The day was well advanced, and the fierce rays of the African sun were
pouring on the "Halcyon's" decks, as she lay at anchor in Saint
Augustine's Bay. On shore the parrots could be heard chattering and
screaming, the long cry of the peacock sounded from the woods, while on
board every sign of the late bloody fight had been removed. The
"Halcyon's" crew had been reduced by five deaths, and many of the men
were hardly able to work from the effects of weakness. Still everything
was going on well. The fore-topmast was in its place, the
main-topgallant-mast replaced, and the standing and running rigging
nearly finished. A new jib-boom had been rigged out, and the only spar
wanting was the fore-topgallant-mast, which could be easily done
without. The mate had weighed the spare anchor, and the brig now rode
to a single one, and that was hove short. The crew were busy bending
new sails, and no one who had looked into St Augustine's Bay that
afternoon could have imagined that the vessel which lay so quietly
riding on the calm waters, had just escaped from shipwreck, and her crew
from murder.
"I know where the rascals hail from," said Captain Weber to the
missionary.
The old seaman had a broad bandage round his forehead, and Wyzinski
walked with the help of a stick. Leaning over the taffrail at some
little distance, Hughes and Dom Maxara were in earnest conversation, the
blue smoke from the noble's cigarette rising in the air.
"I should not have believed in piracy in this age," replied Wyzinski.
"Ay, but several vessels have been closely followed by a low rakish
black schooner, of small tonnage, but very swift. The `Dawn,' a
full-rigged ship I spoke in the latitude of Cape St Andre, had some
difficulty in getting away from her."
"Is she armed?" asked Wyzinski.
"The `Dawn's' people said not, but as the ship happened to be crowded
with coolies, it is possible that the schooner would not show her
metal."
"And you think that the Malays were part of her crew?"
"I feel sure of it. The schooner has run into some of the little bays
of the coast, and is now doubtless lying within a few miles of us. This
night she will make a second attempt."
"And will find the Bay empty."
"Certainly. In two hours I shall be ready to heave up the anchor, warp
the brig well up with the entrance to the Bay, and profit by the breeze,
which generally blows from the eastward after sunset."
"It would be necessary to move on another account, Captain Weber."
"Ay, ay; forty-eight hours would bring some of those fellows up from the
bottom bobbing about us, the big chap whose skull I scratched, among the
rest."
"He gave you some trouble, did he not?"
"I should have mastered him single handed," replied the old seaman, "if
I had not been trampled on and crushed by both parties. I never quite
lost consciousness, but I was very near it when the big villain dashed
away on to the quarter-deck."
"Mr Lowe," continued the captain, "heave up the anchor, and let me know
when you are ready for the warp."
"Ay, ay, sir," replied the mate, whose left arm was in a sling, going
forward.
Captain Hughes, his arms folded, was leaning over the taffrail, when the
clink of the capstan made itself heard, as the sailors shipped the bars,
and to the merry tones of the flute began heaving up the anchor. Dom
Maxara was standing erect beside him, his tall figure and noble bearing
telling of a proud and haughty nature.
"Isabel has told me what has passed between you, Senhor Capitano,"
continued the noble; "but though I will never thwart her will, you must
remember we know little of each other."
"Ours has scarcely been a ball-room meeting," returned the English
officer, in a tone scarcely less haughty than that of the Portuguese.
"That I am willing to concede, and more, for on one occasion at least my
daughter owed you her life, but even that is not a debt on which a noble
caballero counts. Are you aware that Isabel, on her father's side,
descends from the oldest dukedom of the land, that of the princely house
of Cadaval?"