Part 44 (2/2)
The night grew on, and morning was approaching. A breeze had sprung up from the eastward with sufficient strength to disperse the mist, and to keep back the usual land wind, which blows from the opposite direction, while it ruffled the surface of the harbour into waves.
Just after the first streaks of dawn had appeared above the horizon, Desmond caught sight of a number of boats collected up the harbour.
They appeared to be pulling towards the brigantine, but as the wind was against them, and the current was setting in, they made but slow progress. Desmond awoke s.n.a.t.c.hblock, who had fallen asleep, and told him what he had seen.
”Maybe the same fellows as before are coming to pay us a visit,” he answered. ”If they are we will treat them the same as the last time.”
”Don't call Mr Adair, he wants rest, and there will be time enough when the boats get nearer.” Ben, however, got up to have a lookout, and then called the rest of the crew. He found Pedro still asleep in the caboose with the soup boiling over; he asked him what he would wish to do.
”Get the soup ready first,” said Pedro. ”Then you lash me up as before, I no wish fight.”
The soup being ready, Desmond called Adair, who, as well as his crew, found it very welcome.
”I doubt much whether those fellows will venture to attack us, though it's as well to be prepared,” he observed. ”If they do, though there may be twice as many as at first, we must beat them off.”
Adair and the rest had been so engaged in watching the approaching boats, that no one thought of looking eastward with the exception of Desmond.
”There is a sail in the offing, and she is standing in for the harbour, as far as I can make out,” he exclaimed, as he held the gla.s.s still raised through which he had been looking. Adair took it from him, and eagerly watched the approaching vessel.
”You are right, my boy,” he answered. ”She seems to me a brig about the size of the _Supplejack_, but we shall make her out more clearly in a short time; if she is a friend those slaving rascals will not dare to attack us.”
”But she may be a slaver herself, and then she will a.s.sist them,”
whispered Desmond.
”And then we shall have to fight her as well, that is all I can say about it,” answered Adair.
”What do you make her out to be?” he asked of Ben, who just then came aft.
”She is scarcely large enough for the corvette, or I should have expected her to come in and look for us. That craft is a brig, and as like to be the _Supplejack_ as any other,” said Ben. ”I don't think the people in the boats have made her out yet, or they would save themselves the trouble of a long pull against wind and tide.”
Some time elapsed before the matter could be decided. The boats made but slow progress, but the stranger standing on under all sail rapidly approached the mouth of the harbour. Still the former would be alongside, and if the Brazilians had sufficient determination, they might cut the cable and tow the brigantine up the harbour, before the brig could come to her a.s.sistance.
The Brazilians must have seen the stranger by this time, but probably they did not believe that she was a man-of-war. They had now come within musket-shot. Terence, on looking through the gla.s.s, saw that there were several officers in uniform in the boats, and began to suspect that they were really official characters, sent by the government to inquire into the cause of the firing in the early part of the night; he did not, therefore, wish to commence hostilities till he had ascertained, if possible, their real character.
The stranger had now slightly to alter her course, when the English flag blew out, and Adair had no longer any doubt that she was the _Supplejack_.
The flag at the same time had been seen by the people in the boats.
Whatever were their intentions, they ceased pulling, apparently holding a consultation; then putting about they made the best of their way up the harbour. Terence felt very much inclined to let fly a volley at them, but mercy, or prudence, prevailed, though if they were the pirates they deserved any punishment he might inflict on them.
As the _Supplejack_ rounded to under the stern of the brigantine, Adair hailed and said what had happened, when Rogers, accompanied by Tom and McTavish, instantly came on board.
”You always come in the nick of time, Jack,” exclaimed Adair, as they shook hands; ”we had a hard tussle last night, and we might have had a harder this morning if you had not made your appearance, but how is it that you have come in here?”
Jack replied that after the gale he had chased a slaver, which had led him a long way out of his course, and having fallen in with the _Tudor_, Murray directed him to look for the prize, and then to escort her to Rio, whence she was to be sent to Sierra Leone.
McTavish doctored the wounded men, and Adair declared that he felt well enough to go on sh.o.r.e with Rogers to lay his complaint before the Government regarding the outrage which had been attempted in a friendly port.
The Governor, Senhor Jose da Silva Souza, declared that he knew nothing whatever about it; he had been astonished at hearing firing, and had sent the captain of the port, with his attendant officials, to ascertain the cause.
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