Neither Fitz nor Poole had felt any desire to pose as the heroes of the
little night attack, which had resulted in the disabling of the armoured
man-of-war, but it was with a strange feeling of exultation that they
climbed on board in the full sunshine, eager as they were to stand once
more upon the decks, and see in the broad daylight what the vessel was
like into which they had climbed in the darkness of the night.
Fitz's first thought as he passed through the gangway was to make for
the great gun that stood amidships upon its iron platform and revolving
carriage, the huge muzzle elevated, and looking ready to hurl its great
shells far and wide; but he had to wait and stand with the schooner's
men drawn up while the prisoners and volunteers who had joined the
winning side filed down into the boats that swarmed around, till with
one exception the crew had all left the deck, the exception being the
firemen, who willy nilly were retained on board for service in
connection with the engine under the new President.
All this took time, but at last Don Ramon's dread had become his joy,
and he showed his feeling of triumph as he paced the gunboat's deck
rubbing his hands, and every now and then giving vent to a satisfied
"Hah!" as he stopped to converse with Burgess, or to say a kindly word
to one or other of the prize crew, not least to the two boys.
"Hah!" cried the carpenter at last. "Now then, gentlemen, I think we
must say going to begin. Here's Mr Burgess as hungry as I am. You
would like to come round with us, wouldn't you, Mr Poole? Mr Burgess
says we can get to work as soon as ever we like."
"Of course we should," said Poole. "Come on, Fitz;" for just then Don
Ramon came up to the mate to make a flowery speech, telling him that he
left him in perfect confidence to hold the prize while he went to see to
the disposal of the rest of the prisoners who were left, so that no
attempt might be made to regain the upper hand.
Poole turned to Fitz expecting to see him eager to follow the carpenter,
but it was to find him standing with one foot upon the platform of the
great gun, looking at the muzzle, as it sloped toward the sky, evidently
deep in thought, and he did not stir until Poole laid a hand upon his
arm with the query--
"What are you thinking about?"
"That night," was the reply.
"So was I just now," said Poole. "Look there, that's where I lay with
one of the Spaniards holding me down, and afraid to make a sound, or to
struggle. It was horrid, and I couldn't tell what sort of a position
you were in. It was ticklish work and no mistake."
"Yes," said Fitz, thoughtfully, "horrible for you, but I believe it was
worse for me, because something seemed to be tagging at me all the time
and telling me that I had no business there."
Poole looked at his companion curiously.
"But you felt that you must do it, didn't you?" he said.
"Oh, yes," cried Fitz, "I was desperate; but I never want to go through
such a five minutes again. Let's see, I stepped along there," he
continued, pointing and following the steps his memory taught him that
he must have taken to get round to the back of the great gun. "Yes,
this is exactly where I stood to swing round those great balls and open
the breech, but only to be disappointed, finding as I did that the block
was fast. Oh, Poole, how I did tug and strain at it, feeling all the
while that I had been boasting and bragging to your father, and that
after all I was only a poor miserable impostor who had been professing
to know a great deal, when I was as ignorant as could be, and that I was
being deservedly punished in that terrible failure that was taking
place."
"Ah, I remember," cried Poole; "you said the block stuck fast?"
"Yes, till the idea came that I had not turned the great screw far
enough."
"But you ought to have made sure of that at first."
"Of course I ought," cried Fitz sharply, "and I ought to have been as
cool and calm as possible when doing such a venturesome thing--in the
pitch-darkness, with perhaps ten or a dozen of the Spanish sailors--the
watch--"
"The watch!" cried Poole, laughing. "Come, I like that."
"Well, then, men lying about all round us. You were perfectly cool of
course?"
"I!" replied Poole. "Why I was in a state of high fever. I didn't know
whether I was on my head or my heels. I believe, old fellow, that I was
half mad with excitement."
"I'm sure I was," cried Fitz, "till the thought came that perhaps I had
not turned the screw far enough. That thought made me quite jump. Then
there was the feeling the screw move. I felt as if I could see the
great thread all shining as it glided along, while I must have seen the
block when I lifted it out."
"But that was all fancy of course. It was the darkest, blackest night I
ever saw."
"I know, but I certainly seemed to see the block as I held it hugged to
my breast."
"I should have liked to see you when you were making for the side all
top-heavy, and went flying over after the great quoin as you called it.
My word, Fitz, that was a flying leap overboard."
"Ugh!" ejaculated the latter with a shudder. "As I go over the task
again, it seems as if it is all part of a queer dream."
"A very lively one though," said Poole, laughing. "I say, I wonder how
deep you went down."
"Oh, don't talk about it! Ever so far. It seemed a terribly long time
all going down and down, feeling all that time as if I should never come
up again, and thinking about sharks too. Why, it couldn't have been
half-a-minute from the time I touched the water till I was at the top
again swimming, and yet it seemed to be an hour at least."
"It does seem long at a time like that. But I say, what a narrow escape
that was."
"Of being caught, yes."
"No, no," cried Poole; "I mean when the breech-block went over the
side."
"It just was," said the carpenter, coming up. "I know somebody,
gentlemen, who thinks as he had a very narrow squeak of being took down
to the bottom with that bit o' steel and kept there. But that would ha'
been better than floating up again to be pulled to pieces by the sharks.
I don't suppose that they stops much about the bottom o' the sea; they
generally seem to be too busy up at top, drying their back-fins in the
open air. Trying your little bit o' performance over again, gentlemen?"
"Yes, Chips," said Fitz, as the man stood smiling at him. "It was a
horrible night's work."
"Well, no, sir, not horrid. We came out to do something and we did it
fine. The on'y awkward bit on it is the risk you ran a-popping that
there breech-block on somebody's head, for which miss he's very much
obliged--very much indeed. But I came to see if you gents wouldn't like
to come down below with us to sound the well, for I expect there's a
precious lot o' water there, and a big hole to let it in. Mr Burgess
have gone down with Butters."
The two lads hurriedly followed the carpenter below, to encounter the
mate and boatswain fresh from their task.
"Deal more water than I like to see, my lads," said the boatswain, "but
we shall know better where we stand after that steam-pump has been going
for a couple of hours."
"Job for that engineer and his fireman," said the carpenter coolly; and
very soon after the panting of the donkey-engine, the rattle of the
pump, and the vigorous splashing down of clear water betokened the
relieving of the gunboat's lower parts of some portion of their burden,
as Poole said, but only to be met by a damping remark from Fitz.
"Not much good," he said, "if the water runs in as fast as it runs out."
As time could be the only test for this, the little party of examiners
descended now into one of the schooner's boats, the carpenter standing
up in her bows and passing her along to make fast by one of the
ringbolts of the stern-post, and giving the two lads a peculiar look as
he proceeded to examine the propeller.
"Well, how does it seem?" said the mate.
"Seem, Mr Burgess, sir?" said the carpenter dryly, "don't seem at all,
sir. There's nothing here but the biggest ball o' string I ever see.
Would you mind coming forard, Mr Butters, sir, and seeing what you can
make of it?"
The boatswain passed over the thwarts and joined his comrade of the past
night's work, stood looking down for a few moments, and then took off
his cap and scratched one ear.
"You young gents had better come and have a look," he said; "you had the
designing on it."
The boys did not wait for a second invitation, but hurriedly went
forward, to find that their scheme had acted far beyond their
expectations, for the fans of the propeller had wound up the thick soft
cable so tightly that the opening in which the fish-tail mechanism
turned was completely filled with the tightly-compressed strands of
rope, so that Poole suggested that all that needed was to get hold of
one end, and then as soon as the steam was well on to reverse and wind
the cable off in a similar way to that in which it had been wound on.
"Hah, to be sure," said the boatswain, giving his leg a sailor's slap,
"there's nothing like a bit o' sense, Mr Poole, sir; that nice noo
Manilla cable's been twisted round my heart, sir, ever since it was
used, and made me feel quite sore. Nothing I hates worse than waste."
"It wasn't waste," said Fitz, impatiently. "You might just as well say
the bait was wasted when you have been fishing. Don't you get something
good in return?"
"Ah, but that's fishing, young gentlemen, and this aren't," said
Butters, with a very knowing smile.
"Not fishing!" cried Fitz. "I think it was fishing. You used the
cable, and you've caught a gunboat."
"But s'pose we've got the gunboat and the bait back as well, how then?"
cried the boatswain. "Look ye here, my lad, I'm going to have that
there end of the cable taken a turn round the steam-capstan, and as soon
as the chaps have got full steam on, the screw shall be turned, and
we'll wind it off fine and good as noo."
Fitz shook his head as he gazed down through the clear water at the mass
of rope, and exclaimed--
"I know it won't do."
"What, aren't you saddasfied now?" said the boatswain, while Chips
wrinkled up his face and looked uneasy.
"Aren't never seen a screw fouled like that afore, along of a coir
cable, Mr Fitz, sir, have you?"
"No," replied the middy. "But I've seen a Manilla cable after it's been
down with a heavy anchor in a rocky sea off the Channel Islands."
"And how was that, sir?"
"Frayed in half-a-dozen places by the rocks, so that the anchor parted
before we'd got it weighed, and the captain was obliged to send for a
diver to get the anchor up."
"But there aren't no rocks here, Mr Fitz, sir, to fray this here one,
because it has never been down."
"No, but it has been ground against the iron stern-post till it's nearly
through in ever so many places. Look there, and there, and there."
"Hah, look at that, bosun," cried the carpenter triumphantly. "Just
cast your eye along there and there. Our side's right and the Manilla
cable's all wrong. I'm afeard too as we're going to find out a good
many other things is wrong, and the gunboat aren't afloat yet."
"No, but you've undertaken to float her, Chips," said Poole. "I
wouldn't reckon on being Don Ramon's head naval architect and engineer
just yet."
"No, sir, I don't," said the carpenter seriously. "But anyhow we'll set
the screw free before we trouble any more about that leakage;" and in a
very business-like way he carried out the boatswain's plans, connecting
the cable with the capstan, and winding it off; but it was so damaged by
grinding against the edges of the opening that it parted five different
times before it was all off, to the boatswain's great disgust.
"What have you got to say about the leakage, Mr Burnett, sir?"
whispered the carpenter after the cable task was ended, and the fans of
the propeller showed clearly in the water just below the surface, and
had been set whirling round in both directions to churn up the water,
and prove that the shaft had not been wrenched or dragged from its
bearings.
"Nothing at present, Chips," replied the middy.
"Because I'd take it kindly, sir, if you'd drop a fellow a hint or two.
This is a big job, sir, and means my making or my breaking, sir."
"But you shouldn't ask me, my man," replied the middy. "You are old and
experienced, while I'm only a boy."
"Yes, sir, I knows that," said the man; "but you're come out of a
gunboat, sir, and you've got your head screwed on the right way, sir. I
never see a young gent with such a head as yours, nor yet one as was
screwed on so tight."
"Oh, nonsense, Chips," cried the boy, flushing. "It's your job, not
mine."
"Nay, sir, it aren't nonsense, it's sound sense. I like a bit of the
first as well as any man when larking helps to make hard work go easy.
Often enough a bit o' fun acts like ile to a hard job, but it won't ile
this one. And as I said afore, sir, I'd take it kindly if you'd put in
a word now and then over the rest o' the job same as you did over the
cable."
"But you ought to consult with Mr Burgess or the captain, my man," said
Fitz, uneasily.
"Nay, I oughtn't, sir. I'd a deal rayther have a word or two from you
when you see things going wrong."
"Why?" said Fitz quickly.
"I've telled you, sir. Doesn't all you say come right? I've kinder got
a sort o' confidence in you, Mr Burnett, sir, as makes me feel as if I
should like to be under you in some ship or another, and I aren't the
on'y one aboard as feels that, I'm sure."
"Well, it's very kind of you to put so much faith in me," said the
middy; "but don't say any more, please, and don't believe in me too much
for fear I should make some horrible blunder, and disappoint you after
all."
"Ah, you won't do that, sir," said the carpenter confidently.
"Of course I shall be only too glad to help you if I can, for I should
be very glad to see you float the vessel."
"And you will keep an eye on what I do, sir, and put in a word if you
think I'm going wrong?"
"If you wish it, yes," replied Fitz.
"Thanky, sir," whispered the man earnestly. "It may be the making of
me, sir, and anyhow, as I have took up this job, I don't want these
Spaniel chaps to see an Englishman fail."
"They shall not, Chips, if I can help it," cried Fitz, warmly. "There
now, let's see whether the donkey-engine is able to keep the water down,
or whether she's lower in the water than she was."
"There, sir," whispered the man, "hark at you! Call yourself a boy! why
you couldn't ha' spoken better if you'd been a hold man of a 'undered.
You made me want to give you a shout, only I had to keep quiet, and let
the Spaniels think I'm doing it all to rights. I don't mind about our
lads. They all know me, and what I can do and what I can't. I don't
want to try anything and chuck dust in their eyes--not me; but I do want
to show off a bit and let these Spanish Mullotter chaps see what an
Englishman can do, for the sake of the old country and the British
flag."
"Then let's go below, Chips," said Fitz, "and see what the pumping has
done."
Poole, who had been aft with the mate during this conversation, rejoined
them now, and together they went below to sound the well.
"Good luck to us, gentlemen," said the carpenter, rubbing his hands.
"Good luck," cried Poole eagerly. "You don't mean to say she's making
less water?"
"Nay, sir, but I do say that the engine's lowering it. There's a foot
less in her now than when we began pumping, and that means we win."
A few hours later, after the donkey-engine had kept on its steady
pumping, Chips made another inspection, and came up to where Fitz and
Poole were together, pulling a very long face.
"Why, what's the matter, Chips?" cried Fitz anxiously. "You don't mean
to say that anything is wrong?"
"Horribly, gentlemen," cried the man. "It's always my luck! Chucking
away my chances! Why, she's as good as new!"
"Well, what more do you want? Isn't that good enough for you?"
"Yes, sir, it's good enough; but Mr Butters here and me, we was half
asleep. We ought to have formed ourselves into a company--Winks and
Co., or Butters and Co., or Butters and Winks, or Winks and Butters, or
Co. and Co."
"Why not Cocoa and Cocoa?" said Fitz, laughing.
"Anyhow you like, gentlemen, only we ought to have done it. Bought the
gunboat cheap, and there was a fortune for us."
"Never mind that," said Poole. "You'll be all right, Chips. Don Ramon
will be presenting you with a brass tobacco-box, or something else, if
you get her off."
"Go and ast him to order it at once, so as to have it ready, for we
shall have her off to-morrow as soon as them 'hogany lubbers have got
the steam up."
"You don't mean that?" cried Poole.
"Ask Mr Butters here, and see what he says."
"Yes," said the boatswain coolly; "and I thought we should have to
lighten her by a couple of hundred tons or so. But it makes a man feel
very proud of being an English sailor. These half-breeds here give up
at once. Why, if she'd had an English crew aboard, that cable wouldn't
have stopped round the screw, and the lads wouldn't have sat down to
smoke cigarettes and holloa. Why, they might have had her off a score
of times."
"But what about getting her safely into the channel again?" said Poole.
"What about getting old Burgess aboard to con her; she going slow with a
couple of fellows at work with the lead in the chains? Why, it's all as
easy as buttering a bit of biscuit."
Not quite, but the next evening the gunboat was well out in deep water,
comparatively undamaged, and flying Don Ramon's colours, making her way
towards Velova Bay, towing a whole regiment of boats, the _Teal_ proudly
leading under easy sail.