Refresh

This website partyfass.cc/read-32096-3664557.html is currently offline. Cloudflare\'s Always Online™ shows a snapshot of this web page from the Internet Archive\'s Wayback Machine. To check for the live version, click Refresh.

Part 15 (1/2)

”Well, captain,” exclaimed Dale upon their entrance, ”what news have you for us? Have you made arrangements for our conveyance to Valparaiso? I hope we are not going to be kept cooped up very long in this wretched little vessel.”

”We are to leave her sooner than I antic.i.p.ated,” replied Captain Staunton, ”but I regret to say that I have been quite unable to make any arrangements of a satisfactory character. And, as to news, I must ask you to prepare yourselves for the worst--or almost the worst--that you could possibly hear. We are on board _a pirate_, and in the hands of as unscrupulous a set of rascals as one could well encounter.”

The skipper then proceeded to describe _in extenso_ his interview with the pirate captain, throwing out such ideas as presented themselves to him in the course of his narrative, and winding up by pointing out to them that though the situation was serious enough it was not altogether desperate, the pirate leader being evidently anxious to escape from his present position, and as evidently disposed to look with friendly eyes upon all who might seem to have it in their power to a.s.sist him, either directly or indirectly, in the attainment of his purpose.

”Our first endeavour,” he said in conclusion, ”must be to impress upon this man that, though we are his prisoners, we are still a power, by reason of our numbers as well as of our superior intelligence and knowledge of the world, and that we can certainly help him if we have the opportunity; and this idea once firmly established in his mind, he will listen to and very possibly fall in with some of our suggestions, all of which, I suppose I need hardly say, must be made with a single eye to our own ultimate escape. Our future is beset by difficulties, very few of which we can even antic.i.p.ate as yet; but I think if each one will only take a hopeful view of the situation, it will be singular indeed if one or another of us does not hit upon a means of escape.”

By the time that he had finished speaking the brains of his hearers were literally teeming with ideas, all, that is to say, except Mr Dale, who, with elbows on the table, his head buried in his hands, and his hair all rumpled, abandoned himself to despair and to loud bewailings of the unfortunate combination of circ.u.mstances which led to his venturing upon the treacherous ocean. The others, however, knew him thoroughly by this time; and none troubled themselves to take the slightest notice of him except Rex Fortescue, who exclaimed--

”_Do_ shut up, Dale, and cease making a fool of yourself. I wonder that you are not ashamed to behave in this unmanly way, especially before ladies, too. If you _can't_ keep quiet, you know, we shall have to put you on deck, where I fancy you would get something worth howling about.”

This threat had the desired effect; Mr Dale subsided into silence, and the rest of the party at once, in low cautious tones, began an interchange of ideas which lasted a long time but brought forth no very satisfactory result; the council finding itself at the close of the discussion pretty much where it was at the commencement.

At one o'clock a thoroughly substantial dinner was served to them, followed by tea at six in the evening, at both of which meals the pirate captain did the honours with a manifest desire to evince a friendly disposition toward his guests, and about nine p.m. a quiet and un.o.btrusive removal from the cabin to their new quarters in the after- hold was effected; after which most of the party disposed themselves comfortably upon the bedding which they found had been provided for them, and enjoyed a night of thoroughly sound repose, such as they had been strangers to ever since the destruction of the _Galatea_.

When our friends awoke on the following morning they became aware, by the motion of the s.h.i.+p and the sound of the water gurgling along her sides, that a breeze had sprung up. Most of the gentlemen--all of them, in fact, except Dale--went on deck, and, finding the watch busy was.h.i.+ng decks, borrowed of them a few buckets with which they gave each other a most hearty and refres.h.i.+ng salt water douche, much to the amus.e.m.e.nt of the crew.

As soon as breakfast was over, Lance, with that cool _insouciance_ characteristic of the man who has so often found himself environed by perils that he ceases to think of them, went again on deck, with the intention of mingling freely with the pirate crew, and, if possible, placing himself upon such easy terms with them as would give him an opportunity of acquiring whatever information it might be in their power to give. The first individual he saw on emerging from the hatchway was Johnson, the pirate captain, who was leaning moodily over the lee rail abaft the main-rigging, smoking a well-seasoned pipe.

”Good morning, captain,” exclaimed Lance genially, as he sauntered up to the man. ”What a delightful morning--and how good your tobacco smells!

I have not enjoyed the luxury of a pipe for the last fortnight; have you any tobacco to spare?”

”Help yourself, stranger,” answered Johnson rather surlily, as he tendered his tobacco-pouch.

”Thanks,” said Lance, returning the pouch after he had filled and lighted his pipe. ”Ah! how good this is,” as he took the first whiff or two. ”You have a fine breeze after yesterday's calm; and the brig seems quite a traveller in her small way.”

”In her small way!” exclaimed Johnson indignantly; ”why, she's a _flyer_, stranger, that's what she is. I reckon you don't know much about s.h.i.+ps, or you wouldn't talk like that. I guess you ain't a sailor, are you?”

”I am a soldier by profession,” answered Lance, ”but for all that I am not exactly an unmitigated land-lubber; on the contrary I am quite an enthusiastic yachtsman, and I flatter myself that I know a good model when I see one.”

”And yet you don't take much account of the brig, stranger?”

”She seems a good enough little craft of her kind,” admitted Lance, ”and as a mere trader I have no doubt she would answer well enough. But it strikes me that, to gentlemen of your profession, a really fast and powerful vessel is an absolute necessity if you would insure your own safety. In weather like this I daresay you would manage tolerably well; but if a frigate were by any chance to fall in with you in a fresh breeze, or, worse still, in heavy weather, I fear you would find yourselves in a 'tight place;' she would have you under her guns in less than an hour.”

”That's so, stranger; yes, I reckon that's so,” conceded Johnson with evident reluctance. ”There _are_ s.h.i.+ps as can outsail us, I know, for we've fallen in with some half a dozen clippers, and we couldn't do nothing with 'em; they just walked away from us. And though I don't calculate that there's ever a frigate afloat as could get alongside them tea-s.h.i.+ps if the tea-s.h.i.+ps didn't want 'em to, yet I guess there's frigates as _could_ overhaul us in heavy weather. And so you're a yachtsman, eh? Then I reckon you know something about quick sailing.

How fast, now, do you calculate a yacht would sail in this breeze?”

”That depends entirely upon the build and model of the craft. If she were a racing schooner of, say the tonnage of this brig, I daresay her speed under such circ.u.mstances as these would be thirteen or perhaps fourteen knots; if, however, she were merely a cruising yacht, such as my own, I do not imagine she would average more than eleven.”

”Eleven knots! Jeosh--I say, stranger, how many knots do you reckon we are making just now?” exclaimed Johnson.

Lance looked over the side for a moment, marked a piece of weed floating past, and then answered--

”About eight, I should think; certainly not more.”

”I guess you're wrong, stranger,” returned the pirate skipper with animation, ”she's going ten if she's going an inch.”

”You can easily test it by heaving the log,” suggested Lance.

”Aft here, two of you, and heave the log,” shouted Johnson.