Part 18 (2/2)
Last of all, Van goes and puts his foot on the skipper's neck, and I made as though to get up, for I thought he was going to blow his brains out; and bad and cowardly as the captain had been, I couldn't a-bear to see him hit when he was down without trying to help him; but it was of no use, for I was pulled back directly, and all I could do was to sit and look on.
All at once, Van turns a breaker on its end, jumps on it, and, sticking his arms a-kimbo like a fishwoman, he begins to spout at us; and fine and fierce no doubt he thought he looked in his red nightcap, and belt stuck full of pistols. ”Now, my lads,” he says, ”we're going to have some of the good old times over again: take possession of one of the beautiful isles in the Pacific, and sail where we like under the black flag, free as the day, with none of your cursed tyrants to make men sweat blood and work like dogs, but all free and equal. We've done the work, and captured the s.h.i.+p, and you've acted like thieves and curs, and sided with them as will be ready to kick you for your pains. As for you, Wallace, curse you! you have always been a cur and a tool; but we shall want help, and you can come if you like; while, you others, we'll look over what's gone by, for you did fight like men. So, what do you say?--will you join us, or take your chance to reach land in one of the boats with the lot below?”
The young lads all looked at me, to see what I'd say, for no one took much notice of Mr Wallace. Bill Smith, too, who was much better, he looks at me; and I s'pose old Sam meant to do the same, but when I turned to him, all I could make out was the whites of his eyes, till he turned his head on one side, and I got a sight of one eye, when he turned his head t'other way, and then I see t'other.
It was very plain that they meant me to be spokesman; and seeing that was to be the case, and that, after a fas.h.i.+on, they left me to decide, I just turns it over in my own mind for a hit, and seeing as I should be wanted in the boats to help make the land somewhere, as they was to be loaded with a set of the helplessest beings as ever breathed--why, I says: ”T'others can do as they like; as for me, you never asked me at first; and as you've done without me so far, why, you can do without me now--till you gets to the gallows,” I added, but so as they couldn't hear me. And, though I hardly expected it from the lads, they said they'd do as I did; while, as for Bill and Sam, they always was a pair of the helplessest babbies as ever breathed, and left me to think for 'em ever since we first sailed together--indeed, I don't fancy as Sam ever had any thinking machinery at all. Howsoever, they said as they'd stick by me; and Van gave a curse and a swear, and a blow or two at us; and then, after a bit of 'scussion, in which women was named two or three times, and Van and another party was quite at loggerheads for a time, he gave his orders, big and bounceable like, and telling us to lend a hand, he made ready to lower down one of the boats.
STORY TWO, CHAPTER TEN.
Two boats were lowered down, and my two mates and me and the four sailors was to man 'em. They let down Captain Harness, wounded and half mad as he was, into one boat, and Mr Wallace the mate into the other; and then a couple of compa.s.ses, and some breakers of water, a bag or two of biscuit, and a tub of b.u.t.ter were shoved in. Then came the job of getting the pa.s.sengers over the side. The men were ordered up first, and, some wounded, some savage, some weak and disheartened, they were made to take their places, six of the mutineers keeping guard with c.o.c.ked pistols and drawn cutlashes. I believe, though, in spite of their weapons, that a little English pluck was all that was needed to save the s.h.i.+p; but no attempt was made, and, trembling and frightened, the women and children were ordered up, and then the boats were loaded.
”Now, then, down with you, and shove off,” says Van Haigh, showing his cursed white teeth, and p.r.i.c.king at poor Sam Brown with his cutlash, just out of malice like. And you should have seen Sam's eyes that time!
He never spoke, but it's my opinion if he'd had the chance, he'd have shaken Van's precious body until the silver rings he was so proud of had dropped out of his yellow ears. But, as I said before, Sam didn't speak; he only lays hold of the side rope, and lowers himself into the boat, already too full; Bill Smith dropping into the other, in spite of his wound.
”Now you!” roars Van to me, for I was standing hesitating, and I don't mind saying that a cold chill ran all through me, for just then I heard the click of his pistol c.o.c.k, and I knew he was taking aim at my head.
But I mastered myself, and wouldn't turn round; for it was an important time, and there was much to think about. There was poor Mr Ward, with his head bound up, held by two of the mutineers; and poor Tomt.i.t, with his knees to his chin as he sat upon the deck; and of course they weren't going, for the boats wouldn't hold any more. And there was the fat pa.s.senger, as cried when we left home; and last of all, Miss Bell and her brother below.
It didn't take me long to make up my mind, for it seemed to me as it would never do for me and my mates to go and leave them in their trouble, for maybe they'd be sent afloat in a little boat next, and wouldn't know how to work her; so, half-expecting every moment to drop with a bullet through me, I says: ”I'm blest, my lads, if I ain't had about enough of it. While the old skipper was aboard, I did my duty by him and them as was under him; but now there's a new skipper, I don't see what call there is for me to go afloat with a set o' lubbers in a crazy boat. You, Bill Smith, and you, squinty Brown, can do as you like. Captain Van,” I says, turning to him, ”if you'll shove that pistol away, I'll stop aboard.”
”Hooray!” shouts half a dozen of the fellows; and I could see Van looking me through and through with them dark eyes of his; but I don't think he got much below the skin either, and besides, he was a bit tickled by me calling him ”captain;” so he puts the pistol in his belt, and the next minute Bill and Sam was aboard again, looking half-puzzled like. Then the mutineers gave a bit of a cheer, and the pa.s.sengers groaned at us; and, to make matters right with them on board, I jumps on the taffrail and groans again, and calls the poor beggars ”swabs”--G.o.d forgive me!--for shoving off in so lubberly a way, with their oars dipping anyhow, nohow, one after the other in the water, and the boats not trimmed. It was a cruel trick, but I meant it all for the best; while, what to do about old Sam, I didn't know, for he was growling and swearing to himself like some old tiger-cat, and I was afraid he'd show his teeth and claws every moment; but he kept quiet. As for poor Bill, he seemed misty and dazed, never speaking, but sitting down on the deck to lean his head against the side. Then Van seemed more at rest, for, giving his orders, the men unc.o.c.ked their pistols, after making-believe to blow the fat pa.s.senger's brains out, and making the perspiration run down his face, mixed up with tears, for he began to pipe his eye terribly.
”Lower 'em below,” says Van; and the fat pa.s.senger saved 'em the trouble; while, when they were letting down Tomt.i.t, whose hands were tied, and they were going to let go, they found his legs was already at the bottom, and then his head disappeared, but only to pop up again the next moment like a Jack-in-the-box, to see what was going to be done to the doctor.
”Ain't he a rum beggar?” I says to one of the blood-thirsty devils at my side, all to make friends, you see; and he laughed, and so did two or three more, for another of 'em made a cut at the poor chap's head with his cutlash, to make him bob down the hatchway again, which he did, though only to come up again, till, finding it wasn't safe, he kept down, and we didn't see him no more just then. The poor doctor was the next to take their attention; and, seeing how cut up the poor fellow was, I'd have given something to have gone and shaken hands with him, and told him what I felt, and at first I hardly dare look him in the face.
They lashed Mr Ward's hands behind him, and I saw his lips quiver as he kept on casting an eye at the cabin-stairs. I knew well enough what he was thinking about, only I daren't look at him much, for there were plenty watching me suspiciously enough, and, let alone not wanting to be knocked on the head, I felt that to do any good for the pa.s.sengers, I must throw them as had the upper hand off the scent.
I was leaning against the bulwarks, making-believe to look on, cool as could be, and s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g my old mahogany phizog into what I meant to be a grin of delight at our freedom, but I know it must have been about the sort of screw that a fellow would give when lashed to a gun for a round dozen.
Mr Ward saw me grinning, and sent such a look at me as made my face grow as long as a spoon; but that wouldn't do, and I daren't give him any signal, so I laughed it off, and, pulling out my box and opening my knife, I goes up to him, and I says in a free-and-easy way, ”Have a chaw, mate?” and made-believe to cut him one.
”You infernal traitorous scoundrel!” he shouted, and in spite of his las.h.i.+ngs he made at me; while, making-believe to have my monkey up, I up with my knife and made a stroke at him, sending it through his pilot-coat and into one of the side-pockets, dragging at it, to get it out again, and keeping it hitched the while, till some of them laid hold of me by the arm, when, struggling and swearing, I hit out with my left hand, and caught Mr Ward upon the chest, sending him down upon the deck, when I tried again to get at him, but they held me fast.
”I'll let him know,” I spluttered out; and then Bra.s.sey, Van's right-hand man, gives the order, and three of his mates drags Mr Ward down the hatchway; when I pretended to be better, and only kept on muttering and scowling about like a dog that's lost his bone, till ten minutes after, when I got a pannikin of grog, and sat looking at what was going on.
STORY TWO, CHAPTER ELEVEN.
I don't think I'd any plans made; my only idea was, that when they sent the three or four others off, me and my mates might seize another boat, and row after them, the same night, for they wouldn't get very far, as I knew, unless a fresh breeze sprung up, and took us away. Certainly the two boats that had gone were loaded deep, but they were not making a mile an hour; and it seemed plain enough to me that unless they could answer for its being calm till the poor wretches were picked up, if they ever were, the brutes on board had murdered 'em one and all, men, women, and children, by a slow kind of torture.
”Not very smart crews, matey,” I says, pointing with my knife over my shoulder to where the boats were slowly rising and falling, and then I fished out a piece of chicken from a tin case of the skipper's, and went on eating away as if I hadn't a care on my mind. ”Peg away, my lads,” I says to Bill and Sam; but Bill couldn't touch a snap. Sam made up for it, though; and after plenty of hard work and fighting, and two days on biscuit and water, and that rank yellow grease sailors get for b.u.t.ter, one's teeth do get rather sharp. ”Now, if you'll just sarve another tot o' grog round, cap'n,” I says to Van, as I wiped my knife on the leg of my trousers, ”I shall be about done and ready for work.”
Some of the fellows laughed, and Van said something about my not being such a bad sort after all; but I could see as he did not trust me, which, I must say, was quite right, and the only right thing as I ever saw in the blackguard's character.
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