CHAPTER III.
OLIVER BENSON'S SCHEME.
Phil Robbins and I stood gazing into each other's eyes as if incapableof speech, during at least sixty seconds after the fellow who hadtrapped us announced the purpose of his scheme. That we two lads, whowere of no consequence whatsoever in the sight of the officers of the_Essex_, should have been made the victims of a plot seemed tooridiculous to be true; but yet the locked door was sufficient evidencefor the most incredulous.
It was Phil who first found his tongue, and he asked sharply, as ifpositive I could give him a satisfactory answer:--
"What does the villain mean by locking us in here? He must think we arerare prizes!"
"I'm not making any mistake as to what you're worth," Benson cried fromthe hallway. "Yankees don't bring any extravagant price in this part ofthe world; but the demand is so great that I won't be forced to keepyou many hours after your tub of a ship leaves port."
My head was so thick that even then I failed to understand his purpose,but had an idea the fellow looked upon us as his personal enemiesbecause England was at war with the United States, and said to Phil,giving no heed to the fact that I spoke sufficiently loud for Benson tohear:--
"The fellow is such a fool as to believe he serves his country byimprisoning us."
"That's where you are making a big mistake, my Yankee cub. Whalers inthis portion of the world are not overly particular as to how they shipa crew, and pay a decently good price to whoever delivers themable-bodied hands."
Now I understood what this enterprising Britisher had in mind. Iremembered reading, before I left home, a long account of how sailorswere trapped in foreign ports by the captains of whaling vessels who hadlost members of their crews by death or desertion.
If we could be held prisoners until there was no longer any Americanvessels in port, Benson might literally sell us to a British whaler; andonce on board such a craft, our chances for escape or relief before thevoyage had come to an end would be very small.
I was overwhelmed with grief and anger. The knowledge of ourhelplessness increased my wrath until for a certain length of time I waslittle better than an insane lad.
I stormed and raved from one end of the small apartment to the other,now and again throwing myself against the stoutly barred door as if bysuch means I might break it down; and during the paroxysm Phil lay atfull length on the floor, giving noisy vent to his sorrow and despair.There was no care in my mind that Benson was most likely listening toall we said or did, and would set us down as chicken-hearted; I onlygave heed to our situation, knowing full well how entirely we were inhis power.
It was not to be supposed that the _Essex_ would remain many days longerin port; in eight-and-forty hours she would most likely get under way,and we two lads who had dreamed of winning honor and promotion would beset down as deserters. Even Master Hackett must believe we had run away,since, by trying to make him think we were not eager to remain in hiscompany, lest he should waste all his time of liberty upon us, we hadmade it appear as if our greatest desire was to be alone.
Like a flash all the possibilities of the situation came into my mind. Iheard the comments of our shipmates, saw the word "deserter" writtenopposite our names on the ship's register, and imagined the grief of myparents when the _Essex_ returned to port with such a disgraceful storyconcerning us. Meanwhile I could see Phil and myself forced to this orthat disagreeable task, and the end of it all, a tardy release in someforeign port from which we would be forced to work our way home as bestwe might.
It was a most mournful picture, view it in whatever light I might, andthe stoutest-hearted could well be excused for growing faint and sickwith apprehension.
Whether we spent one hour or three in such useless wailings I am unableto say; it seemed to me much as if we had been a full day in that placebefore I so far recovered composure of mind as to be able to look at thesituation with some degree of common sense, and then my first act was tosoothe Phil, who still remained stretched at full length upon the floor,weeping and wailing.
It was not a difficult task to persuade him into something approachingcalmness; he had literally exhausted himself by giving way so violentlyto sorrow, and was, like myself, ready to play a more manly part.
Our first act, after thus coming to our senses, so to speak, was tomake a thorough examination of this apartment which served as prison;for of course the thought of escape had been uppermost in our minds,even when our grief was most violent.
The room was not different from what one might have fancied after seeingthe exterior of the building. It was, however, twelve feet square, witha ceiling so low that I could touch it by standing on tiptoe. There weretwo windows, both closely barred with iron, as I had already noticed wasusual in Valparaiso, and the view from them was confined to a small platof ground enclosed by a high wall of stone, the top of which was nearlyon a level with one of the windows.
"If we could get out of here, it would not be a difficult task to reachthe ground," Phil said, in a certain tone of hopefulness.
"I'd guarantee to bring up on the ground all right, wall or no wall, ifit wasn't for the bars."
Then, with one accord, we laid hold of the iron rods, wrenching at themwith all our strength, but not moving them by so much as a single hair'sbreadth, so far as I could see.
That Benson yet remained in the hall outside, and could hear all thatwas said or done, we knew when he cried mockingly:--
"Keep on pulling at the bars so long as such work pleases you; theyhave held stronger men than you ever will be, and I'm not afraid of yourgiving me the slip in that way!"
Thus we knew that the wretch had made a business of trapping strangersto sell them to whalers, and this but served to make our case appearmore hopeless; for if he had had experience in such scoundrelly work, itwas probable he would be on his guard against anything we might try todo.
By this time I was weary, mentally and bodily, and, not minded to givethe villain any more pleasure,--for I doubted not but that he enjoyedhearing his prisoners beat vainly against the bars of their cage,--Iwhispered to Phil:--
"Don't speak nor move. We'll remain silent until he grows tired oflistening and goes away."
My comrade nodded to show that he agreed, and, seating ourselves on thefloor where we could look out of the window, even though there wasnothing save the small patch of grass to be seen, we held our peaceuntil the shadows of evening began to lengthen.
Now was come the time when our shipmates would be returning to the_Essex_ after a day's pleasuring, and as I fancied them standing on theshore, discussing the cause of our absence, it was impossible torestrain my tears.
Not until the night had fully come did we hear anything from thehallway, and then the faint sound of stealthy footsteps told that thevillanous Benson, wearied with his fruitless vigil, was descending thestairs.
We listened in vain for some noise betokening that the building hadother occupants than our enemy and ourselves; not a sound broke thesilence, and it seemed only reasonable that the scoundrel put thedwelling to no other purpose than that of a prison.
It would be useless for me to make any attempt at setting down here allPhil and I said during the hours of the night, for much of ourconversation was wild in the extreme, and we repeated the same wordsagain and again, as would any lads in such a situation as we had sosuddenly been plunged.
About midnight we fell asleep, still sitting on the floor, for there wasno furniture whatsoever in the room; and the day was just breaking whena noise in the yard outside awakened us.
Looking out from between the bars we saw Benson, who was placing aladder against the building, directly under our window.
"If he'd only come near enough for me to hit one blow!" Phil mutteredbetween his teeth, and I wished we might have so much satisfaction asthat, even while knowing he would never give us such an opportunity.
"I'm not counting on starving you Yankees," the villain said with alaugh, "and yet I'm no such fool as to open the door long e
nough toshove in food. You see I'm running this business alone, for the profitsare not large enough to permit of my hiring a clerk, therefore some ofmy arrangements are not really convenient. I'm going to pass you the endof a rope. Then I can stand on the ground and serve you with food andwater to be hauled up."
"I wonder if he thinks we'll indulge him in his monkey shines?" Philwhispered angrily; and I, suddenly realizing that we could only succeedin biting our own noses if we went contrary to Benson's commands, saidhurriedly in a low tone:--
"Hold your tongue! We're bound to eat and drink if we count on makingany effort at getting away. Take what he gives us, and we may therebykeep up our strength to be used in case an opportunity for escapepresents itself."
By this time Benson was nearly at the top of the ladder; but he tookgood care not to come within reach of our fists.
He passed in to us a half-inch Manila rope, and I seized the end,whereupon the villain descended and bent on a small tin vessel filledwith what appeared to be a stew of beans and other vegetables.
"When you've hauled in, let down the rope again and I'll send you upsome water," Benson cried; and I obeyed his commands in silence.
When we had thus been served, he said in the tone of one who impartspleasing information:--
"You'll have to get along without me to-day, for I'm counting oncatching two or three more Yankees before sunset."
Phil shook his fist at the scoundrel; but I, without knowing exactlywhy, felt a certain amount of satisfaction because he reckoned on makingmore prisoners.
Then the fellow disappeared from view, and Phil said angrily:--
"I hope our messmates will have more sense than we displayed when weagreed to let him show us the town."
"And I'm hoping he'll make a big haul."
Phil gazed at me in anger and astonishment, whereupon I hastened toexplain myself.
"There is no doubt but that he can easily do with us as he has proposed,and our officers will make no great effort to find two boys who arebelieved to have deserted. If that scoundrelly Britisher can capturehalf a dozen of our crew there'll be a big stir aboard ship, and, inaddition, he won't be able to work his will with so many. One or moremay succeed in escaping, and then the truth will be known."
Phil's face brightened wonderfully, for he had not looked at the matterin that light before, and without further conversation we set aboutmaking a hearty breakfast.
Once our stomachs were filled, hope revived. We were eager that a largenumber of our men might be entrapped by Benson, and discussed thepossibility of his success with as much zest as he might have done.
Then, after two hours or more had elapsed, we began to reflect that itwould not be possible for a lad like him to scrape acquaintance with menas easily as he had with us boys, and we grew despondent once more.
Finally I gave up all belief that he could entice any of the crew intohis prison, and said with more of hope in my tones than was actually inmy heart:--
"Two great hulking lads like ourselves should be able to get out of anordinary house! If this place had been built for a jail, the situationwould be changed; but it is no more than an ordinary dwelling, and Idare say these bars are not set in the wall so solidly but that we cansucceed in moving them."
"Tell me how to go about it, and I'll do my best; but I fail tounderstand how we can accomplish anything."
Phil's despair served to give me what was very like courage; and eventhough there was but little hope in my heart that we could effectanything, I spoke as if certain of success.
"We have our knives, and with such tools many a man has worked his waytoward freedom. The mortar which holds the wall in place can be pickedout in time, and Benson won't have a chance to sell us for several daysafter the _Essex_ leaves port."
"It would require a month of hard work to loosen even one of thesestones," Phil replied gloomily.
"We shall be better off by making some effort at escape, even though wenever succeed. It is almost cowardly to sit here idle, waiting untilthat villain can entrap our comrades."
Having said this I set myself at work pricking out particles of mortarwith the point of my knife; and although the work progressed but slowly,I could soon see some slight results.
Phil watched me listlessly until I had taken out as much as would filla large spoon, and then he began to see that the task was possible if wehad sufficient time.
"It's better than doing nothing," he said, as if the idea was his own,and at once began upon the seam of mortar next that on which I wasworking.
Occupation of some kind was what we most needed; and as the moments woreon we increased our efforts until, when the sun marked the hour of noon,we had made quite a showing, although at the expense of grinding awayour knife-points.
We had worked upon that stone which held the side bar in place, and ifit might be removed we would have an aperture not less than eight inchesin width. As a matter of course, neither of us could pass through such anarrow space; but if two of the bars were pulled out, then was the wayopen.
We were both resting from our labors when I was seized by a suddenthought, and cried exultantly:--
"We can escape if no time is wasted!"
"I can't see but that the situation is much the same as when we werefirst thrust into this place," Phil said gloomily.
"So it is; but since the villanous Benson passed us the rope, I'm of theidea that we can do considerable work."
"How?"
"We have surely done something toward loosening the stones. Now, if wemake the rope fast to the lower end of the bar, and also to the handleof the door, one or the other must give way when we get purchaseenough."
"Yes, I reckon all that is true; but we're no more likely to get apurchase on it than we are to walk out of here this minute."
"I believe it can be done."
"Then the handle of the door will give way first."
This was rather in the nature of a wet blanket on my hopes; but I wouldnot admit that the plan had any defects which might not be rectified,and set about solving the problem.
Finally I hit upon a plan,--not anything very brilliant, but a makeshiftwhich might possibly serve our purpose.
Doubling the rope, I made one end fast to the bar set into the stone wehad been working upon, and the other end I bent on to the correspondingbar in the next window, hauling it taut as possible.
"With our feet against the lower edge of the window we should be able tofetch something away," I said in a hopeful tone; "and even though wefail at first, the plan is sure to succeed after we've picked out alittle more of the mortar."
Well, we tugged and strained to the utmost of our strength for tenminutes or more, and then, just as I had said to myself that we nevercould succeed, one end of the bar started ever so slightly.
"It can be done!" Phil cried exultantly, and would have bent himselfonce more for a supreme effort but that I stopped him.
"There's little chance we could pull two bars out before sunset, and ifthe job is but half done when Benson comes back, he'll understand whatwe're trying to do. A fellow who makes a business of trapping men won'tstop at anything, however desperate, in order to prevent his villanyfrom being known to the authorities."
"Well, are we to sit here idle?" Phil asked angrily.
"Not a bit of it! We'll amuse ourselves picking mortar from the nextseam, and thus have both stones loosened by nightfall. After dark we canyank two bars out, or I'm mistaken."
Now it seemed as if liberty was near at hand; and after I had cast offthe rope that we might be able to lower it from the window in caseBenson proposed to give us any more food, we set to work on thedifficult task of scraping away the hard mortar.
It must not be supposed that we removed any very great amount duringthis long day; but we had laid bare a deep seam, and thus accomplishedmore than I had at first believed would be possible.
When evening had come there was no doubt in my mind but that we could,by aid of the rope, wrench away the bars, and I felt brave
as a lionwhen footsteps on the stairs outside told that the scoundrelly Bensonwas returning.
"He didn't succeed in trapping any one else!" Phil said jubilantly. "Wewere the only fools on board the _Essex_."
"Hello in there!" Benson cried out; and I said gruffly:--
"Well, what do you want?"
"It's well to let you know that I'm around. Your ship is ready to leaveport in the morning, and forty-eight hours later you two duffers will begetting an idea of whale fishing."
"Which will be better than staying here forced to listen to the voice ofa cur like you!" Phil replied.
"That little show of temper will cost you your supper," Benson cried ina rage. "I'll starve you into submission, if you turn rusty, so have acare."
"I reckon you've lost your temper because of not finding any more foolsamong the crew of the _Essex_!"
"I don't keep all my birds in one cage."
"But you've got all from the _Essex_ in this one, and we two make up thelist," Phil cried with a laugh, for he was finding considerable sport inthus baiting the villain.
"Better keep a quiet tongue in your head," I whispered, "otherwise hemight come inside and see what we've been doing."
"I only wish he would!" and Phil flourished his knife in a manner whichtold what he would do if our enemy should be so indiscreet as to comewithin striking distance.
Benson stalked to and fro in the hallway when we ceased to reply to hisjibes, and after half an hour or more we heard him descending the stairsagain.
Then, by gazing through the bars, we could see that he had gone into theenclosure,--most likely to make certain everything was as he had leftit; and we listened to the noise of his movements until all was silentonce more.
"He's gone out in the hope of catching such of our men as haveoverstayed their shore leave," Phil whispered. "Now is our time tobegin work with the rope."
I insisted that we wait ten minutes longer, to make it more certain thescoundrel had left the building, and then we began the task which Iconfidently expected would result in our release.
The rope was made fast as before, and we two laid hold of it with awill; but haul and pull as we would, the bars remained firmly in place.That one which we had started during the afternoon was immovable, andthe perspiration was running down our faces in tiny streams before wewere ready to admit that the plan was a failure.
"He'll work his will with us," Phil said with a sob as we ceased ourefforts and stood facing each other in the darkness. "We can't get out!"
"Don't lose your courage so soon. We can work at the mortar all dayto-morrow, and then I'm certain the bars will yield."
"By that time the _Essex_ will have left port."
"Other American vessels put in here, and surely we can work our way homewithout being forced to serve on board a whaler. Besides, the _Essex_ islikely to visit this port more than once before her work in the Pacificis concluded."
Phil would not be soothed, and he turned from me impatiently just as Ifancied a low whistle sounded outside, near the garden wall.
In an instant I was at the window, pressing my face against the barsuntil the iron made great ridges on my cheeks; but the silence wasprofound, and I believed that which I heard was nothing more than thewind.
Turning from the window in disappointment, I was about to speak to Phil,when the whistle sounded again, low and soft, but so distinctly thatthere could be no mistake.
Phil heard it as I did, and we two sprang to the gratings once more,expecting, hoping, to hear the voices of our messmates.
Everything was silent, and I stood there like a simple fully thirtyseconds before gathering sufficient sense to speak. Then I criedsoftly:--
"_Essex_ ahoy!"
"Ahoy in the shanty!" a voice replied, and I sank to my knees in ferventthanksgiving, for I recognized the tones of Master Hackett. Now, eventhough we might not be released, it would be known aboard ship that wehad not deserted.
"Where are you?" the old seaman asked in a loud whisper, after remainingsilent a few seconds.
"At a window just above the height of the wall," Phil replied, and thena happy thought came to me.
"We've got a half-inch rope here, Master Hackett, and can let it down ifperchance you might be able to use it."
"If an old shellback like me can't use a rope, I'd like to see the manwho can. Let it down, lads, an' move lively, for I've had hard work tokeep out of the course of a British cub who's been actin' in a way thatdon't seem honest."
While he spoke I was lowering the rope over the wall, and when MasterHackett sung out that he had it, we belayed the remaining portion to acouple of the bars, knowing full well that the old man would soon appearat the top of the wall unless some one on the street interfered withhim.
Nor were we mistaken. Before I could have counted ten he was clutchingthe bars of our prison, asking how we chanced to be in such a scrape.
In the fewest possible words I explained how we had been trapped andwhat Benson proposed to do with us; whereupon the old man said half tohimself:--
"Now I can see what he was after when he came rubbin' alongside some ofus, offerin' to show fine sights if we'd go with him. But instead ofstandin' here yarnin', I reckon we'd better get you out of the trap."
"Wouldn't it be well to report on board that we've been made prisoners,and ask that a squad of men be sent on shore?" Phil asked timidly. "IfBenson should get an inkling of your being here, he'd make more troublefor us in some way; and it won't pay to take any chances."
"I don't count on takin' any more'n is wholesome, an' at the same timeain't willin' to flash up on board with the yarn that I couldn't get thebest of one Britisher, an' him in a foreign country."
Then Master Hackett made an examination of the bars, after which hesuddenly disappeared from view, and, to my great surprise, I saw that,pulling the rope inside the wall, he had slipped into the enclosure.
Now he was almost as much of a prisoner as were we; and if the Britishershould come back, the old man might find himself in tight quarters, forit was reasonable to suppose that a man engaged in such a villanousbusiness as was Benson always went well armed.
However, it was destined that Master Hackett should not be disturbed;and we could see him faintly in the darkness, moving here and there asif in search of something.
Then he placed the ladder against the wall, and when he had ascended tothe level of our window we saw that he had with him a short piece ofjoist.
Using this as a lever, after we had told him which bars we had beenworking on, he forced the iron rods from their sockets in short order,thus making for us an open door through which we could pass to the topof the wall.
HE FORCED THE IRON RODS FROM THEIR SOCKETS IN SHORTORDER.]
"You can come out now," the old man said with a chuckle, "an' the nexttime you're in a strange port I reckon you'll be more careful aboutfollowin' them as agree to give a free blow-out."
It can readily be imagined that we lost no time in acting upon thesuggestion, and by the aid of the rope we slid down to the ground,exulting in the sense of freedom.
Master Hackett led us into one of the main streets, and while doing soexplained that when we failed to return to the ship on time he suspectedwe had fallen into trouble, although more than one of the men suggestedthat we had deserted.
"I didn't reckon you were the kind of lads who'd turn around in thatfashion, an' so got permission to come ashore for a spell, agreein' toreport to-morrow mornin' if I hadn't come across anything that wouldshow why you'd failed to turn up. Then it was I run across thatBritisher, an' found he was mighty anxious to give me a free spree. Itwas that which made me believe he could tell somethin' about you, an' Iset about findin' where he lived. It wasn't any easy matter for an oldshellback to follow that sneak, who had good reason for thinkin' some ofus might want to know where he anchored hisself nights; but I managedthe traverse in fair shape, an' here we are."
"Can we go on board the _Essex_ to-night?" Phil asked.
"I
reckon we might by hirin' a boatman; but there's no reason why weneed be in a hurry."
"I'd rather be on the gun-deck than in this town," Phil replied with ashudder, and at that instant, just as we were turning a corner, we cameface to face with Oliver Benson, the young Britisher who made a businessof selling Yankee seamen to English whalers.
My first impulse was to run away, but before I could so much as moveMaster Hackett had leaped upon the villain, and then I would not havebeat a retreat no matter what might have been the cost of remaining.
I joined the fray, for the Britisher immediately began to fightdesperately; and during several moments the three of us had quite asmuch of a task as we could perform, for Benson was armed with a wickedlooking knife, and knew right well how to use it.
But for Phil, the villain would have succeeded in stabbing MasterHackett in the back while the two were locked in each other's embrace;but once his weapon was taken from him, the scoundrel showed signs ofsubmission.
"Don't give him a chance to play us any tricks," the old man said as heunknotted his neckerchief preparatory to binding Benson's hands behindhis back; and I wondered greatly why we should burden ourselves with aprisoner in a town where, for aught we knew, he might have many friendsor accomplices.