Part 8 (2/2)
replied Jack. ”But if anybody escaped, I would rather it were Paddy Adair than any one else.”
Their conversation was cut short by that rolling sound of a drum which makes the heart of every true man-of-war's man leap with joy. It followed the captain's order to the first lieutenant, ”Beat to quarters.” What magic was there in the sound of those words! In an instant every one, from the first lieutenant to the smallest powder-monkey, was in full activity. Bulkheads were knocked away, firescreens were put up, the gallery fire was extinguished, the magazines were opened, powder and shot were handed up, the small-arms were served out, the men buckled on their cutla.s.ses, and stuck their pistols in their belts.
Although Captain Lascelles fully believed that he should gain the victory, he was too good an officer and too wise a man not to take every possible means to secure it. It was soon evident that the _Racer_ was coming up hand-over-hand with the chase, and before long it was clearly made out that she was, at least, a fifty-gun s.h.i.+p. She showed no colours, and as to her nationality opinions were divided. Some thought she was French; but then in opposition to this conjecture, it was a.s.serted that a French fifty-gun s.h.i.+p was not likely to run away from a frigate, whereas a Turk or an Egyptian was very likely indeed to do so.
The officers on board them were generally very inefficient, while a total want of discipline prevailed.
”That craft ahead must have a very bad conscience, or she would not be in such a hurry to get out of our way,” observed Jack; ”she's a Turk, or I am a Dutchman.”
”So the captain thinks, which is fortunate, or you might have to turn into a Dutchman, or else break your word,” observed Murray.
”I wish that he were a Frenchman. I should so like to have a tussle with him,” said Jack. ”Let people talk as they will about liberty, equality, and fraternity, I agree with my father, that the French never will like the English till they have taught us to eat frogs, and have thrashed us on a second field of Waterloo, and I hope that time may never come.”
”I hope not either,” said Murray. ”But I have no wish to go to war with France or Frenchmen. If they are bad friends, they are worse enemies, and not to be despised, depend on that; no people could have fought better than they did during the last war.”
”That is the reason I should like to fight them again,” exclaimed Jack.
”What is the use of fighting with people who can't fight?”
Murray laughed at Jack's style of reasoning. He had not arrived at the conclusion which an older man might have reached, that fighting under any circ.u.mstances is a dreadful business, and that the person who gives the cause for the fight does a very wicked thing, utterly hateful in the sight of G.o.d. Never let that truth be forgotten.
Darkness was now rapidly coming on. The stranger could just be seen looming through it. Captain Lascelles felt pretty confident, however, that he should come up with her before she could make her escape. Night at last settled completely down over the ocean; still she could be seen, though very indistinctly. On the two s.h.i.+ps flew before the breeze. At length the master, who had been examining the chart in his cabin, came up to the captain.
”We are drawing in very near to the coast, sir,” said he. ”It will be safer to keep the lead going.”
”But where the s.h.i.+p ahead can float so can we,” observed Captain Lascelles.
”She may manage to run in between reefs on which we may strike. Never let us trust to the leading of an enemy, sir,” was the answer.
”You are right, master, you are right!” exclaimed Captain Lascelles, in a tone of warm approval. ”Send a hand with the lead into each of the chains. We'll run no risk of casting the s.h.i.+p away.”
Soon the voices of the leadsmen were heard through the still silence of night, as the gallant frigate clove her way through the calm waters.
”By the deep nine,” sang out one on the starboard side.
”By the mark seven,” was soon afterwards heard from the man in the port chains.
”Quarter less six,” was the next shouted out.
”We are shoaling our water rapidly,” observed Captain Lascelles to the first lieutenant. ”Stand by to go about.”
All eyes had been fixed on the dark ma.s.s ahead. Onward it seemed to glide through the darkness. Every one felt certain that their eyes did not deceive them. There still appeared, they all believed, the sails of the stranger, a huge towering pinnacle reaching to the sky. Yet so near the ground were they that it was dangerous for the frigate, though of course drawing much less water, to stand on.
”Was she a s.h.i.+p of mortal fabric?” some of the more superst.i.tious among the seamen began to ask.
As they looked, the tall pyramid seemed to rock, and then suddenly to dissolve into the air. A sound, at the same time, came from the southward, as if of breakers das.h.i.+ng on a rocky sh.o.r.e.
”Hands about s.h.i.+p,” shouted the captain, with startling energy.
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