The Two Supercargoes Part 6

As he and his followers had firearms, and the blacks had only their long knives, they were afraid of disobeying him, and order was again restored.

Notwithstanding the unfortunate termination of our adventure, we all ate heartily of the food placed before us. The remainder of the provisions was done up into packages, so that each of us might carry enough to last until we reached the village.

Mr Pikehead had certainly no wish to be in the company of his black allies, whom he had instigated to attack the camp, for making them a speech in their own tongue, he sent them off in a different direction to that we were about to follow. He then directed each man to take up his package, gave the word to march, and we set off.

CHAPTER FIVE.

WE ARE MARCHED BACK TO THE VILLAGE--CARRIED ON BOARD THE "VULTURE"--SENT DOWN BELOW--TUBBS REFUSES TO TURN PIRATE--AN UNPLEASANT NIGHT--THE s.h.i.+P UNDER WEIGH--CROSSING THE BAR--ALLOWED TO GO ON DECK--AT SEA--ANOTHER NIGHT--ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE A PURSUER--SOUNDS OF A FIGHT REACH US--WE BREAK OUR WAY OUT--THE CAPTAIN ATTEMPTS TO BLOW UP THE s.h.i.+P--WE STOP HIM AND MAKE HIM PRISONER--A PARTY FROM THE FRIGATE ON BOARD THE PIRATE--CHARLEY APPEARS--LIEUTENANT HALLTON DOUBTS THE VESSEL BEING A PIRATE--TRUSTS THE CREW--A PLEASANT SUPPER--UNPLEASANTLY AROUSED FROM SLEEP BY SEEING THE LIEUTENANT AND CHARLEY IN THE HANDS OF THE PIRATES--A TRICK TO DECEIVE THE FRIGATE--THE PIRATE MAKES SAIL AND ESCAPES FROM THE FRIGATE.

Harry and I trudged along side by side, feeling dreadfully out of spirits at the ill success of our attempt to escape, as also at the thought of the sad fate which had befallen the good-natured Frenchmen.

We also could not help considering ourselves in a degree guilty of the death of the three men we had induced to desert, as well as of that of our friends and their attendants. Tubbs tried to cheer us up.

"Maybe the blacks would have attacked the Frenchmen whether we had been with them or not," he observed; "and as for the rest, it is the fortune of war. We tried to escape but failed; better luck next time, say I."

This, however, was but poor consolation, as we could only expect the harshest treatment at the hands of Captain Roderick, even if he did not put us to death. Whether he would do that or not was doubtful. The mate, however, did not seem inclined to ill-treat us, except that we each had to carry a heavy load, while a dozen men were placed behind and on each side of us; but we were allowed to march as we liked, and to converse freely together. Though we had slept the previous night, we were pretty well tired out when a halt was called and preparations made to bivouac. Supper was prepared by the cooks, and we were allowed as large a share as we required. The mate then told us to lie down together, a couple of black fellows with arms in their hands being placed over us.

"You'll not attempt to run," observed the mate. "I have given orders to these fellows to shoot you if you do; so the consequences be on your own heads."

"No fear of that," answered Harry. "We'll promise to sleep as soundly as we can until we are called in the morning."

"One good thing, we've not got to keep watch," observed Tom Tubbs; "and I hope our black guards will keep a look-out for any snake, leopard, or lion who may chance to poke his nose into the camp; although I wish that Mr Pikehead had left us our arms to defend ourselves."

We were too tired to talk much, and I believe we all slept soundly until morning, when we were roused up to breakfast and resume our march. It was late in the day when we reached the village. Fortunately for us, the owner of the house we had formerly occupied was still absent, and the theft committed by the pirates was not discovered. Soon after we arrived Captain Roderick made his appearance, a sardonic smile on his countenance.

"You thought to escape me," he said. "You acted foolishly, and must take the consequences. Had you been shot, your blood would have been on your heads, not on mine. I intend to take good care that you shall not play the same trick again. You will now come on board the 'Vulture,'

and it is your own fault that you will not be treated with the same leniency that you were before. My crew will see that I do not allow such tricks to be played with impunity. Lash their hands behind them, Pikehead, and bring them along."

The mate, with the aid of three seamen, immediately secured our hands behind our backs, and we were led down, amid the hoots and derisive laughter of the population, to the boat which conveyed us on board the "Vulture." Having been allowed to stand for some minutes in that condition exposed to the view of the crew, we were ordered down below.

As we pa.s.sed near the main hatchway, we saw that the slave-deck was already crowded with blacks, seated literally like herrings in a tub, as close as they could be packed side by side, with shackles round their necks and legs. Our destination was, however, lower down by the after hatchway. As soon as we were below the deck, our arms were released, and we were able to help ourselves down the narrow ladder which led into the cable-tier. Here, in a s.p.a.ce which allowed us room only to sit with our knees together, without being able to stand up or walk about, the mate told us we were to remain.

"You may consider yourselves very fortunate, my fine fellows, that worse has not happened to you," he said. "How you'll like it if it comes on to blow, and the hatches are battened down, is more than I can say.

You'll get your food though, for the captain doesn't want to take your lives--he has some scruples about that--nor do I. Indeed, you might have escaped as far as I was concerned, although it was fortunate for you I came, up when I did, or those As.h.i.+ngo savages would have put you to death as they did your companions."

"We are grateful for the leniency with which we have been treated, but may I ask what the captain intends doing with us?" I said.

"Why, I suppose that he intends to sell you two young gentlemen as slaves in the Brazils. He will give your faces and bodies a coating of black, and put you with the rest of the negroes," answered the mate.

"And as for you," he exclaimed, turning to Tubbs, "you might have been treated as a deserter; and if you don't sign articles and join us, you will probably have to walk the plank. I say this as a hint to you. If you act wisely, you'll be set at liberty as soon as we get into blue water."

"You reckon wrongly if you think I'll join this craft or any other like her," answered Tubbs stoutly. "I'm ready to take the consequences, for turn pirate I won't; so you have my answer."

The mate laughed.

"Many a fine fellow has said that and changed his tone when he has seen the plank rigged or the yard-arm with a running bowline from it.

However, I must not waste words on you. I'll send you down your suppers, and you must manage to stow yourselves away in the best manner you can think of for sleep. One of you must needs sit up, and he'll have plenty to do in keeping off the rats and c.o.c.kroaches, for you'll be somewhat troubled by them, I suspect."

We thanked the mate for the promise of sending us some supper, and wished him good-night; and I really believe that, as far as his brutalised nature would allow, he intended to be kind to us. Cramped as we were in the hot stifling hold, it was a long time before any one of us could go to sleep. We were, I should have said, left in total darkness; not the slightest gleam of light descending into the part of the hold in which we were confined. At length I was awakened from a tolerable sleep by a noise which betokened that the s.h.i.+p was getting under weigh. I did not like to arouse my companions; but Tubbs, who had been sitting on a locker, started up exclaiming--

"Ay, ay! I'll be on deck in a twinkling." The blow he gave his head against the beam above him, roused him up. "Bless my heart! I forgot where I was," he said. "Yes, the s.h.i.+p's under weigh, no doubt about that, and we shall be out at sea in the course of a few hours if we have the tide and wind with us, and don't ground on the bar and get knocked to pieces."

After some time Harry awoke. I told him that the s.h.i.+p was running down the river.

"Our chance of escape for the present is over, then," he said with a deep sigh.

He had naturally been thinking of home and Lucy and his blighted prospects; so indeed had I. Tubbs, as before, tried to cheer us up by talking on various subjects.

"There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip," he observed.

"Although the captain fancies his craft faster than anything afloat, he may catch a tartar in the shape of a British man-of-war before we cross the Atlantic. As to selling us into slavery, I don't believe he'll attempt it. He must know that before long we would find means of communicating with a British consul or some other authority, and make our cases known. If he had talked of selling us to the Moors or Turks, the case would have been different. Once among those fellows, we should have found it a hard matter to escape."

"Still he may sell us," observed Harry; "and perhaps months and years will pa.s.s before we can let our friends know where we are."

"Well, well, that'll be better than having to walk the plank or being run up at the yard-arm," said Tubbs. "We must not cry out until we are hurt, although I'll own that I'd rather have more room to stretch my legs in than this place affords. I hope Master Pikehead won't forget to send us the food he promised; I'm getting rather sharp set already."

Harry and I confessed that we were also feeling very hungry. Even the talking about food gave a new turn to our thoughts. At last we heard the hatch above our heads lifted, and the black steward came down with a bowl of farina and a jug of water. It was the same food the slaves were fed on, but we thought it wise to make no complaint.

"It shows that the captain has no intention to starve us," observed Harry. "However, this is better than mouldy biscuit and rancid pork, such as I have heard say seamen are too often fed upon."

"You've heard say the truth, sir," observed Tubbs. "Often and often I've known the whole s.h.i.+p's company get no better fare than that, with little better than bilge water to drink. If we get enough stuff like this, we shall grow fat, at all events."

The steward, leaving the bowl between us, quickly disappeared up the hatchway. The only light we had was from a bull's-eye overhead, which enabled us, as Tubbs said, "barely to see the way to our mouths;" we could not, at all events, distinguish each other's features. Although we could not see, we felt the claws of numerous visitors crawling over us, and smelt them too, and now and then were sensible that a big rat was nibbling at our toes, although, by kicking and stamping, at the risk of hitting each other's s.h.i.+ns, we kept them at bay. Notwithstanding this, we managed to sleep pretty soundly at intervals.

Tubbs a.s.sured us that the s.h.i.+p was gliding on, although it might be some time before she reached the bar, as it was impossible to judge at what rate she was sailing. Now and then we felt her heel over slightly to starboard, showing that the wind was more abeam, or rather that we were pa.s.sing along a reach running to the southward; then, when she came up again on an even keel, we knew that we were standing directly to the westward. At last we felt her bows lift, then down she glided, to rise again almost immediately afterwards, while the increased sound of the water das.h.i.+ng on her sides showed us that we were crossing the bar.

"There is some sea on, I guess, and I know what it is with these African rivers. Should the wind suddenly s.h.i.+ft southward, we may be driven on a rock or sandbank, and we and all on board will have a squeak for life,"

observed Tubbs.

"I hope not, although anything might be better than being carried into slavery," observed Harry. "But we ought not to despair. I have been thinking and praying over the matter, and know that G.o.d can deliver us if He thinks fit. We must trust Him; I'm sure that's the only thing to be done. In all the troubles and trials of life. At all times we must do our duty, and, as I say, trust Him; even when bound hand and foot as we are at present, all we can do is still to trust Him."

I heartily responded to Harry's remark, and so I believe did Tubbs, who, although nothing of a theologian, not even knowing the meaning of the word, was a pious man in his rough way.

"Ay, ay, sir," he said. "I know that G.o.d made us, and He has a right to our service; and if we don't run away from Him and hide ourselves, He'll look after us a precious deal better than we can look after ourselves.

That's my religion, and it's my opinion it's the sum total of all the parsons can tell us."

"Not quite," said Harry, "although it goes a long way. We are sinners in G.o.d's sight, whatever we are in the sight of men; and if G.o.d in His mercy hadn't given us a way by which we can be made friends to Him and saved from punishment, we should be in a bad condition."

"You are right, sir," answered Tubbs; "but to my idea that's all included in what I said."

We sat listening in silence.

"We are pretty well over the bar now, and I don't think we shall be cast away this time," he observed a few minutes afterwards.

That he was right we were convinced by the more regular movement of the vessel, as she slowly rose and fell, moved by the undulations which rolled in towards the coast. We could judge that she was making good way, and Tubbs was of opinion that all sail was set, and that we were standing to the westward. At the time the slaves were fed, we had a bowl of farina brought us, but the man put it down and disappeared again without saying a word. Soon afterwards the mate came down, and told me that I might come on deck for a quarter of an hour to stretch my legs.

I was thankful to breathe the fresh air, although there was but little of it, and the s.h.i.+p was almost becalmed. I glanced astern, and could distinguish the sh.o.r.e, although I could no longer make out the mouth of the river. We had, at all events, got a safe offing. When my time was up I was sent below and Harry took my place, and he was succeeded by Tubbs. We were treated, however, with no more consideration than was afforded to the slaves, who were brought up on deck at intervals in the same fas.h.i.+on. The hold felt doubly close and oppressive after the mouthful of fresh air we had enjoyed.

The second night of our captivity was even more trying than the first, for the atmosphere of the hold, into which the horrible odour from the slave-deck penetrated, was becoming every hour more and more unendurable. I feared that should we be kept below during the voyage, I, at all events, would sink under it, for I already felt sick almost to death, and my spirits were at a lower ebb than they had ever before reached. Harry was almost in as bad a condition as I was. Tubbs, who had been well seasoned in the close air of forecastles, held out better than we did.

"Don't give way, young gentlemen, whatever you do," he said very frequently to us. "Cheer up, cheer up! When we get a breeze, some of it will find its way down here perhaps; and if not, I'll ask the skipper if he wishes to kill us by inches, and I'll tell him he'll never land either of us if we are kept shut up in this hold and treated worse than the negroes. They are born to it, as it were, and we are not, and have been accustomed to pure air all our lives."