The Voyage of the Aurora Part 13

The question was promptly answered by the appearance of cookie himself, his sable visage beaming and his eyeb.a.l.l.s rolling with delight as he danced nimbly about the deck, dodging the strokes of that terrible tail, with his gleaming axe upraised in readiness to deal a blow at the first opportunity. At length there was a momentary pause in the tremendous struggles, a pause of which s...o...b..ll (all black cooks who go to sea seem to be dubbed "s...o...b..ll") promptly availed himself. A quick flash of his axe-blade in the sun, a dull crunching thud, and the back-bone was severed at the junction of the tail with the body; a lightning-like stroke of his long keen knife followed, and the severed tail was flung quivering aside as a long thin jet of blood spouted out from the body, broadly staining the snow-white deck-planks.

But the shark had plenty of fight left in him still, as one of the men speedily discovered when, on thrusting a handspike into the great jaws, the strong, stout wooden bar was promptly bitten in two.

"Here, lay hold, two or three of you, and capsize him," ordered Ritson; "we must make an end of the beast, or some of yer'll get hurted yet, I can see. Now then," as three of the men seized the shark by his enormous fins, "one, two, three, and over with him!"

With a cry of "Yo, heave he!" and a hearty drag the great fish was turned over on his back; and then s...o...b..ll, stepping forward once more, placed himself astride the creature and, with a quick, powerful stroke of his knife, slit open its belly, and so put an end to its sufferings.

But so tenacious of life was it that even after the removal of the vital organs the heart was seen to be still expanding and contracting, which it continued to do for fully five minutes after being taken out of the fish. The head was next cut off and the back-bone removed for preservation as "curios," after which the mutilated carca.s.s was thrown overboard and the decks washed down.

Ritson did not wait for the completion of this operation, but, leaving its superintendence to Mr Bowen (who, like the rest of the watch below, had come on deck to see what was the cause of the unusual tumult), retired once more with the telescope to his former post in the main-topmast cross-trees, and resumed his scrutiny of the strange schooner.

George noticed this, and vaguely wondering what had so greatly excited his second mate's curiosity, glanced in the direction to which the telescope was pointing, to find to his surprise that the upper half of the stranger's topsail was visible from the deck.

"Why, Ritson," he hailed, "the schooner must have a little air of wind, surely; she is nearing us perceptibly."

Ritson, entirely contrary to nautical etiquette, made no reply to the skipper's hail, but remained with his eye immovably glued to the tube for a full minute longer, when he gently closed the instrument and descended slowly to the deck.

Arrived there, he walked up to Captain Leicester, and first glancing cautiously round to make sure that no one was within ear-shot, murmured in a low voice--

"She's heading as straight for us as she can steer, sir, _with six sweeps out_--_three of a side_. That means, sir, that her skipper wants so badly to get alongside of us, that he's noways particular about the trouble he takes to bring him here."

George gave a low involuntary whistle of astonishment.

"That is queer news indeed," he remarked after a contemplative pause.

"And you think then, Ritson, that the craft is a--"

"A rover, sir; neither more nor less," answered the second mate. "She ain't French, I'm certain; she ain't got the look of it; besides, the Johnnies wouldn't ventur so far as this in a craft of that size--why she ain't more than about a hundred and twenty tons at the very outside.

No; she's a rover, that's what _she_ is; a craft with a low beamy hull painted all black, tremendous long spars, and canvas with just no end of a h'ist to it."

"Give me the gla.s.s," said George; "I'll go as far as the cross-trees and take a look at her myself."

The second mate handed over the telescope, and the skipper, proceeding aloft, soon saw quite enough to satisfy him that Ritson's conjectures as to the character and intentions of the schooner were only too likely to prove correct.

Descending once more to the deck, he held a hurried consultation with his two officers, the result of which was a determination to fight to the last gasp, if the crew were only willing to stand by them. It would be necessary to ascertain their feeling upon the subject before anything could be done; so, it being then within a quarter of an hour of noon, George and the chief mate went below for their quadrants, took the sun's meridian alt.i.tude, and, on the bell being struck to denote the hour of noon and the termination of the morning watch, Captain Leicester gave the word for all hands to muster aft.

"My lads," said George, when the men were all standing before him in obedience to his summons, "I have called you here in order that I may communicate to you a very disagreeable piece of intelligence. Briefly, it is this. The strange schooner yonder is a very suspicious-looking craft; Mr Ritson and I, who have both carefully examined her through the gla.s.s, are quite of the same opinion about her, namely, that she is _a pirate_. She has all the look of one; and her conduct tends greatly to confirm us in our suspicions, for she has rigged out half a dozen sweeps and is sweeping as straight down for us as she can come. Now, lads, I want to know what you propose to do in the event of our suspicions proving correct. Will you allow her to come alongside and throw her bloodthirsty crew in on our deck to cut our throats as if we were so many sheep! Or will you fight for your lives, and take your chance of being able to beat her off?"

There was a few minutes of anxious consultation among the men; and then Ned stepped forward as spokesman of the party, and asked--

"What would you advise us to do, sir? What do you think of doin'

yourself, sir, if we may make so bold as to axe?"

"Mr Bowen, Mr Ritson, and I have resolved to fight as long as we can raise a hand in self-defence," answered George; "and my advice to you is to do the same. Alone, we three men cannot hope to do much; but with your aid I certainly should not despair of beating off yonder schooner, even though she be full of men. And if the worst comes to the worst and we find that we _must_ die, it will be far better to do so with swords in our hands, than to be slaughtered in cold blood."

"Yes, yes; that's true; none o' that for me, thank'ee," and sundry other exclamations of concurrence followed the conclusion of the skipper's speech; then came another very brief consultation; and finally Ned once more stepped forward and said--

"We've agreed, sir, as you're in the rights of it about the fightin'; and we're quite ready to stand by yer--all hands of us--and do our best."

"Very well," said George. "Then we will lose no time in making ready for our defence. Mr Bowen, we will have up that bra.s.s long nine-pounder which is down below; I provided it for just such an emergency as this."

"Ay, ay, sir," answered the mate, in a cheery tone of voice which spoke volumes as to his confidence in their ability to beat off the pirate, if such the schooner should prove to be. Then, turning to the men, he continued--

"Now then, some of you, whip the tarpaulin off this after hatchway, and lift off the hatches. Mr Ritson, will you be good enough to rouse out a couple of fourfold tackles and get them made fast aloft? We shall require a chain strop also. That's right, lads; off with those hatches; we'll soon have the old barkie in fighting trim."

Inspired by the mate's cheery manner, the men worked with hearty good-will; and in less than an hour they had the long nine-pounder on deck, mounted on its carriage, its tackles hooked on, the gun loaded, cutla.s.ses and pistols distributed, boarding-pikes cast loose, and everything ready for a stubborn resistance.

These preliminaries arranged, George and the chief mate made their way aloft as far as the main-top to watch the approach of the suspected schooner, which had by this time crept up to within about nine miles of the _Aurora_. She was still heading straight for the barque; and the telescope enabled them to see that her six sweeps were being vigorously plied; their long steady swing and the perfect time which was maintained in the working of them conclusively showing that they were being handled by a strong gang of men.

"Why, she must be full of men, or those long, heavy sweeps could never be kept going for so great a length of time," remarked George to the mate. "We shall have to devote all our attention to those sweeps in the first instance, I can see. If we are only fortunate enough to knock away two or three of them, it will at least _delay_ their approach; and if a breeze would only spring up, smart as that schooner looks, I should not despair of being able to show her a clean pair of heels."

"Ay," answered Bowen, "and we're going to have a breeze by-and-by; just the way we wants it, too. I can make out the upper edge of a cloud-bank rising now above the horizon to the east'ard there; and if we can only keep yonder cut-throat crew at arm's length until we get the wind, and if it'll only come down upon us pretty fresh when it _does_ come, I think, as you say, sir, we may give them handsomely the slip."

With the view of getting a still clearer idea as to the possible advent of the desired breeze, Mr Bowen forthwith undertook a journey as far as the main-royal yard, upon which he comfortably established himself, with one arm round the royal-pole, whilst he carefully studied the aspect of the weather, and as carefully scrutinised the horizon to see whether there were any other craft in their immediate neighbourhood. No other sail excepting the schooner, however, was in sight in any direction; and having at length formed a tolerably clear opinion with regard to the weather, he descended again to the main-top, and remarked to George--

"That schooner must be coming up at the rate of about three knots, by the look of her."

"Yes; about that," answered George.

"And she's about eight miles off now, I should say," continued Bowen.

"Yes; about eight miles," returned George, with his eye still peering through the telescope.

"Then," remarked the mate, "it will take her a matter of some two hours and forty minutes, or thereabouts, to get alongside. And by that time, unless I am greatly mistaken, the first of the breeze will have reached us. I hope we shall get it _before_ then; because in light winds I don't doubt but what that craft could sail round and round us; but only let it come strong enough to oblige us to stow our royals, and I'll bet my old hat that we can walk away from her. I'm afraid we sha'n't sc.r.a.pe clear without finding out the weight of the shot she can pitch at us; but if our lads are only steady when the powder-burning begins, I sha'n't feel noways very greatly concerned."

With which summing up of the case Mr Bowen dropped into a sitting posture alongside his commander, and, letting his legs dangle down over the outer edge of the top, filled his pipe, and proceeded to regale himself with what he chose to term "two whiffs and a half."

CHAPTER TWELVE.

A MARINE DUEL--AND ITS RESULT.

The two occupants of the main-top maintained their position therein, keeping a watchful eye upon the movements of the schooner, until that craft had approached to within about three miles of the _Aurora_, when they descended to the deck; Captain Leicester remarking to the mate, as the latter swung himself down off the rail--

"I think, Mr Bowen, we may as well run up our ensign; perhaps the schooner will return the compliment and oblige us with a sight of the colour of her bunting."

"Ay, ay, sir," answered the mate; and he walked aft, got out the ensign, bent it on to the halliards, and ran it up to the mizzen peak, where it hung in drooping folds, swaying listlessly with the sleepy roll of the s.h.i.+p.

For some time there was no response on the part of the schooner, which held steadily on her way straight for the barque, her six long sweeps plying as vigorously as ever, and churning up the gla.s.sy water into a long line of miniature whirlpools, which gradually diminished until they finally subsided on each side of her gleaming wake.

"The breeze, the breeze; here it comes at last, thank G.o.d!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Bowen, who had been for some time anxiously regarding the rising bank of greyish cloud to the eastward. As he spoke, a faint, barely perceptible breath of cool air fanned the faces of the anxious watchers on the deck of the _Aurora_, and was gone again; a "cat's-paw" or two momentarily ruffled the surface of the water here and there, only to leave it as gla.s.sy as before; then came another puff, which lasted just long enough to trail out the ensign for an instant and to rustle the royals; and then away on the extreme verge of the eastern horizon, the gleaming water a.s.sumed a light blue tint, which gradually spread, creeping slowly down towards the two vessels, the blue on the horizon insensibly darkening all the while, and conveying the thrice welcome intelligence that the breeze was slowly but steadily freshening.

"Yes," said George, "here it comes, sure enough; and in a few hours we shall have plenty of it, by the look of the sky. Stand by the braces, lads; let go, and haul the yards round, and be lively about it; we cannot spare the time to be taken aback just now; that's right, men; well there with the fore-braces; well with the main; brail in the mizzen and stow it; haul down the mizzen-topmast staysail. Now she feels the breeze. Hard up with your helm, my man, and let her wear short round.

Let go your lee main-braces and round in to windward--gently now; not too quick; that's well; catch a turn with your after-braces and then square the fore-yard; well with the fore-braces; belay all and coil up.

Ah! I expected that."

The latter exclamation was evoked by the boom of a gun from the schooner; and, turning his eyes in her direction, George saw the white smoke floating lazily away from her to leeward, and then a white jet of water started up as the shot came flying towards the barque, then another--another--and another, and finally a scurrying splash as the iron messenger swept along the surface of the water and sank, falling short by about a hundred yards. At the same moment the heavy sweeps were laid in; the schooner's sails were trimmed as if by magic to the coy breeze; her head paid off; and as she swept gracefully round upon a course which would enable her to intercept the _Aurora_, a tiny ball went soaring aloft to her main-topmast-head and, breaking abroad as it reached the truck, a square _black_ flag fluttered threateningly out, a fit emblem of the character of those who sailed beneath it.

"Not quite close enough, Mr Rover," remarked Bowen, cheerfully, as the shot sank into the placid depths of the ocean, now gently ruffled by the increasing breeze. "Shall we return the compliment, sir?"