A PRIZE FOR THE NOANK.
"It doesn't take long to see all there is on one of these plantations,"
said Guert Ten Eyck to himself. "It's the laziest kind of place,
though. I haven't seen a man in a hurry since I came here."
He was standing in a wide veranda which ran along the entire front, at
least, of a long, two-story, fairly well-built house. There were
well-kept gardens, with noble trees and shrubbery, and all the veranda
was shadowy with climbing vines. It was the old Paez plantation house,
and was also the present home of Senor Alvarez and his family.
"It's all very fine," Guert had remarked of it. "They're as rich as
mud, but I wouldn't live here for anything. What if the _Noank_ should
manage to get away without me on board of her?"
That was a black idea which seemed almost to make him shudder. He had
remained here as a favored guest for over a fortnight. During these
days of his Spanish plantation experiences, the _Noank_ had been idly
rocking at her anchor in the sheltered cove to which her Carib pilot
had steered her.
The two British war-ships had been cruising to and fro in a fruitless
search for her, and their commanders were more than a little chagrined
at their ill success, for they were firmly convinced that she could not
be far away.
Guert had visited the shore, and his friends, in turn, had visited him,
to be also liberally entertained at the plantation. Nothing but the
great need for secrecy had prevented more extended inland hospitalities
to the brave _Americanos_ who had destroyed the picaroon. The highest
authorities on the island were quite ready to acknowledge so important
a public service, and no Spaniard, official or otherwise, was at all
likely to help the British capture the _Noank_.
Guert had been promised information of any change in the prospect for
cruising. He had learned, too, that this kind of lying in ambush was
altogether a customary feature of all piracy or privateering among the
Antilles. Captain Avery had expected it, and had considered himself
fortunate in getting so good a lagoon to lurk in. The _Tigress_ and
the _Hermione_ were enemies which it would not do to trifle with.
Moreover, he had been kept well advised of the goings on in the harbor
of Porto Rico, and he knew all about the English merchantmen who were
discharging or taking in cargoes. One subject in particular had
greatly interested the young American sailor, for there were a great
many dark-skinned laborers upon the Paez and the neighboring
plantations.
"If all the slaves are as well treated as they are here," Guert had
thought, "they are a great deal better off than they ever were in
Africa. I don't want to see any such thing in America, though. I'm
sorry it's there. We don't want any more slave trade. Too many of 'em
die on the way from Africa."
His ideas, of course, were very raw and incomplete. He was only a boy,
and he could not see all of the mischief. He had watched the colored
people in their huts, away off behind the plantation house. He had
seen them at work in the fields. They seemed to be fat, merry, and not
at all discontented. As for their Spanish owners, nothing could be
more easy-going and careless than their way of life. Their only
apparent difficulty appeared to be in finding something to do. Guert
himself found enough, for all this thing was entirely new to him. He
enjoyed especially his horseback rides around the country, along forest
roads, and into wonderfully lovely nooks of semi-tropical vegetation.
He was all the while picking up Spanish words with great rapidity, for
there was no other language to be heard, except queer African dialects
among the slaves. He progressed all the better, too, because of having
made a pretty good beginning before coming there. On the whole,
however, his plantation days seemed a long time to look back upon, and
here he stood, in the veranda, disposed to consider his situation
seriously.
"What!" he suddenly exclaimed. "Could I stay here and think of the
_Noank_ being out there in a fight? My own mother'd be ashamed of me,
if I did!"
A light hand was on his shoulder, and a soft, kindly voice said to
him:--
"My dear young friend! If I were your mother, I should feel as you say
she would. I would have my brave son fighting for his country."
"O Senora Paez!" said Guert, whirling to look into her venerable face,
"you all have been so good to me! But I cannot stay here while our war
for liberty is going on."
Before she could speak again, a loud hail came up to them from the
gateway at the road, and a man on horseback dashed in at a gallop.
"Senora Paez," said Guert, excitedly, "it's Vine Avery! Something's
happened."
"Guert!" shouted the rider, "we're all ready to sail! Come on! The
coast is clear! Come back with me!"
"Hurrah! I'm ready," he began.
"Go, my dear boy!" interrupted the old senora. "I will call them to
say good-by to you. I would not detain you if you were my son. It is
your duty!"
Quickly enough, the Alvarez household gathered to say farewell to their
young guest. They were all brimming with hospitality. They urged him
to come again and to consider their house his home. Nevertheless he
could see, plainly enough, that not one of them dreamed of detaining
him, now. They understood that his post of honor was behind the guns
of the _Noank_, and they would have despised him if he had not felt
just as he did.
A horse was brought, and Senor Alvarez himself rode with Vine and Guert
to the seashore, less than ten miles away. That distance was galloped
rapidly. A boat was at the beach with a sailor from the _Noank_ in it,
and in a minute or so more it had three rowers. Loud and sincere were
the last grateful farewells from the senor on the beach. As hearty
were the good wishes sent back from the boat, but Guert's heart was
thrilling as it had not thrilled during all his peaceful weeks at the
Paez plantation.
There, yonder, at the mast of his beautiful schooner, floated the stars
and stripes, the banner of freedom. There, waiting for him to rejoin
them, were his own brave captain and the crew that seemed to him as his
kindred. Away out yonder, outside of all these reefs and keys and
ledges, was the great ocean.
"Hurrah, Vine!" he shouted. "Hurrah for a cruise and fights and
prizes!"
"We're bound to have 'em!" said Vine.
As they pulled along, moreover, he told Guert that one of the sailors
of the _Santa Teresa_ had come all the way from Porto Rico in a rowboat
to tell Captain Avery a lot of news that the captain had as yet kept to
himself.
"It looks to me," said Vine, "as if we had some work all cut out for
us."
"That's what we want," said Guert.
"I tell you what, though," said Vine, "the queerest feller on board the
schooner is that Dutchman, Groot. He asks after you every now and
then. Do you know, he actually ventured to go right into Porto Rico
twice. I don't s'pose anybody he saw there suspected him of being a
pirate."
"Well," said Guert, "he never was one, exactly. Here we are, Vine. I
guess I'll have a talk with him."
The boat was at the side of the _Noank_, and a score of well-known
faces were at the rail.
"On board with you!" called out Sam Prentice. "The anchor's comin' in.
There's no time to be wasted."
Other orders followed, and Guert sprang away to his duties feeling a
good deal more like himself than if he were watching slaves in a
tobacco-field.
Very secure indeed had been that bit of a landlocked harbor on the
island coast. Its entrance was a mere narrow canal, so to call it,
between dangerous reefs on either side. No deep-draft British vessel
could pass through that channel; even the _Noank_ was compelled to take
it at high water because of its bars.
"Captain Avery," asked Guert, after delivering the messages of good
will from his Spanish friends, "didn't you say that the British might
have come in and carried the schooner in boats?"
"Ye-es, I did," drawled the captain. "That's the reason why I anchored
her jest in that spot. I kept a sharp lookout, you see, on that there
p'int o' rocks yonder. Our guns were kept trained on this channel, all
the time. We were all prepared then to knock their boats to flinders
as they got in to about here. Not one of 'em'd ever pulled past this
'ere twist in the channel, when it opens into the lagoon."
Guert's question was answered, and he had a higher idea than ever of
the remarkable fitness of Lyme Avery to conduct the business of the
privateer _Noank_.
"I see it," he thought. "They'd ha' been smashed by a raking fire at
short range. It would ha' been awful!"
The schooner had but little canvas spread as yet, and she picked her
way carefully, slowly; but the channel was not a long one, after all.
"Out at sea!" exclaimed Guert, with a long breath of relief, at last.
"Seems to me as if I'd been on shore a year. I was getting pretty sick
of it."
"Lyme Avery," remarked his mate, as more sails were spreading, "it
looks to me as if we were goin' to have a rough night. We'd better git
well away from the coast."
"We'll do that," replied the captain, "and we'll run along in the track
o' that Liverpool trader. She has pretty nigh a day the start of us."
"I understand that," thought Guert, overhearing them. "We're in for a
race. We may be chased ourselves, too. It doesn't look to me as if a
storm's coming, but they read weather signs better'n I can."
"Come," said a low voice in his ear; "I want to talk with you."
The summons was spoken in Dutch, such as Guert had been accustomed to
hear in old days upon Manhattan Island. Somehow or other the sound of
it was very pleasant to him. He turned even eagerly to follow Groot,
and was led forward almost to the heel of the bowsprit.
"Now, my boy," said the escaped pirate, "we are by ourselves. I know
you like a book. I have talked with Coco and Up-na-tan. They say you
know all about their having been freebooters, long ago. They call it
Kidd business. Now, I never was really one of that kind, but there are
ways for one buccaneer to know another, soon as he sees him, or talks
with him."
"Yes," replied Guert, "they say so. It's by handgrips and signs and
words. I know some of 'em now."
He and the Dutchman shook hands, and Guert said what he knew.
"That's well enough for a beginning," said Groot, "but you must know it
all. It might save your life some day. It saved mine when they
captured me. I'll teach you. I mean to keep company with you and
those two old fellows. I owe you my life."
"Vine helped, too," said Guert. "I'm glad we hauled you aboard. The
sharks were pretty close behind you just then. Oh! But wasn't it
awful! I wish we'd saved more of 'em."
"You couldn't," said Groot. "They'd only ha' been turned over to the
law, if you had. They were all sharks, too, nearly all. Worst kind.
Some weren't quite as bad as the rest, perhaps. Never mind them, now.
Let's attend to this business."
Guert was willing enough, although Groot laughed, and said it made a
kind of pirate of him.
"We'll practise now and then," he told him. "Now, some wouldn't
believe it, but I met more than a score of regular picaroons, living at
their ease in Porto Rico. Some of them are rich, too, and don't mean
to go to sea any more. For all that, they're always ready to give
information or any other help to sea-rovers like themselves."
Guert was all the while learning a great deal, and this addition to his
stock of knowledge hardly surprised him.
"I see," he thought. "It's a kind of matter of course. It would be a
good deal stranger if it wasn't so. Those that get away rich don't
care to run any more risks. Besides, if such fellows hadn't signs and
passwords already, they'd set right to work and invent some. Even
regular armies have passwords and countersigns, and all the ships have
signals."
He was thinking of that sort of thing when the dark came on. The wind
was strengthening, and there were clouds rushing across the sky to
vindicate Sam Prentice's prophecy concerning the weather.
"He was right, I guess," thought Guert. "Hullo! What's the captain up
to?"
Captain Avery was standing at the mainmast, and he had just touched off
a rocket that went fizzing up to its bursting place.
"I wonder who'll see it," thought Guert.
Far away in the deepening gloom to leeward, at that moment, the first
lieutenant of the _Tigress_, watching upon her quarter-deck,
exclaimed:--
"Captain! One more of our cruisers! She'll come within hail before
long. That's it! I hope we're going to be relieved. I'm sick and
tired of this West India station."
"So am I!" said the captain, heartily. "Reply to that signal. Give
'em our own number. Draw 'em this way."
His signal officer responded promptly, and more than one rocket went up
from the _Tigress_. Her commander was much chagrined, however, for he
received no response to give him the information he expected of the
character of the newcomer.
Moreover, as far away from the _Noank_ as he was, but in a directly
opposite line, to windward, at the same time, the English skipper of a
fine, bark-rigged merchantman, just out from Porto Rico, felt
exceedingly gratified. She was a craft of which Captain Avery had no
knowledge whatever up to that moment.
"Hey!" shouted the skipper. "See that? One more of our cruisers close
at hand, beside the one away off to looard. I'll send up a light to
let 'em know where we are."
Captain Avery had not really asked so much of him, but that was
precisely what his unnecessary rocket did.
"Lyme!" exclaimed Sam Prentice, as the shining stars fell out of the
flying firework from the bark. "I declare! They told us that feller
wouldn't sail for three days yet, and there he is. He's goin' to be
our surest take, Captain."
"All right," replied the captain. "Not to-night, though. We'll just
foller him along till mornin'. Then we'll put a prize crew into him
and send him to New London. We're much obliged to him for callin' on
us."
"I guess we're sure of him," said Sam, "but we'd better look out for
our sticks and canvas, first."
That was what every vessel in that neighborhood was compelled to do
during the gale which began to blow.
"She stands it first-rate," said Guert to Up-na-tan, an hour or so
later. "Tell you what, though, I feel a good deal better than I did on
shore."
"Boy talk Spanish," replied the Manhattan. "Talk him all while. Learn
how. Boy not know much, anyhow."
The red man had all along deemed it his duty to impress upon the mind
of his young friend the idea that he was only a beginner, an ignorant
kind of sea apprentice with all his troubles before him. After that
there followed a watch below, another on deck, and then the morning sun
began to do what he could with the flying rack of clouds and spray and
mist that was driving along before the gale.
"Vine," asked Guert, "has anything more been seen of that trader!"
"Can't you see?" said Vine. "There she is. We're to wind'ard of her,
now. She's answering father's signals, first-rate. We owe all that
luck to Luke Watts and his private signal-book."
Nevertheless, the skipper of the bark was even then expressing much
perplexity of mind as to what the _Noank_ might be and where from. He
did not exactly like her style. It was peculiar, he said, as the
morning went on and the gale began to subside, that the seemingly
friendly schooner, answering signals so well, should keep the same
course with himself, all the while drawing nearer.
"She outsails us," he remarked. "We can't get away from her. I wish
the corvette or the frigate were in sight."
Both of them had vanished. They had tacked toward Porto Rico and the
officers of the _Tigress_, in particular, were keeping a sharp lookout
for the newly arrived British man-of-war that had burned rockets so
very promisingly in the night.
"It's all right, Lieutenant," remarked Captain Frobisher. "The gale
has carried her along finely. We shall find her in port when we get
there."
"I wish we may!" growled the very sharp lieutenant, "but I don't like
it. I didn't exactly make out the reading of that second rocket.
Perhaps a lubber sent it up. We'll see."
On went the schooner and the bark without any outside observers. Down
sank the tired-out gale, and the sun broke through the clouds.
"Coco!" shouted Captain Avery, at last, "haul down that lobster flag
and run up the stars and stripes. Vine, give 'em that forward
starboard gun. All hands to quarters! 'Bout ship! Men! she's our
prize!"
A ringing sound of cheers answered him, and the report of the gun
followed. It was a signal for the Englishman to heave to, and her
captain dashed his hat upon the deck.
"Caught!" he groaned. "Taken by the rebels! I wish they were all sunk
a hundred fathoms deep."
Loud, angry voices from all parts of his ship responded with similar
sentiments relating to American pirates, but there could be no thought
of resistance. The bark was hove to, and her flag came down in a hurry
as if to avoid all danger of further shotted cannonading.
"Ship ahoy!" came loudly across the water. "What bark's that?"
"Bark _Spencer_, Captain McGrew. Porto Rico for Liverpool. Cargo. No
passengers. Who are you?"
The answer settled his mind entirely, and in a few minutes more he had
a boat's crew of American sailors on board.
"Captain McGrew," said Captain Avery, glancing around, "I'm glad you've
no passengers. I'll find out, first, how many of your fellers I can
leave on board with my prize crew, to handle her to New London. Some'd
ruther work ship than be crammed under hatches."
The British sailors exchanged nods and glances, and their skipper
responded:--
"All right! We're a prize, no doubt. We're insured, so far's that
goes. 'Tisn't so bad for the owners. But you'd better tally four
chaps that hid in the hold to keep from being 'pressed into the
_Tigress_. They're not deserters, you know, but they'd as lief keep
away from havin' to answer questions."
Four stalwart British tars at once stepped forward, and not one of them
"peached" to McGrew that their names were already on the rolls of the
frigate, so that they were much more than halfway deserters.
"Humph!" said Captain Avery, "I guess I can trust 'em. It saves me
four hands. I'll pick out four more. Captain McGrew, you and the rest
may come on board the schooner. I'll give you a free passage to
France. Treat ye well, too. Hand over your papers. Sam Prentice,
this is your trip home."
"All right!" almost roared Sam. "I'll carry her safe in. She and her
cargo'll bring us a pile o' shiners. Lyme, she's our first West Injy
luck!"
"Hurry up, Sam!" said the captain. "Then I'll try for that feller
ahead that led us from Porto Rico. She's along the track, somewhere."