and ran for a second or two almost alongside, the ship's main-yard just
touching her reed-like masts, and a voice uttered a few words rapidly in
Greek, which Charley, although he had a smattering of the language,
could not quite understand, although the foreign sailors on board their
vessel evidently did, as they replied in the same tongue. And then the
dapper little craft's lateen sails filled again as her helm was put
down, and she flow away from the _Muscadine_, sailing on a bowline, and
heeling over to the wind so as to display half her keel as she topped
the waves, just as if the other vessel had been lying still in the
water, although she was going a good eight knots by the log in the same
direction.
"Did you see that fellow's face on board the felucca who spoke to our
men, Charley?" asked Tom anxiously.
"No," said Charley. "But I heard his voice, and that was enough for
me."
"Oh, you recognised him, then?"
"Yes. I could swear, only from his voice, that he was the same man who
spoke to us in Mohammed's coffee-shop at Beyrout. He had a most
peculiar twang in his speech, which I noticed at the time."
"It was the same chap, Charley; I saw him distinctly. I wouldn't be at
all surprised that Mohammed was right, and that he is a `piratt,' as he
called him. But if he is after us, I wonder why he didn't board us
then. That felucca was crammed full of men."
"Ah, piracy would be rather risky work in these seas, with lots of
men-of-war about; at all events, in broad daylight, as it is now. From
the distance the ship has run, we can't be very far off Cyprus, and the
pirate, if pirate he be, knows well enough that an English frigate has
been stationed there ever since we occupied the island. I've no doubt,
however, Tom, that he is after us, for I heard, as well as I could make
out, from what I know of the language, two phrases, `In a couple of
nights' time,' and `Look out for the signal,' while the Greek sailors
here said, `It's all right on board,' as if they had arranged
everything. I don't like it at all, Tom. What a murderous lot of
fellows they are, and what a fool that Tompkins is to insist on having
them all in one watch!"
"We'll tell the captain what we've heard and seen," replied Tom.
But at that moment the first mate, who had gone down into the waist of
the ship to confer with the Greeks, returned, rubbing his hands and with
a scornful smile on his face.
"A nice thing it would have been if I had gone below and wakened up the
captain to tell him that a fruit-boat from Rosetta was going to run us
down!" said he ironically, speaking at Tom, although he did not directly
address him.
"Rosetta does not lie astern of us," said the latter aside, as if to
Charley. "And they didn't answer your hail, at all events!"
"Pray, sir, did you understand what they said?" said the mate angrily,
speaking this time straight to Tom. "No," he replied.
"Well, then, I do, and I will thank you to hold your tongue. The men
have told me all about it. Those fellows in the schooner had lost their
reckoning and didn't quite know where they were, and our men, speaking
Greek of course, told them."
"And I wonder how they knew?" said Tom. The first mate was posed for a
moment, but he quickly recovered himself.
"I suppose any one without being a sailor could tell them that as we've
run more than a hundred miles since we left Beyrout yesterday afternoon,
and gone in a nor'-westerly course, we must be a little to the southward
of Cyprus. But, I'll thank you to mind your own business, as I told you
before, Mr Aldridge."
"It is my business," said Tom, "and I'll take care to tell Captain
Harding of it."
"Tell the cap'en and be--" said Mr Tomkins in a rage. "But I'll save
you the trouble, I will tell him myself," he added a moment afterwards,
dashing down into the cabin, and leaving Tom to dismiss his watch and
take over the duty without another word.
"That's pretty behaviour!" said Tom to Charley. "I call that relieving
a fellow in proper style. No unnecessary ceremony at all."
"Well, you brought it on yourself, Tom," said Charley, with a
sympathising grin. "You will badger him so. I suppose, now you are
second officer, you intend paying him back for old snubs, eh?"
"I don't want to notice the beggar at all," replied the other. "I
wouldn't have spoken to him then if it hadn't been my duty to do so. He
is a pig, though. I daresay he hasn't told the captain anything at all,
as he hasn't come up."
"You let him alone for making his story right," said Charley. "Captain
Harding hasn't come on deck because there's nothing to call him; for
that mysterious craft is hull-down now and almost out of sight ahead."
Such was the case; and when the captain did turn out at breakfast time
he had heard the first mate's version of the affair, and as the felucca
had now quite disappeared below the horizon, altogether pooh-poohed
Tom's account of having recognised Mohammed's "corsair," even although
Charley backed him up by his statement of what he had heard say in
conversation with the stranger.
"Avast there, my dear boys!" said he, speaking good-humouredly to them,
as he always did. "That rascally old Turk so stuffed you up with his
lying yarns, that you've got pirates on the brain."
Captain Harding, however, did one thing that pleased them, especially
Tom, to whom it gave the greatest satisfaction.
Despite the first mate's protest, he remodelled the two watches into
which the crew were divided, putting four of the Greek sailors with an
equal number of English Jack tars in each, so that should any "little
unpleasantness," as he laughingly observed, occur, the foreigners would
not have it all their own way.
Mr Tompkins's chagrin when this was effected was delightful to Tom,
although he suffered from it, as the first mate, ascribing to his
suggestion the credit of the new arrangement, vented his spite on him
accordingly, and tried to make his duties as difficult for him as he
could.
Nothing was seen further all that day, or the next night, of the
felucca, although Tom never went below for a single watch even when his
time for relief came--except for meals, of course--remaining on deck and
keeping a sharp lookout towards every point of the compass, not only
during his own time of duty but in that of the chief mate as well,
despite the latter's broad hints and insulting remarks that his absence
would be more agreeable than his company. So, when the following day
likewise passed without any reappearance of the suspicious stranger,
both the lads began to think that their fear of being attacked by
pirates was only a chimera, founded, as the captain had said, on
Mohammed's fabulous narrative; for Charley had been quite as nervous in
the matter as Tom, and had shared his anxious watch with him all through
ever since he had recognised the Greek on board the felucca.
Accordingly, the two, their apprehensions quite allayed, turned in
together again on the third night the _Muscadine_ was at sea, without
any greater anticipation of something being about to happen, beyond the
usual disagreeables of a sailor's life, than they had the first evening
after they left port--both quitting the deck about just the same time as
then, too, when Tom was relieved by the first mate at six bells.
"Isn't that a sail out there, Charley, right in the wind's-eye?" said
Tom as they turned to descend the companion-stairs, pointing to what
looked like a white speck, far-away off in the direction he had named.
"A sail be hanged!" exclaimed Charley. "I never saw such a fellow in my
life. You are like Don Quixote, who fancied every windmill a giant. I
believe that blessed felucca haunts you in your sleep!"
"No, really, Charley, I didn't think it was her. I meant another sort
of sail. But I was mistaken, for I can see nothing now."
"That's always the way with you, Tom. It strikes me that all your sails
are sells."
At which brilliant piece of wit on Charley's part both lads laughed so
loudly that Mr Tomkins thought they were making fun at his expense, and
it was gall and wormwood to him as he paced the deck on the windward
side; and "the two inseparables," as Captain Harding dubbed them, then
turned in without any further palaver save a brief "good-night," being
soon wafted happily into the land of dreams.
A tolerably fast vessel for her size, and in fair sailing trim, as she
was only half-loaded--being unable to complete her cargo at Beyrout,
whence her going out of her way, as it were, to Smyrna from thence--the
_Muscadine_, with the good breeze she had at starting, which had
subsequently increased into a very favourable wind, strong, but not too
strong to prevent her carrying all plain sail, had made such use of her
legs, as sailors say, that she had by this time run over 500 miles from
her point of departure, and before morning the captain expected they
would sight the southernmost point of Rhodes, and be able to enter the
channel between that island and Scarpanto.
He had therefore issued strict injunctions about a sharp lookout being
kept forward, stationing one of the English crew in each watch there for
that purpose--as he said he didn't believe in any foreigner's eyesight
where a ship was concerned--just when he was leaving the deck, which was
shortly before Tom and Charley, giving orders at the same time that he
should be called as soon as anything was perceived; and these
instructions Tom, as the second officer, passed on, as in duty bound, to
Mr Tompkins when he relieved him, the first mate receiving them, as he
now invariably did any statement from his junior, with a characteristic
grunt!
There is really no other word in the English language to express the
meaning of the ejaculative sound he made, which signified, equally,
acquiescence, approval, disapproval, or anything.
It was now midnight.
The captain, Tom and Charley, and one of the English hands who acted as
steward, were down below asleep aft, and three English sailors and four
Greeks were supposed to be in the same somnolent condition in the
foc's'le; and, on deck, were the first mate and four more Englishmen,
one of whom was on duty as lookout forward, and another taking his turn
at the wheel; while four of the foreigners and the remaining two British
seamen lounged about the waist, or stood grouped around the
mainmast-bitts amidships, attentive to the orders of the officer of the
watch, who, being not in the best of tempers, as usual, did not let them
long remain idle for a spell.
That was the situation when the first mate called out, after glancing at
his watch, to "make it eight bells;" and almost at the same moment the
lookout man forward sang out lustily, in a voice that rang through the
ship, "Land ho!"
Whether it was the sound of the ship's bell that gave the signal,
evidently preconcerted beforehand, or the cry that land was in sight,
only the Greek sailors knew; but, at all events, it roused them in a
second to action, for with a fierce cry the four foreigners who were
amidships rushed on the two Englishmen that shared their watch, drawing
their knives and stabbing them desperately as they fell upon them.
"Murder! Help!" sang out the poor Jack tars; but, though caught
unawares, they made a hard fight for their lives, one, a
north-countryman, although stabbed in several places, snatching up a
capstan bar and braining the Greek nearest him like a bullock.
At the same time, the four other Greeks who were down below in the
forecastle and supposed to be sleeping, crept up the hatchway forward,
slipping on the cover as they got on deck, and went to the assistance of
their companions, who, being thus reinforced, made short work of the two
Englishmen, who presently sank senseless on the deck which was weltering
with their gore, and then rushed aft in a body, brandishing their knives
and shouting like demons.
Mr Tompkins showed himself the coward he was, as Tom had anticipated;
for, after hammering on the top of the cabin skylight to rouse those
below, with a belaying pin he had grasped hold of at the sight of the
struggle in the waist, he incontinently scuttled up the mizzen shrouds,
displaying an agility of which one would have never thought him capable.
The steersman followed his example; while the lookout man forward,
hearing the yells and groans of his comrades, and seeing what was up,
took refuge in the foretop, thus leaving the seven remaining Greeks, one
or two of whom had suffered in the fray, practically masters of the
ship, which was yawing about like a drunken man, and backing and filling
as she veered this way and that without any guidance or control, nobody
being at the helm.
Two of the Greeks placing themselves on either side of the cabin hatch
to give a warm reception to the captain and the rest of the Englishmen
whom the noise had fully wakened up, for they were heard stirring below,
the remainder distributed themselves in the rigging, and started an
exciting hunt after the three who had sought safety aloft.
The steersman was the first caught, and the sweep of a knife blade
across the rope end by which he had lowered himself from the extreme tip
of the mizzen yard-arm, sent him dropping into the sea with a faint
despairing scream; but, the first mate and lookout man led them a fine
dance, up the shrouds on one side and down on the other, and shifting
from the mizzen to the mainmast, and from that to the foretop again by
sliding down the stays, or catching hold of the falls and halliards when
the pursuit grew too hot--until both parties, the hunters and the hunted
alike, paused for a moment to draw breath.
As they did so, the two Englishmen who were now together in the
mizzen-top, and the Greeks who were ascending the shrouds on either
hand--the former looking down on the quarter-deck below them, and the
latter gazing towards the land that had just been sighted--uttered as if
in chorus an exclamation of joy, the echo of which from the others
seemed to bewilder both the Greeks and Englishmen.
It was a curious coincidence, the opposite causes for the gratulation on
either side coming together as it were, but so it was.
At the very moment the mutineers had stopped in their murderous chase of
the first mate and the remaining British sailor, Captain Harding,
holding a revolver in each hand, came up through the cabin skylight, as
if propelled by some hidden machinery below--Tom, Charley, and the
steward, all armed to the teeth, jumping up after him.
"Death to the traitorous scoundrels!" exclaimed Captain Harding,
levelling the revolver in his right hand at one of the Greeks who
remained by the companion, paralysed by the unexpected appearance of
those below from a quarter he had never imagined, while he was looking
out for them in a different direction.
A flash. Bang! and the man fell dead in his tracks; while Tom gave the
other Greek sentry a wipe over the head with a cutlass, which also sent
him to the deck.
Just then, however, the felucca, which had been lost sight of so
suddenly, and which no one had seen approaching the ship but the
desperadoes aloft, and even they only at the end of the struggle--seemed
to start up out of the deep in some mysterious fashion close to the
_Muscadine_, and sheered alongside, with a triumphant cheer from the
brutal-visaged ruffians who lined her deck that made Tom and Charley's
blood run cold!
STORY TWO, CHAPTER FIVE.
CONQUERED, NOT BEATEN!
The situation had assumed a new phase.
Inspirited by the proximity of the pirate craft, with their comrades on
board, the Greek sailors in the rigging, abandoning their pursuit of the
first mate and the lookout man--a brave fellow named Jack Bower--began
to descend the ratlins rapidly, with the view of making an onslaught on
the captain and the others that were in possession of the quarter-deck,
Jack, however, following closely after them now without a trace of fear,
resolving to aid his fellow-countrymen in making a stand, although he
had given them leg-bail when he stood alone against them, as the first
mate had abandoned him at the wheel the moment the Greeks rushed aft,
and even now remained trembling in the mizzen-top, instead of backing up
Jack, and taking the mutineers in the rear as they scrambled down the
shrouds without looking behind them.
The courage of the latter, however, did not suffice to take them very
far.
The foremost man had hardly descended two steps, when "crack!" went
Captain Harding's revolver; and, reeling backwards, his hands cleaving
the air vainly for a hold, the Greek sailor toppled over into the sea
with a splash, and sank like a stone to the bottom, dead as a herring!
Another would have followed suit, for the captain had recocked his
pistol, and was in the act of taking aim, when a stern, commanding voice
exclaimed, in accents that rang through the ship--
"Hold!"
Captain Harding, without lowering his weapon, looked hastily forward
from whence this unexpected summons appeared to come; and there he saw a
sight which might well make even a courageous man quail. The felucca
had been run alongside the _Muscadine_ forward, under cover of the
mainsail, her bow right under the ship's counter, and a crowd of fierce,
bearded ruffians were pouring on board as fast as they could clamber up
the side, led by a tall, athletic fellow, dressed rather better than
themselves, with a crimson sash folded round his waist, who was so much
in advance of his villainous crew that he was close upon the group on
the quarter-deck before they were almost conscious of his presence. It
was his voice, the voice and face of the man who had accosted Tom and
Charley in the Turk Mohammed's coffee-house at Beyrout, and whom they at
once now recognised again, that had arrested the action of the captain--
although only for an instant, as, undismayed by the numbers now opposed
to him, and conscious that his little band and himself must be defeated
in the long run, and meet their death in the struggle, he shifted his
aim, and pointed his revolver without hesitation at the leader.
"Hold!" repeated the pirate chief again in warning accents, before the
captain could fire. "Another shot, and I won't answer for your lives!"
"And who are you, sir, who dares to attack a peaceful merchant vessel on
the high seas in this fashion?" demanded Captain Harding, without
faltering, and still keeping his pistol levelled at the head of the
other, who faced it with the utmost sangfroid, although he could
perceive that the English sailor's blood was up and his finger trembling
on the trigger.
"One who dares anything and everything, and never embarks in any
enterprise unless he has weighed the consequences and can carry it
through to a successful termination!" replied the desperado, with an
assumption of stern dignity that was in harmony with his stalwart form
and reckless air. "But, come," he continued, sinking his tone of
bravado, and speaking in the same easy, polite manner which Charley had
specially noticed when he addressed Tom and himself in the khan--a
manner that showed a very considerably greater amount of breeding than
could have been expected from a common seaman,--"you must see that you
are powerless to resist us."
"There are six of us," interrupted Captain Harding, "and we can at all
events make a fight for it!"
"To what purpose?" retorted the other. "You are six, truly; but two of
your party are boys, and one a coward who wouldn't be of much help"--
glancing as he spoke from Tom and Charley, who stood beside the captain
prepared to aid him to their last breath, upward to the mizzen-top,
where the craven-faced Tompkins stood, looking down too much frightened
to stir.
"Well, what then?" said the captain, impatiently. "Be quick with your
palaver or I'll fire."
"You'll do so at your peril," retorted the other. "Captain Harding, you
are a brave man, or I wouldn't waste so many words on you or spare your
life. You are powerless to resist us, as I said before, for you are but
six in number, including your boys and that cur aloft; you have three
other men down in the foc's'le, but they cannot join you. We are fifty.
Show yourselves, my lads," he cried to his followers, who instantly
ranged themselves, across the _Muscadine_ four deep, exhibiting their
full strength, which was even more than he had stated.
"You see!" said the pirate chief, complacently. "Look, and count them."
"I see that we're outnumbered by a gang of cut-throats," said Captain
Harding, bitterly.
"Gently, my friend," said the other, suavely. "Some of my men
understand English like myself, and might not relish your compliments,
although, as a man of the world, I can make excuses for you--ah--want of
tact; yes, that's the word, is it not?"
"Cease your humbugging, sir, and come to the point," said the captain,
trying to curb his anger, which he could hardly control in the face of
the pirate's cynical impertinence. Had it not been for the sake of the
boys by his side he would have let drive at the scoundrel at once, and
risked his fate.
"That's just what I am about to do," said the other coolly, not one whit
put out of his even temper apparently. "You confess you are
outnumbered? Good! I, on my part, do not wish for any further
bloodshed, if I can effect my purpose without it. Besides which, I have
conceived quite an affection for you and those young gentlemen there,
whom I first had the pleasure of meeting at Beyrout. Good morning,
signors," he interposed, taking off his Greek cap and bowing politely to
Tom and Charley. "It is morning, for it's nearly one o'clock now. I
hope I see you well? But to resume, captain. As I said, there's no
further necessity for our fighting that I can see. You have killed
three of my men, whom I considerately placed on board your ship before
she left port so as to get possession of her without any bloodshed at
all, although the fates willed otherwise; and we, I believe, six of
yours; so in losses we may, perhaps, have the advantage of you, although
that fellow there"--pointing to the Greek sailor Tom had cut down with
his cutlass--"won't be worth much more to me, and that gives you only
two more than ourselves in the casualty list. But I won't grumble. I'm
satisfied to cry quits, and call a truce to hostilities."
"And, after that?" said the captain.--"I don't suppose you attacked us
for nothing!"
"Your remark," said the pirate, smiling, "does credit to your good
sense. I am not in the habit, strange to say, even in these heroic
days, of doing anything for nothing. Am I, Calchas?" he added, turning
to a ferocious-looking villain at his right hand.
The man evidently did not understand him, as he spoke still in English
for the benefit of the captain's party; but he grinned in sympathy with
the smile on the pirate chief's face--such a cruel, crafty smile as it
was!
"You have got possession of the ship," said Captain Harding; "what more
do you want, if you don't wish to murder us like the rest of my poor
crew?"
"My dear sir, you certainly use very strong language; and I can't say I
like it," said the pirate, playing carelessly with the handle of a long
yataghan that was thrust through his crimson sash. "Murder is a nasty
word, which should not really be mentioned in the company of gentlemen!
Your men fell in fair fighting."
"Yes, when they were taken unawares by a pack of traitors," put in the
captain hotly. The other's cool assurance was more than he could
stomach.
"Pray don't interrupt me," said the pirate. "It is, to say the least of
it, rude. But, now to business. I have possession of your ship, you
say? That is true without doubt; now, my difficulty is, how to utilise
that possession; and here, Captain Harding, I shall have to claim your
assistance--"
"You may claim away till doomsday," said the captain with grim humour;
"but as to my giving it, that's quite a different matter."
"Allow me to finish my sentence," continued the other--"claim your
assistance in return for the lives of yourself and the remainder of your
crew. Else, I shall be extremely sorry, but circumstances will compel
my wishing you all a speedy adieu."
And the cold-blooded desperado drew his hand across his throat and then
pointed to the water over the ship's side, in a very suggestive way.
"What do you want me to do?" asked Captain Harding curtly.
"Nothing very alarming, or calculated to wound your honourable
feelings," replied the pirate. "I simply want you to remain in command
of your vessel."
The bluff, honest sailor stared at the other in amazement; he couldn't
make out "what he was driving at," as he said to himself.
"In ostensible command of the ship, that is," said the pirate,
correcting his previous expression. "I, of course, shall be virtually
master, but you will navigate her under my orders, and answer--likewise
under my directions--any curious questions that may be put to us from
passing vessels as to our destination and so on."