A Pirate of the Caribbees Part 9

By the time that I had fully arrived at this resolution the five minutes' grace had expired, and I returned to where the fellow still stood, guarded by a Jack with drawn cutla.s.s.

"Well," I demanded, "which is it to be? Will you speak freely, or must I compel you?"

"I have nothing to say; and I demand to know by what authority I have been kidnapped and brought aboard this accursed schooner?" was the reply.

"Did I not tell you a few minutes ago that you are impressed?" I answered. "You have been brought aboard here in order that you may render me a service, which I am convinced you _can_ render if you will.

When that service has been faithfully performed, I will not only set you free again but I will also handsomely reward you. You know what the service is that I require of you. Once more, will you or will you not render it?"

"I repeat that I have nothing to say. Put me in irons again if you choose; you cannot make a man tell that which he does not know,"

answered Garcia; and as he spoke he turned away, seeming to consider that the dialogue was at an end.

"Here, not so fast, my joker," interrupted the seaman who had the fellow in charge, seizing Garcia unceremoniously by the back of the neck and twisting him round until he faced me again, "it ain't good manners, sonny, to turn your back upon your superiors until they tells you that they've done with you, and that you can go."

The half-breed turned upon his custodian with a snarl, and a drawing back of his upper lip that exposed a whole row of yellow fangs, while his hand went, as from long habit, to his girdle, as though in quest of a knife; but the look of contemptuous amus.e.m.e.nt with which the sailor regarded him cowed the fellow, and he again faced me, meekly enough.

"Now," said I, "your little fit of petulance being over, let me ask you once more, and for the last time, will you or will you not afford me the information I require?"

"No, Senor Englishman, I will _not_! I am a Spaniard and Morillo is a Spaniard, and nothing you can do shall induce me to betray a fellow- countryman! Is that plain enough for you?"

"Quite," I answered, "and almost as satisfactory as though you had replied to my question. You have as good as admitted that you can, if you choose, tell me what I want to know; now it remains for me to see whether there are any means of compelling you to speak. Take him away for'ard, and keep a sharp eye upon him," I continued, to the sailor who had him in charge. "And as you go pa.s.s the word for the carpenter to rig the grating. Perhaps a taste of the cat may loosen this gentleman's tongue."

"The cat?" exclaimed the half-breed, wheeling suddenly round as he was being led away; "do you mean that you are going to flog me?"

"Certainly, unless you choose to speak of your own free will," answered I.

"Very well, then, I _will_ speak; and your blood be on your own head!"

he hissed through his clenched teeth. "I will direct you how to find Morillo, and when you have found him he will amply avenge your insult to me, and your audacity in seeking him; he will make your life such an unendurable torment to you that you will pray him, with tears of blood, to put you out of your misery. And I shall be there to see you suffer, and to laugh in your face as he refuses to grant you the boon of a speedy death."

"That is all right," I answered cheerfully, "I must take the risk of the fate you have so powerfully suggested. And now, that matter being disposed of, I shall be glad to hear from you how I am to find your friend."

The fellow regarded me in stupid surprise for a moment, as though he could not understand his failure to terrify me by his vaguely awful threat; then, with a gesture that I interpreted as indicative of his final abandonment of me to the destruction that I seemed determined to court, he said--

"Do you know anything of the Grenadines, senor?"

"No," I answered, "nothing, except that they exist, and that they form a practically unbroken chain of islets stretching between the islands of Saint Vincent and Grenada."

"That is so," he a.s.sented. "One of the most important of these islets is situate about thirteen miles to the northward of Grenada, and is called Cariacou. It is supposed to be uninhabited, but it is nothing of the kind; Morillo has taken possession of it, and established quite a little settlement upon it. There is a snug harbour at its south-western extremity, affording perfect shelter and concealment for his brigantine, and all round the sh.o.r.e of the harbour he has built storehouses and residences for himself and his people. I pray only that he may be at home to give you a fitting reception."

"I am much obliged for your kind wish," I replied drily. "And now, just one question more--is this harbour of which you speak difficult of access? Are there any rocks or shoals at its entrance or inside?"

"No, none whatever; it can safely be entered on the darkest night," was the answer.

"Good," I returned; "that will do for the present, Senor Garcia, and many thanks for your information. You will observe that I have accepted as true every word that you have spoken; but I should like you to think everything over again, and satisfy yourself that you have made no mistake. Because I warn you that if you _have you will be shot on the instant_. You may go!"

He was forthwith marched away and placed in close confinement below,-- for my interview with him had convinced me that the fellow was as malignantly spiteful as a snake, and would willingly destroy the s.h.i.+p and all hands if an opportunity were afforded him,--after which I retired to my cabin, got out the chart, and set the course for the island of Cariacou, a course which we could just comfortably lay with yards braced taut against the lee rigging and all sheets well flattened in. The trade wind was blowing fresh enough to compel us to furl our topgallant sail, but it was steady, and under a whole topsail and mainsail the little hooker drove ahead over the long, regular ridges of swell at a good, honest, nine-knot pace hour after hour, as steadily as the chronometer itself. We sighted the island, some sixteen miles distant, on the evening of our fourth day out, and I at once shortened sail and hove-to, in order that I might carry out a little plan which I had concocted during our run across.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

CARIACOU--AND AFTERWARD.

As soon as the darkness had closed down sufficiently to conceal our movements, I filled away again upon the schooner, and stood in until we were within two miles of the southern extremity of the island,--which also forms the southern headland of the harbour mentioned by Garcia,-- when, having run well in behind the head, I again hove-to and, launching the dinghy, proceeded toward the harbour's mouth; my crew being two men who, like myself, were armed to the teeth.

We pulled in with m.u.f.fled oars, and in due time arrived within a stone's throw of the sh.o.r.e. The coast here proved to be precipitous and rocky, the swell which set round the southern extremity of the island breaking with great violence upon the sh.o.r.e and rendering landing absolutely impossible; moreover, the night was so dark that--although in every other respect admirably suited for my purpose--it was impossible to clearly see where we were going, and two or three times we inadvertently got so close to the rocks that we narrowly and with the utmost difficulty avoided being dashed upon them. At length, however, we rounded the southernmost head and entered the harbour, and almost immediately afterwards made out a narrow strip of sandy beach, upon which I landed without difficulty, leaving the two men to look after the dinghy and lay off a few yards from the sh.o.r.e, ready to pull in again and take me aboard at a moment's notice if necessary.

Having landed, I ascended a rather steep, gra.s.sy slope, some seventy or eighty feet high, and stood to look about me. The harbour was quite a s.p.a.cious affair, the entrance being about half a mile wide, while the harbour itself seemed--so far as I could make out in the darkness--to be quite two miles long. The general shape of this inlet immediately suggested to me the conviction that if, as Garcia had informed me, Morillo really had established his headquarters here, he would be almost certain to have constructed a couple of batteries--one on each headland--to defend the place; and I at once set about the task of ascertaining how far my conjecture might happen to be correct. Toward the eastward from where I had halted the land continued to rise in a sort of ridge, culminating in what had the appearance of a knoll, and it struck me that, if a battery really existed on that side of the harbour, I ought to find it not far from this spot. I accordingly wended my way toward it as best I could, forcing a pa.s.sage for myself through the gra.s.s and scrub, with a most unpleasant conviction that I might at any moment place my hand or foot upon a venomous snake or reptile of some sort; and finally, after about twenty minutes of most unpleasant scrambling, found myself alongside the "knoll," which, as I had more than half suspected, now proved to be nothing less than a rough earthwork, mounting four thirty-two pounders.

My devious path had brought me to the face of the battery, so I had to clamber up the steep face of the slope before I could get a view of the interior. This I did, entering the battery through one of the embrasures, when I found myself standing upon a level platform const.i.tuting the floor of the battery. Keeping carefully within the deep shadow of the gun, and crouching down upon my hands and knees, I at once proceeded to reconnoitre the place, and presently made out a couple of huts, the smaller of which I concluded must be the magazine, while the larger probably accommodated the garrison. Both were in utter darkness, however, and my first impression was that they were untenanted; but, to make quite certain, I crept very softly up to the larger building, and, finding a closed door, listened intently at it.

For a few seconds I heard nothing save the sough of the night breeze through the branches of some cotton-wood trees that grew close at hand, but presently I detected a sound of snoring in the interior, which, as I listened, grew momentarily more distinct and unmistakable. The sounds certainly emanated from more than one sleeper; I thought that there were probably at least three or four of them at work, but my hearing was not quite keen enough to enable me to accurately differentiate the sounds and thus arrive at the correct number of those who emitted them. They were, however, sound asleep, and therefore not likely to be disturbed by a slight noise. Moreover, the hut was well to windward, and the sough and swish of the wind through the cotton-woods seemed powerful enough to drown such slight sounds as I might be likely to make; so I stole softly across the open area to the nearest gun, which I at once proceeded to carefully spike with the aid of some nails and a leather-covered hammer with which I had provided myself. Despite the deadening effect of the leather the hammer still made a distinct "clink," which to my ears sounded loud enough to wake the dead; but a few seconds' anxious work sufficed to effectually spike the first gun, and as n.o.body appeared to have heard me, I then proceeded to spike the next, and the next, until I had rendered all four of them harmless. This done, I slipped out of the same embrasure by which I had entered, and successfully made my way back to the beach and to the spot off which the dinghy lay awaiting me.

The presence of a battery on the south head of the harbour entrance convinced me that there must also be a similar structure on the north head. As soon, therefore, as I found myself once more aboard the dinghy, I headed her straight across the mouth, reaching the northern side in about twenty minutes. Half an hour's search enabled me to find the battery which I was looking for,--which proved to be a pretty exact counterpart of the one I had already visited,--and here again I succeeded in spiking all four of the guns without discovery. This I regarded as a fairly successful night's work; so, as we should have to be stirring pretty early in the morning, I now returned to the schooner, and, having hove her to with her head off sh.o.r.e, turned in and had a good night's rest.

At daybreak on the following morning I was called by Black Peter, and within ten minutes I was on deck. We were then some eight miles off the land, with the schooner heading to the eastward; but we at once wore round and bore straight away for the harbour's mouth, clearing for action and making all our arrangements as we went.

An hour's run, with the wind well over our starboard quarter, brought us off the mouth of the harbour, which we at once entered; and as soon as we were fairly inside, the schooner was hove-to, and two boats were lowered, each carrying eleven men armed to the teeth, in addition to the officer in command. One of the boats was commanded by Christie and the other by Lindsay; and their mission was to capture the two batteries commanding the harbour's mouth, and blow them up before the spiked cannon could be again rendered serviceable. I brought the telescope to bear upon the batteries as soon as we were far enough inside the harbour to get a sight of them, and was amused to observe that there was a terrible commotion going on in both. Our presence had been promptly discovered, and the first attempt to open fire upon us had resulted in the discovery that their guns were all spiked. Of course it was by no means an easy matter to estimate the strength of the garrisons of these batteries, but I calculated that it would probably total up to about thirty men to each battery; and as they would be nearly or quite all Spaniards, I felt that the boats' crews which I had sent away would be quite strong enough to satisfactorily account for them. Nor was I disappointed; for although the pirates opened a brisk musketry fire upon our lads the moment that they were fairly within range, the latter simply swarmed up the hill and carried the two batteries with a rush, the pirates retreating by the rear as the _Terns_ clambered in through the embrasures. The moment that the boats shoved off from the schooner's side I saw that the spirit of emulation had seized upon the two crews, for they both went away at a racing pace, and their actions throughout were evidently inspired by this same spirit; the result of which was that the two batteries were destroyed within five minutes of each other, while the whole affair, from the moment when the boats shoved off to the moment when they arrived alongside again, was accomplished within an hour and a quarter, and that, too, without any loss whatever on our side, or even a wound severe enough to disable the recipient. The pirates were less fortunate, their loss in the two batteries amounting to five killed, and at least seven wounded severely enough to render them incapable of escaping. These seven were brought on board by our lads, and secured below immediately upon their arrival.

Meanwhile I had not been idle, for while the boats were away I had employed my time in making, with the aid of the telescope, a most careful inspection of this piratical stronghold; and I was obliged to admit to myself that it would be difficult to imagine--and still more difficult to find--a spot more perfectly adapted in every way for its purpose. The harbour itself was s.p.a.cious enough to hold a fleet, and almost completely land-locked, so that, once inside, a s.h.i.+p was perfectly concealed; while the fact that the opening faced in a south- westerly direction rendered it absolutely safe in all weathers. And, so far as enemies were concerned, the two batteries at the harbour's mouth were so admirably placed that they _ought_ to have proved amply sufficient for the defence of the place; and no doubt they _would_ have so proved in other hands, or had a proper lookout been kept. That they had fallen so easily to us was the fault, not of Morillo, but of the man whom he had left in command.

At the bottom of the bay or inlet--for it partook of the nature of the latter rather than of the former--lay the settlement that Morillo had established, consisting of no less than seventeen buildings. There was also a small wharf, with a brig lying alongside it.

The moment that the boats arrived alongside I ordered the men out of them, and had them dropped astern, when sail was made and we stood down toward the settlement, with our ensign flying at the gaff-end. As we drew near I was able to make out that here too our presence was productive of a tremendous amount of excitement; and presently fire was opened upon us from a battery of six nine-pounders that had been constructed on the rising ground immediately to the rear of the wharf, while the black flag was boldly run up on a flagstaff close at hand. It did not suit my purpose, however, to engage in a running fight; I therefore bore down upon the brig--discharging our port broadside at the battery when we were within pistol-shot of it--and, running alongside, grapnelled her. This done, every man Jack of us swarmed ash.o.r.e, Lindsay holding the wharf with a dozen of our lads, while Christie and I, with the remainder of the crew, made a rush for the battery and took it. Ten minutes sufficed us to spike the guns and blow up the magazine, which done, we found ourselves masters of the whole place, the inhabitants having taken to flight the moment that this third battery fell into our hands.

We now proceeded to make a leisurely inspection of the place, with the result that we discovered it to be quite a miniature dockyard, with storehouses, mast-houses, rigging and sail-lofts all complete; in fact, there was every possible convenience for repairing and refitting a s.h.i.+p.

Nor was this all; there was also a large magazine full of ammunition, quite an armoury of muskets, pistols, and cutla.s.ses, and several dismounted guns, ranging from six-pounders to thirty-two pound carronades; while the storehouses were well stocked with provisions and stores of every possible description. One large building immediately facing the wharf was apparently used as a receptacle for plunder, for we found several bales of stuff that had evidently formed part of a cargo, or cargoes, but there was surprisingly little of it, which was accounted for, later on, by the discovery that the brig was full of plunder to the hatches. In addition to the buildings which were in use as stores, there were two most comfortably fitted up as barracks, while at the back of the settlement and well up the side of the hill stood a little group of seven handsome timber dwelling-houses, each standing in its own garden and nestling among the lofty trees that clothed the hillside.

Having secured complete possession of the place, my first care was to have the small amount of plunder that lay in the storehouse, and the guns, conveyed on board the _Tern_ and sent down her main hatchway.

This job took us about two hours, during which a few shots were occasionally fired at us from the woods; but as the bullets all fell short, we did not trouble ourselves to go in pursuit of the individuals who were firing upon us. Our next act was to blow up the magazine, thus destroying the whole of the pirates' stock of ammunition; and when this had been successfully accomplished, we went systematically to work, and set fire to the whole of the storehouses and barracks, one after the other, until the whole place was in flames. Finally, we turned our attention to the seven dwelling-houses on the hillside. These proved, to our astonishment, to be most elegantly and sumptuously furnished in every respect, the only peculiarity noticeable being a lack of uniformity among the articles contained in some of the houses, plainly showing that they had been gathered together at different times and from different places. Evidences of female influence were abundantly present in all these houses, from which we a.s.sumed that they formed the abode of Morillo and his most important subordinates during their short sojourns in port. The six largest of these buildings we set fire to, leaving the seventh as a refuge for the unfortunate women, who were doubtless concealed at no great distance in the adjacent woods.

The burning of these houses completed the destruction of the settlement, which was accomplished absolutely without casualties of any kind _on our_ side. We waited until the houses were well ablaze, and then retreated in good order to the harbour, a few shots being fired at us here and there from ambush as we went; but as we were well out of range I took no notice of them, and in due time we arrived once more on the wharf.

Our next business was to take possession of the brig, which we did forthwith, Christie, with eight hands, going on board her as a prize crew. She was a beamy, bluff-bowed, motherly old craft named the _Three Sisters_, hailing out of Port-of-Spain, and was evidently British built, her whole appearance being that of a sober, honest, slow-going trader, such as one constantly meets with, doing business among the islands.

Her hold, however, was full of booty; and I conjectured that Morillo had, through his agents, purchased her in a perfectly straightforward manner for use in the conveyance of booty from Cariacou to such ports as afforded opportunity for its disposal without the asking of too many inconvenient questions.

It was the work of but a few minutes for the prize crew to transfer their few belongings from the schooner to the brig; and, this done, we got both craft under way and stood out to sea--the brig under every st.i.tch of canvas that she could show to the breeze, while the schooner, under topsail, foresail, and jib, had to heave-to at frequent intervals to wait for her.

My first intention was to send the brig to Port Royal in charge of the prize crew alone, remaining off the island in the _Tern_ until Morillo should appear--as he would be certain to do, sooner or later--in his brigantine. A little reflection, however, caused me to alter my plans and to determine upon escorting the _Three Sisters_ to her destination, lest she should haply encounter Morillo on the way, in which case the fate of her defenceless prize crew would probably be too dreadful to bear thinking about. As soon, therefore, as we were clear of the harbour I set the course for Jamaica, and away we both went, cheek by jowl, the brig--with a roaring breeze over her starboard quarter-- reeling off her six and a half knots per hour with as much fuss and splutter as though she were going fifteen!

For the first two days nothing of any importance occurred. On the third night out from Cariacou, however,--or, to be strictly accurate, about two o'clock in the morning,--it being my watch on deck, the night dark and somewhat overcast, two sails were sighted on our starboard bow, heading to the eastward on the port tack, and steering a course which would bring them close to us. One of them was a craft of considerable size, the other a small vessel; and from the moment that these two facts became apparent, I made up my mind that one was the prize of the other, though which of the two was the captor, there was just then no means of ascertaining. The smaller craft was perhaps a privateer, and the big one her prize; or--quite as likely--the big craft might be a frigate, and the small craft her prize. In either case, however, it behoved me to be very careful; for one of the two was almost certain to be an enemy, and if she happened to be also the captor of the other it was more than probable she would tackle us. From the moment, therefore, when we first sighted them, I never allowed the night-gla.s.s to be off them for more than a few seconds at a time.

When first discovered, they were hull down, and only just distinguishable in the darkness as two vague blots of black against the lowering gloom of the night sky; but the trade wind was piping up rather stronger than usual that night, while we and the strangers were approaching each other on a nearly straight line. We consequently closed each other rapidly, and within about twenty minutes from the moment of their discovery we were able to make out that one of the twain was a full-rigged s.h.i.+p, while the other seemed to be a large brigantine; and a few minutes later I discovered that the s.h.i.+p was showing a much broader spread of canvas than the brigantine, thus proving the latter to be the faster craft of the two. It was scarcely likely, therefore, that the s.h.i.+p was a frigate; and if not that, she must be a merchantman, and doubtless the prize of the brigantine.

At this point, the question suggested itself to me: Might not the brigantine be Morillo's craft? She appeared to be about the same size, so far as it was possible to distinguish in the darkness; and if so, it would fully account for the boldness with which she held on upon her course, instead of heaving about and endeavouring to avoid a possible enemy--for doubtless they had made us out almost if not quite at the same time as we had discovered them. I most fervently hoped it might be as I surmised, for, if so, I should have the fellow at advantage, inasmuch as he would doubtless have put a fairly strong prize crew on board the s.h.i.+p, which would proportionately weaken his own crew. Full of the hope that this Ishmael of the sea might be about to place himself within my power, I caused all hands to be called, and, having first made sail, sent them to quarters, the gunner at the same time descending to the magazine and sending up a plentiful supply of powder and shot. By the time that we were ready, the brigantine and her consort had neared us to within a couple of miles, the two craft closing meanwhile, doubtless for the purpose of communicating instructions. That they were quite prepared to fight aboard the brigantine was perfectly evident, for we could see that her deck was lit up with lanterns, the light of which, s.h.i.+ning through her ports, enabled me to ascertain that she mounted six guns of a side. Both craft held their luff, but it was now quite clear that the brigantine was much the faster and more weatherly of the two, she walking away out to windward of the big fellow as though the latter had been at anchor the moment that she made sail in answer to our challenge.

And now ensued a little bit of manoeuvring on both sides, with the twofold object of discovering whether the stranger happened to be an enemy, and if so, to secure the weather-gage of him. We had the advantage, however, as we were running free and could haul our wind at any moment; and this advantage I kept by hauling up on the starboard tack and then heaving in stays with the topsail aback, waiting for the brigantine to close; which she presently did, ranging up within biscuit- toss of our lee quarter. She was now so close to us that, despite the darkness, it was quite possible to make out details; and it was with a feeling of mingled disgust and disappointment that I discovered that, whatever she might be, she certainly was not Morillo's beautiful but notorious brigantine.

She was, however, in all probability an enemy,--it seemed to me that, so far as I could make out in the uncertain light of the partially clouded stars, she had a French look about her,--so, with the idea of securing the advantage of the first hail, I sprang upon the rail as she ranged up alongside, and hailed, in Spanish--

"Ho, the brigantine ahoy! What vessel is that?"