may be mentioned that Tom had dexterously transferred the bottle of
brandy to the keeping of the Turk, who had secreted it behind his back,
after turning half aside and pouring out a pretty good dose into his
coffee-cup, all with the most rapid legerdemain as if he were a
practical conjuror.
"Effendi," said Mohammed with dignity, "you insult me by such a remark.
The sight of that man--that Grec, that villainous piratt, quite
overwhelmed me."
"Pirate!" said Charley, for Tom was too much abashed by the Turk's
rebuke to speak.
"Yes, piratt," repeated Mohammed firmly. "That would-be simple Grec
sailor, as he represented himself to you, was no one else than Demetri
Pedrovanto, better known in the Aegean Sea, as `The Corsair of Chios.'
There's a price of ten thousand piastres on his head. Mashallah! How
he dares show himself in Beyrout, amongst the enemy he has plundered, I
know not. However, kismet! 'tis his fate, I suppose."
"Are you sure?" asked Charley, who was inclined to think that Mohammed
was cramming them.
"Effendi, throw dirt on my beard if I lie. It is Demetri Pedrovanto,
sure enough."
"But I never heard of pirates being about in these waters, with so many
French and English cruisers going backwards and forwards in the
neighbourhood," observed Tom.
"Aha, you Inglese and Frenchmans don't know everyting!" said the Turk
laconically, after emitting another volume of smoke, which he had been
apparently accumulating all the time he had been speaking previously.
"There are alway piratts in dese seas, and always will be, as long as
Grecs are Grecs!"
"Ah, you say that because you are a Turk," said Charley chaffingly.
"No, no, no," replied Mohammed, shaking his head vehemently. "I'm not
one great bigot because I have been born under the crescent. I am
cosmopolitaine. You ask your consul, or ze Americans, dey will tell you
the same. All dose Grecs are piratts, and dem as isn't piratts are
brigands, tiefs, every one."
"Well, you've got a very good opinion of them at any rate," said Tom.
"I wonder what the beggar spoke to us for, eh? If he is the man you
say, I don't suppose he would have the cheek to go on board the
_Muscadine_."
"No, I should think not," agreed Charley; "and if he does, the skipper
will soon overhaul his papers, and then find him out."
"Aha, ah!" grunted out Mohammed. "De Grec is one ver clevaire rogue,
and would sheet Sheitan himself."
"Who is he?" asked Charley innocently. "I heard you mention him
before."
"De Debble!" answered the Turk, so gravely that both the young fellows
burst out into such paroxysms of laughter that Mohammed thought they
were ridiculing him, and they had much difficulty in assuring him to the
contrary. Indeed, it was not until late in the evening, after they had
dinner of kebabs and coffee and their host had imbibed several cups of
his "med-i-seen," that he grew friendly again; and then, he was so
cordial that he wept over them at their departure, and assured them that
he loved them as his own children, as his brothers, as his father, nay,
even as his great-grandfather, who had borne the standard of the prophet
in the annual pilgrimage to Mecca!
When Tom and Charley got on board the _Muscadine_, they saw only the
second officer, Mr Tompkins, who after telling them that they were very
late, and that the captain had turned in long since, said they might go
below; which of course, as the ship was in harbour and only an anchor
watch kept, when their services were not required, they were extremely
grateful for, and turned in accordingly, without giving a thought to
their rencontre at the khan.
The next morning, however, when they came on deck they saw three or four
Greek sailors lounging about the foc's'le, and Mohammed's warning
recurred to there with startling significance.
"Who are those men?" asked Charley of Mr Tompkins, who was in command
of the vessel for the time being, Captain Harding, the skipper, having
gone ashore, and the chief mate being invalided with those of the crew
who were in the lazaretto.
"Some new hands the captain shipped last night," answered he; "and if
you've any more business ashore, Master Onslow, you'd better look sharp
about it, as we're going to sail as soon as we've obtained pratique,
which will be about four bells, I reckon."
"But, does Cap'en Harding know about them?" asked Tom, sinking his
objection to having any conversation with the second officer in the
urgency of the occasion.
"You mind your own business, you young dog," said Tompkins, glad to have
the opportunity of snubbing Tom. "I suppose you would like to command
this ship, but you sha'n't while I'm on board."
"You cad!" muttered Tom under his breath, as he walked away forward to
look at the men more closely. "I wish I had you on land for a quiet
half hour, and I'd soon take the starch out of you!"
"None of your jaw," shouted the second mate as a parting shot. "I hear
you, and if you speak another word I'll have you put in irons for
mutiny," swearing also a fearful oath. So Tom had to put up with the
other's language and nurse his wrath until the skipper came on board.
When Charley joined him presently, they took note of the new additions
to the crew, who were altogether eight in number; but to their surprise
they did not see the Greek among them whom Mohammed had indicated as
being the far-famed corsair; and on their comparing their views they
both agreed that the worthy Turk must have been "slinging the hatchet"
at their expense, or else mistaken about the supposed pirate.
On Captain Harding coming off, however, they thought it their duty to
tell him what they heard; but the skipper, who was a bold bluff English
sailor, laughed the Turk's warning to scorn, and joked the young fellows
for taking any notice of it.
"What! Mohammed told you, the keeper of the khan by the Capuchin
monastery. My dear boys, he was only humbugging you. I saw the old
rascal this very morning hauled up before the cadi, for being drunk and
kicking up a row. He must be able to spin a fine yarn when he has a
mind to. There are no pirates nowadays in the Mediterranean; and if we
do come across any, I believe the _Muscadine_ will be able to give a
good account of them. Pirates! bless my soul, what a tremendous liar
that old Turk must be! Those Greeks I've shipped are honest sailors
enough; for I've examined their papers, and had them before our consul.
Besides, I've told them what sort of discipline I keep on board my ship;
and they are not likely to try and come the old soldier over me--not if
John Harding knows it!"
"But, captain," put in Tom.
The skipper wouldn't hear any more, however. "Now get to your stations,
lads," said he, to show that the private interview was at an end. "Mr
Aldridge, I must make you acting second officer in Mr Tompkins' place,
as I've promoted him to poor Wilson's berth until he can join me at
Smyrna, as I'm bound to start at once now that I have filled-up the
vacancies amongst my crew. Charley Onslow, remain aft with me. All
hands up anchor, and make sail!"
In a short time the men working together with a will, and the new hands
specially distinguishing themselves for their activity in so marked a
manner as to call forth the approval of the generally grumbling Mr
Tompkins--although, perhaps, he praised them because Tom and Charley had
suspected them--the _Muscadine_ had her anchor at the catheads; and, her
topsails having been dropped long before, was sailing gaily out of
Beyrout harbour, under the influence of the land-breeze that sprang up
towards the afternoon, blowing briskly off shore.
When she had got a good offing, and the mountains of Lebanon began to
sink below the horizon in the distance as she bowled along merrily on
her north-western course, a long way to the southward of Cyprus, bearing
up direct for the Archipelago, a keen observer on board might have
noticed something that looked strange, at all events on the face of it.
No sooner had the shades of evening begun to fall than a long low
suspicious-looking vessel crept out from the lee of the land, and
followed right in the track of the _Muscadine_, as if in chase of the
English ship.
It was a swift-sailing lateen-rigged felucca, one of those crafts that
are common enough in Eastern waters, especially in the Levant.
She spread a tremendous amount of canvas; and leaping through the sea
with the pace of a dolphin, came up with the doomed merchantman hand
over hand.
STORY TWO, CHAPTER THREE.
FRIENDS IN COUNCIL.
The _Muscadine_ when she left England had a crew of some twenty hands,
or with the captain, and first and second mates, and our friends Tom and
Charley, twenty-five men altogether--a very fair average, as the
proportion of the seamen usually borne in merchant ships is at the rate
of about three to every hundred tons of the vessel's burthen.
Through the illness, however, of the fust officer, Mr Wilson, an
amiable man and a thorough sailor, whom everybody liked--quite the
reverse of the odious Tompkins, Tom's and Charley's special bete-noir--
and a large number of the seamen, whom they were forced to leave behind
in hospital at Beyrout, the complement of the ship was much reduced, and
her crew now mustered, officers and men, but twenty in number, of which
total twelve were Englishmen who had originally belonged to her, and
eight the Greeks whom the captain had so suddenly shipped at the last
moment.
"It's a good job that Cap'en Harding didn't get any more of those
blessed Greeks aboard: they're almost equal to us now, man for man,"
said Tom to Charley, who on this first night of their being at sea after
so long a detention in port was performing an act of not altogether
disinterested friendship in sharing the first watch on deck of the
newly-promoted "second mate," as he would persist in addressing Tom.
"Yes, sir; I think you are about right, sir," replied Charley, with a
mock deference, which made Tom grin in spite of his endeavours to
preserve a dignified composure. "Is there anything else, sir, you'd
like me to say, sir?"
"Only, that I'll kick you in the lee scuppers if you call me `sir'
again. But, Charley, joking aside, I don't like us having all those
Greeks here, and we so short-handed too."
"Don't you see that that is the precise reason why they are here, most
sapient of second officers? if we hadn't been short-handed the cap'en
wouldn't have shipped them."
"Yes, yes, I know that," replied the other shortly. "You don't seem to
follow me, Charley, really. What I meant to point out was, that there
are only twelve of us belonging to the ship on whom we could rely--
indeed only eleven, for that matter, as I don't count on Tompkins; a
bully like him would be sure to show the white-feather in a scrimmage--
while these Greek chaps muster eight strong, all of them pretty biggish
men, too, and all armed with them beastly long knives of theirs, which
I've no doubt they know how to use."
"Bless you, Tom, Cap'en Harding would be a match for half-a-dozen of
them with his revolver; and you and I would be able to master the other
two, without calling for aid on any of the foremast hands, or relying on
your chum Tompkins. How fond you're of him, Tom!"
"Hang Tompkins, and you too, Charley! You can't be serious for a
moment!"
"Oh yes I can, Tom; and I will be, now! I tell you what, old chap, your
sudden promotion has disagreed with you, and you are trying to
manufacture a mountain out of a molehill. Those Greeks are not such
fools to attack us unless they gained over the rest of the crew on their
side; and you know that's impossible; for every Englishman forward now
in the foc's'le I'd stake my life on; and so would you, Tom, as they've
shipped with old Harding every voyage he has sailed since he's been
captain of the craft. You've got a fit of the blue-devils or something,
Tom, that makes you so unlike yourself; or else that blessed old Turk's
nonsense made a deeper impression on you than it has on me!"
"You're right, Charley," said Tom Aldridge, giving himself a shake as if
to dispel his strange forebodings. "I don't know what has come over me
to-night. Of course, if those beggars should rise, we could whop them
easily enough. To tell you the truth, I shouldn't mind if they did, if
Tompkins only got a knock on the head in the fight!"
"Bravo, Tom! that's more like yourself! But isn't your watch nearly
over? It must be six bells by now; the moon is getting up."
"So it is, Charley I wish you would call that beast for me; it's time he
was on deck."
"All right!" shouted the other with a laugh, scuttling down, and
hammering at the first mate's cabin-door, so loudly that Tom could hear
him plainly above, and also Mr Tompkins' deeply growled oaths in
response to the summons, after it was repeated once more with all the
strength of the middy's fists beating a tattoo.
"He'll be here in a minute," said Charley, as he hurried up the
companion in advance of the gentleman he had called to relieve Tom's
watch; although Tompkins came pretty close behind him, swearing still,
and glaring at the two young fellows in the moonlight as if he could
"eat them without salt," as Charley said.
Before going below, Tom gave the first mate the ship's course, as was
customary, "nor'-west and by north," reporting also that all was right
and nothing in sight, no vessel had passed them during the night; and
then he and Charley turned into their bunks, with the expectation of
having a better "caulk" than they had had all the time the _Muscadine_
had lain at anchor in Beyrout Roads, for while there, the heat and
lassitude produced by their having almost nothing to do had so banished
sleep that they hardly cared when the time came for their "watch below."
Now, however, it was all different; as what with the bustle of
preparation in storing the last of their cargo, and seeing to those
endless little matters which had to be put in ship-shape manner before
the anchor was weighed, and the actual departure itself, their time had
been fully occupied nearly from dawn to sundown, and their feet and
hands busy enough in running about on deck and aloft, directing the crew
under the captain's orders, and lending assistance where wanted. So it
was with the comfortable assurance of having earned their four hours'
rest that they went below that first night at sea.
"I guess old Tompkins will have to rap pretty loud to make me budge at
eight bells," said Tom with a portentous yawn, as he peeled off his
reefing jacket and turned in "all standing," as he expressed it, with
the exception of his boots. He was too tired to undress; and besides,
he thought, in his lazy way, what was the use of his doing so when he
would have to turn out again and relieve the first mate at four o'clock
in the morning, just as he was beginning to enjoy himself.
"By George, a sailor's life is a dog's life!" he muttered out aloud.
"What, eh?" sleepily murmured Charley from the other bunk adjacent, the
two occupying one cabin between them; and, presently, the pair were
"wrapped in the arms of Morpheus," and snoring like troopers in concert,
the captain playing a nasal obligato from his state-room in the
distance, whither he had retired a short time before themselves, after
being satisfied that the ship was proceeding well on her course and
everything all right.
And all this time the _Muscadine_ was bowling so favourably along at the
rate of some eight knots an hour, carrying with her the fair wind with
which she had started from port, the felucca that had left the Syrian
coast shortly after still followed in her track, although hull-down on
the horizon, and her white lateen sails only just dimly discernible to a
sharp eye that was looking out for her, under the rays of the rising
moon, which now emerged from the waste of water that surrounded the two
vessels with its fathomless expanse. But who on board the merchant ship
suspected that they were pursued or looked out for the felucca, dead
astern as she was, and only a tiny speck on the ocean?
STORY TWO, CHAPTER FOUR.
THE STRANGE SAIL.
Mr Tompkins, the late second and now first officer of the _Muscadine_,
besides possessing a nasty, grumbling, fault-finding temper for the
benefit of those under him, and a mean, sly, sneaking sort of way of
ingratiating himself with his superiors, was as obstinate as a mule, and
one of those men who would have his way, if he could, no matter what
might be the consequences. When he was able, as was the case with the
men he was unfortunate enough to command, he bullied those who might
differ from him into acquiescence with his views; with those over him in
authority he adopted another course, that of wheedling and slavish
"shoe-scraping," as Tom Aldridge termed it; but in both instances he
generally succeeded in carrying his point, and arranging things in the
manner he had previously made up his mind to.
Now, with eight strange hands, and those foreigners, who had lately come
on board, any reasonable person would have naturally divided them four
and four in each watch, thus mixing them up with the eight English able
seamen left of the _Muscadine's_ original crew; but no, Mr Tompkins was
of a different opinion, and what was more, carried round Captain Harding
to his way of thinking, much to Tom and Charley's surprise. It was not
on account of the new first mate having any ulterior designs on the ship
or cargo--that idea may be dismissed at once, for he neither had the
villainy nor pluck for such a proceeding. His real object was, that
these new men were all fresh to the vessel and had not yet any
experience of his persuasive ways; unlike the old hands, who knew Mr
Tompkins so well that they hated him and shirked work when he was to the
fore--and by getting them all into his watch matters would be able to go
easy with him, and he would be able to astonish everybody by the way in
which he got the duty done when he had charge of the ship, instead of
having to call on the assistance of the skipper when his orders were not
obeyed, as had frequently been the case before.
He did not tell Captain Harding this, however. His explanation of the
proposed plan was, that the men, being all Greeks, would work better
together, as they had already shown when making sail; and, as he
understood Lingua Franca, which all foreign sailors can speak, he could
manage them better than "such a boy as young Aldridge," who might get
along well enough with the old hands who knew him, but would be
powerless to exercise any authority over those foreigners, who wanted a
man to drill them.
"Very well, Tompkins," said Captain Harding, when the first mate had
well-nigh deluged him with his reasons. "I suppose you know best; and
as you've got to see to the working of the ship you can have your own
way, though what you can see to prefer those ill-looking beggars to
decent British tars I'm sure I can't understand. I'm glad you're not
afraid of them, at any rate?"
"Afraid, sir!" repeated Tompkins scornfully, with any amount of
braggadocia. "These foreigners only want you to let them see you are
master, and they're tame enough. It is only from want of firmness that
any trouble ever breaks out when they're on board an English ship. They
need a strict hand over them, that's all."
"All right, Tompkins. Only don't bully them too much, you know!" said
the captain good-humouredly, for he was sufficiently acquainted with the
first mate's pleasant way of ordering the men about to be aware that he
did not err on the side of leniency in exercising his authority, as he
complained that his subordinate officer Tom did.
And thus it happened that when Tom and Charley went below and joined
Captain Harding in his slumbers, the deck was left in sole possession of
Mr Tompkins and the eight Greek sailors, with the suspicious-looking
felucca creeping up rapidly astern, and getting nearer and nearer to the
_Muscadine_ each hour.
A stern-chase is proverbially a long one. And so, although the
light-winged craft that was following the ship sailed three feet to her
two; yet she had such a long start, and the breeze was so fair and dead
aft--which was all in favour of a square-rigged vessel and against a
fore-and-after, that sails best with the wind abeam--that the felucca
was still some five miles off when day broke and the chief mate first
discovered her.
He was not alone in his discovery either, for he noticed that a part of
the watch were looking over the bulwarks at the approaching vessel, and
from their gesticulations and rapid speech in their own language he
thought something was up.
Calling one of the Greek sailors, named in the ship's articles
"Pollydorry," as the captain had put him down, whom he thought he could
better make understand that version of "Lingua Franca" which he
pretended to know, the mate interrogated him as to what he knew of the
felucca, and what was her intention in trying to overhaul them. The
man, however, only shrugged his shoulders, and jabbered something which
he could make nothing of; and as the group then ceased speaking
together, or paying any attention to the stranger, Mr Tompkins put down
their excitable demeanour to their being only foreigners, and their
natural way of going on, so unlike the stolid British seafaring man, who
hardly notices anything except it specially concerns him, and even then
keeps what he thinks to himself.
As it was getting near the time, however, for him to be relieved of his
watch and go off duty--although it still wanted half an hour to four
bells, when it was Tom Aldridge's turn to come on deck again and call up
the other men below--he thought he would give Charley Onslow a hail in
the meantime, to come up and keep him company until then. Not that he
was a bit alarmed at the approach of the felucca, as he said to himself,
or that he was anyway at all frightened at being alone on deck with the
Greek sailors when so many more of their comrades might be so close at
hand. But it was always best to be on the safe side, and there was
nothing like a man in authority, as he was, taking due precaution
against any possible danger, no matter how remote.
Thus trying to cheat his own conscience, Mr Tompkins sang out for
Charley down the companion, awaking him from the soundest sleep he had
had for weeks with the echoes of his melodious voice.
"Just like the braying of a jackass afflicted with bronchitis," as
Charley said afterwards ruefully, to his chum.
Much to the first mate's annoyance, he not only awoke Charley, but Tom
also; both the lads coming on deck together.
"I didn't call you, Mr Aldridge," he said angrily. "My watch is not
over yet."
"I'm quite aware of that," said Tom. "But no fellow could go to sleep
after such a hideous row as you made. And besides"--looking at his
watch--"I'm due in another twenty minutes, so I thought I had better
come up with Charley, since I was woke up. Hullo! what is that?" he
added, glancing astern at the felucca, which was now almost within
speaking distance, and coming on as if she were going to sheer
alongside. "What the deuce is that piratical-looking craft running us
aboard like that for? If I were you, Mr Tompkins, I would signal them
to stand off, and call up the captain and the other watch."
"I will thank you to mind your own business, Mr Aldridge," replied the
chief mate, not at all pleased with the suggestion. "If you are so
terribly alarmed at the sight of a common Levantine coaster, you had
better go below again."
And he turned on his heel, leaving Tom burning with indignation at
having his courage questioned and being taunted of being frightened,
especially by such a person as Mr Tompkins.
The felucca was barely a cable's length off now, and in another minute
she passed underneath the _Muscadine's_ stern so closely that they could
have chucked a biscuit on board her.
"Schooner ahoy!" hailed Mr Tompkins. "What's the matter? Do you want
anything?"