True Blue Part 18

Nott was curious to know how his messmate had come to be on board the schooner which had chased them.

"I will tell you in a few words," said Elmore. "We had not parted company with the frigate many hours before a strange sail hove in sight.

As I knew that we could gain but little by fighting should the stranger prove an enemy, we did our best to run away. The prize, however, sailed badly, and the stranger, which turned out to be a large schooner, sailed remarkably well. We had a couple of guns; so we fired away with them as long as we could till she ranged up alongside, when a number of men leaped on our decks and we were obliged to give in. I was carried on board the schooner; but the rest of the men were left on board the brig to work her, so that I hope that their lives may have been preserved.

She was a privateer out of Saint Malo. Your determined attempt to escape excited their anger to the highest degree; and at the very moment that the vessel was struck by lightning, from the effects of which she foundered, they were swearing vengeance against you, wherever you might be. Their terrific shrieks and cries, as one after the other they were overwhelmed by the waves, made my heart sink within me. Still I determined not to yield as long as my strength endured, and I struck out for dear life. I soon found myself close to a shattered spar, to which was attached a quant.i.ty of rigging. I climbed up and lashed myself securely to it. Thus I pa.s.sed the night. I more than once thought I saw the dismantled brig; and you may fancy my joy when I caught sight of her at dawn. Still I scarcely expected that anybody on board would be able to render me a.s.sistance; and when I saw that all her boats were gone, I almost gave up hope. I have not thanked Freeborn as I wish; but I have those at home who will thank him still more, if we are allowed to reach dry land, and I am sure our Captain will thank him too."

While the lads had been talking, the appearance of the sky gave evident signs that the gale was breaking. Still the sea ran very high, and the waterlogged wreck laboured in a way which made it doubtful whether each plunge she made would not prove her last. She sunk lower and lower, and it was very evident that in a short time no part of her deck would be tenable. Anxiously, therefore, all eyes were looking out for a sail.

Each time that the brig rose to the top of a sea, they all looked out on every side, in the hope of catching a glimpse of some approaching vessel; and blank was the feeling when she again sunk down into the deep trough and they knew that no help was near.

Suddenly True Blue shouted out, "A sail! a sail!--she is standing towards us!" He had seen her before, but was uncertain which way she was steering, and he had not forgotten a caution given to him by Paul-- never to raise hopes when there is a likelihood of their being disappointed.

The sea had for some time been decreasing; but there was still so much that a boat would run considerable risk in boarding the wreck. It was soon proved that True Blue was right. The stranger was steering towards them. On she came. She was a brig, and showed English colours.

A cheer rose from the deck of the waterlogged vessel. The brig came down in gallant style; but she gave evident signs that she also had been battling with the gale. Her bulwarks were shattered, and not a boat was to be seen on board. Her flag showed her to be a packet. A fine-looking man stood in the main-rigging.

The midshipmen shouted, "We are going down, we fear. Can you render a.s.sistance?"

"Ay, ay--that I will!" answered the master of the packet. "I will run alongside you. Stand by to leap on board!"

The least experienced of the party saw the great risk the packet was running by this proceeding; for a send of the sea might easily have driven the wreck against her and stove in her upper works. This consideration did not deter the gallant sailor from his act of mercy.

He made a signal as he approached, that he would pa.s.s the wreck on the larboard quarter. The Frenchman and the black were told that they must help their wounded shipmate. Tom and True Blue begged that they might take charge of Paul, while the rest were to leap on board the instant the vessels' sides touched. The midshipmen and the two boys wanted to stay and help Paul, but he would not hear of this.

"No, no," he answered; "if we talk about it, no one will be saved; and if I am left on board, I shall be no worse off than we all have been till now."

The packet tacked. Now she stood down towards the wreck. The sides of the two vessels touched. The midshipmen and two boys leaped on board.

So did the Frenchman and the black; they made a pretence of helping their comrade, it seemed. They placed him on the bulwarks of the wreck, and then, when safe themselves, they were about to regain their hold of him; but the poor wretch lost his balance, and with a cry of horror fell between the two vessels. The two men looked over the side with stupid dismay, abusing each other; but their unfortunate comrade had sunk for ever from their sight.

Meanwhile Tom and True Blue had made an attempt to lift Paul on board the packet. Had her crew known his condition, they probably would have been ready to render a.s.sistance; as it was, his two friends, fearful of letting him slip between the two vessels, lost the moment as the brig glided by, and all three were left on the sinking wreck.

"Why have you done this?" said Paul when he saw that the packet had shot ahead. "You should have left me, boys."

"Left you, Paul!" exclaimed True Blue with an emotion he rarely exhibited. "How can you say that? Please Heaven, we'll save you yet."

There was no necessity for hailing the packet. They knew well that the two midshipmen would make every effort in their power to render them a.s.sistance. Once more the brig tacked and stood towards them; but the position of the wreck had changed, and it was impossible to run alongside.

Again and again the gallant Captain of the packet tried the manoeuvre without success. At last, pa.s.sing close to them, he shouted, "Lads, I will heave you ropes; you must make yourselves fast to them and jump overboard: it's your only chance."

"Tom, you must do it!" said True Blue, turning to Marline. "It would kill Paul; I'll stay by him. We shall be taken off when the weather moderates; and if not, I'm ready to go down with him."

Paul heard this. "True Blue, I'm your guardian, and you must obey me!"

he said almost sternly. "The ducking won't hurt me more than others.

Maybe it may do me good. So, I say, make the rope fast round me, and help me overboard when you two go, and I shall not be the worse for it."

Thus commanded, True Blue could no longer refuse obedience. Down came the packet towards them. The ropes were hove on board.

"Tom, you can't swim--go by yourself. I'll stay by Paul!" exclaimed True Blue as he was securing the rope. "Help me to launch him first.

Away, now!"

Paul was lowered into the water, True Blue keeping tight hold of the rope just at his waist with his left hand, while he struck out with his right. Thus the two together were drawn through the foaming sea towards the packet. Arrived at the vessel's side, True Blue was of the greatest service to Paul in protecting him from the blows he would otherwise have received by the sea driving him against it.

Right hearty was the welcome they received from all hands, especially from the gallant commander, Captain Jones.

Scarcely had the packet got a hundred fathoms from the brig when she was seen to make a plunge forward. The two midshipmen were watching her, expecting to see her rise again. They rubbed their eyes. Another sea rolled over the spot where she had been, but no sign of her was there.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

The _Chesterfield_ packet was bound from Halifax to Falmouth.

Fortunately among the pa.s.sengers was a surgeon, who was able to attend to Paul's hurts. He set his leg, which was really broken, as were one or more of his ribs.

The pa.s.sengers, when they heard from Sir Henry Elmore and Johnny Nott of True Blue's gallantry, were very anxious to have him into the cabin to talk to him, and to hear an account of his adventures. The young midshipmen, knowing instinctively that he would not like this, did not back the pa.s.sengers' frequent messages to him; besides, nothing would induce him to leave the side of his G.o.dfather, except when the doctor sent him on deck to take some fresh air.

A strange sail was seen on the starboard bow. In a short time she was p.r.o.nounced to be a ship, and, from the whiteness and spread of her canvas, a man-of-war. Elmore and Nott hoped that she might be their own frigate. They thought that it was a lat.i.tude in which she might very likely be fallen in with. Of course, till the character of the brig had been ascertained, she would bear up in chase. They expressed their hopes to Captain Jones, and begged him to steer for her.

"Were I certain that she is your frigate, I would gladly do so; but as you cannot possibly recognise her at this distance, we shall be wiser to stand clear of her till we find out what she is. I will not alter our course, unless when we get nearer she has the cut of an enemy."

The midshipmen, having borrowed telescopes, were continually going aloft to have a look at the stranger.

"I say, Elmore, it must be she. That's her fore-topsail, I'll declare!"

exclaimed Johnny Nott. Elmore was not quite so certain.

After a little time, they were joined by True Blue.

"Paul Pringle, sirs, sent me up to have a look at the stranger," he remarked.

"I am very glad you have come, Freeborn," said Sir Henry. "Your eyes are the best in the ship. What do you make her out to be?"

True Blue looked long and earnestly without speaking. At last he answered, in an unusually serious tone:

"She is not our frigate, sir--that I'm certain of; and I'm more than afraid--I'm very nearly certain--that she is French. By the cut of her sails and her general look, she puts me in mind of one of the squadron which chased us off Guernsey."

True Blue's confidence made the midshipmen look at the stranger in a different light, and they finally both confessed that they were afraid he was right. Captain Jones agreeing with them, all sail was now crowded on the brig to escape.

In spite of all the sail the brig could carry, the frigate was fast coming up with her.

"I wish that we could fight," said Johnny Nott to Elmore. "Don't you think that if we were to get two of the guns aft, we might knock away some of her spars?"

"I fear not," said his brother midshipman, pointing to the popguns which adorned the packet's deck. "These things would not carry half as far as the frigate's guns; and, probably, as soon as we began to fire she would let fly a broadside and sink us."

"Too true, Sir Henry," observed the brave Captain of the packet, who stood on deck surrounded by the pa.s.sengers, many of them asking all sorts of useless questions. His countenance showed how distressed he was. "In this case I fear discretion will form the best part of valour."

Captain Jones cast anxious glances aloft, as well he might, and the midshipmen and True Blue eyed the frigate; and Nott turned to his messmate and said, in a doubting tone, "Elmore, what do you think of it?"

The other answered sadly. "There is no doubt of it. She is coming up hand over hand with us. Freeborn, I am afraid that I am right."

"Yes, sir," answered True Blue, touching his hat. "She is going nearly ten knots to our six."

"Then she will be up with us within a couple of hours at most," said the young midshipman with a deep-drawn sigh.