"Where Angels Fear to Tread" and Other Stories of the Sea Part 21

The second lieutenant, overseeing this latter, paced the port quarter-deck and answered remarks from Captain Bunce, who paced the sacred starboard side (the brig being at anchor) and occasionally turned his gla.s.s on the dilapidated craft down the beach.

"Seems to me, Mr. Shack," he said across the deck, "that an owner who would send that bark around the Horn, and the master who would take her, ought to be sequestered and cared for, either in an asylum or in jail."

"Yes, sir, I think so too," answered the second lieutenant, looking aloft. "Might be an insurance job. Clear away that bunt-gasket on the royal-yard," he added in a roar.

Captain Bunce--round, rosy, with brilliant mutton-chop whiskers--muttered: "Insurance--wrecked intentionally--no, not here where we are; wouldn't court investigation by her Majesty's officers."

He rolled forward, then aft, and looked again through the gla.s.s.

"Very large crew--very large," he said; "very curious, Mr. Shack."

A hail from the forecastle, announcing that the anchor was short, prevented Mr. Shack's answering. Captain Bunce waved a deprecatory hand to the first lieutenant, who came aft at once, while Mr. Shack descended to the waist, and the boatswain ascended the forecastle steps to attend to the anchor. The first lieutenant now had charge of the brig, and from the quarter-deck gave his orders to the crew, while Captain Bunce busied himself with his gla.s.s and his thoughts.

Fore-and-aft sail was set and head-sheets trimmed down to port, square sails were dropped, sheeted home, and hoisted, foreyards braced to port, the anchor tripped and fished, and the brig paid off from the land-breeze, and, with foreyards swung, steadied down to a course for the entrance.

"Mr. Duncan," said the captain, "there are fully forty men on that bark's deck, all dressed alike--all in red s.h.i.+rts and knitted caps--and all dancing around like madmen. Look!" He handed the gla.s.s to the first lieutenant, who brought it to bear.

"Strange," said the officer, after a short scrutiny; "there were only a few showing when we spoke her outside. It looks as though they were all drunk."

As they drew near, sounds of singing--uproarious discord--reached them, and soon they could see with the naked eye that the men on the bark were wrestling, dancing, and running about.

"Quarters, sir?" inquired Mr. Duncan. "Shall we bring to alongside?"

"Well--no--not yet," said the captain, hesitatingly; "it's all right--possibly; yet it is strange. Wait a little."

They waited, and had sailed down almost abreast of the gray old craft, noticing, as they drew near, an appreciable diminution of the uproar, when a flag arose from the stern of the bark, a dusky flag that straightened out directly toward them, so that it was difficult to make out.

But they soon understood. As they reached a point squarely abreast of the bark, five points of flame burst from her innocent gray sides, five clouds of smoke ascended, and five round shot, coming with the thunder of the guns, hurtled through their rigging. Then they saw the design of the flag, a white skull and cross-bones, and noted another, a black flag too, but pennant-shaped, and showing in rudely painted letters the single word "Swarth," sailing up to the forepeak.

"Thunder and lightning!" roared Captain Bunce. "Quarters, Mr. Duncan, quarters, and in with the kites. Give it to them. Put about first."

A youngster of the crew had sprung below and immediately emerged with a drum which, without definite instruction, he hammered vigorously; but before he had begun, men were clearing away guns and manning flying-jib downhaul and royal clue-lines. Others sprang to stations, antic.i.p.ating all that the sharp voice of the first lieutenant could order. Around came the brig on the other tack and sailed back, receiving another broadside through her rigging and answering with her starboard guns.

Then for a time the din was deafening. The brig backed her main-yards and sent broadside after broadside into the hull of the old craft. But it was not until the eighth had gone that Captain Bunce noticed through the smoke that the pirates were not firing. The smoke from the burning canvas port-coverings had deluded him. He ordered a cessation. Fully forty solid shot had torn through that old hull near the water-line, and not a man could now be seen on her deck.

"Out with the boats, Mr. Duncan," he said; "they're drunk or crazy, but they're the men we want. Capture them."

"Suppose they run, sir--suppose they take to their boats and get into the woods--shall we follow?"

"No, not past the beach--not into an ambush."

The four boat-loads of men which put off from the brig found nothing but a deserted deck on the sinking bark and two empty boats hauled up on the beach. The pirates were in the woods, undoubtedly, having kept the bark between themselves and the brig as they pulled ash.o.r.e. While the blue-jackets cl.u.s.tered around the bows of their boats and watched nervously the line of forest up the beach, from which bullets might come at any time, the two lieutenants conferred for a few moments, and had decided to put back, when a rattling chorus of pistol reports sounded from the depths of the woods. It died away; then was heard a cras.h.i.+ng of bush and branch, and out upon the sands sprang a figure--a long, weird figure in black frock of clerical cut. Into their midst it sped with mighty bounds, and sinking down, lifted a glad face to the heavens with the groaning utterance: "O G.o.d, I thank thee. Protect me, gentlemen--protect me from those wicked men."

"What is it? Who are you?" asked Mr. Duncan. "Were they shooting at you?"

"Yes, at me, who never harmed a fly. They would have killed me. My name is Todd. Oh, such suffering! But you will protect me? You are English officers. You are not pirates and murderers."

"But what has happened? Do you live around here?"

It took some time for Mr. Todd to quiet down sufficiently to tell his story coherently. He was an humble laborer in the vineyard of the Lord.

He had gleaned among the poorest of the native population in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro until his health suffered, and had taken pa.s.sage home in a pa.s.senger-s.h.i.+p, which, ten days out, was captured by a pirate brig. And the pirate crew had murdered every soul on board but himself, and only spared his life, as he thought, for the purpose of amus.e.m.e.nt; for they had compelled him to dance--he, a minister of the gospel--and had made him drink under torture, and recite ribald poetry, and swear, and wash their clothes. All sorts of indignities had been heaped upon him, but he had remembered the injunction of the Master; he had invariably turned the other cheek when smitten, and had prayed for their souls. He told of the flight from the English war-brig, of the taking of the old bark in the fog and the sinking of the pirate craft, of the transfer of guns and treasure to the bark, and the interview at sea with the English brig, in which Captain Swarth had deceived the other, and of Captain Swarth's reckless confidence in himself, which had induced him to follow the brig in and careen in the same bay. He wound up his tale with a lurid description of the drunken debauch following the anchoring of the bark,--during which he had trembled for his life,--of the insane firing on the brig as she pa.s.sed, and the tumbling into the boats when the brig returned the fire, of the flight into the woods, the fighting among themselves, and his escape under fire.

As he finished he offered an incoherent prayer of thankfulness, and the sympathetic Mr. Shack drew forth his pocket-flask and offered it to the agitated sufferer; but Mr. Todd, who could probably drink more whisky and feel it less than any other man in the pirate crew, declined the poison with a s.h.i.+ver of abhorrence. Then Mr. Duncan, who had listened thoughtfully, said: "You speak of treasure; did they take it with them?"

Mr. Todd opened wide his eyes, looked toward the dark shades of the forest, then at the three masts of the bark rising out of the water, and answered impressively:

"Gentlemen, they did not. They were intoxicated--mad with liquor. They took arms and a knapsack of food to each man,--they spoke of an inland retreat to which they were going,--but the treasure from the pa.s.senger-s.h.i.+p--the bars of gold and the bags of diamonds--they forgot.

They transferred it from their sinking vessel when sober, but when intoxicated they remembered food and left it behind. Gentlemen, there is untold wealth in the hull out there which your fire has sunk. It is, verily, the root of all evil; let us hope that it remains at the bottom of the sea."

"Bars of gold--bags of diamonds!" said Mr. Duncan. "Come on board, Mr.

Todd; we'll see what the captain thinks."

At dinner in the brig's cabin that evening--as a prelude to which Mr.

Todd said grace--his account of the wealth spread out on Captain Swarth's cabin table after the taking of the pa.s.senger-s.h.i.+p was something to arouse interest in a less worldly man than Captain Bunce.

Virgin gold--in bars, ingots, bricks, and dust--from the Morro Velho mines of Brazil was there, piled up on the table until the legs had given way and launched the glittering ma.s.s to the floor. Diamonds uncut, uncounted, of untold value,--a three years' product of the whole Chapada district,--some as large as walnuts, had been spread out and tossed about like marbles by those lawless men, then boxed up with the gold and stowed among the cargo under the main-hatch. Again Mr. Todd expressed the hope that Providence would see fit to let this treasure remain where the pirates had left it, no longer to tempt man to kill and steal. But Captain Bunce and his officers thought differently.

Glances, then tentative comments, were exchanged, and in five minutes they were of one mind, even including Mr. Todd; for it may not be needless to state that the treasure and the pa.s.senger-s.h.i.+p existed only in his imagination.

Pending the return of the boats the brig's anchor had been dropped about two hundred yards from the bark; now canvas was furled, and at eight bells all hands were mustered aft to hear what was in store.

Captain Bunce stated the case succinctly; they were homeward bound and under general orders until they reported to the admiral at Plymouth.

Treasure was within their reach, apportionable, when obtained, as prize-money. It was useless to pursue the pirates into the Brazilian jungle; but they would need to be watchful and ready for surprise at any moment, either while at work raising the bark or at night; for though they had brought out the two boats in which the pirates had escaped, they could find other means of attack, should they dare or care to make it. The English sailors cheered. Mr. Todd begged to say a few words, and enjoined them not to allow the love of lucre to tempt their minds from the duty they owed to their G.o.d, their country, and their captain, which was also applauded and forgotten in a moment.

Then, leaving a double-anchor watch, provided with blue fire and strict instructions, on deck, the crew turned in to dream of an affluent future, and Mr. Todd was shown to a comfortable state-room. He removed his coat and vest, closed the door and dead-light, filled and lighted his black pipe, and rolled into the berth with a seaman's sigh of contentment.

"That was a good dinner," he murmured, after he had filled the room with smoke--"a good dinner. Nothing on earth is too good for a sky-pilot. I'd go back to the business when I've made my pile, if it wasn't so all-fired hard on the throat; and then the trustees, with their eternal kicking on economy, and the sisters, and the donation-parties--yah, to h----l with 'em! Wonder if this brig ever carried a chaplain? Wonder how Bill and the boys are making out? Fine brig, this,--'leven knots on a bow-line, I'll bet,--fine state-room, good grub, nothin' to do but save souls and preach the Word on Sunday.

Guess I'll strike the fat--duffer--for the--job--in--the--morn----" The rest of the sentence merged into a snore, and Mr. Todd slept through the night in the fumes of tobacco, which so permeated his very being that Captain Bunce remarked it at breakfast. "Smoke, Captain Bunce? I smoke? Not I," he answered warmly; "but, you see, those unG.o.dly men compelled me to clean all their pipes,--forty foul pipes,--and I do not doubt that some nicotine has lodged on my clothing." Whereupon Captain Bunce told of a chaplain he had once sailed with whose clothing smelled so vilely that he himself had framed a pet.i.tion to the admiral for his transfer to another s.h.i.+p and station. And the little story had the effect on Mr. Todd of causing him mentally to vow that he'd "s.h.i.+p with no man who didn't allow smoking," and openly aver that no sincere, consistent Christian clergyman would be satisfied to stultify himself and waste his energies in the comfort and ease of a naval chaplaincy, and that a chaplain who would smoke should be discredited and forced out of the profession. But later, when Captain Bunce and his officers lighted fat cigars, and he learned that the aforesaid chaplain had merely been a careless devotee of pipe and pigtail twist, Mr. Todd's feelings may be imagined (by a smoker); but he had committed himself against tobacco and must suffer.

During the breakfast the two lieutenants reported the results of a survey which they had taken of the wreck at daylight.

"We find," said Mr. Duncan, "about nine feet of water over the deck at the stern, and about three feet over the fore-hatch at low tide. The topgallant-forecastle is awash and the end of the bowsprit out of water, so that we can easily reach the upper ends of the bobstays.

There is about five feet rise and fall of tide. Now, we have no pontoons nor casks. Our only plan, captain, is to lift her bodily."

"But we have a diving-suit and air-pump," said Mr. Shack, enthusiastically, "and fifty men ready to dive without suits. We can raise her, captain, in two weeks."

"Gentlemen," said Captain Bunce, grandly, "I have full faith in your seamans.h.i.+p and skill. I leave the work in your hands." Which was equivalent to an admission that he was fat and lazy, and did not care to take an active part.

"Thank you, sir," said Mr. Duncan, and "Thank you, sir," said Mr.

Shack; then the captain said other pleasant things, which brought other pleasant responses, and the breakfast pa.s.sed off so agreeably that Mr.

Todd, in spite of the soul-felt yearning for a smoke inspired by the cigars in the mouths of the others, felt the influence of the enthusiasm and bestowed his blessing--qualifiedly--on the enterprise.

Every man of the brig's crew was eager for the work, but few could engage at first; for there was nothing but the forecastle-deck and the bark's rigging to stand upon. Down came the disgraceful black flags the first thing, and up to the gaff went the ensign of Britain. Then they sent down the fore and main lower and topsail yards, and erected them as sheers over the bow and stern, lower ends well socketed in spare anchor-stocks to prevent their sinking in the sand, upper ends lashed together and stayed to each other and to the two anchors ahead and astern. To the sheer-heads they rigged heavy threefold tackles, and to the disconnected bobstays (chains leading from the bowsprit end to the stem at the water-line) they hooked the forward tackle, and heaving on the submerged windla.s.s, lifted the bow off the bottom--high enough to enable them to slip two shots of anchor-chain under the keel, one to take the weight at the stern, the other at the bow, for the bobstays would pull out of the stem under the increased strain as the bark arose.

Most of this work was done under water; but a wetting is nothing to men looking for gold, and n.o.body cared. Yet, as a result of ruined uniforms, the order came from Captain Bunce to wear underclothing only or go naked, which latter the men preferred, though the officers clung to decency and tarry duck trousers. Every morning the day began with the was.h.i.+ng of the brig's deck and scouring of bra.s.swork--which must be done at sea though the heavens fall; then followed breakfast, the arming of the boats ready for an attack from the sh.o.r.e, and the descent upon the bark of as many men as could work.

Occasionally Captain Bunce would order the dinghy, and, accompanied by Mr. Todd, would visit the bark and offer interfering suggestions, after the manner of captains, which only embarra.s.sed the officers; and Mr.

Todd would take advantage of these occasions to make landlubberly comments and show a sad ignorance of things nautical. But often he would decline the invitation, and when the captain was gone would descend to his room, and, shutting the door, grip his beloved--though empty--black pipe between his teeth and breathe through it, while his eyes shone fiercely with unsatisfied desire, and his mind framed silent malediction on Bill Swarth for condemning him to this smokeless sojourn. For he dared not smoke; stewards, cooks, and sailors were all about him.

In three days the bark's nose was as high as the seven-part tackle would bring it, with all men heaving who could find room at the windla.s.s-brakes. Then they clapped a luff-tackle on the fall, and by heaving on this, nippering and fleeting up, they lifted the fore-hatch and forecastle scuttle out of water--which was enough. Before this another gang had been able to slip the other chain to position abaft the mizzenmast, hook on the tackle, and lead the fall through a s.n.a.t.c.h-block at the quarter-bitts forward to the mids.h.i.+p capstan.

Disdaining the diving-suit, they swam down nine feet to do these things, and when they had towed the rope forward they descended seven feet to wind it around the capstan and s.h.i.+p the bars, which they found in a rack at the mainmast.

A man in the water weighs practically nothing, and to heave around a capstan under water requires lateral resistance. To secure this they dived with hammers and nails, and fastened a circle of cleats to catch their feet. Then with a boy on the main fife-rail (his head out) holding slack, eighteen men--three to a bar--would inhale all the air their lungs could hold, and, with a "One, two, three," would flounder down, push the capstan around a few pawls, and come up gasping, and blue in the face, to perch on their bars and recover. It went slowly, this end, but in three days more they could walk around with their heads above water.

The next day was Sunday, and they were ent.i.tled to rest; but the flavor of wealth had entered their souls, and they pet.i.tioned the captain for privilege to work, which was granted, to the satisfaction of the officers, and against the vigorous protest of Mr. Todd, who had prepared a sermon and borrowed clean linen from Mr. Shack in which to deliver it.