Part 12 (1/2)
”Turn the hands up, o to quarters” (The people were at their breakfast) ”We will not fire the first shot; but if she attacks us, ill give it them as well as we can One satisfaction is, that they cannot board us while the gale lasts” While the mate fleard to execute the orders, Bowse approached his passengers, and, pointing out the stranger to the near, told theo below
”But do you think he will fire into us?” inquired the colonel
”He would gain little by so doing, while the gale lasts,” replied Bowse, ”and he et injured in return, as he probably knows that we have guns on board”
”There you see, Ada, there is little chance of any of us being hurt, but there is a possibility--so you ain”
This the colonel said in a positive tone, and his niece was obliged to comply
”Oh, hoish Captain Fleetas here in the _Ione_,” she thought, as she quitted the deck ”No pirate would dare to er was hove to, under her fore-topsail, and appeared to bewhat seamen call very fine weather of it The _Zodiac_ cath fron of any intention of acco her Very few seamen appeared on her deck, and two or three officers only, whose uniforlass, was evidently that of Austria One of the an epaulette on either shoulder, Bowse thought must be the captain, leaped up on the taffrail, and waved his hat to theh a speaking trumpet--
”Heave to, and ill keep your company”
”I'll see you damned first, my fine fellow,” answered the lass ”I wish I was as certain of heaven as I am that the felloaved to us is the same who came on board when in Malta harbour I know his face, spite of his changed dress”
”I don't think he's unlike, except that he didn't look so tall quite as the Greek you mean,” observed the mate ”However, as they did not fire at us, and don't seem inclined to keep company with us either, I suppose they are after other and surer gaer far astern, and numberless were the surmises of the crew as to what she was and what she was about All agreed in pronouncing her a Greek-built craft She was a large vessel, too, and well aruns to them; and she was, probably, as are most of the Greek vessels of that class, very fast It is odd that they did not, however, regard her with half the suspicion that they did the little speronara, which could scarcely have harmed them, by mortal means, if she had tried
The _Zodiac_ had left the polacca brig about eight or tenand falling above the boiling cauldron of waters which intervened, as she reh between them
The shi+p had also by this time assumed her usual peaceful appearance; the shot and powder had been returned below, the guns were run in and secured, the small arms had been replaced in their racks, and the colonel had withdrawn the charges of his pistols, and sent Mitchell with them to his cabin
”Well, I suppose as soon as this tornado blows over, we shall have a tranquil ti Dutchman and bloody pirates,” he observed to the master, as he held on the weather bulwarks
”I did not bargain for all this sort of work, I can tell you, when I refused a passage in a king's shi+p in order that Ijackanapes of naval officers, and saveexposed to their interested assiduities”
”Can't say what reat stickler for the honour of the navy, and did not at all relish the colonel's observations ”I've done my best to please you, and I'm sure the officers of any of his Majesty's shi+ps would have done the saed 's warrant, and I have had as good opportunities of judging of the character of a very large number of officers as any in the sah with all respect to you, Colonel Gauntlett, that a less interested and lessset of men than they are, are not to be found in any profession”
”Well, well, Mr Bowse,” answered the colonel, seeing by the frown on the ood-natured countenance that he was in earnest, ”I did not want to hear a defence of the navy, but I should like to have your opinion as to when there is a probability of our enjoying a little quiet again, and whether we are likely to be molested by these reputed pirates after all”
”I do not think, by the looks of it, that the gale will last as long as I at first supposed,” said the master, at once appeased ”As for the matter of the pirates, no man can answer; I'm sure I can't”
”Well, but what do you think, Mr Ti to the h the officer would not have ventured to give an opinion in opposition to his superior, yet, as Bowse had not expressed one, he felt hi at the state of the case on both sides--the long and short of it is, inon with some of the Liverpool merchantmen, which isn't at all unusual; and that those chaps who came about us mistook us for one of their friends; and then, when they found theirup our eyes with a cock and a bull story about pirates That's what I think about it You see that brig, whether Austrian or not, was looking out for soh?” exclaimed the master, with sudden animation ”I think not; for, by Heavens, here she comes”
All those who heard the exclamation turned their eyes over the taffrail
Just astern was the polacca brig--her head had paid off, and, with a reef shaken out of each of her topsails, she was seen heeling over to the gale, and tearing away through the foa waves in chase of them
The master, whose suspicions as to the honesty of her character had never been reer hesitated to declare that he believed her to be the very pirate of whom he had been warned He felt that he was now called on to decide what course it would be wisest to pursue
To avoid her by outsailing her, he knew to be hopeless--except that, by carrying on sail to the very last, he ht carry away her ht remain with the stoutest and best-found shi+p His next resource was the hope of crippling her with his guns, as she drew near, and thus preventing her fro, while he escaped; and if both ive the victory to British courage and seaside He explained his intentions to his officers and Colonel Gauntlett, who fully agreed with hi, he immediately ordered a reef to be shaken out of the topsails The men flew aloft obedient to the order--the reefs were quickly shaken out, and the yards again hoisted up