The man hurried away joyously to do George's bidding, hailing his
comrades aloft to "knock off work and come shark-fishing, all you
sea-dogs aloft there," as soon as he had placed a sufficiently
respectful distance between himself and his skipper. There is no sport
or pastime in which sailors will engage more eagerly than in the attempt
to capture a shark; they regard the creature as their worst and most
relentless enemy, and never willingly let slip an opportunity to catch
and destroy one, frequently venting their hatred upon the unfortunate
fish, when caught, in the utmost refinement of cruelty. Accordingly, no
sooner was Ned's hail heard than, dropping incontinently whatever work
they happened to be engaged on, the whole watch, Ritson included,
hurried down on deck and aft to the taffrail, to take a share in the
sport Ritson, by virtue of his superior rank, assumed the lead at once,
and as a matter of course. Taking the hook with its swivel and chain
attached, and a piece of fat pork, some three or four pounds in weight,
from the now lively and wide-awake Ned, he called out for "a bit of
stoutish line," busying himself meanwhile in burying the hook cunningly
in the bait, in order that the shark might not see it--for it is a
well-established fact that these monsters, unless very hungry, are acute
enough to refuse a bait if the hook is not well hidden. The line, in
the shape of the gaff-topsail halliard-fall, hastily unrove for the
occasion, was soon forthcoming, and the hook, being at last baited to
the second mate's satisfaction, bent on to the chain.
"Now stand clear," commanded Ritson, as he prepared to pitch the bait
overboard, "stand clear all of yer; and when I gives the word to `haul
in,' walk away for'ard with the line and bring his head out of water."
A long steady pendulum-like swing or two of the bait followed, and then
away it went out over the stern and into the water with a splash.
Leicester who was leaning over the taffrail and watching the proceedings
with the greatest interest, saw the great fish turn like a flash and
rush to the spot where the bait had fallen, turning himself over on his
side as he did so.
"Hurrah! He bites; he's got it," shouted one of the men eagerly. But
he spoke rather too soon; Jack Shark was not to be caught quite so
easily. Instead of opening his great jaws and swallowing the bait, hook
and all, at a gulp, as was expected, he stopped dead in his rush, and
began to poke the bait about suspiciously with the point of his
shovel-shaped nose; and finally, with a contemptuous whisk of his tail,
left it, and resumed his former position under the ship's quarter.
Great was the disappointment of the younger hands at this failure.
"He ain't hungry," explained one.
"Ain't he?" contemptuously retorted another. "Just you drop overboard
and try him, bo'; why he'd take you--sou'wester, water-boots, and all--
down that main-hatchway of his'n without winking, and then come back and
axe for more. No, no; 'taint that, mates; he's _waiting_ for somebody,
most likely for the poor chap as the skipper picked up this mornin'!"
"Come, stow all that rubbish!" exclaimed the second mate; "how do you
expect we're going to catch the brute if you all stand there palavering
like so many fish-wives? It's enough to frighten him away altogether.
Clap a stopper on your jaw-tackles now, all of you; and give me a chance
to play him a bit."
The speaker thereupon, by sundry dexterous movements of the wrist,
imparted a gentle wriggling motion to the line, which in its turn
conveyed a corresponding motion to the bait, the latter being slowly
drawn through the water at the same time. This was too much for the
shark's equanimity; and he made another dash at the bait, still refusing
to swallow it however. The second mate then tried the virtue of a few
quick jerks upon the bait, as though drawing it away from the creature,
which had the effect of causing him to turn once more on his side, and
make a snap at it, actually taking it into his mouth. Still he would
neither swallow it nor close his jaws upon it, but unresistingly
suffered it to be jerked out of his mouth again.
"We'll have him yet, boys," Ritson exclaimed. "Pay out the line to its
bare end."
This was done, the shark keeping close to the bait, turning it over and
over with his nose, but persistently refusing to take it.
"Now walk away steadily for'ard with your line, and stand by for a
surge," was the next command.
Away went the men, dragging the line after them, and towing the bait
through the water. The shark followed it closely up; and at last, just
as the pork was being dragged out of the water altogether, he made a
determined jump at it, swallowing it and the hook together; and the next
moment the men were brought-up "all standing" by the tremendous strain
on the line as the hook buried its barbed point in the creature's body,
while the water was lashed into foam and splashed clear in over the
barque's taffrail in the fish's frantic efforts to free itself.
"Hurrah!" exclaimed Ritson. "_Now_ you have him, lads. Hold on every
inch of line, or he'll break away from you yet. Bear a hand here, one
of you. Take the spanker-sheet and throw a running-bowline round the
line, so's we can get it down over his fins. That's your sort, Ned;
don't let him get it into his jaws. Cleverly done; haul taut. _Now_ we
have him safe. Lead the sheet for'ard, let all hands tail on to it, and
we'll run him up out of the water and in on deck."
The bowline in the end of the sheet having been successfully passed over
the fish's shoulders and under his fins, the rope was laid along the
deck, and the watch, leaving one by one the line to which the hook was
attached, got hold of the sheet, and then with a joyous shout of "Stamp
and go, boys; walk away with him," they dragged the monster, still
struggling furiously, up out of the water and in on deck over the
taffrail.
For a moment the huge fish lay perfectly still, then he began to plunge
about and lash right and left with his tail in a manner which caused the
whole ship to resound with the terrific blows; rousing the watch below,
and causing them to "tumble up" _en masse_ to ascertain the nature of
the disturbance.
"'Ware tail," exclaimed the second mate warningly. "If any of you chaps
catches a smack with it across your shins it'll snap 'em like
pipe-stems. Where's the cook's axe?"
The question was promptly answered by the appearance of cookie himself,
his sable visage beaming and his eyeballs rolling with delight as he
danced nimbly about the deck, dodging the strokes of that terrible tail,
with his gleaming axe upraised in readiness to deal a blow at the first
opportunity. At length there was a momentary pause in the tremendous
struggles, a pause of which Snowball (all black cooks who go to sea seem
to be dubbed "Snowball") promptly availed himself. A quick flash of his
axe-blade in the sun, a dull crunching thud, and the back-bone was
severed at the junction of the tail with the body; a lightning-like
stroke of his long keen knife followed, and the severed tail was flung
quivering aside as a long thin jet of blood spouted out from the body,
broadly staining the snow-white deck-planks.
But the shark had plenty of fight left in him still, as one of the men
speedily discovered when, on thrusting a handspike into the great jaws,
the strong, stout wooden bar was promptly bitten in two.
"Here, lay hold, two or three of you, and capsize him," ordered Ritson;
"we must make an end of the beast, or some of yer'll get hurted yet, I
can see. Now then," as three of the men seized the shark by his
enormous fins, "one, two, three, and over with him!"
With a cry of "Yo, heave he!" and a hearty drag the great fish was
turned over on his back; and then Snowball, stepping forward once more,
placed himself astride the creature and, with a quick, powerful stroke
of his knife, slit open its belly, and so put an end to its sufferings.
But so tenacious of life was it that even after the removal of the vital
organs the heart was seen to be still expanding and contracting, which
it continued to do for fully five minutes after being taken out of the
fish. The head was next cut off and the back-bone removed for
preservation as "curios," after which the mutilated carcass was thrown
overboard and the decks washed down.
Ritson did not wait for the completion of this operation, but, leaving
its superintendence to Mr Bowen (who, like the rest of the watch below,
had come on deck to see what was the cause of the unusual tumult),
retired once more with the telescope to his former post in the
main-topmast cross-trees, and resumed his scrutiny of the strange
schooner.
George noticed this, and vaguely wondering what had so greatly excited
his second mate's curiosity, glanced in the direction to which the
telescope was pointing, to find to his surprise that the upper half of
the stranger's topsail was visible from the deck.
"Why, Ritson," he hailed, "the schooner must have a little air of wind,
surely; she is nearing us perceptibly."
Ritson, entirely contrary to nautical etiquette, made no reply to the
skipper's hail, but remained with his eye immovably glued to the tube
for a full minute longer, when he gently closed the instrument and
descended slowly to the deck.
Arrived there, he walked up to Captain Leicester, and first glancing
cautiously round to make sure that no one was within ear-shot, murmured
in a low voice--
"She's heading as straight for us as she can steer, sir, _with six
sweeps out_--_three of a side_. That means, sir, that her skipper wants
so badly to get alongside of us, that he's noways particular about the
trouble he takes to bring him here."
George gave a low involuntary whistle of astonishment.
"That is queer news indeed," he remarked after a contemplative pause.
"And you think then, Ritson, that the craft is a--"
"A rover, sir; neither more nor less," answered the second mate. "She
ain't French, I'm certain; she ain't got the look of it; besides, the
Johnnies wouldn't ventur so far as this in a craft of that size--why she
ain't more than about a hundred and twenty tons at the very outside.
No; she's a rover, that's what _she_ is; a craft with a low beamy hull
painted all black, tremendous long spars, and canvas with just no end of
a h'ist to it."
"Give me the glass," said George; "I'll go as far as the cross-trees and
take a look at her myself."
The second mate handed over the telescope, and the skipper, proceeding
aloft, soon saw quite enough to satisfy him that Ritson's conjectures as
to the character and intentions of the schooner were only too likely to
prove correct.
Descending once more to the deck, he held a hurried consultation with
his two officers, the result of which was a determination to fight to
the last gasp, if the crew were only willing to stand by them. It would
be necessary to ascertain their feeling upon the subject before anything
could be done; so, it being then within a quarter of an hour of noon,
George and the chief mate went below for their quadrants, took the sun's
meridian altitude, and, on the bell being struck to denote the hour of
noon and the termination of the morning watch, Captain Leicester gave
the word for all hands to muster aft.
"My lads," said George, when the men were all standing before him in
obedience to his summons, "I have called you here in order that I may
communicate to you a very disagreeable piece of intelligence. Briefly,
it is this. The strange schooner yonder is a very suspicious-looking
craft; Mr Ritson and I, who have both carefully examined her through
the glass, are quite of the same opinion about her, namely, that she is
_a pirate_. She has all the look of one; and her conduct tends greatly
to confirm us in our suspicions, for she has rigged out half a dozen
sweeps and is sweeping as straight down for us as she can come. Now,
lads, I want to know what you propose to do in the event of our
suspicions proving correct. Will you allow her to come alongside and
throw her bloodthirsty crew in on our deck to cut our throats as if we
were so many sheep! Or will you fight for your lives, and take your
chance of being able to beat her off?"
There was a few minutes of anxious consultation among the men; and then
Ned stepped forward as spokesman of the party, and asked--
"What would you advise us to do, sir? What do you think of doin'
yourself, sir, if we may make so bold as to axe?"
"Mr Bowen, Mr Ritson, and I have resolved to fight as long as we can
raise a hand in self-defence," answered George; "and my advice to you is
to do the same. Alone, we three men cannot hope to do much; but with
your aid I certainly should not despair of beating off yonder schooner,
even though she be full of men. And if the worst comes to the worst and
we find that we _must_ die, it will be far better to do so with swords
in our hands, than to be slaughtered in cold blood."
"Yes, yes; that's true; none o' that for me, thank'ee," and sundry other
exclamations of concurrence followed the conclusion of the skipper's
speech; then came another very brief consultation; and finally Ned once
more stepped forward and said--
"We've agreed, sir, as you're in the rights of it about the fightin';
and we're quite ready to stand by yer--all hands of us--and do our
best."
"Very well," said George. "Then we will lose no time in making ready
for our defence. Mr Bowen, we will have up that brass long
nine-pounder which is down below; I provided it for just such an
emergency as this."
"Ay, ay, sir," answered the mate, in a cheery tone of voice which spoke
volumes as to his confidence in their ability to beat off the pirate, if
such the schooner should prove to be. Then, turning to the men, he
continued--
"Now then, some of you, whip the tarpaulin off this after hatchway, and
lift off the hatches. Mr Ritson, will you be good enough to rouse out
a couple of fourfold tackles and get them made fast aloft? We shall
require a chain strop also. That's right, lads; off with those hatches;
we'll soon have the old barkie in fighting trim."
Inspired by the mate's cheery manner, the men worked with hearty
good-will; and in less than an hour they had the long nine-pounder on
deck, mounted on its carriage, its tackles hooked on, the gun loaded,
cutlasses and pistols distributed, boarding-pikes cast loose, and
everything ready for a stubborn resistance.
These preliminaries arranged, George and the chief mate made their way
aloft as far as the main-top to watch the approach of the suspected
schooner, which had by this time crept up to within about nine miles of
the _Aurora_. She was still heading straight for the barque; and the
telescope enabled them to see that her six sweeps were being vigorously
plied; their long steady swing and the perfect time which was maintained
in the working of them conclusively showing that they were being handled
by a strong gang of men.
"Why, she must be full of men, or those long, heavy sweeps could never
be kept going for so great a length of time," remarked George to the
mate. "We shall have to devote all our attention to those sweeps in the
first instance, I can see. If we are only fortunate enough to knock
away two or three of them, it will at least _delay_ their approach; and
if a breeze would only spring up, smart as that schooner looks, I should
not despair of being able to show her a clean pair of heels."
"Ay," answered Bowen, "and we're going to have a breeze by-and-by; just
the way we wants it, too. I can make out the upper edge of a cloud-bank
rising now above the horizon to the east'ard there; and if we can only
keep yonder cut-throat crew at arm's length until we get the wind, and
if it'll only come down upon us pretty fresh when it _does_ come, I
think, as you say, sir, we may give them handsomely the slip."
With the view of getting a still clearer idea as to the possible advent
of the desired breeze, Mr Bowen forthwith undertook a journey as far as
the main-royal yard, upon which he comfortably established himself, with
one arm round the royal-pole, whilst he carefully studied the aspect of
the weather, and as carefully scrutinised the horizon to see whether
there were any other craft in their immediate neighbourhood. No other
sail excepting the schooner, however, was in sight in any direction; and
having at length formed a tolerably clear opinion with regard to the
weather, he descended again to the main-top, and remarked to George--
"That schooner must be coming up at the rate of about three knots, by
the look of her."
"Yes; about that," answered George.
"And she's about eight miles off now, I should say," continued Bowen.
"Yes; about eight miles," returned George, with his eye still peering
through the telescope.
"Then," remarked the mate, "it will take her a matter of some two hours
and forty minutes, or thereabouts, to get alongside. And by that time,
unless I am greatly mistaken, the first of the breeze will have reached
us. I hope we shall get it _before_ then; because in light winds I
don't doubt but what that craft could sail round and round us; but only
let it come strong enough to oblige us to stow our royals, and I'll bet
my old hat that we can walk away from her. I'm afraid we sha'n't scrape
clear without finding out the weight of the shot she can pitch at us;
but if our lads are only steady when the powder-burning begins, I
sha'n't feel noways very greatly concerned."
With which summing up of the case Mr Bowen dropped into a sitting
posture alongside his commander, and, letting his legs dangle down over
the outer edge of the top, filled his pipe, and proceeded to regale
himself with what he chose to term "two whiffs and a half."