Chapter Sixteen.The Capture and Plundering of the ‘Bangalore,’ Indiaman.It was just six bells in the afternoon watch when we at length arrived within a distance of about half-a-mile of the stranger, which had by this time been unmistakably made out to be a British passenger ship of one of the crack lines; first by her having hoisted British colours some time before, and secondly by the crowd of well-dressed ladies and gentlemen that, with the aid of the telescope, we could see congregated on her poop. Mendouca also had hoisted the British ensign, and, to my supreme indignation, a man-o’-war’s pennant, his object in doing so being, of course, to disarm suspicion as long as possible, and thus leave the ship only a very brief length of time to prepare for defence when our intention to attack her became no longer possible of concealment. I remonstrated with him upon this desecration of the colours that he had once fought and hoped to win fame under; but of course my remonstrance was quite useless, the rascal only laughed at me.Having arrived within the above-named distance of the ship, Mendouca ordered the sweeps to be laid in, and the slaves to be driven below and secured. This done, to my disgust his next order was to hoist out the boats—of which theFrancesca, unlike most slavers, carried three; and as soon as they were in the water, the entire crew were armed, and the whole of them, except my especial enemy, José, and an Englishman—a very quiet, inoffensive fellow, whom I was surprised to find among a crew of such ruffians—were ordered down over the side. This completely upset my plans, for, of course, the only way now of reaching the stranger was by means of the boats, or by swimming; and while I would gladly have gone in one of the boats, and taken my chance of reaching the stranger’s deck alive, I was not quite prepared to throw away my life in an unsuccessful effort to swim to the ship—for that is what it would have meant, the water being alive with sharks that had followed us, day after day, with alarming persistency, ever since we had taken to the use of the sweeps. Besides which, I should of course not have been permitted to make the attempt. Of course, had I chosen to tell a deliberate falsehood, and declared my readiness to throw in my lot with Mendouca and his crew, it is possible that I might have been given the command of one of the boats; but not even for the purpose of effecting my escape did I consider that such a course would be justifiable. So I had perforce to remain where I was, under the jealously watchful eye of José, if not of the Englishman also; Mendouca asking me ironically, as he went down the side last of all, whether I had no letters for home or elsewhere that I would like to forward by means of the stranger.Now that the sweeps were laid in, and their everlasting grind and roll and splash were no longer heard, the silence of nature seemed so profound as to be almost awe-inspiring; there was literally not a sound to be heard save such as were caused by human agency, such as the movements and voices of the men in the boats, or the gasping sighs of the unhappy negroes cooped up below in the stifling hold. Occasionally a slight murmur of sound reached us from the distant ship; the call of an officer uttering a command, the “Yo-heave-oh” of the crew, or a gang of them, engaged upon some heavy job, and an occasional rumbling that to my ear sounded very much like that of carronade slides in process of being trained to bear upon some object. But if the ship was armed there was no sign of it, her sides being decorated withpaintedports only, so far as I could see. When, however, the boats had traversed about half the distance between the brigantine and the ship, a man appeared in the mizen rigging of the latter, and, hailing them in English in a voice which rendered his words perfectly audible to us on board theFrancesca, demanded to know what they wanted. I saw Mendouca rise in the stern-sheets of his boat, and heard him make some reply, but I could not distinguish what it was, perhaps because he had intentionally made it unintelligible. Whatever the words may have been, they were clearly unsatisfactory; for the figure in the rigging waved its hand warningly, and shouted—“Keep off, whoever you are; you are far too strong a party to be allowed to come alongside us; and I warn you that if you attempt to do so we shall fire upon you! If you have any legitimate business with us letoneboat, with a crew of not more than five, come alongside, and welcome; but we will not have the whole of you if we can help it, and I think we can!”The boats had, up to this time, been paddling quietly and composedly along, the men evidently husbanding their strength for a final effort; but now, in response to a shout from Mendouca, they bent to their work, and sent the boats foaming along in a style for which I certainly should never have given them credit; they could scarcely have done better had they been the British man-o’-war’s men that they had pretended to be; the oars bent, the water was churned into foam, and a miniature surge gathered under each boat’s bow as the little craft was suddenly urged to racing speed. Then the figure in the ship’s mizen rigging waved an arm, and stepped quietly down on to the poop, which by this time was occupied only by a band of men—evidently passengers—who, under the leadership of a military-looking man, were handling their muskets and making ready to open fire. At the signal given by the individual who had just stepped out of the ship’s rigging—and who was no doubt her captain—eight hitherto closed ports in the stranger’s bulwarks were suddenly thrown open, as many dark, threatening, iron muzzles appeared, and, at a second command, the whole eight blazed forth, and their contents, consisting of round-shot with a charge of grape on top of each, went hurtling through the air in the direction of the boats. The aim was excellent, the shot flashing up the water all round the boats; but, so far as I could see, not a man among either of their crews was touched. I heard Mendouca cheer his men on, urging them to stretch out, and get so close to the ship, that by the time that the guns were again loaded, it would be impossible to depress the muzzles sufficiently to hit the boats; and the men responded with the nearest approach to a cheer that, I suppose, a Spaniard can give, pulling manfully the while. The ship’s crew were, however, too quick for them, and managed to give them another broadside just before the boats got within the critical limit where it would have been impossible to touch them; and this time the discharge was very much more effective, a round-shot striking Mendouca’s own boat square on the stem just at the water-line, destroyingher bows and tearing several feet of her keel away, while the accompanying charge of grape bowled over three of her men and shattered Mendouca’s left arm at the elbow. The crews of the other two boats suffered nearly as badly, one of them losing three men, while the other lost one man killed and five more or less severely wounded, besides having to stop and pick up Mendouca and his crew, his boat sinking almost immediately.I thought that this severe punishment would have sufficed the Spaniards, and that they would have abandoned the attack, and so, I imagine, thought the skipper of the ship, for while they were in this perilous predicament, he magnanimously withheld his fire, giving them an opportunity to retire without further loss. And so they would, in all probability, had Mendouca been a born Spaniard. But, renegade as he was, the British blood in his veins still told, and, despite the anguish of his terrible wound, he no sooner found himself in the boat that picked him up than his voice again rang out almost as loudly and clearly as before, still urging his men to press forward, and reminding them that they were fighting for their lives, or—what was the same thing—food and water. It was probably this reminder that turned the scale among the waverers, for at the mention of the word “water” they again seized their oars, and with a yell gave way for the ship. Evidently exasperated at this quite unexpected exhibition of determination on the part of the pirates, the little band on the poop now opened a smart and very galling fire with their muskets upon the boats, and I saw three or four pairs of arms tossed skyward as the discharge rattled forth. But before the weapons of this little party of volunteers could be reloaded the boats were alongside the ship, the pirates dropped their oars, and made a simultaneous dash for the fore and main channels, and there instantly ensued a desperatemêléein which the popping of pistols was for the first half-minute or so a very prominent feature. I fully expected to see Mendouca and his crew driven back into their boats with a very heavy loss; but, to my astonishment and sorrow, I soon saw that they were more than holding their own, and in less than three minutes they had actually forced their way inboard, and the right was transferred to the ship’s decks. It was evident that the British crew were now making a most determined and desperate resistance, for the fight was protracted to fully a quarter of an hour, the clink and clash of steel, the shouts of the combatants, and the cries of the wounded being distinctly audible to us on the deck of theFrancesca. Then the hubbub suddenly lulled, and I heard cries for quarter, cries which, to my bitter grief, I knew to be the sure indication of defeat on the part of the British crew. Then utter silence fell upon the unfortunate ship for a few minutes, to be broken by the muffled sound of women’s shrieks, men’s voices uplifted in fierce, impotent anger and denunciation, two or three pistol-shots that sounded as though they had been fired in the ship’s cabin, and then silence again; an ominous, dreadful silence that to my foreboding mind might mean the perpetration of horrors to which those already enacted on the blood-stained decks were as nothing.This silence prevailed for fully an hour, during which no sign of life was visible on board the ship; then arose the sound of hilarious shouts and drunken laughter; there was a sudden stir and commotion about the decks; a crowd of men gathered on the poop, many of them with their hands bound behind them—as I could see with the aid of a telescope—while others had their heads swathed in blood-stained bandages; a long plank was rigged out over the taffrail; and then Mendouca appeared to be making some sort of a speech. If such was the case the speech was a very brief one; and when it terminated a short pause ensued, and I saw that a few of the prisoners—perhaps three or four, as nearly as I could make out—were being released from their bonds. Then occurred another short pause, at the expiration of which a man was led forward, blindfolded, and guided to the inner extremity of the plank, along which I could see that they were urging him to walk. He advanced a few paces, paused, as though he had been addressed, and I distinctly saw him shake his head. As though this movement of the head were a prearranged signal, the inner end of the plank suddenly tilted up, and the unfortunate man, with a staggering movement as though to save himself fell with a resounding splash into the sea, where for a few seconds he seemed to struggle desperately. Not for long, however; the sharks that had been haunting us for so many days heard the splash, and after a few restless movements, as though unwilling to leave us, darted off toward the ship. I saw the horrid triangular fins cleaving the surface of the glassy water, each leaving its own delicate wedge-shaped wake spreading astern as it went, until the small ripples of the different wakes met and crossed each other; then, as the distance between them and their prey lessened, there was a sudden increase of speed which soon became a rush, the black fins merged toward each other, the water swirled round the drowning man, there was a single ear-piercing shriek of agony, and the poor wretch had disappeared.This dreadful spectacle appeared to have had its desired effect, for I saw that several more of the prisoners were now being released from their bonds, the released men, one and all, slinking down off the poop and away forward toward the forecastle. There were others, however—fifteen in all, for I counted them—whose courage was not to be shaken even by this awful ordeal, and one after the other they boldly trod the fatal plank, and went to meet their dreadful doom! All honour to them, say I, for the lofty courage that enabled them to choose death rather than an ignoble and crime-stained life.Then there was another long pause, during which, as I afterwards learned, theFrancesca’screw were rummaging the ship—a homeward-bound Indiaman, named theBangalore—and loading her decks with booty of every imaginable description, preparatory to its transfer to the brigantine. Mendouca, I must mention, had already compelled theBangalore’ssurgeon to dress his wound for him; and now, having given his orders to one of the men whom he considered the most reliable and trustworthy of his crew, he returned to theFrancesca, and, with the aid of his son Pedro, was got into his bunk, where I could hear him from time to time grinding his teeth in agony, although, such was the spirit of the man, not a groan would he permit to escape him.The sun had set, and the velvet dusk of the tropics was closing down upon the scene, when at length theBangalore’sboats were hoisted out, and the work of transhipping the booty began. Mendouca must have felt himself a second Kidd, for the ship was almost as rich a prize as one of the old Acapulco galleons; there were bales of rich silks and shawls, spices, caskets of gems, ingots of gold, exquisite embroidered muslins, and I know not what beside—goods of a value sufficient, it seemed to me, to make every rascal on the books of theFrancescarich for the remainder of his life, although they were of course unable to take more than a comparatively small quantity of theBangalore’sentire cargo. Nevertheless, they contrived to find room for a goodly proportion of the most costly and valuable contents of the vessel’s hold, the transfer of which, and of as much food and water as they deemed necessary to their requirements, occupied the crew until midnight; for in Mendouca’s absence, as may be supposed, they did not trouble to exert themselves overmuch. Moreover, a large proportion of them were in such a state of intoxication they scarcely knew what they were doing—my especialbête-noirthe boatswain among the number, he having seized an early opportunity to board the ship after Mendouca had been safely bestowed in his own cabin. I did not know this until told so by Simpson, the English man whom I have already mentioned as having been left on board theFrancescathat afternoon with the boatswain and myself, who added to his information—“Better keep your weather-eye liftin’, Mr Dugdale, sir; that José’s full of spite as an egg’s full of meat; he have never forgiven you for knockin’ him down, and have swore over and over again to put his knife into you. And now that he’s full of drink, and the skipper’s on his beam-ends, he’s just as likely as not to try it.”“Yes, I suppose he is. Thank you for the warning, Simpson,” said I. The man put his finger to his forehead in acknowledgment of my thanks, but continued to linger near me; and presently it dawned upon me that he had something further to say. So I turned to him and inquired—“Is there anything particular that you wish to say to me, Simpson?”“Well, yes, sir, there is, if I only knowed how to say it,” answered the man, in a low, cautious tone of voice and with a somewhat hesitating manner. He paused for a second or two, as though in consideration, and then, looking me full in the face, said—“I hopes you’ll excuse me askin’ of you the question, Mr Dugdale, but might you be a-thinkin’ of gettin’ away out o’ this here brigantine, supposin’ that you sees a good chance for to do so? I ain’t askin’ out of any impertinence or curiosity, sir, I beg you to believe; but my meanin’ is this here, if so be as it happens that youwasthinkin’ of any such thing, I was wonderin’ whether we mightn’t be able to go together, and be of sarvice to one another in a manner of speakin’.”“Oh,” said I, “that is your idea, is it? Are you not satisfied with your present berth then, Simpson?”“No, sir, I’m not, to tell the truth of it,” answered the man. “I know that it’s rather a risky thing to say aboard of this here wessel; but the truth is that Iain’tsatisfied at all, and haven’t been for a long while; not since Mr Arrowsmith—or Señor Mendouca, as he now calls hisself—took up to the piratin’ business. So long as it was just a matter of runnin’ a cargo of slaves across the Atlantic, I didn’t mind so much, for there was plenty of dollars goin’, and I didn’t see that there was much harm in it, for I don’t suppose the poor beggars is any worse off on the sugar and ’baccy plantations than they are in their own country. But when it comes to work like what’s been done to-day, I wants to be out of it; and I don’t mind sayin’ so to you straight out, Mr Dugdale, because you’re a naval hofficer, you are, sir, and of course as such you’re bound to be dead against such things as has happened since you’ve been aboard here. Besides, I’ve been a-watchin’ of you, sir—askin’ your pardon for the same, Mr Dugdale—and I’ve seen that this ship and her doin’s ain’t no more to your taste than they are to mine.”“You are right, Simpson, they are not,” said I; “and since you have been so frank with me, I will be equally so with you. You have rightly guessed that I would gladly make my escape from this accursed brigantine, if I could; and I had quite made up my mind that if, as I fully expected, Captain Mendouca had run alongside that ship this afternoon, I would board with the rest, and then join the British crew in their defence of their own ship.”“It’s perhaps just as well then for you, sir, and for me too, that matters was arranged different,” answered Simpson; “because, if the thing had come off as you planned it, I don’t suppose that your joinin’ of the other side would have made that much difference that they’d have beat off the skipper and his lot; and if they hadn’t, and you’d fallen alive into the hands of the skipper, he’d have—well, I don’t know what he wouldn’t have done to you; but I’m mortal sure that you wouldn’t have been alive now. But perhaps, sir, you’ve been thinkin’, as I have, that even now it mayn’t be too late to do somethin’.”“Yes,” said I, “I have. While you have been talking to me a multitude of ideas have thronged through my mind, disconnected and vague, certainly, but still capable perhaps of being worked into shape. And I do not mind admitting to you, Simpson, that your proposal to join me in any attempt that I may be disposed to make simplifies matters a great deal. The most important factor in the problem before us is: How will yonder ship be dealt with when theFrancesca’speople have done with her? Will she be destroyed, or will she be left, with those unfortunate passengers—most probably with no knowledge whatever of nautical matters—to drift about at the mercy of wind and sea, to take her chance of being fallen in with, or to founder in the first gale of wind that happens to come her way?”“No, sir, no,” answered Simpson. “You may take your oath that Captain Mendouca won’t run the risk of leavin’ her afloat to be picked up and took into port, where her passengers could tell what tales they liked about him and his doin’s. She’ll be scuttled, sir, and left to go down with all them passengers in her, the same as that unfortunit’ Portugee brig was that we took the slaves out of. But I’ve been thinkin’, sir, that, even so, two sailor-men, like you and me, might do a good deal, with the help of the gentlemen passengers, to put together some sort of a raft that would hold all hands of us and keep us above water until somethin’ comes along and picks us up. Of course I knows quite well that it’ll be a mighty poor look-out for the strongest of us, and a dreadful bad time for the poor women-folk, to be obliged to take to a raft; but I expect they’d rather do that and take their chance of bein’ picked up than go down with the ship; and if you’re willin’ to face the job,Iam too, sir, and there’s my hand on it.”I took the fellow’s proffered hand and grasped it warmly.“You are a good fellow, Simpson, and a true British seaman, whatever your past may have been,” said I, “and I accept your proposal, which I can see is made in perfect good faith. Now, it seems to me that all that we have to do, in the first place, is to get on board yonder ship. The question is: How is it to be done without the knowledge of any of theFrancesca’speople?”“Well, sir,” said Simpson, “I don’t think as there’ll be any great difficulty about that, so far as I’m concerned; and I don’t think there need be much with you neither, if you wouldn’t mind changing your rig and shiftin’ into some togs of mine, so as these chaps of theFrancesca, won’t recognise you. Then, when the next boat comes from the ship, we’ll tumble down into her and offer to give two of the others a spell; they’ll be only too glad of the chance to get a little relief from the job of pullin’ backwards and for’ards and the handlin’ of a lot of stuff, and, once aboard the ship, we can stow ourselves out of sight until they leave her for good and all.”“Very well,” said I, “that seems as good a plan as any, and we will try it. Let me have some of your old clothes, Simpson—a flannel shirt and a pair of canvas trousers will do—and I will shift into them at once. And there is another thing that occurs to me. If we could manage to secure a little further help it would be so much the better. Now, if I am not mistaken, a good many of the crew of yonder ship joined theFrancescathis afternoon as the only means of saving their lives. We must get hold of a few of them, if we can, and, by means of a few judicious questions, find out whether they would be willing to throw in their lot with us and take their chance of ultimate escape, rather than become slavers and pirates. With only half-a-dozen stout, willing seamen a great deal might be done to better the state of affairs generally.”“You are right, sir, it would make a lot of difference, and I’ll see what can be done,” answered Simpson. “And now, sir, shall I go and get you the togs? I s’pose that whatever we do might as well be done at once?”“Certainly,” said I, “the sooner the better. I can see no object in delaying our movements, now that we have determined upon a definite plan.”“All right, sir, then here goes,” answered Simpson. “I’ll be back with the duds in a jiffey.”Simpson’s “jiffey” proved to be a pretty long one, for it was fully twenty minutes before he returned with the clothes—a thin flannel shirt that had seen its best days, and was so faded from its original colour and so thoroughly stained with tar and grease that it was difficult to say what that original colour had been, but was therefore so much the better suited to the purpose of a disguise—a pair of equally faded dungaree trousers, and a knitted worsted cap. But his delay had not been profitless, for happening to find in the forecastle two of the crew of theBangalore, who had been compelled to join theFrancesca, and who, from their dejected appearance, he conjectured were not altogether pleased or satisfied with the arrangement, he entered into conversation with them, and soon contrived to elicit from them that his conjecture was well founded. Thereupon, as there was no time to lose, he took the bold course of asking them outright whether, in the event of there being a scheme afoot on the part of others to escape from the brigantine to the ship, they would be disposed to join in it, to which they replied that they would gladly, and that indeed they had been discussing the possibilities of such an attempt when he interrupted them by his descent into the forecastle. This was enough for Simpson, who at once brought them aft to me, and I, finding them fully in earnest in their expressed desire to have nothing to do with the pirates, forthwith unfolded my plans to them, carefully directing their attention to the somewhat desperate aspect of the adventure, but at the same time pointing out to them that every additional seaman whose help we could secure added very materially to the chances of a successful issue. What I said seemed only to render them the more determined to sever their brief connection with the pirates at any cost, and they unhesitatingly declared their readiness to join me, and to implicitly obey my orders. More than this, they informed me that there were others of theBangalorecrew who, they were sure, would be equally ready with themselves, if permitted, to take part in the adventure, and they consented to hunt up as many of these men as possible at once, and to have them ready to meet me on the forecastle to discuss the matter in a quarter of an hour.My scheme, which, prior to my conversation with Simpson, had been of the most vague and nebulous character, had now taken shape and wore so promising an appearance that I felt sanguine of its ultimate success; so without further ado I retired right aft to the wheel grating—that part of the brigantine being now quite deserted, and wrapped in total darkness save for the dim and diffused light that issued from the cabin skylight—and there, unseen, shifted into the clothes that Simpson had brought me. They were not particularly comfortable nor quite so well-savoured as I could have wished; but it was no time for ultra-squeamishness, and I was soon transformed into a very colourable imitation of a fo’c’s’le hand. This done, I went forward, past the open hatchway down which the plunder from theBangalorewas being struck, noticing with bitter distress and anger the forlorn, dejected, worn-out, and despairing attitudes of the unfortunate blacks closely huddled together on the slave-deck, their forms faintly indicated in the yellow, smoky light of the lanterns which the men were working by, and noticing too, with keen satisfaction, that most of the crew had reached that stage of intoxication wherein the victim’s whole attention is required for the conduct of his own affairs, with none to spare for those of others. Many had gone considerably beyond this stage, and were staggering about, pulling and hauling aimlessly at the first object that they could lay their hands upon, and proving far more of a hindrance than a help to their less intoxicated comrades; while there were some who had reached the final stage of bestiality, and were lying about the decks in a helpless condition of drunken stupor. Nothing more favourable for our scheme than this condition of general intoxication could possibly have happened, unless it were that Pedro was below, fully occupied in attending to his father, and was therefore the less likely to discover my absence from the brigantine until it should be too late to take any steps toward the investigation of the phenomenon; I therefore hurried to the rendezvous with a sudden feeling of elation and joyousness and confidence in the conviction that the time of release from my exceedingly uncongenial and disagreeable, if not absolutely hopeless, situation had at length arrived.Upon reaching the forecastle-head—the appointed spot of our rendezvous—I found it tenantless; but presently a man came lounging up to me from the group of workers about the hatchway, and, after peering into my face, inquired—“Got any ’baccy about you, mate? Mine’s down below in my chest, and I haven’t unlashed it yet. If you’ve got any, just give me a chaw, will ye, and maybe I’ll do as much for you another time.”“I am sorry to say that I have not any,” I answered. “I do not use it except in the form of a cigar now and then. But I expect my mate Simpson on deck every moment, and I have no doubt that he will be able to accommodate you. You are one of the new hands, shipped from theBangalore, are you not? I don’t seem to remember having seen your face before.”“No, perhaps not, and it’s precious little you can see now, I should think, unless you’ve got cat’s eyes, and can see in the dark,” was the somewhat surly response. “Yes,” he continued, “I’m Joe Maxwell, late carpenter of theBangalore, and—well, yes, ‘shipped’ is the word, I suppose. And pray who mayyoube, my buck, with your dandified talk—which, to my mind, is about as like any fo’c’s’le lingo that I ever heard as chalk is like cheese? Are all hands aboard this dashin’ rover of the same kidney as yourself?”“Scarcely that, I think, as you seem to have already had an opportunity of judging,” I answered, laughingly, as I glanced in the direction of the hatchway. “No,” I continued, determined to sound him forthwith, as his speech and manner seemed to indicate that he was by no means satisfied with his changed lot, “I am a naval officer, and a prisoner, I suppose I must call myself, although, as you see, I have the liberty of the ship. And now, having told you thus much, I should like you to tell me candidly, Maxwell, did you join this afternoon of your own free will, or under compulsion?”The man looked at me searchingly for a moment, and then said—“Well, I suppose when a man is asked a straightforward question the best plan is to give a straightfor’ard answer. So, mister, I don’t mind tellin’ you that I j’ined because I was obliged to; ’twas either that or a walk along a short plank.”“In fact, you joined merely to save your life,” I suggested.“Ay; pretty much as you, yourself, may have done,” was the answer.“I?” I exclaimed. “Surely, my good fellow, you do not mean to say that you imagine me—a naval officer—to have joined this crew of thieves and murderers?”“Blest if I know, or care,” the fellow answered roughly. “Only, if you’re a naval officer, as you say, and haven’t joined the ‘thieves and murderers,’ as you call ’em, I should like to know how you come to be rigged like a fo’c’s’le Jack?”I saw that the man was suspicious of me—perhaps thought I was endeavouring, for purposes of espionage, to fathom his real feelings with regard to the service into which he had been pressed; I saw, moreover, that my conjecture was correct, and that, despite his cautious replies, he was by no means satisfied with the arrangement, and so determined to be frank with him at once, tell him what I contemplated, and invite him to join me. As carpenter of theBangalorehe would be an especially valuable acquisition to our party. I accordingly did so; and before I had finished I had the satisfaction of seeing that his suspicions had completely disappeared, and that he was listening to me intently and respectfully. When I had brought my disclosure and proposition to an end, he at once said—“I’m with you, sir, heart and soul!Anything—even a raft—will be better than this thievin’ and murderin’ hooker and her cut-throat crew! Yes, sir, I’m with you, for life or death. But, please God, it shall be life and not death for all hands of us. Let us get away aboard at once, sir; I’m just longin’ to tread the beauty’s planks again; and as to scuttlin’ her—why, I’ll make it my first business, when I get aboard, to shape out a few plugs and take ’em down into the run with me—that’s the only place where they’ll be able to get at her under-water plankin’—and as soon as they’ve gone I’ll plug up them holes so that she’ll be as tight as a bottle, and never a penny the worse for what little they’re likely to do to her. But it would please me a precious sight better to knock out the brains of whoever dares to go down below to do the scuttlin’ business.”“No, no,” said I, “that would never do; the man would be missed, a search would be instituted, and heaven only knows what the consequences would be. No, the scuttling must be allowed to proceed, and the pirates must finally leave the ship with the conviction that she is slowly but surely sinking. If all goes well this craft will be out of sight before morning, and then, once clear of them, we shall have leisure to make our plans and carry them out.”“Right you are, sir, and right it is,” answered Maxwell. “You’ll have to be our skipper now, sir, for poor Capt’n Mason and all three of the mates is gone—one on ’em—Mr King—killed in the scrimmage, and t’others made to walk the plank—so you’ll be the only navigator that we can muster among the lot of us, as well as the ’riginator of this here scheme for gettin’ the better of these here Spaniards, so’ you’re the fittest and properest person to take charge. All that you’ve got to do, sir, is to give your orders, and I’ll answer for it as they’ll be obeyed.”
It was just six bells in the afternoon watch when we at length arrived within a distance of about half-a-mile of the stranger, which had by this time been unmistakably made out to be a British passenger ship of one of the crack lines; first by her having hoisted British colours some time before, and secondly by the crowd of well-dressed ladies and gentlemen that, with the aid of the telescope, we could see congregated on her poop. Mendouca also had hoisted the British ensign, and, to my supreme indignation, a man-o’-war’s pennant, his object in doing so being, of course, to disarm suspicion as long as possible, and thus leave the ship only a very brief length of time to prepare for defence when our intention to attack her became no longer possible of concealment. I remonstrated with him upon this desecration of the colours that he had once fought and hoped to win fame under; but of course my remonstrance was quite useless, the rascal only laughed at me.
Having arrived within the above-named distance of the ship, Mendouca ordered the sweeps to be laid in, and the slaves to be driven below and secured. This done, to my disgust his next order was to hoist out the boats—of which theFrancesca, unlike most slavers, carried three; and as soon as they were in the water, the entire crew were armed, and the whole of them, except my especial enemy, José, and an Englishman—a very quiet, inoffensive fellow, whom I was surprised to find among a crew of such ruffians—were ordered down over the side. This completely upset my plans, for, of course, the only way now of reaching the stranger was by means of the boats, or by swimming; and while I would gladly have gone in one of the boats, and taken my chance of reaching the stranger’s deck alive, I was not quite prepared to throw away my life in an unsuccessful effort to swim to the ship—for that is what it would have meant, the water being alive with sharks that had followed us, day after day, with alarming persistency, ever since we had taken to the use of the sweeps. Besides which, I should of course not have been permitted to make the attempt. Of course, had I chosen to tell a deliberate falsehood, and declared my readiness to throw in my lot with Mendouca and his crew, it is possible that I might have been given the command of one of the boats; but not even for the purpose of effecting my escape did I consider that such a course would be justifiable. So I had perforce to remain where I was, under the jealously watchful eye of José, if not of the Englishman also; Mendouca asking me ironically, as he went down the side last of all, whether I had no letters for home or elsewhere that I would like to forward by means of the stranger.
Now that the sweeps were laid in, and their everlasting grind and roll and splash were no longer heard, the silence of nature seemed so profound as to be almost awe-inspiring; there was literally not a sound to be heard save such as were caused by human agency, such as the movements and voices of the men in the boats, or the gasping sighs of the unhappy negroes cooped up below in the stifling hold. Occasionally a slight murmur of sound reached us from the distant ship; the call of an officer uttering a command, the “Yo-heave-oh” of the crew, or a gang of them, engaged upon some heavy job, and an occasional rumbling that to my ear sounded very much like that of carronade slides in process of being trained to bear upon some object. But if the ship was armed there was no sign of it, her sides being decorated withpaintedports only, so far as I could see. When, however, the boats had traversed about half the distance between the brigantine and the ship, a man appeared in the mizen rigging of the latter, and, hailing them in English in a voice which rendered his words perfectly audible to us on board theFrancesca, demanded to know what they wanted. I saw Mendouca rise in the stern-sheets of his boat, and heard him make some reply, but I could not distinguish what it was, perhaps because he had intentionally made it unintelligible. Whatever the words may have been, they were clearly unsatisfactory; for the figure in the rigging waved its hand warningly, and shouted—
“Keep off, whoever you are; you are far too strong a party to be allowed to come alongside us; and I warn you that if you attempt to do so we shall fire upon you! If you have any legitimate business with us letoneboat, with a crew of not more than five, come alongside, and welcome; but we will not have the whole of you if we can help it, and I think we can!”
The boats had, up to this time, been paddling quietly and composedly along, the men evidently husbanding their strength for a final effort; but now, in response to a shout from Mendouca, they bent to their work, and sent the boats foaming along in a style for which I certainly should never have given them credit; they could scarcely have done better had they been the British man-o’-war’s men that they had pretended to be; the oars bent, the water was churned into foam, and a miniature surge gathered under each boat’s bow as the little craft was suddenly urged to racing speed. Then the figure in the ship’s mizen rigging waved an arm, and stepped quietly down on to the poop, which by this time was occupied only by a band of men—evidently passengers—who, under the leadership of a military-looking man, were handling their muskets and making ready to open fire. At the signal given by the individual who had just stepped out of the ship’s rigging—and who was no doubt her captain—eight hitherto closed ports in the stranger’s bulwarks were suddenly thrown open, as many dark, threatening, iron muzzles appeared, and, at a second command, the whole eight blazed forth, and their contents, consisting of round-shot with a charge of grape on top of each, went hurtling through the air in the direction of the boats. The aim was excellent, the shot flashing up the water all round the boats; but, so far as I could see, not a man among either of their crews was touched. I heard Mendouca cheer his men on, urging them to stretch out, and get so close to the ship, that by the time that the guns were again loaded, it would be impossible to depress the muzzles sufficiently to hit the boats; and the men responded with the nearest approach to a cheer that, I suppose, a Spaniard can give, pulling manfully the while. The ship’s crew were, however, too quick for them, and managed to give them another broadside just before the boats got within the critical limit where it would have been impossible to touch them; and this time the discharge was very much more effective, a round-shot striking Mendouca’s own boat square on the stem just at the water-line, destroyingher bows and tearing several feet of her keel away, while the accompanying charge of grape bowled over three of her men and shattered Mendouca’s left arm at the elbow. The crews of the other two boats suffered nearly as badly, one of them losing three men, while the other lost one man killed and five more or less severely wounded, besides having to stop and pick up Mendouca and his crew, his boat sinking almost immediately.
I thought that this severe punishment would have sufficed the Spaniards, and that they would have abandoned the attack, and so, I imagine, thought the skipper of the ship, for while they were in this perilous predicament, he magnanimously withheld his fire, giving them an opportunity to retire without further loss. And so they would, in all probability, had Mendouca been a born Spaniard. But, renegade as he was, the British blood in his veins still told, and, despite the anguish of his terrible wound, he no sooner found himself in the boat that picked him up than his voice again rang out almost as loudly and clearly as before, still urging his men to press forward, and reminding them that they were fighting for their lives, or—what was the same thing—food and water. It was probably this reminder that turned the scale among the waverers, for at the mention of the word “water” they again seized their oars, and with a yell gave way for the ship. Evidently exasperated at this quite unexpected exhibition of determination on the part of the pirates, the little band on the poop now opened a smart and very galling fire with their muskets upon the boats, and I saw three or four pairs of arms tossed skyward as the discharge rattled forth. But before the weapons of this little party of volunteers could be reloaded the boats were alongside the ship, the pirates dropped their oars, and made a simultaneous dash for the fore and main channels, and there instantly ensued a desperatemêléein which the popping of pistols was for the first half-minute or so a very prominent feature. I fully expected to see Mendouca and his crew driven back into their boats with a very heavy loss; but, to my astonishment and sorrow, I soon saw that they were more than holding their own, and in less than three minutes they had actually forced their way inboard, and the right was transferred to the ship’s decks. It was evident that the British crew were now making a most determined and desperate resistance, for the fight was protracted to fully a quarter of an hour, the clink and clash of steel, the shouts of the combatants, and the cries of the wounded being distinctly audible to us on the deck of theFrancesca. Then the hubbub suddenly lulled, and I heard cries for quarter, cries which, to my bitter grief, I knew to be the sure indication of defeat on the part of the British crew. Then utter silence fell upon the unfortunate ship for a few minutes, to be broken by the muffled sound of women’s shrieks, men’s voices uplifted in fierce, impotent anger and denunciation, two or three pistol-shots that sounded as though they had been fired in the ship’s cabin, and then silence again; an ominous, dreadful silence that to my foreboding mind might mean the perpetration of horrors to which those already enacted on the blood-stained decks were as nothing.
This silence prevailed for fully an hour, during which no sign of life was visible on board the ship; then arose the sound of hilarious shouts and drunken laughter; there was a sudden stir and commotion about the decks; a crowd of men gathered on the poop, many of them with their hands bound behind them—as I could see with the aid of a telescope—while others had their heads swathed in blood-stained bandages; a long plank was rigged out over the taffrail; and then Mendouca appeared to be making some sort of a speech. If such was the case the speech was a very brief one; and when it terminated a short pause ensued, and I saw that a few of the prisoners—perhaps three or four, as nearly as I could make out—were being released from their bonds. Then occurred another short pause, at the expiration of which a man was led forward, blindfolded, and guided to the inner extremity of the plank, along which I could see that they were urging him to walk. He advanced a few paces, paused, as though he had been addressed, and I distinctly saw him shake his head. As though this movement of the head were a prearranged signal, the inner end of the plank suddenly tilted up, and the unfortunate man, with a staggering movement as though to save himself fell with a resounding splash into the sea, where for a few seconds he seemed to struggle desperately. Not for long, however; the sharks that had been haunting us for so many days heard the splash, and after a few restless movements, as though unwilling to leave us, darted off toward the ship. I saw the horrid triangular fins cleaving the surface of the glassy water, each leaving its own delicate wedge-shaped wake spreading astern as it went, until the small ripples of the different wakes met and crossed each other; then, as the distance between them and their prey lessened, there was a sudden increase of speed which soon became a rush, the black fins merged toward each other, the water swirled round the drowning man, there was a single ear-piercing shriek of agony, and the poor wretch had disappeared.
This dreadful spectacle appeared to have had its desired effect, for I saw that several more of the prisoners were now being released from their bonds, the released men, one and all, slinking down off the poop and away forward toward the forecastle. There were others, however—fifteen in all, for I counted them—whose courage was not to be shaken even by this awful ordeal, and one after the other they boldly trod the fatal plank, and went to meet their dreadful doom! All honour to them, say I, for the lofty courage that enabled them to choose death rather than an ignoble and crime-stained life.
Then there was another long pause, during which, as I afterwards learned, theFrancesca’screw were rummaging the ship—a homeward-bound Indiaman, named theBangalore—and loading her decks with booty of every imaginable description, preparatory to its transfer to the brigantine. Mendouca, I must mention, had already compelled theBangalore’ssurgeon to dress his wound for him; and now, having given his orders to one of the men whom he considered the most reliable and trustworthy of his crew, he returned to theFrancesca, and, with the aid of his son Pedro, was got into his bunk, where I could hear him from time to time grinding his teeth in agony, although, such was the spirit of the man, not a groan would he permit to escape him.
The sun had set, and the velvet dusk of the tropics was closing down upon the scene, when at length theBangalore’sboats were hoisted out, and the work of transhipping the booty began. Mendouca must have felt himself a second Kidd, for the ship was almost as rich a prize as one of the old Acapulco galleons; there were bales of rich silks and shawls, spices, caskets of gems, ingots of gold, exquisite embroidered muslins, and I know not what beside—goods of a value sufficient, it seemed to me, to make every rascal on the books of theFrancescarich for the remainder of his life, although they were of course unable to take more than a comparatively small quantity of theBangalore’sentire cargo. Nevertheless, they contrived to find room for a goodly proportion of the most costly and valuable contents of the vessel’s hold, the transfer of which, and of as much food and water as they deemed necessary to their requirements, occupied the crew until midnight; for in Mendouca’s absence, as may be supposed, they did not trouble to exert themselves overmuch. Moreover, a large proportion of them were in such a state of intoxication they scarcely knew what they were doing—my especialbête-noirthe boatswain among the number, he having seized an early opportunity to board the ship after Mendouca had been safely bestowed in his own cabin. I did not know this until told so by Simpson, the English man whom I have already mentioned as having been left on board theFrancescathat afternoon with the boatswain and myself, who added to his information—
“Better keep your weather-eye liftin’, Mr Dugdale, sir; that José’s full of spite as an egg’s full of meat; he have never forgiven you for knockin’ him down, and have swore over and over again to put his knife into you. And now that he’s full of drink, and the skipper’s on his beam-ends, he’s just as likely as not to try it.”
“Yes, I suppose he is. Thank you for the warning, Simpson,” said I. The man put his finger to his forehead in acknowledgment of my thanks, but continued to linger near me; and presently it dawned upon me that he had something further to say. So I turned to him and inquired—
“Is there anything particular that you wish to say to me, Simpson?”
“Well, yes, sir, there is, if I only knowed how to say it,” answered the man, in a low, cautious tone of voice and with a somewhat hesitating manner. He paused for a second or two, as though in consideration, and then, looking me full in the face, said—
“I hopes you’ll excuse me askin’ of you the question, Mr Dugdale, but might you be a-thinkin’ of gettin’ away out o’ this here brigantine, supposin’ that you sees a good chance for to do so? I ain’t askin’ out of any impertinence or curiosity, sir, I beg you to believe; but my meanin’ is this here, if so be as it happens that youwasthinkin’ of any such thing, I was wonderin’ whether we mightn’t be able to go together, and be of sarvice to one another in a manner of speakin’.”
“Oh,” said I, “that is your idea, is it? Are you not satisfied with your present berth then, Simpson?”
“No, sir, I’m not, to tell the truth of it,” answered the man. “I know that it’s rather a risky thing to say aboard of this here wessel; but the truth is that Iain’tsatisfied at all, and haven’t been for a long while; not since Mr Arrowsmith—or Señor Mendouca, as he now calls hisself—took up to the piratin’ business. So long as it was just a matter of runnin’ a cargo of slaves across the Atlantic, I didn’t mind so much, for there was plenty of dollars goin’, and I didn’t see that there was much harm in it, for I don’t suppose the poor beggars is any worse off on the sugar and ’baccy plantations than they are in their own country. But when it comes to work like what’s been done to-day, I wants to be out of it; and I don’t mind sayin’ so to you straight out, Mr Dugdale, because you’re a naval hofficer, you are, sir, and of course as such you’re bound to be dead against such things as has happened since you’ve been aboard here. Besides, I’ve been a-watchin’ of you, sir—askin’ your pardon for the same, Mr Dugdale—and I’ve seen that this ship and her doin’s ain’t no more to your taste than they are to mine.”
“You are right, Simpson, they are not,” said I; “and since you have been so frank with me, I will be equally so with you. You have rightly guessed that I would gladly make my escape from this accursed brigantine, if I could; and I had quite made up my mind that if, as I fully expected, Captain Mendouca had run alongside that ship this afternoon, I would board with the rest, and then join the British crew in their defence of their own ship.”
“It’s perhaps just as well then for you, sir, and for me too, that matters was arranged different,” answered Simpson; “because, if the thing had come off as you planned it, I don’t suppose that your joinin’ of the other side would have made that much difference that they’d have beat off the skipper and his lot; and if they hadn’t, and you’d fallen alive into the hands of the skipper, he’d have—well, I don’t know what he wouldn’t have done to you; but I’m mortal sure that you wouldn’t have been alive now. But perhaps, sir, you’ve been thinkin’, as I have, that even now it mayn’t be too late to do somethin’.”
“Yes,” said I, “I have. While you have been talking to me a multitude of ideas have thronged through my mind, disconnected and vague, certainly, but still capable perhaps of being worked into shape. And I do not mind admitting to you, Simpson, that your proposal to join me in any attempt that I may be disposed to make simplifies matters a great deal. The most important factor in the problem before us is: How will yonder ship be dealt with when theFrancesca’speople have done with her? Will she be destroyed, or will she be left, with those unfortunate passengers—most probably with no knowledge whatever of nautical matters—to drift about at the mercy of wind and sea, to take her chance of being fallen in with, or to founder in the first gale of wind that happens to come her way?”
“No, sir, no,” answered Simpson. “You may take your oath that Captain Mendouca won’t run the risk of leavin’ her afloat to be picked up and took into port, where her passengers could tell what tales they liked about him and his doin’s. She’ll be scuttled, sir, and left to go down with all them passengers in her, the same as that unfortunit’ Portugee brig was that we took the slaves out of. But I’ve been thinkin’, sir, that, even so, two sailor-men, like you and me, might do a good deal, with the help of the gentlemen passengers, to put together some sort of a raft that would hold all hands of us and keep us above water until somethin’ comes along and picks us up. Of course I knows quite well that it’ll be a mighty poor look-out for the strongest of us, and a dreadful bad time for the poor women-folk, to be obliged to take to a raft; but I expect they’d rather do that and take their chance of bein’ picked up than go down with the ship; and if you’re willin’ to face the job,Iam too, sir, and there’s my hand on it.”
I took the fellow’s proffered hand and grasped it warmly.
“You are a good fellow, Simpson, and a true British seaman, whatever your past may have been,” said I, “and I accept your proposal, which I can see is made in perfect good faith. Now, it seems to me that all that we have to do, in the first place, is to get on board yonder ship. The question is: How is it to be done without the knowledge of any of theFrancesca’speople?”
“Well, sir,” said Simpson, “I don’t think as there’ll be any great difficulty about that, so far as I’m concerned; and I don’t think there need be much with you neither, if you wouldn’t mind changing your rig and shiftin’ into some togs of mine, so as these chaps of theFrancesca, won’t recognise you. Then, when the next boat comes from the ship, we’ll tumble down into her and offer to give two of the others a spell; they’ll be only too glad of the chance to get a little relief from the job of pullin’ backwards and for’ards and the handlin’ of a lot of stuff, and, once aboard the ship, we can stow ourselves out of sight until they leave her for good and all.”
“Very well,” said I, “that seems as good a plan as any, and we will try it. Let me have some of your old clothes, Simpson—a flannel shirt and a pair of canvas trousers will do—and I will shift into them at once. And there is another thing that occurs to me. If we could manage to secure a little further help it would be so much the better. Now, if I am not mistaken, a good many of the crew of yonder ship joined theFrancescathis afternoon as the only means of saving their lives. We must get hold of a few of them, if we can, and, by means of a few judicious questions, find out whether they would be willing to throw in their lot with us and take their chance of ultimate escape, rather than become slavers and pirates. With only half-a-dozen stout, willing seamen a great deal might be done to better the state of affairs generally.”
“You are right, sir, it would make a lot of difference, and I’ll see what can be done,” answered Simpson. “And now, sir, shall I go and get you the togs? I s’pose that whatever we do might as well be done at once?”
“Certainly,” said I, “the sooner the better. I can see no object in delaying our movements, now that we have determined upon a definite plan.”
“All right, sir, then here goes,” answered Simpson. “I’ll be back with the duds in a jiffey.”
Simpson’s “jiffey” proved to be a pretty long one, for it was fully twenty minutes before he returned with the clothes—a thin flannel shirt that had seen its best days, and was so faded from its original colour and so thoroughly stained with tar and grease that it was difficult to say what that original colour had been, but was therefore so much the better suited to the purpose of a disguise—a pair of equally faded dungaree trousers, and a knitted worsted cap. But his delay had not been profitless, for happening to find in the forecastle two of the crew of theBangalore, who had been compelled to join theFrancesca, and who, from their dejected appearance, he conjectured were not altogether pleased or satisfied with the arrangement, he entered into conversation with them, and soon contrived to elicit from them that his conjecture was well founded. Thereupon, as there was no time to lose, he took the bold course of asking them outright whether, in the event of there being a scheme afoot on the part of others to escape from the brigantine to the ship, they would be disposed to join in it, to which they replied that they would gladly, and that indeed they had been discussing the possibilities of such an attempt when he interrupted them by his descent into the forecastle. This was enough for Simpson, who at once brought them aft to me, and I, finding them fully in earnest in their expressed desire to have nothing to do with the pirates, forthwith unfolded my plans to them, carefully directing their attention to the somewhat desperate aspect of the adventure, but at the same time pointing out to them that every additional seaman whose help we could secure added very materially to the chances of a successful issue. What I said seemed only to render them the more determined to sever their brief connection with the pirates at any cost, and they unhesitatingly declared their readiness to join me, and to implicitly obey my orders. More than this, they informed me that there were others of theBangalorecrew who, they were sure, would be equally ready with themselves, if permitted, to take part in the adventure, and they consented to hunt up as many of these men as possible at once, and to have them ready to meet me on the forecastle to discuss the matter in a quarter of an hour.
My scheme, which, prior to my conversation with Simpson, had been of the most vague and nebulous character, had now taken shape and wore so promising an appearance that I felt sanguine of its ultimate success; so without further ado I retired right aft to the wheel grating—that part of the brigantine being now quite deserted, and wrapped in total darkness save for the dim and diffused light that issued from the cabin skylight—and there, unseen, shifted into the clothes that Simpson had brought me. They were not particularly comfortable nor quite so well-savoured as I could have wished; but it was no time for ultra-squeamishness, and I was soon transformed into a very colourable imitation of a fo’c’s’le hand. This done, I went forward, past the open hatchway down which the plunder from theBangalorewas being struck, noticing with bitter distress and anger the forlorn, dejected, worn-out, and despairing attitudes of the unfortunate blacks closely huddled together on the slave-deck, their forms faintly indicated in the yellow, smoky light of the lanterns which the men were working by, and noticing too, with keen satisfaction, that most of the crew had reached that stage of intoxication wherein the victim’s whole attention is required for the conduct of his own affairs, with none to spare for those of others. Many had gone considerably beyond this stage, and were staggering about, pulling and hauling aimlessly at the first object that they could lay their hands upon, and proving far more of a hindrance than a help to their less intoxicated comrades; while there were some who had reached the final stage of bestiality, and were lying about the decks in a helpless condition of drunken stupor. Nothing more favourable for our scheme than this condition of general intoxication could possibly have happened, unless it were that Pedro was below, fully occupied in attending to his father, and was therefore the less likely to discover my absence from the brigantine until it should be too late to take any steps toward the investigation of the phenomenon; I therefore hurried to the rendezvous with a sudden feeling of elation and joyousness and confidence in the conviction that the time of release from my exceedingly uncongenial and disagreeable, if not absolutely hopeless, situation had at length arrived.
Upon reaching the forecastle-head—the appointed spot of our rendezvous—I found it tenantless; but presently a man came lounging up to me from the group of workers about the hatchway, and, after peering into my face, inquired—
“Got any ’baccy about you, mate? Mine’s down below in my chest, and I haven’t unlashed it yet. If you’ve got any, just give me a chaw, will ye, and maybe I’ll do as much for you another time.”
“I am sorry to say that I have not any,” I answered. “I do not use it except in the form of a cigar now and then. But I expect my mate Simpson on deck every moment, and I have no doubt that he will be able to accommodate you. You are one of the new hands, shipped from theBangalore, are you not? I don’t seem to remember having seen your face before.”
“No, perhaps not, and it’s precious little you can see now, I should think, unless you’ve got cat’s eyes, and can see in the dark,” was the somewhat surly response. “Yes,” he continued, “I’m Joe Maxwell, late carpenter of theBangalore, and—well, yes, ‘shipped’ is the word, I suppose. And pray who mayyoube, my buck, with your dandified talk—which, to my mind, is about as like any fo’c’s’le lingo that I ever heard as chalk is like cheese? Are all hands aboard this dashin’ rover of the same kidney as yourself?”
“Scarcely that, I think, as you seem to have already had an opportunity of judging,” I answered, laughingly, as I glanced in the direction of the hatchway. “No,” I continued, determined to sound him forthwith, as his speech and manner seemed to indicate that he was by no means satisfied with his changed lot, “I am a naval officer, and a prisoner, I suppose I must call myself, although, as you see, I have the liberty of the ship. And now, having told you thus much, I should like you to tell me candidly, Maxwell, did you join this afternoon of your own free will, or under compulsion?”
The man looked at me searchingly for a moment, and then said—
“Well, I suppose when a man is asked a straightforward question the best plan is to give a straightfor’ard answer. So, mister, I don’t mind tellin’ you that I j’ined because I was obliged to; ’twas either that or a walk along a short plank.”
“In fact, you joined merely to save your life,” I suggested.
“Ay; pretty much as you, yourself, may have done,” was the answer.
“I?” I exclaimed. “Surely, my good fellow, you do not mean to say that you imagine me—a naval officer—to have joined this crew of thieves and murderers?”
“Blest if I know, or care,” the fellow answered roughly. “Only, if you’re a naval officer, as you say, and haven’t joined the ‘thieves and murderers,’ as you call ’em, I should like to know how you come to be rigged like a fo’c’s’le Jack?”
I saw that the man was suspicious of me—perhaps thought I was endeavouring, for purposes of espionage, to fathom his real feelings with regard to the service into which he had been pressed; I saw, moreover, that my conjecture was correct, and that, despite his cautious replies, he was by no means satisfied with the arrangement, and so determined to be frank with him at once, tell him what I contemplated, and invite him to join me. As carpenter of theBangalorehe would be an especially valuable acquisition to our party. I accordingly did so; and before I had finished I had the satisfaction of seeing that his suspicions had completely disappeared, and that he was listening to me intently and respectfully. When I had brought my disclosure and proposition to an end, he at once said—
“I’m with you, sir, heart and soul!Anything—even a raft—will be better than this thievin’ and murderin’ hooker and her cut-throat crew! Yes, sir, I’m with you, for life or death. But, please God, it shall be life and not death for all hands of us. Let us get away aboard at once, sir; I’m just longin’ to tread the beauty’s planks again; and as to scuttlin’ her—why, I’ll make it my first business, when I get aboard, to shape out a few plugs and take ’em down into the run with me—that’s the only place where they’ll be able to get at her under-water plankin’—and as soon as they’ve gone I’ll plug up them holes so that she’ll be as tight as a bottle, and never a penny the worse for what little they’re likely to do to her. But it would please me a precious sight better to knock out the brains of whoever dares to go down below to do the scuttlin’ business.”
“No, no,” said I, “that would never do; the man would be missed, a search would be instituted, and heaven only knows what the consequences would be. No, the scuttling must be allowed to proceed, and the pirates must finally leave the ship with the conviction that she is slowly but surely sinking. If all goes well this craft will be out of sight before morning, and then, once clear of them, we shall have leisure to make our plans and carry them out.”
“Right you are, sir, and right it is,” answered Maxwell. “You’ll have to be our skipper now, sir, for poor Capt’n Mason and all three of the mates is gone—one on ’em—Mr King—killed in the scrimmage, and t’others made to walk the plank—so you’ll be the only navigator that we can muster among the lot of us, as well as the ’riginator of this here scheme for gettin’ the better of these here Spaniards, so’ you’re the fittest and properest person to take charge. All that you’ve got to do, sir, is to give your orders, and I’ll answer for it as they’ll be obeyed.”
Chapter Seventeen.I escape from the Brigantine.At this moment Simpson rejoined me, bringing with him three more of theBangalore’screw; and while I was talking to them the other two men—those whom Simpson had previously discovered—came forward from the hatchway, where they had been lending a hand to strike the booty down into the hold, and informed me that they had found and spoken to eight of their shipmates, at work at the gangway and hatchway, all of whom were quite ready and more than willing to join me at any moment when the signal should be given. A little further inquiry elicited the information that our party now comprised all the survivors of theBangalore’screw who had, so to speak, made a virtue of necessity and shipped under Mendouca in order to save their lives; there being four others who had shippedwillingly, and whom it had, therefore, been deemed inexpedient to approach with a proposal to join us, lest, in their zeal for their new chief, they should refuse and betray us all. Our party, therefore, was now complete, and all that remained to be done was to carry out our plans with as little delay as possible, and with twelve men at my back I felt tolerably confident of success; indeed, when I first learned our full strength, the wild idea flashed through my mind of attempting not only to save theBangalore, but also to capture theFrancesca. A moment’s reflection, however, convinced me of the impracticability of this scheme, for although, with the assistance of the ten male passengers who, I learned, were at that moment prisoners in their own cabins on board the Indiaman, it might be possible to capture theFrancesca, in the then disorganised condition of her crew, it would certainly involve some loss of life on our side, which we could not spare, and we should be able to do nothing with her when we had her, our whole available strength being hardly sufficient to handle and take care of the ship, should it come on to blow, much less to look after a prize as well. I therefore abandoned the idea, the more readily that I knew my story need only be told to the proper authorities to cause the brigantine to be hunted off the ocean, and her atrocities put an end to at once and for all.Our arrangements, therefore, were soon made; and this done, we sauntered away to the hatchway, singly and by twos at a time, and began to lend a hand in getting the plunder out of the boats and sending it below. Presently theBangalore’slong-boat came alongside, loaded down to the gunwale with booty, and manned by half-a-dozen Spaniards who were so drunk that they could scarcely stand. One of them, indeed, would have lost his life but for Simpson and Maxwell; for the boat was steered alongside stem-on, and the shock of her collision with the brigantine completely upset the balance of the man who was standing in the bows to fend her off, so that he fell overboard between the boat and the brigantine’s side. The fellow was partially sobered by his sudden immersion, and finding himself overboard, began at once to sing out lustily for help, fully aware that there were probably several sharks still hanging about the two vessels, and momentarily expecting to feel their teeth; whereupon Simpson and Maxwell, both of whom happened to be at the gangway at the moment of the accident, sprang down into the boat and succeeded in dragging the fellow safely out of the water, though not a moment too soon, the water being all a-swirl with the rush of the sea-monsters as the man was dragged inboard. The fright that he had received completely sobered him, but at the same time so thoroughly shook his nerves that he at once scrambled on board the brigantine, declaring with many oaths that he had had enough of boating for one night. His mates were but little better, and were glad enough to leave the boat at my suggestion and allow me and my party to take their places.We quickly roused the boat’s cargo out of her, and then shoved off for the ship again, making a great fuss and splash with the oars as we did so. When a few fathoms away from the brigantine, however, where in the darkness our movements were not likely to attract a too curious attention, first one oar and then another was laid in until all had been laid in but one; and this one we shifted aft, sculling the boat with it not to theBangalore’slarboard gangway, at which the other boats were working, but under the ship’s stern and to her starboard mizen channels, where we made her fast, and cautiously scrambled up on to the poop, one by one.Here we separated, the carpenter boldly making his way forward past the noisy, jabbering, drunken crowd who were grouped about the main-hatchway, engaged in hoisting on deck the goods that the boatswain, down in the hold, was selecting from the ship’s heterogeneous cargo, while the rest—excepting Simpson and myself—quietly stole up the mizen rigging, three of them concealing themselves in the top, while the rest, continuing on up the topmast rigging, made for the main and foretops by way of the stays; the lanterns which were being used to light the pirates at their work about the main-hatchway so effectually dazzling the drunken ruffians’ eyes, that there was not the slightest fear of any of the silent, sober figures stealthily moving about aloft being seen by them; indeed so deep was the gloom created between the masts by the towering expanses of the Indiaman’s canvas that even I, far away as I was from the dazzling light of the lanterns, was unable to follow with my eye the dusky, indistinctly-seen figures any further than the rim of the mizen-top. As for Simpson, it was quite possible for him to move freely about the ship and go wherever he pleased without exciting any suspicion, he being one of theFrancesca’sregular crew; I therefore instructed him to go down into the saloon and ascertain whether any of his quondam shipmates were there, and to return to me with his information as speedily as possible.While he was gone I had time to look about me a little, and note such of the most prominent characteristics of the ship as were to be seen by the dim light of the stars. She was a noble craft, as big as the generality of our first-class frigates, though not quite so beamy, perhaps, in proportion to her length, not quite so high out of the water, and of course not so heavily rigged. She carried a magnificent full poop that reached as far forward as to within about twenty-five feet of the main-mast, with companion, skylight, deck-fittings generally, and poop ladders of polished teak, handsomely and elaborately carved. The fore-part of the poop extended some six feet beyond the cabin front, and underneath it her steering-wheel was placed, with a door on each side of it giving access to the grand saloon. A long row of hencoops ran along each side of the poop; and the deck was further littered with a large number of deck-chairs that had been hurriedly bundled out of the way behind the companion, probably when it was seen that the brigantine undoubtedly meant to attack. The main-deck exhibited all the confusion incidental to a sea-fight, the guns—sixteen twelve-pound carronades—still unsecured, with their rammers and sponges flung down on the deck beside them, shot lying in the scuppers, overturned wadding-tubs, cutlasses, pistols, boarding-pikes, strewed all over the deck, and—horrible sight—several dark, silent figures lying stark and still in pools of blood, just as they had fallen in the fight. The ship’s davits were empty, both her gigs having been lowered to facilitate the transfer of the plunder to the brigantine; her long-boat also was in the water, as already stated, but there were two fine cutters lying bottom up over the quarter-deck, their sterns resting on the break of the poop and their bows-on the gallows. It was a strange sight to look abroad into the dusky star-lit night and observe the boundless Atlantic stretching silent and still on every hand, and then to turn one’s eyes inboard and note the noisy, drunken, ruffianly rabble grouped about the hatchway, naked to the waist, and toiling in the dim lantern light at the tackles by which they were hoisting the bales of costly merchandise out of the hold.But I had not much time to devote to moralising upon the incongruous sight, for after an absence of some three minutes Simpson re-appeared from the saloon with the information that the place was clear, and that, judging from the sounds he had heard, the passengers had all locked themselves, or been locked, into their cabins.This being the case, I determined to go below and make a brief investigation of the condition of the unfortunate passengers, as well as to afford them such comfort as was to be derived from a communication to them of my intentions. I accordingly descended the companion-way leading down from the poop, and found myself in a small vestibule, the arrangement of which I could not very well see, as it was unlighted, save for the lamplight that issued from the open door of the saloon; I caught a glimpse, however, of polished panels of rare, ornamental woods, with gleams of gilded mouldings and polished metal handrails, and found my feet sinking into the pile of a soft, thick carpet, which gave me a hint as to the luxurious appointments of the ship. From this vestibule I passed into the saloon itself by a partially open door on the port side, and at once found myself in an exceedingly handsome and luxuriously furnished apartment. It was long and rather narrow in its proportions, having state-rooms on each side, as I could tell at a glance by the doors with Venetian slatted upper panels that occurred at regular intervals in the longitudinal bulkheads on each side of the cabin. These bulkheads were divided into panels by fluted pilasters with richly-carved and gilded capitals, supporting a heavily-carved cornice picked out with gold.The panels and pilasters were enamelled in a delicate tint of cream, with mouldings picked out in French grey, the former being decorated with very handsome paintings illustrative of Oriental views and scenery. Richly-upholstered divans occupied the spaces along the bulkheads between the several state-room doors; a long table of polished mahogany, having sofa seats with reversible backs on each side of it, stretched down the centre of the saloon, with another and shorter table flanking it athwartships at the after-end; a buffet loaded with richly-cut decanters and glass, backed up by a large gilt-framed mirror, occupied the whole space against the fore-bulkhead between the two entrance doors; and a very handsome piano, open, and with some music on it, occupied a similar position at the after-end of the saloon, two doors in the after-bulkhead proclaiming the existence of at least two more state-rooms. The apartment was lighted during the day by a large skylight filled in with painted glass—in which were fixed opposite each other a barometer and a tell-tale compass—and at night by two very fine silver-plated chandeliers each carrying six lamps, only four of which, however, were now lighted; and the deck was covered with a rich, thick carpet, apparently of Oriental manufacture, into which one’s feet sank with noiseless tread. The state-rooms were all in total darkness apparently, for I could catch no gleam of light issuing from the pierced upper panels of any of them; but the sound of an occasional sob or moan told me that some at least of them were occupied.I located one of the cabins from which these sounds came, and tapped gently at the door; there was no response, but the sounds instantly ceased. I tapped again, and said—“Will you open the door, please? I am a friend, and have some intelligence to communicate that may be interesting to you.”Still no response; but from the next cabin there now issued a man’s voice, inquiring—“Do I hear some one out there proclaiming himselfa friend?”“Yes,” answered I. “Iama friend; and my present object is to communicate to you some intelligence that I hope may prove agreeable and comforting. I am quite alone and unarmed, and you may therefore open your cabin-door without fear.”“Sir,” replied the voice, “I know not who you are, or how you come to be on board this most ill-starred ship. Your voice, however, has a reassuring tone in it, and I would risk opening my door to you if I could; but I cannot, for—like all the rest of the passengers, I believe—I am bound and absolutely helpless, and I think that, if you will take the trouble to try, you will find that we are all locked in. Pray, who are you, sir? and how did you find your way on board theBangalore? Are the pirates gone yet?”“No,” said I, as I tried the door and found that it was indeed locked. “I regret to say that they are not, and therefore I am for the present obliged to leave you in your uncomfortable situation. But take comfort, and believe me that it shall not be for one moment longer than I can help; the pirates are unlikely to very much prolong their stay now, and as soon as they are at a safe distance I will come again and release you all—provided, of course, that my plans do not go amiss. My name is Dugdale, and I am a naval officer—a midshipman—who has been unfortunate enough to fall into the hands of the pirates in an unsuccessful attack upon them more than a month ago, and this is the first opportunity that I have had to attempt my escape. I must go again now, as my discovery on board here by the pirates would mean utter ruin to us all; but I will return as soon as I can with prudence. Meanwhile,” slightly raising my voice so that all might hear, “take comfort, and hope for the best.”“Good-bye! Heaven bless and prosper you!” fervently ejaculated the unknown, as I moved away from the door; and I thought I heard faint murmurs of a similar import from some of the other cabins, but could not be certain, as one of the outer doors giving direct access to the main-deck suddenly opened, and I had to make a dash of it for the dark vestibule in order to reach the concealment of the still darker companion-way to avoid detection. My alarm was groundless, however; for the newcomer proved to be Joe Maxwell, the carpenter, whom I saw enter the saloon, after a careful reconnaissance of its interior, with several plugs under one arm, and a maul in his hand. Seeing who it was, I followed him, and unexpectedly ran against him as he was again coming out.“Who the—oh, it’s you, sir! beg your pardon, I’m sure, but I thought it was one of them sneakin’ pirate chaps a-prowlin’ round,” he exclaimed. “I thought I heard a sound o’ some sort as I comed in from the deck, and thinks I, ‘That’s one o’ them cowardly villains that has sneaked aft for some purpose of his own that ain’t no good, I dare swear. I’ll just see what the scoundrel’s up to, and if he’s after anythingveryhoutragis, I’ll maybe take the liberty of smashin’ his skull with this here maul, and droppin’ him over the starn to the sharks, where many a better man than he went this a’ternoon.’ Lucky for him that it’s you, sir, as the Irishman says. I’m just a-goin’ to make my way down into the run, so as to be all handy for pluggin’ up the holes again that these here murderin’ thieves intends to bore through the dear old gal’s skin. Ithinkthey’ll be pretty sure to come aft to do it; it’ll either be there or down in the fore-peak, where they’d have to shovel away a lot of coal to get at her below the water-line, so I expect they’ll make for the run. Now, sir, it’s a very good job as I met you just here, because I can show you the lazarette hatch—here it is, under our feet.” And he turned back a large mat upon which we were standing, disclosing a small, square hatch flush with the deck.“Now, sir,” he continued, “I’ll be off below at once; because, from what I saw as I comed aft, I fancy them Spanish thieves is thinkin’ about toppin’ their booms, and if so, we’ve no time to spare. There,” as he raised the hatch and dropped through the opening, “I’m all right now, sir; I can make my way well enough without a light, though I’ve got a candle and matches in my pocket that’ll give light enough to work by as soon as them villains have cleared out. Now, sir, please put on the hatch again, will ye, and don’t forget to spread the mat over it. And when them blackguards have gone you can send somebody to let me out.”“All right, Maxwell, never fear; I’ll see to that,” I answered, as the man disappeared in the gloom. “Good luck to you. And whatever those fellows may do, be sure that you keep silent and do not attempt to interfere with them; let them do their work and go away, and as soon as you hear the hatch close after them, go ahead and plug the holes as quickly as you like, and be sure that you make a thorough job of it.”“Ay, ay, sir,” came his reply, already muffled by distance and the intervening casks and cases among which he was making his way, “you may trust me for that.”I carefully replaced the hatch, adjusted the mat over it, and made my way cautiously up on the poop. It was evident, from what I now saw, that Maxwell was only just in time; for the pirates had knocked off work and were coming up out of the hold, refreshing themselves as they emerged by copious draughts from a tub of strong grog that stood on the deck conveniently near the hatchway. They were all pretty far gone in a state of intoxication, and were singing a jumble of at least a dozen forecastle ditties in tones of maudlin sentiment, or laughing and jeering at nothing in particular as they reeled and staggered about the deck. Disgusting as was the sight, I was glad to see it, for I felt that men in their condition would never notice the absence of Simpson or myself from the brigantine, still less that of the unaccustomed faces of those of theBangalore’screw who had joined me and were now snugly concealed aloft. Nor were they capable of doing very much more mischief, unless perchance they should accidentally set the ship on fire, which was what I most greatly dreaded; if, happily, we escaped this danger all might yet be well, for I felt convinced that, once on board the brigantine again, and the unhappy negroes once more set to the sweeps, nearly every man in the accursed craft’s forecastle would betake himself to his hammock and stay there until morning. There was of course the risk that Mendouca might send for me and ask me to look after his vessel for him through the night, knowing or guessing as he would the condition of his crew; but I did not believe that he would, at least not so soon after the perpetration of such fearful atrocities as he had openly committed that afternoon.The men having helped themselves freely from the grog-tub, until it seemed that they could take no more, tumbled rather than scrambled down into the boat alongside, and I was just beginning to cherish the hope that after all they would go away forgetting to scuttle the ship, when I saw José, the boatswain—who appeared to have assumed the command of the party—seize and detain the only man except himself who still remained on the ship’s deck. He said something to this man, and then they both staggered away forward and I lost sight of them in the deep shadows that enshrouded the fore-part of the ship. They were gone about ten minutes; and then they re-appeared, the boatswain armed with a large auger. As they passed the main-hatchway, on their way aft, José seized one of the still lighted lanterns that were standing on the deck, and seemed to direct his companion to take another. This the man did, and continuing their way aft, the pair entered the saloon from the main-deck; and presently, peering cautiously down through the open skylight, I saw that the two ruffians were groping about under the cabin table, no doubt searching for the lazarette hatch. Their search was of course in vain; and at length I overheard the boatswain assert with an oath that it was useless to search for it any longer, they must get the steward out of his pantry, and make him show them where it was. They then left the saloon, and there was silence for a few minutes; then, going to the head of the companion-ladder, I heard José demanding in broken English, with a profusion of expletives, where was the opening of the lazarette. A strange voice replied in trembling tones; and then I heard the mat flung back and the hatch wrenched off with a clatter. A few more oaths followed, there was a scrambling sound, and I concluded that the two miscreants had descended to the performance of their dastardly task.Then ensued what seemed like a very long—although it was actually a comparatively short—period of anxious suspense, for completely successful as we had been thus far, our absence from the brigantine might easily be discovered at any moment; and in that case there was no alternative for us between fighting to the death and ignominious surrender. I was more anxious on my own behalf than on that of the others, for their absence was scarcely likely to be noted by their drunken comrades until the next morning, while, as for me, should Mendouca take it into his head to require my presence, it would no sooner be reported to him that I was not to be found than he would have a very shrewd suspicion of what had happened; and I felt convinced that, with my knowledge of the enormities that he had perpetrated on that dreadful day, he would never willingly suffer me to escape from him alive. Then there was Pedro, too. The lad had, for some inscrutable reason, taken a violent fancy for me, and, although I have not very frequently referred to him in the telling of this story, had attached himself to me with almost the fidelity of a dog, sharing in my watch, and seizing every opportunity to be in my company. Should he find himself at liberty to seek me I should be lost, for he would not be content until he had found me. There were just two chances in my favour against many adverse possibilities: the first being that Mendouca’s condition would confine the lad to his side all through the night; the second lying in the fact that I had taken the precaution to lock my cabin-door and remove the key before leaving the brigantine, so that should it chance that I was sought for, it might be thought that I had locked myself into my cabin in anger at the piratical deed that had been perpetrated. But I grew increasingly uneasy as the minutes dragged their slow length along, expecting every moment to hear a hail from the brigantine inquiring as to my whereabouts. It was therefore with a feeling of keen delight that, at the expiration of about twenty-five minutes, when my state of suspense had become almost unendurable, as I stood listening at the head of the companion-way I heard José’s voice again, and the sounds of his own and his companion’s emergence from the lazarette.“There,” I heard him exclaim in Spanish, in a drunken voice and with a jeering laugh, “that job is done, and pretty effectually, too; I don’t suppose she will float longer than three hours more, or four at the most, and then who is to know what has become of her? It will be supposed that she foundered in a gale; and that will be the end of the matter. It is a pity, Miguel, that we should be obliged to destroy so fine a ship, but she could never be of any use to us, and necessity has no law, you know. Now—let me consider—there is one thing more to be done before we leave; what is it? It was in my mind a moment ago! Ah, yes, of course, that is it; we have to put this miserable poltroon of a steward back into his pantry, lock the door upon him, and—yes, that is all, I think. Come along,amigo!”I heard the steward begging piteously not to be locked up again; for although the fellow had probably not understood a single word of what José had said, he had sense enough to know that the two ruffians before him had scuttled the ship, and that if locked up in his pantry again he would probably drown there, like a rat in a trap. His entreaties, however, were of course unavailing with two men who knew not the meaning of mercy; there was a Spanish oath or two, the sound of a scuffle, mingled with further cries of distress from the steward, the slamming of a door, the sharp click of a lock; and a moment later José and his companion emerged upon the deck, staggered to the gangway, scrambled down the side, and the boat was shoved off.I waited until the boat was fairly away from the ship’s side, and then, slipping down the dark companion-way, groped about until I had found the pantry, which I unlocked, to find the unhappy steward, bound hand and foot, prostrate on the deck, weeping bitterly. In reply to my question he told me where I could lay my hand upon a knife, finding which I cut him adrift, and directed him to go forward to the forecastle to ascertain whether any of the crew were imprisoned down there. Then, making my way to the still open lazarette, I swung myself down into it, and called Maxwell’s name as loudly as I dared. He heard and answered me at once.“The rascals have left the ship,” I cried, “so you may ram those plugs home as tightly as you can, and perhaps even venture to give them a gentle tap or two, but we must leave the final driving until the brigantine has moved off; everything has gone right thus far, and it will never do to spoil it all now by being impatient. Has she taken in much water?”“Not more than we can pump out of her in ten minutes,” was the reply, as I sighted him creeping toward me along the narrow space underneath the beams. “They only bored five holes through her, and I’ve already plugged ’em tight enough to stop the water from comin’ in—though of course they’ll want a few good taps on the head to make ’em all secure. But that job can wait until the brigantine is a mile or two further away.”“Had you any difficulty in plugging the holes?” I asked, as honest Joe emerged into the more open spaces about the hatchway.“Not a bit, sir,” he answered. “You see the way of it was this: As soon as I got to understand that they was likely to scuttle the ship, the first thing I says to myself was: ‘I wonder,’ I says, ‘what size auger them murderin’ scoundrels is likely to use? Because if I only knowed that, I could make my plugs to fit the holes.’ Then the next thing I thought was that prob’ly they wouldn’t remember to bring a tool aboard with ’em, and that they’d hunt for some’at of the sort aboard here. So I goes to my cabin, gets out a inch and a half auger, a chisel, a hammer and some nails, and places ’em on the tarpaulin of the fore-hatch, where anybody going for’ard couldn’t help seein’ of ’em; and ‘There,’ I says to myself, ‘if those fellers haven’t brought no auger aboard with ’em, that’s the tool they’ll use.’ So I chanced it, and made my plugs to fit a inch and a half hole; and, as it turned out, I was right; they used my auger what I had left for ’em, and as soon as their backs was turned I slipped down and screwed the plugs into the holes.”“Excellent!” said I. “And now, Maxwell, the next job is to break open the state-rooms and release the poor ladies and gentlemen who are confined there. Do you think you can do it without making much noise?”“Lord bless you, yes, sir,” was the cheerful reply. “I’ll just go for’ard and get a bit of wire, and I’ll pick the locks of them cabin-doors in next to no time, and make no noise about it either.”“Then come along and let us get it done at once. That must be our first job,” said I.
At this moment Simpson rejoined me, bringing with him three more of theBangalore’screw; and while I was talking to them the other two men—those whom Simpson had previously discovered—came forward from the hatchway, where they had been lending a hand to strike the booty down into the hold, and informed me that they had found and spoken to eight of their shipmates, at work at the gangway and hatchway, all of whom were quite ready and more than willing to join me at any moment when the signal should be given. A little further inquiry elicited the information that our party now comprised all the survivors of theBangalore’screw who had, so to speak, made a virtue of necessity and shipped under Mendouca in order to save their lives; there being four others who had shippedwillingly, and whom it had, therefore, been deemed inexpedient to approach with a proposal to join us, lest, in their zeal for their new chief, they should refuse and betray us all. Our party, therefore, was now complete, and all that remained to be done was to carry out our plans with as little delay as possible, and with twelve men at my back I felt tolerably confident of success; indeed, when I first learned our full strength, the wild idea flashed through my mind of attempting not only to save theBangalore, but also to capture theFrancesca. A moment’s reflection, however, convinced me of the impracticability of this scheme, for although, with the assistance of the ten male passengers who, I learned, were at that moment prisoners in their own cabins on board the Indiaman, it might be possible to capture theFrancesca, in the then disorganised condition of her crew, it would certainly involve some loss of life on our side, which we could not spare, and we should be able to do nothing with her when we had her, our whole available strength being hardly sufficient to handle and take care of the ship, should it come on to blow, much less to look after a prize as well. I therefore abandoned the idea, the more readily that I knew my story need only be told to the proper authorities to cause the brigantine to be hunted off the ocean, and her atrocities put an end to at once and for all.
Our arrangements, therefore, were soon made; and this done, we sauntered away to the hatchway, singly and by twos at a time, and began to lend a hand in getting the plunder out of the boats and sending it below. Presently theBangalore’slong-boat came alongside, loaded down to the gunwale with booty, and manned by half-a-dozen Spaniards who were so drunk that they could scarcely stand. One of them, indeed, would have lost his life but for Simpson and Maxwell; for the boat was steered alongside stem-on, and the shock of her collision with the brigantine completely upset the balance of the man who was standing in the bows to fend her off, so that he fell overboard between the boat and the brigantine’s side. The fellow was partially sobered by his sudden immersion, and finding himself overboard, began at once to sing out lustily for help, fully aware that there were probably several sharks still hanging about the two vessels, and momentarily expecting to feel their teeth; whereupon Simpson and Maxwell, both of whom happened to be at the gangway at the moment of the accident, sprang down into the boat and succeeded in dragging the fellow safely out of the water, though not a moment too soon, the water being all a-swirl with the rush of the sea-monsters as the man was dragged inboard. The fright that he had received completely sobered him, but at the same time so thoroughly shook his nerves that he at once scrambled on board the brigantine, declaring with many oaths that he had had enough of boating for one night. His mates were but little better, and were glad enough to leave the boat at my suggestion and allow me and my party to take their places.
We quickly roused the boat’s cargo out of her, and then shoved off for the ship again, making a great fuss and splash with the oars as we did so. When a few fathoms away from the brigantine, however, where in the darkness our movements were not likely to attract a too curious attention, first one oar and then another was laid in until all had been laid in but one; and this one we shifted aft, sculling the boat with it not to theBangalore’slarboard gangway, at which the other boats were working, but under the ship’s stern and to her starboard mizen channels, where we made her fast, and cautiously scrambled up on to the poop, one by one.
Here we separated, the carpenter boldly making his way forward past the noisy, jabbering, drunken crowd who were grouped about the main-hatchway, engaged in hoisting on deck the goods that the boatswain, down in the hold, was selecting from the ship’s heterogeneous cargo, while the rest—excepting Simpson and myself—quietly stole up the mizen rigging, three of them concealing themselves in the top, while the rest, continuing on up the topmast rigging, made for the main and foretops by way of the stays; the lanterns which were being used to light the pirates at their work about the main-hatchway so effectually dazzling the drunken ruffians’ eyes, that there was not the slightest fear of any of the silent, sober figures stealthily moving about aloft being seen by them; indeed so deep was the gloom created between the masts by the towering expanses of the Indiaman’s canvas that even I, far away as I was from the dazzling light of the lanterns, was unable to follow with my eye the dusky, indistinctly-seen figures any further than the rim of the mizen-top. As for Simpson, it was quite possible for him to move freely about the ship and go wherever he pleased without exciting any suspicion, he being one of theFrancesca’sregular crew; I therefore instructed him to go down into the saloon and ascertain whether any of his quondam shipmates were there, and to return to me with his information as speedily as possible.
While he was gone I had time to look about me a little, and note such of the most prominent characteristics of the ship as were to be seen by the dim light of the stars. She was a noble craft, as big as the generality of our first-class frigates, though not quite so beamy, perhaps, in proportion to her length, not quite so high out of the water, and of course not so heavily rigged. She carried a magnificent full poop that reached as far forward as to within about twenty-five feet of the main-mast, with companion, skylight, deck-fittings generally, and poop ladders of polished teak, handsomely and elaborately carved. The fore-part of the poop extended some six feet beyond the cabin front, and underneath it her steering-wheel was placed, with a door on each side of it giving access to the grand saloon. A long row of hencoops ran along each side of the poop; and the deck was further littered with a large number of deck-chairs that had been hurriedly bundled out of the way behind the companion, probably when it was seen that the brigantine undoubtedly meant to attack. The main-deck exhibited all the confusion incidental to a sea-fight, the guns—sixteen twelve-pound carronades—still unsecured, with their rammers and sponges flung down on the deck beside them, shot lying in the scuppers, overturned wadding-tubs, cutlasses, pistols, boarding-pikes, strewed all over the deck, and—horrible sight—several dark, silent figures lying stark and still in pools of blood, just as they had fallen in the fight. The ship’s davits were empty, both her gigs having been lowered to facilitate the transfer of the plunder to the brigantine; her long-boat also was in the water, as already stated, but there were two fine cutters lying bottom up over the quarter-deck, their sterns resting on the break of the poop and their bows-on the gallows. It was a strange sight to look abroad into the dusky star-lit night and observe the boundless Atlantic stretching silent and still on every hand, and then to turn one’s eyes inboard and note the noisy, drunken, ruffianly rabble grouped about the hatchway, naked to the waist, and toiling in the dim lantern light at the tackles by which they were hoisting the bales of costly merchandise out of the hold.
But I had not much time to devote to moralising upon the incongruous sight, for after an absence of some three minutes Simpson re-appeared from the saloon with the information that the place was clear, and that, judging from the sounds he had heard, the passengers had all locked themselves, or been locked, into their cabins.
This being the case, I determined to go below and make a brief investigation of the condition of the unfortunate passengers, as well as to afford them such comfort as was to be derived from a communication to them of my intentions. I accordingly descended the companion-way leading down from the poop, and found myself in a small vestibule, the arrangement of which I could not very well see, as it was unlighted, save for the lamplight that issued from the open door of the saloon; I caught a glimpse, however, of polished panels of rare, ornamental woods, with gleams of gilded mouldings and polished metal handrails, and found my feet sinking into the pile of a soft, thick carpet, which gave me a hint as to the luxurious appointments of the ship. From this vestibule I passed into the saloon itself by a partially open door on the port side, and at once found myself in an exceedingly handsome and luxuriously furnished apartment. It was long and rather narrow in its proportions, having state-rooms on each side, as I could tell at a glance by the doors with Venetian slatted upper panels that occurred at regular intervals in the longitudinal bulkheads on each side of the cabin. These bulkheads were divided into panels by fluted pilasters with richly-carved and gilded capitals, supporting a heavily-carved cornice picked out with gold.
The panels and pilasters were enamelled in a delicate tint of cream, with mouldings picked out in French grey, the former being decorated with very handsome paintings illustrative of Oriental views and scenery. Richly-upholstered divans occupied the spaces along the bulkheads between the several state-room doors; a long table of polished mahogany, having sofa seats with reversible backs on each side of it, stretched down the centre of the saloon, with another and shorter table flanking it athwartships at the after-end; a buffet loaded with richly-cut decanters and glass, backed up by a large gilt-framed mirror, occupied the whole space against the fore-bulkhead between the two entrance doors; and a very handsome piano, open, and with some music on it, occupied a similar position at the after-end of the saloon, two doors in the after-bulkhead proclaiming the existence of at least two more state-rooms. The apartment was lighted during the day by a large skylight filled in with painted glass—in which were fixed opposite each other a barometer and a tell-tale compass—and at night by two very fine silver-plated chandeliers each carrying six lamps, only four of which, however, were now lighted; and the deck was covered with a rich, thick carpet, apparently of Oriental manufacture, into which one’s feet sank with noiseless tread. The state-rooms were all in total darkness apparently, for I could catch no gleam of light issuing from the pierced upper panels of any of them; but the sound of an occasional sob or moan told me that some at least of them were occupied.
I located one of the cabins from which these sounds came, and tapped gently at the door; there was no response, but the sounds instantly ceased. I tapped again, and said—
“Will you open the door, please? I am a friend, and have some intelligence to communicate that may be interesting to you.”
Still no response; but from the next cabin there now issued a man’s voice, inquiring—
“Do I hear some one out there proclaiming himselfa friend?”
“Yes,” answered I. “Iama friend; and my present object is to communicate to you some intelligence that I hope may prove agreeable and comforting. I am quite alone and unarmed, and you may therefore open your cabin-door without fear.”
“Sir,” replied the voice, “I know not who you are, or how you come to be on board this most ill-starred ship. Your voice, however, has a reassuring tone in it, and I would risk opening my door to you if I could; but I cannot, for—like all the rest of the passengers, I believe—I am bound and absolutely helpless, and I think that, if you will take the trouble to try, you will find that we are all locked in. Pray, who are you, sir? and how did you find your way on board theBangalore? Are the pirates gone yet?”
“No,” said I, as I tried the door and found that it was indeed locked. “I regret to say that they are not, and therefore I am for the present obliged to leave you in your uncomfortable situation. But take comfort, and believe me that it shall not be for one moment longer than I can help; the pirates are unlikely to very much prolong their stay now, and as soon as they are at a safe distance I will come again and release you all—provided, of course, that my plans do not go amiss. My name is Dugdale, and I am a naval officer—a midshipman—who has been unfortunate enough to fall into the hands of the pirates in an unsuccessful attack upon them more than a month ago, and this is the first opportunity that I have had to attempt my escape. I must go again now, as my discovery on board here by the pirates would mean utter ruin to us all; but I will return as soon as I can with prudence. Meanwhile,” slightly raising my voice so that all might hear, “take comfort, and hope for the best.”
“Good-bye! Heaven bless and prosper you!” fervently ejaculated the unknown, as I moved away from the door; and I thought I heard faint murmurs of a similar import from some of the other cabins, but could not be certain, as one of the outer doors giving direct access to the main-deck suddenly opened, and I had to make a dash of it for the dark vestibule in order to reach the concealment of the still darker companion-way to avoid detection. My alarm was groundless, however; for the newcomer proved to be Joe Maxwell, the carpenter, whom I saw enter the saloon, after a careful reconnaissance of its interior, with several plugs under one arm, and a maul in his hand. Seeing who it was, I followed him, and unexpectedly ran against him as he was again coming out.
“Who the—oh, it’s you, sir! beg your pardon, I’m sure, but I thought it was one of them sneakin’ pirate chaps a-prowlin’ round,” he exclaimed. “I thought I heard a sound o’ some sort as I comed in from the deck, and thinks I, ‘That’s one o’ them cowardly villains that has sneaked aft for some purpose of his own that ain’t no good, I dare swear. I’ll just see what the scoundrel’s up to, and if he’s after anythingveryhoutragis, I’ll maybe take the liberty of smashin’ his skull with this here maul, and droppin’ him over the starn to the sharks, where many a better man than he went this a’ternoon.’ Lucky for him that it’s you, sir, as the Irishman says. I’m just a-goin’ to make my way down into the run, so as to be all handy for pluggin’ up the holes again that these here murderin’ thieves intends to bore through the dear old gal’s skin. Ithinkthey’ll be pretty sure to come aft to do it; it’ll either be there or down in the fore-peak, where they’d have to shovel away a lot of coal to get at her below the water-line, so I expect they’ll make for the run. Now, sir, it’s a very good job as I met you just here, because I can show you the lazarette hatch—here it is, under our feet.” And he turned back a large mat upon which we were standing, disclosing a small, square hatch flush with the deck.
“Now, sir,” he continued, “I’ll be off below at once; because, from what I saw as I comed aft, I fancy them Spanish thieves is thinkin’ about toppin’ their booms, and if so, we’ve no time to spare. There,” as he raised the hatch and dropped through the opening, “I’m all right now, sir; I can make my way well enough without a light, though I’ve got a candle and matches in my pocket that’ll give light enough to work by as soon as them villains have cleared out. Now, sir, please put on the hatch again, will ye, and don’t forget to spread the mat over it. And when them blackguards have gone you can send somebody to let me out.”
“All right, Maxwell, never fear; I’ll see to that,” I answered, as the man disappeared in the gloom. “Good luck to you. And whatever those fellows may do, be sure that you keep silent and do not attempt to interfere with them; let them do their work and go away, and as soon as you hear the hatch close after them, go ahead and plug the holes as quickly as you like, and be sure that you make a thorough job of it.”
“Ay, ay, sir,” came his reply, already muffled by distance and the intervening casks and cases among which he was making his way, “you may trust me for that.”
I carefully replaced the hatch, adjusted the mat over it, and made my way cautiously up on the poop. It was evident, from what I now saw, that Maxwell was only just in time; for the pirates had knocked off work and were coming up out of the hold, refreshing themselves as they emerged by copious draughts from a tub of strong grog that stood on the deck conveniently near the hatchway. They were all pretty far gone in a state of intoxication, and were singing a jumble of at least a dozen forecastle ditties in tones of maudlin sentiment, or laughing and jeering at nothing in particular as they reeled and staggered about the deck. Disgusting as was the sight, I was glad to see it, for I felt that men in their condition would never notice the absence of Simpson or myself from the brigantine, still less that of the unaccustomed faces of those of theBangalore’screw who had joined me and were now snugly concealed aloft. Nor were they capable of doing very much more mischief, unless perchance they should accidentally set the ship on fire, which was what I most greatly dreaded; if, happily, we escaped this danger all might yet be well, for I felt convinced that, once on board the brigantine again, and the unhappy negroes once more set to the sweeps, nearly every man in the accursed craft’s forecastle would betake himself to his hammock and stay there until morning. There was of course the risk that Mendouca might send for me and ask me to look after his vessel for him through the night, knowing or guessing as he would the condition of his crew; but I did not believe that he would, at least not so soon after the perpetration of such fearful atrocities as he had openly committed that afternoon.
The men having helped themselves freely from the grog-tub, until it seemed that they could take no more, tumbled rather than scrambled down into the boat alongside, and I was just beginning to cherish the hope that after all they would go away forgetting to scuttle the ship, when I saw José, the boatswain—who appeared to have assumed the command of the party—seize and detain the only man except himself who still remained on the ship’s deck. He said something to this man, and then they both staggered away forward and I lost sight of them in the deep shadows that enshrouded the fore-part of the ship. They were gone about ten minutes; and then they re-appeared, the boatswain armed with a large auger. As they passed the main-hatchway, on their way aft, José seized one of the still lighted lanterns that were standing on the deck, and seemed to direct his companion to take another. This the man did, and continuing their way aft, the pair entered the saloon from the main-deck; and presently, peering cautiously down through the open skylight, I saw that the two ruffians were groping about under the cabin table, no doubt searching for the lazarette hatch. Their search was of course in vain; and at length I overheard the boatswain assert with an oath that it was useless to search for it any longer, they must get the steward out of his pantry, and make him show them where it was. They then left the saloon, and there was silence for a few minutes; then, going to the head of the companion-ladder, I heard José demanding in broken English, with a profusion of expletives, where was the opening of the lazarette. A strange voice replied in trembling tones; and then I heard the mat flung back and the hatch wrenched off with a clatter. A few more oaths followed, there was a scrambling sound, and I concluded that the two miscreants had descended to the performance of their dastardly task.
Then ensued what seemed like a very long—although it was actually a comparatively short—period of anxious suspense, for completely successful as we had been thus far, our absence from the brigantine might easily be discovered at any moment; and in that case there was no alternative for us between fighting to the death and ignominious surrender. I was more anxious on my own behalf than on that of the others, for their absence was scarcely likely to be noted by their drunken comrades until the next morning, while, as for me, should Mendouca take it into his head to require my presence, it would no sooner be reported to him that I was not to be found than he would have a very shrewd suspicion of what had happened; and I felt convinced that, with my knowledge of the enormities that he had perpetrated on that dreadful day, he would never willingly suffer me to escape from him alive. Then there was Pedro, too. The lad had, for some inscrutable reason, taken a violent fancy for me, and, although I have not very frequently referred to him in the telling of this story, had attached himself to me with almost the fidelity of a dog, sharing in my watch, and seizing every opportunity to be in my company. Should he find himself at liberty to seek me I should be lost, for he would not be content until he had found me. There were just two chances in my favour against many adverse possibilities: the first being that Mendouca’s condition would confine the lad to his side all through the night; the second lying in the fact that I had taken the precaution to lock my cabin-door and remove the key before leaving the brigantine, so that should it chance that I was sought for, it might be thought that I had locked myself into my cabin in anger at the piratical deed that had been perpetrated. But I grew increasingly uneasy as the minutes dragged their slow length along, expecting every moment to hear a hail from the brigantine inquiring as to my whereabouts. It was therefore with a feeling of keen delight that, at the expiration of about twenty-five minutes, when my state of suspense had become almost unendurable, as I stood listening at the head of the companion-way I heard José’s voice again, and the sounds of his own and his companion’s emergence from the lazarette.
“There,” I heard him exclaim in Spanish, in a drunken voice and with a jeering laugh, “that job is done, and pretty effectually, too; I don’t suppose she will float longer than three hours more, or four at the most, and then who is to know what has become of her? It will be supposed that she foundered in a gale; and that will be the end of the matter. It is a pity, Miguel, that we should be obliged to destroy so fine a ship, but she could never be of any use to us, and necessity has no law, you know. Now—let me consider—there is one thing more to be done before we leave; what is it? It was in my mind a moment ago! Ah, yes, of course, that is it; we have to put this miserable poltroon of a steward back into his pantry, lock the door upon him, and—yes, that is all, I think. Come along,amigo!”
I heard the steward begging piteously not to be locked up again; for although the fellow had probably not understood a single word of what José had said, he had sense enough to know that the two ruffians before him had scuttled the ship, and that if locked up in his pantry again he would probably drown there, like a rat in a trap. His entreaties, however, were of course unavailing with two men who knew not the meaning of mercy; there was a Spanish oath or two, the sound of a scuffle, mingled with further cries of distress from the steward, the slamming of a door, the sharp click of a lock; and a moment later José and his companion emerged upon the deck, staggered to the gangway, scrambled down the side, and the boat was shoved off.
I waited until the boat was fairly away from the ship’s side, and then, slipping down the dark companion-way, groped about until I had found the pantry, which I unlocked, to find the unhappy steward, bound hand and foot, prostrate on the deck, weeping bitterly. In reply to my question he told me where I could lay my hand upon a knife, finding which I cut him adrift, and directed him to go forward to the forecastle to ascertain whether any of the crew were imprisoned down there. Then, making my way to the still open lazarette, I swung myself down into it, and called Maxwell’s name as loudly as I dared. He heard and answered me at once.
“The rascals have left the ship,” I cried, “so you may ram those plugs home as tightly as you can, and perhaps even venture to give them a gentle tap or two, but we must leave the final driving until the brigantine has moved off; everything has gone right thus far, and it will never do to spoil it all now by being impatient. Has she taken in much water?”
“Not more than we can pump out of her in ten minutes,” was the reply, as I sighted him creeping toward me along the narrow space underneath the beams. “They only bored five holes through her, and I’ve already plugged ’em tight enough to stop the water from comin’ in—though of course they’ll want a few good taps on the head to make ’em all secure. But that job can wait until the brigantine is a mile or two further away.”
“Had you any difficulty in plugging the holes?” I asked, as honest Joe emerged into the more open spaces about the hatchway.
“Not a bit, sir,” he answered. “You see the way of it was this: As soon as I got to understand that they was likely to scuttle the ship, the first thing I says to myself was: ‘I wonder,’ I says, ‘what size auger them murderin’ scoundrels is likely to use? Because if I only knowed that, I could make my plugs to fit the holes.’ Then the next thing I thought was that prob’ly they wouldn’t remember to bring a tool aboard with ’em, and that they’d hunt for some’at of the sort aboard here. So I goes to my cabin, gets out a inch and a half auger, a chisel, a hammer and some nails, and places ’em on the tarpaulin of the fore-hatch, where anybody going for’ard couldn’t help seein’ of ’em; and ‘There,’ I says to myself, ‘if those fellers haven’t brought no auger aboard with ’em, that’s the tool they’ll use.’ So I chanced it, and made my plugs to fit a inch and a half hole; and, as it turned out, I was right; they used my auger what I had left for ’em, and as soon as their backs was turned I slipped down and screwed the plugs into the holes.”
“Excellent!” said I. “And now, Maxwell, the next job is to break open the state-rooms and release the poor ladies and gentlemen who are confined there. Do you think you can do it without making much noise?”
“Lord bless you, yes, sir,” was the cheerful reply. “I’ll just go for’ard and get a bit of wire, and I’ll pick the locks of them cabin-doors in next to no time, and make no noise about it either.”
“Then come along and let us get it done at once. That must be our first job,” said I.