The Pirate Slaver: A Story of the West African Coast

by Harry Collingwood

  CHAPTER SEVEN.

  THE SLAVER'S RUSE.

  The sun set that night in a broad bank of horizontal, mottled greycloud, through which his beams darted in golden splendour at briefintervals for nearly half-an-hour after we had lost sight of the greatluminary himself; and just about the time that the spars and canvas ofthe distant barque began to grow indistinct in the fast-gathering duskof evening, there occurred a noticeable decrease in the strength of thewind, with every prospect of a tolerably fine night. Of course ourglasses were never off the chase for more than five minutes at a time,but up to the moment when it became impossible to any longer distinguishthe movements of those on board, no attempt to increase her spread ofcanvas had been observed. Whether by this apparent apathy her peoplehoped to lull us into a condition of equal carelessness, it is of courseimpossible for me to say; but, if so, they signally failed, forimmediately that the barque's outline faded into an indistinct blur inthe growing darkness, we went to work and shook out a reef all round,never doubting but that they were at that moment doing precisely thesame thing. And our supposition was most probably correct--Ryan,indeed, who had sent for his night-glass and brought it to bear uponher, declared that he could detect an increase in the area of hershadowy canvas--for even after we had made sail we could not perceivethat we were in any wise decreasing the distance between the twovessels.

  As the swift, tropical night shut down upon us every eye in the shipbecame strained to its utmost power in the effort to keep sight of thechase, for now that there could no longer be any doubt in the minds ofher people that we were after them, we felt convinced that should anopportunity present itself for them to elude us in the darkness theywould assuredly embrace it; and, being new to the coast and to theservice, as most of us were, we had yet to learn by vexatious experiencethe fertility of resource which had been developed in theslave-trafficking fraternity by the unflagging pursuit to which theywere subjected by the slave-squadron, and of which they never missed achance to avail themselves. We had heard many an amusing story of theextraordinarily clever devices that these gentry had resorted to--veryoften successfully--in their endeavours to elude pursuit, and while wehad laughed heartily at the recital of them, or commented admiringlyupon their ingenuity, as the case might be, we had no fancy for furtherillustrating in our own persons their superiority in the art ofmystification. And we were rendered all the more anxious by the factthat with nightfall the sky became overspread with a thin canopy ofcloud that, while not sufficiently dense to wholly obscure the stars, sodimmed their lustre that it became difficult to distinguish, eventhrough our night-glasses, the forms of the waves at a greater distancethan half-a-mile; while as for the chase, we were at length reluctantlycompelled to admit to each other that we had lost sight of heraltogether, or at least that we could not be absolutely certain whetherwe could still see her or not; sometimes we were confident that wecould, at other times we utterly failed to make her out.

  It was while we were in this painful condition of uncertainty thatRyan--who like myself had remained on deck, diligently working away withhis glass, and utterly deaf to the more than once repeated statement ofthe steward that the dinner was on the cabin table--turned quickly to meand said--

  "Do you see that greenish-looking star just glimmering through theclouds right over our jib-boom end? Here, stand exactly where I am, andwhen she pitches you will see it showing about ten degrees above thehorizon. There! do you see the star I mean?"

  "Yes," said I, catching sight of the pale green glimmer as he placed mein position. "Yes, I see it. What of it?"

  "Just carry your eye from it down to the horizon at an angle of aboutforty-five degrees in an easterly direction, and tell me if you seeanything particular."

  I did so, and after two or three attempts thought I caught a faint gleamlike the light of a lamp shining through a red curtain.

  "Yes," I answered, "I fancy I can just make out a dim something." And Idescribed what I saw.

  "Precisely!" exclaimed Ryan delightedly. "There! now I have it in myglass--no, it is gone again--this jump of a sea renders it almostimpossible to use one's telescope on the deck of such a lively littlehooker as this--not that I've a word to say against her, God bless her,she's a beauty, every inch of her, but I wish she'd remain steady for asecond or two. There, I have it again! Yes, it's a light in thebarque's after-cabin. They've drawn the curtains, never suspecting thatthe light would show through. Yes, there's no mistake about it, I cansee it quite plainly now; upon my word I believe we are overhauling hernow that the breeze has dropped a bit. Mr Pierrepoint, d'ye see thatlight?"

  "Where away, sir?"

  It was pointed out to the lad, and after some searching and prying--forit was so very dim that it was almost impossible to distinguish it withthe naked eye--he caught sight of it.

  "Very well, then," remarked Ryan, with a return to his old, humorousmanner that showed how great a relief to him was the appearance of thefaint ruddy gleam, "keep your eye upon it, my bhoy, until I give ye ashpell. Mr Dugdale and Oi are now goin' below to dinner, and if yelose soight of that loight, bedad I'll--I'll keelhaul ye, ye shpalpeen.He's edgin' away off the wind, d'ye see, the blagguard! I wouldn't besurprised if he was to up helm and shquare away before it in a minute ortwo, hopin' to run us out of soight before the moon rises, so don't letyour oye go off that light for a single inshtant if ye value your shkin.Keep her away a bit"--to the man at the helm--"let her go off a point!So! steady as you go! There, Masther Freddy, the light is rightforninst your jib-boom end now. Mind that ye kape it there. We'recertainly gaining on her." And, patting the lad affectionately on theshoulder, the warm-hearted Irishman turned and beckoned me to follow himdown into the cabin.

  We had been below about half-an-hour, and were getting well forward withour dinner, when we heard the voices of Pierrepoint and thequarter-master in earnest conversation over the open skylight, and anoccasional word or two that reached us seemed to indicate that they werein doubt about something. We both pricked up our ears a little; andpresently we heard Pierrepoint ejaculate in a tone of impatience andwith a stamp of his foot on the deck--

  "I'll be shot if I can understand it at all, Somers; I shall call thecaptain."

  "I really think I would, sir, if I was you. I don't believe that's thebarque at all; it's some circumwenting trick that they've been playingus, that's my opinion!"

  At this Ryan started to his feet and, hailing through the skylight,asked--

  "What is the matter, Mr Pierrepoint; have you lost sight of the light?"

  "No, sir," answered poor Freddy, in a tone of distress; "the light isstill straight ahead of us, and we seem to be nearing it fast, but Ican't make out anything like the loom of the sails or hull of thebarque, and if she is there I think we ought to see her by this time.The red light shows quite plainly in the glass."

  "I will join you on deck and have a look at it," exclaimed Ryan; and,rising from the table, he sprang up the companion-ladder three steps ata time, I following close at his heels.

  Yes; there was the light, sure enough, right ahead of us; and a glancealoft as well as the feel of the breeze on our faces told us in aninstant that the schooner had been further kept away, and was nowrunning well off the wind, although the change had been so gradual thatwe had not noticed it while sitting in the cabin. Ryan took the glassfrom Pierrepoint and brought it to bear on the light.

  "Yes," he remarked, with the telescope still at his eye, "that is thelight, beyond a doubt; but, as you say, Mr Pierrepoint, I can see nosign of the barque herself. Yet she _must_ be there, for that light isobviously moving, and I observe that you have, very properly, kept awayto follow it. Surely," he continued, with an accent of impatience andperplexity, "we have not been following some other craft that has hoveabove the horizon since the darkness set in? And, even so, I can seenothing of the craft herself. Obviously, however, we are nearing thelight--whatever it is--fast, for I can see it quite distinctly in theglass, I even fancy that I can see
it rising and falling. Take theglass, Dugdale, and tell me what you can make of it."

  I took the glass, and, after a long and patient scrutiny of themysterious light, pronounced my opinion.

  "To me, sir," said I, "it has the appearance of an ordinary ship'slantern wrapped in a strip of red bunting and hung from a pole, orsomething of that sort. For, if you will look at it closely, you willnotice that it _sways_ with the wash of the sea, and now and then seemsto swing for an instant behind a slender object like a light spar. ButI could almost take my oath that there is no barque or any other kind ofcraft there."

  Once again Ryan took the telescope, and after a further prolongedscrutiny, he exclaimed--

  "By the powers, but I believe you are right, and if so we have beendone! It certainly _has_ very much the appearance that you describe.But what in the world can it be? It is a moving object, beyond alldoubt, for see how we have been obliged to run off the wind in chase ofit! However, we are close to it now, for I can make out the swinging ofthe lantern--and a lantern it _is_--with the naked eye. It is someconfounded contrivance for leading us astray, that is what it is! Butsince we are so close to it, we may as well ascertain its character, ifonly to be awake to the trick if it ever happens to be played upon us asecond time. Hands by the braces here, and stand by to back thetopsail. And get two or three lanterns ready to swing over the side, sothat we may see just exactly what the thing is."

  We had by this time approached the mysterious object so nearly thatanother three or four minutes sufficed to bring it within a couple ofhundred feet of the schooner's weather bow, when the topsail was laid tothe mast, and our way checked sufficiently to permit of a carefulexamination of the thing, whatever it was. By the time that we hadforged ahead far enough to bring it on our weather beam it was closeaboard of us, and then the light of our lanterns disclosed the nature ofthe contrivance by which we had been so cleverly tricked. It was infact nothing more than a raft composed of five nine-inch planks laidparallel to each other with a space of about a foot between each, andfirmly secured together by a couple of stout cross-pieces nailed athwartthe whole concern. The fore-ends of the planks had been sawn away tothe shape of a sharp wedge to facilitate the movement of the raftthrough the water, and on the foremost cross-piece had been rigged anoar for a mast, upon which was set a hastily-contrived squaresail, madeout of a piece of old tarpaulin. To the head of the mast was securelylashed an old lantern with a short length of candle, still burning, init; the lantern being cunningly draped in red bunting to represent theappearance of a lamp shining through a curtain. And the wholecontrivance was rendered self-steering by the attachment of a fewfathoms of line to the after-end of the middle plank, at the otherextremity of which a drogue, consisting of a short length of plank, wasattached. This drogue had the effect of keeping the raft running deadbefore the wind, and it travelled at a very respectable pace, too--quitefive knots an hour, we estimated its speed at--for the sail was quite abig one for so small an affair; and since we had been steering for itfor just about an hour, it meant that we had been decoyed some fivemiles to leeward of our proper course.

  The question now was: Where was the barque? It did not take us verylong to make up our minds upon this point. It was pretty evident thatsince her skipper had been at so much pains to entice us away down toleeward, he would have held his wind all this time; and to windwardtherefore must we look for him. Whether, however, he had tacked andstood away to the westward immediately after launching his raft, orwhether he had held on upon the port tack to the northward, we could notpossibly tell, for a diligent and prolonged use of our night-glassesfailed to reveal the slightest indication of his whereabouts. Ryan,however, was not long in arriving upon a conclusion in the matter. Heargued that if he had tacked we ought also to tack forthwith, because,if we stood on as we were going until the moon rose, we might run out ofsight of him; whereas, if he had _not_ tacked, he would be at thatmoment somewhere about broad on our weather bow. If therefore he _had_tacked, we should be doing the right thing to tack also, since we shouldthen be standing directly after him; while if he had not tacked, weshould still be doing right to heave about, since even in that case weshould probably see something of him from our mast-head when the moonrose, as she would in less than half-an-hour. We therefore at once putthe helm down and hove round on the starboard tack, keeping the schooneras close to the wind as she would lie, while still allowing her to goalong through the water.

  A faint brightening in the sky by and by announced the welcome approachof the moon upon the scene; and shortly afterwards the beautiful planetherself, considerably shrunken from her full-orbed splendour, roseslowly into view above the horizon, her curtailed disc showing of adeep, ruddy orange-colour through the dense, humid vapours of the loweratmosphere. Two hands were at once sent up to the topgallant-yard totake a look round; but even after they had been there an hour--by whichtime the moon had risen high enough to give us plenty of light--theyfailed to discover any sign of the barque or anything else; and we wereat length reluctantly compelled to admit that we had been very cleverlytricked, and that our cunning neighbour had fairly given us the slip.

  "But I'll not give him up, even now!" exclaimed Ryan, when thisconviction had fairly forced itself upon us. "Come down below, Dugdale,and let us reason this thing out."

  We accordingly descended to our snug little cabin and seated ourselvesat the table, Ryan producing a sheet of paper, a scale, and a pencilwherewith to graphically illustrate our line of reasoning.

  "Now, here," said he, drawing an arrow near one margin of the paper, "isthe wind, coming out at west as nearly as may be; and here," laying thescale upon the paper, measuring off a distance, and making two pencildots, "are the positions of the barque and the schooner when the formerwas last seen. Now, I estimate that the barque was going about eightand a half knots, and we were reeling off nine by the log at that time;and this state of affairs continued at least until the light was seen,which was about half-an-hour after we lost sight of our friend.Consequently, when the light was first seen, the schooner was here"--making another dot--"and the barque there," making a fourth.

  "Now, what would the blagguard be most likely to do when he had safelylaunched his raft? He knew that it would go skimming away to leeward,taking us with it; and I therefore think it most probable that he wouldtack at once, going off in this direction," laying down a line upon thepaper. "Meanwhile, the raft went scudding away to leeward until we metit there," making another dot. "Then we tacked, and, laying a pointhigher than he can, stood along this line," ruling one carefully in ashe spoke. "Now, we have been travelling along this line, say an hourand a quarter, which brings us here. But where is the barque? If shehad tacked, and _continued to stand on_ until now, she would be _there_,eleven or twelve miles away, and we should see her. Supposing, however,that she continued to stand on as she was going when we last saw her,she would now be _there_, twenty-eight miles away! Phew! I was a longway out of my reckoning when I thought that we should still have her insight, even if we tacked. We've lost her, Harry, my bhoy, and that's afact. However, we know where she's bound to, and that's the island ofCuba, or I'm a Dutchman. Very well. Having given us the slip she willmake the best of her way there without further delay; and it is myopinion that _if_ she is still standing to the northward she will notcontinue to do so for very much longer, because, d'ye see, my bhoy,she'll be afraid of falling in with some of our cruisers if she standsin too close to the coast. Therefore, as we can hug the wind closerthan she can, we'll just stand on as we are going for a day or twolonger, or until the wind changes--in fact, we will shape a course forCuba--and if we don't fall in with her again within the next seventy-twohours I shall give her up. Meanwhile the wind is dropping fast, so wewill get some more muslin upon the little hooker."

  As Ryan had said, the wind was dropping fast, so rapidly, indeed, thatwhen eight bells was struck at midnight the schooner was under all thecanvas that we could set, and even then was only cre
eping along at aspeed of some two and a half knots per hour. Oh, how fervently wewished then that we could see even as much as the mere mastheads of thebarque! for we felt certain that in such a light air the schooner wouldmake short work of overtaking her. But nothing hove in sight; and whenthe next morning dawned we were still alone upon the face of the vastocean.

  With the rising of the sun the small draught of air that still remainedto us fell dead; and we had it calm the whole day and well on into thesucceeding night. Then the weather became unsettled and thundery, withlight baffling airs interspersed with fierce squalls from all quartersof the compass, during which we made scarcely sixty miles in thetwenty-four hours.

  It was about midnight of the third day after we had lost sight of thebarque, and the seventy-two hours that Ryan had allowed himself in whichto find her again were fully spent, without affording us another glimpseof her. All hands, from Ryan himself down to the smallest boy in theship, were dreadfully disgusted and crestfallen at our want of success;and we were only waiting for a breeze to spring up from somewhere toenable us to shape a course back to our cruising ground. The weather,however, was still very overcast and lowering, with signs not wantingthat another heavy thunderstorm was brewing, which would probably bringus the desired breeze. There was not much swell running, butsufficient, nevertheless, to tumble the schooner about a good deal; andI had accordingly taken it upon myself to clew up, haul down, and furlevery stitch of canvas, in order to save the sails from batteringthemselves to rags. The thunder had been gradually working up eversince sunset, and in fact even before that, and when eight bells struckat midnight, and my watch below came round, the weather had such acurious and portentous look, and the atmosphere was moreover so closeand heavy, that I determined to stretch myself out "all standing" on thestern grating instead of going below, so that I might be all ready incase my presence should be required.

  It was shortly after two bells when Pierrepoint came and roused me outwith the remark--

  "I am sorry to disturb you, Dugdale, but I think it is going to rainvery shortly, and if you remain there you stand a very good chance ofgetting soaked to the skin. And what do you think of the weather? Isit merely a thunder-squall that has been brewing all this time, or whatis it? Just look at those clouds overhead, their edges look quite red,as though there was a fire somewhere behind them. Do you think I shouldcall the captain?"

  It was as he had said. The sky was banked up from horizon to zenith,all round, with enormous cloud-piles, black as ink in the body of them,but their fringes or edges, which had a curiously tattered appearance,were of a distinct fiery red hue. All this time there was not a breathof wind save what was created by the schooner as she rolled heavily onthe gathering swell; not a sound save those which arose within her asthe bulkheads and timbers creaked and groaned dismally, the cabin-doorsrattled, the rudder kicked as the water swirled and gurgled about it andunder her counter with the heave of her, and the jerk of the sparsaloft, or the slatting of the braces as she swayed, pendulum-like, fromside to side.

  "What does the glass say?" inquired I, in response to Pierrepoint's lastquestion. I walked to the open skylight and peered down through it atthe barometer, the tube of which was just sufficiently illuminated bythe turned-down cabin lamp to permit of its condition being noted. Ithad fallen an inch since I last looked at it, during my watch on deck!

  "Phew!" ejaculated I, "there must surely be something the matter withthe thing; it can never have fallen that much in scarcely two hours!"

  I hurried below and, turning up the lamp, subjected the instrument to acareful examination; but, as far as I could make out, there seemed to benothing wrong with it; the fall had all the appearance of beingperfectly genuine. But, whether or not, it was certain that the captainought at once to be made acquainted with the state of affairs; Itherefore went forthwith to his cabin and aroused him.

  "Ay, ay," he answered sleepily, to my call. "What is it, Mr Dugdale?Has the barque hove in sight?"

  "No such luck, sir, I am sorry to say," replied I. "But I think youought to know that the weather has a very peculiar and threateningappearance; and the glass has dropped a full inch within the last twohours."

  "An inch?" ejaculated Ryan, starting up in his bunk. "An inch? Surely,Dugdale, you must be mistaken!"

  "Indeed, sir, I am not," said I. "I examined the barometer verycarefully, and satisfied myself that I had made no mistake beforecalling you."

  "By Jove, then, it is high time that I was on deck!" exclaimed he,leaping out of his bunk. "Just put a match to my lamp, Harry, my lad,will ye; you will find a box there on the shelf. Is there any wind?"

  "Not a breath, sir; but I shall not be surprised if we have a great dealmore than we want before long," I answered.

  "Um!" said he. "Well, almost anything short of a hurricane would bebetter than these exasperating calms. The swell seems to have risen abit since I turned in, hasn't it?"

  "Quite perceptibly," said I, "and it seems to be coming more out fromthe northward than at first."

  "Well," said he, thrusting his bare feet into his slippers, "let us goon deck and take a look round."

  And, he leading the way, we forthwith trundled up the companion-ladderand stepped out on deck.

  It seemed to have grown blacker and more threatening than ever duringthe short time that I had been below, although that may have been due tothe contrast between the light of the cabin and the darkness on deck;the ruddy tinge on the cloud edges, however, was even more pronouncedthan before, the colour having slightly changed and grown more like thehue of red-hot copper. Ryan was evidently much astonished--and, Ithought, somewhat dismayed--by what he saw.

  "By the powers!" he ejaculated, "you did right to call me, Dugdale. Ifwe were in the Indian Ocean, now, I would say that a cyclone wasbrewing; and, now I come to think of it, there is no Act of Parliamentagainst one brewing here. How is the glass _now_? has it droppedanything since you last looked at it?"

  I went to the skylight and once more peered at the mercury.

  "Yes, indeed, sir, it has," answered I, "it has gone down nearlyone-tenth!"

  "Then, by the piper, we're in for something out of the common, and thesooner we set about preparing for it, the better!" exclaimed Ryan. "Ah!I see you have already furled everything; well, that leaves us so muchthe less to be still done. Call all hands, however, for we may have itupon us at any moment, by the look of things up there," pointing to thefrowning, ruddy sky. "Rig in the jib-boom, and send down all but thelower-yard on deck, and both topmasts as well. Set some of the men tosecure the canvas with double gaskets; and close-reef the boom-foresailand set it. Let the carpenter look to the hatches and see that they aresecurely battened down, and he had better examine the pumps also; ourlives may depend upon them before all is over. Where is the boatswain?Oh, is that you, Bartlett? Give an eye to the boats' gripes, will you,and see that they are all right. I have known a boat to be blown cleanfrom the davits before now. Hurrah, men! look alive with those yards,and let us have them down here on deck as quickly as possible."

  The schooner was by this time as busy as a beehive in swarming-time, themen working with a will, since they knew, from the sharp, incisive tonesin which Ryan issued his orders, as well as by the menacing aspect ofthe sky, that the occasion was pressing. Fortunately, in so small andlightly-rigged a craft as the _Felicidad_, the task of preparing her forthe forthcoming battle with the elements was not a heavy one, and, beingwell manned for our size, we were soon ready.

  None too soon, however. For hardly had the finishing touches been givento our preparations, and the guns and boats made thoroughly secure, thanwe were momentarily dazzled and blinded by a terrific flash of bluelightning that seemed to dart from the clouds immediately overhead, andto strike the water close to us, filling the dead and heavy air with astrong odour of brimstone, while simultaneously we were deafened andstunned by a most awful, ear-splitting _crack_ of thunder that made theschooner quiver from stem to stern as th
ough she had been struck by aheavy shot.

  Ryan, Pierrepoint, and I were all standing close together near thecompanion at the moment when the lightning flashed out, illumining thewhole scene for an instant with a light as brilliant as that of thenoonday sun, and while I was still in process of recovering from theshock produced by the terrifying crash of the thunder, I heard myfellow-mid exclaim to the captain--

  "There! did you see that, sir? There is a craft of some sort away outthere," pointing in a north-easterly direction. "I saw her asdistinctly as possible. She is about six miles away, and is stripped toher close-reefed topsails--"

  "Did you see that ship out there on our port-quarter, sir?" hailed oneof the men from the forecastle, interrupting Master Freddy in his tale.

  "No," answered Ryan sharply. "I wasn't looking that way. What did shelook like?"

  "She is a square-rigged craft of about three or four hundred tons, underclose-reefed topsails, lying end-on to us, sir," answered the man.

  "Surely it can't be our old friend the barque that has drifted withinview of us again during the darkness?" exclaimed Ryan excitedly. "Keepa good look-out for her, lads, when the next flash comes," he added inan eager tone of voice, that showed conclusively how secondary a matterthe impending outburst of the elements had already become to him in viewof this new discovery.

  No second flash came, however, but instead of it, and almost as the lastwords left Ryan's lips, the clouds above us burst, and there descendedfrom them the heaviest downpour of rain that I had ever up to that timewitnessed. Those who have never beheld a tropical thunder-shower canform no conception of what it is like. Imagine yourself to be standingimmediately under a large tank of warm water, and then further imaginethat the contents of this tank are suddenly capsized right on top ofyou; multiply the quantity of falling water a million times, and supposethe descent of the water to be continued for from three to six or sevenminutes, and you will then have an imperfect conception of the sort ofdrenching that we received on the occasion of which I am now speaking.The decks were flooded in an instant, and before I could wriggle into myoil-skins I was soaked to the skin, and the warm water was washing abovemy ankles with the roll of the schooner. The scuppers were whollyinadequate to the occasion, and we were obliged to open the ports to getrid of the water and prevent it from getting below. The downpour lastedsome four minutes or so, ceasing as abruptly and with as little warningas it had commenced; but in that time it had beaten down the swell soeffectually that our motion was scarcely more perceptible than it wouldhave been in a well-sheltered roadstead; and the effect of the suddencessation of the noises that had been so recently sounding in our ears,and of the crash of the downpour, was very weird and curious, the deadsilence now being broken only by an occasional faint creak or jar ofbulkhead or boom, and the loud gush and gurgle of the water pouring fromthe scuppers.

  The silence was of no long duration, however, for we had scarcely foundtime to become sensible of it when a faint moaning sound arose in theair, coming from no one knew where; and, presently, with a still loudermoan, a sudden, furious, scuffle of wind swept past us, causing ourreefed foresail to flap loudly, and was gone. The moanings grew louderand more weird, sounding now on the port-quarter, now on the starboardbow, then broad abeam, and anon high over our mastheads; it was clearthat small, partial currents of air were in violent motion all round us,and that the crisis was at hand.

  The Pirate Slaver--by Harry Collingwood