CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
THE ESCAPE.
The instant that Captain Montague stepped over the side of the schooner,a handkerchief was pressed tightly over his mouth and nose. At the sametime, he was seized by four strong men and rendered utterly powerless.The thing was done so promptly and silently, that the men who remainedin the gig heard no unusual sound.
"I'm sorry to treat a guest so roughly, Captain Montague," saidGascoyne, in a low tone, as the unfortunate officer was carried aft,"but the safety of my vessel requires it. They will carry you to mystate-room, where you will find my steward exceedingly attentive andobliging, but, _let me warn you_, he is peculiarly ready with the buttend of his pistol at times, especially when men are inclined to makeunnecessary noise." He turned on his heel as he said this and wentforward, looking over the side in passing and telling the crew of thegig to remain where they were till their captain should call them.
This order the men felt constrained to obey, although they weresurprised that the captain himself had not given it on quitting theboat; their suspicions were farther awakened by the active operationsgoing on upon deck. The sounds apprised them of these for the bulwarkshid everything from view. At length, when they heard the cable slippingthrough the hawse-hole, they could stand it no longer, but sprang up theside in a body. Of course they were met by men well prepared. As theywere armed only with cutlasses, the pirates quickly overcame them andthrew them into the sea.
All further attempt at concealment was now abandoned. The man-of-war'sboat, when it came up, was received with a shot from Long Tom, whichgrazed its side, carried away four of the starboard oars, and justmissed dashing it to pieces by a mere hair's-breadth. At the same timethe sails of the schooner were shaken out and filled by the lightbreeze, which, for nearly an hour, had been blowing off shore.
As the coming up of the gig and the large boat had occurred on that sideof the schooner that was farthest from the _Talisman_, those on board ofthe latter vessel could not make out clearly what had occurred. Thatthe schooner was a pirate was now clearly evident, for the red griffinand stripe were suddenly displayed as well as the blood-red flag; butthe first lieutenant did not dare to fire on her while the boats were sonear. He slipped the cable, however, and made instant sail on the ship,and when he saw the large boat and the gig drop astern of the schooner--the former in a disabled condition--he commenced firing as fast as hecould load; not doubting that his captain was in his own boat.
At such short range the shot flew around the pirate schooner like hail,but she appeared to bear a charmed existence, for, although theywhistled between her spars and struck the sea all around her, very fewindeed did her serious damage. The shots from Long Tom, on the otherhand, were well aimed, and told with terrible effect on the hull andrigging of the frigate. Gascoyne himself pointed the gun, and hisbright eye flashed, and a grim smile played on his lips as the shotswhistled round his head.
The pirate captain seemed to be possessed by a spirit of fierce andreckless jovialty that day. His usual calm self-possessed demeanourquite forsook him. He issued his orders in a voice of thunder and withan air of what, for want of a better expression, we may term ferociousheartiness. He generally executed these orders himself, hurling the menviolently out of his way as if he were indignant at their tardiness,although they sprang to obey as actively as usual--indeed more so, forthey were overawed and somewhat alarmed by this unwonted conduct on thepart of their captain.
The fact was, that Gascoyne had for a long time past desired to give uphis course of life and amend his ways, but he discovered, as all wickedmen discover sooner or later, that while it is easy to plunge into evilcourses it is by no means easy--on the contrary it is extremelydifficult--to give them up. He had formed his resolution and had laidhis plans; but all his plans had miscarried. Being a man of high temperhe had been driven almost to desperation, and sought relief to hisfeelings in physical exertion.
Of all the men in the _Avenger_, however, no one was so much alarmed bythe captain's conduct as the first mate, between whom and Gascoyne therehad been a bitter feeling for some time past; and Manton knew (at leasthe believed) that it would be certain death to him if he should chanceto thwart his superior in the mood in which he then was.
"That was a good shot, Manton," said Gascoyne, with a wild laugh, as thefore-topsail yard of the _Talisman_ came rattling down on the deck,having been cut away by a shot from Long Tom.
"It was, but _that_ was a better one," said Manton, pointing to the boomof the schooner's mainsail, which was cut in two by a round shot, justas the captain spoke.
"Good, very good," observed the latter with an approving nod; "but thatalters the game; down with the helm! steady!"
"Get the wreck of that boom cleared away, Manton, we won't want themainsail long. Here comes a squall. Look sharp. Close reef topsails."
The boom was swaying to and fro so violently, that three of the men whosprang to obey the order were hurled by it into the lee scuppers.Gascoyne darted towards the broken spar and held it fast, while Mantonquickly severed the ropes that fastened it to the sail and to the deck,then the former hurled it over the side with as much ease as if it hadbeen an oar.
"Let her away now."
"Why, that will run us right into the Long Shoal!" exclaimed Manton,anxiously, as the squall which had been approaching struck the schoonerand laid her almost on her beam ends.
"I know it," replied Gascoyne, curtly, as he thrust aside the man at thewheel and took the spokes in his own hands.
"It's all we can do to find our way through that place in fine weather,"remonstrated the mate.
"I know it," said Gascoyne, sternly.
Scraggs, who chanced to be standing by, seemed to be immensely delightedwith the alarmed expression on Manton's face. The worthy second matehated the first mate so cordially, and attached so little value to hisown life, that he would willingly have run the schooner on the rocksaltogether, just to have the pleasure of laughing contemptuously at thewreck of Manton's hopes.
"It's worth while trying it," suggested Scraggs, with a malicious grin.
"I mean to try it," said Gascoyne, calmly.
"But there's not a spot in the shoal except the Eel's Gate that we've aghost of a chance of getting through," cried Manton, becoming excited asthe schooner dashed towards the breakers like a furious charger rushingon destruction.
"I know it."
"And there's barely water on _that_ to float us over," he added,striding forward, and laying a hand on the wheel.
"Half-a-foot too little," said Gascoyne, with forced calmness.
Scraggs grinned.
"You shan't run us aground if I can prevent it," cried Manton, fiercely,seizing the wheel with both hands and attempting to move it, in whichattempt he utterly failed, and Scraggs grinned broader than ever.
"Remove your hands," said Gascoyne, in a low calm voice, which surprisedthe men who were standing near and witnessed these proceedings.
"I won't. Ho! lads, do you wish to be sent to the bottom by a--"
The remainder of this speech was cut short by the sudden descent ofGascoyne's knuckles on the forehead of the mate, who dropped on the deckas if he had been felled with a sledge hammer. Scraggs laughed outrightwith satisfaction.
"Remove him," said Gascoyne.
"Overboard?" inquired Scraggs, with a bland smile.
"Below," said the captain; and Scraggs was fain to content himself withcarrying the insensible form of his superior officer to his berth,taking pains, however, to bump his head carefully against every spar andcorner and otherwise convenient projection on the way down.
In a few minutes more the schooner was rushing through the milk-whitefoam that covered the dangerous coral reef named the Long Shoals, andthe _Talisman_ lay-to, not daring to venture into such a place, butpouring shot and shell into her bold little adversary with terribleeffect, as her tattered sails and flying cordage shewed. The fire wassteadily replied to by Long Tom, whose heavy shots
, came crashingrepeatedly through the hull of the man-of-war.
The large boat, meanwhile, had been picked up by the _Talisman_, afterhaving rescued Mr Mason and Henry, both of whom were placed in the gig.This light boat was now struggling to make the ship, but owing to thestrength of the squall, her diminished crew were unable to effect this;they therefore ran ashore to await the issue of the fight and the storm.
For some time the _Avenger_ stood on her wild course unharmed, passingclose to huge rocks on either side of her, over which the sea burst inclouds of foam. Gascoyne still stood at the wheel, guiding the vesselwith consummate skill and daring, while the men looked on in awe and inbreathless expectation, quite regardless of the shot which flew aroundthem and altogether absorbed by the superior danger by which they weremenaced.
The surface of the sea was so universally white, that there was no lineof dark water to guide the pirate captain on his bold and desperatecourse. He was obliged to trust almost entirely to his intimateknowledge of the coast, and to the occasional patches in the surroundingwaste where the comparative flatness of the boiling flood indicated lessshallow water. As the danger increased, the smile left Gascoyne's lips,but the flashing of his bright eyes and his deepened colour shewed thatthe spirit boiled within, almost as wildly as the ocean raged aroundhim.
The centre of the shoal was gained, and a feeling of hope and exultationbegan to rise in the breasts of the crew when a terrific shock causedthe little schooner to quiver from stem to stern, while an involuntarycry burst from the men, many of whom were thrown violently on the deck.At the same time a shot from the _Talisman_ came in through the sternbulwarks, struck the wheel and carried it away with part of the tackleattached to the tiller.
"Another leap like that, lass, and you're over," cried Gascoyne, with alight smile, as he sprang to the iron tiller, and, seizing it with hisstrong hands, steered the schooner as if she had been a boat.
"Get new tackle rove, Scraggs," said he, cheerfully, "I'll keep herstraight for Eel's Gate with _this_. That was the first bar of thegate--there are only two altogether, and the second won't be so bad."
As the captain spoke, the schooner seemed to recover from the shock andagain rushed forward on her foaming course; but before the men had timeto breathe, she struck again--this time less violently, as had beenpredicted--and the next wave, lifting her over the shoal, launched herinto deep water.
"There, that will do," said Gascoyne, resigning the helm to Scraggs."You can keep her as she goes; there's plenty of water now and no fearof that big bully following us. Meanwhile, I will go below and see tothe welfare of our passengers."
Gascoyne was wrong in supposing that the _Talisman_ would not follow.She could not, indeed, follow in the same course, but the moment thatMulroy observed that the pirate had passed the shoals in safety, hestood inshore, and, without waiting to pick up the gig, traversed thechannel by which they had entered the bay. Then, trusting to the leadand to his knowledge of the general appearance of shallows, he steeredcarefully along until he cleared the reefs and finally stood out to sea.
In less than half-an-hour afterwards, the party on shore beheld the twovessels disappear among the black storm-clouds that gathered over thedistant horizon.