From Powder Monkey to Admiral Part 20

At last he reached the low entrance of the smugglers' store-room, as Jack and he had called it. He crept on carefully, and as he gained the inner end of the pa.s.sage, he saw a light burning close to where the goods were piled up, but no voices reached his ear.

If the smugglers were there, they would surely be talking. He rose to his feet, holding out the candle before him. Seeing no one, he advanced boldly across the cavern. There lay a figure stretched upon the ground!

It was Jack!

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

THE RAFT LAUNCHED AND VOYAGE COMMENCED.

Could Jack be dead? What could have happened to him? Bill, hurrying forward, knelt down by his side, and lifted up his head. He still breathed.

"That's a comfort," thought Bill. "How shall I bring him to? There's not a drop of water here, and I can't carry him as far as the spring."

Bill rubbed his friend's temples, while he supported his head on his knee.

"Jack! Jack! rouse up, old fellow! What's come over you?"

Bill held the candle up to Jack's eyes. Greatly to his joy they opened, and he said, "Where am I? Is that you, Bill! Is it gone?"

"I am Bill, and you are in the cavern; but there is nothing to go that I know of. It's all right. Stand up, old fellow, and come along,"

replied Bill, cheeringly.

"Oh, Bill," said Jack, drawing a deep sigh, "I saw something."

"Did you?" said Bill; "the something did not knock you down, though."

"No; but I thought it would," responded Jack.

"That comes of wanting to take what isn't your own," said Bill.

"However, don't let's talk about that. If we are to get off with this tide, we must hurry on board as fast as we can. Don't mind the gold; I suppose that's what you came for. Our friends the Turgots will get it, I hope; and they have more right to it than we have."

Bill's voice greatly re-a.s.sured Jack, who, fancying that he saw one of the ghosts he was afraid of, had fallen down in a sort of swoon. How long it would have lasted if Bill had not come to him it is impossible to say; perhaps long enough to have allowed his candle to be extinguished. Had this happened, he would never have been able to find his way out of the cavern. He, however, with Bill by his side, soon felt like himself again.

"Let me just fill my pockets with these gold pieces," he exclaimed. "I have taken so much trouble that I shouldn't like to go away without them."

"Perhaps the ghost will come back if you do," Bill could not help saying. "Let them alone. You have got enough already, and we must not stop another moment here."

Saying this, he dragged Jack on by the arm.

"Come, if we don't make haste, our candles will go out, and we shall not be able to see our way," Bill continued.

Jack moved on. He was always ready to be led by Bill, and began to think that he had better not have come for the gold.

Bill did not scold him, vexed as he felt at the delay which had occurred. They might still be in time to get on board the wreck and to launch their raft, but it would be broad daylight before they could get to any distance from the sh.o.r.e, and they would then be sure to be seen.

Bill only hoped that no one would think it worth while to follow them.

Having two lights, they were able to see their way pretty well, though they could not run fast for fear of extinguishing them.

Every now and then Jack showed an inclination to stop. "I wish I had got the gold," he muttered.

Bill pulled him on.

"The gold, I say, would not do us any good. I don't want it for myself, and you have got enough to make your mother independent for the rest of her days."

On they went again. Bill was thankful, on reaching the mouth of the cavern, to find that it was still night. It seemed to him a long time since he had quitted the wreck. He did not remember how fast he had gone. They jumped down on the beach, and began to wade towards the wreck, but had to swim some distance.

"If we had had our pockets full of gold we could not have done this,"

observed Bill. "We should have had to empty them or be drowned. We are much better without it."

They soon reached the side of the vessel, and climbed up on deck. There was plenty of water alongside to launch the raft, and to get the casks under it. The wind, too, if there were any, was off sh.o.r.e, but here it was a perfect calm. They had one advantage through having waited so long; they were beyond the influence of the wave which breaks even on a weather sh.o.r.e, especially after a gale, although the wind may have changed.

The tackles having been arranged, they lost no time in launching their raft, which they did very successfully, easing it with handspikes; and in a couple of minutes it floated, to their great satisfaction, safely alongside. Their first care was to lash the casks under the bottom.

This took some time, but they were well repaid by finding the raft float buoyantly on the very surface of the water.

The cargo had, however, to be got on board, consisting of the three chests, which, of course, would bring it down somewhat. They lowered one after the other, and lashed them in the positions they had intended.

The foremost chest was secured over all by ropes, as that had not to be opened, and was to serve only as a step for their mast; the other two chests were secured by their handles both fore and aft and athwartships, the lashings contributing to bind the raft still more securely together.

Daylight had now broken, and they were in a hurry to get on with their work, but this did not prevent them from securing everything effectually.

They next had to get their stores into the chests; and lastly they stepped and set up the mast, securing the sail ready for hoisting to the halyards, which had been previously rove.

They surveyed their work when completed with no little satisfaction, and considered, not without reason, that they might, in moderate weather, run across Channel, provided the wind should remain anywhere in the southward.

They well knew that they must run the risk of a northerly wind or a gale. In the first case, though they need not go back, they could make little or no progress; but then there was always the hope of being picked up by an English craft, either a man-of-war or a merchant vessel.

They might, to be sure, be fallen in with by a Frenchman, but in the event of that happening, they intended to beg hard for their liberty.

Should a gale arise, as Jack observed, they would look blue, but they hoped that their raft would even weather that out. That it would come to pieces they had no fear; and they believed that they could cling on to it till the sea should again go down.

They had put on board a sufficient supply of spare rope to lash themselves to the chests.

Jack climbed up for the last time on deck, and handed down the three sweeps, taking a look round to see that nothing was left behind.

"All right," he said; "we may shove off now, Bill. You are to be captain, and take the helm, and I'll pull till we get out far enough to find a breeze. It seems to me, by the colour of the sea, that it's blowing in the offing, and we shall then spin merrily along."

"All right," said Bill; "cast off, Jack."

Jack hauled in the rope which had secured the raft to the wreck, and give a hearty shove against it with his oar, he sent the raft gliding off some way ahead. He then got out the other oar, and standing between the two chests, pulled l.u.s.tily away.

The raft floated even more lightly than they had expected. They had so well noted all the rocks, that they could easily find their way between them, and there was ample s.p.a.ce, especially thereabouts where the brig had been driven in.

Their progress was but slow, though they worked away with all their might; every now and then looking back to ascertain whether they were observed from the sh.o.r.e. No one, however, could be seen on the cliffs above; and people, unless they had discovered the wreck, were not likely at that early hour to come down to the beach.

It took them more than half an hour to get clear of the rocks. When once out on the open sea, they began to breathe more freely. They pulled on and on; still, unless they should get the wind, they could not hope to make much progress. The day was advancing. Bill wetted his finger and held it up.

"There's a breeze," he cried out; "hoist the sail, Jack."