By Conduct and Courage Part 18

A SPLENDID HAUL

When all were got on board, and the boats hoisted to the davits, Will conducted the ladies down to the cabin, which he handed over to them.

Then, having ordered the cook to prepare some hot soup for the girl he had rescued, he came on deck again and questioned the male pa.s.sengers.

"We were all dressing for dinner," one said, "when we heard a shouting on deck. Almost immediately there was a great b.u.mp, which knocked most of us off our feet, and we thought that we had been run into, but directly afterwards we heard a great tumult going on above us, and we guessed that the ship had been attacked by pirates. The clashing of swords and the falling of bodies went on for two or three minutes, and then there was a loud savage yell that told us that the pirates had taken the ship. Next moment the ruffians rushed down upon us, took away any valuables we had about our persons, and then tied us up and threw us on the sofas. After scouring all the cabins they left us, and by the noise that followed we guessed that they had removed the hatches and were getting up the cargo.

"This continued all night, and some time this morning we heard the brutes going down to their boats, and thanked G.o.d that they had spared our lives.

Presently all became still; but after a time we saw the water rising on the floor, and the dreadful thought struck us that they had scuttled the ship and left us to perish. One of us managed, in spite of his bonds, to make his way up the companion and endeavour to open the door. He found, however, to his horror that it was fastened outside. Time after time he flung himself against it, but it would not yield. The water rose higher and higher, and we were waiting for the end when, to our delight, we heard a b.u.mp as of a boat coming alongside the vessel, then the sound of someone running along the deck and of the companion door being hurriedly opened.

You know the rest. The ship was the _Northumberland_ of Bristol."

"Thank G.o.d we arrived in time!" Will said. "It was an affair of seconds.

If we had been two minutes later you would all have been drowned."

"What has become of that terrible pirate?" asked one of the pa.s.sengers.

"There he is, six miles away. I hope some day to avenge the murder of your captain and crew."

"But his ship looks a good deal larger than yours."

"Yes," Will said, "but we don't take much account of size. We captured two pirates in one fight, both of them bigger than ourselves."

"And your ship looks such a small thing, too, in comparison with our vessel!"

"Yes, your ship could pretty well take her up and carry her. Weight doesn't go for much in fighting."

"And are you really her commander?"

"I have that honour. I am a midshipman, and before I got command of _L'Agile_ I was on board His Majesty's ships _Furious_ and _Hawke_. I had a great deal of luck in several fights we came through, and as a result was entrusted by the admiral with the command of this vessel. As you say, she is small, but her guns are heavy for her size, and are more than a match for most of those carried by the pirates."

"Well, sir, in the name of myself and all my fellow-pa.s.sengers I offer you my sincerest thanks for the manner in which you saved our lives. How close a shave it was is shown by the fact that you were yourself unable to get off the ship in time and were carried down with her."

"It was all in the way of business," Will laughed. "We were after the pirates, and when we saw the state of your vessel we reluctantly gave up the chase in order to see if we could be of any a.s.sistance. I expect the schooner wouldn't have run away from us had she not been so full of the cargo she got from your ship. They could not have had time to stow it all below, and it would have hampered them in working their guns, besides probably affecting their speed. I shall know her again when I see her, and then will try if these scoundrels are as good at fighting as they are at cold-blooded murder."

"Where are you going now, sir?"

"I am cruising at present, and am master of my own movements, so if you will let me know where you are bound for, I will try to set as many of you down at your destination as I can."

"Most of us are bound for Jamaica, sir, and the others will be able to find their way to their respective islands from there."

"Very well, then, I will head for Jamaica at once. In the meantime my cabin and that of my second in command are at the service of the ladies.

There are the sofas, too, in the saloon, and if these are not enough I will get some hammocks slung. I shall myself sleep on deck, and those of you who prefer it can do the same; for the others I will have hammocks slung in the hold."

Most of the ladies soon came up, but the girl Will had saved did not appear till the next morning. She was very pretty, and likely to be more so. If he had allowed her she would have overwhelmed him with thanks, but he made light of the whole affair. He learned from the other pa.s.sengers that she was the daughter of one of the richest merchants in Jamaica. At the death of her mother, when she was five years old, she was sent home to England in charge of the governess who had been drowned in the _Northumberland_, and when this catastrophe occurred had been on her way to rejoin her father. Although saddened by the death of her old friend, she soon showed signs of a disposition naturally bright and cheerful. She bantered Will about his command, and professed to regard _L'Agile_ as a toy ship, expressing great wonder that it was not manned by boy A.B.'s as well as boy officers.

"It must surely seem very ridiculous to you," she said, "to be giving orders to men old enough to be your father."

"I can quite understand that it seems so to you," he said, "for it does to me sometimes; but custom is everything, and I don't suppose the men give the matter a thought. At any rate they are as ready to follow me as they are the oldest veteran in the service."

Will carried all the sail he could set, as he was anxious to get the craft free from pa.s.sengers and to be off in search of the schooner that had escaped him. He was again loaded with thanks by the pa.s.sengers when they landed, and after seeing them off he went and made his report to the admiral.

"How is this, Mr. Gilmore?" the admiral said as he entered the cabin; "no prizes this time? And who are all those people I saw landing just now?"

Will handed in his report; but, as usual, the admiral insisted on hearing all details.

"But your uniform looks shrunk, Mr. Gilmore," he said when Will had finished. "You said nothing about being in the water!"

Will was then obliged to relate how he had rescued the girl from the cabin.

"Well done again, young sir! it is a deed to be as proud of as the capturing of those two pirates. Well done, indeed! Now I suppose you want to be off again?"

"Yes, sir, I should like to sail as soon as possible; in the first place, because I am most anxious to fall in with that schooner and bring the captain and crew in here to be hanged."

"That is a very laudable ambition. And why in the second place?"

"Because I want to get off before a lot of people come to thank me for saving their relatives, and so on, sir. If I get away at once, then I may hope that before I come back again the whole thing will be forgotten."

"It oughtn't to be, for you acted very wisely and gallantly."

"Well, sir, I don't want a lot of thanks for only doing what was my duty."

"Very good, Mr. Gilmore, I understand your feelings, but I quite expect that when you do return you will have to go through the ordeal of being presented with a piece of plate, and probably after that you will have to attend a complimentary ball. Now, you can go back to your ship at once.

Here is a letter to the chief of the store department instructing him to furnish you with any stores you may want without waiting for my signature."

"Thank you very much, sir! I hope, when I return, that I shall bring that pirate in tow. Can I have three months from the present time?"

"Certainly, and I hope you will be able to make good use of it."

Returning to his ship, Will at once made out the list of the stores he required, and sent Harman on sh.o.r.e with it, telling him to take two boats and bring everything back with him. At five o'clock in the afternoon the two boats returned, carrying all the stores required. The water-tanks had already been filled up, and a quarter of an hour later the cutter was under sail and leaving the harbour.

Will, of course, had nothing whatever to guide him in his search for the schooner beyond the fact that she was heading west at the time when he last saw her. At that time they were to the south of Porto Rico, so he concluded that she was making for Cuba. Every day, therefore, he cruised along the coast of that island, sometimes sending boats ash.o.r.e to examine inlets, at other times running right out to sea in the hope that the pirate, whose spies he had no doubt were watching his movements, might suppose he had given up the search and was sailing away. Nevertheless, he could not be certain that she would endeavour to avoid him should she catch sight of him, for with a gla.s.s the pirate captain could have made out the number of guns _L'Agile_ carried, and would doubtless feel confident in his own superiority, as he would not be able to discover the weight of the guns. Will felt that if the pirate should fight, his best policy would be at first to make a pretence of running, in the hope that in a long chase he might manage to knock away some of the schooner's spars.

One day he saw the boats, which had gone up a deep inlet, coming back at full speed.

"We saw a schooner up there," Harman reported; "I think she is the one we are in search of. When we sighted her she was getting up sail."

"That will just suit me. We will run out to sea at once; that will make him believe we are afraid of him."

Scarcely had the boats been got on board, and the cutter's head turned offsh.o.r.e, when the schooner was seen issuing from the inlet. Will ordered every sail to be crowded on, and had the satisfaction of seeing the schooner following his example. He then set the whole of the crew to shift the long-tom from the bow to the stern. Its muzzle was just high enough to project above the taffrail, and in order to hide it better he had hammocks and other material piled on each side of it so as to form a breastwork three feet high.

"They will think," he said, "that we have put this up as a protection against shot from his bow-chasers."

After watching the schooner for a quarter of an hour, Will said:

"I don't think she gains upon us at all; lower a sail over the bow to deaden her way. A small topsail will do; I only want to check her half a knot an hour."

It was an hour before the schooner yawed and fired her bow-guns.