I reckon the best plan "ll be to clear away a place for you down in the after-hold, where you must try and make yourselves as comfortable as you can for the few days you"ll be on board. And as for you ladies, I"d sorter advise you to stay below all you can. If you _must_ go on deck at all let it be at night-time, when there ain"t so much chance of your bein" seen."
"Where are you bound, captain?" inquired the skipper.
"Waal, we are bound now to an island which, as it"s not shown on the chart, I"ve christened "Albatross Island," arter the brig. We"re goin"
there to refit," was the reply.
"Then I presume you have established a sort of depot there?"
interrogated Captain Staunton.
"That"s just it; you"ve hit it exactly, stranger," answered the Yankee.
"And how long will it take you to refit?" was the next question.
"Maybe a week; maybe a month. It just depends upon whether the hands are in a working humour or no."
Captain Staunton raised his eyebrows somewhat at this singular answer.
After a moment or two of silence he said--
"I presume you would find no difficulty in running us across to--say-- Valparaiso, if you were well paid for the service?"
"Cash down?"
Captain Staunton was about to say "Yes," having saved from the burning ship a bag of specie sufficient in amount to convey the entire party home in perfect comfort; but an idea struck him that it would perhaps be better to promise payment _after_ rather than before the performance of the service, so he said--
"Well, no, I could not promise that. But I would draw on my owners for the amount of our pa.s.sage-money, and pay you immediately on our arrival at Valparaiso."
"Waal, I guess I"ll have to think it over," remarked Johnson. "I must go on deck now, but you kin remain here as long as you like; in fact I reckon you"d better stay here altogether until I can get a place arranged for you below." Saying which, he abruptly rose from the table and went on deck.
"Rather an unique specimen of the genus _Yankee_," observed Rex, as soon as their host had fairly disappeared. "I hope, captain, you will succeed in persuading him to take us over to the mainland."
The skipper was apparently plunged deep in thought, for he made no reply.
"Does it not strike you, Bowles, that there is something rather peculiar about the craft, and her crew?" remarked Lance.
"These Yankees are generally a queer lot," answered the mate nonchalantly; but immediately afterwards he made a sudden and stealthy movement of his fingers to his lips, while the ladies were looking in another direction, throwing at the same time an expression of so much caution and mystery into his glance that Lance made no attempt to continue the conversation.
Shortly afterwards Captain Staunton rose from his seat at the table, and, touching his chief mate lightly on the shoulder, said--
"Come, Bowles, let us go on deck and see if we can make terms with this Captain Johnson. The rest of you had perhaps better follow that gentleman"s advice in the meantime and remain here, since he evidently has some motive for expressing the wish."
As the two were ascending the companion-ladder the skipper turned and whispered hurriedly to his mate--
"What is your opinion of things in general Bowles?"
"Can"t say yet," answered that individual. "Looks mighty queer though.
She ain"t a man-o"-war, that"s certain."
On reaching the deck they found the after-hatch off, and their host in somewhat hot discussion with the ship"s carpenter.
"That is quite sufficient," they heard him say, without a trace of the Yankee tw.a.n.g in his speech, "you have your orders, and see that they are executed forthwith. In this matter I intend to have my own way."
The man muttered something in a sullen undertone, and then turned to go forward, saying he would get his tools and set about the job at once.
Johnson turned impatiently away from him with an ugly frown upon his brow, which however vanished in an instant upon his finding our two friends at his elbow.
"See here, stranger," he said, pa.s.sing his arm within that of Captain Staunton, and drawing him toward the hatchway, "I want to show you what I"m going to do. See them beams? Waal, I"m going to send some hands down below to trim a few of them bales you see there up level with the tops of the beams; then we"ll lay a couple of thicknesses of planking over all, which "ll make a tol"able floor; and then I"m going to have a sail nailed fore and aft to the deck-beams, dividing the s.p.a.ce into two, one for the women-folks and one for the men; and another sail hung athwart-ships "ll make all sorter snug and private; and I guess you"ll have to make yourselves as comfortable as you can down there. You see the brig"s small, and your party"s a large one, and--I guess that"s the best I can do for you."
"Thank you," said Captain Staunton. "As far as we men are concerned, we can manage perfectly well down there; but I"m afraid it will be rather a comfortless berth for the ladies. And yet I do not see very well what else can be done--unless indeed we could come to some arrangement by which you and your chief mate could be induced to surrender the cabin altogether for their use--"
"Which we can"t," Johnson broke in sharply. "I tell you, stranger, it ain"t to be done. I reckon I was a fool to let you come aboard here at all. It was seein" that little girl of yours that did it," he added, his voice at once softening again, "but I guess there"s going to be trouble about it yet, before all"s done."
"Oh, no, I hope not," returned the skipper. "Why should there be trouble, or with whom? Certainly not with _us_."
"Waal, I hope not," said Johnson. "But I reckon you"ll have to do just exactly as I say, strangers, or I tell you I"ll not answer for the consequences."
"a.s.suredly we will," observed Captain Staunton. "And as for the inconvenience, we must put up with it as best we can, and I only hope we shall not be compelled to intrude upon your hospitality for any great length of time. Indeed you might rid yourself of our presence in a fortnight by running us across to Valparaiso; and I think I could make it worth your while to do so."
Johnson turned away and walked thoughtfully fore and aft, with his chin sunk upon his breast, evidently in painful thought, for some ten minutes; then he rejoined the pair he had left standing at the hatchway, and said--
"See here, strangers; I reckon it"s no use to mince matters and go beating about the bush; the thing"s got to come out sooner or later, so you may as well know the worst at once. You must give up all notion of going to Valparaiso, because the thing ain"t to be done. We"re a crew of free-traders, rovers--_pirates_, if that term "ll serve to make matters more clear to you; and although we"ve only been cruising in these waters about six months, I guess we"ve made things too hot here for us to venture into any port but the one we"re bound to. There you"ll be put ash.o.r.e, and I calculate you"ll have to make yourselves useful at the depot. There"s plenty of work to be done there, and not too many to do it, so you"ll be valuable there. I won"t keep you on board here, because I can see you"d never work with me or be anything else but an anxiety to me; but _there_ you can"t do me any harm. And, take my advice, stranger, don"t cut up rough--go slow and sing small when you get there, because my chief mate--who is a Greek, and is in charge there--is a powerful short-tempered man, and apt to make things downright uncomfortable for them that don"t please him."
Captain Staunton and Bowles looked each other in the face for a full minute, too much overcome by consternation and dismay to utter a single word. Then the skipper, recovering himself, turned to Johnson, who stood by intently watching them, and said:
"I thank you, sir, for having come to the point and put our position thus explicitly before us with so little waste of time. Happily the evil is not yet irreparable. We can never be anything but a source of anxiety and disquietude to you, as you have already admitted; therefore I trust you will allow us to return to our boat as we came; by which act we shall relieve you of a very great embarra.s.sment, and at the same time give ourselves a chance--a very slight one, it is true--of arriving at the place we are so anxious to reach."
"Too late, stranger," replied Johnson. "Here you are, and here you must now stay. Look over the side and you will see that your boat is no longer there. She was stove and cast adrift half an hour ago. And even if she had still been alongside, do you think my men would let you go now that you have been aboard of us and seen our strength? I tell you, stranger, that before you could get ten yards from the brig they would bring her broadside to bear upon you and send you all to the bottom, riddled with grape, and I couldn"t stop "em. No; you"re here, and I reckon you"ll have to stay and make the best of it. You"ll find your traps down below there; the lads wanted to overhaul them, but I guess I shamed them out of _that_," drawing half out of his pockets a pair of revolvers as he spoke.
"Are we to consider ourselves as prisoners then, and to look upon the hold there as our jail?" inquired Captain Staunton.
"That"s as _you_ please," retorted Johnson. "So long as you keep quiet and don"t attempt any tricks you can come on deck as often as you like-- only don"t let the women-folks show themselves, or they"ll get into trouble, and I--nor you--won"t be able to help "em. Tell "em to stay in the cabin until it"s dark to-night, and then when all"s quiet, the watch below in their hammocks and the watch on deck "caulking" between the guns, just you m.u.f.fle "em up and get "em down there as quick as ever you can."
"And what about the rest of my people--those of them who were sent forward to the forecastle?" inquired Captain Staunton.
"Waal," replied Johnson, "I felt myself sorter obliged to clap "em in irons down in the fore-hold. You see you muster a pretty strong party, and though you could never take the brig from us, I didn"t know what you might be tempted to _try_, when you found out the truth; and so, just to prevent accidents, I had the irons slipped on to "em. They"ll be well treated, though; and if any of "em likes to jine us, so much the better--we"re uncommon short-handed, one way and another. If they don"t like to jine, they"ll just be put ash.o.r.e with you to work at the depot.
And, see here, stranger, don"t you go for to try on any tricks, either here or ash.o.r.e, or it"ll be awful bad for you. This is a _friendly_ warning, mind; I"d like to make friends with you folks, for, to tell you the solid petrified truth, I ain"t got one single friend among all hands. The mate hates me, and would be glad to put me out of the way and step into my shoes, and he"s made the men distrust me."
"Why not retire from them altogether, then?" inquired Captain Staunton.
"Because I can"t," answered Johnson. "I"m an outlaw, and dare not show my face anywhere in the whole civilised world for fear of being recognised and hanged as a pirate."
"A decidedly unpleasant position to be in," remarked the skipper.
"However, if there is any way in which we can _lawfully_ help you, we will do so; in return for which we shall of course expect to be treated well by you. Now, Bowles," he continued, turning to his chief mate, "let us talk this matter over, and discuss the manner in which this bad news can best be broken to the others."
Saying which, with a somewhat cold and formal bow to the pirate, Captain Staunton linked his arm in that of his chief mate, and walked away.
The two promenaded the deck for nearly an hour, "overhauling the concern in all its bearings," as Bowles afterwards described it, and they finally came to the conclusion that it would be only fair to let their companions in misfortune know the worst at once, then all could take counsel together, and as "in a mult.i.tude of counsellors there is wisdom," some one might possibly hit upon a happy idea whereby they might be enabled to escape from this new strait.
They accordingly descended to the cabin, where their reappearance had been anxiously looked for.