Humphrey Armstrong sat in his cabin listening to the whirr of a beetle
which had been attracted by the lights, and flown in through the open
window, to make a bass to the treble hum of the mosquitoes which haunted
the mouth of the river where the ship had anchored for the night.
The day had been intensely hot, and the cabin seemed ovenlike, as its
occupant sat listening to the insect hum; and then to the strange
croakings and rustling noises which came from the primeval forest on
either side. Now and then a deep roar announced the presence of some
huge creature of the cat tribe prowling in search of prey, and this
would be followed by a distant answering call.
He walked to the window and looked out, to see the stars reflected in a
blurred manner in the rushing waters of the river; while on either side
he could see the bushes which fringed the muddy banks scintillating with
the lamps of the fireflies. Now they died out, and there would be only
a faint twinkle here and there; then, as if something had disturbed or
agitated the wondrous insects, they would flash out into soft, lambent
sparks of light which played about and darted and circled, and then once
more died out, as if to give place to some other creature of their kind,
which flashed out so broad a light that the leaves of the trees around
could be plainly seen.
He had been away five days since the orders had come out for his return,
in the vain hope that perhaps now he might at last encounter the
buccaneer; but, so far, he had seen or heard nothing; and the pirate
captain might have dropped out of sight, or never existed, on the
evening when the captain searched creek after creek along the coast,
till nightfall, when, for safety's sake, he had anchored at the mouth of
the muddy stream.
He was lost in thought, and was puzzling out an answer to the question:
How was it that the buccaneer schooner contrived to avoid him?--when his
trained ears detected the sound of a paddle, and he gazed keenly over
the dark waters, wondering whether his watch on deck had heard it, and
how long they would be ere they challenged the approaching party in
their boat?
The question had hardly been mentally asked when he heard the challenge
from on deck, and the paddling ceased. Then came a certain amount of
shouting, and a conversation, muffled by the distance, followed, and the
boat was allowed to approach.
A minute later the officer of the watch came down to announce the
arrival of a couple of Indians bearing news.
"It's the old story, sir, vamped up to get a bottle of rum; but I
thought I'd better report it to you. Shall I kick them, and let them
go!"
"No," said the captain, shortly, for he was ready now to snatch at
straws. "What does the man say?"
"There are two of them, sir; and they say the pirate vessel is to be
found a day's journey to the south, and that they have seen it lying at
anchor."
"Do they seem honest!"
"Honest as Indians, sir. I think it's all made up."
"I'll come and see them."
The captain rose and went on deck, where he found a couple of soft,
brown, plump-looking Indians, with large, dreamy eyes and languid
manner, seated upon their heels near the gangway, where they could give
a glance from time to time at their canoe swinging by a frail-looking
bark rope.
The men did not stir as the captain came up, but crouched in their old
position, gazing up at him furtively.
"Now," he said, sharply, "where is this pirate ship?"
The men looked at him vacantly.
"Commodore Junk!" said Humphrey.
"El Commodore Yunk; yes. Ship there."
One of the Indians had caught his meaning, and pointed southward.
"Have you seen the ship?"
The men nodded quickly and pointed again.
"Why have you come here to tell us?"
The Indian stared, then looked at his companion, with whom he rapidly
exchanged a few words, ending by turning back, holding out his hands,
and exclaiming--
"El Commodore Yunk. Money. Rum."
"There's a frankness about this fellow that makes me disposed to believe
him," said Humphrey, grimly, as he smiled at the officer. "`Commodore
Yunk. Money. Rum.' And the pointing seems to me as effective as the
longest speech. Look here, can you understand? Show us--"
"Show--show--way--El Commodore Yunk."
"Yes, that will do," said the captain. "But mind this; if you play us
false--here, show him!"
"Show--El Commodore Yunk," cried the Indian, catching the last words.
"Money--powd--rum."
"You shall have plenty," said Humphrey; "but make him understand that if
he plays us false he shall be hung at the yard-arm."
The officer of the watch, quite a young man, seemed to enjoy his task;
for, catching up the signal halyards, he rapidly made a noose, threw it
over the Indian's head, and drew it tight. Then, pointing upward, he
said slowly--
"If you cheat!"
"Hang um?" said the Indian, sharply.
"Yes. We shall hang you if you don't show Commodore Junk."
"Show El Commodore Yunk," said the Indian, composedly.
"I think he understands us," said the officer of the watch.
"Very well, then," cried Humphrey. "Let's start, then, at once. Now,
then, south!" he cried to the man.
"South?" said the Indian.
"Yes, south!" cried the captain, pointing. "Show us the way."
"Show. El Commodore Yunk. No."
He shook his head, and pointed around him, and then to the lanterns,
which shed a dim light over the scene.
"No. Dark," he said.
"He means it is too dark to go," said the second officer. "Look here,
old brownskin. Light? sun?"
"Light--sun!" cried the Indian, eagerly, pointing to the east, and then
seizing the thin rope which had been twisted round his neck, he ran to
the gangway, slid down into his boat, made the cord fast, and came
scrambling up again to secure the signal-line.
This done, he said a few words to his companion, and, going to the side,
threw himself down under the bulwarks, and seemed to go to sleep at
once.
"Yes; that's plain enough," said Humphrey. "He means to wait till
daylight. Keep a strict watch. We may have found the right man at
last."
He need have been under no anxiety as to the two informers, for they lay
motionless till daybreak, and then rose suddenly, looked sharply round,
and, going forward, pointed to the rope which moored them in mid-stream.
Half an hour later the sloop was gliding slowly out of the mouth of the
river; the lowered sails caught the cool, moist morning breeze, and, in
obedience to the Indian's directions which were embraced in the pointing
of a brown hand southward, the king's ship sailed steadily along the
coast a few miles from the shore, which, with its sandy beach
alternating with bold headlands that ran down from regularly-formed
volcanic-looking peaks, and creeks, and river estuaries, fringed with
palm and mud-loving growth, showed plenty of spots where a vessel might
find a hiding-place, and which it would have taken a fleet of boats to
adequately explore.
The Indian's conduct increased the confidence of Humphrey; and as the
day wore on the officers and crew, who had been for months chasing
myths, began to look forward hopefully to an encounter with the pirates,
and to believe that the preparations for action might not this time
prove to have been in vain.
It was within two hours of sundown, as the men were at their drowsiest
moment--many being fast asleep--when, as they were rounding a rocky
point feathered with glorious palms, beyond which the country ran up
toward the mountains in a glorious chaos of piled-up rock, deep ravine,
and fire-scathed chine, the principal Indian suddenly seized the
captain's arm and pointed straight before him to where, a couple of
miles away, and looking as if she had just glided out of some hidden
channel running into the land, there was a long, low, black-hulled
schooner, spreading an enormous amount of canvas for so small a vessel;
and as he saw the rake of the masts and the disproportioned size of her
spars, Humphrey Armstrong felt a thrill of exultation run through him
even as his whole crew was now galvanised into life, and he mentally
repeated the words of the Indian--
"El Commodore Yunk."
Yes; there could be no doubt of it. The shape and size of the vessel
answered the description exactly, and no trader or pleasure vessel,
foreign or British, would sail with so dangerously an overweighting rig
as that.
"At last, then!" cried Humphrey, excitedly, as he stood gazing at the
long, suspicious-looking craft; and his heart beat heavily, his face
flushed, and the hands which held his glass trembled with eagerness.
The men made way to right and left as their captain strode aft and
exclaimed--
"Bring the poor fellows here. They shall have their reward and go."
"Was it treachery, or fear of the enemy?"
Humphrey asked himself this question as a shout came from the steersman,
who, like the rest, had been gazing at the schooner, but who was the
first to see and draw attention to a canoe being paddled rapidly for the
shore.
No one had been attending to the two Indians, who had waited until the
attention of all was bent upon the buccaneer, and then silently slipped
over the side, glided down the rope, and cast off, to paddle shorewards.
There was good discipline on board ship even then, and at the call to
quarters every man fell into place. The long gun was run in, loaded,
run out, and directly after there was a puff of smoke, a loud report
which went echoing among the mountains and through the densely-wooded
ravines, as a round shot skipped over the water right in front of the
schooner.
"Hurrah!" shouted the men, as they saw the long vessel alter her course
a little.
"She surrenders," said Humphrey to himself; and in the brief moments
that followed he saw himself returning to England in triumph, his task
done, and beautiful, fashionable Lady Jenny Wildersey welcoming him with
open arms.
It was a puff of fancy, dissipated like the puff of smoke which came
from the schooner's bows; while, in company with the report that rumbled
heavily away, came a round shot skipping over the calm surface of the
sea, not forward like the summons to heave-to of the king's ship, but
straight at her hull, and so well-aimed that it tore through the
starboard bulwark amidships and passed just in front of the mainmast,
which it almost grazed.
"The insolent!" exclaimed Humphrey, turning purple with rage. "How dare
he!"
As he spoke he raised his spy-glass to his eye, for something could be
seen fluttering up the side of the great main-sail, and directly after a
large black flag was wafted out by the breeze in defiance of a
ship-of-war double the schooner's size, and heavily armed, as well as
manned by a picked and disciplined crew.
"Very good, Commodore!" cried Humphrey, with a smile. "You can't escape
us now. Gentlemen, the ball has opened. Down with her spars, my lads.
Never mind her hull; we want that to take back to Falmouth, from whence
she shall sail next time with a different rig."
The men cheered and the firing commenced, when, to the annoyance of the
captain, the wind dropped entirely, a dead calm ensued; night was coming
on rapidly, as it descends in the tropic lands, and he had either to try
and silence the schooner at long range, or man the boats and take her by
boarding, a plan from which he shrank, knowing, as he did, that it could
only be successful at a terrible cost of life, and this he dreaded for
the sake of his men.
The sloop crept a little nearer in one of the puffs of wind that came
from time to time, and the firing went on, Humphrey and his officers
being astounded at the ability with which the schooner's guns were
served and the accuracy of their aim.
"No wonder that they've carried all before them among the merchantmen,"
muttered Humphrey, as a shot came crashing into them, and three men were
carried below disabled by splinters.
As he spoke he looked anxiously round, to make sure that the schooner
would not be able to pass them in the approaching darkness, and then,
feeling more and more that men who could serve their guns so well would
be terrible adversaries in a case of boarding, and determined to spare
his men till the schooner was disabled, he kept up the artillery duel
till the only guide for laying their guns was the flash of the enemy's
pieces when some shot was fired.
By this time the fire of the buccaneers had proved so effective that the
sloop's bulwarks were shattered and her decks were slippery with blood,
while her captain was fuming with rage at the unfortunate aim of his
men; for, though the schooner had evidently been hit again and again,
she seemed to have escaped the vital injury that a shot would have
produced in one of her spars.
All at once, just as the darkness had become complete, the firing of the
schooner ceased; and to have continued that on board of the sloop would
have been wasting shot.
"Man the launch and jolly-boat!" said the captain sharply, and their
crews waited with intense excitement the orders to go and board the
schooner, a faint groan of disappointment arising as the men heard the
instructions given to the two lieutenants to patrol on either side of
the sloop, and be ready to attack and board only if the buccaneer should
attempt to steal off in the darkness and escape.
The night wore on, with every one on the _qui vive_. Two more boats
were ready waiting to push off and help in the attack on whichever side
the schooner should attempt to escape; while, in the event, of an
attack, the other patrolling boat was to come back to the sloop.
But hour after hour passed and no rushing of water was heard, no dip of
long sweep, or creak of the great oar in the rowlock was heard; neither
was a light seen; and the silence observed by the schooner was so
profound that Humphrey, as he paced the deck, felt certain at last that
she must have escaped; and, now that it was too late, he bitterly
repented not attempting to capture the dangerous foe by a bold attack.
"She's gone," he groaned, "and I've lost my chance!"
He paced the deck in bitter disappointment, as he felt that he had let a
prize slip through his fingers; and, as he waited, the night glided
slowly by, till, slowly and tardily, the first signs of day appeared,
and with a cry of joy Humphrey Armstrong ordered the signal of recall to
be run up, for there, just as she had been last seen when night fell,
lay the long, dark schooner, but without a man visible on board.
In a few minutes the two boats were alongside, and Humphrey gazed
longingly at the prize he felt ready to give half his life to reach.
What should he do? Attempt to board her now that his four boats lay
armed and ready for the fray?
The temptation was too great, and the order was given: the four boats to
attack at once, the men receiving the command with a tremendous cheer,
and their oars took the water at once; while, compelled by his position
to remain on board, the captain feverishly watched the progress of his
boats in the growing light, and frowned and stamped the deck in his
anger as he saw the crews were exhausting themselves in a race to see
which should first reach the silent, forbidding looking schooner.
He shouted to them to keep together, but they were beyond the reach of
his voice, and matters seemed hopeless from the way in which they
struggled, when a combined attack was requisite for success.
Then all at once the launch remained steady, and the smaller boats went
off to right and left. Another minute and all were advancing together,
so as to board in four different parts of the ship at once.
Humphrey Armstrong's eyes flashed, his lips parted, and his breast
heaved as he watched his men dash on with a faintly heard cheer; but
there was no response, not a moving figure could be seen on board the
schooner, and it was plain that she had been deserted during the night.
"Curse him for an eel!" cried the captain, fiercely, as he felt that he
was about to capture a vessel and leave her cunning commander to man
another, and carry on his marauding as of old; but he had hardly uttered
his angry denunciation when his four boats raced up to the schooner, and
in a moment she seemed alive with men.
Almost before the English captain could realise the fact, great pieces
of iron, probably the schooner's ballast, were thrown over into the
boats, two of which were crushed through like so much paper, and the men
as they sank left struggling in the water.
All that could be done was to rescue the drowning men; and as the two
remaining boats were being overladen, and then made a desperate attack
so as not to go back in disgrace, a furious fire of small-arms was
poured from every port hole and from the schooner's deck, till, unable
to penetrate the stout boarding-netting triced up all around the vessel,
cut at, shot at, and thrust back into their boats with boarding-pikes,
the sloop's two boats fell off, and began to slowly retrace their
course.
The moment the way was clear Humphrey, who was almost beside himself
with disappointment, begun pounding away at the buccaneer with his heavy
guns; but instead of exciting a response he found that sails were being
unfurled, and that, instead of the schooner being shut in, the bottom of
the bay formed a kind of strait, and she was not in a _cul de sac_.
"She'll escape us after all!" groaned Humphrey, as he ordered sail to be
made, and the sloop began to forge ahead, firing rapidly the while, as
the schooner began to leave her behind.
She was sailing right in, and before the sloop could follow there were
the two boats to be picked up.
This was done, the removal of the wounded being deferred till the
buccaneer was captured, and all the time a furious fire was kept up
without effect, for the schooner seemed to sail right inland, and
disappeared round a headland, the last they saw of the heavily-rigged
vessel being when she careened over at right angles to the sloop and her
shot-torn sails passed slowly behind the rocky bluff.
"Only into shelter!" cried Humphrey Armstrong, excitedly; and giving
rapid orders, fresh sail was made, and men placed in the chains with
leads to keep up communications as to the soundings, but always to
announce deep water, the land seeming to rise up sheer from an enormous
depth in the channel-like gulf they entered.
"She's gone right through, sir, and will get away on the other side."
The sloop sailed on, with the water deep as ever, and before long she
rounded the head, to find the narrow channel had opened out into a
beautiful lake-like bay with the dense primeval forest running right
down to its shores.
But the greatest beauty of the scene to Humphrey Armstrong was the sight
of the schooner lying right across his course a quarter of a mile away,
and ready to concentrate her fire and rake the sloop from stem to stern.
"Curse him! no wonder he has had so long a career!" said Humphrey,
stamping with rage as he watched the execution of his orders, and a
well-directed fire was once more made to answer that of the buccaneer.
"With such a ship, crew, and place of retreat, he might have gone on for
years."
The firing grew hotter than ever, and the schooner became enveloped in a
cloud of smoke which elicited a burst of cheers from the sloop.
"She's afire! she's afire!" roared the men.
Humphrey's triumph was now at hand. The scourge of the western seas was
at his mercy, and shrinking from attempting to board so desperate an
adversary for the sake of his crew, he gave orders to lay the sloop
right alongside of the schooner, where he could cast grappling-irons,
and then pour his fire down upon her deck.
The orders were rapidly executed, and the sloop bore down right for the
smoke-enveloped schooner with little fear of being raked now, for the
pirates had ceased firing, and could be dimly-seen through the reek
hurrying to and fro.
"Shall we give her one more salvo, sir?" asked the first officer, coming
up to where Humphrey stood, trying to pierce the smoke with his glass.
"No, poor wretches! they're getting fire enough. I hope she will not
blow up, for I'd give anything to take her home unhurt."
There was a perfect rush of flame and smoke now from the schooner, and
once more Humphrey's men cheered and shook hands together, even the
wounded in the excitement of their triumph taking up the cry, when, just
in the height of the excitement, and when the sloop was within a hundred
yards of the enemy, the men in the chains among the rest gazing hard at
the rising smoke, the war vessel careened over in answer to her helm in
the evolution which was to lay her side by side with the burning
schooner, and then there was a tremendous jerk which threw nearly every
one off his feet.
Then, shivering from head to heel, the sloop slowly surged back us if to
gather force like a wave, and in obedience to the pressure upon her
sails, struck again, literally leaping this time upon the keen-edged
barrier of rocks under whose invisible shelter the schooner lay; and
then, as a yell of horror rose from the men, the unfortunate ship
remained fixed, her masts, sail laden, went over the side with a hideous
crashing noise, and all was confusion, ruin, and despair.
The moments required to turn a stately, sail-crowded ship into a state
of chaos are very few, and to Humphrey Armstrong's agony, as well aided
by his officers, he was trying to do something to ameliorate
their position, he saw how thoroughly he had been led into a
cunningly-designed trap. The schooner had been artfully manoeuvred to
place her behind the dangerous rocks, and, what was more, a glance at
her now showed her sailing away from a couple of boats moored beyond
them; and in each of which were barrels of burning pitch sending up
volumes of blackened smoke.
"A trap! a trap!" he cried, grinding his teeth. "Let her be, my lads,"
he roared. "Prepare for boarders!"
The men sprang to their pikes and swords, while a couple of guns were
freed from the wreck of cordage, and sail which the shock had brought
down.
These guns had hardly been trained to bear upon the schooner from the
deck of the helpless sloop when a deadly fire was opened by the former--
a fire of so furious a character that the confusion was increased, and
in spite of the efforts of captain and officers, the men shrank from
working at the guns.
What followed was one terrible scene of despairing men striving for
their lives against a foe of overpowering strength. The fierce fire of
the schooner, as she came nearer and nearer, was feebly responded to,
and in a short time the deck streamed with blood, as the shot came
crashing through the bulwarks, sending showers of splinters to do deadly
work with the hail of grape. There was no thought of capture now; no
need of bidding the men attack: following the example of their officers,
and one and all doggedly determined to sell their lives dearly, the men
dragged gun after gun round as those they worked were disabled, and sent
a shot in reply as often as they could.
With uniform torn and bedabbled with blood, face blackened with powder,
and the red light of battle in his eyes, Humphrey Armstrong saw plainly
enough that his case was hopeless, and that, with all her pomp of war
and pride of discipline and strength, his sloop was prostrate before the
buccaneer's snaky craft, and in his agony of spirit and rage he
determined to wait till the pirates boarded, as he could see they would
before long, and then blow up the magazine and send them to eternity in
their triumph over the British ship.
But it was to destroy his men as well, and he felt that this should be
the pirates' work when all was over.
"No," he muttered between his teeth, "it would be a coward's act, and
they shall die like men."
The schooner's sides were vomiting smoke and flame, and she was close
alongside now. She had been so manoeuvred as to sail right round the
end of the reef, whose position seemed to be exactly known, so that from
firing upon the sloop's bows, and raking from stem to stern, the firing
had been continued as she passed along the larboard side round to the
poop, which had been raked in turn, and here it was evident that the
final attack was to be made.
It was not long in coming. Hardly had Humphrey seen the enemy's
intentions and gathered his men together, than the schooner's side
ground up against the shattered stern of the sloop. Heavy
grappling-irons were thrown on board, and with a furious yelling a horde
of blackened, savage-looking men poured on to the bloody splinter-strewn
deck, and coming comparatively fresh upon the sloop's exhausted crew,
bore down all opposition. Men were driven below, cut down, stunned, and
driven to ask for quarter; and so furious was the onslaught that the
sloop's crew were divided into two half helpless bodies, one of which
threw down their arms, while the other, which included the captain and
officers, backed slowly toward the bows, halting at every spot where
they could make a stand, but forced to yield foot by foot, till their
fate, it was plain to all, was to surrender or be driven through the
shattered bulwarks into the sea.
It was a matter of minutes. The fight was desperate, but useless--
Humphrey Armstrong and those around him seeming determined to sell their
lives dearly, for no quarter was asked. They had given way step by step
till there was nothing behind them but the shattered bulwarks, and then
the sea, when, headed by their leader, the buccaneers made a desperate
rush; there was the clashing of sword and pike; and, as sailor and
officer fell, or were disarmed, Humphrey stepped in a half-congealed
pool of blood, slipped, and went heavily backwards, the buccaneer's
lieutenant leaping forward to brain him with a heavy axe.
There was a rush, a fierce shout, Black Mazzard was thrust aside, and
the Commodore sprang past him to plant his foot upon the fallen
officer's chest, while, the fight being over, the rest held their
hands--the conquerors and conquered--to see what would be the captain's
fate.
"Now, Captain Armstrong," cried the buccaneer leader, "beg for your
wretched life, you cowardly dog!"
"Coward!" roared Humphrey, raising himself slightly on one hand, as with
the other he swept the blood from his ensanguined face. "You cursed
hound! you lie!"
The buccaneer shrank back as if from some blow; his foot was withdrawn
from the wounded officer's chest, he lowered the point of his sword, and
stood gazing at his prostrate enemy wildly.
"The captain shirks the job, lads," cried a coarse voice. "Here, let me
come."
It was Black Mazzard who spoke, and, drunken with rum and the spirit of
the furious fight, he pressed forward, axe in hand.
Humphrey raised himself a little higher, with his white teeth bared in
fierce defiance as he prepared to meet the deathblow he saw about to
fall.
But at that moment the buccaneer caught his lieutenant's uplifted arm.
"Enough!" he cried, fiercely; "no more blood. He is no coward. Bart--
Dinny, take this gentleman ashore."
Humphrey Armstrong did not hear the words, for his defiant act exhausted
his failing strength, and he fell back insensible to all that happened
for many hours to come.