"Your only child, your daughter--black devils," echoed Captain Applegarth, astonished at the poor man"s speech and at his wild and agonised look. "What do you mean, sir?"
"Heavens! We"re losing time while those scoundrels are getting away with the ship!" exclaimed the other frantically and walking to and fro in a most excited state. "Fire up the engines, pile on the coals and steam like the devil! and go in chase of her, my good captain, you will?
For Heaven"s sake, captain, for the love of G.o.d, start at once in chase of her!"
"In chase of whom?" asked Captain Applegarth, still believing him to be out of his mind. "In chase of whom?"
The man uttered a heart-rending cry, in which anger, grief and piteous appeal were alike blended.
"In chase of a band of black miscreants who have committed murder and piracy on the high seas!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed in broken accents. "The blood of a number of white men ma.s.sacred by treacherous negroes calls for vengeance, the safety of a young girl and the lives of your brother sailors still on board the ship calls to you for help and rescue! Great Heaven! Will you stand idly by and not render the aid you can? Think, captain, a little girl like your own daughter--my Elsie, my little one!
Yes, and white men, your brothers, and sailors, too, like yourselves, at the mercy of a gang of black ruffians! Sir, will you help them or not?"
CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
WE START IN CHASE OF THE SHIP.
The effect of this appeal was electrical, not only on the skipper, but on all of us standing by.
"Great heavens, man!" cried the captain, staring at the other in wild astonishment. "What do you mean? I cannot understand you, sir. Your ship, you say--"
"My words are plain enough, captain," said the stranger, interrupting the skipper. "Our ship, the _Saint Pierre_, is in the possession of a gang of Haytian negroes who rose on us while we were on the high seas and murdered most of the officers and the crew. They then threw poor Captain Alphonse, who commanded her, overboard, after they had half killed him, and the rest of the unfortunate sailors and pa.s.sengers, amongst them my little daughter, are now at the mercy of the black devils!"
"My G.o.d!" exclaimed the skipper, confounded by this lucid statement.
"And you, sir?"
"I am an American!" said the other with a proud air, drawing himself up to his full height of six feet and more, and with his eyes flashing, while a red flush mounted to his cheeks, which had formerly been deadly pale. "I"m a white man, captain, and it"s not likely I would stand by and see people of my own colour butchered! Of course, sir, I went to the poor captain"s a.s.sistance, but then the murderers served me almost as badly as they did him, chucking me overboard after him."
"I beg your pardon, sir, I"m sure, for appearing to doubt your story,"
cried the skipper, stretching forward his hand, which the other eagerly grasped. "The fact is, sir, I thought at first your sufferings had set your head wrong; but now I need hardly say I believe thoroughly every word you"ve told us, and you may rely on my aid and that of every man aboard here to help you and yours. There"s my hand on it, sir, and my word you"ll find as good as my bond, so sure as my name is Jack Applegarth!"
"And mine, captain, is Vereker, Colonel Vereker, at your service,"
returned the other, reciprocating the skipper"s cordiality as he looked him straight in the face, holding his hand the while in a firm grip. He let go the skipper"s fist, however, the next moment and a puzzled expression came into his eyes as he glanced round occasionally, apparently in search of some one or other. "Heavens! Where"s my unfortunate comrade who was in the boat with me--poor Captain Alphonse?
Alas, I had forgotten him!"
"We have not forgotten him, though, colonel," said the skipper smiling.
"He has been carried below to the saloon on the maindeck, where my second mate, Mr O"Neil, who is a qualified surgeon, is now attending to his injuries. He has been terribly mauled, poor fellow; we could see that!"
"Aye, terribly!" repeated the other with a shudder, as if the recollection of all he and his fellow-sufferers had gone through suddenly came back to him at the moment. "But, great Heavens! captain, we"re losing time and that accursed ship with those scoundrels and our remaining comrades, and with my darling child on board, is speeding away while we"re talking here. You will, will you not, Senor Applegarth, go in pursuit of her, my friend?"
"By George I will, colonel; I will at once--immediately--if you"ll tell me her bearings," cried the skipper excitedly. "When was it this terrible affair happened? When did you leave the ship, and where?"
"The revolt of the blacks, or mutiny, I should call it, captain, broke out four days ago, on last Friday, indeed, sir," said the American promptly in his deep musical voice, and whose foreign accent obliterated all trace of the unmelodious Yankee tw.a.n.g. "But we kept the rascals at bay until last night, soon after sundown, when they made an ugly rush and overpowered us. Captain Alphonse had just sighted your vessel in the distance and was burning a blue light over the stern to attract your attention, so as to get a.s.sistance at the time this happened."
"Was yours a large, full-rigged ship?"
"Yes, sir, the _Saint Pierre_ is of good size and had all her sails set," replied the other to the skipper"s question. "We were running before the wind with our helm lashed amidship, as it had been since the previous Friday, for we were all too busy defending our lives to think of attending to the ship."
"Steering about nor"-east, I suppose?"
"Confound it, captain!" said the colonel impatiently. "We were drifting, I tell you, sir, at the mercy of the elements, and heaven only knows how we were going! Fortunately, the weather was pretty fair, save the very day the mutiny broke out, when it blew heavily and our canvas got split to pieces as there was no one to go aloft and take it in.
Otherwise we must have gone to the bottom!"
"By George!" exclaimed the skipper, turning round to old Masters and myself, who were still standing by with the hands who had come aft to haul up the boat. "Then my bo"sun here, and this young officer were right when they declared they saw a large full-rigged ship to the westward of us, though I only noticed the light of your flare-up. You were too far off for me to make you out."
"_Ojala_!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the American, reverting again to the familiar Spanish tongue in his emotion. "Would to G.o.d, captain, you _had_ seen us!"
"It would have been useless if I had, my friend," said the skipper soothingly. "We couldn"t move to come to your a.s.sistance if every soul on board had seen you and known your peril, sir; for our engines were broken-down and we were not able to get up steam again until late this afternoon, when we ran down to pick you up!"
"But, sir," hastily whispered the colonel, suppressing a sob of emotion, "you can and will steam now?"
"Why ask?" replied the skipper. "The moment we know where to go in search of your ship, that very moment we"ll start and try to overhaul her. You say you quitted her last night?"
"Quitted her? We were _thrown_ overboard, sir, by the black devils!"
Captain Applegarth in reply said calmly, "Yes, yes, of course,"
accepting the correction and trying by his manner to soothe the infuriated man. "But what time was that?"
"I can"t say the exact hour," replied the American, whose vexed tone showed that the captain"s methodical mode of setting to work did not quite harmonise with the excited state of his feelings. "I think, however, it must have been nearly seven o"clock, as well, sir, as I can remember."
Then I chimed in. "Ah!" I exclaimed quickly, "that was just the _very time_ that Masters and I heard the shooting in the distance to win"ard, and it was six bells in the second dog watch!"
"So it were, Master Haldane; so it were," agreed the old boatswain, looking from me to the skipper and then at Colonel Vereker. "Well, I"m blowed! and I"m glad, then, for that there ghost-ship wor a rael ship arter all said and done. Now who was right, I"d like to know?"
"Of course it was a real ship, you old dotard!" said the skipper gruffly and looking angrily at him. "Of course it was," he added, while our new acquaintance looked at us, unable, naturally, to understand the mystical allusion; but Captain Applegarth soon turned his roving thoughts into another direction by asking him a second question. "How long did you keep in sight of your vessel after leaving her, colonel, do you think?"
"She was in full view of us at sunrise this morning," replied the American. "The boat in which we were adrift kept near her all night as there was very little wind, if any. A slight breeze sprang up shortly after the sun rose and she then steadily increased her distance from us as the day wore on, finally disappearing from my gaze about noon, and taking with her my little darling, my pet, my Elsie."
The poor fellow broke down again at this point throwing up his hands pa.s.sionately and burying his face in them, his whole frame convulsed with sobs, though not a man present thought his emotion a thing to be ashamed of, all of us being deeply interested in his narrative, and as anxious as himself for the skipper to start off in pursuit of the black mutineers and pirates.
We were not long kept in suspense, the colonel"s last words and violent burst of emotion apparently touching our "old man"s" feelings deeply, and hastening his decision.
"Cheer up, sir, cheer up," said he to the other, whose shoulders still shook with his deep hysterical sobs. "And we"ll find your little girl yet for you all right, and restore her to you, and we"ll settle matters too, with those scoundrels, I promise. Now tell me how far off do you think the ship must have drifted from us by now, Mr Fosset."
"Between twenty and thirty miles, sir," replied the first mate. "She was lighter than us, and of course she had the advantage of what wind there has been, though, thank goodness, that has been little enough!"
"Away to the nor"-east, I suppose?"
"Aye, aye, sir," said Mr Fosset. "The breeze, what there was, has been from the sou"-east and the current trends in the same direction."
"Then if we steer east-nor"-east we ought to pick her up soon?"
"Not a doubt of it, sir. We have four good hours of daylight left yet!"
"Precisely my opinion," cried the skipper. "Mr Stokes, will the engines stand full speed now, do you think?"
"Oh, yes, sir," replied the old chief, who with the rest of us was all agog to be after the strange ship again, now that he had heard the colonel"s explanation of her true character, "if you"ll send some one below to tell Stoddart what you want. I would go myself, but I"m rather shaky in getting down the hatchway as yet. I twisted my arm just now when I went down."
"That"s all right. Stoddart, I am sure, will excuse you," said the skipper kindly, and turning to me he added: "You, Haldane, run down and tell Stoddart we want all the steam we can get. He won"t spare the engines, I know, when he knows the circ.u.mstances of the case, and you will explain matters!"