by G. A. Henty
CHAPTER III.
RUN DOWN.
"There's a nice breeze," Ralph said as he joined the fisherman at theappointed hour.
"Yes, it's just right; neither too light nor too heavy. It's ratherthick, and I shouldn't be surprised if we get it thicker; but thatagain don't matter." For in those days not one ship plowed the watersof our coast for every fifty that now make their way along it. Therewere no steamers, and the fear of collision was not ever in the mindsof those at sea.
"Where's Bill, Joe?"
"The young scamp!" the fisherman said angrily. "Nothing will do forhim but to go a-climbing up the cliffs this morning; and just afteryou left us, news comes that the young varmint had fallen down andtwisted his foot, and doctor says it will be a fortnight afore he canput a boot on. Then the old woman began a-crying over him; while, as Itold her, if any one ought to cry it would be me, who's got to hireanother boy in his place to do his work. A touch of the strap would bethe best thing for him, the young rascal!"
"You are not going to take another boy out to-night are you, Joe?"
"No, Master Conway, I knows you like a-doing things. You have been outenough with me to know as much about it as Bill, and after all thereain't a very great deal to do. The trawl ain't a heavy one, and as Iam accustomed to work it with Bill I can do it with you."
The Heartsease was a good-sized half-decked boat of some twenty-sixfeet long and eight feet beam. She was very deep, and carried threetons of stone ballast in her bottom. She drew about six feet of water.She had a lot of freeboard, and carried two lug-sails and a smallmizzen.
They got in the small boat and rowed off to her.
"There was no call for you to bring that basket, Master Conway. I knowyou are fond of a fish fried just when it is taken out of the water;and I have got bread and a keg of beer, to say nothing of a mouthfulof spirits in case we get wet. Not that it looks likely we shall, forI doubts if there will be any rain to-night I think there will be morewind perhaps, and that it will get thicker; that's my view of theweather."
They sailed straight out to sea. Joe had fitted his boat to be workedwith the aid of a boy only. He had a handy winch, by which he hoistedhis heavy lug-sails, and when the weather was rough hauled up histrawls. Of these he carried two, each fourteen feet long, and fishedwith them one out on each quarter. When he reached the fishing groundsix miles out, Joe lowered the mizzen lug and reefed the main, forthere was plenty of wind to keep the boat going at the pace requiredfor trawling under the reduced sail. Then the trawls were gotoverboard, each being fastened to the end of a stout spar lashedacross the deck, and projecting some eight feet on either side, bywhich arrangement the trawls were kept well apart. They were hauledalternately once an hour, two hours being allowed after they were putdown before the first was examined.
By the time the first net came up the sun had set. The wind hadfreshened a bit since they had started, but there was no sea to speakof. The night had set in thick, and the stars could only occasionallybe seen. Joe had picked out two or three fine fish from the firsthaul, and these he took down and soon had frizzling in a frying-panover the fire, which he had lighted as soon as the boat was undersail.
"These are for you, Master Conway," he said. "With your permission Ishall stick to that ere piece of beef your mother was good enough tosend. Fish ain't no treat to me, and I don't often get meat. Keep youreye lifting while I am down below. There ain't many craft about inthese days, still we might tumble against one."
"I should not see a light far in this mist, Joe."
"No, you couldn't; and what's worse, many of them don't carry nolights at all."
"It would be a good thing, Joe, if there was a law to make all vesselscarry lights."
"Ay, ay, lad; but you see in war times it ain't always convenient. Apeaceful merchantman don't want to show her lights to any privateersthat may happen to be cruising about, and you may be sure that theprivateer don't want to attract the attention of peaceful tradersuntil she is close upon them, or to come under the eye of any of ourcruisers. No, no; there ain't many lights shown now, not in thesewaters. Folks prefer to risk the chance of running into each otherrather than that of being caught by a French privateer."
Now that the trawls were out there was no occasion for any one toattend to the helm, consequently when Joe announced that the fish wereready Ralph went down and joined him in the cabin. The first hours ofthe night passed quietly. Once an hour a trawl was hauled in and goton board, and as the catches were satisfactory Joe was in capitalspirit.
"You have brought good luck, Master Conway; and I notices I generallydo well when you are out with me. I am getting more fish to-night thanI have any night for weeks, and if it goes on like this till morning Ishall make a good thing of it. I wants it bad enough, for I am inarrears a bit with my rent. The war has made everything so terribledear that it is as much as a poor man can do to keep his head abovewater.
"What time is it now, Joe, do you think?"
"About two o'clock, I reckon. It will begin to get light in a coupleof hours, and at five we will up nets and make our way back."
He had scarcely spoken when he shouted "Ship ahoy! Look out foryourself, lad!" Startled by the suddenness of the cry Ralph lookedround. He saw a crest of white foam a few yards away in the darkness.A moment later something dark passed over his head and a rope brushedhis cheek, and as it did so a black mass struck the boat. There was acrash, a shock, and the Heartsease, after first heeling deeply overunder the pressure, suddenly sank down like a stone. Ralph hadstaggered under the force of the collision, and would have fallen backas the boat heeled over, but instinctively he threw up his arms andhis hand came in contact with the rope that had an instant beforetouched his cheek. He seized it with both hands, and threw his legsround it as the boat went down from under his feet, the whole thingbeing so sudden that it was nearly a minute before he could realizewhat had happened. Then he heard voices talking close by and, as itseemed, above him.
"Hullo!" he shouted. "Help!" A few seconds later the light of alantern was flashed down upon him. Then a figure crawled out on thespar projecting above his head, seized him by the collar, and liftedhim from the bobstay to which he was clinging on to the bowsprit. Aminute later he was standing on the deck.
"Thank you!" he exclaimed. "Have you seen anything of the man who waswith me? There were two of us on board. If not, please look for him atonce."
"I am afraid it's no use," one of the men said, with a strong foreignaccent; "he has gone down and will never come up again. You come alongwith me to the captain."
An uneasy feeling seized Ralph as he listened. He could see nothing,for the lantern had been placed in a bucket the moment that he touchedthe deck. At this moment a hail came from the stern of the vessel, andRalph's fears were at once realized, for it was in French. The replywas in the same tongue, and he was led aft. "Take him down below,Jacques, and let's see what he is like. We have suffered no damage, Ihope?"
"Not as far as I could see by the light of the lantern, but thecarpenter has gone below to see if she is making water."
The captain led the way down into the cabin. This was comfortablyfurnished and lighted by a swinging lamp. "Do you come, down Jacques,I shall want you to interpret."
The captain was surprised when he saw by the light of the lamp thatthe person they had rescued was a lad, well dressed, and evidentlyabove the condition of fishermen.
"Now, young sir, who are you," he asked, "and what have you to say foryourself?" The question was translated by Jacques.
"I like that," the lad said indignantly. "What have I to say formyself! I think it's what have you to say for yourselves? We werequietly fishing when you ran over us and sank the boat and drowned myfriend Joe, and haven't even stopped for a moment to see if you couldpick him up. I call it shameful and inhuman!"
The French captain laughed as Jacques translated the speech, thepurport of which he had, indeed, made out for himself, for although hedid not speak English he understood it to some exte
nt.
"Tell him it was his fault as much as ours. We did not see him till westruck him. And as for his companion, what chance was there of findinghim on such a dark night as this? Why, by the time we had hove roundand got back again we might not have hit it within a quarter of amile. Besides, if he had been alive he would have shouted."
Ralph saw, when he understood what the captain said, that there wastruth in his words, and that the chances of discovering Joe wouldindeed have been slight even had the vessel headed round.
"May I ask," he said, "what ship this is, and what you are going to dowith me?"
"The ship is La Belle Marie of Dunkirk; as to what we are going to dowith you it is not so easy to say. Of course you can jump overboardagain if you like, but if not you can stay on board until we have anopportunity of putting you ashore somewhere. How did you come to be onboard a fishing smack? For I suppose it was a smack that we run down."
"I live at Dover," Ralph replied, "and had only come out for a night'sfishing."
"Well, you are out of luck," the captain said. "That will do, Jacques.Take him forward and sling a hammock for him. Hang up his clothes inthe cook's galley, they will be dry by the time he wakes."
Ralph asked no questions, as he was taken forward, as to the characterof La Belle Marie. Six guns were ranged along on each side of herdecks, and this, and the appearance of the captain's cabin, wassufficient to inform him that he had fallen into the hands of a Frenchprivateer. The craft had, indeed, left Dunkirk soon after nightfall,and was making her way down channel with every sail set when she hadrun down the unfortunate fishing boat.
Jacques, as he hung up the hammock, explained to the sailors whocrowded round the character of the passenger who had so unexpectedlycome on board.
"Poor lad," one of the sailors said good-naturedly, "he will be sometime before he sees his mother again. He hasn't got a very brightlookout before him--a long voyage, and then a prison. I will go andsee if the cook has got some water hot. A glass of spirits will do himgood."
A few minutes later Ralph was wrapped up in a blanket and the warmglow produced by that and the glass of strong grog soon sufficed tosend him soundly to sleep, in spite of the painful uncertainty of hisposition and of his sorrowful thought of his mother, who would in themorning be inquiring for him in vain. It was nearly midday before hewoke. Looking round he saw that he had the forecastle to himself. Hisclothes were lying on a chest close by, and in a few minutes he was ondeck. A sense of disappointment stole over him. He had, while he wasdressing, entertained the hope that on going on deck he should see anEnglish cruiser in pursuit; but the wind had dropped and it was stillthick, and his vision was confined to a circle a quarter of a mile indiameter. Jacques nodded to him good-temperedly, for all on board theprivateer were in high spirits. Their voyage had begun propitiously;the darkness of the preceding night had enabled them to run thegantlet of the British cruisers in the narrow part of the channel,they were now well down the coast of France, and the fog reduced theirchances of being seen by an enemy to a minimum.
"Where about are we?" Ralph asked.
"We are somewhere off the mouth of the Seine, and I guess some fifteenmiles from land."
"Oh, we are working down the channel then," Ralph said. "And where arewe going to?"
"Ah! that question is for the captain to answer if he chooses,"Jacques said.
"Are we going to touch at the next French port?" Ralph askedanxiously.
"Not that I know of, unless we have the luck to pick up one of yourmerchantmen, and we might then escort her into port. But unless we dothat we do not touch anywhere, luckily for you; because, after all, itis a good deal pleasanter cruising in the Belle Marie than kickingyour heels inside a prison. I know pretty well, for I was for fouryears a prisoner in your English town of Dorchester. That is how Icame to speak your language. It was a weary time of it; though we werenot badly treated, not half so bad as I have heard that the men insome other prisons were. So I owe you English no ill-will on thataccount, and from what I have heard some of our prisons are worse thanany of yours. I used to knit stockings and wraps for the neck. My oldmother taught me when I was a boy. And as we were allowed to sell thethings we made I got on pretty comfortable. Beside, what's the use ofmaking yourself unhappy? I had neither wife nor children to befretting about me at home, so I kept up my spirits."
"How did you get back?" Ralph asked. "Were you exchanged?"
"No," Jacques answered. "I might have waited long enough before that.I can't make out myself why the two governments don't agree toexchange prisoners more quickly. I suppose they take about an equalnumber. Your men-of-war ships capture more prisoners than ours, but wemake up for it by the numbers our privateers bring in. At any ratethey might exchange as many as they can, say once in six months. Onewould have thought they would be glad to do so so as to savethemselves the trouble and expense of looking after and feeding such anumber of useless mouths. Governments always have curious ways."
"But how did you get away from prison?" Ralph asked.
"It was a woman," the man replied. "It is always women who help menout of scrapes. It was the wife of one of the jailers. She used tobring her husband's dinner sometimes when we were exercising in theyard. When I first went there she had a child in her arms--a littlething about a year old. I was always fond of children; for we had alot at home, brothers and sisters, and I was the eldest. She saw melook at it one day, and I suppose she guessed it reminded me of home.So she stopped and let me pat its cheek and talk to it. Then I knittedit some socks and a little jacket and other things, and that made asort of friendship between us. You can always win a woman's heart bytaking notice of her child. Then she got to letting me carry it abouton my shoulder while she took her husband's dinner in to him, if hedid not happen to be in the yard. And when the little thing was ableto totter it would hold on to my finger, and was always content tostay with me while she was away. So it went on till the child was fouryears old.
"One day it was running across the court to its mother as she came outfrom the prison. Two of the men were what you call skylarking, andrunning one way while the child was running the other. One of themknocked it down heavily. It was an accident, and if he had picked itup and been sorry, there would have been an end of it; but instead ofthat the brute burst into a loud laugh. By this time I was as fond ofthe child as if it had been my own, and I rushed furiously at him andknocked him down. As he sprang to his feet he drew a knife he used inwood-carving and came at me. I caught the blow on my arm and closedwith him, and we fell together. The guard in the yard rushed up andpulled us apart, and we both got a fortnight's close confinement forfighting.
"The first time I came into the yard again and met the woman with herchild, the little one ran to me; but the woman, a little to mysurprise, said nothing. As she passed I lifted the child up, and aftergiving me a hug and a kiss she said: 'Mammy gave me this to give toyou;' and she put a little note into my hand. I took the firstopportunity to read it in a quiet corner. It was as follows: 'DearJacques--I saw how nobly you stood up for my Carrie the other day, andhow you got wounded in protecting her. You have always been good toher. I have often thought I might help you to escape, but was afraidto try. Now I will do so. It will not be easy, but I will manage it.Do not be impatient; the child will give you another note when I havequite arranged things. I shall not talk much to you in future, or elsewhen you have got away I may be suspected; so do not be surprised atmy seeming cold.'
"After that the woman only brought her child once a week or so to theprison, and only gave me a nod as she passed through the yard. Uponthe third visit of the child it gave me a little packet containing twoor three small steel saws and a little bottle of oil. On the paperwhich held them was written, 'For the bars. You shall have a rope nexttime.' Sure enough next time the child had hidden in its frock a hankof very thin cord, which I managed as I was playing with her to slipunobserved into my breast. 'Mammy says more next time.' And next timeanother hank came. There was a third, and a
note, 'Twist the threeropes together and they will be strong enough to bear you. On thethird night from this, saw through the bars and lower yourself intocourt. There will be no moon. Go to the right-hand corner of the courtin the rear of the prison. Fasten a knife to one end of the cord andthrow it over the wall. I shall be waiting there with a friend.Directly you feel the cord jerked climb up to the top of the wall. Ifyou can find something to fasten your end of the rope to you can slidedown it. If not, you must jump. There will be a boat ready to take youaway.'
"It all turned out well. It was a pitch dark night, raining andblowing, and the sentries kept inside their boxes. I got up to the topof the wall all right, and was able to fasten the rope on to thespikes and slide down on the other side. The woman was there with aman, whom she told me was her brother. They took me to a creek twomiles away and there put me on board a boat, and I was rowed out to asmuggling craft which at once set sail, and two days later was landedat Cherbourg. So that's how I came to learn English."
"Did you ever hear whether the woman who helped you was suspected?"
"I saw her brother two months afterward on one of the trips that thecraft he belonged to made. He said that of course there were a greatmany inquiries made, and his sister had been questioned closely. Sheswore that she had hardly spoken to me for the last two months andthat she had given me nothing; which in a way was true enough, for shehad not handed them to me herself. The prisoners bore her out abouther not coming near me, for it had been noticed that she was not asfriendly as she had been. Some had thought her ungrateful, whileothers had fancied that she was angry at my interfering and making atumult about the child. Anyhow, whatever suspicions they might havehad they could prove nothing. They forbade her entering the prison infuture; but she didn't mind that so long as her husband, who had beenemployed a good many years there, did not lose his situation. He hadbeen kept by her in entire ignorance of the whole affair, and was veryindignant at her having been suspected. I sent her a letter of thanksby her brother, and a little present for her and one for the child.The brother was to give them to her as if from himself, so that thehusband should not smell a rat, but of course to make her understandwho they came from."
"Well, I only hope, Jacques," Ralph said, "that when I get shut up inone of your prisons I shall find some French woman to aid me toescape, just as you found an English woman to help you; only I hope itwon't be four years coming about."
"I think we look sharper after our prisoners than you do; still it maybe. But it will be some time before you are in prison; and if you playyour cards well and learn to speak our language, and make yourselfuseful, I do not think the captain is likely to hand you over to theauthorities when we get back to a French port again."
"I am quite ready to do my best to learn the language and to makemyself useful," Ralph said. "It is always a good thing to know French,especially as I am going into the army some day; that is if I get backagain in time."
"Oh, I think you will do so," the man said. "You keep up your spiritswell, and that is the great thing. There are many boys that would sitdown and cry if they found themselves in such a scrape as you have gotinto."
"Cry!" Ralph repeated indignantly. "You don't suppose a boy of my ageis going to cry like a girl! An English boy would be ashamed to cry,especially when Frenchmen were looking on."
Jacques laughed good-temperedly. "There would be nothing to be ashamedof. We are not like you cold English! A Frenchman laughs and singswhen he is pleased, and cries when he is sorry. Why shouldn't he?"
"Oh, I can't tell you why," Ralph replied, "only we don't do it. Idon't say I shouldn't halloo out if I were hurt very much, though Ishould try my best not to; but I feel sure I shouldn't cry like agreat baby. Why, what would be the good of it?"
Jacques shrugged his shoulders. "People are different," he said. "Aman is not a coward because he cries. I have seen two boys fightingand pulling each other's hair and crying all the time, but they foughton. They did not cry because they were afraid."
"Pulling each other's hair!" Ralph repeated contemptuously. "Theyought to have been ashamed of themselves, both of them. I don't callthat fighting at all. I should call it disgusting. Why, in Englandeven girls would hardly pull each other's hair. I have seen two orthree fights between fishwomen in Dover, and even they did not go onlike that. If that's the way French boys fight, no wonder our soldiersand sailors--" But here it struck Ralph that the remark he was aboutto make would be altogether out of place under present circumstances.He was therefore seized with an opportune fit of coughing, and thenturned the conversation by asking Jacques at what rate he thought thevessel was slipping through the water.
A few minutes later the first mate came up and told Jacques to informRalph that the captain had ordered him to be supplied with clothessimilar to those worn by the rest of the crew, and that he was to betold off to take his post regularly as a boy in the starboard watch.Ralph was well pleased at the news. He felt that his best chance wasto make himself useful on board, and to become one of the crew as soonas possible, so that in case an English merchantman was met with andcaptured he should not be sent with her crew as a prisoner to a Frenchport. As long as he was on board various opportunities of escape mightpresent themselves. He might slip away in port, or the brig might becaptured by an English cruiser or privateer; whereas, once lodged in aFrench prison, the chances of such good fortune as had befallenJacques were slight indeed. He therefore at once turned to withalacrity.
That he would have a hard time of it for a bit he felt sure; foralthough in Jacques he had evidently found a friend, he saw by thescowling glances of several of the men as he passed near them that thenational feeling told heavily against him. Nor was it surprising thatit should be so. The animosity between the two nations had lasted solong that it had extended to individuals. Englishmen despised as wellas disliked Frenchmen. They were ready to admit that they might bebrave, but considered them as altogether wanting in personal strength.The popular belief was that they were half-starved, and existedchiefly upon frogs and hot water with a few bits of bread and scrapsof vegetables in it which they called soup, and that upon the seaespecially they were almost contemptible. Certainly the longsuccession of naval victories that our fleets had won afforded somejustification for our sailors' opinion of the enemy. But in fightsbetween detached vessels the French showed many times that in point ofcourage they were in no way inferior to our own men; and indeed ourvictories were mainly due to two causes. In the first place, thesuperior physique and stamina of our men, the result partly of raceand partly of feeding; they were consequently able to work their gunsfaster and longer than could their adversaries. In the second placethe British sailor went into battle with an absolute conviction thathe was going to be victorious; while the Frenchman, on the other hand,although determined to do his best to win, had from the first doubtswhether the British would not be as usual victorious.
It is probable that the French sailors hated us far more than our mendid them. We had lowered their national prestige, had defeated themwhenever we met them, had blockaded their ports, ruined their trade,inflicted immense damage upon their fisheries, and subsidized othernations against them, and were the heart and center of the coalitionagainst which France was struggling to maintain herself. It was nottherefore surprising that among the hundred and ten men on board LaBelle Marie there were many who viewed Ralph with hostile eyes and whoonly refrained from personal violence owing to the strict order thecaptain had given that he should be well treated.
Toward midday the fog lifted suddenly and the wind freshened, andlookouts were stationed in the tops. There was little hope indeed ofany English merchantmen having come over so far toward the Frenchcoast, but British cruisers might be anywhere. A few distant sailscould be seen far out on the horizon proceeding up or down channel;but the captain of La Belle Marie had no idea of commencing operationsuntil very much further away from the shores of England. All day thevessel ran down the French coast; and although he was a captive, andevery mile r
eeled off the log took him further from home, Ralph couldnot help admiring the speed at which the brig slipped through thewater, cutting the waves with her sharp bow and leaving scarcely aripple behind her, so fine and clean was her run. Very different wasthis smooth, gliding motion from the quick plunge and shock of thebluff-bowed fishing boat to which he was accustomed. The sails hadbeen scrubbed until there was not a speck upon them. The masts werelofty and tapering, the rigging neat and trim, and every stay as tautas iron.
We could fight our ships better than the French, but as far asbuilding and rigging went they were vastly our superiors; and La BelleMarie looked to Ralph almost like a gentleman's yacht in its cleannessand order, and in these respects vied with the men-of-war that he hadso often watched from the heights of Dover. He had, however, butlittle time for admiration; for he was kept at work rubbing andpolishing the guns and brass-work, and was not idle for a minute fromthe time he came on deck dressed as a cabin-boy on the morning afterhe was picked up until sunset. There were two French boys about hisown age forward, and as soon as his work was done and the eveningwatch set they began to torment him; for, acting as they did asservants to the officers, they did not take share in the watch.
Fortunately Jacques had gone below at the same time as Ralph; and whenthe boys, finding that their taunts had no effect whatever upon Ralph,began to get bolder, and one of them snatched off his cap, Jacquesinterfered at once. "Look here, youngsters," he said, "this youngEnglish boy is at present one of the crew of this brig, and he hasjust the same right to fair treatment as any one else, so I warn youif you interfere with him you will have to fight him fairly. I knowenough of these English boys to know that with your hands you wouldnot have the least chance with him. He could thrash you both at once;for even little English boys do not wrestle, tear, and kick, but hitstraight out just as the men do.
"With swords it would be different, but in a row between you and himit would be just the naked hands. So I advise you to leave him alone,for if you make him fight I will see fair play. All the time I was aprisoner in England I was well treated by his people, and just as Iwas treated myself and saw other French prisoners treated so I willsee him treated. Before this voyage is over it is not impossible thetables will be turned, and that you may find yourselves prisoners inthe hands of the English; so I recommend you to behave to him in thesame way you would like to be treated yourselves if you were takenprisoners. I can see the lad is good-tempered and willing. He is astranger here among us all, he can't speak a word of our language, andhe has a right to fair treatment. When he gets to know our languagehe will be able to shift for himself; but until he does I mean to lookafter him, and any one who plays tricks on him has got to talk to me."
As Jacques Clery was one of the most powerful and active men on boardthe brig, this assertion was sufficient to put a stop to practicaljoking with Ralph, and the lad had a much easier time of it than heexpected. The men, finding him willing to work and anxious to obligein every way, soon took to him; and by paying attention to their talk,and asking the French name of every object on board the ship, it wasnot many days before Ralph found himself able so far to understandthat he could obey orders, and pull and haul on any sheet that neededhandling.
Upon the second day, the wind having dropped again, more sail was set,and when the word was given to go aloft he went up with the rest; andalthough he was of little practical use in loosing the gaskets, hesoon shook off his first feelings of discomfort and nervousness onseeing how carelessly and unconcernedly the men on each side of himdid their work, and before he had been many days at sea was as quickand active aloft as any of the hands on board the brig. After runningdown nearly as far as Bordeaux the vessel's head was pointed west, andby nightfall the French coast was out of sight. A vigilant lookout wasnow kept, one man being constantly stationed aloft, and by theincreased animation of the crew Ralph judged that they would soonarrive at a point where they should be on the course of homeward boundmerchantmen. He had quite made up his mind that, although ready in allother matters to do his duty as one of the crew of La Belle Marie,nothing should induce him to take part in a fight against his owncountrymen.
As soon as night fell sail was reduced, and in the morning when ateight bells Ralph came on deck with his watch he found that the wholeof the upper sails had been taken off her and the topsails lowered onthe cap, and the brig was only moving through the water at the rate oftwo or three knots an hour. He guessed that she must be just upon thetrack of ships, and that her object in thus taking off sail was tocatch sight of vessels in the distance while she herself would beunobserved by them. During the course of the day several sail wereseen passing, but all at a considerable distance. Either the captaindid not think that it was safe to commence operations at present, orhe did not like the look of some of the passing vessels; but at anyrate he made no movement to close with any of them, and it was notuntil nightfall that sail was again hoisted and the brig proceeded onher course.
Ralph noticed that she carried no light, and that even the binnaclewas carefully shaded so that its light could not be seen except by thehelmsman. At midnight his watch went on deck, and Ralph perceived thatwhile he had been below the sail had again been greatly reduced, andnoticed that from time to time the officer on watch swept the horizonwith his night-glass. He apparently observed nothing until about twoo'clock, when he stood for some time gazing intently astern. Then heturned, gave an order to a sailor, who went below, and two or threeminutes later the captain came on deck. After speaking to the officerhe too gazed intently astern. Then the ship's course was suddenlychanged, the sheets eased off, and for half an hour she ran at a sharpangle to the course she had before been following, then she wasbrought up into the eye of the wind and laid to.
Although Ralph strained his eyes in the direction in which the captainhad been looking, he could see nothing; but he had no doubt a sail hadbeen seen coming up astern, and that the object of the change ofcourse was to let her pass them without their being seen. He ratherwondered that, instead of running off the wind, the captain had notput her about so as to take her position to windward instead of toleeward of the vessel behind; but he soon arrived at the object of themaneuver. There were no stars to be seen, and the bank of cloudsoverhead stretched away to the east, and the horizon there wasentirely obscured; but to the west the sky was lighter, and a vesselwould be clearly visible to the eye. The brig, therefore, in theposition she had taken up could not be seen, while she herself wouldobtain a full view of the other as she passed her.
In an hour the other ship came along. She was a large ship, fullrigged, and the French sailors, who had all come on deck, nowclustered against the bulwarks and eagerly discussed her. She wasabout two miles to windward, and opinions differed as to whether shewas a man-of-war or an Indiaman. Ralph rather wondered that theprivateer had not tried to get alongside in the darkness and take thevessel by surprise, but he understood now that there was a strongprobability that the Belle Marie might have caught a tartar and havesuddenly run herself under the guns of a British frigate. As soon asthe vessel had passed, the braces were manned and the yards swunground, and the brig continued her course. She was brought up almost tothe wind's-eye and sailed as closely as possible, so that when morningbroke she should have recovered the leeway she had made and should beto windward of the vessel she was pursuing, no matter how much astern.