Hunting the Skipper Part 48

There, take May and t.i.tely. Now off."

Just at that moment Roberts, who had been standing close at hand, stepped forward, to cry eagerly--

"Did you say I was to go with Murray, sir?"

"What, you? Go with Murray?" cried the lieutenant. "No, sir. What!

Do you want to leave me in the lurch?" Then, knowing from old experience the jealous motive which animated the lad who was left out of the commission, the officer clapped the midshipman on one shoulder warmly. "No, no, Roberts; I can't spare you. I want your help, my lad; and besides, you will be safer with me than with Murray."

Roberts winced and turned a reproachful look upon his officer.

"I wasn't trying to make myself safe, sir," he said bitterly. "I wanted to be in the thick of it all, sir, and not left out as usual."

"Of course you did, my boy; and that's where you are going to be, I expect."

By this time Murray and his two men were pa.s.sing out of sight, followed by the midshipman's longing eyes; and directly after the lad had forgotten his disappointment in the orders he was busily trying to obey.

For in the full belief that the overseer would return with his followers, the lieutenant set to work trying to put the house in a state of defence.

This was no easy task, for with four times the number of men that were at his service the officer would have found it difficult to bar and barricade the lower windows of the plantation house and secure the doors back and front.

Fortunately it was soon found that the occupant or builder of the house must have had some notion of the possibility of an attack being made upon the place, for the doors were strong, the lower windows were each furnished with stout shutters and bars, and these having been secured and the bottom of the staircase carefully barricaded, a better chance was offered for holding the house, that is, of defending the first floor from any attack that might be made from within or without.

"There, Mr Roberts," cried the lieutenant, "I think that is all we can do for the present, and if our friend the overseer ventures to bring his men on we shall be able to give a good account of a few of them. Can you suggest anything more to strengthen the bottom of that staircase?"

"I think we might drag some of those chests out of the rooms, sir, on to the landing, ready to pile in front of the stairs."

"Good, my lad; it shall be done," cried the lieutenant; "but in addition let the lads fill up every bucket, can and jug we can find."

"I did see to that, sir, and I am sure that we have more than the men can drink."

"I was not thinking of drinking, my lad," said the lieutenant, "but of quenching the fire that may be started by our enemies."

"You don't think that they will try to fire the place, sir?" said the lad.

"Indeed, but I do, my lad. But at any rate we must be prepared for such an attack."

Roberts puckered up his forehead and looked aghast at his officer, and then bidding four of the men follow him, he did his best to collect together on the landing of the well-appointed building a pretty fair supply of the element necessary for extinguishing the first out-breakings of fire which might be started by the expected foe.

"Well done, Mr Roberts," said the lieutenant; "but we've rather upset this Mr--Mr--What's his name?"

"Allen, sir."

"Yes--Allen. Upset Mr Allen's house. It's a bit of a surprise to find an English gentleman.--Yes, gentleman, Mr Roberts: he is evidently quite a gentleman, although he is completely under that Yankee scoundrel's thumb. But what was I saying? Oh, it's rather a surprise to find an English gentleman living like this in an out-of-the-way West Indian island?"

"That's what I thought, sir," replied Roberts.

"Ah, well, you need not feel so again, for numbers of men of our best families have settled out like this in the plantations, built themselves good houses, and surrounded themselves with every comfort, and grown rich producing sugar, coffee, cotton and rum by means of a large staff of slaves. We have fallen upon one of these estates, but in this case the Yankee overseer seems to be the master, and the real master the slave."

"It seems strange, sir, doesn't it?" said Roberts, who was standing by one of the first floor windows keeping a sharp look out for danger.

"To a certain extent, my lad," said the officer, "but I have made a shrewd guess at what has been going on, and it strikes me that our friend Mr Allen has been dabbling largely in the trade that we are here to suppress."

"You think that, sir?"

"Yes, my lad--and repented of it when too late, and found himself, after growing disgusted with it, unable to draw back on account of this man, who has committed him deeply."

"Yes, I see, sir," cried Roberts eagerly. "That would account for the American's overbearing insolence to this Mr Allen and to you, sir. But surely he cannot be right about the island here being under the American Government?"

"Certainly not, I think, Mr Roberts," said the lieutenant decisively; "but I do think this, that he might have kept up the a.s.sertion that he was correct and made complaints to the Americans and called our visit here a trespa.s.s. This would have caused an enormous amount of trouble to the captain, and so much official correspondence that we should have bitterly repented coming here in search of a newly-run cargo of slaves."

"Do you think we shall find one here, sir?" asked Roberts.

"I feel pretty certain, my lad, as certain as that we should not have dared to prosecute our search in face of the scoundrel's defiance and bravado. But now the tide has completely set in our favour."

"In our favour, sir?" said Roberts wonderingly.

"Why, of course, my lad. If our visit here had been aggression, all the rascal had to do was to call upon us, after his declaration, to withdraw; and that was what he meant to do, although the fellow's natural insolence induced him to do so in that bullying way."

"And instead of keeping to what he had a right to do, sir," cried the middy eagerly, "he let his blackguardly followers attack us as they did."

"That's right, Mr Roberts," said the lieutenant; "though I must give him the credit of saying that I am sure he never intended that attack.

He has evidently such a loose rough lot of followers that they became out of control, and the result is that they have completely given their leader away and played into my hands."

"Of course, sir. Nothing could excuse that attack."

"Nothing, my lad. I am master here now, and I feel sure that we shall find more than I dared to expect. I believe now that this is a regular Western depot for slaves, and a find that will make up to Captain Kingsberry for all previous disappointments."

"Glorious, sir!" cried Roberts. "But of course this Huggins can't be the man we saw in the lugger off the African river."

"Of course not, my lad; but he quite deceived me for the time. He is almost exactly the same in appearance, in voice, manner and speech, and the only way in which I can account for it is that both men are engaged in the same hideously brutal trade, and that has in time made them similar in habit."

"There seems something in that, sir," said Roberts thoughtfully.

"Seems, Roberts? Is," said the lieutenant, smiling; "and you must add to it another point of resemblance: they are both Americans of the same degenerate type--little, thin, dark-haired, and speaking in the same tone of voice and in the same sneering contemptuous fashion. But of course if we had them both together we should see a strong difference.

What are you looking at? See anything?"

"I fancied I could make out something moving across that opening yonder, sir," said the lad, leaning a little out of the window.

"I trust not," said the lieutenant, shading his eyes with his hand. "I was in hopes that we had given the fellows such a lesson that they would keep away for the present, at all events, for I want no fighting, no wounding the enemy, no injuries more than we have received upon our side. I want just to hold our own, Roberts, till our friend Mr Murray or Mr Munday brings us help."

"Yes, sir, but there is some movement going on there just among the tall-growing coa.r.s.e reeds."

"Sugar-cane stems, Mr Roberts," said the lieutenant firmly. "Yes, you are right; there is movement there, and the scoundrels have not taken their lesson to heart. Well, I do not see what more we can do to prepare for them. They cannot get up to us without ladders or poles, and from our sheltered position we ought to set firing at defiance, while they allow us plenty of opportunities for giving them another lesson.--What is it, my lad?"

The speaker turned to the big sailor who had just trotted up to the door.

"Beg pardon, sir, but Lang reports enemy creeping through the sugar-cane a bit for'ard here to the left, and Duncombe says he can see 'bout a dozen on 'em out at the back looking as if they meant a rush."

"Hah! That is fresh," said the lieutenant. "Mr Roberts here made out those amongst the canes. I'll come and look. You, Mr Roberts have the goodness to keep your eye on them and hold your fire until they show a determination to come on. Then you must fire; but fire low. We must cripple and not kill."