Roger Willoughby Part 12

"With all my heart," said the Captain, and he ordered a gla.s.s of strong waters to be handed to Sam, who quaffed it off at once, giving a deep sigh as he reached the bottom.

"Come, that does a fellow good; I feel once more like Sam Stokes instead of the rascally Mustapha Mouser I was turned into."

As soon as the ship had been put to rights a course was shaped for Cadiz, to which port Captain Benbow told his young friends he was bound when attacked by the Sallee rover.

"Now that you have come on board, Master Willoughby, I shall be glad to fulfil my promise and keep you if you desire to remain," he said to Roger. "I was heartily sorry to have to leave you behind, as I knew how much you would be disappointed, but I was many months absent from England, and when I got back there was no time to send down to Dorsetshire and have you up, should you have been still willing to come; however, a promise is not broken as long as there is time to fulfil it, and so you are welcome to remain on board the _Benbow_ frigate."

Roger warmly expressed his thanks, and said that he would rather serve with Captain Benbow than go on board any other ship. He made the same offer to Stephen, who, however, having no wish to follow the sea as a profession, declined accepting it, though he begged that he might return home. Sam was at once duly entered as belonging to the ship. Jumbo, when he first came on board, had fixed his big round eyes on the Captain with an inquiring glance, but had been apparently too much awed to speak to him, and now he came aft, and making a profound bow, said, "Me tink you remember Jumbo, Captain Benbow; serve on board dis ship to sweep cabin when little boy."

"Cannot say that I recollect your face; to my eyes, one n.i.g.g.e.r is much like another; but I have no doubt about the truth of your story, and am pleased to have you aboard again, and will enter you on the ship's books as one of my crew if you wish it."

"Oh yes, ma.s.sa," said Jumbo, with a broad grin. "Bery glad serve Captain Benbow; hope to sail wid you while you keep de sea."

"Not much chance of my keeping anywhere else," said the Captain.

So the matter was settled, and Jumbo, to his great delight, found himself one of the crew of the _Benbow_ frigate. In about three days land was sighted, and that evening the ship entered the magnificent bay of Cadiz.

Next morning after breakfast the Captain ordered his boat to go on sh.o.r.e, and invited Roger and Stephen to accompany him.

"Jumbo, you will go with us," he said. "You will have to carry a sack on your shoulders, but you need not ask what is in it."

"Neber mind, Captain, me ready to do whateber you tell me," answered Jumbo.

Roger and Stephen had taken their seats in the boat with the Captain, when Jumbo appeared with a big canvas sack, which was handed down after him. The men who were looking over the side grinned as they watched it placed in the bows of the boat.

"Give way, my lads," cried the Captain, and they pulled for the sh.o.r.e.

They soon reached the quay, when, the Captain and his young friends stepping out, he ordered Jumbo to take up the sack and follow him. They had not gone far when they met two officers of the revenue, who stopped and inquired what was contained in the sack the negro carried.

"Salt provisions for my own use," answered Captain Benbow. "You know me. I am a frequent trader to this port, and I have never attempted to smuggle."

Still the officers insisted on seeing the contents of the sack.

"No, no," said the Captain, "I have made up my mind not to show them. I tell you, I never ran any goods since I came to sea, and have no intention of doing so now."

"We cannot help ourselves, Senor. What you say may be very true, but it is against our orders to allow you to pa.s.s. However, as the magistrates are sitting not far off, if you like to declare before them the contents of your sack, the negro may carry them wherever you order him."

"The very thing I wish," said the Captain. "I will go before the magistrates, and if they desire to see my salt provisions, they shall be welcome to do so."

Accordingly, Captain Benbow leading, with his two young friends, Jumbo following with the sack, and the two officers bringing up the rear, proceeded to the custom-house, where a party of grave and reverend Senors were sitting. The officers at once stated what had occurred, when the president, who knew Captain Benbow, greeted him politely, expressed his regret that he should have to inconvenience him for such a trifle, but observed that he must adhere to the laws; that as soon as he had shown what the sack contained he should be at liberty to proceed wherever he might choose.

"Well, Senor, since you insist on seeing my salt provisions, I will show them to you," said the Captain. "Jumbo, open that sack and throw the contents out on the table."

Jumbo did as he was ordered, the whites of his eyes glancing, and his mouth at a broad grin, for he was certainly not ignorant of what he had been carrying, and, untying the string, out rolled thirteen gory heads.

The magistrates started back, some with amazement, others with horror expressed in their countenances.

"There they are," cried the Captain, "and at your service."

"How did you become possessed of them?" asked the president.

"This bright sabre served me to cut the fruit from the branches," he answered, and then gave an account of how he had been attacked by the Sallee rover, and succeeded in driving her off, after she had lost a large number of her men, besides those who had fallen on the deck of his ship, and whose heads he now exhibited.

The magistrates were greatly astonished, and highly delighted at his gallantry, for the Moors had much interfered with their trade of late, and had cut off a number of their ships. For although Admiral Blake, during Cromwell's firm rule, had punished them severely and kept them in order, they had, since Charles the Second came to the throne, resumed their predatory habits with greater vigour than ever, while the Governments of southern Europe had been too much engaged with their own internal affairs to send any of their squadrons to keep them in order.

The president highly complimented Captain Benbow on his gallantry, and invited him to a public banquet, to take place the next day in the Town-Hall. What became of the heads history does not narrate. They were probably returned to their sack after due note had been taken of them, and carried out to sea, and sunk with a shot or two in deep water; for it would certainly have been believed that they would not rest quietly on Christian soil, the Spaniards overlooking the fact that the ancestors of these Moors had once possessed the country as lords and masters.

Through Captain Benbow's liberality, Roger and Stephen obtained fitting costumes to attend him at the banquet, where they had the satisfaction of seeing his health drunk and due honour done him, while they also had, through an interpreter, to give some account of their own adventures.

Some time was occupied in unloading the ship and receiving a fresh cargo. Before this was accomplished, Captain Benbow, to his astonishment, received an invitation from Charles the Second, King of Spain, to visit Madrid, and to give him personally an account of his exploit, of which his Majesty had heard through the officials at Cadiz.

"I know nothing of kings and courts, and if I go, shall feel like a fish out of water," said the Captain to his young companions. "But, you see, kings' commands must be obeyed, and perchance I may get a good turn or some benefit to my trade. I should like to have taken you with me, but as the king has not invited you, and I require some one to look after the ship, I must leave you behind."

Roger and Stephen were in hopes that Captain Benbow might have taken them, as they would have wonderfully liked to have seen Madrid, but they were proud of having so much confidence placed in them, and they promised to do their best to attend to the duties of the ship both when unloading and loading, and their experience at Bristol enabled them to do the task. They had some difficulty from not knowing Spanish, but they got over it with the help of gesticulating, and a word thrown in occasionally by those who knew English. There were several English merchants, even at that time, settled at Cadiz, some of whom were shipping by the _Benbow_ frigate. These, finding two young well-educated Englishmen on board, invited them to their houses, and were highly interested at hearing of their adventures during their captivity among the Moors, and their remarkable escape. As they became known they were made a great deal of, and thus greatly enjoyed their stay at Cadiz, though they were anxious to return home to relieve the anxiety of their fathers; but Captain Benbow had told them that the _Dolphin_ had long since been reported lost, and they probably had been given up by their friends as dead. They were delighted, therefore, when one evening, the day's work being over, they saw, advancing along the pier, a cavalier mounted on a stout mule, with a couple of attendants on foot. Till he drew near they did not recognise the mud-bespattered, dust-covered traveller as their Captain, but he soon made himself known by his hearty cheer as he saw them.

"How fares it, lads, with you; how fares it?" he shouted out. "All right with the _Benbow_?"

"Ay, ay, sir," answered Roger. "All right with the ship and all right with us. How did you fare with the king and his courtiers?"

"A mighty deal better than I expected. Though they live in a big palace and are dressed in fine clothes, there is nothing after all, as I could see, about them to be afraid of, so I cracked my jokes and smoked my pipe, made myself at home, and his Majesty promised to write to his brother King of England, and tell him what a fine brave fellow he thought me, and it would be shame in him if he did not make me one of his own captains. The King of Spain asked me if I would become one of his, but I shook my head, and told him that I was born an Englishman, and an Englishman I hoped to die; that I had no wish to fight, but that if I did fight it would be for my country and my country alone. I am not exactly like Master William Penn, who thinks we can do without fighting altogether. The king gave me a letter which I am to deliver, and he said that he would write direct through his amba.s.sador in London, so that this little affair of mine will make more stir in the world than I at first expected."

The Captain received a further welcome from the inhabitants of Cadiz, who considered that in some way or other his feat reflected a great l.u.s.tre on themselves.

The exhibition of Moors' heads was in accordance with the barbarous customs of the times, and the grim humour of the brave Captain greatly took the fancy of people of all cla.s.ses. As the _Benbow_ frigate sailed out of the bay, flags were flying at the mastheads of all the other vessels in the harbour and from the flagstaffs on sh.o.r.e, and guns were firing and trumpets braying to do her gallant Captain honour.

CHAPTER SIX.

The _Benbow_ frigate sailed out of the Bay of Cadiz bound for England.

The wind was fair, the sea smooth, and she carried every st.i.tch of canvas which could be set, eager to reach her destination, the port of London. Stephen and Roger walked the deck with her commander, who was in high spirits at the success of his voyage, for he had secured not only a good freight out and home, but had received a bag of gold and other presents from the King of Spain as a testimony to his gallantry.

"And are you two young men willing to continue to sail with me?" he asked.

"With all my heart," answered Roger promptly. "It has been the earnest desire of my heart ever since you came into our bay; and long before that I wished to go to sea, though it mattered but little to me with whom I should sail. Now I know you, I shall never wish to serve under another commander."

Captain Benbow smiled at Roger's enthusiasm. "I may hope to keep afloat for many a year to come, and I am always glad to have those with me who serve from affection rather than from interest, so you may depend on having a berth on board whatever ship I may command, and I will never let the gra.s.s grow under the keel if I can help it. And, Master Battis...o...b.., what do you say to following sea life?"

"I have not made up my mind for doing so," answered Stephen. "I had no intention of going afloat till I was appointed supercargo of the _Dolphin_, and the experience I have had does not tempt me to go again, though I thank you, sir, for the offer, and am bound to confess that I would rather serve under you than any other commander."

"Well, well, each man to his taste," said the Captain. "I conclude that as you have been so long absent from home, and your friends must have been in great anxiety for your fate, that you would like to land as soon as possible. Should the weather permit, I will put you on sh.o.r.e either at the Start or the Bill of Portland. I cannot promise to run in to West Bay, lest I should be delayed in my pa.s.sage up channel; may be, however, we shall fall in with a Torbay fisherman, or some craft bound to Lyme, which will land you still nearer home."

Roger, on hearing this, was strongly tempted to ask leave to accompany Stephen, for he longed once more to see his father and uncle, and sweet Alice and Madam Pauline, but he restrained his feelings; he feared that should he once leave Captain Benbow it might not be again so easy to join him. He therefore said nothing on the subject, but applied himself as diligently as before to improving his knowledge of seamanship and navigation.

Nothing has been said of Jumbo since he was employed in carrying the Moors' heads on sh.o.r.e. He had devoted himself to Captain Benbow, and fully expected to continue in his service. Sam Stokes also had entered as a seaman on board the _Benbow_ frigate, but he was greatly changed; he had never been quite himself since they sailed from Cadiz.

"I cannot help thinking of those Moors' heads," he said one day to Roger, who inquired what was the matter. "Sometimes I see them dangling, and they taunt me for having deserted the ship when I had sworn on their Koran to stick to them to the last."

"I am not very well able to say whether you are right or wrong in what you have done; still I think you were right in escaping from the Moors, for you would have died a Mohammedan if you had remained with them, and I hope you will die a Christian," said Roger, who was greatly puzzled to console poor Sam.

"Cannot say, sir," murmured Sam. "I was a very poor one, or I should not have turned Moor; even to save my life. There were a good many other poor fellows who refused to turn, and got cruelly treated in consequence. It seems to me that I acted like a big coward, when, to save myself, I agreed to become a Moor, and I should have been served right if I had never been able to get away from them."