One sailor bore a lantern, for the only light afforded outside of that was from the grated hatch above. Amid the half obscurity Ralph saw a jumble of swart, brutish faces and wildly gleaming eyes, and heard a babel of guttural sounds suggestive of a savage Bedlam where violence was restrained only by fear.
Up and down the rows of naked forms they pa.s.sed, dealing to each one a ration of bread and meat, scanty and coa.r.s.e enough, yet sufficient to sustain life. Then half a pint of water was served out to each.
Here the struggle to keep order was fiercest. The strong would attempt to deprive the weak of their share, and Bludson"s whip was kept constantly going.
Once a brawny negro made a strong effort to seize the bucket, regardless of the cowhide, when Long Tom felled him at a blow with his pistol b.u.t.t, then c.o.c.king the weapon, glanced sternly around at the circle of angry faces by which they were surrounded.
The negroes would have torn them in pieces had they dared, for the want of water was already rendering them desperate in that fetid hole.
Ralph returned to the deck pale, nauseated, and sick at heart. The captain noticed this and it angered him, as did nearly everything which the boy now did.
"Hark ye!" he growled. "D"ye think you"d like to spend all your time down there?"
"I would rather be dead," said Ralph half angrily, for his whole being rebelled against the atrocity of which he was being made, perforce, one of the perpetrators.
"Would, eh?" The captain eyed him with leering malevolence. "You"ll mind your eye then while you"re on this craft, and you"ll obey orders, without a word, or--down you go among those demons for punishment. Go to my room and bring up my small gla.s.s--the double one. Stay--while you"re there make up the berth and tidy things up a bit. Lively now!"
Ralph went below burning with a sense of futile rage. It was useless to rebel, however, for on a ship a boy is the most helpless of creatures.
As he moodily arranged things in the captain"s stateroom, wondering for the hundreth time why Gary should appear to wish to persecute him after having been so courteous at Savannah, Ralph"s eye fell on an open letter lying on the floor before the half open door of a small iron safe. Evidently Gary, in his haste or excitement over the approach of the warship, had left the safe in this condition. The letter had probably fallen there unnoticed.
Ralph picked it up, intending to lay it on the table, when a certain familiarity in the handwriting struck him as peculiar and he started to read the contents.
"My dear Cousin:--" it began; but after getting thus far the boy threw the sheet down upon the table.
"Why should I be reading the captain"s letters?" thought he, and a flush of shame crept momentarily to his forehead. "And yet--it doesn"t seem to be the one I gave him."
He remembered that Shard had mentioned an intention to write Gary by mail.
As Ralph hesitated, a desire strengthened within him to read further, despite the monitions of conscience. A vague idea that the strange and contradictory behavior of Gary might be explained was perhaps at the bottom of the lad"s mental persistence.
He hesitated until his fingers burned, then made a sudden grasp at the letter.
CHAPTER XXI.
At Close Quarters.
Without giving himself time to think, Ralph now read as follows:
My Dear Cousin:
If he does not get lost on his way you will be apt to see an awkward country boy in Savannah in a day or two, who is quite anxious to go to sea. I have recommended him to apply to you, and you will do me a great favor, not only to take him, but to see that he never comes back.
Mind you--no violence. I know your devilish temper. But you can either wear him out with hard work, or leave him in Africa, or get rid of him in some way which may gratify the hatred which I and mine have felt for his whole generation for years, and yet avoid difficulty with the law. We have enough to contend with as it is, in our Cuban venture.
Frankly now, if you wish any more cash advances from me, you must see to this lad, and contrive to make something out of this cargo of live stock. Shipping wild n.i.g.g.e.rs is growing riskier every year, especially as Cuba and Brazil (our only markets left) threaten to free their slaves.
Look sharp, dodge all warships, and attend to that brat of a boy. I have soft soaped him by giving him a letter to you which you will interpret by this.
Your Cousin, Theodore Shard.
Ralph"s first hot impulse was to go up and make known to Gary that he now saw through the eccentricities of the latter"s behavior, and that Shard"s treachery was also known. A second thought convinced him that such a course in the captain"s present mood, would most likely, only precipitate some act of violence of which he would be the victim.
Ralph now saw why he had been sent up the river on a perilous errand, and why he and his companions were so readily deserted on the first inkling that a sloop of war was near.
Gary"s unchanging severity and dislike were explained, and as the boy contrasted his present treatment with the honeyed manner which had so deceived him in Savannah, he felt that he was justified in using any means to counteract such methods.
As he flung the letter down, a slight noise made him turn. Duff was standing at the door.
Ralph, feeling that here was his best friend aboard, resolved to acquaint the mate with all that had occurred relating to Shard"s and Gary"s conspiracy against himself. This he did as briefly as possible, clinching his remarks by holding out the letter.
"I won"t read it, though it"s right enough you should, seeing it concerns your safety," replied Duff. "I"m in disgrace, too, so it might be a good plan for us to stick together--for self preservation, I mean. We don"t want to hurt any one, unless they try to hurt us.
We"re scarce in water, and that cruiser ain"t going to let us back to the coast again. You can bank your life on that.
"Captain is in his worst mood, and he ain"t likely to get better.
He"ll begin on the crew next. They say he is a perfect fiend for punishment once he gets mad all through. These poor n.i.g.g.e.rs will keep him half crazy as their want of water grows, and the hot calms strike us in the doldrums. It"s my frank opinion, lad, that we"ll be having a little floating place of torment of our own here before many days have pa.s.sed."
The captain"s voice hurled down the companionway, interrupted them harshly.
"He wants his gla.s.s," said Ralph, seizing the instrument in question.
"I must go."
"Well," concluded Duff as he returned to his own stateroom, "lay low and look out for squalls. That"s all we can do at present."
When Ralph returned to the deck the wind was stiffening to a gale, and half a dozen men were putting a single reef into the mainsail, while several more were laying out along the bowsprit doing the same office for one of the jibs.
The outermost one, called the flyaway, was being furled, though the sailor stretched out upon the stay beneath the bowsprit was drenched by each downward plunge of the schooner"s bow. The Adams still carried a heavy press of canvas, though black specks of men could be seen on the yards shortening the loftier sails. The larger vessel rode the rising seas more easily, and had already come within close range.
Gary seized the gla.s.s and leveled it at the cruiser, then at the southwestern horizon, where a dull gray film of vapor was settled upon the sea.
He handed the gla.s.s to Rucker and swore impatiently.
"If we have half an hour more of this wind we"re gone up," he growled.
"Our only chance is a fog."
A puff of smoke belched from the port bow of the warship.
"They understand what that fog might do for us as well as we do,"
remarked Rucker, as a sh.e.l.l exploded some distance to leeward.
"They"ll get the range in a few minutes, and when one of those twelve pound bombs explodes in our tops----"
"They see that solid shot won"t do," interrupted Gary fiercely. "It is quick work they are after."
Down in the hold the labored pitching of the schooner was adding seasickness to the sufferings of the poor wretches there. Doleful cries resounded, among which one at all conversant with their language would have heard calls for water predominate.