As he became more accustomed to the scene around him, and found
that the waves were more terrible in appearance than reality, Bob
began to enjoy it, and to take in its grandeur and wildness. The
bareness of the deck had struck him, at once; and he now saw that
four of the cannon were gone--the two forward guns, on each
side--and he rightly supposed that these must have been run out,
and tumbled overboard, to lighten the ship forward, and enable her
to rise more easily to the waves.
An hour later, the second mate came along.
"You had better come down and get some breakfast," he said. "I am
going down first."
Bob threw off the rope, and followed the mate down into the cabin.
Mr. Probert had just turned out. He had been lying down for two or
three hours, having gone down as daylight broke.
"The captain says you had better take something before you go on
deck, Mr. Probert," the second mate said. "He will come down,
afterwards, and turn in for an hour or two."
"No change, I suppose?"
"No. She goes over it like a duck. The seas are more regular, now,
and she is making good weather of it."
Bob wondered, in his own mind, what she would do if she was making
bad weather.
The meal was an irregular one. The steward brought in three large
mugs, half filled with coffee; a basket of biscuits, and a ham.
From this he cut off some slices, which he laid on biscuits; and
each of them ate their breakfast, holding their mugs in one hand,
and their biscuits and ham in the other.
As soon as they had finished, the two officers went on deck and,
directly afterwards, the captain came down. Bob chatted with him
until he had finished his breakfast, and then went up on deck
again, for two or three hours. At the end of that time he felt so
completely exhausted, from the force of the wind and the constant
change of the angle at which he was standing, that he was glad to
go below and lie down again.
There was no regular dinner, the officers coming below by turns,
and taking a biscuit and a chunk of cold meat, standing. But at
teatime the captain and second mate came down together; and Bob,
who had again been up on deck for a bit, joined them in taking a
large bowl of coffee.
"I think the wind is blowing harder than ever," he said to the
captain.
"Yes, the glass has begun to rise a little, and that is generally a
sign you are getting to the worst of it. I expect it is a three
days' gale, and we shall have it at its worst, tonight. I hope by
this time, tomorrow, we shall be beginning to shake out our reefs.
"You had better not go up, any more. It will be dark in half an
hour, and your bunk is the best place for you."
Bob was not sorry to obey the order, for he felt that the scene
would be a very terrible one, after dark. The night, however,
seemed to him to be a miserably long one; for he was only able to
doze off occasionally, the motion being so violent that he had to
jam himself in his berth, to prevent himself from being thrown out.
The blows with which the waves struck the ship were tremendous; and
so deeply did she pitch that, more than once, he thought that she
would never come up again; but go down, head foremost. Once he
thought he heard a crash, and there were orders shouted, on the
deck above him; but he resisted the desire to go up and see what it
was, for he knew that he could do nothing; and that, in the
darkness, he could see but little of what was going on.
With the first gleam of daylight, however, he got out of the bunk.
He had not attempted to undress, having taken off his shoes, only,
when he lay down. Having put these on again, he went up. There was
but little change since the previous morning but, looking forward,
he saw that the bowsprit was gone, and the fore-topmast had been
carried away. The sea was as high as ever, but patches of blue sky
showed overhead between the clouds, and the wind was blowing
somewhat less violently.
"We have been in the wars, you see, youngster," the captain said,
when Bob made his way aft; "but we may thank God it was no worse.
We have had a pretty close squeak of it, but the worst is over,
now. The wind is going down, and the gale will have blown itself
out by this evening. It was touch-and-go several times during the
night and, if she had had a few more tons of cargo in her, she
would never have risen from some of those waves; but I think, now,
we shall see Oporto safely--which was more than I expected, about
midnight."
For some hours Bob, himself, had considerable doubts as to this, so
deeply did the brig bury herself in the waves; but after twelve
o'clock the wind fell rapidly and, although the waves showed no
signs of decreasing in height, their surface was smoother, and they
seemed to strike the vessel with less force and violence.
"Now, Mr. Probert," said the captain, "do you and Joe turn in, till
first watch. I will take charge of the deck. After that, you can
set regular watches again."
The main-topsail was already on her and, at six o'clock, the
captain had two of its reefs shaken out; and the other reef was
also loosed, when Mr. Probert came up and took charge of the first
watch, at eight bells. That night Bob lay on the floor, for the
motion was more violent than before--the vessel rolling, gunwale
under--for the wind no longer pressed upon her sails, and kept her
steady, and he would have found it impossible to maintain his
position in his berth.
In the morning, he went up. The sun was rising in an unclouded sky.
There was scarce a breath of wind. The waves came along in high,
glassy rollers--smooth mounds of water which extended, right and
left, in deep valleys and high ridges. The vessel was rolling
tremendously, the lower yards sometimes touching the water. Bob had
to wait some time before he could make a rush across to the bulwark
and, when he did so, found it almost impossible to keep his feet.
He could see that the men forward were no longer crouching for
shelter under the break of the fo'castle, but were holding on by
the shrouds or stays, smoking their pipes, and laughing and joking
together. Until the motion abated somewhat, it was clearly
impossible to commence the work of getting things in order.
"Did the bowsprit and mast both go, together?" Bob asked Joe
Lockett, who was holding on to the bulwark, near him.
"Yes, the bowsprit went with the strain when she rose, having
buried herself halfway up the waist; and the topmast snapped like a
carrot, a moment later. That was the worst dive we made. There is
no doubt that getting rid of the leverage of the bowsprit, right up
in her eyes, eased her a good bit; and as the topmast was a pretty
heavy spar, too, that also helped."
"How long will it be before the sea goes down?"
"If you mean goes down enough for us to get to work--a few hours.
If you mean goes down altogether, it will be five or six days
before this swell has quite flattened down, unless a wind springs
up from some other quarter."
"I meant till the mast can be got up again."
"Well, this afternoon the captain may set the men at work; but I
don't think they would do much good, and there would be a good
chance of getting a limb broken. As long as this calm holds there
is no hurry, one way or the other."
"You mean, because we couldn't be sailing, even if we had
everything set?"
"Well, yes, that is something, but I didn't mean that. I am not
thinking so much of our sailing, as of other people's. We are not
very fit, as we are now, either for fighting or running, and I
should be sorry to see a French privateer coming along; but as long
as the calm continues, there is no fear of that; and I expect there
have been few ships out, in this gale, who have not got repairs to
do as well as we have."
After dinner, an effort was made to begin the work; but the captain
soon ordered the men to desist.
"It is of no use, Mr. Probert. We shall only be getting some of the
men killed. It wouldn't be possible to get half done before dark
and, if the sea goes down a bit, tonight, they will get as much
done in an hour's work, in the morning, as they would if they were
to work from now to sunset.
"The carpenter might get some canvas, and nail it so as to hide
those gaps in the bulwark. That will be something done. The boys
can give it a coat of paint, in the morning. But as for the spar,
we must leave it."
All hands were at work, next morning, with the first gleam of
daylight. The rollers were still almost as high as the day before;
but there was now a slight breath of wind, which sufficed to give
the vessel steerage way. She was put head to the rollers, changing
the motion from the tremendous rolling, when she was lying
broadside to them, for a regular rise and fall that interfered but
little with the work. A spare spar was fitted in the place of the
bowsprit, the stump of the topmast was sent down, and the
topgallant mast fitted in its place and, by midday, the light spars
were all in their places again, and the brig was showing a fair
spread of canvas; and a casual observer would, at a distance, have
noticed but slight change in her appearance.
"That has been a good morning's work," the captain said, as they
sat down to dinner. "We are a little short of head-sail, but that
will make no great difference in our rate of sailing, especially if
the wind is aft. We are ready to meet with another storm again, if
it should come--which is not likely.
"We are ready for anything, in fact, except a heavily-armed
privateer. The loss of four of our guns has crippled us. But there
was no choice about the matter; it went against my heart to see
them go overboard, but it was better to lose four guns than to lose
the ship.
"I hope we shall meet with nothing till we get through the Straits.
I may be able to pick up some guns, at Gibraltar. Prizes are often
brought in there, and condemned, and there are sales of stores; so
I hope to be able to get her into regular fighting trim, again,
before I clear out from there.
"I should think you won't be sorry when we drop anchor off the
Mole, youngster?"
"I am in no hurry, now," Bob said. "I would have given a good
deal--if I had had it--two days ago, to have been on dry land but,
now that we are all right again, I don't care how long we are,
before we get there. It is very warm and pleasant, a wonderful
change after what it was when we sailed.
"Whereabouts are we, captain?"
"We are a good bit farther to the east than I like," the captain
replied. "We have been blown a long way into the bay. There is a
great set of current, in here. We have drifted nearly fifty miles
in, since noon yesterday. We are in 4 degrees 50 minutes west
longitude, and 45 degrees latitude."
"I don't think that means anything to me."
"No, I suppose not," the captain laughed. "Well, it means we are
nearly due west of Bordeaux, and about one hundred miles from the
French coast, and a little more than eighty north of Santander, on
the Spanish coast. As the wind is sou'-sou'west we can lay our
course for Cape Ortegal and, once round there, we shall feel more
comfortable."
"But don't you feel comfortable at present, captain?"
"Well, not altogether. We are a good deal too close in to the
French coast; and we are just on the track of any privateer that
may be making for Bordeaux, from the west or south, or going out in
those directions. So, although I can't say I am absolutely
uncomfortable, I shall be certainly glad when we are back again on
the regular track of our own line of traffic for the Straits or
Portugal. There are English cruisers on that line, and privateers
on the lookout for the French, so that the sound of guns might
bring something up to our assistance; but there is not much chance
of meeting with a friendly craft, here--unless it has, like
ourselves, been blown out of its course."
A lookout had already been placed aloft. Several sails were seen in
the distance, in the course of the afternoon, but nothing that
excited suspicion. The wind continued light and, although the brig
had every sail set, she was not making more than five and a half
knots an hour through the water. In the evening the wind dropped
still more and, by nine o'clock, the brig had scarcely steerage
way.
"It is enough to put a saint out of temper," the captain said, as
he came down into the cabin, and mixed himself a glass of grog
before turning in. "If the wind had held, we should have been
pretty nearly off Finisterre, by morning. As it is, we haven't made
more than forty knots since we took the observation, at noon."
Bob woke once in the night; and knew, by the rippling sound of
water, and by the slight inclination of his berth, that the breeze
had sprung up again. When he woke again the sun was shining
brightly, and he got up and dressed leisurely; but as he went into
the cabin he heard some orders given, in a sharp tone, by the
captain on deck, and quickened his pace up the companion, to see
what was going on.
"Good morning, Mr. Lockett!" he said to the second mate, who was
standing close by, looking up at the sails.
"Good morning, Master Repton!" he replied, somewhat more shortly
than usual.
"There is a nice breeze this morning," Bob went on. "We seem going
on at a good rate."
"I wish she were going twice as fast," the mate said. "There is a
gentleman over there who seems anxious to have a talk with us, and
we don't want to make his acquaintance."
Bob looked round and saw, over the quarter, a large lugger some
three miles away.
"What vessel is that?" he asked.
"That is a French privateer--at least, there is very little doubt
about it. We must have passed each other in the dark for, when we
first made him out, he was about four miles away, sailing
northeast. He apparently sighted us, just as we made him out; and
hauled his wind, at once. He has gained about a mile on us, in the
last two hours. We have changed our course; and are sailing, as you
see, northwest, so as to bring the wind on our quarter; and I don't
think that fellow has come up much, since. Still, he does come up.
We feel the loss of our sail, now."
It seemed to Bob, looking up, that there was already an immense
amount of canvas on the brig. Stunsails had been set on her, and
she was running very fast through the water.
"We seem to have more canvas set than that vessel behind us," he
said.
"Yes, we have more, but those luggers sail like witches. They are
splendid boats, but they want very big crews to work them. That is
the reason why you scarcely ever see them, with us, except as
fishing craft, or something of that sort. I daresay that lugger has
a hundred men on board--eighty, anyhow--so it is no wonder we
sometimes get the worst of it. They always carry three hands to our
two and, very often, two to our one. Of course we are really a
trader, though we do carry a letter of marque. If we were a regular
privateer, we should carry twice as many hands as we do."
Walking to the poop rail, Bob saw that the men were bringing up
shot, and putting them in the racks by the guns. The breech covers
had been taken off. The first officer was overlooking the work.
"Well, lad," Captain Lockett said, coming up to him, "you see that
unlucky calm has got us into a mess, after all and, unless the wind
drops again, we are going to have to fight for it."
"Would the wind dropping help us, sir?"
"Yes, we have more canvas on her than the lugger carries and, if
the breeze were lighter, should steal away from her. As it is, she
doesn't gain much; but she does gain and, in another two or three
hours, she will be sending a messenger to ask us to stop."
"And what will you do, captain?"
"We shall send another messenger back, to tell her to mind her own
business. Then it will be a question of good shooting. If we can
knock out one of her masts, we shall get off; if we can't, the
chances are we shall see the inside of a French prison.
"If she once gets alongside, it is all up with us. She can carry
us, by boarding; for she can throw three times our strength of men
on to our deck."
There was but little talking on board the brig. When the men had
finished their preparations, they stood waiting by the bulwarks;
watching the vessel in chase of them, and occasionally speaking
together in low tones.
"You may as well pipe the hands to breakfast, Mr. Probert. I have
told the cook to give them an extra good meal. After that, I will
say a few words to them.
"Now, Master Repton, we may as well have our meal. We mayn't get
another good one, for some time; but I still hope that we shall be
able to cripple that fellow. I have great faith in that long
eighteen. The boatswain is an old man-o'-war's-man, and is a
capital shot. I am a pretty good one, myself and, as the sea is
smooth, and we have a good steady platform to fire from, I have
good hope we shall cripple that fellow before he comes up to us."
There was more talking than usual, at breakfast. Captain Lockett
and the second mate both laughed, and joked, over the approaching
fight. Mr. Probert was always a man of few words, and he said but
little, now.
"The sooner they come up, the better," he growled. "I hate this
running away, especially when you can't run fastest."
"The men will all do their best, I suppose, Probert? You have been
down among them."
The first mate nodded.
"They don't want to see the inside of a prison, captain, no more
than I do. They will stick to the guns; but I fancy they know, well
enough, it will be no use if it comes to boarding."
"No use at all, Probert. I quite agree with you, there. If she
comes up alongside, we must haul down the flag. It is of no use
throwing away the men's lives, by fighting against such odds as
that. But we mustn't let her get up."
"That is it, sir. We have got to keep her off, if it can be done.
We shall have to haul our wind a little, when we begin, so as to
get that eighteen to bear on her."
"Yes, we must do that," the captain said. "Then we will get the
other four guns over on the same side."
After breakfast was over, the captain went up and took his station
at the poop rail. The men had finished their breakfast and, on
seeing that the captain was about to address them, moved aft.
"My lads," he said, "that Frenchman behind will be within range, in
the course of another hour. What we have got to do is to knock some
of her spars out of her and, as she comes up slowly, we shall have
plenty of time to do it. I daresay she carries a good many more
guns than we do, but I do not suppose that they are heavier metal.
If she got alongside of us, she would be more than our match; but I
don't propose to let her get alongside and, as I don't imagine any
of you wish to see the inside of a French prison, I know you will
all do your best.
"Let there be no hurrying in your fire. Aim at her spars, and don't
throw a shot away. The chances are all in our favour; for we can
fight all our guns, while she can fight only her bow chasers--at
any rate, until she bears up. She doesn't gain on us much now and,
when she comes to get a few shot holes in her sails, it will make
the difference. I shall give ten guineas to be divided among the
men at the first gun that knocks away one of her spars; and five
guineas, besides, to the man who lays the gun."
The men gave a cheer.
"Get the guns all over to the port side. I shall haul her wind, a
little, as soon as we are within range."
By five bells, the lugger was within a mile and a half. The men
were already clustered round the pivot gun.
"Put her helm down, a little," the captain ordered. "That is
enough.
"Now, boatswain, you are well within range. Let us see what you can
do. Fire when you have got her well on your sights."
A few seconds later there was a flash, and a roar. All eyes were
directed on the lugger, which the captain was watching through his
glass. There was a shout from the men. The ball had passed through
the great foresail, a couple of feet from the mast.
"Very good," the captain said. "Give her a trifle more elevation,
next time. If you can hit the yard, it will be just as good as
hitting the mast.
"Ah! There she goes!"
Two puffs of white smoke broke out from the lugger's bow. One shot
struck the water nearly abreast of the brig, at a distance of ten
yards. The other fell short.
"Fourteens!" the captain said. "I thought she wouldn't have
eighteens, so far forward."
Shot after shot was fired but, so far, no serious damage had been
caused by them. The brig had been hulled once, and two shots had
passed through her sails.
The captain went, himself, to the pivot gun; and laid it carefully.
Bob stood watching the lugger intently, and gave a shout as he saw
the foresail run rapidly down.
"It is only the slings cut," the second mate--who was standing by
him--said. "They will have it up again, in a minute. If the shot
had been the least bit lower, it would have smashed the yard."
The lugger came into the wind and, as she did so, eight guns
flashed out from her side while, almost at the same moment, the
four broadside guns of the Antelope were, for the first time,
discharged. Bob felt horribly uncomfortable, for a moment, as the
shot hummed overhead; cutting one of the stunsail booms in two, and
making five fresh holes in the sails.
"Take the men from the small guns, Joe, and get that sail in," the
captain said. "Its loss is of no consequence."
In half a minute, the lugger's foresail again rose; and she
continued the chase, heading straight for the brig.
"He doesn't like this game of long bowls, Probert," the captain
said. "He intends to come up to board, instead of trusting to his
guns.
"Now, boatswain, you try again."
The brig was now sailing somewhat across the lugger's bows, so that
her broadside guns--trained as far as possible aft--could all play
upon her; and a steady fire was kept up, to which she only replied
by her two bow chasers. One of the men had been knocked down, and
wounded, by a splinter from the bulwark; but no serious damage had
so far been inflicted, while the sails of the lugger were spotted
with shot holes.
Bob wished, heartily, that he had something to do; and would have
been glad to have followed the first mate's example--that officer
having thrown off his coat, and taken the place of the wounded man
in working a gun--but he felt that he would only be in the way, did
he try to assist. Steadily the lugger came up, until she was little
more than a quarter of a mile behind them.
"Now, lads," the captain shouted, "double shot the guns--this is
your last chance. Lay your guns carefully, and all fire together,
when I give the word.
"Now, are you all ready? Fire!"
The five guns flashed out together, and the ten shot sped on their
way. The splinters flew from the lugger's foremast, in two places;
but a cry of disappointment rose, as it was seen that it was
practically uninjured.
"Look, look!" the captain shouted. "Hurrah, lads!" and a cloud of
white canvas fell over, to leeward of the lugger.
Her two masts were nearly in line, and the shot that had narrowly
missed the foremast, and passed through the foresail, had struck
the mainmast and brought it, and its sail, overboard. The crew of
the brig raised a general cheer. A minute before a French prison
had stared them in the face, and now they were free. The helm was
instantly put up, and the brig bore straight away from her pursuer.
"What do you say, Probert? Shall we turn the tables, now, and give
her a pounding?"
"I should like to, sir, nothing better; but it would be dangerous
work. Directly she gets free of that hamper, she will be under
command, and will be able to bring her broadside to play on us; and
if she had luck, and knocked away one of our spars, she would turn
the tables upon us. Besides, even if we made her strike her
colours, we could never take her into port. Strong handed as she
is, we should not dare to send a prize crew on board."
"You are right, Probert--though it does seem a pity to let her go
scot free, when we have got her almost at our mercy."
"Not quite, sir. Look there."
The lugger had managed to bring her head sufficiently up into the
wind for her broadside guns to bear, and the shot came hurtling
overhead. The yard of the main-topsail was cut in sunder, and the
peak halliard of the spanker severed, and the peak came down with a
run. They could hear a faint cheer come across the water from the
lugger.
"Leave the guns, lads, and repair damages!" the captain shouted.
"Throw off the throat halliards of the spanker, get her down, and
send a hand up to reef a fresh rope through the blocks, Mr.
Probert.
"Joe, take eight men with you, and stow away the topsail. Send the
broken yard down.
"Carpenter, see if you have got a light spar that will do, instead
of it. If not, get two small ones, and lash them so as to make a
splice of it."
In a minute the guns of the lugger spoke out again but, although a
few ropes were cut away, and some more holes made in the sails, no
serious damage was inflicted and, before they were again loaded,
the spanker was rehoisted. The lugger continued to fire, but the
brig was now leaving her fast. As soon as the sail was up, the
pivot gun was again set to work; and the lugger was hulled several
times but, seeing that her chance of disabling the brig was small,
she was again brought before the wind.
In half an hour a new topsail yard was ready, and that sail was
again hoisted. The Antelope had now got three miles away from the
lugger. As the sail sheeted home, the second mate shouted, from
aloft:
"There is a sail on the weather bow, sir! She is close hauled, and
sailing across our head."
"I see her," the captain replied.
"We ought to have noticed her before, Mr. Probert. We have all been
so busy that we haven't been keeping a lookout.
"What do you make her to be, Joe?" he said to the second mate.
"I should say she was a French frigate, sir."
The captain ascended the shrouds with his glass, remained there two
or three minutes watching the ship, and then returned to the deck.
"She is a frigate, certainly, Mr. Probert, and by the cut of her
sails I should say a Frenchman. We are in an awkward fix. She has
got the weather gage of us. Do you think, if we put up helm and ran
due north, we should come out ahead of her?"
The mate shook his head.
"Not if the wind freshens, sir, as I think it will. I should say we
had best haul our wind, and make for one of the Spanish ports. We
might get into Santander."
"Yes, that would be our best chance.
"All hands 'bout ship!"
The vessel's head was brought up into the wind, and payed off on
the other tack, heading south--the frigate being, now, on her
weather quarter. This course took the brig within a mile and a half
of the lugger, which fired a few harmless shots at her. When she
had passed beyond the range of her guns, she shaped her course
southeast by east for Santander, the frigate being now dead astern.
The men were then piped to dinner.
"Is she likely to catch us, sir?" Bob asked, as they sat down to
table.
"I hope not, lad. I don't think she will, unless the wind freshens
a good deal. If it did, she would come up hand over hand.
"I take it she is twelve miles off, now. It is four bells, and she
has only got five hours' daylight, at most. However fast she is,
she ought not to gain a knot and a half an hour, in this breeze
and, if we are five or six miles ahead when it gets dark, we can
change our course. There is no moon."
They were not long below.
"The lugger is under sail again, sir," the second mate, who was on
duty, said as they gained the deck.
"They haven't been long getting up a jury mast," Captain Lockett
said. "That is the best of a lug rig. Still, they have a smart crew
on board."
He directed his glass towards the lugger, which was some five miles
away.
"It is a good-sized spar," he said, "nearly as lofty as the
foremast. She is carrying her mainsail with two reefs in it and,
with the wind on her quarter, is travelling pretty nearly as fast
as she did before. Still, she can't catch us, and she knows it.
"Do you see, Mr. Probert, she is bearing rather more to the north.
She reckons, I fancy, that after it gets dark we may try to throw
the frigate out; and may make up that way, in which case she would
have a good chance of cutting us off. That is awkward, for the
frigate will know that; and will guess that, instead of wearing
round that way, we shall be more likely to make the other."
"That is so," the mate agreed. "Still, we shall have the choice of
either hauling our wind and making south by west, or of running on,
and she can't tell which we shall choose."
"That is right enough. It is just a toss up. If we run, and she
runs, she will overtake us; if we haul up close into the wind, and
she does the same, she will overtake us, again; but if we do one
thing, and she does the other, we are safe.
"Then again, we may give her more westing, after it gets dark, and
bear the same course the lugger is taking. She certainly won't gain
on us, and I fancy we shall gain a bit on her. Then in the morning,
if the frigate is out of sight, we can make for Santander, which
will be pretty nearly due south of us, then; or, if the lugger is
left well astern we can make a leg north, and then get on our old
course again, for Cape Ortegal. The lugger would see it was of no
use chasing us, any further."
"Yes, I think that is the best plan of the three, captain.
"I see the frigate is coming up. I can just make out the line of
her hull. She must be a fast craft."
The hours passed on slowly. Fortunately the wind did not freshen,
and the vessels maintained their respective positions towards each
other. The frigate was coming up, but, when it began to get dusk,
she was still some six miles astern. The lugger was five miles
away, on the lee quarter, and three miles northeast of the frigate.
She was still pursuing a line that would take her four miles to the
north of the brig's present position. The coast of Spain could be
seen stretching along to the southward. Another hour and it was
perfectly dark and, even with the night glasses, the frigate could
no longer be made out.
"Starboard your helm," the captain said, to the man at the wheel.
"Lay her head due east."
"I fancy the wind is dying away, sir," Mr. Probert said.
"So long as it don't come a stark calm, I don't care," the captain
replied. "That would be the worst thing that could happen, for we
should have the frigate's boats after us; but a light breeze would
suit us, admirably."
Two hours later, the wind had almost died out.
"We will take all the sails off her, Mr. Probert. If the frigate
keeps on the course she was steering when we last saw her, she will
go two miles to the south of us; and the lugger will go more than
that to the north. If they hold on all night, they will be hull
down before morning; and we shall be to windward of them and, with
the wind light, the frigate would never catch us; and we know the
lugger wouldn't, with her reduced sails."
In a few minutes all the sails were lowered, and the brig lay
motionless. For the next two hours the closest watch was kept, but
nothing was seen of the pursuing vessels.
"I fancy the frigate must have altered her course more to the
south," the captain said, "thinking that, as the lugger was up
north, we should be likely to haul our wind in that direction. We
will wait another hour, and then get up sail again, and lay her
head for Cape Ortegal."
When the morning broke, the brig was steering west. No sign of the
lugger was visible but, from the tops, the upper sails of the
frigate could be seen, close under the land, away to the southeast.
"Just as I thought," the captain said, rubbing his hands in high
glee. "She hauled her wind, as soon as it was dark, and stood in
for the coast, thinking we should do the same.
"We are well out of that scrape."
Two days later the brig dropped her anchor in the Tagus, where
three English ships of war were lying. A part of the cargo had to
be discharged, here; and the captain at once went ashore, to get a
spar to replace the topmast carried away in the gale.
"We may fall in with another Frenchman, before we are through the
Straits," he said, "and I am not going to put to sea again like a
lame duck."
Bob went ashore with the captain, and was greatly amused at the
scenes in the streets of Lisbon.
"You had better keep with me, as I shall be going on board, in an
hour. Tomorrow you can come ashore and see the sights, and spend
the day. I would let Joe come with you, but he will be too busy to
be spared, so you will have to shift for yourself."
Before landing in the morning, the captain advised him not to go
outside the town.
"You don't know the lingo, lad, and might get into trouble. You
see, there are always sailors going ashore from our ships of war,
and they get drunk and have sprees; and I don't fancy they are
favourites with the lower class, here, although the shopkeepers, of
course, are glad enough to have their money--but I don't think it
would be safe for a lad like you, who can't speak a word of the
language, to wander about outside the regular streets. There will
be plenty for you to see, without going further."
As Bob was a good deal impressed with the narrow escape he had had
from capture, he was by no means inclined to run any risk of
getting into a scrape, and perhaps missing his passage out. He
therefore strictly obeyed the captain's instructions; and
when--just as he was going down to the landing stage, where the
boat was to come ashore for him--he came upon a party of half
drunken sailors, engaged in a vigorous fight with a number of
Portuguese civil guards, he turned down a side street to avoid
getting mixed up in the fray--repressing his strong impulse to join
in by the side of his countrymen.
On his mentioning this to the captain, when he reached the brig,
the latter said:
"It is lucky that you kept clear of the row. It is all nonsense,
talking about countrymen. It wasn't an affair of nationality, at
all. Nobody would think of interfering, if he saw a party of
drunken sailors in an English port fighting with the constables. If
he did interfere, it ought to be on the side of the law. Why, then,
should anyone take the part of drunken sailors, in a foreign port,
against the guardians of the peace? To do so is an act of the
grossest folly.
"In the first place, the chances are in favour of getting your head
laid open with a sword cut. These fellows know they don't stand a
chance against Englishmen's fists, and they very soon whip out
their swords. In the second place, you would have to pass the night
in a crowded lockup, where you would be half smothered before
morning. And lastly, if you were lucky enough not to get a week's
confinement in jail, you would have a smart fine to pay.
"There is plenty of fighting to be done, in days like these; but
people should see that they fight on the right side, and not be
taking the part of every drunken scamp who gets into trouble,
simply because he happens to be an Englishman.
"You showed plenty of pluck, lad, when the balls were flying about
the other day; and when I see your uncle, I am sure he will be
pleased when I tell him how well you behaved, under fire; but I am
equally certain he would not have been, by any means, gratified at
hearing that I had had to leave you behind at Lisbon, either with a
broken head or in prison, through getting into a street row, in
which you had no possible concern, between drunken sailors and the
Portuguese civil guards."
Bob saw that the captain was perfectly right, and said so, frankly.
"I see I should have been a fool, indeed, if I had got into the
row, captain; and I shall remember what you say, in future. Still,
you know, I didn't get into it."
"No, I give you credit for that, lad; but you acknowledge your
strong impulse to do so. Now, in future you had better have an
impulse just the other way and, when you find yourself in the midst
of a row in which you have no personal concern, let your first
thought be how to get out of it, as quickly as you can. I got into
more than one scrape, myself, when I was a young fellow, from the
conduct of messmates who had got too much liquor in them; but it
did them no good, and did me harm.
"So, take my advice: fight your own battles, but never interfere to
fight other people's, unless you are absolutely convinced that they
are in the right. If you are, stick by them as long as you have a
leg to stand upon."