"No, sir," I answered; "it is little more than a cat's-paw at present,
but it has the appearance of being fairly steady."
"How long do you think it will be before it reaches us?" asked the
second luff.
"Probably half an hour, at the least, sir," I answered.
I noticed Mr Fawcett say something to the skipper; and then they both
looked up at the sails. The captain nodded, as though giving his assent
to some proposal. The next moment the second lieutenant gave the order
to range the wash-deck tubs along the deck, and to fill them. This was
soon done; and while some of the hands were busy drawing water from over
the side, and pouring it into the tubs, others came aloft and rigged
whips at the yard-arms, by means of which water from the tubs was
hoisted aloft in buckets and emptied over the sails until every inch of
canvas that we could spread was thoroughly saturated with water. Thus
the small interstices between the threads of the fabric were filled, and
the sails enabled to retain every breath of air that might come along.
By the time that this was done the first cat's-paws of the approaching
breeze were playing around us, distending our lighter sails for a moment
or two, and then dying away again. But light and evanescent as these
cat's-paws were, they were sufficient to get the brig round with her
jib-boom pointing straight for the chase once more; and a minute or two
later the first of the true breeze reached us, and we began to glide
slowly ahead before it, with squared yards. The men were still kept
busy with the buckets, however, for, in order that the sails should be
of any real service to us, it was necessary to keep them thoroughly wet,
and this involved the continuous drawing and hoisting aloft of water,
for the sun's rays were so intensely ardent that the water evaporated
almost as rapidly as it was thrown upon the canvas.
The breeze came down very slowly, and seemed very loath to freshen; but
this, tantalising though it was to us, was all in our favour, for we
thus practically carried the breeze down with us, while the two strange
sail away in the western board remained completely becalmed. Of this
latter fact I soon had most satisfactory evidence, for, without having
recourse at all to my sextant, I was enabled, in that atmosphere of
crystalline clearness, to see with the naked eye that we were steadily
raising them, an hour's sailing having brought the bulwark rail of both
craft flush with the horizon at my point of observation. By this time,
however, the breeze had slid some three miles ahead of us, its margin,
where it met and overran the glassy surface of the becalmed sea ahead,
being very distinctly visible. At last, too, the wind was manifesting
some slight tendency to freshen, for, looking aft, I saw that all our
after canvas, even to the heavy mainsail which was hanging in its
brails, was swelling out and drawing bravely, while the little streak of
froth and foam-bells that gathered under our sharp bows, and went
sliding and softly seething aft into our wake, told me that we were
slipping through the water at a good honest six-knot pace. With this
most welcome freshening of the wind the necessity to keep the canvas
continuously wet came to an end; and the men, glad of the relief, were
called down on deck to clean up the mess made by the lavish use of the
water.
Another half-hour passed, and the strange craft were hull-up, when the
captain hailed me from the deck in the wake of the main rigging.
"What is the latest news of the strangers, Mr Grenvile?" he asked.
"Has the breeze yet reached them?"
"No, sir; not yet," I answered; "but I expect it will in the course of
the next half-hour. They are hull-up from here, sir; and I should think
that you ought to be able to see the mast-heads of the larger craft--the
brig--from the deck, by this time."
Hearing this, the skipper and Mr Fawcett walked forward to the
forecastle, the former levelling the telescope that he carried in his
hand, and pointing it straight ahead. Then, removing the tube from his
eye, the captain handed over the instrument to the second luff, who, in
his turn, took a good long look, and returned the telescope to the
captain. They stood talking together for a minute or two; and then
Captain Bentinck, glancing up at me, hailed.
"Mr Grenvile," said he, "I am about to send this glass up to you by
means of the signal halyards. I want you to keep an eye on those two
craft down there, and report anything particular that you may see going
on; and let me know when the breeze reaches them, and whether they keep
together when it does so."
"Ay, ay, sir!" I answered. And when the telescope came up I made
myself comfortable, feeling quite prepared to remain in the cross-trees
for the rest of the watch.
The breeze, meanwhile, continued steadily to freshen, and when at length
it reached the two strange sail ahead of us we were buzzing along, with
a long, easy, rolling motion over the low swell, at a speed of fully
nine knots, with a school of porpoises gambolling under our bows--each
of them apparently out-vying the others in the attempt to see which of
them could shoot closest athwart our cut-water without being touched by
it--and shoal after shoal of flying-fish sparking out from the bow surge
and streaming away to port and starboard like so many handfuls of bright
new silver coins flung hither and thither by Father Neptune.
As the strangers caught the first of the breeze they squared away before
it; but I presently saw that, instead of steering precisely parallel
courses, as though they intended to continue in each other's company,
they were diverging at an angle of about forty-five degrees, the brig
bringing the wind about two points on her port quarter, while the
schooner, steering a somewhat more northerly course, held it about two
points on her starboard quarter. Thus, while they were running almost
directly away from us, they were also rapidly widening the distance
between each other, and it would therefore be very necessary for the
skipper to make up his mind quickly which of the two craft he would
pursue--for it was clear that, by this manoeuvre on their part, they had
rendered it impossible for us to chase them both.
I was in the act of reporting this matter to the skipper and the second
lieutenant, who were walking the quarter-deck together, when Mr
Fawcett--who, with the captain, had come to a halt at my hail--suddenly
reeled, staggered, and fell prone upon the deck with a crash. The
skipper instantly sprang to his assistance, as did young Christy, a
fellow mid of mine, who was pacing fore and aft on the opposite side of
the deck, and three or four men who were at work about some job in the
wake of the main rigging; and between them they raised the poor fellow
up and carried him below. I subsequently learned--when I eventually
descended from aloft--that the surgeon had reported him to be suffering
from sunstroke, which was complicated by an injury to the skull
sustained by his having struck his head upon a ring-bolt in the deck as
he fell.
Meanwhile, during the temporary confusion that ensued on deck in
consequence of this untoward incident, I employed myself in the careful
measurement of the angle made by the mast-heads of the two strange sail
with the now sharply defined horizon, and noting the result upon the
back of an envelope which I happened to have in my jacket pocket. I had
scarcely done this when the skipper hailed me, asking whether we seemed
to be gaining anything upon the strangers, or whether I thought that
they were running away from us. I replied that the breeze had reached
them too recently to enable me to judge, but that I hoped to be in a
position to let him know definitely in the course of the next half-hour.
I then explained to him what I had done, and he was pleased to express
his approval. Meanwhile we continued to steer a course about midway
between that of the two strangers, by which means it was hoped that we
should be able to keep both in sight, in readiness to haul up for that
one upon which we seemed to be most decidedly gaining.
The breeze still continued to freshen upon us, to such an extent that
when my watch told me it was time to re-measure my angle, we were
bowling along at the rate of nearly twelve knots, and the sea was
beginning to rise, while our lighter studding-sail booms were buckling
rather ominously. I took my angle again, and, rather to my surprise,
found that we were slightly gaining upon the schooner, while the brig
was fully holding her own with us, if indeed she was not doing something
even better than that. I reported this to the skipper, who seemed to
have made up his mind already as to his course of action; for upon
hearing what I had to say he instantly gave orders for our helm to be
shifted in pursuit of the schooner. Then, seeming suddenly to remember
that it was my watch below, he hailed me, telling me that I might come
down.
Having reached the deck, I at once trotted below to make my preparation
for taking the sun's meridian altitude, for it was now drawing on
towards noon.
When, a little later, I again went on deck, I found that the wind had
continued to freshen, and was now blowing a really strong breeze, while
the sea had wrinkled under the scourging of it to a most beautiful deep
dark-blue tint, liberally dashed with snow-white patches of froth as the
surges curled over and broke in their chase after our flying hull. Our
canvas was now dragging at the spars and sheets like so many teams of
cart-horses, the delicate blue shadows coming and going upon the cream-
white surfaces as the ship rolled with the regularity of a swinging
pendulum. Every inch of our running gear was as taut as a harp-string,
and through it the wind piped and sang as though the whole ship had been
one gigantic musical instrument; while over all arched the blue dome of
an absolutely cloudless sky, in the very zenith of which blazed the sun
with a fierceness that made all of us eager to seek out such small
patches of fugitive shadow as were cast by the straining canvas. The
sun was so nearly vertical that our bulwarks, although they were high,
afforded us no protection whatever from his scorching rays.
The two strange sail were by this time visible from our deck, and it was
apparent that, in the strong breeze which was now blowing, we were
rapidly overhauling the schooner, while the brig was not only holding
her own with us, but had actually increased her distance, as she
gradually hauled to the wind, so as to allow us to run away to leeward
of her.
The pursuit of the schooner lasted all through the afternoon, and it was
close upon sunset when we arrived within range of her, and plumped a
couple of 24-pound shot clean through her mainsail, whereupon her
skipper saw fit to round-to all standing, back his topsail, and hoist
Spanish colours, only to haul them down again in token of surrender.
Whereupon Mr Seaton, our first lieutenant, in charge of an armed boat's
crew, went away to take possession of the prize, and since I was the
only person on board possessing even a passable acquaintance with the
Spanish language, I was ordered to accompany him.
Our prize proved to be the _Dolores_, of two hundred tons measurement,
with--as we had suspected--a cargo of slaves, numbering three hundred
and fifty, which she had shipped in one of the numerous creeks at the
mouth of the Congo on the previous day, and with which she was bound for
Rio Grande. Her crew were transferred to the _Shark_; and then--the
second lieutenant being ill and quite unfit for service--I was put in
command of her, with a crew of fourteen men, and instructed to make the
best of my way to Sierra Leone. My crew of fourteen included Gowland,
our master's mate, and young Sinclair, a first-class volunteer, as well
as San Domingo, the servant of the midshipmen's mess, to act as steward,
and the cook's mate. We therefore mustered only five forecastle hands
to a watch, which I thought little enough for a schooner of the size of
the _Dolores_; but as we hoped to reach Sierra Leone in a week at the
outside, and as the schooner was unarmed, Captain Bentinck seemed to
think that we ought to be able to manage fairly well. By the time that
we had transferred ourselves and our traps to the prize it had fallen
quite dark. The _Shark_ therefore lost no time in hauling her wind in
pursuit of the strange brig, which by this time had run out of sight,
and of which the skipper of the _Dolores_ professed to know nothing
beyond the fact that she was French, was named the _Suzanne_, and was
running a cargo of slaves across to Martinique.