CHAPTER XII.On Board the Schooner.
Fotheringay, in his kindly way, conveyed the captain’s orders to Hoppy and strongly advised the Cape Codder to make the best of a difficult situation.
“I feel sure, Captain Mayo, that your patriotism urges you to refuse Captain Raggett’s ultimatum; but, after all, you are not asked to take arms against your compatriots. My interpretation of your orders is that your duty will be to assist Dunton in keeping the schooner clear of the shoals during the surveying cruise.”
“I’m not any too well read in the law, lieutenant, but I can plainly see that my assistance to the enemy in war time looks pretty much like treason to my country. I have heard Uncle Jabez Rich tell the story of Benedict Arnold too often not to know something of a traitor’s fate. All the same, lieutenant, ’tis very kind of you to try and make it easy for me.”
“Captain Raggett is determined to have his way in this matter, Captain Mayo, and it pains me to think of your position should you refuse to carry out his orders. I have heard some stories of the fearful punishments suffered by recalcitrant American prisoners and I know Barclay of the ‘Grampus’ does not mince matters when dealing with such unfortunates.”
“Aye,” said Hoppy, “I know the poor devils are badly treated. Dunton seems to know that we are to be shipmates; he passed me a short time ago and there was a triumphant leer on his countenance. I shouldn’t call him a handsome man at the best of times, but the look he favored me with would become the devil himself!”
“Yes, Captain Mayo, Dunton has got orders to be ready for the cruise. I regret that you should be under his command, butI trust you will see the uselessness of running foul of him.”
“Oh, you can trust me for that, lieutenant. I shall make it a point to steer clear of him as much as I can. Anyway, as the schooner will have a crew of twenty it looks like a poor chance for me in case of trouble!”
“The crew will treat you all right. They are all good men and especially detailed for this business on account of their good characters. Like all man-o’-war’s men they like their frolic and their grog, but Dunton is not very popular and he is sure to limit the strong waters.”
“Then his popularity won’t increase, Mr. Fotheringay. When do we start?”
“The frigate sails tomorrow for a practice cruise in Massachusetts bay and it is probable that the schooner will leave at the same time.”
“All right, Mr. Fotheringay; you can tell Captain Raggett that I shall do my best to help Dunton in the survey. Between us we should be able to find out the dangerous places, and they are many. I wonder what Win Knowles thinks of all this!”
“Captain Knowles will be very busy getting that ransom money,” replied the lieutenant smilingly.
“He’ll be in a devil of a state of mind when he finds that he can’t get back to the frigate! However, I gave him a broad hint that his journey would do me no good, but Win was always one of those fellows that you can’t convince when he’s made up his mind that his own ideas are the best.”
Fotheringay reported Hoppy’s decision to the commander and the latter expressed his satisfaction at the Cape Codder’s acquiescence in the project. Next morning, the frigate passed out of Provincetown harbor and headed for the northwest. Soon after, the schooner’s anchor was weighed and the memorable cruise began.
It was a lovely morning. Before the gentle breeze theschooner took her leisurely way across Cape Cod bay and in the direction of Barnstable. As he stood on her deck, Hoppy Mayo was a prey to conflicting thoughts. He little dreamed that at the finish of the adventure in which he was an unwilling participant he should occupy a niche in the temple of fame, or that his name should be handed down through the years as that of a man who had not hesitated in the face of fearful odds to match his strategy against the foes of his country and win undying renown by an act of individual daring which has rarely been equaled in our naval annals. No such thought crossed his mind; but, on the contrary, he felt already the opprobrium which would be his lot when history should record the fact that he had aided the enemies of the fatherland. True, he had not abandoned all hope; his keen mind had been at work and he had reasoned it out that there was still a chance left. This chance was a remote one, but stranger things had occurred and fortune might yet favor him.
As the schooner crept across the bay, Hoppy’s gaze ranged along the low-lying shores of old Cape Cod. The long stretches of white strand glistened in the sunlight and the tiny hillocks, known as the dunes, seemed to be engaged in a brave effort to raise themselves above the tops of the sea pines and the stunted oaks of the neighboring groves. Billingsgate Point broke the sameness of the coastline and guarded the harbor of Wellfleet, the only important haven south of Provincetown, the other landing-places being small creeks and inlets. The high tide concealed the treacherous flats so much dreaded by the British commander, and the placid surface of the sea revealed no evidence of the dangerous sandbars on which many a heedless mariner had come to grief. Within the encircling arm of the Cape, almost at the point where it abruptly turns northward, the pilot could see his native village of Eastham, and the sight added to his bitterness of soul. Cape Cod towns were then, and, indeed, are at thepresent day, straggling places altogether different from the old-world idea of a town. They are properly townships, each about six miles in length and, on the lower Cape, from Brewster to Provincetown, the width of each township varies with the Cape itself, being bounded on either side by the ocean and the bay, narrowing from about three miles at Orleans to a good deal less at Truro and Provincetown. There is no crowding of habitations in the villages. Land is cheap and the people believe in plenty of elbow room.
For the first time since the outbreak of hostilities, Hoppy felt inclined to coincide with the views of Jared Higgins, Winslow Knowles and other leaders of the anti-war party. It was easy enough to join in the patriotic indignation aroused by the acts of the British, but it was one thing to wax eloquent on the question at Crosby’s and another to be helpless in the hands of the enemy, forced to obey the orders of a bully like Dunton and obliged to play a part, the very thought of which brought the blush of shame to his cheek. There, a few miles away, were “his young barbarians all at play.” There were his neighbors, the playmates of his childhood and the companions of his youth and manhood. Peace, for the moment, hovered over the scene and in the absence of the warships there appeared nothing likely to disturb the seeming tranquility of the smiling land. But what of the morrow? The thunder of the enemy’s guns would bring terror to helpless women and children and many a happy home might suffer the loss of its brave defenders. Ruined rooftree and bloody corpse would testify to Britannia’s might, and all because the cradle-land of his race with cruel arrogance refused to the youthful and still weak American nation the rights which every free people must maintain or perish. So absorbed was the captive in these reflections that he did not notice the approach of Dunton until the latter’s voice brought him to with a start.
“Taking in the scenery, Mayo? One would think you hadnever seen it before by the attention you seem to be giving it.”
Hoppy took no notice of the sneering tone in which this was said. He had made up his mind to stand a lot from Dunton, but every insult would be stored in his memory and when the proper time arrived the Englishman would be amply repaid in a manner thoroughly satisfactory to the American.
“It looks kind of pretty at this distance, Mr. Dunton.”
“Seems to me you have a queer idea of prettiness, Mayo. A few heaps of sand and a few miserable patches of trees don’t make a pretty scene, to my mind. How sensible people can be content to live on such a sandbar is more than I can understand.”
“Yet, Mr. Dunton, the men who first settled here were Englishmen and their descendants are still the owners of the land.”
“That may be so, Mayo, but I have heard the first English in these parts were a set of cranks who left England because they could not get along with their own people.”
“Then there must be quite a lot of that crankiness left in the blood,” answered Hoppy slyly. “The present inhabitants have no great welcome for their friends from the other side.”
“Any Englishman who would leave his own country for this savage place must have something wrong with him. You have no aristocracy here, Mayo, and any country without an aristocracy can never rank as a great nation. What would England be without her aristocracy?”
Hoppy was surprised to find Dunton in such a conversational mood and gave him every encouragement to talk.
“What good does an aristocracy do for England, Mr. Dunton?”
“Of course you Yankees can’t be expected to understand the matter, Mayo; but, for one thing, will you tell me how England could officer her army and navy unless she had an aristocracy to furnish the men for the positions?”
“I certainly can’t answer that question, Mr. Dunton, knowing so very little about your ways over there, but I have heardUncle Jabez Rich say that a title does not make a man an aristocrat.”
“Whoever this Rich is, he’s a fool, Mayo. What’s a title for unless it be for the purpose of placing a man in the aristocratic class?”
“Then you wouldn’t consider such a man as George Washington an aristocrat?”
Dunton laughed heartily at this question. “No, Mayo, indeed I wouldn’t, although I have heard that your great man was a cut above the common people. He would probably rank as a small squire with us, or as a gentleman farmer. Lafayette was an aristocrat, though only a French one.”
“By George, Mr. Dunton, I see my education has been sadly neglected! All I can say is that Washington fought pretty well considering he wasn’t an aristocrat!”
“He couldn’t have won without Lafayette’s help, and that proves that an aristocrat makes the best commanding officer. Then he had Baron Steuben, another aristocrat, to drill his men.”
“You will excuse my ignorance, Mr. Dunton, but wasn’t Lord Cornwallis an aristocrat and wasn’t the British army crowded with aristocratic officers?”
“Yes, that’s true, but the men they commanded were only a meazly set of Hessian mercenaries.”
“Oh, I see,” said Hoppy as if he were convinced.
The schooner was now within a few miles of Nobscusset Point. Soundings were taken frequently but the results showed no immediate danger. Dunton, however, decided to cast anchor and he informed Hoppy that if the wind were favorable later he should survey to the eastward and anchor for the night off Brewster. But the wind became easterly, continuing so all day, and as evening approached, Dunton gave orders to make all snug for the night. So ended the first day of the cruise and Hoppy was thankful that his commanding officer had conducted himself fairly well so far.