The Strange Adventures of Eric Blackburn Part 4

With that the boatswain walked away forward to convey my ultimatum to the men, who were all gathered on the forecastle-head, evidently waiting for him, while I turned to Billy, who was standing close by, and said:

"When your father took his sights, Billy, who used to note the chronometer times?"

"Mr Barber, always," answered Billy; "and then he and Father used to work out the calculations together. But if you want anybody to note the times when you are taking your sights, Mr Blackburn, I can do it for you."

"Are you sure you can do it quite accurately?" I asked.

"_Quite_ sure!" a.s.serted Billy. "Just you try me, sir."

"Very well, I will," said I. "Come below, and let me see what you can do."

Billy soon demonstrated that he was to be implicitly trusted in the matter of noting the chronometer times while I took my sights, and, the morning being gloriously fine, I had no difficulty in determining the longitude of the ship, which I found to be 50 degrees 48 minutes 40 seconds East, while a meridian alt.i.tude of the sun, taken two hours later, gave our lat.i.tude as 34 degrees 26 minutes 15 seconds South.

Then I got out the chart of the Indian Ocean, p.r.i.c.ked off the ship's position on it, and sat down to consider what should be the next step.

For, whether I decided to remain in the ship or to leave her, her position, as now laid down on the chart, showed that a shift of helm would be necessary. It did not take me very long to decide that in any case I would take the ship into Port Louis Harbour, Mauritius, which might be reached in a week, or less if the weather held favourable.

Thence I could report to the owners the loss of the _Saturn_. Also, if I decided to quit the _Yorkshire La.s.s_ there, I should have the choice of two routes home, namely by Messageries Maritimes, via Madagascar and the Suez Ca.n.a.l; or by the Union-Castle Line, via Cape Town and the Atlantic. If, on the other hand, the crew acceded to my conditions, and I was to remain in the ship, to call at Port Louis would be deviating but a mere trifle from a straight course for the east end of Sandalwood Island, whence I would pa.s.s through Maurissa Strait and go over, as nearly as might be, the ground that Barber was said to have travelled before he struck the spot where he was supposed to have found the treasure.

When at length I went up on deck again, Enderby was waiting for me.

"Well," I said, "have the people for'ard made up their minds what they are going to do? I am rather anxious to know, because upon their decision will depend my final plans."

"It's all right, Mr Blackburn," answered the boatswain. "Them two chaps, Svorenssen and Van Ryn, seemed to have quite made up their minds to have things all their own way; but me and Chips soon brought 'em up with a round turn by tellin' all hands what you'd said. Says I: 'Now look here, you chaps. We've got the navigator we wants, and if this here treasure place is to be found you may all bet your boots he'll find it. But he won't have no socialism, no runnin' the ship by committees, nor no nonsense of that sort; he'll be Mister Skipper, and don't none of you forget it! Now, you was all quite satisfied when Cap'n Stenson commanded the ship: what difference do it make to any of you whether it's Stenson or Mr Blackburn what gives the orders? It don't make a hap'orth of difference to e'er a one of ye! Very well, then; me and Chips has been talkin' things over together and we've decided that, havin' been lucky enough to get hold of Mr Blackburn, we ain't goin' to lose 'im because of any socialistic tommy-rot; so if there's anybody here as objects to Mr Blackburn's conditions, let 'im say so, and we'll ask the new skipper to put in somewheres, and we'll shove the dissatisfied ones ash.o.r.e.'

"There was a fine old rumpus when I said that. The four Dagoes swore as they wasn't goin' to be done out of their share of the treasure for n.o.body, nor n.o.body wasn't goin' to put 'em out of the ship; and for a minute or two it looked as though we was goin' to have a mutiny. But we Englishmen all stuck together, the others backin' up me and Chips; and at last, when the Dagoes seen which way the wind was blowin', they give in, and said, all right, we might 'ave our own way, since we seemed so stuck upon it. So there you are, sir; you're our new skipper, and if the Dagoes gets obstropolous we'll just shove 'em ash.o.r.e, even if we has to maroon 'em."

"I scarcely think it will be necessary to adopt any such extremely drastic step as that," said I. "If the foreigners are made to understand that the rest of you will stand no nonsense from them they will probably settle down quietly enough. If they do not--if they manifest the least inclination to be troublesome--I will put them ash.o.r.e at Port Louis, Mauritius, at which port I intend to call in any case, that I may report the loss of the _Saturn_, and send certain letters home. It will take us very little out of our way, and if the Dagoes learn that we are going to call in at a British port on our way, it may steady them a bit and help them to see that their wisest plan will be to settle down and behave themselves. Now I am going to shift the helm.

Haul up to Nor'-Nor'-East, and take a pull upon the lee braces."

During the ensuing six days we made excellent progress, the brigantine revealing a quite unexpected and most welcome turn of speed, which carried us to Port Louis exactly a week after I had boarded her. We remained there four days, to enable me to dispatch a cablegram home and receive a reply; after which, having meanwhile laid in a good supply of fruit and a little fresh meat, we sailed again, shaping a course for Maurissa Strait.

For the four days following our departure from Port Louis we did well; then the breeze lessened in strength, became baffling, and finally died away altogether, leaving us helplessly becalmed, except when for a few minutes at a time some vagrant draught of air would come stealing along the gla.s.sy surface of the sea, imparting to it an evanescent tint of delicate blue; and then there would be a call upon the watch to man the braces and trim the yards to meet the transient breathing, to the muttered disgust of the men, who could see no advantage in labour that resulted, in many cases, in moving the ship only to the extent of a few fathoms. But it had to be done, for we were on the border-line between the prevailing westerly winds of the Southern Ocean and the south-east Trades, and to get into the latter the ship had to be jockeyed across the intervening belt of calms. A curious fact in connection with this time of trial to our patience--and it was a fact that caused me some anxious speculation--was that the two men, Svorenssen and Van Ryn, who, at the outset of my connection with them, seemed most likely to be a source of trouble, were the two who grumbled least at the continual calls to the braces.

It was on the afternoon of the fourth of these trying days that, as we lay becalmed in the middle of a gla.s.s-smooth sea, the polished surface became touched here and there with faint, evanescent patches of softest turquoise-blue, appearing for a moment and then vanishing again. They were the "cats-paws" that indicated a momentary stir in the stagnant air, and the appearances of which were always greeted by the foremast hands with execrations, for they meant "box-hauling" the yards--work for what they regarded as a ludicrously inadequate result. But on this occasion the cats-paws, instead of enduring for a few seconds and then being no more seen for hours at a time, lingered for as long, perhaps, as two or three minutes, then pa.s.sing away only to be succeeded by others coming from the same quarter and enduring a little longer than their predecessors, so continuing until at length we not only got way upon the ship but were able to maintain it during the lessening intervals between one puff and another. Finally a moment arrived when the cats-paws began to merge one into another, while the whole surface of the sea down in the south-eastern quarter lost its hateful mirror- like appearance and donned a tint of faintest, most delicate blue that deepened, even as we watched, creeping steadily down toward us until it reached the ship and, with a last gentle rustle of canvas, she yielded to the impulse of the first breathing of the south-east Trades.

When at length the true breeze reached us it came away out from about South-East by South, enabling us still to lay our course, on the starboard tack, with the braces the merest trifle checked. Once fairly set in, the wind rapidly freshened until, when we of the afterguard went down to supper at seven o'clock that evening, a fiery breeze was humming through our tautened rigging, and the hooker was reeling off her seven knots, with the royal stowed, and a rapidly rising sea foaming under her lee bow.

CHAPTER FIVE.

WE FIND THE TREASURE.

It was a grand evening when, after supper, I went on deck for my usual "const.i.tutional". The salt, ozone-laden breeze was just cool enough to set one's blood coursing freely through one's veins and to fill one with the joy of living; the ship was making good headway; and the sky over our lee quarter was a gorgeous blaze of gold and colour where the sun was sinking in the midst of a galaxy of clouds of the most wonderful forms. It was like a yachting experience.

In those lat.i.tudes the glories of the sunset very quickly fade, and with their disappearance night falls upon the scene like the drawing of a curtain. So was it on the evening in question; but I had grown accustomed to those rapid nightfalls, and for a few minutes I, immersed in my own thoughts, was quite unaware of anything unusual in our surroundings. As the darkness deepened around us, however, it suddenly occurred to me that there was something strange in the appearance of the water; instead of its colour deepening under the shadow of night, as usual, it seemed to be becoming lighter, as though it was being diluted with increasing quant.i.ties of milk, until, as I stood and watched it, wondering, it became, first of all, snow-white, and then, as the darkness continued to deepen and the stars appeared, the entire ocean, from horizon to horizon, became a sea of luminous, molten silver, the weird, unearthly beauty of which there are no words to describe. Yet, beautiful as it was, the unusual, almost unique character of the phenomenon invested it with an awe-inspiring element that was not very far removed from terror, especially for the men on the forecastle, whose anxious glances aft, and restless, agitated movements sufficiently proclaimed their apprehension.

Presently Chips, who was in charge of the watch and who had been padding fore and aft on the lee side of the after-deck, crossed over and remarked:

"What's the matter with the water to-night, Mr Blackburn? Boy and man I've used the sea a good twenty year and more, and never have I seen a sight like this. Do it signify anything particular, think ye?"

"Nothing beyond a most unusual and exceedingly beautiful state of phosph.o.r.escence," I replied. "I have not used the sea for anything like so long a time as yourself, but I have seen something of the same kind once before, though nothing like so brilliant and beautiful as this.

And it was not so very far from this spot that I saw it, while making the run from Cape Town to Melbourne. It is due to the presence, in quite unusual numbers, of the animalculae which produce the appearance of phosph.o.r.escence in the water; but while under ordinary circ.u.mstances those animalculae are only present in sufficient numbers to cause the usual appearance of stars and luminous clouds in agitated water, they are present here to-night in such incalculable myriads that the light they emit, instead of being more or less detached, is merged into one uniform blaze of the beautiful silvery radiance which we see. It may last for several hours yet, but sooner or later it will become normal again."

My explanation seemed to afford Chips considerable relief, and he presently sauntered away for'ard, with the evident intention of allaying the apprehensions of the forecastle hands; while my prognostication as to the ending of the phenomenon was verified about an hour later.

There now ensued a full month and more during which we steadily plodded our way across the Indian Ocean, close-hauled day after day, with nothing more eventful than the occasional capture of a shark, or a capful of wind, to break the somewhat wearisome monotony of the voyage, during which I devoted an hour or two every day to the improvement of Master Billy Stenson's education; also giving a considerable amount of study to the late skipper's diary, in the endeavour to arrive at some sort of conclusion as to the whereabouts of the spot where Barber's alleged treasure was to be looked for. Taking Barber's determination of the lat.i.tude of the place, 3 degrees 50 minutes South, as being approximately correct, I ruled a pencil line representing that parallel right across the chart and noted the various islands that it crossed.

Then, marking the spot where the man had been turned adrift by the Dutch skipper, I strove to trace the course over which the boat had drifted, taking into consideration the prevailing winds and currents, as set forth in the Sailing Directions; and in this way I ultimately arrived at the conclusion that the spot we were seeking would be found somewhere between the meridians of 125 degrees and 135 degrees east longitude.

Still a.s.suming Barber's story to be true, I reasoned that the fact of the stranded ship having remained so long where she was, apparently unvisited and uninterfered with--until the Englishman's arrival upon the scene--argued that she was to be found on an island not only uninhabited but also very rarely visited; and reasoning thus I was at length enabled to make a fairly shrewd guess as to the most likely direction in which to look for her; and in that direction I accordingly headed the ship.

It was about a month after our pa.s.sage through Maurissa Strait that, as we were working to windward against a light and fickle breeze, land was sighted about three points on the weather bow. The time was close upon eight bells in the afternoon watch, and the land sighted was a mere dot of faintest blue showing just clear of the horizon. I had been antic.i.p.ating its appearance at any moment since I had worked out my sights at noon and p.r.i.c.ked off the ship's position on the chart, for the spot of which we were in search was no unknown, mysterious island.

Careful study of Barber's narrative, as recorded in the late Skipper Stenson's diary, had convinced me that the island was quite well known and had been more or less thoroughly surveyed; and exhaustive study of the diary and the chart combined had finally led me to the conclusion that if the treasure really existed it would be found not very far from the peak that had just hove in sight. But of that I should perhaps be better able to judge when I could see a little more of it. I therefore took the ship's telescope out of the beckets where it hung in the companion, and, slinging it over my shoulder, made my way up to the royal yard, where I seated myself comfortably and, steadying the tube of the instrument against the masthead, brought it to bear upon the land to windward. From my elevated position this now showed as a steep cone of moderate height rising from one extremity of a long range of lofty hills running away in a south-easterly direction until they sank below the horizon.

So far, so good; the contours of the distant land, as revealed by the lenses of the telescope, agreed in a general way fairly accurately with a sketch--made from memory by Barber--in the late skipper's diary, ill.u.s.trating a pa.s.sage descriptive of the appearance of the treasure country as it had appeared to the man upon his departure from it. If, as we drew nearer, a certain arrangement of white rocks outcropping on the hill-side immediately below the cone should reveal itself, I should then know, beyond all possibility of doubt, that I had found the spot of which we were in search. But this condition of certainty could not possibly be arrived at before the morrow, at the earliest, for the land was quite fifty miles away, it was dead to windward, and the ship-- working up against a light breeze--was approaching it at the rate of less than a knot an hour.

Happily for our impatience, matters shortly afterwards improved somewhat, for with the setting of the sun the breeze freshened, and by the end of the second dog-watch we were slashing away to windward at a fine rate, reeling off our eight knots per hour, with the royal stowed.

The breeze held all through the night, and when I went on deck at eight o'clock on the following morning the cone that I had viewed through the telescope on the previous evening was only some fifteen or sixteen miles distant, broad on the weather bow, and the arrangement of white rocks on the hill-side--five of them forming a vertical line--which the diary a.s.sured me was the distinguishing mark by which I might identify the spot for which I was searching--was clearly visible in the lenses of the telescope, while the mouth of the estuary was about five miles ahead.

"Yes," I said to Enderby, who was standing beside me as I closed the instrument, "we are all right--so far; the opening to the nor'ard of that curious hummock is the mouth of the estuary into which Barber drifted while in a state of delirium, and the stranded hulk which is supposed to contain the treasure stands, according to him, somewhere on the southern sh.o.r.e. We shall have to make short boards along that southern sh.o.r.e, keeping a sharp look-out for anything in the nature of a stranded craft, anchor abreast it, and go ash.o.r.e and give it a careful overhaul. Thus far it looks as though there might be some truth in the man's story. I have no longer any doubt that Barber actually entered that estuary; but I shall still have to see that wreck before I am finally convinced of her existence. Barber was admittedly crazy when he landed yonder, and for all that we know to the contrary he may have remained crazy all the time that he was there, and have imagined the whole thing."

"Holy Moses!" exclaimed the boatswain, in consternation, "you surely don't mean to say, sir, that after all this time you still has doubts about the truth of that there treasure yarn, do ye? If we don't find that wrack there'll be the d.i.c.kens to pay in the forecastle. The men-- especially them Dagoes--'ll be that disapp'inted that there's no knowin'

what game they may try to play."

"How--what do you mean, boatswain?" I demanded sharply.

"Well, Mr Blackburn," he returned, "what I means is that if we don't find the wrack the chaps'll be so disapp'inted that, in their rage, they may rise upon us, the afterguard, and try to take the ship from us."

"What good would that do them?" I demanded. "If they were to attempt so foolish a thing, and were to succeed, what could they do with the ship? I suppose even they--dolts as they would prove themselves in such an event as you mention--would not be idiots enough to suppose that they could compensate for their disappointment by becoming pirates, eh?"

"Blest if I know what they mightn't believe if Svorenssen and the two Dutchmen got talkin' to 'em," a.s.serted the boatswain. "They're wonderful talkers, all three of 'em, and they're everlastin'ly ga.s.sin'

about one man bein' as good as another, and freedom, and the rights of man--_you_ know, sir, the sort of slush that such chaps spouts, and that the sh.e.l.lback swallers as greedily as he would a pannikin of egg-flip!"

"Yes," I said, "I know. I have heard it all, over and over again, until I have been sick and tired of listening to it; and I have wondered how it is that sensible, level-headed British sailors, even though they may not have had very much education, can swallow and believe in such froth.

However, I am very glad that you have mentioned the matter; I will keep my weather eye lifting, and at the very first sign of trouble I'll act, and to some purpose, too."

"That's right, sir; I hopes you will," approved Enderby. "And if action should ever be needful you may depend upon me and Chips to back ye up.

In the meantime I'll keep my eyes and ears open, too, and let you know directly I sees any signs of trouble brewin'."

When I descended to the cabin, a few minutes later, in response to the steward's summons to breakfast, I found Billy Stenson already seated at the table. Billy, I should explain, had, within two days of my arrival aboard the _Yorkshire La.s.s_, been promoted from the position of pantry- boy to that of pa.s.senger, in virtue of the fact that, through his father's death, he had become the owner of the brigantine and the inheritor of all prospective profits which might accrue in respect of the present highly speculative voyage; he had also become my pupil, I having undertaken to ground him in the rudiments of navigation.

"Good morning, Billy," I said. "Do you happen to know whether there are any firearms, or weapons of any sort, aboard here?"

"Yes, Mr Blackburn," replied the lad. "When Father and Mr Barber agreed upon this voyage they decided that they ought to have the means of defending the ship, if necessary, and so Father bought a dozen rifles with bayonets, and three brace of navy revolvers, with a good supply of ammunition for both kinds of firearms. They're in two cases, down in the lazarette."

"Do the men for'ard know they're aboard?" I asked.

"Oh no, sir, I don't think so," answered the lad. "They came aboard and were stored away a week or more before the crew was shipped."

"Good!" I commented. Then, turning to Enderby, who also was present, I said: "What you said on deck, a little while ago, suggests to me that it will be a wise thing to have those cases up out of the lazarette without further delay. We'll open them, give their contents an overhaul, and clean and oil them, ready for immediate use, if need be. We may not require them, but if on the other hand we should, the need will probably be so urgent that there will then be no time for preparation. We will have them up immediately after breakfast."

Upon my return to the deck I found that we were just entering the estuary, the mouth of which was about three miles wide, the sh.o.r.e on either side being quite low, with, here and there, narrow strips of beach composed of sand and gravel. The low, flat sh.o.r.e on either side of the inlet was backed by ranges of hills extending inland as far as the eye could see, but whereas the low, flat country between the sh.o.r.e and the base of the hills was less than a mile wide on the northern bank, it ranged from five to twelve miles wide on the southern side.