CHAPTER THE NINTH
*In which the *_*Good Intent*_* makes a running fight; and Mr. Toleymakes a suggestion.*
Making good sailing, the _Good Intent_ reached Saldanhas Bay, where sheput in for a few necessary repairs, then safely rounded the Cape, andafter a short stay at Johanna, one of the Comoro Islands, taking infresh provisions there, set sail for the Malabar coast. The wind blewsteadily from the south-west, and she ran merrily before it.
During this part of the voyage Desmond found his position somewhatimproved. His pluck had won the rough admiration of the men; CaptainBarker was not so constantly chevying him; and Mr. Toley showed a moreactive interest in him, teaching him the use of the sextant andquadrant, how to take the altitude of the sun, and many other mattersimportant in navigation.
It was the third week of April, and the monsoon having begun, CaptainBarker expected before long to sight the Indian coast. One morning,about two bells, the look-out reported a small vessel on the larboardbow, labouring heavily. The captain took a long look at it through hisperspective glass, anc made out that it was a two-masted grab; themainmast was gone.
"Odds bobs," he said to Mr. Toley, "'tis strange to meet a grab so farout at sea. We'll run down to it."
"What is a grab?" asked Desmond of Bulger, when the news had circulatedthrough the ship's company.
"Why, that's a grab, sure enough. I en't a good hand at pictur'paintin'; we're runnin' square for the critter, and then you'll see foryourself. This I'll say, that you don't see 'em anywheres in particklerbut off the Malabar coast."
Desmond was soon able to take stock of the vessel. It was broad inproportion to its length, narrowing from the middle to the end, andhaving a projecting prow like the old-fashioned galleys of which he hadseen pictures. The prow was covered with a deck, level with the maindeck of the vessel, but with a bulkhead between this and the forecastle.
"En't she pitchin'!" remarked Bulger, standing by Desmond's side. "Youcouldn't expect nothing else of a craft built that shape. Look at thewater pourin' off her; why, I may be wrong, but I'll lay my bestbreeches she's a-founderin'."
As usual, Bulger was right. When the grab was overhauled, the men onboard, dark-skinned Marathas with very scanty clothing, made signs thatthey were in distress.
"Throw her into the wind," shouted the captain.
Mr. Toley at the wheel put the helm down, the longboat was lowered, andwith some difficulty, owing to the heavy sea, the thirty men on the grabwere taken off. As they came aboard the _Good Intent_, Diggle, who wasleaning over the bulwarks, suddenly straightened himself, smiled, andmoved towards the taffrail. One of the newcomers, a fine muscularfellow, seeing Diggle approaching, stood for a moment in surprise, thensalaamed. The Englishman said something in the stranger's tongue, andgrasped his hand with the familiarity of old friendship.
"You know the man, Mr. Diggle?" said the captain.
"Yes, truly. The Gentoos and I are in a sense comrades in arms. Hisname is Hybati; he's a Maratha."
"What's he jabbering about?"
The man was talking rapidly and earnestly.
"He says, captain," returned Diggle with a smile, "that he hopes youwill send and fetch the crew's rice on board. They won't eat ourfood--afraid of losing caste."
"I'll be hanged if I launch the long-boat again. The grab won't liveanother five minutes in this sea, and I wouldn't risk two of my crewagainst a hundred of these dirty Moors."
"They'll starve otherwise, captain."
"Well, let 'em starve. I won't have any nonsense aboard my ship.Beggars mustn't be choosers, and if the heathen can't eat good honestEnglish vittles they don't deserve to eat at all."
Diggle smiled and explained to Hybati that his provisions must be leftto their fate. Even as he spoke a heavy sea struck the vessel athwart,and amid cries from the Marathas she heeled over and sank.
When the strangers had dried themselves, Diggle inquired of Hybati howhe came to be in his present predicament. The Maratha explained that hehad been in command of Angria's fortress of Suvarndrug, which was sostrong that he had believed it able to withstand all attacks. But oneday a number of vessels of the East India Company's fleet had appearedbetween the mainland and the island on which the fortress was situated,and had begun a bombardment which soon reduced the parapets to ruins.The chief damage had been done by an English ship. Hybati and his menhad made the best defence they could, but the gunners were shot down bymusket fire from the round-tops of the enemy, and when a shell set fireto a thatched house within the fort, the garrison were too much alarmedto attempt to extinguish the flames; the blaze spread, a powder magazineblew up, and the inhabitants, with the greater part of the soldiers,fled to the shore, and tried to make their escape in eight large boats.Hybati had kept up the fight for some time longer, hoping to receivesuccour; but under cover of the fire of the ships the English commodorelanded half his seamen, who rushed up to the gate, and, cutting down thesally-port with their axes, forced their way in.
Seeing that the game was up, Hybati fled with thirty of his men, and waslucky in pushing off in the grab unobserved by the enemy. The winds,however, proving contrary, the vessel had been blown northward along thecoast and then driven far out to sea. With the breaking of the monsoona violent squall had dismasted the grab and shattered her bulkhead; shewas continually shipping water, and, as the sahib saw, was at the pointof sinking when the English ship came up.
Such was the Maratha's story, as by and by it became common property onboard the _Good Intent_. Of all the crew Desmond was perhaps the mostinterested. To the others there was nothing novel in the sight of theIndians; but to him they stood for romance, the embodiment of all thetales he had heard and all the dreams he had dreamed of this wonderfulcountry in the East. He was now assured that he was actually withinreach of his desired haven; and he hoped shortly to see an end of thedisappointments and hardships, the toils and distresses, of the longvoyage.
He was eager to learn more of these Marathas, and their fortress, andthe circumstances of the recent fight. Bulger was willing to tell allhe knew; but his information was not very exact, and Desmond did nothear the full story till long after.
The Malabar coast had long been the haunt of Maratha pirates, whointerfered greatly with the native trade between India and Arabia andPersia. In defence of the interests of his Mohammedan subjects theMogul emperor at length, in the early part of the eighteenth century,fitted out a fleet, under the command of an admiral known as the Sidi.But there happened to be among the Marathas at that time a warrior ofgreat daring and resource, one Kunaji Angria. This man first defeatedthe Sidi, then, in the insolence of victory, revolted against his ownsovereign, and set up as an independent ruler. By means of awell-equipped fleet of grabs and gallivats he made himself master ofplace after place along the coast, including the Maratha fortress atSuvarndrug and the Portuguese fort of Gheria. His successors, whoadopted in turn the dynastic name of Angria, followed up Kunaji'sconquest, until by the year 1750 the ruling Angria was in possession ofa strip of territory on the mainland a hundred and eighty miles long andabout forty broad, together with many small adjacent islands.
For the defence of this little piratical state Angria's Marathasconstructed a number of forts, choosing admirable positions anddisplaying no small measure of engineering skill. From thesestrongholds they made depredations by sea and land, not only upon theirnative neighbours, but also upon the European traders, English, Dutch,and Portuguese; swooping down on unprotected merchant vessels and evenpresuming to attack warships. Several expeditions had been directedagainst them, but always in vain; and when in 1754 the chief of thatdate, Tulaji Angria, known to Europeans as the Pirate, burnt two largeDutch vessels of fifty and thirty-six guns respectively, and captured asmaller one of eighteen guns, he boasted in his elation that he wouldsoon be master of the Indian seas.
But a term was about to be put to his insolence and his depredations.On March 22, 1755, Commodore William J
ames, commander of the East IndiaCompany's marine force, set sail from Bombay in the _Protector_ offorty-four guns, with the _Swallow_ of sixteen guns, and two bombvessels. With the assistance of a Maratha fleet he had attacked theisland fortress of Suvarndrug, and captured it, as Hybati had related.A few days afterwards another of the Pirate's fortresses, the island ofBancoote, six miles north of Suvarndrug, surrendered. The Maratharajah, Ramaji Punt, delighted with these successes against fortifiedplaces which had for nearly fifty years been deemed impregnable, offeredthe English commodore an immense sum of money to proceed against othersof Angria's forts; but the monsoon approaching, the commodore wasrecalled to Bombay.
The spot at which the _Good Intent_ had fallen in with the sinking grabwas about eighty miles from the Indian coast, and Captain Barkerexpected to sight land next day. No one was more delighted at theprospect than Desmond. Leaving out of account the miseries of the longvoyage, he felt that he was now within reach of the goal of his hopes.The future was all uncertain; he was no longer inclined to trust hisfortunes to Diggle, for though he could not believe that the man haddeliberately practised against his life, he had with good reason lostconfidence in him, and what he had learnt from Bulger threw a new lighton his past career.
One thing puzzled him. If the Pirate was such a terror to unprotectedships, and strong enough to attack several armed vessels at once, whywas Captain Barker running into the very jaws of the enemy? In herpalmy days as an East Indiaman the _Good Intent_ had carried a dozennine pounders on her upper deck and six on the quarter-deck; and Bulgerhad said that under a stout captain she had once beaten off near Surathalf a dozen three-masted grabs and a score of gallivats from the piratestronghold at Gheria. But now she had only half a dozen guns all told,and even had she possessed the full armament there were not men enoughto work them, for her complement of forty men was only half what it hadbeen when she sailed under the Company's flag.
Desmond confided his puzzlement to Bulger. The seaman laughed.
"Why, bless 'ee, we en't a-goin' to run into no danger. Trust Cap'nBarker for that. You en't supercargo, to be sure; but who do you thinkthem guns and round shots in the hold be for? Why, the Pirate himself.And he'll pay a good price for 'em too."
"Do you mean to say that English merchants supply Angria with weapons tofight against their own countrymen?"
"Well, blest if you en't a' innocent. In course they do. The guns en'talways fust-class metal, to be sure; but what's the odds? Theinterlopers ha' got to live."
"I don't call that right. It's not patriotic."
"Patry what?"
"Patriotic--a right way of thinking of one's own country. An Englishmanisn't worth the name who helps England's enemies."
Bulger looked at him in amazement. The idea of patriotism was evidentlynew to him.
"I'll have to put that there notion in my pipe and smoke it," he said."I'd fight any mounseer, or Dutchman, or Portuguee as soon as look athim, 'tis on'y natural; but if a mounseer likes to give me twopence fora thing what's worth a penny--why, I'll say thank 'ee and axhim--leastways if there's any matey by as knows the lingo--to buyanother."
Shortly after dawn next morning the look-out reported four vessels towindward. From their appearance Captain Barker at once concluded thattwo were Company's ships, with an escort of a couple of grabs. As hewas still scanning them he was joined by Diggle, with whom he enteredinto conversation.
"They're making for Bombay, I reckon," said the captain.
"I take it we don't wish to come to close quarters with them, Barker?"
"By thunder, no! But if we hold our present course we're bound to passwithin hailing distance. Better put 'em off the scent."
He altered the vessel's course a point or two with the object of passingto windward of the strangers, as if steering for the Portuguese port ofGoa.
"They're running up their colours," remarked Diggle half an hour later.
"British, as I thought. We'll hoist Portuguese."
A minute or two later a puff of smoke was observed to sally from thelarger of the two grabs, followed in a few seconds by the boom of thegun.
"A call to us to heave-to," said Bulger in answer to Desmond's inquiry."The unbelievin' critters thinks that Portuguee rag is all my eye."
But the _Good Intent_ was by this time to windward of the vessels, andCaptain Barker, standing on the quarter-deck, paid no heed to thesignal. After a short interval another puff came from the deck of thegrab, and a round shot plunged into the sea a cable's length from the_Good Intent's_ bows, the grab at the same time hauling her wind andpreparing to alter her course in pursuit. This movement was at oncecopied by the other three vessels, but being at least half a mile aheadof the grab that had fired, they were a long distance astern when thechase--for chase it was to be--began.
Captain Barker watched the grab with the eyes of a lynx. The _GoodIntent_ had run out of range while the grab was being put about; but thecaptain knew very well that the pursuer could sail much closer to thewind than his own vessel, and that his only chance was to beat off theleading boat before the others had time to come up.
It required very little at any time to put Captain Barker into a rage,and his demeanour was watched now with different feelings by differentmembers of his crew. Diggle alone appeared unconcerned; he was smilingas he lolled against the mast.
"They'll fire at me, will they?" growled the captain with a curse. "Andchase me, will they? By jiminy, they shall sink me before I surrender!"
"'Degeneres animos timor arguit,'" quoted Diggle, smiling.
"Argue it? I'll be hanged if I argue it! They're not King's ships totake it on 'emselves to stop me on the high seas! If the Company wantsto prevent me from honest trading in these waters let 'em go to law, andbe hanged to 'em! Talk of arguing! Lawyer's work. Humph!"
"You mistake, Barker. The Roman fellow whose words slipped out of mymouth almost unawares said nothing of arguing. 'Fear is the mark onlyof base minds:' so it runs in English, captain; which is as much as tosay that Captain Ben Barker is not the man to haul down his colours in ahurry."
"You're right there. Another shot! That's their argument: well, BenBarker can talk that way as well as another."
He called up the boatswain. Shortly afterwards the order was piped, "Upall hammocks!" The men quickly stowed their bedding, secured it withlashings, and carried it to the appointed places on the quarter-deck,poop, or forecastle. Meanwhile the boatswain and his mates secured theyards; the ship's carpenter brought up shot plugs for repairing anybreaches made under the water-line; and the gunners looked to the cannonand prepared charges for them and the small arms.
Bulger was in charge of the 12-pounder aft, and Mr. Toley had told offDesmond to assist him. They stood side by side watching the progress ofthe grab, which gained steadily in spite of the plunging due to itscurious build. Presently another shot came from her; it shattered thebelfry on the forecastle of the _Good Intent_, and splashed into the seaa hundred yards ahead.
"They make good practice, for sartin," remarked Bulger. "I may bewrong, but I'll lay my life there be old man-o'-war's men aboard. Imind me when I was with Captain Golightly on the _Minotaur_----"
But Bulger's yarn was intercepted. At that moment the boatswain piped,"All hands to quarters!" In a surprisingly short time all timber wascleared away, the galley fire was extinguished, the yards slung, thedeck strewn with wet sand, and sails, booms, and boats liberallydrenched with water. The gun-captains, each with his crew, cast loosethe lashings of their weapons and struck open the ports. The tompionswere taken out, the sponge, rammer, crows and handspikes placed inreadiness, and all awaited eagerly the word for the action to begin.
"'Tis about time we opened our mouths at 'em," said Bulger. "The nextbolus they send us as like as not will bring the spars a-rattlin' aboutour ears. To be sure it goes against my stummick to fire on oldmessmates; but it en't in Englishmen to hold their noses and swallerpills o' that there size. We'll load up all r
eady, mateys."
He stripped to the waist, and tied a handkerchief over his ears.Desmond and the men followed his example. Then one of them sponged thebore, another inserted the cartridge, containing three pounds of powder,by means of a long ladle, a third shoved in a wad of rope yarn. Thishaving been driven home by the rammer, the round shot was inserted, andcovered like the cartridge with a wad. Then Bulger took hispriming-iron, an instrument like a long thin corkscrew, and thrust itinto the touch-hole to clear the vent and make an incision in thecartridge. Removing the priming-iron, he replaced it by thepriming-tube--a thin tapering tube with very narrow bore. Into this hepoured a quantity of fine mealed powder; then he laid a train of thesame powder in the little groove cut in the gun from the touch-holetowards the breech. With the end of his powder-horn he slightly bruisedthe train, and the gun only awaited a spark from the match.
Everything was done very quickly, and Desmond watched the seamen withadmiration. He himself had charge of the linstock, about which werewound several matches, consisting of lengths of twisted cotton wicksteeped in lye. They had already been lighted, for they burnt so slowlythat they would last for several hours.
"Now we're ship-shape," said Bulger. "Mind you, Burke, don't come toofar for'ard with your linstock. I don't want the train fired with nosparks afore I'm ready. And 'ware o' the breech; she'll kick like ajumpin' jackass when the shot flies out of her, an'll knock your teethout afore you can say Jack Robinson.--Ah! there's the word at last; now,mateys, here goes!"
He laid the gun, waited for the ship to rise from a roll, then took oneof the matches, gently blew its smouldering end, and applied the glowingwick to the bruised part of the priming. There was a flash, a roar, andbefore Desmond could see the effect of the shot Bulger had closed thevent, the gun was run in, and the sponger was at work cleaning thechamber. As the black smoke cleared away it was apparent that theseaman had not forgotten his cunning. The shot had struck the grab onthe deck of the prow and smashed into the forecastle. But thebow-chasers were apparently uninjured, for they replied a few secondslater.
"Ah! There's a wunner!" said Bulger admiringly.
A shot had carried away a yard of the gunwale of the _Good Intent_,scattering splinters far and wide, which inflicted nasty wounds on thesecond mate and a seaman on the quarter-deck. A jagged end of woodflying high struck Diggle on the left cheek. He wiped away the bloodimperturbably; it was evident that lack of courage was not among hisdefects.
Captain Barker's ire was now at white heat. Shouting an order to Bulgerand the next man to make rapid practice with the two stern-chasers, heprepared to fall off and bring the _Good Intent's_ broadside to bear onthe enemy. But the next shot was decisive. Diggle had quietly strolleddown to the gun next to Bulger's. It had just been reloaded. He badethe gun-captain, in a low tone, to move aside. Then, with a glance tosee that the priming was in order, he took careful sight, and waitinguntil the grab's main, mizzen, and foremasts opened to view alltogether, he applied the match. The shot sped true, and a second laterthe grab's mainmast, with sails and rigging, went by the board.
A wild cheer from the crew of the _Good Intent_ acclaimed the excellentshot.
"By thunder!" said Bulger to Desmond, "Diggle may be a rogue, but heknows how to train a gun."
Captain Barker signified his approval by a tremendous mouth-fillingoath. But he was not yet safe. The second grab was following hard inthe wake of the first; and it was plain that the two Indiamen were bothsomewhat faster than the _Good Intent_; for during the running fightthat had just ended so disastrously for the grab, they had considerablylessened the gap between them and their quarry. Captain Barker watchedthem with an expression of fierce determination; but not withoutanxiety. If they should come within striking distance it was impossibleto withstand successfully their heavier armament and larger crews. Thefiring had ceased: each vessel had crowded on all sail; and the briskbreeze must soon bring pursuer and pursued to a close engagement whichcould have only one result.
"I may be wrong, but seems to me we'd better say our prayers," Bulgerremarked grimly to his gun crew.
But Desmond, gazing up at the shrouds, said suddenly:
"The wind's dropping. Look!"
It was true. Before the monsoon sets in in earnest it not unfrequentlyhappens that the wind veers fitfully; a squall is succeeded almostinstantaneously by a calm. So it was now. In less than an hour all fivevessels were becalmed; and when night fell, three miles separated the_Good Intent_ from the second grab; the Indiamen lay a mile furtherastern; and the damaged vessel was out of sight.
Captain Barker took counsel with his officers. He expected to beattacked during the night by the united boats of the pursuing fleet.Under cover of darkness they would be able to creep up close and boardthe vessel; and the captain knew well that if taken he would be treatedas a pirate. His papers were made out for Philadelphia; he had hoistedPortuguese colours, but the enemy at close quarters could easily seethat the _Good Intent_ was British built; he had disabled one of theCompany's vessels; there would be no mercy for him. He saw no chance ofbeating off the enemy; they would outnumber him by at least five to one.Even if the wind sprang up again there was small likelihood of escape.One or other of the pursuing vessels would almost certainly overhaulhim, and hold him till the others came up.
"'Tis a 'tarnal fix," he said.
"Methinks 'tis a case of 'actum est de nobis'," re marked Diggle,pleasantly.
"Confound you!" said the captain with a burst of anger. "What could Iexpect with a gallows-bird like you aboard? 'Tis enough to sink avessel without shot."
Diggle's face darkened. But in a moment his smile returned.
"You are overwrought, captain," he said; "you are unstrung. 'Twould beridiculous to take amiss words said in haste. In cool blood--well, youknow me, Captain Barker. I will leave you to recover from your briefmadness."
He went below. The captain was left with Mr. Toley and the otherofficers. Barker and Toley always got on well together, for the simplereason that the mate never thwarted his superior, never resented hisabuse, but went quietly his own way. He listened now for a quarter ofan hour, with fixed sadness of expression, while Captain Barker pouredthe vials of his wrath upon everything under the sun. When the captainhad come to an end, and sunk into a state of lowering dudgeon, Mr. Toleysaid quietly:
"'Tis all you say, sir, and more. I guess I've never seen a hardercase. But while you was speaking, something you said struck a sort ofidea into my brain."
"That don't happen often. What is it?"
"Why, the sort of idea that came to me out o' what you was saying wasjust this. How would it be to take soundings?"
"So that's your notion, is it? Hang me, are you a fool like the rest of'em! You're always taking soundings! What in the name of thunder do youwant to take soundings for?"
"Nothing particular, cap'n. That was the kind o' notion that come ofwhat you was saying. Of course it depends on the depth hereabouts."
"Deep enough to sink you and your notions and all that's like to come of'em. Darned if I han't got the most lubberly ship's company ever mortalman was plagued with. Officers and men, there en't one of you as isworth your salt, and you with your long face and your notions--why, hangme, you're no more good than the dirtiest waister afloat."
Mr. Toley smiled sadly, and ventured on no rejoinder. After thecaptain's outburst none of the group dared to utter a word. Thispleased him no better; he cursed them all for standing mum, and spentten minutes in reviling them in turn. Then his passion appeared to haveburnt itself out. Turning suddenly to the melancholy mate, he saidroughly:
"Go and heave your lead, then, and be hanged to it."
Mr. Toley walked away aft and ordered one of the men to heave thedeep-sea lead. The plummet, shaped like the frustum of a cone, andweighing thirty pounds, was thrown out from the side in the line of thevessel's drift.
"By the mark sixty, less five," sang out the man when the lead touchedthe bo
ttom.
"I guess that'll do," said the first mate, returning to thequarter-deck.
"Well, what about your notion?" said the captain scornfully. But helistened quietly and with an intent look upon his weather-beaten face asMr. Toley explained.
"You see, sir," he said, "while you was talking just now, I sort o' sawthat if they attack us, 'twon't be for at least two hours after dark.The boats won't put off while there's light enough to see 'em; and won'thurry anyhow, 'cos if they did the men 'ud have nary much strength leftto 'em. Well, they'll take our bearings, of course. Thinks I, owing towhat you said, sir, what if we could shift 'em by half a mile or so?The boats 'ud miss us in the darkness."
"That's so," ejaculated the captain; "and what then?"
"Well, sir, 'tis there my idea of taking soundings comes in. The _GoodIntent_ can't be towed, not with our handful of men; but why shouldn'tshe be kedged? That's the notion, sir; and I guess you'll think itover."
"By jimmy, Mr. Toley, you en't come out o' Salem Massachusetts fornothing. 'Tis a notion, a rare one; Ben Barker en't the man to bear agrudge, and I take back them words o' mine--leastways some on 'em.Bo'sun, get ready to lower the long-boat."
The long-boat was lowered, out of sight of the enemy. A kedge anchor,fastened to a stout hawser, was put on board, and as soon as it wassufficiently dark to make so comparatively small an object as a boatinvisible to the hostile craft, she put off at right angles to the _GoodIntent's_ previous course, the hawser attached to the kedge being paidout as the boat drew away. When it had gone about a fifth of a milefrom the vessel the kedge was dropped, and a signal was given by haulingon the rope.
"Clap on, men!" cried Captain Barker. "Get a good purchase, and none ofyour sing-song; avast all jabber."
The crew manned the windlass and began with a will to haul on the cablein dead silence. The vessel was slowly warped ahead. Meanwhile thelong-boat was returning; when she reached the side of the _Good Intent_,a second kedge was lowered into her, and again she put off, to drop theanchor two cables' length beyond the first, so that when the ship hadtripped that, the second was ready to be hauled on.
When the _Good Intent_ had been thus warped a mile from her position atnightfall, Captain Barker ordered the operation to be stopped. To avoidnoise the boat was not hoisted in. No lights were shown, and the skybeing somewhat overcast, the boat's crew found that the ship wasinvisible at the distance of a fourth of a cable's length.
"I may be wrong," said Bulger to Desmond, "but I don't believe kedgin'was ever done so far from harbour afore. I allers thought there wassomething in that long head of Mr. Toley, though, to be sure, there en'tno call for him to pull a long face too."
An hour passed after the kedging had been stopped. All on board the_Good Intent_ remained silent, or spoke in whispers, if they spoke atall. There had been no signs of the expected attack. Desmond wasleaning on the gunwale, straining his eyes for a glimpse of the enemy.But his ears gave him the first intimation of their approach. He hearda faint creaking, as of oars in rowlocks, and stepped back to whereBulger was leaning against the mast.
"There they come," he said.
The sound had already reached Captain Barker's ears. It was faint;doubtless the oars were muffled. The ship was rolling lazily; save forthe creaking nothing was heard but the lapping of the ripples againstthe hull. So still was the night that the slightest sound must travelfar, and the captain remarked in a whisper to Mr. Toley that he guessedthe approaching boats to be at least six cable-lengths distant.Officers and men listened intently. The creaking grew no louder; on thecontrary, it gradually became fainter, and at last died away. There wasa long silence, broken only by what sounded like a low hail someconsiderable distance astern.
"They're musterin' the boats," said Bulger, with a chuckle. "I may bewrong, but I'll bet my breeches they find they've overshot the mark.Now they'll scatter and try to nose us out."
Another hour of anxious suspense slowly passed, and still nothing hadhappened. Then suddenly a blue light flashed for a few moments on theblackness of the sea, answered almost instantaneously by a rocket fromanother quarter. It was clear that the boats, having signalled that thesearch had failed, had been recalled by the rocket to the fleet.
"By thunder, Mr. Toley, you've done the trick!" said the captain.
"I guess we don't get our living by making mistakes--not in Salem,Massachusetts," returned the first mate with his sad smile.
Through the night the watch was kept with more than ordinary vigilance,but nothing occurred to give Captain Barker anxiety. With morning lightthe enemy could be seen far astern.