Roger Willoughby Part 10

"Now, just look at the matter in this way, young gentlemen," said Sam.

"The Captain has heard that you understand navigation, and he wants some one to navigate his ship, for, as far as I can learn, these Moorish fellows do not understand much about that thing. He will make officers of you and treat you well, and I do not suppose he expects you to fight."

"How could he know that we understood navigation?" asked Stephen.

"That is more than I can say," answered Sam. "I know that I did not tell him; he heard it by some means, and that was the reason he bought you of the old Sheik, and paid such a high price for you too. So you see he is not likely to be balked, and I'd advise you to come with a good grace. I am very sorry that you should have to do what you do not like, but you see you have no choice in the matter; when he asked me I had to confess that it was right."

"Me tell how it happened," said Jumbo. "Me tell Captain Hamet that Ma.s.sa Battis...o...b.. and Ma.s.sa Willoughby were two officers, and that if he buy dem he some day get a good ransom, but neber tink at de time dat he want dem to serve aboard his ship; dat's how it came about."

"That explains the mystery, and we don't blame you, Jumbo," said Stephen. "But we cannot go and serve willingly on board a pirate."

"Still I must obey orders, young gentlemen," said Sam, "and I came ash.o.r.e with a boat's crew to carry you on board, and I will bear witness if we ever fall into the hands of a king's ship that you did not come willingly."

As he spoke Sam made a sign to several men who were standing at the entrance to the court-yard, who at once, marching in, surrounded the two young Englishmen and Jumbo, and seizing their arms, began to drag them along into the street. They struggled to free themselves, but the Moors, strong muscular fellows, quickly mastered them, and conducted them along through the narrow lanes towards the port. On reaching it they were shoved somewhat unceremoniously into a boat, which immediately pulled away for a large vessel which lay at the entrance of the harbour.

"Very sorry, gentlemen, that you should be treated in this fashion,"

said Sam. "If you had come willingly it would not have happened. It is not my fault, you will understand; but if I did not carry out the orders I receive, I should have my head whipped off in a moment."

Stephen and Roger were too indignant just then to make any reply, though they saw clearly the position in which poor Sam was placed. Captain Hamet was walking the deck when they arrived alongside. He received them in a somewhat stern fashion, and calling Jumbo, told him to say that their treatment would depend on the way they behaved themselves.

"Tell him that as he has compelled us to come on board, we desire to know what he requires us to do," said Stephen.

On this Captain Hamet beckoned them to come into the cabin. He then placed several nautical instruments before them, with charts of the Mediterranean, the western sh.o.r.es of Africa and Europe, extending as far as England.

"He wants you to make good use of these to mark down every day the course the ship has run,--her position at noon. He does not require you to fight; indeed, if we meet an enemy, he will allow you to go below and keep out of harm's way if you wish it."

"Under those circ.u.mstances I do not think we should wisely refuse to obey him," observed Stephen.

"I would rather not have to do it," said Roger.

"But I do not see how we can get off, and we shall certainly, by remaining on board, have a better chance of escaping than if we were kept in slavery on sh.o.r.e," said Stephen. "Tell the Captain, Jumbo, that we will do as he desires, though we would rather have been allowed to pay a ransom for our liberty."

Hamet, smiling grimly, nodded his approval, and then sent for Sam, who showed them a cabin which he told them they were to occupy.

"I am glad to hear, gentlemen, that you have agreed to do as the Captain wishes. It would have been no earthly use to refuse, as he could have compelled you with a pistol at your heads."

"I do not think he would have fired it, considering that he had paid a high price for us, though he might have ill-treated us till he could have obtained a price for setting us free."

"Well, as far as I can see, all you have got to do is to put a good face on the matter, keep up your spirits, and navigate the ship carefully. I warn you that if you do not do that, he will heave you overboard without the slightest ceremony."

"Then we will do our best to navigate the _Tiger_ wherever the Captain wants her to go; it won't be our fault if he some day catches a Tartar, or runs his nose into a lion's den."

CHAPTER FIVE.

As the harbour was very shallow, the _Tiger_ had to haul out into the outer roads, inside the island of Tedal, off the mouth of the river Gueron, before she could take her guns, powder, or stores on board. A number of boats came out with them, so that she soon had her lading and provisions on board, and was now ready for sea. She mounted twenty guns, and had a crew of a hundred men, st.u.r.dy, active, dark-skinned fellows, armed with sharp scimitars, with which they practised daily.

They had also fire-arms, spears, and boarding-pikes; indeed were in every way well prepared for fighting. A strong westerly gale kept the _Tiger_ in the roads for some days, but at length, the wind shifting to the eastward, the anchor was hove up, and she stood out into the Atlantic. Hamet now intimated to Stephen and Roger that his wish was to get to the northward, so that he might attack vessels in lat.i.tudes where Sallee rovers were seldom to be found, and thus take them by surprise, and so be more likely to effect their capture without resistance. They were by this time able to understand much that he said. He told them that he wished each to keep a separate reckoning, so that he might compare the two; that they must take good care that they agreed.

"That would be a puzzler for me," observed Stephen. "As you, Roger, are a much better navigator, you would probably be correct, whereas I am very likely to make mistakes. I think that I had better tell him at once that I am not much of a navigator, and that he would be wise to rely on you."

"That may be the safest plan, though I will try to pa.s.s my calculations on to you without letting him discover that I do so," said Roger.

The very next day, when they were out of sight of land, Stephen, who was ordered to stand at the forepart of the ship to take an observation, made some mistake, and placed their position a degree or more out. Of course, her Captain, who understood the use of the charts perfectly, afterwards told Roger to put it down, which he, having carefully taken his observation, did properly.

"How is this?" exclaimed the Captain. "Which of the two am I to believe?"

"You may trust me," said Roger, firmly. "My friend, though older, has less experience; but if you will allow me, I will teach him, and he in a short time will be as useful to you as I am."

Thus the difficulty was got over, for happily the Captain did not suspect that any trick was being played him. Fortunately at first the weather was fine, and as the Moors were sober men, and not addicted to quarrel among each other, the _Tiger_ glided over the calm sea, and everything went smoothly.

"Really, from the appearance of things, I should not have supposed that we were aboard a piratical craft," observed Stephen, "for truly they are a very gentlemanly set of cut-throats, and I doubt if Prince Rupert's men behaved half as well."

"It may be not, but they did not knock all their prisoners on the head, or make them walk the plank, as these fellows are said to do; we as yet have only seen them in their good behaviour," observed Roger.

Hamet insisted on their carrying the _Tiger_ northward till they were about in the lat.i.tude of the rock of Lisbon. Not a ship had been sighted which they could venture to attack. They had pa.s.sed in the distance squadrons of three or more large ships, but Hamet deemed it prudent to stand away from them, though he discussed the possibility of cutting off the sternmost during the night-time, but old Sam dissuaded him from making the attempt. The sun had just risen on the top-mast canvas of a ship of some size coming down before a fresh breeze from the northward, the wind about north-east. Hamet possessed a telescope, and pointing the stranger out to Roger, bade him go aloft with the telescope, and on his return report to him what he thought she was.

Roger, slinging the telescope over his shoulders, climbed up the rigging, and took a steady look at the stranger. She appeared to him to be a large ship--a man-of-war--carrying probably forty guns or more, with which the _Tiger_ would be utterly unable to cope. On coming down he told Hamet his opinion.

"If she is a merchantman, the larger her size the better prize she will prove," he observed.

"But should she be a man-of-war, you may find that instead of taking her you are taken yourself," said Roger.

The Captain, who seldom did anything without consulting his officers, had a talk with them on the subject. Some were inclined to run alongside the stranger and try to capture her, but others thought such a proceeding would be dangerous. The two vessels approached nearer and nearer.

"These are bold fellows to think of attacking a ship of that size,"

observed Roger. "I am nearly certain that she is an English man-of-war, and if so, the _Tiger_ will be taken, and if we are not killed, we may hope to gain our liberty."

"One good thing is, we need not fight," said Stephen. "The most prudent thing we can do is to stow ourselves away as soon as we are within gunshot."

"The agreement from the first was that we might remain in our cabin,"

remarked Roger.

"Oh no; but I propose that we get into the lowest depths of the ship, where there is less chance of a shot coming," said Stephen.

"Suppose she is sent to the bottom," said Roger, "we shall be drowned with the rest. We shall see the water rising, and if so, we must hurry up on deck."

While Roger and Stephen were holding this conversation, they observed a good deal of excitement among the officers. Presently two or three came aft to the Captain, and, by their gestures, it was very evident that they were insisting that the ship should be put about, and that they should try and make their escape. The Captain yielded; the helm was put up, the yards squared, and away the _Tiger_ ran before the wind, every additional st.i.tch of canvas which she could carry being set. The stranger was not near enough to fire, or it might have fared ill with the pirate.

"Our chance of liberty is diminishing by this time," observed Roger.

"The _Tiger_ before the wind has a remarkably fast pair of heels."

The stranger, however, seeing what the pirate was about, also made all sail, and came bowling away after her, guessing probably her character.

"She will not catch us, gentlemen," said Sam, who came up to them.

"Cannot say that I am sorry we are running away. I put the officers up to insisting on it, by telling them that we should be sent to the bottom, or captured and strung up to the yard-arm, and they fortunately believed me."

At first it was doubtful which ship was sailing the fastest; and Roger thought, in spite of what Sam said, that the stranger was coming up with them, but after a time it became evident that the _Tiger_ was getting ahead. The Captain told Roger to be careful to mark down their course, as they were standing away from the land to the westward. All day long the chase continued; there was still some chance of their falling in with another large ship, and if so, they might have to fight after all.

It was some hours past noon; they had already sunk the courses of the stranger below the horizon, but there she was, in her former position, still following, though a dark bank of clouds was now seen rising to the westward, indicating a change of wind, and probably a heavy gale. The clouds rose fast, and came scouring across the blue sky, while the hitherto calm ocean was covered with foam-crested seas, which rose higher and higher. Hamet ordered sail at once to be taken in--not a moment too soon, for down came the gale, and the stout ship heeled over to it. The _Tiger_, however, still kept to the southward. At last the gale increased to such an extent that the Captain ordered her to be hove-to. Roger looked out for the stranger, but she was nowhere to be seen. That danger was escaped, but the question was how the slightly-built rover would endure the tempest. They might have run for a port on the Barbary coast, but that was a long way off, and no other would afford them shelter; for as their hands had turned against every nation, so every nation was a foe. Night came on, and as there was no good in their remaining on deck, Roger and Stephen went to their cabin.

Poor Jumbo soon made his way there.