The first lieutenant, looking exceedingly worried and distressed, was at
the gangway to meet us.
"Well, Mr Young," exclaimed the captain as he stepped in on deck, "what
is the meaning of this?"
"I wish I could tell you, sir," answered Young. "There has been foul
play of some sort; but who is the guilty party I know no more than you
do. As you will remember, it blew very hard last night when you left
us; and for some time after you had gone I remained on the forecastle,
watching the ship as she rode to her anchor. She strained a little at
her cable when the heavier puffs struck her, but by no means to such an
extent as to arouse the slightest anxiety; and after I had been watching
for fully an hour, finding that the holding ground was good, and that
even during the heaviest of the puffs the strain upon the cable was only
very moderate, I felt perfectly satisfied as to the safety of the ship,
and retired to the quarter-deck, leaving two men on the look-out on the
forecastle, two in the waist, and one on either quarter; for although I
anticipated no danger, I was fully alive to the responsibility that you
had laid upon me in entrusting me with the care of the ship, as well as
to the fact that in the event of a chance encounter just hereabout, we
were far more likely to meet with an enemy than a friend. The same
feeling animated the men too, I am sure, for the look-outs never
responded to my hail with more alacrity, or showed themselves more
keenly watchful than they did last night; yet I had barely been off the
forecastle half-an-hour when we discovered that we were adrift; and
before I could let go the second anchor we were hard and fast upon this
bank, fore and aft, and that, too, just upon the top of high-water. I
of course at once hoisted out our remaining boats, and ran away the
stream-anchor to windward; but, working as we were in the dark, it took
us a long time to do it; and I then sent down the royal and topgallant--
yards and masts. When daylight came I examined the cable, thinking that
possibly it might have chafed through on a rock; but to my surprise I
found that it had been clean cut at the water's edge. How it was done,
or who did it, is impossible to guess, for although I have very strictly
questioned both the forecastle look-outs, they persist in the statement
that they saw nothing, and were aware of nothing until the ship was
found to be adrift."
"Well, it is a most extraordinary circumstance," commented the captain.
"Are you quite satisfied that the men remained fully on the alert all
the time?"
"Perfectly, sir," answered the lieutenant. "I hailed them every ten
minutes or so, not knowing at what moment some disagreeable surprise
might be sprung upon us. Besides, we did not know how you might be
faring, and thought it quite possible that the craft you were after
might attempt to give you the slip in the darkness. The men on the
forecastle were two of the best we have in the ship--William Robinson
and Henry Perkins."
"Yes," assented the captain; "they have always hitherto seemed
thoroughly trustworthy and reliable men. Where are they? I should like
to ask them a question or two."
The two men were summoned, and at once subjected to a very sharp
cross-examination, which led to nothing, however, as they both
persistently declared that they had neither seen nor heard anything to
arouse the slightest suspicion until the discovery was made that the
ship was adrift. The captain then went forward and inspected the
severed cable; but that revealed nothing beyond the fact that the
strands had been cut almost completely through with some very sharp
instrument before the stubborn hemp had given way. In short, the whole
affair was enshrouded in the deepest mystery. When, however, the
captain had heard the whole story, and thoroughly investigated the
matter, he freely absolved the first luff from all blame, frankly
acknowledging that he did not see what more could have been done to
provide for the safety of the ship, and that the thing would undoubtedly
have happened just the same had he himself remained on board instead of
going away with the boats.
Meanwhile, the dead and wounded had been conveyed from the prizes to the
_Barracouta_, where the doctor immediately took the sufferers in hand,
while the slain were stitched up in their hammocks ready for burial. At
length it came to my turn to be attended to, and when the doctor saw my
foot--now so dreadfully swollen and inflamed that my whole leg was
affected, right up to the knee--I was promptly consigned to the
sick-bay, with the intimation that I might think myself exceedingly
fortunate if in that hot climate mortification did not set in and
necessitate the amputation of my leg. I am thankful to say, however,
that it did not; and in three weeks I was discharged from the doctor's
care, and once more able to hobble about with the aid of a soft felt
slipper. The dead were buried that same forenoon on the point
projecting into the river at the junction of the creek with the main
stream, the graves being dug in a small space of smooth, grassy lawn
beneath the shadow of a magnificent group of fine tall palms.
A hasty breakfast was snatched, as soon as it could be got ready; and
then every man available was set to work upon the task of lightening the
stranded brig, her guns and such other heavy weights as were most easily
accessible being transferred to the prizes, after which the second bower
was weighed and run away to windward in the long-boat by means of a
kedge; and such was the activity displayed, that at high-water that same
afternoon--the tides were fortunately making at the time--the
_Barracouta_ floated and was hove off to her anchor. Meanwhile, the
missing anchor had been swept for and found, and the severed end of the
cable buoyed; before nightfall, therefore, the cable was spliced, and
the bonny brig once more riding to her best bower. The men were kept at
work until it was too dark to see further; and by six bells in the
forenoon watch next day she was again all ataunto, her guns and
everything else once more on board her, and the ship herself all ready
for sea, it having been ascertained that she had sustained no damage
whatever. It may be mentioned that the schooner which had effected her
escape from us in the lagoon managed to slip out of the creek and get
clear away without being observed by anybody on board the _Barracouta_;
but that of course is easily accounted for by the pitchy darkness of the
night, and the fact that she must have passed out of the creek a very
short while after the brig had grounded upon the sand-bank, and when of
course our lads would be fully occupied in looking after their own
craft.
Proper prize-crews were now told off to the three prizes--Ryan being
placed in charge of the _Mercedes_; Gowland, the master's mate, in
charge of the _Dona Hermosa_; and Good, one of the midshipmen, in charge
of the _Felicidad_--and the order to weigh and proceed in company was
given. There was a slashing breeze from the eastward blowing; and this,
combined with a strong downward current, carried us along over the
ground so smartly that in less than two hours we were abreast of Shark
Point, although the _Dona Hermosa_ proved to be such an indifferent
sailer that the rest of us had to materially reduce our spread of canvas
to avoid running away from her altogether. The _Felicidad_, on the
other hand, sailed like a witch, and kept her station without
difficulty, under a single-reefed mainsail, foresail, and inner jib,
with all her square canvas stowed. The master informed me that as we
passed Banana Point he had remembered to subject the anchorage to a very
careful scrutiny through his telescope, and, as he had foretold, the
handsome Spanish brig had disappeared, the Englishman and the Dutchman
being the only craft still lying off the wharf. Having made an offing
of about twenty miles, we hauled up some three points to the northward
for Cape Palmas, our destination being of course Sierra Leone.
On the third day out, the captain of the _Mercedes_--whom I had shot in
self-defence in his own cabin, it will be remembered--died of his wound,
solemnly declaring with his last breath that he was absolutely innocent
of any complicity in the destruction of the _Sapphire's_ two boats with
their crews, or in the disappearance of the _Wasp_. He admitted that he
had heard of both occurrences, and had been told the name of the
individual who was said to be responsible for them, but he stubbornly
persisted in his refusal to give any information whatever, and carried
the secret to his ocean grave with him.
In due time we reached Sierra Leone without mishap and without
adventure, after a moderately quick passage; and, our prizes having been
taken _in flagrante delicto_, they were forthwith condemned. At Captain
Stopford's suggestion, however, the _Felicidad_ was purchased into the
service, and with all speed fitted to serve as a tender to the
_Barracouta_, her extraordinary speed peculiarly fitting her for such
employment, while her exceedingly light draught promised to render her
especially useful in the exploration of the various rivers along the
coast, many of which are very shallow. We remained in harbour a trifle
over three weeks while the necessary alterations were being effected--
during which time, owing to the unremitting vigilance and skill of
"Paddy" Blake, our doctor, we lost only one man through fever--and then,
all being ready, the _Felicidad_ was commissioned, Ryan, our second
lieutenant, being given the command of her, with--to my great delight--
myself as his chief officer, Pierrepoint and Gowland being our
shipmates. We also shipped as surgeon a young fellow named Armstrong, a
Scotchman, whom the captain of the _Ariadne_ kindly spared to us with a
first-rate recommendation; and in addition we had Warren, the gunner's
mate of the _Barracouta_, as gunner; Coombs, the carpenter's mate, as
carpenter; and Bartlett, the boatswain's mate, as boatswain. And by way
of a crew, the captain gave us forty of his best men, as he very well
could without weakening his own ship's company, a ship with
supernumeraries having most opportunely arrived from home only a few
days previously. It will thus be seen that, so far as strength was
concerned, we were fairly well able to take care of ourselves. We were
expected to do far more than that, however; the captain, when giving us
our instructions, hinting that he looked to us to fully justify him by
our services for all the trouble that he had taken in causing the
schooner to be fitted out. I think, however, that having put such a
dashing fellow as Ryan in command, he had very few misgivings upon this
point.
The _Barracouta_ and the _Felicidad_ sailed together on the evening of
the eighteenth of December, and, the captain having given Ryan a pretty
free hand, parted company off the shoals of Saint Ann; the schooner
keeping her luff and heading about south-south-west, while the brig bore
away on a south-east-by-south course for Cape Palmas; the idea being
that we should do better apart than together. We were to cruise for six
weeks, and at the end of that time, if unsuccessful, to rendezvous on
the parallel of six degrees south latitude and the meridian of twelve
degrees east longitude; or, in other words, some eighteen miles off the
mouth of the Congo. We were to remain on this spot twenty-four hours;
and if at the end of that time the brig had not appeared, we were to
proceed on a further cruise of six weeks, and then return to Sierra
Leone to replenish our stores and await further orders.
It was a glorious evening when we sailed; a moderate breeze was blowing
from the westward, pure, refreshing, and cool compared with the
furnace-like atmosphere in which we had been stewing for the previous
three weeks. The sky was without a cloud; the sea a delicate blue,
necked here and there with miniature foam-caps of purest white; while,
broad on our lee quarter, the high land about the settlement of Sierra
Leone, just dipping beneath the horizon, glowed rosy red in the light of
the sinking sun. It was an evening to make one's heart rejoice; such an
evening as can only be met with in the tropics; and, just starting as we
were upon what all hands regarded as a holiday cruise, it is but small
wonder that we experienced and enjoyed its exhilarating influence to an
almost intoxicating extent. Jocularity and laughter pervaded the little
craft from end to end; and throughout the second dog-watch dancing,
singing, and skylarking--all, of course, within the limits of proper
discipline--were the order of the evening. As the sun disappeared in
the west, the full, round orb of the moon floated majestically up over
the purple rim of the horizon to leeward; and the swift yet
imperceptible change from the golden glory of sunset to the silvery
radiance of a clear, moonlit night was a sight of beauty that must be
left to the imagination, for no mortal pen could possibly do justice to
it.
"Now, Harry, me bhoy," exclaimed Ryan, speaking in the broad brogue that
always sprang to his lips when he was excited or exhilarated, and
slapping me upon the back as we emerged from the companion after dinner
that evening, and stood for a moment contemplating the glory of the
night, "from this moment we're slavers, we're pirates, we're cut-throats
of the first wather, to be hail-fellow-well-met with every dirty
blagguard that sails the says--until we can get them within rache of
these pretty little barkers," affectionately tapping the breech of one
of our long nines as he spoke; "and thin see if we won't give thim such
a surprise as they haven't met with for manny a day!"
And he quite looked the character, too--for he was of very powerful,
athletic build, though not very tall, swarthy in complexion, and burnt
as dark as a mulatto by the sun; with a thick, bushy black beard, and a
most ferocious-looking moustache that he had been assiduously
cultivating ever since he had known that he was to have the command of
the schooner--as he stepped out on deck at eight bells on the following
morning, attired in white drill jacket and long flowing trousers of the
same, girt about the waist with a gaudy silken sash glowing in all the
colours of the rainbow, the costume being topped off with a
broad-brimmed Panama hat swathed round with a white puggaree. He was
indeed the beau-ideal of a dandy pirate skipper, and I was not a very
bad imitation of him--barring the whiskers. The only things perhaps
that a too captious critic might have objected to were the spotless
purity of our clothing, and an utter absence of that ruffianly manner
which distinguishes the genuine pirate; but, as Ryan observed, the first
of these objections would grow less noticeable with every day that we
wore the clothes, while the other was not necessary, or, if it should
become so, must be assumed as successfully as our talents in that
direction would permit. As for the crew, they had by Ryan's orders
discarded their usual clothing for jumpers and trousers of blue
dungaree, with soft felt hats, cloth caps, or knitted worsted nightcaps
by way of head-covering, so that, viewed through a telescope, we might
present as slovenly and un-man-o'-war-like an appearance as possible.
This effect was further heightened by Ryan having very wisely insisted
that not a spar or rope of the schooner should be altered or interfered
with in any way, saving of course where it needed refitting; those
therefore who happened to know the _Felicidad_ would recognise her at
once; and it was our business so to conduct ourselves that they should
not suspect her change of ownership until too late to effect an escape.
Her capture was of course by this time known to many of the craft
frequenting the Congo; but that we could not help; our plans were based
mostly upon the hope that there were still many who did not know it, and
also, to some extent, upon a belief that, even to those who were aware
of it, we might by judicious behaviour convey an impression that her
people had cleverly effected their own and her escape, and were once
more boldly pursuing their lawless trade.
We did not much expect to fall in with anything worthy of our attention
until we were pretty close up with the Line; we therefore carried on all
through the first night and the whole of the next day, arriving by
sunset upon the northern boundary of what we considered our cruising
ground proper. And then, as ill-luck would have it, the wind died away,
and left us rolling helplessly upon a long, glassy swell, without
steerage-way, the schooner's head boxing the compass. This period of
calm lasted all through the night and the whole of the next day, varied
only by an occasional cat's-paw of scarcely sufficient strength or
duration to enable us to get the schooner's jib-boom pointed in the
right direction. But this did not trouble Ryan in the least, for, as he
reminded me for my consolation, we were now just where we wanted to be,
and the first breeze that sprang up might bring with it one of the
gentry that we were so anxiously on the look-out for. Meanwhile, he
availed himself of the opportunity to prepare a certain piece of
apparatus that he had employed his leisure in devising, and which he
thought might possibly prove useful on occasion. "I've been thinking,"
said he to me on the morning after the calm had set in, "that it mayn't
always be convanient for the schooner to go through the wather at her
best speed, so I've devised a thriflin' arrangement that'll modherate
her paces widhout annyone out of the craft bein' anny the wiser." And
therewith he ordered a good stout hawser to be roused up on deck; and
from this he had a length of some fifteen fathoms cut off, all along the
middle part of which he caused a dozen pigs of ballast to be securely
lashed. This done, he ordered the bight, with the pigs attached, to be
passed under the ship's bottom, and the two ends of the hawser to be
passed inboard through the port and starboard midship ports and well
secured, when we had a drag underneath the schooner that would certainly
exercise a very marked effect upon her sailing, without making a
sufficient disturbance in the water to reveal the fact that trickery was
being resorted to.
Towards the close of the afternoon the aspect of the sky seemed to
promise that ere long we might hope for a welcome change of weather; the
deep, brilliant blue of the unclouded dome became blurred as though it
were gradually being overspread by a thin and semi-transparent curtain
of mist, which gradually resolved itself into that streaky, feathery
appearance called by seamen "mare's-tails"; and a bank of horizontal
grey cloud gathered in the western quarter, into which the sun at length
plunged in a glare of fiery crimson and smoky purple that had all the
appearance of a great atmospheric conflagration. A short, steep swell,
too, gathered from the westward, causing the inert schooner to roll and
wallow until she was shipping water over both gunwales, and her masts
were working and grinding so furiously in the partners that we had to
lift the coats and drive the wedges home afresh, as well as to get up
preventer-backstays and rolling tackles.
"There is a breeze, and a strong one too, behind all this," remarked
Ryan to me, "and it will give us an opportunity to test the little
hooker's mettle. I wish it would come and be done with it, for by the
powers I'm gettin' mighty toired of this stoyle of thing," as the
schooner's counter squattered down with a thud and a splash into a deep
hollow, and then rolled so heavily and so suddenly to starboard that we
both gathered way and went with a run into the scuppers just in time to
be drenched to the waist by the heavy fall of water that she dished in
over her rail. This sort of thing soon gave us a taste of the
_Felicidad's_ quality, for so lightly was she framed that the heavy
rolling strained her tremendously, and she began to make so much water
that we were obliged to set the pumps going every two hours, while the
creaking and complaining of her timbers and bulkheads raised a din that
might have been heard half-a-mile away.
"As soon as the breeze comes," said Ryan, as we descended the
companion-ladder to shift into dry clothes, "we will bear up and jog
quietly in for Cape Lopez, which will give us a chance of being
overhauled by something running in for either the Gaboon or the Ogowe,
or of blundherin' up against something coming out from one or the other
of those same rivers. If we don't fall in with annything by the time
that we make the land, we will just stand on and take a look in here and
there, beginning with the Ogowe and working our way northward gradually
until we've thoroughly overhauled the whole of the Bight."
By the time that we were summoned below to dinner, the sky had become
entirely overcast with heavy, black, thunderous-looking clouds that
entirely-obscured the stars, and only allowed the light of the moon to
sift feebly through; yet there was light enough to enable us to see our
way about the deck, or to reveal to a sharp eye a sail as far away as
seven or eight miles, had anything been within that distance. As we
left the deck a quivering gleam of sheet-lightning flashed up along the
western horizon, and Ryan gave Pierrepoint--who was taking the deck for
me while I got my dinner--instructions to keep a sharp eye upon the
weather, as there was no knowing how it might turn out. While we sat at
table the lightning became more vivid and frequent; and after a while
the dull, deep rumble of distant thunder was heard. Presently we heard
Pierrepoint singing out to one of the boys to jump below and fetch up
his oil-skins for him; and a minute or two later the sound of a heavy
shower advancing over the water became audible, rapidly increasing in
volume until it reached us, when in a moment we were almost deafened by
the loud pelting of the rain upon the deck overhead as the overladen
clouds discharged their burden with all the fierce vehemence of a truly
tropical downpour.
At the first crash of the rain upon the deck Ryan and I both with one
accord glanced hastily at the barometer that was hanging suspended in
gimbals in the skylight; the mercury had dropped slightly, but not
sufficient to arouse any uneasiness, and we therefore went quietly on
with our dinner, although Ryan shouted across the table to me--
"When the rain comes before the wind,
Halliards, sheets, and braces mind."
There was little danger, however, of our being caught unawares, for we
had long ago clewed up and hauled down everything, except the
boom-foresail and jib, to save the sails from thrashing themselves
threadbare with the rolling of the ship; we consequently awaited the
development of events with perfect equanimity. The downpour lasted
perhaps three minutes, and then ceased with startling abruptness,
leaving us in absolute silence save for the rush and splash of the water
athwart the flooded decks with the now greatly diminished rolling of the
schooner, the gurgle of the spouting scuppers, the kicking of the rudder
upon its gudgeons, the groaning and complaining of the timbers, or the
voices of the people on deck, and the soft patter of their bare feet
upon the wet planks as they moved here and there. The shower had
knocked the swell down very considerably, rendering the movements of the
schooner much more easy than they had been, and we were able to finish
our meal in peace and comfort without the continued necessity to steady
the plate with one hand and the tumbler with the other, keeping a wary
eye upon the viands meanwhile, in readiness to dodge any of them that
might happen to fetch away in our direction, and snatching a mouthful or
a sip in the brief intervals when the ship became comparatively steady.
When we again went on deck the sky presented a really magnificent
spectacle, the vast masses of heavy, electrically-charged cloud being
piled one above the other in a fashion that resembled, to me, nothing so
much as a chaos of titanic rocks of every conceivable shape and colour,
the forms and hues of the clouds being rendered distinctly visible by
the incessant play of the sheet-lightning among their masses. Not only
the whole sky, but the entire atmosphere seemed to be a-quiver with the
silent electric discharges, and the effect was indescribably beautiful
as the quick, tremulous flashes blazed out, now here, now there,
strongly illumining one portion of the piled-up masses and the
reflection in the glassy water with its transient radiance, while the
rest of the scene was by contrast thrown into the deepest, blackest,
most opaque shadow. Meanwhile the mutterings of the distant thunder had
gradually grown louder and drawn nearer, while sudden, vivid flashes of
forked or chain-lightning, golden, violet, or delicate rose-tinted,
darted at ever-lessening intervals from the lowering masses of intensely
black cloud heaped up along the western horizon.
We had been on deck perhaps half-an-hour, when a delicious coolness and
freshness began by almost insensible degrees to pervade the hitherto
intolerable closeness of the hot and enervating atmosphere, and, looking
away to the westward, we saw, by the quick, flickering illumination of
the lightning, a few transient cat's-paws playing here and there upon
the surface of the water. Gradually and erratically these evanescent
movements in the inert air stole down to the schooner, lightly rippling
the water round her for an instant, just stirring the canvas with a
faint rustle for a moment, and then dying away again. They were
succeeded by others, however, with rapidly increasing frequency, and
presently a faint blurr upon the glassy surface of the water to the
westward marked the approach of the true breeze.
"Sheet home your topsail, and hoist away!" shouted Ryan. "Up with your
helm, my man"--to the man at the tiller--"and let her go off
east-south-east. Sheet home your topgallant-sail, and man the
halliards. Lay aft here, some of you, to the braces, and lay the yards
square. Well there, belay! Main throat and peak-halliards hoist away.
Ease off the mainsheet. Rouse up the squaresail, Mr Dugdale, and set
it, if you please. Well there with the throat-halliards; well with the
peak; belay! Away aloft, one hand, and loose the gaff-topsail! Give
her everything but the studding-sails while you are about it, Mr
Dugdale; it will save the canvas from mildew if it does little else."
The breeze--a light air from about west--had by this time crept up to
us, and under its vivifying influence the schooner had gathered way, and
was soon creeping along at a speed of barely two and a half knots,
which, however, rose to three and finally to five as the wind freshened,
the sky meanwhile clearing as the heavy thunder-clouds drove away to
leeward before the welcome breeze, until the sky was once more cloudless
save for the mare's-tails that thickly overspread the blue, through
which the stars blinked dimly, and the moon, with a big halo round her,
poured her chastened radiance.
"By the powers," exclaimed Ryan, as we paced the deck together after the
operation of making sail had been completed--"By the powers, but that
dhrag of mine is a wondherful invention entirely! Do ye notice, Harry,
me bhoy, how it's modherated the little huzzy's paces? Bedad, she's
goin' along as sober as a Quaker girl to meetin' instead of waltzin'
away like a ballet-dancer! But wait until one of those light-heeled
picaroons comes along, and then won't we surprise thim above a bit! If
it's not blowing too hard when ye come on deck in the middle watch ye
may give her the stunsails; it'll look more ship-shape, and as if we
were in a hurry to make the coast and get our cargo aboard, if we happen
to be overhauled by anybody in the same line of business, and the deuce
of a fear have I now of outsailing any of them that may happen to be in
the neighbourhood. Keep a sharp look-out, Mr Pierrepoint, and if
anything heaves in sight, either ahead or astern, during your watch,
give me a call. I'm going below to turn in now."
I followed suit a minute or two later and, with my cabin-door wide open
to freely admit the cool, welcome breeze that poured down through the
open skylight, soon fell into a deep, refreshing sleep.