The Noank's Log Part 21

"Senor Avery," sang out Captain Velasquez, "I have the honor to make a friendly suggestion."

"I'm ready, thank you, senor," said Captain Avery. "What is it?"

"Let the _Santa Teresa_ go ahead and look in. I'll send a boat back with a Carib pilot. There might be a British cruiser in port."

"That's the very thing I was thinkin' of," said the captain of the _Noank_. "A thousand thanks, senor. We'll heave to."

Very little more needed to be said. There were other sails in sight, of various sorts and sizes, but not one of them carried the red-cross flag of England.

As for the _Noank_, all her ports were closed, there was a tarpaulin over her pivot-gun, and she was a peaceable appearing merchant schooner. Even the bunting at her masthead was a fraud, for it declared of her that she came from France, and was not to be molested without proper authority.

"It's a kind of lie!" muttered Guert Ten Eyck. "They say all is fair in war, but I don't want to run up anything but an American flag. I don't half like to go ash.o.r.e, either."

n.o.body else on board, perhaps, was in sympathy with that part of his prejudices, but then his "going ash.o.r.e" might mean a longer stay than that of any other sailor. The more he thought of it, the less he liked it.

"Father," said Vine Avery, after hearing the Spanish captain, "let Guert and me take a boat now, and pull in behind 'em. If we see any danger, we can streak it back at once."

"Good!" said the captain. "Take the small cutter and Coco and the Indian. They speak Spanish."

Off went Vine, and in a few minutes more a small and sharp-nosed boat manned by four rowers was dancing along into the harbor mouth.

"Splendid!" exclaimed Guert, staring this way and that way, landward, as he pulled. "This all beats anything I ever heard of it. Hullo!"

"Lobster!" growled Coco.

"One, two, three, four sugar-boat," came from Up-na-tan. "_Noank_ get some of 'em. Big frigate no good."

That may have been his opinion, but she looked as if she would be of some account in a naval combat, that splendid British frigate, so taut and trim, lying there at her anchor. The sails now furled along her yards could be opened quickly enough, and there would then be no other ship of her size, of any other nation on earth, that she need fear to meet.

"Forty guns," said Up-na-tan. "Knock hole in _Noank_. Wait, now. See what ole Spaniard do."

"It looks kind o' rugged for us," thought Guert. "We can't run into port at all. If we did we'd never get out again."

The captain of the _Santa Teresa_ was keeping his promise. His ship was taking in sail, and a well-manned boat was lowering from her side.

"Here they come," said Guert. "We'll know more when they get here."

"No," said Up-na-tan. "Ole chief see frigate himself. Know what do.

All Cap'n Avery want is Carib pilot. Tell him where go. Up-na-tan know Cuba lagoons, not Porto Rico. So Coco."

On came the Spanish boat, and as it drew nearer they could recognize Captain Velasquez himself in the stern-sheets, ready to answer their hail.

"Senor," he said to Vine Avery, "there is one more British cruiser, farther in. Pedro, here, will go back with you and pilot your schooner to a safe mooring, up the coast. Only friends will come to see you there. You may watch for a green flag on the sh.o.r.e, or a green light after dark."

"Thank you, senor," said Vine. "All right. Let him come aboard."

Lightly as a panther, with wonderful quickness of motion, a short, slight, dark-faced fellow sprang over into the cutter.

"Me Pedro," he said. "Fight for Americano. Save he troat from picaroon."

The Carib, therefore, could make himself understood in English, and he was eager to express his personal grat.i.tude for his rescue from pirates and sharks.

"Now, senor," said Captain Velasquez, "we will run in and make our report. After that is done, you may rely upon all that our authorities can do for you. You will find that Spaniards can be grateful. Senora Alvarez and Senora Paez wish me to say that their young friend must soon be at their house."

Guert expressed his thanks and willingness a little lamely, and the uppermost thought in his mind was:--

"There! I hardly know what I said. I'll pick up every Spanish word I can get hold of, while I'm among 'em."

"Pull back hard!" said Up-na-tan. "Vine lose no time. Ole chief see men jump around on frigate. See go to capstan. Come out soon."

He had a red man's eye for signs, and nothing escaped him. None of his companions, not even Coco, had noticed the fact that a number of British sailors were going aloft, or that there were men gathering at the frigate's capstan as if they had designs upon the anchor.

A very different kind of man, as sharp in some respects as the Manhattan himself, had all that while been taking observations through a good telescope. He was in a somewhat weather-beaten uniform of a British first lieutenant, and he stood on the quarter-deck of the _Tigress_, reporting to his captain:--

"Small boat, sir, from outside the harbor. Yankee-built cutter. Two American sailors, I take 'em to be. One n.i.g.g.e.r. One mulatto, I'd say.

Now they are meeting a boat from the Spanish trader that's coming in.

Of course, sir, there's a rebel craft o' some sort somewhere outside, waiting to know if it's safe to come in."

"All right, Mackenzie," replied the captain of the _Tigress_. "We must catch her. Up anchor!"

"Ay, ay, sir," said Mackenzie, "but no canvas out till that Yankee scout-boat gets away. They needn't suspect we're after em."

"Trust your head, my boy," replied his bluff commander. "You're a sea-fox, my dear fellow, but you won't steal a march on any Yankee, right away. They're as cunning as Mohawks. Speak that Spaniard, if she comes within hail."

That was precisely what the captain of the _Santa Teresa_ had decided not to do, if he could help it. The moment he was again on board of his own ship, he took the helm himself, and he made as wide a sheer easterly as he could. Owing to the channel and the position of the _Tigress_, however, the best he could do was to escape miscellaneous conversation. He could not quite avoid coming within speaking-trumpet range. The hoa.r.s.e hail of the British lieutenant reached him clearly enough.

"Ship ahoy! What ship's that?"

"_Santa Teresa_. Barcelona to Porto Rico. Pa.s.sengers and cargo. What ship's that?"

"His Britannic Majesty's _Tigress_, Captain Frobisher," replied Mackenzie. "You've seen rough weather, eh? One o' your sticks gone?"

"Knocked out," returned Velasquez. "We were mauled by a buccaneer. We got away from him."

"Where did you leave the American?" was the lieutenant's next question, made as confidently as if he had actually seen the _Noank_. "What is she, anyhow?"

The Spanish captain was silent for a moment in utter astonishment. How could the Englishman have known anything about it? His very surprise, however, defeated his prudence, and he answered:--

"Heavy schooner, bound in. She won't try it, now you are here."

"All right," came cheerily back; "I saw you send her a pilot. I'll report you."

"Caramba!" shouted Velasquez, in sudden anger. "Report! I hope your American rebels will beat you on land and sea! They have my good will, with all my heart!"

"That's so, I declare!" exclaimed the British officer, lowering his gla.s.s. "I might have known it. It's the old grudge between England and Spain. No wonder the Yankees get away from us as they do. All the American colonies are in league together against all Europe. We'll hunt down that Yankee schooner, though, in spite of 'em. Humph! To be snubbed in this way by the skipper of a Barcelona trader! I'll report him! What's the world coming to!"

The _Santa Teresa_, under very light canvas, was now making her slow way to her wharf, to which her arrival signals had already summoned a growing throng of expectant people. Among these, of course, were the mercantile men who were interested in the ship and her cargo, and many more were the friends and relatives of her crew and pa.s.sengers.

Besides these, there were naval, military, and custom-house officials, and persons who were eager for the latest news from Europe.