While Maxwell stole forward to get his wire, I crept up on the poop
again, and carefully avoiding the skylight, so that my figure might not
be revealed by the coloured rays that streamed from it, found that the
boat with Jose and his companions, and the last of the plunder, was just
going alongside the brigantine. The first to scramble out of her was
Jose; and there was light enough about the brigantine's decks to enable
me to see that he went straight aft to the companion, which he
descended. He was absent from the deck but a very few minutes, however;
and when he re-appeared I supposed that he had been below to make his
report to Mendouca and to receive that individual's orders, for as he
passed along the deck I heard him shout to the crew--
"Now, then, look alive there with those bales, and get the deck clear as
quickly as possible, so that we can get the niggers on deck and the
sweeps at work once more. We've got all that we can take from the
Englishman, and now the sooner we are off the better, for she won't
float above two or three hours longer; and if a breeze was to spring up,
and bring a cruiser along with it, it would be bad for us if we were
found in this neighbourhood. So bundle those bales down the hatchway
anyhow, men, and clear the decks at once. We must stow the goods
properly afterwards."
This was excellent--very much better than I had expected; for a dreadful
idea had suggested itself to me, that Mendouca might take it into his
head to remain by the ship until she should show unmistakable signs of
sinking, in which case there would be nothing for us but another fight,
which, short-handed as we were, would not suit our book at all.
The men on board the _Francesca_, woke up a little at Jose's order, and
soon had the last boat unloaded and the decks clear; the slaves were
then ordered on deck, the _Bangalore's_ boats cast adrift, the sweeps
rigged out, and, with I think the most fervent emotion of gratitude and
delight that I had ever experienced, I at length had the satisfaction of
seeing the brigantine stir sluggishly against the background of the
star-spangled heavens, turn her bows slightly away from us, and finally
glide off, with a quiet, gentle, scarcely-perceptible motion, in a
westerly direction.
While I was still watching her I caught sight of Maxwell creeping along
the deck from forward, under the shelter of the bulwarks, so that the
light from the still burning lanterns that the pirates had left behind
them might not disclose his moving figure to any of the eyes on board
the _Francesca_ that might be turned upon the ship; and making my way
down the companion, I joined him in the vestibule, and we entered the
cabin together.
I led him straight to the door of the state-room with the occupant of
which I had previously held a short conversation, and directed Maxwell
to open it, at the same time knocking upon the panel and saying--
"Sir, I am happy to inform you that the pirates have at length left us,
and we are about to make an attempt to release you."
"Thank God for that!" fervently ejaculated a voice that I had not heard
before. "Be as quick as you can, pray, for I fear that my poor husband
here is dead or dying; and he should be attended to without a moment's
delay."
"That's Mrs Maynard's voice!" exclaimed the carpenter, as he worked
away with his wire; "I know it well. Somebody told me that the colonel
was hurt--stabbed, I think they said, in protectin' his daughters from
the ill-usage of some of them Spanish ruffians."
"Say you so, man?" I exclaimed. "Then never mind fiddling with that
wire any longer. Let us put our shoulders to the door and burst it
open!"
"Half a second, sir; I've got the thing now, and--there, that's all
right! Now try the door, sir!"
As the man spoke I heard the click of the lock as it went back, and,
turning the handle, the door opened, and I entered.
The cabin was a fine, roomy one, and of good height, as cabins went in
those days; it contained two standing bunks, one above the other, fitted
with brass rods and damask curtains, a sofa against the side of the
ship, a wash-stand in a recess between the bunks and the bulkhead
adjoining the saloon, a framed mirror above it, a folding mahogany table
against the transverse bulkhead, brass pins upon which to hang clothing,
a curtain to draw across the doorway, a handsome lamp with a
ground-glass globe hung in gimbals in the centre of the transverse
bulkhead, two large travelling trunks and three or four smaller cases,
broken open and the contents strewn upon the carpeted deck, and prone
among them, bound hand and foot and lashed together, were the figures of
a man and woman, both evidently elderly, although their precise ages
could hardly be guessed by the imperfect light that streamed in from the
saloon through the open door.
As I entered the apartment, noting these details in a single
comprehensive glance, the woman moaned--
"Oh, sir, for the love of God pray release us from these cruel bonds as
quickly as possible; they are bound so tightly that the circulation of
the blood is stopped, and we have been suffering the most excruciating
agony for hours."
"I will cut you adrift at once, madam," said I, unsheathing the long
knife which was attached to the belt that Simpson had lent me with the
clothes. "Had I known that you were in this cruel plight, I would have
risked everything in the endeavour to release you when I first entered
the cabin."
I cut the unfortunate couple adrift, and, having first taken the
precaution to draw the curtain of the side-light, lighted the lamp, and,
with Maxwell's assistance, raised the lady into a sitting position;
after which we lifted her husband and placed him on the bed in the lower
berth. He was a very fine, handsome man of about fifty years of age,
with that indescribable and unmistakable look of the soldier about him
that seems to set its mark upon every military man. His wife was
perhaps seven or eight years his junior, still exceedingly good-looking,
and must, at her best, have been a singularly lovely woman.
The colonel, it appeared, had, in common with the other passengers who
had any womankind on board, locked his wife and daughters into their
cabins when it was foreseen that an attack upon the ship was inevitable;
and it was after the fight was over that he was severely stabbed in
resisting an attempt on the part of one of the _Francesca's_ crew to
force open his daughters' cabin. Probably the poor man would have been
murdered outright but for the opportune appearance of Mendouca, who
sternly ordered every one of his men out of the cabin, except two, whom
he personally supervised as they executed his order to bind all the
survivors hand and foot and confine them in the cabins. Luckily for the
unfortunate passengers, the first thought of the men had been drink, and
the second, plunder; and by the time that these two appetites had been
satisfied, all thought of further violence had passed out of their
heads.
The first thing now to be done was to find the ship's surgeon--if he
were still alive; so, leaving Maxwell in the cuddy to continue his
lock-picking operations, I sallied out on deck and, first softly calling
to the men aloft that they might now venture to come down, hunted up the
steward, and inquired of him whether he knew where the surgeon was to be
found. He answered that the surgeon, purser, and three mates were all
berthed in the after-house, between the main-mast and the main-hatch,
and that probably the man I wanted would be found there, adding that, as
he believed the pirates had flung all the keys overboard, he would take
the liberty of going into poor Captain Mason's cabin, and bringing me a
bunch of spare keys that he knew were always kept there. This he did,
and, finding the key of the after-house, we entered it together, to find
the unhappy surgeon and purser bound hand and foot, and lashed together
in such a manner that neither of them could move, upon the floor of the
cabin. To release the pair was but the work of a moment; after which,
having directed the doctor to hasten to the cuddy and attend to the
colonel's injuries, I made a survey of the decks with the result that
fourteen more of the _Bangalore's_ crew were found, of whom six were
dead, and eight more or less seriously wounded; the latter were removed
to their bunks in the forecastle forthwith and attended to by Mr Grant,
the surgeon, as soon as he had dressed the wounds of Colonel Maynard and
two other passengers. I may as well say here, to save time, that,
thanks to Grant's skill and unremitting attention, all the wounded were
reported to be doing well and, with the exception of Colonel Maynard,
out of danger.
The keys of all the cabins having been found, and the doors unlocked by
the steward, Maxwell's services were no longer required in the cuddy; as
therefore the brigantine had by this time reached the tolerably safe
distance of a mile from us, I sent him down into the run again to drive
the plugs well home and make them perfectly secure, and set to work with
the steward to release the remaining passengers from their exceedingly
uncomfortable condition. This was not a long task, and when it was
completed I found that we mustered nine gentlemen, of whom three were
wounded, eleven ladies, three children--two boys and a girl--seven
maids, and an Indian ayah or nurse. One family, consisting of a lady
and her daughter, were in a dreadful state of distress, the husband and
father--a Mr Richard Temple, resident magistrate of one of the
up-country districts--having been shot dead while gallantly fighting in
defence of the ship. The rest were in fairly good spirits, now that
they found that there was a hope of ultimate escape from the perils that
had so unexpectedly beset them; for I learned that although their
personal baggage had been rifled and all money and jewellery taken, they
had been spared any further outrage than that of being bound with
unnecessary and cruel rigour and confined to their cabins.
The poor souls had been without food or drink since tiffin. I thought
therefore that it would not be amiss to set them down to a good meal,
and with that object directed the steward to find his mates and also the
cook, if possible, it appearing that none of the individuals named had
been seen either during or since the attack, which gave rise to the
suspicion that they had contrived to conceal themselves somewhere about
the ship. This proved to be the case, the cook, with his mates, and the
three under-stewards being eventually discovered in a disused pig-sty
under the topgallant-forecastle, carefully concealed beneath a lot of
lumber that they had dragged over themselves. From this secluded
retreat they were speedily routed out, and, being solemnly assured that
all danger was now past, were at length prevailed upon to resume their
duty and to prepare a long-delayed dinner--or supper, as it might be
more appropriately called--for the cuddy occupants.
When at length the meal was served, I took the liberty of occupying the
poor murdered captain's seat at the table; and while we were eating and
drinking, I managed to gain a pretty clear idea of the incidents of the
attack upon the _Bangalore_ each one having passed through some more or
less trying experience which he or she was anxious to relate to the
rest; and when the meal was over Mr Molyneux, a Calcutta merchant, rose
to his feet and, while formally thanking me on behalf of himself and his
fellow-passengers for what I had already done, expressed their perfect
concurrence in the wish of the surviving crew that I should take command
of the ship, merely suggesting the great desirability of navigating her
forthwith to the nearest civilised port. This, of course, was my own
fixed intention, and I suggested Sierra Leone as the most suitable spot
for which to make, it being as near as any other, with the advantage
that the necessary officers to navigate the ship home, and a sufficient
number of men to make up the full complement of the crew, might almost
certainly be reckoned upon being found there.
The brigantine had left us, and with her departure everybody appeared to
consider the danger as past. This, however, was an opinion which I by
no means shared; for, knowing Mendouca so well as I did, I felt that it
was by no means unlikely that, having reached an offing of some ten or
twelve miles, he might order the sweeps to be laid in until daylight, in
order that he might remain in our neighbourhood and assure himself by
the actual demonstration of his own--or Pedro's--eyesight that the
_Bangalore_ had foundered, taking with her to the bottom all evidence of
the atrocious crime of which he and his crew had been guilty. And, even
should no uncomfortable doubts on this point assail him, he _must_
learn, ere the lapse of many hours, that I and others were missing; and
then, guessing, as he would at once, at the explanation of our absence,
nothing would prevent him from returning and taking, or attempting to
take, such measures as would insure our eternal silence.
I therefore considered it a singular if not an actually providential
occurrence that when I went out on deck after dinner--or supper--the sky
should have become overcast, with scarcely a star to be seen, with every
appearance of both wind and rain ere long. It had become exceedingly
dark, so much so that no sign of the brigantine was to be discovered,
but by listening intently the roll and clatter of her sweeps were still
to be caught; and it was with very deep and fervent thankfulness that,
after listening intently for several minutes, I felt convinced that she
was still receding from us. I had given strict orders that the lanterns
should be allowed to remain burning on deck, just as the pirates had
left them, that no other lights should be kindled anywhere about the
ship except where it was possible to effectually mask their light, and
that no one should show anything of himself above the level of the
topgallant-rail upon any consideration; but now, the brigantine having
been gone from us rather more than two hours, I gave instructions that
all the lanterns on deck and all lights of every kind visible from
outside the ship might be simultaneously extinguished, so that, should
anybody happen to be watching our lights, they might come to the
conclusion that the ship had filled and we were gone to the bottom.
This done, I mustered my entire crew and, first hoisting in the
long-boat, sent them aloft to stow all the lighter sails, so that we
might not be wholly unprepared should the change of weather that now
seemed impending be ushered in with a squall. This occupied the men a
full hour and a half, at the end of which, having brought the ship into
tolerably manageable condition, I gave them permission to lie down and
snatch a nap if they could, but to hold themselves ready for any
emergency that might arise.
It was by this time long past midnight, and so pitchy dark that, all
lights having been extinguished, it was impossible to see one end of the
poop from the other. The stars had all vanished, and the silence was so
profound as to be quite oppressive, not even the sound of the pirate's
sweeps now being audible; though whether they had been laid in, or
whether the vessel had increased her distance so greatly as to have
passed beyond the range of sound, I knew not, but I strongly suspected
the former contingency. This profound silence was maintained for nearly
an hour, and then my hearing--rendered unusually acute no doubt by the
intense darkness that enveloped me--once more became conscious of a
regular, measured, rhythmical sound, the sound of sweeps again being
plied, and, without doubt, on board the _Francesca_. What did it mean?
Had Mendouca, in his feverish and painful condition, grown impatient of
delay and ordered the sweeps to be again manned, after having given
instructions for them to be laid in? Or, as my forebodings whispered to
me, had the absence of myself and others been already discovered, and
was the brigantine returning in search of us? For the first quarter of
an hour or so after the sounds had once again broken in upon the silence
this was a question very difficult to decide; but when half-an-hour had
passed the fact was indisputable that the pirates _were returning_, for
the sounds had become distinctly clearer and stronger than they had at
first been.
What was now to be done? There was but one course for us; namely, to
take every possible measure for the defence of the ship to our last
gasp, for I felt assured that, should Mendouca recover possession of
her, his fury at the trick that we had played him would be sated by
nothing short of our absolute destruction. Having quickly made up my
mind upon this point, I was in the act of groping my way along the poop,
with the object of calling the men, when I thought I felt a faint
stirring of the air, and, pausing for a moment, I moistened the back of
my hand and held it up, turning it this way and that until I felt a
distinct sensation of coolness. Yes, there was no doubt about it, I had
felt a cat's-paw, and it seemed to be coming over our starboard quarter;
while the sound of the sweeps was away broad on our port bow. I could
scarcely restrain a cheer as the hope of a breeze thus came to encourage
me at the very moment when a new and terrible danger was threatening us.
I paused for an instant and reflected; and my thoughts took somewhat
this shape: "If Mendouca is returning--and he undoubtedly is--it is
because through some unfortunate combination of circumstances my absence
has already been discovered, and he has at once jumped to the correct
conclusion that I have somehow contrived to escape from the brigantine
to the ship. And he knows me well enough to feel assured that, once
here, I shall not tamely allow the Indiaman to go down under my feet;
or, if that should prove unpreventible, that I shall at least release
the prisoners and concoct with them some plan of escape, such as taking
to the boats, or constructing a raft. And he also knows that, in either
case, should we succeed in preserving our lives until we are fallen in
with, or picked up, his atrocious act of piracy and murder will be
proclaimed, and every craft in the squadron will be specially ordered to
keep a look-out for him and effect his capture at all hazards.
Therefore he will spare no effort to find the ship and destroy her.
Now--ah, there is another little breath of wind, I felt it distinctly
that time!--should he fail to find us, what course will he pursue? Why,
he will certainly expect us to make our way northward--for Sierra Leone,
most probably, the port that we have already determined to steer for--
and he will do his best to overtake and recapture us. Therefore our
best course will obviously be to head to the _southward_, and thus
increase the distance between the two craft as rapidly as possible, so
that they may be out of sight of each other at daybreak; and then to
proceed upon our proper course under easy sail."
This seemed to me to be a very fair and sound line of reasoning, and I
determined to act upon it forthwith. I accordingly made my way forward,
routed out the men, told them there was a breeze coming, and ordered
them to brace up the yards and trim the sheets aft for a close-hauled
stretch on the port tack, at the same time cautioning them to work
silently, as I had only too much reason to fear that the pirates were
returning to search for the ship. This news, confirmed as it was by the
now perfectly audible sound of the sweeps, was enough for them, and they
went about the decks so silently, speaking in whispers, and carefully
taking each rope off its belaying-pin, and _laying_ it down on deck,
instead of flinging it down with clatter enough to wake the Seven
Sleepers, that I am certain no one in the cabins, even had they been
awake, could possibly have been aware of what was happening.
By the time that we had got our canvas trimmed the breeze had become
quite perceptible, and the ship had gathered steerage-way; we therefore
wore her round, and presently had the ineffable satisfaction of hearing
a slight but distinct tinkling and gurgle of water under the bows.
With the springing up of this most welcome little breeze the sound of
the sweeps first became by imperceptible degrees less audible and then
was lost altogether, but whether this arose from the fact that the wind
carried the sound away from us, or whether it was that they had laid in
the sweeps, and were making sail upon the brigantine, it was impossible
to tell, nor did I greatly care, provided that the breeze freshened
sufficiently to carry us out of sight before daybreak, this now being my
great anxiety. Maxwell assured me that the _Bangalore_ was a real
clipper, easily beating everything that they had fallen in with, both on
the passage out and on their homeward voyage. But no ship can sail fast
without a fair amount of wind, and so far this breeze that had come to
us was a mere breathing, just enough perhaps to waft us along at a speed
of about two knots, or two and a half, maybe, whereas what I wanted was
at least a seven-knot breeze, that would take us clean out of sight of
our starting-point before dawn. For I knew that, if the _Bangalore_ was
a clipper, so too was the _Francesca_; and if her people once caught
sight of so much as the heads of our royals from their own royal-yard,
they would chase us as long as there was the slightest hope of
overhauling us. And the knowledge of this fact made me wonder whether I
had not acted rather imprudently in stowing all the lighter sails,
instead of leaving them abroad to give us all the help of which they
were capable. I was just inwardly debating this point, and had arrived
at the conclusion that we ought to set them again, when the atmosphere
seemed suddenly to grow more dense, and in a moment down came the rain
in a regular tropical deluge, like the bursting of a waterspout, the
sails flapped to the masts, and we were becalmed again. This was
horribly vexatious, not to say disheartening; but, happily for our peace
of mind, it was a state of things that did not last long; it merely
meant a shift of wind, for presently, when the shower had ceased as
abruptly as it had begun, the breeze sprang up again, this time coming
out from the northward, and with gay and thankful hearts we squared away
before it, or rather, headed just far enough to the eastward of south to
permit everything set to draw properly. Moreover, the breeze gradually
but steadily freshened, until in about an hour from the time when the
ship first began to move we were going seven knots at the very least.
This was so far satisfactory, especially as the sky remained overcast
and the night intensely dark, rendering it utterly impossible to see
anything beyond a distance of three or four of the ship's lengths on
either hand, and I now had good hopes of running the brigantine out of
sight before daylight. That she was still engaged in the search for us,
however, soon became evident; for about three-quarters of an hour after
the springing up of the true breeze our attention was suddenly attracted
by the outburst of a brilliant glare of bluish-white light on our
port-quarter, which was nothing less than the brigantine burning
port-fires, probably in an attempt to discover our whereabouts by the
reflection of the light on our sails, or possibly in the expectation of
catching sight, by means of the light, either of our boats, or a raft,
or perhaps a hen-coop and grating or two floating about as evidence of
our having gone down. However, she was about five miles distant from us
at that time, and although the light of the port-fires rendered her
perfectly visible to us, I had little or no fear that it would betray
our whereabouts to her people. She remained dodging about and
occasionally burning port-fires for fully another hour--by which time we
had sunk her to her foreyard below the horizon, as viewed from our
deck--and then, as she discontinued her pyrotechnic display, we lost
sight of her. At daybreak I sent a man right up to the main-royal-yard,
where he remained until the light was thoroughly strong, and then came
down with the report that the horizon was clear.
This was highly satisfactory, inasmuch as it confirmed my hope that if
Mendouca was still prosecuting a search for us--as I felt sure he was,
he having of course failed to discover any evidence of the ship having
foundered--he was looking for us in a northerly direction, very probably
cracking on in the belief that we had gone that way and that there was
still a chance of overtaking us.
At eight bells in the morning watch we brought the ship to the wind on
the larboard tack, with her head about east-north-east, and I then
divided my scanty crew into two watches, with Joe Maxwell, the
carpenter, as my chief mate, and a very smart A.B., named Tom Sutcliffe,
as second. This done, the watch was set, and put to the job of
straightening-up generally and pumping out the ship, this latter job
being accomplished and the pumps sucking in just under the ten minutes
that Maxwell had allowed for it. It was clear, therefore, that our hull
was sound, and that in that respect, at all events, with the best--or
rather the worst--intentions in the world, the pirates had done us
little or no harm.
Our most serious difficulty was the want of water, Mendouca having
literally cleared the ship of every drop she possessed, save some eight
or ten gallons in the scuttle-butt, which they had either overlooked, or
perhaps had considered not worth taking. But here again it appeared as
though God in His infinite mercy had taken compassion on us; for about
noon the wind died away, and I had only just time to take my meridian
observation for the latitude when the heavens clouded over, and toward
the close of the afternoon we were visited by a terrific thunderstorm
accompanied by a perfect deluge of rain, during which, by loosely
spreading all the awnings fore and aft, we were enabled to catch a
sufficient quantity of water to carry us without stint as far at least
as Sierra Leone.
It remained calm until about midnight, when a little breeze sprang up
from the eastward which enabled us to lay our course nicely while it
fanned us along at a speed of about five knots. The next morning broke
bright and clear; and with the first of the light the look-out reported
a sail broad on our weather bow. Maxwell, fearing that it might be our
old enemy, the _Francesca_ showing up again, came down at once and
called me, stating his fears, and causing me to rush up on the poop just
as I had sprung from my cot, quite regardless of appearances, although I
could scarcely believe that Mendouca, if indeed we should be so
unfortunate as to fall in with him again, would make his appearance in
the eastern board. I must confess, however, that when I first reached
the deck and beheld the stranger, I experienced a slight qualm of
apprehension, for the craft was undoubtedly square-rigged, forward at
least, and she was steering as straight as a hair for us, with
studding-sails set on both sides, and coming down very fast. A few
minutes' work with the telescope, however, sufficed to remove our
apprehensions, so far at least as the _Francesca_ was concerned, for as
the light grew brighter we were enabled to discern that the stranger was
a brig, and as I continued working away with the glass the vessel seemed
to assume a familiar aspect, as though I had seen her before. At first
I thought that it might possibly prove to be the Spanish brig that had
been anchored just ahead of us off Banana Peninsula; but as she drew
nearer I recognised with intense delight that it was none other than the
dear old _Barracouta_ herself. "And with her appearance," thought I,
"all my troubles are ended; for doubtless Captain Stopford will not only
lend me men enough to carry the ship to Sierra Leone, but will also
escort me thither."