CHAPTER SIX.
MY FIRST HORROR.
I was in a great state of excitement, and stood watching the vesselthrough my spyglass, longing for the distance to be got over and whatpromised to be a mystery examined. For a wreck was possible and a fireat sea equally so, but a ship ashore and burning seemed to be such ananomaly that the officers all looked as if they felt that we were on thehigh road to something exciting at last.
In fact, we had been so long on the station for the purpose of checkingpiracy, but doing nothing save overhaul inoffensive junks, that we wereall heartily sick of our task. For it was not, as Smith said, as if wewere always in some port where we could study the manners and customs ofthe Chinese, but for ever knocking about wild-goose chasing and nevergetting a goose.
"Plenty on board," cried Barkins. "I say, Gnat, isn't he a humbug? Ha,ha! Study the manners and customs! Stuffing himself with Chinesesweets and hankering after puppy-pie, like the bargees on the Thames."
"Oh, does he?" cried Smith. "Who ate the fricassee of rats?"
"Oh, bother all that!" I said. "Here, Blacksmith, lend me your glass aminute; it's stronger than mine."
"Ho, ho!" laughed Barkins. "His! The wapping whacker! Why, it's amiserable slopshop second-hand thing. You should have had mine. Thatwas something like, before you spoiled it."
"Here you are," said Smith, lending me his glass. "It's worth a dozenof his old blunderbuss."
I took the glass and had a good long inspection of the large barque,which lay heeled over on the outlying reef of one of the many islands,and could distinctly see the fine curl of smoke rising up from the decksomewhere about the forecastle.
"Make out any one on board, Mr Herrick?" said a sharp voice behind me,and I started round, to find that my companions had gone forward, andthe first lieutenant was behind me with his spyglass under his arm andhis face very eager and stern.
"No, sir; not a soul."
"Nor signals?"
"None."
"No more can I," my lad. "Your eyes are younger and sharper than mine.Look again. Do the bulwarks seem shattered?"
I took a long look.
"No, sir," I said. "Everything seems quite right except thefore-topmast, which has snapped off, and is hanging in a tangle down tothe deck."
"But the fire?"
"That only looks, sir, as if they'd got a stove in the forecastle, andhad just lit the fire with plenty of smoky coal."
"Hah! That's all I can make out. We've come to something at last, MrHerrick."
"Think so, sir?" I said respectfully.
"Sure of it, my lad;" and he walked off to join the captain, while justthen Ching came up softly and pointed forward.
"Big ship," he said. "Pilate; all afire."
"Think so?"
Ching nodded.
"Hallo, Gnat, what does the first luff say?" asked Barkins, who joinedus then.
"Thinks it's a vessel cast ashore by the pirates."
"Maybe. I should say it's one got on the reef from bad seamanship."
"And want of a Tanner on board to set them right," said Smith.
"Skipper's coming," whispered Barkins; and we separated.
For the next hour all was eager watchfulness on board, as we approachedvery slowly, shortening sail, and with two men in the chains heaving thelead on account of the hidden reefs and shoals off some of the islands.But, as we approached, nothing more could be made out till the man alofthailed the deck, and announced that he could read the name on the stern,_Dunstaffnage, Glasgow_. Another hour passed, during which the island,a couple of miles beyond, was swept by glass after glass, and tree andhill examined, but there was no sign of signal on tree or hill. All wasbare, chilly, and repellent there, and we felt that the crew of thevessel could not have taken refuge ashore.
At last the crew of a boat was piped away, and, as I was gazinglongingly at the men getting in under the command of Mr Brooke, aquiet, gentlemanly fellow, our junior lieutenant, Mr Reardon said, ashe caught my eye--
"Yes; go."
I did not wait for a second order, you may be sure, but sprang in, andas the _Teaser_ was thrown up in the wind with her sails flapping, itbeing deemed unsafe to go any nearer to the barque, the little wheelschirrupped, and down we went, to sit the next moment lightly upon agood-sized wave which rose up as if to receive us; the falls were castoff, the oars dropped, and the next minute we glided away towards thestranded vessel.
"Quite a treat to get a bit of an adventure, eh Herrick?" said MrBrooke.
"Yes, sir. Been slow enough lately."
"Oh, you need not grumble, my lad. You did have one good adventure. Bythe way, how are your sore ribs?"
"My ribs, sir? Oh, I had forgotten all about them. But do you thinkthis is the work of pirates, or that the ship has run ashore?"
"I'm not sure, my lad, but we shall soon know."
We sat watching the fine well-built barque, as the men pulled lustily attheir oars, making the water flash and the distance grow shorter. Thenall at once my companion said shortly--
"Pirates."
"Where, where?" I said eagerly, and my hand went to my dirk.
Mr Brooke laughed, and I saw all the men showing their teeth.
"No, no, my lad," he said. "I meant this was the work of pirates."
"How do you know, sir?"
"Look at those ropes and sheets hanging loose. They have been cut. Thebarque has not been in a storm either. She has just gone on to therocks and the fore-topmast evidently snapped with the shock."
"And the smoke? Is that from the forecastle?"
He shook his head, and stood up in the boat, after handing me the lines,while he remained scanning the vessel attentively.
"Hail her, Jones," he said to the bowman; and the man jumped up, put hishands to his mouth, and roared out, "_Ship ahoy_!"
This again and again, but all was silent; and a curious feeling of awecrept over me as I gazed at the barque lying there on the reef as if itwere dead, while the column of smoke, which now looked much bigger,twisted and writhed as it rolled over and over up from just abaft thebroken foremast.
"Steady," cried the lieutenant; "the water's getting shoal. Keep a goodlook-out forward, Jones."
For all at once the water in front of us, from being smooth and oily,suddenly became agitated, and I saw that we had startled and weredriving before us a shoal of good-sized fish, some of which, in theireagerness to escape, sprang out of the water and fell back with asplash.
"Plenty yet, sir," said the man in the bows, standing up now with theboat-hook. "Good fathom under us."
"Right. Steady, my lads."
We were only about a hundred yards from the barque now, and the waterdeepened again, showing that we had been crossing a reef; but the bottomwas still visible, as I glanced once over the side, but only for amoment, for there was a peculiar saddening attraction about the silentship, and I don't know how it was, but I felt as if I was going to seesomething dreadful.
Under the lieutenant's directions, I steered the boat so that we glidedround to the other side, passing under the stern, and then ranalongside, with the bulwarks hanging over towards us, and made out thatthe vessel had evidently been in fairly deep water close by, and hadbeen run on to the rocks where two reefs met and closed-in a deepchannel.
How are we going to get on board? I asked myself, as I looked upward;but I was soon made aware of that, for right forward there was aquantity of the top-hamper of the broken mast with a couple of thesquare sails awash, so that there was no difficulty about scrambling up.
"I don't think there is any one on board, Herrick," said Mr Brooke,"but sailors should always be on the _qui vive_. Stay in the boat, ifyou like."
"I don't like, sir," I said, as soon as he had given orders to four mento follow us, and the next minute we were climbing up to stand upon thedeck.
"No doubt about it," said Mr Brooke through his teeth. "She has beenplundered, and then left to drift ashore or to burn."
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For there from the forehold curled up the pillar of smoke we had seen,and a dull crackling noise came up, telling that, though slowly, thefire was steadily burning.
We could not see much below for the smoke, and Mr Brooke led the wayforward to the forecastle hatch, which lay open.
"Below! Any one there?" cried my officer, but all was silent as thegrave.
One of the men looked at him eagerly.
"Yes, jump down."
The man lowered himself down into the dark forecastle, and made a quickinspection.
"Any one there?"
"No, sir. Place clear and the men's kits all gone."
"Come up."
We went aft, to find the hatches all off and thrown about anyhow, whilethe cargo had been completely cleared out, save one chest of tea whichhad been broken and the contents had scattered.
"No mistake about it, Herrick," said Mr Brooke; and he went on to theafter-hatch, which was also open and the lading gone.
The next minute we were at the companion-way, and Mr Brooke hailedagain, but all was still. Just then the man peering over my shouldersniffed sharply like some animal.
The sound sent a shudder through me, and Mr Brooke turned to the mansharply--
"Why did you do that?"
"Beg pardon, sir," stammered the man; "I thought that--as if--therewas--"
He did not finish.
"Come on," said Mr Brooke sternly, while I shuddered again, andinvoluntarily my nostrils dilated as I inhaled the air, thinking thewhile of a butchered captain and officers lying about, but there was notthe faintest odour, and I followed my officer, and then for a moment ahorrible sickening sensation attacked me, and I shuddered.
But it all passed off, and, myself again directly, I was gazing with theothers at the many signs which told us as plainly as if it had beenwritten, that the crew of the unfortunate barque had barricadedthemselves in here and made a desperate resistance, for her broken doorslay splintered and full of the marks made by axes and heavy swords. Theseats were broken; and bulkheads, cabin windows, and floor were horriblystained here and there with blood, now quite dry and black, but which,after it had been shed, had been smeared about and trampled over; andthis in one place was horribly evident, for close up to the side, quiteplain, there was the imprint of a bare foot--marked in blood--a greatwide-toed foot, that could never have worn a shoe.
"Rather horrid for you, Herrick," said Mr Brooke in a low voice, as ifthe traces of death made him solemn; "but you must be a man now. Look,my lad, what the devils--the savage devils--have done with our poorScotch brothers!"
"Yes, I see," I whispered; "they must have killed them all."
"But I mean this--there, I mean."
I looked at him wonderingly as he pointed to the floor, for I did notunderstand.
The next moment, though, I grasped his meaning, and saw plainly enoughwhat must have happened, for from where we stood to the open sternwindows there were long parallel streaks, and I knew that, though theywere partially trampled out by naked feet, as if they had been passedover dozens of times since, the savage wretches must have dragged theirvictims to the stern windows and thrust them out; any doubt thereonbeing cleared away by the state of the lockers and the sills of thelights.
Just then a peculiar hissing sound came to my ears, and I faced roundquickly, as did Mr Brooke, for I felt startled.
For there behind me was one of our men--a fine handsome Yorkshire lad ofthree or four and twenty--standing glaring and showing his set teeth,and his eyes with the white slightly visible round the iris. His leftfist was firmly clenched, and in his right was his bare cutlass, withthe blade quivering in his strong hand.
"Put up your cutlass, my lad," said Mr Brooke sternly; and the manstarted and thrust it back. "Wait a bit--but I don't know how I am toask you to give quarter to the fiends who did all this. No wonder theplace is so silent, Herrick," he added bitterly. "Come away."
He led us out, but not before we had seen that the cabins had beencompletely stripped.
We did not stay much longer, but our time was long enough to show usthat everything of value had been taken, and nothing left in the way oflog or papers to tell how the barque had fallen in with the wretches.The crew had probably been surprised, and after a desperate resistance,when driven back into the cabin, fought to the last with the results wehad seen.
"But surely they must have killed or wounded some of the pirates?" Isaid.
"Possibly," replied Mr Brooke; "but there has been rain since; perhapsa heavy sea, too, has washed over the deck and swept away all traceshere. Let's hope they made some of them pay dearly for their work."
A short inspection below showed that the barque's planking was crushedin, and that she was hopelessly damaged, even if she could have been gotoff, so soon after Mr Brooke gave the word to return to the boat.
"I shall not touch the fire," he said. "If the captain has any wishesthe boat can return. For my part I should say, let her burn."
The captain listened with his brow contracted to Mr Brooke's recital,when we were back on board; I being close at hand, ready to answer a fewquestions as well.
"Yes, let her burn," said the captain; and then he turned his back tous, but seemed to recollect himself directly, for he turned again.
"Thank you, Mr Brooke," he said. "Very clear and concise. You couldnot have done better."
Then turning to the first lieutenant, he said in a low voice--
"Reardon, I'm at my wit's end. The wretches are too cunning for us.What are we to do?"