JULIAN CONTINUES THE NARRATIVE--NORRIS' BIG GUN
There was much discussion now, and the storm having passed, we got up on
deck again. It was decided to make it appear to Duran that we meant to
remain, waiting for the return of the boys. We got a boat ready, put
into it blankets and provisions, and the like, as if for a sojourn on
shore. We made certain Duran would be watching our preparations. An hour
before night we pushed off, Robert and Rufe, only, remaining aboard with
the sailors.
At the wharf we hired a mule and cart, and transferred the cargo; and
directly, we were moving to the back of the town, stopping only when we
had reached a little wooded eminence. We did not unload, but unhitched
the mule and put him to graze.
We had not been long at the place, when Norris went off, saying he had
an errand, and would meet us at the boat-landing.
We could see both schooners from the little hill, until darkness came.
Then we kept watch for Robert's signal.
"What do you think Norris can be up to?" I said.
"Ah!" returned Marat, "Thad Englishman, he got some buzz in hees bonnet.
He ver' good man. He--"
"There thee light!" said Carlos.
I looked, and out of the black harbor, dotted with anchor lights, there
appeared a wee flashing, repeated at frequent intervals. We answered
with a few flashes from our lantern. Then Robert's signal ceased.
The mule was put to the cart again, and we returned to our boat.
There was Norris, waiting. He sat on the bow of the small boat, twirling
his thumbs. While we were transferring our property from the cart to the
boat again, I noted a pair of white men seated in a flatboat of some
bulk, lying nose on the beach, nearby. When we started for the _Pearl_,
Norris made a gesture to the two men who immediately followed with their
boat in our wake.
"What have you got there?" I asked of Norris.
"Oh, that's just a couple of dagos doing a job for me," Norris answered.
"The _Orion's_ gone," said Robert, as we drew near the _Pearl_.
We threw our outfit aboard. And then Norris unlashed the block from the
main gaff and swung it down to the "Dagos," who had come alongside with
their boat. They hitched the tackle to a tarpaulin-wrapped article. From
its shape, it might be a piece of cordwood. When that had been pulled
aboard, the block went down into the boat again, and soon up came a gun
carriage. It was that type so much seen in the old fortifications, the
supports of wood, with small wheels at the base. Next came about fifty
rounds of, perhaps, two-pound balls, and powder in kegs, not forgetting
ram-rod and swabber.
The "Dagos" moved quietly away, money in their fists.
"Never heard of a ship on such a chase as ours without some kind of a
cannon," explained Norris.
He had seen some old cannon lying useless in an old fortification on
shore. He fastened his liking on a brass gun, of not too great size, and
'by hook or by crook,' had made a deal for it--"With the fixin's," as he
said. One little wheel of the carriage was broken, but he contrived a
temporary prop in its place. He did not rest till he had the brass
barrel mounted and lashed up near the bows, and hid under its tarpaulin.
"What are you going to do with that 'barker'?" said Robert.
"First of all," said Norris, "I'm going to polish her up--to decorate
the ship. And then, if ever that skunk voodoo gives me an excuse, I'm
going to find out what my old training in gunnery has done for me."
The land breeze had been blowing for a long time. Though Captain Marat
had his clearing papers all in proper form long ago, we waited till the
_Orion_ had got near a good three hours start, before we got up our
anchor and set the _Pearl's_ bow out to sea.
It was past midnight, the moon--in its first quarter--was just setting.
In half an hour we went about, and made toward the north. Daylight found
us rounding the northwest corner of the island.
"How long do you think it will take us to get sight of that skunk's
ship?" asked Norris.
"Ah!" mused Captain Marat, "Maybe one day, maybe two."
"And if the _Orion_ is going back home," said Norris, "after she picks
up Wayne and Ray, which way will she turn--north and then back, or down
around the east end of the island?"
"I theenk," said Marat, "thad she go aroun' thees island. She make
faster sail thad way, and Duran weel think we have not so much chance to
head him off thad way--if we should happen to come after heem."
That first day, while the _Pearl_ plowed steadily eastward, the coast
always in view, Norris busied himself with repairs on his gun-carriage.
The second day broke with no sight of the _Orion_. And this day Norris
gave to polishing his brass cannon; a job that took grit and
elbow-grease, for that barrel carried the accumulations of many years of
exposure to all weathers.
That afternoon he got out powder and a ball, and charged the gun, and
ten minutes before we were to turn on the starboard tack, he set adrift
a little raft on which he had rigged a square bit of canvas. And then
when we got round on that tack, he called Rufe, who came running with a
red hot poker. Norris sighted the gun on that raft, the while shouting
orders to the man at the helm. A touch of the red poker, and "Boom!" We
saw the splash, perhaps forty feet to the right of the raft, which now
floated some three hundred yards distant.
"If that had been the _Orion_," said Norris, "I'd have got her in the
bows. That's a good enough shot, I'll say."
It was near nine of the following morning that we sighted the sails of a
vessel. There was excitement on the _Pearl_. In two hours we could see a
little of the hull. She was a schooner.
"I think thad the _Orion_," said Captain Marat then. The impulsive
Norris had declared it that vessel from the first. Finally came an
experience I dread to recollect. We had passed the eastern end of the
island, and were abreast of some lesser islands. The schooner ahead was
on the starboard tack. We held also on the same tack. The other schooner
went about on the port tack. We followed suit. In half an hour black
clouds suddenly rose out of the southwest. They were preceded by gray
clouds that curled like billows.
Captain Marat at once shortened sail--reefed to the uttermost. The
schooner ahead went about and made for a small island to the east. The
_Pearl_ did the same.
The wind struck us. Rapidly it increased in fury. Captain Marat got a
loop of rope round the mainmast, whence he called his orders to Norris
and two sailors at the wheel. I never had realized that a vessel could
skim the sea with such terrific speed. Spray hissed over the deck. The
masts bent; the schooner groaned under the strain. The tempest howled in
the rigging. Belated birds flew past, shoreward.
Rapidly that island loomed ahead in the semi-night. Marat used his
glasses.
"Hard on!" he yelled at last.
We bore down directly on the land, now close aboard. Robert and I braced
ourselves for a shock, for we expected the _Pearl_ to strike on the
shoals.
Another minute and we saw land on both sides of us.
"Luff! Luff!" shouted Captain Marat.
The _Pearl_ went about; the sails flapped angrily; the anchor went
overboard, and we lay in the lee of a wooded hill. Bits of trees flew
over us--some debris lodged in our rigging, as the fury continued
overhead.
In ten minutes all our sails were snug.
"God help Wayne and Ray!" said Norris at last.
"They're safe," said Robert, pointing southward.
In the dim light we could make out a vessel lying some hundreds of yards
away and in the lee of that same land.
"Thank God!" said Norris. "Then this is an islet that lies across the
outside of this harbor."
"Yes," said Captain Marat. "They come in the other side."
The storm presently lost its fury; in a half hour it was gone, and full
light came to show us the _Orion_ with her foresail in shreds.
And so it is now that Wayne will take up the story again.