In extreme disgust at the loss of the notorious _Black Venus_ Captain
Vernon reluctantly gave orders for the resumption of the cruise, and the
_Daphne_ was once more headed in for the land, it being the skipper's
intention to give a look in at all the likely places along the coast as
far north as the Bight of Benin.
This was terribly tedious and particularly trying to the men, it being
all boat work. The exploration of the Fernan Vas river occupied thirty
hours, whilst in the case of the Ogowe river the boats were away from
the ship for four days and three nights; the result being that when at
last we went into Sierra Leone we had ten men down with fever, and had
lost four more from the same cause. The worst of it all was that our
labour had been wholly in vain, not a single prize being taken nor a
suspicious craft fallen in with. Here we found Williams and the prize
crew of the _Josefa_ awaiting us according to instructions; so shipping
them and landing the sick men Captain Vernon lost no time in putting to
sea once more.
On leaving Sierra Leone a course was shaped for the Congo, and after a
long and very tedious passage, during the whole of which we had to
contend against light head-winds, we found ourselves once more within
sight of the river at daybreak.
It was stark calm, with a cloudless sky, and a long lazy swell came
creeping in from the southward and eastward causing the sloop to roll
most uncomfortably. We were about twelve miles off the land; and at
about half-way between us and it, becalmed like ourselves, there lay a
brig, which our telescopes informed us was the _Vestale_. On this fact
being decisively ascertained Mr Austin came up to me and said:
"There is your _bete noire_, the _Vestale_, once more, you see,
Hawkesley. I have been thinking a great deal about what you said to me
some time ago respecting her, and I have come to the conclusion that it
is quite worth our while to look into the matter, at least so far as
will enable us to judge whether your suspicions are wholly groundless or
not. If they are--if, in fact, the craft proves to be what she
professes herself--well and good; we can dismiss the affair finally and
for ever from our minds and give our undivided attention to other
matters. But I confess you have to a certain extent imbued me with your
own doubts as to the strict integrity of yonder brig; there are one or
two little matters you mentioned which escaped my notice end which
certainly have rather a suspicious appearance. I therefore intend--if
the craft is bound into the river like ourselves--to make an early
opportunity to pay her a visit on some pretext or other."
"Have you mentioned the matter to Captain Vernon yet, sir?" I inquired.
"No, not yet," was the reply. "I must have something a little more
definite to say before I broach the matter to him. But here comes the
breeze at last, a _sea_ breeze, too, thank Heaven! Man the braces fore
and aft; square away the yards and brail in the mizen. Hard up with
your helm, my man, and keep her dead away for the mouth of the river."
The faint blue line along the western horizon came creeping gradually
down toward us, and presently a catspaw or two ruffled the glassy
surface of the water for a moment and disappeared. Then a deliciously
cool and refreshing draught of air fanned our faces and swelled out the
light upper canvas for an instant, died away, came again a trifle
stronger and lasted for perhaps half a minute, then with a flap the
canvas collapsed, filled again, the sloop gathered way and paid off with
her head to the eastward; a bubble or two floated past her sides, a
faint ripple arose under her bows, grew larger, became audible, the
glassy surface of the water grew gently ruffled and assumed an exquisite
cerulean tint, the wheel began to press against the helmsman's hand, and
away we went straight for the mouth of the river--and the brig.
The breeze, gentle though it was, reached our neighbour long before we
did, and as soon as she felt it she too bore up, squared her yards, and
headed direct for Boolambemba Point. She was about three miles ahead of
us when the breeze reached her, and I felt very curious to see where she
would finally come to an anchor. The only _safe_ anchorage is in Banana
Creek, and though slavers constantly resort to the numerous other creeks
and inlets higher up the river no captain of a man-of-war would think
for a moment of risking his ship in any of them unless the emergency
happened to be very pressing, nor even then unless his vessel happened
to be of exceedingly light draught. If therefore the brig anchored in
Banana Creek I should accept it as a point in favour of her honesty; if
not, my suspicions would be stronger than ever.
It so happened that she _did_ anchor in Banana Creek, but fully a
quarter of a mile higher up it than old Mildmay the master thought it
prudent for us to venture, though in obedience to a hint from Mr Austin
he took us much further in than where we had anchored on our previous
visit. The brig got in fully half an hour before us, her canvas was
consequently stowed, her yards squared, ropes hauled taut and coiled
down, and her boats in the water when our anchor at length plunged into
the muddy opaque-looking water of the creek.
We were barely brought up--and indeed the hands were still aloft stowing
the canvas--when a gig shoved off from the brig and pulled down the
creek. A few minutes later she dashed alongside and Monsieur Le Breton
once more presented himself upon our quarter-deck, cap in had, bowing,
smiling, and grimacing as only a Frenchman can. His visit, though such
a singularly precipitate one, was, it soon turned out, merely a visit of
ceremony, which he prolonged to such an extent that Captain Vernon was
perforce obliged to invite him down below to breakfast, Mr Austin and I
being also the skipper's guests on that particular morning. In the
course of the meal he made several very complimentary remarks as to the
appearance of the _Daphne_, and finally--when I suppose he saw that he
had thus completely won poor Austin's heart--he very politely expressed
his extreme desire to take a look through the ship, a desire which the
first luff with equal politeness assured him it would give him great
pleasure to gratify.
The fellow certainly had a wonderfully plausible and winning way with
him, there was no denying that, and I saw that under its influence the
slight suspicions which I had imparted to poor honest-hearted,
straightforward Mr Austin were melting like snowflakes under a summer
sun. Still, under all the plausibility, the delicate flattery, and the
elaborate politeness of the man, there was a vague indefinable
_something_ to which I found it quite impossible to reconcile myself;
and I watched him as a cat does a mouse, anxious to note whatever
suspicious circumstances might transpire, in order that I might be fully
prepared for the talk with the first luff which I felt certain would
closely follow upon our visitor's departure. To my chagrin, however, I
was on this occasion wholly unable to detect anything whatever out of
the common, and Monsieur Le Breton's broken English, upon which I had
laid such stress in my former conversation with Mr Austin, was now
quite consistent and irreproachable. He was taken through the ship and
shown every nook and corner in her, and finally, about noon, took his
leave. Just before going down over the side he apologised for the non-
appearance of "Captain Dubosc" upon the plea that that gentleman was
confined to his hammock with a severe attack of dysentery; but if the
officers of the _Daphne_ would honour the _estate's_ ward-room with
their presence at dinner that evening Monsieur Le Breton and his brother
officers would be "enchanted." And, apparently as an after-thought,
when his foot was on the top step of the gangway ladder, this very
agreeable gentleman urgently requested the pleasure of Mr Austin's
company on a sporting expedition which he and one or two more were about
to undertake that afternoon. This latter invitation was declined upon
the plea of stress of work; but the invitation to dinner was accepted
conditionally upon the work being in a sufficiently forward state to
allow of the officers leaving the ship.
We were indeed exceedingly busy that day, Mr Austin having determined
to take advantage of the opportunity which our being at anchor afforded
him to lift the rigging off the mastheads and give it and them a
thorough overhaul.
As for me, I was engaged during the whole of the day in charge of a
boat's crew filling up our water casks and tanks and foraging in the
adjacent forest for a supply of fruit, not a single native canoe having
approached us during the entire day. It was, consequently, not until
late in the afternoon, when the neck of the day's work was broken, that
I had an opportunity of exchanging a word or two with the first
lieutenant on the subject of our neighbour, the brig, and then it was
only a word or two. Mr Austin opened the conversation with:
"Well, Hawkesley, what do you think of our friend Monsieur Le Breton,
now that you have had an opportunity of bettering your acquaintance with
him?"
"Well, sir," I replied; "on the whole I am inclined to think that there
is just a bare possibility of my having been mistaken in my estimate of
him and of the character of the brig. Still--"
"Still your mind is not yet quite easy," Mr Austin laughingly
interrupted me. "Now, what could you possibly have noticed of a
suspicious character in the poor fellow's conduct this morning?"
"Nothing," I was obliged to acknowledge. "I am quite prepared to admit,
sir, a total absence of those peculiarities of manner which _I am
certain_ existed during his first visit to the ship. But did you not
think it strange that he should be in such a tremendous hurry to come on
board us this morning? At first I was inclined to think his object
might be to prevent a visit from some of us to the brig; but that
supposition is met, to some extent, by his invitation to us for this
evening. The delay may, of course, have afforded them an opportunity to
make arrangements for our reception by putting out of sight any--"
"Any tell-tale evidences of their dishonesty," laughed the first luff.
"Really, Hawkesley, I must say I think you are deceiving yourself and
worrying yourself unnecessarily. Of course I can quite understand how,
having harboured those extraordinary suspicions of yours for so great a
length of time, you now find it difficult to dismiss them all in a
moment; but have patience for a few hours more; an excellent opportunity
is now offered us for satisfying ourselves as to the brig's _bona
fides_, and you may rest assured that I shall make the very best use of
it. I find I shall be the only guest of the Frenchmen to-night--the
rest of the officers are far too busy to leave the ship, and indeed _I_
can hardly be spared, and would not go but for the fact that it would
look uncivil if we in a body declined their invitation; but I will see
that to-morrow you have an opportunity of going on board and
investigating for yourself. And now I must be off to make myself
presentable, or I shall be keeping my hosts waiting, and perhaps spoil
their dinner."
With that he dived below; and I turned away to attend to some little
matter connected with the progress of the work. A quarter of an hour
later he reappeared on deck, clean-shaven, and looking very handsome and
seamanlike in his best suit of uniform; and, the gig being piped away,
he went down over the side, giving me a parting nod as he did so. I
watched the boat dash up alongside the brig; noted that the side was
manned in due form, that our worthy "first" was received by a group of
officers on the quarter-deck, conspicuous among whom I could make out
with the aid of my glass Monsieur Le Breton, evidently performing the
ceremony of introduction; and then the work being finished, ropes coiled
down, and everything once more restored to its proper place, the hands
were piped to tea, and I descended to the midshipmen's den, thoroughly
tired out with my unwonted exertion.
When I again went on deck, about an hour later, the stars were shining
brilliantly; the moon, about three days old, was gleaming with a soft
subdued radiance through the topmost branches of the trees on the
adjacent shore; and the night-mist was already gathering so thickly on
the bosom of the river that the brig loomed through it vague, shadowy,
and indistinct as a phantom craft. The tide was ebbing, and her stern
was turned toward us, but no lights appeared gleaming through her cabin
windows, which struck me as being a little strange until I remembered
that Monsieur Le Breton had spoken of her captain being ill. A few of
our lads were amusing themselves on the forecastle, dancing to the
enlivening strains of the cook's fiddle, or singing songs; and an
occasional round of applause or an answering song came floating down
upon the gentle night-breeze from the brig; but as the fog grew thicker
these sounds gradually ceased, we lost sight of her altogether, and so
far as sound or sight was concerned we might have been the only craft in
the entire river. Our own lads also quieted down; and finally the only
sounds which broke the solemn stillness of the night were the sighing of
the breeze, the gentle rustle of the foliage, and the loud sonorous
_chirr, chirr, chirr_ of the insects.
It was about half-past nine o'clock, and I was just thinking of going
below to turn-in when I became conscious of the sounds of a commotion of
some sort; a muffled cry, which seemed to me like a call for "help;" a
dull thud, as of a falling body, and _a splash_! The sounds certainly
proceeded from the direction of the brig; and I thought that they must
have emanated from a spot at about her distance from the _Daphne_. The
slight feeling of drowsiness which had possessed me took flight at once;
all my senses became instantly upon the alert; and I awaited in keen
expectancy to hear if anything further followed. In vain; the minutes
sped past, and neither sight nor sound occurred to elucidate the
mystery. I began to feel anxious and alarmed; my old suspicions rose up
again like a strong man aroused from sleep; and I walked aft to Mr
Armitage, who was leaning against a gun with his arms folded, and his
chin sunk upon his breast evidently in deep meditation. He started up
as he heard my footstep approaching; and on my asking if he had heard
anything peculiar ahead of us, somewhat shortly acknowledged that he had
not. I thereupon told him what I had heard; but he evidently attached
no importance to my statement, suggesting that _if anything_ it was
doubtless some of the Frenchmen amusing themselves. I was by no means
satisfied with this, and, my uneasiness increasing every moment, I went
forward to ascertain whether any of the hands on the forecastle had
heard the mysterious sounds. I found them all listening open-mouthed to
some weird and marvellous yarn which one of the topmen was spinning for
their edification; and from them also I failed to elicit anything
satisfactory. Finally, it suddenly occurred to me that, in my
wanderings ashore, I had often noticed how low the night-mists lay upon
the surface of the river; and it now struck me that by going aloft I
might get sight of something which would tend to explain the disquieting
occurrence. To act upon the idea was the work of a moment; I sprang
into the main rigging and made my way aloft as rapidly as if my life
depended upon it, utterly heedless of the fact that the rigging had been
freshly tarred down that day; and in less than a minute had reached the
maintopmast crosstrees. As I had anticipated I was here almost clear of
the mist; and I eagerly looked ahead to see if all was right in that
quarter. The first objects which caught my eye were the mastheads of
the brig, broad on our starboard bow instead of directly ahead, as I had
expected to find them. This of itself struck me as being somewhat
strange; but, what was stranger still, _they seemed to be unaccountably
near to us_. I rubbed my eyes and looked at them again. They were just
in a line with the tops of a clump of trees which rose like islands out
of the silvery mist, and as I looked I saw that the spars were moving,
gliding slowly and almost imperceptibly past the trees toward the river.
_The brig was adrift_. I listened intently for quite five minutes
without hearing the faintest sound from the craft, and during that time
she had neared us almost a cable's length. In another minute or two she
would be abreast of and within a couple of ships' lengths of us. What
could it mean? She could not by any possibility have struck adrift
accidentally. And if her berth was being intentionally shifted for any
reason, why was the operation carried out under cover of the fog and in
such profound silence? There had been no sound of lifting the anchor;
nor could I hear anything to indicate that they were running out warps;
it looked very much as though they had slipped their cable, and were
allowing the tide to carry them silently out to sea. And where was Mr
Austin during this stealthy movement? Was he aware of it? Why, if my
suspicions were correct, had they invited the officers of the _Daphne_
on board to dinner? Was it merely a blind, a temporary resort to the
usual courtesies adopted for the purpose of giving colour to their
assumed character of a French man-o'-war, or was it a diabolical scheme
to get us all into their power and so deprive a formidable antagonist of
its head, so to speak, and thus cripple it?
All these surmises and many others equally wild flashed through my
bewildered brain as I stood there on the crosstrees watching the
stealthy phantom-like movement of the brig's upper spars; and the
conclusion to which I finally came was that Captain Vernon ought to be
informed forthwith of what was going on. I accordingly descended to the
deck and once more sought out the third lieutenant.
"Mr Armitage," said I, in a low cautious tone of voice, "the brig is
adrift, and driving down past us with the tide in the direction of the
river."
"The brig adrift!" he repeated incredulously. "Nonsense, Mr Hawkesley,
you must be dreaming!"
"Indeed I am not, sir, I assure you," I replied earnestly. "I have this
moment come from aloft, and I saw her topgallant-masts most distinctly
over the top of the mist. She is away over in that direction, and
scarcely a cable's length distant from us."
"Are you _quite sure_?" he asked, aroused at last by my earnest manner
to something like interest. "I can hear no sound of her."
"No, sir," I replied; "and that, in conjunction with the sounds which I
undoubtedly heard just now makes me think that something must be wrong
on board her. Do you not think the matter ought to be reported to
Captain Vernon?"
"Most certainly it ought," he agreed. "Is it possible that the crew
have taken the ship from their officers, think you?"
"I scarcely know _what_ to think," I replied. "Let us speak to the
captain at once, and hear what he has to say about it."
Thereupon the third lieutenant directed Keene, one of the midshipmen, to
take temporary charge of the deck; and we at once dived below.
"Well, Mr Armitage, what is it?" asked Captain Vernon, as we presented
ourselves in the cabin and discovered him and Mr Smellie chatting
together over their wine and cigars.
"I must apologise for intruding upon you, sir," said Armitage; "but
Hawkesley here has come to me with a very extraordinary story which I
think you had better hear from his own lips."
"Oh! Well, what is it, Mr --. Why, Hawkesley, where in the world have
you been, and what doing, man? You are positively smothered in tar."
"Yes, sir," I replied, glancing at myself and discovering for the first
time by the brilliant light of the cabin lamp the woeful ruin wrought
upon my uniform. "I really beg your pardon, sir, for presenting myself
in this plight, but the urgent nature of my business must be my excuse."
And I forthwith plunged _in medias res_ and told what I had heard and
seen.
"The noise of a scuffle and the brig adrift!" exclaimed the skipper.
"The crew surely cannot have risen upon their officers and taken the
ship!" the same idea promptly presenting itself to him as had occurred
to the third lieutenant.
"No, sir," said I. "I do not believe that is it at all; the commotion
was not great enough or prolonged enough for that; _all_ the officers
would not be likely to be taken by surprise, but _one man might be_."
"One man! What do you mean? I don't understand you," rapped out the
skipper.
"Well, then, sir, to speak the whole of my mind plainly, I am greatly
afraid that Mr Austin has met with foul play on board that brig, and
that she is not a French man-o'-war at all, as she professes to be," I
exclaimed.