A Desperate Voyage Part 16

At that moment the boatswain came on to the quarter-deck, and Mourez ordered him to call up the watch below.

The men reached the deck with unusual prompt.i.tude. They were summoned aft, and the captain in a few words explained to them how matters stood, and exhorted them to be courageous as French sailors should be. He ordered them to rig up a large awning forward, under which the crew were to live so long as the vessel was in warm lat.i.tudes. He also instructed the boatswain to ventilate the forecastle as thoroughly as was possible by means of wind-sails, so that a cool temperature might be obtained for the sick men.

On the following day two other men fell ill, and were admitted into the hospital. In the afternoon Halle died, and his body was immediately lowered into the sea.

Before sunset the loom of land was visible over the ship's bows. It was the desert island of Trinidad, situated near lat.i.tude 20 deg. south, about six hundred miles from the coast of Brazil.

And now a most unfortunate calamity befell the pestilence-stricken vessel. The wind completely died away, and she lay motionless on a sea of oily smoothness for three whole days. The vertical sun blazed down upon her out of the cloudless sky, and the intense sultriness of the atmosphere lowered the energies of those who were still in good health, and predisposed them to contagion, while it hurried on the fatal termination of the fever for the sick. A gloom fell on the ship's company. The men looked into each other's faces with helpless terror, for what could be done against this invisible foe? One after another sickened, died, and was lowered over the side in shotted shroud.

Baptiste and the two Spaniards, though they considered themselves acclimatised to the tropics, and almost proof against contagion, shared the prevailing sense of terror.

On the second day of the calm, the captain, who had doctored all the sick men to the best of his ability, was himself attacked by the fever.

Carew, who had some little knowledge of medicine, volunteered to take his place, and as the mate gratefully complied with his request, employed all his time in attending upon the patients in the forecastle and the captain in his cabin.

On the third day of the calm the contagion seemed to have spent itself.

No fresh cases were reported, and those who were lying sick became no worse.

Up to this date eight men out of the seventeen that composed the ship's company had died. Among these were the boatswain and the ship's cook. It was necessary to appoint some other man to take charge of the port watch; so the mate, after consulting with Carew, gave this post to Baptiste, as being the best educated man on board. The Provencal asked that the two Spaniards should be put upon his watch. El Chico, acting under Baptiste's orders, offered to undertake the duties of ship's cook.

On this morning, being the fifth since the _Petrel's_ crew had been received on board, the mate came up to Baptiste and made some remarks to him which set the wily ruffian thinking. Duval had asked him whether he did not think the fever showed signs of abating.

"It is impossible to say yet," replied Baptiste. "Yellow fever always comes in waves; it subsides and intensifies alternately."

"You see, comrade," said Duval, "that even if we include you four, we are now very short handed. If we lose a few more men, we cannot sail this barque to Europe. I have decided to run back to Rio as soon as a breeze springs up."

When the mate left him, Baptiste went in search of Carew, and found him in the captain's cabin, watching the sick man, who was now lying insensible in the last stage of the fever.

Baptiste looked into the pain-distorted face. "He will go soon," he whispered to Carew.

Carew nodded.

"That was a clever idea of yours, sir," said the Frenchman.

"What idea?"

"To const.i.tute yourself ship's doctor."

Carew made no reply, but he understood what the remark signified.

Baptiste, however, had misjudged him. With his usual inconsistency in crime, far from availing himself of his opportunities to poison the men, he had, on the contrary, risked his life and done his utmost to save the captain and the others under his charge. He was happier and was pleased with himself while acting thus, though he was also glad to find that his patients died despite his efforts. He seemed to imagine that he was driving a bargain with avenging Heaven--that he could set off his present righteous conduct against his other crimes. Men who reason with the greatest clearness on all other matters, often become insanely illogical when a guilty conscience asks for soothing casuistry.

"How are you treating him?" asked Baptiste.

"Not in the way you are thinking of," Carew replied, looking into the other's eyes.

Baptiste saw that he had been mistaken in his surmise, but said no more on the subject.

Carew's box of medicines was by his side. Baptiste looked into it, and drew out a bottle. "This is not poison, is it?" he asked.

"No; but if you took a good dose of it it would make you feel very ill."

"What is a good dose of it?"

"About ten drops; it is in a concentrated form."

"That will answer my purpose, then," and Baptiste put the bottle in his pocket. "And now, sir, I want some stuff that will prevent insomnia."

The eyes of the two men met. Carew asked no questions, but merely said, "Take this bottle, then. Half a teaspoonful is a large dose."

"Let us go into your cabin for a few minutes," said Baptiste, glancing at Mourez. "This man seems quite unconscious; but a man may hear as long as he has breath in him. I will not trust him."

They crossed the saloon to Carew's cabin.

"Well, what is it?"

"The fever and the hot calm have done our work well while we have been standing by idle," said the Frenchman; "but now the time has come for us to act. We must seize this vessel to-night. There is a look of wind in the sky now, and Duval will set sail and make for Rio as soon as a breeze springs up. We must wait no longer."

"Let it be to-night, then."

"Come on deck at ten o'clock this evening. Bring the revolvers with you.

Leave all the rest to me. You dislike details, so I will arrange everything."

Carew bowed his head in a.s.sent, but said nothing.

"You have two sick men in the forecastle, I think," said Baptiste; "are they strong enough to make any resistance?"

Carew shook his head.

"That is well. The captain will certainly not have much fight in him. So that leaves us only six healthy men to deal with; one on my watch, five on the other watch."

The mate now went on deck, and Carew returned to the captain's cabin. He found that brave sailor lying on his bed dead.

"I am glad--for his sake and for mine," muttered the Englishman to himself.

CHAPTER XIV

It is no pleasant task to describe the events that now took place on the French barque. This is no tale of daring buccaneers, of exciting hand-to-hand combats of desperate men; but a narrative of cold-blooded and dastardly crime.

Now that the time for carrying out his devilish scheme had come, Baptiste had taken the lead of the conspirators. Being a pacific person who hated fighting and feared danger, he determined to omit no possible precaution to obviate the risk of failure. His brain, fertile of ingenious villainy, was not long in devising how to do this.

In the first place, he instructed Carew on no account to leave his cabin between eight and ten that evening. Then he called aside the two Spaniards and explained his plan to them. He gave El Chico the first bottle which he had taken from Carew's medicine chest, and directed him to mix a certain quant.i.ty of the contents with the soup he was about to make for the men's dinner--a quant.i.ty which he calculated would be insufficient to produce a p.r.o.nounced taste in the soup, but sufficient to cause unpleasant sensations in those who partook of it.

At eight bells that evening the port watch relieved the starboard. There was absolutely nothing for the men to do, as it was still a flat calm, and all the sails had been furled. Duval had taken this precaution on the previous day, fearing that the fever might spread still further, and that he would not have enough hands left to shorten sail were a strong breeze to spring up suddenly.

Duval, however, insisted upon the watches being set and the discipline of the vessel being carried on as usual, more with the object of employing the men's time and distracting their attention from the horrors of the situation than for any other reason.