THE MOONBEAM.
The morning after we arrived, we were sitting at breakfast, talking
over our past expedition, and plans for the future, when two letters
were laid on the table. The first was to my uncle, and ran as
follows:--
"_Havanna, such a date._
"MY DEAR FRENCHE,
"I sailed from this on the 15th ult., and had got pretty well to the
northward, when it came on to blow like fury, and I was driven back
with the loss of several of my sails, and the bowsprit badly sprung.
"Knowing that I would touch here on my way home, I had desired letters
to be forwarded from England if any thing material occurred, to the
care of Mr M----; and accordingly, on my return, I received one from
our mutual friend Ferrit, of Lincoln's-Inn, informing me of my brother
Henry's death; and what surprised me, after all that had passed, an
acknowledgment of his having been married, from the first, to that
plaguy Swiss girl, Mademoiselle Heloise de Walden. This makes a
serious difference in my worldly affairs, you will at once see, as the
boy, whom you may remember as a child, must now be acknowledged as the
head of the family. But as I have no children of my own, and have
wherewithal to keep the old lady and myself comfortable, and had
already left Henry my heir, having as good as adopted him, I am rather
rejoiced at it than otherwise, although he does me out of a baronetcy.
Why that poor dissipated brother of mine should have been so much
ashamed of acknowledging his low marriage, I am sure I cannot tell; as
the girl, I have heard say, was handsome, and tolerably educated. But
now, of course, the murder is out, so there is no use in speculating
farther on the matter; Ferrit writes me, that the documents
confirmatory of the marriage are all right and properly authenticated,
and he sends me a probate of poor Henry's will, to communicate to his
son, who is now Sir Henry Oakplank, and must instantly drop the De
Walden.
"I have sent letters for him to the admiral; but as the youngster may
fall in your way in the Spider, to which I have appointed him, and in
which he sailed for Jamaica a few days before my return here, I think,
for the sake of your old crony, poor Henry, as well as for mine, that
you will be glad to pay the boy some attention.
"Give my regards to Benjie Brail, if still with you. I have got a
noble freight on board--near a million of dollars--so, in the hope of
meeting you soon in England, I remain, my dear Frenche, your sincere
friend and old schoolfellow,
"OLIVER OAKPLANK."
The next letter was as follows:--
"_H. M. Schooner Spider, Montego Bay--
such a date._
"MY DEAR SIR,--I have only a minute to advise you of my arrival here
this morning, and of being again under weigh, in consequence of what I
have just learned of the vagaries of our old acquaintance the Midge. I
trust I may fall in with her. I saw your friends, the Hudsons, safe
outside the Moro, on the -- ulto., in the fine new ship, the Ajax. I
left them stemming the gulf stream with a beautiful breeze.
"I wish you would have a letter lying in the hands of the agents,
Peaweep, Snipe, and Flamingo, in Kingston for me, as I am bound to Port
Royal whenever my present cruise is up. Yours sincerely,
"HENRY DE WALDEN."
"Aha, Master de Walden--not a word about Mademoiselle Sophie, eh? my
_friends_ the Hudsons indeed! but never mind--I rejoice in your good
fortune, my lad."
That very forenoon I was taken ill with fever and ague, and became
gradually worse, until I was so weak that I could scarcely stand.
Lennox had come up to see me one morning after I had been a week ill;
he informed me that old Jacob Munroe was dead, having left him a heap
of money; and that he was about going down to the Musquito Shore in the
schooner Moonbeam, a shell trader belonging to his late uncle, and now
to himself, as a preparatory step to winding up old Jacob's estate, and
leaving the island for Scotland. Hearing I had been complaining, a
thought had occurred to the kind-hearted creature, that "a cruise would
be just the thing to set me on my legs again;" and accordingly he had
come to offer me a passage in his schooner.
Dr Tozy was standing by. "Not a bad notion, Mr Lennox; do you know I
had thoughts of recommending a sea voyage myself, and now since I know
of such a good opportunity, I by all means recommend Mr Brail to
accompany you, unless, indeed, you are to remain too long in some vile
muddy creek on the Musquito Shore."
"No, no, sir, the Jenny Nettles, another vessel of ours, sailed a
fortnight ago, to see that the turtleshell is all ready, so I won't be
eight-and-forty hours on the coast."
"Then it is the very thing."
And so it was arranged. My uncle drove me down next day to the bay,
and the following morning I was at sea, in the beautiful clipper
schooner, the Moonbeam. Once more
"The waters heave around me; and on high
The winds lift up their voices."
We had been several days out, and were bowling along nine knots, with a
most lovely little breeze steady on the quarter. I was lounging at
mine ease under the awning, on a hencoop, reading. There was not a
cloud in the sky. The sharp stem was snoring through the water, the
sails were critically well set, and drawing to a wish, and the dancing
blue waves were buzzing alongside, and gurgling up through the lee
scuppers right cheerily, while the flying fish were sparkling out in
shoals all round us like glass chips, from one swell to another. It
was one of those glorious, fresh, and exhilarating mornings in which it
is ecstasy for a young chap to _live_, and which are to be found in no
other climate under the sun. Besides, I was in raptures with the
little fairy, for she was a beauty in every respect, and with the
bracing air that was hour by hour setting me up again. While I am thus
luxuriating, I will tell you a story--so come along, my boy.
A NEGRO QUARREL.
We had several negroes amongst the Moonbeams, one of whom, a
sail-maker, was occupied close to where I lay, with his palm and
needle, following his vocation, and mending a sail on deck--another
black diamond, a sort of half-inch carpenter, was busy with some job
abaft of him. I had often noticed before, the peculiar mode in which
negroes quarrel. I would say that they did so very classically, after
the model of Homer's heroes, for instance, as they generally prelude
their combats with long speeches--or perhaps it would be more correct
to call their method the Socratic mode of fighting---as they commence
and carry on with a series of questions, growing more and more stinging
as they proceed, until a fight becomes the necessary consequence,
indeed, unavoidable; as in the present case.
The origin of the dispute was rather complex. There was an Indian boy
on board, of whom more anon; and this lad, Lennox, with a spice of his
original calling, had been in the habit of teaching to read, and to
learn a variety of infantile lessons, which he in turn took delight in
retailing to the negroes; and there he is working away at this moment,
reversing the order of things--the young teaching the old.
Palmneedle appears a very dull scholar, while Chip, I can perceive, is
sharp enough, and takes delight in piquing Palmy. Chip says his lesson
glibly. "Ah, daddy Chip, you shall make one parson by and by--quite
cleber dis morning--so now, Palmneedle, come along;" and Palmy also
acquitted himself tolerably for some time.
"What you call hanimal hab four legs?" said Indio, in continuation of
the lesson, and holding up four fingers. Here I thought of my cousin
Sally.
"One cow," promptly rejoined Palmneedle, working away at the sail he
was mending.
"Yes--to be sure! certainly one cow hab four legs; but what is de cow
call?"
"Oh, some time Nancy; some time Juba."
"Stupid--I mean what you call ebery cow."
"How de debil should I sabe, Indio?"
"Becaase," said Indio, "I tell you dis morning already, one, tre, five
time; but stop, I sall find one way to make you remember. How much
feets you hab yourself--surely you can tell me dat?"
"Two--I hab two feets--dere."
"Den, what is you call?"
"One quadruped. You tink I don't know dat?"
"One quadruped! ho, ho--I know you would say so--you say so
yesterday--really you wery mosh blockhead indeed--_dat_ is what de cow
is call, man. You!--why you is call one omnivorous biped widout
fedder--dat is what you is call; and de reason, Massa Lennox tell me,
is, because you nyam as mosh as ever you can get, and don't wear no
fedder like one fowl--mind dat--you is one omnivorous biped." Here
Chip began, I saw, to quiz Palmy also.
"Now, Massa Indio," said the former, "let me be coolmassa one leetle
piece. I say, Palmy, it is find dat you hab two feets--dat you eats
all you can grab," (_aside_), "your own and your neighbours"--(_then
aloud_)--"dat you hab no fedders in your tail--and derefore you is call
_one somniferous tripod_" (at least what he said sounded more like
_this_ than any thing else). "Now, dere is dat ugly old one-foot neger
cookey" (the fellow was black as a sloe himself), "wid his wooden leg,
what would you call _he?_ tink well now; he only hab _one_ leg, you
know."
"One _unicorn_," said Palmy, after a pause, and scratching his woolly
skull. But my laughter here put an end to the school, and was the
innocent means of stirring up Palmy's wrath, who, mortified at
perceiving that I considered the others had been quizzing him, was not
long of endeavouring to work out his revenge. Slow as he might be at
his learning, he was any thing but slow in this. Palmneedle now took
the lead in the dialogue. "Chip," said Palmy, "enough of nonsense; so
tell me how you lef de good old woman, your moder, eh?"
Chip, who was caulking his seam, at this laid down his caulking-iron
and mallet, pulled up his sleeve, fidgeted with the waistband of his
trowsers, turned his quid, spat in his fist, and again commenced
operations, grumbling out very gruffly, "my moder is dead." He had
clearly taken offence, as Palmy evidently expected he would do; but
_why_, I could not divine. Palmy proceeded in his lesson of "teazing
made easy."
"Nice old woman--sorry to hear dat." The rascal had known it, however,
all along. "Ah, now I remember; she was mosh swell when I last see
him--and face bloat--Ah, I feared, for long time, she would take to
nyam dirt at last."
"Who tell you so--who say my moder eat dirt?" cried Chip, deeply stung;
for the greatest affront you can put on a negro, is to cast in his
teeth either that he himself, or some of his near of kin, labour under
that mysterious complaint, _mal d'estomac_.
"Oh, nobody," rejoined Palmy, with a careless toss of the head; "I only
tought she look wery like it--glad to hear it was not so,
howsomedever--but sartain she look wery mosh like it--you mos allow dat
yourself, Chip?" The carpenter made no answer, but I could see it was
working. Palmy now began to sing in great glee, casting a wicked
glance every now and then at his crony, who thundered away, rap, rap,
rap, and thump, thump, thump, on the deck, paying the seam, as he
shuffled along, with tobacco juice most copiously. At length he got
up, and passed forward. Palmy sang louder and louder.
"Come, mind you don't change your tune before long, my boy," said I to
myself.
Chip now returned, carrying a pot of molten pitch in his hand. As he
stepped over Palmy's leg, he spilt, by accident of course, some of the
hot fluid on his foot.
"Broder Palmneedle--broder Palmneedle--I am wery sorry; but it was one
haxident, you know."
Palmy winced a little, but said nothing; and the master of the schooner
coming on deck, sent Chip to stretch the sail in some particular way,
and to hold it there, for the convenience of the sailmaker. Every
thing remained quiet between them as long as the skipper was near, and
I continued my reading; but very shortly, I heard symptoms of the scald
operating on our sailmaker's temper, as the affront had done on the
carpenter's.
Quoth Chip to Palmneedle, as he sat down on deck, and took hold of the
sail, "Really hope I haven't burnt you, ater all, Palmneedle?"
"Oh, no, not at all," drawing in his scalded toe, however, as if he had
got the gout in it.
"Quite glad of dat; but him do look swell a leetle, and de kin begin to
peel off a bit, I am sorry to see."
"Oh, no," quoth Palmy again,--"quite cool, no pain, none at all."
A pause--Palmy tries to continue his song, but in vain, and presently
gives a loud screech as Chip, in turning over the clew of the sail
roughly, brought the earring down crack on the parboiled toe. "What
you mean by dat?"
"What! have I hurt you? Ah, poor fellow, I see I _have burnt_ you now,
ater all."
"I tell you I is not _burn_," sings out Palmy, holding his toe hard
with one hand; "but don't you see you have nearly _broken_ my foot?
Why did you hit me, sir, wid de clew of dat heavy sail, sir, as if it
had been one mallet? Did you do it o' propos?"
"Do it on purpose?" rejoins Chip. "My eye! I drop it light,
light--just so;" and here he thundered the iron earring down on the
deck once more, missing the toe for the second time by a hairbreadth,
and only through Palmy's activity in withdrawing it.
At this Palmy's pent-up wrath fairly exploded, and he smote Chip
incontinently over the pate with his iron marlinspike, who returned
with his wooden mallet, and the action then began in earnest--the
combatants rolling over and over on the deck, kicking and spurring, and
biting, and bucking each other with their heads like maniacs, or two
monkeys in the hydrophobia, until the row attracted the attention of
the rest of the crew, and they were separated.
* * * * *
I had risen early the next morning, and was wearying most particularly
for the breakfast hour, when Quacco, who was, as usual, head cook and
captain's steward, came to me. "Massa, you never see soch an a face as
Mr Lennox hab dis morning."
"Why, what is wrong with him, Quacco?"
"I tink he mos hab sleep in de moon, sir."
"Sleep in the moon! A rum sort of a lodging, Quacco. What do you
mean?"
"I mean he mos hab been sleep in de moonlight on deck, widout no cover
at all, massa." And so we found he had, sure enough, and the
consequence was, a swelled face, very much like the moon herself in a
fog, by the way, as if she had left her impress on the poor fellow's
mug; "her moonstruck child;" but I have no time for poetry. It looked
more like erysipelas than any thing else, and two days elapsed before
the swelling subsided; during the whole of which the poor fellow
appeared to me--but it might have been fancy--more excited and out of
the way than I had seen him since the prison scene at Havanna.
Can it be possible that the planet really does exercise such influences
as we read of, thought I? At any rate, I now for the first time knew
the literal correctness of the beautiful Psalm--"The sun shall not
smite thee by day, _nor the moon by night_."
We were now a week at sea; the morning had been extremely squally, but
towards noon the breeze became steadier, and we again made more sail,
after which Lennox, the master of the schooner, and I, went to dinner.
This skipper, by the way, was a rather remarkable personage,--_first_,
he rejoiced in the euphoneous, but somewhat out of the way, appellation
of Tobias Tooraloo; _secondly_, his face was not a tragic volume, but a
leaf out of a farce. It was for all the world like the monkey face of
a cocoa-nut; there being only three holes perceptible to the naked eye
in it; that is, _one_ mouth, always rounded and pursed up as if he had
been whistling, and _two_ eyes, such as they were, both squinting
inwards so abominably, that one guessed they were looking for his nose.
Now, if a person had been set to make an inventory of his physiognomy,
at first sight, against this last mentioned feature, the return would
certainly have been _non est inventus_. But the curious dial _had_ a
gnomon, such as it was, countersunk, it is true, in the phiz, and the
wings so nicely bevelled away into the cheeks, that it could not well
be vouched for either, unless when he sneezed; which, like the blowing
of a whale, proved the reality of apertures, although you might not see
them. His figure was short and squat; his arms peculiarly laconic; and
as he always kept them in motion, like a pair of flappers, his presence
might be likened to that of a turtle on its hind fins.
The manner and speech of El Señor Tobias were, if possible, more odd
than his outward and physical man; his delivery being a curious mixture
of what appeared to be a barbarous recitative, or sing-song, and
suppressed laughter; although the latter was only a nervous frittering
away of the fag end of his sentences, and by no means intended to
express mirth; the voice sounding as if he were choke-full of new
bread, or the words had been sparked off from an ill set barrel organ,
revolving in his brisket.
"I hope," said I, to this beauty, "you may not be out in your reckoning
about your cargo of shell being ready for you on the coast, captain?"
"Oh no, oh no,--ho, ho, ho," chuckled Tooraloo.
"What the deuce are you laughing at?" said I, a good deal surprised.
Being a silent sort of fellow his peculiarity had not been so
noticeable before.
"Laugh--laugh--ho, ho, he. I am not laughing, sir--quite serious--he,
he, ho."
"It is a way Mr Tooraloo has got," said Lennox, smiling.
"Oh, I see it is."
"I am sure there will be no disappointment this time, sir,--_now_,
since Big Claw is out of the way,--ho, ho, ho,"--quoth Toby.
"Big Claw--who is Big Claw?" said I.
"An Indian _chief_, sir, and one of our _chief_ traders,--he, he,
ho,--and best customer, sir,--ho, ho, he,--but turned rogue at last,
sir, rogue at last--he, he, he--left my mate with him, and Tom the
Indian boy, voyage before last--he, he, he--and when I came back, he
had cheated them both. Oh dear, if we did not lose fifty weight of
shell,--ho, ho, he."
"And was that all?" said I.
"_That was all_--ho, ho, he," replied Toby.
"Your mate was ill used, you said, by Big Claw?"
"Yes,--ho, ho, he."
"As how, may I ask?"
"Oh, Big Claw _cut_ his throat, _that's all_--ho, ho, ho."
"_All_? rather uncivil, however," said I.
"_Very_, sir,"--quoth Toby,--"he, he, he."
"And why did he cut his throat?"
"Because he made free with one of Big Claw's wives--ho, ho."
"So--that was not the thing, certainly; and what became of the wife?"
"Cut _her_ throat, too--ha, ha, ha!"--as if this had been the funniest
part of the whole story.
"The devil he did!" said I. "What a broth of a boy this same Big Claw
must be; and Indian Tom, I see him on board here?"
"Cut _his_ throat too though--ho ho, ho--but _he_ recovered."
"Why, I supposed as much, since he is waiting behind your chair there,
captain. And what became of this infernal Indian bravo--this Master
Big Claw, as you call him?"
"Cut his _own_ throat--ha, ha, ha!--cut his own throat, the very day we
arrived, by Gom, ha, ha, ha! ooro! looro! hooro;" for this being a sort
of climax, he treated us with an extra rumblification in his gizzard,
at the end of it.
Here we all joined in honest Tooraloo's ha, ha, ha!--for the absurdity
of the way in which the story was screwed out of him, no mortal could
stand--a story that, on the face of it at first, bore simply to have
_eventuated_ in the paltry loss of fifty pounds' weight of
turtle-shell; but which in reality involved the destruction of no fewer
than three fellow creatures, and the grievous maiming of a fourth.
"_That's all_, indeed!"
By this time it might have been half-past two, and the tears were still
wet on my cheeks, when the vessel was suddenly laid over by a heavy
puff, so that before the canvass could be taken in, or the schooner
luffed up and the wind shaken out of her sails, we carried away our
foretopmast, topsail and all; and, what was a more serious matter,
sprung the head of the mainmast so badly, that we could not carry more
than a close-reefed mainsail on it. What was to be done? It was next
to impossible to secure the mast properly at sea; and as the wind had
veered round to the south-east, we could not fetch the creek on the
Indian coast, whither we were bound, unless we had all our after-sail.
There was nothing for it, therefore, but to bear up for San Andreas,
now dead under our lee; where we might get the mast comfortably fished.
We accordingly did so, and anchored there about dusk, on the seventh
evening after leaving Montego bay.
San Andreas, although in reality belonging to the crown of Spain, was
at the time, so far as I could learn, in the sole possession, if I may
so speak, of a Scotchman, a Mr ***;--at least there were no inhabitants
on the island that we heard any thing about, beyond himself, family,
and negroes, with the latter of whom he cultivated any cotton that was
grown on it; sending it from time to time to the Kingston market.
We had come to, near his house; and when the vessel was riding safe at
anchor, the captain and I went ashore in the boat to call on Mr ***, in
order to make known our wants, and endeavour to get them remedied.
There was not a soul on the solitary beach where we landed, but we saw
lights in a long low building that was situated on a ridge on the right
hand of the bay, as you stood in; and in one or two of the negro huts
surrounding it, and clustered below nearer the beach. After some
search, we got into a narrow gravelly path, worn in the rocky hill
side, like a small river course or gully, with crumbling edges of turf,
about a foot high on each hand, against which we battered our knees at
every step, as we proceeded.
It was a clear starlight night, and the dark house on the summit of the
ridge stood out in bold relief against the deep blue sky.
"Hush--hark!" A piano was struck with some skill, and a female voice
began the beautiful song set to the tune of the old Scottish melody
"The Weary Fund o' Tow."
This was a startling incident, to occur thus at the world's end.
"Hey day!" said I; but before I could make any farther remark, a full
rich male voice struck in at the chorus--
"He's far away, he's far away, but surely he will come;
Ye moments fly, pass swiftly by, and send my soldier home."
We remained riveted to the spot until the music ceased.
"I say, Tooraloo, Toby, my lad; you have not sculled us to fairy land,
have you?"
"Oh no, it is old Mr ***'s daughter, the only white lady in the island
that I know of; and I suppose one of her brothers is accompanying
her--ho, ho, he."
"Very like; but who have we here?" as a tall dark figure in jacket and
trowsers, with a Spanish cap on his head, came dancing along the ridge
from the house, and singing to himself, apparently in the exuberance of
his spirits.
He was soon close to, confronting us in the narrow road, bounding from
side to side of the crumbling ledges of the footpath with the buoyancy
of boyhood, although the frame, seen between me and the starlight sky,
appeared Herculean.
"Hillo, Walpole, what has kept you so late?"
We made no answer, and the figure closed upon us.
"Pray, is Mr *** at home--he, he, he?" said our skipper to the stranger.
The party addressed stopped suddenly, and appeared a good deal
startled. But he soon recovered himself, and answered--
"He is. May I ask who makes the enquiry in such a merry mood?"
"Yes; I am the master of the Moonbeam--ha, ha, ha--a Montego bay
trader, bound to the Indian coast, but obliged to put in here in
distress--he, he, ho--having badly sprung some of our spars--ha, ha,
ha."
"Then what the h--l are you laughing at, sir?" rejoined the stranger,
savagely.
"Laugh--laugh--why, I am quite serious, sir--sad as a drowned rat--why,
I am put in here _in distress_, sir--ha, ha, ha."
It was time for me to strike in, I saw. "It is a peculiarity in the
gentleman's manner, sir, and no offence is meant."
"Oh, very well," said the other, laughing himself, and turning to Toby
once more. "And this other?" continued he, very unceremoniously
indicating myself, to be sure.
"My passenger--he, he, he!"--said the man, with some discretion, as
there was no use in our case of mentioning names, or being more
communicative than necessary.
"Oh, I see--good-night--good-night." And away sprang my gentleman,
without saying another word.
"He might have waited until we got time to ask him who _he was_, at any
rate," said I.
"Why," said Toby, "that may be a question he may have no joy in
answering---ha, ha, ha!"
"True for _you_, Tooraloo," said I Benjie.
We arrived in front of the low building, whose windows opened on a
small terrace or esplanade, like so many port-holes.
It stood on a ridge of limestone-rock, _a saddle_, as it is called in
the West Indies, or tongue of land, that from fifty or sixty feet high,
where the house stood, dropped gradually, until it ended in a low,
sandy spit, covered with a clump of cocoa-nut trees, with tufts of
mangrove bushes here and there; forming the cape or foreland of the bay
on the right hand as you stood in. This low point trended outwards
like a hook, so as to shut in the entrance of a small concealed cove or
natural creek, which lay beyond it, separated from the bay we lay in by
the aforesaid tongue of land, so that the house commanded a view of
both anchorages.
From one side, as already related, the acclivity was easy; but towards
the creek the ground fell away sudden and precipitously; and on the
very edge of this rugged bank the house was perched, like an eagle's
nest, overhanging the little land-locked cave.
There was a group of fishermen negroes in front of the house, talking
and gabbling loudly as usual, one of whom carried a net, while three
others followed him with broad-bladed paddles on their shoulders, as if
they had been pursuing their calling, and were now retiring to their
houses for the night.
"Is Mr *** at home?" said Tooraloo--really I can no longer be bothered
jotting down his absurd ho, ho, he.
"Yes, massa," said the negro addressed; and without waiting to knock,
or give any sign of our approach, the skipper and I entered the hall,
or centre room of the building.
By the partial light proceeding from the open door of an inner
apartment, I could see that it was a desolate-looking place, with a
parcel of bags of cotton piled up in a corner, and lumbered, rather
than furnished, with several skranky leathern-backed Spanish chairs.
Several rooms opened off each end of the said hall, beside the one from
which the light streamed. The skipper unceremoniously passed on to
this apartment, motioning to me to follow him. I did so, and found an
old gentleman, dressed in a gingham coat and white trowsers, and
wearing a well-worn tow wig and spectacles, seated at a small table,
smoking, with a glass of spirits and water beside him, and an empty
tumbler opposite, as if some one had been accompanying him in his
potations; while a young lady, rather a pretty girl, seated at a piano,
with some music open before her, was screening her eyes from the light,
and employed, so far as I could judge, in peering down towards the
cove, as if trying to make out some object in that direction.
"Well, father, I cannot see either of them; surely they have put out
all the lights on purpose--not a glimmer, I declare." Turning round,
she started on seeing us, and rising, left the room suddenly by another
door.
"Who may _ye_ be now?" quoth the old man, rather testily, as if some
recent visitors had not been over and above acceptable, taking his
cigar at the same time out of his mouth, and knocking the ashes off the
end of it against the candlestick. "Are you any of Captain Wallace's
people?"
"No," said Tooraloo. "Was that Captain Wallace we met going down the
path just now?"
He gave no answer, but again enquired, in a still more sharp and
querulous tone, "_who we_ were? Wha the deevil are ye, I say? Wull ye
no speak?"
"Toby," said I, "out with your ditty, man." So our situation was
speedily explained to him--that we had bore up in distress, and wanted
assistance. The issue was, after a good deal of palaver, that he
promised to send his people to lend a hand with our repairs in the
morning.
"But _who was_ the gentleman we met?" said I, repeating Toby's
question, and endeavouring to pin the crusty old gentleman to an answer.
"Indeed, sir," said he, now greatly relieved, as he began to understand
our real character, and the peacefulness of our object--"indeed, sir, I
cannot rightly tell. He is an American, I rather think, and commands
two Buenos-Ayrean"----
Here some one coughed significantly under the open window. The old man
looked dogged and angry at this, as if he had said, "What the deuce!
mayn't I say what I choose in my own house?" And gulping down his grog
with great fierceness, as if determined not to understand the hint, he
continued, speaking emphatically through his set teeth--
"Yes, sir, he commands two privateers at anchor down in the cove there."
The signal was now twice repeated. It was clear there were
eaves-droppers abroad. Our host lay back sullenly in his chair.
"Ay! and what kind of craft may they be?"
I scarcely knew what I said, as the notion of the privateers, and of
having gentry of the usual stamp of their crews in such near
neighbourhood, was any thing but pleasant or comfortable.
"A schooner and a felucca, sir," said Mr *** in answer.
Some one now thundered against the weather-boarding of the house,
making every thing shake again, as if a drunken man had fallen against
a hollow bulk-head, and I heard a low, grumbling voice, as if in
suppressed anger. I could see with half an eye that _this_ had aroused
the old gentleman to a sense of his danger, and made him pocket his
peevishness; for he now _set_ himself in his chair, screwing his
withered features into a most taciturn expression.
"The Midge again," thought I, "by all that is unfortunate! Oh for a
glimpse of Henry de Walden and his Spider!"
It is the devil and all to be watched--to have the consciousness that
the very stones are listening to you, and ready to fly at your head,
and no armour, offensive or defensive, about you.
A sort of desperation was in consequence coming over me; and I rapped
out, but still speaking so low, that I considered it impossible I could
be overheard by any one without----
"I think I know that same Captain Wallace's voice--I have heard it
before, I am persuaded."
"You have, have you?" said some one outside, with great bitterness, but
also in a suppressed tone.
The exclamation was apparently involuntary. I started, and looked
round, but saw no one.
"I know nothing of him, as I said before, gentlemen," continued our
host.
At this moment I had turned my face from the open window towards Toby,
to see how he took all this. A small glass hung on the wall above his
head, in which (murder, I grew as cold as an ice-cream!) I had a
momentary glimpse of a fierce, sun-burned countenance, the lips apart,
and the white teeth set as if in anger, raised just above the window
sill. It glanced for an instant in the yellow light, while a clenched
hand was held above it, and shaken threateningly at old ***.
I turned suddenly round, but the apparition had as suddenly
disappeared. It was clear that *** now wished more than ever to end
the conference.
"I know nothing beyond what I have told you, gentlemen--_he_ pays for
every thing like a prince--for his wood, and provisions, and all, down
to a nail."
I was _now_ noways anxious to prolong the conversation myself.
"I don't doubt it, I don't doubt it. Well, old gentleman, good-night.
You will send your people early?"
"Oh yes, you may be sure of that."
And we left the house and proceeded to the beach, as fast, you may be
sure, as we decently could, without _running_. We both noticed a dark
figure bustle round the corner of the house, as we stepped out on the
small plateau on which it stood.
Captain Toby hailed the schooner, in no very steady tone, to send the
boat ashore instantly--"_instantly_"--and I sat down on a smooth, blue,
and apparently wave-rounded stone, that lay imbedded in the beautiful
white sand.
"So, so, a leaf out of a romance--miracles will never cease," said I to
Tooraloo, who was standing a short distance from me, close to the
water's edge, looking out anxiously for the boat. "There is the old
Midge again, Toby, and my Montego bay friend, Wilson, for a dozen--mind
he don't treat us to a second
Edition of the Ballahoo,
Dear Toby Tooraloo.
Why, captain, there is no speaking to you, except in rhyme, that name
of yours is so----Hillo! where away--an earthquake? or are the stones
alive here? So ho, Tobias--see where I am travelling to, Toby," as the
rock on which I sat began to heave beneath me, and to make a strange
clappering sort of noise, as if one had been flapping the sand with wet
swabs.
"Tooraloo, see here--see here--I am bewitched, and going to sea on a
shingle stone, as I am a gentleman--I hope it can _swim_ as well as
_walk_"--and over I floundered on my back.
I had come ashore without my jacket, and, as the skipper picked me up,
I felt something warm and slimy flowing down my back.
"Why, where is my cruizer, Toby,--and what the deuce can that be so
warm and wet between my shoulders?"
"A turtle nest--a turtle nest," roared Toby, in great joy,--and so
indeed it proved.
Accordingly, we collected about two dozen of the eggs, and, if I had
only had my senses about me when I capsized, we might have turned over
the lady-fish herself, whom I had so unkindly disturbed in the straw,
when she moved below me. We got on board without more ado, and having
desired the steward to get a light and some food and grog in the cabin,
I sent for Lennox, who was busy with the repairs going on aloft, and,
as I broke ground very seriously to make my supper, communicated to him
what we had seen and heard.
I had already in the course of the voyage acquainted him with the
particulars of the ball at Mr Roseapple's, and of my meeting with, and
suspicions of Mr Wilson, and that I verily believed I had fallen in
with the same person this very night, in the captain of a Buenos-Ayrean
privateer.
"A privateer!" ejaculated Lennox,--"a privateer!--is there a privateer
about the island?'
"_A_ privateer!" said the captain of the Moonbeam--"no--not _one_, but
_two_ of them, ha, ha, he--and both anchored t'other side of the bluff
there, he, he, ho--within pistol-shot of us where we now lie, as the
crow flies; although they might remain for a year in that cove, and no
one the wiser, ho, ho, he.--In my humble opinion, they will be foul of
us before morning, ho, ho, he--and most likely cut all our throats, ha,
ha, ho."
Poor Saunders Skelp on this fell into a great quandary.
"What _shall_ we do, Mr Brail?--we shall be plundered, as sure as fate."
"I make small doubt of that," quoth I, "and I only hope _that_ may be
the worst of it; but if you and the skipper think with me, I would be
off this very hour, sprung mast and all."
"How unfortunate!" said Lennox--"Why, I have been working by
candle-light ever since you went away, stripping the mast, and seeing
all clear when the day broke to----But come, I think a couple of hours
may still replace every thing where it was before I began."
Our determination was now promptly taken, so we swigged off our horns,
and repaired on deck.
"Who is there?" said some one from forward, in evident alarm.
It was pitch dark, and nothing could be seen but the dim twinkle of the
lantern, and the heads and arms of the men at work at the mast head.
"Who is there, aft by the companion?"
"Why, it is me, what do you want?" said Lennox.
"Nothing particular, sir, only there are people on the water close to,
ahead of us--take care they do not make free with the buoy."
"Hail them then, Williams, and tell them, if they don't keep off, that
we will fire at them."
"I have hailed them twice, sir, but they give no answer."
We all went forward. For some time I could neither see nor hear any
thing. At length I thought I heard low voices, and the dip of an oar
now and then. Presently I distinctly saw white sparkles in the dark
calm water, towards the mouth of the bay, as of a boat keeping her
station on guard. By and by, we heard indications of life on the
larboard bow also.
"Why, we are beset, Lennox, my boy, as sure as fate," said I.
"What boats are those?"
No answer.
"If you don't speak I will fire at you."
A low suppressed laugh followed this threat, and we heard, as plain as
if we had been alongside of the strangers, three or four sharp clicks,
like the cocking of strong musket locks.
"Privateers-men, as sure as a gun," said Tooraloo--"oh dear, and they
are going to fire at us, don't you hear?"--and he ducked his pate, as
if he had seen them taking aim.
"I see two boats now as plain as can be," said Lennox.
"Well, well, if you do, we can't help it," said I--"but do take my
advice and stand by to be off the moment there is a breath of wind from
the land, _will ye_?"
All hands were called. We piped belay with the repairs, secured the
mast as well as we could, hoisted the mainsail, and made every thing
ready for a start; and just as we had hove short, a nice light air came
off the land, as if on purpose; but when in the very act of tripping
the anchor, lo! it fell calm again. As to our attempting to tow the
schooner out of the bay with such customers right ahead of us, it would
have been stark staring madness. We had therefore to let go again, and
began to re-occupy ourselves in peering into the night. The roar of
the surf on the coast, now came louder, as it struck me, and hoarser,
as if the ground-swell had begun to roll in more heavily.
"We shall have the sea-breeze shortly, Lennox, take my word for it--it
is blowing a merry capful of wind close to us out there," said I; but
the _terral_ again sprung up, notwithstanding my prognostication, so we
hove up the anchor, ran up the jib, and the Moonbeam, after canting
with her head to the eastward, began gradually to slide towards the
offing through the midnight sea. Presently sparkling bubbles rippled
against the stem, and mixed with white foam, buzzed past the bows, as
she gathered way.
Accustomed now to the darkness, we could perceive the boats ahead
separate, and take their stations one on each bow, keeping way with us,
as if watching us. We had loaded the two carronades with musket-balls,
and had our twelve muskets on deck. We continued gliding along, and
presently the boats, as if by signal, lay on their oars, letting us
shoot past them, then closed astern of us, pulling a stroke or two, as
if they had an intention of coming up, on either side of us.
"If you come nearer," said Lennox through the trumpet to the boat that
was pulling on the starboard side, "so help me God, I will fire at you."
No answer. The breeze at the instant took off, and they approached
within pistol shot, one on each quarter, where they hung without coming
any nearer.
"They are only seeing us off, they don't mean to annoy us, Lennox,
after all; so hold on steadily, and don't mind them," said I.
But the zeal of Toby Tooraloo, who had by this time got much excited,
and be hanged to him, had nearly got us all into a scrape.
"You villains, _I_ will teach you," quoth the valiant Tobias, "to
insult an armed vessel--so stand by there, men--give them two of the
carronades"--as if there had been a whole broadside beside. And before
Lennox could interfere, he had sung out "Fire!"
Bang went both carronades, whisking up the surface of the sea on either
beam into a sparkling foam, the bullets spanking away in flakes of
fire, until they dropped ashore in the distance. The same low fiendish
laugh was again heard from the boat nearest us; and as if they had only
waited for this very foolish act of aggression on our part, to commence
an attack, one of the boats pulled ahead, and then made right for our
starboard bow.
"Hillo!" said I, thinking the Rubicon was passed, and that our only
chance now, after Tooraloo's absurd demonstration, was to put our best
foot foremost--"Sheer off, whoever you are, or I will show you, my fine
fellow, that we are not _playing_ with you, any how"--and picking up a
musket, I gave them a moderate time to see if my threat would have any
effect. Finding it had not, I took deliberate aim at the boat, and
fired.
A loud "Ah!" declared that the shot had told. This was followed by a
deep groan, and some one exclaimed, in Spanish,--"Oh dios, soy muerto!"
"Close and board him," shouted a loud and angry voice, high above
several others, from the same boat--"Close and board him--cut their
throats, if they resist."
At this moment, as old Nick would have it, it fell entirely calm, and
the boat began to approach rapidly; the other threatening our larboard
quarter, so I thought our fate was sealed; but whether they were not
quite satisfied of the kind of reception we might give them, they once
more lay on their oars when close aboard of us. A clear and well-blown
bugle from the boat where the man hud been hit, now awoke the sleeping
echoes of the bay. Gradually they died away faint and more faint
amongst the hills. All was still as the grave for a minute. "Ha, that
is no reverberation, that is no echo; hark, it is answered by another
bugle from the cove. Now we are in a remarkably beautiful mess," said
I; "see--see." A rocket was here sent up by the other boat, and
instantly answered by a steady red light from beyond the clump of
cocoa-nut trees, through whose hair-like stems we could perceive the
little Midge, with her tall lateen sail, stealing along in the crimson
glare like some monstrous centipede of the ocean, and propelled by her
sweeps, that flashed up the dark water all round her into blood-like
foam, as if Old Nick's state barge had floated up red hot and hissing.
A loud rushing noise at the same instant growled down on us from
seaward, and one could perceive a squall, without being a pig,
whitening the tops of the swell, even dark as it was.
"Haul off," sung out the same voice, just as the breeze struck
us,--"Sheer off, and let the scoundrel alone, and mind yourselves--he
will be on the reef close to us here bodily in a moment."
"Thank you for the hint," thought I; "the reef is close to you, is it?"
Tooraloo had caught at this also, so it was about ship on the other
tack; but we soon found it was utterly impossible to work out of the
bay in the darkness, with such a breeze as was now springing up,
ignorant as we were besides of the localities; so it was up helm, for
in order to escape the immediate danger of going ashore on the rocks,
we had no earthly alternative, but the fearful one of running directly
back into the lion's mouth again, and after having pretty well chafed
him too;--indeed, we had the utmost difficulty in getting back to our
anchorage before it came on to blow right in like thunder; and there we
lay on deck through the livelong night exposed to a pitiless shower of
rain, in a state of most unenviable anxiety, expecting every moment to
be boarded and murdered.
Neither the felucca nor boats followed us in, however, so we concluded
they had returned to the cove, as all continued quiet. But the
weariest _night_ must have an end, as well as the weariest _day_, and
at length the long looked-for morning broke upon us.