Part 3 (1/2)
”Take in studdin'-sails,” cried the captain.
These by the united efforts of the crew, wildly fluttering, were hauled down without a spar being lost. The fore-royal was then furled.
”Starboard the helm,” was the next order given. ”Haul on the starboard fore and main braces,” he then sang out, and the brig was brought to the wind on the larboard tack. No sooner did she feel its power, as the yards were braced sharp up, the tacks hauled down, and the braces and bowlines sheeted home, than she heeled over to the force of the wind, which was still considerable, although it did not appear to when we were running before it. ”If the stranger does not discover our change of course, she will be well away to leeward before morning, and we shall see no more of her,” said Captain Magor, addressing Harry and me. ”I don't want to expose the lives of you young gentlemen to danger, or to risk the loss of our cargo, I daresay you felt not a little anxious, but you may turn in and sleep soundly, with the prospect of making the coast of Africa in another day or two at furthest. We will have some food first though, for you have been on deck ever since dinner; you'll be hungry. Quambo!” he shouted, ”let's have some supper on table as soon as possible.”
”Him dare 'ready, captain,” answered the black steward, ”only wait de young gen'lemen to cut him.”
The captain, leaving the deck in charge of the first mate, descended with us, and did ample justice to the plentiful meal Quambo had spread on the table. The captain, before going on deck again, advised us to turn in. We were, however, too anxious to do so, notwithstanding his a.s.sertions that all was likely to go well, and we therefore soon joined him on deck. We found him looking out over the larboard quarter, the direction in which the stranger was most likely to be seen. Although we swept the ocean with our gla.s.ses round two-thirds of the horizon, she was nowhere visible. At length, trusting that the captain really was right, with our minds tolerably relieved, we went below and turned into our berths. Still, though I slept, I could not get the thought of the pirate out of my mind. I dreamed that I was again on deck, and that I saw our pursuer, like some monster of the deep, her canvas towering high above our own towards the sky, close to us. Then she poured forth her broadsides, her shot with a cras.h.i.+ng, rending sound pa.s.sing across our deck. Still we remained unharmed, and I heard the captain say, ”Give it them again, my lads--give it them again.” Our crew sprung to their guns; but there came another broadside from the enemy which carried away our masts and spars, pierced our bulwarks, knocking our boats to pieces.
Still Harry and I stood on deck uninjured, and our crew appeared is undaunted and active as before. I have often heard of people ”fighting their battles o'er again;” but in this instance I fought mine before it occurred. I was awakened by the stamping sound of the feet of the watch overhead as they ran along with the halyards; then came the cry, ”All hands on deck.” I jumped out of my berth, and found Harry slipping into his clothes. No one else was in the cabin. We hurried on deck, where the officers and the watch below with the idlers had a.s.sembled. I was surprised to find the brig once more before the wind and the crew engaged in making all sail. The captain was standing aft issuing his orders, while the mates and boatswain were aiding the men in pulling and hauling. We joined them without asking questions. Some of the crew were aloft setting the top-gallant-sails and royals. I wondered why this was done, but there was no time to ask questions. At last, all the sail the brig could carry was set. I then, having nothing further to do, went aft and asked the captain the reason of the change of course.
”If you look astern you will see it,” he said.
Shading my eyes with my hand, I gazed into the darkness, and there I at length discovered what the more practised eyes of the captain had long seen--the shadowy form of the stranger coming up under all sail towards us.
”You see now why we have kept away,” observed the captain. ”Before the wind is our fastest point of sailing, and I wish that we had kept on it from the first. That fellow out there must have hauled his wind soon after we lost sight of him.”
”Do you think she will come up with us?” I asked.
”There is a great likelihood that she will,” answered the captain; ”but a stern chase is a long chase, as every one knows. Perhaps we may fall in with a man-of-war cruiser, when the tables will be turned; if not, as I said before, we must fight her.”
”With all my heart,” I answered; and Harry echoed my words.
The stranger had by this time approached much nearer to us than before, or we should have been unable to see her. We could thus no longer hope for an opportunity of escaping by altering our course. ”It is my duty to stand on as long as I can, to give ourselves every chance of meeting with another craft, which may take a part in the game,” observed the captain. ”At all events, it will be daylight before we get within range of her guns, and you young gentlemen may as well turn in in the meantime and finish your night's rest.”
Neither I nor Harry had any inclination, however, to do this. The dream I had had still haunted my imagination, and I felt pretty sure that were I to go to sleep it would come back as vividly as before. Stepping into the waist, I found Mr Tubbs, the boatswain.
”Well, Tom, what do you think about the matter?” I asked. ”Shall we have a brush with yonder craft which seems so anxious to make our acquaintance?”
”No doubt about it, Mr Westerton, and more than a brush too, I suspect.
That s.h.i.+p out there is a big fellow, and will prove a tough customer.
We shall have to show the stuff we are made of, and fight hard to beat him off. I don't say but that we shall do it, but it will cost us dearly; for his people, we may be sure, know how to handle their guns; and from the height of his canvas I should say that he was twice our size, and probably carries double as many guns as we do, and musters three or four times more men.”
”Then I'm afraid that we shall have but a poor chance of beating him off,” I observed.
”There are always chances in war, and one of them may be in our favour; so it is our business to fight hard to the end. A happy shot may knock away his masts and render him helpless, or enter his magazine and blow him up; or we may send half a dozen of our pills between wind and water, and compel him to keep all hands at the pumps, so that he will have no time to look after us.”
”But the same may happen to us,” observed Harry.
”Granted; those belong to the chances of war,” answered Tom. ”I was only speaking of those in our favour. We must not think of the others; if the worst comes to the worst, we can but go to the bottom with our colours flying, as many pretty men have had to do before.”
On the whole, Tom's remarks did not greatly increase our spirits. Harry and I walked aft together.
”One of us may fall, d.i.c.k,” said Harry to me in a grave tone. ”If I do, you will carry my last fond love to my mother and sister and poor Lucy, and say that my last thoughts were about them.”
”That I will,” I answered. ”And should I fall and you escape, you will see my parents, and tell your mother and sister Mary how to the last moment of my life I thought of them--how grateful I am for all their kindness to me.”
The expressions we exchanged were but natural to young men who were about to engage for the first time in their lives in a desperate battle--for desperate we knew it must be, even should we come off victorious, if the stranger astern was, as we supposed, a pirate. We paced the deck together. The suspense we were doomed to undergo was more trying than when we were engaged in making or shortening sail, and the gale was blowing and the vessel tumbling about. Now we were gliding calmly on, with nothing to do except occasionally to take a look astern at our expected enemy. I began to long for daylight, and wished even to see the stranger come up within shot, so that we might ascertain to a certainty her true character. At length a ruddy glow appeared beyond her in the east, gradually increasing in depth and brightness until the whole sky was suffused with an orange tint, and the sun, like a vast ball of fire, rose rapidly above the horizon, forming a glowing background to the sails of our pursuer, who came gliding along over the s.h.i.+ning ocean towards us. Already she was almost within range of our long gun, which the captain now ordered to be trained aft through one of the stern-ports. The gun was loaded and run out. ”Shall I fire, sir?”
asked Tom Tubbs, who acted as gunner as well as boatswain, running his eye along the piece.
”Not until we can see her flag,” answered the captain; ”she may, after all, be a man-of-war. If we fire she may take us for a pirate, and we should get small credit for our bravery. We shall see her colours presently if she yaws to fire at us. Wait until I give the word.”
In the meantime the magazine had been opened and powder and shot brought up on deck; the guns were loaded and run out, the arm-chest was also got up, and Harry and I, as did all on board, girded hangers to our sides and thrust pistols into our belts.