CHAPTER TWELVE.
I BECOME THE VICTIM OF A VILLAINOUS OUTRAGE.
Making room, Christie presently hauled to the wind and hove-to; and someten minutes later he presented himself on board the schooner--broughtalongside by the ship's gig, manned by four of the ship's crew--toreport his own share in the incidents of the night. From this report Igathered that, like myself, at first he had mistaken the Frenchprivateer for Morillo's brigantine, and had also arrived at theconclusion that the ship was a prize of the latter. He had kept a keenwatch upon the movements of the schooner until it had become apparentthat we intended to attack the supposed pirate, when he at once turnedhis attention to the ship, with the object of ascertaining whether, withsuch a phenomenally slow craft as the _Three Sisters_, anything could bedone with her. He believed that, with luck, it could, as he felt prettycertain that the attention of the ship's prize crew would be fullyoccupied in watching the manoeuvres of the brigantine and the schooner;and, trusting to this, he hauled his wind until he had placed the brigin position the merest trifle to windward of the course that the shipwas steering, when, taking his chance of having thus far escapedobservation, he clewed up and furled everything, afterwards patientlyawaiting the development of events.
And now ensued a very curious and amusing thing, it having transpiredthat the French prize crew of the ship _had_ seen the brig, and had atonce jumped to the conclusion that she was a prize to the schooner. Thecurious behaviour of the _Three Sisters_ had puzzled them not a littleat the outset, but when we opened fire upon the brigantine they knew atonce that we must be an enemy; and, supposing that the prize crew of thebrig--whom they rashly judged to be their own countrymen--had takenadvantage of our preoccupation to rise and recapture their vessel, theyimmediately bore down to their assistance. This lucky mistake enabledChristie to fall alongside the ship without difficulty, when, layingaside for the nonce his gentle, lady-like demeanour, he led his eightmen up the ship's lofty sides and over her high bulwarks on to her deck,where the nine of them laid about them with such good will that, afterabout a minute's resistance, the astounded Frenchmen were fain toretreat to the forecastle, where, in obedience to Christie's summons,they forthwith flung down their arms and surrendered at discretion.Then, clapping the hatch over them, and stationing two men with drawncutlasses by it as a guard, Christie proceeded to liberate theimprisoned crew of the ship,--which he discovered to be the British WestIndiaman _Black Prince_, homeward-bound at the time of her capture, twodays previously, with an exceedingly valuable general cargo,--and thensent his own men back to the _Three Sisters_, which had all this timebeen lying alongside, secured to the Indiaman by grapnels. The brigthen cast off, and the two craft forthwith bore down upon us to report,the fight between ourselves and the brigantine being by that time over.
By the time that our own and the brigantine's damages had been repairedit was daylight, and we were all ready for making sail once more. Butbefore doing so I caused the whole of the Frenchmen to be removed to theschooner, where they were first put in irons and then clapped safelyunder hatches; after which I visited first the _Belle Diane_ and thenthe Indiaman. I must confess I was astonished when I beheld the effectof our fire upon the former; I could scarcely credit that so much damagehad been inflicted by our six-pounders in so short time, her stern abovethe level of the covering-board being absolutely battered to pieces,while the shot had also ploughed up her decks fore and aft in long,scoring gashes, so close together and crossing each other in such a wayas showed what a tremendous raking she had received. She began theaction with fifty-seven men, all told, out of which eighteen had beenkilled outright, and the remainder, with one solitary exception, more orless seriously wounded. Looking upon the paths our shot had ploughedalong her deck, I was only surprised that any of her people were leftalive to tell the tale. In addition to this, five of her twelve gunswere dismounted, and her rigging had been a good deal cut up; but thiswas now of course all knotted and spliced by Lindsay's people. She wasa very fine vessel, of three hundred and forty-four tons measurement,oak built, copper fastened, and copper sheathed to the bends, veryshallow--drawing only eight feet of water--and very beamy, with mostbeautiful lines. Her spars looked enormously lofty compared with ourown, as I stood on her deck and gazed aloft, and her canvas hadevidently been bent new for the voyage. She had only arrived in WestIndian waters a week previously, from Brest, and the _Black Prince_ wasstated to be her first prize.
Having given the _Diane_ a pretty good overhaul, and satisfied myselfthat her hull was sound, I gave Lindsay his instructions, and thenproceeded on board the _Black Prince_, where I arrived in good time forbreakfast, and where I made the acquaintance, not only of her skipper--afine, grey-headed, sailorly man named Blatchford--but also of herthirty-two passengers, eighteen of whom were males, while the remainderwere of the gentler sex, the wives and daughters mostly of the malepassengers. There were no young children among them, fortunately. Myappearance seemed to create quite a little flutter of excitement amongthe petticoats, and also not a little astonishment, apparently; for Ioverheard one of the matrons remark to another, behind her fan, "Why, heis scarcely more than a _boy_!"
The _Black Prince_ was a noble ship, of twelve hundred and fifty tons,frigate-built, and only nine years old, splendidly fitted up, and fullto the hatches of coffee, tobacco, spices, and other valuables; she alsohad a reputation for speed, which had induced her skipper to hazard thehomeward voyage alone, instead of waiting for convoy. The poor oldfellow was of course dreadfully cut up at his misfortune--for, havingbeen in the enemy's hands more than twenty-four hours, she was arecapture in the legal sense of the term, and, as such, we were entitledto salvage for her. However, unfortunate as was the existing state ofaffairs, it was of course vastly better than that of a _few_ hoursbefore, and he interrupted himself in his bemoanings to thank me forhaving rescued him out of the hands of those Philistines, the Frenchprivateersmen. I informed him that it would be my duty to take him intoFort Royal, but he received the news with equanimity, explaining thateven had I not insisted on it, he should certainly, after his recentexperience, have availed himself of my escort to return to Kingston, andthere await convoy. I breakfasted with him and his passengers, andthen, leaving Christie aboard as prize master, returned to the schooner;and we all made sail in company, arriving at Port Royal five days later,without further adventure.
The admiral was, as might be expected, immensely pleased at ourappearance with _three_ prizes in company, and still more so when Ireported to him the discovery and destruction of Morillo's headquarters.
"You have done well, my boy, wonderfully well; better even than Iexpected of you," said he, shaking me heartily by the hand. "Go on asyou have begun, and I venture to prophesy that it will not be longbefore I shall feel justified in giving you t'other `swab,'" pointing,as he spoke, to my single epaulet.
To say that I was delighted at my reception but very feebly expressesthe feelings that overwhelmed me as the kind old fellow spoke suchgenerous words of appreciation and encouragement. Of course I knew thatI had done well, but I regarded my success as due fully as much to goodfortune as to my own efforts, and I was almost overwhelmed with joy atso full and complete a recognition of my efforts. So astonished indeedwas I, that I could only stammer something to the effect that oursuccess was due quite as much to the loyalty with which Christie andLindsay had seconded me, and the gallantry with which the men had stoodby me, as it was to my own individual merits.
"That's right, my boy," remarked the admiral; "I am glad to hear youspeak like that. No doubt what you say is true, but it does not detractin the least from the value of your own services. I always think thebetter of an officer who is willing to do full justice to the merits ofthose who have helped him, and your promotion will not come to you theless quickly for having helped your shipmates to theirs. You have _all_done well, and I will see to it that you are all adequately rewarded--Christie and Lindsay by getting their step, and you by getting asomewhat bet
ter craft than the little cockleshell in which you havealready done so well. I am of opinion that all you require isopportunity, and, by the Piper, you shall have it."
And the old gentleman kept his word; for when I went aboard the _Tern_on the following day--I dined and slept at the house of some friends alittle way out from Kingston that night--Christie and Lindsay met mewith beaming faces and the information that the former had got his stepas master, while Lindsay had received an acting order as lieutenantpending his passing of the necessary examination. The only drawback tothis good news was the intelligence that the man Garcia had mysteriouslydisappeared during the night, leaving not a trace of his whereaboutsbehind him.
An hour or two later I went ashore and waited upon the admiral at hisoffice, in accordance with instructions received from him on theprevious day; and upon being ushered into his presence, he at once beganto question me relative to the qualities of the _Diane_. I was able tospeak nothing but good of her; for indeed what I had seen of her, duringthe passage to Port Royal, had convinced me that she was really a veryfine vessel in every respect, a splendid sea-boat, wonderfully fast,and, I had no doubt, a thoroughly wholesome, comfortable craft in badweather.
"Just so," commented the admiral, when I had finished singing herpraises; "what you have said quite confirms my own opinion of her, whichis that, in capable hands, she may be made exceedingly useful.Moreover, she is more nearly a match for Morillo's brigantine than isthe little _Tern_, eh? Well, my lad, I have been thinking matters over,and have made up my mind that she is good enough to purchase into theservice; so I will have it seen to at once, and of course I shall giveyou the command of her. She will want a considerable amount ofattention at the hands of the shipwrights after the mauling that yougave her, but you shall supervise everything yourself, and they shall donothing without your approval; so see to it that they don't spoil her.I notice that she mounts six sixes of a side. Now I propose to alterthat arrangement by putting four long nines in place of those six sixes,with an eighteen-pounder on her forecastle; and with such an armament asthat, and a crew to match, you ought to be able to render an exceedinglygood account of yourself. What do you think of my idea?"
I replied truthfully that I considered it excellent in every way; and wethen launched into a discussion of minor details, with which I need notweary the reader, at the end of which I went aboard the _Tern_ and paidoff her crew, preparatory to her being turned over to the shipwrights,along with her prize.
It happened that just about this time there was an exceptionally heavypress of work in the dockyard; for there had been several frigateactions of late, and the resources of the staff were taxed to the utmostto effect the repairs following upon such events and to get the shipsready for sea again in the shortest possible time; with the result thatsuch small fry as the _Diane_ and the _Tern_ were obliged to wait untilthe heaviest of the work was over and the frigates were again ready forservice. It thus happened that, although I contrived to worry thedockyard superintendent into putting a few shipwrights aboard the_Diane_, three weeks passed, and still the brigantine was very far frombeing ready for sea. During this time I made my headquarters at "Mammy"Wilkinson's hotel in Kingston,--that being the hotel especially affectedby navy men,--although I was seldom there, the planters and big-wigs ofthe island generally proving wonderfully hospitable, and literallyoverwhelming me with invitations to take up my abode with them. Butabout the time that I have mentioned it happened that certainalterations were being effected aboard the brigantine, which I wasespecially anxious to have carried out according to my own ideas; Itherefore spent the whole of the day, for several days in succession, atthe dockyard, going up to Kingston at night, and sleeping at the hotel.
It was during this interval that, one night about ten o'clock, a negropresented himself at the hotel, inquiring for me; and upon my making myappearance in the entrance-hall, the fellow--a full-blooded African,dressed very neatly in a white shirt and white duck trousers, bothscrupulously clean, for a wonder--approached me, and, ducking his headrespectfully, inquired--
"You Massa Courtenay, sar, cap'n ob de man-o'-war schoonah _Tern_?"
"Well, yes," I replied, "my name is Courtenay, and I commanded the_Tern_ up to the time of her being paid off; so I suppose I may fairlyassume that I am the individual you have been inquiring for. What is ityou want with me?"
"You know a genterman, nam'd Lindsay, sar?" asked the negro, instead ofreplying to my question.
"Certainly I do," answered I; "what of him?"
"Why, sar, he hab got into a lilly scrape down on de wharf, and deperlice hab put him into de lock-up. Dey don' beliebe dat he am man-o'-war bucra, and he say, `Will you be so good as to step down dere an'identerfy him an' bail him out?'"
"Lindsay got into a scrape?" repeated I incredulously. "I cannotbelieve it! What has he been doing?"
"Dat I cannot say, sar," answered the black; "I only know dat aperliceman come out ob de door ob de lock-up as I was passin' by, andasked me if I wanted to earn fibe shillin'; and when I say `yes,' hetake me into de lock-up and interdooce me to young bucra, who say himname am Lindsay, and dat if I will take a message to you he will gib mefibe shillin' when I come back wid you."
"It is very extraordinary," I muttered; "I cannot understand it! But Iwill go with you, of course. Wait a moment until I fetch my cap."
So saying, I left the fellow and hastened to my room, where, closing thedoor, I opened my chest and furnished myself with a supply of money, andthen, closing and locking the chest, I hastened away to where the negrowas waiting for me. As I passed through the hall several men of myacquaintance were lounging there, smoking, and one of them hailed mewith--
"Hillo, Courtenay! whither away so fast, my lad?"
It was on the tip of my tongue to explain to them my errand, but Ibethought me just in time that if Lindsay had been doing anythingfoolish he might not care to have the fact blazoned abroad; so I kept myown counsel, merely replying that I was called out upon a small matterof business, and so effected my escape from them into the dark street.
"Oh, here you are!" exclaimed I, as the negro emerged, at my appearance,from the deep shadow of the hotel portico. "Now, then, which way? IsMr Lindsay in the town jail?"
"No, sar, no; he am in de harbour lock-up," answered my guide. "Disway, sar; it am not so bery far."
"The _harbour_ lock-up?" queried I. "Where is that? I didn't know thatthere was such a place."
"Oh yes, sar, dar am. You follow me, sar; I show you de way, sar,"answered the negro.
"All right, heave ahead then," said I; and away we went a little waydown the main street, and then turned to the right, plunging into one ofthe dark, narrow side streets which then intersected the town ofKingston.
"Keep close to de wall, sar," cautioned my guide; "dere am a gutter inde middle ob de road, and if you steps into dat you go in ober yourshoes in muck."
I could well believe this, for although it was too dark in this narrowlane to see anything, the abominable odour of the place told me prettywell what its condition must be. We plodded on for nearly ten minutes,winding hither and thither, and penetrating deeper and deeper into thelabyrinth of dark, crooked lanes, but gradually edging nearer to theharbour, while, as I thought, working our way a considerable distance tothe westward. Presently my guide, who had been humming some negromelody to himself, lifted up his voice in a louder key and began tochant the praises of a certain "lubly Chloe, whose eyes were like thestars, and whose `breaf' was like the rose!" The fellow had awonderfully melodious voice, and in listening to him as he strode easilyalong at a swinging pace, improvising verse after verse in honour of theunknown Chloe, I lost my bearings as well as my count of time, and wasonly brought back to a consciousness of the present by suddenly findingmy head closely enveloped in what seemed to be a blanket, while at thesame instant my feet were tripped from under me, so that I should havefallen forward but for the restraining influence of the blanket and of apair of arms that gripped mine tightl
y behind my back, so that I wasinstantly overpowered and effectually precluded from making theslightest effort to free myself. Then, before I had time to realisewhat was happening, I was lifted off my feet, and, despite my desperatestruggles and ineffectual efforts to shout for assistance, carried inthrough an open doorway and flung upon my face upon the ground, wheresomeone at once knelt upon me and securely lashed my hands behind myback, some other individual at the same instant lashing my ankles firmlytogether.
"Dere, dat will do, Peter; I t'ink him cannot do much harm now,"remarked the voice of my whilom guide; and as the fellow spoke I wasrelieved of the very considerable weight that had been pressing upon meand holding me down. Then I was rolled over on my side, and, as theblanket that enveloped my head and very nearly suffocated me wascautiously removed, I felt the prick of something sharp against my leftbreast, and the same voice that had spoken before observed--
"Massa Courtenay, we hab no wish to hurt you, sah; but it am my painfulduty to warn you dat, if you sing out, or make de slightest attempt toescape, I shall be obleeged to dribe dis lilly knife ob mine home to yo'heart, sar. So now you knows what you hab to expec'. Does youunderstan' what I say, sah?"
"Certainly I do," answered I, with suppressed fury, "your meaning isclear enough, in all conscience. But beware what you do, my finefellow. You were seen by several of my friends at the hotel, who willhave no difficulty in identifying you; and I warn you that you will bemade to pay dearly for this outrage to a British naval officer. What isthe meaning of it all? Have you any idea of the enormity of youroffence?"
"Oh yes, sah," answered my guide cheerfully, "we hab a very clear ideaob dat, haben't we, Peter?" addressing another big, powerful negro ofsomewhat similar cut to himself, but attired in much less respectablegarments.
Peter grinned affirmatively, but said nothing; whereupon his companioncontinued--
"Now, Peter, where am dat gag? Just bring it along, and let us fix itup, so as to make all safe. It would be a most drefful misfortune ifMassa Courtenay was to sing out, and force me to split him heart wid disknife ob mine; so we will just make it onpossible for him to do any suchfoolis' t'ing."
All this time the knife--a formidable dagger-shaped blade fully a footlong--was kept pressed so firmly to my breast that it had drawn blood,the stain of which was now dyeing the front of my white shirt, so themoment was manifestly inopportune for any attempt at escape orresistance even; I therefore submitted, with the best grace I couldmuster, to the insertion of the gag between my teeth, reserving tomyself the right to make both ruffians smart for their outrage upon meat the first available opportunity. But before the gag was placedbetween my teeth, I contrived to repeat my inquiry for an explanation.
"Nebber you mind, Massa Courtenay; you will find out all about dat ingood time, sah," answered the leading spirit of the twain; and with thatreply I was perforce obliged to be content for the moment.
Having made me perfectly secure, the two negroes squatted down upontheir haunches, and, with much deliberation, produced from their pocketsa short clay pipe each, a plug of tobacco, and a knife; and, aftercarefully shredding their tobacco and charging their pipes, proceeded tosmoke, with much gravity and in perfect silence. It struck me thatpossibly they might be waiting for someone, whose appearance upon thescene would, I hoped, throw some light upon the cause of thisextraordinary outrage, and give me an inkling as to what sort of an endI might expect to the adventure. Meanwhile, having nothing else to do,I proceeded to take stock of the place, or at least as much of it as Icould command in my cramped and constrained position.
There was little or nothing, however, in what I saw about me of acharacter calculated to suggest an explanation of the motive for myseizure. The building was simply one of those low, one-storey adobestructures, thatched with palm leaves, such as then abounded in thelower quarters of Kingston, and which were usually inhabited by thenegro or half-breed population of the place. The interior appeared tobe divided into two apartments by an unpainted partition of timberframing, decorated with cheap and gaudy coloured prints, tacked to thewood at the four corners; and as a good many of these pictures were of areligious character, in most of which the Blessed Virgin figured more orless prominently, I took it that the legitimate occupant of the placewas a Roman Catholic. The furniture was of the simplest kind,consisting of a table in the centre,--upon which burned the cheap,tawdry, brass lamp that illumined the apartment,--a large, upturnedpacking-case, covered with a gaudy tablecloth, and serving as a tableagainst the rear wall of the building, and three or four old, straight-backed chairs, that had evidently come down in the world, for they wereelaborately carved, and upholstered in frayed and faded tapestry. A fewmore cheap and gaudy coloured prints adorned the walls; a heavy curtain,so dirty and smoke-grimed that its original colour and pattern wasutterly unrecognisable, shielded the unglazed window; two or threehanging shelves--one of which supported a dozen or so of dark greenbottles--depended from the walls; and that was all. The floor uponwhich I lay was simply the bare earth, rammed hard, thick with dust andswarming with fleas,--as I quickly discovered,--and the whole placereeked of that hot, stale smell that seems to pervade the abodes ofpeople of uncleanly habits.
The two negroes smoked silently and gravely for a full half-hour, aboutthe end of which time my captor slowly and with due deliberation knockedthe ashes from his pipe, and, rising to his feet, yawned and stretchedhimself. In so doing his eye fell upon the shelf upon which stood thebottles, and, sauntering lazily across the room, he laid his hand uponone of the bottles and placed it on the centre table. Then, lifting upthe cloth which covered the packing-case, he revealed a shelf within theinterior, from which he withdrew a water monkey, two earthenware mugs,and a dish containing a most uninviting-looking mixture, which Ipresently guessed, from its odour, to be composed of salt fish andboiled yams mashed together, cold. These he placed upon the table, and,still without speaking, the pair drew chairs up to the table and,seating themselves opposite each other, proceeded to make a hearty meal,helping themselves alternately, with their fingers, from the centraldish, and washing down the mixture with a mug of rum and water each.
They were still thus agreeably engaged when the distant sound ofrumbling wheels and clattering hoofs became audible, rapidly drawingnearer, and accompanied by the persuasive shouts and ejaculations of anegro driver.
"Dat am de boy Moses wid de cart, I 'spects," remarked the negro whosename I had not yet learned. "What a drefful row de young rascal makes!Dat nigger won't nebber learn discreshun," he continued, wiping hisfingers carefully on a flaming red handkerchief which he drew from hisbreeches pocket.
Peter grunted an unintelligible reply, and the next moment the vehiclepulled up sharply at the door; the cessation of its clatter beingimmediately followed by the entrance of a negro lad, some eighteen yearsof age.
"I'se brought de cart, as you tole me, Caesar," he remarked. "Am it allright?"
"It am, sar," remarked Caesar--the hitherto unnamed negro--loftily;"when did you ebber know me to fail in what I undertooken, eh, sar?"
"Nebber, sah, nebber," answered Moses appreciatively. "An' so dat am degebberlum, am it?" pointing at me with his chin, as I lay huddled up onthe floor.
"Yes, sar, it am," answered Caesar curtly, in a tone of voice which wasevidently intended to cut short all further conversation. "An' now,Peter," he continued, "if you has finished yo' supper we better bemovin'. Nebber mind about puttin' de t'ings away; de ole 'oman will seeto dat when she comes home in de mornin'. Now den, Peter, you take holdob de genterman's legs, and help me to carry him out; does you hear?"
Peter the Silent grunted an affirmative, stooping as he did so andseizing my legs, while Caesar raised me by the shoulders in his powerfularms, remarking, as he did so--
"Massa Courtenay, jus' listen to me, if you please, sah. We am goin' totake you for a nice, pleasant lilly dribe in a cart, and I am goin' tosit on you, so dat you may not fall out. Now I still has my knife widme, and if I fee
ls you begin to struggle, I shall be under de mos'painful necessity ob drivin' it into you to keep you quiet; so I hopedat you will lie most particular still durin' yo' little journey. Yousabbe?"
I nodded my head.
"Dat's all right, den," resumed Caesar. "Now, Peter up wid him, andaway we goes."
And therewith the two black rascals raised me carefully, and carrying meinto the open, placed me in a mule cart, covered me with a thick layerof green forage, and--Caesar coolly carrying out his threat to sit uponme--drove away.