Nobody would have credited Williams, the cabin-boy, with very much
'cuteness. We never know the hidden depths of even a young lad's mind.
The Finn Norman had in his two countrymen and in the Spaniards five men
willing to do anything. To put it plainly, for gold they would use
their knives against their dearest friends, and rejoice in it too.
Norman had not only a body of fearful physical strength, but a winning
and persuasive tongue, and he wheedled over no less than three
Englishmen, or rather Scotsmen, to join his forces.
Late one night a half-whispered conversation was held near to the winch.
The Finn had been here before--that is, up in the South Pacific--and he
could guide them to an island of gold. And what was it that gold could
not purchase in this world? he added. "Everyone of you shall be
wealthy. We shall then scrape the vessel from stem to stern, alter her
name and rigging, and after loading up with gold, sail for distant
Australia. There we shall sell the ship and, going to the diggings for
a time, to avoid suspicion, will in a few months return to Sidney or
Melbourne as lucky miners. Then hurrah for home!"
"We will join," said the Scotsman, "on one condition."
"And that is?"
"There must be no murder."
"Your request is granted. We will rise suddenly, batten down the men
below, then rushing aft we shall secure the officers in the saloon. The
vessel will then be ours. But we shall maroon the men on the nearest
land, with biscuits and a few arms. The women will be best on board,"
he grinned.
"Bah!" said a Spaniard, drawing his ugly knife. "Let us throat them.
Dead men tell no tales, you know. Take my advice."
But the marooning was finally decided on, and the mutineers retired to
their bunks or to their duty.
Little did they know that the cabin-boy, with listening ears, though
almost frightened out of his life, was hiding behind the winch and had
heard every word they had said.
As soon as it was possible he escaped, and going at once aft, he
reported in a frightened whisper all the details of the terrible plot.
"Horrible!" said Dickson.
"Strikes me," said Hall, "that there must be a Jonah on board, or a
murderer. Let us draw for him, putting all names in a hat, and then
lynch the fellow!"
"If," said Dickson, "there be a murderer on board, the fellow is that
Finn."
"Seize the scoundrel at once, then," cried Hall, "and throw him to the
sharks or put him in irons."
"No, I'll wait, and Williams shall be our spy."
Nearly all the mutineers were in the same watch, only one good man and
true being among them. Norman played his game well. He knew that if
suspected at all, they would be watched by night, so he chose broad
daylight for the awful _denouement_. While the men were below at
dinner, those in the cabin all having luncheon, then Norman suddenly
gave the preconcerted signal.
The hatches were thrown on in a moment, and screwed down by two men,
while the main band rushed aft and secured the saloon door.
"If you value your lives in there," savagely shouted the Finn down
through the skylight, as that too was being fastened securely down,
"you'll keep quiet."
Hall had both his revolvers out in a trice, and fired; but the skylights
were closed, and no harm or good was done.
Next the mutineers threw open the fore-hatch, and at pistol point
ordered every man into the half-deck cabin abaft the galley and abaft
the sailors' sleeping bunks.
"I'll shoot the first man dead," cried Norman, "who does not look
active!"
The communication door was then secured, and all was deemed safe. They
would bear north now, and make for the nearest island.
The rum store was near the foot of the stair, or companion, and close to
the stewardess's pantry. The key hung there, so more than a gallon of
rum was got up and taken forward.
The engineers were told that if they did not crack on, they would be had
on deck and made to walk the plank.
The Finn had not meant that any orgie should take place; but take place
it did, and a fearful one too. The man at the wheel kept on for fear of
death, and so did the engineers.
By twelve o'clock, or eight bells, in the first watch, the fellows were
helplessly drunk and lying about in the galley in all directions.
Little Williams, the cabin-boy, had been overlooked. Wise he was
indeed, for now he very quietly hauled on the fore-hatch--ay, and
screwed it down. Then he went quickly aft and succeeded in releasing
the officers. The men were next set free, and the door between secured
aft.
In ten minutes' time every mutineer in the ship was in irons. Surely no
mutiny was ever before quelled in so speedy and bloodless a manner!
"I knew," said Hall, "that we had a Jonah on board, and that Jonah is
the double-dyed villain Christian Norman. Say, Captain Dickson, is it
going to be a hanging match?"
"I am almost tempted to hang the ringleader," replied Dickson, "but this
would be far too tragical, especially with ladies on board. Remember
that, be his heart what it may, there is just one little good spot in
his character. He dearly loved little Matty, and she loved him."
"Well, sir, what are you going to do about it? I'd like to know that."
"This. I cannot pardon any single one of these villains. The Scotsmen,
indeed, are worse in a manner of speaking than the Finns or cowardly
Spaniards. I shall mete out to them the same punishment, though in a
lesser degree, that they would have meted out to us. Not on the
inhospitable snow-clad shores of the Tierra del Fuego islands shall they
be placed, but on the most solitary isle I can find in some of the South
Pacific groups."
Now things went on more pleasantly for a time. The prisoners were not
only in leg-irons, but manacled, and with sentries placed over them
watch and watch by night and by day. These men had orders to shoot at
once any man who made the slightest attempt to escape.
It was about a week after this, the _Wolverine_ had safely rounded the
stormy Cape, and was now in the broad Pacific. A sailor of the name of
Robertson had just gone on sentry, when, without a word of warning,
Norman the Finn suddenly raised himself to his feet and felled him with
his manacled hands. The strength of the fellow was enormous. But the
ring of a rifle was heard next minute, and Norman fell on his face, shot
through the heart.
He was thrown overboard that same evening with scant ceremony.
"I feel happier now," said Hall, "that even our Jonah is no more. Now
shall our voyage be more lucky and pleasant."
Ah! but was it?
The _Wolverine_ was purposely kept well out of the ordinary track of
ships coming or going from either China or Australia. And luck or not
luck, after ten days' steaming westward and north, they sighted an
island unknown to the navigator, unknown to any chart. It was small,
but cocoa-nuts waved from the summit of its lofty hills.
Here, at all events, there must be fruit in abundance, with probably
edible rodents, and fish in the sea. And here the mutineers were
marooned. Not without fishing gear were they left, nor without a small
supply of biscuits, and just three fowling pieces and ammunition, with
some axes and carpenter's tools.
They deserved a worse fate, but Dickson was kind at heart.
Well, at any rate, they pass out of our story. On that island they
probably are until this day.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Everyone on the _Wolverine_ seemed to breathe more freely now, and the
vessel was once more headed eastwards to regain her direct route to
California and San Francisco.
For a whole week the breeze blew so pleasantly and steadily that fires
were bunked and all sail set. The very ship herself seemed to have
regained cheerfulness and confidence, and to go dancing over the sunlit
sea, under her white wing-like studding sails, as if she were of a
verity a thing of life. Those on board soon forgot all their trials and
misery. The mutineers were themselves forgotten. Matty and Oscar (who
had recovered from his spear wound) resumed their romps on deck, and
surely never did sea-going yacht look more snug and clean than did the
_Wolverine_ at this time.
She was still far out of the usual track of ships, however, though now
bearing more to the nor'ard. So far north were they, indeed, that the
twilight at morn or even was very short indeed. In the tropics, it is
not figurative language, but fact, to say that, the red sun seemed to
leap from behind the clear horizon. But a few minutes before this one
might have seen, high in the east, purple streaks of clouds, changing
quickly to crimson or scarlet, then the sun, like a huge blood orange,
dyeing the rippling sea.
At night the descent was just as sudden, but my pen would fail did I try
to describe the evanescent beauty of those glorious sunsets.
Light and sunshine are ever lovely; so is colour; but here was light and
colour co-mingled in a transformation scene so grand, so vast, that it
struck the heart of the beholder with a species of wonder not unmixed
with awe. And the beholders were usually silent. Then all night long
in the west played the silent lightning, bringing into shape and form
many a rock-like, tower-like cloud. It was behind these clouds of the
night that this tropical lightning played and danced and shimmered.
Then at times they came into a sea of phosphorescent light. It was seen
all around, but brighter where the vessel raised ripples along the
quarter. It dropped like fire from her bows, ay, and even great fishes
could be seen--sharks in all probability--sinking down, down, down into
the sea's dark depths, like fishes of fire, till at last they were
visible only like little balls of light, speedily to be extinguished.
About this latitude flying gurnets leapt on board by the score on some
nights, and a delightful addition indeed did they prove to the matutinal
_menu_. Sometimes a huge octopus would be seen in the phosphorescent
sea. It is the devil-fish of the tropics, and, with his awful head and
arms, so abhorrent and nightmarish was the sight that it could not be
beheld without a shudder.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Pacific Ocean! Yes, truly, very often pacific enough; so much so
that with ordinary luck one might sail across its waters in a dinghy
boat. But there are times when some portions of it are swept by
terrific circular storms. Ah! happy is the ship that, overtaken by one
of these, can manage to keep well out and away from its vortex.
One evening the sun went down amidst a chaos of dark and threatening
clouds, from which thunder was occasionally heard like the sound of
distant artillery, but muttering, and more prolonged. The glass went
tumbling down. Captain Dickson had never seen it so low. The wind too
had failed, and before sunset the sea lay all around them, a greasy
glitter on its surface like mercury, with here and there the fin of a
basking shark appearing on the surface. Even the air was stifling,
sickening almost, as if the foetus of the ocean's slimy depths had been
stirred up and risen to the surface.
All sail was speedily taken in, and by the aid of oil, the fires were
quickly roaring hot beneath the boilers.