Our journey down the river was a very different affair from that of our
upward passage; for whereas in the latter we had been compelled to force
our way against an adverse current, we now had that current favouring
us; thus it came about that although the sun had passed the meridian
when the boats emerged from the Camma Lagoon, after destroying the slave
factory therein, it yet wanted an hour to sunset when the gig, still
leading the rest of the flotilla, entered the last reach of the river
and we once more caught sight and sound of the breakers beyond the bar.
Mr Perry, the late first lieutenant, who now, by the death of Captain
Harrison, had automatically become acting captain of the _Psyche_, had
turned over the command of the launch to the master's mate, for the
return passage, and was in the gig with me; and as we drew nearer to the
river's mouth I noticed that he rose in the stern-sheets of the boat and
glanced somewhat anxiously to seaward. For a full minute or more he
stood gazing under the sharp of his hand out across the sandbank as it
seemed to glide rapidly past us, its summit momentarily growing lower as
the gig swept along toward the point where the dwindling spit plunged
beneath the surface of the water, and, as he gazed, the expression of
puzzlement and anxiety on his face rapidly intensified. By this time,
too, his action and attitude had attracted the attention of those in the
boats astern, and, glancing back at them, I saw that Nugent, in the
launch, and Hoskins, the third lieutenant, in the pinnace, had followed
his example. Naturally, I did the same, wondering meanwhile what it was
at which they were all looking so intently, when Mr Perry suddenly
turned upon me and demanded, almost angrily--
"I say, Mr Fortescue, what has become of the ship? D'ye see anything
of her?"
"The ship, sir?" I echoed dazedly--for, with the question, it had come
to me in a flash that we ought by this time to be able to see at least
the spars of the _Psyche_ swaying rhythmically athwart the sky out over
the low sandbank, if she still lay at anchor where we had left
her;--"the ship? No, sir, I confess that I can't see her anywhere.
Surely Mr Purchase cannot have shifted his berth, for any reason?
But--no," I continued, as the absurdity of the suggestion came home to
me--"of course he hasn't; he hasn't enough hands left with him to make
sail upon the ship, even if he were obliged to slip his cables."
At that moment a hail of "Gig ahoy!" came from Nugent aboard the launch;
and, glancing back at him, we saw him pointing at some object that had
suddenly appeared on the ridge of the spit, away on our port quarter.
It was a man, a white man, a seaman, if one might judge from his
costume, and he was waving a large coloured handkerchief, or something
of the kind, with the evident object of attracting our attention. While
we still stood at gaze, wondering what this apparition could possibly
mean, another man appeared beside him.
"Down helm, and run the boat in on the bank," ordered our new skipper.
"I must see what this means."
"Flatten in, fore and aft, and stand by to let run your halyards!"
ordered the coxswain, easing his helm down; and as he spoke I stepped
upon the stern thwart with the object of getting a somewhat more
extended view over the sandbank. But there was nothing to be seen--
stay! why was the spray from the surf flying so much higher in one
particular spot than elsewhere? And that spot appeared to be about
abreast of that part of the bank where the two men were standing. I
stood a moment or two longer, seeking an explanation of the phenomenon,
and then fell headlong over the man who was sitting upon the aftermost
thwart gathering in the slack of the mainsail as the yard came down; for
at that moment the gig grounded on the bank and shot a quarter of her
length high and dry with the way that she had on her. As I picked
myself up, rubbing my barked elbows ruefully, to the accompaniment of a
suppressed snigger from the boat's crew, Mr Perry, with a brief "Make
way, there, lads," sprang upon the thwarts and, striding rapidly from
thwart to thwart, rushed along the length of the boat, placed one foot
lightly on the gunwale, close to the stem head, and leaped out on to the
sand, with me close at his heels.
Together we raced for the crest of the spit; but even before we had
reached it the terrible truth lay plain before us. For there, about a
quarter of a mile to the southward of us, on the seaward side of the
spit, lay the _Psyche_, hard and fast aground, dismasted, and on her
beam-ends, with the surf pounding at her, and her spars and rigging,
worked up into a raft, floating in the swirl alongside the beach; while
on the shore, opposite where she lay, the little company that had been
left aboard to take care of her laboured to save such flotsam and jetsam
as the surf flung up within their reach.
For a full minute the new skipper, thus by a cruel stroke of malicious
fortune robbed of the command that had been his for such a few brief
hours, stood gazing with stern, set features at the melancholy scene.
Then he turned to me and said--very quietly--
"Mr Fortescue, be good enough to go down to Mr Hoskins, and request
him, with my compliments, to take the boats back up the river until they
are abreast the spot where the wreck lies, and there beach them; after
which, leaving a boat-keeper to watch each boat, he will take the men
over to the other side of the spit to assist in salving such matters as
may come ashore. Having delivered this message, you will please join me
yonder." And he pointed to where the little group of men were toiling
on the beach.
"Ay, ay, sir!" I answered. And, touching my hat, I turned and hurried
down to the river bank, alongside which the other boats were now lying,
with lowered sails, evidently awaiting orders. Meanwhile Mr Perry
strode off over the ridge in the direction of the wreck.
I quickly found Mr Hoskins and delivered my message, with the result
that the entire flotilla pushed off again and headed up-stream, one of
the men having landed upon the narrow spit and ascended to its ridge in
order that he might notify the boats' crews when they should have
arrived at the spot on the seaward side of which lay the wreck; while I,
burning with curiosity to learn how the disaster had been brought about,
hurried after the skipper. As he walked, while I ran, I managed to
overtake him at the precise moment when Mr Purchase, who had been left
by Captain Harrison in charge of the ship, met him at a little distance
from the spot where the party of salvors were at work.
"Mr Purchase," said the skipper, as the two men met and halted, "I
deeply regret to inform you that Captain Harrison is dead--killed this
morning, with one other, while gallantly leading us to the attack of a
strongly defended slave barracoon. We have both bodies in the boats,
yonder, and it was my intention to have buried them at sea to-night; but
that, I perceive, is no longer possible. And now, sir, perhaps you will
be good enough to explain to me how the _Psyche_ comes to be where I see
her."
"Ah, sir!" answered Mr Purchase, removing his hat and mopping his
forehead in great perturbation of spirit, "I wish I could tell you. All
I know--all that _any_ of us knows, so far as I have been able to
ascertain--is that we were cut adrift--both cables, sir, cut through as
clean as a whistle--and allowed to drive ashore!"
"Cut adrift?" reiterated the captain incredulously. "_Cut adrift_?
Really, my dear Purchase, you must excuse me if I say that I utterly
fail to understand you. How the mischief could you possibly be cut
adrift from where you were anchored; and by whom? You surely do not
intend to insinuate that any one of the ship's company--?"
"No--no; certainly not," interrupted Purchase. "Nothing of the kind.
Let me tell you the whole yarn, Perry; then you will be as wise as
myself, and can give me your opinion of the affair, which I admit is
most extraordinary.
"Nothing in the least remarkable occurred for some hours after the boats
left the ship yesterday morning. I stood aft and watched you through
the starboard stern port until you had all safely crossed the bar and
disappeared behind the sand spit; and then I set the hands to work upon
various small jobs; after which I went round the ship and satisfied
myself that everything was perfectly safe and snug on deck and below.
Then, feeling tolerably certain that you would not return until to-day
at the earliest, and that consequently it would be necessary for me to
be up and about during the greater part of the coming night, I went
below and turned in all standing, to get as much sleep as possible,
leaving the boatswain's mate in charge of the deck, together with
midshipmen Keene and Parkinson.
"The day passed quite uneventfully; everything went perfectly smoothly;
the ship rode easily to her anchors; and there had been nothing to
report. But about two bells in the first dog-watch I noticed that the
sky was beginning to look a bit windy away down in the western quarter--
nothing to speak of, you understand, or to cause any uneasiness; but it
made me take a look at the barometer, and I saw that it had dropped a
trifle since eight bells; and at the same time the wind was distinctly
freshening and the swell gathering weight. All this, of course, meant
more wind within the next few hours; I therefore kept a sharp eye on the
barometer; and when at four bells I found it still dropping I decided to
let go the two stream anchors, as a precautionary measure, while we had
light enough to see what we were doing; and this I did, at the same time
paying out an extra fifty fathoms on each cable, after which I felt that
we were perfectly safe in the face of anything short of a hurricane."
The new skipper nodded his approval, but said nothing; and Purchase
proceeded with his story.
"Well, as you probably noticed, shortly after sunset the wind breezed up
quite strongly; but I was not in the least uneasy, for the barometer had
ceased to drop before eight bells, and, although the sky was overcast
and the night very dark, there was nothing threatening in the look of
the weather, and it was only occasionally that we really tautened out
our cables. Still, I made up my mind to remain on deck all night,
having had a good spell of sleep during the day.
"As the night wore on and the wind held fresh but steady, I felt that
after all I really need not have let go the streams, for the bowers
alone would have held us quite easily against six times as much wind and
sea as we had; you may therefore perhaps be able to picture to yourself
my amazement and consternation when, a few minutes before six bells in
the middle watch, I became aware that the ship was adrift and fast
driving down toward the breakers!"
"How did you discover that the ship was adrift? Did you feel her cables
parting?" demanded the skipper.
"No," answered Purchase; "we never felt anything of that kind; but I
suddenly noticed that she was falling off and canting broadside-on to
the wind and sea, so I knew at once that something was wrong--that in
fact we had, in some incomprehensible way, struck adrift. I therefore
sang out to Thompson, the boatswain's mate, to pipe all hands to make
sail, intending to run her into the river, if possible. But by the time
that we had got the mizzen and fore-topmast staysail upon her, and were
loosing the main-topmast staysail, we were in the first line of
breakers; and a moment later she struck heavily. Then a big comber came
roaring in and broke over us, lifted us up, swept us shoreward a good
twenty fathoms, and we struck again, with such violence this time that
all three masts went over the side together. After that we had a very
bad half-hour, for every roller that came in swept clean over us,
carrying away everything that was movable, smashing the bulwarks flat,
and hammering the poor old barkie so furiously upon the sand that I
momentarily expected her to go to pieces under our feet. To add to our
difficulties, it was so intensely dark that we could not see where we
were; true, the water all round us was ablaze with phosphorescence,
which enabled us to discern that land of some sort lay about a couple of
cables' lengths to leeward of us, but it was quite indistinguishable,
and the water between us and it was leaping and spouting so furiously
that I did not feel justified in making any attempt to get the men
ashore, especially as we were then being swept so heavily that we had
all our work cut out to hold on for our lives. About half an hour
later, however, the tide turned and began to ebb, and then matters
improved a bit.
"But it was not until daybreak that we were able to do anything really
useful; and then all hands of us got to work and built a raft of sorts,
after which we got up a good supply of provisions and water, sails to
serve as tents, light line, and, in short, everything likely to be
useful, and managed to get ashore without very much difficulty. But
before I left the ship I had the cables hauled in through the hawse-
pipes, and examined them most carefully. They were both unmistakably
cut through--a clean cut, sir, evidently done with a sharp knife--at
about the level of the water's edge."
"Most extraordinary!" commented Perry. "And I presume nobody saw
anything, either immediately before you went adrift or afterwards--no
boat, or anything of that kind, I mean--to account for the affair?"
"No," answered Purchase, "nothing. Yet I was not only wide-awake and on
the alert myself, but I took care that the anchor watch should be so
also; for I felt the responsibility of having such a ship as the
_Psyche_ to take care of, with only twenty hands, all told, to help me."
"Of course," agreed the skipper. "And did you succeed in getting
everybody ashore safely?"
"Yes, thank God!" answered Purchase fervently. "We are all safe and
sound, and very little the worse for our adventure, thus far."
"Ah! that at least is good news," remarked Perry. "Well," he continued,
"there is one very melancholy duty demanding our immediate attention,
Mr Purchase, namely, the interment of Captain Harrison and the other
poor fellow who fell during the attack upon the barracoon to-day. I
will see about that matter personally, by choosing a suitable spot and
getting the graves dug, for we shall soon have the darkness upon us.
Meanwhile, you will be good enough to get tents rigged and such other
preparations made as may be possible for the comfort of all hands, and
especially the wounded, during the coming night; for we have all had a
very trying day, and it is imperative that we should secure a good
night's rest. Mr Fortescue, come with me, if you please."
Now, during the progress of the foregoing conversation the boat party
had not been idle; for, as soon as the fact of the wreck had become
known to them, Mr Hoskins, the third lieutenant, seeing how matters
stood, had grappled with the situation by causing the guns, ammunition,
and stores of all kinds to be landed from the boats, and the craft
themselves to be hauled up high and dry upon the beach on the river-side
of the sand spit; and then, leading his men over the ridge, to where the
others were at work upon the salving of wreckage from the surf, he had
detailed a party to pick out from among the pile of heterogeneous
articles such things as were most needed to meet our more immediate
wants, and carry or drag them up the slope to the spot which Henderson,
the surgeon, had already selected as the most suitable spot for a camp.
It was toward this party that Mr Perry and I now directed our steps;
and when we had joined it the skipper, picking out a dozen of the most
handy men, gave them instructions to provide themselves with tools of
some sort suitable for the purpose of digging a couple of graves in the
loose, yielding sand above the level of high-water mark; and while they
were doing this, under my supervision, my companion wandered away by
himself in search of a suitable site for the graves. As a matter of
fact there was very little in the nature of choice, the entire spit, or
at least that portion of it which we occupied, consisting of loose sand,
sparsely covered, along the ridge and far a few yards on either side of
it, with a kind of creeper with thick, tough, hairy stems and large,
broad leaves, the upper surface of which bristled with hairy spicules
about a quarter of an inch long. This plant, it was evident, bound the
otherwise loose drifts and into a sufficiently firm condition to resist
the perpetual scouring action of the wind; it was in this portion of the
spit, therefore, that Mr Perry gave orders for the two graves to be
dug; and presently my little gang of twelve were busily engaged in
scooping out two holes, some twenty feet apart, to serve as graves.
They were obliged to work with such tools as came to hand, and these
consisted of splintered pieces of plank, the boats' balers, and some
wooden buckets that had come ashore.
Under such circumstances the task of excavation was distinctly
difficult, the more so that the sand ran back into the holes almost as
fast as it was scooped up and thrown out; but at length, by dint of
strenuous labour, a depth of some three feet was reached just as the
sun's rim touched the western horizon and flung a trail of blood athwart
the tumble of waters that lay between. Then, the exigencies of the
occasion admitting of no further delay, the task was suspended; all
hands knocked off work; and, the bodies having meanwhile been enclosed
in rough coffins very hastily put together by the carpenter and his
mate, we all fell in; the gig's crew shouldered the late captain's
coffin, while six of his mates acted as bearers to the other dead man;
and, with Mr Perry leading the way and reading the burial service from
a prayer-book, which it appeared he always carried about with him, we
marched, slowly, solemnly, and bare-headed, up the slope of the sand
spit to the spot which had been selected for the last resting-place of
the dead. Arrived there, the two coffins were at once deposited in
their respective graves, when the new captain, standing between the two
holes, somewhat hurriedly completed the ritual--for the light was fading
fast; whereupon, after bestowing a final parting glance at the rough,
uncouth box which concealed our beloved chief's body, we all turned
slowly and reluctantly away to retrace our steps back to the apology for
a camp which was to shelter us for the night, leaving a fresh party of
workers to fill in the graves.
In neither arm of the British fighting service do men unduly dwell upon
the loss of fallen comrades, for it is quite justly held that the man
who yields up his life in the service of his country has done a glorious
thing, whether he falls in a pitched battle deciding the fate of an
empire, or in some such obscure and scarcely chronicled event as the
attack upon a slave factory. He is, where such is possible, laid in his
last resting-place with all the honourable observance that circumstances
permit, and his memory is cherished in the hearts of his comrades; but
whether his fame pass with the echo of the last volley fired over his
grave, or outlives the brass of the tablet which records his name and
deeds, there is no room for grief. Wherefore, when we got back to camp
and had made the best possible arrangements for the coming night, there
was little reference in our conversation to the tragic events of the
past twenty-four hours; Mr Perry took up the reins of government, and
matters proceeded precisely as they would have done had Captain Harrison
been still alive and among us.
Our "camp" was, naturally, an exceedingly primitive affair; our living
and sleeping quarters consisting simply of sails cut from the yards and
stretched over such supports as could be contrived by inserting the
lower ends of spars or planks in the sand and lashing their upper ends
together. These structures we dignified with the name of "tents." The
exigencies of the situation did not permit of the observance of such
nice distinctions of rank in the matter of accommodation as exist under
ordinary conditions, it therefore came about that we of the midshipmen's
berth were lodged for the night in the same tent as the ward-room
officers, and consequently we heard much of the conversation that passed
between them, particularly at dinner. This meal--consisting of boiled
salt beef and pork, with a few sweet potatoes, and a "duff" made of
flour, damaged by sea water, with a few currants and raisins dotted
about here and there in it--was served upon the _Psyche's_ mizzen royal
stretched upon the bare sand in the centre of our "tent"; and we partook
of it squatted round the sail cross-legged on the sand, finding the way
to our mouths by the light of four ship's lanterns symmetrically
arranged one at each corner of the sail.
Naturally enough, Mr Purchase--now ranking as first lieutenant _vice_
Mr Perry, acting captain--having told the tale of the happenings which
had resulted in our becoming castaways, was anxious to hear full
particulars of what had befallen the boat expedition; and this Mr Perry
proceeded to relate to him as we sat round the "table." When he had
finished there was silence for a moment; then Purchase looked up and
said--
"Don't you think it very strange that your experiences throughout should
have accorded so ill with the information that Captain Harrison acquired
at so much trouble and personal risk? Hitherto it has always happened
that such information as he has been able to pick up has proved to be
accurate in every particular."
"Yes," agreed Mr Perry, "it has. I've been thinking a good deal about
that to-day; and the opinion I have arrived at is that Harrison played
the game once too often, with this result--" and he waved his right hand
comprehensively about him, indicating the tent, the makeshift dinner,
and our condition generally.
"What I mean is this," he continued, in reply to Purchase's glance of
inquiry. "The poor old _Psyche_, as we all know, was a phenomenally
slow ship, yet her successes, since she came on the Coast, have been
greater and more brilliant than those of any other vessel belonging to
the squadron. And why? Because she had a trick of always turning up on
the right spot at the right moment. Now it seems to me that this
peculiarity of hers can scarcely have escaped the notice of the slave-
trading fraternity, because it was so very marked. I imagine that they
must often have wondered by what means we gained our information; and
when at length the thing had become so unmistakable as to provoke both
conjecture and discussion it would not take them long to arrive at a
very shrewd suspicion of the truth. When once the matter had reached
this stage discovery could not possibly be very long delayed. Captain
Harrison was undoubtedly a well-known figure in Sierra Leone; he was of
so striking a personality that it could not be otherwise, and I am of
opinion that at length his disguise was penetrated. He was recognised
in one of those flash places in Freetown that are especially patronised
by individuals of shady and doubtful character; and a scheme was devised
for his and our undoing which has succeeded only too well. In a word, I
believe that the whole of the information upon which he acted when
arranging this most unfortunate expedition was carefully fabricated for
the express purpose of bringing about the destruction of the ship, and
was confided to him by some one who had recognised him as her captain.
I believe, Purchase, that you were cut adrift last night, either by the
individual who spun the yarn, or by some emissary or emissaries of his
who have a lurking-place somewhere in this neighbourhood; and, if the
truth could be got at, I believe it would be found that the schooner
which we saw come out of this river on the day before yesterday--and
which the captain was led to believe was a decoy intended to draw us off
the coast--was actually chock-full of slaves!"
"By Jove!" ejaculated Purchase. "What a very extraordinary idea!"
"I don't think so at all," cut in Hoskins, before Mr Perry could reply.
"It may seem so to you, Purchase, because it has just been presented to
you, fresh and unexpectedly, as it were. But when we arrived at King
Olomba's town yesterday morning, and found neither slaves nor barracoon
there, I must confess that I was visited by some such suspicion as that
of which Captain Perry has just been speaking, although in my case it
did not take quite such a concrete and connected form. To my mind there
is only one thing against your theory, sir," he continued, turning to
the skipper, "and that is the existence of the factory on the lagoon."
"Yes," agreed the captain, "I admit that to be somewhat difficult to
account for. And yet, perhaps not so very difficult either; because if
the fellows who gave Captain Harrison the information upon which he
acted happened to have a grudge against the owners of that factory they
would naturally be more than glad if, while groping about in search of
the imaginary slavers and barracoon, we should stumble upon the real
thing and destroy it. All this, however, is mere idle conjecture, which
may be either well founded or the opposite; but there is one
indisputable fact about this business, which is--unless Mr Purchase is
altogether mistaken, which I do not for a moment believe--that the
_Psyche_ was last night cut adrift from her anchors and wrecked by
somebody who must have a lurking-place in this immediate neighbourhood;
and I intend to have a hunt for that somebody to-morrow."