Part 29 (1/2)
”Not make out my woice!” retorted Bob. ”No, I s'pose you can't. And I ain't surprised at it neither, considerin' the bushels of smoke as I've swallered from that fire ash.o.r.e, and the thousands of muskeeters as has flied down my throat; so that's all right. Here's the grog, old c.o.c.k.”
”Steve” leaned over the bulwarks and seized the grog, and Bob and I both climbed the brig's side at the same instant. In another moment ”Steve”
was on his back, with Bob's knee and his whole weight on his chest; and I was soon busy securing the prisoner with a piece of the rope which was lying about in any quant.i.ty on the deck. This was quickly done, and the man gagged with a belaying-pin; after which we made a rapid tour of the deck, cabin, and forecastle, and satisfied ourselves that there was no one else on board to dispute or interfere with our actions.
We decided to set the brig on fire in three places--forward, aft, and in mids.h.i.+ps--and we lost no time in making our preparations. We found a lot of old sails in a locker at the fore end of the forecastle, and these we divided, taking away a sufficiency to kindle a good rousing fire in the hold; and over these, as soon as we had deposited them in a suitable position, as well as over those remaining in the locker, we poured a few buckets of tar from a cask we found abroach on deck.
We had no fear about the craft not burning well, for she had a large quant.i.ty of combustible materials of all sorts in her hold; and we hastily made as large a heap of these as we could, so as to ensure her effectually taking fire.
We then went into the cabin, and piled the bedding from all the berths upon the floor, heaping the chairs and table upon it, and pouring a copious libation of tar upon the whole. We then put a light to it, staying long enough to see the ma.s.s burst into fierce flame; when we rushed on deck, and I dived into the hold, whilst Bob went into the forecastle, where we quickly kindled our respective heaps, and then as quickly returned to the deck.
Thin clouds of smoke already poured up through the various openings of the deck, promising speedy and effectual destruction to the brig; so we had now nothing to do but _get_ away from her, and return with all speed to the cutter.
”Steve” was lowered over the side into the punt, Bob and I followed, and we at once pushed off for the cove, in the highest glee at having so successfully carried out our daring scheme.
Daylight was just breaking as we pushed off, and by the time that we entered our cove the sun was above the horizon.
We dropped the punt and canoe astern, and the sails being all bent and loose (I having made every possible preparation for an immediate start whilst waiting for the hour at which to set out upon our raid), we were under way and standing out of the cove in ten minutes more.
Bob got our big gaff-topsail on the craft as we ran down towards the pa.s.sage, and I kept a bright look-out for any signs of alarm in the pirate camp. The camp itself we could not see, of course; but I expected to see men moving about on the sh.o.r.e. Nor was I disappointed, for I soon descried a knot of figures standing upon the low point, which was the nearest land to the brig, watching, in apparent stupefaction, the progress of their vessel's destruction.
The brig was by this time almost enveloped in flames, and had the entire crew been on board, they could then have done nothing to save her.
We were quickly discovered, of course, and great was the confusion which our appearance seemed to excite; but I cared nothing about that--indeed, it was a part of my programme that the pirates should know to whom they were indebted for their present disaster.
Very shortly a crowd of men appeared hurrying along the beach in our direction, and, as we bore away for the pa.s.sage, they saluted us with a straggling musketry fire, more in impotent anger than for any harm it could do us, for the shot all fell very far short. When about a quarter of a mile from the entrance to the channel, I hove the cutter to, and we hauled the punt alongside, took out one of her oars, and cast ”Steve”
adrift from his las.h.i.+ngs, leaving him to get ash.o.r.e to his comrades as best he might with one oar.
We then filled away once more, and ran down upon the boats, took them all in tow, and stood out through the channel. Another volley of musketry betrayed the irritation of the pirates at the sight of our departure and the loss of their boats, to which Bob replied by giving three ironical cheers. At this juncture Ella appeared on deck, wonderfully surprised, of course, at all she saw, and I was at once called on to explain. I did so, briefly narrating the circ.u.mstances of Bob's fortunate discovery of the arrival of the _Albatross_ at the island, of his having watched the crew all the previous day, of our plan, and of the manner in which it had been carried out, pointing to the burning brig as the issue of it all.
”Oh! Harry,” exclaimed she, bursting into tears, ”how _could_ you run such a fearful risk! Only fancy, you two men venturing into the very centre of these dreadful people's camp, and without arms too! Why, what would have become of you if you had been taken? Really, I could almost find it in my heart to be downright angry with you both. I cannot understand men a bit. They seem--some of them--to have been born absolutely devoid of the faculty of perception of danger, even when it is staring them in the face; and accordingly they rush into the midst of all sorts of perils, seemingly with a happy unconsciousness that they are doing so, and with a heedlessness as to consequences which is perfectly bewildering. No--now do not try to coax me, Harry, for I really _am seriously_ angry with you. And to think, too, of your being up all night, weak as you are! I am surprised that you are not ill again. Oh, Harry,” (with fresh sobs), ”how thankful I am that you are safe, and that I did not know anything of this until now! And do not look grieved, darling; I did not mean what I said. It was very naughty of me, I know, but I was frightened at the thought of the risks you have run, and how all this _might_ have ended. Oh, mercy! what is that?”
A shock, as if the cutter had struck upon a rock--a dull, heavy _boom_-- and the fragments of the burning brig were scattered far and wide, to come pelting down again the next minute in a perfect shower of charred and splintered wood, spars, ropes, and the thousand-and-one other matters usually found on board a s.h.i.+p. The brig's powder magazine had blown up. A heavy cloud of dark smoke marked the spot where the explosion had taken place; and when it drifted away before the fresh morning breeze, one or two half-burnt timbers floating on the water were all that remained of the _Albatross_.
”Ah!” exclaimed Bob, who was busy coiling down the various halliards, etcetera, ”I've been expectin' that any time this last half-hour, and I only wonder it didn't happen afore. Well, that's a good endin' to a good job well begun, and I reckon them chaps ash.o.r.e there may's well make up their minds to stay where they be for the rest of their nat'ral lives, for they've neither s.h.i.+p nor boats, nor stuff to build 'em with either. I don't reckon there's many trees on yon island that'd be much use in a s.h.i.+p-buildin' yard.”
”No,” said I; ”I think we may safely consider that their career of crime and bloodshed is put an effectual stop to, for some time at least; unless, indeed, some unfortunate s.h.i.+p should come to the island, in which case they would have her to a certainty.”
”Ay,” returned Bob, ”but that's a very onlikely chance. These here islands don't lie in the road to nowhere, and it may be years afore they sets eyes on a sail again after they loses sight of that good-lookin'
topsail of ourn. I s'pose they won't starve there, will they, lad?”
”No,” said I, ”there is very little fear of that. The island yields an abundance of fruit, as you know, amply sufficient for all their requirements; and they have their punt, which will serve them to go fis.h.i.+ng on the lagoon, though she is too small for any of them to venture to leave the island in her. So, on the whole, I think they are quite as well off as they deserve.”
We were by this time clear of the reef and in open water, so I went down to breakfast, leaving Bob at the tiller. Ella was very penitent for her late ”naughtiness,” as she termed it, and was so lavish with her endearments, to make up for it, that I would very willingly have experienced such a ”thunder-squall” every day of my life to have the air cleared afterwards in so agreeable a manner. When I returned to the deck, Bob asked me, previous to his going below to get his breakfast, what I intended to do with, the boats and the canoe, all of which were in tow. I had not thought very much about it, but now that the question was put, I decided to retain the canoe altogether. She was so small and so light, that I thought we could easily carry her on deck in anything but very bad weather, and, ordinarily, she would tow very comfortably astern. If we could contrive to keep her, I thought, she would frequently save wear and tear in our tube-boat; and where a pa.s.sage of a short distance across the calm surface of a lagoon, from the cutter to the sh.o.r.e, was all that was required, she would answer the purpose perfectly well. As to the boats of the _Albatross_, I decided to tow them fairly out of sight of the island, and then abandon them; thus effectually precluding the possibility of their getting back into their owners' hands, the prevailing winds there being from about south-east, which would drive the boats ever farther and farther from the island.
We accordingly retained them in tow for the remainder of that day and all next night, and cast them adrift on the following morning.
We were now within two days' easy sail of the spot which had been indicated to me as the position of the treasure-island: and our thoughts naturally reverted to the question as to whether the treasure really existed or not; Bob feeling the utmost confidence that it would be found precisely as the dying Spaniard had described it, whilst I began to entertain grave doubts as to our success. The important conversation in which the existence and position of the treasure were revealed was recalled, almost word for word, and the notes which I had made at the time were frequently referred to; and certainly everything seemed to abundantly justify Bob's confidence, whilst I was quite unable to point to a single word or circ.u.mstance tending to confirm my doubts; the fact is, I suppose, that as we drew nearer to our goal, and began to realise more fully the vast influence which the possession of the treasure would exercise upon our future, I must have been influenced by a feeling that it was ”too good to be true.” There was so very decided an infusion of the romantic element into everything connected with the affair, that my matter-of-fact mind seemed unable to accept the possibility that there might be truth in it after all.
But to return to the _Water Lily_. On the evening of the day following that on which we sailed from the pirate's island, we found ourselves so near the reputed position of the treasure-island that I decided to heave the cutter to for the night, so as to avoid the possibility of running upon the outlying reef during the darkness. Bob went aloft the last thing after the sun had set, and before darkness closed down upon the face of the tranquil ocean, but he could see nothing that he was able to identify with certainty as land. On the extreme verge of the western horizon he saw, he said, something which _might_ be an island; but evening clouds, especially in fine weather and when low down on the horizon, sometimes a.s.sume such forms and hues that it is very difficult for even the most experienced mariner to decide whether what he is looking at is land or merely vapour, particularly when land is known or supposed to exist in the direction in which he is looking.