The Flag of Distress Part 40

"He has, certainly."

"About the feet? They'll do, won't they? They're small enough, I should say."

"Quite small enough; and those ankles are perfection. They ought to satisfy your Andalusian--almost flatter her."

"Flatter her! I should think not. They might your Biscayan, with her big feet; but not Inez; who's got the tiniest little understandings I ever saw under the skirt of a petticoat--tall as she is."

"Stuff!" scornfully retorts Crozier; "that's a grand mistake people make about small feet. It's not the size, but the shape, that's to be admired. They should be in proportion to the rest of the body; otherwise they're a monstrosity--as among the Chinese, for instance.

And as for small feet in men, about which the French pride, and pinch themselves, why every tailor's got that."

"Ha, ha ha!" laughs the young Welshman. "A treatise on Orthopoedia, or whatever it's called. Well, I shall let the Chilena's feet stand, with the ankles too, and get Grummet to add on the toggery."

"What if your _Chilena_ should chance to set eyes on the improved portrait? Remember we're to call at Valparaiso!"

"By Jove! I never thought of that."

"If you should meet her, you'll do well to keep your shirt-sleeves down, or you may get the picture scratched--your cheeks along with it."

"Bah! there's no danger of that. I don't expect ever to see that girl again--don't intend to. It wouldn't be fair, after giving that engagement ring to Inez. If we do put into Valparaiso, I'll stay aboard all the time the frigate's in port. That will insure against any--"

"_Land ho_!"

Their dialogue is interrupted. The lookout on the masthead has sighted Mauna-Loa.

CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT.

A CREW THAT MEANS MUTINY.

A Ship sailing down the Pacific, on the line of longitude 125 degrees West. Technically speaking, not a _ship_, but a _barque_, as may be told by her mizzen-sails, set fore and aft.

Of all craft encountered on the ocean, there is none so symmetrically beautiful as the _barque_. Just as the name looks well on the page of poetry and romance, so is the reality itself on the surface of the sea.

The sight is simply perfection.

And about the vessel in question another graceful peculiarity is observable: her masts are of the special kind called _polacca_--in one piece from step to truck.

Such vessels are _common enough_ in the Mediterranean, and not rare in Spanish-American ports. They may be seen at Monte Video, Buenos Ayres, and Valparaiso--to which last this barque belongs. For she is Chilian built; her tall tapering masts made of trees from the ancient forests of Araucania. Painted upon the stern is the name _El Condor_; and she is the craft commanded by Captain Antonio Lantanas.

This may seem strange. In the harbour of San Francisco the _Condor_ was a ship. How can she now be a barque?

The answer is easy, as has been the transformation; and a word will explain it. For the working of her sails, a barque requires fewer hands than a ship. Finding himself with a short crew, Captain Lantanas has resorted to a stratagem, common in such cases, and converted his vessel accordingly. The conversion was effected on the day before leaving San Francisco; so that the _Condor_, entering the Golden Gate a ship, stood out of it a barque. As such she is now on the ocean, sailing southward along the line of longitude 125 degrees West. In the usual track taken by sailing-vessels between Upper California and the Isthmus, she has westered, to get well clear of the coast, and catch the regular winds, that, centuries ago, wafted the spice-laden Spanish galleons from the Philippines to Acapulco. A steamer would hug the sh.o.r.e, keeping the brown barren mountains of Lower California in view. Instead, the _Condor_ has sheered wide from the land; and, in all probability, will not again sight it till she's bearing up to Panama Bay.

It is the middle watch of the night--the first after leaving San Francisco. Eight bells have sounded, and the chief mate is in charge, the second having turned in, along with the division of crew allotted to him. The sea is tranquil, the breeze light, blowing from the desired quarter, so that there is nothing to call for any unusual vigilance.

True, the night is dark, but without portent of storm. It is, as Harry Blew knows, only a thick rain-cloud, such as often shadows this part of the Pacific.

But the darkness need not be dreaded. They are in too low a lat.i.tude to encounter icebergs; and upon the wide waters of the South Sea there is not much danger of collision with ships.

Notwithstanding these reasons for feeling secure, the chief officer of the _Condor_ paces her decks with a brow clouded, as the heavens over his head; while the glance of his eye betrays anxiety of no ordinary kind. It cannot be from any apprehension about the weather. He does not regard the sky, nor the sea, nor the sails. On the contrary, he moves about, not with bold, manlike step, as one having command of a vessel, but stealthily, now and then stopping and standing in crouched att.i.tude, within the deeper shadow thrown upon the decks by masts, bulwarks, and boats. He seems less to occupy himself about the ropes, spars, and sails, than the behaviour of those who work them. Not while they are working them either, but more when they are straying idly along the gangways, or cl.u.s.tered in some corner, and conversing. In short, he appears to be playing spy on them.

For this he has his reasons. And for all good ones. Before leaving port he had discovered the incapacity of the crew, so hastily sc.r.a.ped together. A bad lot, he could see at first sight--rough, ribald, and drunken. In all there are eleven of them, the second mate included; the last, as already stated, a Spaniard, by name Padilla. There are three others of the same race--Spaniards, or Spanish-Americans--Gil Gomez, Jose Hernandez, and Jacinto Velarde; two Englishmen, Jack Striker and Bill Davis; a Frenchman, by name La Crosse; a Dutchman, and a Dane; the remaining two being men whose nationality is difficult to determine, and scarce known to themselves--such as may be met on almost every ship that sails the sea.

The chief officer of the _Condor_, accustomed to a man-o'-war, with its rigid discipline, is already disgusted with what is going on aboard the merchantman. He was so before leaving San Francisco, having also some anxiety about the navigation of the vessel. With a crew so incapable, he antic.i.p.ated difficulty, if not danger. But now that he is out upon the open ocean, he is sure of the first, and keenly apprehensive of the last. For, in less than a single day's sailing, he has discovered that the sailors, besides counting short, are otherwise untrustworthy.

Several of them are not sailors at all, but "longsh.o.r.e" men; one or two mere "land-lubbers," who never laid hand upon a ship's rope before clutching those of the _Condor_. With such, what chance will there be for working the ship in a storm? But there is a danger he dreads far more than the mismanagement of ropes and sails--insubordination. Even thus early, it has shown itself among the men, and may at any moment break out into open mutiny. All the more likely from the character of Captain Lantanas, with which he has become well acquainted.

The Chilian skipper is an easy-going man, given to reading books of natural history, and collecting curiosities--as evinced by his brace of Bornean apes, and other specimens picked up during his trading trip to the Indian Archipelago. A man in every way amiable, but just on this account the most unfitted to control a crew, such as that he has shipped for the voyage to Valparaiso.

Absorbed in his studies, he takes little notice of them, leaving them in the hands, and to the control, of his _piloto_, Harry Blew.

But the ex-man-o'-war's man, though a typical British sailor, is not one of the happy-go-lucky kind. He has been entrusted with something more than the navigation of the Chilian ship--with the charge of two fair ladies in her cabin; and although these have not shown themselves on deck, he knows they are safe, and well waited on by the black cook; who is also steward, and who, under his rough sable skin, has a kindly, gentle heart.

It is when thinking of his cabin pa.s.sengers, that the _Condor's_ first officer feels apprehensive, and then not from the incapacity of her sailors, but their bold, indeed almost insolent, behaviour. Their having shown something of this at first might have been excusable, or at all events, capable of explanation. They had not yet sobered down.

Fresh from the streets of San Francisco, so lawless and licentious, it could not be expected. But most of them have been now some days aboard--no drink allowed them save the regular ration, with plenty of everything else. Kind treatment from captain and mate, and still they appear scowling and discontented, as if the slightest slur--an angry word, even a look--would make mutiny among them.

What can it mean? What do the men want?

A score of times has Harry Blew thus interrogated himself, without receiving satisfactory answer. It is to obtain this, he is now gliding silently about the decks, and here and there concealing himself in shadow, with the hope of overhearing some speech that will give him explanation of the conspiracy--if conspiracy it be.

And in this hope he is not deceived or disappointed, but successful beyond his most sanguine expectations. For he at length obtains a clue, not _only_ to the insubordination of the sailors, but all else that has been puzzling him.

And a strange problem it is, its solution appalling.

He gets the latter while standing under a piece of sailcloth, spread from the rail to the top of the round-house--rigged up by the carpenter as a sun screen, while doing some work during the heat of the day, and so left. The sky being now starless and pitch-black, with this additional obstruction to light, Harry Blew stands in obscurity impenetrable to the eye. A man pa.s.sing, so close as almost to touch, could not possibly see him.

Nor is he seen by two men, who, like himself, sauntering about, have come to a stop under the spread canvas. Unlike him, however, they are not silent, but engaged in conversation, in a low tone, still loud enough for him to hear every word said. And to every one he listens with interest so engrossing, that his breath is well nigh suspended.

He understands what is said; all the easier from their talk being carried on in English--his own tongue. For they who converse are Jack Striker and Bill Davis.

And long before their dialogue comes to a close, he has not only obtained intelligence of what has. .h.i.therto perplexed him, but gets a glimpse of something beyond--that which sets his hair on end, almost causing the blood to curdle in his veins.

CHAPTER FORTY NINE.

TWO "SYDNEY DUCKS."

Jack Striker and Bill Davis are "Sydney Ducks," who have seen service in the chain-gangs of Australia. They have also served as sailors, this being their original calling. But since a certain voyage to the Swan River settlement--in which they were but pa.s.sengers, sent out at the expense of Her Britannic Majesty's Government--they have had aversion to the sea, and only take to it intermittently--when under the necessity of working pa.s.sage from port to port for other purposes. Escaping from a colonisation forced upon them, and quite uncongenial, they had thus made their way into California; and, after a run up the Sacramento, and a spell at gold-seeking, with but indifferent success, had returned to San Francisco; in the Queen City of the Pacific--finding ways of life they liked better than the hard labour of pick, pan, and cradle. Loitering among its low sailor-haunts, they encountered a pleasant surprise, by meeting a man who offered them five thousand dollars each to ship in a merchant-vessel, for the "short trip" to Panama! A wage so disproportioned to the service asked for, of course called for explanation; which the princely contractor gave, after having secured their confidence. It proved satisfactory to the Sydney Ducks, who, without further questioning, entered into the contract. The result was their getting conducted aboard the _Condor_--she being the vessel bound for the port of Panama.

He who had given them this handsome engagement was not the owner of the ship; no more was he her captain or supercargo; but a gentleman representing himself authorised to accept their services, for a somewhat different purpose than the mere working of her sails; and who promised to pay them in a peculiar manner--under certain contingencies, even more than the sum stipulated, notwithstanding its magnificence.

The conditions were partially made known to them before setting foot on the ship; and though an honest sailor would scornfully have rejected them--even in the face of such tempting reward--Jack Striker and Bill Davis have accepted them without scruple or cavil. For they are not honest sailors; but ex-convicts, criminals still unreformed, and capable of any misdeed--piracy, or murder--if only money can be made thereby.

Since coming aboard the _Condor_, and mixing with her crew, they have had additional insight into the character of their contract, and the services required of them. They find that several other men have been engaged in a somewhat similar way; and at a like bounteous wage--for a while wondering at it--till after a mutual comparison of notes, and putting together their respective sc.r.a.ps of intelligence, with surmises added, they have arrived at a pretty accurate understanding of how the land lies, and why their _entrepreneur_--who is no other than the second mate, Padilla--has been so liberal.

Striker, who has seen more of the world, and is the elder of the two "ducks," has been the first to obtain this added information; and it is for the purpose of communicating it to his old chum of the chain-gang, he has asked the latter to step aside with him. For chancing to be cast together in the middle watch, an opportunity offers, which the older convict has all that day been looking out for.

Davis, of more talkative habit, is the first to break silence; which he does on the instant of their ducking under the sailcloth.