"But is it safe?" asked Tommy.
"Safe?" bellowed the captain. "We"re standing on the drop, you moon-calf! If that ship"s bound for China (which she don"t look to be), we"re lost as soon as we arrive; if she"s bound the other way, she comes from China, don"t she? Well, if there"s a man on board of her that ever clapped eyes on Trent or any blooming hand out of this brig, we"ll all be in irons in two hours. Safe! no, it ain"t safe; it"s a beggarly last chance to shave the gallows, and that"s what it is."
At this convincing picture, fear took hold on all.
"Hadn"t we a hundred times better stay by the brig?" cried Carthew.
"They would give us a hand to float her off."
"You"ll make me waste this holy day in chattering!" cried Wicks. "Look here, when I sounded the well this morning, there was two foot of water there against eight inches last night. What"s wrong? I don"t know; might be nothing; might be the worst kind of smash. And then, there we are in for a thousand miles in an open boat, if that"s your taste!"
"But it may be nothing, and anyway their carpenters are bound to help us repair her," argued Carthew.
"Moses Murphy!" cried the captain. "How did she strike? Bows on, I believe. And she"s down by the head now. If any carpenter comes tinkering here, where"ll he go first? Down in the forepeak, I suppose!
And then, how about all that blood among the chandlery? You would think you were a lot of members of Parliament discussing Plimsoll; and you"re just a pack of murderers with the halter round your neck. Any other a.s.s got any time to waste? No? Thank G.o.d for that! Now, all hands! I"m going below, and I leave you here on deck. You get the boat cover off that boat; then you turn to and open the specie chest. There are five of us; get five chests, and divide the specie equal among the five--put it at the bottom--and go at it like tigers. Get blankets, or canvas, or clothes, so it won"t rattle. It"ll make five pretty heavy chests, but we can"t help that. You, Carthew--dash me!--You, Mr. G.o.ddedaal, come below.
We"ve our share before us."
And he cast another glance at the smoke, and hurried below with Carthew at his heels.
The logs were found in the main cabin behind the canary"s cage; two of them, one kept by Trent, one by G.o.ddedaal. Wicks looked first at one, then at the other, and his lip stuck out.
"Can you forge hand of write?" he asked.
"No," said Carthew.
"There"s luck for you--no more can I!" cried the captain. "Hullo! here"s worse yet, here"s this G.o.ddedaal up to date; he must have filled it in before supper. See for yourself: "Smoke observed.--Captain Kirkup and five hands of the schooner Currency La.s.s." Ah! this is better," he added, turning to the other log. "The old man ain"t written anything for a clear fortnight. We"ll dispose of your log altogether, Mr. G.o.ddedaal, and stick to the old man"s--to mine, I mean; only I ain"t going to write it up, for reasons of my own. You are. You"re going to sit down right here and fill it in the way I tell you."
"How to explain the loss of mine?" asked Carthew.
"You never kept one," replied the captain. "Gross neglect of duty.
You"ll catch it."
"And the change of writing?" resumed Carthew. "You began; why do you stop and why do I come in? And you"ll have to sign anyway."
"O! I"ve met with an accident and can"t write," replied Wicks.
"An accident?" repeated Carthew. "It don"t sound natural. What kind of an accident?"
Wicks spread his hand face-up on the table, and drove a knife through his palm.
"That kind of an accident," said he. "There"s a way to draw to windward of most difficulties, if you"ve a head on your shoulders." He began to bind up his hand with a handkerchief, glancing the while over G.o.ddedaal"s log. "Hullo!" he said, "this"ll never do for us--this is an impossible kind of a yarn. Here, to begin with, is this Captain Trent trying some fancy course, leastways he"s a thousand miles to south"ard of the great circle. And here, it seems, he was close up with this island on the sixth, sails all these days, and is close up with it again by daylight on the eleventh."
"G.o.ddedaal said they had the deuce"s luck," said Carthew.
"Well, it don"t look like real life--that"s all I can say," returned Wicks.
"It"s the way it was, though," argued Carthew.
"So it is; and what the better are we for that, if it don"t look so?"
cried the captain, sounding unwonted depths of art criticism. "Here! try and see if you can"t tie this bandage; I"m bleeding like a pig."
As Carthew sought to adjust the handkerchief, his patient seemed sunk in a deep muse, his eye veiled, his mouth partly open. The job was yet scarce done, when he sprang to his feet.
"I have it," he broke out, and ran on deck. "Here, boys!" he cried, "we didn"t come here on the eleventh; we came in here on the evening of the sixth, and lay here ever since becalmed. As soon as you"ve done with these chests," he added, "you can turn to and roll out beef and water breakers; it"ll look more shipshape--like as if we were getting ready for the boat voyage."
And he was back again in a moment, cooking the new log. G.o.ddedaal"s was then carefully destroyed, and a hunt began for the ship"s papers. Of all the agonies of that breathless morning, this was perhaps the most poignant. Here and there the two men searched, cursing, cannoning together, streaming with heat, freezing with terror. News was bawled down to them that the ship was indeed a man-of-war, that she was close up, that she was lowering a boat; and still they sought in vain. By what accident they missed the iron box with the money and accounts, is hard to fancy; but they did. And the vital doc.u.ments were found at last in the pocket of Trent"s sh.o.r.e-going coat, where he had left them when last he came on board.
Wicks smiled for the first time that morning. "None too soon," said he. "And now for it! Take these others for me; I"m afraid I"ll get them mixed if I keep both."
"What are they?" Carthew asked.
"They"re the Kirkup and Currency La.s.s papers," he replied. "Pray G.o.d we need "em again!"
"Boat"s inside the lagoon, sir," hailed down Mac, who sat by the skylight doing sentry while the others worked.
"Time we were on deck, then, Mr. G.o.ddedaal," said Wicks.
As they turned to leave the cabin, the canary burst into piercing song.
"My G.o.d!" cried Carthew, with a gulp, "we can"t leave that wretched bird to starve. It was poor G.o.ddedaal"s."
"Bring the bally thing along!" cried the captain.
And they went on deck.
An ugly brute of a modern man-of-war lay just without the reef, now quite inert, now giving a flap or two with her propeller. Nearer hand, and just within, a big white boat came skimming to the stroke of many oars, her ensign blowing at the stern.
"One word more," said Wicks, after he had taken in the scene. "Mac, you"ve been in China ports? All right; then you can speak for yourself.
The rest of you I kept on board all the time we were in Hongkong, hoping you would desert; but you fooled me and stuck to the brig. That"ll make your lying come easier."
The boat was now close at hand; a boy in the stern sheets was the only officer, and a poor one plainly, for the men were talking as they pulled.
"Thank G.o.d, they"ve only sent a kind of a middy!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Wicks.
"Here you, Hardy, stand for"ard! I"ll have no deck hands on my quarter-deck," he cried, and the reproof braced the whole crew like a cold douche.
The boat came alongside with perfect neatness, and the boy officer stepped on board, where he was respectfully greeted by Wicks.
"You the master of this ship?" he asked.
"Yes, sir," said Wicks. "Trent is my name, and this is the Flying Scud of Hull."
"You seem to have got into a mess," said the officer.
"If you"ll step aft with me here, I"ll tell you all there is of it,"
said Wicks.
"Why, man, you"re shaking!" cried the officer.
"So would you, perhaps, if you had been in the same berth," returned Wicks; and he told the whole story of the rotten water, the long calm, the squall, the seamen drowned; glibly and hotly; talking, with his head in the lion"s mouth, like one pleading in the dock. I heard the same tale from the same narrator in the saloon in San Francisco; and even then his bearing filled me with suspicion. But the officer was no observer.