Frank Mallet and Lady Greendale crossed to Southampton by the
twelve o'clock boat, and arrived in London at three.
"I have been thinking," she said, as they went up, "that it will be
better for me to stop in town. I shall have less difficulty in
answering questions there than I should have at home. Everyone is
leaving now, and in another week there will be scarcely a soul in
London I know; and I shall keep down the front blinds, and no one
will dream of my being there. I shall only have to mention to
Bertha's own maid that my daughter has remained at Cowes, that I
have left Anna with her, and that she can wait upon me until she
returns. There will be another advantage in it--you can see me
whenever you are in town. I shall get your letters a post quicker
when you are away, and you can telegraph to me freely; whereas, if
you telegraphed to Chippenham, whoever received the message there
might mention its contents as curious to someone or other, and
then, of course, it would become a matter of common gossip."
Frank agreed that it would certainly be better, and more bearable
than having to answer questions about Bertha to every visitor who
called on her. He crossed that evening to Ostend, and at ten
o'clock next morning George Lechmere received the following
message:
"Make inquiries as to small brigantine that looked like converted
yacht: had very large yards on foremast. I saw her pass Cowes on
Tuesday afternoon. Let Hawkins go to Portsmouth and Southampton.
Find out yourself whether she anchored between Osborne and Ryde. If
not, inquire at Seaview whether she passed there going east.
Telegraph result tomorrow morning to my chambers. Shall cross again
tonight."
Lechmere had the gig at once lowered, and started, with four hands
at the oars, eastward, while the captain went ashore in the dinghy
to leave for Southampton by the next boat. The tide was against
Lechmere, who, keeping close in round the point, steered the boat
along at the foot of the slopes of Osborne, and kept eastward until
he reached the coast-guard station at the mouth of Wootton creek.
"Oh, yes, we noticed her," the boatswain in charge replied in
answer to his question. "We saw her, as you say, on Tuesday
afternoon, going east. We could not help noticing her, for she was
something out of the way. We should not have thought so much of it,
if she had not come back again just before dusk the next day, and
anchored a mile to the west. We kept a sharp lookout that night,
thinking that she might be trying to smuggle some contraband
ashore; but everything was quiet, and next morning she was gone.
The man who was on the watch said he thought that he made her out
with his night glass going east at about eleven o'clock; but it was
a dark night, and it might have been a schooner yacht or a brig."
"You don't happen to know whether she stopped at Ryde the first
time she passed?"
"Yes; having been all talking about her, we watched to see if she
was going to anchor there or keep on to the east. She lowered a
boat as she passed, and two men landed. They threw her up into the
wind and waited until the boat came off again. The men did not come
back in her. They hoisted the boat up again and went east. She
stopped off Seaview; then she came back and sent the boat ashore,
and two men went off in her. Of course, I can't say whether they
were the same. It was as much as I could do to make out that there
were two of them, though our glass is a pretty good one. Is there
anything wrong about the craft?"
"Not that I know of; but there was a good deal of curiosity about
her among the yachts, she being an out-of-the-way sort of craft;
and I fancy there were some bets about her. There was an idea that
she was seen going west two days later, and the governor asked me
to take the boat and find out whether she had been noticed here or
at Ryde. Thank you very much for your information. I have no doubt
that it will be sufficient to decide any bets there may be about
her."
So saying, he took his seat in the gig again, and rowed back to the
Osprey. The skipper returned in the evening.
"No such craft has gone into Southampton or Portsmouth," he said;
"so I have had my journey for nothing."
"No, I don't think you have," George replied. "It is something to
know that she is not in either of the ports now, and has been to
neither of them."
George returned in time to send off a full account of what he had
learned from the coast-guardsman by the mail that would be
delivered in London that night. On his return to town the next
morning, Frank found the letter awaiting him; and at ten o'clock,
after wiring to Hawkins and the steward to stock the yacht at once
with provisions of all kinds for a long voyage, he went into the
city and called upon the secretary at Lloyd's.
After giving his name, he told him that he believed that a young
lady had been carried off forcibly in the craft, which he minutely
described, and that he was desirous of having a telegram sent to
every signal station between Hull and the Land's End, asking if
such a craft had passed.
"Of course," he added, "I am ready to defray the expense of the
telegrams and replies. She left the Solent late on Wednesday
evening, and on Thursday would have been between Beachy Head and
Dover, if she had gone that way, and yesterday up the Thames or
somewhere between Harwich and Yarmouth."
"Well, Major Mallett, if you will sit down and write the telegram
with the description that you have given, I will send it off at
once. Then, if you will call again in an hour's time, I have no
doubt all the answers will have come in."
"Your craft has gone west," he said when Frank returned. "All the
answers the other way are negative. Saint Catherine says: 'Craft
answering description was seen well out at sea on Thursday
morning.' Portland noticed her in the afternoon, and she was off
the Start yesterday morning; the wind was light then; and the
Lizard reports seeing her this morning. When abreast of them, she
headed south, apparently making a departure, as she could be made
out keeping that course as long as seen. These are the four
telegrams, so I think that there can be little doubt that she has
made for the Mediterranean."
"Thank you very much indeed," Frank said. "Can you tell me if I
have any chance of getting similar information from the south?"
"You could get it from Finisterre if she passed within sight, but
by her holding on as far west as the Lizard, instead of taking a
departure from the Start, it is likely that she will take a more
westerly course, and then Cape St. Vincent is the first point where
she is likely to be noticed. If not there, she would probably be
observed at Tarifa, although, if she kept on the southern side of
the Straits, she might not be noticed. I should think that she
would do so; she would not be likely to put into Gibraltar,
although, from what you tell me, the owner would believe that no
suspicion whatever of being concerned in this affair would be
likely to rest upon him. But you must bear in mind that it is
probable that, as a measure of precaution, he has painted out the
white streak, sent down the yards, and converted her into a
fore-and-aft schooner; in which case she would attract no attention
whatever if she passed without making her number."
"I certainly think that they will convert her back into a schooner
yacht, as otherwise there will be a difficulty about papers
whenever she enters a port. There is one more thing I wish to ask
you. You see, she might not turn into the Mediterranean. She might,
for example, make for the West Indies, in which case she would be
almost certain to touch at Madeira or Palmas."
"Or possibly at Teneriffe, Major. Of course, we have an agent at
each of these places, and I will gladly request them, if a
brigantine or schooner looking like her puts in there, to find out
if possible where she is bound for, and to let you know at--shall I
say Gibraltar? I am afraid it is of no use trying to get the
Portuguese authorities to arrest the ship or to search her. You
see, to a certain extent it is an extradition case. Still, I will
ask them to get it done if possible, though I fear that it is quite
beyond their power."
"Thank you very much indeed. It would be an immense thing only to
find out that she has gone in that direction. Of course, she may
not put in at any of these places, as she is sure to have
provisioned for a long voyage, but at any rate I will wait at
Gibraltar until I get the letters, unless I can get some clue that
she has gone up the Mediterranean.
"Of course, if I don't hear of her at Cape Saint Vincent or Tarifa,
I shall try Ceuta and Tangier. If she goes up on the southern side
of the Straits, she may anchor off either, and send a boat in to
get fresh meat and fruit."
"The Royal mail and the mail down the African coast will start, one
tomorrow, the other on Monday, and I will send letters by them to
the islands. They are sure to get there before this craft that you
are in search of, and our agents will be on the lookout for her. It
may not be long before you hear from Madeira, but it may be some
time before you get the other letters, as the craft may be anything
between three weeks and five in getting there. Of course, I shall
mention when she sailed, and they will not write until all chance
of her having arrived is passed."
"Would you kindly give me the addresses of your three agents? I
will wait for the answer from Madeira, but I am afraid my patience
will never hold out until the others can come. It will be giving
the schooner a fearfully long start as it is, and as you may
suppose I shall be almost mad at having to wait and do nothing."
The secretary wrote the three addresses, and, thanking him very
warmly for his kindness and courtesy, Frank went out and despatched
a telegram to the skipper, telling him to engage ten extra hands at
once, and to buy muskets and cutlasses for the whole crew.
"I shall come down by the twelve o'clock train from town. Be at the
steamboat pier to meet me. If all is ready, shall sail at once."
Having despatched this, he drove at once to Lady Greendale's, and
told her that he had learnt that the craft in which Bertha had been
carried off had sailed for the south, probably the Mediterranean,
and that he should start that evening in pursuit.
"It may be a long chase, Lady Greendale, but never fear but that I
will bring her back safely. It will be for you to decide whether
you will continue to remain here, or go down into the country after
a time; but, of course, there is no occasion for you to make up
your mind now. I must be off at once, for I have several things to
do before I catch the twelve o'clock train."
"God bless you, Frank!" she said. "You are looking terribly worn
and fagged."
"I shall be all right when I am once fairly off," he said. "I have
not had an hour's sleep for the last two nights, and not much the
night before. At first the whole thing seemed hopeless; now that I
am fairly on the track and know what I have to do, I shall soon be
all right again."
"I don't know what I should have done without you, Frank; and I do
believe that you will succeed."
"I have no doubt about it," he said; "so keep your courage up,
mother--for you know that you are almost that to me now."
He kissed her affectionately, and then hurried downstairs and drove
to his chambers.
Here he packed a portmanteau with Indian suits and underclothing,
took his pistol and rifle cases, drove to a gunmaker's in the
Strand for a stock of ammunition, called at his bank and cashed a
cheque for two thousand pounds, and then drove to Waterloo.
Hawkins and George Lechmere were on the landing stage at Cowes.
"How are things going on, Hawkins?" Frank asked, as he came across
the gangway.
"All right, sir. I have had my hands pretty full, sir, since I got
your second telegram. Lechmere saw to getting the arms. Of course,
he could not help me as to hiring the hands. I think I have got ten
first-class men. A few of the yachts have paid off already, and I
know something about all of those I have engaged. While I was
ashore, the mate looked after getting on board and stowing the
goods as they came alongside."
"Quite right, Hawkins. Did you think of ammunition, George?"
"Yes, Major; I was not likely to forget that. I got twenty-five
muskets and cutlasses. Luckily they kept them at Pascal Aikey's,
for the use of steam yachts going out to the east; and they had
ammunition too, so I got fifty rounds for each musket. It is not
likely that we shall want to use that much, but it is best to be on
the right side."
"I think, sir," Hawkins said, "as it is going to be a long voyage,
and as we have doubled our crew, that I had better get another
mate. Purvis is a very good man, but he is no navigator; and we
shall have to keep watches regularly. I met an old shipmate of mine
just now who would be just the man. He commanded the Amphitrite for
ten years, and I know that he is a good navigator. He has been up
in the Scotch waters since the spring, and was paid off last week.
I told him that it might be that I could give him a berth as second
mate, and he jumped at it."
"By all means, Hawkins; of course you will want an officer for each
watch. You can find him without loss of time, I hope."
"Yes, sir. I have told him to hang about outside the gate here, and
I would give him an answer."
"Very well. When you have seen him you will find me at Aikey's. I
have to go there to get a lot of charts. I have only those for
British waters.
"George, do you see to getting these traps down to the boat. I
shall be there in a quarter of an hour. Is there anything else that
you can think of, or that you want yourself?"
"Nothing, sir."
"When you go on board, you may as well get your traps in one of the
spare cabins aft.
"You had better move, too, captain. You and one of the mates can
have the stern cabin. For the present the other mate can have
yours, and the steward can sleep in the saloon. That will make more
room for the extra hands forward."
"It will be a tight stow, sir," the captain said. "I have ordered
ten more hammocks and hooks, but I doubt whether there will be room
to sling them all."
"I am sure there won't, Hawkins. You had better put the hooks in
the saloon beams, and swing five or six of the hammocks there. We
can take the hooks out and stop up the holes when we don't need
them any longer. We may be having hot weather before we have done,
and I don't want the men crowded too closely forward."
Twenty minutes later Frank came down to the boat with the skipper,
carrying a large roll of charts, and a man with a handcart
containing a bundle of jerseys and caps, and fifty white duck
trousers. A large shore boat was alongside when they reached the
Osprey.
"Is this the last lot?" the captain asked the man in charge of the
pile of casks and boxes with which it was filled.
"Yes, sir, this is the last batch."
"Get them on deck, Hawkins," Frank said, "and we can get them down
and stowed when we are under sail. Get the anchor short at once,
the sail covers off and the mainsail up.
"I don't want to lose a minute," he went on, turning to George
Lechmere. "I know that an hour or even a day will make no material
difference, but I am in a fever to be off."
"Have you found out which way they have gone, Major?"
"I have found out that they have sailed for the south, but whether
for the Mediterranean or for the West Indies or South America I
have no idea; but I have some hopes of finding out by the time we
get to Gibraltar."
"And they have got a three days' start of us?"
"Yes, I can hardly believe that it is not more. It seems to me a
fortnight since I went ashore to dine at the club. Three days is a
long start, and unless the change of rig has spoiled her, the
Phantom is as fast, or very nearly as fast, as we are. We can't
hope to catch her up, unless she stops for two or three days in a
port, and that she is certain not to do. No, I don't think that
there is any chance of our overtaking her until she has got to
whatever may be her destination. Of course, what Carthew counts
upon is that, in time, he will get Miss Greendale to consent to
marry him. That is one reason why I think that he will not go up
the Mediterranean. The further he takes her the more hopeless the
prospect will seem to her."
"But she will never give in, Major," George Lechmere said,
confidently.
"I have no fear of that--no fear whatever, and we may be quite sure
that as long as he thinks that he will be able to tire her out he
will show himself in his best light, and try to make everything as
pleasant for her as is possible under the circumstances. It is only
when he loses all hope of her consenting willingly that he will
show himself in his true light; and you know, George, he is
scoundrel enough for anything. However, I consider that she is
perfectly safe for a long time, and I hope to be alongside the
craft long before he becomes desperate."
Half an hour later, the anchor was on the rail and the Osprey
started on her voyage. The tide being in her favour, she passed the
Needles just as it was getting dark. The breeze fell very light,
and, although every stitch of canvas was put on, she was still some
miles east of Portland when morning broke. As the sun rose the wind
freshened a bit, and she moved faster through the water. The hands
were mustered and divided into two watches, and the jerseys and red
caps served out to the new hands.
"You had better give them the whole of the duck trousers, to fit
themselves from, Captain," Frank said. "There are assorted sizes,
you know, and when they have suited themselves you can take the
other ten pairs into store. You and the mates will want some when
we get into warmer climates."
"Are we bound for the Mediterranean?" Hawkins asked.
"To Gibraltar, to begin with. What we shall do afterwards will
depend upon what news I get there. We may have to go round the
world, for all I know."
"Well, sir, I hope not, for your sake, and the young lady's; but as
far as we are concerned, we would as lief go round the world as
anything else, though she is not a very big craft for such a
journey as that."
"How long will the water tanks hold out?"
"That is where the pinch will come in, sir. I reckon that at
ordinary times we might make shift to go on for three weeks without
filling up, but, you see, we have twenty hands instead of ten, and
that will make all the difference.. I did get ten good-sized casks
yesterday morning, and got them filled as well as the tanks. They
are stowed away forward, but they won't improve her speed. They
have brought her head down over two inches, but, of course, we
shall use the water in them first."
"You had better bring them amidships, captain, and stow them round
the saloon skylight. Appearances are of no consequence whatever,
and the great thing is to get her in her best sailing trim. If bad
weather comes on, we must put half in the bow and half in the
stern, where we can wedge them in tightly together. It would not do
to risk having them rolling about the decks.
"Well, then," he went on, seeing that the captain did not like the
thought of having weight at each end of the yacht, "if the weather
gets bad we will take the saloon skylight off, and lower them down
into it. I can eat my meals on deck or in my stateroom, but the
water we must keep. If we get a spell of head winds or calms, we
may be three weeks getting to Gib."
"That would be a very good plan, sir, if you can do without the
saloon, and don't mind its being littered up."
"Well, I hope we shan't get any bad weather until we get well
across the bay, Hawkins. I don't mind the discomfort, but it would
stop her speed. We want a wind that will just let us carry all our
canvas. We can travel a deal faster so than we can in heavy
weather, when we might be obliged to get down the greater part of
our canvas and perhaps to lie to.
"It looks like a strong crew, doesn't it?" he went on, as he
glanced forward.
"That it does, sir. A craft of this size can do well with more when
she is racing, but for a crew it is more than one wants, a good
deal; and people would stare if we went into an English port.
Still, I don't say that it is not an advantage to be strong-handed
if we get heavy weather, and it makes light work of getting up sail
or shifting it, and one wants to shift pretty often when he is
trying to get high speed out of a craft."
The wind continued fitful, and, in spite of having her racing
sails, the Osprey's run to the Start was a long one. It was not
until thirty-six hours after getting up anchor that they were
abreast of the lighthouse.
"I try to be patient, George," Mallett said, "but it is enough to
make a saint swear. We have lost eight or ten hours instead of
making a gain, although we had the advantage of coming through the
Needles passage, while they had to go round at the back of the
island to escape observation."
"Yes, sir, but you know we have often found that sometimes one,
sometimes another, makes a gain in these shifty winds; perhaps
tomorrow we may be running along fast, and the Phantom be lying
without a breath of wind."
"That is so, George. I will try to bear it in mind. There, you see,
the skipper is taking the exact bearing of the lighthouse, and we
shall soon be heading south."
In five minutes the captain gave the order to the helmsman, and the
craft was then laid on her new course.
"The wind is northing a bit," the skipper said as, after giving the
helmsman instructions, he came up to Frank. "It has shifted two
points round in the last half hour, and you see we have got the
boom off a bit. If it goes round a point more we will get the
square-sail ready for hoisting. It will help her along rarely when
the head-sails cease to be of any good."
Half an hour later the wind had gone round far enough for the
square-sail to be used to advantage, and it was accordingly
hoisted. The captain then had the barrels brought aft, and ranged
along each side of the bulwark.
For eight-and-forty hours the Osprey maintained her speed, leaving
all the sailing vessels she overtook far behind her, and keeping
for hours abreast of a cargo steamer going in the same direction.
"She is bound for Finisterre," the skipper said, "and we shall pass
it some thirty miles to the west, so our courses will gradually
draw apart; but we shall see her smoke anyhow until we are pretty
nigh abreast of the cape--that is, if the wind holds as it is now.
It is falling lighter this afternoon."
Two or three hours later the wind died away altogether, the
square-sail was got down, and the skipper then said:
"I will get the topsail down, too, sir. We can easily get it up
again, and I will put a smaller jib on her. I don't at all think by
the look of the sky that we are going to have a blow. The glass
would have altered more if we were, but one never can tell. I would
not risk the loss of a spar for anything."
"I should think that you might put a couple of reefs in the
mainsail, Hawkins."
"Well, perhaps it would be the best, sir; for a puff that one
thinks nothing of, one way or the other, when a craft has way; will
take her over wonderfully when it catches her becalmed."
Just as he had finished his dinner, the captain came down and asked
Frank to come on deck.
"There is a steamer bearing down on us. I can see both her side
lights, and as she is coming in from the west she may not notice
our starboard light. It is burning all right, but one never can see
these green lights. They are the deceivingest things at a distance.
I have just sent down for the man to bring up the riding light, and
as it is a first-rate one, if we put it on deck it will light up
the mainsail. I have told them to bring up the big horn. That ought
to waken them if anything will."
"How far is she off now, Hawkins?"
"About a mile and a half, Major. There are no signs of her altering
her course, as she ought to have done by this time if she had made
us out. You see, her head light shows up fair and square between
her side lights, which shows that she is coming as near as possible
on to us. I think that I had better light a blue light."
Frank nodded. The blue light at once blazed out.
"They ought to see that if they are not all asleep," Frank said, as
he looked up at the sails standing out white against the dark sky.
"Set to work with that foghorn," the skipper said; and a man began
to work the bellows of a great foghorn, which uttered a roar that
might have been heard on a still night many miles away. Again and
again the roar broke out.
"That has fetched them," the captain said. "She is starboarding her
helm to go astern of us. There, we have lost her red light, so it
is all right. How I should have liked to have been behind the
lookout or the officer of the watch with a marlinespike or a
capstan bar. I will warrant that they would not have nodded when on
watch again for a long time to come.
"Here she comes; she is closer than I thought she was. She will
pass within fifty yards of the stern. It is lucky that we had that
big horn, Major Mallett, for if we had not woke them up when we did
she would have run us down to a certainty."
As the steamer came along, scarcely more than a length astern of
the yacht, a yell of execration broke from the sailors gathered
forward.
"That was a near shave, George," Frank Mallett said, when the
steamer had passed. "It brought me out in a cold sweat at the
thought that, if the Osprey were to be run down, there was an end
to all chance of rescuing Bertha from that scoundrel's clutches. I
don't know that I thought of myself at all. I am a good swimmer,
and I suppose she would have stopped to pick us up. It was the
Osprey I was thinking of. Even if every life on board had been
saved, I don't see how we could have followed up the search without
her."