Part 68 (2/2)

CHAPTER SEVENTY NINE.

A SAILOR'S TRUE YARN.

It is the second day after the tragedy upon the isle, and the Chilian barque has sailed away from the Veraguan coast, out of that indentation known upon modern maps as ”Montijo Bay.”

She has long since rounded Cabo Mala, and is standing in for the port of Panama. With a full crew--most of them old and able seamen--no fear but she will reach it now.

Crozier in command, has restored Harry Blew to his old rank of first officer; which so far from having forfeited, he is now deemed to doubly deserve. But still weak from his long privation, the ex-man-o'-war's man is excused from duty, Cadwallader doing it for him.

Harry is strong enough, however, to tell the young officers what they are all ears to hear--the story of that _Flag of Distress_. Their time hitherto taken up attending upon their _fiancees_, they have deferred calling for the full account, which only the English sailor can give them.

Now having pa.s.sed Cabo Mala, as if with that promontory of bad repute all evil were left behind, they are in the mood to listen to the narration in all its details; and for this have summoned the chief officer to their side.

”Your honours!” he begins, ”it's a twisted-up yarn, from the start to the hour ye hove in sight; an' if ye hadn't showed yerselves just in the nick o' time, an' ta'en the twist out o' it, hard to say how 'twould 'a ended. No doubt, in all o' us dyin' on that desert island, an' layin'

our bones there. Thank the Lord, for our delivery--'ithout any disparagement to what's been done by both o' you, young gentlemen. For that He must ha' sent you, an has had a guidin' hand throughout the whole thing, I can't help thinkin', 'specially when I look back on the scores o' chances that seemed goin' against the right, an' still sheered round to it after all.”

”True,” a.s.sents Crozier, honouring the devout faith of the sailor.

”You're quite right in ascribing it to Divine interference. Certainly, G.o.d's hand seems to have been extended in our favour. But go on!”

”Well, to commence at the beginnin', which is when you left me at San Francisco. As I told Master Willie, that day he comed ash.o.r.e in the dingy, I war engaged to go chief mate in the Chili barque. She war then a s.h.i.+p; afterward converted as ye see, through our shortness o' hands.

”When I went aboard her, an' for sev'ral days after, I war the only thing in the shape o' sailor she'd got. Then her captain--that poor crazed creetur below--put advertis.e.m.e.nts in the papers, offering big pay; the which, as I then supposed, brought eleven chaps, callin'

themselves sailors, an' s.h.i.+ppin' as such. One o' 'em, for want o' a better, war made second mate--his name bein' entered on the books as Padilla. He war the last o' the three swung up, an' if ever man desarved hangin', he did, bein' the cruellest scoundrel o' the lot.

”After we'd waited another day or two, an' no more makin' appearance, the skipper made up his mind to sail. Then the old gentleman, along wi'

the two saynoreetas, came aboard; when we cleared an' stood out to sea.

”Afore leavin' port, I had a suspishun about the sort o' crew we'd s.h.i.+pped. But soon's we are fairly afloat, it got to be somethin' worse than suspishun; I war sartin then we'd an ugly lot to deal with. Still, I only believed them to be bad men--an', if that war possible, worse seamen. I expected trouble wi' them in sailin' the vessel; an' a likelihood o' them bein' disobedient. But on the second night after leavin' land, I found out somethin' o' a still darker stripe--that they war neither more nor less than a gang o' piratical conspirators, an' had a plan already laid out. A lucky chance led to me discoverin' their infarnal design. The two we've agreed to let go off--Jack Striker an'

Bill Davis--both old birds from the convict gangs o' Australia--war talkin' it over atween themselves, an' I chanced to overhear them. What they sayed made everythin' clear--as it did my hair to stand on eend.

Twar a scheme to plunder the s.h.i.+p o' the gold-dust Don Gregorio hed got in her; an' carry off your young ladies. Same time they war to scuttle the vessel, an' sink her; first knockin' the old gentleman on the head, as well as the skipper; whiles your humble sarvint an' the darkey are to be disposed o' same sweet fas.h.i.+on.

”On listenin' to the dyabolikal plot, I war clear dumfoundered, an' for a while didn't know what to do. 'Twar a case o' life an' death to some o' us; an' for the saynoreetas, somethin' worse. At first I thort o'

telling Captain Lantanas, an' also Don Gregorio. But then I seed if I shud, that 'twould only make death surer to all as were doomed. I knowed the skipper to be a man o' innocent, unsuspishus nature, an'

mightn't gi'e belief to such 'trocious rascality, as bein' a thing possible. More like he'd let out right away, an' bring on the b.l.o.o.d.y bizness sooner than they intended it. From what Striker and Davis said, I made out that it war to be kept back, till we should sight land near Panyma.

”Well; after a big spell o' thinkin', I seed a sort o' way out of it-- the only one appearin' possible. 'Twar this: to purtend joinin' in wi'

the conspirators, an' put myself at thar head. I'd larnt from the talk o' the two Sydney Ducks there war a split 'mong them, 'bout the dividin'

o' the gold-dust. I seed this would gi'e me a chance to slip in along wi' them. So takin' advantage o' it, I broached the bizness to Striker that same night, and got into his confidence, an' theer councils; arterwards obtaining the influence I wanted.

”Mind, gentlemen, it took a smart show o' trickery and maneuvrin'.

'Mong other things, I had to appear cool to the cabin people throughout all the voyage--specially them two sweet creeturs. Many's the time my heart ached thinkin' o' yourself, Mr Crozier, as also Master Willie-- an' then o' your sweethearts, an' what might happen, if I should fail in my plan for protectin' 'em. When they wanted to be free and friendly, an' once began talkin' to me, I hed to answer 'em gruff an' growlin', knowin' that eyes war on me all the while, an' ears listenin'. As to tellin' them what was before, or givin' them the slimmest hint o' it, that would 'a spoilt my plans, an' ruined everything. They'd a gone straight to the old gentleman, an' then it would 'a been all up wi' us.

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