Part 5 (1/2)

Ten minutes sufficed us to cover the stretch of oil-smooth sea that lay between the _Mercury_ and the _Braave_, when, pa.s.sing beneath the stern of the latter in order to reach her starboard side, I again read her name, carved in four-inch letters upon her counter, with the word ”Amsterdam”, her port of registry. Then, as we cleared her stern and ranged up alongside her starboard main chains, with her green side staring at us in the full blaze of the tropical sunlight, my eye was again caught by a dark, rusty-looking stain beneath one of her scuppers, similar to what I had already observed through the _Mercury's_ telescope. I recognised it for what it was, and what I had all along suspected, but had refused to acknowledge it to be--blood, dried blood, that had been shed so freely that it had poured out through the scupper- holes! The man who was pulling stroke, standing up in the boat and facing forward, fisherman-fas.h.i.+on, caught sight of the sinister stain almost as soon as I did, and exclaimed, as he laid in his oar with a clatter on the thwart:

”Jerusher! see that, sir? See that, Tom? Smother me if it ain't blood!

Now, what's been happenin' aboard this here ghastly hooker?”

”I am afraid I can make a pretty shrewd guess,” I answered; ”but let us wait until we can get a glimpse of what is to be seen between her bulwarks. Make fast your painter round one of her deadeyes, and then follow me aboard.”

So saying, I sprang into her main chains, and from thence made my way inboard. The moment that my head rose above her rail a horrible odour, of which my nostrils had already caught a faint hint, smote me almost as something solid, and, looking down upon the main deck, the waist of her seemed to be full of dead bodies, their clothing smeared and splashed with blood, while that part of the deck whereon they lay was deeply dyed and crusted with the same deep, rusty stain. As I gazed, petrified with horror, the bell upon the p.o.o.p once more clanged loudly; and, glancing upward, I saw that the figure which I had already observed lolling in so odd an att.i.tude over the p.o.o.p rail was that of a dead man, grasping in his right hand the short length of rope attached to the clapper of the bell. His att.i.tude was such that, as the s.h.i.+p swung upon the swell, his body moved just sufficiently to cause the clapper to strike a single stroke.

For the first few seconds after I had found myself standing upon the ensanguined deck planks of that floating charnel house I had no eyes for anything, save the spectacle of her slaughtered crew, lying there at my feet in every conceivable att.i.tude indicative of the unspeakable agony and terror that had distracted their last conscious moments. Then, as the two seamen who had accompanied me from the _Mercury_ swung themselves in over the rail and came to my side, muttering e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns of horror and dismay at the ghastly spectacle that met their gaze, I pulled myself together with a wrench, and, mounting to the p.o.o.p, began to take in the general details of the scene.

Standing, as I now was, at the head of the starboard p.o.o.p ladder, I commanded a complete view of the vessel's deck from stem to stern, and saw that my original estimate of her size was rather under than above the mark, her dimensions being those of a vessel of fully three hundred and fifty tons. From certain details of her build and equipment I set her down as being at least fifty years old; but she was still apparently quite sound as to hull, spars, and rigging, and had been evidently well taken care of. She mounted eight twelve-pounders upon her main deck, four in each battery, but they were all secured, and I could see nothing to suggest that she had recently fought an action with another s.h.i.+p. On the contrary, all the evidence was in favour of the a.s.sumption that her people had been taken completely by surprise--most probably during the night; that she had been boarded by pirates, Malays or Chinese, all hands ruthlessly ma.s.sacred, and the s.h.i.+p then plundered and set on fire.

These last a.s.sumptions were based upon the facts that her longboat-- which from the deck of the _Mercury_ had appeared to be stowed over the main hatch--had been s.h.i.+fted over to the port side of the deck, the hatches removed, and a quant.i.ty of her cargo broken out and hoisted up on deck, where it now lay, a confused jumble of merchandise and of torn bales and shattered packages, piled high on the starboard side of the hatchway. A yawning, fire-blackened cavity in the p.o.o.p, where the mizenmast had stood, showed that she had been on fire in the cabin; but that the fire had somehow become extinguished before it had had time to get a firm hold upon the hull. The condition of the bodies of the murdered crew seemed to indicate that the tragedy must have occurred some time within the preceding forty-eight hours. Apparently she had been under all plain sail when the thing happened.

Descending again to the main deck, and calling upon the two seamen from the _Mercury_ to follow me, I next entered the p.o.o.p cabin, which I found to be arranged after the manner that was very usual at that time.

Access to the main cabin was gained by a narrow pa.s.sage some nine feet in length, on the port side of which, and next the s.h.i.+p's side, was a stateroom which was easily identifiable as that belonging to the chief mate, while on the starboard side of the pa.s.sage was the steward's pantry. At the inner end of the pa.s.sage was a doorway, the door being open and hooked back against the bulkhead; and pa.s.sing through this doorway one found oneself in the main cabin, an apartment some thirty feet long, with three staterooms on each side of it. Abaft that again was the sail-room, well-stocked with bolts of canvas of varying degrees of coa.r.s.eness and several sails, many of which seemed to be quite new, neatly rolled up into long bundles, stopped with spunyarn, and each labelled legibly with the description of the sail. Forward of the main cabin, on the starboard side, and separated by a stout bulkhead from the steward's pantry, was the captain's cabin, a fine, roomy, comfortable apartment, neatly and conveniently fitted up with a standing bed-place, having a capacious chest of drawers beneath it, a washstand at the foot of the berth, and a small flap table against the fore-and-aft bulkhead, at which the skipper could sit to write up his log or make his daily astronomical calculations. There were two entrances to this stateroom, one from the main cabin, and one directly from the main deck; and in the fore bulkhead there was a window through which, while still lying in his bunk, the skipper could see everything that was happening out on deck.

These observations occupied me nearly half an hour; but the moment that I entered the main cabin my nostrils were a.s.sailed by the smell of recently extinguished fire, and upon looking about me I finally came to the conclusion that the fire had not been intentional but the result of accident. The miscreants who had boarded the vessel had apparently been all over her in search of anything that might be worth carrying away, and, among other places, they had explored the lazarette, which lay beneath the cabin, a small hatchway just abaft the mizenmast giving access to it. This hatchway we found open, and the general appearance of the cabin seemed to indicate that the depredators had roused up a number of barrels and cases, and broken them open for the purpose of ascertaining what they contained. I conjectured that among the articles broached must have been a cask of spirits, which had been accidentally set on fire. The fire had burnt away a portion of the cabin deck, partially destroyed the cabin table, severely scorched and charred the paintwork generally, and had evidently burnt the lower part of the mizenmast, and the deck in which it was stepped, so completely away that the mast had gone over the side to the roll of the s.h.i.+p. Why it had not spread farther and entirely destroyed the s.h.i.+p I could not imagine. The plunderers had practically cleared the lazarette of its contents; the chronometer, the s.h.i.+p's papers, and the captain's charts and s.e.xtant were missing; but upon investigating the state of affairs out on deck it did not appear that they had taken very much, if any, of the s.h.i.+p's cargo. But we could not find any weapons or ammunition of any kind; if, therefore, the s.h.i.+p had carried anything of the sort the pirates had cleared the whole of it out of her. After giving the craft a pretty thorough overhaul fore and aft, and making a number of notes of my most important discoveries, I eventually came to the conclusion that the vessel had been surprised and laid aboard during the night; that her crew had been mustered and secured, most likely with a guard over them; and that, after the pirates had taken all that they cared for out of the s.h.i.+p, they had brutally murdered all hands.

It now became a nice question with me what--if anything--I ought to do with this blood-stained derelict. Although she had lost her mizenmast, there was nothing to prevent her being navigated to a port; and had the circ.u.mstances been different, I should have called for volunteers and made an effort to induce a crew to undertake the navigation of her to, say, Batavia, with the idea of claiming salvage. But I had come to know by this time that no eloquence of mine, even though it were backed up by the prospect of a handsome sum of salvage money, would be powerful enough to wean the crew of the _Mercury_ from their cherished idea of a life of ease and independence upon some fair tropic island, to say nothing of their fear of what would follow upon the discovery of their unlawful appropriation of the s.h.i.+p and cargo to their own use and service. I therefore very quickly, yet none the less unwillingly, abandoned that idea, and proceeded to consider the merits of the only alternatives left me, namely, those of destroying her, and of leaving her just as we had found her--excepting, of course, that in the latter case sentiment demanded the decent and reverential burial of her murdered crew. Considering the latter alternative first, if we left her drifting about the ocean, what was likely to happen? On the one hand she might be fallen in with by another s.h.i.+p and taken into a port; but on the other hand it was equally likely that she might become a death- trap to some other craft, athwart whose hawse she might drift on some black and stormy night, and whose bows would be stove in and destroyed by violent collision with her; or she might be swamped and founder in the next gale that she encountered. Taking all things into consideration, I at length came to the conclusion that the best thing to be done was to scuttle her, and so render it impossible for her to become a menace to other craft. Accordingly, summoning my two men, who were below exploring the forecastle and fore peak, I jumped into the gig and pulled back aboard the _Mercury_, where I arrived just as the steward was bringing the cabin breakfast aft.

As we sat at table, partaking of the meal, I related to Polson and Tudsbery all that I had seen and done aboard the Dutchman, and informed them of the decision at which I had arrived with regard to her, directing the carpenter to take a boat's crew and his auger immediately after breakfast, go on board, and scuttle her by boring several holes through her bottom below the water line. Both men fully agreed with me that this was the right and proper thing to do; and at the conclusion of the meal Chips set about the making of his preparations. Somewhat to my surprise, however, when, a little later, he came aft with his tools, he was followed by four men, instead of the modest two with which I had contented myself, who preceded him down the side into the boat. When he reached the _Braave_, instead of being absent ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour at the utmost, which would have afforded him ample time to do all that was necessary, the whole five of them vanished from sight, and were not again seen until, after the lapse of a full hour or more, they once more showed themselves on the deck of the derelict, pa.s.sing a quant.i.ty of things down her side into the boat. Finally, about half an hour later still, they returned to the _Mercury_, considerably the worse for drink, and with the boat loaded down to her gunwale with bolts of canvas, new sails, and other oddments that they had appropriated. Of course there was no actual harm in their bringing these things away from the Dutchman, because, had they left them on board, they must have gone to the bottom with her and thus have been wasted; but I felt that Chips might as well have paid me the compliment of first mentioning his intentions to me. I was even more annoyed that the carpenter, occupying as he did a position of authority--of however shadowy a character--had not only permitted the men to partake pretty freely of the drink which they had found, but had evidently not scrupled to partake of it with them. I came to the conclusion, however, that my remonstrance would be likely to be a good deal more effective if addressed to him later on, instead of at the moment when he was under the influence of the liquor.

Therefore I said nothing to him beyond briefly enquiring how many holes he had bored in the s.h.i.+p, and where, and suggesting to him the advisability of retiring to his bunk to sleep for an hour or two, which advice he seemed more than half-inclined to resent, but ultimately followed, in a somewhat belligerent mood.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

EMBAYED.

It soon became perfectly evident that, muddled with drink though he undoubtedly was, Chips had very effectively executed his work of destruction aboard the _Braave_, for in half an hour she had sunk to the extent of very nearly three strakes of her planking, and within the hour she had brought her chain-plate bolts flush with the water, at which rate another three hours should suffice to see the last of her. Before that moment arrived, however, a little air of wind came along out from the westward, and, with our port braces slightly checked, we began to creep away on a nor'-nor'-east course for Boeroe Strait. But our progress was so slow that at noon the derelict was still hull-up to the southward, sunk to the level of her covering-board; and when, after dinner, I returned to the p.o.o.p and took the gla.s.s to search for her, she was nowhere to be seen, although, had she still been afloat, her spars and canvas at least should have been visible above the horizon.

Although the _Braave_ had vanished, she had left behind her a small legacy of annoyance for me; for while I was still searching the horizon for some sign of her continued existence I became aware of certain raucous sounds issuing from the forecastle, which I was quickly able to identify as the maudlin singing which seamen are so p.r.o.ne to indulge in when they are the worse for liquor. Presently Polson, who had gone forward to turn-to the watch after dinner, came aft with an expression of vexation upon his weather-beaten countenance, and explained that the carpenter's boat's crew, having smuggled aboard several bottles of Schiedam from the scuttled vessel, all hands forward had become just sufficiently fuddled to render them indifferent to such authority as, under the peculiar circ.u.mstances of the case, we were still able to exercise over them, and had flatly refused to come on deck, declaring, with much abuse of the boatswain, that they did not intend to do any more work until they had finished the drink which still remained.

”How much have they, Polson?” I asked.

”I dunno, sir,” he answered. ”I tried to find out, but the s...o...b..nks wouldn't tell me. I fancies, however, that they haven't got so very much, for I don't see how four men--or even five, if you chooses to reckon Chips in with 'em--could ha' brought more'n about a dozen bottles aboard among 'em without our findin' out somethin' about it; and a dozen bottles won't go so very far among all hands. I reckon that they'll finish the lot in the course of the next hour or so, and then they'll all turn in and have a good sleep, and be ready to come on deck in time for the first watch. Luckily there ain't no more wind than what we knows what to do with, and not much sign of it freshenin', so far as I can see; so p'rhaps there won't be such a very terrible lot o' harm done a'ter all.”

”Possibly not,” I agreed. ”But,” I went on, seizing the opportunity to point a moral, ”that is merely a happy accident. Had it been blowing hard, and the weather threatening, it would probably not have made the slightest difference in the conduct of those men. You and Chips, by listening to and falling in with the fantastic proposals of that madman Wilde, have set the men a very bad example, the effect of which is bound to recoil on your own heads sooner or later. By taking part in the seizure of this s.h.i.+p you have broken the law, which is the mainstay of all authority, order, and discipline, and in doing so you have encouraged those ignorant creatures for'ard to become lawless and disobedient. I have pointed all this out to you before, Polson, and now you have an example--a very mild example, it is true--of what inevitably happens under such circ.u.mstances.”

”Yes; I sees what you mean, Mr Troubridge,” answered the boatswain.

”But, Lor' bless yer, sir, I don't think nothin' at all of a little spree like this here. Discipline's a first-rate thing, I admit; but a man can have too much of it, and it does him good to chuck it overboard now and again. Them chaps for'ard won't be none the worse for this here little outbreak of theirs, you'll see. We all enj'ys a bit o' liberty occasionally, you know.”

”Ay,” answered I rather bitterly. ”The mischief of it is, Polson, that when men in the position of those noisy rascals in the forecastle take it upon themselves to determine when, and for how long a time, they shall indulge in a spell of liberty, they are as likely as not to insist upon having it at a moment when it spells disaster for other people.

Liberty is a grand thing, in theory, and within certain well-defined limits; but when it becomes licence--as it is very apt to do--it is a bad thing for all concerned.”

”Well, sir, you may be right, or you may be wrong, I don't know, never havin' had any eddication. But Mr Wilde, he's an eddicated man, and he's all for liberty and equality; and I don't mind sayin' as I prefers his notions to yours.”

”Very well,” I said; ”go your own way, Polson, since go you will. But I wouldn't mind betting the sailorman's favourite wager--a farthing's worth of silver spoons--that before another year has pa.s.sed over your head you will alter your tune. Take care that you do not defer the alteration until it is too late and the mischief has become irrevocable.”

Now it happened that Wilde was, among a great many other things, a stanch teetotaller; he was also an excessively nervous person. When he, with the rest of the emigrants, came on deck after dinner upon this particular day, and heard the maudlin, drunken singing in the forecastle, and furthermore recognised that the s.h.i.+p was, for the time being at least, without a crew, he fell into a tremendous rage, and, rus.h.i.+ng forward, precipitated himself into the forecastle, where, believing that the crew, drunk, would accord to him the same reverential attention that they were wont to do when sober, he proceeded to reproach and revile them in no measured terms for their lapse from virtue, actually going to the length, before anybody could stop him, of smas.h.i.+ng half a dozen bottles of Schiedam that he caught sight of snugly stowed away in a bunk. So long as he confined himself to merely verbal remonstrance and abuse the men listened to him with the vacuous, good- humoured smile of intoxication, occasionally interrupting him with an invitation to join them in their baccha.n.a.lian orgy; but when he took what they deemed a base advantage of their good nature, by smas.h.i.+ng the bottles and wasting the liquor that one of the revellers had incautiously revealed to him in support of the jovial invitation, their good humour suddenly evaporated, and, staggering to their feet in indignation, they would probably have done the man a serious injury had they been capable of following him up on deck, whither he precipitately fled. Then, having learned, during his brief visit to the forecastle, that the carpenter was the chief culprit, he rushed into the latter's cabin, mercilessly aroused poor Chips from the profound sleep that was gradually clearing his muddled brain, and tongue-lashed the bewildered man until he must have scarcely known whether he was upon his head or his heels. Fortunately for the schoolmaster, Chips's indiscretion had been a mild one indeed compared with those of the forecastle hands, and he therefore accepted Wilde's rebukes with a tolerably good grace and in silence; but Wilde was one of those enthusiasts who carry even their virtues to excess, and his denunciations of Chips were of so virulent and extravagant a character that they did more harm than good, and--as I discovered later on--converted Tudsbery from a blindly faithful disciple into a sullen, more than half-doubting, and reluctant follower.