VI
The suddenness of this attack and the peculiar position I was in when seized, put me at a disadvantage. The quick breathing of the man behind me, and the strong force he put forward as he rushed me toward the ship"s side, made me aware that I was in a bad fix. The a.s.sa.s.sin was silent as the grave, save for his panting, but his bearded face against mine was visible enough to show me the former captain of the ship.
I was carried half over the rail in an instant by the power of the rush.
The foam showed beneath me, and for a moment it seemed that the man would accomplish his deadly purpose. It was with a horrid feeling of certain death before me that I clutched wildly at the forecastle rail. Luckily my hand caught it, and I was saved from the dive over the side. Then with frantic strength I twisted around enough to seize the fellow, and dropped on my knees with a grip around his middle. It was up and down and all over that side of the forecastle head for some minutes, until we were both getting tired. We were apparently alone forward, and the fight would be one of endurance, unless the ruffian happened to have some weapon about him.
We struggled on and on in the gloom, with the hurricane roaring over us, carrying the spray and drift in a smothering storm into our faces. A hand would slip with a wet grip only to take a fresh hold again, and strain away to get the other under.
We rolled with the ship and after a particularly hard rally, in which I had my hand badly bitten, we eased up near the edge of the forecastle head. During this breathing spell I managed to get my foot braced against a ring-bolt. This gave me a slight advantage for a sudden push. In an instant I shoved with all my might, driving us both to the edge. The ruffian saw what was coming and tried to turn, but it was too late. One single instant of frantic fighting, half suspended in the air, and then over we went, myself on top.
We landed heavily upon the main deck, and the shock, falling even as I did upon the body under me, stunned me for several moments. My captain lay motionless. Then, when a sudden rush of cool water poured over us, I came to my senses and started to my feet. In another moment I had pa.s.sed a line around the desperado, and was dragging him under the lee of the windla.s.s, where I finally made him fast to the bitts.
When I started aft again, I found that Trunnell had managed to get a tarpaulin into the mizzen rigging, and by the aid of this bit of canvas the _Pirate_ had at last headed the sea within five points. It now took her forward of the beam and hove her down to her bearings with each roll to leeward, the sea breaking heavily across the main deck, keeping the waterways waist deep with the white surge. In this rush objects showed darkly where they floated from their fastenings until they drifted to a water-port and pa.s.sed on overboard.
I finally managed to dodge the seas enough to get aft alive, though one caught me under the lee of the fore rigging and nigh smothered me as it poured over the topgallant rail.
Trunnell stood near the break of the p.o.o.p, and beside him were the skipper and third mate. I noticed a look of surprise come upon the young officer"s face when I came close to them. It was much lighter now, and the actions of this young fellow interested me.
"I thought you might have been drowned," he cried, in his high female voice, but with a significant tone and look at the last word which was not lost on me in spite of the elements.
"Everything is all snug forward," I answered, bawling at the captain, but looking fairly at the third mate. "You can let a few men go and rivet irons on the convict by the windla.s.s bitts. He seems to have little trouble unlocking these." And I held up the unlocked irons I had picked up under the forecastle.
As I held the irons under the third officer"s nose, he drew back. Then he took them and flung them with an impatient gesture over the side into the sea. I thought I heard a fierce oath in a deep voice near by, but Trunnell and the captain were both staring up at the fringe flying from the maintopsail yard, and had evidently said nothing. There was little more to do now, for as long as the ship held her head to the sea, she would probably ride it out, unless some accident happened.
I was worn out with the exertion from handling canvas and my fracas forward, so after bawling out some of the details of the occurrence into Trunnell"s ear, I took my watch below to get a rest. The men who preferred to stay aft clear of the water were allowed to lie down near the mizzen. Some took advantage of this permission, but for the most part they stood huddled in a group along the spanker boom, ready for a call.
I had made it a rule long ago, when I had first gone to sea, that I would never miss a watch below when my turn came if I could be spared with convenience. It is a question always with a sailor when he will be called to shorten sail for a blow, and the best thing he can do is to keep regular hours when he can, and stand by for a crisis when all hands are necessary. With a captain it might be different, for the entire responsibility rests upon him. He also does not have to stand watch, and consequently has no reason to be tired after several hours on deck. But with a sailor or mate who stands his four hours off and on, he must take care he is not pushed beyond his time, for the occasion will certainly come sooner or later when he will have to stand through several watches without a rest. Then, if he is already tired out, he will be useless.
I turned in with a strange feeling about the matter forward and the third officer"s conduct. Although I knew Trunnell would take care that the ruffian would not get loose again that night during his watch, I took out a heavy revolver from my locker and stuck it under the pillow of my bunk. Then I saw that the door and port were fast before I jammed myself in for a rest.
I lay a long time thinking over the strange outfit on board, and the more I thought over the matter, the more I became convinced that the third officer had taken a hand in letting Andrews loose to try his hand on me again. There was something uncanny about this officer with a woman"s voice, and I actually began to have a secret loathing not entirely unmixed with fear for him.
When I turned out for the morning watch, Trunnell met me in the alleyway.
He looked wild and bushy from his exposure to the elements, his hair being in snarls and tangles from having a sou"wester jammed over his ears, and his great flat nose was red from the irritation of the water that struck and streamed over his bearded face. His whiskers gleamed with salt in the light of the lamp, and he spat with great satisfaction as he breathed the quiet air of the cabin.
"It"s letting up, Rolling," he said; "there"s a little light to the easterd now. Sink me, but we"ve a job bending gear. Everything gone out of her but her spars, and Lord knows how they stand it. How"d you come to get caught with all that canvas on her?"
"Look here, Trunnell," I answered, "you know I"m a sailor even if I"m not much else, and you know how that canvas came to be on her. I"m almost glad it"s gone. I would be if it wasn"t for the fact that we"ll be longer than usual on this run, and I"ve about made up my mind that the quicker a decent man gets out of this ship, the better."
I was b.u.t.toning up my oilskins while I spoke, and Trunnell smiled a queer bit of a smile, which finally spread over his bearded face and crinkled up the corners of his little eyes into a network of lines and wrinkles.
"I heard the outfly," said he, "and I was only joking ye about the canvas. It"s a quare world. Ye wouldn"t think it, but if ye want to see a true picture of responsibility a-restin" heavy like upon the digestion of a man, ye"ll do well to take a good look at the old man a-standin" there on the p.o.o.p. "What for?" says you; "G.o.d knows," says me; but there he is, without a drop o" licker or nothin" in him since he heard ye bellow fer all hands."
"I should think he"d feel a little upset after the way he caught her," I answered; "he probably has the owners" interests a little at heart."
But Trunnell shook his head until the water flew around.
"Ye"re off agin, me son. It ain"t that at all. That man don"t care a whoop for all the owners livin". Not he. Sink me, Rolling, I got a big head, but nothin" much in it; in spite o" this, though, I knows a thing or two when I sees it. That man has some other object in bein" nervous about this here hooker besides owners. Don"t ask me what it is, "cause I don"t know. But I knows what it ain"t."
"The whole outfit is queer," I answered, "and the sooner I get out of her, the better satisfied I"ll be. No decent sailor would ship in the craft if he could help it."
Trunnell gave me a queer look. Then he saw I meant no offence and shook his great head again.
"Did it ever occur to ye that ye had a duty to do in the world beside huntin" soft jobs?"
"Certainly not that of hunting hard ones," I answered, fastening my belt.
Trunnell"s face underwent a change. He was serious and waited until I had strapped my sou"wester under my chin before saying anything.
"Mebbe I"m wrong, an" mebbe I ain"t," he said. "But I believes a man has duties to stick to while he"s on watch above water. One of these is not to turn tail and scud away, a-showin" your stern to every hard thing as comes along. No, sir, when ye runs into a hard gang like some o" these here aboard this hooker, stick to her, says me. If every man who"s honest should turn his stern to a wessel that"s got a bad name, what would happen to her? Why, any suckin" swab of a cabin boy kin tell that she"d get worse an" worse with the bad ones what would take your place. Ain"t that reason? There"s got to be some men to man a ship, an" if no honest ones will, then the owners can"t do less than hire raskils. Ye can"t sink a ship just because things have happened aboard her. Oh, Lord, no. Think a bit, Rolling, an" tell me if ye ain"t blamed glad ye ware here, an"
bein" here, ye must "a" saved some poor devil of a sailor from getting killed this voyage?"
"I"m blamed sorry I ever--"
"Well, now, suppose"n I had a been ash.o.r.e the day ye had the fracas on the main deck. Where"d ye been now, hey? A hunderd fathom deep, sure as Andrews is aboard this here ship, if I knows anything o" his ways, an"
I"ve sailed two voyages with him afore. No, man; brace up and do yer dooty as ye may. If every good man was to stay out of bad ships, they"d get so the devil himself would be afeard to go to sea in them."
I smiled at the little fellow. Here was a man, who had the reputation of being but little better than an unhung pirate, preaching a most unselfish doctrine. We had been below for several minutes, and I could hear the captain"s voice bawling out some order on the deck overhead. The bells were struck by the automatic clock in the cabin, and I turned to go.
"You"re a good Christian, anyhow, Trunnell," I said as I started.
Trunnell gave a snort and threw his quid in a corner near a cuspidor. "I ain"t never seen the inside of a church. I only tries to do the square thing to whoever is a-runnin" of the sea outfit--same as ye"ll do if ye"ll take the trouble to think a minit--"
I was out on the deck, and the wind almost blew me into the scuppers. The captain was standing right above me on the p.o.o.p watching the growing light in the east. The waist was full of foamy water that roared and surged and washed everything movable about. Above, the masts and spars looked dark in the dim, gray light of the early morning, the strips of canvas stretching away from the jackstays and flicking dismally to leeward. All the yards, however, were trimmed nicely, showing Trunnell"s master hand, and on the mainmast, bellying and straining with the pressure, was a new storm spencer, set snug and true, holding the plunging vessel up to the great rolling sea that came like a living hill from the southwest. Forward, a bit of a staysail was set as taut as a drumhead, looking no bigger than a good-sized handkerchief. Aft, a trysail, set on the spanker boom, helped the tarpaulin in the mizzen to bring her head to the sea.
I climbed up the p.o.o.p ladder and took a look around.
It was a dismal sight. As far as the eye could reach through the white haze of the flying drift the ocean presented a dirty steel-gray color, torn into long, ragged streaks of white where the combers rolled on the high seas before the gale. Overhead all was a deep blank of gray vapor.
The wind was not blowing nearly as hard as it had during my last watch on deck, but the sea was rolling heavier. It took the _Pirate_ fair on the port bow, and every now and again it rose so high above her topgallant rail that it showed green light through the ma.s.s that would crash over to the deck and go roaring white to leeward, making the main deck uninhabitable. Sometimes a heavy, quick comber would strike her on the bluff of the bow, and the shock would almost knock the men off their feet. Then the burst of water would shoot high in the air, going sometimes clear to the topgallant yard, nearly a hundred feet above the deck, while all forward would disappear in the flying spray and spume.
"Fine weather, Rolling, hey?" bawled the skipper to me as I gained the p.o.o.p.
"Oh, it isn"t so bad the way she"s taking it now. If she hangs on as well as this during the watch, she"ll make good weather of it all right," I said.
"I"m glad you think so, my son. Just call down to the steward to bring me a bracer. Whew, just look at that!"
As he spoke a huge sea rose on the weather bow and bore down on the staggering ship. It struck her fair and rolled over her so heavily that I had to grab a line to keep from being knocked down. The main deck was full of water, and as it roared off through the ports and over the lee rail, I looked to see if anything had gone with it. Then I realized how well we had been washed during the night.
From the forecastle aft to the p.o.o.p there was nothing left except the hatches and deck-house. The boats were all stove to matchwood except one that was lashed on the forward house. The bulwarks were smashed for many feet along both sides, but this was no real damage, as it allowed the sea to run off easier, relieving the deck of the heavy load. The whole main deck, fore and aft, was as clean stripped as could be, and the hatches alone were saving us from filling and going under.
It was a dismal sight, and the men who stood huddled on the forecastle and p.o.o.p looked, in their yellow oilskins, like so many yellow ghosts. I went aft to the wheel and found that Hans and Johnson were steering without much difficulty, although they had all they could do to hold her when a sea struck aft. Far astern the light seemed to be growing brighter, and while I looked there appeared some long streaks in the heavy banks of vapor which showed a break or two.
I took the gla.s.s which hung on the side of the grating and cleaned the lens with my hand. Sweeping the storm-torn horizon to the southward, nothing showed but rolling seas and haze. I turned the gla.s.s to the northward, and in a moment I saw a black speck rise and then disappear from the line of vision.
"Vessel to lor"ard, sir," I bawled to the captain.
"I don"t care for forty vessels, Rolling. Get me that steward with the liquor, or there"ll be one afloat here without a second mate."