Sail Ho! Part 93

To endorse his words Jarette appeared the next minute at the stern-windows and cried--

"Did any of you see those pa.s.sengers?" There was of course a chorus of Noes, and the man ran back again shouting Mr Denning's name, and we could hear the banging of cabin-doors. Then I saw the man's shadow as he came back into the captain's cabin to fetch the lamp, with which he went back, and, as I judged, ran from cabin to cabin. The next minute he appeared upon the p.o.o.p-deck, his figure thrown up by the light and plainly seen as he ran here and there, and then disappeared, to be seen at the stern-window.

"They're nowhere about," he cried.

"How rum now, aren't it?" muttered Bob Hampton. "Now I do call that strange."

"Didn't either of you see them?" shouted Jarette.

"No."

"Did you go into their cabin?"

"No, no."

"They must be somewhere."

"All right then," shouted a voice. "You go and find 'em. We're off."

Jarette was back at the window in an instant.

"Stop!" he cried, in his clear sharp voice.

"Pull away, my lads, we've had enough of this," cried the same voice.

"We don't want to be blowed to bits."

We heard every word clearly, and the hurried splashing of the oars.

"I told you to stop," cried Jarette, authoritatively.

"Pull, lads! She'll bust up directly, and suck us down. Pull!"

"Stop!" roared Jarette again, as the oars, splashed rapidly, and the boats' heads both appeared in the light, as they left the ship.

"Why, we shall have to save him ourselves," I thought in horror, as something seemed to rise in my throat, so enraged was I with the cowardly crew.

There was a sharp report, a wild cry, and a man who was standing upright in the bows of the first boat toppled over and fell into the sea with a splash of golden water.

The men ceased rowing.

"One," cried Jarette sharply. "I can hit eleven more without reloading, for I never miss. There, go on, my lads. I don't ask you to come back."

A low murmuring sound arose, and we saw that instead of the boats going on forward they were returning into the shadow once again, as Jarette shouted aloud mockingly--

"One less to row. Why didn't you pick him up?"

Again the low murmuring growl arose, and my mouth felt hot and dry, as with eager eyes I vainly searched the surface of the water, just where there was the plain demarcation between black shadow and the golden light.

"The wretch!" I thought. "Why don't they rise against him?" But a fresh current of thought arose, and in a confused way I could not help thinking that it was fair retaliation. The man who had been shot and fell into the sea was evidently the one who had incited the two boats'

crews to leave Jarette to a horrible death. Was he not justified in what he did?

Then as with a strange contraction at my heart I realised the fact that Jarette's victim had not risen to struggle on the surface of the water, I could not help feeling what power that man had over his companions, and what a leader he might have proved had he devoted himself to some good cause.

By this time the boats were right under the stern, and as I watched the lighted-up window one moment, the glistening, motionless water the next, I saw Jarette climb out, rope in hand, and glide down into the darkness.

"How horrible!" I thought, as the cold perspiration gathered on my face--"only a minute or two, and one of these men living, the next-- dead."

And then I leaped up in the boat and fell back, for from the ship a terrific rush of flame sprang up skyward, mounting higher and higher, far above the tops of the masts as it appeared to me; and then, as the fire curved over in every direction, there was a terrible concussion, and all instantaneously a short sharp roar as of one tremendous clap of thunder, cut short before it had had time to roll.

CHAPTER FORTY ONE.

The boat we were in rose as a long rolling swell which lifted the bows pa.s.sed under it and swept on, while I gazed in awe at the falling pieces of burning wood, which were for the most part quenched in the sea, though others floated and blazed, shedding plenty of rays of light, and showing two boats being rowed with all the power of their occupants right away from where the ship rocked slowly, half hidden by a dense canopy of smoke which hung overhead.

The great waves of burning spirit were there no more. It was as if they had suddenly been blown cut, and in their place there were volumes of smoke, through which, dimly-seen, were sparks and patches of smouldering wood. And as the burning pieces which were floating here and there gradually died out, a strangely weird kind of gloom came over the scene, which grew more and more dim till the sea was black once more, and the sole light came from the ship--a feeble, lurid glow nearly hidden by steam and smoke.

And now we were half-stifled by the smell of the exploded powder and the steam evolved when the burning fragments fell in all directions, to be quenched over acres of water around the ship. It was a dank, hydrogenous odour, which made me hold my fingers to my nose till I forgot it in the interest with which I watched the ship. For Mr Brymer said sadly, but in a low voice, for fear that a boat should be within hearing--

"Poor old girl! she ought to have had a few more voyages before this.

She'll go down directly."

But the minutes pa.s.sed, and the ship still floated and burned slowly, though it was a different kind of burning now. No soft floats of spirit-blaze rose gently and silently, but little sluggish bits of fire burned here and there where the tar had melted, and the flame was yellow and the smoke black; in other places where the wood had caught there were vicious hissings, spittings, and cracklings, as if it were hard work to burn. And so hard did it seem in some places that the sc.r.a.ps of wood gave it up as a bad job, and went out.

But there was plenty of mischief still in the hold, from whence a dense body of smoke rose, the rolling volumes being dimly-seen by the reflections cast upon them, and tingeing the suffocating vapour of a dull red.

We sat there almost in perfect silence, watching the ship for quite an hour; but though she was expected from moment to moment to heel over a little first to one side, then to the other, she still floated upon an even keel, and her masts with their unfilled sails retained their places. But we dared go no nearer for fear of the death-agonies of the monster coming on, and our being sucked down into the vortex she made as she plunged beneath the sea which had borne her triumphantly so many times in the past.

The desire was strong amongst us to begin talking, but Mr Brymer forbade a word being spoken.

"Jarette may be waiting somewhere close at hand with his two boats, till he has seen the last of the ship. We have had troubles enough; we do not want to increase them by a fresh encounter with the scoundrel."

So there we sat watching, with the dull smouldering still going on in the hold of the ship. Sometimes it flashed up a little, and promised to blaze fiercely; but it was only a spasmodic attempt, and it soon settled down again to the dull smouldering, with a few vicious sparks rising here and there to hide themselves in the dull, rolling clouds, and we were in momentary expectation of seeing the vapour-enshrouded masts begin to describe arcs in the cloud, and then slowly settle down after the sinking vessel. And as I watched and calculated, I seemed to see the water rising slowly around the faintly-marked black hull, till it covered the ports, reached the deck, and then began to pour over into the burning hold, when of course there would be a fierce hissing, steam would rise in volumes, which would cover the clouds of smoke, and then all would be over, and we should be left on the wide ocean to try and fight our way to the land.

How dim the sparks and tiny, darting flames grew, and how black the ship! I listened for the splash of oars, and the sound of voices; but I heard neither for a time, and then only in faint whisperings, whose import I could not grasp.

Then our silence was broken by a slight moaning, for the doctor had gone to attend Walters, where he still lay insensible; and after that I faintly grasped the fact that in that darkness aft Mr Frewen had been attending to the captain and to Mr Denning. But I knew it all in a very misty way, and then I knew nothing whatever, for everything was a blank till I started up excitedly, and Mr Brymer said--

"Steady, my lad, steady; n.o.body is going to throw you overboard."

I had been asleep for hours, and I moved out of the way now, feeling ashamed to look round; but when I did, it was to see that Mr Brymer, I, and two more were the only people awake.

"Then the ship hasn't sunk," I said, as I looked at her about five hundred yards away, with a pillar of smoke rising out of her hold, and the masts, yards, and sails all in their places intact.

"Yes; she still floats," said Mr Brymer, quietly; "and we are going closer to see how she stands."

"Where are Jarette and the men?"

"They rowed away to the east," replied Mr Brymer, "and are quite out of sight."