In the cabin were seated nearly a dozen young women and girls, dressed up in somewhat more elegant costumes than those on deck.
"Who are these?" asked Tom.
The captain signified that they were his wives.
"What! all of them, you old wretch?" cried Tom.
The captain smiled in return, and pressed his hand on his heart, either to signify that he was speaking the truth or that they reigned there supreme.
"We will now have a peep into the hold."
Tom, telling Alick to look out on deck, descended with two hands below.
As little light reached that region, it appeared at first to be entirely empty. The odour was not very pleasant. Tom was on the point of returning on deck when he heard a groan, and hurrying to the fore part, by the dim light which came down, he distinguished a human form lying on the deck. Blood was streaming from the poor fellow"s head. Tom and his men lifted him up, and discovering no one else, they carried him under the main hatchway. He quickly revived in the fresher air, and gazed with astonishment at the lieutenant and his men.
"Who are you, my poor fellow?" asked Tom, not expecting an answer.
"Me Pango; served board English man-war."
"Pango!" exclaimed Tom, remembering the black who had been rescued at Zanzibar by the _Opal_, and who, after serving on board of her for some time, was lost sight of. "I recollect all about you, and if you wish it you shall come on board again, but I want first to know who all those people are."
"All slavy, slavy," answered Pango. "Dey jus" dress up, an" when I tell cap"n dat trick no do, he cut me down an" try to kill me."
"There is no time to be lost; take him up on deck, and we will soon show the skipper that you speak the truth," said Tom.
The Arab captain looked very much taken aback, while he cast savage glances at poor Pango; he saw, however, that the game was up, and that it was useless any longer to attempt deceiving the English officer.
Tom immediately ordered him and several of his crew to get into the boat, which conveyed them on board the _Bellona_, under charge of Alick.
Another boat being lowered, Pango was taken on board, with the remainder of the Arab crew, that the surgeon might look to him. Tom then returned to the _Bellona_.
Jack decided on taking all the supposed pa.s.sengers on board. As soon as Pango was sufficiently recovered to act as interpreter, they were examined, when they said that they had been forced to dress up, and threatened that should they not do so they would be thrown overboard.
It was ascertained that most of them had been carried away from the coast not many days before, and that they had come a long journey from the interior. Pango had been picked up from a canoe while fishing off the sh.o.r.e, and carried away.
The evidence was so clear that Jack, without hesitation, destroyed the dhow, which could not be towed all the way to Zanzibar, resolving to risk all the consequences.
During the pa.s.sage several other dhows were met with, but although there were blacks on board, there was not sufficient evidence to prove that they were slaves. It convinced Jack, however, that the abominable trade was still carried on, that thousands of Africans were carried off to Arabia, Persia, and other parts of Asia, to toil in hopeless slavery for the remainder of their lives, and that it would be necessary to make yet more strenuous efforts than before if it was to be effectually put down.
He remembered, too, all the horrors he had witnessed and heard of in connection with the slave trade in the interior, when whole villages and districts were depopulated, and numbers were killed or perished from hunger, besides those captured by the Arabs.
Pango was of a.s.sistance in enabling him to condemn two dhows, besides those he was compelled to let escape. The black improved rapidly in English, or rather recovered what he had lost. Jack asked where he wished to be put on sh.o.r.e.
"Me no go sh.o.r.e "gain," answered Pango. "May be slave fellow take me "gain. Me go where ship go. Me stay board. Pango now sailor man."
He was accordingly entered as one of the crew, greatly to his delight.
Jack inquired for his brother Bango.
Pango"s countenance became very sad. "Do slavy man take him. Me tinke cut him troat. Me not see him now five years;" and poor Pango burst into tears as he thought of the fate which had overtaken Bango, showing that some Africans, at all events, have as great an affection for their relatives as have white men for theirs.
On arriving at Zanzibar, Jack handed over the Arab crew to the authorities, to be dealt with for their infraction of the law; and the slaves were placed on board another man-of-war, to be carried to the Seych.e.l.le Islands, where they might enjoy liberty and a climate suited to their const.i.tutions.
Jack was again disappointed at not gaining at Zanzibar any tidings of the _Empress_. Running through the Mozambique Channel, he continued his course for Cape Town, where he arrived without any further adventure.
His first inquiry was for the _Empress_. No tidings, however, had been received, and serious apprehensions were felt for her safety.
"It is supposed that she must have foundered in a typhoon in the Indian seas, if she ever got there; or that she has been cast away and gone to pieces on some unknown rock," was the answer received.
"Poor Adair! is such your end?" exclaimed Jack, sorrowfully. "I won"t believe it, however. I trust that Lucy will not hear these reports."
A day after his arrival the mail from England came in, bringing letters for him from Julia and Murray, who had just gained his rank as an admiral.
"As there are so many good officers seeking for employment, I conclude that I shall be virtually shelved, although for my boy"s sake I would gladly have gone to sea again," wrote Murray. "His mother and I are looking out anxiously for tidings of him. His last letter gave us an account of the commencement of the Abyssinian expedition, and that he was to go up the country with the Naval Brigade. It is important that a youngster should see service on sh.o.r.e as well as afloat, although we naturally feel anxious lest he should have suffered from the hardships to which he must of necessity have been exposed. We are, therefore, eagerly looking forward to his next letter. Our girls are well, and we hear good accounts from Julia of yours; but Lucy is naturally in a sad state of anxiety. No tidings have reached England of the _Empress_, nor has anything been heard of Saint Maur. I am continuing to make all possible inquiries, and have written to agents at various seaports to ascertain from the masters of ships trading foreign to endeavour to find some clue to his fate."
The remainder of the letter referred to private matters. The _Bellona_ remained some time in Simon"s Bay, and all on board were in hopes of being sent home, when, no transport being ready, Captain Rogers was requested to proceed with a wing of the --- Regiment to the coast of Caffraria, where they were immediately wanted to put down a serious outbreak of the natives. It was far from a satisfactory or pleasant task, for the _Bellona_ had no accommodation for officers or men; but Captain Rogers was not a person to throw difficulties in the way when a service could be rendered to the country. He had lately, during his constant intercourse with military men, got on without a dispute; and he hoped that such would be the case at present. All hands were busily employed in taking the baggage on board and embarking the men, so that neither he nor his officers had much time to attend to their guests.
The last person to arrive on board was Major Bubsby, commanding the troops; and Jack was not a little taken aback when he found that he had brought his wife and two tall daughters on board. The lady was almost twice the height of her better half, and the daughters promised to grow into the same proportions. The major was undoubtedly a short man, although not a small one either in girth or in his own estimation. He had a rubicund countenance, huge mustachios, and small, ferrety eyes.
"I was not aware that we should have ladies, or I should have advised you not to bring them, although, as they have come, I will endeavour to provide the best accommodation I can for them," said Jack, with his usual politeness.
"You must understand, Captain Rogers, that I never move anywhere without Mrs Bubsby and my daughters. They are accustomed to camp life, and like it; and should I be wounded or fall sick, I should have them at hand to nurse me. I require care, for I am not so young as I once was, though still strong and active;" and the major twirled his mustachios and gave a loud "Ahem!"
"I am afraid that the ladies will be put to much inconvenience, both on board and on sh.o.r.e; for, should the regiment have to advance into the interior, I don"t know what will become of them," observed Jack. "And if you will take my advice--though, as I have said, I am perfectly ready to accommodate them--you will leave them at Cape Town to await your return."
"Never! Captain Rogers, never!" exclaimed Major Bubsby. "If I do I shall not know what they are about."
"But should you be killed, and there may be some sharp fighting, what then will become of your wife and daughters?" observed Jack, eyeing the stout little major.
"Then, Captain Rogers, I must beg that you will have the kindness so far to oblige me as to take them back to Cape Town," answered the major, looking evidently as if he did not quite like the remark. "I have now been in the service thirty years, and have no intention that the Caffres or any other savages should take my life. They are a contemptible lot.
Why, a glance from my eye alone would be sufficient to put a whole host of the n.i.g.g.e.rs to flight!"
"As you please, Major Bubsby," said Jack. "I shall be ready to appropriate a portion of my after cabin to your wife and daughters, and I will direct the carpenter to put up a screen, that they may live in private if they wish to do so."
"Ah, that will do, that will do," answered the major.
This conversation took place out of earshot of Mrs Bubsby, who was not aware of Jack"s kind intentions towards her. Jack, approaching with a bow, requested her and her daughters to remain on deck until the cabin was fitted up for their accommodation. "We do things rapidly on board, and shall not detain you long," he added.
"I am surprised that the major did not intimate his intention to bring us; but it is very like him," answered Mrs Bubsby. "He is a worthy man, and devotedly attached to me and my daughters. Allow me to introduce them. Eugenia, my eldest, and Angelica, my second daughter.
They look forward with greater pleasure to the voyage and life in the bush than I do, I confess. They are good-hearted girls, and would be ready to follow their father into the field, if required."
"Ah, yes; we do not care where we go, or what we do," said Eugenia. "We are never so happy as when on horseback or living under canvas."
"I delight in the sea, and I love seamen," said Angelica, smiling sweetly at the captain.
She was not aware that Jack possessed a wife and family. He had now to quit the ladies to attend to the duty of the ship.
"Blue Peter" had been flying for some time, and a gun was fired to hurry off those on sh.o.r.e. The anchor was weighed, and the _Bellona_ with her living freight steamed majestically out of the harbour.
As soon as things had been got somewhat to rights, the baggage stowed away, and the soldiers berthed, Jack and his lieutenants had time to look after the officers.
Directly the ladies" cabin was ready, Jack escorted them below. Mrs Bubsby cast a somewhat indignant glance at the canvas screen which had been put up, but said nothing. But Eugenia exclaimed--
"How nice! we shall hear everything that is said outside, and you"ll hear us, so we must take care what we talk about."