'POLLO'S EVIDENCE.
"What?" shrieked the Cuban, rushing forward, with outstretched hands,
but only to control himself directly and smile contemptuously.
"I says as I'll clap this here schooner right over two or three spots
where old ships went down, and also off the coast where one on 'em lies
buried in the sand, all but her ribs and a few planks," said the old
sailor, Sam Oakum.
"He's a liar--a cheat. Bah!" exclaimed the Cuban with contempt.
"I wouldn't adwise you to say them sorter things, gov'nor," said Oakum,
quietly. "I knowd a chap as rubbed the skin off the bridge of his nose
wunst and blacked both his eyes agin my fist for saying less than that."
"Bah!" said the Cuban, snapping his fingers.
"And do you know, Oakum?" exclaimed Mr Parkley, eagerly. "Can you
prove it?"
"If anybody would pass a man a bit o' 'bacco, I could, I dessay," said
the old fellow quietly. "Thanky, mate. Just pass the word for 'Pollo
to come aft, will you? He's in the galley."
A sailor who had given Oakum the tobacco ran forward, while all waited
in breathless attention--the Cuban standing like a statue, with folded
arms, but, in spite of his apparent composure, smoking furiously, like a
volcano preparing for an eruption.
The sailor came back directly.
"Says he's cooking the passengers' dinner, and can't leave it, sir,"
said the sailor.
"Tell the cook to come here directly. I want him," exclaimed the
captain, sternly; and the sailor ran off, returning with 'Pollo, the
black cook, rubbing his shiny face.
"I speck, sah, if de rose meat burn himself all up, you no blame de
cook, sah," he said.
"No, no, 'Pollo; only answer a question or two."
"Yes, sah; d'reckly, sah."
"Look ye here, 'Pollo, old mate," said Oakum; "you and I have had some
rum voyages in our time, old nigger."
"You call me ole mate, sah," said 'Pollo, angrily, "I answer hundred
tousan queshtum. You call me nigger, sah, I dam if I say noder word."
"It's all right, 'Pollo, I won't any more. You're a coloured gentleman;
and, though I chaff you sometimes, I know that I can always depend on
you, fair weather or foul."
The black nodded, showed his white teeth, and his eyes twinkled.
"Now look here, 'Pollo, old man; do you remember being in the little
brig off Caraccas, when we had the gold?"
"Yes, sah, I membah well; and membah when we had do tree hundred lilly
women aboard de big ship, and de big horse alligator woman. Yah, yah,
yah!"
"So do I, 'Pollo; but what did we do when we were in the brig?"
"Catch de fish," said 'Pollo.
"To be sure we did; but what did we find lying down fathoms deep in the
clear water?"
"You mean de ole 'Panish gold ship, sah?"
"There!" said Sam Oakum, turning round with a grim smile on his mahogany
face; "Ain't that there corroborative evidence, sir?"
"We find two ole ship, sah, and one on de shore," said 'Pollo, volubly,
"and I dibe down, sah."
"Did you find anything?" said Mr Parkley, eagerly.
"No, sah, him too deep down, but I membah perfect well, sah, all about
'em. All 'Panish ship, sah."
"That will do, 'Pollo," said Mr Parkley. "Now go and see to the
dinner. By-the-way, 'Pollo, will you come into the cabin after dinner,
and join Mr Oakum in drinking a glass of wine to the success of our
voyage?"
"I hab great pleasure, sah," said the black, with his eyes twinkling;
and as he went away bowing and smiling, Mr Parkley turned to the Cuban.
"Now, Mr Lorry, or Laure, or whatever your name is, will you have the
goodness to step ashore? This is my ship, and this expedition belongs
to me and my partner. You have refused to carry out your contract
before twenty witnesses, and now you see that I can do without you."
"But," said Laure, "the man is mad. He cannot take you; but I will not
carry my revenge so far. Make me a good concession and I will consent
to go."
"I thank you, Senor Laure, for endorsing the statement of our old
friend, Oakum, and the ship's cook, and since you are so kind, I will
make you a concession."
"You consent," said the Cuban, more eagerly than he intended.
"Yes," said Mr Parkley. "You shall be allowed to walk off the ship
instead of being kicked off. Captain Studwick, see that man off this
deck."
A look that was almost demoniacal overspread the Cuban's face, and
shaking his fist menacingly, he stepped on to the wharf and disappeared
through the crowd.
"Now, then," said Mr Parkley, triumphantly, "we are ready. Captain
Studwick, westward ho! Hallo, what now? What is it, Rasp?" as that
individual came panting up.
"Are you sure as you've got all your company aboard?" said Rasp.
"Yes, I think so. Eh, captain?"
"My crew is all right, certainly," said the captain. "I don't know
anything about yours."
"To be sure, I did not think to look after them as they had promised to
be aboard in good time. Where are John Tolly and James Morrison?"
"What, them?" said Oakum. "Oh, they came aboard at nine this morning."
"Yes," said one of the sailors, "but they went ashore again about ten; I
saw 'em go."
"There," said Rasp, "where would you have been without me? I see John
Tolly go by the orfice half-an-hour ago, so drunk he could hardly walk,
and Morrison as well, and--"
"Tut, tut, tut! we must have them," exclaimed Mr Parkley. "The
scoundrels! to deceive us like this. Pugh, come ashore, we must get the
police to help us."
"Then we shall not sail to-day," said the captain, with a shrug. "Never
mind, we shall have the more time for getting ship-shape."
"Nonsense!" said Mr Parkley eagerly; "we shall soon be back."
The captain shook his head, for he knew better; and night had fallen,
and no more had been seen of the two divers on whom so much depended.
As the day wore on, Mr Parkley and Dutch returned to the ship two or
three times to report progress, if such it could be called, for nothing
was heard of the two divers.
"Dutch Pugh," said Mr Parkley, on one of these meetings, "I shall never
forgive myself. Here am I, as I thought, such a business-like man, and
what do I do but go and forget to look after the very mainspring of my
works. I fit all my wheels together, and then when I want to wind up
there's no springs. What should we have done without divers?"
Night closed in without success, and a little party assembled in the
cabin, for as the ship might sail at any time, those who occupied the
place of passengers felt that it was hardly worth while to return
ashore. Mr Parkley kept a bright face on the matter, but it was
evident that he was a good deal dispirited, though he chatted merrily
enough, and talked to John Studwick and his sister of the beauties of
the land they were about to visit.
"If we get off, Mr Parkley," said John Studwick, quietly.
"Get off, sir; why of course we shall. These two scoundrels will come
off to-morrow morning, penniless, and with sick headaches. The
rascals!"
Mr Parkley was reckoning without his host, for at that moment the two
divers, each with twenty pounds in his pocket above the advance pay he
had drawn, were on their way to London, and the man who had given the
money was now forward in the darkest part of the deck, crouching beneath
the high bulwarks of the large three-masted schooner, whispering with
one of the men.
Their discussion seemed to take a long time, but it ended in the other
man of the watch joining them, and the conversation still went on.
It was interrupted by the coming on deck of Captain Studwick, and
silence ensued, while the captain took a turn round the deck, and gave
an eye to the riding lights, for, as evening had come on, the vessel had
been warped out of dock, and lay a couple of hundred yards out in the
great estuary, fast to one of the buoys.
"We might have some of the lads taking a fancy to go on shore," he had
said to Mr Parkley, when he complained of having to take a boat to come
off; "and we shall be all the more ready to drop down with the tide. I
don't want to find my crew like yours to-morrow morning--missing."
Finding all apparently quite right, and the lanterns burning, brightly,
Captain Studwick took another turn round the deck, peeped down into the
forecastle, where the men were talking and smoking, then went right
forward and looked over at the hawser fast to the buoy, said a word or
two of warning to the men, and went below.
It was now ten o'clock, and excessively dark--so dark that it was
impossible to see across the deck, and the lights hoisted up in the
rigging seemed like great stars. The buzz of conversation in the
forecastle had grown much more subdued, and then suddenly ceased, though
a dull buzzing murmur could be heard from the deckhouse, where the dim
light of a smoky lantern, hung from the roof, shone upon the bright
cooking apparatus with which the place was furnished, and upon the
glistening teeth of 'Pollo, the black cook, and Oakum, the old sailor,
both smoking, and in earnest converse.
"Yes, 'Pollo," said Oakum, "it seemed to bring up old times, and some of
our vyges, so I thought I'd come and have a palaver before we turned
in."
"I glad to see you, Mass' Sam Oakum, sah, and I hope you often gin me de
pleasure ob your company during de voyage. I 'spect you, Mass' Oakum,
and you always 'spect colour genlum, sah, dough we use quarrel some
time."
"Only chaff, 'Pollo."
"Course it was, sah, only chaff, and nuffum at all. And now I tink ob
it, sah, I hav 'plendid 'rangement here, and supply for de cooking; and
when, by an' by, you find de beef too salt, and de biscuit too hard,
juss you drop in here, sah, after dark, and 'Pollo most likely find
lilly bit ob somefin nice leff from de cabin dinner."
"Thanky, 'Pollo, thanky," said Oakum. "But what do you say, eh
ship-mate? I think we can find the old galleons again?"
"I quite 'tent, sah, to put dis ship in de hands ob such sperienced
navigator as Mass' Sam Oakum, who know all ober de world quite perfeck.
You tink we sail in de morning?"
"If they catch them two skulking scoundrels of divers, 'Pollo. I'd just
like to ropesend that Mr John Tolly. Gets three times the pay o' the
other men, and is ten times as saucy."
"'Top!"
"Eh?" said Oakum.
"What dat, Mass' Oakum, sah?" said the black, whose eyes were rolling
and ears twitching.
Oakum listened attentively for a few moments, and then went on.
"Nothing at all, my lad, that I could hear."
"I sure I hear somefin, sah. Let's go and see."
They both stepped out on to the deck, and stood and listened, for it was
impossible for them to see, though the light from the deckhouse made
them stand out plainly in view if anyone else was on the watch.
They saw nothing, for as they stepped out, a man, who was stealing aft,
dropped softly down and crouched under the bulwarks.
The hawsers creaked softly as they swung in the tide, and a faint light
shone up from the forecastle hatch, while from aft there was a tolerably
bright glow from the cabin skylight. Here and there the riding lights
of other vessels rose and fell as they were swayed by the hurrying
waters, while the lights of the shore twinkled like stars on a black
background, but, saving the rippling noise of the tide against the great
schooner's side, all was perfectly still.
"False alarm, 'Pollo," said Oakum, leading the way back.
"No, sah," said 'Pollo, reseating himself, cross-legged, beneath the
lantern. "I sure I hear somefin, sah, dough I no say what it was."
"I've often wished for you as a mate in a dark watch, 'Pollo," said
Oakum, hewing off a quid of tobacco, and thrusting it into one cheek.
"You would not go to sleep."
"Not ob a night, sah," said 'Pollo, complacently, "but I no so sure bout
dat if de sun shine hot; I go sleep den fass enough."
They had hardly resumed their conversation when the man who had dropped
down under the bulwarks rose, and went softly by the deckhouse, walking
rapidly aft to the side, where he climbed over, after running his hand
along and finding a rope, slid down, and took his place in a large boat
already half-full.
A few moments later and another man crept softly along the deck, went
over the side, and slid into the boat.
Another and another followed, and then one man who had been waiting by
the forecastle hatch, instead of going aft, opened a sharp knife and
crept forward to where the stout coir hawser was made fast to the buoy.
It was drawn very tight, for the tide was running in fast, and a few
sharp cuts would have divided the strands, with the result that the
schooner would have drifted up with the current, and, if it had not
fouled, and perhaps sunk some smaller vessel in its course, have run
ashore.
The man listened attentively but all was still, and raising his knife he
began to saw through the strands, when, rising, he shut the knife with a
snap and exclaimed:
"No, hang it all, I won't. It's too bad; and there's a woman aboard.
Bad enough as it is."
Then following the example of those who had gone before, he went softly
aft, feeling his way along the bulwarks till his hand came in contact
with the rope, and he, too, slid down into the boat.
"Well, did you cut the great rope?" whispered a voice.
"Yes, gov'nor, all right. But not deep," added the man to himself.
"Quick then, quick then," whispered the former speaker, "undo this
little rope and let the boat float away."
The boat's painter was loosened--but not without rattling the iron ring
through which it was run--dropped over the side with a splash, and just
faintly grating against the vessel's side the boat glided away,
appearing for a few moments in the faint glow cast from the stern
windows, and then seeming to pass into a bank of utter darkness.
"I no care what you say, Mass' Oakum, sah," said 'Pollo a few moments
before; and his great black ears seemed to start forward like those of a
hare, "I sure I hear de rattle ob a rope; and you see if dare isn't a
boat under de side."
He leaped softly up, and ran on deck, followed by Oakum.
"Dere, I sure I right," whispered the black, pointing astern. "Boat
full ob men."
"I can't see nowt," growled Sam. "Let's go forward and ask the look-out
if they heerd anything. Hear a boat touch the side, mates?" he said
aloud.
There was no answer.
"The lubbers are asleep," he cried, angrily; and hurrying to where the
men should have been, he found that they were missing, and ran to the
hatchway. "Below there!" he shouted. "On deck here, some of yer!"
All silent, and he lowered himself down to find a lantern burning, but
not a soul there even in the bunks, the men's kits being also gone.
"Deserted, by jingo!" cried Oakum, slapping his thigh, as he began to
ascend the ladder. "Here, 'Pollo, run and call the skipper."
"What's wrong?" cried Captain Studwick, from out of the darkness.
"Not a blessed man, sir, left aboard;" and the captain brought his foot
down with a savage stamp upon deck.