*III*
The enemy having departed, we wondered what they would do, scarcesupposing that they would sail away without making another attempt uponus. Yet it appeared that this was their purpose, for as soon as theboats were hoisted aboard, the anchors were weighed, and the ships stoodaway towards the west of the island. This put Captain Q in a fury. Hecommanded the men to make all speed to finish and complete their task atthe cavern, so that he might sail out and pursue the vessels. But thiswas mere foolishness, and I humoured him with talk of other fights instore. Hilary Rawdon again dispatched a sentinel up the hill, biddinghim to post himself at a spot whence he could see, with the aid of aperspective glass, the channel between Tortuga and Hispaniola. It hadcome into his mind that the Spaniards had perchance sailed away merelyto land on the southern shore of the island, with the intent to marchagain upon us unawares. But the man told us by and by that one of theships had heaved-to in the channel to the south, while the other wasmaking all sail to the westward.
"'Tis bound for St. John of Goave or San Domingo, without doubt," saidHilary, "to bring back a force sufficient to annihilate us."
"What grace have we before they can return?" I asked.
"Maybe a week, maybe more. 'Tis always 'to-morrow' with the Spaniards.They put off both the evil day and the good, and many's the time theyhave come to grief for no other reason than their habit ofprocrastination. We will make all speed, Kitt. 'Twould be a sin to letthis great treasure fall into their hands through any sloth of ours."
The men worked with right good-will, hauling away the rocks from theentrance of the cavern, until they left the passage clear. But even athigh tide there was no depth of water sufficient to float the galleon,and we must needs take thought how to bring her to the sea. We soonproved, to our great joy, that she rested on sand, and we had but to digbeneath her, and to cut a channel, and with the flood tide we could haulher out. But we could not begin this work until the next low tide, whenthe water in the cavern, having now a free outlet, flowed away. Webuilt a dam to prevent its return, and then, by dint of toilingsteadily, some resting while the others worked, we contrived in two daysto grave out a dock wherein the vessel might ride. The work was donewith great quietness, for the enemy's galleon was anchored but a fewmiles away, and 'twas very necessary that no sound should provoke themto come and spy what we were about. The mariners knew how much hung ontheir being left undisturbed until the ship could be rigged and towedout to sea, and they put a great restraint upon themselves. There wasrisk enough in the chance that a Spanish ship might appear off thecoast. The spectacle of a dismantled hull could not fail to attract hernotice, and if she should be a ship of war there was little hope thatthe _San Felipe_ would ever sail the sea again.
To step the masts was no trifling business. The stump of the oldmainmast was broken off low down and jaggedly, and 'twas a full day'swork for the most skilful of the _Elizabeth's_ carpenters to fit thestump for the pine stem they had prepared. The mast itself was butroughly finished. It was not stripped of its bark: the time would notserve for niceties; Hilary indeed doubted whether, with the utmostexpedition, we should have the vessel in navigable trim before thegalleons returned. By good luck the stump of the mizzen had not beensnapped off so low as the others; and a jury mast was rigged in a thirdof the time the mainmast had taken.
The _San Felipe_ had no boats, all she had carried having been stove induring the earthquake and washed away. But a boat of some sort wasneedful to tow the vessel out; wherefore, while some men were scrapingthe hull, and others rigging the spars, the rest hastened to the woodsand worked with might and main to fashion a canoe of cedar. Though weemployed every minute of daylight, the men taking turns to rest in thehot hours, 'twas full ten days before the work was done. And then oneafternoon, when we were lying on the cliffs basking in ease we had notknown for many a day, the sentinel espied three sail low down on thehorizon to the west.
"Without doubt the Dons are coming back for us," cried Hilary. Then inFrench he asked Captain Q, with a show of deference, to give us hiscommands.
"We will sail forth and fight them," cried the dauntless Captain.
"'Tis a brave saying," said Harry Loveday; "but methinks 'twere best tosail out by night and make what speed we may for home. We have thetreasure, and though I am as ready as any man to fight when there issomewhat to be gained by fighting, I hold that in our present case, withthe enemy maybe four to one, 'twould best beseem us to secure what wehave. 'Twas for treasure we came, not for needless knocks."
"There is much reason in thee, Harry," said Hilary, "and I own if 'tweresure we should escape these villain Dons and come safe to an Englishhaven, I might think thy counsel just. But consider: the wind is light;our vessel is in no trim to make good sailing; and if the wind holds asat this present we could scarce run out of sight of the Spaniards beforedawn. 'Tis full moon: we should be discerned from a great way off; andwhen they see us they can run us down. Furthermore, the guns on ourgalleon are light metal, and we have no great store of powder and ball,so that we are in no case to fight a war-ship, furnished, beyond doubt,with heavy guns. Remember, we barely outsailed the Spaniards even whenwe were in our own well-found (but ill-fated) _Elizabeth_; and if wecould not stand to fight two, as all agreed we could not, how much lesscan we stand to fight three?"
While Hilary was thus reasoning, Captain Q, who, having given his voicefor fighting, was confident we should obey without question, had gottenhimself away, so that we were left to converse at our pleasure. I wellknew that, by dint of my artifices of persuasion, I could bring theCaptain to believe that, whatsoever resolution we might come to, itsprang from him.
"Well, then," said Tom Hawke in answer to Hilary, "if we must not run,for fear of being overhauled, what is left for us to do? If we cannotfight three Spanish ships on the high sea, assuredly we cannot fight thecrews of them on land, and 'tis certain as to-morrow's sunrise that wemust be discovered here."
"What if Captain Q be right?" said I. "Is not the bold course the best?If we bide here and wait to be attacked, the event will be even as Tomsays: the don Spaniards outnumber us, and with all the will in the worldwe can scarce hold out against them. But might we not attack the vesselat anchor before the three others join with her? Aboard of her we mightshow a clean pair of heels to the Dons."
"Why didst not speak before, Kitt?" cried Hilary. "The time isfleeting, and while we still prate these vessels are sailing evernearer. In sooth, yours is the way, and we will obey Captain Q'scommand."
We had cast down the dam that had been raised, and the tide being at theflood, the sea filled our dock, and we saw with great delight the _SanFelipe_ float upright on her keel. The most of us got aboard her; therest towed her out of the cavern; then they also came aboard, andCaptain Q looked round with pleasure on his company.
Having hoisted the sails (poor patched things as they were), we set acourse eastward along the shore, the wind blowing from the north-east.Our design was to round the island and come with the wind down upon thegalleon at her anchorage off the south coast. We hoped in thenight-time we might surprise her and take possession of her, and thenslip her cables and make away before the three vessels we had seen couldbeat up against the wind.
The wind being so contrary, we could make no good offing, and were insome peril of running on sunken rocks, to say nothing of that otherperil of meeting an enemy's ship or flotilla. But by sunset we camesafe at the north-eastern corner of the island. We rounded the easternside, sailing large, and turned into the channel betwixt Hispaniola andTortuga even as the moon rose upon our right hand. A black night wouldhave most favoured our design of capturing the galleon; but our mastersaid we had first to come at her, and being ignorant of the channel, hewas right glad to have some light upon the course.
The southern shore of Tortuga bends at its middle somewhat to thenorth-west, so that for a time the galleon was hidden from our eyes, andwe could keep the mid-channel with
out risk of being seen. But when wehad come to that point, our master was fain to steer somewhat nearer tothe cliffs: 'twould mayhap ruin our scheme if we were espied too soon bythe Spaniards, wherefore he said we had best avail ourselves of theshadows where we could. Hilary and I stood at the helm beside themaster, and we were troubled when we felt the keel graze a sandbank. Atthe fall of night the wind had freshened, and we were making a fairspeed, so that if the vessel struck there would be but a small chance ofhauling her off, even if she did not spring a leak and take water. Bygood luck and the care of our master we escaped these perils of shoals,and drew nearer to our goal.
We did not doubt a good watch would be kept on board the galleon, thewhich had taken up her present station, as we reckoned, so as to guardagainst any attempt of ours to cross to Hispaniola on rafts or canoes.Doubtless, also, they would have their guns ready loaded and theirmatches kindled; and maybe the vessel was riding on a spring cable.Hilary bade the most of our men to lie down out of sight, so that whenthe Spaniards should behold us, as they must soon do, they might nottake alarm from a crowded deck.
"We must be wary, Kitt," said Hilary to me. "'Twould be rank ill-luck ifshe should slip her cable and stand away to meet the galleons out of thewest, and maybe fire a gun to give 'em warning."
Being nearer shore, the _San Felipe_ went more slowly than when she wasout in mid-channel. We crept round the jutting points and across thecoves very stealthily, the men holding perfect silence, so that theSpaniards on the vessel lying at anchor had no warning of our approachand nearness until, as we fetched about a low spit of land, we came to astraight reach of the channel, and beheld the enemy half-a-mile distant.Since secrecy was no longer to be maintained, Hilary bade the master tosteer full into the broad path of the moonlight, so that we might bedistinctly seen. With his perspective glass the sentinel on the vesselwould discover the _San Felipe_ to be of Spanish build, and we trustedthat he would suppose her to be a friend. At Hilary's bidding some ofour men made ready their grappling-irons, and so we drew nearer to theanchorage.
A light moved on the ship's deck, and we judged that we must now havebeen seen. As soon, therefore, as we came within hailing distance,Hilary commanded Richard Ball, who had some Spanish, to go into the bowsand question what the vessel was.
"The galleon _Bonaventura_, of his Catholic Majesty of Spain," came theanswer to his shout. "Heave-to, or we fire! Who are you?"
"The galleon _San Felipe_, chased by corsairs," cried Ball. "Can weanchor hereby?"
"Aye. Heave-to; we will send a boat. Are the corsairs dogs ofEnglish?"
"English and French," says Ball, cocking an eye at Captain Q, who wasreclining below the level of our bulwarks, so that his red garmentsshould not betray us.
"Cry that our helm is injured, and we will lower sail," said Hilary.
This Ball did, and our master bade the men to lower sail; but before'twas done we had run very near to the _Bonaventura_, and there wasenough way on our vessel to bring her alongside. We had come within acable length of the Spaniard when we saw her boat let down, and then,our helm being put up, we drifted still closer upon the enemy.
"Bid them beware, or we shall be foul of them," said Hilary.
And as Ball cried aloud, we heard much old swearing on the_Bonaventura's_ decks, the which were at this time thronged with men.The captain (as Ball informed us) cursed our damaged helm very heartily,it being answerable, as he supposed, for this imminent risk of fouling.But in truth our helm was in right good trim, and the master chuckled inmerry sort as he ran the _San Felipe_ close alongside of the_Bonaventura_, their bulwarks just touching.
And then, at the word from Hilary, our men cast their grapnels aboard,and our whole company, with machetes and half-pikes from the _SanFelipe's_ armoury, leapt upon the _Bonaventura's_ deck. Captain Q wasthe first to board, and the Spaniards cried out in amazement when theysaw his tall red figure springing towards them, rapier in hand, and withtwo score men behind, all silent, for Hilary had commanded them to holdtheir peace, lest the other vessels should be near at hand.
The swiftness of our onset took the Spaniards all aback. Some of them,being unarmed, shrank away from us; the rest gathered about theircaptain at the mainmast, where they stood to ward off our attack, andfor some five minutes held us at bay. 'Twas a hand-to-hand encounter;there were no fire-arms used; steel clashed on steel, and many shrewdknocks were given and taken. But, saving in point of numbers, the oddswere all against the hapless Spaniards. The very look of Captain Q, hisstrange garb, his war-lit countenance, had some part in daunting them,and as we pressed vehemently upon them, Hilary and Tom Hawke in thefore-front, they fell into a panic, and cast down their arms, crying forquarter. Hilary bade our men instantly seize them and carry them below,and within a little they were all safe bestowed and battened underhatches.
THE SWIFTNESS OF OUR ONSET TOOK THE SPANIARDS ALL ABACK]
And now I espied their boat that had been lowered making all speed tothe westward, and I asked Hilary whether we should not pursue them,believing that their intent was to acquaint those on the approachinggalleons with what had befallen.
"Let 'em go," cried he, with a laugh. "If they do fall in with thevessels and tell them their tale, we shall be departed ere they canbring them to us."
"And they will not reach them," said Tom Hawke. "See, the boat has runupon a reef."
'Twas even as he had said. The crew strove hard to pull the boat clear,but without avail, and then they leapt overboard and waded waist-deeptowards the shore. Not all of them came safe to it. On a sudden weheard a blood-curdling scream, and then another. Beyond question someof the hapless men had fallen a prey to ground-sharks.