His father looked relieved.
"Go--you and Tom!" he said. "I"ll stay and mind the island."
Job, with a dozen of his men, was starting in the cutter, and had already hailed the _Tiger_ to order the other boat sent ash.o.r.e. Tom and Jeremy hurried into the cabin, and stuffing some clothes into Jeremy"s sea-chest along with a brace of good pistols and a cutla.s.s apiece, were soon ready to embark.
CHAPTER x.x.xI
There was a bustle of action aboard the sloop when the boys swarmed up her side. One chanty was being sung up forward, where half a dozen st.u.r.dy seamen were heaving at the capstan bars, and another was going amidships as the throat of the long main gaff went to the top. Captain Job stood on the afterdeck, constantly shouting new orders. His big voice made itself heard above the singing, the groan of tackle-blocks and the crash of the canvas, flapping in the northwest wind.
It was a clear, sunny day, with a bite of approaching winter in the air, and the boys were glad to b.u.t.ton their jackets tight and move into the lee of the after-house.
"Here, lads," Job cried, "there"s work for you, too. Take a run below, Jeremy, and bring up an armload of cutla.s.ses. See if any of those muskets need cleaning, Tom."
Jeremy scurried down the companion ladder, and forward along the starboard gun deck to the rack of small arms near the fo"c"s"le hatch.
Jeremy was pleased to see that the sloop carried a full complement of ten broadside guns, beside a long bra.s.s cannon in the bows. In fact, she was armed like a regular man-o"-war. The tubs were filled and neat little piles of round-shot and cannister stood beside each gun. The _Tiger_, he thought, was likely to give a good account of herself if she could come to grips with the buccaneers.
Stepping on deck once more, his arms piled with hangers, Jeremy found that the sloop had already cleared the bay on her starboard tack and was just coming about to make a long reach of it to port. The pirate sail was no longer in sight in the west, but as several islands filled the horizon in that direction, it seemed likely that she had pa.s.sed beyond them.
Jeremy approached the Captain. "How far ahead do you think they are?" he asked.
"When we sighted "em, they were about four sea-miles to the westward,"
answered Job. "If they"re making ordinary sailing, they"ve gained close to three more, since then. But if they"re carrying much canvas it may be more. We shan"t come near them before dark, at any rate."
He cast an eye aloft as he spoke, and Jeremy"s gaze followed. The _Tiger_ was carrying topsails and both jibs, with a single reef in her fore and main sails. She was scudding along at a great rate with the whitecaps racing by, close below the lee gunports. Jeremy whistled with delight. He had seen Stede Bonnet crowd canvas once or twice, but never in so good a cause.
The wind held from the northwest, gaining in strength rather than decreasing, and the sloop, heeled far to port, sped along close-hauled on a west-sou"west course.
After three-quarters of an hour of this kind of sailing they were close to the group of islands, and sighting a pa.s.sage to the northward, swung over on the other tack. A rough beat to starboard brought them into the gap. Though they crossed a grim, black shoal at the narrowest part, Job did not shorten sail, but steered straight on as fast as the wind would take him. And at length they came clear of the headland and saw a great stretch of open sea to the southwestward with a faint, white dot of sail at its farthest edge.
At the sight a hearty cheer went up from the seamen, cl.u.s.tered along the port rail. A lean, wind-browned man with keen black eyes came aft to the tiller where Jeremy and Tom stood with the Captain. It was Isaiah Hawkes, Job"s first mate, himself a Maine coast man. "It"s all clear sailin" ahead, sir," he said. "No more reefs or islands "twixt this an"
Cape Cod, if they follow the course they"re on."
The _Tiger_ hung with fluttering canvas in the wind"s eye for a second or two, then settled away on the port tack with a bang of her main boom.
"Here, Isaiah, take the tiller," said Job, at length. "Hold her as she is--two points to windward of the other sloop. You"ll want to set an extra lookout tonight," he continued. "We shan"t be able to keep "em in sight at this distance, if they"ve sighted us, which most likely they have. I"m going up to have a look at "Long Poll" now."
Accompanied by the two boys, he made his way along the steeply canted deck of the plunging schooner to the breach of the swivel-gun at the bow.
"Ever seen this gal afore, Jeremy?" asked Job, shouting to make himself heard above the hiss and thunder of the water under the forefoot. "She"s the old gun we had aboard the _Queen_. Stede Bonnet never had a piece like this. Cast in Bristol, she was, in "94. There"s the letters that tells it." And he patted the bright breach lovingly, sighting along the brazen barrel, and swinging the nose from right to left till he brought the gun to bear squarely on the white speck that was the pirate sloop, still hull-down in the sea ahead. "Come morning, Polly, my gal," he chuckled, "we"ll let you talk to "em."
As he spoke, the fiery disk of the sun was slipping into the ocean across the starboard bow. With sunset the breeze lightened perceptibly, and Job ordered the reefs shaken out of the fore and mainsails and an extra jib set. Then he and the boys, who, although they had quarters aft, had been a.s.signed to the port watch, went below and turned in.
CHAPTER x.x.xII
Jeremy, stumbling on deck at eight bells, pulled his seaman"s greatcoat up about his ears, for the breeze came cold. He worked his way forward along the high weather rail and took up his lookout station on the starboard bow.
Overhead the midnight sky burned bright with stars that seemed to flicker like candle-flames in the wind. A half-grown moon rode down the west and threw a faint radiance across the heaving seas. It was blowing harder now. The wind boomed loud in the taut stays and the rising waves broke smashingly over the bow at times, forcing the foremast hands to cling like monkeys to the rail and rigging.
Captain Job, with Tom to help him, stood grimly at the thrashing tiller and drove the sloop southwestward at a terrific gait. The sails had been single-reefed again during the mate"s watch, but with the wind still freshening the staunch little craft was carrying an enormous amount of canvas. Job Howland was a sailor of the breed that was to reach its climax a hundred years later in the captains of the great Yankee clippers--men who broke sailing records and captured the world"s trade because they dared to walk their tall ships, full-canva.s.sed, past the heavy foreign merchantmen that rolled under triple reefs in half a gale of wind.
One by one the hours of the watch went by. Jeremy, drenched and shivering, but thrilling to the excitement of the chase, stuck to his post at the rail beside the long bow gun. His eyes were fixed constantly on the sea ahead and abeam, while his thoughts, racing on, followed the pirate schooner close.
How was Bob to be gotten off alive, he wondered, for he had come to believe that his chum was aboard the fleeing craft. If it came to a running fight, their cannonade might sink her, in which case the boy would be drowned along with his captors. And there were other things that could happen. Jeremy groaned aloud as he thought of the fate that Pharaoh Daggs had once so nearly meted out to him. He felt again the bite of the hemp at his wrists, and saw that pitiless gleam in the strange light eyes of the pirate. Would Daggs try to settle his long score against the boys by some unheard-of brutality?
A sudden hail cut in upon his thoughts. "Sail ho!" the lookout on the other side had cried.
"Where away?" came Job"s deep shout.
"Three points on the port bow," answered the seaman, "an" not above a league off!"
Jeremy, straining his eyes into the night, made out the dim patch of sail ahead.
"How"s she headed?" called the Captain again. "Is she still on her port tack, or running before the wind?"
"Still beating up to the west!" the sailor replied.
"Good," cried Job. "They think they can outsail us. Keep her in sight and sing out if you see her fall off the wind!"
Half an hour later the watch was changed and Jeremy scrambled into his warm bunk for a few hours more sleep.
It was broad daylight when he and Tom reached the deck once more and went eagerly forward to join the little knot of seamen in the bows. All eyes were turned toward the horizon, ahead, where the sails of the fleeing schooner loomed gray in the morning haze.
The wind which had shifted a little to the north was still blowing stiffly, heeling both sloops over at a sharp angle. The _Tiger_ had gained somewhat during the morning watch, but the pirates had now evidently become desperate and put on all the sail their craft would carry, so that the two vessels sped on, league after league, without apparent change of position.
Job, who had now taken the tiller again, called to Jeremy after a while.
"Here, lad," he said, when the boy reached the p.o.o.p, "lend me a hand with this kicker."
Jeremy laid hold with a will, and found that it took almost all his strength, along with that of the powerful Captain, to hold the schooner on her course. At times, when a big beam sea caught her, she would yaw fearfully, falling off several points, and could only be brought back to windward by jamming the thrashing rudder hard over.
"We lose headway when she does that, don"t we, Job?" panted the boy after one such effort. "And I reckon we couldn"t lash the beam fast to keep her this way, could we? No, I see, it has to be free so as to move all the time. Still----"
As he staggered to and fro at the end of the tiller, the boy thought rapidly. Finally he recommenced: "Job--this may sound foolish to you--but why couldn"t we lash her on both sides, and yet give her play--look--this way! Rig a little pulley here and one here----" He indicated places on the deck, close to the rail on either quarter. "Then reeve a line from the tiller-end through each one, and bring it back with three or four turns around a windla.s.s drum, a little way for"ard, there. Then you could keep hold of the arms of the windla.s.s, and only let the tiller move as much as you needed to, either way----"
"By the Great Bull Whale," Job laughed, as he grasped the boy"s plan, "I wonder if that wouldn"t work! Jeremy, boy, we"ll find out, anyhow.
Braisted!" he called to the ship"s carpenter, "up with some lumber and a good stout line and a pair of spare blocks if you"ve got them. Lively, now!"
In a jiffy the carpenter had tumbled the tackle out on the deck, and under the direction of Job, began to rig it according to Jeremy"s scheme. It was a matter of a few moments only, once he caught the idea.
When at length the final stout knot had been tied, Job, still keeping his mighty clutch on the tiller beam, motioned to Jeremy to take hold of the windla.s.s. The boy jumped forward eagerly and seized two of the rude spokes that radiated horizontally from the hub. The position was an awkward one, but with a slight pull he found that he could swing the windla.s.s rapidly in either direction.
"Avast there--avast!" came Job"s ba.s.s bellow, and looking over his shoulder, Jeremy saw the big skipper flung from side to side in spite of himself as the windla.s.s was turned. The seamen who had gathered to watch were roaring with laughter, and Job himself was chuckling as he let go the tiller and hurried to Jeremy"s side. Taking a grip on the spokes, he spun them back and forth once or twice, to feel how the vessel answered her helm under this new contraption, and in a moment had it working handsomely. He was using the first ship"s steering-wheel.