Will Weatherhelm Part 32

"At last, in the March of the next year, when some fifty leagues or more off Brest, we made out a French frigate insh.o.r.e of us. Instead of standing bravely out to fight the saucy _Arethusa_, she squared away her yards and ran for that port. We made all sail in chase, hoping to come up with her before she could get into harbour. We were gaining on her, and were expecting that we should have another fight like that with the _Belle Poule_, when, as we came in sight of the outer roads of Brest, what should we see but a thumping seventy-four, which, guessing what we were, slipping her cable, stood out under all sail to catch us.

"We might have tackled the seventy-four alone, with a good breeze; but we well knew that if we did not up stick and cut, we should either be knocked to pieces or be sent to the bottom; so our captain, as in duty bound, ordered us to brace up the yards and try to make the best of our way out of danger. We might have done so had there been a strong breeze blowing, but we could not beat the s.h.i.+p off sh.o.r.e as fast as we wanted.

"Night came down upon us, and a very dark night it was. We could not see the land, but we knew it was under our lee, when presently thump goes the s.h.i.+p ash.o.r.e. Our captain did his best to get her off, but all our attempts were of no use. The saucy _Arethusa_ was hard and fast on the rocks.

"The word was given to lower the boats. I was one of the first cutter's crew. We had got her into the water, and the master, as good a seaman as ever stepped, came with us, and two young mids.h.i.+pmites.

"'We'll not be made prisoners if we can help it, lads,' said the master.

'Here, lower down these two casks of bread, and this breaker of water.'

"We had no time to get more, and we hoped the other boats would follow our example, but they would have to be sharp about it. We got round from under the lee of the s.h.i.+p, against which the surf was already breaking heavily, and pulled away to the windward out to sea. You may be sure we pulled as men do who are pulling for their lives and liberty.

If we had been a minute later, we shouldn't have done it. No other boats that we could see followed us. Next morning we were twenty miles off sh.o.r.e.

"We felt very downcast at the thoughts that we had lost our little frigate, but were thankful to have got away from a French prison. We learned afterwards that the captain, fearing for the lives of his people, sent the other boats at once to the sh.o.r.e, and establis.h.i.+ng a communication, managed to land the whole crew, who were forthwith made prisoners. It was fortunate that we had the biscuit and water, or we should have been starved to death; for it was a week or more before we fell in with an English homeward-bound West Indiaman, when we had not a gill of liquid left, and not a biscuit a-piece. I learned the value of water at that time, but I have always held to the opinion that a little good rum mixed with it adds greatly to its taste," and Jerry winked at my uncle with one eye, and with the other looked at his tumbler, which was empty.

Uncle Kelson mixed him another gla.s.s.

"Ladies both," he said, looking round at my aunt and Margaret, "here's to your health, and may Will be with you a free man before many months are over. Maybe you haven't heard of the ghost we had on board the old _Cornwall_, some years before the time I am speaking of? If you haven't, I'll tell you about it. Did you ever have a ghost aboard any s.h.i.+p you sailed in, cap'en? Maybe not. They don't seem to show themselves now-a-days, as they used to do.

"d.i.c.k Carca.s.s was the boatswain of the old _Cornwall_ when I served aboard her. He was a tall spare man with high shoulders and a peculiar walk, so that it was impossible to mistake him meet him where you might.

He was also a prime seaman, and had a mouth that could whistle the winds out of conceit. If he did use a rope's-end on the backs of the boys sometimes, it was all for their own good. We were bound out one winter time to Halifax, Nova Scotia. It isn't the pleasantest time of the year to be sailing across the North Atlantic. We had had a pretty long pa.s.sage, with westerly gales, which kept all hands employed. The boatswain was seldom off deck, and a rough life he had of it.

"At last, what with the hard work he had to do, and having been in hospital too before we sailed, he fell sick, and one night the doctor came out of his cabin and told us he was dead. Now our captain was a kind-hearted man; and as he expected to be in port in two or three days, instead of sewing the boatswain up in a hammock and lowering him overboard, he gave notice that he should keep him to give him decent Christian burial on sh.o.r.e, and let the parson pray over him, for, d'ye see, we had none aboard. To pay him every respect, a sentry was placed at the door of his cabin in the c.o.c.kpit. He had been dead three or four days, and we had expected to get into port in two or three at the furthest; so as the wind continued foul, and might hold in the same quarter a week longer, the captain, thinking the bo'sun wouldn't keep much longer, at last determined to have him buried the next morning.

That night I had just gone below, and was pa.s.sing close to the sentry, when he asked me if I couldn't make his lantern burn brighter. He was a chum of mine, d'ye see. I took it down from the hook where it was hanging, and was trying to snuff it, when all of a sudden the door of Mr Carca.s.s's cabin opened with a bang like a clap of thunder, and, as I'm a living man, I heard the bo'sun's voice, for you may be sure I knew it well, shout out:--

"'Sentry, give us a light, will ye!'

"Somehow or other--maybe I nipped the wick too hard--the candle went out, and down fell the lantern. I did not stop to pick it up, nor did the sentry who got the start of me, and off we set, scampering away like rats with a terrier at their tails, till we gained the upper step of the c.o.c.kpit ladder. We then stopped and listened. There were steps thundering along the deck. They came to the very foot of the ladder.

Presently we heard something mounting them slowly. The sentry moved on.

So did I, but looking round I saw as surely as I sit here, the head of old d.i.c.k Carca.s.s's ghost rising slowly above the deck.

"We did not stop to see more of him, but walked away for'ard. Again we stopped, when there he was, standing on the deck--eight feet high he looked at least--rubbing his eyes, which glared out at us like b.a.l.l.s of fire.

"We made for the fore-ladder, and there thought to get out of its way by moving aft as fast as our legs could carry us. Presently, as I looked over my shoulder, I saw the ghost come up the ladder on to the forecastle. The men there saw him too, for they scuttled away on either side, and left him to walk alone. For five minutes or more he kept pacing up and down the deck, just as he was accustomed to do when he was alive. By this time the men were crowding aft, the sentry among them, when the lieutenant of the watch, thinking maybe there was going to be a mutiny, or something of that sort, sings out and axes what we were about.

"'Sir,' answers the sentry, who was bold enough now; 'there's the ghost of Mr Carca.s.s a walking the fo'c'stle.'

"'The ghost of Mr Carca.s.s be hanged! he is quiet enough in his cabin, poor man. What are all you fools thinking about?' says the lieutenant.

'Be off for'ard with you.'

"'He is there, sir! he is there! It is the bo'sun's ghost,' we all sung out, one after the other, none of us feeling inclined to go near him.

"'Blockheads!' cried the lieutenant, beginning to get angry.

"'It is him, sir; it is him,' cried others. 'He's got on the hat and monkey jacket he always wears.'

"The lieutenant now became very angry, and ordering us out of the way, boldly steps forward. When, however, he gets abreast of the barge, he stops, for there he sees as clearly as we did the bo'sun's tall figure pacing the deck, with his hands behind his back, looking for all the world just as he had done when he was alive.

"Now the lieutenant was as brave a man as ever stepped, but he did not like it, that was clear; still he felt that go on he must, and so on he went until he got up to the foremast, and then he sings out slowly, as if his words did not come up readily to his mouth:--

"'Mr Car-car-car-ca.s.s, is that you?'

"'Sir!' said the ghost, turning round and coming aft.

"'Mr Car-car-car-ca.s.s, is that you?' again sings out the lieutenant.

"'Sir!' answers the boatswain, and he came nearer.

"The lieutenant stepped back, so did we, all the whole watch tumbling over on each other. Still facing for'ard, the gallant lieutenant kept retreating, and the ghost kept coming on slowly, as ghosts always do, I'm told, though I can't say as I've had much experience with those sort of gentry. At last the ghost sings out:--

"'Pardon me, Mr Pringle, what's the matter? have all the people gone mad?'

"'Who are you?' asked the lieutenant.

"'I am Richard Carca.s.s, bo'sun of this here s.h.i.+p, to the best of my knowledge, and was never anybody else, sir.'

"'What! ain't you dead?' says the lieutenant.

"'Not that I knows on,' answers the ghost. 'I was alive when it struck eight bells in the middle watch, and its now only just gone two. I take it it is the morning watch, for I heard it strike just before that stupid sentry put out his light, and for some reason or other I couldn't make out, took to his heels.'

"'Why, the doctor said you were dead,' says the lieutenant.

"'The doctor, then, doesn't know a dead bo'sun from a live one,'

answered Mr Carca.s.s.

"'Well, I wish you'd let him see you, and hear what he's got to say on the subject;' and he ordered the mids.h.i.+pman of the watch to call the doctor, who came on deck, grumbling not a little at being roused out from his berth. When he saw the bo'sun he seemed mighty pleased, and taking him by the hand told us all that he was as alive as ever he was, and advised him to turn in again and get some sleep, as the night was cold, and he was on the sick list.

"Well, ladies, that was the only ghost I ever saw. He was not dead either, but had been in a sort of trance, and when he heard two bells strike, not knowing how many days had pa.s.sed since he had gone to sleep, he called for a light, but not getting it, he dressed in the dark and came on deck, thinking he ought to be there."

Jerry spun other yarns before he took his leave. He was once, he declared, on board a trader bound out from Ireland to the West Indies with b.u.t.ter and cheese, "The _Jane and Mary_, that was her name," he continued. "We were off the coast of Saint Domingo, almost becalmed, when we made out a couple of suspicious--looking craft sweeping off towards us. That they were pirates we had no doubt. At that time those sort of gentry used to cut the throats of every man on board if there was the slightest resistance.

"Our skipper, Captain Dillon, was a determined fellow, and had proved himself a good seaman during the pa.s.sage.

"'Lads,' he sang out, 'do you wish to be taken and hove overboard to feed the sharks, or will you try to save the s.h.i.+p if those scoundrels come up to us? I'll promise you we'll beat them if they venture aboard.'

"We all answered that we were ready to stick by him, for I believe there was not one of us that did not think we should be dead men before the day was an hour older. The mates promised also to fight to the last.

"'Be smart then, my lads, get up some of the cargo from the hold.' We soon had a dozen b.u.t.ter casks hoisted up, knocked in their ends, and payed the decks, and sides, and ropes, and every part of the s.h.i.+p over with the b.u.t.ter. We chucked our shoes below, and got the cutla.s.ses, boarding pikes, and pistols ready. In a few minutes the deck was so slippery, that a man, unless without his shoes, could not stand upon it.

We were all ready, with our cutla.s.ses at our sides and the pikes handy, to give the scoundrels a warm reception. Meantime the _Jane and Mary_ did her best, as far as the breeze would help her, to keep moving through the water.

"The pirates crept up, and kept firing away at us, one on one quarter and one on the other.

"We answered them with the few guns we carried, though each of them had nearly twice as many as we had, while their decks were crowded with men.

Presently they ranged up alongside, and both boarded together, a score or more villainous-looking rascals leaping down on our decks, expecting to gain an easy victory; but they never made a greater mistake in their lives, and it was the last most of them had the chance of making. The moment their feet touched our deck, over they fell flat on their faces, while we with our cutla.s.ses, rus.h.i.+ng in among them, killed every mother's son of their number. Others following, shouting, shrieking, and swearing, met the same fate; when the rest of the pirates, seeing what was happening, though not knowing the cause, but fancying, I suppose, that we had bewitched them, sheered off, and the breeze freshening we stood away, leaving the two feluccas far astern. Forty men lay dead on our decks, and not one of us was hurt.

"'Heave the carcases overboard, and swab up the decks,' cried our skipper, as coolly as if nothing had happened.

"We had a pretty job to clean the s.h.i.+p afterwards, but we didn't mind the trouble, seeing that we had saved our lives, and the skipper was well content to lose the dozen casks of batter which had served us so good a turn.