It was a busy and an anxious day. The brig's guns had been carefully
ran to starboard and firmly lashed, and the yards lowered down, her
topmasts struck, and all made ready for laying her right over in the mud
at low water, so that her spars should be upon the shore.
"It wouldn't do to lay her over like this," said the skipper gruffly,
"if she were full of cargo. It would mean a bad shifting. But I think
we can manage, and I'll risk it. We can easily start her water casks."
There was no question of shooting that day, Rodd preferring to stay with
his French friend; and the doctor seemed to quite share the Count's
anxiety as they watched the proceedings of the sailors while the tide
went down.
But everything went on admirably. As the water sank a steady strain was
kept upon the cables, and by slow degrees the brig careened over towards
the land till the newly-repaired side sank lower and lower, and she lay
more and more over, till at last the water that had flooded the hold
began to flow out with the tide till the beautiful vessel lay perfectly
helpless upon her side, with the whole of her keel visible upon the long
stretch of mud. Then Captain Chubb, taking hold of a rope which he had
made fast to the larboard rail, climbed over on to the brig's side, and
steadying himself by the cord, walked right down and stood shaking his
head at the ghastly wound which the vessel had received.
For after passing right through the hold, the cannon ball had struck
upon and shattered one of what are technically called the ship's knees,
ripping off a great patch of the planking and tearing through the copper
sheathing, which was turned back upon the keel, making a ragged hole
several times the size of the fairly clean-cut orifice by which the shot
had entered.
"You had better come and have a look here, Count," cried the captain--an
invitation which was accepted by several of those interested, and in a
very short time an anxious group was gathered round the vessel's injury.
"Well, sir," said the skipper, in his rough, brusque way; "what do you
say to that?"
"Horrible!" groaned the Count. "My poor vessel!" And he looked at the
captain in despair.
"Well, sir," said the latter, "if anybody had told me that I could make
a patch with sails over the bottom of your brig so as to keep her afloat
as I have, I should have felt ready to call him a fool. It's a wonder
to me that you kept her afloat as you did, before you came to us for
help."
"But now, captain," cried the Count, as his son looked anxiously on, "is
it possible, away from a shipyard, to mend this as well as you have done
the other injury?"
"Well, sir, if we were close to some port I should say, no, certainly
not; but seeing where we are, there's only one thing to be done."
"Yes? And that--?" cried the Count.
"Do it, sir. But it will take some time."
The Count made an impatient gesticulation, and then threw his hands
apart in a deprecating way, as if he accepted the position in despair.
"Yes," he said; "you brave Englishmen, you never give up. You will do
it, then?"
"Oh yes, sir; we've got to do it; and what do they say? Time and tide
wait for no man; so I'll thank you all to clear off and let me and my
lads get to work. Only look here, sir; there's going to be no hoisting
and lowering here. We shall have to keep the brig lying on her side
without any temporary patches, and the tide will have to flow in and
out, even if it does some damage to your stores. So while my lads are
stripping off the copper, you will keep your men busy with your hatches
open to make a pretty good clearance inside, so that we can work in
there as well as out here."
"Yes, yes," said the Count, who seemed to quite resign himself in full
obedience to the skipper's wishes. "But you will use all the speed you
can?"
"You may trust me for that, sir," said Captain Chubb; for after two or
three attempts in the early parts of the proceedings connected with the
repairs, and saying Monsieur le Count, the blunt Englishman gave it up
in favour of plain straightforward "sir," and stuck to it; while the
titled captain seemed to like the Englishman none the less.
"Now," said the captain, as he climbed back on to the sloping deck,
following the others, "I didn't know that your brig would be so bad as
this, but I had my suspicions, and when I have not been busy here I have
been casting my eye round for a good crooked bit of timber that would
make a ship's knee if I wanted one."
"And do you know where there is one?"
"Yes," said the skipper; "and I think it will make a very good
makeshift, for the wood's as hard as hard. But what wouldn't I give for
a good old crooked piece of Devon oak from out of Dartmoor Forest!"
Shortly afterwards he had set the carpenter and his mates to strip off
the copper sheathing, while he led off Joe Cross and another man about a
quarter of a mile away from the river bank to where a huge pollard-like
tree was growing at the edge of the forest, all gnarled and twisted in
the most extraordinary way.
The two lads had followed them, and Rodd looked at the selected tree
aghast.
"Why, you are never going to set the men to cut down that tree,
captain?" he cried.
"Why not, my lad? Do you know a better bit?"
"Better bit!" cried Rodd. "Why, the men can hardly get through that
with those axes. Most likely take them a fortnight--I might say a
month."
"Ah, well, I don't want it all. I am not going to load up the brig with
a cargo of timber. I only want that big dwarf branch from low down
there where it starts from close to the root; and you will mind and get
that big elbow-like piece as long as you can, Joe Cross."
"Ay, ay, sir! Just you mark out what you want, and we'll cut accordin'.
Better take all the top off first, hadn't us?"
"Why, of course, my lad. One of you use the saw while the other works
away with an axe. You quite understand?"
"Ay, ay, sir; me and my mate has seen a ship's knee afore now;" and
rolling up their sleeves, they soon made the place echo with the blows
of the axe, while the rasping harsh sound of the saw seemed to excite a
flock of beautifully-plumaged parrots, which began to circle round the
head of the tree, before finally settling amongst the branches uttering
their sharp screeching cries, and giving vent to croaking barks, as if
resenting this attack upon their domain.
The carpenter and his men were meanwhile hard at work at the copper
sheathing, making such progress that they were busy with their saws,
dividing plank and trenail and working their way round the hole by the
time the tide had risen sufficiently to drive them back, and then the
Count and his party grouped themselves as best they could about their
old quarters, looking despondently at what seemed like the beginning of
a very hopeless wreck, a good deal of confidence being needed on their
part to feel that all would come right in the end.
Fortunately the tide during the next two or three days did not rise so
high, and good progress was made, while, thanks to the way in which the
French crew had worked, the damage done by the water as it flowed in
through the gap that was made was principally confined to its leaving a
thick deposit of mud.
The doctor tried all he could to persuade the Count to take up his abode
upon the schooner, and offered to accommodate as many men as he liked to
bring with him, but he would not hear of it, and, as Rodd said
laughingly to Morny, insisted upon living all upon one side and climbing
instead of walking about the deck.
Then all at once there was a surprise. It was on the third day, when
Joe Cross and his mate had called in the aid of a couple more to help
drag the ponderous roughed-out piece of crooked timber to the waterside
ready for the carpenter and his men to work into shape with their adzes,
and while the latter were slaving away at high pressure to get all
possible done before they were stopped by the tide, that, in obedience
to a shout from Captain Chubb, all the men of the schooner's crew
hurried to their boat to get on board, while those of the brig hurried
to their arms ready for any emergency. For coming up with the tide and
round a bend of the river, a large three-masted schooner made its
appearance with what seemed to be quite a large crew of well-armed men
clustering forward, and apparently surprised at seeing that the river
had its occupants already there.
"What do you make of them, sir?" shouted the skipper through his
speaking trumpet.
"A foreigner--Spanish, I think," shouted back the Count, after lowering
his spy-glass. "Same here, sir. Slaver, I think." The fact of her
proving to be a slaver did not mean that an attack was looming in the
future, but slaving vessels upon the West Coast of Africa bore a very
bad reputation, and the preparations that were rapidly made did not
promise much of a welcome.
As the stranger drew near it was evident that busy preparations were
being made there too, but in his brief colloquy with Uncle Paul the
skipper grunted out that he did not think the foreign vessel meant to
attack, but to be ready to take care of herself in case the English
schooner tried to surprise her and make her a prize.
"We ought to have taken the boat," he said, "and gone up. It seems to
me that there must be a town up there somewhere--savage town, of course,
belonging to some chief, for it aren't likely that there can be three of
us all coming out here into this river on a scientific cruise. Two's
curious enough, English and French, but a Spaniel won't do at all. For
that's what she is, sir, plain enough. Well, if she means fight, sir,
you mean business, I suppose?"
"Of course," said the doctor sternly; "and I am quite sure that we can
depend upon the Count's help."
"Ay, ay, sir; but it's a bad job the brig can't manoeuvre at all."
"But I should say," said the doctor, "that when these men see how firm
we are and well prepared, they will prove peaceable enough."
As it proved in a short time after colours had been hoisted, those of
the French brig being raised upon a spare spar, the stranger came
steadily on in the most peaceable way till the tide had carried her
within reasonable distance of the schooner's anchorage, when an order
rang out, an anchor was lowered with a splash, and as she swung slowly
round, a light boat was dropped from the davits, and a swarthy-looking
Spaniard, who seemed to be an officer if not the skipper of the
swift-looking raking craft, had himself rowed alongside the schooner. A
brief colloquy took place in which questions and answers freely passed,
Captain Chubb speaking out frankly as to the object of their mission
there, an avowal hardly necessary, for the appearance of the brig with
the newly-cut hole, and her position, told its own story.
The Spanish skipper, for so he proved to be, was just as free in his
announcements as soon as he found that the brig and schooner were
friendly vessels, and began to explain that he was on a trading
expedition, that there was a king of the country up there, a great black
chief, who had a large town, and that he came from time to time with
stores to barter, which he always did with great advantage, going away
afterwards pretty well laden with palm-oil and sundries, which the
blacks always had waiting for his annual visit, these sundries
including, he said, with a meaning laugh, ostrich feathers, choice dye
woods, ivory, and a little gold.
He spoke strongly accented but very fair English, and made no scruple
about coming on board the schooner and examining her critically as he
talked.
"I thought at first, captain, that you had found out my private trading
port and were going to be a rival;" whereupon the doctor began chatting
freely with him and asking questions about the natural products of the
place; and Rodd listened eagerly, drinking in the replies made by the
Spanish captain as soon as he thoroughly realised the object of the
schooner's visit and the bearing of the doctor's questions.
He soon became eagerly communicative regarding the wild beasts that
haunted the forests, the serpents that were found of great size, the
leopards and other wild cats that might be shot for their skins, the
beauty of the plumage of the birds, and above all the wondrous size of
the apes that haunted the trees.
"There's gold too to be washed out of the soil," he said, looking hard
at Rodd; "but don't you touch it. Leave that to the blacks."
"Why?" said Rodd.
"Because," said the man, shaking a fore-finger at him, upon which was a
thick gold ring, "the white men who turn up the wet earth to wash it out
get fever."
"But," said the doctor, "we have not come gold-hunting. And so there
are great apes in these forests? Have you seen them?"
"Oh, yes," said the Spanish captain. "I have been coming here for ten
years, and never saw another vessel up here before--only the big canoes
of the blacks. Why, I could take you into the forest and show you
plenty of beautiful birds and flowers, and all kinds of wonders."
"But the forest seems to be impassable," put in Rodd.
"Yes," said the Spaniard, with a laugh--"to those who don't know their
way. Higher up there are small rivers which run into this, where boats
can go up and get to where the trees are not all crowded together, but
more open like this patch here," he continued, waving his hand to where
the forest retired back. "There are sluggish streams where you can
wander for days, and camp ashore, and shoot all kinds of things. I used
to at one time, when it was all new to me; and I collected skins and
sent them to Cadiz and other European cities, where they sold well. But
I have given all that up long enough. The black king--bah!--chief--he's
only a savage. He makes his people collect the palm-oil and other
things for me, and I load up and take them back."
"Then you would make a good guide," said the doctor.
"I, captain?" said the man eagerly. "Oh yes. A man could not come here
for ten years, and stay a month or two each time, without getting to
know the country well."
"I suppose not. But this is the captain. I am only a doctor,
travelling to make discoveries."
"Ah, a doctor!" cried the Spaniard eagerly. "Then you will help me and
one or two of my men! Yes? I will pay you well."
"Oh," said the doctor quietly, "if I can help you, or any one with you
who needs assistance, I will do so, of course. I want no pay, but I
might ask you to guide me and my nephew here in a little expedition or
two into the forest."
"Uncle," said Rodd quickly, "we mustn't leave the Count and Morny."
"Well, well," said the doctor, "we'll see about that."
"I am glad to know you, Senor Medico," said the Spaniard, patting on the
stiffness of the formal Don and bowing profoundly, "and I will gladly
help you in any way I can. But I am only a poor trader, and glad to do
any business I can when I meet a strange ship that has needs. Do you
want powder? I see you have guns," he said sharply.
"Oh yes," said the doctor. "One never knows what enemies one may meet
with among savage people; so we are well-armed, and as you see have a
good crew."
"Yes, yes," said the Spaniard, looking sharply round.
"But I thank you. We have plenty of powder."
"So have I," said the Spaniard. "The black chief is always glad to buy
it, and guns too. That is my money--that and rum. Those will always
buy palm-oil. But I have plenty of ship stores; canvas, oakum, and
pitch. You are mending the other ship, I see. Can I sell you some?"
"I thank you, no," said the doctor. "We are well supplied, I think,
with everything; and in reply, if there is anything you want that we can
supply to you I shall be pleased."
"Then I should like a few canisters of your good English powder."
"Thought you said you'd plenty," said Captain Chubb gruffly.
The Spaniard closed his eyes slowly till they were like two narrow
slits, and he gave the skipper a meaning nod.
"Yes," he said significantly, "I have plenty. It is good for the black
man's guns. But if you fired it from yours--pff! It makes much smoke,
and the barrel very wet, and the shot do not go too far. But the black
men know no better. I do. Ha, ha! You will let me have a few pounds
for my own pistols?"
"And that long gun of yours too?" said the skipper.
"Yes," said the Spaniard. "As your medico says, one never knows what
savage people one may meet. It is good too behind a bullet for our
friends here in the river. You have seen them?"
He put his wrists together with his palms closed, and then slowly opened
them widely in imitation of a crocodile's jaws, and closed them with a
snap.
"Oh yes," said Rodd, "we have met them, and found out how horny their
skins are."
"Ugh! Beasts!" said the Spaniard. "Last time I was here they swept two
of my men out of a boat, and I never saw them more. We caught some fish
as we came up the river, at the mouth. _Adios, senores_; I will send
you some. We shall meet again. I do not hurry for some days, for I am
before my time."
"How far is it up to the town?" asked Captain Chubb.
"Three days' journey. This is a great river, and the water is deep
right up into the country till you reach the mountains, far beyond the
town."
"Well," said the doctor, "let's go ashore, Rodd, and tell the Count. We
didn't bargain for this, eh, captain?"
"No," said the skipper gruffly, as he watched the departing boat, after
ordering the crew back into their own so as to row the doctor and his
nephew to the brig.
"Well, Rodd," continued the doctor, "it would be a grand chance for us
to have some expeditions with a good guide. What do you think of the
Spanish captain?"
"Don't like him at all, uncle. There's a nasty, catty, foxy look about
him."
"A mixture of the feline and the canine, eh, my boy? Well, he must be a
bad one! Ah! British prejudice is as strong in you as it is in me."