Bugle-calls split the air; drums rolled furiously; a carronade went off with a shattering roar; there was a rush of feet and tumult of voices. Above the confusion could be heard Piggy thumping at the door and squealing,
"_Les depeches! Les depeches!_"
Kit, sliding through the water, was thankful for the flash of insight that had made him lock the door, and throw away the key. That action meant minutes gained; these minutes might mean life.
The tide was with him now. But for that, and this merciful mist, his chances would be _nil_.
His ears behind him, he swam like a hunted otter.
Aboard the privateer things were moving fast. The confusion abated; order began to reign; with it the danger grew. Somebody was at work with an axe on the door. It came down with a crash. There was a shrill command and the scamper of feet.
Piggy was on deck.
"_Feu, imbecile! par la! dans le brouillard!_"
A bullet plopped into the water wide on the boy"s right.
"_Au bateau!_"
Again that scamper of feet: then the rattle of blocks and creak of pulleys. Besides all was swiftness, and fierce silence; and that silence terrified the lad far more than the preceding tumult.
"_Depechez vous donc, gredins!_"
They were lowering a boat; and he was getting done.
The despatch-bag was heavy between his shoulders. His hold upon himself was relaxing: dissolution was setting in. The firm mind, which at all times and in all places means salvation, was dissipating. He tried not to think. All there was of him he needed for his swimming.
Thought was waste; so was fear. And swim he did, and swim, through endless water, with sickening brain and failing arms.
Behind him he heard a splash, as the privateer"s boat took the sea.
They"d be coming soon now. He didn"t mind much: he was too tired. And they couldn"t hurt him: he was too far away.
He heard the splash of oars, and thumping rowlocks.
Here they came--straight towards him!
Then with a start he recollected: the privateer"s boat would be pursuing; this was coming to meet him.
Had he been swimming round and round like a drowning dog?
No. Behind him he could hear shouts and orders on the privateer as the crew jumped into the boat.
This must be some other craft.
It was coming from the land, and a landsman was rowing it. He could tell by the uneven splash of the oars, the slish along the surface as a crab was caught, and the m.u.f.fled curse as the man recovered himself.
Could it be the Parson come to his a.s.sistance?
The question answered itself.
The bows of a boat thrust on him through the mist. He saw a man"s back, giving to his stroke.
"Hi!" he gasped, the boat"s nose hard on top of him.
The rower glanced round.
There was no mistaking that falcon-face.
It was the Gentleman.
II
"Who"s there?" peering suspiciously.
"Boy Hoad, powder-monkey o the _Dreadnought_."
"Is that the _Dreadnought_?" sharply.
"_Dreadnought_, forty-four. Oi"m drownin, sir. Take us in."
His hand was on the boat"s gunwale.
"What the deuce you doing here?"
"Desartin, sir. They was for floggin me at sun-up."
"What for?"
"For--for fun."
"_For what_?"
"For funk, sir," panted the boy, recovering. "Oi don"t care for being shotted. So when the guns begins to bang, Oi goos to bed."
The Gentleman threw back his head and ran off into laughter.
"You"re the right sort, Mr. Toad. Come on board by all means. But for you and your likes the world"d be a dull place."
Kit clambered in.
"What"s that bag?" asked the Gentleman, swift as a sword.
"Duds," replied the boy as swift.
The Gentleman, sitting still as death, stared. It was an appalling moment. The boy could not face those eyes. He looked behind him. As he did so, the mist above drifted away, and the Union Jack at the foretop of the privateer floated out.