The captain's ideas were not quite correct. Certainly the little
trading vessel had been run upon one of the many reefs that spread in
all directions along the dangerous coast; but it was not the Malay who
was the guilty party.
As far as I was concerned it seemed to me a good job, for it brought the
schooner to a stand-still, so that we could overtake it. No thought
occurred to me that the rocks might have knocked a hole in her bottom,
and that if a storm came on she would most likely go to pieces.
Very little was said now, for every one's attention was taken up by the
threatened hurricane, and our efforts to reach the schooner before it
should come on.
It was a long severe race, in which we all took a turn at the oars,
literally rowing as it seemed to me for our lives. At times it was as
if we must be overtaken by the fierce black clouds in the distance,
beneath which there was a long misty white line. The sea-birds kept
dashing by us, uttering wild cries, and there was overhead an intense
silence, while in the distance we could hear a low dull murmuring roar,
that told of the coming mischief.
Every now and then it seemed to me that we must be overtaken by the long
surging line, that it was now plain to see was pursuing us, and I
wondered whether we should be able to swim and save our lives when it
came upon us with a hiss and a roar, such as I had often heard when on
the beach.
"We shall never do it," said one of the men, who half-jumped from his
seat the next moment as the captain leaned forward from where he was
rowing and gave him a sound box on the ears.
"Pull, you cowardly humbug!" he cried. "Not do it? A set of furriners
wouldn't do it; but we're Englishmen, and we're going to do it. If we
don't, it won't be our fault. Pull!"
This trifling incident had its effect, for the men pulled harder than
ever, exhausted though they were. It was a struggle for life now, and I
knew it; but somehow I did not feel frightened in the least, but stunned
and confused, and at the same time interested, as I saw the great line
of haze and foam coming on. Then I was listening to the dull roar,
which was rapidly increasing into what seemed a harsh yell louder than
thunder.
"Pull, my lads!" shouted the captain, with his voice sounding strange
and harsh in the awful silence around us, for, loud as was the roar of
the storm, it seemed still afar off.
The men pulled, and then we relieved them again, with the great drops
gathering on our faces in the intense heat; and my breath came thick and
short, till I felt as it were a sense of burning in my chest. Then I
grew half-blind with my eyes staring back at the wall of haze; and then,
as I felt that I should die if I strained much longer at that oar, I
heard the captain shout:
"In oars!" and I found that we were alongside the schooner, and close
under her lee.
There was just time to get on board, and we were in the act of hauling
up the boat, when, with an awful whistle and shriek, the storm was upon
us, and we were all clinging for life to that which was nearest at hand.
Now, I daresay you would like me to give you a faithful account of my
impressions of that storm, and those of one who went through it from the
time that the hurricane struck us till it passed over, leaving the sky
clear, the sun shining, and the sea heaving slowly and without a single
crest.
I feel that I can do justice to the theme, so here is my faithful
description of that storm.
_A horrid wet, stifling, flogging row_.
That's all I can recollect. That's all I'm sure that the doctor could
recollect, or the captain or anybody else. We were just about drowned
and stunned, and when we came to ourselves it was because the storm had
passed over.
"What cheer, ho!" shouted the captain, and we poor flogged and drenched
objects sat up and looked about us, to find that the waves had lifted
the schooner off the rocks, and driven her a long way out of her course;
that the sails that had been set were blown to ribbons; and finally that
the schooner, with the last exception, was very little the worse for the
adventure.
"She ain't made no water much," said the captain, after going below;
"and--here, I say, where's that Malay scoundrel?"
"Down in the cabin--locked in," said an ill-used voice; and I rubbed the
salt-water out of my eyes, and stared at the tall thin figure before me,
leaning up against the bulwark as if his long thin legs were too weak to
support his long body, though his head was so small that it could not
have added very much weight.
"Why, hallo! Who the blue jingo are you?" roared the skipper.
The tall thin boy wrinkled up his forehead, and did not answer.
"Here, I say, where did you spring from?" roared the captain.
The tall thin boy took one hand out of his trousers' pocket with some
difficulty, for it was so wet that it clung, and pointed down below.
The skipper scratched his head furiously, and stared again.
"Here, can't you speak, you long-legged thing?" he cried. "Who are
you?"
"Why, it's Jack Penny!" I exclaimed.
"Jack who?" cried the captain.
"Jack Penny, sir. His father is a squatter about ten miles from our
place."
"Well, but how came _he_--I mean that tall thin chap, not his father--to
be squatting aboard my schooner?"
"Why, Jack," I said, "when did you come aboard?"
"Come aboard?" he said slowly, as if it took him some time to understand
what I said. "Oh, the night before you did."
"But where have you been all the time?"
"Oh, down below there," said Jack slowly.
"But what did you come for?"
"Wanted to," he said coolly. "If I had said so, they wouldn't--you
wouldn't have let me come."
"But why did you come, Jack?" I said.
"'Cause I wanted," he replied surlily. "Who are you that you're to have
all the fun and me get none!"
"Fun!" I said.
"Yes, fun. Ain't you goin' to find your father?"
"Of course I am; but what's that got to do with fun?"
"Never you mind; I've come, and that's all about it," he said slowly;
and thrusting his hands back into his trousers' pockets as fast as the
wet clinging stuff would let him, he began to whistle.
"But it arn't all about it," cried the captain; "and so you'll find.
You arn't paid no passage, and I arn't going to have no liberties took
with my ship. Here, where's that Malay chap?"
"I told you where he was, didn't I?" snarled Jack Penny. "Are you deaf?
In the cabin, locked in."
"What's he doing locked in my cabin?" roared the captain. "I say, are
you skipper here, or am I? What's he doing in my cabin locked in?"
"Rubbing his sore head, I s'pose," drawled Jack Penny. "I hit him as
hard as I could with one o' them fence rails."
"Fence rails!" cried the captain, who looked astounded at the big thin
boy's coolness, and then glanced in the direction he pointed beneath the
bulwarks. "Fence rails! What do you mean--one of them capstan bars?"
"I don't know what you call 'em," said Jack. "I give him a regular
wunner on the head."
"What for, you dog?"
"Here, don't you call me a dog or there'll be a row," cried Jack, rising
erect and standing rather shakily about five feet eleven, looking like a
big boy stretched to the bursting point and then made fast. "He was
going to kill the black fellow with his knife after knocking him down.
I wasn't going to stand by and see him do that, was I?"
"Well, I s'pose not," said the captain, who looked puzzled. "Where is
the black fellow? Here, where's Jimmy?"
"Down that square hole there, that wooden well-place," said Jack,
pointing to the forecastle hatch. "He slipped down there when the
yaller chap hit him."
"Look here--" said the captain as I made for the hatch to look after
Jimmy. "But stop a minute, let's have the black up."
Two of the men went below and dragged up poor Jimmy, who was quite
stunned, and bleeding freely from a wound on the head.
"Well, that's some proof of what you say, my fine fellow," continued the
captain, as the doctor knelt down to examine poor Jimmy's head and I
fetched some water to bathe his face. "What did you do next?"
"Next? Let me see," drawled Jack Penny; "what did I do next? Oh! I
know. That chap was running away with the ship, and I took hold of that
wheel thing and turned her round, so as to come back to you when you
kept waving your cap."
"Hah! yes. Well, what then?"
"Oh, the thing wanted oiling or greasing; it wouldn't go properly. It
got stuck fast, and the ship wouldn't move; and then the storm came. I
wish you wouldn't bother so."
"Well, I _am_ blessed," cried the captain staring. "I should have been
proud to have been your father, my young hopeful. 'Pon my soul I
should. You are a cool one, you are. You go and run the prettiest
little schooner there is along the coast upon the rocks, and then you
have the confounded impudence to look me in the face and tell me the
rudder wants greasing and it stuck."
"So it did!" cried Jack Penny indignantly. "Think I don't know? I
heard it squeak. You weren't on board. The ship wouldn't move
afterwards."
"Here, I say; which are you?" cried the captain; "a rogue or a fool?"
"I d'know," said Jack coolly. "Father used to say I was a fool
sometimes. P'r'aps I am. I say, though, if I were you I'd go and tie
down that yaller Malay chap in the cabin. He's as vicious as an old man
kangaroo in a water-hole."
"Your father's wrong, my fine fellow," said the captain with a grim
smile; "you ar'n't a fool, for a fool couldn't give such good advice as
that. Here, doctor, p'r'aps you'll lend me one of your shooting things.
You can get into your cabin; I can't get into mine."
The doctor nodded, and in the excitement of the time we forgot all about
our drenched clothes as he went down and returned directly with his
revolver, and another for the captain's use.
"Thank'ye, doctor," said the captain grimly, cocking the piece. "I
don't want to use it, and I daresay the sight of it will cool our yaller
friend; but it's just as well to be prepared. What! are you coming too?
Thought your trade was to mend holes and not make 'em."
"My trade is to save life, captain," said the doctor quietly. "Perhaps
I shall be helping to save life by coming down with you."
"P'r'aps you will, doctor. Here, we don't want you two boys."
"We only want to come and see," I said in an ill-used tone; and before
the doctor could speak the captain laughingly said, "Come on," and we
followed them down below, the men bringing up the rear, armed with bars
and hatchets.
The captain did not hesitate for a moment, but went straight down to the
cabin door, turned the key, and threw it open, though all the while he
knew that there was a man inside fiercer than some savage beast. But
had he been a little more cautious it would have saved trouble, for the
Malay had evidently been waiting as he heard steps, and as the door was
opened he made a spring, dashed the doctor and captain aside, overset
me, and, as the men gave way, reached the deck, where he ran right
forward and then close up to the foremast, stood with his long knife or
kris in his hand, rolling his opal eyeballs, and evidently prepared to
strike at the first who approached.
"The dog! he has been at the spirits," growled the captain fiercely.
"Confound him! I could shoot him where he stands as easy as could be;
but I arn't like you, doctor, I don't like killing a man. Never did
yet, and don't want to try."
"Don't fire at him," said the doctor excitedly; "a bullet might be
fatal. Let us all rush at him and beat him down."
"That's all very fine, doctor," said the captain; "but if we do some
one's sure to get an ugly dig or two from that skewer. Two or three of
us p'r'aps. You want to get a few surgery jobs, but I'd rather you
didn't."
All this while the Malay stood brandishing his kris and showing his
teeth at us in a mocking smile, as if we were a set of the greatest
cowards under the sun.
"Look here, Harriet," cried the captain; "you'd better give in; we're
six to one, and must win. Give in, and you shall have fair play."
"Cowards! come on, cowards!" shouted the Malay fiercely, and he made a
short rush from the mast, and two of the hatchet men retreated; but the
Malay only laughed fiercely, and shrank back to get in shelter by the
mast.
"We shall have to rush him or shoot him," said the captain, rubbing his
nose with pistol barrel. "Now then, you dog; surrender!" he roared; and
lowering the pistol he fired at the Malay's feet, the bullet splintering
up the deck; but the fellow only laughed mockingly.
"We shall have to rush him," growled the captain; "unless you can give
him a dose of stuff, doctor, to keep him quiet."
"Oh, yes; I can give him a dose that will quiet him for a couple of
hours or so, but who's to make him take it?"
"When we treed the big old man kangaroo who ripped up Pompey, Caesar,
and Crassus," drawled Jack Penny, who was looking on with his hands in
his pockets, "I got up the tree and dropped a rope with a noose in it
over his head. Seems to me that's what you ought to do now."
"Look'ye here," cried the captain, "don't you let your father call you
fool again, youngster, because it's letting perhaps a respectable old
man tell lies. Tell you what, if you'll shin up the shrouds, and drop a
bit of a noose over his head while we keep him in play, I won't say
another word about your coming on board without leave."
"Oh, all right! I don't mind trying to oblige you, but you must mind he
don't cut it if I do."
"You leave that to me," cried the captain. "I'll see to that. There,
take that thin coil there, hanging on a belaying-pin."
The tall thin fellow walked straight to the coil of thin rope, shook it
out, and made a running noose at the end, and then, with an activity
that surprised me, who began to feel jealous that this thin weak-looking
fellow should have proved himself more clever and thoughtful than I was,
he sprang into the shrouds, the Malay hardly noticing, evidently
believing that the boy was going aloft to be safe. He looked up at him
once, as Jack Penny settled himself at the masthead, but turned his
attention fiercely towards us as the captain arranged his men as if for
a rush, forming them into a semicircle.
"When I say ready," cried the captain, "all at him together."
The Malay heard all this, and his eyes flashed and his teeth glistened
as he threw himself into an attitude ready to receive his foes, his body
bent forward, his right and left arms close to his sides, and his whole
frame well balanced on his legs.
"Ready?" cried the captain.
"All ready!" was the reply; and I was so intent upon the fierce lithe
savage that I forgot all about Jack Penny till I heard the men answer.
There was the whizzing noise of a rope thrown swiftly, and in an instant
a ring had passed over the Malay's body, which was snatched tight,
pinioning his arms to his side, and Jack Penny came down with a rush on
the other side of the fore-yard, drawing the savage a few feet from the
deck, where he swung helplessly, and before he could recover himself he
had been seized, disarmed, and was lying bound upon the deck.
"I didn't mean to come down so fast as that," drawled Jack, rubbing his
back. "I've hurt myself a bit."
"Then we'll rub you," cried the captain joyously. "By George, my boy,
you're a regular two yards of trump."
The excitement of the encounter with the Malay being over, there was
time to see to poor Jimmy, who was found to be suffering from a very
severe cut on the head, one of so serious a nature that for some time
the poor fellow lay insensible; but the effect of bathing and bandaging
his wound was to make him open his eyes at last, and stare round for
some moments before he seemed to understand where he was. Then
recollection came back, and he grinned at me and the doctor.
The next moment a grim look of rage came over his countenance, and
springing up he rushed to where the Malay was lying upon the deck under
the bulwarks, and gave him a furious kick.
"Bad brown fellow!" he shouted. "Good for nothing! Hi--wup--wup--wup!"
Every utterance of the word _wup_ was accompanied by a kick, and the
result was that the Malay sprang up, snatched his kris from where it had
been thrown on the head of a cask, and striking right and left made his
way aft, master of the deck once more.
"Well, that's nice," growled the captain.
"I thought them knots wouldn't hold," drawled Jack Penny. "He's been
wriggling and twisting his arms and legs about ever since he lay there.
I thought he'd get away."
"Then why didn't you say so, you great, long-jointed two-foot rule?"
roared the captain. "Here, now then, all together. I'm skipper here.
Rush him, my lads; never mind his skewer."
The captain's words seemed to electrify his little crew, and, I venture
to say, his passengers as well. Every one seized some weapon, and,
headed by the skipper, we charged down upon the savage as he stood
brandishing his weapon.
He stood fast, watchful as a tiger, for some moments, and then made a
dash at our extreme left, where Jack Penny and I were standing; and I
have no doubt that he would have cut his way through to our cost, but
for a quick motion of the captain, who struck out with his left hand,
hitting the Malay full in the cheek.
The man made a convulsive spring, and fell back on the edge of the
bulwarks, where he seemed to give a writhe, and then, before a hand
could reach him, there was a loud splash, and he had disappeared in the
sea.
We all rushed to the side, but the water was thick from the effects of
the storm, and we could not for a few moments make out anything. Then
all at once the swarthy, convulsed face of the man appeared above the
wave, and he began to swim towards the side, yelling for help.
"Ah!" said the skipper, smiling, "that's about put him out. Nothing
like cold water for squenching fire."
"Hi--wup! hi--wup!" shouted Jimmy, who forgot his wound, and danced up
and down, holding on by the bulwarks, his shining black face looking
exceedingly comic with a broad bandage of white linen across his brow.
"Hi--wup! hi--wup!" he shouted; "bunyip debble shark coming--bite um
legs."
"Help!" shrieked the Malay in piteous tones, as he swam on, clutching at
the slippery sides of the schooner.
"Help!" growled the captain; "what for? Here, you, let me have that
there kris. Hitch it on that cord."
As he spoke the captain threw down the thin line with which the Malay
had been bound, the poor wretch snatching at it frantically; but as he
did so it was pulled away from his despairing clutch.
"I could noose him," drawled Jack Penny coolly. "I've often caught
father's rams like that."
"Yes, but your father's rams hadn't got knives," said the captain
grimly.
"No, but they'd got horns," said Jack quietly. "Ain't going to drown
him, are you?"
"Not I, boy; he'll drown himself if we leave him alone."
"I don't like to see fellows drown," said Jack; and he left the bulwarks
and sat down on the hatchway edge. "Tell a fellow when it's all over,
Joe Carstairs."
"Help, help!" came hoarsely from the poor wretch; and my hands grew wet
inside, and a horrible sensation seemed to be attacking my chest, as I
watched the struggles of the drowning man with starting eyes. For
though he swam like a fish, the horror of his situation seemed to have
unnerved him, and while he kept on swimming, it was with quick wearying
effort, and he was sinking minute by minute lower in the water.
"For Heaven's sake, throw the poor wretch a rope, captain," said the
doctor.
"What! to come aboard and knife some of us?" growled the captain.
"Better let him drown. Plenty of better ones than him to be had for a
pound a month."
"Oh, captain!" I cried indignantly, for my feelings were too much for
me; and I seized a rope just as the Malay went down, after uttering a
despairing shriek.
"Let that rope alone, boy," said the skipper with a grim smile. "There,
he's come up again. Ketch hold!" he cried, and he threw his line so
that the Malay could seize it, which he did, winding it round and round
one arm, while the slowly-sailing schooner dragged him along through the
sea. "I'm only giving him a reg'lar good squencher, doctor. I don't
want him aboard with a spark left in him to break out again: we've had
enough of that. Haul him aboard, lads, and shove him in the chain
locker to get dry. We'll set him ashore first chance."
The Malay was hauled aboard with no very gentle hands by the white
sailors, and as soon as he reached the deck he began crawling to the
captain's feet, to which he clung, with gesture after gesture full of
humility, as ha talked excitedly in a jargon of broken English and
Malay.
"That's what I don't like in these fellows," said Jack Penny quietly;
"they're either all bubble or else all squeak."
"Yes; he's about squenched now, squire," said the captain. "Here, shove
him under hatches, and it's lucky for you I'm not in a hanging humour
to-day. You'd better behave yourself, or you may be brought up again
some day when I am."
As the captain spoke to the streaming, shivering wretch he made a noose
in the rope he held, manipulating it as if he were really going to hang
the abject creature, in whom the fire of rage had quite become extinct.
Then the sailors took hold of him, and he uttered a despairing shriek;
but he cooled down as he found that he was only to be made a prisoner,
and was thrust below, with Jimmy dancing a war-dance round him as he
went, the said dance consisting of bounds from the deck and wavings of
his waddy about his head.
As the Malay was secured, Jack Penny rose from his seat and walked to
the side of the vessel, to spit into the water with every sign of
disgust upon his face.
"Yah!" he said; "I wouldn't squeak like that, not if they hung me."
"Well, let's see," cried the captain, catching him by the collar;
"hanging is the punishment for stowaways, my fine fellow."
"Get out!" said Jack, giving himself a sort of squirm and shaking
himself free. "You ain't going to scare me; and, besides, you know what
you said. I say, though, when are we going to have something to eat?"
The captain stared at Jack's serious face for a few moments, and then he
joined with the doctor and me in a hearty laugh.
"I don't well understand you yet, my fine fellow," he said; "perhaps I
shall, though, afore I've done. Here, come down; you do look as if a
little wholesome vittles would do you good. Are you hungry then?"
"Hungry!" said Jack, without a drawl, and he gave his teeth a gnash;
"why, I ain't had nothing but some damper and a bottle o' water since I
came on board."