I was awakened by the entrance of the stewards, who, at six bells on the
following morning, came into the saloon to brush and dust up generally,
and lay the tables for nine-o'clock breakfast. The head steward
apologised for waking me, and informed me that there was no need for me
to disturb myself, also that Carter had informed him of my presence, and
commended me to his care. But I had slept like a log, and felt
thoroughly refreshed; I therefore went out on deck, and betook myself
forward to the eyes of the ship, where I stripped and indulged in the
luxury of a shower-bath under the head-pump.
It was a most glorious morning, the sun was shining brilliantly, with a
keen bite in his rays already, although he was but an hour high; and
there was a strong breeze blowing from the northward, under the
influence of which the ship was reeling off her ten knots, under a main
topgallant-sail. But I was greatly surprised to see that, instead of
steering south, we were heading in for the coast, on a south-westerly
course. I made some remark upon this to Carter, who again had the
watch, to which he replied:
"Well, you see, sir, it's a fancy of the skipper's. He's got some sort
of a theory that, by hugging the coast close, and takin' advantage of
the sea and land breezes, as they blows night and mornin', we shall do
rather better than we should by thrashin' to wind'ard against the south-
east trade. I don't know whether there's anything in it myself, but
it's the first time that I've ever heard of the notion. But there he
is--and in a blazin' bad temper, too, by the looks of him! Shall I take
you aft and introjuce you to him?"
"Certainly," said I. "If we are to have any unpleasantness, let us have
it at once, and get it over."
There was, however, to be no unpleasantness--just then, at all events--
except in so far as poor Carter was concerned; for when he and I went
aft to where Captain Williams--a tall, powerful-looking, and rather
handsome man in a barbaric sort of way, with a pair of piercing black
eyes, and an abundant crop of black, curly hair, with beard and
moustache to match--was standing on the quarter-deck, just outside the
entrance of the saloon, the captain stepped forward, and, extending his
hand, bade me welcome to his ship with every sign of the utmost
friendliness. But he gave poor Carter a terrific wigging for not having
called him when the boats were first sighted, and for receiving us on
board without first consulting him.
"For how could you know, Mr Carter," he said, "that the boats were not
full of pirates? Less unlikely things than that have happened, let me
tell you; and when you come to know this coast as well as I know it, you
will be rather more chary of receiving a couple of boats' crews
professing to be distressed seamen."
"Oh," said I, "as to that, Mr Carter took pretty good care to satisfy
himself as to our _bona fides_ before permitting us to come alongside!
At all events he made sure that we were British, and I think there are
very few Britons who take kindly to piracy."
"Perhaps not, sir, perhaps not; at least I hope that, for the credit of
our countrymen, you are right," answered the skipper. "At the same time
there are many foreigners who speak English well enough to answer a
hail, and I want to impress upon Mr Carter the fact that it was his
duty to call me, under the peculiar circumstances, and to allow me to
decide as to the advisability of admitting two boat-loads of strangers
aboard my ship. Please don't do it again, sir."
Whereupon poor Carter promised to be more circumspect in future, and
slunk away with very much the aspect and manner of a beaten dog. I felt
very sorry for the man, for, even admitting that the skipper was right--
as he certainly was--I thought it would have been in very much better
taste if he had taken an opportunity to point out to his subordinate, in
private, the imprudence of which he had been guilty, instead of
administering a reprimand in the presence of a stranger. Apart from
that it appeared to me that there was not very much wrong with the man,
and the question arose in my mind whether, despite the protest that
Carter had thought it necessary to address to me, he might not be to
some extent prejudiced against his skipper. And this feeling was
somewhat strengthened when, as, in compliance with Captain Williams's
request, I gave him an account of our recent adventures, he informed me
that the ship carried a doctor, and at once sent a messenger to that
functionary, informing him that some wounded men had been taken on board
during the night, and requesting him to give them his best attention
forthwith.
As the skipper and I stood talking together, the passengers, who had
learned from the stewards that we had been picked up during the night,
came hurrying up on deck, one after another, full of curiosity to see
the individuals who had joined the ship under such interesting
circumstances; and I was duly introduced to them. To take them in what
appeared to be the recognised order of their social importance, they
were, first, General Sir Thomas Baker, his wife, Lady Hetty Baker, and
his rather elderly daughter, Phoebe, returning to India from furlough;
Mrs Euphemia Jennings, the young wife of an important official, who had
just left her only boy--a lad of five years of age--with friends in
England, for his health's sake, and with her a niece of her husband--a
Miss Flora Duncan, a most lovely girl of about sixteen. Then came Mr
and Mrs Richard Morton, people of some means, who were going to India
to try their fortune at indigo planting, under the auspices of a friend
and former schoolfellow of the husband, and who had sent home glowing
accounts of the great things that might be done in that way by a man of
energy with a reasonable amount of capital; and with them went their
three children, Frank, Mary, and Susie, aged respectively eleven, eight,
and six years. And finally, there were Messrs. Fielder, Acutt, Boyne,
Pearson, and Taylor--five young men ranging from seventeen to twenty-one
years of age, who were going out to take up appointments in the
Company's service. All these people were very kind and nice to me, but
I could not help being secretly amused at the fiery energy with which
the general denounced what he characterised as "the criminal
carelessness" of Captain Bentinck in turning me adrift in an unarmed
schooner with a crew of only fourteen hands.
"By Jove, sir, I call it little short of murder," he shouted. "The idea
of asking you--ay, and expecting you--to take a fully-loaded slaver into
port with only fourteen men to back you up, and no guns! The man ought
to be ashamed of himself! But it is just like you navy fellows; you are
constantly asking one another to do things which seem impossible!"
"Yes, sir," I said demurely, "and not infrequently we do them."
"Do them!" he exploded. "Yes, I will do you the credit to admit that
you never know when you are beaten; and that, I suppose, is why the
blue-jackets so often succeed in performing the apparently impossible.
But that in no way weakens my contention that your captain was guilty of
a piece of most culpable negligence in sending you away without
furnishing you with a battery of guns with which to defend yourself and
your ship!"
Fortunately, at this moment the breakfast bell rang, and, the general
and his wife leading the way, we all trooped into the saloon and seated
ourselves at the elegantly furnished and bountifully provided breakfast
tables.
During the progress of the meal I of course had a further opportunity to
observe the behaviour of the skipper, and when I rose from the table I
was obliged to confess to myself that I was puzzled, for I had been
quite unable to arrive at any distinct impression of the character of
the man. For while, on the one hand, his manner to me was cordial, with
the somewhat rough and unpolished geniality of a man of a coarse and
violent temperament striving to conquer his natural disposition and
render himself agreeable, I could find no fault with the arrangements he
proposed to make for my own comfort and that of my men. And his
expressions of sympathy with us in our misfortunes were everything that
could be wished for; but, somehow, they did not ring true. Thus, when
in the course of the conversation--which, as was very natural under the
circumstances, rather persistently dwelt upon my little party and our
adventures--Captain Williams chose to express his gratification at
having fallen in with us and rescued us from a distinctly perilous
situation, while his words were as kind and sympathetic as could have
been desired, the expression of his countenance seemed to say, almost as
plainly as words could speak: "I devoutly wish that you had all gone to
the bottom, rather than come aboard my ship!" And I continually found
myself mentally asking the question: "Which am I to believe--this man's
words, or the expression of his eyes? Is he sincere in what he says,
and is he the unfortunate possessor of an expression that habitually
gives the lie to his words; or is he, for some sinister purpose of his
own, endeavouring to produce a false impression upon us all?" It was
quite impossible to find a satisfactory reply to these questions, yet I
found a certain amount of guidance in the manner of the passengers
toward him; I noticed that every one of them, with the exception of the
general, seemed to quail beneath his gaze, and shrink from him. As for
the general, despite his somewhat boisterous manner, he was a gentleman,
a soldier, and evidently a man who knew not what fear was, and it
appeared to me that he was distinctly distrustful of Captain Williams.
At length, by patiently watching, I succeeded in finding an opportunity
to divert the conversation from myself and my party; I saw the skipper
glance upward toward the tell-tale compass that hung in the skylight,
and as his gaze fell again it encountered my own. Instantly a most
malignant and ferocious expression swept into his eyes. Undeterred by
that, however, I composedly remarked:
"I see, Captain, you are heading in toward the coast; and Mr Carter
informs me that you propose to test practically a rather interesting
theory that you have formed as to the advantages of the alternate land
and sea breezes over those of the regular trades."
"Yes," he growled, "I do. But Mr Carter has no business to discuss my
plans or intentions with anybody. I have warned him more than once to
keep a silent tongue in his head; but the man is a fool, and will get
himself into very serious trouble some day if he doesn't keep his
weather eye lifting!"
"Well," I said, "you must not blame him in this case, for the fault--if
fault there has been--was mine. I observed the alteration in the ship's
course as soon as I stepped out on deck this morning, and remarked upon
it, and it was merely in reply to my remark that Mr Carter explained
your intentions."
"Well," he answered, "it is a rather fortunate thing for you that I
happen to have such intentions, for it affords you a chance to get
transhipped into one of your own craft, instead of having to go on with
us to Capetown, as you would almost certainly have been obliged to do if
I had followed the usual plan and stretched away over toward the South
American coast."
"Quite so," I agreed; "it certainly has that advantage, as occurred to
me the moment that Mr Carter explained your theory. And it has the
further advantage that, should you find you do not make quite such good
progress as you hope, you will be well to windward when you eventually
decide to stretch offshore into the trade wind."
"Then you think my idea has something in it?" he demanded.
"Something--yes," I agreed; "but I doubt very much whether, taking
everything into consideration, you will find that the advantages are
worth consideration."
The skipper did not agree with me, and forthwith plunged into a fiery
defence of his theory which lasted until some time after we had all
risen from the table and adjourned to the poop. In fact, he so
completely monopolised my attention up to tiffin time that I was
scarcely able to find time to go forward and enquire into the condition
of the wounded, and had no opportunity at all to improve my acquaintance
with the passengers.
After tiffin, however, the captain retired to his cabin, instead of
going on deck again, and as I stepped out of the saloon on to the
quarter-deck I felt a hand slide into my arm, and, turning round, found
the general alongside me.
"Am I right," said he, as he linked his arm in mine, "in the impression
that you do not think very highly of Captain Williams's rather peculiar
theory concerning the advantage of `keeping the coast aboard'--as I
believe you sailors term it--rather than following the usual rule of
making the most of the south-east trade wind? You are pretty well
acquainted with this coast, I suppose, and your ideas on the subject
should be of value."
"Well," said I, "the fact is, Sir Thomas, that I do not think very
highly of the captain's theory. In theory, no doubt, the idea appears
somewhat attractive, but in actual practice I should be inclined to say
that the uncertainty of the weather close inshore will probably be found
to tell against it. If the sea breeze could be absolutely depended upon
to blow every day and all day long, and the land breeze to blow every
night and all night long, there would undoubtedly be something in it.
But my experience is that these phenomena are not to be depended upon.
It often happens that when, according to all the rules, either the sea
or the land breeze should be piping up strongly, there is an absolute,
persistent calm. Nevertheless, from a purely personal point of view, I
am glad that the skipper intends to test his theory, because it will
afford me the opportunity to shift myself and my party into one of the
ships of the slave-squadron, some one of which we are pretty certain to
fall in with before long."
"Ah!" remarked the general, with a curious indrawing of his breath. "I
was rather afraid that such might be the case." He paused for a few
seconds, and then, taking a fresh grip of my arm, continued: "Do you
know, my young friend, I am rather hoping that we shall not fall in with
any of the ships of the slave-squadron, and that consequently you and
your men will be obliged to go on with us at least as far as Capetown.
It is, perhaps, a bit selfish of me to entertain such a wish, but I do,
nevertheless."
"Indeed!" said I. "May I ask why, general?"
"Of course you may, my dear boy," he answered. "It is a very natural
question. Well, the fact is that certain very curious happenings have
taken place on board this ship since she sailed out of the Thames." And
he proceeded to repeat to me the story that Carter had already told me
as to the disappearance of the original captain and his successor.
"Now," he continued, "Captain Matthews's death may have been a perfectly
natural one. I don't say that it was not, but up to the hour of his
death he looked strong and healthy enough to have lived out the full
term of his life. Moreover, he was a most temperate man in every
respect. I have, therefore, found it very difficult indeed to discover
a satisfactory explanation of his very sudden demise. And, between you
and me, although Burgess, the ship's surgeon, has never said as much in
words, I firmly believe that the occurrence puzzled him as much as it
did me; indeed, his very reticence over the affair only strengthens my
suspicion that such is the case. But, puzzling as were the
circumstances connected with Captain Matthews's death, I consider that
those associated with the death of Mr Mowbray, who took command of the
ship in place of Captain Matthews, were at least equally so. Mr
Mowbray was a man of some thirty-five years of age, very quiet,
unassuming, and gentlemanly of manner; a married man with, as I have
understood, a small family to provide for, and consequently very anxious
to rise in his profession; ambitious, in his quiet, unassuming way, and
evidently a thoroughly steady and reliable man, for I understand that he
had served under Captain Matthews for several years. No one of us ever
saw him touch wine, spirits, or drink of any description; yet only four
days after he had attained to what we may consider the summit of his
ambition, by securing the command of this fine ship, he was missing.
Williams, our present skipper, offers us the exceedingly improbable
explanation that the poor fellow jumped out of his cabin window, and was
drowned, while intoxicated. I do not believe it for a moment, nor do
any of the rest of us. For my own part I very strongly suspect foul
play somewhere, and the very extraordinary explanation which Williams
offers of the occurrence only strengthens my suspicion that--well, not
to put too fine a point upon it, that he knows more of the matter than a
perfectly honest man ought to know. And, in addition to all this,
Williams is a secret drunkard, and a man of most violent and
ungovernable temper, as you will see for yourself ere long. You will
therefore not be very greatly surprised to learn that since he took the
command there has been a great deal of uneasiness as well as
unpleasantness in the cuddy; and I, for one, am rejoiced to find a naval
officer and a party of man-o'-war seamen on board. For I know that
after what I have said you will keep your eyes and ears open, and will
not hesitate to interfere if you see good and sufficient reason for so
doing. You navy fellows have a trick of cutting in where you consider
it necessary without pausing to weigh too nicely the strict legality of
your proceedings. And if perchance you occasionally step an inch or two
beyond the strict limits of the law, you are generally able to justify
yourselves."
"What you have just told me, general," said I, "was also told me briefly
by Carter last night, and he, too, seemed to consider it necessary to
warn me that the skipper is a somewhat peculiar man. Naturally, after
such a warning, I have been keeping my eyes and ears open, and I confess
that I find the man something of a puzzle. Carter quite led me to
anticipate the possibility that Williams might order us down the side
into our boats again, instead of which, so far as words, and even deeds,
are concerned, I have not the least fault to find. But all the time
that he was saying kind things to me this morning, his eyes and the
expression of his face belied him."
"Aha! so you noticed that, did you?" observed the general. "Yes, it is
quite true; you have very precisely expressed what we have all noticed
at one time or another. His eyes belie the words of his lips very
often, that is to say when he chooses to be civil, which is not always.
When I saw him this morning I quite believed we were in for a
particularly unpleasant day, for he had all the appearance of a man in a
very bad temper, but for some reason he has seen fit to behave himself
to-day. But never fear, you will soon have an opportunity to see what
he is like when he chooses to let himself go. His behaviour is then
that of a madman, and I am sometimes inclined to believe that he really
is mad. But suppose that he should do as Carter suggests he may, and
order you and your men to quit the ship, will you go?"
"Most certainly not," said I. "I will only leave this ship when I can
transfer myself and my men to some other by means of which I can
speedily rejoin my own ship."
"That's right, that's quite right, my boy," approved the general.
"Well, I am glad that I have had this little talk with you, for it has
eased my mind and put you on the alert. And now, come up on the poop,
and make yourself agreeable to the ladies; they will not thank me for
monopolising so much of your time and attention."
I took the hint, and followed him up to the poop, where the whole of the
cuddy passengers were assembled, the ladies occupied with books, or
needlework, or playing with the children, while the men lounged in
basket chairs, smoking, reading, or chatting, or danced attendance upon
the ladies. I first paid my respects to Lady Baker and her daughter, as
in duty bound, and then drifted gradually round from one to another
until I finally came to an anchor between Mrs Jennings and her niece,
Miss Duncan. But I observed that in every case, whatever the topic
might be upon which I started a conversation, the talk gradually drifted
round to the subject of the skipper and his peculiarities, from which I
arrived at the conclusion that, after all, Carter and the general must
have had some grounds for the apprehensions that they had expressed to
me.
Now, of our party of ten who had been received on board the _Indian
Queen_, six of us were wounded, and of those six three were so severely
hurt as to be quite unfit for duty, and the other three, of whom I was
one, were able to do such deck duty as keeping a look-out, taking a
trick at the wheel, and so on, but, excepting myself, were scarcely fit
to go aloft just yet. But I did not think it right or desirable that
those of us who were in a fit state to work should eat the bread of
idleness. I had therefore seized the opportunity afforded by my talk
with the skipper that morning to suggest that my four unwounded and two
slightly-wounded men should assist in the working of the ship; as for
myself, I said that I should be very pleased to take charge of one of
the watches, if such an arrangement would be of any assistance to him.
This, of course, was quite the right and proper thing for me to do, and
although the ship carried a complement of thirty hands, all told, I was
not in the least surprised that Williams should accept, quite as a
matter of course, my offer of the men, three of whom he placed in the
port watch, and three in the starboard, the latter being under the
boatswain, a big, bullying, brow-beating fellow named Tonkin. But he
declined the offer of my personal services, saying that he could do
quite well without them. This arrangement having been come to, I made
it my business to speak to the boatswain, into whose watch the two
slightly-wounded men had been put, informing him of what had passed
between the skipper and myself, and requesting him not to send the
wounded men aloft, as I did not consider that they could safely venture
into the rigging in their partially disabled condition. And I also
cautioned the men not to attempt to go aloft, should the boatswain
happen to forget what I had told him, and order them to do so, taking
care to give them this caution in Tonkin's presence and hearing in order
that there might be no mistake or misunderstanding.
I was therefore very much surprised, and considerably annoyed, when, as
we were all gathered together on the poop that same evening, during the
first dogwatch, I heard the sounds of a violent altercation proceeding
on the fore-deck, and, on looking round, discovered that the disputants
were one of my own men and the boatswain, the latter of whom was
threatening the other with a rope's-end. Without waiting to hear or see
more I instantly dashed down the poop-ladder and ran forward, pushing my
way through a little crowd who had gathered round the chief actors of
the scene; and as I did so I became suddenly conscious of the fact that
the men among whom I was forcing my way were a distinctly ruffianly,
ill-conditioned lot, who seemed more than half disposed to resent
actively my sudden appearance among them.
"Now then, Martin," I said sharply, "what is all this disturbance about,
and why is the boatswain threatening you with that rope's-end?"
"Why, sir," answered Martin, who was suffering from a grape-shot wound
in the leg, "I understood you to say this morning as none of us as is
wounded is to go aloft; yet here's this here bo's'un swears as he'll
make me go up and take the turn out o' that fore-to'gallan' clew,
instead of sendin' one of his own people up to do it. I couldn't climb
the riggin' without bustin' this here wound of mine open again--"
"Of course not," I answered. "I thought I had made it clear to you,
Tonkin," turning to the boatswain, "that I do not wish any of my wounded
men to be sent aloft. That man is in no fit condition to go up on to
the topsail-yard."
"Ain't he?" retorted the boatswain in a very offensive manner. "While
he's in my watch I'm goin' to be the judge of what he's fit to do, and
what he's not fit to do; and I say he's quite fit to do the job that
I've ordered him to do. And he's goin' to do it too, or I'll know the
reason why. And, what's more, I won't have no brass-bound young
whipper-snappers comin' for'ard here to interfere with me and tell me
what I'm to do and what I'm not to do; and I hope that's speakin' plain
enough for to be understood, Mr Midshipman What's-your-name. Now
then," he continued, turning to Martin again, "will you obey my orders,
or must I make yer?" And he took a fresh grip upon the rope's-end with
which he was threatening the man.
"Drop that rope's-end at once, you scoundrel!" I exclaimed angrily; for
I saw by the man's manner, and by the approving sniggers of the men who
surrounded us, that he had been deliberately and intentionally insulting
to me, and that unless I took a firm stand at once the ship would
speedily become untenable to my men and myself. "You must surely be
drunk, Tonkin, or you would never dream of--"
"Drunk am I?" he exclaimed savagely, wheeling suddenly round upon me.
"I'll soon show you whether I'm drunk or not," and he raised the rope's-
end with the manifest intention of striking me across the face with it.
But before the blow could fall there was a sudden rush of feet; the
sniggering loafers who hemmed us in were knocked right and left like so
many ninepins, and, with a cry of "Take that, you dirty blackguard, as a
lesson not to lift your filthy paws again against a king's officer,"
Simpson, our carpenter's mate, an immensely strong fellow, dashed in and
caught the boatswain a terrific blow square on the chin, felling him to
the deck, where he lay senseless, and bleeding profusely at the mouth.
"Put that man in irons!" bellowed a furious voice behind me; and,
turning round, I beheld the skipper glaring like an infuriated animal
past me at the carpenter's mate, who was standing with clenched fists
across the prostrate body of the boatswain.
"For what reason, pray, Captain Williams?" demanded I indignantly. "I
do not know how long you have been here, for I did not hear you
approach, but unless you have but this instant come upon the scene you
must be fully aware that it was your boatswain who started this
disgraceful brawl. His behaviour was absolutely brutal, and--"
I got no further; for while I was still speaking the villain suddenly
seized me round the waist, and, being much more powerful than myself,
pinned my arms close to my sides. "Here," he exclaimed to one of his
own people standing by, "just lash this young bantam's arms behind him,
and seize him to the rail, while I attend to the other." And before I
well knew where I was I found myself securely trussed up, and saw
Simpson, Martin, and another of my men, fighting like lions at bay,
finally overborne by numbers and beaten senseless to the deck.
"You will be very sorry for this outrage before you are many days older,
Captain Williams," I said as the fellow presently came and planted
himself square in front of me.
"Shall I, indeed?" he sneered, thrusting his hands deep in his trousers
pockets, and balancing himself on the heaving deck with his legs wide
apart. "What makes you think so?"
"Because I will report your conduct to the captain of the first man-o'-
war that we fall in with on the coast, and you will be called upon to
give an account of yourself and your behaviour."
"And supposing that we don't happen to fall in with any of your precious
men-o'-war, what then?" he demanded.
"Why," said I, "it will merely mean that your punishment will be
deferred a few days longer until we arrive at Capetown; that is all."
"Ah!" he retorted, drawing in his breath sharply. "But supposing you
should happen to go overboard quietly some dark night--"
"Like poor Mowbray, for instance," I cut in.
"Mowbray," he hissed, turning deathly white. "Mowbray! Who has been
talking to you about Mowbray? Tell me, and I'll cut his lying tongue
out of his mouth!"
"Brave words," I said, "very brave words, but they would not frighten
the individual who told me the history of poor Mr Mowbray's mysterious
disappearance through the stern window."
"Tell me who it was, and what he said?" he demanded hoarsely.
"No," I answered him. "I will reserve that story for other ears than
yours."
"Very well," he said. "Then I promise you that you shall not live to
tell that story." And turning to one of the men who were standing by,
he said:
"Cast this young cockerel loose, take him down to his cabin, lock him
in, and bring the key to me."
And two minutes later I found myself below in a very comfortable cabin
that had been cleared out and prepared for me, locked in, and with no
company but my own rather disagreeable thoughts.