The effect of this appeal was electrical, not only on the skipper, but
on all of us standing by.
"Great heavens, man!" cried the captain, staring at the other in wild
astonishment. "What do you mean? I cannot understand you, sir. Your
ship, you say--"
"My words are plain enough, captain," said the stranger, interrupting
the skipper. "Our ship, the _Saint Pierre_, is in the possession of a
gang of Haytian negroes who rose on us while we were on the high seas
and murdered most of the officers and the crew. They then threw poor
Captain Alphonse, who commanded her, overboard, after they had half
killed him, and the rest of the unfortunate sailors and passengers,
amongst them my little daughter, are now at the mercy of the black
devils!"
"My God!" exclaimed the skipper, confounded by this lucid statement.
"And you, sir?"
"I am an American!" said the other with a proud air, drawing himself up
to his full height of six feet and more, and with his eyes flashing,
while a red flush mounted to his cheeks, which had formerly been deadly
pale. "I'm a white man, captain, and it's not likely I would stand by
and see people of my own colour butchered! Of course, sir, I went to
the poor captain's assistance, but then the murderers served me almost
as badly as they did him, chucking me overboard after him."
"I beg your pardon, sir, I'm sure, for appearing to doubt your story,"
cried the skipper, stretching forward his hand, which the other eagerly
grasped. "The fact is, sir, I thought at first your sufferings had set
your head wrong; but now I need hardly say I believe thoroughly every
word you've told us, and you may rely on my aid and that of every man
aboard here to help you and yours. There's my hand on it, sir, and my
word you'll find as good as my bond, so sure as my name is Jack
Applegarth!"
"And mine, captain, is Vereker, Colonel Vereker, at your service,"
returned the other, reciprocating the skipper's cordiality as he looked
him straight in the face, holding his hand the while in a firm grip. He
let go the skipper's fist, however, the next moment and a puzzled
expression came into his eyes as he glanced round occasionally,
apparently in search of some one or other. "Heavens! Where's my
unfortunate comrade who was in the boat with me--poor Captain Alphonse?
Alas, I had forgotten him!"
"We have not forgotten him, though, colonel," said the skipper smiling.
"He has been carried below to the saloon on the maindeck, where my
second mate, Mr O'Neil, who is a qualified surgeon, is now attending to
his injuries. He has been terribly mauled, poor fellow; we could see
that!"
"Aye, terribly!" repeated the other with a shudder, as if the
recollection of all he and his fellow-sufferers had gone through
suddenly came back to him at the moment. "But, great Heavens! captain,
we're losing time and that accursed ship with those scoundrels and our
remaining comrades, and with my darling child on board, is speeding away
while we're talking here. You will, will you not, Senor Applegarth, go
in pursuit of her, my friend?"
"By George I will, colonel; I will at once--immediately--if you'll tell
me her bearings," cried the skipper excitedly. "When was it this
terrible affair happened? When did you leave the ship, and where?"
"The revolt of the blacks, or mutiny, I should call it, captain, broke
out four days ago, on last Friday, indeed, sir," said the American
promptly in his deep musical voice, and whose foreign accent obliterated
all trace of the unmelodious Yankee twang. "But we kept the rascals at
bay until last night, soon after sundown, when they made an ugly rush
and overpowered us. Captain Alphonse had just sighted your vessel in
the distance and was burning a blue light over the stern to attract your
attention, so as to get assistance at the time this happened."
"Was yours a large, full-rigged ship?"
"Yes, sir, the _Saint Pierre_ is of good size and had all her sails
set," replied the other to the skipper's question. "We were running
before the wind with our helm lashed amidship, as it had been since the
previous Friday, for we were all too busy defending our lives to think
of attending to the ship."
"Steering about nor'-east, I suppose?"
"Confound it, captain!" said the colonel impatiently. "We were
drifting, I tell you, sir, at the mercy of the elements, and heaven only
knows how we were going! Fortunately, the weather was pretty fair, save
the very day the mutiny broke out, when it blew heavily and our canvas
got split to pieces as there was no one to go aloft and take it in.
Otherwise we must have gone to the bottom!"
"By George!" exclaimed the skipper, turning round to old Masters and
myself, who were still standing by with the hands who had come aft to
haul up the boat. "Then my bo'sun here, and this young officer were
right when they declared they saw a large full-rigged ship to the
westward of us, though I only noticed the light of your flare-up. You
were too far off for me to make you out."
"_Ojala_!" ejaculated the American, reverting again to the familiar
Spanish tongue in his emotion. "Would to God, captain, you _had_ seen
us!"
"It would have been useless if I had, my friend," said the skipper
soothingly. "We couldn't move to come to your assistance if every soul
on board had seen you and known your peril, sir; for our engines were
broken-down and we were not able to get up steam again until late this
afternoon, when we ran down to pick you up!"
"But, sir," hastily whispered the colonel, suppressing a sob of emotion,
"you can and will steam now?"
"Why ask?" replied the skipper. "The moment we know where to go in
search of your ship, that very moment we'll start and try to overhaul
her. You say you quitted her last night?"
"Quitted her? We were _thrown_ overboard, sir, by the black devils!"
Captain Applegarth in reply said calmly, "Yes, yes, of course,"
accepting the correction and trying by his manner to soothe the
infuriated man. "But what time was that?"
"I can't say the exact hour," replied the American, whose vexed tone
showed that the captain's methodical mode of setting to work did not
quite harmonise with the excited state of his feelings. "I think,
however, it must have been nearly seven o'clock, as well, sir, as I can
remember."
Then I chimed in. "Ah!" I exclaimed quickly, "that was just the _very
time_ that Masters and I heard the shooting in the distance to win'ard,
and it was six bells in the second dog watch!"
"So it were, Master Haldane; so it were," agreed the old boatswain,
looking from me to the skipper and then at Colonel Vereker. "Well, I'm
blowed! and I'm glad, then, for that there ghost-ship wor a rael ship
arter all said and done. Now who was right, I'd like to know?"
"Of course it was a real ship, you old dotard!" said the skipper gruffly
and looking angrily at him. "Of course it was," he added, while our new
acquaintance looked at us, unable, naturally, to understand the mystical
allusion; but Captain Applegarth soon turned his roving thoughts into
another direction by asking him a second question. "How long did you
keep in sight of your vessel after leaving her, colonel, do you think?"
"She was in full view of us at sunrise this morning," replied the
American. "The boat in which we were adrift kept near her all night as
there was very little wind, if any. A slight breeze sprang up shortly
after the sun rose and she then steadily increased her distance from us
as the day wore on, finally disappearing from my gaze about noon, and
taking with her my little darling, my pet, my Elsie."
The poor fellow broke down again at this point throwing up his hands
passionately and burying his face in them, his whole frame convulsed
with sobs, though not a man present thought his emotion a thing to be
ashamed of, all of us being deeply interested in his narrative, and as
anxious as himself for the skipper to start off in pursuit of the black
mutineers and pirates.
We were not long kept in suspense, the colonel's last words and violent
burst of emotion apparently touching our "old man's" feelings deeply,
and hastening his decision.
"Cheer up, sir, cheer up," said he to the other, whose shoulders still
shook with his deep hysterical sobs. "And we'll find your little girl
yet for you all right, and restore her to you, and we'll settle matters
too, with those scoundrels, I promise. Now tell me how far off do you
think the ship must have drifted from us by now, Mr Fosset."
"Between twenty and thirty miles, sir," replied the first mate. "She
was lighter than us, and of course she had the advantage of what wind
there has been, though, thank goodness, that has been little enough!"
"Away to the nor'-east, I suppose?"
"Aye, aye, sir," said Mr Fosset. "The breeze, what there was, has been
from the sou'-east and the current trends in the same direction."
"Then if we steer east-nor'-east we ought to pick her up soon?"
"Not a doubt of it, sir. We have four good hours of daylight left yet!"
"Precisely my opinion," cried the skipper. "Mr Stokes, will the
engines stand full speed now, do you think?"
"Oh, yes, sir," replied the old chief, who with the rest of us was all
agog to be after the strange ship again, now that he had heard the
colonel's explanation of her true character, "if you'll send some one
below to tell Stoddart what you want. I would go myself, but I'm rather
shaky in getting down the hatchway as yet. I twisted my arm just now
when I went down."
"That's all right. Stoddart, I am sure, will excuse you," said the
skipper kindly, and turning to me he added: "You, Haldane, run down and
tell Stoddart we want all the steam we can get. He won't spare the
engines, I know, when he knows the circumstances of the case, and you
will explain matters!"
So saying, the skipper started off forwards in the direction of the
bridge, while I dived down the engine-room hatchway, reaching the
machinery-flat just as the "old man" sounded the gong to put on full
speed ahead, the telegraph working quick as if he were in a great hurry!
Ere I could tell my story Stoddart sent an answering blast up the steam
pipe to let the skipper know his signal was being attended to; and then,
pulling back the lever of the throttle valve, the piston began to go up
and down, the cylinder oscillated from side to side and the crank shaft
revolved at first slowly, but presently faster and faster until we were
now going to the utmost of our pace.
All this while I was yarning away, though I had to shout to the top of
my voice in order to overcome the noise of the machinery, as I described
all that had occurred.