CHAPTER XI.AN OBSTINATE CAPTAIN.
Frank now began to see that he had been mistaken in the mental estimate he had made of one of the two officers who came off in the steamer’s boat. The midshipman, whose name was Kendall, as he afterwards learned, he had put down as a conceited young prig, who would have made a first-rate companion for the consul’s clerk; and his conduct a few minutes later gave Frank no reason to change his opinion. The gray-headed lieutenant he had supposed to be a gentleman, but on that point he now began to have some doubts. The officer seemed to be greatly astonished at the audacity Frank exhibited in presuming to object to anything he might see fit to do. He drew himself up, and stared at the young captain in a way that was perfectly insulting, and made the latter all the moredetermined to stick to the course he had marked out for himself.
“I am sailing-master of this craft,” said Frank, “and in the absence of my superior have a right to command her.”
“Her Majesty’s officers are in the habit of obeying any orders they may receive,” returned the lieutenant, loftily.
“But those orders were given to you under the supposition that the lawful crew of this vessel were in need of your assistance,” replied Frank. “When we passed you last night we should have been glad of your help; but now we are in a situation to take care of ourselves.”
“Why did you not hail us when you passed us last night?” asked the midshipman.
“Because Waters and his friends had full control of the schooner, and I had no desire to be pitched overboard,” answered Frank.
“If you had been a brave young man, you would have done your duty at all hazards. But I do not wish to waste any more time in argument.Mr. Kendall,” said the lieutenant, turning to the midshipman, “select ten men from that boat’s crew, and remain in charge of the yacht. Follow in our wake when we steam away for Hobart Town.”
The young officer saluted, and hurried up the ladder to obey these orders, while the lieutenant turned to the prisoners, and commanded them to get up and go on deck. Frank followed them up the companion-way, and when he reached the top, was surprised to find Mr. Kendall and Archie engaged in an angry war of words. He had no trouble in guessing at the cause of it. He looked toward the stern, and saw Brown standing there with the color halliards in his hand, and the colors themselves were partly hauled down.
“I want you to understand that I command this yacht now,” said Mr. Kendall, shaking his clenched hand at Archie.
“I don’t dispute it, do I?” returned the latter.
“Then why do you countermand my orders?” demanded the midshipman.
“Brown!” exclaimed Frank, sharply, “run that flag up to the peak where it belongs. Belay the halliards and go for’ard.”
“There!” said Archie, turning to the officer; “I hope you are satisfied now that that flag was put there to stay.”
“Captain,” said the midshipman, trying to speak calmly, although it was plain to be seen that he was very angry, “Iordered those colors hauled down.”
“There is not a man in my crew who will obey an order of that kind,” replied Frank.
“But I am in command now, and I don’t sail under that flag.”
“All right, sir. Haul it down yourself, if you wish to take the responsibility.”
The young officer knew better than to do that. He bit his lips and looked towards his superior, who seemed to be utterly confounded by the turn affairs were taking. “I call this a very extraordinary proceeding, captain,” said he, at length.
“Not at all, sir,” replied Frank. “If you regardour vessel as a prize and ourselves as prisoners, you have the power to act accordingly; but it will be useless to ask us to smooth the way for you.”
“No, no!” exclaimed the lieutenant, quickly; “you don’t understand the matter at all. We expected to find the convicts in charge of your yacht, and to have a fight with them before we could recover possession of her.”
“Your expectations were not realized,” said Frank. “We saved you all trouble.”
“Perhaps I had better return and ask further instructions from my captain,” continued the officer, after thinking a moment. “Mr. Kendall, you will remain in charge until you receive other orders.”
So saying, the lieutenant ordered the convicts into his boat, jumped in himself, and pushed off towards his own vessel, leaving a very unsociable company on board the schooner. During the half hour that followed not a word was exchanged between any of them, except by the two cousins. The midshipman planked the weather side of the quarter-deckin solitary state; his men were gathered in a group on the forecastle; and the crew of the Stranger stood in the waist, Frank and Archie leaning against the rail a little apart from the others, so that they could exchange opinions without being overheard. At the end of the half hour the steamer’s boat came in sight again, and when she had drawn up alongside, the coxswain handed a note to the midshipman. The contents, whatever they were, evidently surprised and enraged the officer, who, in a very gruff voice, ordered his men to tumble into the boat, then jumped in himself and shoved off without saying a word to Frank.
“Does that mean that you are in command once more?” asked Archie.
“I don’t know, but I’ll take the risk,” was the reply.
As soon as the midshipman’s boat was clear of the side, the Stranger filled away on her course and dashed across the bow of the steamer, her flag flaunting defiantly in the faces of the English blue jackets, who watched her as she flew by. Neitherof the cousins said a word until they were safely out of hearing of the people on the steamer’s deck, and then Archie’s patriotism bubbled over, and he struck up “Unfurl the Glorious Banner,” and sang it through to the end.
“You’d better haul it down now,” said Frank, when the song was concluded, “or you’ll not have any flag to rave about very long. The breeze will whip it into ribbons in a few minutes more.”
It was the Stranger’s holiday flag, and they could not afford to lose it; so Archie pulled it down and packed it away in the signal-chest, handling it as tenderly as though the flag could appreciate the care he bestowed upon it.
As soon as the steamer’s boat was hoisted at the davits she turned her bow towards Hobart Town, and before night was out of sight in the distance. When the sun set, Frank called up his crew to shorten sail. He knew nothing whatever about the coast he was approaching, and was afraid to get too close to it in the dark. He and Archie kept a bright lookout all that night, and as soon asday began to dawn all sail was hoisted again, and the Stranger once more sped merrily on her way. The smoke of a steamer was seen in the distance, but Frank did not take a second look at it until an hour or two afterwards, when Brown announced that it was a tug, and that she was headed directly towards the schooner.
“She ain’t coming out to tow us in, sir,” said the sailor, “’cause she knows that we don’t want help with such a breeze as this. I shouldn’t wonder if your friends were aboard of her, sir.”
After hearing this, Frank began to take some interest in the movements of the tug. He kept his glass directed toward her, and presently discovered a group of persons standing on her hurricane-deck. A quarter of an hour later he could see that they were signalling to him with their handkerchiefs; and finally the two vessels approached so near to each other that he could see the faces of those composing the group. Then he recognized Uncle Dick, his friend Mr. Wilbur, the two trappers, and the Club. They had probably learned from the captainof the steamer that the Stranger was safe and approaching Hobart Town as swiftly as the breeze could drive her, but they were so impatient to see her and their missing companions once more that they could not wait until she arrived in port, and so had chartered a tug and started out to meet her. Frank and Archie were delighted at the prospect of the reunion which was soon to take place, but the three sailors looked rather gloomy over it. They could not bear to meet the captain they had wronged.
As soon as the tug arrived abreast of the vessel she began to round to, and Frank threw the Stranger up into the wind to wait for her to come alongside. When her bow touched the schooner, the delighted members of the Club scrambled over the rail like so many young pirates, and greeted the cousins in the most boisterous manner. The older members of the party followed more leisurely and were not quite so demonstrative, although it was plain that they were quite as glad to see Frank and Archie once more as the Club were.
In obedience to a sign from Uncle Dick the tug steamed off toward Hobart Town, the Stranger filled away on her course, and then the party went into the cabin to talk over the events of the last few days. Frank first told the story of the seizure of the schooner, as he had heard it from the lips of the convict, and described how they had recovered possession of her, giving Archie all the credit for the exploit, as he was in duty bound to do. He laid a good deal of stress on the services rendered by the Doctor, and said all he could in praise of the three foremast hands; but when he proposed that they should be retained as if nothing had happened, Uncle Dick shook his head.
“That will hardly do, Frank,” said he. “As far as I am concerned, I should not hesitate to keep them and trust them as I did before; but we should have no peace if I did. The rest of the men have threatened to take vengeance on them, and every time their liberty was granted there would be trouble, which would probably end in all the crewfinding their way into the lockup. I think I had better discharge them.”
Of course that settled the matter. Frank was sorry, for he believed that the three foremast hands were ready to make amends for their misconduct by every means in their power; but he saw the force of the captain’s reasoning, and so he said no more about it.
In accordance with Frank’s request, Uncle Dick then told how he had first discovered the loss of the schooner. He and his friend, Mr. Wilbur, had returned from their ride about nine o’clock, he said, and had gone to bed believing that everything was just as it should be. He never troubled himself about his vessel when he was ashore, for he knew that his officers were able to take care of her.
Just before daylight, the sailors whom Fowler had sent off on that wild-goose chase, came back, having been lost for hours in the bush. They had found the station which Fowler had described to them, and were surprised to learn that no arrangements for a race had ever been made there. Believingthat they were the victims of a practical joke they were very indignant, and promised one another that they would square yards with the consul’s clerk before another twenty-four hours had passed over their heads. They put their horses into the inclosure where they found them, went down the bank to hail the schooner for a boat, and were amazed to find that she was gone. Far from suspecting that there was anything wrong, they believed that Uncle Dick had taken Mr. Wilbur and his family out for the excursion that had been so long talked of; and knowing that if this was the case, some of the herdsmen could tell them all about it, they returned to the house and pounded loudly upon the door. The summons was answered by Uncle Dick in person, and the bluejackets were as surprised to see him as he was to learn of the discovery they had just made. An investigation was ordered at once, and it resulted in the finding of the two officers and the rest of the crew, whom the convicts had left bound and gagged in the bushes on the bank.
Uncle Dick did not wait to hear the whole of the story that Mr. Baldwin had to tell; a very few words were enough to let him into the secret of the matter. Accompanied by Mr. Wilbur he set out on horseback for Hobart Town, and the police commissioner being hunted up, the matter was explained to him. That gentleman informed his visitors that there was no war steamer nearer than Melbourne, but she should be sent for at once, and Uncle Dick might go home fully assured that his vessel would be returned to him in a very few days, unless she was burnt or sunk by her convict crew before the man-of-war could come up with her. Uncle Dick, however, did not go home, and neither did Mr. Wilbur. They both remained at Hobart Town and boarded every vessel that came in, to inquire if anything had been seen of the Stranger; but they could gain no tidings of her, and Uncle Dick began to be seriously alarmed. He did not fear for the safety of his vessel—he scarcely thought of her—but he did fear for Frank and his cousin. He remembered what had transpired shortly afterWaters and his three friends were rescued from the breakers, and he knew that they had two objects in view when they captured the vessel. One was to regain their liberty, and the other was to make themselves rich by stealing the contents of the strong box. They might succeed in regaining their liberty, if they could elude the war-vessel that had gone in pursuit of them, but they would never make themselves rich as they hoped. There were not more than twenty-five pounds in the safe. When the Stranger was hauled into the dry-docks, Walter had deposited every cent of the vessel’s funds in the bank; and all there was in the strong box now was a little of his own and Eugene’s pocket-money, which they had put in there for safe keeping. Uncle Dick did not like to think what would happen when Waters discovered this fact. Beyond a doubt he would be very angry, and if he acted as he had done on a former occasion, when he allowed his rage to get the better of him, what would become of Frank and his cousin?
“While I was worrying about that it never occurredto me thatyouwere man enough to take care of him,” added Uncle Dick, nodding to Archie.
“I declare it beats anything I ever heard of,” said Featherweight. “I didn’t know you had so much pluck.”
“If you had seen me while I was doing it and after it was done, you wouldn’t give me so much credit,” replied Archie. “I don’t think I was ever before so badly frightened.”
Uncle Dick then went on to say that the war-steamer had returned to Hobart Town about ten o’clock on the morning of the previous day. He and Mr. Wilbur boarded her as soon as she touched the quay, and sought an interview with her commander, who put all their fears at rest by telling them that he had the convicts safe under guard, and that he had left the Stranger in the hands of those who seemed fully competent to take care of her. Uncle Dick was astonished beyond measure to learn how completely the boys had turned the tables upon their captors, and could hardly believeit until he was told that Waters himself had confirmed the story. The English commander further stated that he would have brought the yacht into port under convoy, had it not been for the obstinacy of her captain. Frank having hoisted his colors would not take them down, and as he had no right to do it, and his officers could not be expected to sail under a foreign flag, he had left the Stranger to take care of herself. Uncle Dick laughed when he came to this part of his story, and Frank knew by the stinging slap he received on the back that he had done just as the old sailor himself would have done under the same circumstances.
The schooner sailed into port about three o’clock that afternoon, and as soon as she was made fast to the quay, the three foremast hands were called into the cabin and paid off. Uncle Dick gave the same reasons for discharging them that he had given Frank, and the sailors accepted the situation without a word of complaint. They took a sorrowful leave of the captain and each of the Club, and theboys never saw them again after they went over the side with their bags and hammocks.
When the tide turned the Stranger left the harbor again, Uncle Dick on the quarter-deck and the Club acting as the crew, and in a few hours dropped anchor in her old berth near Mr. Wilbur’s house. The sailors and the herdsmen, who had gathered in a body on the bank to see her come in, greeted her with cheers, and when the cutter went ashore with Uncle Dick and the rest, the blue jackets crowded into it with an eagerness that did not escape the notice of their officers. They expected to find Brown and his two companions on board the schooner, and if they had found them there, it is probable that there would have been trouble directly. When they learned from the Doctor that the three men had been discharged at Hobart Town, a select party of six, among whom were Lucas and Barton, was appointed to go to the city, hunt them up, and give them a vigorous trouncing. But this fine scheme was defeated at the outset, for when the selected six went aft with their caps intheir hands to ask their liberty, Mr. Baldwin informed them that not a man would be allowed to leave the vessel. The disappointed blue jackets growled lustily among themselves, but that did not help the matter.
The next day Mr. Wilbur and his family came aboard, the sails were hoisted, and the Stranger sailed away with them. They spent a week in cruising along the coast, stopping at various points of interest, and then returned to their old anchorage. After that more provisions and water were hoisted in, three American sailors, whom Uncle Dick found stranded at Hobart Town, were shipped to supply the places of those who had been discharged, and the schooner began her voyage to Natal.
This proved to be the pleasantest part of their trip around the world, so far as the weather was concerned. The topsails were spread at the start, and were scarcely touched until the shores of Africa were in sight. Of course the voyage was monotonous, for books were scarce, and almost everytopic of conversation had been worn threadbare. The plans they had laid for their campaign in Africa had been discussed until they were heartily tired of them, and it was only when Uncle Dick could be prevailed upon to relate some of the adventures that had befallen him during the three years he had spent in the wilds of that almost unknown country, that the boys exhibited any interest at all. The welcome cry “Land, ho!” from the masthead aroused them, and sent them up to the crosstrees with their field-glasses in their hands. They were all impatient to get ashore—all except the two trappers. The latter seemed to have forgotten the most of their old fears by this time, and to be quite as much at home in the forecastle as they were in the mountains and on the prairie. They had come to realize that they were in no danger of falling off among the clouds when they reached the under side of the earth, and were fully convinced that the phantom ship, the Flying Dutchman, the whale that swallowed Jonah, and the monstrous “quids” which had so excited theirterror, had no existence except in the brains of the foremast hands; but they knew that there were such things as elephants, lions, and tigers, for they had heard Uncle Dick and Frank say so. They did not care to meet any of these monsters, and they approached the coast with fear and trembling. Perhaps if the Club had known just what was in store for them, they also would have felt a little less enthusiasm.