Chapter 11: Cutting Out A Prize.
The distant sail was anxiously watched from the Antelope. It closedin with them fast, running almost before the wind. In two hours,her hull could be seen from the deck.
Efforts had been made, by slacking the ropes and altering the setof the sails, to give the brig as slovenly an appearance aspossible. The guns had been run in and the portholes closed and, asthe Spaniard approached, the crew--with the exception of five orsix men--were ordered to keep below the bulwarks.
The course that the Spaniard was taking would have brought her justunder the stern of the Antelope when, suddenly, she was seen tochange her course, and to bear up into the wind.
"Too late, my lady," the captain said; "you have blundered on toolong.
"There is something in our cut that she doesn't like. Haul downthat Spanish flag, and run the Union Jack up.
"Open ports, lads, and show them our teeth. Fire that bow gunacross her forefoot!"
The guns were already loaded; and as soon as they were run out ashot was fired, as a message to the Spaniard to heave to. A minutelater, as she paid no attention, a broadside followed. Three of theshots went crashing into the side of the Spaniard, and one of herboats was smashed.
A moment later the Spanish flag fluttered down, and a hearty cheerbroke from the crew of the Antelope. The Spaniard was thrown upinto the wind and, in a few minutes, the brig ranged up alongside,within pistol shot. The gig was lowered; and the captain rowedalongside her, taking Bob with him as interpreter.
The prize proved to be a brig, of about the same tonnage as theAntelope. She was from Cadiz, bound first to Alicante, and then toValencia. She carried only six small guns, and a crew of eighteenmen. Her cargo consisted of grain and olive oil.
"Not a bad prize," Captain Lockett said, as Bob read out the itemsof her bill of lading. "It is a pity that it is not full up,instead of only half laden. Still, it is not a bad beginning; andthe craft herself is of a handy size and, if she won't sell atGibraltar, will pay very well to take on to England. I should sayshe was fast."
An hour later the two brigs parted company, the second mate andtwelve hands being placed on board the Spaniard. There was somediscussion as to the prisoners, but it was finally agreed to leavethem on board their ship.
"Keep them down in the hold, Mr. Crofts. See that you don't leaveany knives with them. Keep a couple of sentries over the hatchway.If the wind holds, you will be in the bay by tomorrow evening. Keeppretty well inshore, and slip in as close to the point as you can.If you do that, you need not have much fear of their gunboats.
"I don't suppose the authorities will want to keep the prisoners,but of course you will report them on your arrival; and can givethem one of the boats, to land across the bay, if they are notwanted. If the governor wants to buy the cargo for the garrison,let him have it, at once. Don't stand out for exorbitant terms, buttake a fair price. It is just as well to be on good terms with theauthorities. We might have to put in to refit, and want spars,etc., from the naval yard. If the governor doesn't want the cargo,don't sell it to anyone else till we return. There is no fear ofprices going down. The longer we keep it, the more we shall get forit."
"Hadn't I better bring the ship's papers on board with us, CaptainLockett?"
"What for, Bob? I don't see that they would be any use to us, andthe bills of lading will be useful for selling the cargo."
"I can copy them, sir, for Mr. Crofts.
"What I thought was this: the brig is just our own size and, if weshould get becalmed anywhere near the shore, and a boat put off, wemight possibly be able to pass, with her papers."
"That is a capital idea, Bob; capital! I will have a bit of canvaspainted 'Alonzo, Cadiz,' in readiness to nail over our stern,should there be any occasion for it.
"Well, goodbye Mr. Crofts, and a safe journey to you. I needn'ttell you to keep a sharp lookout."
"You may trust us for that, sir. We have no desire to rot in one oftheir prisons, till the end of the war."
The captain's gig took him back to the Antelope. The weather sheetsof the fore-staysail were eased off, and the square sails swunground. As they drew, the two brigs got under way, heading inexactly opposite directions.
Before nightfall the captain pronounced that they were now abreastof Alicante and, under easy sail, the vessel's head was turnedtowards the land; and the next morning she was running along theshore, at a distance of three miles. Beyond fishing boats, andsmall craft hugging the land, nothing was met with, until theyneared Cartagena. Then the sound of firing was heard ahead and, onrounding a headland, they saw a vessel of war chasing some five orsix craft, nearer inshore.
"That is a British frigate," the captain exclaimed; "but I don'tthink she will get them. There is Cartagena only three or fourmiles ahead, and the frigate will not be able to cut them off,before they are under the guns of the batteries."
"They are not above a mile ahead of her," the first mate said. "Ifwe could knock away a spar, with our long eighteen, we might getone of them."
"We shouldn't make much prize money, if we did, Joe; for thefrigate would share and, as she has five or six times as many menand officers as we have got, it is not much we should get out ofit.
"Hallo!" he broke out, as a shot came ricochetting along the water,"she is trying a shot at us. I forgot we had the Spanish coloursup.
"Get that flag down, and run up the Union Jack, Joe."
"One moment, captain," Bob said.
"Well, what is it, Bob?"
"Well, it seems to me, sir, that if we keep the Spanish flag up--"
"We may be sunk," the captain broke in.
"We might, sir, but it is very unlikely, especially if we run inmore to the shore; but you see, if we are fired at by the frigate,it will never enter the minds of the Spaniards that we are anythingbut what we seem and, if we like, we can anchor right under theirbatteries, in the middle of their craft. It will be dark by thetime we get in, and we might take our pick of them."
"That is a splendid idea, Bob!
"This boy is getting too sharp for us, altogether, Joe. He is asfull of ideas as a ship's biscuit is of weevils.
"Keep her off, helmsman. That will do."
Again and again the frigate fired, but she was two miles away and,though the shot went skipping over the water near the brig, none ofthem struck her. The men, unable to understand why they wererunning the gauntlet of the frigate's fire, looked inquiringlytowards the poop.
"It is all right, lads," the captain said. "There is not much fearof the frigate hitting us, and it is worth risking it. TheSpaniards on shore will never dream that we are English, and we canbring up in the thick of them."
There was a good deal of laughing and amusement, among the men, asthey understood the captain's motive in allowing the brig to bemade a target of. As she drew in towards shore the frigate's fireceased, and her course was changed off shore.
"No nearer," the captain said to the helmsman. "Keep her a littlefarther off shore.
"There is not much water here, Joe," for a man had been heaving thelead, ever since they had changed their course. "We have not got afathom under her keel. You see, the frigate did not like to comeany closer. She would have cut us off, if there had been deep waterright up."
An hour later the brig dropped anchor off Cartagena, at little morethan a quarter of a mile from one of the batteries that guarded theentrance to the port, and close to two or three of the craft thathad been first chased by the frigate. These, as they were going onin the morning, had not entered the harbour with their consorts;for it was already getting dusk.
"Not much fear of their coming to ask any questions, this evening,"Joe Lockett said. "The Spaniards are not given to troublingthemselves unnecessarily and, as we are outside the port, we are noone's business in particular."
At this moment a hail came from the vessel anchored ahead of them.Bob went to the bulwark. The brig had swung head to wind, and wasbroadside on with the other craft.
"You have
not suffered from the fire of that accursed ship, Ihope?" the captain of the barque shouted.
"No, senor; not a shot struck us."
"You were fortunate. We were hulled twice, and had a man killed bya splinter.
"This is a rough welcome home to us. We have just returned fromLima, and have heard nothing about the war till we anchored offAlicante, yesterday. We heard some firing as we came through theStraits; but thought it was only one of the ships, or forts,practising at a mark. It was lucky we put in at Alicante; or weshould have had no suspicion, and should have let that frigate sailup alongside of us, without trying to escape."
"You were fortunate, indeed," Bob shouted back "We had, ourselves,a narrow escape of being captured by a ship of war, near Malaga.The Alonzo is only from Cadiz, with grain and olive oil."
"Do you think there is any fear of that rascally Englishman tryingto cut us out with his boats, tonight?"
"Not the slightest," Bob replied, confidently. "They would neverventure on that. Those batteries on shore would blow them out ofthe water, and they would know very well they would not have ashadow of chance of taking us out for, even if they captured us,the batteries would send us to the bottom, in no time. Oh, no! youare perfectly safe from the frigate, here."
The Spanish captain raised his hat. Bob did the same, and both leftthe side of their ships.
"Well, what does he say, Bob?" the captain asked.
"I think you are in luck this time, captain, and no mistake."
"How is that, Bob?"
"She is from Lima."
"You don't say so!" the captain and Joe exclaimed, simultaneously."Then she is something like a prize. She has got hides, no doubt;but the chances are she has a lot of lead, too, and maybe somesilver.
"Ah! He is getting one of his boats in the water. I hope he is notcoming off here.
"If he does, Joe, Bob must meet him at the gangway, and take himinto the cabin. As he comes in, you and I will catch him by thethroat, gag, and bind him; and then Bob must go and tell the men toreturn to their ship, that the captain is going to spend theevening with us, and that we will take him back in our boat."
"That would be the best thing that could happen," Joe said, "for inthat way we could get alongside, without suspicion."
"So we could, Joe. I didn't think of that. Yes, I hope he iscoming, now."
They saw, however, the boat row to a large polacre lying next tothe Spaniard, on the other side. It remained there two or threeminutes, and then rowed away towards the mouth of the harbour.
"Going to spend the evening on shore," the captain observed. "I amnot surprised at that. It is likely enough they have been sixmonths on their voyage from Lima. It is unlucky, though; I wish hehad come here.
"Well, Bob, as you have got the best head among us, what scheme doyou suggest for our getting on board that craft?"
"I think we could carry out Joe's idea, though in a different way,"Bob said. "I should say we had better get a boat out; and put, say,twenty men on board. It is getting dark, but they might all liedown in the bottom, except six oarsmen. Then we should pull intowards the mouth of the harbour, just as they have done, and layup somewhere under the rocks for a couple of hours; then row offagain, and make for the barque. Of course, they would think it wasthe captain returning.
"Then ten of the men should spring on board, and they ought to beable to silence any men on deck before they could give the alarm.Directly the ten men got out, the boat would row across to thepolacre; as there is no doubt her captain went ashore with theother. They would take her in the same way."
"You ought to be made Lord High Admiral of the Fleet, Bob! Thatwill succeed, if anything will; only we must be sure to put offagain before the Spaniards do.
"Well, Joe, you had better take charge of this expedition. You see,however quietly it is done, there is almost sure to be someshouting; and they will take the alarm at the batteries and, whenthey make out three of us suddenly getting up sail, they will bepretty certain that something is wrong, and will open fire on us.That, of course, we must risk; but the thing to be really afraid ofis their gunboats. They are sure to have a couple of them in theport. They may be some little time in getting out, but they willcome out."
The wind has died away, now, but the land breeze is just springingup; but we shall hardly get off before the gunboats can come to us.They row a lot of oars, you know. You must clap on all sail, on theprizes; and I shall hang behind a bit, and tackle the gunboats. Youwill see what guns there are on board the prizes; and may, perhaps,be able to lend me a hand; but that you will see. Of course youwill take Bob with you, to answer the hails from the two Spaniards.
"Be careful when you bring up ashore. Let the men row very gently,after they once get away, so as not to attract any attention. Letthem take cutlasses, but no pistols. If a shot were fired thebatteries would be sure, at once, there was some mischief going on.A little shouting won't matter so much; it might be merely aquarrel. Of course, the instant you are on board you will cut thecables, and get up sail.
"You will remain on board the barque, Joe. Bob will have command ofthe party that attack the polacre. You had better take the jollyboat, and pick out twenty active fellows. Tell them to leave theirshoes behind them; the less trampling and noise there is, thebetter. Tell them not to use their cutlasses, unless driven to it.There are not likely to be above four or five men on deck. Theyought to be able to knock them down, and bind them, almost beforethey know what has happened."
In a few minutes the boat was lowered, and manned, and rowed awayfor the shore. As soon as they got well past the ships, the menwere ordered to row as quietly and noiselessly as possible. Joe hadbrought with him six strips of canvas; and handed these to the men,and told them to wrap them round the oars, so as to muffle them inthe rowlocks.
This was done, and the boat glided along silently. Keeping in themiddle of the channel, they passed through the passage between theshore and the rocky island that protects the harbour; and then,sweeping round, stole up behind the latter and lay to, close to therocks.
"So far, so good," Joe said, in a low voice. "I don't think thesharpest eyes could have seen us. Now the question is, how long towait here. The longer we wait, the more of the Spaniards will haveturned into their bunks but, upon the other hand, there is nosaying how long the captains will remain on shore.
"There is a heavy dew falling, and that will help to send thesailors below. I should think an hour would be about the righttime. The Dons are not likely to be off again, before that. It issome distance up the harbour to the landing place, and they wouldhardly have taken the trouble to go ashore, unless they meant tostay a couple of hours.
"What time is it now, Bob?"
Bob opened his watch case, and felt the hands.
"It is just a quarter past nine."
"Well, we will move at ten," Joe said.
The three-quarters of an hour passed very slowly, and Bob consultedhis watch several times, before the minute hand got to twelve.
"Ten o'clock," he said, at last.
The oars had not been got in, so the boat glided off again,noiselessly, out through the entrance. There were lights burning atthe sterns of the two Spanish ships, as a guide to the boat comingoff and, when the boat had traversed half the distance, Joe orderedthe oars to be unmuffled, and they rowed straight for the barque.There was no hail at their approach, but a man appeared at the topof the ladder.
As the boat came alongside, ten of the men rose noiselessly fromthe bottom of the boat, and followed the first mate up the ladder.As he reached the top, Joe sprang on the Spanish sailor, and seizedhim by the throat. The two sailors following thrust a gag into theman's mouth, bound his arms, and laid him down.
This was effected without the slightest noise. The other sailorshad, by this time, clambered up from the boat and scattered overthe deck. A group of seven or eight Spaniards were seated on thedeck, forward; smoking by the light of a lantern, which hung abovethe fo'castle. They did not notice the approach of the sa
ilors,with their naked feet; and the latter sprang upon them, threw themdown, bound, and gagged them, without a sound--save a few shortexclamations of surprise being uttered.
Illustration: They found the two Spanish mates playing at cards.
Three or four of the sailors now coiled a rope against thefo'castle door, to prevent its being opened. In the meantime Joe,with two men, entered the cabin aft, where they found the twoSpanish mates playing at cards. The sudden apparition of three men,with drawn cutlasses, took them so completely by surprise that theywere captured without any attempt at resistance; and were, like therest, bound and gagged.
"You take the helm, Halkett," Joe said, and then hurried forward.
"Have you got them all?" he asked, as he reached the fo'castle.
"Every man Jack," one of the sailors said.
"Is there nobody on watch in the bows?"
"No, sir, not a man."
"Very well. Now then, to work.
"Cut the cable, Thompson.
"The rest of you, let fall the sails."
As these had only been loosely furled, when the vessel came toanchor, this was done in a very short time; and the vessel began tomove through the water before the light breeze, which was dead aft.
The capture of the polacre had not been effected so silently. Bobhad allowed the boatswain, who accompanied him, to mount the ladderfirst; but the man at the top of the gangway had a lantern and, asits light fell upon the sailor's face, he uttered an exclamation ofsurprise; which called the attention of those on deck and, as thesailors swarmed up the ladder, shouts of alarm were raised. But theSpaniards could not withstand the rush of the English, who beatthem to the deck before they had time to seize their arms.
The noise, however, alarmed the watch below; who were just pouringup from the hatchway when they were attacked by the sailors withdrawn cutlasses, and were speedily beaten below, and the hatchessecured over them. Bob had posted himself, with two of the men, atthe cabin door; and as the officers rushed out, on hearing thenoise, they were knocked down and secured. As soon as this waseffected, Bob looked round over the side.
"Hurrah!" he said, "the barque is under way already. Get the sailson her, lads, and cut the cable."
While this was being done Bob mounted the poop, placed one of thesailors at the helm, and then turned his eyes towards the battery,astern. He heard shouts, and had no doubt that the sound of thescuffle had been heard. Then lights appeared in several of thecasements and, just as the sails were sheeted home, and the polacrebegan to move through the water, a rocket whizzed up from thebattery, and burst overhead. By its light Bob saw the Antelope andthe Spanish barque, two or three hundred yards ahead; with theircrews getting up all sail, rapidly.
A minute later, twelve heavy guns flashed out astern, one afteranother. They were pointed too high, and the shot flew overhead,one or two passing through the sails. The boatswain's voice washeard, shouting:
"Never mind the shot, lads! Look alive! Now then, up with thosetopgallant sails! The quicker you get them up, the quicker we shallbe out of range!"
Another battery, higher up, now opened fire; but the shot did notcome near them. Then rocket after rocket was sent up, and thebattery astern again fired. One of the shot cut away themain-topsail yard; another struck the deck abreast of the foremast,and then tore through the bulwarks; but the polacre was now makinggood way. They felt the wind more, as they got farther from theshore; and had decreased their distance from the craft ahead.
The boatswain now joined Bob upon the poop.
"We have got everything set that will draw, now," he said. "She iswalking along well. Another ten minutes and we shall be safe, ifthey don't knock away a spar.
"She is a fast craft, Mr. Repton. She is overhauling the other two,hand over hand."
"We had better bear away a bit, boatswain. The captain said we wereto scatter as much as we could, so as to divide their fire."
"All right, sir!" and the boatswain gave the orders to thehelmsman, and slightly altered the trim of the sails.
"I suppose we can do nothing with that broken yard, boatswain?"
"No, sir; and it don't matter much, going pretty nearly before thewind, as we are. The sails on the foremast draw all the better, soit don't make much difference.
"Look out, below!" he shouted, as there was a crash above; and themizzenmast was cut in sunder, by a shot that struck it just abovethe topsail blocks; and the upper part came toppling down, strikingthe bulwark and falling overboard.
"Lay aft, lads, and out knives!" the boatswain shouted. "Cut awaythe wreck!
"It is lucky it wasn't two feet lower," he said to Bob, "or itwould have brought the topsail down; and that would have been aserious loss, now the main-topsail is of no use."
He sprang to assist the men, when a round shot struck him, andalmost carried off his head. Bob caught at the knife that fell fromhis hand, and set to work with the men.
"That is it, lads, cut away!" he shouted. "We sha'n't have manymore of them on board. We are a good mile away, now."
Just as the work of getting rid of the wreck was accomplished, oneof the men said, as a rocket burst overhead:
"There are two of their gunboats coming out of the harbour, sir."
"We had better close with the others, then," Bob said. "The brigwill engage them, when they come up. We shall be well beyond reachof the batteries, before they do.
"Now, lads, see what guns she carries. Break open the magazine, andget powder and ball up. We must lend the captain a hand, if wecan."
The polacre mounted eight guns, all 14 pounders; and in a fewminutes these were loaded. The batteries continued to fire; buttheir shooting was no longer accurate and, in another ten minutes,ceased altogether. The craft had now closed to within hailingdistance of the brig.
"Hallo, the polacre!" Captain Lockett shouted. "What damages?"
"The boatswain is killed, sir," Bob shouted back, "and we have losttwo spars but, in spite of that, I think we are sailing as fast asyou."
"What guns have you got?"
"Eight fourteen-pounders, sir. We are loaded and ready."
"Keep a little ahead of me," the captain shouted. "I am going toshorten sail a bit. We have got to fight those gunboats."
As he spoke, a heavy gun boomed out from the bow of one of thegunboats, and the shot went skipping between the two vessels.Directly after, the other gunboat fired, and the shot struck thequarter of the brig. Then there was a creaking of blocks as thesheets were hauled upon and, as the yards swung round, she came upinto the wind, and a broadside was fired at the two gunboats. Thenthe helm was put down, and she payed off before the wind again.
The gunboats ceased rowing, for a minute. The discharge hadstaggered them, for they had not given the brig credit for carryingsuch heavy metal.
Then they began to row again. The swivel gun of the brig kept up asteady fire on them. Two of the guns of the polacre had been, bythis time, shifted to the stern; and these opened fire, while thefirst mate's crew on board the barque were also at work. Afortunate shot smashed many of the oars of one of the gunboats and,while she stopped rowing in disorder, the brig was again rounded toand opened a steady fire, with her broadside guns, upon them.
As the gunboats were now little more than a quarter of a mile away,the effect of the brig's fire, aided by that of the two prizes, wasvery severe and, in a short time, the Spaniards put round and rowedtowards the shore; while a hearty cheer broke from the brig, andher prizes.
There had been no more casualties on board the polacre, the fire ofthe gunboats having been directed entirely upon the brig; as theSpaniards knew that, if they could but destroy or capture her, theywould be able to recover the prizes. The polacre was soon broughtclose alongside of the brig.
"Have you suffered much, Captain Lockett?"
"I am sorry to say we have had six men killed, and five wounded. Wehave got a dozen shot in our stern. They were evidently trying todamage the rudder but, beyond knocking the cabin fittings topieces, there is
no more harm done than the carpenter can repair,in a few hours' work.
"You have not been hit again, have you?"
"No, sir; none of their shots came near."
"Well, examine the papers, and have a talk with the officers youmade prisoners, and then come on board to report. I shall want youto go on board the barque with me, and see what she is laden with."
Bob went below. The two Spanish mates were unbound.
"I am sorry, senors," Bob said, "that we were obliged to treat yourather roughly; but you see, we were in a hurry, and there was notime for explanations. I shall be obliged if you will show me whichis the captain's cabin, and hand me over the ship's papers andmanifesto. What is her name?"
"The Braganza."
"Where are you from? And what do you carry?"
"We are from Cadiz, and are laden principally with wine. We werebound for Barcelona.
"You took us in nicely, senor. Who could have dreamt that you wereEnglish, when that frigate chased you under the guns of thebattery?"
"She thought we were Spanish, as you did," Bob said.
By this time the other Spaniard had brought the papers out of thecaptain's cabin. Bob ran his eye down over the bill of lading, andwas well satisfied with the result. She contained a very largeconsignment of wine.
"I am going on board the brig," he said, as he put the paperstogether. "I must ask you to give me your parole not to leave thecabin, until I return. I do not know whether my captain wishes youto remain here, or will transfer you to his own craft."
"Well, Master Bob, what is your prize?" the captain asked.
"It is a valuable one, sir. The polacre herself is, as I see by herpapers, only two years old, and seems a fine craft. She is ladenwith wine, from Cadiz, to Barcelona."
"Capital, Bob; we are in luck, indeed! How many prisoners have yougot?"
"The crew is put down at eighteen, sir; and there are the twomates."
"You had better send them on board here, presently. Where are theynow?"
"They are in the cabin, captain. They gave me their promise not toleave it, till I return; but I put a man on sentry, outside, so asto make sure of them."
"Well, perhaps you had better go back again now; and we will shapeour course for Gibraltar, at once. All this firing would haveattracted the attention of any Spanish war vessel there might beabout. We must leave the barque's manifesto till the morning.
"As you have lost the boatswain, I will send one of my best handsback with you, to act as your first mate. He must get that topsailyard of yours repaired, at once. It does not matter about themizzenmast, but the yard is of importance. We may meet with Spanishcruisers, outside the Rock, and may have to show our heels."
"Yes, I shall be glad of a good man, captain. You see, I knownothing about it, and don't like giving any orders. It was all verywell getting on board, and knocking down the crew; but when itcomes to sailing her, it is perfectly ridiculous my giving orders,when the men know that I don't know anything about it."
"The men know you have plenty of pluck, Bob; and they know that itwas entirely due to your swimming off to that Spanish ship that weescaped being captured, before; and they will obey you willingly,as far as you can give them orders. Still, of course, you do wantsomebody with you, to give orders as to the setting and taking inof the sails."
As soon as the last gun had been fired, the three vessels had beenlaid head to wind but, when Bob's boat reached the side of thepolacre, they were again put on their course and headed southwest,keeping within a short distance of each other.
Bob's new first mate, an old sailor named Brown, at once set thecrew to work to get up a fresh spar, in place of the broken yard.The men all worked with a will. They were in high spirits at thecaptures they had made; and the news which Brown gave them, thatthe polacre was laden with wine, assured to each of them asubstantial sum in prize money.
Before morning the yard was in its place and the sail set and,except for the shortened mizzen, and a ragged hole through thebulwark, forward, the polacre showed no signs of the engagement ofthe evening before. Two or three men were slung over the stern ofthe brig; plugs had been driven through the shot holes and, overthese, patches of canvas were nailed, and painted black.
Nothing, however, could be done with the sails, which werecompletely riddled with holes. The crew were set to work to shiftsome of the worst; cutting them away from the yards, and getting upspare sails from below. Bob had put a man on the lookout, to givehim notice if any signal was made to him from the brig; which was aquarter of a mile ahead of him, the polacre's topgallant sailshaving been lowered after the main-topsail had been hoisted, as itwas found that, with all sail set, she sailed considerably fasterthan the brig.
Presently the man came aft, and reported that the captain waswaving his hat from the taffrail.
"We had better get up the main-topgallant sail, Brown, and run upto her," Bob said.
The sail was soon hoisted and, in a quarter of an hour, they werealongside the brig.
"That craft sails like a witch," Captain Lockett said, as they cameabreast of him.
"Yes, sir, she seems very fast."
"It is a pity she is rigged as she is," the captain said. "It is anoutlandish fashion. If she were barque rigged, I should be temptedto shift on board her.
"We will leave the barque alone, at present, Mr. Repton. Ourcuriosity must keep a bit. I don't want to lose any of this breeze.We will keep right on, as long as it lasts. If it drops, we willoverhaul her."
The barque was the slowest craft of the three, and Joe Lockett hadevery stitch of canvas set, to enable him to keep up with theothers. At noon, a large craft was seen, coming off from the land.Bob examined her with the telescope, and then handed the glass toBrown.
"She is a frigate," the sailor said. "It's the same that blazedaway at us, yesterday. It's the Brilliant, I think."
"You are sure she is the same that chased us, yesterday?"
"Quite sure."
Captain Lockett was evidently of the same opinion, as no change wasmade in the course he was steering.
"We may as well speak the captain again," Bob said, and the polacreclosed again with the brig.
"Brown says that is the same frigate that fired at us, yesterday,Captain Lockett," Bob said, when they were within hailing distance.
"Yes, there is no doubt about that. I don't want to lose time, or Iwould stand out and try our speed with her."
"Why, sir?"
"Because I am afraid she will want to take some of our hands. Thosefrigates are always short of hands. Still, she may not, as we havegot twelve men already away in a prize, and ten in each of thesecraft."
"I don't think you need be uneasy, sir. I know the captain of theBrilliant, and all the officers. If you like, I will keep thepolacre on that side, so that they will come up to us first; andwill go on board, and speak to the captain. I don't think, then, hewould interfere with us."
"Very well, Mr. Repton; we will arrange it so."
The polacre had now taken its place to leeward of the other twovessels, and they held on in that order until the frigate waswithin half a mile; when she fired a gun across their bows, assignal for them to heave to. The brig was now flying the Britishcolours; her prizes the British colours, with the Spanishunderneath them. At the order to heave to, they were all thrown upinto the wind.
The frigate reduced her sail as she came up and, as she neared thepolacre, the order was shouted:
"Send a boat alongside!"
The boat was already prepared for lowering. Four seamen got intoher, and rowed Bob alongside the frigate. The first person heencountered, as he stepped on to the deck, was Jim Sankey; whostared at him in astonishment.
"Hullo, Bob! What in the world are you doing here?"
"I am in command of that polacre, Mr. Sankey," Bob replied.
"Eh--what?" Jim stammered, in astonishment; when the captain'svoice from the quarterdeck came sharply down:
"Now, Mr. Sankey, what are you waiting for? Bring t
hat gentlemanhere."
Jim led the way up to the poop.
Bob saluted.
"Good morning, Captain Langton."
"Why, it's Repton!" the captain exclaimed, in surprise. "Why, wheredo you spring from, and what craft are these?"
"I am in command, at present, sir, of the polacre; which, with thebarque, is a prize of the brig the Antelope, privateer."
"But what are you doing on board, Repton? And how is it that youare in command?"
"Well, sir, I was out on a cruise in the Antelope. The second matewas sent, with a prize crew, back to Gibraltar, in a craft wepicked up off Malaga. We cut out the other two prizes from underthe guns of Cartagena. The first mate was in command of the partythat captured the barque and, as there was no one else to send, thecaptain put me in command of the party that captured the polacre."
"But how on earth did you manage it?" the captain asked. "I see thebrig has been cut up a good deal, about the sails and rigging. Youdon't mean to say that she sailed right into Cartagena? Why, theywould have blown her out of the water!"
"We didn't go in, sir. We anchored outside the port. We were notsuspected, because one of His Majesty's frigates fired at us, as wewere going in; and the consequence was the Dons never suspectedthat we were anything but a Spanish trader."
"Why, you don't mean to say," the captain exclaimed, "that this wasthe brig, flying Spanish colours, which we chased in under the gunsof Cartagena, yesterday?"
"It is, sir," Bob said, smiling. "You did us a very good turn,although your intentions were not friendly. We were under Spanishcolours, when you made us out; and it struck us that running thegauntlet of your fire, for a little while, would be an excellentintroduction for us to the Spaniards.
"So it proved. We brought up close to those other two vessels, andI had a talk with the captain of one of them. The two captains bothwent ashore, after dark; so we put twenty men into a boat, androwed in to the mouth of the port; waited there for a bit, and thenrowed straight out to the ships. They thought, of course, it wastheir own officers returning; so we took them by surprise, andcaptured them pretty easily.
"Unfortunately there was some noise made, and they took the alarmon shore. However, we were under way before the batteries opened.It was rather unpleasant, for a bit, but we got safely out. Twogunboats came out after us; but the brig beat them off, and wehelped as well as we could. The brig had five men killed, we hadone, and there are several wounded."
"Well, it was a very dashing affair," the captain said; "verycreditable, indeed. I hope you will get a share of the prizemoney."
"I only count as a hand," Bob said, laughing; "and I am sure thatis as much as I deserve.
"But here comes the captain, sir. He will tell you more about it."
Captain Lockett now came on board; and Bob, seeing that he was notfarther required, went off with Jim down to the cockpit. Thecaptain had a long talk with Captain Lockett. When the latter hadrelated, in full, the circumstances of his capture of his twoprizes, he said:
"There is a Spanish ship of war, sir, somewhere off Alicante, atpresent. She is got up as a merchantman, and took us in thoroughly;and we should probably have been caught, if it had not been for Mr.Repton," and he then related how Bob had swum on board, anddiscovered the supposed merchantman to be a ship of war.
"Thank you, Captain Lockett. I will go in and have a look afterher. It is fortunate that you told me for, if I had seen her lyingat anchor, under the land, I might have sent some boats in to cuther out; and might, as you nearly did, have caught a tartar.
"He is an uncommonly sharp young fellow, that Repton. I offered hima midshipman's berth here, when I first came out, but he refusedit. By what you say, he must be a good officer lost to theservice."
"He would have made a good officer, sir; he has his wits about himso thoroughly. It was his doing, our keeping the Spanish flagflying when you came upon us. I had ordered the colours to be rundown, when he suggested our keeping them up, and running boldly into Cartagena."
"I suppose you can't spare us a few hands, Captain Lockett?"
"Well, sir, I shall be very short, as it is. You see, I have ascore away in a prize, I have had six killed, and some of thewounded won't be fit for work, for some time; and I mean to takethese two prizes back with me, to England. They are both valuable,and I should not get anything like a fair price for them, atGibraltar. I don't want to run the risk of their being picked up byprivateers, on the way back, so I shall convoy them; and Icertainly sha'n't have a man too many to fight my guns, when I haveput crews on board them."
"No, I suppose not," the captain said. "Well, I must do withoutthem, then.
"Now, as I suppose you want to be on your way, I will not detainyou any longer."
Bob was sent for.
"Captain Lockett has been telling me that you were the means ofpreventing his getting into a nasty scrape, with that Spanishman-of-war, Mr. Repton. I consider there is great credit due toyou. It is a pity you didn't come on to my quarterdeck."
"I should not have got the chances then, sir," Bob said.
"Well, no, I don't know that you would, lad; there is something inthat.
"Well, goodbye. I shall write and tell the admiral all about it. Iknow he will be glad to hear of your doings."
A few minutes later, the privateer and her prizes were on their waytowards Gibraltar; while the frigate was standing inshore again, tosearch for the Spanish ship of war.