The Cruise of the Frolic Part 25

"If the man-of-war has still the brig in sight, the latter must be making for some Spanish port, where the pirates hope to lie concealed till the search for them is over," I thought to myself. "However, Sandgate, if he really is the commander, is up to all sorts of dodges, and will very likely, somehow or other, manage to make his escape."

As may be supposed, we watched very anxiously for the re-appearance of the corvette, but the sun went down, and we saw nothing of her.

However, we had by this time got up apologies for three masts, and, moreover, managed to make sail on them.

It was a great satisfaction to feel the poor little barkie once more slipping through the water, though at a much slower pace than usual.

As I feared, both Bubble and the men who had been wounded began, towards midnight, to complain somewhat of their hurts. While we were all sitting round the table in the cabin at supper, before turning in, Hearty, as Porpoise had done, expressed his regret that Captain Arden had not sent us a surgeon.

"Oh, we didn't know that any one was hurt," observed Mr Mite. "But never mind, I understand something of doctoring. I can bleed in first-rate style, I can tell you. Don't you think I had better try my hand?"

"Thank you, they have been bled enough already, I suspect," answered Hearty. "I'm afraid no one on board can do much good to them. I only pray the wind may hold, and that we may soon get into Gibraltar."

But Master Mite was not so easily turned aside from his purpose of trying his hand as a surgeon. He begged hard that he might, at all events, be allowed to examine the men's wounds.

We of course a.s.sured our young friend that we did not doubt his surgical talents; but still declined allowing him to operate on any of the yacht's crew. We were not sorry, however, to let him take the middle watch, which he volunteered to do, for both Porpoise and I and old Snow were regularly worn out. The wind held fair, and there was not much of it. The night pa.s.sed away quietly, and when morning broke we saw the corvette standing after us. She had been, as I expected, unsuccessful in her chase of the Greek brig. She had made all sail after a craft which she took for her, but on coming up with the chase, discovered her to be an honest trader laden with corn. She now took us in tow, and in the afternoon we reached the Rock.

Hearty very soon heard that the "Zebra" had gone on to Malta, with Miss Mizen on board, and from the way he received the information, I suspected that his feelings towards her were of a warmer character than I at first supposed. He was very anxious to be away again, and urged on Porpoise to do his utmost to expedite the refitting of the yacht.

Fortunately, we were able to procure a spar intended for the mast of a man-of-war schooner, and which was not refused to the application of an MP. In a week the little craft was all to rights again, and once more on her way to that little military hot-house--the far-famed island of Malta.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

VALETTA--A GLIMPSE OF THE PIRATE.

Malta lay basking on the bright blue ocean, looking very white and very hot under the scorching rays of a burning sun, as, early in the afternoon, we stood towards the entrance of the harbour of Valetta.

Pa.s.sing St. Elmo Castle on our right, and Fort Ricasoli on our left, whose numberless guns looked frowning down upon us, as if ready, at a moment's notice, to annihilate any enemy daring to enter with an exhibition of hostile intent, we ran up that magnificent inlet called the Grand Harbour.

Malta Harbour has been so often described, that my readers will not thank me for another elaborate drawing. Only, let them picture to themselves a gulf from three to four hundred yards across, with several deep inlets full of shipping, and on every conspicuous point, on all sides, white batteries of hewn stone, of various heights, some flush with the water, others rising in tiers one above another, with huge black guns grinning out of them, the whole crowned with flat-roofed barracks, and palaces and churches and steeples and towers, with a blue sky overhead, and blue water below, covered with oriental-looking boats, and lateen-rigged craft, with high-pointed triangular sails of snowy whiteness, and boatmen in gayly-coloured scarfs and caps, and men-of-war, and merchant-vessels--and a very tolerable idea will be formed of the place.

Valetta itself, the capital, stands on a hog's back, a narrow but high neck of land, dividing the Grand Harbour from the quarantine harbour, called, also, Marsa Muceit. The chief streets run in parallel lines along the said hog's back, and they are intersected by others, which run up and down its steep sides. In some parts they are so steep that flights of steps take the place of the carriage-way. The best known of these steps are the Nix Mangiari Stairs, so-called from the troops of little beggars who infest them, and a.s.sure all pa.s.sers-by that they have had nothing to eat for six days. "_Oh, signori, me no fader no moder; me nix mangiari seis journi_!" An a.s.sertion which their fat cheeks and obese little figures most undeniably contradict. Few people will forget those steep steps who have had to toil to the top of them on a sweltering day, not one, but three or four times, perchance; nor will those noisy, lazy, dirty beggars--those sights most foul--those odours most sickening--fade from his memory.

We ran up the harbour and dropped our anchor not far from the chief landing-place, abreast of Nix Mangiari Steps. There were several men-of-war in the harbour. Among them was our old friend the "Trident."

"If Piper sees us, we shall soon have him on board to tell us all the news," observed Porpoise. "I don't think Master Mite will forget us, either, if he can manage to come. Our good things, in the way of eating and drinking, made no slight impression on his mind, whatever he may have thought of us as individuals. If he has an opportunity, that little fellow will distinguish himself."

While stowing sails, the rest of the party having gone below to prepare for a visit to the sh.o.r.e, my eye, as it ranged round the harbour, fell on the sails of a Greek brig, which was just then standing out of the galley port. I looked at her attentively, and then pointed her out to Snow, who was so earnest in seeing that his mainsail was stowed in the smoothest of skins, that he had not observed her.

"What do you think of her?" said I.

"Why, sir, if she isn't that rascally craft which attacked us, she is as like her as one marlinspike is to another!" he exclaimed, slapping his hand on his thigh. "I'll be hanged but what I believe it is her, and no mistake about it."

"I think so, too. Call Mr Porpoise," said I.

Porpoise jumped on deck with his coat off, and a hairbrush in each hand, to look at her.

"I couldn't swear to her; but she is the same build and look of craft as our piratical friend," he answered. "Hang it! I wish that we had come in an hour or two sooner; we might have just nabbed her. As it is, I fear, before we can have time to get the power from the proper authorities to stop her, she will be far away, and laughing at us. At all events, there is not a moment to be lost."

By this time all hands were on deck, looking at the Greek brig; but all were not agreed as to her being the pirate. However, the gig was lowered, and we pulled on sh.o.r.e, to hurry up as fast as we could to the governor's palace, to make our report, and to get him to stop the brig before she got out of the harbour.

Landing among empty casks and bales on the sandy sh.o.r.e, we hurried up Nix Mangiari Stairs, greatly to the detriment of Porpoise's conversational powers, and then on to the residence of the governor, once the palace of the Grand Master of the far-famed Knights of Malta; a huge square structure, imposing for its size, rather than for the beauty of its architecture. The governor was within, and without delay we were ushered through a magnificent suite of rooms into his presence. He received us politely, but raised his eyebrows at the account of our adventure with the pirate, and seemed to insinuate that yachting gentlemen might be apt to be mistaken, and that we had perhaps after all only found a mare's-nest.

"But, hang it, sir," exclaimed Hearty, "the villain fired into us as fast as he could; and that gentleman, Mr Bubble, and several of my people, were hit. There was no fancy in that, I imagine."

"Ah, I see; that alters the case," said the governor. "We will send and stop the brig; but understand, that you will have to prove that she is the vessel which fired into you; and, if she is not, you must be answerable for the consequences."

"By all manner of means," sung out Hearty. "I suppose the consequences won't be very dreadful."

"Hang the consequences," he exclaimed, as soon afterwards we were left to ourselves, to await the report from the telegraph-station. "I cannot bear to hear these official gentlemen babbling of consequences when rogues are to be punished, and honest men protected. A thing must be either right or wrong. If it's right, do it--if it's wrong, let it alone. I hate the red-tape system which binds our rulers from beginning to end. We must break through it, and that pretty quickly, or Old England will come to an end."

We were all ready enough to argue with Hearty in this matter, though the said breaking through an old deep-rooted system is more easy to propose than to carry into effect.

After we had waited some time, word was brought to the palace that, as I expected would be the case, the suspicious brig had got out of the harbour; and was out of the range of the guns on the batteries before the message had reached them. A gun was fired to bring her to, but of course she paid no attention to the signal. Once more we were ushered into the presence of the governor. He was very civil and very kind, be it understood.

"Your best course is to go to the admiral, and tell him your story, and perhaps he will send a man-of-war after her."

"Thank you, sir," said Hearty, rising. "We will do as you advise; though I fear, before a man-of-war can get under way, our piratical friend will be safe from pursuit."

"It matters little. He is very certain to be caught before long; and we will have him hung at his own yard-arm, like some of his predecessors,"

observed the governor, politely bowing us out.

"Humph!" muttered Hearty, as we descended the superb steps of the palatial abode. "It matters not, I suppose, how many throats may be cut, and how many rich cargoes sent to the bottom, in the mean time.

Hang official routine, I say again. We must get these things altered in Parliament." [Note.]

The admiral was living on sh.o.r.e, and to his residence we repaired as fast as our legs would carry us, with the thermometer at 90.

"I wish that we had taken the law into our own hands, and made chase after the fellow in the yacht," exclaimed poor Porpoise, wiping the perspiration from his forehead. "A few hours' fighting would have been better than this hot work."

"All very well if we could prove that she was the vessel which attacked us; but if it should have turned out that we were mistaken, we should have been in the place of the pirates, and have been accused of murder, robbery, rapine, and all sorts of atrocities," remarked Bubble. "No, no; depend on it, things are better as they are. Retribution will overtake the fellows one of these days."

The admiral's abode was reached at last; but the admiral was not at home, though his secretary was. The admiral had gone into the country, and would not return till the cool of the evening. The secretary received us very politely, though he seemed rather inclined to laugh at our suspicions.

A pirate sail into Malta Harbour,--beard the lion in his den! The idea was too absurd. It was scarcely possible that any pirates could exist in the Mediterranean. A few had appeared, from time to time, it was true; but several had been hung, and the example had proved a warning to other evil-doers. He would, however, as soon as the admiral returned, mention the circ.u.mstance to him, and if he thought fit he would undoubtedly send a vessel in chase of the suspected polacca.

Such was the substance of the worthy secretary's remarks to us. We could not go in search of the admiral, as it was uncertain where he was to be found, so, very little satisfied with our morning's work, we left the house.

"What shall we do next?" exclaimed Hearty. "There seems to be no chance of our catching Master Sandgate."

"Oh, by all means, let us go on board and get cool," answered Porpoise.

"Certainly," said Bubble, "I want to look out some zephyr clothing. One can bear nothing thicker than a cobweb this sultry weather."

So on board we went, and lay each man in his cabin with all the skylights off, and wind-sails down, an awning over the deck, and a punkah invented by Bubble, kept working, which sent a stream of air through every portion of our abode, so that we were far more comfortable than we could have been anywhere else. When yachting I always make a point of going everywhere in the yacht, and living on board her, scarcely ever entering an hotel. We thus spent two or three hours--some reading, others smoking or talking, Bubble every now and then giving vent to his feelings in s.n.a.t.c.hes of song. I am not certain that we did not all drop asleep. We were aroused from our quietness by the sound of footsteps on deck, and by the descent of the steward into the cabin.

"Please, sir, that young gentleman that came aboard from the sloop-of-war, after we lost our masts, wants to know if he may come below to see you," said he to Hearty.

"By all means," cried Hearty, springing up; "glad to see him."

Master Mite had followed the steward, and heard the last observation.