"It is just questionable whether it would not, after all, be the best
plan to let the scoundrels get right away, and then launch the French
boat."
"That's no good," interrupted Harry; "the French boat is stove. Sam
thought of that last night; says he: `If we don't mind our weather heye,
that there feller aft may break his way out from below a'ter we're gone,
and get away in t'other boat.' And Dirk, he says: `Tike the "doctor's"
coal hammer and smash in a bottom plank. That'll stop any sich little
gime as you speaks of, Sam.' And a'ter a little more talk, Sam ups and
does it while you was below, asleep."
"The scoundrels!" ejaculated I fiercely. "So they are absolutely
determined to murder us, are they? Very well; their blood be on their
own heads! Now listen to me, Harry." And therewith I unfolded my final
plans, and gave him a few last instructions; after which Harry went on
deck again, to be there in the event of any of the others taking it into
their heads to go on deck and have a look round.
Anxious to get as much rest as possible, I flung myself down upon one of
the sofa-lockers; but my nerves were just then rather too tautly strung,
and all my senses too keenly on the alert, to admit of anything like
sound sleep, and I simply dozed, hearing Harry's every movement on deck,
until the grey light of dawn began to ooze down through the skylight,
when I went to my berth, soused my head in a basin of cold water, had a
good refreshing wash, and then went on deck to look round; the people
forward appearing on deck at the precise moment when I emerged from the
companion. They seemed to be rather disconcerted at seeing me, but I
feigned not to have noticed it, devoting my immediate attention to the
weather. It was quite fine now, with a nice little royal breeze from
about due east; the sea had gone down wonderfully during the night, and
there was very little more than the heavy swell to contend with, while
even that looked a great deal more formidable than it really was. As
for the brig, she was much more buoyant than I had expected to find her;
I gave her fully six hours longer to live--quite long enough to enable
the wretches who meditated my destruction to repair and launch the boat
that they had wilfully damaged, while the job would occupy them long
enough to enable me to gain a good start and get clear away from them.
The cook went to his galley, and lighted his fire, quite in the ordinary
way, and set about preparing breakfast, while the rest, going to the
_City of Cawnpore's_ gig, looked into her, talking together in low
tones. Then they cast off the gripes and tackle falls, and lowered her
until her gunwale was just level with the rail, when they began to pass
into her and stow the kegs of water, provisions, and other matters that
they intended taking with them; and by the extreme care that each man
bestowed upon the storage of his own particular bundle of "dunnage," I
felt tolerably certain that their respective parcels of gems were
concealed therein. Seeing them thus employed, I slipped down below,
gave Miss Onslow a call, and then returned to the deck with her and my
own bundle, together with the chronometer and sextant, all of which, in
an easy, off-hand manner, I placed in the stern-sheets. As I did so,
the man Sam looked up, and exclaimed savagely:
"Here, what the--" but was instantly interrupted by one of his mates,
who murmured a few words in his ear.
"What is the matter?" demanded I, with a great affectation of innocence;
"surely there is room in the boat for the few things belonging to the
lady and myself?"
"Oh, ay," he growled surlily; "there's room enough--or, if there ain't,
we'll _make_ room, so's you and the lady shall have plenty o' clothes
for your trip--eh, mates?"
The others responded with a sinister laugh at the grim humour of the
joke; but without taking any notice, I looked on at the work with just
that amount of interest that I might be reasonably expected to take,
until the steward called me to say that breakfast was ready. Then, with
a glance of intelligence at Harry--to which he responded--I turned away
and went below.
The breakfast was a very good one--just the substantial, appetising kind
that one would wish to sit down to upon such an occasion; and I did
ample justice to it. At length, at what I judged to be the right
moment, I signed to Miss Onslow to go on deck, and then rose to my feet
as though to follow her; but instead of springing up the companion
ladder I turned to the steward, seized him by the throat, and flung him
violently to the deck. The shock stunned him; and before he recovered
consciousness I had got him lashed arms and legs together, like a
trussed fowl, with a gag in his mouth that I had already prepared for
the purpose. Making sure that he was quite secure, and could not
possibly release himself, or cry out, I dashed up the companion ladder,
and drew over the slide, securing it and the doors with wedges. Harry
was sitting on the windlass barrel, taking his breakfast _al fresco_,
and acting as lookout generally while the others breakfasted below; and
directly he saw me throw up my hand as a signal to him, he slid off the
windlass, crept softly to the fore-scuttle, and swiftly closed the
hatch, securing it by thrusting a wooden pin through the staple. There
was an immediate outcry from below, quickly followed by savage bangs
upon the underside of the hatch; but, taking no notice of these
manifestations, the fellow rushed aft and at once assisted me to place
Miss Onslow in the gig. Then, springing to the tackle falls, we lowered
the boat smartly the short remaining distance to the water, and,
springing into her, unhooked the tackles and shoved clear of the brig.
Then, still working for our lives, we stepped the mast, set the sails,
and headed the boat to the northward. Nor were we much too quick; for
we had scarcely placed a cable's length between us and the brig when we
heard a crash aboard her, and the next instant we saw the fellows rising
out of the forecastle and rushing aft. Of course they at once caught
sight of us, and promptly blazed away with their pistols at us; but none
of the bullets came anywhere near. Then they began to shout
imprecations at us, and prayers to us to return; but we remained equally
deaf to both, and in a few minutes--the boat slipping nimbly along
through the water--we were out of hearing of them, and congratulating
ourselves and each other upon our good luck in having succeeded in so
neatly effecting our escape without being obliged to fight for the
possession of the boat.
I headed north, with the intention of making Staten Island if possible;
but we had scarcely been under way two hours when Harry, who was
forward, keeping a lookout, sighted a sail dead to windward, heading our
way, and we at once so manoeuvred the boat as to intercept her. She
came bowling down toward us, hand over hand, and when she was within
about three miles of us I made her out to be a frigate. She was coming
so directly for us that it was impossible for us to miss each other, and
within half an hour of the moment when we first discovered her I had the
supreme satisfaction of assisting Florence up the side of Her Britannic
Majesty's ship _Ariadne_, commanded by my former shipmate and very good
friend Harry Curtis; while half an hour later the five men whom I had
left aboard the brig were taken off her, and safely lodged in irons on
the _Ariadne's_ lower deck. Of the excitement that ensued upon our
rescue I have no space to dwell; suffice it to say that the _Marie
Renaud_ had duly arrived in Table Bay, and had there reported the act of
piracy of which she had been the victim, my letter being at the same
time placed in the hands of the authorities, who, after a proper amount
of deliberation, had despatched the _Ariadne_ in search of the piratical
brig.
Is there anything else to tell? I think not, except it be to mention
that Miss Onslow was the heroine of the ship, and every man, fore and
aft, her devoted slave during our passage to the Cape, where the six
survivors of O'Gorman's gang were duly put upon their trial for piracy
upon the high seas. The man Harry, acting upon my advice, offered to
turn Queen's Evidence; and the favourable report that I was able to make
of his conduct caused his offer to be accepted, with the result that he
received a free pardon, while Dirk the Dutchman was sentenced to death,
and the other four to penal servitude for life; the Dutchman, however,
cheated the gallows by _dying_ in prison of his wounds, after lingering
for so long a time that it seemed as though he would after all recover.
"And the gems that were the prime cause of so much of your trouble--what
became of them?" I fancy I hear some fair reader exclaim.
Well, there proved to be such insuperable difficulties in the way of
establishing their rightful ownership that the Home Government very
kindly undertook the charge of them until the man who could
satisfactorily prove his right to them should put in an appearance. It
was a marvellously curious circumstance, however, that I should have
happened to anticipate this precise difficulty and its probable
solution, almost at the moment when I first identified the distant
_Ariadne_ as a man-o'-war; with the result that--well, there is no need
to be _too_ explicit, is there? it will perhaps suffice if I say that
the seaman Harry is to-day living very comfortably indeed as an
independent gentleman of considerable means; while the four magnificent
suites of jewellery--rubies, diamonds, emeralds, and pearls--that Mrs
Charles Conyers, _nee_ Florence Onslow, sports from time to time are the
eternal envy and admiration of all who get the opportunity to see them.