"Mr Austin! Foul play! Not a French man-o'-war!!" gasped the skipper.
"Why, Good Heavens! the boy is _mad_!"
"If I am, sir, I can only say that I have been so for the last four
months," I retorted. "For it is fully as long as that, or longer, that
I have had my suspicions about that brig and her crew."
"What!" exclaimed Smellie. "Have _you_, too, suspected the brig?"
"I have, indeed, sir," I replied.
"Take a chair, Hawkesley," interrupted the skipper; "pour yourself out a
glass of wine, and let us have your story in the fewest possible words.
Mr Armitage, do me the favour to ascertain the brig's present
whereabouts and let me know. Now, Hawkesley, we are ready to listen to
you."
As the skipper ceased, Armitage bowed and withdrew, whilst I very
hastily sketched the rise and progress of my suspicions, from Monsieur
Le Breton's first visit up to that present moment.
Before I had proceeded very far, however, Armitage returned with the
intelligence that the brig was undoubtedly adrift and already some
distance astern of us, and that the topman, who had been aloft to
inspect, had reported that he thought he could detect men on her yards.
"Turn up the hands at once then, sir, if you please, and see everything
ready for slipping our cable and making sail at a moment's notice. But
let everything be done in absolute silence; and keep a hand aloft to
watch the brig and report anything further he may notice on board her;
it really looks as though we were on the brink of some important
discovery. Now go ahead with your story, Hawkesley," said the skipper.
I proceeded as rapidly as possible, merely stating what suspicious
circumstances had come under my own notice, and leaving Captain Vernon
to draw his own deductions. When I had finished, the skipper turned to
Smellie and said:
"Am I to understand, from your remark made a short time ago, that you,
too, have suspected this mysterious brig, Mr Smellie?"
"Yes," answered Smellie, "I certainly had a vague feeling that there was
something queer about her; but my suspicions were not nearly so clear
and strong as Hawkesley's, and subsequent events quite drove the matter
out of my mind."
"Um!" remarked the skipper meditatively; "it is strange, _very_ strange.
_I_ never noticed anything peculiar about the craft."
"The brig is now about half a mile distant, sir, and is making sail,"
reported Armitage at that moment, presenting himself again at the cabin
door.
"Then wait until the hands are out of his rigging; then slip, and we
will be after him. I intend to see to the bottom of this," returned the
skipper sharply. "There is undoubtedly something wrong or poor Austin
would have turned up on board before matters had reached this stage.
But, mind, let the work be carried on without an unnecessary sound of
any kind."
As Armitage again withdrew and Smellie rose to his feet, Captain Vernon
turned to me and said:
"I am very greatly obliged to you for the zeal and discretion you have
manifested in this most delicate matter, Hawkesley; whatever comes of it
I shall remember that you have acted throughout to the very best of your
ability, not coming to me precipitately with a vague unconnected story,
but waiting patiently until you had accumulated a sufficiency of
convincing evidence for us to act upon; though, even now we must be very
cautious as to what we do. And let me also add that Mr Smellie has
spoken to me in the highest terms of your conduct throughout that trying
time when you and he were ashore together; indeed he assures me that to
you, under God, he is indebted for the actual preservation of his life.
I have watched you carefully from the moment of your first coming on
board, and I have been highly gratified with your conduct throughout.
Go on as you have begun, young sir, and you will prove an ornament to
the service. And now, gentlemen, to business."