CHAPTER XIV.
We had not gone aft to fight, only to talk; and we were not prepared for the violent demonstration which was made against us. We intended, after the fashion of sailors, to present our grievances, and have an understanding in regard to the future. The seamen of our party had refused to accept any liquor simply because it was offered to them as the price of yielding to the wicked scheme of the officers. This marvellous piece of self-denial on their part assured me that we should be successful in the end. I had more respect for the virtue of sailors than ever before; certainly more than when I first came on board of the bark, and saw every man of the present crew drunk and quarrelsome.
We were driven forward by the onslaught of the mate and his supporters, and we halted forward of the windlass only when we could go no farther. There was a plentiful supply of handspikes on the forecastle; but, as the mate halted before we were compelled to defend ourselves, no battle ensued.
"Now, my lads, I have you where I want you," said Waterford, casting a triumphant glance over our party.
"We haven't tried to make any trouble, and we were respectful," replied Sanderson.
"I want you to understand that I call this mutiny, and I shall treat it as such!" cried the mate, savagely. "I ordered you forward, and you didn't go, till you were driven."
"When the ship is not on a lawful voyage, there's no such thing as mutiny," said Baxter, boldly.
"I'll show you that there is," answered Waterford, shaking his weapon at the discontented ones. "If you want to have trouble, we'll give you enough of it."
"We don't want any trouble," added the more prudent Sanderson.
"All right, then; return to your duty. Obey your orders, and do your work, and there will be no trouble. If you don't do it, I'll skin you alive, every one of you!"
"We shipped for Palermo, sir; and, if we are not going there, we think we have a right to know where we are going."
"You shipped for any port to which the vessel might go," added the mate, doggedly.
"Will you tell us where we are bound, sir?"
"No; I will not be driven to tell you anything. In due time, if you behave yourselves, I'll tell you all about it."
"Will you tell us whether we are engaged in a lawful voyage?"
"I tell you that every man who behaves himself shall have a thousand dollars when the cruise is up, and have his grog three times a day, and plum duff every day."
"That is just the same as saying that it is not a lawful voyage," I added, in a low tone, to Sanderson.
"That's so, my hearty."
"Come out here, Phil Farringford!" shouted the mate. "You have made all this trouble."
"No, he didn't, sir," replied Jack Sanderson. "One's as black as another."
"Come out here, Phil! I'll teach you to get up a mutiny among the men."
The mate made a demonstration forward, as though he intended to drag me out from the midst of my companions. Probably he had seen, and perhaps heard, my communications with the spokesman, and his wrath against me was fanned into a blaze.
"Don't you go, Phil; we will stand by you," said Baxter.
The Crew stand by Phil.
The Crew stand by Phil.
The Crew stand by Phil.
"You will?" roared the mate.
"We are all in the same boat, sir."
"You would all have done very well, if his cant hadn't spoiled you. I know him, and I'll put him in irons. Shove him out here and I will pass over what you have done."
"No, sir; we won't give him up," answered Sanderson, decidedly.
"Then you will take the consequences."
"We are willing, sir."
The mate rolled up his sleeves, and glanced at his supporters, as though he intended to make an assault upon the refractory crew; but at this moment the captain and the two passengers spoke to him, and they went aft together.
"We are in for it now, my lads," said old Jack Sanderson.
"We might as well be hung for a bull as a calf," added Baxter.
"If I'm the calf, I don't want you to get into trouble on my account," I added.
"Phil's a good fellow, and we'll stand by him," replied Baxter.
"Ay, ay! stand by him," said half a dozen others.
"I say I don't want you to get yourselves into trouble for my sake; but I would rather be hanged for mutiny than be hanged for being concerned in the slave trade. It's piracy, you know, and there is no law that can compel you to do duty in a vessel engaged in an illegal voyage."
"That's so; Phil's a sea lawyer," said Walker.
"We won't let him have Phil," echoed Baxter, "or any other man. We'll stick together, and go down together, if we can't get out of the scrape."
"But what can we do?" asked one of the more timid of the men.
"We can only refuse to do duty, and take the consequences."
"I, for one, don't propose to take the consequences," I ventured to say; for, though I had not said much thus far, I was decidedly in favor of an aggressive policy.
"What do you think we ought to do?" demanded Baxter.
"Take the bark!" I replied emphatically, when I had satisfied myself that no one was within hearing except our own party.
"That's just my idea," responded Baxter, bringing his fist down upon the windlass to prove that he was in earnest. "I don't know what there is in the hold, but I'll bet there is everything used in the slave trade—the rice, the water, and the irons. If we should be overhauled by a British or an American vessel, we should be captured, and sent into an English or a United States port. If we are not hung, we shall lose our wages, and be sent to prison."
"That's it!" exclaimed Sanderson.
"Our papers show that we are bound for Palermo, and they would condemn us, if the stuff in the hold didn't. I'll never help carry a nigger across the ocean, if I can help it, and I'll fight an honest fight, too, to keep from doing it. I don't believe in fastening the door with a biled parsnip."
Baxter was earnest and eloquent, and I honored him for his noble and humane sentiments. His speech stiffened the backs of those who were wavering. Twelve of us were of one mind, and we were sure that York, the second mate, was with us, which made a majority. Three of the crew still remained doubtful, ready to go with whichever proved to be the winning side. Their very position showed them to be weak, and of not much value to either party.
"We are all of one mind," said Sanderson; "but what can we do? It isn't an easy thing to stand up against the officers, who are provided with fire-arms."
"Never mind their fire-arms. Truth and justice are on our side, and they will do us more good than all the guns and pistols that were ever invented."
"That's all very pretty, but it don't always work so."
"We'll make it work so this time," said Baxter, stoutly. "It's no use to refuse to do duty, and make a milk-and-water mess of it. When we do something, we'll strike a blow that shall be felt."
"How are you going to do it?" asked Bilger, who was one of the timid ones.
"We haven't decided that question yet; but where there's a will there's a way. In the first place, we must stick together," replied Baxter. "We will make a plan, and then we will put it through."
"Suppose we take the vessel; what can we do with it? We haven't a navigator among us," suggested Walker.
"I can take an observation, and work up the reckoning," I replied.
"You!" exclaimed the doubter.
"I can. I have studied navigation, and I can lay down the position of the bark on the chart every day that the sun shines."
"Good! York is a good sailor. In fact we have all the able and ordinary seamen with us but the five Spaniards and Portuguese," said Baxter.
"But how shall we take the bark?"
"We'll watch our time, and strike when it comes. You have done some fighting in your day, Phil; what do you say?"
"I never did any fighting on board of a ship, though I know something about Indian strategy."
"It's all the same. How shall we go to work to make a sure thing of it?"
"I haven't looked the matter over yet, but I have an idea. In the first place, we must organize."
"How organize?"
"We must have a leader, and all hands must obey his orders."
"That ought to be the second mate," suggested Sanderson.
"He has not taken part with us yet."
"But he has said he would when it was proved that the bark was going a slaving," replied Baxter.
"All right," I added. "We must wait till night, if possible."
"There may be a row before night. The captain, mate, and the two passengers are talking the matter over on the quarter-deck," said Walker.
"Who's at the helm?"
"Schneider."
"He's one of the doubtful ones, and won't meddle as long as the thing is undecided. The second mate has the first watch to-night," I continued.
"Ay, ay," answered Baxter, deeply interested in my suggestion.
"At that time, the captain, mate, and the two passengers will be in their state-rooms. I believe in taking them there."
"But we have Gorro and Martino in the starboard watch. What shall we do with them?"
"We'll fix them," I replied. "Two of our stoutest hands must take care of them. I'm not much more than a boy, but I can handle one of them."
"Plucky!" said Baxter.
"Two more must take care of the three in the forecastle. We can fasten the door on them when we have got our own men out."
"Good! That will all work well," added Baxter.
"Who has the first trick at the wheel in our watch?" I asked.
"Martino," replied Sanderson.
"Then we must muzzle Gorro forward. Each man must have his own job to do. Six men shall take off the forward hatch, and passing through the between-decks, make their way to the cabin through the steerage."
"Why not go down the cabin stairs?" asked Sanderson.
"Because Martino, at the helm, would give the alarm."
"I like the plan, Phil. We will go over it again, and give each man his part of the work."
"Sail ho!" shouted Sylvio, one of the Spanish sailors, who was in the waist.
The mate sprang into the weather mizzen rigging to examine the sail, and in a few moments we all discovered a streak of black smoke on the sky, which indicated a steamer.