Paddy Finn Part 27

"Glad to see you safe on board, Finnahan," he said. "Now give me the information you have brought. I'll hear about your adventures afterwards."

"I have just escaped from a brig, sir, that is carrying despatches to the French admiral at Guadaloupe, and as she may at any moment slip out of the harbour, I thought you would like to know of it, that you may follow and capture her as soon as she gets to a sufficient distance from this place."

"How do you know she has despatches?" he asked.

"I heard the French officer who came on board tell the lieutenant in command of the brig what they were, and I saw them in the drawer of the cabin table. I supposed that the lieutenant put them there that they might be handy to throw overboard, should he find at any time that the brig was likely to be recaptured."

"Then why didn't you bring them away with you?" asked the captain. "You made your own escape--you might easily, I should have thought, have got hold of them."

"I felt in honour bound not to do so, sir. I was trusted on board; but as I had not given my word not to escape, I felt justified in getting away when the opportunity offered."

"I consider you acted rightly," said the captain. "A man cannot have too nice a sense of honour; at the same time I believe you would have gained great credit if you had brought them off. Much may depend on our getting hold of them. However, we must do our best to capture the brig, and prevent her delivering them to the French admiral. You deserve credit as it is for making your escape, and I'm glad you got off without breaking your parole. I should have regretted to find that you had done that. Now call Mr Saunders, and--hillo! my lad, you're dripping wet!

Go and shift into dry clothes, or rather, if you're not wanted, turn into your hammock and get some sleep. You have not had much of that to-night, I conclude."

Getting a lantern from the sentry, I at once repaired to old "Rough-and-Ready's" cabin.

"Mr Saunders," I shouted, "the captain wants to see you." He jumped up in a moment wide awake--a good first lieutenant always sleeps with one eye open.

"Why, where do you come from, youngster?" he asked, as, throwing his night-cap on the pillow, he rapidly slipped into his clothes.

I very briefly told him while he finished dressing, which took him scarcely a minute, and he then hastened to the captain's cabin, while I gladly went below and had my marine roused up to get me out some dry clothes from my chest and to sling my hammock. I inquired for Larry, who I found had gone forward. In a short time he came aft, having also got into dry clothes.

"Mighty glad we've got away from the brig, Mr Terence," he said; "but still I'm as sorrowful as a pig in a gale of wind. The first thing the men axed me for was my fiddle, and bedad I left it aboard the brig; so if she gets away I'll never be after seeing it again."

"We must hope to take her," I said. "Depend on it the captain will keep a look-out on her movements, and we shall then recover your fiddle, though I'm afraid we shall not get hold of the despatches."

"Is it them bundle of papers in the drawer you're speaking of?" asked Larry. "I was after thinking it would be as well to bring them away, in case the captain should like to have a look at them, so I just put them in my shirt before I slipped out of the cabin window. I hope I won't be called a thief for taking them. Here they are, Mr Terence;" and he handed me the packet which I had seen in the drawer.

I hurried aft with it to the captain. I found him and the first lieutenant in the cabin.

"Why, what's this?" exclaimed the captain, as I gave him the packet.

I told him that I believed it contained the despatches sent from Port-au-Prince; and that my companion, Larry Harrigan, unknown to me, had brought them away.

"What! and you gave him a hint to do so?" said the captain.

"No, indeed I didn't, sir," I answered firmly, though I blushed as I then explained, that although I had spoken to Larry about them, it was with no intention of inducing him to do what I was unwilling to do myself. "I had told him of them, sir," I said; "but I give you my word of honour that I had no thought at the time of his getting hold of them.

I did meditate, I confess, throwing them overboard; but under the circ.u.mstances I came to the conclusion that I had no right to do that, independent of the risk of being severely dealt with by the Frenchmen, should my act be discovered."

"Well, well, I believe you, Finnahan," said the captain in a kind tone.

"We have got them, and we must take them at once to Sir Samuel Hood. We need care very little about the brig now."

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

OLD FRIENDS.

"Hadn't you better, sir, see what they contain?" observed Mr Saunders.

"It's just possible, too, that the commander of the brig knows their contents, and will communicate it verbally to the French admiral, or perhaps he may have duplicates on board."

"I don't think he has that, sir," I remarked. "I saw the packet delivered to the French lieutenant, and he certainly did not open it, though I can't say whether he knows the purport of the despatches."

"It's likely enough that he does, though; and at all events we must prevent him, if we can, from communicating with his admiral," said Captain Macnamara. "When he finds that you have made your escape, he'll be eager to be off, and still more so if he discovers that the despatches are missing. Send a boat, Mr Saunders, at once to watch the movements of the brig. Heave the cable short, and be ready to sail the moment we get a breeze."

Mr Saunders left the cabin to carry out the orders he had received. I hadn't yet told the captain of the way the brig was taken from me, and of the mutiny. I now, by his desire, gave him a detailed account of the circ.u.mstances.

"There's no blame attached to you, Finnahan," he said; "though as far as I can make out, the French officers didn't behave in an honourable way, and I hope those mutinous scoundrels will get their deserts before long.

I'm sorry they are our countrymen, but I can show them no favour on that account. If we take the brig, every one of them will be hanged."

"I rather think, sir, that the French officers will have saved us the trouble; for when they get on board and find what Hoolan and his mates have been about, they won't be inclined to treat them leniently."

"I wish that we had left them ash.o.r.e at Cork," observed the captain.

"We should have been better without such scoundrels. Now, with regard to these despatches. I don't understand a word of French, nor does the first lieutenant, nor any other officer in the ship except yourself, Finnahan; still it may be necessary to act immediately on them. I'll open them, and you must translate their contents."

I would thankfully have excused myself; for though I could jabber French pretty glibly, I was very little accustomed to write or translate it.

The captain got out pens and paper from his desk and, telling me to sit down, opened the packet, and put it into my hands. The hand-writing greatly puzzled me, for it was not a style to which I was accustomed. I spelt out the words, however, as well as I could, and tried to get at the sense. It contained an account of the intended sailing of the Marquis de Boullie with four thousand troops for the relief of Guadaloupe, which was at that time being attacked by the English under General Prescott. There were also various directions for the guidance of the French forces in those seas; but the most important was a plan for the concentration of the fleet, carrying a large body of soldiers, so that they might pounce down on Jamaica while the English squadrons were being led away in opposite directions. It was some time before I arrived at the gist of the matter.

"This is important," exclaimed the captain. "You would have rendered essential service to the country by bringing these on board, and I must see that Harrigan is rewarded; while the part you have played must not be forgotten, as, though your sense of honour prevented you from taking the packet, it is owing to your courage and determination that we have obtained it. However, we will talk of that by and by. We must look out, in the meantime, that the brig doesn't escape us; for though I have got the information to put Sir Samuel Hood on his guard, the French may obtain it also, and act accordingly."

While we were speaking, Mr Saunders came in to say the boat was ready, and the cable hove short; but that, as it was still a stark calm, there was no chance at present of the brig getting under weigh.

"You must go in the boat, Finnahan, and make sure that we watch the right brig. As we can't see her from the ship, we may be following the wrong vessel," said the captain.

Though I would much rather have turned in and gone to sleep, I of course obeyed orders.

Mr Harvey, the third lieutenant, was in charge of the boat, and as I stepped into her, I found that Larry Harrigan formed one of the crew.

They pulled away under my directions, and soon gained sight of the brig.

"It's mighty hard that we can't jump aboard and take her," I heard Larry say to the stroke oar, behind whom he was sitting. "I'd be after getting back my fiddle, at all events, if we could."

"It's agen' the law of nations," answered the man; "though I should like to punish the rascal Hoolan for murdering poor Ben Nash and Tim Logan."

"Silence, men," said Mr Harvey; "we must not let the people on board the brig find out that we are watching them. They'll probably take us for a guard-boat, but if they hear our English voices, they'll know who we are."

We kept under the shade of one of the neighbouring vessels. All was quiet on board the brig. There were no signs of her being about to trip her anchor. I wondered whether Dubois had put Hoolan and the rest in irons when he discovered how they had behaved. I could scarcely suppose that they would have contrived to seize him and his boat's crew when they returned on board; yet such was possible, and would have been retributive justice on him for having taken the brig from us. Still I should have been very sorry indeed to hear that he and La Touche had met with any injury.

We waited and waited, till it appeared that we were not likely to wait to any purpose.

At last Larry, who seemed to have forgotten the order he had received to keep silence, suddenly exclaimed--

"Couldn't we go aboard just to axe the Frenchmen to give me back my fiddle. That wouldn't be agen' the law of nations, would it, Mr Terence?"

"Silence there," said Mr Harvey, scarcely able to restrain his laughter. "I ordered you men not to speak."

"Shure I forgot the same," said Larry in a suppressed tone. "Och! my fiddle, my fiddle! what will I be after doing without it!"

At length daylight dawned; and according to the orders Mr Harvey had received, we returned on board. As the sun rose, a light breeze began to play over the surface of the harbour. A look-out was sent aloft to keep watch on the brig, while every preparation was made for heaving up the anchor and making sail, should she be seen to get under weigh.