The silence on the deck now seemed ominous to those who were listening
intently for some warning of the enemy coming down, but the long, weary
hours passed without any fresh alarm, and they all stood in that pitchy
darkness and stifling heat, waiting for the danger that did not come.
"I'm getting so anxious about my birds," said Mr Wilson suddenly from
one corner of the cabin. "How shall I get to feed them?"
_No_ one spoke for a moment or two, and then Sam Oakum exclaimed:
"You won't want no more birds, sir. You're a-going to be kep' in a cage
yourself;" and the two sailors tittered to themselves, but no one else
spoke.
"I say," exclaimed Oakum, all at once, "what's come o' the stooard and
old 'Pollo?"
"I'm here, Mr Oakum, sir," said a weak voice, and then there was a low
wailing noise.
"That's old fatty, sure enough," said Oakum, "and he's a-crying. But
what's come of 'Pollo?"
There was no answer to this, and Sam was heard to bring his hand down on
his leg with a vigorous slap.
"I remember now," he exclaimed. "They brought him down on the deck when
they went at me, but it was all knocked out of my head. Poor old
'Pollo! Poor old chap! I liked his honest old black physog somehow, if
it wouldn't wash white. If he's killed," he muttered sternly between
his teeth, "someone's got to answer for it afore long."
The hours dragged on, and then it seemed as if the darkness had suddenly
grown less opaque; then one haggard face and then another could be dimly
made out, and at last, as if with a rush, up came the sun, and the
saloon was flooded with light reflected through the windows off the
glorious dancing water; and the prisoners began to look from one to the
other, and always at haggard anxious faces.
Dutch, finding that all was still outside, walked softly to the little
cabin where Bessy Studwick and his wife had been placed for safety; and
as the door was open he could see that Hester was sleeping peacefully
with her head resting on her friend's lap, while pale and anxious
looking, Bessy held only her hands, and sat up watchful as she had been
all night.
Dutch stole in, and bending down kissed his wife's forehead tenderly,
making her start slightly and utter a low sigh, but a happy smile came
upon her lip directly, and the sunshine which flooded the little cabin
lit up her thin, worn face, giving it so sweet and pure an air that
Dutch groaned to himself as he thought of the past, and then stole away,
but with a load taken from his breast, as he thought of the revelation
he had heard from the doctor, and his heart leaped with joy as he
thought of how in the future he would try to wipe away the misery he had
inflicted upon the suffering woman.
He was brought back to the present, though, directly by finding a kind
of conference going on amongst his friends as to the future, and their
proceedings to defend themselves and retake the ship.
The meagreness of the resources was now seen at a glance, for though a
portion of the party was pretty well-armed, the others were helpless.
The captain made a full inspection of his cabin to find that every
weapon had been carefully removed; and, to make matters worse, not an
article likely to be used as a means of defence had been left behind.
At least this was the first impression, but the doctor suddenly remarked
that he had a stick in his cabin, and running in he returned with it,
and handed his keen long diver's knife to Oakum.
"You'd better keep it, sir," said the old fellow contemptuously. "Them
chaps has got heads and hearts too hard to be hurt with a bit of a
stick. Oh, that's the game, is it? Well, I'll keep the knife then."
This remark was made on seeing Mr Meldon draw a long, keenly-pointed
three-edged sword out of the stick, a weapon likely to prove fatal to
any one upon whom it was used.
Unfortunately for the defenders of the cabin, they had but little with
which they could make a barricade. There was the bedding, and a few
chairs, but even if these were piled up, but little could be done, as
Dutch pointed out to the captain in a low voice.
"I am no judge of fortifications," he said with a bitter smile, "but
look up."
The captain glanced at the skylight, and stamped with vexation.
"We have not so much as a pistol, Captain Studwick, and the enemy have
only to place three or four there to fire down upon us and we are done
for."
"Would you give up then, Pugh?" said the captain sternly.
"Not so long as I can strike a blow," was the reply; and the same spirit
seemed to nerve all present.
There was not much time left them for consideration, for it was evident
that full preparations were going on above. Voices were heard talking
and orders being given, but the men kept away from the broken skylight,
and the suspense grew more intense.
It was during this interval that Mr Meldon went to the inner cabin,
where, weak and feverish, John Studwick lay, watched over now by his
sister and Hester Pugh, who seemed to have awakened to a new life as she
exchanged glances once with her husband, the trials they were in seeming
as nothing compared to the horrors of the past.
As the doctor approached, the young man turned to him impatiently.
"Well," he said, "have you come to make me strong, so that I can fight
these scoundrels with you?"
"I wish I could," was the quiet reply.
"Bah! Doctor's talk," said John Studwick bitterly. "You know you can
do me no good. Why do you pester me?"
"Don't speak to me like that," he replied; "I have tried my best to help
you."
"Yes, yes, I know. But there, go. You worry me by staying, and this
heat makes me so weak."
"Yes, I will go directly," said the doctor; but he first went to the
cabin window, secured a piece of string to a cloth, and lowered it down,
soaking it, and drew it up.
As he did so, a good-sized shark turned over and made a snap at the
white, moving cloth, and the doctor shuddered, for it seemed to him that
any attempt to escape from the ship to the shore would be in vain, for,
as if in anticipation of coming carnage, the sharks were gathering round
the doomed ship.
"Lay that upon his forehead, Mrs Pugh," he said quietly; and as she
turned to the locker upon which the young man lay, Mr Meldon hastily
caught Bessy's hand in his and held it.
"I shall fight for you to the last," he said in a low whisper. "Do not
think ill of me for speaking now; but, Bessy, I love you--very dearly,
and--and we may never meet again. Say one kind word to me before I go."
She snatched her hand from his hastily, and looked upon him in a scared
manner. What she would have said was checked by a sharp cry from the
captain.
"Quick all!" he shouted, "they are coming."
The doctor rushed back into the little saloon, and he was only just in
time, for the door had been quietly unfastened from without, and headed
by Laure, armed to the teeth, the enemy, to the number of eight,
suddenly appeared, and the two sides stood face to face.
"There, throw down those knives," he said in a sharp voice, "fools and
idiots. The tables are turned now. Parkley, Pugh, you little thought
that my day would come, but it has. Now, surrender!"
There was no reply by words, and the Cuban read the intention of those
he sought to master by their determined front.
"Do you want to be shot down where you stand?" he cried.
"Better that than trust to the mercies of such a scoundrel as you,"
cried Dutch, passionately.
"Ah, my brave diver and shark slayer, are you there? Put down that
weapon; I don't want you hurt, nor you neither, Master Rasp, for you
have to work for me." There was no reply for a moment or two, and then
Dutch spoke to the men who were with the Cuban.
"I warn you all," he said; but as he spoke he could see that he was
addressing men who were infuriated with drink. "I warn you all that we
are desperate, and shall fight to the last. Come over to our side, and
help to secure that scoundrel, and you shall all be richly rewarded.
Fight for him, and if you escape death now, the law must overtake you
for piracy, and you will be hung."
There was a loud laugh at this, and the captain whispered:
"Shall we make a bold charge?"
"No: stand firm," said Dutch; and the little poorly-armed party closed
up more determinedly.
"What does that mean?" thought Dutch as, at a word from the Cuban, three
of the men ran back up the cabin steps.
His answer came almost directly.
"Will you surrender?" cried Laure savagely.
"No," was the reply.
"Then your blood be upon your own heads," he yelled. "Fire!"
He raised his own revolver as he spoke, and began to fire shot after
shot at those before him, while at the same moment three shots came
crashing from behind them through the skylight.
Then, headed by the Cuban, the enemy dashed into the cabin, striking
right and left with the cutlasses with which they were armed, and for a
few minutes there was a desperate struggle, in which for the time,
though weakened by two of their men going down at the first shots, and
others being wounded, the cabin party held their own, everyone fighting
manfully: but the three men who had been sent to fire through the
skylight came shouting down to reinforce their comrades, and thus turned
the scale.
The captain went down with a terrible cut across the forehead; Mr
Parkley had a bullet through the shoulder. The doctor drove his sword
through one of the scoundrels, and then it broke short off, while
another stabbed him in the back.
As for Dutch, he singled out Laure, and made a desperate attack upon him
with his long, keen knife, the shot the Cuban fired at him having merely
grazed his neck, but directly after they were separated in the struggle
as the furious knot of combatants swayed to and fro. But he rid himself
of another antagonist, and seizing the cutlass with which he was armed
again made at the Cuban.
As he approached, Laure raised his revolver once more, took steady aim,
and was about to fire; but regardless of this, Dutch struggled to get at
him, when a wild shriek from a voice he knew made him turn for a moment,
and that threw him off his guard. Poor Hester had been a horrified
witness of the struggle, and had seen Laure's deadly aim. Till that
moment her lips had been. Sealed, but now the involuntary cry escaped
her, and as Dutch turned, the shot struck him on the shoulder,
fortunately only ploughing a shallow flesh wound; but the next moment a
blow from another hand struck him down, and the rest being mastered, the
men, by Laure's orders dragged out two injured comrades and, securing
the weapons, left the slippery cabin and secured the door.