CHAPTER VIII
THE CAPTAIN'S YARN
Mindful of the fact that this affair had added a new enemy to thosehe had acquired by the break-up of the Black Gang, Cyril thought itas well to go round and give notice to the two traders whose books heattended to in the evening, that unless they could arrange for him todo them in the daytime he must give up the work altogether. Bothpreferred the former alternative, for they recognised the advantagethey had derived from his work, and that at a rate of pay for whichthey could not have obtained the services of any scrivener in theCity.
It was three or four days before Nellie Dowsett made her appearanceat the general table.
"I can't make out what ails the girl," her mother said, on theprevious evening. "The fever speedily left her, as I told you, butshe is weak and languid, and seems indisposed to talk."
"She will soon get over that, my dear," Captain Dave said. "Girls arenot like men. I have seen them on board ship. One day they arelaughing and fidgeting about like wild things, the next day they arepoor, woebegone creatures. If she gets no better in a few days, Iwill see when my old friend, Jim Carroll, is starting in his brig forYarmouth, and will run down with her myself--and of course with you,wife, if you will go--and stay there a few days while he is unloadingand filling up again. The sea-air will set her up again, I warrant."
"Not at this time of year," Dame Dowsett said firmly. "With thesebitter winds it is no time for a lass to go a-sailing; and they saythat Yarmouth is a great deal colder than we are here, being exposedto the east winds."
"Well, well, Dame, then we will content ourselves with a run in thehoy down to Margate. If we choose well the wind and tide we can startfrom here in the morning and maybe reach there late in the evening,or, if not, the next morning to breakfast. Or if you think that toofar we will stop at Sheerness, where we can get in two tides easilyenough if the wind be fair."
"That would be better, David; but it were best to see how she goeson. It may be, as you say, that she will shortly gain her strengthand spirits again."
It was evident, when Nellie entered the room at breakfast-time thenext morning, that her mother's reports had not been exaggerated. Shelooked, indeed, as if recovering from a severe illness, and when shesaid good-morning to her father her voice trembled and her eyesfilled with tears.
"Tut, tut, lass! This will never do. I shall soon hardly own you formy Nellie. We shall have to feed you up on capons and wine, child, orsend you down to one of the baths for a course of strengtheningwaters."
She smiled faintly, and then turning, gave her hand to Cyril. As shedid so, a slight flush of colour came into her cheeks.
"I am heartily glad to see you down again, Mistress Nellie," he said,"and wish you a fair and speedy recovery."
"I shall be better presently," she replied, with an effort."Good-morning, John."
"Good-morning, Mistress Nellie. Right glad are we to see you downagain, for it makes but a dull table without your merry laugh to givean edge to our appetites."
She sat down now, and the others, seeing that it was best to let heralone for a while, chatted gaily together.
"There is no talk in the City but of the war, Cyril," the Captainsaid presently. "They say that the Dutch make sure of eating us up,but they won't find it as easy a job as they fancy. The Duke of Yorkis to command the Fleet. They say that Prince Rupert will be second.To my mind they ought to have entrusted the whole matter to him. Heproved himself as brave a captain at sea as he was on land, and Iwill warrant he would lead his ships into action as gallantly as herode at the head of his Cavaliers on many a stricken field. The shipsare fitting out in all haste, and they are gathering men at everysea-port. I should say they will have no lack of hands, for there aremany ships laid up, that at other times trade with Holland, andDantzic, and Dunkirk, and many a bold young sailor who will be gladto try whether he can fight as stoutly against the Dutch under Yorkand Rupert as his father did under Blake."
"For my part," Cyril said, "I cannot understand it; for it seems tome that the English and Dutch have been fighting for the last year. Ihave been too busy to read the Journal, and have not been in the wayof hearing the talk of the coffeehouses and taverns; but, beyond thatit is some dispute about the colonies, I know little of the matter."
"I am not greatly versed in it myself, lad. Nellie here reads theJournal, and goes abroad more than any of us, and should be able totell us something about it. Now, girl, can't you do something to setus right in this matter, for I like not to be behind my neighbours,though I am such a stay-at-home, having, as I thank the Lord, muchhappiness here, and no occasion to go out to seek it."
"There was much discourse about it, father, the evening I went toDame King's. There were several gentlemen there who had trade withthe East, and one of them held shares in the English Company tradingthither. After supper was over, they discoursed more fully on thematter than was altogether pleasing to some of us, who would muchrather that, as we had hoped, we might have dancing or singing. Icould see that Dame King herself was somewhat put out that herhusband should have, without her knowing of his intention, brought inthese gentlemen. Still, the matter of their conversation was new tous, and we became at last so mightily interested in it that welistened to the discourse without bemoaning ourselves that we hadlost the amusement we looked for. I know I wished at the time thatyou had been there. I say not that I can repeat all that I heard, butas I had before read some of the matters spoken of in the Journal, Icould follow what the gentlemen said more closely. Soon after thecoming of the King to the throne the friendship between us and theSpaniards, that had been weakened during the mastership of Cromwell,was renewed, and they gave our ships many advantages at their ports,while, on the other hand, they took away the privileges the Dutch hadenjoyed there, and thus our commerce with Spain increased, while thatof the Dutch diminished."
"That is certainly true, Nellie," her father said. "We have threeships sailing through the Mediterranean now to one that sailed thereten years ago, and doubtless the Dutch must have suffered by theincrease in our trade."
"Then he said that, as we had obtained the Island of Bombay in theEast Indies and the City of Tangier in Africa as the dowry of theQueen, and had received the Island of Poleron for our East IndiaCompany by the treaty with Holland, our commerce everywhereincreased, and raised their jealousy higher and higher. There wasnothing in this of which complaint could be made by the DutchGovernment, but nevertheless they gave encouragement to their Eastand West India Companies to raise trouble. Their East India Companyrefused to hand over the Island, and laid great limitations as to theplaces at which our merchants might trade in India. The other Companyacted in the same manner, and lawlessly took possession of Cape CoastCastle, belonging to our English Company.
"The Duke of York, who was patron and governor of our AfricanCompany, sent Sir Robert Holmes with four frigates to Guinea to makereprisals. He captured a place from the Dutch and named it James'sFort, and then, proceeding to the river Gambia, he turned out theDutch traders there and built a fort. A year ago, as the Dutch stillheld Cape Coast Castle, Sir Robert was sent out again with orders totake it by force, and on the way he overhauled a Dutch ship and foundshe carried a letter of secret instructions from the Dutch Governmentto the West India Company to take the English Fort at Cormantin.Seeing that the Hollanders, although professing friendship, were thustreacherously inclined, he judged himself justified in exceeding thecommission he had received, and on his way south he touched at CapeVerde. There he first captured two Dutch ships and then attackedtheir forts on the Island of Gorse and captured them, together with aship lying under their guns.
"In the fort he found a great quantity of goods ready to be shipped.He loaded his own vessels, and those that he had captured, with themerchandise, and carried it to Sierra Leone. Then he attacked theDutch fort of St. George del Mena, the strongest on the coast, butfailed there; but he soon afterwards captured Cape Coast Castle,though, as the gentlemen said, a mightily strong place. Then hesaile
d across to America, and, as you know, captured the DutchSettlements of New Netherlands, and changed the name into that of NewYork. He did this not so much out of reprisal for the misconduct ofthe Dutch in Africa, but because the land was ours by right, havingbeen discovered by the Cabots and taken possession of in the name ofKing Henry VII., and our title always maintained until the Dutchseized it thirty years ago.
"Then the Dutch sent orders to De Ruyter, who commanded the fleetwhich was in the Mediterranean, to sail away privately and to makereprisals on the Coast of Guinea and elsewhere. He first capturedseveral of our trading forts, among them that of Cormantin, takinggreat quantities of goods belonging to our Company; he then sailed toBarbadoes, where he was beaten off by the forts. Then he capturedtwenty of our ships off Newfoundland, and so returned to Holland,altogether doing damage, as the House of Commons told His Majesty, tothe extent of eight hundred thousand pounds. All this time the Dutchhad been secretly preparing for war, which they declared in January,which has forced us to do the same, although we delayed a month inhopes that some accommodation might be arrived at. I think, father,that is all that he told us, though there were many details that I donot remember."
"And very well told, lass, truly. I wonder that your giddy headshould have taken in so much matter. Of course, now you tell themover, I have heard these things before--the wrong that the Dutch didour Company by seizing their post at Cape Coast, and the reprisalsthat Sir Robert Holmes took upon them with our Company's ships--butthey made no great mark on my memory, for I was just taking over myfather's work when the first expedition took place. At any rate, nonecan say that we have gone into this war unjustly, seeing that theDutch began it, altogether without cause, by first attacking ourtrading posts."
"It seems to me, Captain Dave," John Wilkes said, "that it has beenmighty like the war that our English buccaneers waged against theSpaniards in the West Indies, while the two nations were at peace athome."
"It is curious," Cyril said, "that the trouble begun in Africa shouldhave shifted to the other side of the Atlantic."
"Ay, lad; just as that first trouble was at last fought out in theEnglish Channel, off the coast of France, so this is likely to bedecided in well-nigh the same waters."
"The gentlemen, the other night, were all of opinion," Nellie said,"that the matter would never have come to such a head had it not beenthat De Witt, who is now the chief man in Holland, belongs to theFrench party there, and has been urged on by King Louis, for his owninterest, to make war with us."
"That may well be, Nellie. In all our English wars France has everhad a part either openly or by intrigues. France never seems to becontent with attending to her own business, but is ever meddling withher neighbours', and, if not fighting herself, trying to set them bythe ears against each other. If I were a bit younger, and had notlost my left flipper, I would myself volunteer for the service. Asfor Master Cyril here, I know he is burning to lay aside the pen andtake to the sword."
"That is so, Captain Dave. As you know, I only took up the pen tokeep me until I was old enough to use a sword. I have been two yearsat it now, and I suppose it will be as much longer before I can thinkof entering the service of one of the Protestant princes; but as soonas I am fit to do so, I shall get an introduction and be off; but Iwould tenfold rather fight for my own country, and would gladly sailin the Fleet, though I went but as a ship's boy."
"That is the right spirit, Master Cyril," John Wilkes exclaimed. "Iwould go myself if the Captain could spare me and they would takesuch a battered old hulk."
"I couldn't spare you, John," Captain Dave said. "I have been mightynear making a mess of it, even with you as chief mate, and I might aswell shut up shop altogether if you were to leave me. I should missyou, too, Cyril," he went on, stretching his arm across the table toshake hands with the lad. "You have proved a real friend and a true;but were there a chance of your going as an officer, I would not balkyou, even if I could do so. It is but natural that a lad of spiritshould speak and think as you do; besides, the war may not last forlong, and when you come back, and the ships are paid off, you wouldsoon wipe off the arrears of work, and get the books into ship-shapeorder. But, work or no work, that room of yours will always standready for you while I live, and there will always be a plate for youon this table."
"Thank you, Captain Dave. You always overrate my services, and forgetthat they are but the consequence of the kindness that you have shownto me. But I have no intention of going. It was but a passingthought. I have but one friend who could procure me a berth as avolunteer, and as it is to him I must look for an introduction tosome foreign prince, I would not go to him twice for a favour,especially as I have no sort of claim on his kindness. To go as acabin boy would be to go with men under my own condition, andalthough I do not shirk hard work and rough usage, I should not carefor them in such fashion. Moreover, I am doing work which, evenwithout your hospitality, would suffice to keep me comfortably, andif I went away, though but for a month, I might find that those forwhom I work had engaged other assistance. Spending naught, I amlaying by money for the time when I shall have to travel at my ownexpense and to provide myself necessaries, and, maybe, to keep myselffor a while until I can procure employment. I have the prospect that,by the end of another two years, I shall have gathered a sufficientstore for all my needs, and I should be wrong to throw myself out ofemployment merely to embark on an adventure, and so to make a break,perhaps a long one, in my plans."
"Don't you worry yourself on that score," Captain Dave said warmly,and then checked himself. "It will be time to talk about that whenthe time comes. But you are right, lad. I like a man who steadfastlyholds on the way he has chosen, and will not turn to the right orleft. There is not much that a man cannot achieve if he keeps his aimsteadily in view. Why, Cyril, if you said you had made up your mindto be Lord Mayor of London, I would wager that you would some day beelected."
Cyril laughed.
"I shall never set my eyes in that direction, nor do I think thething I have set myself to do will ever be in my power--that is, tobuy back my father's estate; but so long as I live I shall keep thatin view."
"More unlikely things have happened, lad. You have got first to riseto be a General; then, what with your pay and your share in the sackof a city or two, and in other ways, you may come home with a pursefull enough even for that. But it is time for us to be going downbelow. Matthew will think that we have forgotten him altogether."
Another fortnight passed. Nellie had, to a considerable extent,recovered from the shock that she had suffered, but her manner wasstill quiet and subdued, her sallies were less lively, and her fathernoticed, with some surprise, that she no longer took any greatinterest in the gossip he retailed of the gay doings of the Court.
"I can't think what has come over the girl," he said to his wife."She seems well in health again, but she is changed a good deal,somehow. She is gentler and softer. I think she is all the better forit, but I miss her merry laugh and her way of ordering things about,as if her pleasure only were to be consulted."
"I think she is very much improved," Mrs. Dowsett said decidedly;"though I can no more account for it than you can. She never used tohave any care about the household, and now she assists me in my work,and is in all respects dutiful and obedient, and is not for ever bentupon gadding about as she was before. I only hope it will continueso, for, in truth, I have often sighed over the thought that shewould make but a poor wife for an honest citizen."
"Tut, tut, wife. It has never been as bad as that. Girls will begirls, and if they are a little vain of their good looks, that willsoften down in time, when they get to have the charge of a household.You yourself, dame, were not so staid when I first wooed you, as youare now; and I think you had your own little share of vanity, as wasnatural enough in the prettiest girl in Plymouth."
When Nellie was in the room Cyril did his best to save her from beingobliged to take part in the conversation, by inducing Captain Dave totell him stories of some of his adventures
at sea.
"You were saying, Captain Dave, that you had had several engagementswith the Tunis Rovers," he said one evening. "Were they ever neartaking you?"
"They did take me once, lad, and that without an engagement; but,fortunately, I was not very long a prisoner. It was not a pleasanttime though, John, was it?"
"It was not, Captain Dave. I have been in sore danger of wreckseveral times, and in three big sea-fights; but never did I feel soout of heart as when I was lying, bound hand and foot, on the ballastin the hold of that corsair. No true sailor is afraid of beingkilled; but the thought that one might be all one's life a slaveamong the cruel heathen was enough to take the stiffness out of anyman's courage."
"But how was it that you were taken without an engagement, CaptainDave? And how did you make your escape?"
"Well, lad, it was the carelessness of my first mate that did it; butas he paid for his fault with his life let us say naught against him.He was a handsome, merry young fellow, and had shipped as secondmate, but my first had died of fever in the Levant, and of course hegot the step, though all too young for the responsibility. We had metwith some bad weather when south of Malta, and had had a heavy galefor three days, during which time we lost our main topmast, and badlystrained the mizzen. The weather abated when we were off Pantellaria,which is a bare rock rising like a mountain peak out of the sea, andwith only one place where a landing can be safely effected. As thegale had blown itself out, and it was likely we should have a spellof settled weather, I decided to anchor close in to the Island, andto repair damages.
"We were hard at work for two days. All hands had had a stiff time ofit, and the second night, having fairly repaired damages, I thoughtto give the crew a bit of a rest, and, not dreaming of danger,ordered that half each watch might remain below. John Wilkes wasacting as my second mate. Pettigrew took the first watch; John hadthe middle watch; and then the other came up again. I turned out onceor twice, but everything was quiet--we had not seen a sail all day.There was a light breeze blowing, but no chance of its increasing,and as we were well sheltered in the only spot where the anchoragewas good, I own that I did not impress upon Pettigrew the necessityfor any particular vigilance. Anyhow, just as morning was breaking Iwas woke by a shout. I ran out on deck, but as I did so there was arush of dark figures, and I was knocked down and bound before I knewwhat had happened. As soon as I could think it over, it was clearenough. The Moor had been coming into the anchorage, and, catchingsight of us in the early light, had run alongside and boarded us.
"The watch, of course, must have been asleep. There was not a shotfired nor a drop of blood shed, for those on deck had been seized andbound before they could spring to their feet, and the crew had allbeen caught in their bunks. It was bitter enough. There was thevessel gone, and the cargo, and with them my savings of twenty years'hard work, and the prospect of slavery for life. The men were allbrought aft and laid down side by side. Young Pettigrew was laid nextto me.
"'I wish to heaven, captain,' he said, 'you had got a pistol and yourhand free, and would blow out my brains for me. It is all my fault,and hanging at the yard-arm is what I deserve. I never thought therewas the slightest risk--not a shadow of it--and feeling a bit dozy,sat down for five minutes' caulk. Seeing that, no doubt the menthought they might do the same; and this is what has come of it. Imust have slept half an hour at least, for there was no sail in sightwhen I went off, and this Moor must have come round the point andmade us out after that.'
"The corsair was lying alongside of us, her shrouds lashed to ours.There was a long jabbering among the Moors when they had taken offour hatches and seen that we were pretty well full up with cargo;then, after a bit, we were kicked, and they made signs for us to geton our feet and to cross over into their ship. The crew were sentdown into the forward hold, and some men went down with them to tiethem up securely. John Wilkes, Pettigrew, and myself were shoved downinto a bit of a place below the stern cabin. Our legs were tied, aswell as our arms. The trap was shut, and there we were in the dark.Of course I told Pettigrew that, though he had failed in his duty,and it had turned out badly, he wasn't to be blamed as if he had goneto sleep in sight of an enemy.
"'I had never given the Moors a thought myself,' I said, 'and it wasnot to be expected that you would. But no sailor, still less anofficer, ought to sleep on his watch, even if his ship is anchored ina friendly harbour, and you are to blame that you gave way todrowsiness. Still, even if you hadn't, it might have come to the samething in the long run, for the corsair is a large one, and might havetaken us even if you had made her out as she rounded the point.'
"But, in spite of all I could say to cheer him, he took it to heartbadly, and was groaning and muttering to himself when they left us inthe dark, so I said to him,--
"'Look here, lad, the best way to retrieve the fault you havecommitted is to try and get us out of the scrape. Set your brains towork, and let us talk over what had best be done. There is no time tobe lost, for with a fair wind they can run from here to Tunis infour-and-twenty hours, and once there one may give up all hope. Thereare all our crew on board this ship. The Moor carried twice as manymen as we do, but we may reckon they will have put more than half ofthem on board our barque; they don't understand her sails as well asthey do their own, and will therefore want a strong prize crew onboard.'
"'I am ready to do anything, captain,' the young fellow said firmly.'If you were to give me the word, I would get into their magazine ifI could, and blow the ship into the air.'
"'Well, I don't know that I will give you that order, Pettigrew. Tobe a heathen's slave is bad, but, at any rate, I would rather trythat life for a bit than strike my colours at once. Now let us thinkit over. In the first place we have to get rid of these ropes; thenwe have to work our way forward to the crew; and then to get on deckand fight for it. It is a stiff job, look at it which way one will,but at any rate it will be better to be doing something--even if wefind at last that we can't get out of this dog-kennel--than to liehere doing nothing.'
"After some talk, we agreed that it was not likely the Moors wouldcome down to us for a long time, for they might reckon that we couldhold on without food or water easy enough until they got to Tunis;having agreed as to that point, we set to work to get our ropesloose. Wriggling wouldn't do it, though we tried until the cords cutinto our flesh.
"At last Pettigrew said,--
"'What a fool I am! I have got my knife hanging from a lanyard roundmy neck. It is under my blouse, so they did not notice it when theyturned my pockets out.'
"It was a long job to get at that knife. At last I found the stringbehind his neck, and, getting hold of it with my teeth, pulled tillthe knife came up to his throat. Then John got it in his teeth, andthe first part of the job was done. The next was easy enough. Johnheld the handle of the knife in his teeth and Pettigrew got hold ofthe blade in his, and between them they made a shift to open it;then, after a good deal of trouble, Pettigrew shifted himself till hemanaged to get the knife in his hands. I lay across him and workedmyself backwards and forwards till the blade cut through the rope atmy wrist; then, in two more minutes, we were free. Then we feltabout, and found that the boarding between us and the main hold wasold and shaky, and, with the aid of the knife and of our threeshoulders, we made a shift at last to wrench one of the boards fromits place.
"Pettigrew, who was slightest, crawled through, and we soon gotanother plank down. The hold was half full of cargo, which, no doubt,they had taken out of some ship or other. We made our way forwardtill we got to the bulkhead, which, like the one we had got through,was but a make-shift sort of affair, with room to put your fingersbetween the planks. So we hailed the men and told them how we had gotfree, and that if they didn't want to work all their lives as slavesthey had best do the same. They were ready enough, you may be sure,and, finding a passage between the planks wider in one place than therest, we passed the knife through to them, and told them how to setabout cutting the rope. They were a deal quicker over it than we hadbee
n, for in our place there had been no height where we could standupright, but they were able to do so. Two men, standing back to backand one holding the knife, made quick work of cutting the rope.
"We had plenty of strength now, and were not long in getting down acouple of planks. The first thing was to make a regular overhaul ofthe cargo--as well as we could do it, without shifting things andmaking a noise--to look for weapons or for anything that would comein handy for the fight. Not a thing could we find, but we came upon alot of kegs that we knew, by their feel, were powder. If there hadbeen arms and we could have got up, we should have done it at once,trusting to seize the ship before the other could come up to herhelp. But without arms it would be madness to try in broad daylight,and we agreed to wait till night, and to lie down again where we werebefore, putting the ropes round our legs again and our hands behindour backs, so that, if they did look in, everything should seemsecure.
"'We shall have plenty of time,' one of the sailors said, 'for theyhave coiled a big hawser down on the hatch.'
"When we got back to our lazaret, we tried the hatch by which we hadbeen shoved down, but the three of us couldn't move it any more thanif it had been solid stone. We had a goodish talk over it, and it wasclear that the hatchway of the main hold was our only chance ofgetting out; and we might find that a tough job.
"'If we can't do it in any other way,' Pettigrew said, 'I should saywe had best bring enough bales and things to fill this place up towithin a foot of the top; then on that we might put a keg of powder,bore a hole in it, and make a slow match that would blow the cabinoverhead into splinters, while the bales underneath it would preventthe force of the explosion blowing her bottom out.'
"We agreed that, if the worst came to the worst, we would try this,and having settled that, went back to have a look at the main hatch.Feeling about round it, we found the points of the staple on whichthe hatchway bar worked above; they were not fastened with nuts asthey would have been with us, but were simply turned over andclinched. We had no means of straightening them out, but we could cutthrough the woodwork round them. Setting to work at that, we took itby turns till we could see the light through the wood; then we leftit to finish after dark. All this time we knew we were under sail bythe rippling of the water along the sides. The men on board wereevidently in high delight at their easy capture, and kicked up somuch noise that there was no fear of their hearing any slight stir wemade below.
"Very carefully we brought packages and bales under the hatchway,till we built up a sort of platform about four feet below it. Wereckoned that, standing as thick as we could there, and all liftingtogether, we could make sure of hoisting the hatchway up, and couldthen spring out in a moment.
"Pettigrew still stuck to his plan, and talked us into carrying itout, both under the fore and aft hatches, pointing out that the twoexplosions would scare the crew out of their wits, that some would bekilled, and many jump overboard in their fright. We came to see thatthe scheme was really a good one, so set all the crew to carry outthe business, and they, working with stockinged feet, built up aplatform under their hatch, as well as in our den aft. Then we madeholes in two of the kegs of powder, and, shaking a little out, dampedit, and rubbed it into two strips of cotton. Putting an end of a slowmatch into each of the holes, we laid the kegs in their places andwaited.
"We made two other fuses, so that a man could go forward, and anotheraft, to fire them both together. Two of the men were told off forthis job, and the rest of us gathered under the main hatch, for wehad settled now that if we heard them making any move to open thehatches we would fire the powder at once, whatever hour it was. Inorder to be ready, we cut deeper into the woodwork round the stapletill there was but the thickness of a card remaining, and we couldtell by this how light it was above.
"It don't take long to tell you, but all this had taken us a goodmany hours; and so baked were we by the heat down below, and parchedby thirst, that it was as much as I could do to persuade the men towait until nightfall. At last we saw the light in the cut fade anddarken. Again the men wanted to be at work, but I pointed out that ifwe waited till the crew had laid down on the deck, we might carry itthrough without losing a life, but if they were all awake, some ofthem would be sure to come at us with their weapons, and, unarmed aswe were, might do us much harm. Still, though I succeeded in keepingthe men quiet, I felt it was hard work to put a stopper on my ownimpatience.
"At last even John here spoke up for action.
"'I expect those who mean to sleep are off by this time,' he said.'As to reckoning upon them all going off, there ain't no hope of it;they will sit and jabber all night. They have made a good haul, andhave taken a stout ship with a full hold, and five-and-twenty stoutslaves, and that without losing a man. There won't be any sleep formost of them. I reckon it is two bells now. I do think, Captain, wemight as well begin, for human nature can't stand this heat andthirst much longer.'
"'All right, John,' I said. 'Now, lads, remember that when the firstexplosion comes--for we can't reckon on the two slow matches burningjust the same time--we all heave together till we find the hatchlifts; then, when the second comes, we chuck it over and leap out. Ifyou see a weapon, catch it up, but don't waste time looking about,but go at them with your fists. They will be scared pretty well outof their senses, and you will not be long before you all get hold ofweapons of some sort. Now, Pettigrew, shove your blade up through thewood and cut round the staple. Now, Jack Brown, get out thattinder-box you said you had about you, and get a spark going.'
"Three or four clicks were heard as the sailor struck his flintagainst the steel lid of the tinder-box.
"'All right, yer honour,' he said, 'I have got the spark.'
"Then the two hands we had given the slow matches to, lit them at thetinder-box, and went fore and aft, while as many of the rest of us ascould crowded under the hatch.
"'Are you ready, fore and aft?' I asked.
"The two men hailed in reply.
"'Light the matches, then, and come here.'
"I suppose it was not above a minute, but it seemed ten before therewas a tremendous explosion aft. The ship shook from stem to stern.There was a moment's silence, and then came yells and screams mixedwith the sound of timbers and wreckage falling on the deck.
"'Now lift,' I said. 'But not too high. That is enough--she is free.Wait for the other.'
"There was a rush of feet overhead as the Moors ran forward. Thencame the other explosion.
"'Off with her, lads!' I shouted, and in a moment we flung the hatchoff and leapt out with a cheer. There was no fighting to speak of.The officers had been killed by the first explosion under theircabin, and many of the men had either been blown overboard or laycrushed under the timber and wreckage.
"The second explosion had been even more destructive, for it happenedjust as the crew, in their terror, had rushed forward. Many of thoseunhurt had sprung overboard at once, and as we rushed up most of theothers did the same. There was no difficulty about arms, for the deckwas strewn with weapons. Few of us, however, stopped to pick one up,but, half mad with rage and thirst, rushed forward at the Moors. Thatfinished them; and before we got to them the last had sprungoverboard. There was a rush on the part of the men to the scuttlebutt.
"'Take one drink, lads,' I shouted, 'and then to the buckets.'
"It took us a quarter of an hour's hard work to put out the flames,and it was lucky the powder had blown so much of the decks up that wewere enabled to get at the fire without difficulty, and so extinguishit before it got any great hold.
"As soon as we had got it out I called a muster. There was only onemissing;--it was Pettigrew, he being the first to leap out and rushaft. There had been but one shot fired by the Moors. One fellow, ashe leapt on to the rail, drew his pistol from his belt and firedbefore he sprang overboard. In the excitement and confusion no onehad noticed whether the shot took effect, for two or three men hadstumbled and fallen over fragments of timber or bodies as we rushedaft. But now we searched, and soo
n came on the poor young fellow. Theball had struck him fair on the forehead, and he had fallen deadwithout a word or a cry.
"There was, however, no time to grieve. We had got to re-capture thebarque, which had been but a cable's length away when we rushed ondeck; while we had been fighting the fire she had sailed on,regardless of the shrieks and shouts of the wretches who had sprungoverboard from us. But she was still near us; both vessels had beenrunning before the wind, for I had sent John Wilkes to the tiller themoment that we got possession of the corsair, and the barque was butabout a quarter of a mile ahead.
"The wind was light, and we were running along at four knots an hour.The Moors on board the _Kate_ had, luckily, been too scared by theexplosion to think of getting one of the guns aft and peppering uswhile we were engaged in putting out the fire; and indeed, they couldnot have done us much harm if they had, for the high fo'castle hid usfrom their view.
"As soon as we had found Pettigrew's body and laid it on the hatch wehad thrown off, I went aft to John.
"'Are we gaining on her, John?'
"'No; she has drawn away a little. But this craft is not doing herbest. I expect they wanted to keep close to the barque, and so kepther sheets in. If you square the sails, captain, we shall soon beupon her.'
"That was quickly done, and then the first thing was to see that themen were all armed. We could have got a gun forward, but I did notwant to damage the _Kate_, and we could soon see that we wereclosing on her. We shoved a bag of musket-balls into each cannon, soas to sweep her decks as we came alongside, for we knew that her crewwas a good deal stronger than we were. Still, no one had any doubt asto the result, and it was soon evident that the Moors had got such ascare from the fate of their comrades that they had no stomach forfighting.
"'They are lowering the boats,' John shouted.
"'All the better,' I said. 'They would fight like rats caught in atrap if we came up to them, and though we are men enough to captureher, we might lose half our number.'
"As soon as the boats reached the water they were all pulled up tothe starboard side, and then the helm was put down, and the barquecame round till she was broadside on to us.
"'Down with your helm, John Wilkes!' I shouted. 'Hard down, man!'
"John hesitated, for he had thought that I should have gone round tothe other side of her and so have caught all the boats; but, intruth, I was so pleased at the thought of getting the craft backagain that I was willing to let the poor villains go, since they wereof a mind to do so without giving us trouble. We had punished themenough, and the shrieks and cries of those left behind to drown wereringing in my ears then. So we brought the corsair up quietly by theside of the _Kate_, lashed her there, and then, with a shout oftriumph, sprang on board the old barky.
"Not a Moor was left on board. The boats were four or five hundredyards away, rowing at the top of their speed. The men would have runto the guns, but I shouted,--
"'Let them go, lads. We have punished them heavily enough; we havetaken their ship, and sent half of them to Eternity. Let them takethe tale back to Tunis how a British merchantman re-captured theirship. Now set to work to get some of the sail off both craft, andthen, when we have got things snug, we will splice the main brace andhave a meal.'
"There is no more to tell. We carried the rover into Gibraltar andsold her and her cargo there. It brought in a good round sum, and,except for the death of Pettigrew, we had no cause to regret thecorsair having taken us by surprise that night off Pantellaria."
"That was an exciting business, indeed, Captain Dave," Cyril said,when the Captain brought his story to a conclusion. "If it had notbeen for your good fortune in finding those kegs of powder, andPettigrew's idea of using them as he did, you and John might now, ifyou had been alive, have been working as slaves among the Moors."
"Yes, lad. And not the least lucky thing was that Pettigrew's knifeand Jack Brown's tinder-box had escaped the notice of the Moors. Jackhad it in an inside pocket sewn into his shirt so as to keep it dry.It was a lesson to me, and for the rest of the time I was at sea Ialways carried a knife, with a lanyard round my neck, and stowed awayin an inside pocket of my shirt, together with a tinder-box. They aretwo as useful things as a sailor can have about him, for, if castupon a desert shore after a wreck, a man with a knife and tinder-boxmay make shift to live, when, without them, he and his comrades mightfreeze to death."