THE BATTLE OF THE MERCHANT SHIPS
When the _Vittorio_ showed that in veering away from the _Monterey_ she
had done so only in order to make a sweep around to the west, and when
she had headed south and the mattresses lowered along her starboard side
showed plainly to Captain Horn that she was about to attack him and how
she was going to do it, his first thought was to embarrass her by
reversing his course and steering this way and that, but he instantly
dismissed this idea. The pirate vessel was smaller and faster than his
own, and probably much more easily managed, and apart from the danger of
a collision fatal to his ship, he would only protract the conflict by
trying to elude her. He was so sure that he had men enough to beat down
the scoundrels when they tried to board that he thought the quicker the
fight began, the better. If only he had Shirley and Burke with him, he
thought; but although they were not here, he had Edna to fight for, and
that made three men of himself.
With most of his men crouching behind his port bulwarks, and others
protected by deck houses, smokestack, and any other available devices
against gunshots, Captain Horn awaited the coming of the pirate steamer,
which was steaming towards him as if it intended to run him down. As she
came near, the _Vittorio_ slowed up, and the _Monterey_ veered to
starboard; but, notwithstanding this precaution and the fact that they
sailed side by side for nearly a minute without touching, the two
vessels came together with such force that the _Monterey_, high out of
water, rolled over as if a great wave had struck her. As she rolled
back, grappling-irons were thrown over her rail, and cables and lines
were made fast to every available place which could be reached by eager
hands and active arms. Some of the grappling-irons were immediately
thrown off by the crew of the Monterey, but the chains of others had
been so tightened as the vessel rolled back to an even keel that it was
impossible to move them.
The _Monterey's_ rail was considerably higher than that of the
_Vittorio_, and as none of the crew of the former vessel had shown
themselves, no shots had yet been fired, but with the activity of apes
the pirates tried to scramble over the side of the larger vessel. Now
followed a furious hand-to-hand combat. Blows rained down on the heads
and shoulders of the assailants, some of whom dropped back to the deck
of their ship, while others drew their pistols and fired right and left
at the heads and arms they saw over the rail of the _Monterey_.
The pirate leaders were amazed at the resistance they met with. They had
not imagined that Captain Horn had so large a crew, or that it was a
crew which would fight. But these pirates had their blood up, and not
one of them had any thought of giving up their enterprise on account of
this unexpected resistance. Dozens of them at a time sprang upon the
rail of their own vessel, and, with cutlass or pistol in one hand,
endeavored to scramble up the side of the _Monterey_; but although the
few who succeeded in crossing her bulwarks soon fell beneath the blows
and shots of her crew, the attack was vigorously kept up, especially by
pistol shots.
Whenever there was a chance, a pirate hand would be raised above the
rail of the _Monterey_ and a revolver discharged upon her rail, and
every few minutes there would be a rush to one point or another and a
desperate fight upon the rail. The engines of both vessels had been
stopped, and the screaming and roaring of the escaping steam gave
additional horror to this fearful battle. Not a word could be heard from
any one, no matter how loudly it might be shouted.
Whatever firearms were possessed by the men on the _Monterey_ were used
with good effect, but in this respect they were vastly inferior to the
enemy. When they had fired their pistols and their guns, some of them
had no more ammunition, and others had no opportunity to reload. The men
of the _Vittorio_ had firearms in abundance and pockets full of
cartridges. Consequently it was not long before Captain Horn's men were
obliged to rely upon their hatchets, their handspikes, their
belaying-pins, and their numbers.
Banker was in a very furious state of mind. He had expected to board the
_Monterey_ without opposition, and now he had been fighting long and
hard, and not a man of his crew was on board the other vessel. He had
soon discovered that there were a great many men on board the
_Monterey_, but he believed that the real reason for the so far
successful resistance was the fact that Captain Horn commanded them.
Several times he mounted the upper deck of the _Vittorio_, and with a
rifle in hand endeavored to get a chance to aim at the tall figure of
which he now and then caught sight, and who he saw was directing
everything that was going on. But every time he stood out with his rifle
a pistol ball whizzed by him, and made him jump back. Whoever fired at
him was not a good shot, but Banker did not wish to expose himself to
any kind of a shot. Once he got a chance of taking aim at the Captain
from behind the smokestack, but at that moment the Captain stepped back
hurriedly out of view, as if somebody had been pulling him by the coat,
and a ball rang against the funnel high above his own head. It was plain
he was watched, and would not expose himself.
But that devil Horn must be killed, and he swore between his grinding
teeth that he himself would do it. His men, many of them with bloody
heads, were still fighting, swearing, climbing, and firing. None of
them had been killed except those who had gained the deck of the other
vessel, but Banker did not believe that they would be able to board the
_Monterey_ until its captain had been disposed of. If he could put a
ball into that fellow, the fight would be over.
Banker now determined to lead a fresh attack instead of simply ordering
one. If he could call to his men from the deck of the _Monterey_, they
would follow him. The _Vittorio_ lay so that her bow was somewhat
forward of that of the _Monterey_, and as the rails at the bows of the
two vessels were some distance apart, there was no fighting forward. The
long boom of the fore-mast of the _Vittorio_ stretched over her upper
deck, and, crouching low, Banker cut all the lines which secured it.
Then with a quick run he seized the long spar near its outer end, and
thus swinging it out until it struck the shrouds, he found himself
dangling over the forward deck of the _Monterey_, upon which he quickly
dropped.
It so happened that the fight was now raging aft, and for a moment
Banker stood alone looking about him. He believed his rapid transit
through the air had not been noticed. He would not call upon his men to
follow as he had intended. Without much fear of detection he would slip
quietly behind the crew of the _Monterey_, and take a shot at Captain
Horn the moment he laid eyes on him. Then he could shout out to his men
to some purpose.
Banker moved on a few steps, not too cautiously, for he did not wish to
provoke suspicion, when suddenly a hand was placed upon his chest. There
was nobody in front of him, but there was the hand, and a very big one
it was, and very black. Like a flash Banker turned, and beheld himself
face to face with the man Mok, the same chimpanzee-like negro who had
been his slave, and with whom in the streets of Paris he had once had a
terrible struggle, which had resulted in his capture by the police and
his imprisonment. Here was that same black devil again, his arms about
him as if they had been chain-cables on a windlass.
Banker had two pistols, but he had put them in his pockets when he made
his swing upon the boom, and he had not yet drawn them, and now his arms
were held so tightly to his sides that he could not get at his weapons.
There was no one near. Banker was wise enough not to call out or even to
swear an oath, and Mok had apparently relapsed into the condition of the
speechless savage beast. With a wrench which might have torn an ordinary
limb from its socket, Banker freed his left arm, but a black hand had
grasped it before he could reach his pistol.
Then there was a struggle--quick, hard, silent, and furious, as if two
great cobras were writhing together, seeking each other's death. Mok was
not armed. Banker could not use knife or pistol. They stumbled, they
went down on their knees, they rose and fell together against the rail.
Instantly Banker, with his left arm and the strength of his whole body,
raised the negro to the rail and pushed him outward. The action was so
sudden, the effort of the maddened pirate was so great, that Mok could
not resist it--he went over the side. But his hold upon Banker did not
relax even in the moment when he felt himself falling, and his weight
was so great and the impetus was so tremendous that Banker could not
hold back, and followed him over the rail. Still clutching each other
tightly, the two disappeared with a splash into the sea.
Fears were beginning to steal into the valiant heart of Captain Horn.
The pirates were so well armed, they kept up such a savage fire upon his
decks, that although their shots were sent at random, several men had
been killed, and others--he knew not how many--wounded, that he feared
his crew, ordinary sailors and not accustomed to such savage work as
this, might consider the contest too unequal, and so lose heart. If that
should be the case, the affair would be finished.
But there was still one means of defence on which he thought he might
rely to drive off the scoundrels. The _Monterey_ had been a cotton ship,
and she was provided with hose by which steam could be thrown upon her
cargo in case of fire, and Captain Hagar had undertaken to try to get
this into condition to use upon the scoundrels who were endeavoring to
board the vessel. By this time two heavy lines of hose had been rigged
and attached to the boiler, and the other ends brought out on deck--one
forward and the other amidships.
[Illustration: BANKER COULD NOT HOLD BACK]
Captain Hagar was a quiet man, and in no way a fighter, but now he
seemed imbued with a reckless courage; and without thinking of the
danger of exposing himself to pistol or to rifle, he laid the nozzle of
his hose over the rail and directed it down upon the deck below. As
soon as the hot steam began to pour upon the astonished pirates there
were yells and execrations, and when another scalding jet came in upon
them over the forward bulwarks of the _Monterey_, the confusion became
greater on the pirate ship.
It was at this moment, as Edna, her face pale and her bright eyes fixed
upon the upper deck of the _Vittorio_, stood with a revolver in her hand
at the window of her cabin, which was on deck, that her Swedish maid,
trembling so much that she could scarcely stand, approached her and gave
her notice that she must quit her service. Edna did not hear what she
said. "Are you there?" she cried. "Look out--tell me if you can see
Captain Horn!"
The frightened girl, scarcely knowing what she did, rushed from the
cabin to look for Captain Horn, not so much because her mistress wanted
information of him as because she thought to throw herself upon his
protection. She believed that the Captain could do anything for anybody,
and she ran madly along the deck on the other side from that on which
the battle was raging, and meeting no one, did not stop until she had
nearly reached the bow. Then she stopped, looked about her, and in a
moment was startled by hearing herself called by her name. There was no
one near her; she looked up, she looked around.
Then again she heard her name, "Sophee! Sophee!" Now it seemed to come
from the water, and looking over the low rail she beheld a black head on
the surface of the sea. Its owner was swimming about, endeavoring to
find something on which he could lay hold, and he had seen the white cap
of the maid above the ship's side. Sophia and Mok were very good
friends, for the latter had always been glad to wait upon her in every
way possible, and now she forgot her own danger in her solicitude for
the poor black man.
"Oh, Mok! Mok!" she cried, "can't you get out of the water? Can I help
you?"
Mok shouted out one of his few English words. "Rope! rope!" he said. But
Sophia could see no rope except those which were fast to something, and
in her terror she ran aft to call for assistance.
There was now not so much noise and din. The steam was not escaping from
the boilers of the _Monterey_, for it was needed for the hose, and there
were no more shots fired from the _Vittorio_. The officers of the pirate
ship were running here and there looking for Banker, that they might ask
for orders, while the men were crowding together behind every possible
protection, and rushing below to escape the terrible streams of scalding
steam.
Now that they could work in safety, the _Monterey's_ men got their
handspikes under the grappling-irons, and wrenched them from their
holes, and leaning over the side they cut the ropes which held them to
the pirate ship. The two vessels now swung apart, and Captain Horn was
on the point of giving orders to start the engines and steam ahead, when
the maid, Sophia, seized him by the arm. "Mrs. Horn wants you," she
said, "and Mok's in the water!"
"Mok!" exclaimed the Captain.
"Yes, here! here!" cried Sophia, and running to the side, she pointed to
where Mok's black head and waving arms were still circling about on the
surface of the sea.
When a rope had been cast to Mok, and he had been hauled up the side,
the Captain gave orders to start ahead, and rushed to the cabin where he
had left Edna; but it was not during that brief interval of thankfulness
that he heard how she had recognized the Rackbird, Banker, on the pirate
ship, and how she had fired at him every time he had shown himself.
The _Monterey_ started southward towards the point where they had last
seen the yacht and the _Dunkery Beacon_, and the pirate ship, veering
off to the south-east, steamed slowly away. The people on board of her
were looking everywhere for Banker, for without him they knew not what
they ought to do, but if their leader ever came up from the great depth
to which he had sunk with Mok's black hands upon his throat, his
comrades were not near the spot where, dead or alive, he floated to the
surface.