Dutch the Diver Part 44

"It am hot, sar, berry hot," said 'Pollo, and they stood at the side staring at the sh.o.r.e, where the undergrowth seemed to be lit up by a shower of fallen stars, which leaped and danced from leaf to leaf, while the very sea beneath them seemed alive with pale s.h.i.+ning points of light, which glided softly along till some fish darted through the water and made the little starry dots flash into a long line of light.

Against the side of the s.h.i.+p there seemed to be so much pale golden light rising and falling, showing the copper sheathing of the vessel, and surrounding it with a soft halo which made its shape just faintly outlined from stem to stern. The cables, too, by which it was moored could be faintly traced as lines of light illuminated and sparkling right to the sand below, and for some little time the two men stood watching in silence.

"Dat's shark," whispered 'Pollo, suddenly, as he pointed down to where the points of light flashed more vividly as they were agitated, and though they could not make out the shape of the monster, it was plain to see that some great fish was slowly gliding through the water.

"What's he hanging about after?" said Oak.u.m, watching the place intently. "I should have thought it had been made too warm for them gentlemen, and they'd have give us a wide berth."

"He know somebody go to die soon," said 'Pollo, in a low voice. "Dat Ma.s.s' Studwick or pretty Missee Pugh."

"Don't you talk humbug," said Oak.u.m, with a growl. "Phew! it's strange and hot; I shall go and turn in."

"You soon turn out again. Ma.s.s' Oak.u.m, you go below. De c.o.c.kroach hab fine game night like dis hyar, sah, and de skeetas buzz bout like anyfing. You top on deck and lay down under de awning. Dey coming on deck dose oder chap half baked, sah."

"How do you know?" growled Sam.

"I hear some one, sah, just now come crawl up, and--Oh, Goramighty, who hit me on de head?"

For just then there was a dull thud, a fall, and Sam Oak.u.m felt himself seized from behind, and a hard hand placed over his mouth.

He was too st.u.r.dy a fellow, though, to submit to that, and wrenching himself free he sent one of his a.s.sailants one way, and the other sprawling over the body of 'Pollo, and darting aside, he gave a spring, caught at the inner side of the main shrouds, swung his legs up, and as the two men ran in pursuit of him they pa.s.sed beneath him in the darkness, and he climbed softly up higher and higher, then crawling round to the outside, and clung there, gazing down into the darkness below, feeling that he had had a narrow escape for his life.

"The s.h.i.+p's been boarded in the dark," he muttered, as he listened attentively, seeing nothing, but making out something of the proceedings by the sounds below.

Now came the noise of the cabin hatches being secured; then there were short, sharp orders here and there, followed by a struggle, a wild cry, and a heavy fall. Then came the splash heard below in the cabin, and Oak.u.m muttered to himself:

"There's one poor fellow gone to his long home."

Then he set himself to make out who it could be, but his attention was taken off directly by sounds of the alarm having spread below.

"And now how about all the silver?" muttered Oak.u.m. "That's about the size of what this here means."

Sam was right, for the s.h.i.+p had been seized for the sake of the silver found, and that which was to be discovered, for Laure had decided that it was not safe to stay any longer. He had been waiting his time, and had there been no chance of discovery he intended to let Parkley and Dutch go from wreck to wreck, and obtain all the sunken treasure possible before seizing the vessel. But now the plot seemed so ripe that if allowed to go further it might fail, so, exasperated by his encounter that evening, he had whispered his intentions to the men under his orders, unfortunately more than half the crew, and as Sam Oak.u.m listened from aloft he could hear the scoundrels hurrying about, the hatches secured, and then proceedings followed that showed him that the alarm had fully spread.

First there was the s.h.i.+vering of a skylight, Captain Studwick calling out to know what the noise meant, followed by beating and kicking at the door; and then several shots were fired followed by a dead silence, broken by Laure's voice giving orders in a sharp, business-like way.

"I wonder where poor old 'Pollo is," said Sam Oak.u.m as he sat upon his perch thinking, and by force of habit he took out his tobacco-box, helped himself to a bit, and began to consider about the perils of his position. Where he was would do very well for now, he argued, but as soon as the day began to break he would be seen, and then the probabilities were that he would be shot down.

"Leastwise, p'haps, they'll let me off as soon as I say I'll jyne 'em, but that won't come off. Now, who's in this game, I wonder? That yaller-skinned mulatto chap's one for a dollar, and there's roughs enough among those as came aboard with him to make up a pretty crew, I'll swear."

Sam sat thinking while the captors of the vessel were pretty busy down below, and at last, one plug of tobacco being ended, he started upon another, but this time not being so cautious, or rather having his attention taken up by what was pa.s.sing below, he closed the steel tobacco-box with a loud clear snap, and in the stillness of the night this sounded so clearly that he knew he must be discovered.

To change his position was the work of a few moments, and while he was in the act of moving there was a sharp flash, and the report of a pistol, followed by another and another, the bullets whistling close by him.

"There's some one up in the rigging," said Laure sharply. "It's that black cook."

"No," said another voice, "we fetched him down first off, and he's been pitched below."

"Who is it, then?" said Laure sharply.

"I think Oak.u.m was on deck," said another voice.

"Here you, Sam Oak.u.m, come down," said Laure, in a clear, loud voice.

"Come down and you shall not be hurt."

"That's nice palaver after sending bullets to fetch a man down," said Sam to himself, "and after pitching one poor chap to the sharks. I think I'll stay where I am."

"Here, two of you to the port, and two to the starboard shrouds. Take your knives with you, and if the scoundrel won't give in, fetch him down best way you can."

Sam Oak.u.m drew a long breath as he heard these words, and then, the rigging beginning to quiver, he set his teeth, and began to make cautiously for one of the stays, intending to get to the next mast if he could, and so steal down on deck, where, if he could contrive to reach the p.o.o.p, he might climb over and join those below through the cabin windows.

It was ticklish work, though, for as he glided and swung from place to place, he could hear by the hard breathing that he was closely pursued.

Spider-like, too, the touching of the various ropes by his enemies gave him fair warning that he was in danger, though, unfortunately, his movements were in the same way telegraphed to his enemies.

At last they came so near that his capture seemed certain, or if not capture, he felt sure that a blow from a knife would be his portion.

For just as he was going to pa.s.s on to the shrouds he had reached, he felt by their vibration that some fresh men were coming up, and seizing a rope he swung himself out clear from the top and hung there, gently swaying about, hearing his pursuers pa.s.s close by him, so near that he could have stretched out one hand and touched them.

As far as he could judge, he was now just over the cabin skylight, and his heart bounded, for somewhere about here ought to be the top of the wind-sail hung up in the rigging, so that the great canvas tube might convey the fresh air below to take the place of the hot.

"If I could only reach that," thought Sam, "I might slip inside, and go down with a run into the cabin."

He felt about gently for some few moments--not a very easy task, swinging as he was--and then to his great joy he felt his leg come in contact with the rope that suspended the sail, threw his legs round it, and slid down to the top; then, feeling for the opening in the side, he thrust in his leg and held on for a moment while he drew his knife and opened it with his teeth, determined to sell his life dearly if he should be a.s.sailed.

It was well he did so, for, directly after squaring his elbows so as to make all the resistance possible to a rapid descent, he let himself glide into the long canvas sack; but, in spite of his efforts, he went down with a rapid run, not as he expected into the cabin, but upon the deck, where he lay struggling for a few moments before he could get his knife to work and rip up a sufficiently-large slit to allow of his rolling out, and then leaped to his feet, ready to meet the first attack that came.

The darkness befriended him, for no one dared fire for fear of hitting a friend, and though the noise of his fall brought his enemies round, it was only to seize one another; and in the midst of the confusion he escaped, and dashed off in a hard race, closely pursued by half-a-dozen scoundrels, whose purpose evidently was to hunt him overboard.

Twice over he ran right into some one's arms, and once he ran full tilt against an enemy, and sent him rolling over on to the deck. Shouts and oaths rang around him, and over and over again poor Oak.u.m felt that his only chance of escaping from one horrible death was by seeking another.

"But no," he muttered, "I'm not going to be served like that;" and he dodged round mast, galley, and boat, crouching under bulwarks, and escaping over and over again by a miracle as he tried hard to think of some means of baffling his pursuers. The cabin skylight was too strongly covered with wirework, he thought, or he would have tried to leap through; and as to leaping overboard, swimming beneath the cabin window, and calling to those who were prisoners to lower down a rope, that was not to be thought of after the sight he had seen that night in the luminous water.

"I should be torn to pieces," he muttered. "Take that, you mutinous ruffian," he added, as he struck out fiercely at one of his enemies, lying down the next moment flat on the deck, so that a pursuer fell over him, and fell with a crash.

Try how he would, the fugitive was beaten; at every turn in the darkness an enemy seemed to spring up in his way, and as he heard the whish of blows directed at him he wondered he had escaped so long.

But a man running for his life is hard to overtake, especially if he have the darkness for his ally: and so it was that at the end of five minutes, during which Sam had been a dozen times within an ace of being taken, he was still at large, standing panting close to the forecastle hatch, while his enemies were creeping cautiously up, ready to make a spring.

"If I'm to be threw overboard," muttered Sam, "I won't go alone, anyhow.

If the sharks is to be fed, they shall have a double allowance;" and setting his teeth with a vicious grating noise, he prepared for a run aft.

The darkness was now more intense than ever, for a thick mist had come off the land, enshrouding the deck so that Sam could not see the knife he grasped in his hand, but his ears were strained so that he could make out the panting breath of his enemies as they came nearer and nearer, and to his horror he found that they had spread themselves right across the deck; and his imagination suggested that they had joined hands so as to make sure that he did not escape, literally dragging the deck from astern forward, so he knew that they were certain of him this time.

His only chance seemed to be to run out on the bowsprit, and to try to get by one of the stays upon the foremast, but the men were so close that he felt sure they would cut him down before he had gone a yard.

Crouching down, and backing, he was close to the capstan, when his foot came in contact with a fender--one of those heavy pads of cordage and network used to keep s.h.i.+ps' sides from grinding on a stone wharf.

In an instant he had caught it up, and raising it in both hands above his head he waited his time, and then, as the men closed up, he hurled it with all his force against the nearest, catching him full in the chest, and sending him down like a skittle, when, as he uttered a cry, the others believing that the man they sought to capture had sprung upon him, closed in with a shout, and Oak.u.m dashed by them again.

His triumph was but short-lived, for the men were after him directly, chasing him now more savagely than ever. Once or twice his bare feet had slipped on the wet deck, and he had shuddered, believing it to be blood; and forgetting the place, as now, panting and nearly exhausted, he was running on, feeling that the time had come to stand at bay, one of his feet glided over the boards and as he made an effort to save himself by a leap, there was a heavy crash, a fall, and he knew no more.