the same time pressing forward, and, under cover of a pretence of
wishing to shake hands with him for the last time, slipped into his hand
the pencil note he had prepared. The transfer was effected unobserved;
and the doctor next stepping forward, soon found himself safely in the
boat beside his friend. The children were next carefully handed down by
Ned; after which, at a sign from Williams, first Mrs Gaunt and then
Mrs Henderson followed. There now remained only Sibylla to complete
the party; and she was in the act of advancing to the gangway, when--to
the unspeakable dismay of those most concerned--Williams, who was
standing on the rail, gave the order for both boats to shove off, at the
same moment leaping down off the rail on deck. His extraordinary order
must have been anticipated, so promptly was it obeyed; and before even
Gaunt could recover from his momentary surprise, the boats were fifty
yards away from the ship and heading for the shore, whilst the cries of
the hapless deserted girl rang fearfully out over the water after them.
The feeling of dismay naturally excited in the breasts of the
unfortunate passengers by this singular episode was of the briefest
possible duration, and was immediately succeeded by one of vexed
astonishment, that by what seemed like a cruel and inexcusably careless
oversight, a sensitive girl should have been subjected to even the most
temporary alarm; and whilst Mrs Henderson started to her feet with
clasped hands and wide-open startled eyes, Gaunt laid his hand on the
tiller, and jammed it hard over, as he exclaimed authoritatively:
"Back water, the starboard oars! pull, the port! round with her, men!
You have left Miss Stanhope behind!"
The men, looking surprisedly at each other, proceeded to obey the order,
upon which the new second-mate, who was in charge of the boat, started
to his feet, and prefacing the inquiry with an oath, demanded:
"Now then, you sodgers, what are you about? Who commands this here
boat? Give way, you swabs, and bend your backs to it, too, or there'll
be trouble for some of you when you gets back to the ship. It's all
right, sir," he continued, addressing Gaunt; "the young lady is to stay
where she is. It was all arranged by Williams and a few more of us
about half an hour ago, whilst you was all busy packing up your traps in
the cabin. The fact is like this here: None of us foremast hands
understands anything about navigation, so we've been obliged to press
young Ned into the sarvice; and we knows as how his heart ain't in the
job, and Williams sort of suspects that he'd play us a scurvy trick if
he dared. As long as you was with us he was all right, because, d'ye
see, Williams told him that if he played us false you'd be made to
suffer for it; but it suddenly struck him just now that when you was all
put ashore where should we be? So he and two or three more of us had a
palaver together, and the long and the short of it is that we decided to
keep the young woman with us as a `hostage,' Williams calls it, whereby
we shall keep the whip hand of the lad, as you may say. So all her
dunnage was passed down into the after-hold again on the quiet, and if
there's anything of hers in either of the boats we've got to take it
back aboard again. And Williams' very last orders was that I was to be
sure to tell you that you wasn't to worry about the young lady, because
we've all agreed that she shall be treated as a passenger with the
greatest possible respect, and not be interfered with by anybody."
"Oh, my poor sister--my poor lost sister!" moaned Mrs Henderson,
burying her face in her hands as she burst into a passion of hysterical
tears; and whilst Mrs Gaunt did her best to soothe and comfort her
unfortunate friend, Doctor Henderson and the engineer sought by every
means in their power to induce the boat's crew to return to the ship and
give them an opportunity to try their persuasive powers on Williams,
with the object of obtaining Miss Stanhope's release. Their efforts
proved utterly vain, the men positively refusing to go back; but hope
was not entirely abandoned nor their efforts suspended until they had
landed, and the boats were fairly out of ear-shot on their way back to
the ship.
CHAPTER EIGHT.
SIBYLLA THE HOSTAGE.
Sibylla no sooner heard Williams' order for the boats to shove off than
she intuitively divined the horrible fate in store for her; and,
resolved to effect her escape at any and every hazard, she darted toward
the gangway, determined to fling herself into the sea rather than be
left alone and unprotected in the midst of that gang of lawless men.
But Williams was too quick for her; he saw her movement, anticipated her
intention, and, leaping down off the rail, flung his arms around her,
exclaiming:
"Avast there, my pretty one; you are to stay with us! Nay, it is no use
to struggle; you will not be allowed to go, so you may as well submit
quietly to your fate. Curse the girl--how she fights! Stand still,
will you, and listen to me! The boats are already a hundred fathoms
away from the ship; there are half a dozen sharks cruising round us--I
saw them not five minutes ago; and if you were silly enough to jump
overboard, as you seem inclined to do, you would be torn to pieces
before we could even think about picking you up."
"Better that than to remain here at the mercy of such wretches as you!"
gasped Sibylla, still struggling feebly, for her strength was almost
exhausted.
"Well said, my beauty," laughed Williams; "you are a rare plucky one,
and no mistake. I like to see--"
"Hands off, Williams!" exclaimed Ned, as he stepped coldly forward to
the rescue. "What do you mean, sir, by such dastardly conduct? Do you
call this keeping faith with me?"
"Yes, of course I do," exclaimed Williams. "I don't want to hurt her if
she'll only keep quiet. Here, Ned, you take charge of her. She'll be
quieter with you than with me, perhaps; and see if you can persuade her
that she will be better off here than overboard among the sharks. As to
keeping faith with you, my hearty, why, I've done the best I could.
Those friends of yours, that you seem to have taken such a tremendous
fancy to, have been treated just as well since we took the ship as they
were before. We've lost nearly three weeks cruising about trying to
find a good place on which to land them--and a perfect paradise of a
spot we've found for them at last; nobody could wish for a better--and,
now that they are turned adrift, I've landed them with an outfit
complete enough for them to start a regular colony. What more would you
have! Haven't I yet done enough to satisfy you?"
"No, certainly not," answered Ned, inwardly grieving now that he had not
ventured to add to the scanty "outfit" several other articles which he
had felt would have been of the utmost value to the marooned party, but
which he had feared to include lest the whole should have been refused
them. "No; this young lady was one of the party, and was included in my
stipulations. Yet you have detained her on board here, a prisoner."
"Ah, well! the less said about that, perhaps, the better," remarked
Williams. "I quite intended to have landed her with the rest of them;
but that island looming up ahead this morning--when you told us only
last night that we had a clear sea ahead of us--looked so queer that we
held a consultation, and came to the conclusion that, for our own
safety's sake, we ought to keep somebody aboard here to act as a sort of
hostage to secure us against treachery on your part; and, as we didn't
think it would be right to separate husband and wife, or parents and
children, why, you see, there was only this young lady left for us.
And, whilst we are talking upon this subject, shipmates," he continued,
turning to the rest of the crew, whose curiosity had brought them about
the little party, "let me say, here and now, that Bill Rogers, Bob
Martin, and myself agreed this morning that she must be kept among us
for the safety of the ship and all hands. You all know--for no secret
has been made of it--that Ned, there, has been kept with us, not of his
own free-will, but because we required somebody to navigate the ship for
us. And you know, too, or I know, that the lad has just that amount of
spirit in him that he wouldn't hesitate to cast away the ship and all
hands--himself included--or to play us any other awkward trick if he saw
a chance of spoiling our plans for the recovery of a few of the good
things that we've been defrauded out of. Now, so long as this young
girl is all safe and sound we have nothing to fear from his treachery,
because, d'ye see, I'm going to tell him and her--as I do now--that any
act, or even suspicion, of treachery on _his_ part will be followed by
the young woman being turned adrift by herself in the dinghy; and,
rather than see her come to harm, he will be faithful to us, and carry
out our orders to the best of his ability. But if evil comes to her we
shall lose our hold upon him at once--I say all this before him because
I've studied him and know him, and I want him to understand as much--and
it has, therefore, been agreed that any man who interferes with the
young lady will be shot at once and on the spot. So, now, mates, as
you've had the whole affair explained to you, it is to be hoped you'll
shape your behaviour accordingly."
"Stop a moment!" exclaimed Ned, as Williams waved his hand by way of
dismissal to his little audience, "it seems, from what Williams has
said, that Miss Stanhope has been detained a prisoner solely on my
account. If that be really the case, I wish to say that, if you will
release her and put her on shore with her friends on the island yonder,
I swear to you that, though I will never take part in any piracies or
other unlawful acts which you may commit, I will in every other respect
be absolutely faithful to you, and will navigate the ship whithersoever
you will, to the best of my ability. This is no light sacrifice for a
young man in my position to make; yet I will make it cheerfully, and
take any oath of fidelity you may choose to impose upon me."
"It is no use, Ned; we can't--we dare not do it," answered Williams.
"You mean what you say--_now_--I don't doubt; but if you ever had a
chance to betray us, as you may have, you wouldn't be able to resist the
temptation. No; the matter has been fully talked over, and the young
lady must stay."
Ned was about to make a further effort on Sibylla's behalf, but the girl
herself stopped him.
"Humble yourself no more to these men!" she said; "it will be of no
avail, I can clearly see. And trouble not yourself on my behalf. God
is able to protect me even here; His will be done!"
She turned away, and Ned, offering his arm, half led, half supported
Sibylla into the cabin; and, as he poured out and offered her a glass of
wine from a decanter which stood in one of the swinging trays over the
table, he exclaimed:
"Oh! Miss Stanhope, what can I say, or how express the sorrow and
regret I feel at the knowledge that it is through me you are placed in
this terrible position. Believe me--"
"Say no more, Mr Damerell, I entreat you," interrupted Sibylla. "I
know that you have no cause for self-reproach; we are both equally
unfortunate. For, if I am detained on board this ship a prisoner, so
are you; your prospects in life are as completely blighted as mine. And
I have at least the comfort of that man's assurance--in which I believe
he was quite sincere--that I shall be treated with consideration and
respect. Indeed, terrible as must be my position here, I am by no means
sure that I am not safer where I am than is my poor sister on that
lonely island. What may be her fate and that of those who are with her
who can tell? to what dangers and privations will not they be exposed?
It is terrible only to think of it. And now let me thank you for your
noble and self-sacrificing efforts just now on my behalf. Come what
will, I shall never forget them, nor shall I ever forget that you have
proved yourself our true and staunch friend, forgetting yourself and all
your own trouble and peril in your anxiety to help and befriend us.
Tell me, do you think there is any possibility of our ever being able to
make our escape from these dreadful people?"
"Well," said Ned, "I should not like to raise hopes which may never be
fulfilled, but I think there _is_ just a possibility of it. You must
not build too much on what I say, because it would be idle to deny that
our future is beset with difficulties and perils. The absence of your
brother-in-law, the doctor, and Mr Gaunt is an irreparable loss to us,
to say nothing of that of the captain and young Manners, both of whom
will, I feel sure, be landed somewhere within the next few days. But do
not despair; perhaps, when Williams has rid himself of them, his
vigilance may relax. I should, under any circumstances, have tried to
escape, and you may rest assured that, as your deliverance seems now to
depend almost wholly upon me, my thoughts will more than ever be given
to the project. What you have to do is to think as little as may be
upon your present situation and to keep up your spirits. A chance _may_
come to us at any moment--and I believe it _will_ come, sooner or later.
We must therefore be on the watch and hold ourselves ready to take
advantage of it when it comes. The accidents--if I may call them so--of
the sea are countless; we shall, by and by, be constantly hovering in
the regular track of other ships, and that, in spite of all their
vigilance, may afford us an opportunity to make our situation known. Or
we may be captured; for, if the rascals carry out their present plans,
it will not be long before we shall have all the men-of-war in these
seas after us. Or we may, perhaps, be able to effect our escape in a
boat. That gig of ours, in which our friends have been sent ashore is a
splendid boat; and if we could get away in her whilst in some well-
beaten ship track, with a good stock of provisions, we might well hope
to be picked up in the course of a few days. That, however, I should
only propose as a last resource. But the more I think of it the less
hopeless do our prospects appear; so keep a good heart, Miss Stanhope,
and hope for the best. By the by, do you know how to use a pistol?"
"Yes," said Sibylla, "I know how to use a revolver. Duncan has--or
had--a pair; and when we were at home he taught Rose and me how to fire
them, putting up a target in the garden for us to shoot at. Why do you
ask?"
"Because--although I think there is not much ground for apprehension--it
will do no harm if you have a weapon upon which you can lay your hand in
case of need. I have a pair of small revolvers which, though they are
not very formidable weapons for long-distance shooting, are tolerably
effective at close quarters, say within thirty yards or so. I will give
you them--they are in a case, with cartridges and so on all complete;
and I should like you to keep them always loaded and handy. And now, if
you feel sufficiently composed to be left alone, I think I will go out
on deck again and see how matters are progressing there."
When Ned reached the poop, to which he naturally directed his steps, he
found Williams there, fuming at the protracted absence of the boats,
which could clearly be seen, with their noses hauled up on the sandy
beach, and the two boat-keepers sitting in lazy attitudes on their
gunwales, quietly smoking. That the remainder of the crews were not
delayed by assisting the marooned passengers to "shake down" was
evidenced by the fact that the latter could be seen grouped together on
a little grassy knoll, the ladies and children seated upon boxes, whilst
the two men were vigorously attacking with their axes a couple of young
straight-stemmed palms at no great distance.
"What can the rascals be about?" growled Williams impatiently. "I'll
bet anything they are off skylarking in the woods, instead of hurrying
back to the ship, as they ought. For'ard, there! pass the word for the
boatswain to clear away one of those signal-guns. We'll give them a
shot by way of a reminder to quicken their motions."
The gun was cleared away, loaded, and fired--not once but nearly a dozen
times before the laggards appeared. They were seen at last, however,
hurrying down to the beach, in little straggling groups, one after the
other, and finally the boats pushed off and headed for the ship.
A quarter of an hour later they were alongside; and in another moment
the two men who had been sent away in charge stood on the quarter-deck,
confronting their angry chief.
"Come, Rogers I come, Martin! what the mischief have you been about,
keeping us dodging in the offing all this while?" demanded Williams
fiercely. "Hook on the tackles, and let us be off," he continued.
"Wait a minute, cap'n," answered Rogers; "we've a bit of news for you
that I expect you won't particularly relish. One of the men has cut and
run; and it was hunting for him that kept us ashore so long."
"Who is if!" demanded Williams.
"Why, it's Tom Nicholls, one of the steerage passengers that Blyth
shipped after we fell in with that barque on her beam-ends."
"So he has bolted, has he, the white-livered hound!" ejaculated Williams
furiously. "Well, he shall not escape us. Take your boats' crews, both
of you; give each man a rifle and half a dozen rounds of ball cartridge,
and pull ashore again and hunt the cur until you find him, and bring him
aboard here to me, dead or alive! I'll anchor the ship and wait for
you, if it takes you a week to do the job."
"Ay, ay, we'll get him before the day is over, never fear!" exclaimed
Rogers, apparently in high glee at receiving the brutal order. "Come
along, mates, and get your rifles; it isn't every day that we get the
chance of such a spree as a man-hunt!"
The boats' crews had, during this short colloquy, scrambled up the
ship's side to the deck, and had gathered round the speakers, curious to
see how Williams would receive the news of the loss; and it was to these
that Rogers had addressed himself.
They did not, however, appear to by any means enter into the spirit of
the thing, hanging back so coldly unresponsive to the mate's jovial
invitation that the latter paused in blank astonishment.
"Why--why--what the--" began Rogers, when he was brusquely interrupted
by one of the men, who stepped forward and said:
"Get somebody else to go in my place, matey. I don't understand man-
huntin', as you calls it, and should only make a poor fist at it, I'm
afraid."
"Same here," said another. "I never done anything of the sort yet, and
don't know how to set about it."
The others were expressing themselves to the same effect, when Williams
darted forward, and, seizing the first speaker roughly by the collar,
savagely demanded:
"Look here, you scoundrel, do you mean to say that you _won't_ go?"
"Ay, ay, shipmate, that's just exactly what I _do_ mean," was the
answer, given good-naturedly enough. "But take your hand off my
collar," the man continued more sternly. "Two can play at that game,
you know; and I doubt whether you are man enough to thrash me."
Williams, white as death with passion, prudently withdrew his hand from
the man's collar, and stepped back a pace or two.
"What does this mean?" he demanded. "Are you going to mutiny, men,
before our cruise has even commenced?"
An insolent laugh greeted this inquiry; and the man who had just spoken
answered:
"Call it what you like, Cap'n Josh; mutiny is as good a name for it as
any other, I reckon. And what I mean is, that I, for one, ain't goin'
ashore on no man-huntin' expedition. There was nothing said about man-
huntin' when the articles for this here cruise was drawed up; and what I
say is, if Tom Nicholls wants to cut and run, let him do it."
"Ay, ay; so says I," added another of the men. "He never entered into
the thing with no spirit, anyhow; and if he'd rather be ashore there
than makin' his fortune aboard here with us, why, let him stay ashore,
says I. `No manhuntin'' is my sentiments."
Several of the other men now declared themselves to the same effect,
whereupon Williams, finding himself in the minority, said, with as
perfect an assumption of indifference as he could command at the moment:
"Very well, lads; just as you please. It was of you, not of myself,
that I was thinking. The work will be so much the heavier for you if
Nicholls is allowed to escape; but, if you do not mind it, I am sure I
need not. If, as you say, the fool prefers slaving ashore there for a
bare living to making his fortune with us afloat, let him go. Up with
the boats, and be smart about it! Up with your helm, abaft there, and
let her go off square before the wind! Square the main-yard; and away
aloft there, some of you, and rig out the topmast and topgallant-
studding-sail booms!"
These orders were rapidly obeyed. The ship squared away before a
freshening breeze; and two hours later the island was left so far astern
that a landsman might easily have mistaken it for a grey cloud on the
edge of the horizon.
The ship was kept running to the eastward all that day under studding-
sails, and by sunset had travelled a distance of nearly seventy miles.
At that hour, however, Ned requested that sail might be shortened and
the ship allowed to go along under easy canvas during the night, urging
the experience of the morning as a reason for caution whilst navigating
that comparatively unknown sea. Williams at once assented to the
suggestion, remarking immediately afterwards to Rogers, with a self-
satisfied chuckle:
"That was a rare good move of ours, Bill, to keep the young woman
aboard. See how cautious Mr Ned has grown all of a sudden! You may
take my word for it, there will be no more tumbling over islands so long
as she remains aboard of us."
As it happened, it was just as well that the precaution was taken; for
at midnight, just as the watch was being relieved, breakers were
discovered ahead, and the ship was only brought to the wind just barely
in time to avert a disaster. But even then the craft was by no means
out of danger; for, when an attempt was made to claw off from the reefs
to leeward, it was soon discovered that the vessel was embayed, other
reefs being found to exist both to the northward and to the southward of
her. For a few minutes something very like a panic took possession of
the mutineers; but Williams proved himself equal to the occasion,
stilling the tumult by a few brief authoritative words, and promptly
ordering a man into the chains with the lead. Soundings were taken and
a sandy bottom found, with just the right depth of water for anchoring.
So the cable was roused on deck and bent on to the best bower, the ship
making short reaches to the northward and southward meanwhile; and as
soon as everything was ready a position was taken as nearly as possible
midway between the reefs, and the anchor let go in twelve fathoms of
water, with sixty fathoms of chain outside the hawse-pipe. The canvas
was securely furled, the watch set, with one man told off to tend the
lead-line which was dropped over the side to show whether the anchor
held securely or not, and then nothing remained for them but to wait,
with what patience they could muster, for daybreak.
This was a somewhat trying ordeal; for the night was pitch dark--the
moon being new and not a star visible, the sky overcast, and the wind
fresh and at times gusty. Moreover, they could form but a very vague
idea of the dangers by which they were surrounded, the chart showing
nothing but a clear sea; and, to further increase their anxiety, there
was a heavy ground-swell rolling in from the westward, which caused the
ship to bury herself to her hawse-pipes. Altogether, what with the
uncertainty of their position, the inky darkness, and the ominous roar
of the breakers all round them, it was a very anxious time for everybody
on board the _Flying Cloud_.
At length, after what seemed an eternity of darkness, the harassed
watchers caught the first faint signs of returning day. The forms of
the clouds became dimly perceptible along the horizon to the eastward;
then the cloud-bank itself broke up, revealing little patches here and
there of soft violet-tinted sky, which rapidly paled, first to a pure
and delicate ultramarine, and then to a soft primrose hue before the
approaching dawn. The leaden-tinted clouds imperceptibly assumed a
purple hue, then their lower edges became fringed with gold; and
presently a long shaft of white light shot from the horizon half-way to
the zenith, tinging the higher clouds--now broken up into a crowded
archipelago of aerial islets--with flakes of "celestial rosy red," and
in another moment the golden upper rim of the sun's disk flashed on the
horizon, sending a long path of shimmering radiance across the bosom of
the heaving, restless sea; and it was day.