THE BIG FOUR AS PRISONERS IN THE CABIN
Louis Belgrave had taken it for granted that the Spaniards would move
forward to the support of the Scotchman, who was doing better with the
aid of the tiller in his encounter with Scott. He expected the attack
would be made in front, and while he was considering whether or not
his party should use their revolvers, the smugglers fell upon Felix
and himself in the rear, for he had sent Morris to the wheel, and they
were tightly hugged, with their arms pinned to their sides by the four
Spaniards.
While the struggle between Scott and Gray was going on, Louis
discovered that the steamer was headed towards the shore, and it was
evident to him that the pilot's fastenings at the wheel had given away.
The Salihé was therefore liable to stick in the mud at any moment; and
he had sent Morris to the pilot-house to steer the boat, for he was the
youngest of the big four, and the least serviceable in the defence of
the craft.
As soon as Louis and Felix were fast in the embrace of two of the
Spaniards, Diego rushed into the pilot-house, and overthrew Morris
at the wheel. The plucky little fellow had drawn his revolver; but
the leader had cautioned them not to fire, and he returned the weapon
to his pocket. He was no match for the stalwart smuggler, and he was
thrown on the floor. Diego called to the third of his men on the deck,
and directed him to tie the hands of all the prisoners behind them,
which he did as soon as he could find the cords for the purpose.
Diego was the leader of the Spaniards, and probably the captain of
the small vessel to be towed out of the bay. He kept his foot on the
prostrate form of poor Morris while he threw over the wheel, and headed
the steamer for the mouth of the Palmones. When Louis had been bound
with his hands behind him, he turned his attention to Scott, who was
still holding his own with the Scotchman. The blows with the tiller and
the saw were now few and far between, for both of them seemed to be
tired out by the fury of the struggle.
"No use, Scott," called Louis. "You had better give it up, and we will
make the best of the situation. All but you are prisoners; you cannot
beat off the whole of them alone, and you had better surrender."
"Then I will throw up the sponge if you say so, Captain Belgrave,
though it goes against my grain," replied Scott as he dropped the saw
into the cabin through one of the open windows.
"That's sensible, Captain," added Gray, with a sort of gasp, for he had
not yet recovered his breath after the violence of the struggle. "Here,
Francisco, tie up this fellow as you have the others," he added in
Spanish.
"Do you mean to tie my hands behind me?" demanded Scott, falling back
from his assailant.
"You can't help yourself, Scott, and you had better submit," interposed
Louis, for there was no "blood and thunder" in him; he was not disposed
to have any shooting done as long as their lives were not in peril, and
he deemed it advisable to make the best of the situation.
He suspected that Giles Chickworth was a friend of Gray, and assisted
him in his smuggling operations. Diego and the Scotchman were evidently
in partnership in such enterprises as the present, and doubtless the
owner of the steamer had his share of the profits. Gray would send the
Salihé back to Gibraltar, even if it was only to avert suspicion from
the steamer and her owner.
"Just as you say, Captain Belgrave, and I will submit to the
indignity," said Scott in reply to the advice of the leader.
"Captain Belgrave is a very sensible fellow," added Gray, as the
Spaniard proceeded to bring the hands of the pilot behind him. "You
have hacked me badly with that saw, which is a weapon I have never seen
used in a fight before."
"Then you have learned something this evening that may be of service
to you," replied Scott, who appeared to be very well satisfied with
himself after the battle he had fought.
"You are a plucky fellow; but if I could have got hold of you, your
pluck would have done no good."
"I did not mean to let you get hold of me," answered Scott.
"But you were playing a fool's game all the same. As soon as Francisco
had tied up the other fellows, they would have taken you in the rear,
and then I should have got hold of you. You were not as sensible as
Captain Belgrave; and I only wonder that he should have been so stupid
as not to accept my offer in the beginning."
"I suppose you know that this is piracy, Captain Gray," said Louis.
"Not quite so bad as that, Captain Belgrave, for within half a mile of
the shore, and in this bay, is not exactly on the high seas."
Diego had called Francisco to the wheel as soon as all the prisoners
were bound, and went out on deck himself. The steamer was again
approaching the mouth of the river; but the man at the helm evidently
knew where the deep water was, for he kept the boat close to the point
at the south of the entrance to the stream.
"We are all right now, Captain Gray," said Diego, as he passed the
three prisoners standing in the gangway.
"And I am all right at this end of the vessel, Captain Velazquez,"
replied Gray, using for the first time the surname of the principal
Spaniard. "Now, what shall we do with the prisoners?"
They both spoke in Spanish, but Louis understood them, and he was
interested in the answer to the question of the Scotchman.
"Shut them up in the cabin. There is a lock on the door, and they will
be safe there," replied the captain. "I looked at the door as I went
forward."
"But we must use them well, Diego, or it will go hard with us if
we should happen to get caught," suggested Gray, as he tied his
handkerchief around his left hand, where his worst saw wound was
located.
"We shall not be caught," protested the captain vigorously, and it was
plain that he did not like to contemplate such a mishap. "The steamer
will tow us safely out of the bay, and on the next tide I shall run my
schooner into Vega River, where no vessel that draws more than nine
feet of water can follow us. We shall be all right as soon as we get to
sea. Here we are in the river."
"Then we must lock up the prisoners," added Gray. "But how about the
engineer? He has not been on deck at all."
"He is a Spaniard; but I sent Pedro into the engine-room to keep watch
of him. He will not make any trouble," replied the captain of the
smuggler.
Before the unfortunate ship's company of the Salihé were committed to
their prison they obtained a view of the situation up the Palmones.
There appeared to be no persons on the shore. The houses were all on
the north side of the stream, and a couple of feluccas lay on the south
side, which had probably been employed in bringing the smuggled goods
to this locality. In the middle of the river a small schooner was at
anchor; and Louis concluded that this was the vessel to be towed out of
the bay.
There was not a breath of wind, and the smuggler was utterly helpless
without the assistance of the steamer. While they were surveying
the scene the gong in the engine-room struck, and it was plain that
Francisco knew how to manage the bells. The head of the Salihé was
directed toward the schooner, assuring the prisoners that she was the
craft to be taken in tow. Louis had thought they might appeal to some
person on the shore for assistance; but no one was to be seen.
"Come, gentlemen, your quarters are ready, and your prison is fit for a
king," said Gray, who had been making it ready while the prisoners were
looking up the stream; and he seemed to have had some trouble with the
lock, for it bothered him for some time.
"All right; I think we can be comfortable here," replied Louis, who led
the way.
"I should think you might. You can go to sleep if you like; and when
we have done with the steamer, I will call you, and ask you to return
her to Captain Chickworth with my compliments," continued the Scotchman
very pleasantly, for his wounds did not seem to make him ugly.
Louis concluded that he was to make a great deal of money out of his
share of the present venture, and that the thought of it was the
solution of his cheerfulness. According to the statement of Diego, the
want of a breeze was likely to ruin all their prospects, subject the
cargo of the schooner to confiscation, and her ship's company to proper
punishment. The capture of the Salihé could hardly fail to make them
happy.
Gray passed them all into the cabin, and locked the door upon them.
Then he ordered a Spaniard to bring them a couple of bottles of the
excellent wine of which he had spoken before; but Louis assured him
that none of them ever drank wine under any circumstances. Then he
reminded them that he was treating them as well as though Captain
Belgrave had accepted his liberal offer, speaking to them through the
blinds in the door. When he had thus delivered himself, he walked
forward, for the prisoners could hear his footsteps on the deck.
"Here we are!" exclaimed Louis, as he seated himself on the divan which
surrounded the apartment.
"Just where we ought not to be," added Felix. "I obeyed the order of
the captain; but I could hardly help putting a ball from my revolver
through the head of that gray blackguard of a Scotchman, bad luck to
him!"
"What better off should we have been, Flix, if you had killed or
wounded him?" asked Louis quietly.
"We should have had one less to fight, and we might have shot some more
of them," argued the Milesian.
"Diego had a wicked-looking knife in his belt, and I have no doubt the
rest of them were similarly armed," replied Louis.
"I might have shot Diego when he took the helm from me," added Morris.
"I am glad you did not, my boy. If you had failed to disable him with
the first barrel, he would have stabbed you before you could have fired
the second. If Flix had fired his revolver at Gray, the other four in
the boat would have leaped on board, and used their knives freely,"
continued Louis, who still believed he had adopted the wisest course.
"I guess you are right, Captain Belgrave," added Scott, who was the
hero of the occasion, for he had done all the fighting. "We are
comfortable enough here in this cabin, and not one of us has got hurt.
I had a rap on the arm from the spare tiller in the hands of Gray, and
it may be black and blue; but that is nothing, and I am glad no other
fellow is damaged, as some of you would have been if you had used your
revolvers. I did not have any, so I had to content myself with the saw."
"And you did good work with it, Scott," said Louis.
"I did not hit him as hard as I might, for I did not want to kill him,
and I was afraid I might overdo the business. As I said, this is a very
comfortable cabin, and some of us are no strangers here. It is quite
cool here, and"--
"It ought to be cool, for all the windows are open," suggested Felix.
"So they are," added Scott, rising and examining each one separately,
for the curtains were drawn over them.
"We might get out," said Felix.
"Except for these bonds," replied Scott. "Perhaps we can cast them off.
It would be a good scheme if we could get loose, recapture the steamer,
and then deliver her to the custom-house officers at Gib, if there are
any there."
"It does not look quite practicable," said Louis, shaking his head.
"But it is worth considering," persisted Scott.
And they proceeded to consider it.