Part 18 (2/2)
Taking the matter very easily, husbanding all my strength for the exceedingly difficult task of getting the felucca under way single-handed--in the event of all things conspiring to render such a decided step justifiable--and sculling so gently that I scarcely raised a ripple on the highly phosph.o.r.escent water, I at length glided quietly up alongside the felucca and, taking the end of the boat's painter with me, climbed in over the vessel's low bulwarks, pa.s.sed the dinghy astern, made her fast, and forthwith proceeded to overhaul the craft which I had thus surrept.i.tiously visited.
My first visit was to her tiny cabin, the companion door of which I found unlocked. But when I got below it was so intensely dark that I could see nothing, and I felt that at all costs I must have a light, or it would be morning, and my flight would be discovered long before I could learn all that I wanted to ascertain. I, therefore, went on deck again, loosed the immense sail, and spread a fold of it over the small skylight in order to mask the light in the cabin--should I be fortunate enough to obtain one--and then went forward to the forecastle to hunt for a lantern of some sort. I found the fore-scuttle not only closed, but also secured by a stout iron bar, the slotted end of which was pa.s.sed over a staple and secured by a padlock. Fortunately, however, the individual who had last visited the little vessel had been too careless or too lazy to remove the key from the lock, therefore all I had to do was to turn the key, remove the padlock from the staple, throw back the bar, lift off the cover, and my way down into the forecastle was clear. But I had no sooner lifted off the hatch cover and was preparing to descend than, to my utter consternation, I became aware of the fact that the forecastle was inhabited. For as I flung my leg in over the coamings I distinctly heard a sound of stirring, followed, to my amazement, by the drowsy muttering of a voice in English, grumbling:
”What the blazes do they want now; and who comes off here at this time o' night? 'Taint time to turn out yet, I'll swear, for I don't seem to have been asleep more'n five minutes!”
Englis.h.!.+ Then the speaker must certainly be a friend, and without more ado I dropped down into the little forecastle, exclaiming:
”Hillo, there! Who are you, my friend; and what the d.i.c.kens are you doing locked up here in this forecastle?”
”Who am I?” retorted the voice. ”Why, I'm an Englishman; my name's Tom Brown, and the name of my mate here is Joe Cutler; both of us late of His Britannic Majesty's schooner _Wasp_, what foundered in a gale o'
wind somewheres off this here coast a while since. We was picked up off a bit of wreckage by the crew of this here hooker--what turned out to be something in the piratical line--and brought into harbour. And since we've been here we've been made to work like n.i.g.g.e.rs because we wouldn't jine the 'brotherhood,' as they calls theirselves. Latterly we've been kept aboard this here feluccer, because it appears that there's some chap ash.o.r.e there as they don't want to see us. Ay, and if it comes to that, perhaps you're the chap. Seems to me as I've heard your voice before. Who are you at all, gov'nor?”
”My name is Delamere,” I replied, ”and I commanded--”
”Of course, of course,” interrupted Brown; ”Mr Delamere it is! I knowed that I knowed that voice of yours, sir. Here, you Joe, rouse and bitt, man; here's the skipper come to life again. Half a minute, sir, and we'll have a light. Joe, you lighted the 'glim' last; what did ye do wi' the tinder-box?”
The two men were broad awake, out of their bunks, and bustling about almost before one could draw a breath, and the next moment they had lighted a lantern, in the dim glimmer of which they stood up side by side, saluting, as I stared into their faces scarcely able to credit such a stupendous piece of good fortune as the unexpected discovery of these two men, not only Englishmen, but actually members of my own late crew!
”My lads,” I exclaimed, as they stood before me at attention, ”I am more glad than I can express, not only to find that you, like myself, have managed to escape with your lives, but also that you are here, aboard this felucca. For I fully intended to make the somewhat desperate attempt to escape in her single-handed; but the presence of you two men puts a very different complexion upon the affair. What I might have been wholly unable to accomplish alone, we three can together manage with ease. There is only one possible difficulty in our way: Can you tell me whether there happens to be any food and water aboard this craft?”
”Yes, sir,” answered Brown, ”there's both, for we're fed every day out of the s.h.i.+p's stores. There's the scuttle b.u.t.t on deck nearly full o'
water, and there's grub down in the lazarette, but how much I don't know.”
”Then let us go at once and ascertain,” said I, ”for my escape may be discovered at any moment, and naturally this would be where they would first look for me. Mask that lantern with your jacket, one of you, and bring it along aft. Every second is now of importance to us.”
It took us but a few minutes to penetrate to the little vessel's lazarette, where we found an ample supply of provisions of all kinds for a much larger crew than ourselves and a much longer voyage than we contemplated.
”Very well,” I remarked, as I ran my eye over the array of biscuit and flour barrels and the casks, some of which were branded ”prime mess beef,” while others contained potatoes and sundry other commodities, ”that will do; we shall certainly not starve during the next few days, whatever else may happen to us. Now clap on that hatch again, and we will go on deck, slip the cable, and make sail without further ado.”
CHAPTER TWENTY.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END.
As I turned to quit the cabin I suddenly became aware that a bell was furiously jangling somewhere; and, das.h.i.+ng up the companion ladder to the deck, I discovered that the sounds proceeded from the sh.o.r.e, where lights were beginning to flash, one after the other, in rapid succession until the whole settlement appeared to be awake and stirring.
”On deck, both of you, at once!” I shouted, sending my voice down through the open companion. ”Never mind about the hatch; leave everything as it is, for the moment, and clap on to these main halliards; there is an alarm of some sort ash.o.r.e, and if it happens to be that they have discovered me to be missing, they will come off to this felucca the first thing. Yes, and by Jove, if I am not mistaken there is a boat shoving off already. Look, lads,”--as the two men came tumbling up on deck--”is that not the sparkle of oars in the water, there, right in the heart of that deep shadow?”
”Ay, sir, it do look uncommon like it, and no mistake--yes; that's the sea fire s.h.i.+nin' to the stroke of oars, right enough,” exclaimed Cutler.
”And they're comin' along as though they meant business, too! Mr Delamere, it'd be a good plan, sir, if you was to jump for'ard and cast that cable off the bitts while Tom and me here sees about mastheadin'
this here yard; there won't be so very much room to spare atween us by the time that this here hooker's paid off and gathered way.”
”You are right, Joe, there will not,” answered I; and, das.h.i.+ng forward to the windla.s.s bitts, I proceeded to throw off turn after turn of the stiff hempen cable that held the felucca to her anchor, until the last turn was gone and the flakes went writhing and twisting out through the hawse-hole; then, as the end disappeared with a splash I dashed aft and rammed the tiller hard over to port--noticing, as I did so, that a large boat, pulling eight oars, was less than a hundred fathoms distant from us, and coming up to us hand over hand. Then, catching a turn of the main-sheet round a cleat, I jumped forward again to where the two seamen were dragging desperately at the halliard which hoisted the heavy sail.
”Put your backs into it, men,” I cried, as I tailed on to the fall of the tackle; ”there is a large boat close aboard of us! It will be 'touch and go' with us, even if we are able to sc.r.a.pe clear at all.”
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