Perils in the Transvaal and Zululand Part 7

I crept cautiously down, ready to make a bolt up again if any one hailed me, but they were all too busy to notice me. I crept into a corner and lay down, as if asleep, drawing a sailcloth half over me. I lay there for a couple of hours, I should think, and learned all I wanted to know. After that I took advantage of a violent quarrel which broke out among them, to creep up-stairs in the same way as I had crept down, and then secured the spar."

"You have done n.o.bly?" exclaimed the skipper. "And what have you learned?"

"I learned, first of all, that nothing will be attempted to-night, though an attempt will be made to-morrow. In the first place, it appears that Sherwin was one of those killed in the skirmish, though they contrived to carry him off. Van Ryk and Bostock were wounded, though not severely. Bostock was. .h.i.t in the right leg, and is unable to use it, though the wound is already greatly better. They won't stir unless he leads them, and that he can't do this evening."

"That is fortunate. They are not afraid of Wyndham's return, then?"

"No; they seem to feel sure that he has failed to find a ship in Mossel Bay. Indeed, one of the men said he had gone over to the bay from Cape Town, only a day or two before the _Zulu Queen_ sailed, and there was no ship there, and none expected."

"I feared as much," said the captain. "Well, then, what are the men's intentions? Do they all go along with Bostock?"

"I am afraid they do," returned George. "Bostock has persuaded them that there is an enormous sum of money in gold stowed away in the cabin--enough, as he told them, to make them all rich for life. If it hadn't been for the barricade, he said, of which no one had any idea, this would have been in their possession already. But as it is, it is theirs as soon as they choose to seize it. They evidently believe they can get on deck whenever they please--"

"Did you ascertain how?" interrupted the captain eagerly. "Not exactly, sir, but I fancy they mean to blow a hole in the ship's side, and so get down on to the reef, which at low water extends for several feet beyond the ship--"

"Yes, yes," said the captain, "I was afraid so; no doubt they could do that. Go on."

"Well, I expect they will make their way out in that manner, and, although we may be able to kill half a dozen of them before they knock us on the head, they would certainly do so, sooner or later. None of our party are to be spared, except, I am sorry to say, Miss Vander Heyden. Bostock means to carry her off with him."

"The brute!" exclaimed the captain. "He shan't do that, Rivers."

"No, sir. I would blow out her brains with my own hand sooner than allow it?"

"And so, to do him justice, would her brother, or Mr Moritz either-- nay, I am persuaded she would do it herself! Well, Rivers, we are in for this, and we must get out of it the best way we can. But I must own I am at my wits' end. Can you suggest anything?"

"It has occurred to me, captain, that we might possibly, if we were hard driven, get on to the other part of the reef yonder, and take provisions with us enough to last two or three days. They couldn't get at us there, I imagine."

The captain looked in the direction to which George pointed. There was another reef, or, more properly, another part of the same reef, divided from that on which the ship was lying by a deep channel some twenty or thirty yards wide. It rose a good deal higher out of the water, and was so plainly visible at all states of the tide that nothing but design, or the most culpable carelessness, could have caused the disaster.

"That is a good thought," he said. "If ever I command a ship again, I must make you my first mate. That reef will be our salvation. We must not lose a moment in getting across, and taking all we want with us. Go and wake all the hands, and bring them on deck at once. If we wait for the moon, the rascals may see us. It is lucky that we have Marks and Cookesley, the ship's carpenters, among our party."

CHAPTER FIVE.

The sailors who had remained loyal to Captain Ranken obeyed his summons with prompt alacrity. They were reduced to seven, three having gone with the first mate in the pinnace. The captain gave them their orders, which they proceeded to put into execution as rapidly and with as little noise as possible. The boat was brought immediately under the ship's side, and a number of articles put into it, the first being the carpenter's chests, and a load of spars and planks from the workshop.

Then the boat returned for boxes and barrels, containing provisions to last for a fortnight, together with all the firearms and cutla.s.ses on deck. Then a quant.i.ty of bedding, knives, forks, and crockery, and a large tarpaulin which had been used to form a shelter from the heat for the pa.s.sengers. A number of empty boxes and barrels were also lowered into the sea, which, as the tide was then running, would be washed up on the further reef. There was a great deal to be done, but the hands were all active and willing; and by the time when the moon rose all the most necessary articles had been ferried over.

As soon as the light permitted, the men, under the direction of the carpenters, began putting up a hut at the spot indicated by the captain.

They fortunately found one or two crevices in the rock, in which uprights could be fixed. A long spar was run across from two of these, and the tarpaulin stretched over it. Then four shorter posts were placed at the corners, but at two of these points there were no crevices, and the spars had to be placed in tall barrels filled with stones. The sides were next filled in with planks, with a door and an opening to serve as a window at the end farthest from the wreck. The gig continued her voyages under the conduct of Captain Ranken, George, and the second mate, and almost everything that would be required was brought over. Mr Whittaker's chest had been one of the first things cared for.

By daybreak a very tolerable hut had been constructed; and the captain directed them, as the next job, to put up a barricade extending the whole length of the hut on the side facing the ship. This was formed of barrels and chests containing large stones, of which there was abundance on the reef, the s.p.a.ces between them being similarly filled. When this had been completed, it was broad day, and it was impossible to expect that the crew, who by this time must have slept off their drunken debauch, could be kept any longer in ignorance of their officers'

proceedings. The second mate was sent, therefore, to inform the pa.s.sengers of the removal to the further reef, and convey them over to it as quickly as possible. They were taken by surprise, but complied readily enough; only Vander Heyden making some complaint that the cabin party had been kept in ignorance of what they ought to have been told.

While they were being ferried across in the boat, the captain and George returned for the last time to the deck.

"We are well out of this, sir," remarked George; "we shall be safe over there."

"Yes, unless they come across to attack us."

"Come across? what, in the long-boat?"

"Yes, in the long-boat. They can't launch it while we have possession of the deck. But as the ship is left to them, there will be nothing to prevent their doing it."

"It would be a desperate thing to attempt, landing on the reef under such a fire as we could open on them."

"No doubt, if they attempted it by day. But in the dark they could get ash.o.r.e unseen by us, and perhaps make one or two voyages before we found it out. Besides, the long-boat will hold a great number of men. We must not risk it."

"What do you propose then, sir?"

"To destroy the boat," answered the captain. "It is easily enough done, if you will lend a hand. But first, are all the others safely landed on the reef?"

"Yes. The boat, with Mr Rolfe in her, is just coming back for us."

"Very good. Then we will go to work."

He went below and fetched two iron pots, in each of which he placed a heavy charge of powder, rolling a piece of rag round it to prevent its escape. Then, motioning to George to pick up some heavy blocks of wood, he moved noiselessly across the deck, and laid the pots in the bottom of the boat, one at each end, with the blocks to keep them down. Next he laid a train of powder with a slow match, the end of which he ignited.

They now crept down to the boat, and put off. They had almost got across, when a loud explosion, followed almost simultaneously by a second, was heard. Immediately afterwards the men poured up on deck, having evidently contrived some way for themselves of getting up there.

Some of them carried carbines, and they might have fired on the captain and his two companions, if these had not hastily drawn up the boat and made for the shelter of the shed.

"Safe now, sir," remarked Rolfe, "unless they swim across to us."

"They'll hardly try that on," rejoined the captain. "They would be an easy mark for our rifles, and they know we have several and can use them. We roust put a man to watch their movements; but I think that is all that will be needed. If breakfast is ready, we may go to it with an appet.i.te."

This had hardly been completed, when Hooper, the man set to watch, came in with the information that a flag of truce had been hoisted on the vessel, and three men, Gott, Shirley, and Sullivan had come down to the edge of the water to parley with the captain.

"Are they unarmed?" asked the second mate.

"Yes, sir," answered Hooper.

"Can you see anything of the other men?" inquired the doctor.

"There are none on the reef, sir, but I thought I saw one or two peeping over the ship's bulwarks."

"I guessed as much," said McCarthy. "You ought to think twice, sir, before you go to meet these men. You would be an easy mark for any one hiding in the forecastle; and they may think that, if they once got you out of the way, they could do anything they pleased."

"That's possible," said Captain Ranken. "But I can't help that. There is a chance of avoiding bloodshed, and it is my duty to go."

"Well, any way, let us take any precautions we can," urged Rolfe. "Five or six of us can take our rifles, and show ourselves over the top of the barricade. They will see that if they have you at their mercy, we have Gott and Shirley and Sullivan at ours."

"You may do that, if you like," said the skipper. "There is never any harm in showing that one is prepared."

The mate's suggestion was acted on. Half a dozen marksmen, including the two Dutchmen, Rivers, Margetts, Whittaker, and the mate, took their guns, climbed on to the top of the barricade, and then stationed themselves behind it, the muzzles of their rifles projecting from between the stones. Then the captain, accompanied by McCarthy, went down to the edge of the reef, and, hailing the three men opposite, asked what they had to say.

"We're very sorry," said Gott,--"sorry as you're displeased, sir. But the most of us don't know what we've done."

"Do you call running the ship on a reef, and then trying to plunder her, and after that attempting to murder us, nothing?"

"It was only one or two as did that; we didn't wreck the ship, or join in the attack as was made on you, sir," said Sullivan.