The Three Commanders Part 13

"No fear of that, sir," replied Jerry; "they keep too bright a look-out on board. Depend on't, they've made us out before now."

The wind was again failing, and should it become calm, the brig might not come up before dark. Still, if the canoe, as Jerry supposed, was already seen, of course a look-out would be kept for her. For half an hour or more, hopes and fears alternately predominated. "They've made us out--no fear on that score," cried Jerry; "I saw the people on the foc's'le waving to us." As he spoke, the brig shortened sail; a boat was lowered, and, ere a minute had pa.s.sed, she sheered alongside the canoe. A mids.h.i.+pman and warrant-officer, with four hands, were in her.

"Bear a hand; lift the poor fellows on board carefully--sharp about it,"

cried the former. "We must not lose a moment; they seem very far gone."

Desmond and Archie were placed in the sternsheets, while even Jerry and Sam could not, without the help of others, manage to crawl into the boat.

The canoe was dropped astern, while the boat pulled back to the brig; the whole manoeuvre, being properly executed, occupying but a very few minutes. The mids.h.i.+pman, attending simply to the work in hand, had not looked at the countenances of the people he had rescued. Just, however, as the boat had hooked on, he cast his eyes at the face of one of his companions, and then at the other. "Why, gunner," he exclaimed, "I do believe that they are Gerald Desmond and Archie Gordon!"

"You're right, Tom," cried Gerald, who was not so far gone as to be unable to speak; "and mighty glad I am to see you--only, as you love us, get us some grub, or we shall be after hopping the twig."

"No fear about that, young gentleman," said d.i.c.k Needham, who was the warrant-officer in the boat; "we'll have you on board in a quarter less no time, and under care of the doctor; he'll soon bring you round, though you mustn't be eating too much at first."

The mids.h.i.+pmen and their companions were speedily hoisted on board, when Tom Rogers announced to the commander who they were, and the condition in which he had found them. Broth and other restoratives being quickly prepared, and duly administered, in a very short time they were able to use their tongues sufficiently to give an account of themselves.

"Well, I'm glad we fell in with you," cried Tom, "and so is my brother Jack--if not for your sake, on account of his old s.h.i.+pmates, Murray and Adair. They would have been precious sorry to lose you, and so should I. And now we've fallen in with each other, we shall have the chance of some good fun together, for the brig is to be employed, during the remainder of her commission, in slave-hunting. My brother Jack is only acting-commander of the _Romp_, but he's sure to be confirmed before long. He got no end of credit in the work we've been engaged in up the Irrawaddy, of which I'll tell you by and by. I often wished that you fellows were with us. It beat all the service we saw out in South America."

"And Archie and I have often, of late, said how we longed to have you with us, Tom," answered Desmond; "not that we've had the same sort of fun we enjoyed in our first cruise. It has been much rougher work, on the whole, and I haven't fallen in with any Irish cousins, or the lots of nice girls we met in the West Indies; but, after all, the life we lead when boat-cruising is as much to my taste as anything I can fancy."

Tom, of course, replied that he hoped to have some of it, and that he should try to get his brother to send him away on an expedition.

Though but a short time had been lost in picking up the canoe, it was sufficient to allow the dhow to run out of sight. Jack, who was bound for Zanzibar, of course had now to bring up off Mafamale, for the sake of landing Archie and Gerald, and to set Adair's anxiety about them at rest. He was very glad also of the opportunity he should thus obtain of seeing his old s.h.i.+pmates.

The two mids.h.i.+pmen, though still somewhat weak, had greatly recovered by the time the island was sighted. Scarcely had the _Romp_ dropped her anchor than Adair came on board. His surprise on seeing Jack was almost as great as his satisfaction at finding the mids.h.i.+pmen and the two other men safe and sound. Jack had some time before heard of the death of Kathleen. The recollection of her threw a shade of melancholy over the meeting of the two friends, but after a short time he managed to cast it off, and talked away eagerly of their past adventures and future prospects.

"I am glad to find, Jack, that you are so certain of your promotion,"

said Adair; "I wish that I could think the same of my own prospects.

Lord Derrynane will do the best he can for me; but when he paid his last visit at the Admiralty, the First Lord told him that, though I was a remarkably promising young officer, he had so many promising young officers deserving of promotion that he should fill the service with commanders if he was to attend to the requests of all his friends. I can only hope for the chance of doing something which must compel their Lords.h.i.+ps to promote me."

"I hope you may, Terence, with all my heart," exclaimed Jack; "and if not, we must get Admiral Triton to advocate your cause. I shouldn't feel comfortable getting my step unless you, who deserve it quite as much, obtained yours also."

As soon as Adair returned on sh.o.r.e, he found that Jos Green and the rest of the party had been arranging to invite the commander and officers of the _Romp_ to a banquet on the island; and a note, couched in the usual formal style, was immediately despatched, a favourable answer being returned.

"But, as to provender--what have we got, Green?" asked Adair.

"Some of it isn't yet caught, to be sure," answered Green; "but we've sent the men out with the seine, and we shall have an ample supply, though there may be no great variety."

Shortly before the dinner-time arrived, a sail was seen standing up from the southward, and was soon p.r.o.nounced to be the corvette. The proposed banquet was therefore postponed till her arrival; an additional haul of the seine was made, and a further supply of fish secured. The breeze was fresh, and, as she was under all sail, the _Opal_ soon came to an anchor, and Murray and his officers at once accepted the invitation sent off to them. He had naturally become very anxious at discovering no traces of the mids.h.i.+pmen, and was proportionately thankful when he found that they were safe.

Thus the three old s.h.i.+pmates, after an absence of upwards of two years, once again met. At the appointed hour, the invited guests from the two men-of-war arrived on sh.o.r.e. Jos Green had undertaken to superintend the arrangements. All hands who could be spared from their culinary duties, rigged out in their cleanest, were marshalled to serve as a guard of honour. He had formed also a band, and though regular musical instruments were scarce, he had with much ingenuity contrived half a dozen drums made out of empty meat-tins, the same number of horns formed of conch sh.e.l.ls, and a similar number of fifes and flutes, which had previously been manufactured on the island, during the leisure hours of some of the men who took delight in harmonious sounds.

Murray and Jack, as they walked up from the landing-place, laughed heartily at the preparations for their reception. Though the music was open to criticism, the banquet surpa.s.sed their expectations. Their seats were three-legged stools, but the table was bountifully spread.

At one end was a huge bowl of peasoup, at the other a similar one of fish; at the sides were several varieties of fried fish and boiled fish, roast and boiled fowls, obtained from a dhow--a legal trader, which had been overhauled; salt junk, of course, was not wanting, with preserved vegetables, and a liberal supply of yams; while bottles of beer, porter, and rum, const.i.tuted the chief beverages. Lastly, too, plum-puddings, somewhat resembling those stone-shot used by the Turks in days of yore, were placed before the carvers, and were p.r.o.nounced excellent as to composition, but were declared to possess rather more consistency than was absolutely requisite. Indeed, few of the guests, with the exception of the mids.h.i.+pmen, made any great inroads on them.

The viands being removed, songs were sung and healths drunk; the most important of the latter being the success of Britain's arms by sea and land, a speedy end to the slave-trade, and health and prosperity to the Queen and all the royal family. Dinner being over, races were run, leap-frog indulged in, games of rounders played on a grand scale, and hits made such as only sailors could accomplish, and a variety of other sports which the nature of the ground and circ.u.mstances would allow.

Business, however, had to be attended to. Adair had left four men on board the dhow, and two only besides the mids.h.i.+pmen had been recovered.

There could be no doubt, therefore, that two had been murdered, as would have been the case with the whole party, had not the canoe so providentially got adrift at the right moment. It was suspected that the old chief, Mustapha Longchops, had instigated the crime, and though he and the Arabs had been sent to their account, his people, who had so grossly insulted the British officers, were not to be allowed to escape unpunished. The corvette and brig, therefore, early the next morning, accompanied by the boats, proceeded off to the village, where they brought up. The sea being tolerably calm, and there being no surf, as they neared the sh.o.r.e six boats were at once manned and sent in to inflict condign punishment on the heads of the transgressors.

The party, headed by Rogers and Adams, formed on the beach. Their arrival had been observed by the natives, who, with tom-toms beating and horns sounding, were drawn up in large numbers on the side of the hill to defend their village. Jack gave the order to advance; the natives stood for a few seconds--then, even before a single shot had been fired, they turned tail and scampered off as fast as their legs could carry them. The only volley fired brought a few down, and hastened the flight of the rest, who were out of sight before the village was reached. Not a human being was found in any of the huts, which were speedily set on fire and burned to the ground, while a grove of trees growing near was cut down--a far more severe punishment than the burning of the miserable huts, which could be easily restored. This necessary though unsatisfactory work being accomplished, the party returned on board, and the corvette and brig, having received the captured slaves, made sail for Zanzibar.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

ANOTHER DHOW CHASED--SLAVES THROWN OVERBOARD--DHOW CAPTURED--HER HOLD-- ZANZIBAR--"SPICY ODOURS"--A TRIP ON Sh.o.r.e--THE SLAVE-MARKET--HORRORS OF THE SLAVE-TRADE IN THE INTERIOR--A STORE IN ZANZIBAR--MURRAY AND ADAIR PAY A VISIT TO THE SULTAN--SUMMARY JUSTICE.

Upwards of a fortnight had gone by since the corvette and brig last weighed anchor. Neither of them had been idle; numerous dhows had been chased, some of them overtaken and boarded. A large proportion of them had been of necessity let go, from want of sufficient evidence to warrant their condemnation. The corvette had captured two with slaves on board, and continued her course with them; while the _Romp_ had parted company, chasing a suspicious sail which made every effort to escape. On being turned from the sh.o.r.e by the _Opal_, whose boats had been sent after her, she had stood to the eastward.

She was a large craft, with an enormous spread of canvas, and the little _Romp_ had to put her best foot foremost to keep her in sight. Jack Rogers, however, was not to be disappointed of his prey. Setting every st.i.tch of canvas the brig could carry, he steered after her, hoping that by some fortunate chance he might at length get her under his guns.

d.i.c.k Needham and Tom were standing on the forecastle, with their glances directed towards the chase, on which it was evident they were at length gaining. "It seems to me, Mr Needham," observed Tom, who had been taking a long, steady look at the chase, "they're heaving something overboard; what it is I can't make out,--scarcely a cargo of ballast,-- but we shall soon discover when we get up to her, as we shall, I hope, before long."

Needham took another steady look. "As true as I'm an Englishman, it is her cargo though," he exclaimed; "a living cargo, or what was living not long ago. They're heaving overboard the black slaves; not one at a time, as I've seen down on the West Coast, just to induce the cruiser in chase to heave-to for the purpose of picking them up, but dozens at a time, so it seems to me. Yes, I am sure of it, the outrageous villains!

they've no notion of the power of our gla.s.ses. I wish our guns would carry as far; we'd soon make them understand that we'd our eyes upon them."

"I'll go and tell the commander," exclaimed Tom. "Can nothing be done to stop them?"

"We're doing all we can, for we can't make the brig walk faster than she's going," answered Needham.

Tom hurried aft with the information, and Jack and most of his officers were soon directing their gla.s.ses on the dhow. Although some doubted that the black objects they saw thrown over the side could really be human beings, the majority were of opinion that such was the case.

Little had Jack thought, when going in chase of the slaver, that he was to be the unintentional cause of the death of numbers of his fellow-creatures; yet he was convinced that such really was the case.

Eager as all were to stop the butchery they believed going forward, it was impossible to set more sail or to do anything else to make the brig move along faster. They could only wish that they had steam-power, when, if a dead calm should come on, they might quickly have got up with the dhow. As it was, all they could do was to steer steadily after her, and as soon as they could get her within range of their bow-chasers, to fire away, and compel her to heave-to. The best of the day was before them, so that, should the wind hold, they must ultimately come up with her. This was their only consolation. Since she was first sighted they had gained a couple of miles on her, and should they continue to gain on her at the same rate, they might soon be throwing shot and sh.e.l.l through her canvas.

The men, when they heard what was taking place, entered fully into the feelings of their officers. Many a sincere prayer was offered up that the dhow might be taken and the murderers punished. Anxiously the course of the sun was watched as it sank towards the distant coast; for should night come on before the dhow was captured, the murderous Arabs might escape from the avenger of blood in hot pursuit after them.

"If they have been guilty of the horrible deed we suspect, I don't think that they will escape," said Jack. "Even if they do get free of us, Heaven will inflict on them the punishment they deserve, by some other means."

Two more hours pa.s.sed, when, the brig having gained another mile, the hopes of all on board rose proportionately. At length Needham came aft.

"I think, sir, we might reach her with our long six-pounder, and a shot or two through her sails would take the speed out of her." Already the sun's lower limb was touching the horizon.

"The experiment is worth trying," answered Rogers.

The gun was mounted on the forecastle, and charged with a sh.e.l.l. The first sh.e.l.l burst astern of the dhow, which still continued standing on.

Needham was quickly ready, and fired another. "Hurrah!" he exclaimed; "I thought so." It touched her large sail, and, exploding at the same moment, rent it in all directions. Still she did not heave-to. A third and fourth sh.e.l.l were thrown, the sail being again torn by the latter.

The brig now gained fast on the chase; still, so rapidly does darkness come on after sunset in that lat.i.tude, that the Arabs possibly still hoped to effect their escape. Their courage, however, at length gave way, as one shot after another struck them, and both sails were seen to come down together. The brig now quickly got up with the chase, and, heaving-to to leeward, two boats were lowered, Tom accompanying the second lieutenant in one, with the interpreter, while Needham had charge of the other.

As they got up alongside, about thirty piratical-looking ruffians, headed by their skipper, stood prepared to receive them. They appeared in no way disconcerted as the English leaped on board.

"Ask the neG.o.da what has become of the slaves with which he lately sailed, Hamed," said the lieutenant.

The Arab answered at some length: "He says they have had no slaves on board, and the dhow was becoming leaky, and they had to throw the cargo into the sea," said Hamed.

"Then inquire why he ran away from us," said the lieutenant.

Again Hamed and the skipper had a long talk. "The neG.o.da says he was in a hurry, and thought the brig was a pirate," said Hamed.

"Very likely. You don't think he speaks the truth?" observed the lieutenant.