MUTINY.
FORTUNATELY mutinies frequently come to a head prematurely. On the
“Rose” a jealousy hatched between rival factions of the plotters, so
that before they were any of them in actual readiness, one faction, in
order to be ahead of and therefore in command over the other, rushed
upon the quarter-deck one night and made a sudden descent on Captain
Phipps, who happened for the moment to be there alone.
Phipps became renowned for his presence of mind and courage. On this
occasion he promptly knocked down three or four of the ruffians, and
then with a loaded revolver and a handy marlin spike, he awed the others
into submission before the alarm had even time to spread. The
malefactors being summarily placed in irons and thrown into the hold,
the insurrection below decks retired into the dark corners, to knit
itself anew into shape.
The sailors now recognized the necessity for uniting their forces.
Moreover, the faction which had been less precipitate, gained the
confidence of those half-coward, half-demon followers, or human jackals,
who were willing to urge the lions of the fo’castle on to strike the
blows of death, content if they could then sneak upon the scene for a
feast of remains. Thus a better plan was laid, while the mutineers
dissembled and lulled even the suspicious Phipps into a sense of
security that he had not possessed before the overt outbreak, which he
had been able to quell single-handed.
The plotters found no opportunity of effecting their designs for several
weeks. At length, however, Phipps steered his vessel into a tiny harbor,
bitten by the sea into the side of a small, uninhabited island, which
was even minus a name. This he did for the purpose of reshipping the
stores, in the hold, a recent storm having shifted this cargo until the
“Rose” listed to port dangerously, and leaked.
The crew, in silence and obediently enough, constructed a bridge to
shore and carried the stores to land, heaping them up in piles, on the
beach.
The unlading being accomplished, the crew desired permission to rest in
the shade of the near-by woods. This was granted. Once in retirement
here, they conceived a plan without delay whereby the ship should fall
into their hands that night.
Already they had managed to purloin a complement of arms. They had
knives, a few pistols, hatchets and several cutlasses. The stores being
ashore, the ship was at their mercy. Their plan was simple enough. They
would remain away from the shore until seven o’clock, when they would
proceed to the ship in a body, overpower Phipps, Rust, the beef-eaters
and the few other faithful souls on board, seize the “Rose” and leave
her captain and his friends on the island, to starve. There was but one
element lacking—the ship’s carpenter. The “Rose” having sprung a leak,
in the storm, was regarded by the sailors as no longer seaworthy, until
the carpenter should put her right. He therefore became a necessary
adjunct to their numbers.
The carpenter, on being summoned to appear among them by the crew,
listened to their plan with horror. However, he was not a coward and he
had his wits about him. He nodded as if in approval of the plan, the
more readily, perhaps, as he was threatened with death if he dared
refuse to become one of the murderous gang. Then he informed them that
some of his tools he would much require, to further the plot.
He was sent aboard the ship, with a guard beside him, who had undertaken
to see that he permitted no leakage of the crew’s little game into the
ears of the Captain. However, this carpenter was a man of resources. He
was suddenly overpowered by illness, on which pretense he went below.
Then, breaking into a run, he came to the Captain’s cabin, where Adam
was singing the song of his loves. Bidding Rust to continue, as if
nothing was happening, he swiftly communicated his news to William
Phipps.
“Go back at once and pretend to assist in their deviltry,” commanded
Phipps. “Make no sign of anything, save compliance with their wishes,
and leave the rest to me.”
The carpenter rejoined his guard so soon that they were entirely
satisfied. They conveyed him ashore, with his tools, and joining their
mates again, waited with what patience they could muster, for the
fateful hour of seven to arrive.
Phipps had now two hours in which to prepare to defend the ship.
Unfortunately some of the guns had been landed with the stores. Adam
volunteered to draw the loads from these, and this he accomplished, with
highly satisfactory speed. But it would have been the work of hours to
re-transfer the stores to the hold, hence they were left on shore to
themselves.
With close on ninety armed, desperate brutes against them, the handful
of men on the “Rose” were hardly in an enviable position. The first
thing they did was to remove the bridge which had been constructed
between the ship and the shore. The remaining guns on board were then
dragged and slewed around till they covered the approach from the woods,
by which the mutineers would be obliged to come. There was nothing to be
done, then, but to wait.
The crew were not disappointing. They appeared duly, their savagery
whetted to a fine edge by the burly ruffian who had assumed command of
their force. Phipps had prepared his speech. He hailed the men, in his
big, gruff voice and commanded them to halt where they were, on pain of
instant annihilation.
“Go near the stores,” he cried, “and I will blow you in splatters
against those trees!”
The cowed scoundrels edged back toward the woods. All the muttered
threats of their leader, of what he would do if they refused to charge,
were empty to the wretches who could look into the chasm-like mouths of
a dozen guns. There courage oozed out of their veins. They were already
defeated.
Phipps, aware that a similar number of dummies would be equally
dangerous, now, had his faithful followers run out the bridge again and
bring aboard the stores, without which it would have been madness to
sail. This work consumed no small amount of time. But it was finally
concluded.
“Now then,” said Phipps, when the situation was all in his favor, “I
shall pull up anchor and leave you rogues to the fate you had prepared
for me. You can stay here and starve and rot!”
This brought the mutineers to tears, and to pleading on their knees.
They were willing to come to any nameable terms, if only he would spare
them this terrible fate. They threw down their arms, in token of
absolute surrender, begging quarter of any description.
Inasmuch as so large a vessel could not have been sailed without a crew,
Phipps received them back, the ring-leaders in chains, and doubled the
vigor of his mastery.
“But, Adam,” he said, “it’s no use with these scoundrels. They will
drive me back to England yet, with none of the treasure.”
Distrustful of the brutes he had between decks, Phipps now sailed for
Jamaica, where he quickly discharged nearly every man Jack of his
mutinous crew and took on a new lot of sailors. This was not a matter of
a few days, it required nearly a fortnight of time, Phipps being
exceedingly particular as to the men he selected. In the meantime two
things occurred which gave no little anxiety to the treasure-seeking
captain. Rust fell ill, with an attack of tropical fever, and a letter
arrived from Goodwife Phipps in which she begged to know if her lord and
master were still alive, and if so, would he not speedily return to
Boston and give no further heed to fortune’s beckoning.
William Phipps had seen men sicken and die in these latitudes. Adam,
attended faithfully by the beef-eaters, took the fever lightly, as he
seemed to take everything of life. Nevertheless he was weak, when the
heat had somewhat abated in his body, and in no fit condition to remain
in the tropics.
“Adam,” said the Captain, gravely, having schooled himself for a day and
night together for this moment, “I have about concluded that the ‘Rose’
is no longer fit for this service. I shall return to Hispaniola, but
unless I shall make out the galleon in a few weeks, I shall sail again
to England, for a newer ship.”
“All right,” said Adam. “I shall be ready this afternoon.”
“Well,” said Phipps, hemming and hawing, “the fact is, Adam, you are
quite unfit to remain about these islands. Besides, I should be glad of
a messenger to send back to Mrs. Phipps in Boston. I would suggest,
therefore, that you return thither, on a frigate, sailing to-morrow
morning, and if it chance that I go to England and again return to
Hispaniola, you could meet me here and help me to find the treasure.”
Rust seemed to hesitate before making his reply. He was sure there was a
treasure for him in Boston, but he had begun to have his doubts as to
the sunken, or any other sort of available, gold in the Spanish Main.
Yet he did not wish to appear eager to abandon the quest, and his heart
was above all else loyal to Phipps.
“If I should, by great good fortune, discover the treasure,” continued
the Captain, “you shall suffer no loss for your absence, for your
services have been ten times over rendered already.”
Much as he was affected by the friendship which prompted Phipps to
assure him of this, Adam was not in the least concerned with thoughts of
the treasure, nor influenced by this generous plan which his friend had
formulated. But being a reasonable being, in some directions, and being
perhaps unreasonably inclined in others, as for instance, toward
Massachusetts, he saw the wisdom of the Captain’s arrangements, and
therefore bade his friend an affectionate farewell, on the following
day, and sailed for the north, with the beef-eaters close at his heels.
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