A Desperate Voyage Part 13

"Bravo!" grunted El Toro. "That sounds a likely bit of business. I will go and sharpen my knife at once. And so our English milord is a game-c.o.c.k, after all, like the rest of us."

"He is worth fifty of you," said Baptiste. "He has the clever brains that can devise; and he is braver than you, El Toro."

"I acknowledge him to be my superior, even in courage. I have not forgotten how he defied the devil himself in the _terremoto_," replied the Basque.

Baptiste turned to Carew, and proceeded to speak in French. "The lads are ready to follow you anywhere, sir."

"They did not seem at all surprised, and received your communication in a very matter-of-fact way," said Carew.

"They are accustomed to strange jobs of this kind. But I don't think they quite realise what a vast sum we are going to make. Idiots! It would be a pity to give them too much. We must settle later on, captain, how to divide the spoil."

"Last night you said that it should be divided equally among us."

"I spoke hastily. I don't think so now. You and I appreciate money and know how to use it. These pigs would squander it. We will give them just enough to keep their mouths shut. You and I will divide the bulk. If we fill their hands with bright gold pieces, the ignorant wretches will imagine that they have got an inexhaustible fortune, and they will go away perfectly satisfied. I know the animals."

The mate, taking Carew's watch and chain with him, rowed on sh.o.r.e in the dinghy, and returned in an hour with three revolvers, some cartridges, and a quant.i.ty of plantains, yams, and other vegetables.

He leapt on deck. "Captain," he cried, "there is not much time to be lost. I have learnt that _La Bonne Esperance_--that is the barque's name--will sail without fail this evening as soon as the land breeze springs up."

"Then we will get under way immediately after breakfast," said Carew; "for the wind seems to be light outside, and we shall not travel fast."

The land breeze, which blows all night at Rio and refreshes the heated atmosphere, died away before the necessary preparations had been made on the yacht, and the usual calm succeeded it. So Carew had to remain at anchor until midday, when the sea breeze, that prevails throughout the hottest hours of the day, sprang up; and all sail being hoisted, the _Petrel_ tacked out of the bay.

The yacht sailed out to sea, close-hauled on the port-tack; but the wind was very light, and she did not make more than two knots an hour.

At sunset the land was still in sight, and Carew took cross-bearings, so as to ascertain his exact position. Throughout the night the navigation of the yacht was conducted with unusual care. The helmsman steered "full and by" with as much nicety as if he had been sailing a race.

Every few minutes the officer of the watch looked at the compa.s.s, in order to detect the slightest change in the direction of the wind.

Without these precautions it would have been impossible on the morrow to calculate with sufficient precision the track of the following barque.

At daybreak Carew made out that he was about forty miles from the land.

"We have gone far enough, Baptiste," he said. "The next thing is to calculate how much nearer this yacht sails to the wind than a clumsy, square-rigged vessel like _La Bonne Esperance_."

"Our steering has been so good," replied the mate, "that we must have been sailing at least a point and a half closer than the barque."

"About that, I should say. We will run down to leeward some ten miles, and then, I think, we shall be lying right across her track."

The sheets were eased off, and the vessel was steered at right angles to her former course. As the wind was stronger, she covered the ten miles in less than two hours. Then Carew gave the order to heave-to.

While the yacht, her jib to windward, rose and fell on the ocean swell without making any progress, everything was got ready for the carrying out of their design. The dinghy was lowered; the men placed in it their baggage and some of the more portable valuables belonging to the yacht.

Carew put into the sternsheets a portmanteau containing, among other things, the ship's papers, Allen's diary and cheque-book, the revolvers, and the drugs which he had purchased in Rotterdam.

Carew himself undertook to scuttle the yacht. He cut away a portion of the panelling in the main cabin; then, having bored a large hole with an auger through the vessel's skin, he stopped it with a wooden plug. To this plug he attached a piece of strong cord, which he led up on deck through the skylight.

The men stood by watching him.

"You see, Baptiste," he explained, "I have but to pull this cord, out comes the plug, and the vessel fills and sinks."

"That is all very well so far," replied the mate; "but suppose you have pulled out your plug, and your vessel is three parts full, and the barque won't stop to pick us up,--anything is possible at sea; such inhumanity among sailors is not unknown,--what will you do then? How are you to get at that hole again to stop any more water coming in? A wise general secures his retreat, captain."

"I have thought of all that, Baptiste," said Carew; "you have not seen half my arrangements yet. Follow me into the after-cabin."

Baptiste obeyed.

"Now take up the flooring," continued the captain.

When the boards were raised a long piece of lead piping was disclosed, which was connected with the end of one of the ship's two pumps.

"Cut that piping off as close as you can to the pump, and bring it on deck."

This was done; then Carew, to the astonishment of his crew, proceeded to bend the piping until it a.s.sumed the form of a lengthened U. Putting a bung into one end of it he poured water into it from the other end until it was full. Dipping the open end into the sea, he pa.s.sed the other arm through one of the ports, so that it depended into the cabin below the level of the water-line.

"Hah! I see now; it is a syphon," exclaimed Baptiste.

"Exactly so. Now follow my plan. As soon as we sight the barque, I take the bung out of the inner arm of the syphon and allow the sea to pour in, until I bring the yacht down as near the water's edge as I safely can. Then I haul my syphon on board again and so stop the flow. We hoist signals of distress. If _La Bonne Esperance_ won't pay any attention to us and sails by, all we have to do is to pump the water out of the yacht, and try our luck elsewhere. If the barque replies to our signals, and there can be no doubt about her intention to pick us up, I pull this cord, out comes the plug, in rushes the sea again, we jump into the dinghy, and as we are rowing off to the French vessel the old _Petrel_ goes down. What do you think of that, Baptiste?"

"Excellent--excellent!" exclaimed the mate.

"And to avoid all chance of a hitch," continued Carew, who was interested in his work, "I am going to scuttle the yacht in another place, and lead another cord from the second plug on to the deck. Thus we will be doubly certain; for one plug may get jammed and refuse to come out, or a fish may get sucked into the hole and choke it. I have heard of such things happening."

"You are a very clever man, captain. When you do start on a job you carry it out in a thorough manner. With your pluck and ingenuity you'd make a splendid pirate, were it not for your unfortunate scruples;" and the mate sighed regretfully when he thought of the useful talents wasted on this Englishman.

At midday Carew took the lat.i.tude, and found that he had not misjudged his position. As the wind had not varied a quarter of a point since the yacht had sailed from Rio, it was almost certain that the barque would pa.s.s within a mile or so.

El Chico, who had the keenest eyes of any on board, had been sent aloft to keep a good lookout for vessels. He sat on the crosstrees, and in the course of the day reported several craft, but none answered to the description of the French barque.

Much as Carew had shrunk from the enterprise, he was now carried away by the excitement of the chase; and as the hours went by he became acutely anxious. He feared that he had sailed too far out to sea, and that the barque would pa.s.s him un.o.bserved in the night.

They waited in silence, staring eagerly across the expanse of glaring water.

At last, at three o'clock in the afternoon, El Chico called out--

"There is a barque yonder that looks something like her."

"Where away?" said Baptiste.

"She's coming up close-hauled on the port-tack."

"Has she brown topsides and some bright green about her figure-head?"

"I can't make any colour out yet."

Then the mate went aloft with the binocular. After some minutes he scrambled down the rigging again. "Hurrah!" he cried, with a triumphant glitter in his eyes. "We have her safe! That is _La Belle Esperance_!"

"If we run a mile more to leeward we'll be right in her track," shouted El Chico from aloft.

All was now bustle on board the yacht. Letting the foresheet draw, they ran before the wind for about a quarter of an hour; then, heaving-to again, the cork was taken out of the syphon, and the yacht began to fill gradually. The barque was still more than three miles off, so there was ample time to prepare everything.