by G. A. Henty
Chapter 15.
As soon as the dinghy, with Dominique and Pedro, had left the sideof the yacht; the captain, by Frank's orders, set four men to workto paint the gig black, while others gave a coat of dull leadcolour to the varnished oars. The order was received with muchsurprise by the men, who audibly expressed their regret at seeingtheir brightly varnished boat and oars thus disfigured.
After about three hours on shore, the dinghy returned loaded withfruit and vegetables, which Pedro had purchased, and a native mastand sail. The former was at once cut so as to step in the gig. Thesail was hoisted, and was then taken in hand by one of the crew,who was a fair sailmaker, to be altered so as to stand flatter.Half an hour later the new pilot and four powerful negroes camealongside in a shore boat.
It was now late in the afternoon, so the start was postponed untilthe next morning. A few other arrangements were made as tosignalling, and it was settled that if Frank showed a red light, arocket should be sent up from the yacht, to show that the signalhad been observed, and that they were getting up sail. They were tokeep their lights up, so that Frank could make them out as theycame up, and put off to meet them.
George Lechmere saw to the preparations for victualling the gig.Two large hampers of fresh provisions were placed on board, and twofour-and-a-half gallon kegs of water. A bundle of rugs was placedin the stern sheets, and the boat's flagstaff was fixed in itsplace in the stern. The yard of the sail was at night to be lashedfrom the mast to the staff at a height of four feet above thegunwale, and across this the sail was to be thrown to act as atent. A kettle, frying pan, plates, knives and forks were put inforward, and a box of signal lights under the seat aft. Canistersof tea, sugar, coffee, and all necessaries had been stowed away inthe hamper, together with a plentiful supply of tobacco; and a bagof twenty-eight pounds of flour, wrapped up in tarpaulin, wasplaced under one of the thwarts.
As soon as it was daylight, anchor was got up, and when the yachthad sailed for seven or eight miles to the west, the gig waslowered, and the four black boatmen took their places in her. Franktook the rudder lines, and Dominique sat near him. The sail wasthen hoisted, and as the wind was light, the boatmen got out theiroars and shot ahead of the Osprey, directing their course obliquelytowards the shore.
It was not necessary to land at the coast villages here, as it wasmorally certain that the Phantom had not touched anywhere withintwenty or thirty miles of San Domingo, and she would hardly haveentered any of the narrow rivers at night. Nevertheless, they didnot pass any of these without rowing up them. When some native hutswere reached, Dominique closely questioned the negroes.
The pilot had, by this time, been informed of the cause of theirsearch for the Phantom, which had, until they left San Domingo,been a profound mystery to him. Frank, however, being now fullyconvinced both of the negro's trustworthiness, and of his readinessto do all in his power to assist, thought it as well to confide inhim, and when they were together in the boat, informed him that thebrigantine they were searching for had carried off a young lady andher maid from England.
"That man must be a rascal," the negro said, angrily. "What do hewant dat lady for, sar? He love her bery much?"
"No, Dominique, what he loves is her fortune. She is rich. He hasgambled away a fine property, and wants her money to set him on hislegs again."
"Bery bad fellow dat," the pilot said, shaking his head earnestly."Ought to be hung, dat chap. Dominique do all he can to help you,sar. Do more now for you and dat young lady. We find him for suah.You tink there will be any fighting, sar?"
"I think it likely that he will show fight when we come up withhim, but you see I have a very strong crew, and I have arms forthem all."
"Dat good. Me wonder often why you have so many men. Nothing forhalf of dem to do. Now me understand. Well, sar, if there be anyfighting, you see me fight. You gib me cutlass; me fight likedebil."
"Thank you, Dominique," Frank said, warmly, though with somedifficulty repressing a smile. "I shall count on you if we have touse force. As far as I am concerned, I own that I should preferthat they did resist, for I should like nothing better than tostand face to face with that villain, each of us armed with acutlass."
"If he know you here, he go up river, get plenty of black men fightfor him. Black fellow bery foolish. Give him little present hefight."
"I had not thought of that, Dominique. Yes, if he has made somecreek his headquarters he might, as you say, get the people to takehis side by giving them presents; that is, if he knew that we werehere. However, at present he cannot dream that we are after him,and if we can but come upon him unawares we shall make short workof him."
No news whatever was obtained of the schooner until the headland ofLa Catarina was passed, but at the large village of Azua theylearned that she had anchored for a night in the bay five daysbefore. She had been seen to sail out, and certainly had not turnedinto the river Niova.
Touching at every village and exploring every inlet, Frankcontinued his course until, after rounding the bold promontory ofLa Beata, he reached the bay at the head of which stands Jaquemel.
Every two or three days they had communicated with the Osprey andslept on board her, leaving her at anchor with her sails down untilthey had gone some ten miles in advance. She had at times beenobliged to keep at some distance from the shore, owing to thedangers from rocks and shoals. The pilot on board would have takenher through, but Frank was unwilling to encounter any risk, unlessabsolutely necessary.
At Jaquemel he learnt that the schooner had put in there afortnight before, but neither there nor at any point after leavingAzua had she been seen since that time. She had sailed west.
The next night, after looking in at Bainette, some twenty milesbeyond Jaquemel, Frank rejoined the Osprey.
The gig was hoisted up, and they sailed round the point of Gravois,the coast intervening being so rocky and dangerous that, althoughthere was a passage through the shoals to the town of St. Louis,Frank felt certain that the schooner would not be in there. Thecoast from here to Cape Dame Marie was high and precipitous, withno indentations where a ship could lie concealed, and the voyagewas continued in the yacht as far as this cape. They were now atthe entrance of the great bay of Hayti.
"I take it as pretty certain," Frank said, as he, George Lechmere,the skipper, and Dominique bent over the chart; "that the schooneris somewhere in this bay. She has certainly not made herheadquarters anywhere along the south coast. In the first place,she has seldom been seen, and in the second we have examined itthoroughly. Therefore I take it that she is somewhere here, unless,of course, she has sailed for Cuba. But I don't see why she shouldhave done that. The coast there is a good deal more dangerous thanthat of San Domingo. He could not want a better place for cruisingabout than this bay. You see, it is about ninety miles across themouth, and over a hundred to Port au Prince, with indentations andharbours all round, and with the island of Genarve, some fortymiles long, to run behind in the centre. He could get everything hewants at Port au Prince, or at Petit Gouve, which looks agood-sized place.
"I should say, in the first place, that we could not do better thanrun down at night to the island of Genarve, and anchor close underit. From there we shall see him if he comes out of Port au Prince,or Petit Gouve, whichever side he may take; and by getting on to anelevated spot have a view of pretty nearly the whole bay. Lookingat it at present, the two most likely spots for him to make hisheadquarters are in that very sheltered inlet behind the point ofHalle on the north side, or in the equally sheltered bay and inletunder the Bec de Marsouin on the south. From Genarve we ought to beable to see him coming out of either of them. It is not abovefive-and-twenty miles from the island to the Bec de Marsouin, andforty to the point of Halle. We might not see him come out fromthere, but we should soon make him out if he were coming down fromPort au Prince."
It was agreed that this was the best plan to adopt. It might leadto their sighting the schooner in a day or two, while to row roundthe bay and search every inlet in i
t would take them a fortnight.From Genarve, too, a forty-mile sail in the gig would take theminto Port au Prince, which the brigantine might possibly have madeits headquarters. Accordingly, after waiting until nightfall, theygot up sail, and anchored at six in the morning in a small bay inthe island of Genarve. Here they would not be likely to attract thenotice of any ship passing up to Port au Prince, unless, which wasvery unlikely, one came along close to the shore.
As soon as the anchor was dropped, both boats rowed to shore.Frank, George Lechmere, Pedro, and four sailors, with a basket ofprovisions, started at once for the highest point in the island,some four miles distant. Dominique went along the shore with twosailors, to make inquiries at any villages they came to.
On reaching the top of the hill, Frank saw that, as he hadexpected, it commanded an extensive view over the bay on each sideof the island, which was but some six miles across. A village couldbe seen on the northern shore, some three miles distant; and tothis Pedro, with one of the sailors, was at once despatched. Bothparties rejoined Frank soon after midday. The schooner had beennoticed passing the island several times, but much more often onthe southern side than on the northern. The negroes on that sidewere all agreed that she generally kept on the southern side of thepassage, and that more than once she had been seen coming from thesouth shore, and passing the western point of the island on her waynorth.
"That looks as if she came from Petit Gouve, or the bay ofMitaquane, or that under the Bec de Marsouin," Frank said.
"Dat is it, sar," Dominique agreed. "If she want to go north sideof bay from Port au Prince, she would have gone either side ofisland. I expect she lie under de Bec. Fine, safe place dat, notown there, plenty of wood all round, and villages where she getfruit and vegetables; sure to be little stream where she can getwater."
The watch was maintained until sunset, but, although a powerfultelescope had been brought up, no vessel at all corresponding tothe appearance of the brigantine was made out.
At six o'clock the next morning Frank was again at the lookout, andscarcely had he turned his telescope to the south shore than he sawthe brigantine come out from behind the Bec de Marsouin and headtowards the west. The wind was blowing from that quarter, and aftera few minutes' deliberation, Frank told the men to follow him, anddashed down the hill. In half an hour he reached the shore oppositethe yacht, and at his shout the dinghy, which was lying at herstern, at once rowed ashore.
"Get up the anchor, captain, and make sail. I have seen her. Shehas just come out from the Bec, and is making west. As the wind isagainst her, it seems to me that he would never choose thatdirection to cruise in unless he was starting for Cuba, and I darenot let the opportunity slip. If he once gets clear away we mayhave months of work before we find him again, and as the wind nowis, I am sure that we can overhaul him long before he can makeCuba. Indeed, as we lie, we are nearer to that coast than he is,and can certainly cut him off."
In five minutes the Osprey was under way, with all sail set. Thewind was nearly due west, and as Cuba lay to the north of thatpoint, she had an advantage that quite counter-balanced that gainedby the start the Phantom had obtained. In two hours the lookout atthe head of the mast shouted down that he could perceive thebrigantine's topsail.
"She is sailing in towards the land on that side," he said. "Shehas evidently made a tack out, and is now on the starboard tackagain."
"It will be a long leg and a short one with her, sir," the skippersaid. "I think that if we were in her place we could just manage tolay our course along the coast, but with those square yards ofhers, she cannot go as close to the wind as we can. As it is, wecan lay our course to cut her off."
"It would be rather a close pinch to do so before she gets to thehead of the bay," Frank said.
"Yes, sir, and I don't suppose that we shall overhaul her beforethat, but we certainly shan't be far behind her by the time shegets there. I think that we shall cut her off if the wind holds asit does now. At any rate, if she should get there first, we shouldcertainly lie between her and Cuba, and she will have either to runback, or to round the cape, or to run east or south. I wish thewind would freshen; but I fancy that it is more likely to die away.Still, she is walking along well at present."
Even Frank, anxious as he was, could not but feel satisfied as helooked at the water glancing past her side. She was heeling wellover, and the rustle of water at her bow could be heard where theywere standing near the tiller. Andrews, the best helmsman on boardthe yacht, held the tiller rope, and Perry was standing beside him.
From time to time Frank went up to the crosstrees.
"We are drawing in upon her fast," he said, "but she is travellingwell, too; much better than I should have thought she would havedone with that rig. I think she has got a better wind than we have.She has only made one short tack in for the last two hours."
The captain's prognostication as to the wind was verified, and toFrank's intense annoyance it gradually died away, and headed themso much that they could no longer lie their course.
"What shall we do, sir? Shall we hold across to the south shore andwork along by it, as the schooner is doing, or shall we go about atonce?"
"Go about at once, Hawkins. You see we can see her topsails fromthe deck; and of course she can see ours. I don't suppose she haspaid any attention to us yet, and if we stand away on the othertack we shall soon drop her altogether; while if we hold on shewill, when we reach that shore, be three or four miles behind us.Of course, she will have a full view of us."
They sailed on the port tack for an hour and then came round again.The brigantine could no longer be seen from the deck, and couldonly just be made out from the crosstrees.
"I think on this tack," the skipper said, as he stood by thecompass after she had gone round, "we shall make the point, and Ithink that we shall make it ahead of her."
"I think so too, Hawkins. What pace is she going now?"
"Not much more than four knots, sir."
"My only fear is that we shan't get near her before it is dark."
"I think that we have plenty of time for that, sir. You see we gotup anchor at half-past six, and it is just twelve o'clock now.Another five hours should take us up to her if the wind holds atthis."
By two o'clock the topsails of the brigantine could be again madeout from the deck. She was still working along shore, and was ontheir port bow.
"Another three hours and we shall be alongside of her," the skippersaid; "and if I am not mistaken we shall come out ahead of her."
"There is one advantage in the course we are taking, Hawkins.Viewing us, as she will, pretty nearly end on till we get nearlyabreast of her, she won't be able to make out our rig clearly."
By four o'clock they were within five miles of the brigantine. Thewind then freshened, and laying her course as she did, while thebrigantine was obliged to make frequent tacks, the Osprey ran downfast towards her.
"They must have their eyes on us by this time," the captain said."Though they cannot be sure that it is the Osprey, they can seethat she is a yawl of over a hundred tons, and as they cannot doubtthat we are chasing them, they won't be long in guessing who weare. Shall we get the arms up, sir?"
"Yes, you may as well do so. The muskets can be loaded and laid bythe bulwarks, but they are not to be touched until I give theorder. No doubt they also are armed. I am anxious not to fire ashot if it can be helped, and once alongside we are strong enoughto overpower them with our cutlasses only. With the five blacks weare now double their strength, and even Carthew may see theuselessness of offering any resistance."
They ran down until they were within a mile of the shore, not beingnow more than a beam off the brigantine. Two female figures hadsome time before been made out on her deck, but they had nowdisappeared. It was evident that the Osprey was being closelywatched by those on board the brigantine. Presently two or threemen were seen to run aft.
"They are going to tack again, sir. If they do they will come rightout to us."
Frank made no rep
ly, but stood with his glass fixed on thebrigantine. Suddenly he exclaimed:
"Round with her, Hawkins!"
"Up with your helm, Andrews. Hard up, man!" the skipper shouted, ashe himself ran to slack out the main sheet. Four men ran aft toassist him.
"That will do," he said, as she fell off fast from the wind. "Now,then, gather in the main sheet, ready for a jibe. Slack off thestarboard runner; a couple of hands aft and get the square sail outof the locker.
"Mr. Purvis, get the yard across her, lower her down ready for thesail, and see that the braces and guys are all right.
"Now in with the sheet, lads, handsomely. That will do, that is it.Over she goes. Slack out the sheet steadily."
"She is round, too," Frank said, as the boom went off nearlysquare. "We have gained, and she is not more than half a mileaway."
The manoeuvre had, in fact, brought the yachts nearer to eachother. Both had their booms over to starboard.
"Quick with that square sail," Frank shouted. "She is drawing awayfrom us fast."
Two minutes later the square sail was hoisted, and the foot boomedout on the port side. Every eye was now fixed on the brigantine,but to their disappointment they saw that she was still, thoughvery much more slowly, drawing ahead.
"That is just what I feared," Frank said, in a tone of deepvexation. "With those big yards I was certain that she would leaveus when running ahead before the wind. However, there is no fear ofour leaving her. What are we doing now? Seven knots?"
"About that, sir, and she is doing a knot better."
"What do you think that she will do now, Hawkins?"
"I don't see what she has got to do, sir. If she were to get fivemiles ahead of us, and then haul her wind, she would know that shecould not go away from us, for we should be to windward; and we areevidently a good bit faster than she is when we are both closehauled. The only other thing that I can see for her to do is to runstraight on to Port au Prince. At the rate we are going now shewould be in soon after daylight tomorrow. We should be seven oreight miles astern of her, and he might think that we should notventure to board her there."
"I don't think that he would rely on that, Hawkins. Now that heknows who we are, he will guess that we shall stick at nothing.What I am afraid of is that he will lower a boat and row MissGreendale and her maid ashore. He might do it either there, or,what would be much more likely, row ashore to some quiet placeduring the night, take his friend and two or three of his men withhim, and leave the rest to sail her to Port au Prince."
"I don't think that the wind is going to hold," the skipper said,looking astern. "I reckon that it will drop, as it generally does,at sunset. It is not blowing so hard now as it did just before wewore round."
In half an hour, indeed, it fell so light that the Osprey wasstanding through the water only at three and a half knots an hour.The light wind suited the Phantom, with her great sail spread. Shehad now increased her lead to a mile and a half, and was evidentlyleaving them fast.
"There is only one thing to be done, George. We must board them inboats."
"I am ready, Major; but it will be a rather risky business."
Frank looked at him in surprise.
"I don't mean for us, sir," George said, with a smile, "but forMiss Greendale. You may be sure that those fellows will fight hard,and as we come up behind we shall get it hot. Now, sir, if anythinghappens to you, you must remember that the Osprey will be as goodas useless towards helping her. You as her owner might be able tojustify what we are doing, but if you were gone there would be noone to take the lead. Carthew would only have to sail into Port auPrince and denounce us as pirates. I hear from the pilot that theseniggers have got some armed ships, and they might sink us as soonas we came into the harbour, and then there would be an end to anychance of Miss Greendale getting her liberty."
"That is true enough, George, but I think that it must be risked.Now that he knows we are here, he has nothing to do but to send herashore under the charge of his friend and two or three of thesailors, and take her up into the hills. Or he might go with herhimself, which is perhaps more likely. Then when we came up withher at Port au Prince the skipper would simply deny that there hadever been any ladies on board, and would swear that he had onlycarried out two gentlemen passengers, as his papers would show, andmight declare that he had landed them at Porto Rico. Of course,they are certain to fight now, for they can do so without risk, asthey can swear that they took us for a pirate.
"How many do you think that the gig will carry, Hawkins?"
"Well, sir, you might put nine in her. You brought ten off atSouthampton; but if you remember, it put her very low in the water,and we should run a good deal heavier than your party then."
"Yes, I think that we had better take only nine. If we overload hershe will row so heavily that we shall be a long time overhaulingthem."
"I am not quite sure that we shall overhaul them anyhow, sir. Lookat those clouds coming over the hills. They are travelling fast,and I should say that we are likely to have a squall. No doubt theyget them here pretty often with such high land all round."
"Well, we must chance that, Hawkins. If one does come you must pickus up as we come along. I agree with you; it does look as if weshould have a squall. It may not be anything very serious, butanyhow, if it comes it will take her along a great deal faster thanwe can row.
"Purvis, I suppose that the dinghy will carry seven?"
"Yes, she will do that easily."
"Very well, we can but try; that will give sixteen of us, which isabout their strength. You must remain on board. Purvis shallcommand the dinghy; Lechmere will go with me. Pick out thirteenhands. You and Perry can manage with seven and the five negroes,but keep a sharp lookout for that squall. Remember that you willhave very short warning. We are only a mile from the shore, and asit is coming down from the hills you may not see it on the wateruntil it is quite close to you."
The boats were lowered, and the men, armed with musket and cutlass,took their places. Frank and George Lechmere each had a cutlass anda revolver buckled to the waist.
"Now give way, lads," Frank said. "She is about two miles ahead ofus, and we ought to overtake her in half an hour."
It was now getting dusk, the light fading out suddenly as theclouds spread over the sky. Frank's last orders to the skipperbefore leaving were:
"Edge her in, Hawkins, until you are dead astern of the brigantine.Then if the squall comes down before we reach her, we shall beright in your track."
"I have put a lighted lantern into the stern sheets of each boat,sir, and have thrown a bit of sail cloth over them, so that if sheleaves you behind, and you hold it up, there won't be any fear ofour missing you."
The men rowed hard, but the gig had to stop frequently to let thedinghy come up. They gained, however, fast upon the brig, and inhalf an hour were but a few hundred yards astern. Then came a hailfrom the brigantine in French:
"Keep off or we will sink you!"
No reply was made. They were but two hundred yards away when therewere two bright flashes from the stern of the brigantine, and ashower of bullets splashed round the boats. There were two or threecries of pain, and George Lechmere felt Frank give a sudden start.
"Are you hit, sir?"
"I have got a bullet in my left shoulder, George, but it is of noconsequence.
"Row on, lads," he shouted. "We shall be alongside before they havetime to load again.
"I never thought of their having guns, though," he went on, as themen recovered from their surprise, and dashed on again with acheer. "By the sharp crack they must be brass. I suppose he pickedup a couple of small guns at Ostend, thinking that they might beuseful to him in these waters."
A splattering fire of musketry now broke out from the brigantine.They had lessened their distance by half when they saw thebrigantine, without apparent cause, heel over. Farther and farthershe went until her lee rail was under water.
The firing instantly ceased, and there were loud shouts on board; t
hen,as she came up into the wind, the square yards were let fall, and thecrew ran up the ratlines to secure the sails. Simultaneously theforesail came down, then her head payed off again, and she dartedaway like an arrow from the boats.
These, however, had ceased rowing. Frank, as he saw the brigantinebowing over, had shouted to Purvis to put the boat's head to thewind, doing the same himself. A few seconds afterwards the squallstruck them with such force that some of the oars were wrenchedfrom the hands of the men, who were unprepared for the attack.
"Steady, men, steady!" Frank shouted. "It won't last long. Keep onrowing, so as to hold the boat where you are, till the yacht comesalong. It won't be many minutes before she is here."
In little over a quarter of an hour she was seen approaching, andFrank saw that, in spite of the efforts of the men at the oars, theboats had been blown some distance to leeward. However, as soon asthe lanterns were held up the Osprey altered her course, and thecaptain, taking her still further to leeward, threw her head up tothe wind until they rowed alongside her.
Frank had by this time learned that one of the men in the bow hadbeen killed, and that three besides himself had been wounded. Twowere wounded on board the dinghy.
"So they have got some guns," the skipper said, as they climbed ondeck. "No one hurt, I hope?"
"There is one killed, I am sorry to say, and five wounded," Frankreplied; "but none of them seriously. I have got a bullet in myshoulder, but that is of no great consequence. So you got throughit all right?"
"Yes, sir, it looked so nasty that I got the square-sail off herand the topsail on deck before it struck us, and as we ran theforesail down just as it came we were all right, and only just gotthe water on deck. It was as well, though, that we were lyingbecalmed. As it was, she jumped away directly she felt it. I wasjust able to see the brigantine, and it seemed to me that she had anarrow escape of turning turtle."
"Yes, they were too much occupied with us to be keeping a sharplookout at the sky, and if it had been a little stronger it wouldhave been a close case with her. Thank God that it was no worse.Can you make her out still?"
"Yes, sir, I can see her plainly enough with my glasses."
In a quarter of an hour the strength of the squall was spent. Thewind then veered round to its former quarter, taking the Ospreyalong at the rate of some five knots an hour.
The wounded were now attended to. George Lechmere found that theball had broken Frank's collarbone and gone out behind. Both he andFrank had had sufficient experience to know what should be done,and after bathing the wound, and with the assistance of twosailors, who pulled the arm into its place, George applied somesplints to the broken bone to keep it firm, and then bandaged itand the arm.
One of the sailors had a wound in the cheek, the ball in itspassage carrying off part of the ear. One of the men sitting in thebow had a broken arm, but only one of the others was seriouslyhurt. Frank went on deck again as soon as his shoulder was bandagedand his left arm strapped tightly to his side.
"I suppose that she is still gaining on us, Hawkins?"
"Yes, she is dropping us. I reckon she has gone fast, sir, fullyhalf a knot, though we have got all sail set."
"There is one comfort," Frank said. "The coast from here as far asthe Bec is so precipitous, that they won't have a chance of puttingthe boat ashore until they get past that point, and by the timethey are there daylight will have broken."