The Noank's Log Part 26

"Fact, madam!" said he; "but then you don't know how good we are, too.

I'm a kind of angel, myself. Look out yonder, though! See that lot o'

pirate boats from the _Solway_? The captain o' that tub is a bloodthirsty monster! He eats children, ye know. He's a reg'lar Englishman!"

"You brute!" she said; and then, as the commander of the _Noank_ was going over the rail, she added, more calmly; "Why! what an old fool I am! The Americans are only in a hurry to get away. Our boats are coming after 'em, and then they'll all be hung."

"That's it, madam," said Captain Keller. "They're going to get 'em, too. What I care for most is that we've hands enough now to repair damages, so we can get you all to Liverpool."

Off swung the terrible privateer, her much increased ship's company sending back a round of cheers as she did so. A light puff of air began to fill the limp sails of the _Sinclair_, and she, too, gathered headway.

"Wind come a little more," said Up-na-tan, thoughtfully. "No fight boat. No hurt 'Muda ship. No sink her."

The captain overheard him, and he broke out into a hearty laugh.

"No, you old scalper," he said. "I'm a Connecticut man, I am. I can't bear to see anything like wastage. What's the use o' burnin' a ship you can't keep? It's a thing I couldn't do."

"No take her, anyhow," said the Indian. "Ole tub too slow. Lobster ship take her back right away. Ugh! Bad wind!"

Very bad indeed was that light breeze, and away yonder were the boats of the _Solway_ coming steadily along in a well-handled line.

"They're dangerous looking, sir," said Groot, the Dutch ex-pirate, after a study of them through a gla.s.s. "Two of them carry boat guns.

Strong crews. I'd not like to be boarded by them."

"We won't let 'em board," said the captain. "Thank G.o.d, we've a good deal more'n a hundred men now. I guess Keller'll warn 'em how strong we are. That may hold 'em back."

It was a schooner wind, and the _Noank_ was going along, but she was not travelling so fast as were the vigorously pulled boats. It was a lesson in sea warfare to watch them and see how perfect was their discipline and the oar-training of their crews.

"That's the reason," remarked Captain Avery, "why England rules the sea. We'll have a navy, some day, and we'll beat 'em at their own teachin's."

The rescued prisoners had been having a hard time of it in the hold of the Bermuda trader, and they were beginning to feel desperate now at what seemed a prospect of being once more captured by the enemy. They went to the guns, and they armed themselves like men who were about to fight for their very lives. There was one piece that they were not allowed to touch, however, for Up-na-tan himself was behind the pivot-gun. He and Groot, in consultation, seemed to be carefully calculating the now rapidly diminishing distance between the schooner and the British boat-line.

This reached the _Sinclair_ speedily, and its delay there was only long enough for reports and explanations.

"That's her armament, is it?" the lieutenant in command had said to Keller. "Stronger than I expected, but we can take her. Forward, all!

She won't think of resisting us. Give her a gun to heave to!"

The longboat in which he stood carried a snub-nosed six-pounder, and its gunners at once blazed away. They had the range well, and their shot went skipping along only a few fathoms aft of the _Noank's_ stern.

"Father," exclaimed Vine, "it won't do to let that work go on. We might be crippled."

"Give it to 'em, Up-na-tan!" shouted the captain. "Men! We won't be taken! We'll fight this fight out!"'

Loud cheers answered him, but it was Groot, the pirate, who was now sighting the long eighteen, and he proved to be a capital marksman.

"Ugh! Longboat!" said Up-na-tan. "Now!"

Away sped the iron messenger, so carefully directed, but not one British sailor was hurt by it. It did but rudely graze the larboard stern timber of the _Solway's_ longboat at the water line.

"Thunder!" roared the astonished lieutenant. "A hole as big as a barrel! If they haven't sunk us!"

The nearest boats on either hand pulled swiftly to the rescue, but that boat-gun would never again be fired. The other gun, in the _Solway's_ pinnace, spoke out angrily, and, curiously enough, it had been charged with nothing but grape-shot. All of this was what Captain Avery might have described as wastage, for it was uselessly scattered over the sea.

Loud were the yells and cheers on board the _Noank_ as her crew saw their most dangerous antagonist go under water, sinking all the faster because of the heavy cannon. Of course, the sailors whose boat had so unexpectedly gone out from under them were all picked up, but not one of them had saved pike or musket. The attacking force had therefore been diminished seriously, and there had also been many minutes of delay.

"Captain," said Groot, "I'll send another pill among them, whiles they're cl.u.s.tered so close together."

"Not a shot!" sharply commanded Captain Avery. "I'm thinkin'! Men!

It's more'n likely there are 'pressed Americans on those boats. I won't risk it. We must get away."

"Ay, ay, sir," came heartily back from many voices. "Let 'em go."

That was what saved the really beaten British tars from any more heavy shot, and the _Noank_ was all the while increasing her distance. The only remaining danger to her now was the mighty _Solway_, and her sails, full set, could be seen and studied by the gla.s.ses on the schooner.

"She's the first big ship I ever saw under full sail," said Guert to Groot. "I've only seen 'em in port."

"You'd be of little good on her till after you'd served awhile," said the Dutchman, in his own tongue. "It isn't even every British captain that can handle a seventy-four as she ought to be handled."

Whoever was in charge of the _Solway_ now, she was sailing faster than the _Noank_, and things were looking badly. So said one of his old neighbors to Captain Lyme Avery, only to be answered by a chuckle.

"Jest calc'late," he added, quite cheerfully. "A starn chase is always a long chase. They won't be gettin' into range for their best guns till about dark. Then I'll show ye. Vine, make a barrel raft! Sharp!"

Up from the hold came quickly a dozen or so of empty barrels, and these were carpentered together with planks so as to make a skeleton deck.

In the middle of this was rigged a spar like a mast, and the raft was ready.

All the sailors believed they knew what was coming. It was an old, old, trick, as old as the hills, but it might be the thing to try in this case.

On came the stately line-of-battle ship, as the shadows deepened. She was slowly gaining in spite of the _Noank_ having every inch of her canvas spread. She would soon be near enough to fly her bow chasers.

If these were heavy enough, there would then be nothing left the American privateer but prompt surrender. The next half-hour was, therefore, a time of breathless anxiety.

"It's almost dark enough, now," said Captain Avery, at last, with a cloudy face. "Over with the raft, Vine; I'm goin' to try somethin'

new."

Over the side it went and it floated buoyantly, with a large, lighted lantern swinging at the tip of its pretty tall mast. At the foot of that spar, however, had been securely fastened a barrel of powder, with a long line-fuse carried from it up several feet along the upright stick.

"If that light fools him at all," said the captain, "it'll gain us half an hour and five miles. If it doesn't, why, then we're gone, that's all. Now, Coco, due nor'west! Keep her head well to the wind. We shall pa.s.s that seventy-four within two miles."

It was a daring game to play, taking into account British night-gla.s.ses and heavy guns, to tack toward a line-of-battle ship in that manner.

On the _Solway_, however, there had been a feeling of absolute certainty as to overtaking the schooner. She had been in plain view, they said, up to the moment when her crew so foolishly swung out a lantern. It was a mere glimmer, truly, but it would do to steer by.

It was many minutes afterward that an idea suddenly flashed into the experienced mind of the British commander.

"Nonsense!" he exclaimed. "No Yankee would have held up a light for us to chase him by. That's a decoy! Hard a-port, there! The rebels'd go off before the wind. They can't take in an old hand like me."

Precisely because the _Noank_ had not gone off before the wind, her seemingly safest course, the _Solway_ was not immediately following her. More minutes went by, and then there arose a storm of exclamations on board the seventy-four.

"Captain," asked an excited officer, "did she blow up?"

"No," he gruffly responded. "That's only part of the decoy."