Two Gallant Sons of Devon Part 5

Here again Stukely took the lead, being the first to ascend the ladder.

But as he reached the top and peered cautiously over the parapet he was disconcerted at the discovery that here at least the sentinels did not sleep; for the first object that met his gaze was a man standing at the extreme end of the parapet, apparently gazing steadfastly out to sea, while his crossed hands rested upon the muzzle of his grounded matchlock. Luckily for the English, the man's back was turned toward the spot where Stukely stood staring at him. In an instant the latter had made up his mind what to do, and, cautiously climbing in through the embrasure before him, stole noiselessly toward the unconscious man. A few breathless seconds and Stukely had crept close up behind his intended victim; and the next instant, as he knocked the man's hat off with one hand, he dealt him with the other a blow on the head with the heavy b.u.t.t of his pistol, which felled the unfortunate fellow as a butcher fells an ox. Quickly bending over the prostrate body, he now held his unstoppered vial to the man's nostrils for three or four seconds, then rose cautiously to his feet. He could see no other sentinels posted anywhere on the parapet, but pa.s.sed quickly round it in order to make quite sure. Then, finding that only the one sentinel had been posted here, he gave the signal for the rest of the party to ascend; and a few minutes later the scene of a short while before was being re-enacted on the parapet of this much more important structure.

They worked silently but with strenuous haste, for although the heavens as yet gave no sign of the approaching dawn, the sudden comparative coolness of the atmosphere and the twitterings of a few early morning birds told them that it could not now be very far off; indeed they had scarcely finished their preparations when a faint brightening of the eastern horizon told them that a new day was at hand.

"Now, are we all ready?" asked d.i.c.k, as he personally put the last finis.h.i.+ng touches to the preparations. "Then down you all go except the five men who are to help me with the firing of the quick matches. You go last, Phil, and when you are down ignite the portfire which is to be the signal to that man in the battery yonder; I and the five who are remaining with me will see to the rest of the business up here. Now, off you go quickly, for the daylight will be upon us in five minutes."

d.i.c.k watched his friend as the latter slid out through the embrasure and descended the ladder; and when at length Stukely reached the ground and was preparing to ignite the portfire, Chichester sprang back among the five men who were awaiting his word, and whispered "Now!" Instantly the six darted to their respective stations, and each man at once proceeded rapidly, yet with the nicest care, to ignite the five ends of quick match which were his especial care. It was swiftly done, the lighting of the whole occupying less than half a minute; yet before the last five were ignited the still air was heavily charged with the fumes of gunpowder and there was a sound of hissing and sizzling suggestive of a whole army of angry snakes.

"Smartly, men; smartly!" urged d.i.c.k; "the matches are burning much more rapidly than I antic.i.p.ated; and if we are not pretty lively we shall be caught by the first explosions. That's your sort; that will do, Parsons, don't stand there fiddling with that match, it is burning all right. Now, lads, away you go; over with you; I go last."

Thus exhorted they stood not upon the order of their going, but went, Chichester bringing up the rear; and the latter was still in the very act of descending the ladder when six cras.h.i.+ng explosions, occurring almost simultaneously on the parapet above, shattered the early morning stillness, the sounds being instantly followed by a great rush of wings and an outburst of startled screams that issued from the throats of the affrighted birds in the immediate neighbourhood of the castle, who, thus rudely awakened, dashed away in every direction, loudly proclaiming their terror. An answering explosion almost instantly roared out from the battery on the beach; then when half a dozen further explosions on the parapet pealed out, the little party of precipitately retreating Englishmen heard heavy thuds all round them as fragments of the burst ordnance came showering to the ground. And in between the shattering reports of bursting cannon which were now almost continuous they faintly caught the sounds of human outcry as the astounded garrison, awakened by the reports, sprang from their beds and rushed hither and thither in blind panic, each man demanding of every other an explanation of the extraordinary happenings that were taking place overhead. But long before the bravest of the Spaniards had summoned up courage enough to ascend to the parapet, and ascertain for himself the source of those terrific reports and cras.h.i.+ng blows which were causing the castle to tremble to its very foundations, the last of the Englishmen--who happened to be d.i.c.k--had vanished over the brow of the hill and was racing down the steep slope toward the spot where the longboat had been left in hiding, urging those ahead of him to redoubled efforts, lest the Spaniards, rallying from their first surprise and panic, should sally forth and attempt to cut off the fugitives.

The disturbance was all over in less than a minute; the echo of the last explosion died away along the mangrove-bordered sh.o.r.e; the thud of the last falling piece of fractured ordnance, as it crashed through the boughs of the trees, had faintly reached the ears of the flying Englishmen; and the birds were rapidly beginning to persuade themselves that the whole thing had been no more than a peculiarly weird and startling dream, when the whole party--which had been joined on the way by the man from the lower battery--reached the boat and pulled up for a moment to listen and recover their breath. But there was neither sight nor sound of pursuit; and presently, after d.i.c.k had counted his party and found that all were present and perfectly sound, the order was given to get the boat afloat and shove off. This was done in a perfectly quiet and orderly manner; and five minutes later, with the beams of the rising sun brilliantly gilding her sails, the little craft slid down the harbour entrance on her way to seaward, pa.s.sing close under the walls of the beach battery, the bewildered garrison of which had by this time summoned up the courage necessary to enable them to go up on the gun platform, to ascertain precisely what had happened. Most of them were gazing earnestly out to seaward as the longboat slid past, consequently they did not see her until it was too late, when, with loud outcries, they seized their calivers and poured a hot but absolutely ineffective fire after the bold adventurers. Two minutes later the boat swept round the low point which forms the southern extremity of Tierra Bomba Island; and then her occupants saw what it was that had so strongly attracted the attention of the Spaniards; for, scarcely three miles away, they beheld the _Adventure_ beating up toward the Boca Chica under a heavy press of canvas. Bas...o...b..had seen and interpreted aright the explosions in the two batteries on Tierra Bomba, and was now fearlessly working the s.h.i.+p in toward the land, knowing that, the guns in those two batteries having been destroyed, there was now nothing to restrain him from sailing right into Cartagena harbour itself and demanding the restoration of their Captain, safe and sound. And he meant to do it, too!

CHAPTER SIX.

HOW THEY TOOK THE GREAT GALLEON AND A VAST TREASURE.

There was no enthusiasm, no cheering, nothing in the nature of hysterical exultation displayed by the crew of the _Adventure_, when the longboat ran alongside and those who had performed the audacious feat of rendering two powerful batteries innocuous rejoined their s.h.i.+pmates; everything was accepted as a matter of course. It was fully realised by all hands that the deed was one, the successful accomplishment of which required the display of nerve and courage of superlative character, but it was understood that the entire expedition, from start to finish, from its departure from Topsham to its return thither, demanded the constant exhibition of these same qualities--and would receive it. Therefore a murmur or two of approval and satisfaction from Bas...o...b.. when d.i.c.k made his report, was all that was said in the way of commendation.

"And now, sirs," said the master, dismissing the topic of the disarmament of the batteries, "Cartagena and the galleon are at our mercy; and the sooner that the Spaniard can be brought to understand this, the better is it like to be for our general. Therefore we will enter the harbour forthwith, lay the galleon aboard and take her, and then open negotiations with the authorities for the ransom of the town and the deliverance of Captain Marshall. Mr Chichester, you know more about the harbour than any of the rest of us. It must be your duty, therefore, to pilot the s.h.i.+p alongside the galleon; the others I will ask to go straight to their fighting stations and prepare the s.h.i.+p for battle, after which, if there be time, we will take breakfast. If not-- well, we must e'en fight fasting, and eat after the galleon is taken."

So d.i.c.k went up on the p.o.o.p and, stationing himself to windward, conned the s.h.i.+p as she beat in toward the Boca Chica against the fast-failing land breeze. But, good s.h.i.+p as the _Adventure_ was, her progress was exasperatingly slow, as was that of all s.h.i.+ps of that date when they attempted to beat up against a foul wind; for neither the form of the hull nor the cut of the sails was at that day favourable to such a manoeuvre, and the s.h.i.+p was still a good mile from the harbour's mouth when the land breeze suddenly failed, and she was left helplessly wallowing upon the oily swell outside.

This, of course, was exasperating enough; for when deeds of desperate emprise are toward it is well to carry them through before the enthusiasm has time to cool. But it could not be helped, the wind was dead, and the s.h.i.+p could not be handled now until the sea breeze sprang up; and, after all, the delay was not an unmitigated misfortune, for it ensured to the crew time enough to complete their preparations for the coming fight and take breakfast afterward; and even at that day it was fully recognised that an Englishman fights best when his hunger has been satisfied. So they finished the work upon which they were engaged, and then went quietly to breakfast, which meal they were able to dispose of comfortably before a cry from the deck apprised them of the arrival of the sea breeze.

Yes; there it came, far away in the offing, ruling the horizon as a band of dark blue that grew lighter and lighter still along its landward edge, until it stopped short at a distance of about two miles from the sh.o.r.e, blowing fresh right up to a certain well-defined point, between which and the land all was gleaming, gla.s.sy swell, unruffled by even so much as a cat's-paw. But the boundary line which divided breeze from calm was not stationary by any means, on the contrary, it was creeping nearer rapidly. When Bas...o...b..came up on the p.o.o.p he merely glanced at it for a moment and then called to the seamen to trim the yards in readiness to meet it. By the time that this had been done the line of demarcation was so near that the musical tinkling of the advancing ripples could be distinctly heard, although the sails still hung limp, idly flapping to the roll of the s.h.i.+p. Another minute, however, sufficed, then with a gentle preliminary rustling the canvas filled, the blue ripples reached the s.h.i.+p, pa.s.sed insh.o.r.e of her, and she began to draw slowly through the water and her helm was put up to keep her away for the narrow harbour entrance.

"Starboard you may," said d.i.c.k to the helmsman, when the s.h.i.+p had presently fallen square off before the fast-freshening breeze; "we must shave that low point on the left quite closely, for that is where the channel runs, and there is a small shoal right in the mouth of the fairway which we must avoid. So! that will do; now, steady as you go.

Mr Bas...o...b.. you see that dark object just opening out over the southernmost end of Tierra Bomba? Well, that is the sh.o.r.e battery, and as it possesses certain small ordnance, such as falconets and swivels, which we could not spare the time to destroy, I would recommend that, as we must pa.s.s it close, the men be instructed to lie down behind the bulwarks as we sail by, lest haply any of them be hit; for I make no doubt that they will discharge at us every piece they have as we pa.s.s."

"Say you so?" returned Bas...o...b.. "Then, by the Lord Harry, we will be beforehand with them. Ho, there! Load the larboard broadside of ordnance, great and small, and train your pieces to sweep the top of yonder battery as we pa.s.s. We cannot afford to risk the loss of any of our number through a mistaken sense of magnanimity."

With swelling sails distended by the ever-freshening sea breeze, the _Adventure_ now swept boldly in for the mouth of the Boca Chica, and presently a curl of white water revealed the presence of the shoal of which d.i.c.k Chichester had spoken, right in the middle of the fairway.

d.i.c.k directed the helmsman to steer to the north of this, between it and the island of Tierra Bomba, with its swelling wood-crowned heights.

d.i.c.k glanced aloft at the castle which crowned the summit of the southernmost hill, but although the golden flag of Spain flaunted itself insolently in the breeze from the flagstaff on its northern turret, not a man was to be seen upon the parapet. Many of the embrasures, one-half of which they could now see, had been destroyed by the bursting of the ordnance, and it soon became clear that none of its garrison intended to make any effort to dispute the pa.s.sage of the English s.h.i.+p. Whether the garrison of the battery down on the beach would be less prudent still remained to be seen, but one thing was perfectly clear, and that was that the Spanish soldiery were very busy upon the gun platform, their movements being directed by a tall man in a full suit of black armour, the helmet of which was surmounted by a splendid plume of long crimson feathers. The English, however, were not left long in doubt as to the intentions of this individual, who was, doubtless, the commander of the garrison; for as the s.h.i.+p swept along the narrow channel, hugging the northern sh.o.r.e closely, and every moment shortening the distance between the battery and herself, he was seen to draw his sword, which flashed like a white flame in the brilliant suns.h.i.+ne as he waved it above his head, and the next moment a perfect storm of bullets from falcon and falconet, patarero, saker, and swivel, came hurtling from the battery across the narrow water toward the s.h.i.+p. But the gallant cavalier had been just a trifle too eager to display his valour, for most of the missiles fell short, having been fired at rather too long a range, while those which hit were so nearly spent that only a few of them lodged in the solid woodwork of the s.h.i.+p's bulwarks, and not a man on board was. .h.i.t.

"Now, men," roared Bas...o...b.. "give yonder presumptuous fool a lesson; fire as your guns come to bear, and not before. I want that parapet swept clean!"

And swept clean it was, the English holding their fire and the s.h.i.+p sweeping on in grim, inexorable silence until she was within some two hundred feet of the structure, when all her larboard ordnance, great and small, bellowed and barked back its answer. As the smoke drove away ahead before the wind the wall was seen to crumble into dust under the impact of the heavy iron shot, while the lighter missiles mowed down the soldiers like corn beneath the sickle, until not a man was left standing upon his feet, even the magnifico in armour going down before the hail of iron and lead, to say nothing of the Spanish standard, the staff of which was cut clean in two, so that it toppled over and fell, carrying the flag with it, to the ground at the base of the wall.

"So much for thicky!" exclaimed Bas...o...b.. relapsing into broad Devon for a moment, under the influence of excitement. "If it weren't that we have a long and hot morning's work before us I would anchor the s.h.i.+p, land a party, and blow their footy batteries into the air. But perhaps we may have time to do that when we come back this way. Now, my masters, load again, this time with double charges, consisting of a half-keg of bullets to each culverin, with a chain shot on top, and the smaller ordnance in proportion. We will not fire again, if we can help it, until we run alongside the galleon, and not then until we rub sides with her."

The s.h.i.+p had by this time traversed so much of the Boca that it became necessary for her to s.h.i.+ft her helm in order to avoid grounding upon a sandspit that stretched athwart her course, and here the advantage and value of d.i.c.k Chichester's previous observations became apparent; for so sharp was the bend, and so little was there to indicate the existence of the shoal, that if d.i.c.k had not previously had the opportunity to note its position, the s.h.i.+p would undoubtedly have driven right upon it, under full sail, when she would certainly have been in an exceedingly awkward predicament, and might even have been lost, presuming the Spaniards to have been courageous enough to attack her while placed at so serious a disadvantage. But she was not allowed to get into any such awkward situation; for d.i.c.k had noticed everything connected with the dangers of the harbour, while looking out and watching from the summit of the hill on Tierra Bomba, and he carried a complete and perfectly accurate chart of the harbour in his head, in addition to the one which he and Marshall had made together. The helm was, therefore, s.h.i.+fted at the proper moment, and the s.h.i.+p swerved away in a south-easterly direction, making as though for the middle of the lower bay.

The danger did not reveal itself until the s.h.i.+p was actually slipping past it, and in less than five minutes she was clear and the course was again altered, this time to the north-eastward, where the island of Tierra Bomba, thrusting its north-easterly angle inward, divided the upper from the lower bay, narrowing the pa.s.sage between to a width of less than a mile. Now the s.h.i.+p was fairly inside, and heading for a part of the harbour where d.i.c.k remembered to have observed certain other dangers in the shape of rocks and shoals, no sign of which could he perceive from the deck; he therefore mentioned the matter to Bas...o...b.. and obtained that officer's permission to go aloft to the fore topsail-yard and con the s.h.i.+p from there.

In this fas.h.i.+on, then, the _Adventure_, with the red cross of Saint George flying defiantly from her main truck, swept up Cartagena harbour and, rounding the eastern extremity of Tierra Bomba, headed straight for the inner roadstead, where could now be seen, among a small forest of more insignificant masts, the towering spars of the great galleon, with a vast crimson flag bearing a coat of arms floating at her main, and the Spanish flag drooping from the ensign staff reared at her stern. The town being built on low land, the lofty masts of the galleon were at once seen, upon the English s.h.i.+p rounding the point and opening up the city, and a great cry of "There she is!" instantly leapt from every English throat.

"Ay; there she is, men," returned Bas...o...b.. "We can't make any mistake about her, I think; and in halt an hour you shall be alongside her. The rest of the work will be for you to do. I'll tell you my plan, men. We will range up alongside her and lay her aboard, and just before our sides touch we will pour our broadside into her, throw the grapnels and hook on, and then dash aboard in the midst of the smoke and drive her crew below. The secret is to strike hard and often, and keep them on the run. If any man attempts to stand, though only for a moment, run him through at once with a pike. That is all that I have to say, men; you know how to do the trick as well as I."

With Cartagena city and the galleon in plain view, d.i.c.k Chichester's work aloft was done, and he, therefore, returned to the deck and the spot upon it from which he had previously been conning the s.h.i.+p, where he resumed his duty as pilot.

As the _Adventure_ slid smoothly and rapidly up the harbour, heading straight for the galleon, it was seen that nearly twenty large boats, full of armed men, were pulling off to her from the sh.o.r.e. It was clear, therefore, that the authorities had received notice of the approach of the English, possibly from one or another of the officers in charge of the defences on Tierra Bomba, and, shrewdly guessing that one object, at least, of the unwelcome visit was the galleon, were determined to defend her to the last. But this discovery in nowise disconcerted the st.u.r.dy lads of Devon, who had long ago learned to regard themselves as invincible, so far as the Spaniards were concerned; so they continued with the utmost calmness to add here and there some refinement of finish to the preparations which had been completed an hour or more ago. Even the s.h.i.+p's cook, whom n.o.body regarded as a fighting man, must needs add his little quota to the general preparations, the same taking the form of several gallons of greasy boiling water with which he had filled his coppers, the which he proposed to employ at such time as might seem to him most suitable. As for d.i.c.k, he decided that the handspike which he had used in the fight off Barbados had proved so effective that, regarded as a weapon, it could scarcely be improved upon, and he was on the point of providing himself with another when his eye chanced to fall upon a heavy iron bar which had been brought on deck for some purpose, so, having tested its weight, he at once decided that it was the very thing he needed, and appropriated it accordingly.

The _Adventure_ had arrived within about half a mile of the galleon when the latter opened fire with her heavy ordnance, of which she carried two tiers. But whether it was that the Spaniards designed to shoot away the English s.h.i.+p's masts, and so leave her helpless and unmanageable, or whether it was that the pieces were badly aimed, every one of the shot went humming high overhead, leaving the intruder to pa.s.s on unscathed and in grim silence; for not one of her guns replied. But Bas...o...b..stepped forward to the front of the p.o.o.p and issued an order.

"Let every man of you," he said, "take bow or musket, and prepare to discharge a volley upon the deck of yonder galleon when I give the word.

Then, that done, return to your ordnance and prepare to fire, for the time will be at hand. Sail trimmers, stand by to let fly all sheets and halliards at the word of command; then be ready to heave the grapnels as we range up alongside."

The English s.h.i.+p, still conned by d.i.c.k Chichester, was now steering a course which if persevered in would carry her across the stern of the galleon, at a distance of about twice her own length from that vessel; and it seemed evident, from the uncertain movements of those on board the Spaniard, that they were considerably puzzled as to the intentions of the English. For, having discharged the whole of her starboard broadside at the approaching _Adventure_, the crew of the galleon first began with feverish haste to reload all the guns on that side of their s.h.i.+p; then, seeming suddenly to suspect that their antagonist intended to lay them aboard on their insh.o.r.e side, they left their starboard broadside only half-loaded and precipitately dashed across the deck to their larboard broadside of ordnance, which they began to clear away hurriedly with the intention of loading. The _Adventure_ was at this moment less than twice her own length from the galleon, and Bas...o...b.. standing on the p.o.o.p, was able to look down from there into the crowded waist of the other s.h.i.+p and clearly see the Spaniards crowding together about the larboard ordnance. The opportunity seemed much too good to be let slip, so calling his bowmen and musketeers up on to the p.o.o.p, he directed them to discharge a volley into the surging ma.s.s of men, which they did instantly, with terribly destructive effect.

"Good!" he exclaimed, as he saw some twenty or thirty Spaniards fall writhing to the deck; "now back to your ordnance, men, and be ready to fire when I give the word. Sail trimmers, let fly all sheets and halliards, and stand by with your grapnels!"

As the sailing master issued these orders d.i.c.k signed to the helmsman, who thereupon thrust the ponderous tiller hard down, and the _Adventure_, answering her helm perfectly, swept round in a short curve and went gliding up on the starboard side of the galleon.

"Now, gunners all, let fly your ordnance!" roared Bas...o...b.. drawing his sword. And as the bright blade flashed in the air the English artillery, loaded with round, bar, and chain shot, musket b.a.l.l.s, spike nails, and every kind of missile that the men had been able to lay hands upon, were discharged when the two vessels were scarcely a fathom apart, and the Spanish s.h.i.+p's upper deck instantly became a shambles, scarcely a man remaining uninjured upon it.

"Throw your grapnels," shouted Bas...o...b.. "and then let every man follow me aboard the Spaniard." As he spoke the _Adventure_ crashed alongside the galleon, there was a sound of ripping and rending timber, and a heavy rebound; and then, as the two s.h.i.+ps rolled toward each other after the rebound the English crew went swarming over their own bulwarks and down upon the Spanish deck, where they found scarcely half a dozen men to oppose them. But at the head of them stood a very magnificent looking personage in full armour, whom Bas...o...b..took to be the captain of the s.h.i.+p.

"Do you surrender, senor?" demanded Bas...o...b.. speaking in English for the very good reason that he "had" no Spanish.

It is probable that the Spaniard was as dest.i.tute of English as Master William Bas...o...b..was of Spanish; but there is a language of intonation and gesture as well as of words, and doubtless that of the Englishman was intelligible enough, for the Spaniard, by way of reply, grasped his sword by the point and offered it to the st.u.r.dy Devons.h.i.+re seaman who confronted him, and who accepted it with a very fair imitation of the bow with which the Spaniard had tendered it.

"That's well, so far," commented Bas...o...b.. "Now"--looking about him and noticing d.i.c.k standing near, grasping his iron bar--"that ends the trouble up here. But what about down below, Mr Chichester? You had better take a dozen men and this gentleman down with you; and perhaps he will explain to those of his people who are on the main deck that he has surrendered. If they will lay down their arms, well and good; if they won't--well, you will just have to make 'em, that's all. Now go; and report to me here when you've gained complete possession of the s.h.i.+p."

d.i.c.k took his dozen men and, insinuating his hand in the crook of the Spanish captain's arm, led that individual below to the main deck, where they found a few Spanish seamen still hanging about between the great culverins, apparently quite uncertain what to do, or whether they ought to do anything. The Spanish captain spoke sharply to them; apparently he was very much surprised and disappointed to find so few men there, and seemed to be asking them where the rest were, for by way of reply the seamen said something and pointed to the hatchways. The Spanish captain relieved his feelings by stamping on the deck, grinding his teeth, and indulging in a good deal of Castilian profanity; after which he seemed to give certain instructions, the result of which was that the men laid down their arms and went up on deck, one of their number having previously gone to the main hatchway and shouted something down it which caused the remainder of the crew to come up from below and surrender their weapons.

It took d.i.c.k and his party about half an hour to explore thoroughly the interior of the galleon--which they discovered was named the _Santa Margaretta_--and satisfy themselves that none of the Spanish crew were lurking below in hiding; and when at length they returned to the upper deck to report, they found that Bas...o...b..and Winter had mustered the surviving Spaniards forward on the fore deck, under a strong guard, while the English had lowered one of the galleon's boats and in her had boarded and captured a small coasting felucca, which they were at that moment towing alongside their bigger prize. This, Bas...o...b..explained, he had done with the object of getting rid of his Spanish prisoners, whom he proposed to send ash.o.r.e in the felucca, having no fancy for keeping them aboard the prize, where they would need a strong body of the English to maintain an efficient guard over them. And, with the released prisoners, he proposed to send ash.o.r.e a letter to the Governor of the city, demanding the immediate surrender of Captain Marshall, safe and sound, together with payment of the sum of five hundred thousand ducats ransom for the city, failure of either condition to be followed by the sack and destruction of the place.

"But," objected d.i.c.k, "you can neither speak nor write Spanish; and it may very well be that there will be n.o.body in Cartagena who understands English; in that case we shall be at a deadlock, and how will you manage then?"

"That," replied Bas...o...b.. sententiously, "will be their lookout. If they cannot find anyone to translate my letter, so much the worse for them.

But there should be no trouble about that; for if they can find n.o.body else the captain will make my meaning clear to them."

It was considerably past midday when at length the whole of the Spaniards, together with their dead and wounded, were transferred to the felucca and dispatched to the sh.o.r.e, the Spanish captain being entrusted with the letter to the governor or commandant of the town; and then the English found time to look into their own affairs and take a meal. It was found that by a marvellous stroke of good fortune the galleon had been captured without the loss of a man, or even so much as a single casualty on the English side; and, this being the case, the question arose whether or not they should retain possession of the vessel, dividing the _Adventure's_ crew equally between her and the prize.

There arose quite a sharp difference of opinion on this point, Bas...o...b..and the two gentlemen adventurers maintaining that the prize was far too valuable to be parted with or destroyed, now that they had her; while Winter and d.i.c.k contended that they were far too few in number to justify the proposed division, the effect of which would be to put them in possession of two perilously short-handed s.h.i.+ps, instead of one fully manned. Moreover, the _Santa Margaretta_ was nearly twice the size of the _Adventure_, the proposal therefore to divide the crew of the latter into two equal parts would hardly meet the case, since a crew of forty men could handle the galleon only in fine weather, while as to fighting her effectually in the event of their falling in with an enemy, it simply could not be done. Winter's proposal, in which d.i.c.k backed him up, was that everything of value--or at least as much of it as they could find room for--should be transferred to the _Adventure_, after which a ransom of, say, twenty thousand ducats could be demanded for the s.h.i.+p and what remained of her cargo, failing the payment of which she might be burnt at her anchors as a wholesome example! The dispute at length grew so warm that Stukely, who was present but took no part in it, suggested that the matter should be left for Captain Marshall to decide, upon his return.

The afternoon of that day was busily spent by the English, one party of whom, under the joint leaders.h.i.+p of the carpenter and boatswain, devoted themselves to the task of repairing the slight damage sustained by the _Adventure_ in running aboard the galleon, while the remainder engaged in the work of thoroughly rummaging the prize and transferring from her to the _Adventure_ all the valuables they could find. At first some fear was entertained that the treasure which it was intended the s.h.i.+p should take home had not yet been put on board, for it could be found nowhere; but at length a sort of strong room was discovered, cunningly built in the run of the s.h.i.+p, its entrance hidden by a big pile of sails; and when this was entered, there, sure enough, lay the treasure, consisting of no less than five hundred gold bricks, each weighing some forty pounds; two thousand bars of silver averaging about fifty pounds each, a chest of pearls the value of which was so great that they made no attempt even to estimate it approximately; and a small chest of uncut precious stones, chiefly emeralds and rubies, which of itself would have sufficed to make every man of them rich for life. The whole of this stupendous treasure they at once proceeded to transfer to the _Adventure_; and so much of it was there that, working watch and watch, one watch mounting guard to render impossible anything in the nature of a surprise attack from the sh.o.r.e, while the other watch carried the treasure from the one s.h.i.+p to the other, it was long past midnight when at length the work was done and the weary men were permitted to s.n.a.t.c.h a little rest.

The authorities ash.o.r.e had been given until sunrise of the following morning in which to find someone capable of interpreting Bas...o...b..s letter, and to come to a decision as to whether or not they would accede to the terms of the said letter; and the first light of dawn revealed a large boat putting off from the sh.o.r.e, pulled by twelve oarsmen, and flying a white flag at the stern. This was the first boat that had attempted to approach either of the s.h.i.+ps since the appearance of the _Adventure_ upon the scene, and her approach was watched with the utmost interest and curiosity. She carried three officials in brilliant uniforms and four other individuals in her stern-sheets, but it was Stukely's keen eyes which were the first to detect the fact that Captain Marshall was not in her; and his announcement of this fact at once raised a storm of indignation among those who had hastily turned out and gone on deck when the approach of the boat had been reported.

"Not in her?" incredulously repeated Bas...o...b..-"Not in her? Then what a plague do the Dons mean by coming off to us at all? Surely I made it plain enough to them all that the surrender of our Captain was the very first article of our demand? Then what--?"

"Nay, nay; let be," interposed Winter, speaking quite calmly, but his lips white, and his eyes glowing sombrely like smouldering fires. "No need to work thyself into a pa.s.sion, Will Bas...o...b.. until thou hast heard what their lords.h.i.+ps have to say. Maybe they have not seen the Captain and know naught of him."

"Not seen him? Know naught of him? Why--why--!" spluttered Bas...o...b..