The Missing Ship Part 40

Still some weeks had to be pa.s.sed before the commander would consent to send off a boat, while not a vessel appeared in sight. The weather had remained fine for some time, but at length it gave signs of changing.

One evening, as the commander, with several of the officers, were taking a quarter-deck walk on a piece of level ground near the flagstaff, occasionally sweeping the horizon with their gla.s.ses, now to the eastward, and now on the west side of the island, the commander, who had turned his in the latter direction, exclaimed, "There is a sail at last.

Judging from her appearance she is a large craft; we shall soon ascertain how she is standing."

The other gla.s.ses were turned towards the stranger, and in a few minutes the general opinion was that she was approaching the island. The wind was blowing pretty fresh from the south-west. Her topgallantsails had been above the horizon when she was first seen; gradually her topsails, then the heads of her courses, rose above the water. "Is she a friend or an enemy?" was the question asked by several of those watching her.

Hopes, of course, were entertained that she might be the former. Gerald and Nat Kiddle thought that she must be a British man-of-war.

"See what a wide spread of canvas she has," observed Gerald; "no merchant vessel would carry sails like that."

"If so, then our chance of a trip in the boat is over," said Nat.

The commander and his lieutenants discussed the subject earnestly.

"She is not a British ship," exclaimed Mr Tarwig, who had been watching her attentively through his gla.s.s for a minute or more; "that craft out there is a Spaniard. She is coming here to see what we are about.

Depend on it, the little craft we saw the other day has carried the information that we are here, and the Spaniards have come to turn us out, if they can."

"I believe you are right," observed the commander, after again examining the stranger. "We must be prepared for whatever may happen. If, as you suspect, yonder ship is a Spaniard, she comes with the intention of taking us. What say you, Mr Billhook?"

"I agree with the first lieutenant, sir," answered the master.

"And what is your opinion, Foley?"

"I have little doubt that she is an enemy, and probably well acquainted with the reefs. If so, she will stand in near enough to attack the fort; or if its existence is not known, the Spaniards will send their boats on sh.o.r.e, expecting without difficulty to make us all prisoners,"

answered the second lieutenant.

"They will find that they are mistaken," observed the commander. "Get all the boats hauled up and placed under shelter behind the rocks, Mr Billhook. Call the men to their quarters, see that the guns are ready for action, and serve out arms and ammunition. We shall somewhat surprise the enemy if they attempt to land, for they are not likely to know of the existence of the fort, and will probably at once send their boats on sh.o.r.e, expecting to carry us off without difficulty."

The men, who had, like their officers, been watching the approach of the stranger, were well pleased when they heard that she was supposed to be an enemy, and were eager for a fight. It would be a pleasant variety to the monotony of their existence, and no one entertained a doubt but that they should beat her off. The rays of the setting sun, glancing on her side as it rose above the water, showed her to be a large frigate.

Though her flag could not be seen, not a doubt was entertained that she was Spanish. The wind, however, had fallen, and she was still some three or four miles beyond the outer reefs; when darkness settled down on the ocean, she was seen to haul her wind, apparently to lay to till daylight. The night was unusually dark, so that nothing could be seen of her.

The men were kept under arms, and sentries were posted round the island at the different points at which boats could land, to give notice should any approach, in which case the sentries were directed to fire off their muskets and retire to the fort. The officers continually went their rounds to ascertain that the men were awake and attending to their duty.

Hour after hour pa.s.sed by, still no sounds were heard to indicate the approach of an enemy.

It was within an hour of dawn, when Mr Foley, who having just visited the western side of the island, had returned to the fort, heard a musket fired, and presently afterwards a sentry came running up. "I caught the sound of the splash of the oars in the water, sir," he said; "they cannot be far off. They hope to catch us asleep, for they seem to be making as little noise as possible."

As the man was speaking, another sentry's musket was heard to go off.

He quickly came up and gave the same report as the first. The garrison were at once ordered to stand to their guns, and the two sentries were sent off to bring in their comrades.

"My lads, we shall probably be attacked in a few minutes by Spaniards: perhaps there may be soldiers as well as seamen among them, but I know that I can depend on you to beat them off," exclaimed the commander.

"Not a gun or musket must be fired until I give the order. They may or may not know, of the existence of our fort; possibly they suppose that we are without defences, and expect easily to make us prisoners. Don't cheer now--let not a sound be heard till they get close up to us; they perhaps expect to surround our camp, but as they know we are awake, they cannot hope to capture us without a struggle, and will come on cautiously."

The guns had been loaded with grape and canister. The men not required to work them were armed with muskets, so that should even the greater part of the frigate's crew have been sent on sh.o.r.e, the shipwrecked party might well hope to drive them back.

The commander had taken up a position from whence he could command a view of the approaches to the fort on every side; and other sharp eyes were likewise looking out. So long a time elapsed that he began to fancy that the sentries had given a false alarm, and he was on the point of despatching a party down to the nearest landing-place, when he caught sight of a body of men emerging from the gloom. They approached cautiously, evidently doubtful of the reception they might meet with.

The seamen stood at their guns with the matches in their hands concealed from view; perfect silence reigned throughout the fort. The enemy crept steadily on, not knowing how near they were to their expected prey, the outline of the fort not being yet visible to them through the darkness.

Commander Olding judged from the ground they covered that there must be between two and three hundred men--double the number of his own crew.

Suddenly they halted, probably having just then discovered the fort.

Two or three figures, apparently those of officers, were seen moving in front of them; then a shout was heard, and the whole line, advancing, fired their matchlocks, the bullets flying thick as hail over the fort.

The commander leaped down from his exposed position unhurt. "Now, give it to them, my lads!" he cried, and the guns sent forth an iron shower into the midst of their a.s.sailants. Shrieks and cries arose from the direction of the enemy, who had evidently not expected to find the English possessed of guns. Still the little garrison fully expected to be attacked; but when the smoke from the first discharge of the guns cleared off, the whole body of the enemy were discovered in rapid flight, making their way back to their boats.

"Let us follow them, sir," cried several voices from among the men; "not one of them shall get back to their ship."

"They have been sufficiently punished, and are not likely to renew the attack," answered the commander, who had no wish to make prisoners, and saw no necessity for the utter destruction of the enemy. "If they come on again they must take the consequences."

The seamen were somewhat disappointed at this, but they knew that it would be useless to expostulate. They remained at their guns, hoping that the enemy would again attack them; but when daylight appeared, the boats were seen making their way back to the frigate, which lay outside the reef. On the ground they had occupied when the fort opened fire on them were stretched upward of a dozen dead men. It was evident that the Spanish had carried off their wounded, who probably numbered as many more. A party was at once sent down, accompanied by the surgeon, to ascertain if any of those on the ground were still alive; but Mac, having gone round and examined each of these carefully, p.r.o.nounced them all as "dead as herrings."

"There, my lads," he said to the men, who had come with pickaxes and spades. "Now you may bury them all as fast as you like; their fighting days are over."

The seamen carried the bodies off to a distance from the fort, when having dug a large grave, they tumbled them in without any ceremony.

Before the sun had risen many degrees above the horizon, the dead Spaniards were for ever put out of the sight of their fellow-creatures.

Meantime, the proceedings of the frigate had been watched with no inconsiderable interest by Commander Olding and his officers. The wind was still blowing a moderate breeze from the south-west, and would enable her without difficulty to get in much nearer than she was at present to the island. She was seen to be getting up her anchor. The topsails were let fall, and, with her boats ahead, she stood in towards the fort.

"Her captain, finding that he cannot capture us as he expected, intends to attack the fort with his great guns," observed the commander. "He will find, if he attempts to do so, that he has made a still greater mistake than at first. He must be well acquainted, however, with the navigation or he would not venture to bring his frigate in among these reefs."

The men had in the mean time been piped to breakfast, the commander and his two lieutenants alone remaining on the ramparts to watch the proceedings of the frigate. The wind was light, the sea smooth, and she was enabled to thread her way amid the reefs without difficulty.

"Her captain maybe a bold fellow, but he is not a wise one," observed Mr Tarwig. "If it comes on to blow, and I think there is a great probability that it will do so, he will wish himself well out to sea again before he can get there. He seems only to be thinking how he can get near the fort, but if he had kept his eye to windward he would have observed yonder bank of clouds rising above the horizon."

The Spanish flag was now seen to fly out from the peak of the frigate, leaving no doubt as to her nationality. She stood on for a few minutes longer, when her sails were clewed up and her anchor let drop. Though she had now got near enough to reach the fort with her guns, she had to get a spring on her cable before she could bring them to bear upon it.

"Now, my lads, let us show the Spaniards what English gunnery is like,"

cried the commander, as the men returned to their quarters. "Fire!"

No sooner was the order given than every gun on that side of the fort was discharged at the enemy, with so good an aim that few missed, some of the shots striking her hull, others her rigging. In spite of it, however, the Spaniards managed to get a spring on their cable and to open fire with the whole of their broadside.

"They will not hurt us if they can't take better aim than that,"

observed Gerald to Nat Kiddle, as the greater number of the enemy's shot flew either on one side or the other of the fort, or buried themselves in the bank below it.

As twelve of the corvette's guns had been brought over to the west side of the fort, they were not much inferior in number to those the Spanish frigate could fire in return; while they were much better served, the English crew firing two guns to the Spaniard's one. Their shot soon began to tell with terrible effect on the enemy; several were seen to go through her bulwarks, while her rigging was much cut up.

The action had continued for nearly an hour, and during all that time not a single person in the fort had been hit. At length the Spaniard appeared to have had enough of it. Her boats were observed ahead, as if about to tow her off the sh.o.r.e. Her cable was cut, and she was seen steering for a pa.s.sage which the master had lately discovered between the reefs to the north-west.

"She must put her best foot foremost, if she expects to get to sea before the wind which will come out of yonder black cloud catches her,"

he observed. "Should it hold as it does now she may do it, but if it shifts to the northward or westward she will go ash.o.r.e as sure as my name is Billhook."

As soon as the frigate's head had come round, her topsails were let fall and sheeted home, and she quickly glided out of the range of the _Champion's_ guns. The British crew cheered l.u.s.tily as they saw the defeat of their enemy.

"We must not be too sure that she will not come back again," observed Mr Tarwig. "The Spaniards do not like the look of the weather; when the squall blows over, they will probably pay us another visit."

"It is a chance if they will be able to do so," observed the master.

"See! here comes the wind sooner than I expected. If they can manage to get out between the reefs, they are better navigators than I take them for," he added, as he eagerly watched the retreating enemy.

The wind continued for some time blowing from the same direction as before, enabling the frigate to thread her way between the rocks on either hand. A blast at length reached her. Over she heeled. There was no time for shortening sail; onward she flew at a rapid rate through the water.

"She will get through, after all," observed the commander.