"It is no trouble," Mr. Atherton said, "and I think we will keep it up until we are fairly under weigh."
Mr. Atherton was not pleased at seeing that the captain the next day relaxed somewhat in the strictness of the rules he laid down, and the crew were allowed to trade freely with the natives.
"We must be more vigilant than ever," he said to Wilfrid and the Allens.
"The captain is so pleased at having got his mast on board that he is disposed to view the natives with friendly eyes, which, if they mean treachery, is just what they want. Finding that we were too much on the watch to be taken by surprise, they would naturally try to lull us with a sense of false security."
In the afternoon the chief again came off and formally invited the captain to a feast on sh.o.r.e. He accepted the invitation, and went back with them, accompanied by three or four of the pa.s.sengers who had scoffed at the idea of danger. After a stay of two or three hours they returned on board.
"I think, Mr. Ryan," the captain said that evening, "you had better take a couple of boats in the morning and go ash.o.r.e for water. We shall have everything ready for getting up our anchor after dinner. Of course your crew will be well armed and take every precaution, but I do not think that there is the slightest danger."
"Very well, sir. You may be sure I will keep my weather-eye open."
Mr. Atherton shook his head when in the morning he saw the boats being lowered, and heard from the first officer the orders he had received.
"From what you say there is water enough to last us to Wellington if we are all put on somewhat shorter allowance, and that would be infinitely better than running the risk of your going ash.o.r.e."
"The water might last if all goes well," the mate said, "but if we were to get becalmed for some time, which is likely enough in these lat.i.tudes, we should be in an awkward fix. I shall keep a sharp look-out on sh.o.r.e, never fear. The distance to the spring is, as I told you, not above fifty yards, and I will keep half the men filling and the other half on guard. If they should mean mischief we will give it them hot."
"How many men will you take?"
"Sixteen--ten in the cutter and six in the gig."
"That would only leave us ten on board," Mr. Atherton said. "If they attack you they will attack us too, that is a moral certainty. At any rate, I will hint to some of the pa.s.sengers that they had better keep their arms in readiness while you are away."
Mr. Atherton refused to go down to breakfast when the Allens came up to relieve him after finishing their meal.
"We will have both watches on deck this morning," he said. "We shall be very short-handed while Ryan and his party are away. Unfortunately the captain is convinced there is not the slightest danger. He snubbed me this morning quite smartly when I said casually that I supposed that he would not let any of the natives on board while Ryan was away."
As the rest of the pa.s.sengers came up from breakfast, Mr. Atherton spoke to some of those with whom he had been most intimate on the voyage, and told them that he thought it would be just as well for them to bring their arms on deck and keep them close at hand until the watering party returned.
"It is no great trouble," he said, "and it is just as well to be ready in case the natives mean mischief. I know that some of the youngsters consider me to be an alarmist, and I will give them free leave to laugh at me when we are once safely out at sea, but the stake is too heavy to admit of carelessness; there are not only our own lives but those of the ladies to be thought of."
Three or four of the pa.s.sengers followed this advice and brought their muskets or double-barrelled guns on deck. They were a good deal laughed at by the rest, who asked them if they had joined Atherton"s army, as the little party who had kept watch were called. However, when the boats pushed off with the empty casks, and the pa.s.sengers saw how large was the complement of the crew who had left them, three of the others strolled down to the cabin and got their guns. In half an hour the great canoe with the chiefs came off, and as it approached the ship Mr.
Atherton told Wilfrid to go forward, and tell the five men there to come aft and be in readiness to mount to the p.o.o.p the moment they saw any sign of trouble. "If there is a row," he said, "we have to hold the p.o.o.p. There are only the two ladders to defend, and we can do that; but it would be useless to try to hold the whole of the ship."
As the captain left the p.o.o.p and went down into the waist to receive the chiefs, Mr. Atherton went up to where Mrs. Renshaw was sitting.
"Will you take my advice, Mrs. Renshaw?"
"Certainly I will," she said, smiling; "for I am sure it will be good, whatever it is."
"Then, Mrs. Renshaw, I advise you at once to go below with your daughter and the Miss Mitfords. I do not say that we are going to have trouble, but if we are this is the time. Pray oblige me by doing as I ask."
Mrs. Renshaw at once rose, called Marion and the other two girls, who were gaily chatting with a group of the pa.s.sengers, and asked them to go below with her. Wilfrid and the two Allens were now on the p.o.o.p, as Mr.
Atherton had told them that they had better remain there instead of placing themselves at other points. The Grimstones and the three other pa.s.sengers forward were gathered near the ladders.
As usual the chiefs accompanied the captain on to the p.o.o.p, followed by half a dozen of the minor chiefs; and Mr. Atherton noticed that several of the others, instead of sitting quietly in the canoe, slipped up after them on to the deck. The flotilla of small canoes, which had as usual put out in the train of the large one, was edging in towards the vessel.
Mr. Atherton leant over the p.o.o.p rail and spoke to the second officer, who was engaged in the waist with the men.
"Mr. Rawlins, I do not quite like the look of things. I think that it would be as well if you were to gather as many of the hands as you can at the foot of the ladder here, without, of course, alarming the natives, as it may be only my fancy."
The second-mate nodded, and at once told the men with him to knock off from their work. "Get hold of your cutla.s.ses quietly," he said, "and gather near the foot of the starboard port ladder." Then going to the gangway he stopped a native who was just climbing up from the canoe, and motioned to them that no more were to come on board.
The talk with the chiefs was a short one. The stewards brought up two cases of rum, and when these were handed over to them the natives rose as if to go. Suddenly the leader drew his axe from his girdle, and with a loud yell buried it deep in the captain"s head.
The yell was echoed from some hundred throats, the crew of the canoe leapt to their feet and began to clamber up the side of the vessel, while those in the smaller craft dashed their paddles into the water and urged their boats towards it. At the same moment the natives on board all drew concealed weapons. So quick had been the action of the chief that Mr. Atherton had not time to prevent it, but before the body of the captain touched the deck that of the chief was stretched beside it with a bullet through the brain.
Wilfrid and the Allens seeing the natives rise to go had thought the danger over, and two pa.s.sengers had been struck down before they brought their rifles to their shoulders. They were within a few feet of the chiefs, and each of their shots told. For a minute or two there was a scene of wild confusion. The natives in the waist fell furiously upon the sailors, but these, fortunately put upon their guard, received the attack with determination. The sound of the lads" rifles was followed almost instantly by the sharp cracks of a revolver Mr. Atherton produced from his pocket, and each shot told with fatal effect. When the revolver was empty not a native remained alive on the p.o.o.p.
The other pa.s.sengers had been taken so completely by surprise that even those who had brought up their arms did not join in the fray until the p.o.o.p was cleared. "Keep them back there!" Mr. Atherton shouted as the natives came swarming up the ladder on the port side. Several shots were fired, but the pa.s.sengers were too startled for their aim to be true.
"Give me your musket, Renshaw!" Mr. Atherton exclaimed, s.n.a.t.c.hing the piece the latter had just discharged from his hands, "my rifle is too good for this work." He then clubbed the weapon, and whirling it round his head as if it had been a straw fell upon the natives, who were just pouring up on to the p.o.o.p, shouting to the pa.s.sengers, "Fire on the ma.s.s below! I will keep these fellows at bay!" Every blow that fell stretched a man lifeless on deck, until those who had gained the p.o.o.p, unable to retreat owing to the pressure of those behind them, and terrified by the destruction wrought by this giant, sprang over the bulwark into the sea.
Just as they did so the little party of sailors and steerage pa.s.sengers, finding themselves unable to resist the pressure, made their way up to the p.o.o.p by the starboard ladder, hotly pressed by the natives.
By this time several of the male pa.s.sengers who had rushed below for their weapons ran up, and Wilfred and the Allens having reloaded, such a discharge was poured into the natives on the port ladder that the survivors leapt down on to the deck below, and the attack for a moment ceased. The whole of the forward portion of the ship was by this time in the hands of the natives. Three sailors who were at work there had been at once murdered, only one of the party having time to make his escape up the fore rigging. Spears now began to fly fast over the p.o.o.p.
"We must fall back a bit, Mr. Rawlins, or we shall be riddled," Mr.
Atherton said. "Your men had better run down and get muskets; we will keep these fellows at bay. I do not think they will make a rush again just at present. Will you see that the door leading out on to the waist is securely barricaded, and place two or three men there? Mr. Renshaw, will you and some of the other pa.s.sengers carry down those ladies who have fainted, and a.s.sure them all that the danger is really over."
Mr. Atherton had so naturally taken the command that the second mate at once obeyed his instructions. Most of the ladies had rushed below directly the fray began, but two or three had fainted, and these were soon carried below. The male pa.s.sengers, eighteen in all, were now on deck. Several of them looked very pale and scared, but even the most timid felt that his life depended on his making a fight for it. A perfect shower of spears were now flying over the p.o.o.p from the natives in the canoes alongside, and from the ship forward.
"We had best lie down, gentlemen," Mr. Atherton said. "If the natives make a rush up the ladders we must be careful not to fire all at once or we should be at their mercy. Let those by the bulwarks fire first, and the others take it up gradually while the first reload. Of course if they make a really determined rush there will be nothing to do but to meet them and drive them back again."
Unfortunately the four cannon of the _Flying Scud_ were all amidships, and were therefore not available for the defence.
"If we could make a breastwork, Mr. Atherton, so that we could stand up behind it and fire down into the waist we might drive these fellows out," the second officer suggested.
"A very good idea. Wilfrid, will you run down and ask the ladies to get up to the top of the companion all the mattra.s.ses, trunks, and other things that would do to form a barricade? It will be a good thing for them to have something to do. Mr. Rawlins, will you send down the stewards to help? they might get some cases and barrels up. As fast as they bring them up we will push them along the deck and form a breastwork."
CHAPTER VIII.
THE END OF THE VOYAGE.
When Wilfred went below to get materials for a barricade, he found the ladies kneeling or sitting calm and quiet, although very pale and white, round the table, while Mrs. Renshaw was praying aloud. She concluded her prayer just as he came down. There was a general chorus of questions.
"Everything is going on well," Wilfrid said cheerfully; "but we want to make a breastwork, for the spears are flying about so, one cannot stand up to fire at them. I have come to ask you all to carry up mattra.s.ses and pillows and cushions and portmanteaus, and anything else that will make a barricade. The steward will open the lazaret and send up barrels and things. Please set to work at once."
Not a moment was lost; the ladies carried the things rapidly up the companion, two of the pa.s.sengers pa.s.sed them outside, and others lying in a line pushed them forward from one to another until they arrived at those lying, rifle in hand, twenty feet aft of the p.o.o.p rails. There was soon a line of mattra.s.ses four deep laid across the deck.
"That will do to begin with," Mr. Atherton said. "Now, let us push these before us to the end of the p.o.o.p, and we can then commence operations.
The sailors, Wilfrid Renshaw, the Allens, and myself will first open fire. Will the rest of you please continue to pa.s.s things along to add to the height of our barricade? I wish we knew how they are getting on on sh.o.r.e." For almost immediately after the struggle had begun on board the sound of musketry had broken out from that quarter, and they knew that the watering party had been attacked directly the natives knew that their chiefs had commenced the ma.s.sacre on board ship.
Several times, in spite of the danger from the flying spears, Mr.
Atherton had gone to the stern and looked towards the sh.o.r.e. The boats lay there seemingly deserted, and the fight was going on in the wood. A number of canoes had placed themselves so as to cut off the return of the boats should the sailors succeed in making their way to them.