Salt Water Part 10

The smugglers were compelled, with a very bad grace, to go below; the wherry was dropped astern, and the cutter stood back over the ground we had before crossed. Before eight-bells we had picked up fifty tubs of brandy. As plenty of our people could swear that they saw a number of tubs thrown overboard from the wherry, there was no doubt of her being condemned. When our prisoners perceived that their escape was impossible, they seemed to screw themselves up to bear their reverses like brave men. Though somewhat down in the mouth, they apparently felt no ill-will, but were obedient and respectful. Luck was against them.

They had tried to smuggle, and we, as in duty bound, had stopped them.

The worst they had to expect was a few months' residence in Winchester gaol. My uncle had each of them down separately in his cabin, to try and obtain any information they might be inclined to give, especially about Myers, whom he was most anxious to get hold of. From one of them he learned that a large lugger was to run across the following night but one, from Cherbourg; and he resolved to intercept her. A course was immediately shaped for that port. He had explained his plan to Hanks, who was to take the wherry with four hands and to keep a bright look-out for the lugger, and to board her if he met her, as soon as she was half-way across Channel. I obtained leave to accompany him, for though I could not be expected to do much while blows were being given and taken, I was considered a good hand at steering; and my uncle was glad to let me see as much service as possible, holding the opinion that in that way only could I become a good practical officer.

When we had got about mid Channel between Saint Catharine's and Cherbourg, the cutter was hove-to and the wherry hauled up alongside.

"Success attend you," said my uncle, as Hanks and I stepped into the wherry. "Mind, Mr Hanks, keep a sharp look-out for the lugger; but do not let anything else with a smuggling air about her escape unexamined."

"Ay, ay, sir," answered Hanks, as we sh.o.r.ed off. "I hope to get hold of the lugger, and Myers in her."

We had in the boat provisions for four or five days; cloaks, blankets, a compa.s.s, and lantern; with three muskets, and pistols and cutla.s.ses for each person. Our directions were to cruise about for three days, should the weather remain moderate, and then to rejoin the cutter off the Needles. We started away with a light breeze and a smooth sea, and stood for a short way towards Cherbourg, while the cutter returned over part of the course she had come. The weather was very pleasant, and the sunbeams sparkled cheerily on the rippling wavelets caused by the meeting of the tide and wind, as we ran through the water at the rate of some five or six knots an hour. Hanks lighted his favourite short black pipe, such as in Ireland we should call a "dodeen." He never indulged in a cigar, except one was given him. While he leaned back, with his legs stretched along the seats, I steered. I used to think it very hard that he would never let me smoke, but I have since been much obliged to him.

"This is what I call comfort, Neil," said he. "One of the smooths of life; but it won't last, so let us enjoy it while we can. Before long we may be getting broken heads, with a gale of wind into the bargain."

So he smoked his pipe, took ever and anon a sip from the rum-bottle, sang a s.n.a.t.c.h from a song, and joked and talked away till the sun began to hasten his descent into the ocean. We were all the time keeping a look-out for any suspicious craft.

At last the sails of a lugger appeared against the evening sky as she got clear of the land. We made sure it was the vessel we were in search of, and prepared for action.

"D'Arcy, do you stay at the helm, and keep the wherry alongside, while the rest of us jump aboard," said Hanks. "Stretcher, you must knock down the fellow at the helm; I'll grapple with the skipper, if they show fight."

On came the lugger. I thought it very unlikely if Myers was on board, from his well-known character, that he would fail to show fight; indeed, it seemed much more probable that he would do his best to knock us all on the head, and heave us overboard again, should we manage to set foot on his deck. However, I said nothing, and felt just as eager for the fray as if such an idea had not crossed my mind.

Hanks had been taking a steady look at the lugger through his spy-gla.s.s.

"Well!" he exclaimed, "hang me if I don't think, after all, that she's one of those French _cha.s.se marees_. Our lugger hasn't yet come out."

"D'ye think, sir, that they chaps was deceiving of us?" said Jack.

"They be up to all sorts of dodges."

"Oh, hang it, no; I hope not," answered Hanks, with considerable doubt, notwithstanding, in his tone. "The Commander cross-questioned them a great deal too close for them to deceive us. We shall see the right craft by-and-by."

We were soon convinced, however, that the lugger in sight was a _cha.s.se maree_. She hauled her wind, and stood along sh.o.r.e. Had she observed us she would probably have had no little suspicion of our business out there.

After watching for the lugger to no purpose for three hours or more, the moon rose out of the dark water, and gave us a wider range of vision.

Hour after hour pa.s.sed away, and still she did not appear. We began at last to be afraid either that the smugglers had deceived us, or that she had slipped out and pa.s.sed us un.o.bserved. As our blockade might be somewhat long, Hanks divided the crew into watches; he taking command of one, and I of the other. When it was my turn to sleep, I rested as soundly as I usually did in my own berth, though I dreamed that I had caught sight of Myers, and that I was chasing him round and round the world with a pair of ten-league boots on my legs. How he kept ahead of me I could not tell. Hanks awoke me to take some breakfast, and then let me go to sleep again, for I was so drowsy that I could not keep my eyes open. While I was still more asleep than awake, I heard Jack's voice exclaim--

"That's her, sir, I'll take my davy."

"Yes, that's her, and no mistake, this time," added Hanks.

I was on my feet in a moment, and looking towards the French coast, I saw a lugger about two miles off, running down to us. All hands were on the alert, and every preparation was made to ensure the success of our enterprise. We hauled our wind, and steered a course so as to intercept her, without, if possible, exciting the suspicion of the smugglers till we were alongside. As the sea was perfectly smooth and the wind light, we should have no difficulty in getting on board. Hanks, Jack, and I alone showed ourselves; the rest were ordered to lie down in the bottom of the boat. The lugger, we could see, was heavily laden, and her general appearance betokened her to be French.

"Remember, my lads, we shall have to give and take some hard blows; but sharp's the word, and she'll be ours before her people know what we are after," exclaimed Hanks, in an inspiriting tone. It was an exciting moment. As we drew near, we could count some twelve men or more on her deck. We were by this time well over on the British half of the Channel.

"Keep her away a little, D'Arcy," said Hanks. The smugglers had been watching us without apparently suspecting our intentions. "Now, hard up!--ease off the mainsheet!--hook on!--follow me, my lads!"

As Hanks uttered the last words we had run alongside. The next moment he leaped over the bulwarks of the lugger on to her deck, and grappling with her captain, a Frenchman, tripped him up. Jack at the same time knocked down the man at the helm with a boat's stretcher. There was a mighty deal of jabbering and swearing in French, and some round oaths uttered in English, when, as Hanks was working his way forward, some of the crew, plucking courage, made a rush, and, seizing him, bore him overboard, fortunately on the larboard side, on the same which the wherry was: small thanks to the smugglers on that account. We were going through the water, it must be remembered, though not very quick.

Hanks made a desperate attempt to clamber on board again by the lugger's forechains, but missed his aim; then, giving a glance of defiance at the rascals, he kept himself afloat while he sung out, "Hillo, D'Arcy, lend me a hand here!"

Directly I saw what had happened I seized an oar, and thrust it out towards him. He grasped it as we pa.s.sed by, and quickly clambered into the wherry. The moment after, with the stretcher, which he had never let out of his grasp, he was again on the lugger's deck, belabouring both right and left those of the crew who still resisted. As none of the smugglers had seen him get out of the water, they were completely taken by surprise, and without striking another blow, sung out for quarter.

"You don't deserve it, you blackguards, for daring to resist a king's officer in the execution of his duty," cried Hanks, flouris.h.i.+ng his stretcher. "But, forward with you, there, and don't move till I give you leave." The Frenchmen did not understand him, but the English smugglers did, and his action showed what he desired. The crew were soon penned up in the fore part of the vessel, with the exception of the captain and the man Jack had knocked down, who were sitting on deck rubbing their eyes, hardly yet recovered. Scarcely three minutes had pa.s.sed since we ran alongside, and the lugger was ours. I was still in the boat, waiting for orders.

"Come on board, D'Arcy," said Hanks at length, looking over the side.

"We'll lower the wherry's sails, and tow her astern."

I gladly jumped out of her when we had stowed her canvas and made fast the painter. Our prize turned out to be a valuable one, for she had not only spirits, but silk and lace on board. Her papers clearly proved also that these goods were intended to be smuggled, so I remember Hanks saying; but how that was I did not trouble myself, nor do I to this day know. The smugglers, as well as they might, were certainly sulky; and Hanks, as a gentle hint for them to behave themselves, stationed a man with a double-barrelled pistol in his hand close to them, while they stood huddled together on the little forecastle. I took the helm, while the sails were trimmed and a course shaped for the Needles. In a short time a breeze sprang up, and we spanked along at a furious rate. The French skipper had now recovered, and getting on his legs, with a polite bow, expressed a hope, in tolerable English, that we would make ourselves at home on board his vessel.

"No fear of that, monsieur," answered Hanks. "Cool, is he not, D'Arcy?"

"You no have taken dinner, sare," continued the skipper. "I will tell de cook to make dinner ready."

"Not a bad idea, monsieur," said Hanks. "Which of you chaps is cook?"

The Frenchman pointed to the fellow whose head Jack had nearly broken.

He spoke a few words to him, and the man--having got up and stretched himself to ascertain, I suppose, that no bones were broken--dived below, and presently returned with a white cap and ap.r.o.n, and several pans and dishes, and began busying himself in the mysteries of his art. Again he dived, the fire in the forepeak burned up brightly, and savory smells began to ascend therefrom. In about an hour the skipper, with another bow, invited us into his little well-like cabin aft, where a collation, such as an epicure might envy, was placed before us. What were its component parts I did not inquire. They may have been cats and frogs, but neither Hanks nor I were in any way particular, and no dreadful surmises crossed my mind. An Englishman would have broached a keg of brandy, but our friend, Monsieur Didot, placed a bottle of fine-flavoured claret and a variety of first-rate liqueurs before us, not that either Hanks or I was well able to appreciate the former.

"Come, monsieur, hand us out a bottle of some real stuff or other; I'm not fond of your pink vinegars," exclaimed Hanks, as he tossed off a tumbler of the claret. "This isn't bad for was.h.i.+ng the dust out of a fellow's throat on a hot day, but there's no life-blood in it."

The skipper, with a twinkle of his eyes which betokened mischief, though unfortunately Hanks did not perceive it, produced a large square bottle, thick at the top, from which he poured out a gla.s.s of first-rate Scheidam. Hanks smacked his lips as he tasted it.

"Take care, Neil, my child," said he, "you don't swallow much of that stuff; it's too good. I'll just smack at another gla.s.s, and then we'll go on deck out of the way of temptation."

The Frenchman looked mightily disappointed when he saw that Hanks was not so easily taken in as he doubtless expected he would be. I happened to look round as we left the cabin, and saw him shrugging his shoulders and making hideous grimaces, and no very complimentary gestures at us.

Before this little incident I had thought him the pink of politeness.

He wore love-locks and rings in his ears, and was dressed with the most accurate French nautical precision; in fact he looked thoroughly unlike an English seaman. In his manners he was a very mild man, and certainly he had nothing of the ruffian about him. I cannot say as much for his crew, some of whom were very ill-looking dogs. It would have been wiser in Hanks to have handcuffed them all, including the skipper and cook (though we should thereby have gone without a good dinner), and stationed a sentry with a loaded musket over them, with orders to shoot the first who should attempt to escape.

The French skipper, when he found that his plan to obfuscate the brains of the knowing old Hanks had totally failed, went and sat himself down forward among his people, apparently in a fit of the sulks.

Hanks, who was in high spirits at the success of our enterprise, walked the deck with me, looking out for the high land of the Isle of Wight above the Needle rocks, which we were approaching. The breeze had increased and kicked up a little sea, and we were running fast through the water.

"D'Arcy, my boy, this is a fine haul, isn't it?" exclaimed my superior, rubbing his hands. "Credit and prize-money together. Both good things.

When I was a youngster I thought something about the first; but now, do you see, Mrs Hanks and I have a fancy for t'other. It keeps the pot boiling, do ye see? I should think your uncle, by this time, was much of my way of thinking, though he's a round number of years younger than I am."

"I'm not so sure of that," said I. "My uncle thinks a good deal of gaining honour, and I believe he'd rather take an enemy's frigate after a hard-fought action, than capture a Spanish galleon without a blow."

"Well, it's the proper spirit," said Hanks, with a sigh. "The revenue service don't nourish it much, though. Take my advice; get out of it as soon as you can; or," he continued with much feeling, "it will spoil you otherwise, depend on it."

We continued walking the deck for some time longer. We then sat down to rest, watching the coast, from which we were about three miles distant.

Jack was at the helm, and the rest of our people were giving a hand to the sheets, as the wind had veered a little to the westward.

The smugglers were seemingly fast asleep, with the exception of the skipper, who had lighted a cigar to console himself under his mishap.

CHAPTER TEN.

THE TABLES TURNED--CONSOLE MYSELF WITH THE FIDDLE--SET THE FRENCHMEN DANCING--CAPTAIN DIDOT--MY PLACE OF IMPRISONMENT--ESCAPE--GREATER DANGER--FRIGHTEN MY FRIENDS.