The Red Rover Part 53

"I like your frankness. We have sought each other's lives like men, and we shall prove the truer friends, now that amity is established between us. I will not ask you further of that adventure, Wilder; for favour, in my service, is not to be bought by treachery to that you have quitted. It is sufficient that you now sail under my flag."

"What is that flag?" demanded a mild but firm voice, at his elbow.

The Rover turned suddenly, and again met the riveted, calm, and searching eye of the governess. The gleamings of some strangely contradictory pa.s.sions crossed his features, and then his whole countenance changed to that look of bland courtesy which he most affected when addressing his captives.

"Here speaks a female, to remind two mariners of their duty!" he exclaimed. "We have forgotten the civility of showing the stranger our bunting. Let it be set, Mr Wilder, that we may omit none of the observances of nautical etiquette."

"The ship in sight carries a naked gaft."

"No matter; we shall be foremost in courtesy, Let the colours be shown."

Wilder opened the little locker which contained the flags most in use, but hesitated which to select, out of a dozen that lay in large rolls within the different compartments.

"I hardly know which of these ensigns it is your pleasure to show," he said, in a manner that appeared sufficiently like putting a question.

"Try him with the heavy-moulded Dutchman. The Commander of so n.o.ble a ship should understand all Christian tongues."

The lieutenant made a sign to the quarter-master on duty; and, in another minute, the flag of the United Provinces was waving at the peak of the "Dolphin." The two officers narrowly watched its effect on the stranger, who refused, however, to make any answering sign to the false signal they had just exhibited.

"The stranger sees we have a hull that was never made for the shoals of Holland. Perhaps he knows us?" said the Rover, glancing at the same time a look of inquiry at his companion.

"I think not. Paint is too freely used in the 'Dolphin,' for even her friends to be certain of her countenance."

"She is a coquettish ship, we will allow," returned the Rover, smiling.

"Try him with the Portuguese: Let us see if Brazil diamonds have favour in his eyes."

The colours already set were lowered, and, in their place, the emblem of the house of Braganza was loosened to the breeze. Still the stranger pursued his course in sullen inattention, eating closer and closer to the wind, as it is termed in nautical language, in order to lessen the distance between him and his chase as much as possible.

"An ally cannot move him," said the Rover "Now let him see the taunting drapeau blanc."

Wilder complied in silence. The flag of Portugal was hauled to the deck, and the white field of France was given to the air. The ensign had hardly fluttered in its elevated position, before a broad glossy blazonry, rose, like some enormous bird taking wing from the deck of the stranger, and opened its folds in graceful waves at his gaft. The same instant, a column of smoke issued from his bows, and had sailed backward through his rigging, ere the report of the gun of defiance found its way, against the fresh breeze of the trades, to the ears of the "Dolphin's" crew.

"So much for national amity!" dryly observed the Rover. "He is mute to the Dutchman, and to the crown of Braganza; but the very bile is stirred within him at the sight of a table-cloth! Let him contemplate the colours he loves so little, Mr Wilder when we are tired of showing them, our lockers may furnish another."

It would seem, however, that the sight of the flag; which the Rover now chose to bear, produced some such effect on his neighbour as the moleta of the nimble banderillo is known to excite in the enraged bull. Sundry smaller sails, which could do but little good, but which answered the purpose of appearing to wish to quicken his speed, were instantly set aboard the stranger; and not a brace, or a bow-line, was suffered to escape without an additional pull. In short, he wore the air of the courser who receives the useless blows of the jockey, when already at the top of his speed, and when any further excitement is as fruitless as his own additional exertions. Still there seemed but little need of such supererogatory efforts. By this time, the two vessels were fairly trying there powers of sailing, and with no visible advantage in favour of either. Although the "Dolphin" was renowned for her speed, the stranger manifested no inferiority that the keenest scrutiny might detect. The ship of the freebooter was already bending to the breeze, and the jets of spray before her were cast still higher and further in advance; but each impulse of the wind was equally felt by the stranger, and her movement over the heaving waters seemed to be as rapid and as graceful as that of her rival.

"Yon ship parts the water as a swallow cuts the air," observed the chief of the freebooters to the youth, who still kept at his elbow, endeavouring to conceal an uneasiness which was increasing at each instant. "Has she a name for speed?"

"The curlew is scarcely faster. Are we not already nigh enough, for men who cruise with commissions no better than our own pleasure?"

The Rover glanced a look of impatient suspicion at the countenance of his companion; but its expression changed to a smile of haughty audacity, as he answered,--

"Let him equal the eagle in his highest and swiftest flight, he shall find us no laggards on the wing! Why this reluctance to be within a mile of a vessel of the Crown?"

"Because I know her force, and the hopeless character of a contest with an enemy so superior," returned Wilder, firmly. "Captain Heidegger, you cannot fight yon ship with success; and, unless instant use be made of the distance which still exists between us, you cannot escape her. Indeed, I know not but it is already too late to attempt the latter."

"Such, sir, is the opinion of one who overrates the powers of his enemy, because use, and much talking, have taught him to reverence it as something more than human. Mr Wilder, none are so daring or so modest, as those who have long been accustomed to place their dependence on their own exertions. I have been nigher to a flag even, and yet you see I continue to keep on this mortal coil."

"Hark! 'Tis a drum. The stranger is going to his guns."

The Rover listened a moment, and was able to catch the well-known beat which calls the people of a vessel of war to quarters. First casting a glance upward at his sails, and then throwing a general and critical look on all and every thing which came within the influence of his command, he calmly answered,--

"We will imitate his example, Mr Wilder. Let the order be given."

Until now, the crew of the "Dolphin" had either been occupied in such necessary duties as had been a.s.signed them, or were engaged in gazing with curious eyes at the ship which so eagerly sought to draw as near as possible to their own dangerous vessel. The low but continued hum of voices, sounds such alone as discipline permitted, had afforded the only evidence of the interest they took in the scene; but, the instant the first tap on the drum was heard, each groupe severed, and every man repaired, with bustling activity, to his well-known station. The stir among the crew was but of a moment's continuance, and it was succeeded by the breathing stillness which has already been noticed in our pages on a similar occasion. The officers, however, were seen making hasty, but strict, inquiries into the conditions of their several commands; while the munitions of war, that were quickly drawn from their places of deposit, announced a preparation more serious than ordinary. The Rover himself had disappeared; but it was not long before he was again seen at his elevated look-out accoutred for the conflict that appeared to approach, employed, as ever, in studying the properties, the force, and the evolutions of his advancing antagonist. Those who knew him best, however, said that the question of combat was not yet decided in his mind; and hundreds of eager glances were thrown in the direction of his contracting eye, as if to penetrate the mystery in which he still chose to conceal his purpose. He had thrown aside the sea-cap, and stood with the fair hair blowing about a brow that seemed formed to give birth to thoughts far n.o.bler than those which apparently had occupied his life, while a species of leathern helmet lay at his feet, the garniture of which was of a nature to lend an unnatural fierceness to the countenance of its wearer. Whenever this boarding-cap was worn, all in the ship were given to understand that the moment of serious strife was at hand; but, as yet, that never-failing evidence of the hostile intention of their leader was unnoticed.

In the mean time, each officer had examined into, and reported, the state of his division; and then, by a sort of implied permission on the part of their superiors, the death-like calm, which had hitherto reigned among the people, was allowed to be broken by suppressed but earnest discourse; the calculating chief permitting this departure from the usual rules of more regular cruisers, in order to come at the temper of the crew, on which so much of the success of his desperate enterprises so frequently depended.

Chapter XXVII.

----"For he made me mad, To see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet, And talk so like a waiting gentlewoman."----

_King Henry IV_

The moment was now one of high and earnest excitement. Each individual, who was charged with a portion of the subordinate authority of the ship, had examined into the state of his command, with that engrossing care which always deepens as responsibility draws nigher to the proofs of its being worthily bestowed. The voice of the harsh master had ceased to inquire into the state of those several ropes and chains that were deemed vital to the safety of the vessel; each chief of a battery had a.s.sured and re-a.s.sured himself that his artillery was ready for instant, and the most effective, service; extra ammunition had already issued from its dark and secret repository; and even the hum of dialogue had ceased, in the more engrossing and all-absorbing interest of the scene. Still the quick and ever-changing glance of the Rover could detect no reason to distrust the firmness of his people. They were grave, as are ever the bravest and steadiest in the hour of trial; but their gravity was mingled with no signs of concern. It seemed rather like the effect of desperate and concentrated resolution, such as braces the human mind to efforts which exceed the ordinary daring of martial enterprise. To this cheering exhibition of the humour of his crew the wary and sagacious leader saw but three exceptions; they were found in the persons of his lieutenant and his two remarkable a.s.sociates.

It has been seen that the bearing of Wilder was not altogether such as became one of his rank in a moment of great trial. The keen, jealous glances of the Rover had studied and re-studied his manner, without arriving at any satisfactory conclusion as to its real cause. The colour was as fresh on the cheeks of the youth, and his limbs were as firm as in the hours of entire security; but the unsettled wandering of his eye, and an air of doubt and indecision which pervaded a mien that ought to display qualities so opposite, gave his Commander cause for deep reflection. As if to find an explanation of the enigma in the deportment of the a.s.sociates of Wilder, his look sought the persons of Fid and the negro. They were both stationed at the piece nearest to the place he himself occupied, the former filling the station of captain of the gun.

The ribs of the ship itself were not firmer in their places than was the att.i.tude of the topman, as he occasionally squinted along the ma.s.sive iron tube over which he was placed in command; nor was that familiar and paternal care, which distinguishes the seaman's interest in his particular trust, wanting in his manner. Still, an air of broad and inexplicable surprise had possession of his rugged lineaments; and ever, as his look wandered from the countenance of Wilder to their adversary, it was not difficult to discover that he marvelled to find the two in opposition. He neither commented on, nor complained, however, of an occurrence he evidently found so extraordinary, but appeared perfectly disposed to pursue the spirit of that well-known maxim of the mariner which teaches the obedient tar "to obey orders, though he break owners." Every portion of the athletic form of the negro was motionless, except his eyes. These large, jet-black orbs, however rolled incessantly, like the more dogmatic organs of the topman, from Wilder to the strange sail, seeming to drink in fresh draughts of astonishment at each new look.

Struck by these evident manifestations of some extraordinary and yet common sentiment between the two, the Rover profited by his own position, and the distance of the lieutenant, to address them. Leaning over the slight rail that separated the break of the p.o.o.p from the quarter-deck, he said, in that familiar manner which the Commander is most wont to use to his inferiors when their services are becoming of the greatest importance,--

"I hope, master Fid, they have put you at a gun that knows how to speak."

"There is not a smoother bore, nor a wider mouth, in the ship, your Honour, than these of 'Blazing Billy,'" returned the topman, giving the subject of his commendations an affectionate slap. "All I ask is a clean spunge and a tight wad. Guinea score a foul anchor, in your own fashion, on a half dozen of the shot; and, after the matter is all over, they who live through it may go aboard the enemy, and see in what manner Richard Fid has planted his seed."

"You are not new in action, master Fid?"

"Lord bless your Honour! gunpowder is no more than dry tobacco in my nostrils! tho'f I will say"

"You were going to add"----

"That sometimes I find myself shifted over, in these here affairs,"

returned the topman, glancing his eye first at the flag of France, and then at the distant emblem of England, "like a jib-boom rigged, abaft, for a jury to the spanker. I suppose master Harry has it all in his pocket, in black and white; but this much I will say, that, if I must throw stones, I should rather see them break a neighbour's crockery than that of my own mother.--I say, Guinea, score a couple more of the shot; since, if the play is to be acted, I've a mind the 'Blazing Billy' should do something creditable for the honour of her good name."

The Rover drew back, thoughtful and silent. He then caught a look from Wilder, whom he again beckoned to approach.

"Mr Wilder," he said, in a tone of kindness, "I comprehend your feelings.

All have not offended alike in yonder vessel, and you would rather your service against that haughty flag should commence with some other ship.

There is little else but empty honour to be gained in the conflict--in tenderness to your feelings, I will avoid it."

"It is too late," said Wilder, with a melancholy shake of the head.