True Blue Part 37

"Ah, Mr Freeborn, I come wid you, you see," he said, stepping on board the brig. "I no call you Billy now, 'cause you great officer, and right glad to see you; but so I officer very great too. Ship's cook. If the crew not eat, what become of dem?"

Sam, who was a sheet or two in the wind,--that is to say, not as sober as he should have been,--was winking and smiling all the time he was speaking, as if he wished True Blue to understand that though he was fully aware of the change in their relative positions, his feelings of affection towards him were in no way altered. One volunteer most of his old shipmates would willingly have seen return home; but, like a bad shilling, he turned up when least wanted. When the _Gannet_ sailed, Gregory Gipples had by some mischance been left on sh.o.r.e, and, meeting Sir Henry, he begged so strenuously to be taken on board the _Rover_, and promised so earnestly to reform in all respects, that the young commander undertook to give him a trial.

This was the first time in his life that True Blue had been parted, beyond a few days, from Paul Pringle. They both felt the separation more than they ventured to express or exhibit to their shipmates; but, as they knew that it was inevitable, they bore it like brave men, each confident that absence would not diminish the affection which reigned in their hearts.

Away sailed the _Rover_ for a cruise on the Spanish main, famed in days of yore as the locality where the richest prizes were to be picked up.

Even Sir Henry Elmore, whose income was, for his rank, somewhat limited, had no objection to the chance offered of obtaining a stock of prize-money; and his officers and crew, including True Blue, looked forward to the prospect with infinite satisfaction.

The brig had been out of Port Royal about a week, when six sail were discovered to leeward, and proved to be a ship, with four brigs and a schooner. They continued their course till the _Rover_ got near enough to allow her commander to see that the schooner and one of the brigs each carried sixteen guns, and that another carried six.

They, on discovering that the _Rover_ was English, showed French colours, and drew close together, as if prepared to engage.

"I know, my lads, that you'll wish to take some of these vessels," said the commander, as he gave the order to bear down upon the enemy.

The schooner, on this, immediately made the signal to all the vessels to disperse in different directions, while she herself stood away under all the sail she could carry.

The _Rover_ made chase, and after three hours came up with the ship and the largest brig, both of which struck without firing a shot. They proved to be prizes to the schooner, a French privateer, said to be one of the fastest vessels in those seas, and, from the number of prizes she had taken, one of the most successful cruisers.

"Fast as she may be," exclaimed Sir Henry, "we will do our best to take her!"

From the prisoners he learned, also, that she not only carried sixteen guns, full as heavy as those of the _Rover_, but a crew of not less than a hundred and fifty men. The ship and brig having prize crews put on board them, were sent back to Jamaica, and the _Rover_ continued her chase of the schooner. She kept her in sight, running to the southward, till Sir Henry felt satisfied that the vessels he had recaptured were safe, and then, night coming on, she was hid from sight.

When morning broke not a sail was to be seen. Soon after noon, however, land was discovered ahead, and in an hour afterwards a schooner hove in sight. As the _Rover_ drew near, she hoisted Spanish colours, and, evidently soon suspecting the brig's character, put up her helm, and ran before the wind towards the coast.

It was soon seen that she was not the privateer they were in search of.

On she went, till she ran right on sh.o.r.e. The _Rover_ on this, shortening sail, hauled her wind, and two boats being lowered, under command of Mr Nott, True Blue having charge of one of them, pulled in to ascertain whether she could be got off. The Spaniards, as they approached, fired a volley at them, and then, abandoning the vessel, pulled through the surf on sh.o.r.e. The schooner was immediately boarded, set on fire in every direction; and the English, driving the Spaniards from the boat, waited till she burned to the water's edge, and the sea, breaking over her, extinguished the flames.

This necessary though unsatisfactory work having been accomplished, the _Rover_ made sail along the coast.

Two days afterwards, as she lay becalmed under the land, a schooner, having long sweeps at work, and three gunboats, were seen making for the _Rover_. The schooner was large, full of men, and carried a number of guns, and with the aid of the gunboats, should the calm continue, would, it was very evident, prove a formidable opponent to the English brig.

Still, as usual, her crew were eager for battle; and as they went to their guns, they laughed and cut their jokes as heartily as ever. Of course, Gipples came in for his ordinary share of quizzing. Fid was the chief quizzer; but he had got several others to join him in making a b.u.t.t of Gregory.

"I say, mates, did you ever hear what the savages on that sh.o.r.e out there do when they take any prisoners?" he began, winking to some of his shipmates. "They cuts them up just like sheep, and eats them. I've heard say, that as you walks the streets, you'll see dozens of fellows sometimes, tarry breeches and all, hanging up in the butchers' shops.

There was the whole crew of the _Harpy_ sloop, taken off here, treated in that way--that I know of to a certainty. The Captain was a very fat man, so his flesh fetched twice as much a pound as the others; and when they served him up at dinner, they ornamented the dish with his epaulets and the gold lace off his coat."

Gipples opened his eyes very wide, and did not at all like the description.

Fid continued, "I hope, if they take us, they won't serve us in the same way; but there's no saying. We'll fight to the last; but all these gunboats and that big schooner are great odds against our little brig.

Maybe Sir Henry would rather blow up the brig and all on board. I hope as how he will, and so we will disappoint the cannibals."

While Tim Fid and his companions were running on with this sort of nonsense, poor Gipples wishing that he was anywhere but on board the _Rover_, the enemy were gradually stealing out towards her.

True Blue saw that the contest, if carried on in a calm, would be a very severe one, and anxiously looked out for the signs of a breeze. As the schooner drew near, it was clear that she was the French privateer of which they were in search.

"We must take her somehow or other, there's no doubt about that,"

thought True Blue. "We have got some long sweeps; we'll get these all ready to rig out as soon as she comes near to lay her on board. I'll hear what the Captain has to say to the idea."

The boatswain on this went as near aft as etiquette would allow, knowing that the Captain would call him up and talk to him about the approaching conflict. Sir Henry had himself intended to board the enemy, but feared, from their being so close in under the land, that before the contest was over the vessels might drift on sh.o.r.e.

The sweeps were, however, got ready. Just then a light air from off the land sprang up, and the brig, making all sail, stood away from it--much, probably, to the satisfaction of her enemies, who fancied that her crew were afraid of fighting, and that, should they come up with her, she would prove an easy conquest. They began, therefore, briskly firing their bow-guns at the _Rover_, a compliment which she as warmly returned with her after-guns.

The breeze dying away, the sweeps were got out, and the _Rover_ still kept ahead of her pursuers. All her guns were loaded with round and small shot; and a warm fire was kept up from her deck with muskets and pistols at the schooner which followed in her wake, her stern being kept, by means of the sweeps, directly towards the enemy. One of the gunboats had dropped astern, but the other two kept close to her.

A Spanish officer on board the schooner now ordered the gunboats to board the brig, the schooner herself giving signs that she was about to do the same. Sir Henry watched carefully to ascertain in what way they were about to attack the brig. The schooner kept off a little, and then showed that she was about to board on the starboard quarter, while the gunboats pulled for her larboard quarter and bow.

Sir Henry waited till the schooner and gunboats had got within about fifteen yards of the brig; then, with the sweeps on the larboard side, he rapidly pulled her round, so as to bring her starboard broadside to bear athwart the schooner's bow.

"Now, lads, give it them!" he shouted, and the whole broadside of the brig, with round and grape shot, was poured into the schooner's bows, now crowded with men ready to board, raking her fore and aft, and killing numbers of them. The _Rover_'s crew instantly rushed over to the other side and swept her round; then, manning the larboard guns, raked both the gunboats in the same manner.

The shrieks and cries of the wounded showed the damage which had been done, the Spanish boats backing their oars, as if not wishing to renew the contest.

A voice from the schooner, however, ordered them to come on, while she kept firing away, though with somewhat abated energy. The crews of the Spanish boats having somewhat recovered their courage, once more returned to the attack; but the _Rover_'s guns kept them from again attempting to board. Now and then they retired, and whenever they did so she pulled round, and again brought her broadside to bear on the bows of the schooner.

Thus for nearly an hour and a half was the contest carried on, when a light breeze sprang up, which placed the schooner to windward.

True Blue hurried aft. "If we back our headsails, Sir Henry, we shall run stern on the enemy, and may then carry her by boarding!" he exclaimed.

"Right, boatswain," was the answer. "Boarders, away!--follow me!"

The manoeuvre was quickly performed. With a crash the brig's stern ran against the schooner's side, and before the enemy knew what the English seamen were about, they, led by their gallant young Captain, who was closely followed by True Blue, had leaped on her deck and were driving all before them.

A tall French officer, evidently a first-rate swordsman, stood his ground, and rallied a party round him. He encountered Sir Henry, who, attacked by another Frenchman, was on the point of being cut down, when True Blue with his trusty cutla.s.s came to his aid, and turned the fury of the Frenchman against himself.

There was science against strength and pluck. True Blue saw that all ordinary rules of defence and attack must be let aside; so, throwing up the Frenchman's sword with a back stroke of his cutla.s.s, he sprang in on him, seized him by the throat, and, as he pushed him back, with another cut brought him to the deck.

The loss of their champion still more disheartened the French, who now gave way fore and aft. Numbers had been cut down--some jumped overboard, but the greater portion ran below and sang out l.u.s.tily for quarter.

Strange to say, not a man of the _Rover_ was hurt, while nearly fifty Frenchmen and Spaniards were killed and wounded.

The moment the schooner's flag was hauled down, the Spanish boats made off; nor did they stop till they had disappeared within some harbour on the coast.

"I suppose," said Gipples, looking at the swarthy Spanish soldiers with no friendly eye, "though these chaps may have liked to eat us if they had caught us, we ain't obliged to eat them."

"That will be as the Captain likes," answered Tim Fid. "Perhaps he'll not think them wholesome at this time of the year, and let them go."

A very few days were sufficient to refit the _Rover_, and to store and provision her ready for sea. This time, however, she was ordered to cruise along the coasts of San Domingo and Porto Rico, towards the Leeward Islands.

At length she ran farther south, and came off the harbour of Point-a-Pitre, in the Island of Guadaloupe.

The time allowed for the cruise was very nearly expired, and Sir Henry was naturally desirous of doing something more than had yet been accomplished. The saucy little English brig poked her nose close into the French harbour one morning, and there discovered several vessels at anchor close under a strong fort.

"We must be on the watch for some of these gentlemen when they come out, and capture them," thought Sir Henry as the brig steered away again from the land.

True Blue had, however, fixed his eye on a French gun-brig which lay the outermost of all the vessels, and which he thought, by a bold dash, might be carried off.

"It can be done--I know it can, and I will ask the Captain," he said to himself. "Harry will join me, and I will have Tim Fid and a good set of staunch men. With two boats and thirty men, we could do it; but if Sir Henry will give us another boat, so much the better."

Sir Henry, consenting to his proposal, allowed him three boats, and promised to run in that very night, should the weather prove favourable, that he might carry out his object.