I had been up and about for a full week, and had during that period
observed in Lemaitre's manner toward me not only a steadily decreasing
solicitude for my welfare--which was perhaps only natural, now that my
health was rapidly improving--but also a growing disposition to sneer
and gibe at me, covert at first but more pronounced and unmistakable
with every recurring day, that strongly tended to confirm the singular
suspicion I have endeavoured to bring home to the mind of the reader in
the preceding chapter. Then one night an incident occurred that in a
moment explained everything, and revealed to me the unpleasant fact
that, so far as my enemy Morillo was concerned, I was still in as great
danger as when on board the felucca, although in the present case the
danger was perhaps a trifle more remote.
I have already mentioned Lemaitre's habit of drinking himself into a
state of intoxication every night. This habit, and the obscene language
that the man seemed to revel in when in such a condition, was so
disgusting to me that not the least-prized advantage afforded by my
convalescence was the ability to remain on deck until the nightly
saturnalia was at an end and Lemaitre and his companion had retired to
their cabins. On the particular night, however, of which I am about to
speak, a slight recurrent touch of fever caused me to slip quietly below
and turn in before the orgy began; not that I expected to get to sleep,
but simply because I believed the warmth and dryness of my bunk would be
better for me than the damp night air on deck.
Punctually at nine o'clock Lemaitre and his chief mate came noisily
clattering down the companion ladder, glasses and a bottle of rum were
produced, and the carouse began. It had not progressed very far before
it became apparent to me, as I lay there in my hot bunk, tossing
restlessly, that Lemaitre was in an unusually excited and quarrelsome
condition, and that Francois, the chief mate, was rapidly approaching a
similar condition as he gulped down tumbler after tumbler of liquor.
They were always argumentative and contradictory when drinking together,
but to-night they were unusually so. At length Francois made some
remark as to the extraordinary good fortune they had met with on this
particular voyage, in having come so far without falling in with a
British cruiser; at which Lemaitre laughed scornfully declaring that
there was not a British cruiser afloat that could catch _La belle
Jeannette_; and that, even if it were otherwise, he should have no fear
of them this voyage. "For," said he, "have we not a guarantee of safety
in the presence of that simple fool Courtenay on board? Have we not
saved his life by rescuing him from the raft? And do you suppose they
would reward our humanity, ha, ha! by making a prize of the schooner?
Not they! If there is one thing those asses of British pride themselves
upon more than another it is their chivalrous sense of honour--a
sentiment, my child, that they would not outrage for the value of fifty
such schooners as this. All the same," he added, with an inflection of
deep cunning in his voice, "I do not want to meet with a British cruiser
at close enough quarters to be compelled to hand the dear Courtenay over
to his countrymen; oh no!"
"Why not?" demanded Francois; "what advantage is it to you to keep him
on board? Is it because you are so fond of his company? Pah! if you
had eyes in your head, you would see that, despite his gratitude to you
for saving his life, he despises you. What do you mean to do with him?
Are you going to turn him adrift among the negroes when we arrive upon
the coast? I never could understand why you insisted upon saving him at
all."
"No?" queried Lemaitre, with a sneering laugh. "Ah, that is because you
are a fool, Francois, _mon enfant_, a more arrant fool even than the
dear Courtenay himself. Do you suppose I did it out of pity for his
condition, or because I love the British? No. I will tell you why,
idiot. It is because he will fetch a good five hundred dollars at least
in the slave-market at Havana."
"So _that_ is what you intend to do with him, is it?" retorted Francois.
"Well, Lemaitre, I always knew you for an ass, but, unless you had told
me so with your own lips, I would never have believed you to be such an
ass as to sell a man for five hundred dollars when you can just as
easily get a thousand for him. Yet you call me fool and idiot! Pah,
you sicken me!"
"Oh, I sicken you, do I?" growled Lemaitre, by this time well advanced
toward intoxication. "Take care what you are saying, my friend, or I
shall be apt to sicken you so thoroughly that you will be fit for
nothing but a toss over the lee bulwarks. No doubt it is I who am the
fool, and you who are the clever one; but I should like to hear by what
means you would propose to get a thousand dollars for the fellow. True,
he is young and stalwart, and will be in prime condition by the time
that we get back to Havana,--I will see to that,--but I have known
better men than he sold for less than five hundred dollars; ay, _white_
men too, not negroes."
"Did I not say you are an ass?" retorted Francois. "Who talks of
selling him at Havana? You, not I. Do you not know who this Courtenay
is, then? I will tell you, most wise and noble captain. He is the
youth who attacked and destroyed Morillo's settlement at Cariacou,--I
remember the name perfectly well,--and I was told at Havana, by one who
ought to know, that Morillo had given it out among his friends that he
would pay one thousand dollars to anyone who should bring Courtenay to
him alive. And that is not all, either. You know what Morillo is; he
has declared a feud against this miserable, meddlesome Englishman, and
not only will he gladly pay a thousand dollars for the privilege of
wreaking his vengeance upon him, but the man who delivers your friend
Courtenay into his hands will be free to sail the seas without
molestation from Morillo as long as he lives. What think you of that,
Captain Lemaitre?"
"Is this true?" demanded Lemaitre. "Ay," answered Francois, "as true as
that you and I are sitting here in this cabin."
"Why did you not tell me of this before, Francois, my friend?" asked
Lemaitre, in a wheedling tone.
"Why did I not tell you before?" echoed Francois. "Ask rather why I
tell you now, and I will answer that it is because I am such a fool that
I cannot keep a good thing to myself when I have it. Sac-r-r-re! what
need was there for me to make you as wise as myself, eh? However, I am
not going to let you have this choice little bit of information for
nothing. I have told you how to make a clear five hundred dollars over
and above what you could have earned without the information I have been
idiot enough to give you, and you must pay me half the amount; do you
understand?"
"Ay, I understand," answered Lemaitre, with a sudden return to his
former sneering, aggressive manner; "but I should like to know--just for
the satisfaction of my curiosity--how you propose to compel me to pay
you that two hundred and fifty dollars that you talk about."
"Why, easily enough," snarled Francois, with sudden fury, as he realised
that Lemaitre intended to evade the extortion if he could. "If you do
not pay me immediately after receiving the reward from Morillo, I will
denounce you to him. I will say that you intended to have yielded up
your prisoner to the British, in order that you might curry favour with
them and secure immunity from capture by them; and that you would never
have given him up to Morillo at all but for my threats. And I suppose
you know what that will mean for you, eh?"
"Oh, so that is what you would do, is it, my friend?" returned Lemaitre,
with a harsh laugh. "Well, well, it will be time enough for you to
threaten when I refuse to pay you the two hundred and fifty dollars.
Until then, there is no need for us to quarrel; so fill up your glass,
Francois, and let us drink to the health of the dear Courtenay, who,
after all, was quite worth picking up off the raft, don't you think?"
Then followed a gurgling sound as the two topers filled their glasses.
A gulping and smacking of lips, succeeded by a banging of the empty
tumblers upon the table, came clearly to me through the latticed upper
panel of my door; and then certain staggering sounds, as the two
struggled to their feet, were followed by Lemaitre thickly bidding his
companion good-night, as the pair reeled and stumbled away to their
respective berths.
I slept badly that night, the fever, with the intelligence I had just
acquired, combining to make me restless and wakeful; but after tossing
from side to side, until about two bells in the morning watch, I
gradually sank into a troubled sleep, from which I was startled by a
sudden outbreak of loud, excited shouts, succeeded by a sound of fierce
scuffling, accompanied by a volley of oaths and exclamations, the stamp
of feet, a heavy fall, a rush of footsteps up the companion ladder, and
a sudden, heavy splash alongside. Then followed a terrific outcry on
deck, with the hurrying rush of feet on the planking overhead, the
furious slatting of canvas as the schooner shot into the wind, more
excited shouts, ending in a sort of groaning mingled with ejaculations
of dismay, a sudden silence, and then a terrific jabbering, suggestive
of the idea that all hands had incontinently taken leave of their
senses.
I sprang out of my bunk and hurriedly proceeded to dress, rushing on
deck bare-footed to see what was the matter; and as I emerged from the
companion-way I saw all hands gathered aft, most of them staring hard
over the taffrail, while one man was busily engaged in binding up the
left arm of the second mate.
"Hillo, Monsieur Charpentier!" I exclaimed, "what is the matter? Has
anything happened?"
"Happened, monsieur? I should think so!" exclaimed the second mate,
turning to me a white and ghastly face; "a most awful thing has
happened. When I went below just now to call Francois I was unable to
make him hear, although I called several times and knocked ever so hard
at his door. So I ventured to turn the door handle and enter his cabin,
and what do you think I saw, monsieur? Why, poor Francois lying dead in
his bunk, his clothes soaked with blood, and a great gaping wound in his
breast, right over his heart! I was so horrified, monsieur, that I
scarcely knew what to do; but, collecting myself with a mighty effort, I
went to call the captain; and when I reached his cabin I found the door
wide open and Monsieur Lemaitre crouched in a corner of it, with a great
bloodstained knife in his hand, his eyes glaring, and his lips mumbling
and muttering I know not what. I saw that there was something wrong
with him, monsieur,--I believed he had gone mad,--and I was about to
turn away and call for help; but he saw me, and, before I was aware,
sprang upon me, seizing me with one hand by the throat while with the
other he aimed blow after blow at me with his terrible knife. I
defended myself as well as I could, monsieur, fighting bravely for my
life; but what can one do against a madman? The captain seemed to
possess the strength of twenty men; he forced me irresistibly back
against the bulkhead, and then drove his knife through my arm.
Believing that he had killed me, I relaxed my hold upon him; whereupon
he hurled me to the deck, sprang over my fallen body, and bounded up on
deck, _and from thence overboard_! And now they tell me, monsieur, that
he had scarcely struck the water when a shark rose, seized him, and
dragged him under! See, monsieur, look astern! He is gone; there is
nothing to be seen of him! What shall we do? oh, mon Dieu, what shall
we do?"
"Are you _quite sure_ that the captain was seized by a shark?" I
demanded, looking round from one to another of the men, who had now
turned their faces inboard and stood staring alternately at Charpentier
and myself.
"Oh yes, monsieur," excitedly replied half a dozen of them all together,
"we all saw it; it was a monster. And," continued one of them, "the
captain had scarcely risen to the surface after his plunge overboard
when the shark seized him by the middle and dragged him under. We all
saw the blood dyeing the water,--did we not, shipmates?--but the captain
never uttered a cry; just threw up his arms and vanished. Is not that
it, my friends?"
"Yes, yes," they all exclaimed again, "that is it. Jules describes it
exactly as it occurred."
"Then," said I, "it seems to me, Monsieur Charpentier, that, Captain
Lemaitre and the mate being dead, nothing remains but for you to take
command and navigate the schooner to her destination."
"But, monsieur, I cannot do that, for, unhappily, I am not a navigator,"
replied Charpentier, wringing his hands.
"Do you mean to say that you know _nothing whatever_ about navigation!"
demanded I.
"Alas, no, monsieur! nothing whatever," was the reply.
"And is there no one else among you who can navigate the schooner?"
asked I.
The men looked at each other, shaking their heads and muttering, "Not
I"; and finally Charpentier exclaimed, "You see, monsieur, there is not
one of us who can navigate. What is to be done? _You_, monsieur, are
an officer--at least so I understood Francois to say; perhaps you
could--"
"Well," demanded I, seeing that the fellow hesitated, "perhaps I could--
what?"
"Pardon, monsieur," exclaimed he, "I was in hopes that, considering the
difficulty we are placed in by this most lamentable tragedy, you would
kindly take command and navigate the schooner."
"I see," remarked I. "Well," I continued, "if such is the wish of you
all, I have no objection to do as you wish. But--understand me--I will
only consent to navigate the schooner back to the West Indies; I will
not undertake the trouble and responsibility of carrying the ship to her
destination and shipping a cargo. I disapprove, on principle, of slave-
trading, which I consider an iniquitous traffic, and I will have nothing
to do with it; but, if you are willing, I will navigate the ship back to
Port Royal,--guaranteeing you immunity from capture upon our arrival, in
consideration of the rescue and succour that you have afforded me,--and,
when there, you will have no difficulty in procuring someone who will
navigate the schooner from thence to Havana or any other port that you
may choose to go to. Just talk it over among yourselves, and let me
know what you decide on doing."
I could see that my proposal was not at all to Charpentier's liking, or,
indeed, to the liking of any of the crew; but I cared not for that. I
was quite determined to have nothing whatever to do with the kidnapping
of any unfortunate blacks; and in the end they were obliged to give way,
although Charpentier tried hard to dissuade me from my resolution; the
result being, that immediately after I had ascertained our position at
noon, we wore round and shaped a course for Martinique, that island
being in a direct line with Jamaica. At first I was rather apprehensive
that the disappointment of the men at so unprofitable a result of the
voyage would cause them to be troublesome; but it did not. The question
of turning back having once been settled, they all seemed to take the
matter very philosophically, the fact that they were now relieved of the
mate's tyranny perhaps reconciling them to such disappointment as they
might otherwise have felt.
I need not dwell upon the return voyage, which was singularly
uneventful; suffice it to say that, favoured with fine weather and a
fair wind all the way, we made an exceptionally smart run across the
Atlantic, entering Port Royal harbour on the morning of the twenty-
second day after bearing up, and eleven weeks to a day from the date of
my abduction by Dominguez.
My sudden reappearance created quite a sensation among the dockyard
people, my disappearance having been involved in so much mystery that
all sorts of surmises had been indulged in to account for it. Some were
of opinion that I had fallen overboard into the harbour, and had found a
secure hiding-place in the maw of a shark; but there were others who,
happening to have been present when I was summoned from Mammy
Wilkinson's hotel upon my supposititious errand of help and rescue to
young Lindsay, at once mentioned the circumstance, with the result that
a very strong suspicion of foul play was aroused. My friend and patron,
the admiral, was especially concerned upon my account, even going to the
length of offering a reward of fifty pounds for such intelligence as
should lead to my discovery; but it resulted in nothing, those worthies,
Caesar and Peter, perhaps being too much afraid to utter a word of what
they knew. Then there occurred more frigate actions, resulting in so
heavy a pressure of work, that nobody seemed to have any time to think
about the mysterious disappearance of a somewhat obscure young
lieutenant. But now that I had unexpectedly turned up again, safe and
sound, I was overwhelmed with congratulations, while the admiral sent a
party of police to the house to which I had been conveyed, with
instructions that the two negroes were to be at once found and arrested.
The house, however, proved to be empty when the police made their
domiciliary visit; and, as for the negroes, their whereabouts was never
discovered. Possibly the excitement of my reappearance, and the talk to
which it gave rise, alarmed them and caused them to beat a hasty retreat
to some other island.
To my great joy, I discovered that the _Diane_ was not yet
recommissioned, the repairs and alterations to her having been greatly
delayed by the more pressing work of repairing the frigates, while the
admiral--in the hope that I might still turn up, and with that extreme
kindness that had marked all his treatment of me--had determined not to
give the command of her to anyone else until she should be absolutely
ready for sea. I therefore at once stepped into my former position, and
lost no time in getting as many men to work upon her as could be spared.
And there was the less difficulty in accomplishing this, that Morillo
was believed to be more busy than ever, several outward-bound ships
being overdue without the occurrence of any bad weather to account for
their disappearance. Meanwhile, during the progress of the work aboard
the brigantine, I gave myself up to the task of getting together a crew,
of which my old friend Black Peter constituted himself the nucleus,
while several former _Terns_ volunteered, these again inducing other men
of their acquaintance to come forward and join; so that by the time that
the finishing touches were being put to the _Diane_, I had fifty-two
first-rate men waiting to go aboard as soon as the ship should be ready
to receive them. But I wanted five more to complete my complement, and
these I picked up by making a raid one night upon the low boarding-
houses in Kingston, where the crimps were in the habit of taking in
sailors and keeping them in hiding until they had extracted from them
every penny of their hard-earned wages.
At length, some five weeks from the date of my reappearance, the time
arrived when the _Diane_, being ready for sea, with her guns mounted,
provisions, water, and stores of every kind on board, and sails bent,
hauled off alongside the powder hulk to ship her ammunition; and that
delicate job having been successfully accomplished, under my personal
supervision, I went up to Kingston to dine with the admiral prior to
sailing, calling at the hotel on my way in order to change my clothes.
As I entered the building, the head waiter--a negro--stepped forward and
handed me a letter addressed in an unknown and foreign-looking
handwriting to myself. I opened it at once, and found that it bore a
date a full fortnight old, and read as follows, the language being
English:--
"Senor Courtenay,--You have constituted yourself my especial enemy, and
have apparently declared war to the knife against me. In return I now
declare my determination to destroy you by whatever means may present
themselves. Thrice have you injured me, either personally or through my
agents; but rest assured that a day of reckoning will come, when you
shall curse the hour that gave you birth. I will fight you wherever we
may happen to meet, and let the strongest conquer. If you fear not to
meet me, hoist a red swallow-tailed burgee to your fore royal masthead,
that I may recognise your ship from others, Morillo."
"When did this letter arrive, and who brought it?" demanded I of the
waiter, who stood by as I read the document.
"A black boy brought it, about half an hour ago, sah, an' said I was to
be suah an' gib it you, sah, an' dat dar was no ansah, sah," replied the
fellow.
"Did you know the boy?" demanded I.
"No, sah; nebber saw him befoah to my knowledge, sah," was the reply.
"Did you take enough notice of him to be able to recognise him should
you happen to see him again?" asked I.
"I's afraid not, sah; those black boys are all exactly alike, you know,
sah," replied the fellow, who was himself as black as the ace of spades.
"Well," said I, "if you _should_ happen to see him again, and can manage
to detain him until you can give him into custody, it will be worth five
guineas to you. I should very much like to see that boy and ask him a
question or two."
"All right, sah; if I see him I'll stop him, nebbah feah, sah," replied
the waiter, with a grin; and therewith I hurried away to my room to
dress.