A Middy of the Slave Squadron Part 9

That the stranger was not anxious to make our closer acquaintance at once became apparent, for no sooner did her people perceive the accident that had befallen the _Eros_--which was within a minute of its occurrence--than they put down their helm, tacked, and endeavoured to slip away out to windward clear of us both. The _Dolphin_, however, was doing exceptionally well just then, the combination of wind and sea seemed to exactly suit her, and I felt that, although I had perhaps unduly delayed taking action, we could more than hold our own with the stranger provided that it blew no harder--and I therefore held on grimly, presently receiving a signal from the _Eros_ to take up the chase, which she would resume as soon as she had repaired damages.

Shortly afterward the stranger reached out across the bows of the _Eros_, beyond cannon-shot, and although the skipper fired two blank charges and a shotted gun to bring her to she took no notice, a fact which made me more determined than ever, if possible, to get within speaking distance of her.

The _Eros_, meanwhile, having cleared away her wreckage, had stowed her mizen topgallantsail, brailed up her spanker, and filled away again; and when we pa.s.sed her, some three-quarters of an hour later, and about a mile to windward, they had already sent down the stump of her topgallant-mast and had prepared the topgallant rigging for the reception of the new spar.

The moment that we arrived in the wake of the stranger we tacked and stood directly after her; and we had not been on the new tack more than ten minutes when I found, to my great gratification, that the _Dolphin_, despite the exceeding shallowness of her hull, was quite as weatherly a vessel as the chase, which was now nearly four miles ahead of us. But it was not until we had been in direct pursuit of her for a full hour that I was able to a.s.sure myself that we were undoubtedly gaining on her.

Yes, we were gaining on her, but it was _so_ slowly that it was not until sunrise next morning that we were within gun-shot of her; and now, in response to our first shot, she let fly her royal and topgallant halliards, flowed her jib-sheet, and backed her main-yard to allow us to come up with her.

As, still carrying on, we rapidly approached the handsome craft, I was busily engaged, with the aid of my gla.s.s, in discovering, one after the other, the various points of resemblance between her and the vessels that had been described to us, and I could have kicked myself with vexation when, in answer to the hoisting of our ensign, we saw the Stars and Stripes of the United States flutter out over her taffrail and go soaring aloft to her gaff-end. And almost at the same instant, she now being out of the dazzle of the sun, I was able to read, legibly inscribed on her stern, the words "Virginia. New Orleans!" With the usual perverse luck that had attended the efforts of the British, we had dropped upon the wrong ship of the pair; the _Virginia_ was American, and we had no power to interfere with her. Nevertheless, having gone so far in the matter as to bring her to, I was determined to board her and get a sight of her papers; a Spanish vessel might hoist American colours if she happened to find herself in a tight corner and believed that she might thereby escape. While, as for the name--ah! that certainly was a difficulty not to be easily got over; a ship could scarcely change the name painted on her stern as easily as a chameleon changes his colour, without affording some indication that the change had been made. Still, the slavers were up to all sorts of extraordinary dodges, and--well, I would at least inspect the _Virginia's_ papers, and satisfy myself that they were in order.

CHAPTER TEN.

THE VIRGINIA OF NEW ORLEANS.

Having arrived within pistol-shot of the chase, we hove-to to windward of her, lowered a boat, and I proceeded to board her. As we swept round under her stern, in order to reach her lee gangway, I took a good look at the name on her counter. Yes; there was nothing of pretence or fraud about it, so far as I could see; the words were not only painted upon the wood, but were actually cut deep into it as well; and, furthermore, the paint had all the appearance of having been applied at the same time as that on the rest of her hull.

Upon our arrival alongside I was somewhat surprised to observe that the crew had not taken the trouble to throw open the gangway, or put over a side ladder; I had therefore to watch my opportunity and scramble aboard by way of the main chains. The _Virginia_ was a very fine craft indeed, measuring quite eight hundred tons, and carrying a fine, lofty, full p.o.o.p, by the rail of which stood a typical Yankee, eyeing me with even greater malevolence than the Yankee of that day was wont to exhibit toward the Britisher. He was tall, lean, and cadaverous, with long, straight, colourless hair reaching almost to his shoulders, and a scanty goatee beard adorning his otherwise clean-shaven face. His outer garments, consisting of blue swallow-tail coat with bra.s.s b.u.t.tons and white kerseymere waistcoat and trousers--the former also trimmed with bra.s.s b.u.t.tons--seemed to have been made for a man many sizes smaller than himself; for the coat was distinctly short at the waist, while the sleeves terminated some four inches above the wrist; his waistcoat revealed some two inches of soiled shirt between its lower hem and the top of his trousers; and the latter garments did not reach his bony ankles by quite three inches. He wore an enormous stick-up collar reaching almost to the level of his eyes; his head was graced by an old white beaver hat of the pattern worn by the postboys at that period, and the nap looked as though it had never been brushed the right way since it had been worked up into a hat. On his feet he wore white cotton stockings or socks and low-cut slippers; he carried both hands in his trousers pockets, and his left cheek was distended by a huge plug of tobacco, upon which he was chewing vigorously when I scrambled in over the rail and leaped down on the deck. As I did so I raised my hat and courteously bade him good-morning.

Instead of returning my greeting, he ejected a copious stream of tobacco-juice in my direction so dexterously that I had some difficulty in avoiding it, and then remarked--

"Waal, my n.o.ble Britisher, what the tarnation mischief do yew mean by firin' them bra.s.s popguns of yourn at me, eh? What right have yew to shoot at a ship flyin' the galorious Stars and Stripes? D'ye see them handsome barkers of mine?"--pointing to a fine display of eighteen- pounders, six of a side, mounted in the ship's main-deck battery.

"Waal, I was in more'n half a mind to give ye a dose from them in answer to your shot; and yew may thank my mate here, Mr Silas Jenkins, for persuadin' me outer the notion! And what d'ye want, anyway, now that yew're here, and be hanged to ye?"

"I have taken the liberty to board your ship for the purpose of getting a sight of your papers," I answered. "Our information is that there are two sister ships--this vessel, and a Spanish craft named the _Preciosa_ which are doing a roaring trade in carrying slaves across the Atlantic; and it is part of my duty to lay hands on the _Preciosa_ if I can. Your vessel answers to her description in every particular save that of name and the flag she flies; and therefore, having fallen in with you, I felt that I should not be doing my duty unless I boarded you and inspected your papers."

"Waal, I'll be jiggered!" exclaimed the skipper, turning to his mate.

"Hear that, Silas? I'll bet yew ten dollars the critter calls hisself a sailor, and yet he can't tell the difference between the _Virginia_ and the _Preciosa_ without lookin' at their papers! I'll tell ye, stranger, where the difference is between them two vessels. One on 'em has V-i-r- g-i-n-i-a, N-e-w O-r-l-e-a-n-s cut--_cut_, mind you--and painted on her starn, and she flies that galorious flag that's floatin' up thar,"

pointing to the American ensign fluttering from the gaff-end--"while t'other has the words P-r-e-c-i-o-s-a, H-a-v-a-n-a cut and painted on hern, and she flies a yaller flag with two red bars. I know, because I've seen her--ay, most as often as I've seen the _'Ginia_! Now, sonny, d'ye think ye'll be able to remember that little lesson in sailormanship that a free-born American citizen has been obliged to give ye?"

I laughed. "Thank you for nothing," said I. "And now I will trouble you for a sight of those papers that we were speaking of."

"I'll be darned if yew will, though, stranger!" he snapped. "No, sirree; not much, I don't think! Why, yew're even more ignorant than I thought yew was, and I must teach ye another little bit of yewr business. Why, yew goldarned Britisher, d'ye know that yew haven't got no right at all to stop me from pursooin' my v'yage, or to demand a sight o' my papers? Supposin' I was to report this outrage to my Gover'ment, what d'ye suppose would happen? Why, our men-o'-war would just up and sink every stinkin' Britisher that they comed across!"

"Ah, indeed!" I retorted sarcastically. "Very well; now we'll have a look at those papers; after which you may take whatever steps you deem fit."

"And supposin' I refuse?"--began the skipper. But the mate, seeing, I imagine, that I would take no denial, seized his irate superior by the arm and, leading him right aft, conversed with him in low tones for nearly five minutes, at the end of which time they both came forward to the break of the p.o.o.p, and the skipper, descending the p.o.o.p ladder, remarked ungraciously:

"Waal, since nothin' less than seein' my papers 'll satisfy ye, ye'd better come into my cabin, and I'll show 'em to yew."

Whereupon I followed him in through a pa.s.sage which gave access to a fine, airy p.o.o.p cabin, plainly but comfortably fitted up, and seated myself, uninvited, upon a cushioned locker while my companion went alone into his state-room, returning, a minute or two later, with a large tin box, the contents of which he laid upon the table.

"Thar they are," he exclaimed, pushing them toward me; "look at 'em as long as yew like! I guess yew won't find nothin' wrong with 'em."

Nor did I. I inspected them with the utmost care, and ultimately came to the conclusion that they were genuine, and that the ship was undoubtedly the _Virginia_, and American.

"Waal," exclaimed the Yankee skipper, when I at length refolded and handed the papers back to him, "are ye satisfied, stranger?"

I intimated that I was.

"Then git out o' here, ye darned galoot, as quick as you knows how," he snarled, "and thank your lucky stars that I don't freshen yewr way wi' a rope's end!" Then, suddenly changing his tune, as he followed me out on deck and saw me glance round, he remarked:

"Purty ship, ain't she? and roomy for her size. Guess I can stow away all of seven hundred n.i.g.g.e.rs down below, and not lose more'n twenty per cent of 'em on an ordinary average pa.s.sage. And the _Preciosa_ is the very spit of this here craft--built in the same yard, she was, and from the same lines; there ain't a pin to choose atween 'em. Now, if yew was only lucky enough to fall in with _her_, stranger, I guess she'd be a prize worth havin', eh?"

"She would!" I agreed. "And, what's more, my friend, we mean to have her, sooner or later."

"Yew don't say!" he jeered. "Waal, I guess yew'll have to fight for her afore you git her. And yew'll have to find her afore yew can fight for her, won't yew, sonny? And p'rhaps that won't be so very difficult, a'ter all, for when I next see my friend Rodriguez--that's the cap'n of the _Preciosa_--I'll tell him that yew're out arter him, and maybe he'll lay for yew; for Rodriguez hates the Britishers 'most as bad as I do, and I'm sure he'd enjy blowin' _El Caiman_ outer the water now that she's fallen into yewr hands. He and Morillo was great friends; and I reckon he'll feel bound to avenge Morillo's loss. Yes; I'll tell him, for sure. And I'll also tell all the others on the Coast to keep a bright look-out for the brigantine. Waal, so long, stranger. I'm bound for the Congo, if yew're anyways anxious to know."

The foregoing remarks were made as he followed me to the waist and watched my progress over the rail and from the main chains into my boat; and the last item of information was yelled after me when we had put about twenty fathoms of blue water between the boat and the ship. As I flourished my hand by way of reply to his jeers, he turned away and I heard his harsh, nasal accents uplifted in an order to his crew to "Swing the main-yard; haul aft the jib-sheet; and sway away them t'gallan' and r'yal yards."

Profoundly disappointed at my non-success, and bitterly mortified at the insults to which I had been subjected by boarding the Yankee, I moodily returned to the _Dolphin_ and, upon mounting to the deck, ordered the gig to be hoisted and the helm to be put up in order that we might return to the _Eros_, the royals of which were now just rising above the horizon to the westward. Three-quarters of an hour later we were again hove-to, and I was once more in the gig, on my way to report to Captain Perry the result of my pursuit.

To say that the commodore was also deeply disappointed is only stating the bare truth; yet I was not more than half-way through my narrative before I saw that some scheme was taking shape in the back of his mind.

He questioned me very closely indeed upon certain points, one of his questions having reference to the point of the possibility of effecting a change in the name of the ship displayed upon her stern, it being evident that a suspicion had arisen in his mind that the two ships might, after all, be one and the same craft, sailing under different flags as circ.u.mstances might require. To speak the truth the same suspicion had once or twice crossed my own mind, but had been completely dissipated by my visit to the _Virginia_; I was quite convinced there could be no possible tampering with the name on the stern, while the papers were undoubtedly genuine, and the crew were as undoubtedly genuine Yankee as were the papers. Yet, despite all this, the fact that such a suspicion had arisen in Captain Perry's mind caused it to recur in my own; I was therefore very glad when he finally said:

"Thank you, Mr Fortescue. You appear to have executed your mission very effectively, and to have done everything that I should have done, had I been there. Of course I should have preferred to have been there myself; but--well, I have no doubt the result would have been precisely the same. Now, having found the _Virginia_, I am minded to send you after her, to keep an eye upon her and also to drop a friendly hint to any Yankee cruiser that you may happen to fall in with; for, although you cannot touch her, they can; and they ought to be exceedingly grateful for a hint that will ensure them against making any further mistakes. Yes; you shall follow her up, every inch of the way; go into the Congo with her, and, unless there is some very strong reason against it, come out again with her and follow her right across the Atlantic to her destination, wherever it may be. And while you are doing that, I-- confident that you are keeping the _Virginia_ under observation--will look out for the _Preciosa_, and endeavour to nab her. Go and have a yarn with Mr Hoskins while I prepare your written instructions."

The skipper was much longer than I had antic.i.p.ated over the job of drafting his written instructions to me, and Hoskins and I therefore had an opportunity to discuss the situation at some length. I ventured to voice the suspicion that, for some inexplicable reason, so persistently suggested itself to me that the _Virginia_ and the _Preciosa_ might possibly be one and the same vessel, despite the weighty evidence against such a supposition, but the first lieutenant laughed at the notion, which he p.r.o.nounced in the highest degree fantastic.

"No," said he, "I do not think you need worry about that, Fortescue.

But, all the same, you will have to keep your weather eye lifting, on this expedition upon which the captain is about to despatch you. For, from your account of him, I judge the skipper of the _Virginia_ to be an exceptionally vindictive individual, with a very strong animus against us 'Britishers,' as he calls us, and such men are apt to be dangerous when provoked, as he will pretty certainly be when he discovers that you are following and watching him. Therefore, be on your guard against him, or he may play you one of those ghastly tricks that the slavers are apt to play upon the slave-hunters when the latter chance to fall into their hands. In my opinion you are rather too young and inexperienced to be sent alone upon such a job."

"Nevertheless," said I, "one must acquire one's experience in some way before one can possess it; and I suppose there is no way in which a young officer can learn so quickly as by being placed in a position of responsibility. After all, there is no danger in this forthcoming expedition, so far as I can see; it is but to follow and keep an eye upon a certain ship, and do what I can to promote her capture. But I will keep your warning in mind, never fear. And now I suppose I must say good-bye; for here comes Parkinson, the captain's steward, doubtless to say that my instructions are ready."

It was even as I had antic.i.p.ated; Parkinson was the bearer of a message summoning me to the skipper's cabin, where my written instructions, having first been read over to me, in order that I might be afforded an opportunity to seek explanation of any doubtful points, were placed in my hands, and I was dismissed; the skipper's final order to me being to carry on and, if possible, overtake the _Virginia_, thereafter keeping her in sight at all costs until the remainder of my instructions had been carried out. Ten minutes later I was once more on the deck of the _Dolphin_, and giving orders to make sail, the signal to part company having been hoisted aboard the _Eros_ the moment that my boat left her side.

Having braced up on the same course as that steered by the _Virginia_ when last seen, and crowded upon the brigantine every square inch of canvas that her spars would bear, I sent a hand aloft to the royal yard to take a look round and see whether he could discover any sign of the chase; but, as I had more than suspected, she had completely vanished; and my first task was now to find her again. To do this, two things were necessary; the first being that we should follow precisely the same course that she had done; and the second, that we should sail fast enough to overtake her. I therefore ordered the boatswain at once to get up preventer backstays, fore and aft, to enable our spars to carry a heavy press of sail; and then went to my cabin, where, with a chart of the Atlantic spread open before us upon the cabin table, Jack Keene and I discussed the knotty question of the course that should be steered to enable us once more to bring the _Virginia_ within the range of our own horizon.

The point that we had to consider was whether our Yankee friend would or would not antic.i.p.ate pursuit. If he did, he would probably resort to some expedient to dodge us; but if he did not there was little doubt that he would make the best of his way to his port of destination, which, if he spoke the truth, was the Congo. Now, we were well within the limits of the north-east trade-winds, the wind at the moment blowing, as nearly as might be, due north-east, and piping up strong enough to make us think twice before setting our topgallantsail; it was therefore perfectly ideal weather for so powerful a craft as the _Virginia_, which might dare not only to show all three of her topgallantsails but also, perhaps, her main-royal. We therefore ultimately came to the conclusion that, the weather being what it was, our friend the Yankee would shape a straight course for Cape Palmas, with the intention of then availing himself of the alternate sea and land-breezes to slip along the coast as far as the Congo--that being the plan very largely followed by slavers on the eastward pa.s.sage--and that he would only be likely to deviate from that plan in the event of his actually discovering that he was pursued. Consequently we determined to do the same; and I issued the necessary orders to that effect. We were not very long in getting our preventers rigged, after which we not only set our royal and flying-jib, but also shifted our gaff-topsail, hauling down Number 3, a jib-headed affair, and setting Number 2 in its place, a sail nearly twice as big as the other, with its lofty, tapering head laced to a yard very nearly as long as the topmast. Then, with her lee rail awash--and, in fact, dipping deeply sometimes, on a lee roll--and the lee scuppers breast-deep in water, the _Dolphin_ began to show us what she really could do in the matter of sailing when called upon; reeling off a steady eleven knots, hour after hour, upon a taut bowline; the smother of froth under her bows boiling up at times to the level of her lee cat-head, and her foresail wet with spray to the height of its reef-band. It was grand sailing, exhilarating as a draught of wine, maddening in the feeling of recklessness that it begot; but, all the same, I did not believe that we were doing more than perhaps just holding our own with the _Virginia_; it was not under such conditions as those that we were likely to overhaul her; our chance would come when, as we gradually neared the equator, the wind grew more shy and fitful.

Nevertheless, I kept a look-out in the fore-topmast cross-trees throughout the hours of daylight, to make sure that we should not overtake her unexpectedly.

We carried on all through that night, and the next day, and the next, with the breeze still holding strong, yet there was no sign of the chase; and, meanwhile, the carpenter informed me we were straining the ship all to pieces and opening her seams to such an extent that the pumps had to be tended for half an hour at a time twice in each watch; while the boatswain was kept in a perpetual state of anxiety lest his rigging should give way under the strain.

At length, on the afternoon of the fourth day after parting from the _Eros_, the wind began to moderate somewhat rapidly, with the result that by sunset our lee scuppers were dry, although we still had all our flying kites aloft; and that night the watch below were able to bring their mattresses on deck and sleep on the forecastle, a luxury which had hitherto been impossible during our headlong race across the Atlantic.

And now I began to feel sanguine that before many hours were over we should see the mastheads of the _Virginia_ creeping above the horizon somewhere ahead of us; for I felt convinced that, in the moderate weather which we were then experiencing, we had the heels of her.

But when the next morning dawned, with the trade-wind breathing no more than a gentle zephyr, the look-out, upon going aloft, reported that the horizon was still bare; which, however, was not to say that the chase might not be within a dozen miles of us, for the atmosphere was exceedingly hazy, and heavy with damp heat which was very oppressive and relaxing, to such an extent, indeed, that the mere act of breathing seemed to demand quite an effort. After taking my usual morning bath under the head pump, I made my way below to my state-room to dress, and found Keene sitting in the main cabin, on one of the sofa lockers, attired only in shirt and trousers, perspiring freely, and in a general state of limpness that was pitiable to behold.

"Morning, skipper!" he gasped. "I say, isn't this heat awful? Worse, even, than that on the Coast, I think! And what has become of all the wind? I say, I suppose we haven't made a mistake in our reckoning, and run down on to the Line unbeknownst, have we?"

"If we have," said I severely, "the mistake is yours Master Jack; for, as you are very well aware, I have been entrusting the navigation of this ship to you."

Which, by the way, was only true in a certain sense; for while I had given the young man to understand that, for his own benefit and advantage, I intended to make him perform the duty of master, and hold him responsible for the navigation, I had taken care to maintain a strict check upon his calculations and a.s.sure myself that he was making no mistakes. Of which fact he was of course quite aware. Wherefore his reply to my retort was simply to change the subject with some celerity.

"I say, old chap," he remarked, "you look awfully cool and comfy. Been under the head pump, as usual, I suppose. Upon my word, if it were not for the possibility--not to say the extreme probability--of being snapped up by a shark, I should like to go overboard in a bowline and be towed for half an hour. And--talking of sharks--have you noticed how often we have seen the beggars following us since we have been in this ship? I suppose her timbers have become saturated, as it were, with the odour of the slaves she has carried, and so--but, hillo! what has happened to the barometer?"