The Fatal Cord Part 35

And sweep through the deep, While the stormy tempests blow; While the battle rages loud and long, And the stormy tempests blow.

_Mariners of England_.

By each gun a lighted brand, In a bold, determined hand.

_Battle of the Baltic_.

Day after day the wind continued to blow mildly from the west, and the brig still made regular but slow progress before it, on her south-eastwardly course.

One morning, before sunrise, a strange sail was espied upon the larboard bow. It was during Mr Afton's watch that this discovery was made. The second-lieutenant p.r.o.nounced the stranger to be a merchant ship. This fact, with the opinion of the officer of the watch, being communicated to the commander of the brig, who was still in his hammock, and whom we must now call Captain Vance, orders were given by him to crowd all sail on the _Falcon_, and to pursue the stranger ship.

Hour after hour pa.s.sed away, and still the pirate vessel continued to gain on the chase, which had in the meanwhile been discovered to be a large and heavily-laden ship.

Mile after mile the brig gained while the wind lasted; but towards two o'clock the light breeze, which had been blowing from the same point so many days, began to die away, and by noon there was an absolute calm.

The brig was at this time still many miles distant from the ship. For more than an hour each vessel remained, except as affected by that unceasing swell (in this instance scarcely perceptible) which never allows the water to be perfectly tranquil, as motionless as--

"A painted ship Upon a painted ocean."

Between one and two o'clock, clouds, in ma.s.ses at first comparatively light, but which grew dense and denser, began to move overhead from the east towards the west; these were evidently impelled by a wind travelling in the same direction, and light flaws of which occasionally made faint shadows over the ocean by slightly stirring its waters, and sometimes gave a soft pulsation to the sails of the two vessels.

Shortly after two o'clock, lightning flashes gleamed in rather quick succession, from below the eastern horizon; but no thunder was heard.

At length a small portion of densely black cloud showed itself in the same direction, above the line dividing the ocean and sky. This cloud rapidly rose, spreading itself as it ascended, while flashes of lightning, followed, after fast-diminishing intervals, by grand and grander thunder-burst, flamed forth more and more frequently, from the dark and threatening ma.s.s of vapour.

Soon blasts of wind, heavily laden with moisture, and each more powerful than that which preceded it, came with rapidly decreasing lulls, from the west, until the breeze, having at length become continuous, had grown almost to a storm. Both vessels had prepared for this increased force of the wind by shortening sail. The chase, however, urged by the necessity of escaping as well from the brig which pursued her as from the storm, still carried all the canvas which she could bear under the heavy pressure of the wind, almost directly before which both vessels were now steering an east-north-east course. Still the brig, built after the Baltimore clipper model, so famed for fleetness, continued to gain rapidly upon the ship.

"Suppose, captain," said Afton, addressing Marston, "we range the 'Long Tom' to bear upon her, and give her a shot?"

"There is no chance of hitting her," answered the captain, "with the brig beginning to pitch in the way she is now; it will be but waste of powder. Besides, the distance is too great."

"If we wait," objected the second-lieutenant (so-called), "until we get within range of her two cannon, she will have the advantage of us in the number of her guns. If we fire at her from a distance, on the contrary, her cannon will be of no use to her."

The intelligent reader, of course, already understands that the ship pursued was the _d.u.c.h.ess_, which, with her pa.s.sengers and captain, was introduced to his attention in a previous chapter.

"In the present condition of the weather," replied the captain to the objections of his second officer, "we shall have to lose the advantage of the longer range of our gun, or lose our hoped-for prize. At the rate at which we are now gaining on her, it will be nearly sunset when we overtake her. The sky is already darkened by clouds, and if the rain--which is threatening to fall every moment--should continue into the night, we may lose sight of her altogether, and she may make her escape in the darkness. If she offers to resist, therefore, we shall have to fight at close quarters."

"I hope that she may be worth the trouble she is likely to give us,"

muttered Afton, with his usual maledictions.

"And I hope, Afton," retorted the captain, with a jesting smile, "that you have no intention of getting nervous about the matter?"

"A pretty time of day," rejoined Afton, "for anybody to be doubting my courage. You know well enough that I was only wishing that we should make a good haul in capturing her."

"We cannot tell what she is worth," said the captain, "until we get on board of her. This we know--that she is a large ship, and appears to be well laden. Others might give up the hope of capturing her on account of the state of the weather; I never give up what I undertake."

"It is very evident," said Lieutenant Seacome, "from the manner in which she is handled, that the man who has charge of her is a thorough seaman."

"Yes," a.s.sented the captain. "And there is something about the man's movements, as I note him through the telescope, which convinces me that he will make a fight of it before he yields. Captain Coe, you must see to it that your men are ready with all their side-arms. They evidently have men enough to manage both their cannon; and they will, therefore, have the advantage of us, unless we board them, or lay so closely alongside of them that our small-arms will tell. I am determined to board, however, if it be possible to do so in such a sea."

"My men are prepared to act at a minute's notice," said the captain of Marines.

Young Coe had made much progress in the last few days in perfecting his men in their drill. He had already gained their confidence in his capacity for command, his courage and skill, and his possession of all his faculties in moments of danger. Notwithstanding the language in which he had so promptly answered Captain Vance's (as we must call him now) inquiry, he entertained not the slightest intention of taking any part in the commission of crime; he was determined, on the contrary, to use his influence with his men to prevent it. For the manner in which he should carry out this latter determination he was compelled to trust to contingencies.

On board the pirate-brig every preparation was made for a conflict. In the meantime the hours advanced, and at length the two vessels were within short cannon range of each other. It still wanted more than an hour to sunset, and notwithstanding the dense clouds which still covered the sky (the rain which had fallen heavily for a while had soon ceased) the daylight was still clear enough to distinguish objects on board of one ship from the other, whenever the upheaving and subsidence of the waves allowed the deck of the lower to be seen from that of the higher.

As the brig overhauled the chase, Captain Vance directed his helmsman to steer to the larboard of the chase, on a line as near as it was safe to approach her; by this course he would not only take the weather-guage of the ship, but would also make his position more convenient to "speak"

her.

"Mr Bowsprit," said the captain to the officer who had charge of the cannon, "fire a shot across her bows. That is the best way to open the conversation."

The shot was immediately fired; and the reverberation was deafening, in the damp, heavy atmosphere.

The vessels were now not more than a hundred yards apart; so near were they to each other, that the shadow of the brig--the outlines of which were defined clearly by the light which came from the western sky, where the clouds were somewhat broken--fell almost aboard the ship.

The shot brought immediately a hail from the deck of the _d.u.c.h.ess_.

"Brig ahoy!" came through a speaking trumpet in stentorian tones from Captain Johnson.

"Ay, ay," was the answer.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" was the retort from the deck of the ship.

"The _Falcon_, free rover," replied Captain Vance, "and we want you to surrender."

"We will never surrender to pirates," answered Captain Johnson.

"If you surrender without resistance, we will spare the lives of all on board," said the captain of the _Falcon_.

"I would rather sink the ship," replied the captain of the _d.u.c.h.ess_.

"Woe be to you then," exclaimed Captain Vance. "Your blood and that of those under your control be upon your own head."

All this conversation between the vessels had been carried on through speaking-trumpets.

"Mr Seacome," said Captain Vance to his first lieutenant, "display the flag."

The pirate flag of those days, having a black ground with white skull and cross-bones displayed upon it, was immediately run up to the main mast-head of the brig.

The gale still continued to blow with great force, and the waves were running higher and higher. Though I have said that the vessels were about a hundred yards apart, it is not to be supposed that there was any regularity in the distance between them. Now one vessel would be far below, then far above the other, as she sank into the trough of a sea, or rose upon the crest of a wave. Now the surging waters would drive them farther apart, and now closer together. Meanwhile, near and far over the sea, the fiercely-labouring winds and billows loudly roared in wild unison their stern and complaining songs.

"Had we not better, captain," asked Seacome, "keep as near as we can to the ship until this gale has fallen, and then make the a.s.sault? We could scarcely board in such a wind as this, even should she surrender."

John Coe wished sincerely that this proposition should be adopted. Only in case of boarding the ship could he hope to carry out his plans; and it did not seem to him possible that boarding could be done in such a state of the weather. Should muskets be used, while the vessels were thus running side by side, his men--acting under his orders too--would, like the rest of the pirate-brig's crew, do all the damage they could to those on board the ship; and he would have no means of preventing them.

"It is not the wind that is in our way," answered Captain Vance to Mr Seacome, "so much as the waves; and seas will run higher and higher while this gale continues. Our best chance is now. Mr Bowsprit," he exclaimed, turning to that officer, "have you reloaded your gun?"

"Ay, ay, sir," was the answer.

"Then fire into them," said the captain, "and do them all the damage you can."

The Long Tom again pealed a savage note. But the only damage done to the _d.u.c.h.ess_ was a small hole made through one of her sails.