Fitz the Filibuster Part 79

"Yes; but when shall you want to sail? To-morrow--the next day?"

"Within an hour," cried the Spaniard, "or as soon after as I can. I must strike, as you English say, while the iron is in the fire."

"Well, that's quick enough for anything," whispered Fitz.

The two lads stood watching the departing barge, with the skipper by the President's side, and then turned to go aft to the cabin.

"This is rather a bother," said Fitz. "I should have liked to have gone ash.o.r.e and seen the banquet, and gone up the country. I am getting rather sick of being a prisoner, and always set to work. But--hullo, Chips!"

"Just one moment, sir; and you too, Mr Poole."

"Yes; what is it?"

"That's rather a large order, gentlemen, aren't it? That there Don will be wanting to make me his chief naval constructor, perhaps. But that wouldn't do. I say, though, Mr Burnett, sir, can you give a poor fellow a tip or two?"

"What about?" said Fitz.

"What about, sir? Oh, I say, come! I like that! How am I going to get off that there gunboat? She's a harmoured vessel, you know."

"Oh, you'll do it, Chips. You could always do anything, even when you hadn't got any stuff. What about pulling up the hacienda floor?"

"To make fortifications, sir? Yes, we did work that to rights. But iron's iron, and wood's wood. You can drive one into t'other, but you can't drive t'other into one."

"No, Chips," said Fitz, laughing. "But there are more ways of killing a cat than hanging."

"So there are, sir; toe be sure. Making up your mind to do a thing is half the battle. I should like to have the help of you two young gents, though, all the same. A word from a young officer as knows how to disable a Armstrong gun, and from another who thinks nothing of tying a screw-propeller up in a knot, is worth having."

"Oh, I'll help you," said Fitz. "But I am afraid my help won't be of much use."

"The same here," said Poole. "Ditto and ditto."

"Then I shall do it, sir," cried the carpenter confidently. "Of course," cried Fitz. "But that gunboat must be very heavy. How shall you go to work?"

The carpenter gave a sharp look round, and then said in a low confidential tone--

"A deal too heavy, sir, for us to lift her. The only way to do is to make her lift herself."

"How?"

"Taking out of her everything that can be moved; guns first, then shot and sh.e.l.l, and laying them overboard outside upon the rocks, ready for hoisting in again at low water when she's afloat. Next thing I should do would be to find out whether she's got any holes in her, and if she hasn't--and I don't believe she has, for there's been no storm to b.u.mp her on the rocks--then I shall pump her dry, have her fires got up, and at high water full steam ahead, and if she don't come off then I'm a double Dutchman."

"But what about the screw?"

"Them as hides can find, sir, which means them as tie can untie. I think we can get her off, sir, if we put our backs into it. What say you?"

"Get her off?" cried Fitz. "Of course we will!"

CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE.

BOARDING THE GUNBOAT.

That evening, followed by a heterogeneous fleet of about twenty small vessels crammed with fighting men, the _Teal_ sailed again, and their time of arrival was so contrived that dawn of the next morning but one found the little fleet in delightfully calm weather forming a semi-circle from one point of the sh.o.r.e to the other, the focus of its radius being formed by the gunboat on the rocks.

The plans had been made on the voyage, and as there was plenty of water for every vessel but the schooner, the latter's boats, well filled with men, alone accompanied the rest.

It was an attack, but no defence, for as soon as the crew of the gunboat realised the formidable nature and numbers of the expedition, they took to the boats to try and escape to the sh.o.r.e. But the cliffs forbade this, and after another attempt or two to get away, all surrendered and gave up their arms, ready, as had been predicted, to begin cheering Don Ramon, the officers as they gave up their swords humbly asking to be allowed to retain their positions under the new Government, for there seemed to be a general acceptation of the fact now that the petty war was at an end.

Don Ramon's answer to this was to accept the services of the officers and the best of the men. The rest were boated off to the mouth of the river and set ash.o.r.e.

"Ornamental, I call it," said Chips, as he sat forward in one of the schooner's boats commanded by Poole, in which, as a matter of course, Fitz had taken his place.

"What is, Chips?" said Poole. "Do you mean your head?"

"My head, sir," said the carpenter, staring. "Well, no, sir, I didn't mean my head. 'Tain't a bad one as it goes, but I never set myself up for a good-looking chap, one of your handsome sort. I allus left that to the Camel here."

The men, who were resting on their oars, burst into a roar of laughter, and the cook laughing as heartily as the rest and displaying his great teeth, but his mirth was silent.

"Hark at him," he said. "Chips is a wonderful man for a joke."

"Nay, and I never set up as a joker either," said the carpenter; "but about this 'ere head of mine, I allus reckoned it was more useful than ornamental. What did you mean was the matter with it, Mr Poole?"

"Oh, only that it was swelled out so since you've been head contractor and engineer-in-chief for the getting the gunboat off the rocks.

Doesn't your hat feel very tight?"

"Nay, sir, and you are all wrong, for there's such a breeze here coming off the sea, hitting slap agin the rocks and coming back right in your face, that I have been longing for a piece of paper to fold up and put inside the band of my hat to make it tight. Why I nearly lost it twice."

"Oh," said Poole, "I thought it must be swelled. You've grown so important ever since you took the job."

"Never mind what he says, Chips," cried Fitz, "he's only chaffing you."

"Bless your 'eart, sir," cried the carpenter, "I know: this aren't the first voyage I've had with Master Poole."

"But what do you mean about being ornamental?" said Poole.

"Oh, us Teals, sir, and our boats. Here have we been figuring about holding up our rifles in the sun, and with these here cutlashes getting in the men's way wherever we rowed. Regular ornamental I calls us, never so much as fired a shot or hit any one on the nose with one's fist. We have done a bit of shouting though. I've hooroared till if I had tried to do any more, I should roar like a sick bull in a cow-yard shut up to eat straw, while all the cows were in the next field getting fat on gra.s.s. I want to know what's the use of our coming at all!"

"As supporters of the Don," said Fitz; "for prestige."

"For what, sir?"

"Prestige," said Fitz, laughing.

"Oh! that's it, was it, sir? Well, I'm glad you told me. Where does that come in?"

"Why, all through. Shows how English men-of-war's-men have helped to frighten these mongrels into surrender. Haven't you?"

"Well, I dunno about me, sir. I dare say the sight of the Camel there has scared them a bit. Wherever he showed his teeth, they must have said to themselves, 'What a beggar that would be to bite!' And I suppose that made them a bit the readier to chuck it up as they did.