As Chichester neared the now familiar spot where he had left the
longboat, he suffered himself to indulge in a returning feeling of
elation, for the notion somehow came to him that he would find Marshall
in the boat calmly awaiting his return; and this feeling presently grew
so strong within him that he could scarcely credit his eyes when, upon
passing through the screen of concealing foliage, he saw only the three
seamen curled up in the boat. They roused themselves from their
semi-somnolent condition and sat up to receive him, with glances of mute
enquiry in their eyes.
For a few moments Dick remained silent, absolutely speechless with
disappointment. Then he remarked:
"What, lads, has the Captain not yet returned, then?"
"No, sir," they answered in chorus. "We have seen naught of him, or
indeed of anybody else, since you left us this morning."
"Then," said Dick, "I greatly fear that evil has befallen him and that
he has been discovered and taken by the Spaniards. For this is the last
day of our stay here; and his orders to me were that if he returns not
by midnight we are to proceed to sea and rejoin the ship; for his
failure to return will be due to the fact of his having been captured.
Still, there are six hours to run yet before midnight, and he may return
even at the very last moment. Let us hope that he will. And now, men,
give me some supper, for I have eaten nothing since I left you this
morning."
The time between then and midnight was passed by Dick in a state of
feverish suspense, that toward the end became almost unendurable,
causing him to start and jump at every trivial sound that reached his
ear. A dozen times at least he sprang to his feet with the joyous
exclamation of "Here he is!" when the flutter of a dry leaf falling from
its parent bough, the soft rustle of foliage in the night wind, or the
movement of some restless bird broke the silence of that secluded spot;
but he was always mistaken. The Captain came not; and at length his
watch informed him that the time was half an hour after midnight. Then
he rose to his feet with a sigh of bitter disappointment and said:
"It is no good, lads; we must not delay our departure any longer; we
have allowed the Captain half an hour's grace, and if he could have come
he would have been with us before now. Without doubt he is a prisoner,
and we can best serve him now by returning to the ship with all speed
and reporting the fact of his capture to the others, who must then
decide whether or not we shall sail into the harbour, attack the town,
and endeavour to rescue him. Cast off the painter, and let us be moving
without further delay."
Almost careless now whether or not they attracted attention, they hauled
the boat out from her place of concealment and, stepping the masts,
hoisted their sails and got under way, the wind just permitting them to
lay their course down past the sand spit and out through the entrance of
the cove into the lower bay without breaking tacks. Then, to save time,
Dick determined to risk the passage of the Boca Chica, the usual harbour
entrance, instead of taking the longer route out to sea behind the
island of Baru, relying upon the indifferent lookout of the sentinels as
reported by Marshall to enable the boat to pass undetected. In this
they were completely successful, the occupants of the batteries giving
no sign that the passage of the boat had been observed; and half an hour
after emerging from their place of concealment they found themselves
safely clear of everything and out at sea.
The night was dark but clear, with a fresh land breeze blowing, and a
sky heavily flecked with fast-scurrying clouds, between which the stars
and moon blinked down upon them intermittently. They were no sooner
clear of the land than they began to look about them for the ship, and
within a few minutes they caught sight of her signal lanterns about
eight miles distant, dead to leeward. After that everything went quite
smoothly; they hoisted their own signal lamp, and bore away dead before
the wind, leaving it to the ship to pick them up, which she did about an
hour later.
Their shipmates manifested the utmost interest in their return, all
hands mustering on deck to see the boat come alongside and hear the
news. When, upon the boat being brought to the lee gangway, Dick led
the way up the side, he was met at the entrance port by Bascomb, Winter,
Dyer, and Harvey, each of whom at the same instant fired at him the
question:
"Where is the Captain?"
"Lost--taken, I fear," answered Dick. "He left us four nights ago,
intending to make his way into the city of Cartagena, for the purpose of
learning precisely when the galleon is to sail, together with any other
information which he might be able to pick up. His instructions were
that I was to await his return until midnight to-night, and if he then
failed to return it would be because something untoward had happened to
him, in which case I was to rejoin the ship at once and report to you,
when you would act according to your discretion after consulting
together."
For a moment there was a dead silence; then Bascomb turned to his fellow
officers, and said:
"My masters, this loss of our general is a very serious matter, and
needs looking into. Let us all, therefore, retire to the cabin and hear
what Mr Chichester has to tell us about it; after which, as was
arranged when Captain Marshall left us six nights ago, we must all
consult together and decide what our next step is to be. Come then,
gentlemen, to the cabin. Mr Chichester, you will be pleased to
accompany us."
Therewith the three principal officers of the ship and the two gentlemen
adventurers retired to the great cabin, where, seated upon the lockers,
and with Dick occupying a chair in front of them, the tale was told of
all that had befallen the boat and its crew, from the moment of her
departure to that of her return, including the several expeditions to
the top of the hill on Tierra Bomba, and the drawing of the chart.
"And where is that chart now?" demanded Bascomb. "Have you it, or did
Captain Marshall take it with him?"
"I have it," answered Dick, "and here it is," producing the sketch.
"Fortunately the Captain left it with me, not needing it himself, since
all the information required to enable him to make his way to Cartagena
he could carry in his head."
The four who were sitting on the opposite side of the table bent over
the document, examining it closely for several minutes. At length
Bascomb looked up and said:
"My masters, if this chart be reliable--and it should be, judging from
the pains taken by our Captain and Mr Chichester--it should suffice to
enable us to take the ship right up to Cartagena and lay her alongside
the galleon. And if that ship can be taken by surprise and without loss
on our part, as I think she may, what is to hinder us from taking the
town and demanding a good heavy ransom for it, part of which ransom
shall consist in the return to us, sound and unhurt, of our Captain?
And if they refuse, or are unable to return our Captain to us in the
condition specified, what say you to sacking the place and giving it to
the flames? Depend upon it, by so doing we shall soon learn the fate of
Captain Marshall, and where he is to be found, for there will be a
hundred who will be only too ready to curry favour with us by telling us
all that they know, in the hope that thereby we may be induced to spare
their property."
"Ay, that will they, I warrant," answered Winter. "And woe betide the
city and all in it if aught of evil has been done to our Captain! We
will find every man who has been in anywise responsible for that evil,
and will hang him before his own door for all men to see how dangerous a
thing it is for a Spaniard to lay violent hands upon an Englishman!
Now, what say ye, gentles, shall we go in at once and do the work while
our blood is hot within us?"
"Nay, sirs," answered Dick; "that may scarcely be. For if our Captain
be indeed taken, as I greatly fear me he is, depend upon it the
authorities will have identified him as an Englishman, in despite of any
tale that he may have told them, and will, in consequence, suspect the
presence of an English ship somewhere in the neighbourhood. And,
following that suspicion, their first act would be to warn those in the
forts on Tierra Bomba to be on the watch for that ship's appearance.
And once seen it will, according to the Captain's own account, be
impossible for us to force our way into the harbour unless the guns in
those forts be first spiked. Now, gentles, I am the youngest of you
all, but I have been inside and seen the place. Moreover, I have been
privileged to discuss with the Captain this very question of taking the
ship up to the town, from which discussion arose my determination to
make that chart; and my advice is, that we defer our attempt until
to-morrow night, and that in the meantime I be permitted to return in
the longboat to our former hiding-place, provided with hammers and nails
for the spiking of the guns and such other necessaries as I may require,
together with a crew of six of our best men. We can get back to our
place of concealment before daylight, and there remain in hiding until
midnight or later, when we will sally forth, steal into those two forts,
overpower and gag the sentinels, and spike the guns, after which we will
signal the ship by the burning of portfires where they cannot be seen
from the town, when you will sail in, I meeting you outside and piloting
you in. We can then land a party, destroy both batteries by blowing
them up, capture the galleon and the town, and sail out to sea again,
unscathed, when we have finished our business with the Spaniards."
"Thy plan sounds promising, young sir," answered Bascomb presently,
after considering the matter a little; "but there is one weak point in
it, which is this. If, as you seem to think, the Spaniards have taken
our Captain, and thereby are led to suspect the presence of an English
ship in the neighbourhood; and, suspecting such presence, should warn
the garrisons of those two forts to be on the lookout for her--all of
which I grant to be more than likely--what hope have you of being able
to surprise those forts and spike their guns?"
"The task will be a difficult one, I admit," answered Dick, with a shrug
of the shoulders; "but, with all submission, sirs, my plan is the only
one offering a chance of success. For--and this is the fundamental fact
governing all else--the guns must be spiked and the forts destroyed
before this ship can enter Cartagena harbour or, having entered, get out
again. But the forts once in our possession the whole town and harbour,
with all within them, will be at our mercy. The important matter,
therefore, to be determined is: By what means can we ensure obtaining
possession of the forts with the minimum of loss to ourselves?"
"Yes," agreed Bascomb, "that is undoubtedly the point. Now, gentles,
let us have your opinions. Has any one of you a better plan to offer
than that of our junior lieutenant?"
At this moment a stateroom door opened and Stukely emerged from the
smaller room. Approaching the table, he stood and looked smilingly down
upon the company assembled.
"Your pardon, fair sirs," he said, "for thrusting myself uninvited into
your counsels. The surgeon is supposed to know but little of warfare
beyond the healing of such hurts as may be received therein, but I
happened to be lying awake in my cabin when this conference began, and I
could not avoid hearing all that has passed, and I am of opinion that I
can help you. As my friend, Chichester, here has put it, the problem
which confronts you is that of securing possession of the forts without
suffering loss of men. Now, the chief danger, to my mind, arises from
the difficulty of entering the forts without attracting the attention of
the sentinels, thus causing them to raise the alarm and bring the entire
garrison about our ears. Is not that so?"
The party at the table signified that it was.
"Very good, then," resumed Stukely. "Now we can go on. Though you are
probably not aware of it, my chief delight is research, the
investigation of, among other things, the properties and action upon the
human system of the juices of herbs. Now, while we were at Barbados I
spent much time in the collection of the leaves, roots, seeds, and
fruits of several plants; and since then I have been diligently
experimenting with them, with the result that I have evolved from one of
them a liquor, one inhalation of the odour of which will plunge a man
into a state of such complete insensibility that, as I believe, a limb
might be removed from him without his feeling it or being any the wiser.
My suggestion, therefore," continued Stukely, ignoring the expressions
of wonder evoked by his statement, "is that I be permitted to go in the
boat with Chichester, taking a vial of the liquor with me, and upon our
arrival ashore I will enter the forts with him, subject the sleeping
sentinels--I humbly trust that they may be sleeping--to the stupefying
influence of the decoction, whereby they may be bound and gagged without
difficulty or the raising of an alarm which would put their fellow
soldiers on the alert; and then between us the guns can be spiked at our
leisure. The remaining details I leave to your riper judgment and
experience, gallant sirs."
"But, doctor," demanded Bascomb, "are you quite sure that this elixir or
essence of yours may be depended upon to produce the effect stated?"
"I am," answered Stukely, with a smile, "for I have already tested it
upon myself--no matter how--and the effect is everything that can
possibly be desired."
"Then--what say you, gentles--shall we allow the surgeon to go with Mr
Chichester and further test the efficacy of his decoction upon the
Spanish sentinels?" asked the master.
"'Twould be folly in us if we did not avail ourselves of the virtues of
Mr Stukely's most fortunate discovery," said Winter; "and I for one am
in favour of acceding to his proposal."
"And I, also," agreed Dick, in response to a glance from Bascomb.
The two gentlemen adventurers, when appealed to for their opinion, at
once agreed that the experiment was quite worth trying; and Bascomb's
proposal was accordingly agreed to _nem. con_.
"That matter, then, is disposed of," remarked Bascomb. "Now, the next
thing which we have to decide is this--assuming that Mr Chichester
succeeds in spiking the guns of the forts--what is to be our next step?
Are we to take the ship boldly into the harbour and proceed with our
business of capturing the galleon and the town, trusting that Dame
Fortune will so far favour us as to permit of our getting out again
before the soldiers can unspike their guns; or should we anchor, as soon
as inside, land a strong party, and capture and destroy the forts before
attempting anything else? It is the guns, and they only, not the forts,
which we have to fear; and if we could but permanently disable those
guns, the forts and their garrisons might go hang, so far as we are
concerned."
"Certainly, sir," cut in Dick, before anyone else could speak. "You
have hit the nail on the head. We need trouble about naught except the
ordnance, and them we must destroy. And I know how to do it, too. We
will take with us enough powder to double charge each gun; having done
which we will seal their muzzles with clay. I know where to find as
much clay as we shall need; and then we will prime each piece, lay a
quick match from priming to priming, light the match, and run for our
lives. The guns will burst, and we can then do what we please with the
galleon and the town. But in order to ensure complete success, the
ordnance in both batteries must be fired as nearly as possible at the
same moment; therefore a resolute man must be left in the lower battery
to fire the match upon the instant that he hears the explosion of the
guns in the upper battery, after which he must run for his life. I can
see exactly how the thing is to be done, sirs; and if you approve of my
plan we will be starting at once, with your good leave; for it is
already late, and we shall have none too much time for the work which is
to be done."
"You are right, young sir," agreed Bascomb; "time is so valuable now
that we dare waste no more in further discussion; therefore your plan,
which is an excellent one, must serve. I would that I could go in your
stead, for you appear to be already worn-out with fatigue and lack of
sleep; but you have been over the ground already, and know it, therefore
weary though you may be I fear that you must needs go. So pick your
men, sir, as many as you need, remembering that your party must be
strong enough to carry the powder up to the forts; procure from the
gunner all that you require; and get you gone. And may God go with you!
Amen."
Half an hour later the longboat, under Dick's command, and with Stukely
sitting in the stern-sheets beside him, was once more under way and
beating in toward the land under a press of sail, while the _Adventure_,
with all lights out, lay to in the offing, awaiting the signal of the
explosion of the ordnance in the forts to fill away and stand boldly in
toward the harbour. So sorely were they pressed for time that Dick
dared not waste any in the attempt to elude observation by creeping in,
as on the first occasion, behind the island of Baru; he headed as
straight as the wind would allow for the Boca Chica, trusting that he
might be fortunate enough to slip through unobserved in the darkness,
especially as it was now past three o'clock in the morning--and if the
sentinels slept at all at their posts, after the warning to hold
themselves on the alert which they might be supposed to have received
from the authorities, they might be expected to be asleep now. His hope
appeared to be justified; for the longboat slid past the smaller battery
down on the beach, unchallenged, and some five minutes later, grounded
on the sand about a quarter of a mile farther in. Then, silently as
ghosts, the men lowered the sails, leaving the masts standing, and
stepped out on the sand, each bearing his appointed load of powder upon
his shoulder, while Dick and Stukely, with swords drawn, and the former
carrying a coil of quick match wound round his waist, led the way.
They directed their steps southward toward the battery which they had
sailed past a few minutes earlier, and which could just be distinguished
as a darker blur against the blackness of the night. Not a light of any
description showed about the building, nor was there a sound to be heard
save the soft lap and splash of the water on the margin of the beach to
the left of them, and the sough of the land breeze among the trees and
bushes on their right. Noiseless as drifting shadows, the party sped
forward, and within some five minutes of their landing arrived beneath
the walls of the fort. Here Dick, Stukely, and a man named Barker
removed their shoes and, walking to the northward angle of the fort,
examined it to ascertain what means of ascent it afforded. They found,
as Marshall had said, that although the walls were so smooth as to be
quite unclimbable, the angles of the building were set with quoin stones
of so rough a surface that an ascent by means of them might be made
easily; accordingly Stukely, who by virtue of his discovery of the
anaesthetic now claimed to take the lead, at once began to climb the
angle, closely followed by Dick and Barker. In less than two minutes
the trio had accomplished the ascent and found themselves standing on
the platform which constituted the flat roof of the battery. The eight
pieces of heavy ordnance, their muzzles projecting far over the low
parapet, were easily distinguishable, as were also the great piles of
shot, notwithstanding the darkness of the night; but for the moment no
sentinels were visible. Whispering his companions to remain where they
were, Stukely moved away with noiseless tread, swiftly making the
circuit of the gun platform; and presently he rejoined the other two.
"It is all right," he whispered. "I found the rascals sound asleep,
even as the Captain did, and, withdrawing the stopper from my vial,
allowed them to inhale the vapour for a moment. They are now
insensible, and will remain so for at least half an hour, therefore you
may now do your share of the work, Barker. Come with me, and I will
show you where they lie."
The two moved away together, Barker uncoiling a long length of fine line
from his waist as he did so; while Dick, leaning over the parapet,
dropped a small pebble down among the group below, as a signal that all
was well and they might now safely make the ascent without fear of
detection. All arrangements having been previously made, every man of
the party knew exactly what he had to do; and within five minutes the
platform was alive with English seamen, some of whom were engaged in
hauling up powder and clay from below, while others were employed in
silently loading the guns with heavy charges of powder, upon the top of
which they tightly rammed down stiff clay, with which they filled each
gun to its very muzzle. Then, when each piece had been similarly
treated, the whole were very carefully primed, after which a length of
quick match, long enough to allow of the safe retreat of the man who
should ignite it, was securely inserted among the priming; the two
insensible sentinels, bound hand and foot, and effectually gagged, were
lowered to the ground, and the entire party retreated as they had come,
with the exception of one man who volunteered to remain and ignite the
length of match immediately that he saw a portfire burned from the wall
of the castle which stood on the top of the adjacent hill. The whole
business had occupied scarcely twenty minutes, and when it was finished
there was nothing to show that the garrison had become aware of what was
happening above their heads.
Once more assembled on the ground beneath the walls of the battery, the
party was rapidly counted by Dick, to ascertain that all were present,
save the man left above on the gun platform; and this formality having
been quickly gone through, the unconscious sentinels were picked up and
carried away to a distance of about a hundred yards from the battery,
where they were effectually concealed in a thick clump of bushes, after
which the Englishmen rapidly pushed forward up the hill. Arrived near
the top, Dick halted them for a moment near a clump of bamboo, two long
stout stalks of which were quickly cut down, and, without waiting to
strip them of their leaves, converted into a light ladder by lashing
cross-pieces of bamboo to them. Then, with this improvised ladder
carried by two men, the party resumed its way, arriving about a quarter
of an hour later beneath the frowning walls of the castle, which, like
the battery below, was found to be in total darkness, at least so far as
the face fronting them was concerned. They crossed the dry ditch
without difficulty, and once on the other side, reared their ladder
against the wall, finding it amply long enough for their purpose.
Here again Stukely took the lead, being the first to ascend the ladder.
But as he reached the top and peered cautiously over the parapet he was
disconcerted at the discovery that here at least the sentinels did not
sleep; for the first object that met his gaze was a man standing at the
extreme end of the parapet, apparently gazing steadfastly out to sea,
while his crossed hands rested upon the muzzle of his grounded
matchlock. Luckily for the English, the man's back was turned toward
the spot where Stukely stood staring at him. In an instant the latter
had made up his mind what to do, and, cautiously climbing in through the
embrasure before him, stole noiselessly toward the unconscious man. A
few breathless seconds and Stukely had crept close up behind his
intended victim; and the next instant, as he knocked the man's hat off
with one hand, he dealt him with the other a blow on the head with the
heavy butt of his pistol, which felled the unfortunate fellow as a
butcher fells an ox. Quickly bending over the prostrate body, he now
held his unstoppered vial to the man's nostrils for three or four
seconds, then rose cautiously to his feet. He could see no other
sentinels posted anywhere on the parapet, but passed quickly round it in
order to make quite sure. Then, finding that only the one sentinel had
been posted here, he gave the signal for the rest of the party to
ascend; and a few minutes later the scene of a short while before was
being re-enacted on the parapet of this much more important structure.
They worked silently but with strenuous haste, for although the heavens
as yet gave no sign of the approaching dawn, the sudden comparative
coolness of the atmosphere and the twitterings of a few early morning
birds told them that it could not now be very far off; indeed they had
scarcely finished their preparations when a faint brightening of the
eastern horizon told them that a new day was at hand.
"Now, are we all ready?" asked Dick, as he personally put the last
finishing touches to the preparations. "Then down you all go except the
five men who are to help me with the firing of the quick matches. You
go last, Phil, and when you are down ignite the portfire which is to be
the signal to that man in the battery yonder; I and the five who are
remaining with me will see to the rest of the business up here. Now,
off you go quickly, for the daylight will be upon us in five minutes."
Dick watched his friend as the latter slid out through the embrasure and
descended the ladder; and when at length Stukely reached the ground and
was preparing to ignite the portfire, Chichester sprang back among the
five men who were awaiting his word, and whispered "Now!" Instantly the
six darted to their respective stations, and each man at once proceeded
rapidly, yet with the nicest care, to ignite the five ends of quick
match which were his especial care. It was swiftly done, the lighting
of the whole occupying less than half a minute; yet before the last five
were ignited the still air was heavily charged with the fumes of
gunpowder and there was a sound of hissing and sizzling suggestive of a
whole army of angry snakes.
"Smartly, men; smartly!" urged Dick; "the matches are burning much more
rapidly than I anticipated; and if we are not pretty lively we shall be
caught by the first explosions. That's your sort; that will do,
Parsons, don't stand there fiddling with that match, it is burning all
right. Now, lads, away you go; over with you; I go last."
Thus exhorted they stood not upon the order of their going, but went,
Chichester bringing up the rear; and the latter was still in the very
act of descending the ladder when six crashing explosions, occurring
almost simultaneously on the parapet above, shattered the early morning
stillness, the sounds being instantly followed by a great rush of wings
and an outburst of startled screams that issued from the throats of the
affrighted birds in the immediate neighbourhood of the castle, who, thus
rudely awakened, dashed away in every direction, loudly proclaiming
their terror. An answering explosion almost instantly roared out from
the battery on the beach; then when half a dozen further explosions on
the parapet pealed out, the little party of precipitately retreating
Englishmen heard heavy thuds all round them as fragments of the burst
ordnance came showering to the ground. And in between the shattering
reports of bursting cannon which were now almost continuous they faintly
caught the sounds of human outcry as the astounded garrison, awakened by
the reports, sprang from their beds and rushed hither and thither in
blind panic, each man demanding of every other an explanation of the
extraordinary happenings that were taking place overhead. But long
before the bravest of the Spaniards had summoned up courage enough to
ascend to the parapet, and ascertain for himself the source of those
terrific reports and crashing blows which were causing the castle to
tremble to its very foundations, the last of the Englishmen--who
happened to be Dick--had vanished over the brow of the hill and was
racing down the steep slope toward the spot where the longboat had been
left in hiding, urging those ahead of him to redoubled efforts, lest the
Spaniards, rallying from their first surprise and panic, should sally
forth and attempt to cut off the fugitives.
The disturbance was all over in less than a minute; the echo of the last
explosion died away along the mangrove-bordered shore; the thud of the
last falling piece of fractured ordnance, as it crashed through the
boughs of the trees, had faintly reached the ears of the flying
Englishmen; and the birds were rapidly beginning to persuade themselves
that the whole thing had been no more than a peculiarly weird and
startling dream, when the whole party--which had been joined on the way
by the man from the lower battery--reached the boat and pulled up for a
moment to listen and recover their breath. But there was neither sight
nor sound of pursuit; and presently, after Dick had counted his party
and found that all were present and perfectly sound, the order was given
to get the boat afloat and shove off. This was done in a perfectly
quiet and orderly manner; and five minutes later, with the beams of the
rising sun brilliantly gilding her sails, the little craft slid down the
harbour entrance on her way to seaward, passing close under the walls of
the beach battery, the bewildered garrison of which had by this time
summoned up the courage necessary to enable them to go up on the gun
platform, to ascertain precisely what had happened. Most of them were
gazing earnestly out to seaward as the longboat slid past, consequently
they did not see her until it was too late, when, with loud outcries,
they seized their calivers and poured a hot but absolutely ineffective
fire after the bold adventurers. Two minutes later the boat swept round
the low point which forms the southern extremity of Tierra Bomba Island;
and then her occupants saw what it was that had so strongly attracted
the attention of the Spaniards; for, scarcely three miles away, they
beheld the _Adventure_ beating up toward the Boca Chica under a heavy
press of canvas. Bascomb had seen and interpreted aright the explosions
in the two batteries on Tierra Bomba, and was now fearlessly working the
ship in toward the land, knowing that, the guns in those two batteries
having been destroyed, there was now nothing to restrain him from
sailing right into Cartagena harbour itself and demanding the
restoration of their Captain, safe and sound. And he meant to do it,
too!