Part 13 (1/2)
CHAPTER XI.
THE s.h.i.+P IN THE BLACK CLOAK.
The day that broke was glorious enough for Nature's making, but sad upon our s.h.i.+p, in that the folly of eight poor fellows should have cost the life of two, with three more lying near to death in the fo'castle.
The sea had risen a good deal when we got under steam again, and clouds scudded over the sun; but we set stay-sails and jibs, and made a fine pace towards the sh.o.r.es of America. It was near noon when we had buried the two stokers shot by the skipper, and more on in the afternoon before the decks were made straight, and the traces of the scuffle quite obliterated. But Paolo lay all day in a delirium, and Mary went in and out, bearing a gentle hand to the wounded, who alternately cried with the pain of it, and begged grace for their insanity. The second officer's case was worse than theirs, and I thought at noon that the total of the dead would have been three; for he raved incessantly, crying ”Ice, Ice!” almost with every breath, while we had all difficulty possible to hold him in his bunk. His words I could not get the meaning of; but I had them later, and in circ.u.mstances I had never looked for.
After the hour of lunch the skipper called Roderick and me into his cabin, and there he discussed the position with us.
”One thing is clear,” he said; ”you've brought me on more than a pleasure trip, and, while I don't complain, it will be necessary at New York for me to know something more--or, maybe to leave this s.h.i.+p. Last night's work must be made plain, of course; and this second officer of yours must stand to his trial. The men I would willingly let go, for they're no more than lubberly fools whose heads have been turned. But one thing I now make bold to claim--I take this yacht straight from here to Sandy Hook; and we poke our noses into no business on the way.”
”Of course,” said Roderick somewhat sarcastically, ”you've every right to do what you like with my s.h.i.+p; but I seem to remember having engaged you to obey my orders.”
”Fair orders and plain sailing,” replied Captain York, bringing his fist down on the table with emphasis; ”not running after war-s.h.i.+ps that could blow us out of the water without thinking of it. Fair orders I took, and fair orders I'll obey.”
”That's quite right, Roderick,” I said; ”there's no reason now why we shouldn't go straight on--if we don't meet with anyone to ask questions on the way; of that I'm not so sure, though.”
”Nor I,” said the skipper meaningly, and waiting for me to add more; but I did not mean to gratify him, and we all went out on deck again after we had agreed to let him have his will. We found the first officer on the bridge, looking away to the south-east, where the black hull of a steamer was now showing full. I do not know that the distant sight of a s.h.i.+p was anything to cause remark, but as I looked at her, I noticed that she steamed at a fearful speed, and she showed no smoke from her funnels.
”Skipper,” I said, ”will you look at that hull? Isn't the boat making uncommon headway?”
He took a long gaze, and then he spoke--
”You're right. She's going more than twenty knots.”
”And straight towards us.”
”As you say.”
”Is there anything remarkable about that?”
He took another sight, and when he turned to me again he had no colour in his face.
”I've seen that s.h.i.+p before,” he said.
”Where?” asked Roderick laconically.
”Five days ago, when she fired a sh.e.l.l into the _Ocean King_.”
”In that case,” said I, ”there isn't much doubt about her intentions: she's chasing us!”
”That may or may not be,” he replied, as he raised his gla.s.s again, ”but she's the same s.h.i.+p, I'll wager my life. Look at the rake of her--and the lubbers, they've left some of their bright metal showing amids.h.i.+ps!”
He indicated the deck-house by the bridge, where my gla.s.s showed me a s.h.i.+ning spot in the cloak of black, for the sun fell upon the place, and reflected from it as from a mirror of gold. There was no longer any doubt: we were pursued by the nameless s.h.i.+p, and, if no help fell to us, I shuddered to think what the end might be.
”What are you going to do, skipper?” asked Roderick, as gloom fell upon the three of us; and we stood together, each man afraid to tell the others all he thought.
”What, am I going to do?” said he. ”I'm going to see the boats cleared, and all hands in the stoke-hole that have the right there”; and then he sang out, ”Stand by!” and the men swarmed up from below, and heard the order to clear the boats. They obeyed unquestioningly; but I doubt not that they were no less uneasy than we were; and, as these things cannot be concealed, the whisper was soon amongst them that the danger lay in the black steamer, which had been five days ago the s.h.i.+p of gold. Yet they went to the work with a right good will; and presently, when a canopy of our own smoke lay over us, and the yacht bounded forward under the generosity of the stoking, they set up a great cheer spontaneously, and were ready for anything. Yet I, myself, could not share their honest bravado. The black s.h.i.+p which had been but a mark on the horizon now showed her lines fully; there could be no two opinions of her speed, or of the way in which she gained upon us. Indeed, one could not look upon her advance without envy of her form, or of the terrifying manner in which she cut the seas. Churning the foam until it mounted its banks on each side of her great ram, she rode the Atlantic like a beautiful yacht, with no vapour of smoke to float above her; and not so much as a sign that any engines forced her onward with a velocity unknown, I believe, in the whole history of navigation. And so she came straight in our wake, and I knew that we should have little breathing time before we should hear the barking of her guns.