"Hurray!" shouted the men, overjoyed at the prospect of moving at last.
In a couple of hours the strangers had become distinctly visible, and the first faint puffs of the approaching breeze caused the sails to flap lazily against the yards. Then the canvas filled out, and at last, after a fortnight"s delay, the _Good Intent_ began to slip through the water at three or four knots.
The wind freshened during the night, and next morning the _Good Intent_ was bowling along under single-reefed topsails. The ships sighted the night before had disappeared, to the evident relief of Captain Barker.
Whether they were Company"s vessels or privateers he had no wish to come to close quarters with them.
After breakfast, when the watch on deck were busy about the rigging or the guns, or the hundred and one details of a sailor"s work, the rest of the crew had the interval till dinner pretty much to themselves. Some slept, some reeled out yarns to their messmates, others mended their clothes. It happened one day that Desmond, sitting in the forecastle among the men of his mess, was occupied in darning a pair of breeches for Parmiter. Darning was the one thing he could not do satisfactorily; and one of the men, quizzically observing his well-meant but really ludicrous attempts, at last caught up the garment and held it aloft, calling his mates" attention to it with a shout of laughter.
Parmiter chanced to be coming along at the moment. Hearing the laugh, and seeing the pitiable object of it, he flew into a rage, sprang at Desmond, and knocked him down.
"What do you mean, you clumsy young lubber you," he cried, "by treating my smalls like that? I"ll brain you, sure as my name"s Parmiter!"
Desmond had already suffered not a little at Parmiter"s hands. His endurance was at an end. Springing up with flaming cheeks he leapt towards the bully, and putting in practice the methods he had learnt in many a hard-fought mill at Mr. Burslem"s school, he began to punish the offender. His muscles were in good condition; Parmiter was too much addicted to grog to make a steady pugilist; and though he was naturally much the stronger man, he was totally unable to cope with his agile antagonist. A few rounds settled the matter; Parmiter had to confess that he had had enough, and Desmond, flinging his breeches to him, sat down tingling among his mates, who greeted the close of the fight with spontaneous and unrestrained applause.
Next day Parmiter was in the foretop splicing the forestay. Desmond was walking along the deck when suddenly he felt his arm clutched from behind, and he was pulled aside so violently by Bulger"s hook that he stumbled and fell at full length. At the same moment something struck the deck with a heavy thud.
"By thunder! "twas a narrow shave," said Bulger. "See that, matey?"
Looking in the direction Bulger pointed, he saw that the foretopsail sheet block had fallen on deck, within an inch of where he would have been but for the intervention of Bulger"s hook. Glancing aloft, he saw Parmiter grinning down at him.
"Hitch that block to a halyard, youngster," said the man.
Desmond was on the point of refusing; the man, he thought, might at least have apologised: but reflecting that a refusal would entail a complaint to the captain, and subsequent punishment, he bit his lips, fastened the block, and went on his way.
""Tis my belief "twas no accident," said Bulger afterwards. "I may be wrong, but Parmiter bears a grudge against you. And he and that there Mr. Diggle is too thick by half. I never could make out why Diggle diddled you about that supercargo business; he don"t mean you no kindness, you may be sure; and when you see two villains like him and Parmiter puttin" their heads together, look out for squalls, that"s what I say."
Desmond was inclined to laugh; the idea seemed preposterous.
"Why are you so suspicious of Mr. Diggle?" he said. "He has not kept his promise, that"s true, and I am sorry enough I ever listened to him. But that doesn"t prove him to be an out-and-out villain. I"ve noticed that you keep out of his way. Do you know anything of him? Speak out plainly, man."
"Well, I"ll tell you what I knows about him." He settled himself against the mast, gave a final polish to his hook with holy-stone, and, using the hook every now and then to punctuate his narrative, began: "Let me see, "twas a matter o" three years ago. I was bosun on the _Swallow_, a spanker she was, chartered by the Company, London to Calcutta. There was none of the doldrums that trip, dodged "em fair an"
square; a topsail breeze to the Cape, and then the fust of the monsoon to the Hugli. We lay maybe a couple of months at Calcutta, when what should I do but take aboard a full dose of the cramp, just as the _Swallow_ was in a manner of speakin" on the wing. Not but what it sarved me right, for what business had I at my time of life to be wastin" sh.o.r.e-leave by poppin" at little d.i.c.ky birds in the dirty slimy jheels, as they call "em, round about Calcutta! Well, I was put ash.o.r.e, as was on"y natural, and "twas a marvel I pulled through--for it en"t many as take the cramp in Bengal and live to tell of it. The Company, I"ll say that for "em, was very kind; I had the best o" nussin" and vittles; but when I found my legs again there I was, as one might say, high and dry, for there was no Company"s ship ready to sail. So I got leave to sign on a country ship, bound for Canton; and we dropped down the Hugli with enough opium on board to buy up the lord mayor and a baker"s dozen of aldermen.
"Nearly half a mile astern was three small country ships, such as might creep round the coast to Chittagong, dodgin" the pirates o" the Sandarbands if they was lucky, and gettin" their weazands slit if they wasn"t. They drew less water than us, and was generally handier in the river, which is uncommon full o" shoals and sandbanks; but for all that I remember they was still maybe half a mile astern when we dropped anchor--anchors I should say--for the night, some way below Diamond Harbour. But to us white men the ways o" these Moors[#] is always a bag o" mystery, and as seamen they en"t anyhow of much account. Well, it might be about seven bells, and my watch below, when I was woke by a most tremenjous bangin" and hullabaloo. We tumbles up mighty sharp, and well we did, for there was one of these country fellows board and board with us, and another foulin" our hawser. Their grapnels came whizzin"
aboard; but the first lot couldn"t take a hold nohow, and she dropped down stream. That gave us a chance to be ready for the other. She got a grip of us and held on like a shark what grabs you by the legs. But pistols and pikes had been sarved out, and when they came bundlin" over into the foc"sle, we bundled "em back into the Hugli, and you may be sure they wasn"t exactly seaworthy when they got there. They was a mixed lot; that we soon found out by their manner o" swearin" as they slipped by the board, for although there was Moors among "em most of "em was Frenchies or Dutchmen, and considerin" they wasn"t Englishmen they made a good fight of it. But over they went, until only a few was left; and we was just about to finish "em off, when another country ship dropped alongside, and before we knew where we was a score of yellin"
ruffians was into the waist and rushin" us in the stern-sheets, as you might say. We had to fight then, by thunder! we did.
[#] The natives of India were thus called by Englishmen in the 18th century.
"The odds was against us now, and we was catchin" it from two sides.
But our blood was up, and we knew what to expect if they beat us. "Twas the Hugli for every man Jack of us, and no mistake. There was no orders, every man for himself, with just enough room and no more to see the mounseer in front of him. Some of us--I was one of "em--fixed the flints of the pirates for"ard, while the rest faced round and kept the others off. Then we went at "em, and as they couldn"t all get at us at the same time owing to the deck being narrow, the odds was not so bad arter all. "Twas now hand to hand, fist to fist, one for you and one for me; you found a Frenchman and stuck to him till you finished him off, or he finished you, as the case might be, in a manner of speakin".
Well, I found one lanky chap--he was number four that night, and all in ten minutes as it were; I jabbed a pike at him, and missed, for it was hard to keep footin" on the wet deck, though the wet was not Hugli water; thick as it is, this was thicker--and he fired a pistol at me by way of thank you. I saw his figure-head in the flash, and I shan"t forget it either, for he left me this to remember him by, though I didn"t know it at the time."
Here Bulger held up the iron hook that did duty for his left forearm.
Then, glancing cautiously round, he added in a whisper:
""Twas Diggle--or I"m a Dutchman. That was my fust meetin" with him.
Of course, I"m in a way helpless now, being on the ship"s books, and he in a manner of speakin" an officer; but one of these days there"ll be a reckonin", or my name en"t Bulger."
The sailor brought down his fist with a resounding whack on the scuttle b.u.t.t, threatening to stave in the top of the barrel.
"And how did the fight end?" asked Desmond.
"We drove "em back bit by bit, and fairly wore "em down. They warn"t all sailormen, or we couldn"t have done it, for they had the numbers; but an Englishman on his own ship is worth any two furriners--aye, half a dozen some do say, though I wouldn"t go so far as that myself--and at the last some of them turned tail an" bolted back. The ship"s boy, what was in the shrouds, saw "em on the run and set up a screech: "Hooray!
hooray!" That was all we wanted. We hoorayed too; and went at "em in such a slap-bang go-to-glory way that in a brace of shakes there warn"t a Frenchman, a Dutchman, nor a Moor on board. They cut the grapnels and floated clear, and next mornin" we saw "em on their beam ends on a sandbank a mile down the river. That"s how I fust come acrost Mr.
Diggle; I may be wrong, but I says it again: look out for squalls."
For some days the wind held fair, and the ship being now in the main track of the trades, all promised well for a quick run to the Cape. But suddenly there was a change; a squall struck the vessel from the south-west. Captain Barker, catching sight of Desmond and a seaman near at hand, shouted:
"Furl the top-gallant sail, you two. Now show a leg, or, by thunder, the masts will go by the board."
Springing up the shrouds on the weather side, Desmond was quickest aloft. He crawled out on the yard, the wind threatening every moment to tear him from his dizzy rocking perch, and began with desperate energy to furl the straining canvas. It was hard work, and but for the development of his muscles during the past few months, and a naturally cool head, the task would have been beyond his powers. But setting his teeth and exerting his utmost strength, he accomplished his share of it as quickly as the able seaman on the lee yard.
The sail was half furled when all at once the mast swung through a huge arc; the canvas came with tremendous force against the cross-trees; and Desmond, flung violently outwards, found himself swinging in mid-air, clinging desperately to the leech of the sail. With a convulsive movement he grasped at a loose gasket above him, and catching a grip wound it twice or thrice round his arm. The strain was intense; the gasket was thin and cut deeply into the flesh; he knew that should it give way nothing could save him. So he hung, the wind howling around him, the yards rattling, the boisterous sea below heaving as if to clutch him and drag him to destruction. A few seconds pa.s.sed, every one of which seemed an eternity. Then through the noise he heard shouts on deck. The vessel suddenly swung over, and Desmond"s body inclined towards instead of from the mast. Shooting out his hand he caught at the yard, seized it, and held on, though it seemed that his arm must be wrenched from the socket. In a few moments he succeeded in clambering on to the yard, where he clung, endeavouring to regain his breath and his senses.
Then he completed his job, and with a sense of unutterable relief slid down to the deck. A strange sight met his eyes. Bulger and Parmiter were lying side by side; there was blood on the deck; and Captain Barker stood over them with a martin spike, his eyes blazing, his face distorted with pa.s.sion. In consternation Desmond slipped out of the way, and asked the first man he met for an explanation.
It appeared that Parmiter, who was at the wheel when the squall struck the ship, had put her in stays before the sail was furled, with the result that she heeled over and Desmond narrowly escaped being flung into the sea. Seeing the boy"s plight Bulger had sprung forward and, knocking Parmiter from the wheel, had put the vessel on the other tack, thus giving Desmond the one chance of escape which, fortunately, he had been able to seize. The captain had been incensed to a blind fury, first with Parmiter for acting without orders and then with Bulger for interfering with the man at the wheel. In a paroxysm of madness he attacked both men with a spike; the ship was left without a helmsman, and nothing but the prompt.i.tude of the melancholy mate, who had rushed forward and taken the abandoned wheel himself, had saved the vessel from the imminent risk of carrying away her masts.
Later in the day, when the squall and the captain"s rage had subsided, the incident was talked over by a knot of seamen in the foc"s"le.
"You may say what you like," said one, "but I hold to it that Parmiter meant to knock young Burke into the sea. For why else did he put the ship in stays? He en"t a fool, en"t Parmiter."
"Ay," said another, "and arter that there business with the block, eh?
One and one make two; that"s twice the youngster has nigh gone to Davy Jones through Parmiter, and it en"t in reason that sich-like things should allers happen to the same party."
"But what"s the reason?" asked a third. "What call has Parmiter to have such a desperate spite against Burke? He got a lickin", in course, but what"s a lickin" to a Englishman? Rot it all, the youngster en"t a bad matey. He"ve led a dog"s life, that he have, and I"ve never heard a grumble, nary one; have you?"
"True," said the first. "And I tell you what it is. I believe Bulger"s in the right of it, and "tis all along o" that there Diggle, hang him!
He"s too perlite by half, with his smile and his fine lingo and all.
And what"s he keep his hand wropt up in that there velvet mitten thing for? I"d like to know that. There"s summat mortal queer about Diggle, mark my words, and we"ll find it out if we live long enough."
"Wasn"t it Diggle brought Burke aboard?"
"Course it was; that"s what proves it, don"t you see? He stuffs him up as he"s to be supercargo; call that number one. He brings him aboard and makes him ship"s boy: that"s number two. He looks us all up and down with those rat"s eyes of his, and thinks we"re a pretty ugly lot, and Parmiter the ugliest; how"s that for number three? Then he makes hisself sweet to Parmiter; I"ve seed him more"n once; that"s number four. Then there"s that there block: five; and to-day"s hanky-panky: six; and it wants one more to make seven, and that"s the perfect number, I"ve heard tell, "cos o" the Seven Champions o" Christendom."
"I guess you"ve reasoned that out mighty well," drawled the melancholy voice of Mr. Toley, who had come up unseen and heard the last speech.
"Well, I"ll give you number seven."
"Thunder and blazes, sir, he en"t bin and gone and done it already!"
"No, he en"t. Number seven is, be kind o" tender with young Burke.
Count them words. He"s had enough kicks. That"s all."
And the melancholy man went away as silently as he had come.