Picked up at Sea Part 21

"None of your jaw," shouted the second mate as a parting shot. "I hear you, and if you speak another word I'll have you put in irons for mutiny," swearing also a fearful oath. So Tom had to put up with the other's language and nurse his wrath until the skipper came on board.

When Charley joined him presently, they took note of the new additions to the crew, who were altogether eight in number; but to their surprise they did not see the Greek among them whom Mohammed had indicated as being the far-famed corsair; and on their comparing their views they both agreed that the worthy Turk must have been "slinging the hatchet"

at their expense, or else mistaken about the supposed pirate.

On Captain Harding coming off, however, they thought it their duty to tell him what they heard; but the skipper, who was a bold bluff English sailor, laughed the Turk's warning to scorn, and joked the young fellows for taking any notice of it.

"What! Mohammed told you, the keeper of the khan by the Capuchin monastery. My dear boys, he was only humbugging you. I saw the old rascal this very morning hauled up before the cadi, for being drunk and kicking up a row. He must be able to spin a fine yarn when he has a mind to. There are no pirates nowadays in the Mediterranean; and if we do come across any, I believe the _Muscadine_ will be able to give a good account of them. Pirates! bless my soul, what a tremendous liar that old Turk must be! Those Greeks I've s.h.i.+pped are honest sailors enough; for I've examined their papers, and had them before our consul.

Besides, I've told them what sort of discipline I keep on board my s.h.i.+p; and they are not likely to try and come the old soldier over me--not if John Harding knows it!"

"But, captain," put in Tom.

The skipper wouldn't hear any more, however. "Now get to your stations, lads," said he, to show that the private interview was at an end. "Mr Aldridge, I must make you acting second officer in Mr Tompkins' place, as I've promoted him to poor Wilson's berth until he can join me at Smyrna, as I'm bound to start at once now that I have filled-up the vacancies amongst my crew. Charley Onslow, remain aft with me. All hands up anchor, and make sail!"

In a short time the men working together with a will, and the new hands specially distinguis.h.i.+ng themselves for their activity in so marked a manner as to call forth the approval of the generally grumbling Mr Tompkins--although, perhaps, he praised them because Tom and Charley had suspected them--the _Muscadine_ had her anchor at the catheads; and, her topsails having been dropped long before, was sailing gaily out of Beyrout harbour, under the influence of the land-breeze that sprang up towards the afternoon, blowing briskly off sh.o.r.e.

When she had got a good offing, and the mountains of Lebanon began to sink below the horizon in the distance as she bowled along merrily on her north-western course, a long way to the southward of Cyprus, bearing up direct for the Archipelago, a keen observer on board might have noticed something that looked strange, at all events on the face of it.

No sooner had the shades of evening begun to fall than a long low suspicious-looking vessel crept out from the lee of the land, and followed right in the track of the _Muscadine_, as if in chase of the English s.h.i.+p.

It was a swift-sailing lateen-rigged felucca, one of those crafts that are common enough in Eastern waters, especially in the Levant.

She spread a tremendous amount of canvas; and leaping through the sea with the pace of a dolphin, came up with the doomed merchantman hand over hand.

STORY TWO, CHAPTER THREE.

FRIENDS IN COUNCIL.

The _Muscadine_ when she left England had a crew of some twenty hands, or with the captain, and first and second mates, and our friends Tom and Charley, twenty-five men altogether--a very fair average, as the proportion of the seamen usually borne in merchant s.h.i.+ps is at the rate of about three to every hundred tons of the vessel's burthen.

Through the illness, however, of the fust officer, Mr Wilson, an amiable man and a thorough sailor, whom everybody liked--quite the reverse of the odious Tompkins, Tom's and Charley's special bete-noir-- and a large number of the seamen, whom they were forced to leave behind in hospital at Beyrout, the complement of the s.h.i.+p was much reduced, and her crew now mustered, officers and men, but twenty in number, of which total twelve were Englishmen who had originally belonged to her, and eight the Greeks whom the captain had so suddenly s.h.i.+pped at the last moment.

"It's a good job that Cap'en Harding didn't get any more of those blessed Greeks aboard: they're almost equal to us now, man for man,"

said Tom to Charley, who on this first night of their being at sea after so long a detention in port was performing an act of not altogether disinterested friends.h.i.+p in sharing the first watch on deck of the newly-promoted "second mate," as he would persist in addressing Tom.

"Yes, sir; I think you are about right, sir," replied Charley, with a mock deference, which made Tom grin in spite of his endeavours to preserve a dignified composure. "Is there anything else, sir, you'd like me to say, sir?"

"Only, that I'll kick you in the lee scuppers if you call me 'sir'

again. But, Charley, joking aside, I don't like us having all those Greeks here, and we so short-handed too."

"Don't you see that that is the precise reason why they are here, most sapient of second officers? if we hadn't been short-handed the cap'en wouldn't have s.h.i.+pped them."

"Yes, yes, I know that," replied the other shortly. "You don't seem to follow me, Charley, really. What I meant to point out was, that there are only twelve of us belonging to the s.h.i.+p on whom we could rely-- indeed only eleven, for that matter, as I don't count on Tompkins; a bully like him would be sure to show the white-feather in a scrimmage-- while these Greek chaps muster eight strong, all of them pretty biggish men, too, and all armed with them beastly long knives of theirs, which I've no doubt they know how to use."

"Bless you, Tom, Cap'en Harding would be a match for half-a-dozen of them with his revolver; and you and I would be able to master the other two, without calling for aid on any of the foremast hands, or relying on your chum Tompkins. How fond you're of him, Tom!"

"Hang Tompkins, and you too, Charley! You can't be serious for a moment!"

"Oh yes I can, Tom; and I will be, now! I tell you what, old chap, your sudden promotion has disagreed with you, and you are trying to manufacture a mountain out of a molehill. Those Greeks are not such fools to attack us unless they gained over the rest of the crew on their side; and you know that's impossible; for every Englishman forward now in the foc's'le I'd stake my life on; and so would you, Tom, as they've s.h.i.+pped with old Harding every voyage he has sailed since he's been captain of the craft. You've got a fit of the blue-devils or something, Tom, that makes you so unlike yourself; or else that blessed old Turk's nonsense made a deeper impression on you than it has on me!"

"You're right, Charley," said Tom Aldridge, giving himself a shake as if to dispel his strange forebodings. "I don't know what has come over me to-night. Of course, if those beggars should rise, we could whop them easily enough. To tell you the truth, I shouldn't mind if they did, if Tompkins only got a knock on the head in the fight!"

"Bravo, Tom! that's more like yourself! But isn't your watch nearly over? It must be six bells by now; the moon is getting up."

"So it is, Charley I wish you would call that beast for me; it's time he was on deck."

"All right!" shouted the other with a laugh, scuttling down, and hammering at the first mate's cabin-door, so loudly that Tom could hear him plainly above, and also Mr Tompkins' deeply growled oaths in response to the summons, after it was repeated once more with all the strength of the middy's fists beating a tattoo.

"He'll be here in a minute," said Charley, as he hurried up the companion in advance of the gentleman he had called to relieve Tom's watch; although Tompkins came pretty close behind him, swearing still, and glaring at the two young fellows in the moonlight as if he could "eat them without salt," as Charley said.

Before going below, Tom gave the first mate the s.h.i.+p's course, as was customary, "nor'-west and by north," reporting also that all was right and nothing in sight, no vessel had pa.s.sed them during the night; and then he and Charley turned into their bunks, with the expectation of having a better "caulk" than they had had all the time the _Muscadine_ had lain at anchor in Beyrout Roads, for while there, the heat and la.s.situde produced by their having almost nothing to do had so banished sleep that they hardly cared when the time came for their "watch below."

Now, however, it was all different; as what with the bustle of preparation in storing the last of their cargo, and seeing to those endless little matters which had to be put in s.h.i.+p-shape manner before the anchor was weighed, and the actual departure itself, their time had been fully occupied nearly from dawn to sundown, and their feet and hands busy enough in running about on deck and aloft, directing the crew under the captain's orders, and lending a.s.sistance where wanted. So it was with the comfortable a.s.surance of having earned their four hours'

rest that they went below that first night at sea.

"I guess old Tompkins will have to rap pretty loud to make me budge at eight bells," said Tom with a portentous yawn, as he peeled off his reefing jacket and turned in "all standing," as he expressed it, with the exception of his boots. He was too tired to undress; and besides, he thought, in his lazy way, what was the use of his doing so when he would have to turn out again and relieve the first mate at four o'clock in the morning, just as he was beginning to enjoy himself.

"By George, a sailor's life is a dog's life!" he muttered out aloud.

"What, eh?" sleepily murmured Charley from the other bunk adjacent, the two occupying one cabin between them; and, presently, the pair were "wrapped in the arms of Morpheus," and snoring like troopers in concert, the captain playing a nasal obligato from his state-room in the distance, whither he had retired a short time before themselves, after being satisfied that the s.h.i.+p was proceeding well on her course and everything all right.

And all this time the _Muscadine_ was bowling so favourably along at the rate of some eight knots an hour, carrying with her the fair wind with which she had started from port, the felucca that had left the Syrian coast shortly after still followed in her track, although hull-down on the horizon, and her white lateen sails only just dimly discernible to a sharp eye that was looking out for her, under the rays of the rising moon, which now emerged from the waste of water that surrounded the two vessels with its fathomless expanse. But who on board the merchant s.h.i.+p suspected that they were pursued or looked out for the felucca, dead astern as she was, and only a tiny speck on the ocean?

STORY TWO, CHAPTER FOUR.

THE STRANGE SAIL.

Mr Tompkins, the late second and now first officer of the _Muscadine_, besides possessing a nasty, grumbling, fault-finding temper for the benefit of those under him, and a mean, sly, sneaking sort of way of ingratiating himself with his superiors, was as obstinate as a mule, and one of those men who would have his way, if he could, no matter what might be the consequences. When he was able, as was the case with the men he was unfortunate enough to command, he bullied those who might differ from him into acquiescence with his views; with those over him in authority he adopted another course, that of wheedling and slavish "shoe-sc.r.a.ping," as Tom Aldridge termed it; but in both instances he generally succeeded in carrying his point, and arranging things in the manner he had previously made up his mind to.

Now, with eight strange hands, and those foreigners, who had lately come on board, any reasonable person would have naturally divided them four and four in each watch, thus mixing them up with the eight English able seamen left of the _Muscadine's_ original crew; but no, Mr Tompkins was of a different opinion, and what was more, carried round Captain Harding to his way of thinking, much to Tom and Charley's surprise. It was not on account of the new first mate having any ulterior designs on the s.h.i.+p or cargo--that idea may be dismissed at once, for he neither had the villainy nor pluck for such a proceeding. His real object was, that these new men were all fresh to the vessel and had not yet any experience of his persuasive ways; unlike the old hands, who knew Mr Tompkins so well that they hated him and s.h.i.+rked work when he was to the fore--and by getting them all into his watch matters would be able to go easy with him, and he would be able to astonish everybody by the way in which he got the duty done when he had charge of the s.h.i.+p, instead of having to call on the a.s.sistance of the skipper when his orders were not obeyed, as had frequently been the case before.

He did not tell Captain Harding this, however. His explanation of the proposed plan was, that the men, being all Greeks, would work better together, as they had already shown when making sail; and, as he understood Lingua Franca, which all foreign sailors can speak, he could manage them better than "such a boy as young Aldridge," who might get along well enough with the old hands who knew him, but would be powerless to exercise any authority over those foreigners, who wanted a man to drill them.

"Very well, Tompkins," said Captain Harding, when the first mate had well-nigh deluged him with his reasons. "I suppose you know best; and as you've got to see to the working of the s.h.i.+p you can have your own way, though what you can see to prefer those ill-looking beggars to decent British tars I'm sure I can't understand. I'm glad you're not afraid of them, at any rate?"

"Afraid, sir!" repeated Tompkins scornfully, with any amount of braggadocia. "These foreigners only want you to let them see you are master, and they're tame enough. It is only from want of firmness that any trouble ever breaks out when they're on board an English s.h.i.+p. They need a strict hand over them, that's all."

"All right, Tompkins. Only don't bully them too much, you know!" said the captain good-humouredly, for he was sufficiently acquainted with the first mate's pleasant way of ordering the men about to be aware that he did not err on the side of leniency in exercising his authority, as he complained that his subordinate officer Tom did.

And thus it happened that when Tom and Charley went below and joined Captain Harding in his slumbers, the deck was left in sole possession of Mr Tompkins and the eight Greek sailors, with the suspicious-looking felucca creeping up rapidly astern, and getting nearer and nearer to the _Muscadine_ each hour.

A stern-chase is proverbially a long one. And so, although the light-winged craft that was following the s.h.i.+p sailed three feet to her two; yet she had such a long start, and the breeze was so fair and dead aft--which was all in favour of a square-rigged vessel and against a fore-and-after, that sails best with the wind abeam--that the felucca was still some five miles off when day broke and the chief mate first discovered her.

He was not alone in his discovery either, for he noticed that a part of the watch were looking over the bulwarks at the approaching vessel, and from their gesticulations and rapid speech in their own language he thought something was up.

Calling one of the Greek sailors, named in the s.h.i.+p's articles "Pollydorry," as the captain had put him down, whom he thought he could better make understand that version of "Lingua Franca" which he pretended to know, the mate interrogated him as to what he knew of the felucca, and what was her intention in trying to overhaul them. The man, however, only shrugged his shoulders, and jabbered something which he could make nothing of; and as the group then ceased speaking together, or paying any attention to the stranger, Mr Tompkins put down their excitable demeanour to their being only foreigners, and their natural way of going on, so unlike the stolid British seafaring man, who hardly notices anything except it specially concerns him, and even then keeps what he thinks to himself.