The Voyage of the Aurora Part 8

"Very well," a.s.sented Rogers, "bring him along, too, mates; I intended to take him by hisself, but it don't matter; bring the whole four of 'em."

In a few minutes Captain Arnold, Nicholls the chief mate, and Thomson the second mate, with Lieutenant Walford, were ushered into the saloon, handcuffed, and guarded by eight armed mutineers.

"The prisoners is before the court," announced Talbot, in a loud voice, anxious to make the proceedings partake as much of the character of a ceremonial as possible.

The four men were then ordered to range themselves in line at the foot of the table, an order which, after a little hesitation, they sullenly obeyed.

Meanwhile, the mutineers, having been served with tobacco and brandy, had lighted their pipes and provided themselves, each man, with a stiff rummer of grog. A cursory observer would possibly have thought the scene grotesque; but the four men ranged at the foot of the table speedily detected in the countenances of their self-const.i.tuted judges, an expression of stern determination which caused their hearts to sink and their cheeks to blanch with sudden fear.

A low-toned consultation now ensued between Rogers and those nearest him, in which Talbot was summoned to take part. At its conclusion the latter withdrew a little apart, and Rogers, turning to the captain, said--

"Robert Arnold, yours is the first case. Who is the prosecutor?"

"I am," answered Talbot, "on behalf of the whole crew."

"Very good," acquiesced Rogers. "Benjamin Talbot, state y'ur case."

Upon this, Talbot stepped up to the cabin-table and said--

"On behalf of the whole crew of this here ship--the _Princess Royal_--I charges Robert Arnold, late skipper of the same, with havin' treated all hands before the mast in a most onjustifiable manner. As you're fully aweer, shipmates, we was short-handed when we left London; and at Plymouth the men-o'-war robbed us of four of our best hands, makin' us more short-handed still. Very well. Now what's the dooty of a skipper to his crew under such sarc.u.mstances as this here? Why, I say his dooty is to make things as easy as possible for 'em. Instead o' which this here Robert Arnold, the prisoner as we're tryin', he goes and expects us to do as much work, and to do it as smartly, as if the ship was fully manned. And because we couldn't do it--as it stands to reason we couldn't--he goes and makes _extra_ work for us by way of punishment; he robs us of our a'ternoon watch below; he stops our grog; he tyrannises over us in every imaginable way; he treats us like dogs and not like men, abusin' and bullyin' us, and goin' out of his way to hurt our feelin's; he refuses to listen to our just complaints; he encourages the first and second mates to sarve out to us the same sort of treatment as he gives us hisself, instead of takin' our part and treatin' us with justice; and he does all this not once in a way only, but from the very commencement of the v'yage. And, lastly, he orders a sick man to be flogged; laughs at the poor chap's sufferin's; and refuses to sarve out the necessaries to dress his wounds a'terwards. That, shipmates, is the charge I brings against Robert Arnold."

"You hears the charge agin the prisoner, shipmates all?" observed Rogers, glancing round the table. "Ben Talbot brings this here charge in the name of all hands; so, if there's any of yer as disagrees with what he've said, just stand up like men and say so."

A profound silence followed, no man making the slightest sign or token of dissent. "Very well," resumed Rogers; "n.o.body don't seem to have anything to say agin the charge. Now, you that _agrees_ with Talbot, and thinks as he've stated the case fairly, hold up y'ur hands."

Every hand was at once and unhesitatingly raised at arm's length.

"Unanermous," p.r.o.nounced Rogers. "Now, Robert Arnold, you've heard what's been charged agin yer, and you've seen that all hands of us agrees that the charge is just. What have yer got to say in y'ur defence?"

"Nothing," answered the captain; "except that I utterly disclaim your right to sit in judgment upon me or to criticise my actions in any manner whatsoever. Your conduct is in the last degree illegal and unjustifiable. You are a pack of mutinous scoundrels; and I warn you that a terrible punishment will surely overtake you if you persist in your defiance of my authority. If, however, you will return to your duty and deliver up to us, your duly appointed officers, the ringleaders in this disgraceful mutiny, I will undertake to overlook this most serious offence, so far as the rest of you are concerned."

"You hear what the prisoner says, shipmates," observed Rogers calmly.

"Do you consider as he've made good his defence? Is it your opinion as he've justified hisself? Them as thinks he have, hold up their hands.

Them as thinks he haven't, stand up."

The self-const.i.tuted judges with one accord rose to their feet.

"That'll do; you may sit down agin," remarked Rogers. "The prisoner is found _guilty_. The next question to be settled is the matter of punishment. Now, there's a many ways of punishing a man, some on 'em more severe than others. The most severest as I knows is _death_; death by hangin' from the yard-arm. Them as thinks the prisoner Arnold deservin' of this punishment, hold up their hands."

Two or three hands were hesitatingly raised, and, after a slight pause, lowered again.

"Do I understand as _everybody_ thinks hangin' too severe?" inquired Rogers, glancing slowly round the table. "I do,"--as no hands were shown. "Well then, let's try something else. Perhaps, shipmates, some of yer's got a hidee as you'd like to put afore the court? If so, let's hear what it is."

"I thinks as it would be no more nor he desarves if we was to treat him for the rest of the v'yage as he've treated us from the beginnin' of it.

He'd know then what it's like, and if he lives long enough to get the command of another ship, maybe he'll then know better how to treat his crew," observed one of the men.

"Not at all a bad idee," commented Rogers. "You've heard what Phil says; what d'ye think on't?"

"I thinks it's a capical notion," remarked one.

"I'm agreeable," intimated another.

"Ay; let's see how he likes that sort of thing hisself," remarked a third.

And so on; all hands intimating their concurrence in the suggestion.

"Wery good," remarked Rogers, when all had spoken. Then, turning to the captain, he said--

"Robert Arnold, the sentence of this here court is that you'm to be turned for'ard and conwerted into a 'hordinary seaman,' to do a hordinary seaman's dooties, and to receive just exactly the same treatment as you've sarved out to the hands since this here ship sailed from Hold England, namely, more kicks than ha'pence. And the Lord have mercy on yer miserable carcase!"

He paused for a moment on concluding this--in his opinion--impressive address, and then ordered that Arnold should be removed to the forecastle, and the chief mate brought forward.

This was done, and as Nicholls, the chief mate, stepped forward in answer to his name, his ashy pale face, his trepidation of manner, and his imperfect articulation all showed him to be labouring under a very agony of fear.

The charge against him was also preferred by Talbot in pretty much the same language as was used by that individual in his charge against the captain; the accusation in the present case, however, being to the effect that Nicholls, occupying as he did the influential post of chief mate, had, instead of using his influence with the captain to make matters as agreeable as possible for the men, countenanced, aided, abetted, and encouraged his superior in the adoption of a harsh and tyrannical course of conduct. Upon this charge he was found guilty; and his sentence was similar to that of the captain's, with the addition that he was to receive at the gangway twenty-five lashes, well laid on.

Thomson, the second mate, was now called forward; and the yell of fiendish delight which greeted him as the bully staggered up to the cabin-table, fairly caused his teeth to chatter with affright.

The charge against him was made by Talbot, who plunged eagerly into his task with a manifest gusto which had been well suppressed in the previous cases. The indictment was very similar to that preferred against Nicholls; but, in addition to all that the latter had been charged with, Talbot rapidly enumerated a long list of wanton cruelties and petty tyrannies which had sprung spontaneously and unprompted as it were from the second mate's own evil nature. At the conclusion of Talbot's address the men, without waiting for Rogers to formally charge them, sprang eagerly to their feet and clamorously declared the prisoner guilty.

The question of punishment was then referred to by Rogers; and the moment that he ceased to speak, the shout of "Death! Death! Hanging from the yard-arm," rang through the cabin. "And let him have five dozen at the gangway before he's strung up, just by way of payin' off d.i.c.ky Rudd's debt with interest," added a voice. The suggestion was carried by acclamation; and the miserable man was informed that the sentence against him would be carried into effect at the conclusion of the trial of the fourth prisoner, Lieutenant Walford, who was now commanded to stand forward.

Walford stepped up to the cabin-table with an a.s.sumption of firmness which was completely belied by the ghastly pallor of his countenance and the convulsive twitching of his white lips. Grasping the table with both hands, he said in a voice which he in vain attempted to render steady--

"Before you proceed any further in this matter I wish to remind you that I am merely a _pa.s.senger_ on board this ship, and that I have nothing whatever to do with any quarrel which may exist between you and your officers. I have heard the charges which you have preferred against them, and I am wholly at a loss to understand in what way you a.s.sociate me with them; you can scarcely suppose, I imagine, that the pa.s.sengers would regard themselves as called upon to interfere in the management or discipline of the ship; for my own part, I have always considered you quite able to manage your own affairs, and quite capable of putting a stop to any injustice to which you might be subjected; you never appealed to me for help, and you therefore ought not to be surprised if I have held aloof."

He paused here for a moment and glanced anxiously round the table to note the effect of his address, and seeing, by the stern expression on the faces of the men seated at the table, that he had wholly failed to make a favourable impression, he hastily proceeded to add--

"Furthermore, let me remind you that I am an officer and a gentleman, the wearer of his Most Gracious Majesty's uniform, and in virtue of that fact I may claim--I _do_ claim--to be in some sort his Majesty's representative, on board this ship. Any violence or indignity offered to me, therefore, is tantamount to offering the same to the king himself; and, as you are all fully aware, to offer indignity or violence to the king's person is high treason, a crime punishable with death. I hope, therefore, that you will pause and consider well the consequences of any hasty action which your present temporary a.s.sumption of power might betray you into, and that, before it is too late, and before you have too deeply inculpated yourselves, you will see the advisability of restoring to me my freedom."

If he expected this appeal to be of any benefit to him he was sorely disappointed, for the gloomy, repellent expression on the faces of his judges, was only deepened by his ill-advised address.

A moment or two of complete silence followed the utterance of his closing words; and then Rogers, looking him straight in the face, said--

"Well, pris'ner, have yer quite finished?"

"Surely I have said sufficient to demonstrate to you the impolicy, as well as the injustice, of making me suffer for the faults of others?"

exclaimed Walford.

"Glad you think so," replied Rogers, with a sardonic grin. "Howsoever,"

he continued, "you may keep y'ur mind easy about one thing; we ain't goin' to make yer 'suffer for the faults of others,' as you calls it; you'll only be made to suffer for faults of y'ur own; and bad enough you'll find that, I reckon. Now, Ben, what's the charge agin this one?"

"I charges him," answered Talbot, "with havin' wilfully spoke the words what got poor d.i.c.ky Rudd two dozen lashes at the gangway, when the poor feller was 'most too sick to stand upright. If he hadn't spoke as likely as not the skipper had never ha' thought of it, and, so far as that goes, I believes that all hands of us is agreed that he wouldn't.

Therefore I charges this here pris'ner with bein' the man what acshully got poor d.i.c.ky his floggin'."

"You hears, pris'ner, what the crew has against yer; what have yer got to say to it?" interrogated Rogers.

Walford had evidently either forgotten all about his ill-advised suggestion, or had believed the crew to be ignorant of it: he seemed to have thought that the utmost extent of the mutineers' complaint against him would be that he had not interfered in their behalf. When therefore he heard the charge against him, and realised the fact that he was wholly in their power, and utterly at their mercy, his courage--which at the best of times was only of a very flimsy and unreliable character-- utterly gave way; he involuntarily turned his eyes for a moment upon the miserable second mate; recalled the fact that the wretched man had been doomed to a speedy and degrading death by the same individuals who were now sitting in judgment upon him; and a shameful panic took possession of him. An uncontrollable shivering fit seized his frame, he was obliged to clench his teeth together, to prevent them from chattering audibly; he glanced wildly round him as if seeking for some means of escape; and, after two or three ineffectual efforts to speak, he managed to gasp out brokenly through his clenched teeth and quivering lips--