O'er Many Lands, on Many Seas Part 5

"'Only dis, sah, we goin' to fight Arab dhow.'

"We were all up quick enough at this intelligence. We didn't stop to finish our luncheon.

"'Lead the way, Sweeba,' I cried.

"And off went Sweeba through the forest, we following in Indian file.

We didn't take more of the game with us than we could easily carry, so the jackals had a good feed that night.

"It was a long and a rough road to travel. You know the style of thing, Nie; the dark dismal woods, the broad swamps, the hills and the wide stony uplands, where never a thing lives or thrives, bar the lizards and a few snakes, and then last of all the mangrove forests. Our anxiety to get back made us hurry all the more. We made forced marches, and burned but two camp fires ere we reached the coast.

"The s.h.i.+p we had left lying at anchor in a little wooded creek. We returned to find it gone.

"'Ma.s.sa, ma.s.sa; we too late,' cried Sweeba. 'Now de Arab men come quick and kill us all for true.'

"'Where is the nearest village, Sweeba?'

"'Long way, sah; long way, and no good. Dey kill Englishman. No gib mooch time to tink.'

"'Well, we're in a fix, I think,' I said.

"'Not a bit of it,' cried a cheery voice close behind us; and looking round there stood little Mids.h.i.+pman Leigh, of the starboard watch. The young rascal had heard us coming, and hidden his boat among the trees, making his men lie close, as he expressed it, to see how we'd look.

"Our orders were to follow the _Niobe_ south, where she had gone to pitch into a whole fleet of piratical slavers, and it was currently reported that our old friend Zareppa was admiral of the pirates, and thirsting for his revenge.

"What a lovely day it was, Nie; the sea as blue and tranquil as the eye of a beautiful child."

"More poetry, old tar," I said.

"Wait a bit," said Captain Roberts. "Well, we cruised along down the coast with just enough sea-breeze to bear us onwards and keep the oars in-board.

"We expected to find our s.h.i.+p at a little island called Chaksee, where she would wait us; or, if absent when we went home, as our middy called it, we could wait till she returned to this rendezvous.

"There wasn't a sail in sight when we started, nor a speck on the ocean's breast, except a jumping skip-jack now and then, or a big shark asleep on the surface, with a bird perched upon his protruding fin.

"The breeze held, and very pleasant it was, and most of us, I think, were asleep at the moment the outlook at the bows sang out--

"'Sail ho!'

"'Where away?' cried the mids.h.i.+pman.

"'Rounding the point yonder, sir.'

"The mids.h.i.+pman scrambled forward, and we were all alert enough now.

She wasn't a dhow, and no one could make anything of her at first, but we soon made her out to be one of those low freeboard one-masted craft that the Portuguese had in those days as coasters, and which they often used as slavers or even pirates.

"'She seems very low in the water,' said the mids.h.i.+pman, 'Is she too big to fight, Mr Roberts?'

"'A deal too big,' I replied, 'We'd better let her alone, I think.'

"We got to windward of her anyhow, so we could have a peep on board. We loaded with ball cartridge, and stood by for whatever might happen.

"The strange craft stood right on her course, and never seemed to heed us, though the lowering glance her captain gave us showed he bore us no good will. She was crowded with a rascally crew of Portuguese and negroes, and many bore ghastly wounds, that showed she had been in a recent fray; and it afterwards turned out that she had had a brush with the _Niobe_, but escaped.

"On her deck were four or five biggish guns. Discretion in this case was evidently then the better part of valour, for she could easily have blown us out of the water, but she seemed too disheartened for anything else but flight.

"I think we were pleased also to escape an encounter that would certainly have ended in disaster.

"The wind fell about sunset, then oars were got out, and, laden as we were, it was a stiffish pull. All in the dark too, until eight o'clock, when the moon rose, half hidden at first by a bank of greyish clouds, which she soon surmounted, and then shone out with a splendour that you only see in one part of the world."

"And that," said I, interrupting him, "is the Indian Ocean."

"True, Nie, true," said Roberts.

"We were among islands now, some bare and level, others wooded, a few with lofty cocoa-palms.

"We had just landed on one of the latter, because owing to the cocoa-nut trees there would be, as you know, Nie, a few natives, and we expected a bit of hot supper. We had drawn our boat well up on the sandy beach of a little cove, hidden by some scraggy bushes when--

"'Look, look!' cried our purser's clerk.

"All eyes were directed seaward.

"Two great dhows stealing out to sea! They were off in the same direction that we were going, and from the cut of their sails we could tell they were pirates, that is Arab fighting slavers.

"'I say, Mr Roberts,' said the middy, 'I wouldn't tackle those, would you?'

"'We'd never see England again if we did,' I replied.

"'Well,' said the boy, 'I'm precious hungry, aren't you, Mr Roberts?'

"'I could do with a pick,' I replied.

"Then young Leigh gave his orders like a prince.

"'Bear a hand, lads,' he cried, 'and get supper; gather sticks, light a fire, on with the pot; some of you run to the village and bring half a dozen fowls. Cut up the bacon. Did you bring the onions? Smith, if you've forgotten the onions, I'll have you flogged.'

"'Then I won't be flogged,' said Smith.

"Well, Nie, the remembrance of that stew, that c.o.c.k-a-leekie soup, made gipsy-fas.h.i.+on in that lonely island of the ocean, makes me truly hungry to think of even now."

"Shall I get you a ham sandwich, Roberts?" I asked provokingly.

"A ham sandwich!" he cried, "What! sawdust and paint, and the memory of that stew hovering round one like the odours of Araby the Blest? Don't insult me, Nie. I tell you, boy, that a hungry man might have been content to dine off the steam. There!

"Well, we had a good long rest after supper."

"You needed it, I should think," I said, laughing.

"None o' your sauce," said the old captain. "We rested, and smoked our pipes, and looked on the sea. Oh! to see the moonlight dancing on the rippling waves!"