"Larrikins," said I, whispering in his ear, as we stood up together just
in the rear of Mr Dabchick, balancing myself on one of the thwarts
forward, being about to make another spring for the side of the big
dhow, while Larry shoved a cartridge hastily into the breech of his
rifle, and was in the act of taking a pot shot at a chap who seemed to
be the skipper of the batilla and had a nose on him like the beak of a
Brazilian parrot, "little Dabby means business!" He did.
Hardly had I said this to my chum, making him miss his aim, I am sorry
to say, at the Arab beggar, who made a cut at me the next minute and
would have sliced off my starboard fin if I had not drawn back rather
hurriedly, ere our lieutenant sprang on to the back of Jones, the other
bowman, and then jumped right clean amongst the mass of Arabs in the
bows of the dhow.
"Come on, my lads!" he cried, in the middle of his jump; "follow me!"
This was enough for us.
Without an instant's reflection I imitated Dabby, using Jones's back as
a scaling-ladder, as did half a dozen other fellows; until the poor
beggar was pretty nearly trodden flat into the bottom of the boat.
`Whiz!' went the matchlock balls of the Arabs past our ears; `whir-r-ir'
sliced away their scimitars right and left in the air, with the
regularity of so many flails at work on a barn-floor; but we did not
mind them a bit, for the `phit--phit--phit!' of the bullets from our
Martini rifles pattered amongst the bronze-coloured rascals like hail,
deadening the whiz of their longer-barrelled weapons, while ever and
anon the Maxim of the second cutter grunted out a fusillade of grape,
making a noise like that of an old man with a bad cough on a winter's
night going up to bed in the cold.
"Ship my rowlocks!" as father would have said had he been there, but the
Maxim made some of those blessed Arabs cough, I can tell you; ay, and
put a goodish few to bed too!
"Lor'," cried Larrikins, who was fighting like a bulldog by my side, "I
never did see, blame me Tom, sich a bloomin' scrimmage in me life as
this yere!"
It was all that, it being a case of give and take all round, for the
Somalis made a rare stand.
They went their best for Dabby, seeing that he was our leader; but the
plucky little chap, with his sword in one hand and a revolver in the
other, stood amongst them as brave as you please, cutting at this one,
peppering at that, and guarding in some miraculous way a hundred blows
aimed at him from every side.
Don't think, though, that we left our officer to battle against the
Arabs single-handed.
Not we.
I do not say it in any boasting sense, will you please recollect, for I
am sure that no one who knows me would accuse me of being a braggart;
but, as I am telling of events that really happened, I must speak the
truth, and so to do this I am obliged to say that I was one of the first
to spring to Mr Dabchick's side after he boarded the dhow, Larrikins
coming next with a mad leap that nearly scrunched my toes off, and then
the coxswain of the cutter and the rest of the chaps.
Striking out with our cutlasses, we soon cleared a circle round the
lieutenant; and then, forming up like a breastwork in front of him, we
rushed at the remaining Somalis in the bows, hurling over into the sea,
with the impetus of our charge, those whom we did not cut down outright,
or settle with a thrust from our straight-edged blades.
The crew of our other boat had meanwhile climbed aboard amidships, where
they soon despatched the rest of the Arabs holding out there, a well-
aimed shot from the rifle of Larrikins potting the green-turbaned chief
of the gang.
With his fall, all opposition now ceased, and we took possession of our
prize; some twenty odd Somalis only remaining in our hands as prisoners,
the others having been all slain in open combat, or drowned when they
tumbled over the side.
We had not escaped scatheless either, for we lost three men in our boat,
besides Bartlett the bowman, and had five wounded, the coxswain
seriously; while Larrikins had a bullet through the fleshy part of his
forearm, and I received a knock on the knee from a friendly Arab which
made me limp for more than a month afterwards.
The second cutter, however, came off the worst, Mr Doyle, our junior
lieutenant, having been shot through the lungs with a jagged matchlock
ball in the desperate hand-to-hand fighting that ensued on her first
attack, which the Somalis repulsed, twelve more men of her complement,
besides, being either killed or wounded.
Poor Mr Doyle died shortly after we effected the capture of the
batilla; but, being a quiet, inoffensive sort of man, I don't think his
loss affected any one very much, while Mr Chisholm the middy, who was
made an acting sub-lieutenant in his place--such is the fortune of war--
was the reverse of sad when he came up to us presently in the whaler,
towing the smaller dhow, which he had very pluckily captured to his own
cheek.
The rest of the Somali craft had been run ashore on the rocks to escape
our clutches, reminding me of my old chum Mick one day, when we were
walking along the Gosport ramparts and it was raining, proceeding
carefully to take off his clothes and go into the water, to `kape
himself dhry,' as he explained to me in his Irish way.
So now the Arabs had knocked their dhows to pieces to save them; but the
men who manned them, as well as the poor slaves with which the majority
of them had been crammed, we found, on pulling inshore to examine them
later on, had all got safely beyond our reach, far away amid the khors
of the desert coast of the barren and inhospitable Nogal country.
To make matters certain that they should not be able to get the dhows
afloat again in the event of their returning, as well as to revenge
ourselves at being prevented from towing these off ourselves, so that we
might obtain the usual bounty given by the Zanzibar prize court for
their capture, we set fire to every single one of them, burning the lot
to the water's edge.
The whaler assisted us at this job, the second cutter being sent back to
the ship by Mr Dabchick to convey all our wounded comrades thither for
medical treatment, as well as the body of Mr Doyle, and that of another
poor fellow who had not gone overboard; we ourselves not yet returning
to the _Mermaid_, not rejoining her until our task was done, late in the
afternoon.
We buried the lieutenant and bluejacket who had fallen, at sunset; after
which, hoisting in all our boats, the cruiser put on steam and made for
Ras Hafim, picking up, when nearly abreast of the headland, just before
dark, the steam pinnace--all the chaps aboard of which, from Mr Gresham
downwards, getting quite angry when we told them of the little piece of
business we had been engaged on up the coast, our shipmates being riled
at having been left out in the cold and not sharing in our fun.
Fun they thought it; but, if they had gone through the job of scrubbing
down the thwarts and bottom boards of the cutter after the fray, as
Larrikins and I had to do, mopping up the blood and gore, which was more
than an inch deep, the fighting would not have seemed so jolly as their
imaginations pictured it.
Seeing nothing of our senior officer after picking up the pinnace, we
proceeded down the coast in the direction of Zanzibar, running across
him at last when near Mombassa.
This was lucky for us; for, as soon as Captain Hankey had communicated
with the flagship, he received fresh instructions that he was to keep
guard on the district lying between Pemba on the south and Witu on the
north; and, as Mombassa was about midway between the two points, we
were, so to speak, in the very centre of our cruising ground.
For the next few months, though, our work was not very lively, all of us
belonging to the boats being now engaged on patrol duty and separated
for weeks sometimes from our comrades on board the ship.
The first and second cutters, the launch, and the steam pinnace were
each provisioned and sent away to scout along the coast independently of
each other, watching for dhows and any suspicious craft we might see
making from the mainland for the islands, having orders to capture or
destroy such as we found carrying slaves; the _Mermaid_, our foster-
mother, giving us a look-up in turn at our respective stations, to see
how we were getting on, and supply us with any stores we might need in
the grub and water line.
It was a dreary task.
Sometimes for days we would not sight a sail; and, keeping out to sea,
so as to avoid observation from the shore, there was nothing to be seen
that could distract one's attention but the wide-stretching steel-blue
surface of the limitless Indian Ocean, and the eternal coppery sky
overhead, with never a cloud to shade us from the ever-blazing sun.
The south-west monsoon was in full swing, and the weather, consequently,
was cooler than usual--that was one comfort; but, the irksomeness of our
life was almost unbearable, and we all longed for something to happen,
no matter what, to break the monotony of our perpetual patrol.
Of course, we did come across some dhows, one in particular, a large
`bagala,' a craft with a high square stern, and a prow like a goose-
neck; while her poop resembled that of a Chinese junk, being only a
trifle clumsier--if possible.
We overhauled this hooker between Zanzibar and Pemba; and, as she was
making for the latter island, where cloves are grown and a large number
of slaves employed in their cultivation, the trade being the most
important on the coast, we naturally thought we were going to make a big
haul and get no end of bounty for the capture of the dhow.
But, as luck would have it, when we boarded her, not a single nigger was
aboard, nor was there any sign about her to show that she was fitted out
for the contraband business, there being no second bamboo deck betwixt
her hold and the upper one, which the slavers always have; and, though
we rummaged her fore and aft, we could not tumble upon the special stock
of rice and barricoes of water, which are always carried for the
accommodation of the ebony passengers, if they have any.
No, all was in order; her `reis,' or skipper, a swarthy Arab, with the
most diabolical expression I ever saw on human face, showing us his
clearance paper, which had the stamp of the British Consulate, and
described that he was bound on a trading voyage to Muscat.
So we had to let him pass, the old rascal of a `reis' grinning over her
stern at us as the bagala made off, running before the wind; the hook-
nosed Arab looking as pleased as Punch, and yet having a sort of sly,
malicious twinkle in his eye, like that `Old Nick' probably puts on
`when he catches a churchwarden robbing a till,' as Larrikins said.
No wonder the old slave-dealer sniggered to himself; for we heard
afterwards that he put in at Pangani the same night, after we were out
of sight, beating down to the southward, and succeeded in running a
cargo of the usual sort, the proceeds of the trip enabling him to retire
from business and set up as a holy man for the rest of his life.
Beyond boarding this dhow, though we saw some others at a distance which
we were unable to forereach on, the beggars being too handy on a wind,
we did not have a single exciting incident for the three months or more
that we were detached from our ship; and all of us, as I have said, were
longing for something to wake us up.
This `something' came at last.
Ay; and in a most unexpected fashion, too!
It was getting near the time for the _Mermaid_ to come and relieve us,
and we were making for our rendezvous at Bagamoyo, to the south of
Zanzibar, for her to pick us up.
The south-west monsoon having slackened down a good deal within the last
few days, though the month of August, when it usually blows with its
greatest force, we were able to work well to windward; and we were
rapidly closing on Bagamoyo, when the sea began to get up in a very
strange manner, and the sky, which had been cloudless, as customary,
since the morning, became clouded with masses of fleeting vapour that
presently banked themselves on the horizon to the north.
"I say, Draper," said Mr Chisholm, who, since his promotion, had been
appointed to the cutter, turning round to our coxswain, "what do you
think of the weather?"
"Think, sir?" rejoined Draper, who had served on the East African
station before joining the _Mermaid_, and `knew the ropes,' as the
saying goes. "I don't think about it at all, sir."
"Well, well," said Mr Chisholm, who was a jocular sort of young fellow
and never hard on a man, besides which he knew Draper's crusty way,
"tell us what you know, then."
"Very good, sir," replied our old shellback of a coxswain. "Then, I
knows, sir, the monsoon's on the shift, and we're agoin' to have a blow
from the nor'ard afore dark."
"What do you advise our doing, coxen?"
"Adwise, sir?" repeated Draper, as usual, after Mr Chisholm, his habit
always when asked a question. "If I was you, sir, I'd up stick and run
for it, sir, to the nearest port."
"The nearest port on our lee is Zanzibar," said Mr Chisholm. "I
suppose you mean to loo'ard, Draper?"
"Aye, aye, sir, I means to loo'ard."
"Then you advise our putting up the helm and running for Zanzibar?"
"Aye."
The cutter was rigged with a dipping lug and a spritsail; so, no sooner
had crusty old Draper given his laconic answer to Mr Chisholm, than the
latter sang out to Larrikins, who was in the bows.
"Look out there forrud!" he cried. "Stand by to dip!"
This is considered one of the smartest things in boat-sailing, the men
having to be specially stationed for the purpose; but, as we had been
living in the cutter now for three months, and had experience of her
under any and every change of wind and sail, the operation did not
occasion much difficulty to us.
Larrikins, who was bowman, pressed out the fore part of the lug as soon
as the yard was half lowered, while two other hands gathered the sheet
of the sail forwards, and passed it round the mast as soon as Draper had
put the helm up; when I and another chap who was aft with me, unhooked
the sheet to port and then rehooked it to the starboard side, which was
to windward now on the cutter's head coming round, as she went off on
the other tack.
Gathering way in a minute or two as we eased off the sheet of the lug,
the cutter went ahead at a great pace, making much better weather of it
running before the wind, as was the case now, than she had lately,
before we came about, when beating up to Bagamoyo; skimming over the
broken surface of the sea, her bows and the deadwood of her keel
forwards being clean out of the water sometimes as she jumped from wave
to wave, and sending the spray she threw up as she came down bash on the
top of some billow, right inboard, wetting us to the skin, and leaving a
wake behind her like a millrace.
We were steering almost due north now; and, looking ahead under the
leech of the lugsail, I could see that the clouds we had observed before
banked up on the horizon had crept up towards the zenith, spreading out
laterally on either side, until half of the heavens was obscured.
Then, all of a sudden, the wind dropped, as if done with a turn of the
hand.
"Look out there for your sheet!" cried old Draper, in a warning tone,
assuming the direction of affairs and taking command of the boat
unconsciously in the emergency, over the head of his officer, Mr
Chisholm. "Let go your sheet, I say!"
Bouncer the seaman, who sat on the after thwart and had charge of this,
bungled about the job, having taken a turn with the end of the rope
round the cleat, instead of holding it in his fist as he should have
done; and the coxswain's harsh repetition of the order in such an
imperative tone seemed to flurry him, making him all the slower.
"Hang it all, man!" shouted Mr Chisholm, taking up the cry, "let go the
sheet at once!"
Seeing what a fog Bouncer was in, besides which the sail was just then
beginning to bulge back as the wind headed us, the boat rocking for an
instant and then canting over as if she was going to capsize, I drew my
knife and rushed to where he sat in the bottom of the boat, struggling
with the sheet!