her stem, "Standto your guns--_Fire_!"
When the _Arrandoon_ forged ahead clear of the smoke, it was evidentfrom the confusion on board the _Maelsturm_, and the dishevelment ofrunning and standing rigging, that the havoc on her decks must have beenterrible. She was not beaten, though, as a gun from her broadside soontold.
"We'll end this," said the captain to Rory, by his side, who hadconstituted himself clerk, and was coolly taking notes in the very thickof the fight, while shot roared through the ship's rigging and sides,men fell on all hands, and splinters filled the air. "We'll end it inthe good old fashion, Rory. Stand by to grapple with ice-anchors!Prepare to board!" Now Allan and Ralph, who had been below assistingthe surgeon, heard that word of command, and, just as the sides of thetwo ships had grated together, after firing their last broadsides, theywere both, sword in hand, by their captain's side.
McBain and our heroes were the very first to leap on to theblood-slippery decks of the pirate. The crew of that doomed ship foughtfor a time like furies--for a time, but only for a time. In less thanfive minutes every pirate on board was either disarmed or driven below,and the _Maelsturm_ was the prize of the gallant _Arrandoon_, and hercaptain himself lay bound on the quarter-deck.
But the commander of this pirate ship was the very last man on board ofher to yield. Even when the battle was virtually ended, as fiercely asa lion at bay he fought on his own quarter-deck, McBain himself beinghis antagonist. The latter could have shot him down had he been sominded, but he was not the man to take a mean advantage of a foe. Thepirate was taller than McBain, but not so well built nor so muscular.They were thus pretty well matched, and as they fought, round and roundthe quarter-deck, a more beautiful display of swordsmanship was perhapsnever witnessed. Once the pirate tripped and fell, McBain lowered hisweapon until he had regained his feet, then swords clashed again andsparks flew. But see, the captain of the _Arrandoon_ clasps hisclaymore double-handed; he uses it hatchet fashion almost. He looks inhis brawny might as if he could fell trees. The pirate cannot withstandthe shock of the terrible onslaught, but he makes up in agility what helacks in strength. He is borne backward and backward round thecompanion, McBain "showering his blows like wintry rain;" and now atlast victory is his, the pirate's sword flies into flinders, our captaindrops his claymore and springs empty-handed on his adversary, and nextmoment dashes him to the deck, where he lies stunned and bleeding, andbefore he can recover consciousness he is bound and helpless.
Ralph, Allan, and Rory, none of whom, as providence so willed it, arewounded, and who had been silent spectators of the duel, now crowdaround their captain, and shake his willing hand.
"Heaven," says McBain, "has given the enemy into our hands, boys, butthere is now much to be done. Let us buckle to it without a moment'sdelay. The wounded are to be seen to, both our own and the pirate's,the decks cleared, and everything made shipshape, and, if all goes well,we'll anchor with our prize to-morrow at Reikjavik."
"And the clergyman, captain, the clergyman, the poor girl's father?"exclaimed Rory.
"Ay, ay, boy Rory," said McBain; "he is doubtless on the vessel. Wewill proceed at once to search for him."
If fiends ever laugh, reader, it must be with some such sound as thatwhich now proceeded from the larynx of the pirate captain; if fiendsever smile, it must be with the same sardonic expression that now spreaditself over his features. All eyes were instantly turned towards him.He had raised himself to the sitting position.
"Ha! ha! ha!" he chuckled, while, manacled though his wrists were, hedrew his right forefinger rapidly across his throat, uttering, as he didso, these words, "Your padre; ha! ha! dead--dead--dead."
His listeners were horrified. What McBain's reply would have been nonecan say. It was not needed, for at that very moment, ere the exultantgrin had vanished from the wretch's face, there sprang on deck from thecompanion a figure, tall and gaunt, clad from top to toe in skins. Heknelt on the deck in front of the pirate, the better to confront him.
With forefinger raised, "he held him with his glittering eye," while headdressed him as follows:
"Look here, Mister Pirate, I was going to use strong language, but Iwon't, though I guess and calculate mild words are wasted on sich asyou. The parson ain't dead; ne'er a hair on his reverend head. Yethought I'd scupper him, didn't you, soon's the ship was taken? Yethought this child was your slave, didn't ye? Ha! ha! though, he hasrounded on ye at last, and if that bit of black rag weren't enough tohang you and your wretched crew of cutthroats, here in front o' yekneels one witness o' your dirty deeds, and the other will be on deck ina minute in the person o' the parson you thought dead. How d'ye likeit, eh?" and the speaker once more stood erect, and confronted ourheroes.
"Seth!" they ejaculated, in one voice.
"Seth! by all that is marvellous!" said McBain, clutching the old man bythe right hand, while Rory seized his left, and Allan and Ralph got holdof an arm each.
"Ah! gentlemen," said honest Seth--and there was positively a tear inhis eye as he spoke--"it's on occasions like these that one wishes hehad four hands,--a hand for every friend. Yes, I reckon it is Sethhimself, and nary a one else. You may well say wonders will nevercease. You may well ask me how on earth I came here. It warProvidence, gentlemen, and nuthin' else, that I knows on. It warProvidence sent that cut-throat skipper to the land where you left me onthe _Snowbird_, though I didn't think so at the time, when they burnedand pillaged my hut and killed poor old Plunkett, nor when they carriedme a prisoner on board the _Maelsturm_. They meant to scupper old Seth.They did talk o' bilin' his old bones in whale oil, but they soon foundout he could heal a hole in a hide as well as make one, and so,gentlemen, I've been surgeon-in-chief to this craft for nine months andover. Yes, it war Providence and nuthin' else, and I knew it war assoon as I saw your ship heave in sight, the day they guessed they'dwreck ye. The parson's daughter, poor little Dunette, war on boardthen. I sent her to save ye; and when I heard your voice, CaptainMcBain, on the reef, I felt sure it war Providence then, and I kind o'prayed in my rough way that He might spare ye. Shake hands, gentlemen,again. Bother these old eyes o' mine; they will keep watering."
And Seth drew his sleeve rapidly across his face as he spoke.
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Rory was a proud--boy, ahem! well, _man_, then, if you will have it so,when that same afternoon he was put on board the _Maelsturm_, as captainof her, with a picked crew from the _Arrandoon_, and with orders to makeall sail for Reikjavik. McBain's last words to him were these,--
"Keep your weather eye lifting, Captain Roderick Elphinston. Clap twosentries on those ruffianly prisoners of yours, and let your men sleepwith their cutlasses by their sides and their revolvers under theirheads."
"Ay, ay, sir!" said Rory.
Rory allowed his crew to sleep, but he himself paced the deck all thelivelong night. Occasionally he could see the lights of the _Arrandoon_far on ahead; but towards morning the weather got thick and somewhatsqually, and at daylight the _Maelsturm_ seemed alone on the ocean.Sail was taken in, but the ship kept her course, and just in theeven-glome Rory ran into the Bay of Reikjavik, and dropped anchor, andshortly after a boat came off from the _Arrandoon_ with both Allan andRalph in it, to congratulate the boy-captain on the success of his,first voyage as skipper-commandant.
Next day both the pirate vessel and her captor were show-ships for thepeople--all the _elite_ and beauty of Reikjavik crowded off from theshore in dozens to see them. The dilapidated condition of the_Maelsturm_, her broken bulwarks, rent rigging, and shivered spars,showed how fierce the fight had been. Nor were evidences of thestruggle wanting on board the _Arrandoon_, albeit the men had been hardat work all the day making good repairs.
The dead were buried at sea; the wounded were mostly sent on shore.Five poor fellows belonging to McBain's ship would never fight again,and many more were placed for a time _hors de combat_.
As to the prisoners, they
were transferred to a French ship that lay atReikjavik, and that in the course of a week sailed with them forDenmark. Seth and the officers of the _Arrandoon_ made and signeddepositions; and in addition to this, as evidence against the pirates,the old clergyman and his daughter Dunette, now joyfully reunited, wentalong with the Frenchman, while, with a crew from shore, the _Maelsturm_left some days after. The black flag had never been lowered, nor was ituntil the day the pirate captain and many of his crew expiated theirlong list of crimes on the scaffold at the Holms of Copenhagen.
Poor Dunette, the tears fell unheeded from her sad blue eyes as she badefarewell to our heroes on the deck of the _Arrandoon_. She did not saygood-bye to the surgeon,
Wild Adventures round the Pole Page 17