The captain was willing to believe it, if he could, and he questioned him closely, all the crew of the _Noank_ agreeing among themselves that Groot was their prize, anyhow, and ought not to be turned over to any Spanish authority.
All the while, the rescued _Santa Teresa_ was drifting nearer, her bulwarks lined with eager people of all sorts, who were gazing gratefully at what seemed to them the very beautiful American schooner.
She had arrived just in time to save them, and they had never before seen a ship that they were so pleased with. Loud hails were exchanged, and then followed, from the Spanish ship, a perfect storm of thanks.
"Guert," said Captain Avery, "I"m goin" aboard of her. You may come along. You may find some more Dutchmen. I can talk Spanish and French. I want to know just what shape they"re in."
A boat was already lowered, and in a few minutes they were on the deck of the _Santa Teresa_.
"Women and children!" was Guert"s first thought and exclamation. "To think of all of them being murdered! I don"t feel half so sorry as I did about the pirates. I wish mother could see just what we"ve been saving from "em. I guess it"s perfectly right to shoot straight, sometimes. Glad I didn"t miss once!"
All his shudders of regret and of horror over the work of the sharks pa.s.sed away from him as those pa.s.sengers crowded around him. There were four more _Noank_ sailors, but the Spanish crew had captured them.
The two captains were talking business, therefore Guert was taken in hand by the women and young people. One short, fat senora, who came at him first, had long, white hair tumbling down over her shoulders. She hugged him and kissed him, and cried and laughed, and she pointed--saying a great deal in Spanish--at a woman who was throwing her arms around a pretty pair of children. It was easy for Guert to understand that the old woman was thanking G.o.d and the Americans for the lives of her daughter and her grandchildren.
Other women did not altogether follow her example, for Guert showed a little bashfulness, there were so many of them; but he shook hands quite freely with the boys and girls. The Spanish youngsters showed him their weapons, too, trying to tell him how ready they had been to fight the buccaneers.
"It isn"t a long run from this to Porto Rico," he heard Captain Avery say. "We"ll see you safe in. We didn"t lose a man."
"We lost five," replied the Spanish commander. "The sharks would have had all of us, instead of all of them, but for you. G.o.d bless you! We will patch up and spread all the canvas we can."
At that moment a friendly hand was laid upon Guert"s arm, drawing him away from his women friends. Senor Alvarez held him hard for a breath or two, as if he were trying to speak and had lost his voice.
"My boy," he then exclaimed, "you came in time! This is my wife, Senora Laura Alvarez. These are my boy and girl. This is my wife"s mother, Senora Paez. They told me that you fired that blessed long gun, yourself."
"Up-na-tan, the Indian chief, and I fired it," said Guert. "I"m a beginner."
"I understand," said the Spaniard. "You are a young cadet studying navigation. You must come home with me and study a Porto Rico plantation house. You must be my guest. We will treat you like a king."
"I shall be ever so glad, if Captain Avery"ll let me," answered Guert.
"He says we"re likely to be in port quite a while. I"ll ask him."
Captain Avery was near enough to hear, and he replied for himself.
"It"s all right, Guert," he said. "You may go. I want you to, even if we sail and come back while you"re ash.o.r.e. You see, my boy, you know a little Spanish now. Here"s a chance for you to get ahead so you can begin to speak and read it. Every American sea-captain ought to know Spanish."
"Yes, sir, I"d like it first-rate," said Guert; "but I wouldn"t like to have the _Noank_ sail without me on board."
"We"ll see "bout that," replied the captain. "You"ll obey orders, anyhow."
"I guess I"ll have to," almost grumbled Guert, as he was compelled to get away from his friends and hasten back in the boat to the schooner; "but I didn"t come to loaf on sh.o.r.e. I"d rather be a gunner."
There was a great deal of talk and excitement upon both vessels, but things were rapidly getting back into order. The sails were spread, and both were quickly in motion. The wind was fair, and night was coming on. As for the _Noank_, in particular, all that she had done for either pirates or Spaniards could not diminish the necessity she was under for keeping up a sharp lookout for anything sailing under the British flag. That banner might be fluttering nearer at any hour, and it might be upon a "sugar-boat," or it might be streaming out from the dangerous rigging of a cruiser.
Once the schooner was under way, Guert found himself more at liberty than usual, for all kinds of his sea schooling were given a vacation.
His head was even more full than ordinary, however, and he had an especial reason for getting away with Sam Prentice during their next watch on deck. He had several times heard the mate talk about pirates.
He had also heard something about them from Up-na-tan and Coco and the crew. Until now, however, all that he had heard at any time had been listened to as if it were unreal. He had never read a novel, and so he did not know that all of it had seemed to him a kind of pretty, interesting story of fiction, and not anything more. It was very different, now that he had seen a black flag and sent a heavy shot into the hull under it, and had watched while that hull went down.
"About the buccaneers, eh?" said Sam, as they leaned over the quarter-rail and looked out into the darkness. "Well! I s"pose there are books about "em. You can learn a good deal from books, but I don"t know any that"ll tell you all there is "bout those islands. There"s too many of "em, hundreds, mebbe, with outlyin" reefs and ledges. Then there are any number o" bays and inlets and lagoons. That"s why it"s so hard to follow up and ketch light draft pirate vessels. They can hide in a thousand out o" the way places until they git ready to run out and make a strike. One o" their biggest helps is the caves on some o" the islands. Safest kind o" places for men to hide plunder in, too.
Some of "em open right down at the water line, and some of "em have deep water for quite a way in from the mouth. You can row a boat right on in at high tide, or even at low water, I"ve heard tell. Big cruisers ain"t of any use "mong the shoals and ledges and lagoons.
Somehow the governments have been too busy "bout other matters to build and arm the right pattern o" gunboats. That there picaroon that we sunk to-day was as large a craft as I ever heard o" their usin".
Oftener, they go out in canoes and rowboats and sailboats, and make surprises in light winds or calms, or in the night. All the sh.o.r.e people are afraid to tell on "em, and they"re good friends with the Caribs and the slaves. Of course, they"ve got to be all rooted out, some day, but it"s goin" to be a tough job, I tell ye."
Many more things he had to tell, as Guert questioned him. Before he got through, it almost seemed as if all the nations of the world had once been pirates, of one kind or another, each nation thinking it right to capture ships of other nations on sight, if opportunity made it safe to do so.
"I tell you what," said Guert, at last, "I want to read books! I never had a chance at "em. Rachel Tarns lent me a few, long ago, when we were at home in New York, before the British came. The war drove us out, you know, and we can"t guess when we"re to get back. I want to read."
"Now!" exclaimed the mate, "I"ve thought of one thing. You"ll be at the Velasquez plantation. Mebbe for some time. They"ll have heaps o"
books. It"ll help you learn Spanish if you"ll try and read anything you find there. Learn all you can, wherever you happen to be."
"I just will!" said Guert.
"Now," said Prentice, "I"m goin" below. Some time to-morrer, if the wind holds good, we"ll be in Porto Rico. Then you"ll see something new."
Guert also had to go below and turn in, but it was not easy to sleep with his head so full, even after so very fatiguing a day. He was lying awake, therefore, long afterward, when he was startled by sounds on deck.
"Hullo!" he exclaimed. "Something"s happened! What if they should have sighted a British man-o"-war? If there"s going to be any more fighting, I want to be at my gun!"
He was getting to be a genuine sailor, therefore, and the cannon he was stationed with had become a sort of pet and much as if it were his own property.
Not much careful dressing was called for after he sprung out of his bunk, and then he was up on deck without waiting for orders.
Not a great deal of noise had been made, after all, and most of the weary crew were still keeping their watch below, as soundly asleep as ever. Two pairs of ears, however, had been as keen as Guert"s, and here were Coco and Up-na-tan, already at the pivot-gun, prepared for anything that might turn up. The moon was shining brightly and the wind was fair. The sparkling, foaming sea looked beautiful, and all was peace except upon the deck of the privateer. Away to leeward Guert could dimly see a sail that he believed to be the _Santa Teresa_, and at that moment a red ball rocket went up from her deck and burst, to inform her American friends that she was doing well.
"She"s all right, then," Guert heard Captain Avery say to the man at the wheel. "I wish I knew what this feller is to wind"ard. Up-na-tan, be ready, there, with that gun. It looks to me like a brig o" some sort. It might happen to be one o" these "ere British ten-gun brigs.
I don"t know, yet, whether or not one o" them "d prove too much for us, if we got in the first broadside."
"Well, Captain," said the steersman, "we can"t very well get out of her way, jest now. She has managed to come up to wind"ard of us, and she can hold on, best we can do. It"s our bad luck!"
"Maybe it"s her"s," said the captain, grimly. "I won"t call up the men for a bit. If there"s a hard fight a-comin", a rest won"t hurt "em.
It may be a Spanish coast-guard or a Frenchman. Everything down this way isn"t British. Up-na-tan, take this night-gla.s.s and see what you can make of her."
The Manhattan came at once for the telescope, but a sudden change had come over the manners of Coco. It began with a curious kind of sniffing, sniffing, like a pointer dog in the neighborhood of game.
Then he left his precious gun and glided to the rail, shaking his head and chattering harsh words in a tongue which n.o.body who heard could recognize.
Guert went over to join him, and his first glance at the face of the old African astonished him. It was absolutely convulsed with fury.
The black man"s hands were clenched, his teeth were grinding, and his eyes seemed to flash fire.
"What"s the matter?" asked Guert. "Can you see anything out there?"
An angry screech, and then a guttural, wrathful war-cry, sprung from the lips of Coco.
At that moment Up-na-tan had been looking at the strange sail through the telescope.
"Brig," he had said. "All sail set. Big as the _Santa Teresa_. No cruiser. No Englishman ever set a foresail like that."
His implied compliment to the neatness of British seamanship was cut short by the yell of Coco, and he instantly lowered his gla.s.s.
"Whoo-oop!" he responded. ""Peak out! What Coco find?"
"Slaver!" screeched the African. "Coco smell him! Where Up-na-tan lose he nose?"