"Oh, Lascelles, of course," answered Courtenay quickly. "We joined the service together, you know; but he is a few months my senior in point of age. Moreover, he is ever so much the better navigator of the two; indeed I am ashamed to say I am so shaky in my navigation that I should really be almost afraid to take sole charge of a ship. I _might_ manage all right, but I am not absolutely sure of myself, and that is an awfully unpleasant feeling to have, let me tell you, when you are occupying a position of responsibility."
The land-breeze, meanwhile, had sprung up, and was by this time blowing pretty strongly; so, as I was a trifle anxious about the raft with the guns alongside, we hurried our meal to a conclusion; and, whilst Sanderson first took another peep at O"Flaherty, and then went forward to look after the rest of his patients, Courtenay and I went on deck, where we found the gunner keeping a lookout. "Well, Mr Tompion," said I, as the man approached, "how are matters looking here on deck?"
"All quiet, sir," was the reply, "leastways as far as one can be sartain on sich a pitch-dark night as this. It"s lightnin" a little away down there to the west"ard, and durin" one o" the flashes I sartaintly _did_ think I see some objek a-movin" away over there in the direction where the felucca came from, but when the next flash took place there weren"t a sign of anything."
"Oh, indeed!" said I, "what did the object look like?"
"Well, sir, it might ha" been a boat--or a raft--or it might only ha"
been the trunk of a tree struck adrift; but if it had been a tree I don"t think as it would ha" wanished quite so quick."
"How long ago was this, Mr Tompion?"
"Just a minute or two afore you came on deck, sir."
"Well," said I, "we must keep a sharp lookout, that is all we can do at present Is there anybody on the lookout on the forecastle?"
"Yes, sir, Jack Sinclair and Bob Miles."
"Thank you, that will do, Mr Tompion," said I, and the man turned away to his former post at the gangway.
Whatever the mysterious object might have been it was invisible on the occurrence, not only of the next, but also of several succeeding flashes of the bluish summer lightning which quivered up from behind a heavy bank of cloud low down on the western horizon, momentarily lighting up with a weird evanescent radiance the lagoon, the mainland, the distant islands toward which our suspicious glances were directed, and the ship herself, which, partially dismantled as she was, looked in the faint and momentary illumination like the ghost of some ancient wreck hovering over the scene of her dissolution; the incident was therefore soon forgotten as Courtenay took me round from point to point explaining what further steps he had taken, after my retirement below in the afternoon, to facilitate the floating of the ship.
The tide was now again making, and at length, about two bells in the first watch, we became conscious that the schooner, which had been lying somewhat over on her port bilge, was gradually becoming more upright.
Meanwhile the lightning had ceased, and the darkness had become, if possible, more profound than ever, whilst the only sounds audible were the rippling splash of the water alongside, the melancholy sough of the wind, and the faint _chirr_ of insects ash.o.r.e which the breeze brought off to us on its invisible wings.
As the tide made so the schooner continued imperceptibly to right herself, and at length she was so nearly upright that I thought we might set about the attempt to get her afloat. The wind, being now off-sh.o.r.e, was in our favour, as the deepest water was to leeward or to seaward of us, and the canvas, had I dared to set it, would have materially a.s.sisted us; but I did not care to set it, as, once off the bank, we should have perforce to remain at anchor where we were until morning, any attempt at navigating those shallows in darkness being the most utter madness. I therefore left the canvas stowed, resolving to seek its aid only as a last resort, and in the event of all other means failing, and ordered the messenger to be pa.s.sed and the capstan manned.
The anchor was already laid out to leeward, so the slack of the cable was soon hove in, and a steady strain brought to bear upon it, after which came the tug of war. The capstan bars were now fully manned; the tars pressed their broad chests against the powerful levers, planted their feet firmly upon the deck, straightened out their backs, and slowly pawl after pawl was gained until the schooner was once more heeling over on her bilge, this time, however, in consequence of the intense strain upon her cable.
"That"s your sort, my hearties," exclaimed the boatswain encouragingly, as he applied his tremendous strength to the outer extremity of one of the bars, "heave with a will! heave, and she _must_ come! _heave_, all of us!! now--one--_two_--three!!!"
The men strained at the bars until it seemed as though they would burst their very sinews; another reluctant click or two of the pawl showed that something was at length yielding; and then, first with a slow jerky motion which quickened rapidly, and ended in a mighty surge as the men drove the capstan irresistibly round, the bows of the schooner swerved to seaward, the vessel herself righted, hung for a moment, and then glided off the tail of the bank, finally swinging to her anchor, afloat once more.
"Well done, lads!" I exclaimed joyously, for it was a great relief to me to have the schooner afloat again--a sailor feels just as much out of his element in a stranded ship as he does when he personally is on _terra firma_--and in the exuberance of my gratification I gave orders to "splice the main brace" preparatory to the troublesome and laborious task of getting the guns and ballast on board once more.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
THE PIRATES ATTEMPT A NIGHT ATTACK UPON THE "FOAM."
The men were busily discussing their "nip" of grog when, mechanically glancing over the black surface of the water which lay spread out on all sides of the ship, my gaze was arrested by a sudden phosph.o.r.escent flash on our starboard beam, which was now turned in the direction of the islands we had been watching so suspiciously earlier on in the night.
Looking intently I caught it again, and yet again, three or four times.
The gunner at that moment approached me to report that the men were all ready to turn-to once more, upon which I directed his attention to the point at which I had noticed the mysterious appearance, and asked him if he could see anything.
Shading his eyes with his hand, he looked earnestly in the direction indicated.
"N-o, sir, I can"t say as I can," replied he, after a good long look; "you see, sir, it"s so precious dark just now that there"s no--eh, what was that? I thought I seed something just then, sir," as another flash appeared, this time sensibly nearer the ship than before.
"So did I," I replied; "and it is my belief, Tompion, that what we saw is neither more nor less than the phosph.o.r.escent flash of oars in the water. If I am not mistaken there is a boat out there trying to steal down and catch us unawares. Just go to the men, please, and pa.s.s the word for them to go _quietly_ to quarters, and see that the starboard broadside guns are loaded with grape."
Courtenay just then emerged from the companion with a lighted cigar in his mouth, which he had helped himself to in the brief interval of rest following the floating of the schooner. The spark at the end of the weed glowed brightly in the intense darkness, and could probably be seen for a considerable distance.
"Dowse that cigar, Courtenay, _quick_!" I exclaimed, as I moved to his side, "and tell me if you can hear or see anything over there."
Instinctively guessing at an alarm of some kind from the quarter I had indicated, my shipmate stepped to the opposite side of the deck, dropped his cigar over the rail, and rejoined me.
"Now then, what is it, Lascelles?" he asked; "is there anything wrong?
and why are the men mustering at quarters?"
"Look over in that direction, and see if you can find an explanation,"
said I.
Unconsciously imitating Tompion in the att.i.tude he a.s.sumed, Courtenay stood intently gazing into the darkness for a full minute or more, without result. He had turned to me and was about to speak when a faint _crack_, like the breaking of a thole-pin, was heard, the sound being accompanied by a very distinct luminous splash of the water.
"Ha!" exclaimed Courtenay, "there is a boat over there at no great distance from us!" and at the same moment Fidd came barefooted and noiselessly to my side with the question:
"Did ye see and hear that, sir?"
"Ay, ay, Mr Fidd, I saw it. Are the starboard guns loaded?"
"Yes, sir."
"Then kindly pa.s.s along the word to the captain of each gun to watch for the next splash and then to train his gun upon it."
"Ay, ay, sir," was the reply; and Fidd turned away to execute his mission as I sprang upon the rail and, grasping one of the shrouds of the main rigging to steady myself, hailed in Spanish:
"Boat ahoy! who are you, and what do you want? Lay on your oars and answer instantly, or I will fire upon you."
I waited a full minute without eliciting any response or sign of any description from the direction in which our enemies were supposed to be lurking, and then ordered a port-fire to be burnt and a musket to be fired in their direction.
A brief interval elapsed, and then the darkness was suddenly broken into by the ghastly glare of the port-fire, with which one of the men nimbly shinned up the fore-rigging in order to send the illumination as far abroad as possible, and at the same instant a musket was fired. For a moment or two nothing whatever was to be seen but our own decks, with the men standing stripped to the waist at their guns--a row of statues half marble, half ebony, as the glare lighted up one side of each figure and left the other side in blackest shadow--the spars and rigging towering weird and ghostly up into the opaque blackness above us like those of a phantom ship; whilst the water shimmered like burning brimstone under the baleful light. Then, evidently under the impression that the boat had become visible in the gleam of the port-fire--though at that instant we could see nothing--a voice was heard from out the darkness on our starboard beam exclaiming in Spanish:
"Give way with a will, my heroes! one smart dash now and we shall be alongside yet before they can load their guns."
The dash of oars in the water instantly followed, the whereabouts of the boat being at once made manifest by the flash of the port-fire upon the wet oar-blades, and upon the foaming ripple which gathered under the bows of the boat; and by the time that half a dozen strokes had been pulled the boat herself--a very large craft, apparently, and crowded with men--became dimly visible like a faint luminous mist driving along the surface of the inky water.
"Steady now, men," I cried. "Take your time, and aim straight. Say when you are ready."
"All ready with the midship gun!"
"All ready aft!"
"Ready for"ard!"
The replies were uttered almost simultaneously, and I instantly gave the word "_Fire_!"
The three guns rang out as one, the triple flash not only illuminating vividly, for a fraction of a second, the boat against which they were discharged, but also revealing for the same brief s.p.a.ce of time a second and similar boat a few yards in the rear of the first. Fatally sped those three terrible charges of grape. The guns had been aimed with such deadly precision, and discharged so exactly at the right moment, that the leading boat was literally torn to pieces; so utterly destroyed, indeed, that she seemed to have vanished instantly from the surface of the lagoon, leaving in her stead only a few fragments of shattered planking, and a broad patch of phosph.o.r.escent foam in the midst of which floated her late crew, a ghastly array of _corpses_, save where, here and there, some wretch, less fortunate than his comrades, still writhed and splashed feebly as the life reluctantly left his torn and mutilated body. The spectacle of this catastrophe, so suddenly and completely wrought, this instant destruction of some thirty or forty human beings, was absolutely appalling; and its effect was intensified by the extraordinary circ.u.mstance that not a single shriek, or groan, or outcry of any description, escaped the victims of our murderous fire.