"Enoch, you jump down there and cast off the bow and stern lines," said Zeke, looking all around as if to see what else ought to be done.
"Caleb, you go round on the wharf and find a small boat that you think will do to pull the boat out to her moorings. I will go to the wheel, and when all that is done I will tell you what the captain said to me."
Zeke never said a thing like this without meaning to be obeyed, and the boys knew that it was useless to argue the point with him. The sooner the work he had set for them to do was done, the sooner would they find out the captain"s secret; so without hesitation they placed their guns where they would not be in anybody"s way and went about their duties in earnest. Enoch speedily cast off the lines, Zeke staying on board to haul them in, Caleb made his appearance sculling a boat that was to pull the little vessel out to her anchorage, and a line was pa.s.sed down to him.
"Now, Enoch, tumble in there and pull for all you are worth," said Zeke.
"You see the schooner"s buoy over there? Well, when you come up with it make this line fast to it and come aboard."
Of course these orders were quickly delivered, but it took longer to carry them out. The schooner moved but slowly in the water. The boys had to turn her around and pull her against the tide, which was coming in at about five miles an hour; but after a long siege they got the line fast and pulled back to the schooner pretty nearly exhausted.
"That"s all right," said Zeke. "The next time the captain wants such work done he will have to send more men to do it."
"Go on now, and tell us what the captain had to say," said Caleb, backing up against the rail and using his hat as a fan. "It did not amount to much, any way."
"Didn"t, hey? Then I guess you don"t want to ship aboard this vessel."
"What is she going to do?" asked Enoch.
"We lucky fellows will be coming ash.o.r.e every month or so, and when you see us spending more money than you ever heard of----"
"Where are you going to get it?" interrupted Caleb.
"Prizes, my boy; prizes," replied Zeke, poking Caleb in the ribs with his long finger. "We are not going to let the Cross of St. George float out there alone, are we?"
"No; but when we take the prizes what will we do with them?"
"Sell them to the highest bidder. You see the captain was thinking about this thing while he was eating his supper, and he came to the conclusion that since we have a fine vessel with guns and small arms for a crew of thirty men, we ought to use them. There are plenty of ships going by that are loaded up with stores for the King, and what is there to hinder our going out and capturing some of them?"
"Whoop!" yelled Enoch.
"That is what I thought, although I did not say it out quite so loud,"
said Zeke, laughing all over. "We want to keep it as still as we can, for there are a good many Tories around, and we want to keep them in ignorance of it. Now you boys stay here and talk it over and I will go ash.o.r.e and bring off the rest of our guard."
"Do you think your mother will let you go on this vessel?" said Caleb, as he and Enoch leaned upon the rail and watched Zeke as he sculled the boat ash.o.r.e.
"Let me go to fight against tyranny? Of course she will."
"You will be a pirate if you do."
"No more than I am now."
"And if they catch you----"
Here Caleb drew his head on one side and straightened his left arm above his head as if he were pulling on a rope.
"It is a good plan to catch your rabbit before you cook him," said Enoch.
CHAPTER XIX.
CONCLUSION.
Captain O"Brien and the rest of the leaders who took part in that fight with the schooner, had plenty to do that night. Among other things they were selecting the crew for their privateer, and they wanted to be sure that they got none but the best men. Zeke was ash.o.r.e for an hour or two before he sent the cutter back, and then he did not come with it but sent Zeb Short to scull the boat. There were nine men in the party, and each one brought with him a large bundle which contained some changes of linen and his bedclothes.
"Where is the mate?" asked Enoch, as the men threw their bundles aboard and then proceeded to climb aboard themselves.
"The mate!" exclaimed Zeb Short, as if he did not catch the boy"s meaning.
"Yes; Zeke told us to stay here until he came back."
"Oh. Well, Zeke is ash.o.r.e helping the captain; and he told me to inform you boys that if you want to ship on board this vessel you had better go home and get some duds, for we are going to sail with the turn of the tide which takes place about four o"clock. Of course you boys are going?"
"You wager we are," said Caleb.
"Take your guns with you," continued Zeb. "We shall not want them any more. When we board the next Britisher you will have a cutla.s.s or pike in your hands."
The boys clambered down into the boat with Zeb Short and were slowly sculled toward the sh.o.r.e. It looked to them as if they were in for fighting and nothing else. They did not stop to speak to the captain or any of the other men standing around but went straight for home as fast as they could go. There was one place where they were tempted to stop and exchange a few words with the inmates, and that was at James Howard"s house. The boys were sitting on the porch and were talking about what they had seen at the wharf.
"There go a couple of those rebels now," said James, as Enoch and Caleb hurried by. "I hope I will be here to see them hung up."
"Enoch, I have the best notion to go back and whip him in his own dooryard," said Caleb, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk. "If you will keep the other off me, I can punish James in two whacks."
"Come on, now, and don"t mind them," said Enoch, taking Caleb by the arm. "You may have some other fellows to fight some day, some that have weapons in their hands, and you can take revenge upon James in that way.
Come along."
Caleb reluctantly allowed himself to be led away, and presently he was dropped at his own gate. Enoch broke into a run and entered the kitchen where his mother was busy with her usual vocations. He seized a chair, moved it up under the hooks on which his flint-lock belonged, placed it there with his bullet-pouch and powder-horn, and Mrs. Crosby looked at him with surprise.
"What"s to do, Enoch?" she said at length.
"Mother, I want my bedclothes and a change of underwear to go out to sea," said Enoch. "You see----"
Here the boy began and told his story in as few words as possible, and to his joy his mother did not say one word to oppose him.
"There is one thing that does not look exactly right," he continued, "and that is I don"t know what I am going to get for my trouble. I do not know that I am going to get a cent."
"That is all in the future," said his mother. "Do your duty faithfully and I will take care of myself."
Enoch said no more, but somehow he could not help wishing that he had some of his mother"s pluck. When the things had been bundled up he kissed his mother good-by and went out of the house, wondering if he was ever going inside of it again. He found Caleb at his gate with his bundle on his shoulder, and in half an hour from that time they were safe on board the schooner.
"If no one has spoken for this bunk I guess I will put my things in here," said Enoch, looking around upon the men who were busy at work making up their own beds.
"There is a bunk for every man in the crew," said one. "Put your things in there and say nothing to n.o.body."
"All below, there!" shouted Zeke. "Come on deck, everybody."
"We are going to choose our officers the first thing we do," said Zeb Short, who proved that he was a good sailor by leaving his bunk half made up and hurrying to obey the order. "My captain is...o...b..ien, every time."