CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
THE CAPTURE AND PLUNDERING OF THE `BANGALORE,' INDIAMAN.
It was just six bells in the afternoon watch when we at length arrivedwithin a distance of about half-a-mile of the stranger, which had bythis time been unmistakably made out to be a British passenger ship ofone of the crack lines; first by her having hoisted British colours sometime before, and secondly by the crowd of well-dressed ladies andgentlemen that, with the aid of the telescope, we could see congregatedon her poop. Mendouca also had hoisted the British ensign, and, to mysupreme indignation, a man-o'-war's pennant, his object in doing sobeing, of course, to disarm suspicion as long as possible, and thusleave the ship only a very brief length of time to prepare for defencewhen our intention to attack her became no longer possible ofconcealment. I remonstrated with him upon this desecration of thecolours that he had once fought and hoped to win fame under; but ofcourse my remonstrance was quite useless, the rascal only laughed at me.
Having arrived within the above-named distance of the ship, Mendoucaordered the sweeps to be laid in, and the slaves to be driven below andsecured. This done, to my disgust his next order was to hoist out theboats--of which the _Francesca_, unlike most slavers, carried three; andas soon as they were in the water, the entire crew were armed, and thewhole of them, except my especial enemy, Jose, and an Englishman--a veryquiet, inoffensive fellow, whom I was surprised to find among a crew ofsuch ruffians--were ordered down over the side. This completely upsetmy plans, for, of course, the only way now of reaching the stranger wasby means of the boats, or by swimming; and while I would gladly havegone in one of the boats, and taken my chance of reaching the stranger'sdeck alive, I was not quite prepared to throw away my life in anunsuccessful effort to swim to the ship--for that is what it would havemeant, the water being alive with sharks that had followed us, day afterday, with alarming persistency, ever since we had taken to the use ofthe sweeps. Besides which, I should of course not have been permittedto make the attempt. Of course, had I chosen to tell a deliberatefalsehood, and declared my readiness to throw in my lot with Mendoucaand his crew, it is possible that I might have been given the command ofone of the boats; but not even for the purpose of effecting my escapedid I consider that such a course would be justifiable. So I hadperforce to remain where I was, under the jealously watchful eye ofJose, if not of the Englishman also; Mendouca asking me ironically, ashe went down the side last of all, whether I had no letters for home orelsewhere that I would like to forward by means of the stranger.
Now that the sweeps were laid in, and their everlasting grind and rolland splash were no longer heard, the silence of nature seemed soprofound as to be almost awe-inspiring; there was literally not a soundto be heard save such as were caused by human agency, such as themovements and voices of the men in the boats, or the gasping sighs ofthe unhappy negroes cooped up below in the stifling hold. Occasionallya slight murmur of sound reached us from the distant ship; the call ofan officer uttering a command, the "Yo-heave-oh" of the crew, or a gangof them, engaged upon some heavy job, and an occasional rumbling that tomy ear sounded very much like that of carronade slides in process ofbeing trained to bear upon some object. But if the ship was armed therewas no sign of it, her sides being decorated with _painted_ ports only,so far as I could see. When, however, the boats had traversed abouthalf the distance between the brigantine and the ship, a man appeared inthe mizen rigging of the latter, and, hailing them in English in a voicewhich rendered his words perfectly audible to us on board the_Francesca_, demanded to know what they wanted. I saw Mendouca rise inthe stern-sheets of his boat, and heard him make some reply, but I couldnot distinguish what it was, perhaps because he had intentionally madeit unintelligible. Whatever the words may have been, they were clearlyunsatisfactory; for the figure in the rigging waved its hand warningly,and shouted--
"Keep off, whoever you are; you are far too strong a party to be allowedto come alongside us; and I warn you that if you attempt to do so weshall fire upon you! If you have any legitimate business with us let_one_ boat, with a crew of not more than five, come alongside, andwelcome; but we will not have the whole of you if we can help it, and Ithink we can!"
The boats had, up to this time, been paddling quietly and composedlyalong, the men evidently husbanding their strength for a final effort;but now, in response to a shout from Mendouca, they bent to their work,and sent the boats foaming along in a style for which I certainly shouldnever have given them credit; they could scarcely have done better hadthey been the British man-o'-war's men that they had pretended to be;the oars bent, the water was churned into foam, and a miniature surgegathered under each boat's bow as the little craft was suddenly urged toracing speed. Then the figure in the ship's mizen rigging waved an arm,and stepped quietly down on to the poop, which by this time was occupiedonly by a band of men--evidently passengers--who, under the leadershipof a military-looking man, were handling their muskets and making readyto open fire. At the signal given by the individual who had juststepped out of the ship's rigging--and who was no doubt her captain--eight hitherto closed ports in the stranger's bulwarks were suddenlythrown open, as many dark, threatening, iron muzzles appeared, and, at asecond command, the whole eight blazed forth, and their contents,consisting of round-shot with a charge of grape on top of each, wenthurtling through the air in the direction of the boats. The aim wasexcellent, the shot flashing up the water all round the boats; but, sofar as I could see, not a man among either of their crews was touched.I heard Mendouca cheer his men on, urging them to stretch out, and getso close to the ship, that by the time that the guns were again loaded,it would be impossible to depress the muzzles sufficiently to hit theboats; and the men responded with the nearest approach to a cheer that,I suppose, a Spaniard can give, pulling manfully the while. The ship'screw were, however, too quick for them, and managed to give them anotherbroadside just before the boats got within the critical limit where itwould have been impossible to touch them; and this time the dischargewas very much more effective, a round-shot striking Mendouca's own boatsquare on the stem just at the water-line, destroying her bows andtearing several feet of her keel away, while the accompanying charge ofgrape bowled over three of her men and shattered Mendouca's left arm atthe elbow. The crews of the other two boats suffered nearly as badly,one of them losing three men, while the other lost one man killed andfive more or less severely wounded, besides having to stop and pick upMendouca and his crew, his boat sinking almost immediately.
I thought that this severe punishment would have sufficed the Spaniards,and that they would have abandoned the attack, and so, I imagine,thought the skipper of the ship, for while they were in this perilouspredicament, he magnanimously withheld his fire, giving them anopportunity to retire without further loss. And so they would, in allprobability, had Mendouca been a born Spaniard. But, renegade as hewas, the British blood in his veins still told, and, despite the anguishof his terrible wound, he no sooner found himself in the boat thatpicked him up than his voice again rang out almost as loudly and clearlyas before, still urging his men to press forward, and reminding themthat they were fighting for their lives, or--what was the same thing--food and water. It was probably this reminder that turned the scaleamong the waverers, for at the mention of the word "water" they againseized their oars, and with a yell gave way for the ship. Evidentlyexasperated at this quite unexpected exhibition of determination on thepart of the pirates, the little band on the poop now opened a smart andvery galling fire with their muskets upon the boats, and I saw three orfour pairs of arms tossed skyward as the discharge rattled forth. Butbefore the weapons of this little party of volunteers could be reloadedthe boats were alongside the ship, the pirates dropped their oars, andmade a simultaneous dash for the fore and main channels, and thereinstantly ensued a desperate _melee_ in which the popping of pistols wasfor the first half-minute or so a very prominent feature. I fullyexpected to see Mendouca and his crew driven back into their boats witha very heavy
loss; but, to my astonishment and sorrow, I soon saw thatthey were more than holding their own, and in less than three minutesthey had actually forced their way inboard, and the right wastransferred to the ship's decks. It was evident that the British crewwere now making a most determined and desperate resistance, for thefight was protracted to fully a quarter of an hour, the clink and clashof steel, the shouts of the combatants, and the cries of the woundedbeing distinctly audible to us on the deck of the _Francesca_. Then thehubbub suddenly lulled, and I heard cries for quarter, cries which, tomy bitter grief, I knew to be the sure indication of defeat on the partof the British crew. Then utter silence fell upon the unfortunate shipfor a few minutes, to be broken by the muffled sound of women's shrieks,men's voices uplifted in fierce, impotent anger and denunciation, two orthree pistol-shots that sounded as though they had been fired in theship's cabin, and then silence again; an ominous, dreadful silence thatto my foreboding mind might mean the perpetration of horrors to whichthose already enacted on the blood-stained decks were as nothing.
This silence prevailed for fully an hour, during which no sign of lifewas visible on board the ship; then arose the sound of hilarious shoutsand drunken laughter; there was a sudden stir and commotion about thedecks; a crowd of men gathered on the poop, many of them with theirhands bound behind them--as I could see with the aid of a telescope--while others had their heads swathed in blood-stained bandages; a longplank was rigged out over the taffrail; and then Mendouca appeared to bemaking some sort of a speech. If such was the case the speech was avery brief one; and when it terminated a short pause ensued, and I sawthat a few of the prisoners--perhaps three or four, as nearly as I couldmake out--were being released from their bonds. Then occurred anothershort pause, at the expiration of which a man was led forward,blindfolded, and guided to the inner extremity of the plank, along whichI could see that they were urging him to walk. He advanced a few paces,paused, as though he had been addressed, and I distinctly saw him shakehis head. As though this movement of the head were a prearrangedsignal, the inner end of the plank suddenly tilted up, and theunfortunate man, with a staggering movement as though to save himselffell with a resounding splash into the sea, where for a few seconds heseemed to struggle desperately. Not for long, however; the sharks thathad been haunting us for so many days heard the splash, and after a fewrestless movements, as though unwilling to leave us, darted off towardthe ship. I saw the horrid triangular fins cleaving the surface of theglassy water, each leaving its own delicate wedge-shaped wake spreadingastern as it went, until the small ripples of the different wakes metand crossed each other; then, as the distance between them and theirprey lessened, there was a sudden increase of speed which soon became arush, the black fins merged toward each other, the water swirled roundthe drowning man, there was a single ear-piercing shriek of agony, andthe poor wretch had disappeared.
This dreadful spectacle appeared to have had its desired effect, for Isaw that several more of the prisoners were now being released fromtheir bonds, the released men, one and all, slinking down off the poopand away forward toward the forecastle. There were others, however--fifteen in all, for I counted them--whose courage was not to be shakeneven by this awful ordeal, and one after the other they boldly trod thefatal plank, and went to meet their dreadful doom! All honour to them,say I, for the lofty courage that enabled them to choose death ratherthan an ignoble and crime-stained life.
Then there was another long pause, during which, as I afterwardslearned, the _Francesca's_ crew were rummaging the ship--ahomeward-bound Indiaman, named the _Bangalore_--and loading her deckswith booty of every imaginable description, preparatory to its transferto the brigantine. Mendouca, I must mention, had already compelled the_Bangalore's_ surgeon to dress his wound for him; and now, having givenhis orders to one of the men whom he considered the most reliable andtrustworthy of his crew, he returned to the _Francesca_, and, with theaid of his son Pedro, was got into his bunk, where I could hear him fromtime to time grinding his teeth in agony, although, such was the spiritof the man, not a groan would he permit to escape him.
The sun had set, and the velvet dusk of the tropics was closing downupon the scene, when at length the _Bangalore's_ boats were hoisted out,and the work of transhipping the booty began. Mendouca must have felthimself a second Kidd, for the ship was almost as rich a prize as one ofthe old Acapulco galleons; there were bales of rich silks and shawls,spices, caskets of gems, ingots of gold, exquisite embroidered muslins,and I know not what beside--goods of a value sufficient, it seemed tome, to make every rascal on the books of the _Francesca_ rich for theremainder of his life, although they were of course unable to take morethan a comparatively small quantity of the _Bangalore's_ entire cargo.Nevertheless, they contrived to find room for a goodly proportion of themost costly and valuable contents of the vessel's hold, the transfer ofwhich, and of as much food and water as they deemed necessary to theirrequirements, occupied the crew until midnight; for in Mendouca'sabsence, as may be supposed, they did not trouble to exert themselvesovermuch. Moreover, a large proportion of them were in such a state ofintoxication they scarcely knew what they were doing--my especial_bete-noir_ the boatswain among the number, he having seized an earlyopportunity to board the ship after Mendouca had been safely bestowed inhis own cabin. I did not know this until told so by Simpson, theEnglish man whom I have already mentioned as having been left on boardthe _Francesca_ that afternoon with the boatswain and myself, who addedto his information--
"Better keep your weather-eye liftin', Mr Dugdale, sir; that Jose'sfull of spite as an egg's full of meat; he have never forgiven you forknockin' him down, and have swore over and over again to put his knifeinto you. And now that he's full of drink, and the skipper's on hisbeam-ends, he's just as likely as not to try it."
"Yes, I suppose he is. Thank you for the warning, Simpson," said I.The man put his finger to his forehead in acknowledgment of my thanks,but continued to linger near me; and presently it dawned upon me that hehad something further to say. So I turned to him and inquired--
"Is there anything particular that you wish to say to me, Simpson?"
"Well, yes, sir, there is, if I only knowed how to say it," answered theman, in a low, cautious tone of voice and with a somewhat hesitatingmanner. He paused for a second or two, as though in consideration, andthen, looking me full in the face, said--
"I hopes you'll excuse me askin' of you the question, Mr Dugdale, butmight you be a-thinkin' of gettin' away out o' this here brigantine,supposin' that you sees a good chance for to do so? I ain't askin' outof any impertinence or curiosity, sir, I beg you to believe; but mymeanin' is this here, if so be as it happens that you _was_ thinkin' ofany such thing, I was wonderin' whether we mightn't be able to gotogether, and be of sarvice to one another in a manner of speakin'."
"Oh," said I, "that is your idea, is it? Are you not satisfied withyour present berth then, Simpson?"
"No, sir, I'm not, to tell the truth of it," answered the man. "I knowthat it's rather a risky thing to say aboard of this here wessel; butthe truth is that I _ain't_ satisfied at all, and haven't been for along while; not since Mr Arrowsmith--or Senor Mendouca, as he now callshisself--took up to the piratin' business. So long as it was just amatter of runnin' a cargo of slaves across the Atlantic, I didn't mindso much, for there was plenty of dollars goin', and I didn't see thatthere was much harm in it, for I don't suppose the poor beggars is anyworse off on the sugar and 'baccy plantations than they are in their owncountry. But when it comes to work like what's been done to-day, Iwants to be out of it; and I don't mind sayin' so to you straight out,Mr Dugdale, because you're a naval hofficer, you are, sir, and ofcourse as such you're bound to be dead against such things as hashappened since you've been aboard here. Besides, I've been a-watchin'of you, sir--askin' your pardon for the same, Mr Dugdale--and I've seenthat this ship and her doin's ain't no more to your taste than they areto mine."
"You are right, Simpson, they are not," said I; "a
nd since you have beenso frank with me, I will be equally so with you. You have rightlyguessed that I would gladly make my escape from this accursedbrigantine, if I could; and I had quite made up my mind that if, as Ifully expected, Captain Mendouca had run alongside that ship thisafternoon, I would board with the rest, and then join the British crewin their defence of their own ship."
"It's perhaps just as well then for you, sir, and for me too, thatmatters was arranged different," answered Simpson; "because, if thething had come off as you planned it, I don't suppose that your joinin'of the other side would have made that much difference that they'd havebeat off the skipper and his lot; and if they hadn't, and you'd fallenalive into the hands of the skipper, he'd have--well, I don't know whathe wouldn't have done to you; but I'm mortal sure that you wouldn't havebeen alive now. But perhaps, sir, you've been thinkin', as I have, thateven now it mayn't be too late to do somethin'."
"Yes," said I, "I have. While you have been talking to me a multitudeof ideas have thronged through my mind, disconnected and vague,certainly, but still capable perhaps of being worked into shape. And Ido not mind admitting to you, Simpson, that your proposal to join me inany attempt that I may be disposed to make simplifies matters a greatdeal. The most important factor in the problem before us is: How willyonder ship be dealt with when the _Francesca's_ people have done withher? Will she be destroyed, or will she be left, with those unfortunatepassengers--most probably with no knowledge whatever of nauticalmatters--to drift about at the mercy of wind and sea, to take her chanceof being fallen in with, or to founder in the first gale of wind thathappens to come her way?"
"No, sir, no," answered Simpson. "You may take your oath that CaptainMendouca won't run the risk of leavin' her afloat to be picked up andtook into port, where her passengers could tell what tales they likedabout him and his doin's. She'll be scuttled, sir, and left to go downwith all them passengers in her, the same as that unfortunit' Portugeebrig was that we took the slaves out of. But I've been thinkin', sir,that, even so, two sailor-men, like you and me, might do a good deal,with the help of the gentlemen passengers, to put together some sort ofa raft that would hold all hands of us and keep us above water untilsomethin' comes along and picks us up. Of course I knows quite wellthat it'll be a mighty poor look-out for the strongest of us, and adreadful bad time for the poor women-folk, to be obliged to take to araft; but I expect they'd rather do that and take their chance of bein'picked up than go down with the ship; and if you're willin' to face thejob, _I_ am too, sir, and there's my hand on it."
I took the fellow's proffered hand and grasped it warmly.
"You are a good fellow, Simpson, and a true British seaman, whateveryour past may have been," said I, "and I accept your proposal, which Ican see is made in perfect good faith. Now, it seems to me that allthat we have to do, in the first place, is to get on board yonder ship.The question is: How is it to be done without the knowledge of any ofthe _Francesca's_ people?"
"Well, sir," said Simpson, "I don't think as there'll be any greatdifficulty about that, so far as I'm concerned; and I don't think thereneed be much with you neither, if you wouldn't mind changing your rigand shiftin' into some togs of mine, so as these chaps of the_Francesca_, won't recognise you. Then, when the next boat comes fromthe ship, we'll tumble down into her and offer to give two of the othersa spell; they'll be only too glad of the chance to get a little relieffrom the job of pullin' backwards and for'ards and the handlin' of a lotof stuff, and, once aboard the ship, we can stow ourselves out of sightuntil they leave her for good and all."
"Very well," said I, "that seems as good a plan as any, and we will tryit. Let me have some of your old clothes, Simpson--a flannel shirt anda pair of canvas trousers will do--and I will shift into them at once.And there is another thing that occurs to me. If we could manage tosecure a little further help it would be so much the better. Now, if Iam not mistaken, a good many of the crew of yonder ship joined the_Francesca_ this afternoon as the only means of saving their lives. Wemust get hold of a few of them, if we can, and, by means of a fewjudicious questions, find out whether they would be willing to throw intheir lot with us and take their chance of ultimate escape, rather thanbecome slavers and pirates. With only half-a-dozen stout, willingseamen a great deal might be done to better the state of affairsgenerally."
"You are right, sir, it would make a lot of difference, and I'll seewhat can be done," answered Simpson. "And now, sir, shall I go and getyou the togs? I s'pose that whatever we do might as well be done atonce?"
"Certainly," said I, "the sooner the better. I can see no object indelaying our movements, now that we have determined upon a definiteplan."
"All right, sir, then here goes," answered Simpson. "I'll be back withthe duds in a jiffey."
Simpson's "jiffey" proved to be a pretty long one, for it was fullytwenty minutes before he returned with the clothes--a thin flannel shirtthat had seen its best days, and was so faded from its original colourand so thoroughly stained with tar and grease that it was difficult tosay what that original colour had been, but was therefore so much thebetter suited to the purpose of a disguise--a pair of equally fadeddungaree trousers, and a knitted worsted cap. But his delay had notbeen profitless, for happening to find in the forecastle two of the crewof the _Bangalore_, who had been compelled to join the _Francesca_, andwho, from their dejected appearance, he conjectured were not altogetherpleased or satisfied with the arrangement, he entered into conversationwith them, and soon contrived to elicit from them that his conjecturewas well founded. Thereupon, as there was no time to lose, he took thebold course of asking them outright whether, in the event of there beinga scheme afoot on the part of others to escape from the brigantine tothe ship, they would be disposed to join in it, to which they repliedthat they would gladly, and that indeed they had been discussing thepossibilities of such an attempt when he interrupted them by his descentinto the forecastle. This was enough for Simpson, who at once broughtthem aft to me, and I, finding them fully in earnest in their expresseddesire to have nothing to do with the pirates, forthwith unfolded myplans to them, carefully directing their attention to the somewhatdesperate aspect of the adventure, but at the same time pointing out tothem that every additional seaman whose help we could secure added verymaterially to the chances of a successful issue. What I said seemedonly to render them the more determined to sever their brief connectionwith the pirates at any cost, and they unhesitatingly declared theirreadiness to join me, and to implicitly obey my orders. More than this,they informed me that there were others of the _Bangalore_ crew who,they were sure, would be equally ready with themselves, if permitted, totake part in the adventure, and they consented to hunt up as many ofthese men as possible at once, and to have them ready to meet me on theforecastle to discuss the matter in a quarter of an hour.
My scheme, which, prior to my conversation with Simpson, had been of themost vague and nebulous character, had now taken shape and wore sopromising an appearance that I felt sanguine of its ultimate success; sowithout further ado I retired right aft to the wheel grating--that partof the brigantine being now quite deserted, and wrapped in totaldarkness save for the dim and diffused light that issued from the cabinskylight--and there, unseen, shifted into the clothes that Simpson hadbrought me. They were not particularly comfortable nor quite sowell-savoured as I could have wished; but it was no time forultra-squeamishness, and I was soon transformed into a very colourableimitation of a fo'c's'le hand. This done, I went forward, past the openhatchway down which the plunder from the _Bangalore_ was being struck,noticing with bitter distress and anger the forlorn, dejected, worn-out,and despairing attitudes of the unfortunate blacks closely huddledtogether on the slave-deck, their forms faintly indicated in the yellow,smoky light of the lanterns which the men were working by, and noticingtoo, with keen satisfaction, that most of the crew had reached thatstage of intoxication wherein the victim's whole attention is requiredfor the conduct of his own affairs, with none to spa
re for those ofothers. Many had gone considerably beyond this stage, and werestaggering about, pulling and hauling aimlessly at the first object thatthey could lay their hands upon, and proving far more of a hindrancethan a help to their less intoxicated comrades; while there were somewho had reached the final stage of bestiality, and were lying about thedecks in a helpless condition of drunken stupor. Nothing morefavourable for our scheme than this condition of general intoxicationcould possibly have happened, unless it were that Pedro was below, fullyoccupied in attending to his father, and was therefore the less likelyto discover my absence from the brigantine until it should be too lateto take any steps toward the investigation of the phenomenon; Itherefore hurried to the rendezvous with a sudden feeling of elation andjoyousness and confidence in the conviction that the time of releasefrom my exceedingly uncongenial and disagreeable, if not absolutelyhopeless, situation had at length arrived.
Upon reaching the forecastle-head--the appointed spot of ourrendezvous--I found it tenantless; but presently a man came lounging upto me from the group of workers about the hatchway, and, after peeringinto my face, inquired--
"Got any 'baccy about you, mate? Mine's down below in my chest, and Ihaven't unlashed it yet. If you've got any, just give me a chaw, willye, and maybe I'll do as much for you another time."
"I am sorry to say that I have not any," I answered. "I do not use itexcept in the form of a cigar now and then. But I expect my mateSimpson on deck every moment, and I have no doubt that he will be ableto accommodate you. You are one of the new hands, shipped from the_Bangalore_, are you not? I don't seem to remember having seen yourface before."
"No, perhaps not, and it's precious little you can see now, I shouldthink, unless you've got cat's eyes, and can see in the dark," was thesomewhat surly response. "Yes," he continued, "I'm Joe Maxwell, latecarpenter of the _Bangalore_, and--well, yes, `shipped' is the word, Isuppose. And pray who may _you_ be, my buck, with your dandified talk--which, to my mind, is about as like any fo'c's'le lingo that I everheard as chalk is like cheese? Are all hands aboard this dashin' roverof the same kidney as yourself?"
"Scarcely that, I think, as you seem to have already had an opportunityof judging," I answered, laughingly, as I glanced in the direction ofthe hatchway. "No," I continued, determined to sound him forthwith, ashis speech and manner seemed to indicate that he was by no meanssatisfied with his changed lot, "I am a naval officer, and a prisoner, Isuppose I must call myself, although, as you see, I have the liberty ofthe ship. And now, having told you thus much, I should like you to tellme candidly, Maxwell, did you join this afternoon of your own free will,or under compulsion?"
The man looked at me searchingly for a moment, and then said--
"Well, I suppose when a man is asked a straightforward question the bestplan is to give a straightfor'ard answer. So, mister, I don't mindtellin' you that I j'ined because I was obliged to; 'twas either that ora walk along a short plank."
"In fact, you joined merely to save your life," I suggested.
"Ay; pretty much as you, yourself, may have done," was the answer.
"I?" I exclaimed. "Surely, my good fellow, you do not mean to say thatyou imagine me--a naval officer--to have joined this crew of thieves andmurderers?"
"Blest if I know, or care," the fellow answered roughly. "Only, ifyou're a naval officer, as you say, and haven't joined the `thieves andmurderers,' as you call 'em, I should like to know how you come to berigged like a fo'c's'le Jack?"
I saw that the man was suspicious of me--perhaps thought I wasendeavouring, for purposes of espionage, to fathom his real feelingswith regard to the service into which he had been pressed; I saw,moreover, that my conjecture was correct, and that, despite his cautiousreplies, he was by no means satisfied with the arrangement, and sodetermined to be frank with him at once, tell him what I contemplated,and invite him to join me. As carpenter of the _Bangalore_ he would bean especially valuable acquisition to our party. I accordingly did so;and before I had finished I had the satisfaction of seeing that hissuspicions had completely disappeared, and that he was listening to meintently and respectfully. When I had brought my disclosure andproposition to an end, he at once said--
"I'm with you, sir, heart and soul! _Anything_--even a raft--will bebetter than this thievin' and murderin' hooker and her cut-throat crew!Yes, sir, I'm with you, for life or death. But, please God, it shall belife and not death for all hands of us. Let us get away aboard at once,sir; I'm just longin' to tread the beauty's planks again; and as toscuttlin' her--why, I'll make it my first business, when I get aboard,to shape out a few plugs and take 'em down into the run with me--that'sthe only place where they'll be able to get at her under-waterplankin'--and as soon as they've gone I'll plug up them holes so thatshe'll be as tight as a bottle, and never a penny the worse for whatlittle they're likely to do to her. But it would please me a precioussight better to knock out the brains of whoever dares to go down belowto do the scuttlin' business."
"No, no," said I, "that would never do; the man would be missed, asearch would be instituted, and heaven only knows what the consequenceswould be. No, the scuttling must be allowed to proceed, and the piratesmust finally leave the ship with the conviction that she is slowly butsurely sinking. If all goes well this craft will be out of sight beforemorning, and then, once clear of them, we shall have leisure to make ourplans and carry them out."
"Right you are, sir, and right it is," answered Maxwell. "You'll haveto be our skipper now, sir, for poor Capt'n Mason and all three of themates is gone--one on 'em--Mr King--killed in the scrimmage, andt'others made to walk the plank--so you'll be the only navigator that wecan muster among the lot of us, as well as the 'riginator of this herescheme for gettin' the better of these here Spaniards, so' you're thefittest and properest person to take charge. All that you've got to do,sir, is to give your orders, and I'll answer for it as they'll beobeyed."