Michael Ladelle was a good-looking lad, as people judge good looks; but
at that moment, as he stood with his hand resting on the bulwarks of _La
Belle-Marie_, he was decidedly plain, so blank and semi-idiotic did he
seem, with his eyes dilated, his jaw dropped and his brains evidently
gone wool-gathering, as people say, so utterly unable was he to
comprehend his companion's announcement.
Still it was only a matter of moments before he shut his mouth, and then
nearly closed his eyes, wrinkled up his face, and burst into a fit of
laughter, which, however, was of so hysterical a nature that for a time
he could not check it. At last, though, he mastered it sufficiently to
say,--
"To do what with us?"
"To sell," said Vince again, as he gazed sadly in his companion's face.
"To sell!" cried Mike, growing more calm now; and his voice had a ring
of contempt in it as he said,--
"Why, any one would think this was Africa, and we were blacks. What
nonsense!"
"It isn't nonsense," said Vince. "That man will do anything sooner than
have it known where his hiding-place is; and he won't kill us--he dares
not on account of his men; but he'll get us out of the way so that we
shan't be able to tell."
"Oh, I won't believe it!" cried Mike angrily. "Such a thing couldn't be
done."
"But it has been done over and over again," said Vince: "I've read of
it. They used to sell men and boys to sea-captains to take out to the
plantations; and once they were there, they had no chance given them of
getting back for years and years."
"I don't believe it," said Mike sharply. "It might have been in the
past, but it couldn't be done now."
"That's what I've been trying to think," said Vince sadly; "but this
wouldn't be done in England. This is a Frenchman, and the French have
colonies abroad, the same as we have. How do we know where he'll take
us?" Mike started at this, and looked more disturbed. "I say," he said
at last, "you don't really think that, do you, Vince?"
"I wish I didn't," replied the boy sadly; "but it's what has seemed to
come to me, since we've been on board here. I don't know where this man
comes from, but he's a regular smuggler, and there's no knowing where
he'll take us."
"But my father--your father--you don't suppose they'll stand still and
let us be taken off without trying to stop it. Father's just like a
magistrate in the island."
"Of course they wouldn't stand still and allow it to be done; but how
will they know?"
Mike was silent, and his face now began to look haggard as he stared at
his companion.
"Whoever knew that this Captain Jacques had a place in the island where
he stored rich cargoes of foreign things? Why, he may have been doing
it for years, and your father, though he is like a magistrate, hasn't
known anything about it."
"No, nor your father either," said Mike sadly. "I don't think anything
of that," continued Vince; "what I do think a great deal of is that
neither you nor I, who've always been climbing about the cliffs and
boating shouldn't have found it out before."
"But surely now we're missing they'll find it out," cried Mike, who was
ready to snatch at any straw of hope.
"I don't see how," said Vince. "They're sure to think that one of us
met with an accident, and that the other was drowned in trying to save
him."
Mike was silent for some moments, during which he stood gazing wistfully
at his fellow-prisoner.
"That would be very nice of them to think that of us," he said at last,
slowly. "But do you think they would believe us likely to be so brave?"
"Oh yes, they'd think so," said Vince quickly--"I'm sure they would; but
I don't know about it's being brave. It's only what two fellows would
do one for the other. It's what English chaps always do, of course, but
it's like making a lot of fuss about it to call it brave. I should say
it's what a fellow should do, that's all."
"And no one knows--no one saw us go to the hole," said Mike bitterly.
"Oh, I say, Vince, we have made a mess of it to keep it a secret."
"Yes, we have, and no mistake."
"And no one knows," repeated Mike thoughtfully. "Don't you think
Lobster might know, and tell them?"
"No, I'm sure he can't. Of course old Joe knows; but he won't speak,
because if he did, and told the truth, the captain here would be ready
to shoot him."
"And my father would have him locked up, and tried for what he has
done."
"Yes," said Vince, nodding his head; "Joe won't speak--you may depend
upon that. Why, Mike, while we were fishing for that crab, and were so
still, some one must have come across the cave behind us and never known
we were there."
"Yes, and then we were caught as fast as the crab was and--"
"_Eh bien, mes enfans_, my good boy, are you hungry for your dinner?"
"Not very," said Vince, turning sharply as the skipper came silently up
behind them. "We feel as if we should like to dine at home."
"Aha! You not mean zat, my _bon garcon_. Not ven I ask you to have
dine vis me. Let us go and demand vat ze cook man--ze _chef_--have to
give us, for it is long time since ze _dejeuner_ and ve have much to do
after. Come, sheer up, as ze sailor _Anglais_ say. You like ze sea?"
"Yes," said Vince; "both of us do."
"And you can reef and furl ze sail?"
"Yes, we've often been in a boat."
"Brava! it is good; and, aha! ze brave cook go to prepare ze cabin for
ze dinnaire. You sall bose be my compagnie _cet_--to-day."
Just then Vince caught sight of one of the lugger's boats, and noticed
that it was particularly broad and punt-like in make, evidently so that
it should carry a big load and at the same time draw little water--a
shape that would save it from many dangers in passing over rocks, and
also be very convenient for running in and landing upon the sands.
This boat was very heavily laden with bales, carefully ranged and
stacked, while the boat's gunwale was so close to the surface that a
lurch would have caused the water to flow in.
But the men who managed her seemed to be quite accustomed to their task;
and after a sharp look directed at them by the skipper, he paid no more
attention, but walked away.
It was different, though, with the boys; who, having ideas of their own
connected with escaping from their position, watched the approach of the
boat with intense curiosity, wondering how it could be rowed so easily
against a current which ran with such tremendous force.
"I can't make it out," said Vince, as the boat came closer, and
apparently with very little effort on the part of the men after they had
passed out by the opening by which the prisoners had been brought on
board.
"How is it, then?" said Mike.
"I suppose it's because they know all the currents so well. It's very
hard to see; but I think that, as the water rushes round this cove and
goes right across, most of it passes through the openings into our bay
and makes all that swirling there."
"Of course it does," replied Mike. "I can see that."
"Well, you might let me finish," said Vince. "All this water flows
right across."
"You said that before."
"And then," continued Vince, without noticing the interruption, "part of
it which there isn't room for at the openings strikes against the rocks,
and can't get any farther."
"Of course it can't."
"Well, it must go somewhere: water can't be piled-up in a heap and stay
like that; so it's reflected--no, you can't call it reflected--it's
turned back, and forms another stream, which flows back this way."
"It couldn't be," said Mike shortly.
"Well, that's the only way I can see, and that boat has come as easily
as can be. Yes, I'm sure that's it, Ladle; and you may depend upon it
that three or four feet down the water's rushing one way, while on the
surface it's flowing in the other direction."
"Ah, well, it doesn't matter to us," said Mike bitterly, as the boat was
brought up alongside cleverly, made fast, and her crew began to rapidly
pass the bales over on to the deck, all being of one size, and, as Vince
noticed, of a convenient size and weight for one man to handle.
"But it does matter to us, Mike," whispered Vince eagerly.
"Why?"
"Because you and I couldn't manage one of those big boats unless the
currents helped us; but if we knew how these men managed them--"
"We could slip into one of them in the dark and get away."
Vince nodded, and Mike drew a deep breath.
"Don't look like that," whispered Vince; "here's Jacques coming to ask
us why we don't help."
But they were wrong, for the captain took them each by the shoulder, his
hands tightening with a heavy grip, which seemed to suggest that he
could hold them much harder if he liked; and in this way he marched them
before him to the cabin-hatch.
"Down vis you!" he said. "To-day you sall be vis me; to-morrow vis ze
crew."
"Aren't you going to let us go back to-morrow?" said Vince quickly.
"_Non_! Go down."
That first word was French, but any one would have understood what it
meant--the tone was sufficient.
The boys gave a sharp look round the little cabin, which was plain
enough, with its lockers for seats, and narrow table, which just
afforded room for the three who entered the place.
"Sit," said the captain shortly; and, directly after, "_Mangez_--eat.
You do not understand--_comprends_--ze _Francais_?"
"We do--a little," said Mike.
"Aha! zat is good," said the captain, with a peculiar laugh. "Zen ve
sall be _bons amis_--good friend, eh? Now eat. You like soup, fish,
eh?"
"We don't like to be taken off like this, sir," said Vince, who turned
away from the food, good as it was, with disgust, wondering the while
how he could have eaten so hearty a meal with the captain before. "We
want to know what you are going to do with us."
"Ah, truly you vant to know," said the captain, partaking of his soup
the while. "But ze ship boys do not ask question of ze _capitaine_."
"But we're not ship's boys," said Mike haughtily. "We are gentlemen's
sons, and we want to know by what right you drag us away from home."
"Aha! yes; you eat your soup, _mon_ brave boy, vile he is hot. Perhaps
ze storms come to-morrow, and you are vere you get no soups no more,
eh?"
"Look here, sir," said Mike, flushing in his excitement, "will you set
us ashore somewhere if we promise not to tell?"
"_Non_," said the captain shortly. "Ve talk about all zat before! Eat
your soup."
For answer Mike dropped his spoon upon the table, and the captain glared
at him viciously, but passed his anger off with an unpleasant laugh.
"Aha," he said, "you vill not eat. I know. Ze _souris_--ze mouse, you
know, valk himselfs into ze trap and spoil ze appetite. Ze toast cheese
is not taste good, eh?"
Vince had his own ideas, and he ate a few spoonfuls of the soup and took
some bread; but it seemed to choke him, and he soon put down his spoon,
and the man, who seemed to act as cook and steward, took away the tureen
and brought in the fish--the soles they had seen--well cooked and
appetising; but the boys could not eat, in spite of the easy banter with
which the captain kept on addressing them, and the fish gave way to
cutlets and vegetables.
"Ah, I see," said their captor at last: "you vill not eat, and I know ze
reason. _Ma foi_, and it is too late to make ze _amende_ you call him.
You bose mean to eat ze grand krebs you 'ave catch and 'ave give him to
ze men. _Helas_! it is, as you say, a pity. Now you forget him, and
eat ze cotelette. To-morrow you not like ze dinner vis ze crew, and,"
he added, with a grin, "you may bose be vairy sick--_malade-de-mer_,
eh?"
He helped them both liberally, but they could not eat; and soon after
they followed their host on deck, to find that the hatches were off, and
the bales all carefully stacked below, while the emptied boat had
disappeared and another was on the way, Vince paying great heed to the
manner in which she glided up to the lugger just about amidships.
By the time it was dusk five heavy loads had been brought on board, and
the hatches were then replaced, the boats all but one being hoisted to
the davits, the other left swinging by its painter from a ring-bolt
astern; and from the number of men aboard the boys judged that no one
was left at the caves. They noticed too that, contrary to custom, no
light was hoisted anywhere about the vessel, and that, though there were
lanthorns in the men's cabin forward, and in the captain's aft, no gleam
shone forth to play upon the water.
No one seemed to pay any heed to the prisoners, who went from place to
place to gaze now up at the darkening rocks, with the stars above them
beginning to twinkle faintly here and there, now down at the black
waters, which, as the night deepened, began to reflect the bright points
of light from the heavens. But soon after, to take their attention a
little from their cares, they began to notice that the dark depths below
them were alive with light--little specks, that looked like myriads of
stars in motion, rising from below the vessel's keel, coming rapidly
towards the surface and then gliding rapidly away. Every now and then
there was a flash of light, just as if a pale greenish-golden flame had
darted through the water from below; and, after noticing this several
times, Vince said quietly--
"Fish feeding."
"Don't," said Mike petulantly. "Who's to think about fish feeding, when
we're like this? You don't seem to mind it a bit."
"Don't I?" said Vince quietly; "but I do. Every time I see one of those
little jelly-fish sailing along there, it makes me think of the light in
our window at home--the one mother always puts there when I'm up at your
place, so that I may see it from ever so far along the road. Father
always jokes about it, and says it's nonsense, but she puts it there all
the same; and it's there now, Mike, for she's sure to say I may have
been carried out to sea in some boat and be coming back to-night."
"Oh, don't--don't!" groaned Mike: "it seems too horrid to hear."
"Hush! what's that?" said Vince. "Only a seabird calling somewhere off
the water."
"No, it isn't," whispered Vince. "One of the men wouldn't have answered
a seabird like that. It's a boat coming from somewhere out yonder."
"No boat would come through such a dark night, with all these dangerous
currents among the rocks."
But a minute later a boat did glide out of the darkness, a rope was
thrown over the bulwarks, made fast, and as a man climbed over on to the
deck the captain came out of his cabin and went forward to where the
fresh comer was standing.
It was so dark that they could not make out what he was like, but in the
stillness every word spoken could be heard; and they recognised the
voice directly, as, in answer to a growl from the captain about being
late, the man said,--"Been here long enough ago, Skipper Jarks, if it
had been any good, but she don't rise to it to-night. I've been hanging
about ever so long, but she don't touch what she should. There won't be
enough water for you on the rocks to-night by a foot."
"_Peste_!" ejaculated the captain; "and I vant to go. But after an
hour, vat den?"
"Be just as she is now, skipper. Wind's been agen it since sundown, and
kep' the water back: you won't get off to-night."
"Bah!" ejaculated the captain angrily; but he changed his manner
directly: "Ah, vell, my friend Daygo, ve must vait, eh? You vill stay
vis me here?"
"Nay," said the man. "I'll have to go back. I'm cruising about round
the island a-looking for them two young shavers."
The captain turned his head sharply round and looked aft; but, keen as
his sea-going eyes were, the presence of the boys passed unnoticed, and,
probably concluding that they were farther aft, the captain said in a
lower tone, but still perfectly audible.
"Dey look for zem?"
"Look for 'em? The whole island's been at it 'bout the rocks and
cliffs, and with every boat out; but do you know, Skipper Jarks, they
arn't fund 'em."
The old scoundrel chuckled, and Mike heard Vince's teeth grate together;
and then directly after, he drew a deep breath, like a sigh, for the
captain said softly,--
"And zey vill not find zem, eh?"
"They've been all day a-looking for their corpusses--for they're dead
now."
"Aha! so soon?"
"Ay, skipper; they say they've gone off the rocks and been drownded, and
when they told me I says I wondered they hadn't been years ago, for they
was the owdaciousest pair as ever I see. They'd do anything they took
in their heads."
"Aha! is it so?" said the captain.
"Ay, Skipper Jarks, it's so; but I'm 'fraid I shan't find their
corpusses to-night. What do you say?"
"Nosing, _mon ami_: I on'y sink zat ze brave pilot. Josef Daygo, who
know evairy rock and courant about ze island, vill find zem if any ones
do. But, my friend, vat you sink? Zey find ze vay down to ze cave?"
"Nay, not they. Nobody can climb down they rocks."
"And you sink zere is no one who find ze leetler passage?"
"Sure of it, skipper. If any one had found that there way down do you
think he'd ha' kep' it to hisself? Nay, I should ha' been sure to ha'
heered it, and if I had I'd ha' done some'at as 'd startled him as tried
to go down. On'y one man in the Crag know'd of that till they two
dropped upon it somehow. I dunno how. It's been a wonder to me,
though, as nobody never did. Well, I must be going back: I've got a
rough bit to do 'fore I gets home, and then I've got to go up to the
Doctor's."
"Vell, you vill eat and drink somesing," said the captain. "Come to ze
cabin, and ve sall see."
As it happened, he led the way across the deck, and then along the port
side aft to the cabin-hatch, from whence came soon after the call for
the cook, who went to and fro carrying plates and glasses, while the two
boys still stood in their former places, leaning over the bulwarks and
apparently watching the phosphorescent creatures in the sea, but seeing
none.
It was some time before either of them spoke, and then it was Vince who
broke the silence.
"So we're both dead and swept out to sea, are we?" he said.
He waited for a few moments, and then, as Mike did not speak, he said,
in a low whisper:
"I say, Mike, shouldn't you like to take a piece of rock and drop it
through old Joe's boat?"
"No."
"Well, I should. Of all the old rascals that I ever heard of he seems
to be about the worst. Why, he's regularly mixed up with this gang.
Did you hear? It seems that you can only get in and out at certain
times of the tide, and nobody knows how to pilot any one in but old Joe
Daygo."
"Did you understand it to be like that?" said Mike eagerly.
"Yes, he seems to be the regular pilot, and comes to take this French
lugger in and to steer it out among the rocks. Oh, it's terrible; and
we've got old Joe to blame for all our troubles. I wish we'd sunk his
boat."
"Shouldn't we have sunk ourselves too?"
"Well, perhaps. I should like to drop something through its bottom."
"I shouldn't," said Mike quietly. "Why not? It would serve him well
right."
"Because I should like to use it ourselves."
"Eh? What do you mean?" said Vince excitedly. "Now, younkers," said a
voice behind them, "skipper says I'm to show you two to your bunks."
It was a rough, hairy-faced fellow who spoke to them, though in the
darkness they did not get a very good view of his features.
"To our bunks?" said Vince.
"Yes; come along. You're lucky: you've got a place all to yourselves."
He led them aft, to where a small hatchway stood, close to that of the
captain's cabin, from whence the sound of voices came so loudly that,
regardless of his companions' presence, the man stood and listened.
"But I tell you I must go back, skipper," said Daygo, "and it's getting
late."
"_Oui_--yais, I know zat, _mon ami_," said the captain; "but I have ze
good pilot on board, and it is late and ver' bad for him to go sail
among ze rock and courant. I say it is better he sall stay all ze
night, and not go run ze risk to drown himselfs. I cannot spare you. I
have you, Daygo. You are a so much valuable mans. So I sall keep you
till I sail."
"Keep me?" growled Daygo.
"Yais. You sall eat all as mosh as you vish, and drink more as you
vish, but you cannot go avay. It is not safe."
There was the sound of a heavy fist brought down upon the table, and
then the man, who had picked up a lanthorn, turned to them and said,--
"Down with you, youngsters!"
The boys obeyed, and the man followed.
"Old Daygo don't like having to stay," he said laughingly. "There you
are, lads!--just room for you both without touching. Shall I leave you
the lanthorn?"
"Please," said Vince. "Thank you.--I say--"
"Nay, you don't, lad," said the man, with gruff good humour; "you've
nothing to say to me, and I've nothing to say to you. I don't want the
skipper to come down on my head with a capstan bar. Here, both on you:
just a word as I will say--Don't you be sarcy to the skipper. He's
Frenchy, and he's got a temper of his own, so just you mind how you trim
your boats. There, good-night."
"One moment," said Vince, in a quick whisper.
_Bang_! went the door, and they heard a hasp put over a staple and a
padlock rattled in.
"Here, youngsters!" came through the door.
"What is it?"
"Mind you put out that light when you're in your bunks. Good-night!"
"Good-night," said Mike.
"Bad night," said Vince. And then: "Oh, Ladle, old chap, what shall we
do?"