The stars were bright, and with the aid of a night glass the
brigantine was kept in sight; the sailors relieving each other at
the masthead every half hour. Frank would have stayed on deck all
night, had not George Lechmere persuaded him to go below.
"Look here, Major," he said. "It is like enough that we may have a
stiff bit of fighting tomorrow. Now we know that those fellows have
guns, though they may be but two or three pounders, and it is clear
that it is not going to be altogether such a one-sided job as we
looked for. You have had a long day already, sir. You have got an
ugly wound, and if you don't lie down and keep yourself quiet, you
won't be fit to do your share in any fighting tomorrow; and I
reckon that you would like to be in the front of this skirmish. You
know in India wounds inflamed very soon if one did not keep quiet
with them, and I expect that it is just the same here.
"It is not as if you could do any good on deck. The men are just as
anxious to catch that brigantine as you are. They were hot enough
before, but now that one of their mates has been killed, and five
or six wounded, I believe that they would go round the world rather
than let her slip through their hands. I shall be up and down all
night, Major, and the captain and both mates will be up, too, and I
promise that we will let you know if there is anything to tell
you."
"Well, I will lie down, George, but I know that I shall get no
sleep. Still, perhaps, it will be better for me to keep my arm
quite quiet."
He was already without his coat, for that had been cut from the
neck down to the wrist, to enable George to get at the wound. He
kicked off his light canvas shoes, and George helped him to lie
down in his berth.
"You will be sure to let me know if she changes her course or
anything?"
"I promise you that I will come straight down, Major."
Three quarters of an hour later, George stole noiselessly down and
peeped into the stateroom. He had turned down the swinging lamp
before he went up, but there was enough light to enable him to see
that his master had fallen off to sleep. He took the news up to
Hawkins, who at once gave orders that no noise whatever was to be
made. The men still moved about the deck, but all went barefooted.
"The wind keeps just the same," Hawkins said. "I can't make it more
than three and a half knots through the water. I would give a
year's pay if it would go round dead ahead of us; we should soon
pick her up then. As it is, she keeps crawling away. However, we
can make her out, on such a night as this, a good deal further than
she is likely to get before morning. Besides, we shall be having
the moon up soon, and as we are steering pretty nearly east, it
will show her up famously.
"Now I will give you the same advice that you gave the governor.
You had much better lie down for a bit. Purvis has gone down for a
sleep, Perry will go down when he comes up at twelve, and I shall
get an hour or two myself later on."
"I won't go down," George said, "but I will bring a couple of
blankets up and lie down aft. I promised the Major that I would let
him know if there was any change in the wind, or in the
brigantine's course, so wake me directly there is anything to tell
him. I have put his bell within reach. I have no doubt I shall hear
it through that open skylight if he rings; but if not, wake me at
once."
"All right. Trust us for that."
Twice during the night George got up and went below. The first time
Frank had not moved. The second he found that the tumbler of lime
juice and water, on the table at the side of the bunk, was nearly
half emptied; and that his master had again gone off to sleep and
was breathing quietly and regularly.
"He is going on all right," he said to Hawkins, when he went up.
"There is no fever yet, anyhow, for he has drunk only half that
glass of lime juice. If he had been feverish he would not have
stopped until he had got to the bottom of it."
When George next woke, the morning was breaking.
"Anything new?" he asked Purvis, who was now at the tiller.
"Nothing whatever. The governor has not rung his bell. The wind is
just as it was, neither better nor worse, and the brigantine is
eight miles ahead of us."
George went forward to have a look at her.
"I think I had better wake him," he said to himself. "He will have
had nine hours of it, and he won't like it if I don't let him know
that it is daylight. I will get two or three fresh limes squeezed,
and then go in to him."
This time Frank opened his eyes as he entered.
"Morning is breaking, Major, and everything is as it was. I hope
that you are feeling better for your sleep. Let me help you up.
Here is a tumbler of fresh lime juice."
"I feel right enough, George. I can scarcely believe that it is
morning. How I have slept--and I fancied that I should not have
gone off at all."
Drinking off the lime juice, Frank at once followed Lechmere on
deck, and after a word or two with Purvis hurried forward.
"She is a long way ahead," he said, with a tone of disappointment.
"The mate reckoned it between seven and eight miles, Major."
"How far is she from the Bec?"
"I don't know, sir. I did not ask Purvis."
Frank went aft and repeated the question.
"I fancy that that is the Bec, the furthermost point that we can
see," Purvis said, "and I reckon that she is about halfway to it."
"Keep her a point or two out, Purvis. The line of shore is pretty
straight beyond that, and I want of all things not to lose sight of
her for a moment. I would give a good deal to know what she is
going to do. I cannot think that she is going to try to go round
the southeast point of the island, for if she were she would have
laid her head that way before."
The Osprey edged out until they opened the line of coast beyond the
headland, and then kept her course again. There was a trifle more
wind as the sun rose higher, and the yacht went fully a knot faster
through the water. In less than two hours the brigantine was
abreast of the headland. Presently Frank exclaimed:
"She is hauling in her wind."
"That she is, sir," Hawkins, who had just come on deck, exclaimed.
"She surely cannot be going to run into the bay."
"She can be going to do nothing else," Frank said. "What on earth
does she mean by it? No doubt that scoundrel is going to land with
Miss Greendale, but why should he leave the Phantom at our mercy,
when he could have sent her on to Port au Prince?"
"I cannot think what he is doing, sir; but he must have some game
on, or he would never act like that."
"Of course, he may have arranged to go with the lady to some place
up in the hills; but why should he sacrifice the yacht?"
"It is a rum start anyhow, and I cannot make head or tail of it. Of
course you will capture her, sir?"
"I don't know, Hawkins. It is one thing to attack her when she has
Miss Greendale on board, but if she has gone ashore it would be
very like an act of piracy."
"Yes, sir. But then, you see, they fired into our boat, and killed
one of our men, and wounded you and four or five others."
"That is right enough, Hawkins, but we cannot deny that they did it
in self defence. Of course, we know that they must have recognised
us, and knew what our errand was, but her captain and crew would be
ready to swear that they didn't, and that they were convinced by
our actions that we were pirates. At any rate, you may be sure that
the blacks would retain both craft, and that we should be held
prisoners for some considerable time, while Miss Greendale would be
a captive in the hands of Carthew. I should attack the brigantine
if I knew her to be on board, and should be justified in doing so,
even if it cost a dozen lives to capture her; but I don't think I
should be justified in risking a single life in attacking the
brigantine if she were not on board. To do so would, in the first
place, be a distinct act of piracy; and in the second, if we got
possession of the brigantine we should have gained nothing by it."
"We might burn her, sir."
"Yes, we might, and run the risk of being hung for it. We might
take her into Port au Prince, but we have no absolute evidence
against her. We could not swear that we had positive knowledge that
Miss Greendale was on board, and certain as I am that the female
figures I made out on the deck were she and her maid, they were
very much too far away to recognise them, and the skipper might
swear that they were two negresses to whom he was giving a passage.
"Moreover, if I took the brigantine I should only cut off Carthew's
escape in that direction. His power over Miss Greendale would be
just as great, if he had her up among those mountains among the
blacks, as it was when he had her on board. I can see that I have
made a horrible mess of the whole business, and that is the only
thing that I can see. Yesterday I thought it was the best thing to
start on a direct chase, as it seemed absolutely certain to me that
we should overhaul and capture her. Now I see that it was the worst
thing I could have done, and that I ought to have waited until I
could take her in the bay."
"But you see, Major," said George Lechmere, who was standing by,
"if we had gone on searching with the boat, before we had made an
examination of the whole bay, there would be no knowing where she
had gone, and it might have been months before we could have got
fairly on her track again."
"No, we acted for the best; but things have turned out badly, and I
feel more hopelessly at sea, as to what we had better do next, than
I have done since the day I got to Ostend. At any rate, there is
nothing to be done until we have got a fair sight of the
brigantine."
It seemed, to all on board, that the Osprey had never sailed so
sluggishly as she did for the next hour and a half. As they
expected, no craft was to be seen on the waters of the bay as they
rounded the point, but Dominique and the other pilot had been
closely questioned, and both asserted that at the upper end of the
bay there was a branch that curved round "like dat, sar," the
latter said, half closing his little finger.
Progress up the bay was so slow that the boats were lowered, and
the yacht was towed to the mouth of the curved branch. Here they
were completely landlocked, and the breeze died away altogether.
"How long is this bend, Jake?" Frank asked the second pilot in
French.
"Two miles, sir; perhaps two miles and a half."
"Deep water everywhere?"
"Plenty of water; can anchor close to shore. Country boats run in
here very often if bad weather comes on. Foreign ships never come
here. They always run on to the town."
"You told us that there were a few huts at the end."
"Yes, sir. There is a village there, two others near."
The crew had all armed themselves, and the muskets were again
placed ready for use.
"You had better go round, Hawkins," Frank said, "and tell them that
on no account is a shot to be fired unless I give orders. Tell the
men that I am just as anxious to fight as they are, and that if
they give us a shadow of excuse we will board them."
"I went round among the men half an hour ago, sir, and told them
how the land lay, and Lechmere has been doing the same. They all
want to fight, but I have made them see that it might be a very
awkward business for us all."
The men in the boats were told to take it easy, and it was the best
part of an hour before they saw, on turning the last bend, the
brigantine lying at anchor a little more than a quarter of a mile
away.
"She looks full of men," Frank exclaimed, as turned his glasses
upon her.
"Yes, sir," said the captain, who was using a powerful telescope,
"they are blacks. There must be fifty of them beside the crew, and
as far as I can see most of them are armed."
"That explains why he came in here, Hawkins. They have been using
this place for the last three weeks, and no doubt have made good
friends with the negroes. I dare say Carthew has spent his money
freely on them.
"Well, this settles it. We would attack them at sea without
hesitation, however many blacks there might be on board, but to do
so now would be the height of folly. Five of our men are certainly
not fit for fighting, so that their strength in whites is nearly
equal to ours. They have got those two little cannon, which would
probably reduce our number a bit before we got alongside, and with
fifty blacks to help them it is very doubtful whether we should be
able to take them by boarding. Certainly we could not do so without
very heavy loss.
"We will anchor about two hundred and fifty yards outside her. As
long as she lies quiet there we will leave her alone. If she tries
to make off we will board her at once. Anchor with the kedge; that
will hold her here. Have a buoy on the cable and have it ready to
slip at a moment's notice, and the sails all ready to hoist."
"Easy rowing," the captain called to the men in the boats, "and
come alongside. We have plenty of way on her to take up a berth."
In two or three minutes the anchor was dropped and the sails
lowered.
"Now I will row across to her," Frank said, "and tell them that I
don't want to attack them, but I am determined to search their
craft."
"No, Major," George Lechmere said, firmly. "We are not going to let
you throw away your life, and you have no right to do it--at any
rate not until after Miss Greendale is rescued. You may be sure of
one thing: that Carthew has left orders before going on shore that
you are to be shot if you come within range. He will know that if
you are killed there will be an end of the trouble. I will go
myself, sir."
Frank made no answer for a minute or two. Then he said:
"In that case you would be shot instead of me. If Carthew is on
shore, as I feel sure he is, the others won't know you from me. I
agree with you that I cannot afford to risk my life just now, and
yet we must search that brigantine."
"Me go, sar," Dominique, who was standing by, said suddenly. "Me
take two black fellows in dinghy. Dey no fire at us. Me go dere,
tell captain dat you no want to have to kill him and all his crew,
but dat you got to search dat craft. If he let search be made, den
no harm come of it. If he say no, den we take yacht alongside and
kill every man jack. Say dat white sailors all furious, because dey
fire at us yesterday, and want bad to have fight."
"Very well, Dominique. It can do no harm anyhow, and as I feel sure
that the lady has been taken ashore, I don't see why they should
refuse."
Accordingly, Dominique called to two of the negro boatmen to get
into the dinghy, and took his seat in the stern. When the boat was
halfway between the two vessels there was a hail in French:
"What do you want? If you come nearer we will fire."
"What want to fire for?" Dominique shouted back. "Me pilot, me no
capture ship, single handed. Me want to speak to captain."
It was evident the answer was understood, for no reply came for a
minute or two.
"Well, come along then."
The words could be heard perfectly on board the yacht.
"The skipper talks English, George. I thought that he would do so.
Carthew was sure to have shipped someone who could understand him.
I don't suppose his French is any better than mine."
The dinghy was rowed to within ten yards of the brigantine.
"Now, what message have you brought me from that pirate?"
"Him no pirate at all. You know dat bery well, massa captain. Dat
English yacht; anyone see dat with half an eye. De gentleman there
says you have a lady on board dat has been carried off."
"Then he is a liar!" the Belgian said. "There is no woman on board
at all!"
"Well, sar, dat am a matter ob opinion. English gentleman tink dat
you hab. You say no. Dat prove bery easy. De gentleman say he wants
to search ship. If as you say, she is no here, den ob course no
reason for you to say no to dat. If on de other hand you say no,
den he quite sure he right, and he come and search whether you like
it or no. Den der big fight. Bery strong crew on board dat yacht.
Plenty guns, men all bery savage, cause you kill one of der fellows
last night. Dey want to fight bad, and if dey come dey kill many.
What de use of dat, sar? Why say won't let search if lady not here?
Nothing to fight about. But if you not let us see she not here, den
we board de ship, and when we take her we burn her."
The Belgian stood for two or three minutes without answering. They
had seen that there were two or three and twenty men on board the
Osprey, and they were by no means sure that this was the entire
number. There were three blacks, and there might be a number of
them lying down behind the bulwarks or kept below. The issue of a
fight seemed to him doubtful. He was by no means sure that his men
would fight hard in a cause in which they had no personal interest;
and as for the blacks, they would not count for much in a
hand-to-hand fight with English sailors.
He had received no orders as to what to do in such a contingency.
Presently he turned to three of his men and said in French:
"Go to that stern cabin, and see that there is nothing about that
would show that it has been occupied. They have asked to search us.
Let them come and find nothing. Things will go quietly. If not,
they say they will attack us and kill every man on board and burn
the ship, and as we do not know how many men they may have on
board, and as they can do us no harm by looking round, if there is
nothing for them to find, we had best let them do it. But mind, the
orders hold good. If the owner of that troublesome craft comes
alongside, you are to pour in a volley and kill him and the sailors
with him. That will make so many less to fight if it comes to
fighting. But the owner tells me that if he is once killed there
will be an end of it."
He then went to the side, and said to Dominique:
"There is nothing for you to find here. We are an honest trader,
and there is nothing worth a pirate's stealing. But in order to
show you that I am speaking the truth, I have no objection to two
hands coming on board and going through her. We have nothing to
hide."
Dominique rowed back to the yacht.
"Dey will let her be searched, sar."
"I thought they would," Frank said; "and of course that is a sign
that there is no one there."
"I will go, sir," the skipper said, "as we agreed. He would give
anything to get rid of you, and you might be met with a volley when
you came alongside. And now there ain't no use in running risks. If
they have been told what you are like, they cannot mistake me for
you. You are pretty near a foot taller, and you are better than ten
years younger, and I haven't any hair on my face. I will go through
her. I am sure the lady ain't there, or they would not let me.
Still, I will make sure. There are no hiding places in a yacht
where anyone could be stowed away, and of course she is, like us,
chock full of ballast up to the floor. I shan't be many minutes
about it, sir. Dominique may as well go with me. He can stay on
deck while I go below, and may pick up something from the black
fellows there."
"You may as well take him, Hawkins; but you may be very sure that
they won't give him a chance to speak to anyone."
The captain stepped into the boat and was rowed to the yacht. He
and Dominique stepped on to the deck and were lost sight of among
the blacks. In ten minutes they appeared at the gangway again, and
stepped into their boat. Another minute and she was alongside the
Osprey.
"Of course, you found nothing, Hawkins."
"Nothing whatever, sir. Anything the lady may have left behind had
been stowed away in lockers. I looked about to see if I could sight
a bit of ribbon or some other woman's fal-lal, but they had gone
ever it carefully. Two of the other state cabins had been occupied.
There were men's clothes hanging there. Of course, I looked into
every cupboard where as much as a child could have been stowed
away, and looked round the forecastle. Anyhow, there is no woman
there now.
"Dominique had to go round with me. The captain evidently did not
want to give him a chance of speaking to anyone. The mate and two
of the sailors posted themselves at the gangway, so that the two
blacks should not be able to talk to the niggers on board. And now,
sir, what is to be done next?"
"We will go below and talk it over, captain.
"You come down, too, George. Yes, and Dominique. He may be useful.
"Now, Hawkins," he went on, when they had taken their seats at the
table, "of course, I have been thinking it over all the morning,
and I have come to the conclusion that our only chance now is to
fight them with their own weapons. As long as we lie here there is
no chance whatever of Miss Greendale being brought on board again,
so the chase now has got to be carried on on land. If we go to work
the right way, there is no reason why we should not be able to
trace her. I propose to take Lechmere and Dominique and the four
black boatmen. If we stain our faces a little, and put on a pair of
duck trousers, white shirts, red sashes, and these broad straw hats
I bought at San Domingo, we shall look just like the half-caste
planters we saw in the streets there. I should take Pedro, too, but
you will want him to translate anything you have to say to Jake.
"I propose that as soon as it is dark tonight we muffle the oars of
the dinghy, and row away and land lower down, say a mile or so; and
then make off up into the hills before tomorrow morning. Dominique
will try to find out something by inquiring at some of the huts of
the blacks. They are not likely to know, but if he offers them a
handsome reward to obtain news for him, they will go down to the
villages and ferret out something. The people there would not be
likely to know where they have been taken, but they would be able
to point out the direction in which they went on starting. Then we
could follow that up, and inquire again.
"We might take a couple of the villagers with us. Belonging here,
they would have more chance of getting news from other blacks than
strangers would have."
"Don't you think, sir, that it would be as well to have four or
five men with you?" Hawkins said. "There is no doubt this fellow
that you are after is a desperate chap, and he may have got a
strong body of these blacks as a guard. He might suspect that,
after having pursued him all this way, you might try to follow him
on land. You could put the men in hiding somewhere every day while
you were making inquiries, and they would be mighty handy if it
came to fighting, which it seems to me it is pretty sure to do
before you see the lady off."
"Well, perhaps it would be best, Hawkins; and, as you say, by
keeping them hid all day I don't see that they could increase our
difficulties. But then, you see, you will want all your hands here;
for if the brigantine sails, whether by night or day, you are to
sail too, and to keep close to her wherever she goes. It is not
likely that Carthew and Miss Greendale will be on board, but he may
very well send orders down to the brigantine to get up the anchor.
He would know that we should stick to her, as Miss Greendale might
have been taken on board again at night. In that way he would get
rid of us from here, and would calculate that we should get tired
of following the brigantine in time, or that she would be able to
give us the slip, and would then make for some place where he could
join her again. So my orders to you will be to stick to her, but
not to interfere with her in any way, unless, by any chance, you
should discover that Miss Greendale is really on board. In that
case I authorise you to board and capture her. They won't have the
blacks on board, and as the wounded are going on all right, and
three of them, anyhow, will be able to lend a hand in a couple of
days, you will be a match for them; especially as they will soon
make up their minds that you don't mean to attack them, and you
will get a chance of running alongside and taking them by
surprise."
"Well, sir, I think that we can do that with four hands less than
we have now. You see, there are nineteen and the two mates and
myself. Say two of the wounded won't be able to lend a hand, that
makes us twenty, to say nothing of Jake and Pedro. So, even if you
took four hands, we should be pretty even in numbers; and if our
men could not each whip two Belgians, they had better give up the
sea."
"Yes, I have no doubt that they could do that, and were it not for
Carthew and his friend I would not hesitate to take eight men. I
don't know about the other, but you may be sure that Carthew will
fight hard. He is playing a desperate game. Still, I think that I
might take four, especially as I think the chance of Miss
Greendale's being brought on board, until he believes that we have
left these waters, is very small.
"Very well, then, that is settled. The five blacks, Lechmere and
myself, and four of the sailors, will make a strong party. Serve
muskets and cutlasses out to the blacks; and the same, with a brace
of pistols, to each of the hands that go with us. While we are away
let two of the men dress up in my white duck shirts and jackets,
and in white straw hats. Let them always keep aft, and sit about in
the deck chairs, and always go down below by the main companion.
That will make them think that I am still on board; while if there
is no one on the deck aft they will soon guess that we have landed.
"You understand all that we have been saying, Dominique?"
"Me understand, sar, and tink him bery good plan. Me suah to find
out which way dat rascal hab gone. Plenty of black fellows glad to
earn two dollar to guide us. Dey no money here. Two dollars big sum
to them."
"All right, Dominique, but we won't stick at two dollars. If it
were necessary I would pay two hundred cheerfully for news."
"We find dem widout dat," the black said, confidently. "Not good
offer too much. If black man offered two dollars he bery glad. If
offered twenty he begin to say to himself, 'Dis bery good affair;
perhaps someone else give forty.'"
"There is something in that, Dominique. Anyhow I shall leave that
part of the business to you. As a rule, I shall keep in hiding with
the boatmen and sailors all day. I shall be no good for asking
questions, for I don't know much French, and the dialect the
negroes of these islands speak is beyond me altogether. I cannot
understand the boatmen at all."
"Black men here bad, sar; not like dem in de other islands. Here
dey tink themselves better than white men; bery ignorant fellows,
sar. Most of dem lost religion, and go back to fetish. Bery bad
dat. All sorts of bad things in dat affair. Kill children and women
to make fetish. Bad people, sar, and dey are worse here than at San
Domingo."
There was nothing to do all day, but to sit on deck and watch the
brigantine. Most of the blacks had been landed, and only three or
four sailors remained on watch on deck. Frank and George Lechmere,
in their broad straw hats, sat and smoked in the deck chairs; the
former's eyes wandering over the mountains as if in search of
something that might point out Bertha's hiding place. The hills
were for the most part covered with trees, with here and there a
little clearing and a patch of cultivated ground, with two or three
huts in the centre. With the glasses solitary huts could be seen,
half hidden by trees, here and there; and an occasional little
wreath of light smoke curling up showed that there were others
entirely hidden in the forest.
"Don't you think, Major," George Lechmere said after a long pause,
"that it would be a good thing to have the gig every night at some
point agreed on, such as the spot where we land? You see, sir,
there is no saying what may happen. We may have to make a running
fight of it, and it would be very handy to have the boat to fall
back upon."
"Yes, I think that a good idea, George. I will tell Hawkins to send
it ashore, say at ten o'clock every night. There is no chance
whatever of our being down before that. They are sure to have taken
her a long distance up the hills; and though, of course, one cannot
say at present, it is pretty certain that we shall have to attack
after dark.
"It is important that we should land where there is some sort of a
path. I noticed one or two such places as we came along. We may as
well get into the dinghy and row down and choose a spot now. Of
course, they will be watching from the brigantine, but when they
see the same number that went come back again, they will suppose
that we have only gone for a row, or perhaps to get a shot at
anything we come across. We may as well take a couple of guns with
us."
A mile down the inlet they came upon just the spot they were
searching for. The shore was level for a few yards from the water's
edge, and from here there was a well-marked path going up the slope
behind.
"We will fix upon this spot, George. It will be easy for the boats
to find it in the dark, from that big tree close to the water's
edge. Now we will paddle about for half an hour before we go back."
An hour later they returned to the yacht, and George began at once
to make arrangements for the landing.