Part 17 (1/2)
The Captain walked slowly over to Jansen, who was engaged in bullying the boatswain.
”Who rigged that tackle?” he asked in his most unruffled tones; but I could see the colour mounting to his forehead, as the laughter of the whaling crews fell upon his ear.
”I did,” growled Jansen (edging towards his cabin, in which he always kept loaded firearms), his sullen face showing fear and hatred combined.
”Keep to the deck, sir,” broke forth the Captain, who had foreseen this movement; the harsh, severe tones I knew foretold disaster. ”D--n you, sir, you are neither good enough for an officer nor man before the mast.
There is not a kanaka on board this brig but could have rigged that tackle in a seaman-like manner. Boy George, or even one of the girls, could have made a better fist of it. You have disgraced the brig in the presence of other s.h.i.+ps. Go to your bunk till after breakfast.”
And now Jansen brought immediate punishment on himself. With one hand on the door of the deckhouse, he turned round and muttered, ”Why didn't you let the women do it, then?”
The next moment both men were struggling fiercely on the deck,--Jansen making frantic efforts to fire a pistol he had concealed in the bosom of his s.h.i.+rt; but the hand which held it was gripped by the Captain, and the muzzle pointed upwards.
Jansen was an extremely powerful man, and, amid the babel of tongues that were let loose, I heard one trader say, ”By ----! he's got the best of the Captain.”
But I noticed that while Jansen was almost spent, and was breathing stertorously, the Captain had not yet put forth the tremendous strength which, on sea or sh.o.r.e, I never saw equalled. He was still holding Jansen's hand with a vice-like grasp, when the pistol fell to the deck.
Suddenly freeing himself, he stepped back and dealt two blows with wonderful quickness on the mate's face, cutting his forehead and cheek to the bone. The man staggered wildly--his features streaming with blood--then fell senseless against one of the crew, who darted aside and let him drop on the deck. A murmur of applause, mingled with cries of pity from the women, arose from the spectators, while the whaler crews rent the air with cheers for ”Bully Hayston.”
The Captain drew forth his handkerchief, with which he removed a slight stain upon his face, then said in a mild and pleasant voice, as if nothing had occurred, ”Steward! bring me a gla.s.s of water. Bill (to the Fijian) get these other beasts up and put them ash.o.r.e. Antonio! get Jansen's traps together, and put them and him into the boat. The man that points a pistol at me on board of this brig only does it once. As I don't wish to hurt him again, I must get rid of him.”
The cattle were soon landed and eating their fill on the rich tract of littoral between Utw and Coquille.
That day I bought various articles of trade--including ten tons of yams for Arrecifos. The Captain never interfered with my dealings with the natives; so when Likiak S the missionary went to him, and in a whining tone complained of my paying them in trade, he got the following answer: ”Don't want your people to be paid in trade, don't you? Precisely so!
you white chokered schemer--you whited sepulchre! you want to see these hard-working slaves of natives paid in cash, so that you and your brethren may rob the poor devils of every dollar for church t.i.thes. The supercargo has my fullest confidence, and will not rob any native of a cent. Go and talk to him.”
The missionary came to the trade-room, where I was selling pigeon shot and powder to a man named Sree, and said that he wished the natives paid in cash. Every Strong's islander can speak English. So I turned to those present and asked if I had suggested their taking trade instead of dollars. On receiving this answer in the negative I told him to clear out. He disregarded me, upon which I a.s.sisted him to leave the cabin, while Lalia and Kitty covered him with flour from the pantry.
This provided me with a persistent and bitter enemy.
About six o'clock the Captain went below, but rather hastily returned, casting an anxious look to seaward. ”The gla.s.s is falling fast,” he said, ”I can't make it out. I have never known it to blow hard here at this time of year. Still it is banking up to the westward.”
He hailed the whales.h.i.+ps, and saw that they had also noticed the gla.s.s falling. In a few minutes the two captains boarded us to have a consultation. The heavy, lowering cloud to seaward had deepened in gloom, and the three captains gazed anxiously at it.
”Gentlemen!” said Hayston, ”we are in a bad place if it comes on to blow. The land-breeze has died away, and that it is going to blow from the sou'-west I am convinced. We cannot tow out in the face of such a swell, even if we had daylight to try it. To beat out by night would be madness.”
The faces of the Yankee skippers lengthened visibly as they begged Hayston to make a suggestion.
”Well,” he said at length, ”your s.h.i.+ps may ride out a blow, for you've room to swing in, and if you send down your light spars and be quick about it, and your cables don't part, you'll see daylight. But with me it is different. I cannot give the brig a fathom more cable; there are coral boulders all around us, and the first one she touches will knock a hole in her bottom. But now every man must look to himself. I have two hundred people on board, and my decks are lumbered up with them. Adios!
gentlemen, go on board and get your spars down for G.o.d's sake.”
Then the Captain turned all his attention to getting the brig ready for the storm that was even then close upon us. In the shortest time our royal and topgallant yards were down, the decks cleared of lumber, the native pa.s.sengers sent below, and five fathoms of cable hove in. Hayston knew the brig would swing round with her head to the pa.s.sage as soon as the gale struck her, and unless he hove in cable, must strike on one of the boulders he had spoken of.
As yet there was not a breath of air, for after the last whisper of the land-breeze had died away, the atmosphere became surcharged with electricity, and the rollers commenced to sound a ceaseless thunder, as they dashed themselves upon the reef, such as I had never heard before.
A pall of darkness settled over us, and though the whales.h.i.+ps were so near that the voices of their crews sounded strange and ghostlike in our ears, we could see nothing except the dull glow of the lamps alight in the cabins--showing through the ports.
Then we heard the voice of Captain Grant of the _St. George_, ”Stand by, Captain Hayston, it's coming along as solid as a wall.”
A fierce gust whistled through the cordage, and then a great white cloud of rain, salt spume, and spray enveloped the brig, as with a shrill, humming drone, like a thousand bagpipes in full blast, the full force of the gale struck us. The brig heeled over, then swung quickly round to her anchor, while the crew, every man at his station, sought through the inky blackness that followed the rain squall to see how the whales.h.i.+ps fared.