That night the _Nautilus_ was pretty close inshore, as soon as she could
approach without being seen. Every light was out, the sail had been
reduced, and they were gliding slowly along, watching the mouth of a
river about twenty miles south of Port Goldby. They had been lying off
here for days, waiting for the news the British agent had been trying
hard to obtain for them, so as to enable the officer in command of her
Majesty's cruiser to strike a severe blow at the horrible traffic being
carried on by swift-sailing schooners and barques trading between the
West Coast of Africa and the southern ports of the United States.
The _Nautilus_ had been for weeks upon the station, and so far all her
efforts had proved vain. But now very definite information of the
sailing of a large schooner from Palm River had been obtained, and
everyone on board was in a most profound state of excitement. The
night-glasses were being used, and as the vessel cruised to and fro off
the mouth of the river, it did not seem possible for a fishing-boat to
get away, leave alone a large schooner. This would be sure not to leave
the river till the turn of the tide, two hours after dark, when she was
expected to drop down with her cargo of unfortunates, collected at a
kind of stockade by a black chief, who was supposed to be working in
collusion with a merchant, whose store up the river had been ostensibly
started for dealing in palm oil, ivory and gold dust with the above
chief, a gentleman rejoicing in the name of Quoshay Dooni.
Captain Maitland's plan had been well carried out, for the haze had
helped him; and after sailing right away, the vessel had crept close in
at dark; and as night fell with all the suddenness of the tropics, she
had reached the mouth of the river as aforesaid unseen.
After listening impatiently for some time, orders were given, and a
couple of boats were lowered, each furnished with lanterns for
signalling, of course kept hidden; and the monkey episode being for the
time forgotten, Mark Vandean obtained permission to go in the first
cutter, Bob Howlett being sent in the second.
"Whether we catch them or no," thought Mark, as the boat kissed the
water, "it will be a bit of a change." Then, after a few whispered
orders given to the second lieutenant, who was in charge, the two boats
pushed off, the men dipping their muffled oars gently, and after
separating for a couple of hundred yards, both cutters made their way
silently through what appeared to be a wall of blackness, while each ear
was alert to catch the slightest sound--the object being to make sure
that the slaver did not slip down the river in the darkness, and pass
the _Nautilus_ unseen.
"Keep that sail well over the lanterns, Dance," whispered the lieutenant
to the coxswain; "don't show a glimmer, but mind that they are kept
burning."
"Ah, ay, sir."
"Shall I take them in charge, Mr Russell?" whispered Mark.
"No, my lad; I want you for company. Keep your eyes well skinned, as
the Yankees say. If you sight the vessel first I'll give you a ring."
"Thankye, sir," said Mark, and then to himself, "No such luck!"
The next moment he was peering over the heads of the men, and to right
and left, straight into the black darkness, as the boat was steered, as
nearly as they could guess, right up the river, the only guide they had
being the steady rush of the muddy water which they had to stem.
"Seems a Blindman's Buff sort of game, doesn't it, Mr Russell?"
whispered Mark, at the end of a couple of hours.
"Yes, my lad, it's all chance work. I only wish, though, that we could
blunder on to the abominable craft. They'll be too sharp for us I'm
afraid."
Another hour passed, and they were still completely shut up in the
darkness, with a thick haze overhead; and at last the lieutenant
whispered,--"Lucky if we don't some of us catch fever to-night."
"Look here, Vandean, if we don't soon see something I shall signal the
ship for a recall. We shall do nothing to-night. Eh? what?"
"I heard voices off to the left," Mark whispered. "Then it's the
schooner," said the lieutenant, in a suppressed voice. "Give way, my
lads! steady! I shall lay the boat alongside, and you must board her
somehow. Coxswain only stay in the boat."
The men received their orders in silence, but a suppressed sigh told of
their eagerness and readiness to act.
A minute later there was a sharp rattling sound, a savage growl, and a
loud burst of laughter.
The first cutter had come in contact with the second, and directly after
there was a whirring, brushing sound of branches sweeping over the
boats, one of which bumped against a root and nearly capsized.
"Tut, tut, tut!" ejaculated the lieutenant; "back water, my lads! We
are doing no good here. It is impossible to see where we are going."
There was a slight splashing, and the boats began to descend the stream,
swept along by the tide for a time, till they lay on their oars again.
"What's that, Mr Russell?" whispered Mark, all at once.
"What? I heard nothing but one of the oars badly muffled."
"I didn't near anything. I meant what's that I can smell?"
The lieutenant started, and just then there was a peculiarly offensive,
sickening odour perceptible.
"No mistaking that," whispered the lieutenant; and, giving orders, a
lantern was taken from beneath the sail, and shown above the gunwale of
the boat.
Almost immediately a faint star-like light shone out at a distance on
their left, and the lantern was hidden and the star disappeared.
"Why's that?" whispered Mark.
"Let the other boat know the slaver's dropping down," was whispered
back.
"But is she?" said Mark, excitedly.
"No doubt about that, my lad. Pull steady."
The men obeyed, and the boat was steered in a zigzag fashion down the
river, but there was no sign of the slaver. If she was dropping down it
was so silently that her presence was not detected, and at last a
fresher feeling in the air warned the occupants of the first cutter that
they must be nearing the mouth of the river.
"Light," whispered Mark, pointing off to his right, where, faintly seen,
there was a feeble ray.
"Signal," whispered the lieutenant. The lantern was shown, and there
was an answering light from behind them, proving that the one forward
must be at sea.
"It's a recall," said the lieutenant, with a sigh of relief; "give way,
my lads." Then to Mark: "The captain must be uneasy about us, or he
would never show that light. It's like letting the slaver know. Bah!
what an idiot I am. That's not our light. Pull, my lads, pull! That
must have been shown by the ship we are after."
As he spoke the light disappeared, and a fresh one appeared from astern.
They showed their own lantern, and their signal was answered, the second
cutter running up close to them a few minutes later, while the
lieutenant was boiling over with impatience, for he had been compelled
to check his own boat's way.
"What is it?" he said to his second in command.
"See that light ashore, sir?"
"No; I saw one out at sea; it's the slaver. Follow us at once."
"But that light was ashore, sir."
"Mr Ramsay, do you think I'm blind? Mr Howlett, are you there?"
"Yes, sir."
"Didn't you see a light off to sea?"
"No, sir; ashore."
"I tell you it was at sea, and it is the craft we are after. Now, my
lads, give way."
_Crash_.
"Why, we're among the trees again."
"Yes, sir; shore's this way," said the coxswain.
"Then where in the name of wonder is the sea?" said the lieutenant, in
an angry whisper, as the tide bore them along, with the men's oars
rattling among the mangrove stems.
"I think we've got into a side channel," said Mark.
"Rubbish! How could we?"
"Beg pardon, Mr Russell, sir," came from the boat astern; "we've got
into a sort of canal place with the tide running like a mill stream.
Hadn't we better lie to till daybreak?"
"Better sink ourselves," growled the lieutenant. "Here are we regularly
caught in a maze, and that schooner getting comfortably away to sea."
"'Fraid so, sir," said the boatswain. "That there was a light showed
ashore to warn 'em that we were in the river; some of 'em must have
heard."
The lieutenant made no answer, but ordered the men to back water, and
for the next four hours they were fighting the swift river, trying to
extricate themselves from the muddy system of branches into which they
had been carried in the darkness, but in vain; and at last, in despair,
they made fast to the mangroves, and waited for day.
Light came at last, piercing the white fog in which they lay; and in a
short time they were back in the wide river, close to the sea, dejected,
weary, and wondering that they could have been so confused in the
darkness.
"Nice wigging we shall have, Vandean," said the lieutenant; "the skipper
will sarcastically tell me he had better have sent one of the ship's
boys in command. But there, I did my best. Ugh! how chilly it feels!"
An hour later they were alongside the _Nautilus_, which lay at the edge
of a bank of mist which covered the sea, while shoreward all was now
growing clear from a gentle breeze springing up.
The lieutenant was a true prophet, for the captain almost used his
officer's words.
"Then you haven't seen a sign of the schooner?"
"No, sir; but we smelt it."
"What!" cried the captain.
"Sail ho!" shouted the man at the look-out, and in a moment all was
excitement, for, about a mile away, down what looked like a clear lane
through the white fog, was a two-masted vessel, crowded with sail; and
as rapidly as possible the boats were hoisted up, and the _Nautilus_ was
in pursuit.
But hardly had she careened over under the press of sail than the fog
shut the vessel from their sight, and for the next two hours she was
invisible, while the captain of the _Nautilus_ had to lie to, for fear
of some slippery trick on the part of what was undoubtedly the slaver,
since she was more likely to make for the shelter of a creek than to
risk safety in flight.
But the wind was not favourable for this manoeuvre, and toward mid-day
the sea grew clear, and there was the slaver plainly visible miles away,
sailing out west, while the _Nautilus_ crowded on every stitch of canvas
in pursuit.
A stern chase is a long one, says the proverb, and night came with the
craft still miles away, but the sky was brilliantly clear, and the moon
shone forth, showing the white-sailed schooner in a strangely weird
fashion far across the flashing sea.
"We're gaining on her," said Bob Howlett, who was as full of excitement
as the men, while Mark felt a strange suffocating sensation at the chest
as he strained his eyes and watched the swift schooner, whose captain
tried every manoeuvre to escape the dogged pursuit of the Queen's
cruiser.
"Hang it all! he's a plucky one," said Bob, as the chase went on. "He
must be taken, but he won't own to it."
"Thought a ship was a she," said Mark.
"Well, I was talking about the skipper, wasn't I?"
"A man doesn't want to lose his ship, of course."
"Nor his cargo," cried Bob. "There, give it up, old fellow; we're
overhauling you fast."
It was a fact: the _Nautilus_, with all her studding sails set, was
creeping nearer and nearer, till at last, amid no little excitement on
the part of the two midshipmen, a gun was shotted, run out, and a turn
or two given to the wheel. Then, as the _Nautilus_ swerved a little
from her course, the word was given, and a shot went skipping across the
moonlit sea, splashing up the water in a thousand scintillations, and
taking its final plunge far ahead of the schooner.
Every eye and every glass was fixed upon the slaver, for such she was
without a doubt, since she kept on, paying no heed to the shot and its
summons to heave to; and after a second had been sent in chase, the
captain gave the word, and a steady fire was kept up at the spars and
rigging.
"I can't fire at her hull, Staples," the captain said.
"No, it would be slaughtering the poor wretches down below; never mind,
sir, we'll capture her directly. She's ours, safe."
"Then the sooner the better," said Bob to his companion.
The firing continued, and the crews of the two guns which sent their
shot in chase vied with each other in their efforts to hit a spar and
bring down the sails of the schooner; but they tried in vain. Sails
were pierced, but no other harm was done, and the slaver kept gallantly
on.
But all her efforts were in vain. The _Nautilus_ crept on and on,
nearer and nearer, till she was only about a quarter of a mile away, and
then the slaver altered her course, and gained a little by her quick
handling. But the _Nautilus_ was after again, and after two or three of
these manoeuvres Captain Maitland was able to anticipate her next
attempt to escape, and all seemed over.
"I wonder how many poor wretches she has on board?" tried Mark,
excitedly, as the word was passed for one of the boat's crews to be
ready for boarding as soon as the slaver captain struck the flag he had
run up in defiance.
"Hundreds perhaps," said Bob, coolly; "but we haven't got her yet."
"No; but they're going to give in now. I can see the captain quite
plainly," said Mark, who was using a glass. "What are they doing? Oh,
Bob, look!"
For through the glass he saw what seemed to be a struggle on the moonlit
deck, and directly after there was a splash.
"Great heavens!" cried Captain Maitland. "Staples! Look! They're
throwing the poor fellows overboard."
"No," said the first lieutenant, with his glass to his eye; "only one."
A mist came for a moment over Mark Vandean's sight, but it passed away;
and, with the feeling of suffocation at his throat increasing now, he
kept his glass upon the black head in the midst of the quivering water,
where a man was swimming hard for life. Brought almost close to him by
his powerful glass, Mark could nearly make out the agonised look upon
the swimmer's face, as, at every stroke, he made the water shimmer in
the moonlight; and every moment as his forehead grew wet and his hands
clammy, the midship, man expected to see the waves close over the poor
wretch's head.
Just then his attention was taken up by the voices of the Captain and
lieutenant.
"The scoundrel! the fiend!" cried the former, with a stamp of rage upon
the deck; "if it were not for those on board I'd sink him."
"I wish we could, sir," replied the first lieutenant; "we shall lose
him."
"No," cried the captain. "He has thrown that poor wretch overboard,
believing that we shall heave to and pick him up sooner than let him
drown."
"While he gets a mile away," said the first lieutenant; "and as soon as
we overhaul him again, he'll throw over another--that is, sir, if we
stop to pick the poor creatures up."
"Help! boat! help!" cried Mark, unable to contain his feelings longer;
and lowering his glass, he turned to the captain. "Look, sir, look!" he
cried, pointing in the direction of the drowning black; "the poor
fellow's going down."