CHAPTER VII
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.