard the sounds of a violent altercation proceeding
on the fore-deck, and, on looking round, discovered that the disputants
were one of my own men and the boatswain, the latter of whom was
threatening the other with a rope's-end.  Without waiting to hear or see
more I instantly dashed down the poop-ladder and ran forward, pushing my
way through a little crowd who had gathered round the chief actors of
the scene; and as I did so I became suddenly conscious of the fact that
the men among whom I was forcing my way were a distinctly ruffianly,
ill-conditioned lot, who seemed more than half disposed to resent
actively my sudden appearance among them.

"Now then, Martin," I said sharply, "what is all this disturbance about,
and why is the boatswain threatening you with that rope's-end?"

"Why, sir," answered Martin, who was suffering from a grape-shot wound
in the leg, "I understood you to say this morning as none of us as is
wounded is to go aloft; yet here's this here bo's'un swears as he'll
make me go up and take the turn out o' that fore-to'gallan' clew,
instead of sendin' one of his own people up to do it.  I couldn't climb
the riggin' without bustin' this here wound of mine open again--"

"Of course not," I answered.  "I thought I had made it clear to you,
Tonkin," turning to the boatswain, "that I do not wish any of my wounded
men to be sent aloft.  That man is in no fit condition to go up on to
the topsail-yard."

"Ain't he?" retorted the boatswain in a very offensive manner.  "While
he's in my watch I'm goin' to be the judge of what he's fit to do, and
what he's not fit to do; and I say he's quite fit to do the job that
I've ordered him to do.  And he's goin' to do it too, or I'll know the
reason why.  And, what's more, I won't have no brass-bound young
whipper-snappers comin' for'ard here to interfere with me and tell me
what I'm to do and what I'm not to do; and I hope that's speakin' plain
enough for to be understood, Mr Midshipman What's-your-name.  Now
then," he continued, turning to Martin again, "will you obey my orders,
or must I make yer?"  And he took a fresh grip upon the rope's-end with
which he was threatening the man.

"Drop that rope's-end at once, you scoundrel!"  I exclaimed angrily; for
I saw by the man's manner, and by the approving sniggers of the men who
surrounded us, that he had been deliberately and intentionally insulting
to me, and that unless I took a firm stand at once the ship would
speedily become untenable to my men and myself.  "You must surely be
drunk, Tonkin, or you would never dream of--"

"Drunk am I?" he exclaimed savagely, wheeling suddenly round upon me.
"I'll soon show you whether I'm drunk or not," and he raised the rope's-
end with the manifest intention of striking me across the face with it.
But before the blow could fall there was a sudden rush of feet; the
sniggering loafers who hemmed us in were knocked right and left like so
many ninepins, and, with a cry of "Take that, you dirty blackguard, as a
lesson not to lift your filthy paws again against a king's officer,"
Simpson, our carpenter's mate, an immensely strong fellow, dashed in and
caught the boatswain a terrific blow square on the chin, felling him to
the deck, where he lay senseless, and bleeding profusely at the mouth.

"Put that man in irons!" bellowed a furious voice behind me; and,
turning round, I beheld the skipper glaring like an infuriated animal
past me at the carpenter's mate, who was standing with clenched fists
across the prostrate body of the boatswain.

"For what reason, pray, Captain Williams?" demanded I indignantly.  "I
do not know how long you have been here, for I did not hear you
approach, but unless you have but this instant come upon the scene you
must be fully aware that it was your boatswain who started this
disgraceful brawl.  His behaviour was absolutely brutal, and--"

I got no further; for while I was still speaking the villain suddenly
seized me round the waist, and, being much more powerful than myself,
pinned my arms close to my sides.  "Here," he exclaimed to one of his
own people standing by, "just lash this young bantam's arms behind him,
and seize him to the rail, while I attend to the other."  And before I
well knew where I was I found myself securely trussed up, and saw
Simpson, Martin, and another of my men, fighting like lions at bay,
finally overborne by numbers and beaten senseless to the deck.

"You will be very sorry for this outrage before you are many days older,
Captain Williams," I said as the fellow presently came and planted
himself square in front of me.

"Shall I, indeed?" he sneered, thrusting his hands deep in his trousers
pockets, and balancing himself on the heaving deck with his legs wide
apart.  "What makes you think so?"

"Because I will report your conduct to the captain of the first man-o'-
war that we fall in with on the coast, and you will be called upon to
give an account of yourself and your behaviour."

"And supposing that we don't happen to fall in with any of your precious
men-o'-war, what then?" he demanded.

"Why," said I, "it will merely mean that your punishment will be
deferred a few days longer until we arrive at Capetown; that is all."

"Ah!" he retorted, drawing in his breath sharply.  "But supposing you
should happen to go overboard quietly some dark night--"

"Like poor Mowbray, for instance," I cut in.

"Mowbray," he hissed, turning deathly white.  "Mowbray!  Who has been
talking to you about Mowbray?  Tell me, and I'll cut his lying tongue
out of his mouth!"

"Brave words," I said, "very brave words, but they would not frighten
the individual who told me the history of poor Mr Mowbray's mysterious
disappearance through the stern window."

"Tell me who it was, and what he said?" he demanded hoarsely.

"No," I answered him.  "I will reserve that story for other ears than
yours."

"Very well," he said.  "Then I promise you that you shall not live to
tell that story."  And turning to one of the men who were standing by,
he said:

"Cast this young cockerel loose, take him down to his cabin, lock him
in, and bring the key to me."

And two minutes later I found myself below in a very comfortable cabin
that had been cleared out and prepared for me, locked in, and with no
company but my own rather disagreeable thoughts.



CHAPTER SIX.

STRANDED!

What were Williams's ultimate intentions toward me I found it quite
impossible to guess, for, beyond the fact that he kept me carefully
locked up in the cabin that he had assigned to me, I suffered no further
violence at his hands, a steward bringing me an ample supply of food
when the meal hours came round.  I tried to ascertain from this fellow
how my men were faring in the forecastle; but my attempt to question him
caused him so much distress and terror that, at his earnest request, I
forebore to press my enquiries.  And as soon as the man had taken away
the empty plates and dishes that had contained my dinner, I stretched
myself out on the very inviting-looking bed that had been made up in the
bunk, and, being exceedingly tired, soon fell asleep.  I slept all
night, and did not awake until the steward entered next morning with my
breakfast.

I rather expected that, after a night's calm consideration of his
exploit, Williams would have come to the conclusion that discretion was
the better part of valour, and would have taken some steps toward the
patching up of a truce; but he did not, and I spent the whole of that
day also locked up in the cabin, and seeing no soul but the steward who
brought my meals to me.

It was somewhat late that night when I turned in, as I had slept well
all through the previous night and did not feel tired; and even when I
had bestowed myself for the night I did not get to sleep for some time,
for I felt that we must by this time be drawing close in to the coast;
and supposing we should fall in with a man-o'-war, how was I to
communicate with her if this man was going to keep me cooped up down
below?  True, I might succeed in attracting the attention of those on
board such a ship by waving my handkerchief out of my cabin port if we
happened to pass her closely enough for such a signal to be seen, and if
she happened also to be on the starboard side, which was the side on
which my berth was situated; but I was very strongly of opinion that,
after what had happened, Williams would take especial care to give an
exceedingly wide berth to any men-o'-war that he might happen to sight.

At length, however, I fell into a somewhat restless sleep, from which I
was awakened some time later by sounds of confusion on deck--the
shouting of orders, the trampling of feet, the violent casting of ropes
upon the deck, the flapping of loose canvas in the wind, the creaking of
yards, and the various other sounds that usually follow upon the
happening of anything amiss on board a ship; and at the same time I
became conscious of something unusual in the "feel" of the ship.  For a
moment I was puzzled to decide what it was; but by the time that I had
jumped out of my berth and was broad awake I knew what had happened.
The ship was ashore!  Yet she must have taken the ground very easily,
for I had been conscious of no shock; and even as I stood there I was
unable to detect the least motion of the hull.  She was as firmly fixed,
apparently, and as steady, as though she had been lying in a dry dock.

I went to the side and put my face to the open porthole.  I saw that the
night was clear, and that the sky overhead was brilliant with stars; and
by twisting myself in such a way as to get a raking view forward I
fancied I could see in the distance something having the appearance of a
low, tree-clad shore.  I also heard the heavy thunder of distant surf;
but alongside the ship the water was quite still and silent, save for a
soft, seething sound as of water gently swelling and receding upon a
sheltered beach.

I seated myself upon the sofa locker, and strove to recall mentally the
features of the several rivers that we had visited, but could fit none
of them to the dimly-seen surroundings that were visible from the port
out of which I had looked.  The one thing which was certain was that we
were in perfectly smooth water, and the entire absence of shock with
which the ship had taken the ground was an indication that she was
certainly in no immediate danger; but beyond that the situation was
puzzling in the extreme.  The snug and sheltered position of the ship
pointed strongly to the assumption that we had blundered into some river
in the darkness; yet when I again looked out through the port the little
that I was able to see was suggestive of beach rather than river, and
that we were not very far from a beach was evidenced by the loud,
unbroken roar of the surf.  Then there was the puzzling question: How
did we get where we were?  What were the look-outs doing?  What was
everybody doing that no one saw the land or heard the roar of the surf
in time to avoid running the ship ashore?

As I continued to stare abstractedly out through the port it struck me
that the various objects within sight were growing more clearly visible,
and presently I felt convinced that the dawn was approaching.  And at
the same moment I became aware that a broad dark shadow that lay some
fifty yards from the ship's starboard side, and which had been puzzling
me greatly, was a sandbank of very considerable extent, so considerable,
indeed, that, for the moment, I could not make out where it terminated.
Meanwhile the hubbub on deck gradually ceased, and I surmised that the
canvas had been taken in.

The transition from the first pallor of dawn to full daylight is very
rapid in those low latitudes, and within ten minutes of the first faint
heralding of day a level shaft of sunlight shot athwart the scene, which
became in a moment transfigured, and all that had before been vague and
illusory stood frankly revealed to the eye.  The sandbank now showed as
an isolated patch about two hundred yards wide and perhaps half a mile
long, with what looked like a by-wash channel of about one hundred yards
wide flowing between it and the mainland, the latter being a sandy beach
backed by sand dunes clothed with a rank creeper-like vegetation, and a
few stunted tree tops showing behind them.  As the ship then lay with
her head pointing toward the south-east, I was able, with some effort,
to get a glimpse of a mile or two of the shore; and now that daylight
had come I could see the surf breaking heavily all along it, and also
upon the seaward side of the sandbank upon which we appeared to have
grounded.

Feeling quite reassured as to the safety of the ship, I sat down on the
sofa locker and endeavoured, by recalling the courses steered and the
distances run since we had been picked up, to identify the particular
spot on the coast where we now were.  But it was no use; my memory of
the charts was not clear enough, and I had to give up the task.  But I
felt convinced that we were somewhere in the Gulf of Guinea.

As I sat there on the locker, thinking matters over, and wondering what
would be the outcome of this adventure, I became so absorbed in my own
thoughts that I gradually lost all consciousness of my surroundings, and
was only brought back to myself by the sounds of a sudden commotion on
deck, loud outcries--in which I thought I recognised the voice of the
skipper,--a great and violent stamping of feet, and finally an irregular
popping of pistols, followed by a sudden subsidence of the disturbance.
This, in turn, was followed by sounds of excitement in the cabins on
either side of the one which I occupied, and in the distance I could
hear the general shouting at the top of his voice.  I gathered that the
passengers were only now beginning to realise that something was wrong
with the ship, and were turning out and dressing hastily.  A few minutes
later I heard the sounds of cabin doors being flung open, and hurried
footsteps went speeding past my cabin toward the companion way which led
up to the main-deck.  Then the general's voice breezed up again, from
the saloon above, in tones of angry remonstrance, followed by a
tremendous amount of excited talk, amid which I thought I once or twice
caught the sounds of women's sobs.  It was evident that something very
much out of the common had happened, and I came to the conclusion that
it was high time for me to be at large again and taking a hand in the
proceedings; I therefore whipped out my pocketknife, and without further
ado proceeded to withdraw the screws that fastened the lock to the door.
Five minutes later I found myself in the main saloon, and the centre of
an excited and somewhat terrified group of passengers.

"Ah!" exclaimed the general, as I made my appearance.  "Now, perhaps, we
shall get at something practical.  Here is young Grenvile, who, being a
navy man, may be supposed to know how to deal with an awkward situation.
Here is a pretty kettle of fish, sir," he continued, turning to me.
"The ship is ashore!  The captain has blown his brains out--so they say!
And, last but not least, the crew, headed by the boatswain, has
mutinied against the authority of Mr Carter--whom they have thrust in
here among us--and absolutely refuse to listen to reason in any shape or
form!  Now I ask you, as an officer in his Most Gracious Majesty's navy,
what is to be done, sir; what are the proper steps to be taken to
extricate ourselves from this infernal predicament?"

"The first thing, general," said I, "is to let me hear Carter's story,
which will probably give me a fairly accurate idea of the precise
situation of affairs.  Where is he?"

"Here I am, Mr Grenvile," replied the man himself, edging his way
toward me through the crowd.

"Now," said I, "please tell us precisely what you know about this very
extraordinary affair."

"Well, sir," was the answer, "I really don't know so very much about it,
when all's told; but I'm not very greatly surprised.  The way that
things have been going aboard this ship, ever since poor Cap'n Matthews
died, has been enough to prepare a man for anything, mutiny included.  I
had the middle watch last night, and, as you know--or perhaps you don't
know--it was very overcast and dark all through the watch, so it's not
very surprisin' that I saw nothing of the land, even if it was in
sight--which I doubt, seein' that it's low--and Cap'n Williams, who
ought to have known that we was drawin' in close upon the coast, never
gave me any warning of the ship's position, or said anything about
keepin' an extra good look-out, or anything of that sort.  Consequently,
when the bo's'un relieved me at four o'clock this mornin', I didn't pass
on any particular caution to him.  As a matter of fact I hadn't a notion
that we were anywhere near the land!  Consequently, when the commotion
of haulin' down and clewin' up awoke me, and when, upon rushin' out on
deck to see what was the matter, I found that the ship was ashore, I was
regularly flabbergasted!  But I hadn't much time for surprise, or
anything else either, for the skipper was on deck and in charge; and I
must confess that the cool way in which he took everything made me think
that he wasn't nearly so surprised at what had happened as by rights he
ought to have been.

"Well, we hauled down, clewed up, and furled everything, by which time
the daylight had come, and we were able to get a view of our
whereabouts.  So far as I could make out we seemed to have blundered
slap into the mouth of some river, and to have grounded on the inner
side of a big sandbank that had formed right athwart it at a distance of
about a quarter of a mile to seaward of the general trend of the shore
line.  We couldn't have managed better if we'd picked the berth for
ourselves; for we're lyin' in perfectly smooth water, completely
sheltered from the run of the surf; and nothin' short of a stiff on-
shore gale would be at all likely to hurt us.

"The skipper said something about lightening the ship, and ordered the
bo's'un to clear away the boats and see all ready for hoistin' 'em out,
and directed me to go down into the fore-peak and rouse out all the
hawsers I could find down there, and send 'em up on deck.  I was busy
upon this job, with half a dozen hands to help me, when suddenly we
heard a terrific rumpus on deck, and the sounds of pistol firing; and
when I jumped up on deck to see what all the row was about, there was
that villain Tonkin, with a pistol still smokin' in his hand, talkin' to
the men and tellin' 'em that as the ship was ashore, and the cap'n gone,
all hands were free to please themselves as to whether they'd stick to
the hooker or not, and that, for his part, he meant to have a spell
ashore for a day or two before decidin' what next to do.

"Just at that point I interrupted him by askin' what he meant by sayin'
that the cap'n was `gone'; to which he replied that the skipper had shot
himself and then jumped overboard--which I don't believe, Mr Grenvile,
not for a moment, for if I'm not very greatly mistaken I saw the
scoundrel wink at the men as he told me the yarn.  And he added that,
that bein' the case, every man aboard was his own master, and free to do
as he pleased; and if I had anything to say against that, I'd better say
it then.

"And I did say it; I told him and all hands that, as to everybody now
bein' his own master, that was all nonsense; for if the skipper was
indeed dead--and it would be my business to find out just exactly how he
died--the command of the ship devolved upon me, and I intended to take
all the necessary steps to get her afloat again and to carry her to her
destination.  I thought that that would settle it; but it didn't, by a
long chalk, for Tonkin turned to the men and says:--

"`Look here, shipmates all, I for one have had quite enough choppin' and
changin' about of skippers in this hooker,' he says; `and,' says he, `so
far as I'm concerned I don't want no more.  I've nothin' to say again'
Carter there, but I'm not goin' to acknowledge him as skipper of this
packet, and I don't fancy as how any of you will, either.  Of course,'
he says, `if there's any of you as is anxious to have him for skipper,
and wants to go heavin' out cargo and runnin' away kedges, and what not,
under his orders, instead of goin' ashore with me into them woods,
huntin' for fruit, he's quite at liberty to do so, I won't say him nay;
but you may as well make up your minds now as any other time whether
you'll stick to him or to me; so now what d'ye say, shipmates--who's for
Carter, and who's for Tonkin?'

"And I'll be shot, Mr Grenvile, if every mother's son of 'em didn't
declare, right off, without hesitatin', for him!  Whereupon he ordered
me in here, and told me not to dare to show my nose out on deck again
until I had his permission, or he'd have me hove over the rail.  And I
was to tell the passengers that they might go up on the poop if they
liked; but that if e'er a one of 'em put his foot on the main-deck he'd
be hove overboard without any palaver.  Now, what d'ye think of that,
sir, for a mess?"

"Have any of them been drinking, think you?" asked I.

"Well, yes, sir, I think they have," answered Carter.  "That is to say,
I think that most of 'em have been pretty well primed--just enough, you
know, to make 'em reckless.  But there was none of 'em what you'd call
drunk; not by a long way."

"And were any of my men among them?"  I asked.

"Oh no!" was the answer.  "Your men--but I forgot--you don't know what's
happened to them.  The whole lot of 'em, sound and sick alike, are
locked up in the steerage--Simpson, Martin, and Beardmore bein' in
irons."

"And what about the steerage passengers?"  I asked.  "Where are they?"

"Why," answered Carter, "there are only five of them, all told.  Two of
them--Hales and Cruickshank--both of whom are thoroughly bad
characters--have chummed in with Tonkin and his lot; while Jenkins, with
his wife and daughter, are in their own cabins in the steerage.  Mrs
Jenkins and her daughter, Patsy, have been busy acting as nurses to your
wounded men, under Dr Burgess's instructions, ever since you came
aboard us, and they are doing very well."

"That is good news," said I, "and I will see that the two women are
properly rewarded for their trouble.  Now let us see how we stand.  How
many do the mutineers muster, all told?"

"Twenty-five, or twenty-seven if we count in Hales and Cruickshank,"
answered Carter.

"And how many do we muster on our side?" said I.  "Let me just reckon
up.  First of all, there are nine of my men and myself, that makes ten.
Then there is yourself, Mr Carter--eleven.  What about the stewards?"

"Oh, they are all right, and so is the cook.  They'll all do their work
as usual," answered Carter.

"Ay, no doubt," answered I; "but what about their fighting qualities, if
we should be obliged to resort to forcible measures with the mutineers?"

"Ah," said Carter, "if it comes to fighting, that's another matter!  The
stewards are youngsters, with the exception of Briggs, the head steward,
and would stand a pretty poor chance if it came to a fight with the
forecastle hands.  But Briggs--well, he's in the pantry, perhaps we'd
better call him and hear what he has to say for himself."

The head steward was a man of about thirty-five, well-built, and fairly
powerful; and upon being questioned he professed himself willing to
place himself unreservedly under my orders, and also to ascertain to
what extent we might rely upon his subordinates.  That brought our
fighting force up to an even dozen, to which were speedily added the
general and Messrs. Morton, Fielder, Acutt, Boyne, Pearson, and Taylor,
all of whom professed to be eager for a scrimmage, although, in the case
of the last-mentioned five, I had a suspicion that much of their courage
had its origin in a desire to appear to advantage before Miss Duncan.
However, that brought us up to nineteen--not counting the three under-
stewards--against twenty-seven mutineers.

The next question was as to weapons.  The mutineers were each of them
possessed of at least a knife, while it was known that Tonkin and some
six or seven others had one or more pistols, and it was also speedily
ascertained that they had secured all the pikes and tomahawks belonging
to the ship.  Moreover, there were such formidable makeshift weapons as
capstan-bars, marline-spikes, belaying-pins, and other instruments
accessible to them at a moment's notice.  If, therefore, it should come
to a hand-to-hand fight, our antagonists were likely to prove rather
formidable.

On our own side, on the other hand, I possessed a brace of pistols, with
five cartridges, and my sword.  My men also had had their cutlasses and
pistols, together with a certain quantity of ammunition; but these were
not to be reckoned upon, for I considered it almost certain that, after
putting my three men in irons, Tonkin would take the precaution to
secure the arms and ammunition belonging to all of them.  Then the
general also had his sword and pistols, while each of the other men
possessed at least a sporting gun--and, in the case of three of them,
pistols as well,--but unfortunately all these were down in the after-
hold among their baggage, and could not be got at so long as Tonkin and
his gang were in possession of the deck.  Thus the only weapons actually
available for our party were my own, and it needed but a moment's
consideration to show that ours was a case wherein strategy rather than
force must be employed.

"Well, then, gentlemen," said I, when we had all become agreed upon this
point, "it appears to me that the situation resolves itself thus: The
mutineers have expressed their determination to go ashore, and until
they have done so we can do nothing beyond holding ourselves ready for
action at a moment's notice.  And meanwhile we must all wear an air of
the utmost nonchalance and unconcern; for if we were to manifest any
symptoms of excitement or interest in their movements, there are, no
doubt, some among them who would be astute enough to observe it, and
thereupon to become suspicious.  Let them leave the ship, as many as may
please to go--and the more the better; and as soon as they are fairly
out of sight I will release my men, and we will then set to work to get
your firearms up out of the hold, and take such further steps as may be
necessary to subdue the mutineers upon their return, and bring them once
more under control.  Probably we shall only find it necessary to get
Tonkin into our hands to break the neck of the revolt and bring the rest
of the men to reason.  And now I think it would be a very good plan if a
few of you were to go up on the poop and take a quiet saunter before
breakfast, just to let the men see that you do not stand in any fear of
them, and at the same time you can take a good look round, with the
object of reporting to me what you see.  As for myself, I shall keep
below for the present.  There is nothing to be gained by reminding
Tonkin of my presence in the ship, and if he were to see that I was at
large and among you again, he might so far modify his arrangements as to
make matters even more difficult for us than they are at present."

"Quite right," approved the general.  "I agree with every word that our
young friend here has said.  He appears to have got a very good grip of
the situation, and his views accord with my own exactly.  We shall
doubtless be obliged to come to fisticuffs with those scoundrels forward
before we can hope to extricate ourselves from this very awkward
situation.  But it would be the height of folly to precipitate a fight
before we are fully prepared.  And now, gentlemen, I am going up on the
poop.  Come with me who will; but I think that, for the present at
least, the ladies had better remain below."

And thereupon he and the five young griffins made their way up on deck
at short intervals, while Mr Morton and I did our best to comfort and
encourage the weaker members of the party.  Not that they needed very
much encouragement--I will say that for them,--for, with the exception
of poor little Mrs Morton, who was very much more anxious and
frightened on behalf of her children than on her own account, the ladies
showed a very great deal more courage than I had looked for from them;
while, as for Mrs Jennings and Miss Duncan, they very promptly came
forward to say that if there was any way in which they could possibly
render assistance I was not to hesitate to make use of them.

While we were all still talking together in the saloon, Briggs, the
chief steward, entered in a state of great indignation, and, addressing
himself to Carter, informed him that the men demanded fried ham and
various other dainties from the cabin stores for breakfast, and upon his
venturing to remonstrate with them had darkly hinted that unless he
produced the required provisions at once, together with several bottles
of rum, it would be the worse for him.

"What do you say, Mr Grenvile?" demanded Carter, appealing to me.
"Shall we let them have what they ask for?"

"Certainly," I said, "seeing that at present we are not in a position to
refuse them and make good our refusal.  Let them have whatever they ask
for, but be as sparing as you possibly can with the grog; we do not want
them to have enough to make them quarrelsome, or to render them unfit to
go ashore."

"It goes mightily against the grain with me to serve out those good
cabin stores to such a pack of drunken loafers as them, sir,"
remonstrated Briggs.

"Never mind," said I.  "We are in their hands at present, and cannot
very well help ourselves.  You shall have your revenge later, when we
have got the rascals safe below in irons."

So they had what some of them inelegantly described as "a good blow-out"
that morning in the forecastle, while we were having our own breakfast
in the cabin; and, so far as drink was concerned, Tonkin was wise enough
to see to it that, in view of their projected trip ashore, no man had
more liquor than he could conveniently carry.

And while we sat at breakfast the gentlemen who had been on deck gave us
the result of such observations as they had been able to make from the
poop, which, after all, did not amount to much, the only conclusion at
which they had arrived being that we were ashore on the inner edge of a
sandbank which had formed athwart the mouth of a river, the extent of
which could not be seen from the ship in consequence of the fact that
there were two points of land, one overlapping the other, which hid
everything beyond them.  These two points, the general added, were
thickly overgrown with mangroves, and the land immediately behind was
low and densely wooded, coconut trees and palms being apparently very
plentiful, while a few miles inland the ground rose into low hills, from
the midst of which a single mountain towered into the air to a height of
some five or six thousand feet.

We were still dawdling over breakfast when we heard sounds of movement
out on deck, and presently Briggs, who had been instructed to
reconnoitre from the pantry window, which commanded a view of the main-
deck, sent word by one of the under-stewards that some of the mutineers
were getting tackles up on the fore and main yard-arms, while others
were employed in clearing out the longboat, which was stowed on the main
hatch; and a few minutes later the cook came aft with the intelligence
that he had received imperative orders to kill and roast a dozen fowls
for the men to take ashore with them, and also to make up a good-sized
parcel of cabin bread, butter, pots of jam, pickles, and a dozen bottles
of rum, in order that they might not find themselves short of creature
comforts during their absence from the ship.  This seemed to point to
the fact that they intended to undertake their projected excursion in
the longboat instead of taking the two gigs--a much greater piece of
luck than I had dared to hope for,--and also suggested an intention on
their part to make a fairly long day of it.  I did not hesitate to
instruct Briggs to see to it that their supply of grog should on this
occasion be a liberal one, for the longer they remained out of the ship,
the more time we should have in which to make our preparation.

The weather was intensely hot, and the mutineers manifested no
inclination to exert themselves unduly.  It was consequently almost
eleven o'clock in the forenoon ere the longboat was in the water
alongside, and another quarter of an hour was spent over the making of
the final preparations; but at length they tumbled down over the side,
one after another, with a good deal of rough horseplay, and a
considerable amount of wrangling, and pushed off.  The general and three
or four of the other passengers were on the poop, smoking under the
awning--which they had been obliged to spread for themselves,--and
observing the movements of the men under the cover of a pretence of
reading; and when the longboat had disappeared the general came down to
apprise me of that fact, and also of another, namely, that the steerage
passengers Hales and Cruickshank, and two seamen, armed to the teeth
with pistols and cutlasses--the latter at least, in all probability,
taken from my men--had been left behind for the obvious purpose of
taking care of the ship and keeping us in order during the absence of
the others.



CHAPTER SEVEN.

WHAT BEFELL THE MUTINEERS.

This was rather serious news, and none the less vexatious because it did
not take me altogether by surprise.  The general opinion had been that
all hands were bent upon going ashore, and that the ship would be left
at our mercy; but this had certainly not been my own view, for I could
not believe that a man of Tonkin's intelligence--realising, as he must,
the enormity of his offence in not only himself breaking into open
rebellion against lawful authority but in inciting others to do the
same--would be so rashly imprudent as to leave us free, for a period of
several hours, to release my men and to take such other steps as might
occur to us for the suppression of the mutiny.  I had felt quite certain
that somebody would be left on board to keep us under supervision and
restraint, but I had calculated upon the mutineers considering two men
sufficient--and also a little, perhaps, upon the difficulty that would
be experienced in inducing more than two, at the utmost, to forego the
anticipated enjoyment of a run ashore.  But here were four recklessly
unscrupulous men, powerful, determined fellows, fully armed, left behind
to be dealt with by us; and the only weapons that we could muster among
us were my sword and pistols.  True, we might be able to lay our hands
upon a few belaying-pins; but to attack with such weapons four men armed
with pistols meant that somebody would almost certainly get hurt, and
that I was most anxious to avoid, if possible.  Besides, if it came to a
fight, there was always the possibility that the reports of the pistols
might be heard by some of the party who had gone ashore, and cause them
to hurry back before we were ready to receive them fittingly.  Upon
enquiry I learned that the four men had arranged themselves, two in the
waist--one of them on each side of the ship--and two forward near the
fore-rigging, where they could command the entrance of the steerage
quarters.

The general, who was brimful of courage, was fuming with indignation at
what he termed "the confounded impudence" of the men in presuming to
mutiny, strongly advocated an immediate attack with such weapons as came
to hand, but I deprecated that step for the reasons already mentioned,
and suggested that quite possibly a little consideration and discussion
might enable us to hit upon some plan involving rather less risk.

Carter at once suggested that we should try the experiment of plying the
men with drink, in the hope of making them intoxicated; and as I
considered that this was a case wherein the end justified the means, the
plan was at once adopted, Briggs undertaking to carry out to the guard a
bottle of especially strong brandy for their delectation.  But although
they looked at the liquor with very longing eyes, their suspicions at
once became aroused, and they roughly ordered him to take it away.  And
when, instead of doing this, Briggs put down the bottle and left it
within their reach, one of them immediately took it up and flung it
overboard, where, it may be incidentally mentioned, it was instantly
dashed at and swallowed by a shark, to the no small astonishment of
those who witnessed the occurrence.

This scheme having failed, another was suggested, this time by the
ship's surgeon.  Briggs, the chief steward, had thus far not had his
freedom in the least degree interfered with.  It was understood that in
the discharge of his duty he must necessarily pass to and fro at
frequent intervals between the cabin and the cook's galley--the occupant
of which, it may be mentioned, though a surly sort of fellow, and as
discontented with everything as ships' cooks generally are, had declared
himself absolutely neutral,--and up to the present he had been allowed
to do so without let or hindrance.  The doctor's plan, therefore, was
that he was to go forward to the steerage, as though on a professional
visit to the wounded men, and Briggs was at the same time to go forward
to the galley to discuss with the cook the arrangements for the cuddy
dinner that evening.  Then, as soon as they were fairly forward, Carter
and I were to sally forth together and grapple with the two men in the
waist, at the same time whistling to apprise the doctor and Briggs, who,
upon hearing the signal, would rush upon and grapple with the two men on
the forecastle.  The idea was, not to provoke a fight, but to overpower
and secure these four men without giving them an opportunity to create
an alarm by firing their pistols.  We four, therefore, were
simultaneously to pinion and hold them until others, coming to our
assistance, could help us, if necessary, to secure and disarm them.
This plan, we at once decided, was quite promising enough to be worth a
trial; and accordingly we forthwith proceeded to put it into execution.

First of all, as arranged, the doctor sallied forth, with a number of
bandages and other materials in his hands, and demanded admission to the
steerage, which, after some slight demur, was accorded him.  Then
Briggs, who had been watching the progress of events from the pantry
window, sauntered casually forward and stood by the door of the galley,
where he proceeded to discuss with the cook the advisability of killing
a pig.  And finally Carter and I, having allowed a minute or two to
elapse, walked calmly out on the main-deck together, smoking a cigar
apiece, and laughing and talking as though we were acting in pure
absent-mindedness.  Our perfect coolness, and apparent want of the
slightest appearance of concern, so completely staggered the two guards
in the waist that they allowed us to get within a couple of fathoms of
the one on the port side before it dawned upon them to interfere; and
then Cruickshank, the man on the starboard side, dashed across the deck
to the support of his companion, at the same time shouting to us in very
bellicose accents:

"Here, you two, get back, d'ye hear?  What d'ye mean by settin' foot on
this part of the deck against Mr Tonkin's express orders?  Now hook it,
sharp, or--"

The moment that the fellow was fairly clear of the hatchway, and on the
port side of the deck, I raised my hand to my lips, spat out my cigar,
and sent a single shrill, but not loud, whistle along the deck, and then
sprang straight at my immensely powerful antagonist, while Carter
manfully tackled his own man.  And at the same instant the doctor and
Briggs sprang upon the pair who were keeping guard on the forecastle.
As arranged, none of us attempted to do more than just pinion each his
own particular antagonist and prevent him from drawing his weapons,
trusting to the others to help us to master and secure them.  And
gallantly those others backed us up, for at the sound of my whistle,
young Acutt--a fine, athletic young giant--dashed out of the cabin and,
without paying any attention to the writhing and struggling quartette in
his way, dodged us and rushed forward to the galley to prevent cookie
from interfering, while Fielder, Boyne, Pearson, and Taylor--the other
four young griffins--rushed with equal celerity to the support of the
doctor, Briggs, Carter, and myself.  My own particular man struggled
savagely in his endeavour to free himself from my grasp, and, being a
much heavier and more powerful man than I was, pinned me up against the
rail and threw his whole strength into a determined effort to break my
back, in which effort he would have very speedily succeeded had not
Boyne quickly felled him to the deck and stunned him by a well-directed
blow from an iron belaying-pin.  To disarm and securely bind the fellow
was the work of but a minute or two, and then, breathless with our
exertions, and, so far as I was concerned, in considerable pain, Boyne
and I stood up and looked about us to see how the others were faring.
Looking, first of all, near home, we saw Hales pinned up against the
rail, with young Pearson taking his weapons away from him, while Carter
was busily engaged in seizing him up, the general meanwhile standing by
and pointing my drawn sword at his throat to discourage him from any
ill-advised attempt at resistance; while the doctor and Briggs, with the
assistance of Fielder and Taylor, were also busily engaged in securing
their respective men.  The ship was ours! and now it only remained for
us to take promptly such steps as were necessary to retain possession of
her when the other mutineers should see fit to return.

The first thing to be done was to release my own men from confinement,
and this we instantly did, when I had the great satisfaction of
discovering that, thanks to the skill of Doctor Burgess, and the
assiduous nursing of Mrs Jenkins and her daughter Patsy, all our
wounded, except two, were so far convalescent as to be quite fit for
ordinary duty, while the other two were also doing so favourably that
they could be made useful in a variety of ways provided that they were
not called upon to undertake any very severe physical exertion.  Thus I
very soon found myself at the head of a little band of nine armed and
resolute men, each of whom was prepared to do my bidding to the death if
called upon.

We now lost no time in hustling our four prisoners down into the fore-
peak, where they could do no harm, and where, after being securely
clapped into irons, they were bade to make themselves as comfortable as
they could on top of the ship's stock of coal, while one of my men who,
from the comparatively severe character of his wounds, was least likely
to be of service to us in other directions, was stationed in the
forecastle above, fully armed, to keep an eye upon them, and see they
got into no mischief.  This little matter having been satisfactorily
arranged, we next got the hatches off the after hatchway, and roused the
passengers' baggage on deck, from which the respective owners at once
proceeded to withdraw such weapons and ammunition as they possessed;
after which we struck the various packages down into the hold again and
put on the hatches.

We now mustered seventeen armed men, all told, each of whom was provided
with a firearm of some kind, while my own nine men, myself, and the
general boasted sidearms as well.  Carter had no weapons of his own,
neither had the doctor nor Briggs, but three of the youngsters possessed
a brace of pistols each, which they were quite willing to lend; and with
these Carter, the doctor, and Briggs were promptly armed.  This brought
our number up to twenty against the twenty-three away in the longboat;
and since we possessed the advantage over the mutineers that we had the
ship's deck as a fighting platform, I thought that we might now regard
ourselves as masters of the situation.  Nevertheless I did not feel
disposed to neglect any further advantages that we might happen to
possess--for not all of our party were fighting men, and I did not know
how the civilians might behave in a hand-to-hand fight.  I therefore at
once began to look round with the object of ascertaining what further
means of defence the ship afforded.  She was pierced for twelve guns--
six of a side; but the only artillery that she actually carried was a
pair of 6-pounder brass carronades, the carriages of which were secured
one on either side of the main-deck entrance to the saloon.  I suspected
that these pieces had been put on board by the owners more for the
purpose of signalling than as a means of defence, but I now gave them a
very careful overhaul, and came to the conclusion that they were good,
reliable weapons, and capable of rendering efficient service.  But when
I came to question Carter about ammunition he could tell me nothing, as
he had not been aboard the ship when her cargo was stowed.  However, at
my suggestion he now took possession of the skipper's cabin, and
proceeded to give it a thorough overhaul, with the result that in a
short time he reappeared with a key in his hand, attached to which was a
parchment label inscribed "Magazine".  This was strong presumptive
evidence in favour of the supposition that a magazine existed somewhere
aboard the ship, and a little further search resulted in its discovery
abaft the lazarette.  With all due precautions we at once proceeded to
open this receptacle, and found, to our very great satisfaction, that it
not only contained a supply of signal rockets, but also a liberal supply
of powder cartridges for the signal guns, and a dozen stands of muskets,
together with a goodly number of kegs, some of which contained powder,
while the remainder were full of bullets.  This was a most fortunate
discovery indeed, especially in so far as the muskets were concerned,
for the possession of them at once gave us a definite and very decided
advantage over the mutineers.  The muskets were forthwith conveyed on
deck, together with a supply of powder and three kegs of bullets, and
also a dozen cartridges for the guns.  The afternoon was by this time
well advanced, and we might look for the return of the mutineers at any
moment.  We therefore loaded the carronades with five double handfuls of
musket balls apiece--about a hundred bullets to each gun--in place of
round shot, and, running them forward, mounted them on the topgallant
forecastle as being the most commanding position in the ship.  Then we
loaded the muskets and placed them in the rack on the fore side of the
deck-house, which completed our preparations.  And now all that remained
was to keep a sharp look-out, and, while doing so, determine upon the
policy to be pursued when the returning longboat should heave in sight.

Having personally seen that our preparations were all as complete and
perfect as it was possible to make them, and having also posted Simpson
and Martin, two of my own men, armed with muskets, as look-outs, on the
forecastle, I at length went aft to the poop, where all the passengers
were now gathered, and where I saw the general and Mr Morton engaged in
earnest conversation with Carter.  As I made my way leisurely up the
poop-ladder the general beckoned to me to join the little group, and
then, as I approached, Carter turned to me and said:

"Mr Grenvile, the general, Mr Morton, and I have been discussing
together the rather curious state of affairs that has been brought about
aboard this ship by this unfortunate mutiny; and we are fully agreed
that, as matters stand, you are the most fit and proper person to take
charge until things have been straightened out.  Of course I don't
forget that, in consequence of the death of Cap'n Williams, I'm now the
cap'n of this ship; but, as I've just been tellin' Sir Thomas and Mr
Morton, here, I've never had any experience of fightin' of any kind, and
as like as not if I was to attempt to take the lead, where fightin' is
concerned, I should make a bungle of it.  Now, you seem to be quite at
home in this sort of thing, if you'll excuse me for sayin' so; you knew
exactly what was the right thing to be done, and have really been in
command the whole of this blessed day, although you've pretended that
you were only helpin', as you may say.  Then you've got nine trained
fightin' men aboard here who'll do just exactly what you tell 'em, but
who wouldn't care to have me orderin' them--to say nothin' of you--
about.  So we've come to the conclusion that, so far as the fightin' and
all that is concerned, you are the right man to be in command, and I, as
cap'n of this ship, hereby ask you to take charge and deal with the
trouble accordin' as you think best."  I bowed, and then turned to the
other two, saying: "Sir Thomas and Mr Morton, it occurs to me that you
two, in virtue of the fact that you are in a sense doubly interested in
this matter--since it not only involves you in your own proper persons
but also in the persons of your wives and families--are entitled to
express an opinion upon this proposal of Captain Carter's, and that I,
as a naval officer, ought to give your opinion my most serious
consideration.  Am I to understand that you are in full and perfect
agreement with Mr Carter in this proposal which he has just made to
me?"

"Most assuredly we are, Mr Grenvile," answered the general.  "Captain
Carter is a merchant seaman, and no doubt a very excellent man in that
capacity; but he now finds himself face to face with a difficulty such
as merchant captains are, fortunately, very seldom called upon to face,
and naturally he feels somewhat at a loss.  You, on the other hand, are,
by your whole training, well qualified to deal with the situation, and,
in view of the important interests involved, Captain Carter--and we
also--would like you to assume the command."

"Very well," said I, "I will do so, and will use my utmost endeavours to
extricate ourselves from this difficulty.  I already have a plan for
dealing with the mutineers when they return, which I think ought to
prove successful, and that, too, without any need for fighting; but I
shall require the assistance of the gentlemen passengers to enable me to
make an imposing display of force."

"That is all right, my boy," answered the general cordially; "we will
willingly place ourselves under your orders without reserve; so tell us
what you would have us do, and we will do it."

"Well," said I, "we may now expect the mutineers to return at any
moment, and we must be ready for them when they appear.  I will
therefore ask you all to have your weapons at hand; and when the
longboat heaves in sight the ladies must immediately go below, out of
harm's way, while you distribute yourselves along the bulwarks, with
your firearms levelled at the boat.  You must arrange yourselves in such
a manner that the mutineers may be able to see that you are all armed,
and prepared to fight if necessary.  By this means I hope to overawe
them and bring them to reason."

I then completed all my arrangements, being careful to take Carter into
my full confidence, and treat him in every respect as master of the
ship, assuming for myself rather the character of his first lieutenant
than anything else--and then all that remained for us to do was to sit
down and patiently await the return of the mutineers.  But the time sped
on, the hour of sunset arrived, and darkness fell upon the scene without
any sign of the longboat, and I began to feel somewhat uneasy as to the
safety of the absentees, for we were in a lonely, and, so far as my
knowledge went, an unfrequented part of the coast; and I had heard some
rather gruesome stories as to the doings of the natives, and of the
treatment that they were wont to mete out to white men--shipwrecked
sailors and others--who happened to be so unfortunate as to fall into
their hands.  And as the hours drifted past without bringing any news, I
at length grew so anxious that I began to consider very seriously the
advisability of sending away a boat in search of the missing men.  After
fully discussing the matter with Carter, however, I came to the
conclusion that our first duty was to take care of the ship and her
passengers, and that the mutinous crew must be left to look after
themselves.  Finally, having set a strong anchor-watch, I went below and
turned in.

Daylight arrived, noon came, and still there was no sign of the
absentees, and in a fever of anxiety I made my way up to the fore-royal-
yard, from which lofty elevation I made a careful survey of the inland
district.  But there was very little to see beyond a two-mile stretch of
a broad, winding river dotted with tree-grown islets here and there.
The country itself was so densely overgrown with bush and trees that
nothing upon its surface was to be seen.  As to the longboat, she was
nowhere visible; but I was not much astonished at that, because, from
the glimpse that I was able to catch of the river, I had very little
doubt that its characteristics were precisely those of all the other
rivers in that region, namely, a somewhat sluggish current of water
thick with foul and fetid mud, swampy margins overgrown with mangroves,
and numerous shallow, winding creeks, mangrove-bordered, discharging
into it on either side; and it was highly probable that, failing to find
a firm bank upon which to land along the margin of the river itself, the
mutineers had proceeded in search of such a spot up one of the creeks.
There were no canoes to be seen on that part of the river's surface
which was visible from my look-out, and the only suggestion of human
life anywhere in the neighbourhood was to be found in what I took to be
a thin, almost invisible, wreath of smoke rising above the tree tops at
a spot some two miles distant.  That wreath of smoke might, of course,
indicate the position of the mutineers' bivouac; but, on the other hand,
it might--and I thought this far more likely--indicate the location of a
native village; and if the latter suspicion should prove to be correct I
could not but feel that the situation of the mutineers was one full of
peril.

Having taken a careful mental note of everything that I had seen, I
descended the ratlines, and, making my way aft, invited Carter, the
general, and Mr Morton to join me in the main saloon, which happened
just then to be vacant.  When we arrived there, I told my companions
what I had seen, and what I feared, and then laid before them a proposal
that I should take the ship's galley--a very fine six-oared boat--and,
with my nine men, and one of the carronades mounted in the bows, go in
search of the missing men.  But neither the general nor Morton would
hear of this for a moment.  They were quite willing that a boat should
be dispatched to search for the longboat and her crew if the matter
could be arranged, but they very strongly protested against the idea
that I and all my nine fighting men should leave the ship, which, they
pointed out, would be at the mercy of the mutineers if we were to miss
them and if they were to get back before us; or, possibly, which would
be still worse, open to an attack from hundreds of savages should the
natives by any chance have discovered us and observed our helpless
predicament.  I was pointing out to them that this stand which they were
taking rendered the idea of a search impossible, since I considered it
neither wise nor prudent to dispatch a weak search party, and that I
could not dream of ordering any of my own men away upon such an
expedition in the command of anyone but myself, when I heard a call on
deck, and the next moment Simpson presented himself at the entrance of
the saloon to say that the longboat was in sight, pulling hard for the
ship, but that, so far as could be made out, there were only five men in
her!  Whereupon, with one accord we all dashed out on deck and made the
best of our way to the topgallant-forecastle, which afforded a good view
of the approaching boat.  It was now a few minutes past three o'clock,
ship's time.

Arrived on the forecastle, I snatched the telescope from the hands of
the look-out as he flourished the instrument toward the boat, with the
remark:

"There she comes, sir, and the buckos in her seem to be in a tearin'
hurry, too.  See how they're makin' the spray fly and the oars buckle!
They're workin' harder just now than they've done for many a long day,
I'll warrant."

Levelling the instrument upon the approaching boat, I saw that, as
Simpson had informed me, there were only five men in her, who, as the
look-out man had observed, were pulling as though for their lives.  The
boat, although a heavy one, was positively foaming through the water,
and the long, stout ash oars, which the men were labouring at, bent and
sprang almost to breaking point at every stroke.

"There is something very seriously wrong somewhere," said I gravely,
"and those fellows are bringing the news of it.  Let them come
alongside, Simpson; but muster the _Sharks_ at the gangway to disarm
those men as they come up the side, should they happen to have any
weapons about them."

Two minutes later the longboat dashed alongside, and as the men flung in
their oars, the man who had been pulling bow sprang to his feet and
yelled:

"Heave me a line, mates, and for God's sake let us come aboard.  We want
to see Mr Carter, quick!"

"All right, my bully boy," answered Simpson.  "Here's a line for ye;
look out!  But don't you chaps be in too much of a hurry now; the orders
is that you're to come up the side one at a time.  And if you've got any
such little matter as a knife or a pistol about you, just fork it over.
Thank'e!  Next man," as the man climbed inboard and without demur drew
an empty pistol and his knife from his belt and handed them over.

"Now then, my lad," said I, as the fellow faced round and confronted me,
"where are the rest of the men who left this ship yesterday?  Out with
your story, as quick as you please."

"Where are the rest!" he repeated, with white and quivering lips, while
his eyes rolled and his voice rose almost to a scream.  "Why, some of
'em are dead--lucky beggars! and t'others are in the hands of the
savages, away there in the woods, and are bein' slowly tormented to
death, one at a time, while t'others is forced to look on and wait their
turn.  At least that's how I reads what I've seen."

"And how come you five men to be here?"  I demanded.  "Have you managed
to escape from the savages, or were you not with the rest when they were
taken?"

"Why, sir," answered the fellow, "it's like this here--"

"Stop a moment," I interrupted him.  "Tell us your whole story, as
briefly as possible, from the moment when you pushed off from the ship's
side yesterday.  Then we shall get something like a clear and coherent
account of what has happened."

"Yes, yes, that's right, Grenvile," agreed the general as he stood
beside me, very upright and stern-looking, his lips white, but the eager
light of battle already kindling in his eyes.  "It will be a saving of
time in the long run."

"I certainly think so," said I.  "Now, my man, heave ahead with your
yarn."

"Well, sir," resumed the man, "we shoved off from the ship's side--
three-and-twenty of us, as you know--but, beg pardon, sir, I forgot--you
wasn't on deck--"

"Never mind about that, my lad," interrupted I; "go ahead as quickly as
possible.  You shoved off from the ship and pulled away into the river.
What happened then?"

"Nothin' at all, sir," was the reply.  "We just pulled into the river,
and as soon as we was fairly inside we started to look round for a spot
where we could get ashore; but, try where we would, we couldn't find
nothin' but soft mud that wouldn't have bore the weight of a cat, much
less of a man.  But while we was huntin' for a place we came across a
narrer creek, just wide enough for us to pull into; and Tonkin up's
hellum and says as we'll try in there.  So we pulled along for a matter
of nigh upon a mile, when all at once the creek comes to an end, and we
find the boat's nose jammed in among a lot of mangrove roots.  Then pore
Jim Nesbitt ups and volunteers to try and scramble along the mangroves
and see if he can find a spot firm enough for us to land upon; and when
he'd been gone about a quarter of a hour he comes back again and says
he've found a place.  So, actin' upon Tonkin's orders, each one of us
grabs a fowl, or a bottle, or what not, and away we goes in pore Jim's
wake; and presently out we comes at a place where the mangroves stopped
and the bush began, and where the mud was hard and firm enough to walk
upon, and a little later we comes upon a sort of path through the bush,
follerin' which we presently comes into a little open space where there
was nothin' but grass, with big trees growin' all round it, and there we
brought ourselves to an anchor, and cried `Spell ho!'

"Then we had some grub and a drop or two of grog, and a smoke, and then
some of us stretched out on the grass to have a snooze; but the ants and
creepin' things was that wishious and perseverin' that we couldn't lie
still for two minutes on end; so we all gets up and starts huntin' for
fruit.  But the only fruit we could find was cokernuts, and they was to
be had, as many as we wanted, just for the trouble of shinnin' up the
trees.  So we ate nuts and drank the milk--with just a dash of rum in it
now and again--until we didn't want any more; and then we laid ourselves
down again, and in spite of the ants and things some of us had a good
long sleep.  I felt just as sleepy as the rest, but I couldn't get no
peace at all on the ground, so I looked round and presently made up my
mind to go aloft in a big tree that was standin' not far off.  That tree
to look at was as easy to climb as them there ratlins, but somehow it
took me a long time to shin up it and find a comfortable place where I
could get a snooze without fallin' from aloft; but by and by I came
athwart a branch with a big fork in it, reachin' out well over the open
space where the other chaps were ly

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