Soon after settling in, everyone in their place on the crowded deck, the raft's passengers found to their dismay that there was only enough space for forty bodies to tie down at any one time. It was obvious to the seamen from the ship that their lives were in great jeopardy; the planked deck of the raft was only four inches above the water. If confronted with a rough sea, the raft and its unfortunate passengers would be immersed.
Scaggs hung the compass on the mast forward of the tiller. "Set sail, Mr. Ramsey. Steer a heading of one-fifteen degrees east-southeast."
"Aye, Captain. We'll not try for Australia, then?"
"Our best hope is the west coast of New Zealand."
"How far do you make it?"
"Six hundred miles," Scaggs answered as if a sandy beach lay just over the horizon.
Ramsey frowned and stared around the crowded raft. His eyes fell on a group of convicts who were in hushed conversation. Finally, he spoke in a tone heavy with gloom. "I don't believe any of us God-fearin'
men will see deliverance while we're surrounded by this lot of scum."
The sea remained calm for the next five days. The raft's passengers settled into a routine of disciplined rationing. The cruel sun beat down relentlessly, turning the raft into a fiery hell. There was a desperate longing to drop into the water and cool their bodies, but already the sharks were gathering in anticipation of an easy meal. The seamen threw buckets of saltwater on the canvas awning, but it only served to heighten the humidity beneath.
Already the mood on the raft had begun to swing from melancholy to treachery. Men who had endured two months of confinement in the dark hold of the Gladiator now became troubled without the security of the ship's hull and with being encompassed by nothingness. The convicts began to regard the sailors and the soldiers with ferocious looks and mutterings that did not go unnoticed by Scaggs. He ordered Lieutenant Sheppard to have his men keep their muskets loaded and primed at all times.
Jess Dorsett studied the tall woman with the golden hair. She was sitting alone beside the forward mast. There was an aura of tough passivity about her, a manner of overlooking the hardships without expectations. She appeared not to notice the other female convicts, seldom conversing, choosing to remain aloof and quiet. She was, Dorsett decided, a woman of values.
He snaked toward her through the bodies packed on board the raft until he was stopped by the hard gaze of a soldier who motioned him back with a musket. Dorsett was a patient man and waited until the guards changed shifts. The replacement promptly began leering at the women, who quickly taunted him.
Dorsett took advantage of the diversion to move until he was at the imaginary boundary line dividing the men from the women. The blond woman did not notice, her blue eyes were fixed on something only she could see in the distance.
"Looking for England?" he asked, smiling.
She turned and stared at him as if making up her mind whether to grace him with an answer. "A small village in Cornwall."
"Where you were arrested?"
"No, that was in Falmouth."
"For attempting to murder Queen Victoria?"
Her eyes sparkled and she laughed. "Stealing a blanket, actually.
"You must have been cold."
She became serious. "It was for my father. He was dying from the lung disease."
"I'm sorry."
"You're the highwayman."
"I was until my horse broke her leg and the Queen's men ran me down."
"And your name is Jess Dorsett." He was pleased that she knew who he was and wondered if she had inquired of him. "And you are . . .?"
"Betsy Fletcher," she answered without hesitation.
"Betsy," Dorsett said with a flourish, "consider me your protector."
"I need no fancy highwayman," she said smartly. "I can fend for myself."
He motioned around the horde jammed on the raft. "You may well need a pair of strong hands before we see hard ground again."
"Why should I put my faith in a man who never got his hands dirty?"
He stared into her eyes. "I may have robbed a few coaches in my time, but next to the good Captain Scaggs, I'm most likely the only man you can trust not to take advantage of a woman."
Betsy Fletcher turned and pointed at some evil-looking clouds scudding in their direction before a freshening breeze. "Tell me, Mr. Dorsett, how are you going to protect me from that?"
"We're in for it now, Captain," said Ramsey. "We'd better take down the sails."
Scaggs nodded grimly. "Cut short lengths of rope from the keg of spare cordage and pass them around. Tell the poor devils to fasten themselves to the raft to resist the turbulence."
The sea began to heap up uncomfortably, and the raft lurched and rolled as the waves began to sweep over the huddled mass of bodies, each passenger clutching their individual length of rope for dear life, the smart ones having tied themselves to the planks. The storm was not half as strong as the typhoon that did in the Gladiator, but it soon became impossible to tell where the raft began and the sea left off. The waves rose ever higher as the whitecaps blew off their crests. Some tried to stand to get their heads above water, but the raft was pitching and rolling savagely. They fell back on the planking almost immediately.
Dorsett used both his and Betsy's ropes to fasten her to the mast. Then he wrapped himself in the shroud lines and used his body to shield her from the force of the waves. As if to add insult to injury, rainsqualls pelted them with the force of stones cast by devils. The disorderly seas struck from every direction.
The only sound that came above the fury of the storm was Scaggs' vehement cursing as he shouted orders to his crew to add more lines to secure the mound of provisions. The seamen struggled to lash down the crates and kegs, but a mountainous wave reared up at that moment and crashed down onto the raft and pushed it deep under the water. For the better part of a minute there was no one on that pathetic craft who didn't believe they were about to die.
Scaggs held his breath and closed his eyes and swore without opening his mouth. The weight of the water felt as though it was crushing the life out of him. For what seemed an eternity the raft sluggishly rose through a swirling mass of foam into the wind again. Those who hadn't been swept into the sea inhaled deeply and coughed out the saltwater.
The captain looked around the raft and was appalled. The entire mass of provisions had been carried away and had disappeared as if they had never been loaded aboard. What was even more horrendous was that the bulk of the crates and kegs had carved an avenue through the pack of convicts, maiming and thrusting them from the raft with the force of an avalanche. Their pathetic cries for help went unanswered.
The savage sea made any attempt at rescue impossible, and the lucky ones could only mourn the bitter death of their recent companions.
The raft and its suffering passengers endured the storm through the night, pounded by the wash that constantly rolled over them. By the following morning the sea had begun to ease off, and the wind dwindled to a light southerly breeze. But they still kept an eye out for the occasional renegade wave that lurked out of sight before sweeping in and catching the half-drowned survivors off guard.
When Scaggs was finally able to stand and appraise the total extent of the damage, he was shocked to find that not one keg of food or water had been spared from the violence of the sea. Another disaster.
The masts were reduced to a few shreds of canvas. He ordered Ramsey and Sheppard to take a count of the missing. The number came to twenty-seven.
Sheppard shook his head sadly as he stared at the survivors. "Poor beggars. They look like drowned rats."
"Have the crew spread what's left of the sails and catch as much rainwater as possible before the squall stops," Scaggs ordered Ramsey.
"We no longer have containers to store it," Ramsey said solemnly. "And what will we use for sails?"
"After everybody drinks their fill, we'll repair what we can of the canvas and continue on our east-southeast heading."
> As life reemerged on the raft, Dorsett untied himself from the mast shrouds and gripped Betsy by the shoulders. "Are you harmed?" he asked attentively.
She peered at him through long strands of hair that were plastered against her face. "I won't be attending no royal ball looking like a drenched cat. Soaked as I am, I'm glad to be alive."
"It was a bad night," he said grimly, "and I fear it won't be the last."
Even as Dorsett comforted her, the sun returned with a vengeance. Without the awning, torn away by the onslaught of the wind and waves, there was no protection from the day's heat. The torment of hunger and thirst soon followed. Every morsel of food that could be found among the planks was quickly eaten.
The little rainfall caught by the torn canvas sails was soon gone.
When their tattered remains were raised again, the sails had little effect and proved almost worthless for moving the raft. If the wind came from astern, the vessel was manageable. But attempting to tack only served to twist the raft into an uncontrollable position crosswise with its beam to the wind. The inability to command the direction of the raft only added to Scaggs' mounting frustrations. Having saved his precious navigational instruments by clutching them to his breast during the worst of the deluge, he now took a fix on the raft's position.
"Any nearer to land, Captain?" asked Ramsey.
"I'm afraid not," Scaggs said gravely. "The storm drove us north and west. We're farther away from New Zealand than we were at this time two days ago."
"We won't last long in the Southern Hemisphere in the dead of summer without fresh water."
Scaggs gestured toward a pair of fins cutting the water fifty feet from the raft. "If we don't sight a boat within four days, Mr. Ramsey, I fear the sharks will have themselves a sumptuous banquet."
The sharks did not have long to wait. The second day after the storm, the bodies of those who succumbed from injuries sustained during the raging seas were slipped over the side and quickly disappeared in a disturbance of bloody foam. One monster seemed particularly ravenous. Scaggs recognized it as a great white, feared as the sea's greediest murder machine. He estimated its length to be somewhere between twenty-two and twenty-four feet.
The horror was only beginning. Dorsett was the first to have a premonition of the atrocities that the poor wretches on the raft would inflict upon themselves.
"They're up to something," he said to Betsy. "I don't like the way they're staring at the women."
"Who are you talking about?" she asked through parched lips. She had covered her face with a tattered scarf, but her bare arms and her legs below the skirt were already burned and blistered from the sun.
"That scurvy lot of smugglers at the stern of the raft, led by the murderin' Welshman, Jake Huggins.
He'd as soon slit your gullet as give you the time of day. I'll wager they're planning a mutiny."
Betsy stared vacantly around the bodies sprawled on the raft. "Why would they want to take command of this?"
"I mean to find out," said Dorsett as he began making his way over the convicts slouched about the damp planking, oblivious to everything around them while suffering from a burning thirst. He moved awkwardly, annoyed at how stiff his joints had become with no exercise except holding onto ropes. He was one of the few who dared approach the conspirators, and he muscled his way through Huggins'
henchmen. They ignored him as they muttered to themselves in low tones and cast fierce looks at Sheppard and his infantrymen.
"What brings you nosin' around, Dorsett?" grunted Huggins.
The smuggler was short and squat with a barrel chest, long matted sandy hair, an extremely large flattened nose and an enormous mouth with missing and blackened teeth, which combined to give him a hideous leer.
"I figured you could use a good man to help you take over the raft."
"You want to get in on the spoils and live a while longer, do you?"
"I see no spoils that can prolong our suffering," Dorsett said indifferently.
Huggins laughed, showing his rotting teeth. "The women, you fool."
"We're all dying from thirst and the damnable heat, and you want sex?"
"For a famous highwayman, you're an idiot," Huggins said irritably. "We don't want to lay the little darlins. The idea is to cut them up and eat their tender flesh. We can save the likes of Bully Scaggs, his sailor boys and the soldiers for when we really gets hungry."
The first thought that struck Dorsett was that Huggins was making a disgusting joke, but the inspired evil that lurked in his eyes and the ghastly grin plainly demonstrated it was no play of words. The thought was so vile it filled Dorsett with horror and revulsion. But he was a consummate actor and gave an uncaring shrug.
"What's the hurry? We might be rescued by this time tomorrow."
"There won't be no ship or island on the horizon anytime soon." Huggins paused, his ugly face contorted with depravity. "You with us, highwayman?"
"I've got nothing to lose by throwing in with you, Jake," Dorsett said with a tight smile. "But the big blond woman is mine. Do what you will with the rest."
"I can see you've taken a likin' to her, but my boys and I share and share alike. I'll let you have first claim. After that, she's divided up."
"Fair enough," Dorsett said dryly. "When do we make our move?"
"One hour after dark. At my signal we attack the soldier boys and go for their muskets. Once we're armed we'll have no trouble with Scaggs and his crew."
"Since I've already established a place by the forward mast, I'll take care of the soldier guarding the women."
"You want to be first in line for supper, is that it?"
"Just hearing you talk about it," said Dorsett sardonically, "makes me hungry."
Dorsett returned to Betsy's side but said nothing to her about the terror about to be unleashed by the convicts. He knew Huggins and his men were observing his every move, making certain he was not making a furtive effort to warn the Gladiator's crew and the soldiers. His only opportunity would come with darkness, and he had to move before Huggins gave his signal to launch the horror. He lay as near to Betsy as the guard would allow and appeared to doze away the afternoon.
As soon as dusk covered the sea and the stars appeared, Dorsett left Betsy and snaked his way to within a few feet of First Officer Ramsey and hailed him in a hushed whisper.
"Ramsey, do not move or act as if you're listening to anyone."
"What is this?" Ramsey blurted under his breath. "What do you want?"
"Listen to me," Dorsett said softly. "Within the hour, the convicts, led by Jake Huggins, are going to attack the soldiers. If they are successful in killing them all, they will use their arms against you and your crew."
"Why should I believe the words of a common criminal?"
"You'll all be dead if you don't."
"I'll tell the captain," Ramsey said grudgingly.
"Just remind him it was Jess Dorsett who warned you."
Dorsett broke off and crawled back to Betsy. He removed his left boot, twisted off the sole and heel and removed a small knife with a four-inch blade. Then he sat back to wait.
A quarter-moon was beginning to rise over the horizon, giving the pitiful creatures on board the raft the look of ghostly wraiths, some of whom suddenly began rising to their feet and moving toward the prohibited area in the center.
"Kill the swine!" Huggins shouted, leaping forward and leading a surge of flesh toward the soldiers.
Half out of their minds with thirst the mass of prisoners unleashed their hatred for authority and made a rush toward the middle of the raft from all sides.
A volley of musket fire cut holes in their ranks, and the unexpected resistance stunned them momentarily.
Ramsey had passed on Dorsett's alarm to Scaggs and Sheppard. The infantrymen, muskets loaded and bayonets fixed, waited along with Scaggs and his crew, who had been armed with the soldiers'
sabers, the carpenter's hammers and hatchets, and any other weapon they could scrap
e up.
"Don't give 'em time to reload, boys!" Huggins roared. "Strike hard!"
The mass of maddened mutineers rushed forward again, met this time with thrusting bayonets and slashing sabers. Yet, nothing diminished their rage. They threw themselves against the cold steel, several of them grasping the sharpened blades in their bare hands. Desperate men grappled and sliced each other on a black sea under the eerie moonlight.
The soldiers and sailors fought furiously. Every inch of the raft was occupied by men fighting savagely to kill each other. The bodies piled up, entangling the feet of combatants. Blood flowed on the deck planking, making it difficult to stand if not impossible to rise after falling. In the darkness, now oblivious to their thirst and hunger, they blindly fought and slaughtered. The only sounds made by the combatants were the cries of the wounded and the moans of the dying.
The sharks, as if sensing a bounty, began circling ever closer. The high-pointed fin of the Executioner, the name the seamen gave the great white, silently carved through the water less than five feet from the raft. None of the unfortunates who fell in the water climbed on board again.
Pierced by five saber wounds, Huggins staggered toward Dorsett, a large splintered board in an upraised hand. "You bloody traitor!" he hissed.
Dorsett hunched and held the knife out in front of his body. "Step forward and die," he said calmly.
Infuriated, Huggins yelled back. "It is you who will feed the sharks, highwayman!" Then he put his head down and charged, swinging the board like a scythe.
At the instant Huggins lunged at him, Dorsett dropped to his hands and knees. Unable to check his momentum, the enraged Welshman stumbled over him and fell, crashing heavily to the deck. Before he could raise himself up, Dorsett had leaped on the immense back, reversed the knife in his hand and slashed Huggins' throat.
"You'll not be dining on the ladies this night," Dorsett said fiercely as Huggins' body stiffened before going limp in death.