Not a word was said by either of us until the unknown one had emerged
from the companion and removed himself well out of ear-shot. Then, as
Courtenay pushed the cigar-box across the table to me, after selecting a
weed for himself, he looked me in the face and, with a mischievous
twinkle in his eye, remarked:
"Well, Lascelles, what is your interpretation of this riddle? What is
the character of this felucca? Who and what is her skipper? And
whither are we bound?"
"Hush!" said I, "here comes the boy. We shall find ourselves in an
exceedingly awkward fix unless we keep a very bright lookout."
Here Francisco entered the cabin and began to clear away the wreck of
the breakfast.
"Why, Francisco, my lad, you look pale. You surely do not feel sea-
sick, do you?" exclaimed Courtenay.
"Sea-sick! oh, no!" said the lad. "I got over all that long ago."
"Ah, indeed!" remarked my fellow-mid in his usual off-hand manner.
"And, pray, what may `long ago' mean? Last voyage, or the voyage
before--three months ago--six months--a year?"
"More nearly two years ago, senor. I shall have been to sea two years
come next month," was the reply.
"Two years, eh! Why, you are a perfect veteran, a regular old sea-dog,
Francisco," continued Courtenay as he exhaled a wreath of pale-blue
smoke from his pursed-up lips and watched it go curling in fantastic
wreaths up through the open sky-light. "And have you been all that time
in the _Pinta_?"
"Yes, senor, all that time. Captain Carera is my uncle, you know. He
adopted me when my mother died, and has promised to make a sailor of
me."
"Ah! very good of him; very good, indeed," went on Courtenay. "A very
worthy fellow that uncle of yours, Francisco. And has the _Pinta_ been
engaged in the same trade ever since you joined her?"
"The same trade, senor? I--I--"
"There, don't be alarmed at my question, my lad," interrupted Courtenay.
"You need not answer it unless you choose, you know; but there is no
occasion for secrecy with _us_. You understand that, do you not?"
"Well, I don't know, I am sure, excellency. I suppose it is all right,
however, or you would not be here, so I do not mind answering. We
_have_ been engaged in the same trade--for the most part--ever since I
joined the _Pinta_."
"And a pretty profitable business your uncle must have found it,"
remarked Courtenay.
"I don't know so much about that, senor," was the reply. "It _used_ to
be profitable enough at first, I believe, when el capitano had it all in
his own hands. But now that Giuseppe has admitted other traders, we not
only have to pay higher prices for the goods, but we also have to take
our turn with others for a cargo. Then, too, Giuseppe has not been so
very fortunate of late; the British cruisers have given him a great deal
of trouble."
"Ah, yes, they are a pestilent lot, those British--always thrusting
their noses into other people's business!" agreed my unabashed chum.
"Well," he continued to me, "shall we go on deck and take a look round?
Uncommonly good cigars these of your uncle's, Francisco. Leave the box
on the table, my lad, will ye?"
On reaching the deck we were now, for the first time, able to take
particular note of the vessel on board which we, by some inexplicable
blunder, thus found ourselves--for that a blunder had been perpetrated
by somebody we now fully realised. The craft proved to be a sturdy
little felucca of some sixty tons or so; very shallow and very beamy in
proportion to her length; stoutly built, with high quarters, and low but
widely-flaring bows, which tossed the seas aside in fine style and
enabled her to thrash along with perfectly dry decks. She was rigged
with a single stout, stumpy mast, raking well forward, upon which was
set--by means of an immense yard of bamboos "fished" together, and twice
the length of the craft herself--an enormous lateen or triangular sail,
the tack of which consisted of a stout rope leading from the fore-end of
the yard to a ring-bolt sunk into the deck just forward of the mast,
whilst the sheet travelled upon an iron hawse well secured to the
taffrail. There were five hands on deck when we made our appearance,
namely, the skipper and the helmsman--who were having a quiet chat
together--and three men in the waist, on the weather side of the deck,
who were busy patching a sail. The weather was gloriously fine, with
scarcely a cloud to be seen in the clear sapphire vault overhead; and a
fresh cool breeze from about east-north-east was ruffling up the white-
caps to windward, straining at the huge sail until the yard bent like a
fishing-rod, and careening the gallant little craft to her covering-
board, whilst it drove her along at the rate of a good honest nine knots
in the hour. There was no other sail anywhere in sight, nor indeed
anything to distract attention from the little vessel herself, save the
shoals of flying-fish which now and then sparkled out from under our
forefoot and went skimming away through the air to leeward, until they
vanished with a flash, only to reappear, perhaps, next moment, with
their inveterate foe, a dolphin, in hot pursuit. The moment we showed
ourselves above the companion the skipper rose to his feet--he had been
sitting cross-legged on the deck, under the weather bulwarks--and joined
us, evidently under the impression that it was an essential part of his
duty to make himself agreeable. He made some commonplace remark about
the weather, to which we both vouchsafed a ready and gracious response,
very fully realising by this time the peculiarity and perilous nature of
our position on board the felucca--a position from which it was, of
course, utterly impossible for us then to effect a retreat--and being
especially anxious not only to avert any possibility of a suspicion as
to our _bona fides_, but also to extract such further hints as might
tend to the elucidation of that position. For some time the
conversation was of a general and utterly unimportant character; at
length, however, Carera, evidently reverting to the topic which was
uppermost in his mind, remarked:
"I have thought it best, senors, to mention to Manuel, my mate there,"
nodding his head toward the helmsman, "and the rest of the hands, the
fact that you are both seamen, and they are as pleased as I was to hear
it. It has made matters much easier for us all round, and very much
less dangerous for you; indeed, Manuel thinks that if you will only
consent to act as part of the crew whilst we are in harbour there, and
rig accordingly, neither Giuseppe nor any of his people will suspect
anything, and you will thus be able to freely look about you and make
such observations as will enable you to subsequently carry out your part
of the scheme with success. If it can only be carried through it will
make all our fortunes, for they must have doubloons stored away by the
caskful by this time. Why, I am taking across two hundred doubloons
this time to trade with, and I have never taken less in any one of my
trips."
"And how many trips do you consider you have made altogether?" asked
Courtenay.
"Oh, well, let me see--not less than sixty, I should suppose," was the
answer.
"Sixty times two hundred gives twelve thousand. Twelve thousand
doubloons--that is a goodly sum indeed," murmured I.
"Yes," answered Carera; "and to that you must add what the other traders
have taken across, which will perhaps amount to at least as much more.
And there is also the specie which he has captured, and which of course
he has had no need to barter away."
"Whew!" I involuntarily whistled, a great light suddenly bursting in
upon my hitherto darkened understanding. Courtenay frowned a warning to
me, and I hastened on to say: "That will be a big haul, certainly. Why,
Carera, you will be able to retire from the sea altogether, and live
like a gentleman for the rest of your days."
"Yes," he responded somewhat gloomily, "if the secret is well kept. If
not--if it ever gets abroad that any of us on board here have been the
means of--of--well, of betraying Giuseppe and his gang, our lives will
not be worth a maravedi; for were all hands over there,"--nodding
ahead--"to be taken, there would still be the traders to reckon with.
We shall completely spoil their game, you know, senors, and where there
is so much money to be made out of it they would never forgive us."
"Pooh!" exclaimed Courtenay reassuringly, "have no fear about that; they
will never get to know how the thing has happened. If you can only
depend upon your own people keeping close you may rely upon _our_ so
managing affairs that no suspicion shall rest upon you."
"I hope so--I fervently hope so!" murmured Carera anxiously. "Riches
would be of little value if one had to go about in constant dread of the
assassin's knife."
We gave a cordial affirmation to this sentiment, and then noticing that
our worthy and most estimable skipper seemed somewhat indisposed for
further conversation just then, Courtenay and I retired to the cabin to
talk matters over, having at length extracted sufficient information to
show us pretty nearly how the land lay.
On getting below Master Courtenay's first act was to carefully select
another cigar from the box on the table, cut off the point with
mathematical regularity, light the weed, and then push the box over to
me with the cheerful invitation:
"Help yourself, old fellow. Really superb weeds these--wonder what was
the name of the ship these were taken out of, eh?"
Then he seated himself upon the lockers, planted his elbows squarely on
the table, rested his chin in the palms of his hands, and, in this by no
means elegant attitude, puffed a long thin cloud of smoke at me. He
intently watched the tiny wreath for a moment or two, and then broke
ground by saying:
"Well, Lascelles, old boy, do you happen to know whereabouts we are?"
"Certainly," I answered, in perfectly good faith; "we are now just about
one hundred and twenty miles to the northward and westward of La
Guayra."
"Precisely. And we are--also--in--the--centre--of--a--hobble!" retorted
the lively youth, nodding his head impressively at every word to give it
additional emphasis. "In the centre of a hobble--that's where you and I
happen to be at the present moment," he continued more soberly. "Let us
look at the facts of the case. To start with, we are manifestly on
board the wrong ship. The crew of that ship, or _this_ ship--it is all
the same in the present case--take us to be, not two unfortunate
fugitive British midshipmen yearning to return to their duty, but two
officers of the Spanish navy told off by that no doubt most respectable
old gentleman--whose acquaintance I regret I have not yet had the honour
of making--the captain-general, to execute a certain duty which we may
perhaps make a rough guess at, but as to the precise nature of which we
are at present without any definite information. Do you agree with me
so far?"
"Yes," said I. "But why can't you discuss the matter seriously? It may
prove serious enough for us both at any moment, Heaven knows!"
"True for you, O lovelorn youth with the solemn visage. But wherefore
this emotion? _Becoje tu heno mientras que el sol luciere_ is as sound
a bit of wisdom as any that I have happened to pick up during our
exceedingly pleasant sojourn at La Guayra. `Make hay whilst the sun
shines!'--make the most of your opportunities--have all the fun you can
during your enforced absence from the jurisdiction of the first luff--is
a proverb which ought to command the most profound respect of every
British midshipman; and I am surprised at you, Lascelles, and
disappointed in you, that you so little endeavour to live up to it,"
remarked Courtenay. "However," he resumed, "there is a certain
glimmering of truth in what you say; this hobble--I like the word
`hobble,' don't you, so expressive, eh?--this hobble, then, in the
centre of which we find ourselves, may prove a serious enough matter for
us both at any moment, so let us go carefully over the ground and
ascertain exactly how we stand. To start once more. I suppose you are
prepared to accede to my proposition before stated, that we have by some
unaccountable mistake blundered on board the wrong craft; and that on
board her we have, in the same unaccountable way, established in our two
respectable selves a most interesting case of mistaken identity, eh?"
"Yes," said I, "I agree with you there. Go on," seeing that it was
quite hopeless to think of diverting him from his ridiculous mood.
"That is all right," resumed Courtenay. "Now, judging from the
fragmentary information we have been able to acquire thus far in our
interesting conversations with that amiable old traitor, Carera, on deck
there, I imagine our position to be this. We are two youthful but
intelligent Spanish naval officers commissioned by the captain-general
at La Guayra to accompany Carera on a little trading voyage he is making
to certain lagoons lying somewhere inside the Barcos Channel. Now where
_is_ the Barcos Channel? Do you know?"
"Haven't the slightest idea, beyond the exceedingly hazy one I have been
able to form from what Carera said," answered I.
"Neither have I," acknowledged Courtenay. "But I think we know enough
to identify its position very nearly. If I understood our friend aright
we are now heading for Cape Irois, the most westerly point of Saint
Domingo. From thence he intends to shape a course for Cape Maysi, which
we both know to be the easternmost point of Cuba. Then, having
weathered that point, he informed us that we might expect to have the
wind well on our starboard quarter, which--knowing as we do that the
prevailing wind in that latitude is from about east-north-east--means
that we shall be steering a westerly course, or say from west to north-
west. That would take us up along the northern coast of Cuba. Now, how
long did you understand Carera to say it would take us to complete the
run to the Barcos Channel?"
"Something like forty-eight hours," I replied.
"Exactly," acquiesced Courtenay. "That was what I understood. Now I
should say that, with the wind on her quarter, this little hooker may be
expected to run about ten knots per hour, which, for forty-eight hours,
gives a run of four hundred and eighty miles, at which distance, there
or thereabouts, from Cape Maysi, I imagine the Barcos Channel to be.
That, then, seems to indicate approximately the locality of the spot to
which we are bound. Do you agree with me?"
"I do," said I. "That is precisely how I have reasoned it out in my own
mind."
"That is well," resumed Courtenay. "Now, why are we going there?
Manifestly to assist in the betrayal of one Giuseppe something--I don't
happen to know his other name. From a hint dropped by Carera I have
formed the opinion that this Giuseppe must be an industrious, hard-
working, and, withal, somewhat canny gentleman of the piratical
profession; a man who seems to have made the business pay pretty well,
too, for does not our friend on deck estimate that he has accumulated
the tidy little sum of close upon twenty-five thousand doubloons? Now,
however, that fickle goddess, Fortuna, appears to have withdrawn her
smiles from him. Those pestilent British cruisers are interfering with
him, and we know that when _they_ meddle with a business of that kind it
means simple ruination for the honest people who are trying to make a
livelihood out of it; consequently, our amigo Carera is no longer able
to depend upon finding a rich cargo, at a low figure for cash, awaiting
him at Giuseppe's snug little stronghold. Carera, the honest and
faithful, therefore proposes to become virtuous. He has, doubtless, of
late experienced certain qualms of conscience respecting the trade he is
at present engaged in, and he has made up his mind to abandon it. He
has also resolved to reform his friend Giuseppe; and, in order that the
reformation of that estimable person may be made thoroughly effectual,
he has undertaken--for a consideration, most probably a share of the
plunder--to point out to us, the captain-general's deputies, the various
rocks, shoals, and other impediments which obstruct the fairway to the
pirates' anchorage, and to indicate the several sea-marks which will
enable us to safely and successfully pilot an expedition into such a
position as will enable it to knock Giuseppe's stronghold into a cocked
hat. How does that accord with your view of the situation?"
"Yes," said I, "I think you are about right. That is pretty much the
idea I have formed of it."
"Good, again!" ejaculated Courtenay. "Let us go a little further. We
now come to the `hobble,' or dilemma, if you prefer the latter word, in
which we find ourselves. The unfortunate hitch in this business, as I
look at it, is this. It so happens that we are _not_ the captain-
general's deputies, but two British midshipmen, and we want to go, not
to the Barcos Channel, but to Port Royal. How are we to get to the
latter place?"
"That is a question which will demand our most serious consideration;
but we need not worry about it for a few days," I replied. "And, as to
our not wanting to go to the Barcos Channel, why should we not want to
go there?"
"Why, because we want to go to Port Royal instead, I suppose. What d'ye
mean, Lascelles?--hang it, man, I--what are you driving at?" stammered
Courtenay, thoroughly taken aback.
"Ah!" said I, with a certain air of triumph, I am afraid, "I see that my
plan has not yet dawned upon your benighted understanding. What is to
prevent our going to this Barcos Channel, seeing everything that is to
be seen there, and then making our way to Port Royal--the difficulty as
to that will be no greater then than it is now--and reporting the whole
affair to the admiral, who will doubtless send an expedition on his own
account, and send us with it as a reward for our--"
"That will do," interrupted Courtenay enthusiastically. "By George,
Lascelles, you are a trump! a genius! a--a--in fact I don't know what
you are not, in the line of `superior attainments,' as my schoolmaster
used to say. And I--what a _consummate_ idiot I must have been not to
think of it too! I say, old fellow, would you be so kind and obliging
as to kick me _hard_ once or twice. No? Well, never mind; I daresay
somebody else will, sooner or later, so I will excuse you. But, I say,
Lascelles," he continued, as serious now as myself, "it is an awful
risky thing to do; do you think we have nerve and--and--_impudence_
enough to carry it through without being found out? We are only two
against ten, you know, on board here; and if we are detected it will be
a sure case of,"--and he drew his hand suggestively across his
throat--"eh?"
"No doubt of that, I think," said I. "But why should we be found out?
I feel as though my nerve would prove quite equal to the task; and as
for impudence, you have enough and to spare for both of us."
"All right, then," said he, "we'll chance it; and there's my hand upon
it, Lascelles. You make whatever plans you may consider necessary, and
I'll back you up through thick and thin. A man can but die once; and if
we fail in this we shall at least have the consolation of feeling that
we fell whilst doing our duty--for there can be no mistake about its
being our duty to bring about the destruction of that gang of pirates
who, I now feel convinced, are lurking among those lagoons inside the
Barcos Channel."
"Yes," said I, "I think there can be no doubt about that. And now,
having arrived at a clear understanding as to what we are about to do, I
think it is all plain sailing up to the time of our arrival in those
lagoons. We must carefully note every particular which Carera may point
out to us, and make a sort of chart, if possible, wherewith to refresh
our memories; after which it only remains for us to find our way to Port
Royal; and _that_, it seems to me, is the only item in our programme
which is likely to give us any very serious difficulty."
This closed the discussion for the time being, and we went on deck,
where Carera once more obsequiously joined us, much to our disgust; for
it seemed probable that, if this sort of thing was to continue, we
should find the fellow far too attentive to suit our ulterior plans.
We, however, made the best of the matter, and, finding that his thoughts
were wholly occupied with the trip and its object, we simply let him
talk about it to his heart's content, merely interjecting a remark here
and there with the object of directing his conversation into such
channels as would afford us the information in which we still happened
to be deficient. In this way we gradually--and with some little skill,
we flattered ourselves--acquired full particulars of the plot in the
carrying out of which we were supposed to be important agents, and which
turned out to be very much the sort of thing we had already pictured to
ourselves. The man Giuseppe was, we found, an Italian, who had made his
appearance in West Indian waters some five or six years previously,
first in the character of a slaver, and afterwards as an avowed pirate.
He was, according to Carera's account, a man of exceptional daring, as
wily as a fox, and a thorough seaman; and these excellent qualities had
not only raised him to the position of head or chief of the powerful
gang with whose fortunes he had identified himself, but had also enabled
him to carry on his nefarious business so successfully that he had
gradually acquired an almost fabulous amount of booty, and had at the
same time gained for himself--at all events among the Spaniards--the
somewhat sensational title of "The Terror of the Caribbean Sea." He had
established a sort of head-quarters for himself in a snug spot at the
head of the Conconil lagoons, where he had erected buildings for the
accommodation of his entire gang--part of which always remained on shore
to look after the place--and where he had gradually surrounded himself
with every convenience for repairing and refitting his craft. It was to
this secluded, and indeed almost unknown spot, that he was in the habit
of running for shelter when hard pressed by the cruisers who were always
on the lookout for him; and, from Carera's description of the
difficulties of the navigation, it would seem almost impossible to
devise or hit upon a place better suited for such a purpose. It was
here, also, that he first stored his plunder, and afterwards bartered it
for gold or such necessaries as he might happen to require, with the
three or four favoured individuals who, with the most extreme
precaution, he had invited to trade with him. And it was the key to the
navigation of these lagoons and their approaches which Carera had
undertaken to sell to the Spanish authorities in consideration of his
receiving, as the price of his treachery, one-half the amount of the
captured spoil.
For the remainder of that day our minds were chiefly occupied with the
question of how, after our visit to the Conconil lagoons, we were to
make our way to Port Royal; and the more carefully we considered the
question the more numerous and insurmountable appeared to be the
difficulties in our way. It was not as though we were going to touch at
a civilised port; in that case, if it came to the worst, we might have
run away from our craft and taken our chance of getting another to suit
us. But this, under the circumstances, was out of the question.
Moreover, directly we began to consider the matter, it seemed imperative
that the _Pinta_ and her entire crew should be detained at least until
our expedition should have sailed, otherwise Carera, finding himself
duped, might endeavour to make the best of a bad matter by hurrying off
to warn Giuseppe of the possibility of our beating up his quarters. The
situation eventually resolved itself into this: that whereas, on the
completion of our ostensible trading errand, the _Pinta_ would, in the
ordinary course of events, return to La Guayra, taking us with her--when
on her arrival the whole fiasco would come to light and the least
misfortune we might expect would be a return to our loathsome prison
quarters--it was necessary for the success of our plan that the craft
and her crew should, by some means or other, find their way to Royal
Port. How was the affair to be managed? The outlines of a scheme at
length arranged themselves in my mind; and, although it was of so
desperate a character that we agreed it was almost impossible that we
should be able to carry it through, we nevertheless took immediate steps
to further its accomplishment. It was not much that we could do just
then; all that was possible for us was to assume extreme pleasure at
being allowed to steer the little craft; and we so managed affairs that
in the course of a few days it came to be an understood thing among the
hands that whenever either of them happened to be too lazy to take his
"trick" at the tiller he could always get relief by appealing to one or
the other of us--if we happened to be on deck at the time.
The breeze continued to hold from the eastward; but as we drew over
toward the coast of Saint Domingo it softened down a trifle; so that, on
our arrival off Cape Irois, we found ourselves just about twelve hours
behind the time reckoned on by Carera. That, however, was a matter of
no very great moment, being rather an advantage than otherwise, since it
enabled us to slip across the Windward Channel with less risk of being
sighted and overhauled by a British cruiser, an incident which--now that
Courtenay and I had quite made up our minds to go through with the
adventure--we were folly as anxious as any of the _Pinta's_ regular crew
to avoid. We were fortunate enough to make the passage without
molestation, though not wholly without an alarm, for a large ship was
made out, about the end of the middle watch, coming down before the wind
and heading right for us, with a whole cloud of flying kites aloft and
studding-sails set on both sides. She proved, however, to be a
merchantman, apparently British; and, from the course she was steering,
we judged her to be bound to Kingston. She swept magnificently across
our stern at a distance of about a couple of miles; and in little more
than an hour from the time of our first sighting her she was hull-down
again upon our larboard quarter.
With sunrise we found ourselves hauling in under the high land about
Cape Maysi; and here we ran into the calm belt dividing the land and
sea-breezes, and lay for an hour rolling gunwale under, our great sail
flapping noisily and sending the dew pattering down on deck in regular
showers with every roll of the little vessel, whilst the huge yard
swayed and creaked aloft, tugging at the stumpy mast and tautening out
the standing rigging alternately to port and starboard with such
violence that I momentarily expected to see the whole affair go toppling
over the side. "Hold on, good rope-yarns!" was now the cry; and they
_did_ hold on, fortunately, though, during that hour of calm, there was
more noise aloft than I had ever before heard on board a vessel. At
length the sea-breeze came creeping down to us; a cat's-paw filled the
lofty tapering sail, and passed, causing the canvas to flap heavily ere
it filled to the next. Another flap; then the sail swelled out gently
and "went to sleep," the nimble little hooker turned her saucy nose into
the wind's eye; a few bubbles drifted past her side as she gathered way,
a long smooth ripple trailed out on each side of her sharp bows, then
she heeled gracefully over to larboard as the languid breeze freshened
upon us, and presently down it came, half a gale of wind, burying us
half bulwark deep and making everything crack again as the boat gathered
way and darted off like a startled dolphin. And here Carera was within
an ace of making a mess of the whole business; for whilst we had been
tumbling about becalmed a current had got hold of us and had set us so
close in with the land that whilst rounding the point we actually passed
_through_ the breakers beating on the reef; and I am convinced that had
we been a couple of fathoms further to leeward the hooker would have
laid her bones there. However, the danger was come and gone in less
than a minute; it was the extreme point of the reef we had grazed so
very closely, and, once past it, we had a clear sea ahead and were out
of the reach of all further danger. It was Courtenay, however, who
actually saved the felucca; for at the supreme moment when the little
craft plunged into the breakers, and when, if ever, there was the utmost
need for coolness and self-possession, what must all hands do but plump
down upon their knees, calling upon Saint Antonio and Heaven knows how
many other saints to come and help them, Carera himself being one of the
foremost to do so, abandoning the tiller meanwhile, and leaving the
vessel to take care of herself, at the very moment of all others when
she most needed looking after. She of course shot into the wind's eye
in an instant, and in another minute the craft would have been on the
rocks, stern-foremost, and beating her bottom in, had not Courtenay--who
happened to be standing close by--sprung to the tiller and jammed it
hard a-weather, thus causing her to pay off and forge ahead before
losing steerage-way altogether.
Once fairly clear of the point, Carera put his helm up, and away we
went, with a flowing sheet, upon a north-west by west course; arriving
off Mangle Point about noon. From thence we began to haul somewhat off
from the land, the wind drawing further aft and freshening somewhat as
we did so; so that by sunset the lively little craft had brought
Lucrecia Point fairly on her larboard beam. As the sun went down the
wind manifested a disposition to drop; and for a couple of hours we
crept along at a speed of scarcely five knots; but it breezed up again
just after the first watch came on deck; and by two bells we were
smoking through it faster than I had ever before seen the craft travel.
In accordance with the plan which Courtenay and I had arranged, we took
the tiller between us during the whole of the first watch, the two hands
whose places we had taken coolly going below and turning in. When the
watch was called at midnight we felt that we had done enough for our
purpose, so we retired below and spent the remainder of the night in our
bunks.