Ralph Granger's Fortunes Part 21

"That's cabin grub, lad," remarked the sailor. "Second mate ordered it himself."

Ralph, with the horror of those three days of darkness, and pitching, and churning seas still upon him, thanked his stars that he seemed to have one friend on board.

Meanwhile, on deck all hands were watching the approach of a large steamship that was bearing down upon the Curlew to windward. The schooner was sailing with the wind abeam.

Presently the captain, who was examining the stranger through a gla.s.s, ordered the helmsman to "ease away a bit."

The Curlew fell off more before the wind, when it was seen that the steamer slightly changed her course so as to meet the altered movements of the schooner.

Gary and Rucker now put their heads together, then the first mate, summoning the boatswain, disappeared below.

"Hold her up a little, Mr. Duff," said the captain to the second officer, who was once more at his post. "She is a man of war, I think, and though I have no love for their prying ways, we must not seem to want to avoid her, now that she evidently intends to speak us."

So the schooner's head was put to windward, and the two vessels rapidly drew near each other.

It could soon be seen that the stranger was an armored cruiser, of great power and speed.

"Run up the Stars and Stripes," said Gary. "Let him see what we are.

Perhaps he'll be satisfied and pa.s.s on."

This was done, but evoked no response from the cruiser, now less than a mile away. Suddenly the warship swung gracefully around, showing along her dull gray side a row of guns, while over bow and stern loomed two immense cannon of a caliber sufficient to sink the Curlew at a single discharge.

Several little flags followed one another up to the cruiser's mastheads.

"Get out the code, Mr. Duff," ordered the captain. "He's signaling.

What in the mischief can he want?"

Duff plunged into the cabin, reappearing a moment later with the signal book. Opening this, he compared the flags as seen through the gla.s.s with similar ones in the book, and their meanings.

"Well?" said the captain impatiently.

"He orders us to heave to under his quarter. Says he is going to send a boat aboard.

"The deuce he is! Well, I suppose we might as well do as he says.

Strikes me as a pretty high handed proceeding though, in time of peace.

Look! There go his colors at last. British, by thunder!"

As the cross of St. George unfolded to the breeze, Captain Gary, looking somewhat anxious, bade Duff obey the cruiser's order; then hastened below in the wake of his first mate and boatswain.

By the time the Curlew had rounded to, a boat was leaving the warship's side as she lay broadside, hardly a quarter of a mile off. Though the sea was still rough, six pair of oars brought the boat spinning over the waves.

Two officers were in the stern sheets, one of whom--a young third lieutenant--was soon on the deck of the schooner.

At this juncture Captain Gary reappeared, followed by Rucker. Long Tom had already gone forward.

"What schooner is this?" demanded the officer, after the first salutations had pa.s.sed.

"I should like to know first what right you have to ask that question,"

replied Gary in his most suave manner. "These are times of peace, when every one is privileged to attend to his own affairs, I believe."

"Yes, when his affairs are not injurious to others. There is surely no harm in asking a vessel's name."

"Is it customary to stop them on the high seas, and send a boat aboard to find out?"

"Well, yes--under certain circ.u.mstances." The lieutenant smiled.

"Especially so when we are under orders to that effect. To be plain, sir, we suspect you of being engaged in an unlawful enterprise."

As may be supposed, Duff was paying the closest attention, for he and most others on board had shipped, not knowing the object of the voyage, but tempted by the high wages.

"You do, eh." It was Gary's turn to smile now. "You men o' war's men often make mistakes as well as other people. This is the Curlew, four days out of Savannah, in ballast, and bound for Bermuda."

"You are clear out of your course, if that is the case."

"The storm did that for us. We had a three days' siege of it."

"Well, let me see your papers and take a look through the hold. It can do no harm."

"None in the least," replied the captain.

He then ordered the main hatch opened as he escorted the officer down to the cabin in order to inspect the ship's papers.

Rucker followed. Duff, impelled by curiosity, watched the opening of the hatch, which had remained closely sealed ever since he had been aboard.

An apparently empty hold was all that rewarded his eye, except for the usual stores and provisions necessary for a long voyage.

"If Bermuda is really our port, we've got grub enough, and to spare,"

thought he as he returned to the quarter-deck.

Meanwhile the lieutenant, after a thorough inspection of the hold, returned to the open air. He still seemed unsatisfied, and cast curious glances here and there over the vessel's trim proportions.

Finally he gave it up.

"Your papers seem to be all right," he said, "and you certainly have no cargo, though you are provisioned for a voyage round the world, I should say."

"Barrels of meal," said the captain. "My owner had a lot on hand, and thought it might fetch a better price in the Bermudas than at home. We can trade it for potatoes."

"Well, I wish you success," added the officer, pausing at the ladder, and touching his cap to Gary and the mates. "Pardon whatever inconvenience we may have occasioned."

He went down the side, the boat pulled back to the cruiser, and the latter steamed away westward.

The Curlew, holding east, soon helped to place her dangerous neighbor hull down, when Captain Gary gave the order for all hands to be summoned aft. The crew came tumbling back into the waist, a swarthy, brawny, reckless looking set of men. Two of them brought Ralph up and set him down on a coil of rope.

The warm meal, the sight of human faces, the sounds of life and light, had already renewed his strength and spirits. He was no longer so ill, and the bright sunlight and the heaving waves sent a sort of thrill through him. The sea was not all terrible after all.

"Now, men," began the captain, when all had a.s.sumed a decorous silence, "what do you think that war ship supposed we were?"

There was no reply to this, though the men looked at each other, then turned to their commander, as if expecting an answer. The captain broke into a harsh laugh.

"Why," he continued, "they thought this ship was the famous slaver, the Wanderer. I guess you've all heard of the Wanderer."