A Pirate of the Caribbees, Page 4

  CHAPTER FOUR.

  WE FALL IN WITH AND CAPTURE A SCHOONER.

  The air was thick with scud-water, so thick, indeed, that it was likefog, it being impossible to see farther than some twenty fathoms fromthe boat. This scud-water swept horizontally along in a perfect deluge,and stung like shot when, by way of experiment, I exposed one of myhands to it. As for the wind, it was like an invisible wall drivingalong; it was simply impossible to stand up against it; it scourged thesurface of the ocean into a level plain of white froth, which was tornaway and hurled along like a shower of bullets. Our sea anchorfortunately maintained a sufficient hold upon the water to keep the gigriding head to wind, but that was as much as it could do; with thepainter strained taut for its whole length, the boat was driving away toleeward, stern-first, at a speed of--according to my estimate--fullyseven miles an hour! And it was, perhaps, a fortunate thing for us thatsuch was the case; for had we been riding to a sea anchor powerfulenough, and sunk deep enough in the water to have held us nearlystationary, I believe we should have been swamped within five minutes ofthe outburst of the hurricane. Even as it was, and despite all theprecautions that we had taken to make our canvas covering perfectlysecure, the wind tugged at it and beat upon it with such vehement furythat I momentarily expected to see it torn bodily off the boat and godriving away to leeward in tatters. Probably the thorough soaking thatit almost instantly received--and which caused the fabric to shrink upand strain still tighter than it was before--may have had something todo with the stubborn resistance that it offered to the gale. Be that asit may, it held intact; and to that circumstance I attribute the factthat the gig was not instantly swamped. But no woven fabric, howeverstout,--scarcely wood itself,--could long withstand such a furiouspelting of scud-water as our sails were now enduring, and in about tenminutes the water began to drip through, first in single drops, here andthere, then in a few small streams, that rapidly increased in numberuntil there seemed in the thick darkness to be hundreds of them; for inendeavouring to avoid one stream we only succeeded in encountering twoor three more. To add to the unpleasantness of the situation, it wasimpossible for us to light the lantern; for although we were shelteredfrom the direct violence of the gale by the canvas, the wind somehowmanaged to penetrate beneath, creating quite a formidable little scufflethere, and easily frustrating all our efforts to obtain a light. Andvery soon we had another annoyance to contend with, in the shape of agradual accumulation of water in the boat, whether caused by a leak inthe hull, or by the drainage of the water through the canvas we knewnot; but it obliged us to have recourse to baling, which proved to be asingularly awkward operation in such cramped quarters and such pitchydarkness.

  The first mad fury of the outburst lasted for about three-quarters of anhour,--it _seemed_ a perfect eternity to us, in our condition ofoverpowering suspense, but I do not believe it was longer than three-quarters of an hour at the utmost,--and then it subsided into a heavygale of wind, and the sea began to get up so rapidly that within anotherhour we were being flung hither and thither with such terrific violencethat in a very short time our bodies were covered with bruises, whilesome of the men actually became sea-sick! And now, too, a new dangerthreatened us; for as the sea rose it commenced to break, and it was notlong ere we had the seas washing, in rapidly increasing volume, over theboat, and pouring down through the opening over the stern-sheets. Thiskept us baling in good earnest, not only with our solitary bucket butwith hats and boots as well, to save the boat from being swamped. Andthe bitterest hardship of it all was that there was no relief, not amoment's intermission throughout the whole of that dreadful,interminable night. We were in continuous peril of death with everybreath that we drew; every second saw us trembling upon the verge ofeternity, and escaping destruction as by a constantly recurringsuccession of miracles. It was a frightful experience, so frightfulthat language is utterly powerless to describe it; the most eloquent pencould do no more than convey a poor, feeble, and miserably inadequateidea of the terror and suffering of it. No one who has not undergonesuch an experience can form the remotest conception of its horrors.

  All things mundane have an end, however, sooner or later; and at lengththe welcome light of day once more made its appearance, piercing slowlyand with seeming reluctance through the dense canopy of black, storm-torn cloud and flying scud that overhung us. And then we almost wishedthat it had remained night, so dreary and awe-inspiring was the scenethat met our aching gaze. The heavens gave no sign of relenting, thesky looked wild as ever,--although the awful ruddy glow had long sincefaded out from the clouds,--while the ocean seemed to be lashed andgoaded by the furious wind into an endless succession of rushingmountain waves, every one of which, as it swept with hissing, foam-whitecrest down upon us, seemed mercilessly bent upon our destruction. As Istood up and gazed about me,--for I could do so now, by leaning wellforward against the wind,--it seemed a marvellous thing to me that thegig continued to live through it; for, light and buoyant though she was,every sea she met swept her from stem to stern; and it was plain enoughto us all now that it was nothing but the canvas covering that savedher. As it was, we shipped so much water that it was as much as threeof us could do--that being all who could work in the opening at onetime--to keep her from filling. To add still further to our misery, wewere one and all by this time dead tired, worn out, in fact, with theterror and anxiety of the past night; yet we dared not yet attempt toseek the comfort and refreshment of sleep, for our critical situationcontinued to demand our utmost watchfulness and our unremittingexertions; and when at length we sought to renew our strength by meansof a meal, the grievous discovery was made that the whole of our smallstock of ship's bread was spoiled and rendered uneatable by the saltwater. And, as though this misfortune was not in itself sufficientlyserious, when we sought to quench our thirst we discovered that the bungof the water-breaker had somehow got out of the bung-hole, allowing somuch salt water to mingle with our small stock of fresh that the latterhad been rendered almost undrinkable.

  Our first gleam of hope and encouragement came to us about half an hourbefore noon that day, when our anxious watching was rewarded by theappearance of a small, momentary break in the sky, low down toward thehorizon to windward; it showed but for a moment, and then was lostagain. But presently a wider and more pronounced break appeared whichdid _not_ vanish; on the contrary, it widened, until presently a fitfulgleam of wan and watery sunshine pierced through it and lighted up thebleak, desolate expanse of raging ocean for a few seconds. And almostsimultaneously with the welcome appearance of this transient but welcomegleam of pallid sunshine, we became aware of a slight but unmistakablediminution in the fury of the gale; a change productive of such profoundrelief to us, worn out as we all were by long-protracted toil andanxiety, that we actually greeted it with a feeble cheer! Nor was thehope thus aroused fallacious; for from this moment the sky began toclear, until within a couple of hours the storm-clouds had all sweptaway to leeward, leaving the sky a clear, pure blue, streaked here andthere, it is true, with a tattered, trailing streamer of pinky grey,that, however, soon vanished; and once more we revelled in the gloriouswarmth and radiance of the unclouded sunlight, while the wind dropped sorapidly that, but for the sea, which still ran with dangerous weight, wemight have made sail again by sunset. As it was, we were all socompletely worn out that I think we were really thankful for an excuseto leave the boat riding to her sea anchor a few hours longer, while wesought and obtained what was even more necessary to us than food anddrink--sleep.

  All actual danger was by this time past, so we arranged that each of usshould keep a look out for an hour while the rest slept, there beingsufficient of us to carry us through the night at this rate; and Iundertook to keep the first look out. That hour was, I think, thelongest sixty minutes I had ever up to then experienced; for, now thatconstant watchfulness was no longer necessary to insure our safety, theincentive to watchfulness was gone, and overtaxed nature craved sovehemently for repose that the effort,
to remain awake was absolutelypainful. I continued, however, to perform the task that I hadundertaken, and, when my hour had expired, flung myself down in thestern-sheets, where I instantly sank into a profound and dreamlesssleep, having first, of course, aroused young Lindsay, and cautioned himto maintain a bright lookout for passing ships--a caution which I gaveorders should be passed on from man to man throughout the night.

  When I awoke I found that I had maintained all through the night theprecise attitude in which I had flung myself down to sleep some hoursbefore; it appeared to me that I had not stirred by so much as a hair's-breadth all through those hours of unconsciousness. I awokespontaneously, with the light of the sun shining strongly through mystill closed eyelids. The first thing after that of which I becameconscious was that the boat was rising and falling easily with a long,steady, swinging motion; then I opened my eyes, and immediately noticedthat the sun was some two hours high. A very soft, warm, gentle breezefanned my cheek, and the only audible sounds were the snores and snortsof many sleepers near me, mingling with the gentle lap of water alongthe boat's planking. All hands save myself were sound asleep! I wasnot greatly surprised at this, though naturally a trifle vexed that myorders as to the maintenance of a lookout had not been more strictlyobserved. But it was not until I had risen to my feet and flung aninquiring glance round the horizon that I realised how miserablyunfortunate this negligence had been. For there, away in the westernboard, distant some fourteen miles, gleamed the sails of a large ship;and a more intent scrutiny revealed the tantalising circumstance thatshe was steering such a course as had undoubtedly carried her past usabout an hour before daybreak at a distance of little more than threemiles; and, had a proper watch been maintained, we could haveintercepted and boarded her without difficulty. Whether she happened tobe a friend or an enemy was a matter of very secondary import just then,in our miserable plight as regarded our stock of provisions and water;our situation was such that even to have fallen into the hands of theenemy would have been better than to be left as we were.

  I at once roused all hands, and we forthwith went to work to cut adriftthe sails that had served us so well, and to bend them afresh to theyards; while the others hauled aboard our sea anchor, cut its lashingsadrift, and took to the oars with the object of going in pursuit of thedistant sail. For there was yet a chance for us. If we could keep herin sight long enough there was just a possibility that some one oranother of her crew, working aloft, might cast a glance astern and catchsight of our tiny sail, when he would at once recognise it as that of aboat, and report it; when, if the skipper happened to be a humane man,he would assuredly heave-to and wait for us to close. So we all went towork with a will, and soon had the boat all ataunto once more, and inpursuit of the stranger as fast as oars and sails together could put herthrough the water. But the experience of the first hour sufficed todemonstrate beyond all question the hopelessness of our attempt toovertake the ship; she was leaving us rapidly, and unless someone alofthappened to sight us, our prospects of rescue, so far as she wasconcerned, were not worth a moment's consideration. The men, partiallyrestored by their night's sound sleep, toiled like tigers at the oars,in their anxiety to prolong the chance of our being sighted to thelatest possible moment, frequently relieving each other. But it was allof no avail; strive as they would, the stranger steadily increased herdistance from us until, after we had been in pursuit of her for fullythree hours, the heads of her royals sank below the western horizon, andwe lost her for good and all. Then the men sullenly laid in their oars,declaring that they were worn out and could do no more. Then they beganto savagely inquire among themselves who was the individual to whoseculpable carelessness we were all indebted for our presentdisappointment. The culprit was soon discovered in the person of alittle Welshman--the man whose watch followed Lindsay's. This mandeclared that he had remained awake throughout his watch, and had dulycalled his successor before resuming his slumbers. But there was somereason to doubt this statement; and even if it happened to be true, hewas still culpable, according to his own showing, for he was obliged toconfess that he had not waited to assure himself that his successor wasproperly awakened, but had satisfied himself with a single shake of thesleeper's shoulder, accompanied by the curt announcement that it wastime to turn out, and had then flung himself down and gone to sleep. Asfor the man whom the Welshman was supposed to have awakened, hedisclaimed all responsibility upon the ground that, if called at all--which he did not believe--he had been called so ineffectively as to bequite unconscious of the circumstance. At the conclusion of theinquiry, his comrades were so furiously incensed with the Welshman forhis culpable--almost criminal--neglect, that they seemed stronglydisposed to take summary vengeance upon him; and it needed the exertionof all my authority to protect the fellow from their violence, whichbroke out anew when at noon we went to dinner, and were compelled tomake out the best meal we could upon raw salt beef washed down withwater so brackish that we could scarcely swallow it. Reduced to such acondition as this, it will scarcely be wondered at that I should bebrought to something very nearly approaching despair when myobservations that day revealed the disconcerting fact that, thanks toour excessive drift during the gale, we were still fully six hundredmiles from our port of destination--a distance which we scarce dared tohope might be covered, even under the most favourable circumstances, inless than five days.

  But it soon appeared as though even this protracted period of privationand exposure was to be increased, for, as the afternoon wore on, thewind, still continuing to drop, grew so light that our speed dwindleddown to a bare three knots by the hour of sunset; and by midnight it hadstill further fallen to such an extent that our sails became useless tous, and the oars had once more to be resorted to.

  The return of daylight found us in the midst of a stark calm, under acloudless sky, out of which the sun soon began to dart his scorchingbeams so pitilessly that the task of pulling shortly became a labourlittle less than torture to people in our exhausted condition; indeed,so severe did the men find it, that, after persevering until about fourbells in the afternoon watch, they gave it up, declaring themselves tobe quite incapable of further exertion. And thus, for the remainder ofthe day, we lay motionless upon that oil-smooth sea, under theblistering rays of the burning sun, with our tongues cleaving to ourpalates as we began to experience the first fierce torments ofunquenchable thirst. For our supply of water--all but undrinkable as itwas--was growing so short that it became imperatively necessary tohusband it with the most jealous care, and to reduce our allowance tothe very smallest quantity upon which life could possibly be sustained.The men sought to forget their sufferings in sleep, disposing themselvesin the bottom of the boat, under the shelter of the now useless sails;but I was far too anxious to be able to sleep, for I began to realisethat our boat voyage threatened to develop into an adventure that mighteasily terminate in a ghastly tragedy.

  Half an hour before sunset I called the men, and we went to supper; andwith the going down of the sun the oars were once more thrown out, andwe resumed our weary voyage, all hands of us being equally anxious toavail ourselves to the utmost of the comparatively cool hours ofdarkness, to shorten, as much as possible, the distance that stillintervened between us and deliverance. All through the hot andbreathless night we toiled, in an unspeakable agony of thirst, and whenmorning once more dawned out of a brilliant and cloudless sky, mycompanions presented so wild and haggard an appearance, with theircheeks sunken with famine and their eyes ablaze with the fever of thirstand starvation, that they were scarcely recognisable. Half an hourafter sunrise we partook of our loathsome breakfast of putrid meat andnauseous water, and then composed ourselves to sleep--if we could--through the long hours of the blazing day, maintaining, however, a one-man hourly watch, in order that we might be duly warned of any change inthe weather.

  And, late that afternoon, a change came--a change of so welcome acharacter that I believe I may, without exaggeration, say it saved ourlives. For, about
noon, when I was aroused by the man on watch to getthe meridian altitude of the sun for the determination of the latitude,I observed a bank of purple-grey clouds gathering in the south-westernquarter, their rounded edges as sharply denned as though they had beencut out of paper. There was no mistaking their character; theyportended a thunderstorm. And a thunderstorm we had about four o'clockthat afternoon, of truly tropical violence. There was not a breath ofwind with it, but it brought us a perfect deluge of rain,--thrice-welcome and blessed rain,--pouring from the overcharged clouds in sheetsof warm water, soft and sweet as nectar. We let not a drop escape usthat it was possible to save; we saw that it was coming, and preparedfor it by spreading the sails across the boat, and caught the welcomestream in the depressions that we had arranged for its reception,drinking out of the hollowed canvas until we could drink no more. Then,as the rain still continued to fall, we did a desperate deed; we threwaway every drop of our drinking water, in the hope of being able torefill our breakers with the sweet, fresh rain-water. And we weresuccessful. God in His infinite mercy allowed the floodgates of heavento remain open until we had filled every available receptacle at ourdisposal; and then the rain ceased, the storm drifted away to the north-eastward, and the sun disappeared below the horizon in a blaze ofcloudless splendour.

  But our sufferings were not yet over; for now that the hellish tormentsof thirst were assuaged, the pangs of hunger assailed us with redoubledfury, hourly growing in intensity, until sometime during the night--while Lindsay and I were asleep, and the boat was in charge of one ofthe men--they became so utterly unendurable that, in a fit of madness,the famished crew fell upon the slender remainder of our stock ofeatables, devouring the whole at one fell swoop, except Lindsay's and myown portion, which, despite their famished condition, they loyally setaside for us!

  Another day of breathless calm; another twelve hours of scorching heatunder the rays of the pitiless sun; and then, with nightfall, the menonce more threw out their oars and resumed the heart-breaking task ofshortening by a few miles the still formidable stretch of ocean that laybetween us and safety. But nothing that we could say would induce asingle one of them to accept ever so small a share of the provisionsthat they had apportioned as the share belonging to Lindsay and myself;they declared that their last meal had so far satisfied andreinvigorated them, that they were no longer hungry, while one or two ofthem spoke hopefully of the possibility that they might catch a fish ortwo on the morrow.

  It was somewhere about ten o'clock that night that we detected the firstsymptoms of another change in the weather, the first subtle indicationthat the long period of calm which had so nearly destroyed us was aboutto end. And, best of all, the indication was of such a character aspermitted us to indulge the hope that, although the calm was about togive way to a breeze, we were likely to be favoured with weather fineenough to permit of our pursuing our voyage under the most favourableconditions. This symptom of approaching change merely consisted in thegathering in the heavens of a thin veil of mottled, fine-weather cloud,just dense enough to obscure most of the lesser stars and render thenight rather dark, while a few of the brighter stars peeped through theopenings between the clouds at tolerably frequent intervals, permittingus to steer our course without having recourse to the lantern orcompass. The prospect of a coming breeze seemed to cheer the men andendow them with renewed vigour, for they gave way with something like awill, while they occasionally went so far as to exchange a mutteredejaculation of encouragement one with another.

  It happened to be my trick at the yoke-lines until midnight, I havingrelieved young Lindsay at four bells. I was sitting in the stern-sheets, with my eyes intently fixed upon a particularly bright star thatgleamed out through the clouds at frequent intervals right over theboat's nose, at an altitude of about thirty degrees above the horizon,and which I had consequently selected as a suitable guide to steer by.

  It is a curious fact, well-known to sailors, that an object can bebetter seen on a dark night at sea by looking at the sky slightly_above_ or to one side of it, rather than directly _at_ it; hence it wasthat, as I kept my eye intently fixed upon the star immediately ahead, Isuddenly became aware of the presence of a small, dark object some threepoints on our starboard bow. I immediately looked straight at it, butcould then see nothing; whereupon I looked into the sky rather above thepoint where I knew it to be, when I again caught sight of it. To makequite sure, I sheered the boat some four points off her course, when itbecame quite distinct, although only as a small, black, shapeless shadowagainst the dark sky immediately ahead.

  I held up my hand warningly to the men, and at the same moment gave theorder, "Oars!"

  The men, somewhat wonderingly, instantly obeyed, staring hard at meinquiringly, while two or three who were lying down in the bottom of theboat, trying unavailingly to sleep, raised themselves upon their elbows,as though to ascertain what was the matter.

  "Lads," said I, in low, cautious tones, "not a sound, for your lives!There is a small craft of some sort out there becalmed, and it is myintention to run her alongside. But we cannot of course tell whethershe is a friend or an enemy, so I think it will be well for us to getalongside without attracting the attention of her crew, if we can manageit. If she proves to be a friend, well and good; but if she is anenemy, we must take her at all costs; for we are in a starvingcondition, as you are all aware, while we are still five days distantfrom Bermuda, and I do not believe we could possibly live to reach theisland without provisions. So muffle your oars as well as you can; haveyour cutlasses ready; and I will put you alongside. H-u-s-h! not asound! That craft is a good three miles away, but sounds travel far onsuch a night as this, and we must not allow the crew of her to discoverthat we are in their neighbourhood. Now muffle your oars, and we willsoon find out who and what she is."

  Without a moment's hesitation, the men forthwith proceeded to muffletheir oars with portions of their clothing; and in another five minuteswe were heading for the small, dark blot. When we had been pullingsilently for about a quarter of an hour, a small, thin sound camecreeping across the water to us, that within another five minutes hadresolved itself into the strains of the Marseillaise played upon anaccordion and sung by a fairly good tenor voice, to which several otherswere almost instantly added. That was sufficient; the craft, whateverelse she might be, was assuredly French, and we were relieved of theanxiety of approaching a vessel uncertain as to whether she was friendor foe. The song was sung through to the end with great enthusiasm, andthen, after a slight pause, another song was started, also French, sofar as could be made out. It was cut short, however, before a dozenbars had been reached, by a hoarse, gruff voice loudly demanding, inclear, unmistakable French, "what, in the name of all the saints, thesinger meant by arousing all hands at that hour of the night with hismiserable braying?" This rendered assurance doubly sure, and weproceeded with increased caution--if that were possible--laying in allbut a single pair of oars, with the double object of resting the men asmuch as possible prior to the attack, and at the same time approachingour quarry slowly enough to allow her crew to coil away about the decks,and go to sleep again if they would.

  Paddling slowly and with the utmost circumspection, taking care that theoars entered and left the water without the slightest splash, we were afull hour and more traversing the distance that separated us from thestranger; but long ere we reached her we had made her out to be aschooner of somewhere about one hundred and forty tons, and by her tauntspars, as well as by the fact of her being where she was,--nicely in thetrack of our homeward-bound West Indiamen,--I judged her to be aprivateer. When first discovered she must have been lying nearlybroadside-on to us, but the swing of the swell gradually slewed her, aswe stealthily approached, until she presented her stern fairly at us,affording us an admirable opportunity to get alongside her undetected.And this we did, gliding up under her starboard quarter and alongside,and actually climbing in on deck over her low bulwarks before the alarmwas raised. Then, from the neighbourhoo
d of the wheel, there suddenlyarose a muttered execration in French, followed by a sharp inquiry inthe same language of, "Who goes there?"

  "British," I answered, in the inquirer's own lingo. "Surrender, or wewill drive every man of you overboard!"

  "The British! ah, sac-r-r-re! Yes, monsieur, oh yes, we surrender,"gurgled the man, as I seized him by the throat and threatened him withmy cutlass, while Lindsay led the hands forward to the forecastle.There were a few drowsily muttered ejaculations in that direction,quickly succeeded by a volley of execrations, a scuffling of feet, theslamming of the hatch over the fore-scuttle, and Lindsay sang out thatthe schooner was ours. Even as he did so, two figures in rather scantyclothing, rushed up on deck through the companion; and before I couldfully realise what was happening, one of them snapped his pistol at me,while the other aimed a blow at my head with a sword. Fortunately thebullet missed me, finding its billet in the body of the man whose throatI still grasped, while I managed to catch the blow of the other fellowon my own blade; and in a moment we were at it "hammer and tongs"--thatis to say, the swordsman and myself, the other fellow making a dash atme now and then, aiming fierce blows at me with the butt-end of hispistol, until, in self-defence, I seized my opportunity and cleft hisskull with my cutlass at the same instant that I launched out with myleft hand and sent his companion reeling to the deck with a blow plantedfairly between the eyes.

  At this moment young Lindsay came rushing aft, with half a dozen of ourfellows at his heels, to know what was the matter; so, bidding a coupleof the men to securely bind the prisoners, I descended the companionladder, with Lindsay at my heels, to see whether there were any moreFrenchmen to be fought. There were not, however; the close, stuffylittle cabin was empty; so we went on deck again, and, leaving two mento keep watch and ward at the after end of the ship, went forward, whereI personally superintended the operation of effectually securing thecrew, who we afterwards passed down into the hold. The cook, however,we left free, and, being ravenously hungry, gave him orders to at oncelight the galley fire and cook us the best meal the ship could afford,all hands taking the keen edge off our appetites, meanwhile, by munchingsome excellent biscuits that Lindsay discovered snugly stored away inthe pantry. Our next care was to hoist in the gig that had served us sowell; and, this done, we settled down to wait for our dinner and thebreeze that promised to come ere long.