The Ghost Ship Part 23

"'My word, yes,' replied Captain Alphonse. 'We are some ten leagues or so the westward of the islands, but we're bearing up now, as you see, to reach them.'

"'And what time, monsieur,' said the 'marquis,' speaking louder so that some of the other n.i.g.g.e.rs who were on the deck below could hear what he said. 'Do you think it will be possible for us to land? My companions and myself, monsieur, as you can well imagine, are most anxious to get ash.o.r.e as soon as possible, so that we may procure a s.h.i.+p to take us on to Havana.'

"'But, yes, your anxiety is natural enough,' responded poor Captain Alphonse, suspecting nothing from this. 'I hope to approach near enough to Port Saint George to put you ash.o.r.e some time in the afternoon.'

"'_Ohe_, below there!' cried out the Haytian in reply to this, addressing his companions in the waist, who, I noticed, were gradually edging themselves more and more aft. 'Do you hear that, my brave boys?

We are going to land at last. Get the boat ready!'

"This was evidently a signal, for he shouted out the last words in a still higher key than that in which he had been speaking.

"'You need not hurry, my friend!' said the captain, surprised at this order and smiling at the Haytian's impulsiveness, as he thought it.

'There will be plenty of time for lowering the boat when we come in sight of land.'

"'I think differently, monsieur,' rejoined the other, scowling and a.s.suming an arrogant tone for the first time. 'I say the time is _Now_!'

"This he yelled out at the top of his voice.

"Instantly the gang of blacks made a rush at the p.o.o.p on both sides at once, and Captain Alphonse clutched at his revolver, which he had in his pocket, but was unable to get it out in time.

"Mine, however, was in my hand and ready c.o.c.ked."

"Houly Moses!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Garry O'Neil, his Irish blood making him all attention now at the mere mention of fighting. "I hope ye let 'em have it hot, sor!

"Guess I did!" replied Colonel Vereker grimly, dropping unconsciously into his native vernacular, which up to now he had almost seemed to have forgotten from his long residence amongst a Spanish-speaking race. "You may bet your bottom dollar on that, sir! I aimed at that scoundrel the 'marquis,' but he jumped backward in his fright and his foot catching in one of the ringbolts, he tumbled right over the p.o.o.p-rail on to the deck below; the shot I had intended for him dropping the black pilot, his constant companion, and who was invariably behind him. _He_ dropped down as dead as a herring!

"Don Miguel, who luckily had just come up from the saloon, being handy with his revolver from the rough times he had experienced, like myself, in Venezuela, settled another darkie; while little Johnson, the Englishman, caught up a long hand-spike, bigger than himself, and with it knocked down two of the Haytians to his own cheek.

"Madame Boisson, meanwhile, was screaming for her husband, her brave Hercules, to come to the rescue; but the 'brave Hercules' had locked himself in his cabin, as my little Elsie told me afterwards; for fortunately the poor child was not feeling well and I had desired her to remain below during the hot noontide heat of the sun; and, she also said, she could hear him crying and sobbing and calling down imprecations on everybody, including 'my wife' and himself for both being in such a position, Madame Boisson hammering at the door all the time, and, after finding he would not reopen to her appeal for help, apostrophising him as a coward! a pig!

"During this time we were pretty busy on deck, the second mate, Ba.s.seterre, and another French seaman, who was with him in the crossjack yard, having come down from aloft to our a.s.sistance. Captain Alphonse got his revolver out, when he and Don Miguel and I giving them a volley altogether, and the others supporting us with what weapons they had, we rushed the rascals off the p.o.o.p quicker than they came up, the lot returning to the forecastle along with the 'marquis,' who, I was very glad to see, had cut his face considerably by his tumble.

"Captain Alphonse thereupon, seeing the coast clear, sang out for Housi, his second officer, and the boatswain, who he thought were away forward, to come up aft and join us, so that we might all be together, but instead of these men, Cato, my own black servant ran up the p.o.o.p-ladder and told us in much trepidation that Monsieur Housi, with the boatswain Rigault and one of the French sailors, were imprisoned in the forepeak, while the two white sailors and the steward were hard and fast in the main hold, whither they had descended to get some provisions, the mutineers slipping on the hatchway cover over them, on the 'marquis,'

that devil, giving the signal!"

"Ah, my poor fellows!" cried Captain Alphonse. "That, then, means there are only ourselves left. Good heavens! What shall we do?"

"Why, hoist a signal of distress," I suggested at once. "We are near Bermuda, on the cruising ground of the English men-of-war; and as these scoundrels have no friends or a.s.sistance, I daresay we'll be able to hold out here until some vessel bears up to our aid!"

"'Good, my friend,' replied Captain Alphonse, who with Ba.s.seterre, the second mate, and Don Miguel, remained to keep guard with their revolvers, both seated on top of the skylight hatchway, which commanded the approaches to the p.o.o.p by way of the ladders, while I, with the last of the white sailors, ran aft. Then I called out, 'Hoist the French flag!'

"I knew that the locker with the flags was in the wheel-house, close to the taffrail, and there being no one to interfere with us, the negro who had been attending the helm having bolted the moment I pulled out my revolver at the first alarm, the traitor flying to join the other mutineers, my sailor and I soon ferretted out an old ensign, the Tricolour; when, binding it on to the signal halliards, we hoisted it about half-way up the peak of our spanker, whence it could best be seen by a pa.s.sing s.h.i.+p."

"Did you know what that signal meant, colonel?" said Captain Applegarth in an inquiring tone, "that you had a death aboard, eh?"

"Si, senor. Oh yes, of course," repeated the colonel, correcting himself almost as soon as he spoke for his lapse again into the Spanish tongue. "There were half a dozen dead Haytians there, whom, by the way, Captain Alphonse and I presently pitched over the side! But, beyond that, sir, I believe all sailors regard a flag hoisted in that way, 'half-mast high,' as it is termed, to be a signal of distress!

"Without doubt, sir," answered the skipper. "I was only testing your nautical experience, that's all!"

"I am glad then, I did not make a blunder about it, as I thought I had done from your question," returned Colonel Vereker, quite seriously, not noticing that the skipper was only poking fun at him in his way and did not mean anything beyond a bit of chaff. "Well, sir, after hoisting the flag the French sailor and I seized the opportunity to lash the helm amids.h.i.+ps so as to keep the _Saint Pierre_ on her course, for we could not spare him to do the steering, and Captain Alphonse and Don Miguel, with the plucky little Englishman and myself, had all our work to do watching the mutineers with our revolvers!

"After a time, as the rascals kept pretty quiet in their part of the s.h.i.+p, and as my poor little daughter Elsie had been a long time now shut up below, I thought she might come up on the p.o.o.p to get a breath of fresh air while it was still light; there being no fear of the blacks a.s.sailing us again so long as they knew we could see to shoot straight and had our weapons handy!

"So I sent Cato down to fetch her on deck, and she came up the next moment, all full of curiosity and alarm, as you may imagine, the little one wanting to know what had occurred; for the reports of my revolver and the subsequent stillness had occasioned her great fright, Madame Boisson and her husband, the 'brave Hercules,' being but poor comforters.

"All at once, while I was explaining to her about the flag, telling her that we had hoisted it in order to summon any pa.s.sing s.h.i.+p to our a.s.sistance, she suddenly went to the side and looked over the bulwarks towards the north.

"The next moment she gave vent to a cry of joy.

"'Oh, my father,' she suddenly exclaimed. 'You have only just hoisted the flag in time. There's a big steamer! Look, look! there it is, and coming up to help us!'

"'Where? where? Where is it? I cannot see it. Nonsense, Elsie; you are dreaming, my child!' I said, looking out eagerly to where she pointed, but could see nothing. 'There's no s.h.i.+p there, little one!'

and I felt angry at the false alarm.

"'But, my father, you are wrong,' still insisted the child, as positive as you please. 'I can see the vessel there in the distance quite plainly. See how the black smoke comes puffing out of the chimneys.'

"I laughed at this.

"'Little darling,' said I, 'there was no s.h.i.+p, and there are no "chimneys" on board s.h.i.+ps at sea. Sailors call them funnels, my dearest one.'

"She pretended to pout on my thus catching her tripping in her talk.

"'Well, my father,' said she, with a shrug of her shoulders, as is her habit sometimes, 'I may be wrong about the chimneys, but I am not wrong about seeing a s.h.i.+p. Why, my father, there she is now, coming closer and closer, and quite near; so near that I can see--yes, I can see--I am quite sure--a big boy there. Look, look, father, dear! There he is in front of the smoke. He has quite a pleasant face.'

"Elsie turned in my direction as she spoke, and, though I was still gazing all the while, I could see nothing, and I was vexed, very vexed with my little girl for her persistency in the matter.

"'Why, it has gone--quite disappeared!' she cried out the instant after, on rus.h.i.+ng to the side and looking over. 'What does it mean? Why did she not come and help if she saw the flag?'

"'You have dreamt it, little one,' I replied shortly, as I had done before. 'It's a freak of the imagination, and you fancied it, you funny little woman.'

"But it was a curious incident, though, sir, was it not, at such a time, with our hearts all full of expectancy and hope?"

Captain Applegarth was greatly excited by the narrative, and so, it may readily be believed, was I.

He asked abruptly, "When did this happen? Tell me, colonel, at once.

It is strange--very so!"

The other looked up with surprise, while Mr Stokes stared at him with wonder, and the Irishman opened his big blue eyes wide to the full.

"I have already told you, sir," replied Colonel Vereker very quickly.

"As I told you before, it was the seventh of November--last Friday."

"Yes; but I mean what time of the day, sir?"

"Oh, I should think about five o'clock in the afternoon. Perhaps a little later, as the sun was going down, I recollect, at the time."

I could not restrain my astonishment at this.

"It must be the very s.h.i.+p I saw!" I thought to myself.