"Ho! tumble up there, tumble up! All hands, ahoy! tumble up! Look
alive, lads; there's work to do, my hearties!"
Such were the words, uttered in the most terrifically violent bass
tones, that awoke me on the first morning after I went to sea.
Instantly all the men around me leaped out of their hammocks. They were
all half-dressed, and I noticed that the greater part of them completed
their toilet in the short interval between quitting their hammocks and
gaining the deck. Jack and I had lain down in our clothes, so we were
on deck almost as soon as the others.
Here the most unexpected sights assailed us. It seemed to me as if a
miraculous change had taken place on everybody and everything during the
night. The ship when she had set sail was as untidy and lumbered about
the decks as a merchantman usually is on quitting port. Now everything
was clean, in its place, snugly fastened, and in order. The sails
appeared to have undergone some modification. I fancied, too, that the
masts raked aft a good deal more than they had done, and round the foot
of them were ranged muskets, pistols, cutlasses, and boarding-pikes,
where masses of cordage and handspikes had been before. The hencoops
had vanished, and in their place were rows of brass carronades, while in
the centre of the deck an enormous swivel gun occupied the place, on
which the long-boat had formerly rested. Even the captain seemed to
have changed. His costume was somewhat Eastern in its character, and
his whole aspect was much more ferocious than when I first saw him.
Vague and terrible suspicions crossed my mind as I viewed these
wonderful transformations; but I had no time to indulge them, for the
men had hastened with the promptitude of men-of-war's men to their
stations, leaving Jack and me alone in the middle of the deck.
"Hallo, boys!" shouted the captain, "no idlers allowed aboard this ship.
Here, stand by this gun, and lend a hand with the ropes when you're
told to. Obey orders,--that's the only duty I've got to lay on you."
We hastened to the gun pointed out, and while I was standing there
waiting for orders, I looked over the side, and, for the first time,
became aware of the cause of these proceedings.
About two miles to leeward of us, just off our larboard bow, I saw a
large ship running under a press of canvas. She was a huge
clumsy-looking merchantman, and I heard our first mate say she was an
East-Indiaman.
"Then why chase her?" thought I, "and why these warlike preparations?"
It struck me at the time, I remember, that the captain must have guessed
my thoughts, for he glanced at me quickly, and then turning to the mate,
with a sarcastic smile, said--
"I thought you had better sight than you seem to have. In my judgment
that's a Russian merchantman, and as we happen to be at war with Russia
just now I'll take the liberty of overhauling her."
Instead of replying to this, the mate burst into a loud laugh in which,
strangely enough, he was joined by the captain and all the men who were
within hearing. I felt uneasy at this, and expressed my feelings in a
whisper to Jack, who shook his head and looked at me mysteriously, but
said nothing.
I felt that, even though we were at war with Russia, we, as a
discovery-ship, had no right whatever to interfere in the capacity of a
war-ship, and I was about to remonstrate with the captain at all
hazards, when my thoughts were suddenly changed by the order being given
to fire a shot across the stranger's bows. The gun at which I was
stationed was run out.
"Stand by!" cried the captain.
"Fire!"
In the excitement of the moment, and without knowing what I had to do,
though deeply impressed with the feeling that something ought to be done
when an order was given, I pulled violently at the rope which I had in
my hand; the effect of which was to move the gun very slightly when it
exploded. The result was that the ball, instead of passing well ahead
of the strange vessel, passed close to its bow, and carried away half of
the bowsprit.
The captain turned on me a face absolutely blazing with wrath. He
seized a handspike, and I thought he was about to dash out my brains on
the spot. He hissed at me between his clinched teeth; then, suddenly
bursting into a shout of fiendish laughter, he cried--
"Well, well, after all there's no harm done. It'll make them understand
that we don't mean to trifle with 'em. Clear the boarding-pikes there.
Are the grappling-irons ready?"
"Ay, ay, sir."
By this time the stranger had hove-to, and we were bearing down on her
so rapidly that a few minutes more would bring us alongside. Our men
stood ready for action. They were the worst-looking set of scoundrels I
ever beheld.
"Ship ahoy!" shouted our captain as we drew near, "what ship's that?"
A smart young officer leaped on the bulwarks, and cried, "Come alongside
and I'll tell you. Show your colours."
At the word our colours went up, as colours are usually hoisted, rolled
up like a ball. I watched with intense interest, for I felt that now at
last I should know our true character. The ball of what seemed to be
dark-blue bunting reached the masthead and hung for one instant--then
its folds fell heavily, and were swept out by the breeze. The flag was
black, and in the centre were a white skull and crossbones!
I almost fainted at the sight. I looked at Jack, who stood beside me.
He was as white as a sheet; but his lips were firmly compressed, and his
brows knitted.
"Do we deserve what we have got?" he muttered in a deep, sad voice.