The Missing Ship Part 12

"By my faith, I believe our friend is going to carry us off to sea!" he exclaimed; "I suspected there was something in the wind, and, going aloft, I discovered a large ship in the offing; so did the Frenchmen, and they immediately commenced hauling on their spring and letting fall the canvas ready to make sail in a moment. They don't like going without their men and the promised provisions; but they will have to do it if the boats don't return quickly, for I'm much mistaken if the vessel I saw isn't the _Champion_, which we have so long been looking for."

Ellen, who had hitherto been asleep, started as she heard Captain O'Brien speak. "The _Champion_, do you say?" she asked.

"I think it more than probable that she is," said the captain. Ellen did not reply, but the thought--and to her it was an agitating one-- immediately occurred to her mind, "The _Champion_ will surely attack the French ship." It was confirmed by the next remark her father made.

"If so, the Frenchman will have to fight for it, for Captain Olding is not likely to let him go without questioning him," said Mr Ferris.

"But where do you think, my friend, we shall be in that case?" asked Captain O'Brien. "Thurot will scarcely send us on sh.o.r.e first in one of his boats, and I see no signs of our own."

"Could we not get him to make a signal for a boat from the sh.o.r.e? He surely will not detain my daughter, with the prospect of having to fight his ship," exclaimed Mr Ferris, becoming anxious. "How mad I was to allow her to remain!"

"Do not be alarmed about me. I trust that we shall have no difficulty in getting on board the _Champion_ should she enter the harbour," said Ellen.

"We may be confident that Thurot will not wait for her here," said Captain O'Brien; "but I will go on deck and get him without delay to make a signal for a boat from the sh.o.r.e, if ours are not in sight. If they are, he will probably wait for them."

On going on deck Captain O'Brien found that the corvette had slipped her cable, that the topsails were set, and that the crew were aloft loosing the other sails. Still, in spite of the wide folds of canvas which were rapidly spread on the ship, the wind was so light that she made but little way. There was yet time for a boat to come off from the sh.o.r.e, and Captain Thurot without hesitation made a signal as he was requested, firing a gun to draw attention. No boat however, appeared.

"Captain Thurot," exclaimed Captain O'Brien, going up to him, "I must beg that you will send Miss Ferris and her father on sh.o.r.e before you leave the harbour. It would be terrible to expose her to all the risks of a battle--and that you will be engaged in one with yonder ship, I have no doubt. She is a British ship of war, and is sure to attack you when she finds out your character."

"But I intend to avoid her if I possibly can, and if compelled to fight, I will place Miss Ferris and you two gentlemen in as safe a position as we can find on board," said Captain Thurot.

"The safest, however, would not be satisfactory under the circ.u.mstances," replied Captain O'Brien. Captain Thurot looked greatly annoyed.

"I know that," he said, "but it is necessary to send the boats ahead to tow. Were I to run the risk of losing the ship, the crew, and even the officers, would mutiny--these privateersmen are difficult characters to deal with; as it is, they will be discontented at not obtaining the stores and recovering their shipmates. My first lieutenant, also, is on sh.o.r.e. If I send you away, I have no guarantee that the stores will be delivered, or that my people will be restored to me."

"You shall have the word of honour of two Irish gentlemen," answered Captain O'Brien, "that should yonder vessel not prove to be the _Champion_, or any other man-of-war, everything shall be arranged as you wish; the stores and men shall be sent off to you, and your first lieutenant restored, if we can find him."

Still Captain Thurot hesitated. "You believe that ship out there to be a British sloop of war?" he asked.

"I feel almost certain that she is the _Champion_; that she is a large vessel of your own cla.s.s, and carries eighteen guns of heavy metal; and, moreover, I believe that if you venture to engage her she will take you.

If you follow my advice you will do your best to escape from her."

While this conversation was going on, the larger boats were being lowered, and were now sent ahead to tow. There was a light air from the westward; the stranger's courses were rising above the horizon in the south-east, just clear of Hook Tower. Could the _Coquille_ once got out to sea, she might either by running before the wind round the south-eastern point of Ireland, or by keeping close-hauled stand along the southern coast towards Cape Clear.

"I confess that I am unwilling to part with you till the last moment,"

said Captain Thurot, "but my courtesy will not allow me to detain the young lady and to expose her to the risk she would have to run. I will therefore give you my small boat, if you will take charge of her and convey Miss Ferris and her father to the sh.o.r.e."

"With all my heart, and I am much obliged to you," exclaimed Captain O'Brien. "If you will order the boat to be lowered, I will get them up on deck. The sooner we are off the better; the tide is sweeping out of the harbour, and we shall have a hard pull of it, at all events."

He hurried below, and conveyed the satisfactory intelligence to his friends. By the time that they were on deck the dinghy was alongside, the courses were hauled up, and the men ahead ordered to cease pulling.

Captain O'Brien stepped into the boat; Mr and Miss Ferris descended the accommodation ladder. After a brief farewell to Captain Thurot, who with his officers bowed them politely out of the ship, the dinghy shoved off.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

ELLEN AND HER FATHER, WITH CAPTAIN O'BRIEN, WATCH THE CHAMPION AND COQUILLE FROM PORTALA HEAD--THE FIGHT--THE SHIPS DISAPPEAR IN THE DISTANCE--RETURN TO WATERFORD--NEWS OF THE CAPTURE OF O'HARRALL--ELLEN'S ANXIETIES--GERALD SENT TO MRS. Ma.s.sEY--DURING THE WIDOW'S ABSENCE OWEN RECEIVES A VISIT FROM O'HARRALL--CONCEALS HIM--THE PURSUERS COME TO THE COTTAGE--THE WIDOW'S ALARM--OWEN ENABLES O'HARRALL TO ESCAPE.

The worthy captain had not handled a pair of oars for many a year, but he seized the sculls and pulled away l.u.s.tily towards the western side of the harbour. As to rowing up it against the strong tide then running out, that, he saw, was hopeless, Mr Ferris being no oarsman. The _Coquille's_ sails were let fall, and the men in the boats giving way, she in a short time was clear of the harbour, and was seen to stand close-hauled towards the south-west, the tide being in her favour. The stranger had by this time made her out, and was steering on the opposite tack towards the harbour's mouth. Being far to leeward, there appeared but little chance, unless the breeze should freshen, of the two ships meeting.

"I only hope they may," said the captain, as he tugged away at the oars.

"Thurot is a fine fellow, no doubt about that; but he deserves to be punished for his impudence, and if the _Champion_ gets alongside him, he'll find that he's caught a Tartar. Olding isn't the man to part company with an enemy till she strikes, or one or the other goes to the bottom. His officers are like him, I hear, and I shouldn't be astonished to see the _Coquille_ brought in a prize before many hours are over."

Ellen looked pale and anxious while the captain was speaking.

"We knew Mr Foley, the second lieutenant of the _Champion_, very well in Dublin, when she lay at Kingstown," observed Mr Ferris--"a fine young fellow. I am sure also that you have described Captain Olding truly."

The captain was all the time pulling away with might and main, now looking ahead to judge of the direction to take, and now watching the two ships.

"Thurot hasn't calculated on getting becalmed under the land; if he does that, he'll find the _Champion_ soon walk up to him," he observed.

"Pulling is harder work than I thought for, or my arms have grown stiffer than they used to be. The sooner we can get on sh.o.r.e the better, and we can wait there till the tide turns, when perhaps we shall find some hooker running up to Waterford which will take us in tow.

I'll pull in for Portala Bay, which you see just inside Red Head."

"As you please," said Mr Ferris. "By climbing to the top of the Head we shall, I fancy, be able to watch the proceedings of the two ships."

The captain pulling on, the boat soon reached a small bay just to the northward of a headland at the western side of the entrance of Waterford harbour. Ellen was eager at once to climb to the summit of the height.

The captain and Mr Ferris having drawn up the boat, they set off, and were not long in gaining it. From thence they could command a view of the whole coast of Waterford as far as Youghal Bay, towards which the _Coquille_ was standing. Her boats had been hoisted up, but she was still, even with a favourable tide, making but slow progress. The ship to the eastward had now come completely into view. The captain took a steady look at her.

"She is a sloop of war--I thought so from the first," he exclaimed, "and from the cut of her canvas I have little doubt that she is English."

As he spoke, the stranger's ensign blew out from her peak.

"Yes, I knew I was right--she is the _Champion_, depend on it. If the breeze favours her, far as she is to leeward, she'll be up to Captain Thurot before noon," he continued. "If she once gets him within range of her guns, she'll not let him go till he cries peccavi."

Ellen was seated on a rock which formed the highest part of the headland. Even under ordinary circ.u.mstances she would have watched the two vessels with much interest, but the intensity of her feelings may be supposed, as she thought of one who was on board the British ship; for although the gallant lieutenant had not yet spoken, she fully believed that he had given her his heart, and she could not avoid confessing to herself that she had bestowed hers in return. In a few short hours he might be engaged in a deadly strife with a ship equal in size and the number of her crew to the _Champion_; and though she could not doubt that the British would come off victorious, yet she well knew the risk to which each of her gallant crew would be exposed. The _Champion_ had stood within a mile of the mouth of the harbour, when she tacked and steered for the French ship. The breeze, as Captain O'Brien had foretold would be the case, gradually favouring her, enabled her to go much faster through the water than the other. The captain several times pulled his watch, resembling a big turnip in size, out of his fob.

"The tide will soon be on the turn, and if we are to get home to-night we must take advantage of it," he observed, "though I should mightily like to see the end of this."

"Oh, do remain, I pray you," said Ellen; "we can have no difficulty in getting back to Waterford, for the weather promises to be so fine. Do you think it possible that Monsieur Thurot can escape?"

"The chances are against him, Miss Ellen, but it is hard to say what may happen," answered Captain O'Brien. "Captain Olding is not the man, as I have observed before, to let an enemy slip through his fingers; in less than half an hour he will get near enough to the Frenchman to send his shot on board, and he'll stick tightly to him, no fear of that."

Ellen held her breath, as she at length saw the ships approaching each other. A puff of white smoke issued from the starboard bow of the _Champion_. The _Coquille_ returned it from her stern-chasers, but the shot fell harmlessly into the water. Again and again the _Champion_ fired; it was evident that she could only bring her foremost gun to bear, unless by keeping away and thereby losing ground.

"Thurot knows the coast as well as, or better than, Olding, and is unwilling to lose the advantage of being to windward," exclaimed Captain O'Brien. "See, he keeps his luff, and the _Champion_ is compelled to do the same; I thought it would be so. The _Champion_ is losing the breeze, which has. .h.i.therto been in her favour, and if she doesn't manage to wing the Frenchman, the fellow, who has evidently a fast pair of heels, will slip by between her and the land. See, she's not going to let him do that. Hurrah! she's kept away; there go her broadside guns.

They'll have told, I hope, with effect on the Frenchman. No, by George!

every spar is standing," exclaimed the captain, as the smoke from the _Champion's_ broadside cleared away. She immediately again came to the wind. The ships were still too far apart for the shot to do much damage; they both stood on for some time longer without firing, and were now so greatly increasing their distance from Red Head that the three spectators could but imperfectly discern what took place. Again wreaths of smoke circled above the side of the _Champion_, and flashes were seen to issue from that of the _Coquille_, as, imitating the English ship, she put up her helm and kept away across the bows of the latter.

"Thurot has made up his mind to run for it," cried the captain; "he's squaring away his yards, and Olding's after him. The Frenchman has no stomach for a fight, that's very certain; those privateersmen prefer plunder to glory. If Olding doesn't ply him briskly with his guns, the chase will get away after all. I had hopes of seeing the _Coquille_ brought in here as a prize; we could then have afforded to forgive her captain the trick he played us."

In vain the captain and his companions waited for any event to show them which ship was likely to be the victor. They were both at length hull down, their masts and spars standing apparently uninjured. Poor Ellen had watched them with intense interest. How long it might be before her anxiety could be removed, she could not tell; that the _Champion_ would be taken, she did not believe possible. But, alas! many of those on board might be killed or wounded; several days might pa.s.s before the _Champion_ could come into Cork harbour. With straining eyes she gazed towards the two ships gradually become less and less distinct.

"Come, Ferris--come, Miss Ellen, my dear--we must be on our homeward voyage, or our friends will become alarmed, and it will be reported that we have been carried off by the Frenchman," said Captain O'Brien.

Very unwillingly Ellen left the height and accompanied her father and the captain to the boat. He had still some distance to pull, though he kept a look-out for a larger boat or a sailing hooker on her way up to Waterford. At length a little high-sterned craft was seen standing out of one of the many small bays which indent the western sh.o.r.e of the harbour. The captain stood up, and shouted and waved, and the hooker, hauling her wind, hove to to await their coming. The skipper, knowing he should be amply recompensed, was delighted to receive them on board and to take their boat in tow; and Ellen, seated on a sail, was wafted up the river in a very different style to that of Cleopatra in her barge, as far as the mouth of the Suir; when, the wind failing, Captain O'Brien, with the a.s.sistance of one of the crew of the hooker, pulled up the remainder of the distance to Waterford in the _Coquille's_ dinghy.

It was late in the evening. As they approached the quay they were warmly cheered by a number of the townspeople who had heard of their adventure, information of the departure of the French privateer having already been brought up to Waterford. It was soon evident to Mr Ferris that some other event of importance had occurred.