True Blue Part 15

"We must do our best, sir, and trust in Providence," observed Paul Pringle to the young officer. "Only there's one thing I'd do--I'd rather steer to the nor'ard than the south'ard of our course, so as to avoid the chance of running ash.o.r.e on the Frenchman's coast. Of all the places I should hate most it would be a French prison."

True Blue was certainly not of a suspicious disposition, but he could not help watching the Frenchmen. He whispered his ideas also to Harry and Tim Fid, who agreed to keep a watchful eye on the prisoners. Little did the Frenchmen think how narrowly all their proceedings were noted.

Fid soon remarked that when either of the Frenchmen was at the helm, one of the others was constantly going to a chest in the forepeak and looking steadily into it. His curiosity was therefore aroused to ascertain what it was they went to look at. He reflected how he could discover this without being seen.

Some of the crew slept in the bunks or standing bed-places arranged along the sides of the vessel, but others in hammocks. The hammocks were, however, not sent up on deck every day as they are on board of a man-of-war. One of these hung over the Frenchmen's chests, and into it Tim stowed himself away, making the lower surface smooth with the blankets, so that the form of his body should not be observed. A slight slit in the canvas enabled him to breathe and to look down below him.

Poor Fid had to watch a considerable time, however, and felt sadly cramped and almost stifled without being the wiser for all the trouble he had taken. The Frenchmen were there; but first Tom Marline came below, and then Hartland, and then the black; and the Frenchmen sat on the lockers cutting out beef bones into various shapes and polishing them.

At last all but one man went on deck, and then he jumped up, and instantly going to the chest opened it; and then Tim saw clearly a compa.s.s, and, moreover, that the brig was steering a course considerably to the southward of east. The Frenchman then put his head up through the fore-hatchway, took a look round, and then, again diving into the forepeak, had another glance at the compa.s.s.

"That's it," thought Tim; "True Blue is right. The Frenchmen intend to run us near their own coast and then rise on us, or they hope to fall in with one of their own cruisers and be retaken. Small blame to them."

The thread of his soliloquy was interrupted by his observing the Frenchman go to a chest on the opposite side, which, when opened, he saw was full of arms, cutla.s.ses, long knives, and pistols. The man sat down by the side of it, and deliberately began to load one after the other, and then to arrange the knives and dirks, so that they could in an instant be drawn out for use.

"Ho, ho!" thought Tim; "that's your plan, is it? Two can play at that game, we will show you!"

Fid was now very anxious to get out of his hiding-place, and to go and tell True Blue what he had seen. The Frenchman, however, after he had made all his arrangements, put a brace of pistols into his pocket and stuck a dirk into his belt, concealed by his jacket, sat down on a locker, and, with the greatest apparent unconcern, pursued his usual occupation of bone-cutting.

Fid grew more and more impatient. He waited some time longer, then he saw the man p.r.i.c.k up his ears and listen eagerly. Presently there was the sound of a scuffle on deck. The Frenchman sprang up the ladder through the fore-hatch-way. As he did so a key fell from his pocket.

The moment he was gone, Fid jumped out of his hiding-place, picked up the key, applied it to the chest which contained the arms--the lid flew open. He drew out several brace of pistols and a bundle of dirks. He stuck as many of both into his belt and pockets as he could carry, and hid the others in the hammock in which he had been concealed, while the key he also hid away. All was done as quick as lightning. Then, with a pistol in one hand and a dirk in the other, he followed the Frenchman up the hatchway.

As he did so he chanced to cast his eye aloft, when he saw True Blue in the fore-rigging. He signed to him to come on deck. Billy saw him, and slid down rapidly by the foretop-mast-stay. On looking aft they saw Hartland and Mr Nott stretched on the deck, apparently lifeless, while the three Frenchmen, with the black, were making a furious attack on Tom Marline, who had the helm, while Paul Pringle stood by defending him with a boat's stretcher. Neither Pringle nor Marline had arms, while two of the Frenchmen and the black had dirks, and the third Frenchman, as Fid knew, had pistols. Fid immediately handed a brace of pistols and a dirk to True Blue, and together they rushed aft. Paul saw them coming, but the Frenchmen did not. One of them had c.o.c.ked his pistol, and was taking a deliberate aim at Paul, when True Blue, who at that instant had reached the quarterdeck, lifted his arm and fired.

The Frenchman staggered a few paces, fired his pistol in the air, and then fell to the deck. To prevent his companions from seizing his weapons, Fid drew them from his pocket and bolted off with them round the deck. Before, however, the smoke of the pistol which True Blue had fired had cleared off, he had sprung to the side of Paul Pringle and handed him the remaining pistol and a dirk. Paul on this sprang on the Frenchmen.

The black was the first to fly. The other two men, finding themselves clearly overmatched, retreated forward and gained the fore-hatchway. It was blowing fresh, so that Marline was afraid if he left the wheel the brig would broach to. Consequently only Paul and True Blue pursued the Frenchmen. One of them leaped down the fore-hatchway. As he did so a pistol-shot was heard, and Fid immediately afterwards appeared at the same place, exclaiming:

"I've done for the fellow--settle the other two!"

Fid held a pistol in his hand. The black saw it, and sprang at the boy to seize it; but True Blue, who saw it also, was too quick for him, and had got hold of it just before the negro reached the spot. Fid sprang out of his way; and so eager had he been, that he pitched head-forward down the hatchway.

The last Frenchman attempted to defend himself; but when he saw Paul and the two lads with arms in their hands approaching him, while his companions were unable to a.s.sist him, he knew that resistance was useless and cried out for quarter.

"You don't deserve it, Monsieur c.r.a.paud," answered Paul; "but I'm not the fellow to take a man's life in cold blood. Howsomdever, there's one thing I'll take, and that is, good care you don't attempt to play us such a trick again. Here, Billy, hand me that coil of rope. We'll keep him out of harm for the present."

Saying this, while True Blue stood by presenting a pistol at the prisoner's head, Paul proceeded to lash his arms and legs, and to secure him to one of the guns.

"Well done, mate!" exclaimed Tom Marline from aft. "And now just come and have a look at Mr Nott. I think that he's coming to."

"And I do hope that Harry isn't killed either!" cried Fid. "He's breathing, and that's more than dead men can do."

In a little time both Mr Midshipman Nott and the boy Hartland came to themselves, and sat up rubbing their eyes, as if trying to understand what had occurred. The moment the truth flashed on Mr Nott's mind, he sprang to his feet, and, seizing a stretcher, the nearest weapon he could lay hold of, stood on the defensive, looking about for an enemy.

He was much relieved in his mind when he saw one of the Frenchmen lying not far off dead on the deck, and another sitting bound, where Paul and True Blue had placed him, between the guns.

"What! have we come off victorious in the struggle?" he exclaimed, turning to Marline.

"Yes, sir," answered the seaman, "we've been and drubbed the Monsieurs; but there are still two on 'em below kicking up a bobbery. If you'll take the helm, sir, I'll go and help Pringle to make them fast."

"No, no," answered the midshipman somewhat indignantly, as if his courage or strength had been called in question. "I can do that. You stay at the helm."

When the Frenchman and the black had jumped down into the forepeak, Tim Fid had very wisely clapped the hatch on, so that they were left in darkness, and were also unable to return again on deck. Pringle was on the point of taking off the hatch to secure the two men when the midshipman got forward.

"Very glad, sir, to see you all to rights," said Paul, looking up. "I suppose that you'll wish us to get hold of the two fellows down below?"

"By all means. I'll hail them and advise them to surrender at discretion."

The hatch was taken off, and Mr Nott explained, as well as his limited knowledge of French would allow, that all their chance of success was gone. Only the black man answered. Mr Nott ordered him to come up.

"_L'autre est mort_," (the other is dead), said he as he made his appearance, looking very much frightened.

"He is as treacherous as the rest; it will not do to let him be at liberty," said Mr Nott. "It was he who knocked me down and began the mutiny."

The black was accordingly lashed to a gun on the opposite side of the deck, facing his companion.

On going below they found that the Frenchman whom Fid had shot was not dead, having only been stunned by the fall. He would, however, very shortly have bled to death had they not bound up his wound. In mercy to the poor wretch, they placed him in a bunk, but did not tell him that either of his companions had escaped.

"Ah, I deserve my fate!" he observed to Mr Nott. "Had we succeeded, we should have thrown you all overboard and carried the vessel into a French port. There is a large sum of money on board stowed away below the after-lockers. It escaped the vigilance of the officers who examined the vessel. We knew of it, and for its sake we intended to get rid of you, that we might obtain possession of the whole."

"Much obliged for your kind intentions," answered Johnny, laughing.

"The dollars we'll look after, and you will consider yourself a prisoner in your berth till I give you leave to get out of it. If you put your head above the hatchway, you'll be shot. That is an understood thing between us."

The Frenchman could only make a grimace as a sign of his acquiescence.

"I'm in earnest, remember!" said Mr Nott as he climbed up the ladder on deck.

Fid now reported all that he had done, and he and True Blue received the praise from their young commander which they so fully merited. The compa.s.s was got up on deck and shipped in the binnacle, and the arms were carried aft and placed in the cabin. The other chests belonging to the Frenchmen were broken open; but nothing particular was found in them.

When all these arrangements were made, the officer and his small crew a.s.sembled on deck to hold a council of war.

"The first thing we had better do, sir, is to shorten sail, seeing how shorthanded we are," observed Paul Pringle. "We couldn't do it in a hurry, and if it comes on to blow, our spars and sails may be carried away before we know where we are."

This advice was too good to be neglected. "Then, sir, as these Frenchmen have been steering to the southward and east whenever they have had the helm, oughtn't we to steer so much to the nor'ard to make up for the distance we have run out of our course?" observed True Blue with much modesty.

"Capital idea, Freeborn!" exclaimed the midshipman with a patronising air. "You've a very good notion of navigation; we'll do it."

Mr Nott now took the helm, while the crew went aloft to furl the lighter canvas and to take a reef in the topsails. While True Blue was on his way up to hand the main-royal, his eye fell on a vessel following directly in the wake of the brig, which might have been seen long before had not they all been so fully occupied. He hailed Mr Nott and pointed her out.

The midshipman, who, from being at the helm, could not at the same time take a steady look at her, inquired what she was like. "A schooner, sir, with a wide spread of canvas," answered True Blue. "She seems to be coming up fast with us."

"All hands come down on deck!" shouted Mr Nott. He then asked Paul what he thought of the stranger.

"She does not look like an English craft, and may be an enemy--a privateer probably," was the answer. "I suppose, sir, you'll think fit to hold on and try and get away from her?" continued Paul. "It will soon be growing dark, and if the weather becomes thick, as it promises to do, we may alter our course without being discovered."

"Yes, exactly--that is just my idea," observed Mr Nott. "We could not have hit upon a better."

The sail was consequently not taken off the brig, which, under other circ.u.mstances, it ought to have been; and on she stood, the breeze gradually increasing, and the weather becoming more and more unsettled.

Mr Nott watched the schooner. It was very clear that she was gaining on the brig.

"It is very probable that we shall have to fight, after all," he said to himself. "So, as the Captain always makes a speech to the crew before a battle is begun, I think I ought to do so."