Part 21 (2/2)
This light boat was now struggling to make the s.h.i.+p, but owing to the strength of the squall, her diminished crew were unable to effect this; they therefore ran ash.o.r.e to await the issue of the fight and the storm.
For some time the _Avenger_ stood on her wild course unharmed, pa.s.sing close to huge rocks on either side of her, over which the sea burst in clouds of foam. Gascoyne still stood at the wheel, guiding the vessel with consummate skill and daring, while the men looked on in awe and in breathless expectation, quite regardless of the shot which flew around them and altogether absorbed by the superior danger by which they were menaced.
The surface of the sea was so universally white, that there was no line of dark water to guide the pirate captain on his bold and desperate course. He was obliged to trust almost entirely to his intimate knowledge of the coast, and to the occasional patches in the surrounding waste where the comparative flatness of the boiling flood indicated less shallow water. As the danger increased, the smile left Gascoyne's lips, but the flas.h.i.+ng of his bright eyes and his deepened colour shewed that the spirit boiled within, almost as wildly as the ocean raged around him.
The centre of the shoal was gained, and a feeling of hope and exultation began to rise in the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of the crew when a terrific shock caused the little schooner to quiver from stem to stern, while an involuntary cry burst from the men, many of whom were thrown violently on the deck.
At the same time a shot from the _Talisman_ came in through the stern bulwarks, struck the wheel and carried it away with part of the tackle attached to the tiller.
”Another leap like that, la.s.s, and you're over,” cried Gascoyne, with a light smile, as he sprang to the iron tiller, and, seizing it with his strong hands, steered the schooner as if she had been a boat.
”Get new tackle rove, Scraggs,” said he, cheerfully, ”I'll keep her straight for Eel's Gate with _this_. That was the first bar of the gate--there are only two altogether, and the second won't be so bad.”
As the captain spoke, the schooner seemed to recover from the shock and again rushed forward on her foaming course; but before the men had time to breathe, she struck again--this time less violently, as had been predicted--and the next wave, lifting her over the shoal, launched her into deep water.
”There, that will do,” said Gascoyne, resigning the helm to Scraggs.
”You can keep her as she goes; there's plenty of water now and no fear of that big bully following us. Meanwhile, I will go below and see to the welfare of our pa.s.sengers.”
Gascoyne was wrong in supposing that the _Talisman_ would not follow.
She could not, indeed, follow in the same course, but the moment that Mulroy observed that the pirate had pa.s.sed the shoals in safety, he stood insh.o.r.e, and, without waiting to pick up the gig, traversed the channel by which they had entered the bay. Then, trusting to the lead and to his knowledge of the general appearance of shallows, he steered carefully along until he cleared the reefs and finally stood out to sea.
In less than half-an-hour afterwards, the party on sh.o.r.e beheld the two vessels disappear among the black storm-clouds that gathered over the distant horizon.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
THE GOAT'S Pa.s.s--AN ATTACK, A BLOODLESS VICTORY, AND A SERMON.
When Ole Thorwald was landed at the foot of that wild gorge in the cliffs, which has been designated the Goat's Pa.s.s, he felt himself to be an aggrieved man, and growled accordingly.
”It's too bad o' that fire-eating fellow to fix on _me_ for this particular service,” said he to one of the settlers named Hugh Barnes, a cooper, who acted as one of his captains; ”and at night too, just as if a man of my years were a cross between a cat, (which everybody knows can see in the dark,) and a kangaroo, which is said to be a powerful leaper, though whether in the dark or the light I don't pretend to know--not being informed on the point. Have a care, Hugh. It seems to me you're going to step into a quarry hole, or over a precipice. How my old flesh quakes, to be sure! If it was only a fair flat field and open day, with any odds you like against me, it would be nothing; but this abominable Goat's--Hah! I knew it. Help! hold on there! murder!”
Ole's sudden alarm was caused by his stumbling in the dark over the root of a shrub which grew on the edge of, and partly concealed, a precipice, over which he was precipitated, and at the foot of which his mangled and lifeless form would soon have reposed, had not his warlike forefathers, being impressed with the advantage of wearing strong sword-belts, furnished the sword which Ole wore with such a belt as was not only on all occasions sufficient to support the sword itself, but which, on this particular occasion, was strong enough to support its owner when he was suspended from, and entangled with, the shrubs of the cliff.
A ray of light chanced to break into the dark chasm at the time, and revealed all its dangers to the pendulous Thorwald so powerfully that he positively howled with horror.
The howl brought Hugh and several of his followers to his side, and they with much difficulty, for he was a heavy man, succeeded in dragging him from his dangerous position and placing him on his feet, in which position he remained for some time speechless and blowing.
”Now, I'll tell ye what it is, boys,” said he at length, ”if ever you catch me going on an expedition of this sort again, flay me alive-- that's all--don't spare me. Pull off the cuticle as if it were a glove, and if I roar don't mind--that's what I say.”
Having said this, the veteran warrior smiled a ghastly smile, as if the idea of being so excruciatingly treated were rather pleasant than otherwise.
”You're not hurt, I hope,” inquired Hugh.
”Hurt! yes, I _am_ hurt--hurt in my feelings--not in my body, thanks to my good sword and belt; but my feelings are injured. That villain, that rascal, that pirate--as I verily believe him to be--selected me specially for this service, I am persuaded, just because he knew me to be unfit for it. Bah! but I'll pay him off for it. Come, boys, forward--perhaps, in the circ.u.mstances, it would be more appropriate to say, upward! We must go through with it now for our retreat is cut off.
Lead the way, Hugh, your eyes are younger and sharper than mine, and if you chance to fall over a cliff, pray give a yell, like a good fellow, so that I may escape your sad fate.”
In the course of half an hour's rough scramble, the party gained the crest of the Goat's Pa.s.s and descended in rear of the native village.
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