For Treasure Bound Part 14

But when I proceeded to take the latter in, I found that the halliards were somehow jammed aloft, and I shinned up to clear them. No sailor, if he really be a _seaman_, and not a tinker or a tailor, ever goes aloft without taking a good look round him; so after I had cleared the halliards I clung to the slim spar for a minute or two whilst I swept the horizon carefully around.

"Sail ho!" shouted I, as I caught a glimpse of the royals of a vessel gleaming snowy white in the brilliant sunshine far away in the south- western board.

"Where away?" shouted Bob.

"Broad on our lee-bow," I answered, still clinging to the thin wire topmast shrouds.

"What d'ye make her out to be, Harry, my lad?" was the next question.

"Either a barque or a brig," answered I; "the latter I am inclined to believe, though he is still too far away for his mizzen-mast to show, if he has one."

"Why d'ye think it's a brig, Harry?" queried Bob.

"His canvas looks too small for that of a barque," replied I, as I slid down on deck, having seen all that it was possible to see at present.

"Then it's that murderin' _Albatross_ again, for a thousand," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Bob, in a tone of deep disgust. "That's just the p'int where he might reasonably be looked for. He made sail long enough afore we did, a'ter the gale had blowed itself out, and consequently got a good long leg to the west'ard of us; but as we've been steering perhaps a couple of p'ints higher than he has for most of the time since, we've overhauled him; and now he's come round to go to the nor'ard, and we've fallen in with him once more."

I was inclined to take the same view of the matter that Bob did. It is true that when once a ship pa.s.ses out of sight at sea you can never be sure of her exact position afterwards; yet, under certain circ.u.mstances, taking the direction of the wind and the state of the weather as data upon which to base your argument, and, in conjunction with these, the course the vessel was steering when last seen, or the part of the world to which you have reason to believe she is bound, it is astonishing how near a guess may be and is not unfrequently made as to her whereabouts.

Now we knew that the _Albatross_ was bound to the Pacific when we last saw her, because she was then hove-to, evidently with the intention of maintaining as weatherly a position as possible. Had she been bound to the eastward, the weather was not so bad at that time as to have prevented her scudding before it, which she undoubtedly would have done under such circ.u.mstances, making a fair wind of it.

At the same time there was of course a possibility of our being mistaken as to the craft in sight being the pirate-brig, it being by no means an unusual thing for vessels as small as she was, or even smaller, to venture round the Cape.

"Well," said I, "perhaps it will be safest, Bob, to a.s.sume for the present that this brig _is_ the _Albatross_. What, under such circ.u.mstances, is your advice?"

"Which of us has the weather-gauge, d'ye think?" queried Bob.

"It is rather difficult to decide at present," I replied. "Much depends upon which of us is the fastest. If we are both going at about the same speed, I should say we shall pa.s.s extremely close to her."

"How is she heading, Harry?" was the next question.

"To the northward, rather edging down towards us, if anything, I thought."

"Ay, ay," chuckled Bob, "it ain't _every_ craft as can stick her bowsprit into the wind's eye like this here little barkie. Now I dare swear he's jammed hard up upon a taut bowline, and here _we_ are going as close to the wind as he is, and every thread ramping full. Take hold of her a minute, Hal, and let's see what these old eyes of mine can tell us about the stranger."

I took hold of the tiller, and Bob went aloft with the deliberation of the seaman who is in no particular hurry. Having reached the cross- trees, he stood upon them, with one hand grasping the peak-halliards to steady himself, whilst with the other he shaded his eyes.

"I see her, I see her," he exclaimed; "we're raising her fast, Harry, my boy; and in another half-hour or so we shall see her from the deck." He then went as high as the yard of the topsail, and clung there for a good five minutes, reading all the signs which a seaman sees in the almost imperceptible peculiarities of rig, shape of sails, etcetera. Having satisfied himself, he descended deliberately to the deck, evidently ruminating deeply.

"Now I'll tell ye what I think of the matter, Harry," said he, as he came aft and seated himself beside me. "There's a familiar sort of a look with that craft away yonder; I seems to recognise her as some'at I've seen afore; and I've no moral doubt in the world but what it's that villain Johnson, although we can't be _sartain_ of it until we gets a nearer look at her. And I've an idee that, if anything, it's _we_ that's got the weather-gauge; and if _so_, by all means keep it, even if we has to run the gauntlet of her broadside for a minute or two. Once let's be to wind'ard, and in such weather as this I wouldn't fear the smartest _square-rigged_ craft that ever was launched. We could lead 'em no end of a dance, and then give 'em the slip a'terwards when we was tired of the fun. So my advice is to luff up as close as you can; not _too_ close ye know, lad; let her go through it; but spring your luff all as you can get, and let's try what our friend yonder is made of. As long as we're to _leeward_ of him the game is _his_; but let's get to _wind'ard_ of him and it's _ours_ to do what we like with it."

I had it in my mind to take in all the canvas and lie _perdu_ until the brig had crossed our course and was well out of our road to the northward; but that would still be leaving him the weather-gauge; and I saw fully as clearly as Bob did the advantage of obtaining this, if possible; so on we stood, boldly, lying a good point higher than we had been before steering, yet keeping every sail a good clean full, and drawing to perfection.

The wind, however, was dropping fast; and by the time that the sun was on the meridian we were not going more than five knots. This made me extremely anxious; more particularly as the stranger proved a remarkably fast vessel; so much _so_, that it still remained a matter of doubt which of us would cross the other.

Bob, on the other hand, was delighted beyond measure, stoutly avowing that the falling breeze was little, if anything, short of a divine manifestation in our favour. He declared himself ready to stake all he was possessed of in the world (and if the brig should turn out to be the pirate, he actually _was_ staking his life) on our speed as against that of the stranger in light winds, and was already chuckling in antic.i.p.ation over that craft's discomfiture.

She was within about five miles of us, still maintaining her relative position of about four points on our lee-bow, when Bob served dinner on deck, as was our custom in fine weather.

We were very busy with the viands, keeping one eye always on the brig however, when we noticed something fluttering over her taffrail; and the next moment a flag of some sort floated up to her peak.

I was at the tiller; so Bob took the gla.s.s, and levelling it at the brig, gave her a more thorough scrutiny than we had bestowed upon her at all hitherto.

"The stars and stripes, and a pennant!" exclaimed he, with his eye still at the tube. "Lord bless us for the two pretty innocents he takes us for, Harry; but there, of course he don't know as we've got his character and all about him at our fingers' ends. Well, anyhow, we won't be behindhand with him in the matter of politeness;" and therewith Master Bob dived below, returning in a moment with our ensign and club burgee in his hand, which he bent to their respective halliards and ran them up--the one to our gaff-end, and the other to our mast-head.

As we had by this time finished our meal, Bob cleared the things away, muttering something about having "plenty to do afore long besides eating and drinking."

Our colours had not been displayed above a minute, when four small b.a.l.l.s were seen ascending to the brig's main royal-mast-head, where they broke abroad and waved lazily out in the failing breeze as a signal.

Bob at once a.s.sumed the duties of signal-officer, by once more taking a peep through the gla.s.s.

"Commercial code pennant," said he; and then he read out the flags beneath it.

"Run down and fetch up the signal-book," said I.

He did so; we turned up the signal, and read, "Come under my lee; I wish to speak you."

"Thank 'ee!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Bob, "not if we can help it, Mister Johnson. I reckon 'twould be about the most onprofitable conwersation as ever the crew of this here cutter took a part in. We've got our own wholesome planks to walk, aboard here, when we wants any of that sort of exercise; and though there's not much to boast of in the way of room, I dare say there's more of _that_ than we'd find on the plank _you'd_, give us for a parade ground. Seems to me, Hal, as we're bringing him nearer abeam than he was a while ago; ain't it so?"

"You are right, Bob," I replied, glancing at the compa.s.s; "he is more than a point farther aft than he was a quarter of an hour ago; but is it not possible that we are giving ourselves needless uneasiness? That craft certainly has a look of the _Albatross_; but we are not sure that it is her after all."

"D'ye notice his main-topmast-staysail, Harry?" returned he; "cut like a trysail, and set on a stay that leads down just clear of his fore-top and into the slings of his fore-yard. How many vessels will ye see with a sail shaped like that? Yet I noticed that _his_ was, the other day.

And there's the red ribbon round him too; in fact, it's the _Albatross_ all over," concluded he, with the gla.s.s once more at his eye.

It was but too evident that Bob was right. I had been hoping that the general resemblance of the brig in sight to the _Albatross_ was purely accidental; but she was now within less than three miles of us; and, even without the aid of the telescope, certain features, if I may so term them, were recognisable, which identified her beyond all question as the pirate-brig.

"What shall we do about answering his signal, Bob?" said I.

"Let it fly as it is, unanswered," he replied composedly. "Look where we're dropping him to; in another quarter of an hour we shall have him fairly on our lee-beam, and that too out of gun-shot, unless, as is most likely the case, he's got a long gun; but if he _has_, we're a small mark to fire at, and we'll soon slip out of range even of that."

It was by this time perfectly manifest that whatever he might be able to do in a breeze, he had no chance with us in a light air like the present; and I entertained strong hopes of being able to slip past him unscathed, when I felt sanguine of our ability to get fairly away from him in a chase dead to windward.

But he evidently had no notion of letting us have our own way in this matter, without a pretty vigorous protest on his part; for as we were still watching him, we saw the brig slowly luff into the wind; his fore- sheet was raised for a moment, a flash of flame and a puff of white smoke darted suddenly from his forecastle, and then we saw the jets spouting up where the shot struck the water, as it came ricocheting towards us. He had aimed apparently so as to throw the shot across our fore-foot; but it fell short by about fifty feet.

"Do that again, you lubber!" exclaimed Bob, contemptuously apostrophising the brig. "Three more such fool's tricks as that, and we'll say good-bye t'ye without ever having been within range. See how long it takes him to pay off ag'in, Harry; very near lost his way altogether, when he'd 'a had to box her off with his headyards; and by the time he'd done that we should be well clear of him. Well, I _did_ think the man had more sense than to do the like of that."

Friend Johnson evidently saw his mistake as clearly as we did, for he fired no more until we had crept up fairly ahead of him. Just as we were crossing his bows, however, and had got his masts in tone--by which time he had drawn considerably nearer us--the brig _fell off_ a little, not to repeat her former error, and again came the flash, the smoke, and the ringing report.

"Here it comes straight for us this time, and no mistake," exclaimed Bob, as the water-jets again marked the course of the shot. "Scaldings!

out of the road all of us that's got thin skulls," continued he, as the shot came skipping across the water in such long bounds as showed we were within range. "Well missed!" added he, as the shot struck the water close to us, and bounded fairly over the boat, pa.s.sing close beneath the main-boom and the foot of the mainsail, without injuring so much as a ropeyarn.

"That's his long gun, Bob," said I; "his broadside guns would never reach so far as this, and though we're just now in rather warm quarters, we shall be out of range again very soon; and then, I think, we need give ourselves no further trouble concerning him. Any way, you've got something very like the fulfilment of the wish you expressed the other day."

"Ay, ay, that's true, Hal, I have," answered he, with a quiet laugh; "and I _do_ own it's a great satisfaction to me that we're carc.u.mventin'

the chap this a way. I'll warrant he's walking the quarter-deck at this minute fit to bite his fingers off wi' vexation at our slipping past him in this style."

Here another shot from the brig came bounding after us; but we offered him a much smaller mark than before, inasmuch as he was now nearly dead astern of us, and we consequently presented an _end_ instead of a broadside view to him.

The shot shaved us pretty close to windward nevertheless, striking the water for the last time just short of our taffrail, and scurrying along and ploughing up the surface close enough to give us a pretty copious shower-bath of spray ere it finally sank just ahead of us.