Afloat at Last

by John C. Hutcheson

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

  ATTACKED BY THE PIRATES.

  It was "the tail of a typhoon" with a vengeance; for as we raced onwardsthrough the boiling sea, now lit up by a very watery moon, lots ofbroken spars and timbers could be seen, as well as several junksfloating bottom upwards, thus showing what the fury of the storm hadbeen and the damage done by its ravages.

  Mr Mackay noticed these bits of wrecks and wreckage as the captainspoke; and, mingled with a feeling of pity for those who had perished inthe tornado, came a satisfactory thought to his mind.

  "Yes, sir," said he in reply to Captain Gillespie's observation, "we'remaking a fair wind out of a foul one; but, besides that, sir, we've gotsomething else to thank the typhoon for, under Providence. It hasprobably settled the hash of those piratical rascals that were chasingus!"

  "Humph! I forgot all about 'em," snorted out "Old Jock," equallypleased at this idea. "No doubt they've gone to the bottom, and goodluck to 'em too. One can't feel sorry for such vermin as those that areprowling after honest craft, and who'd cut one's throat for a dollar."

  "We mustn't be too sure, though, sir," continued the first mate, as ifhe had been turning the matter over in his mind. "We've managed toweather the gale so far, and so might they. Those fellows areaccustomed to these seas and can smell a typhoon coming; so, if they ranto windward in time, instead of lying-to and waiting for it, as we did,they might have got out of it altogether by keeping ahead of it."

  "Pooh!" ejaculated "Old Jock" contemptuously--"I've no fear of beingtroubled by them again. They're all down in Davy Jones' locker by this;and may joy go with them, as I said before!"

  "Well, sir," said Mr Mackay, not pursuing his theory any further, anddesirous of turning the conversation, if conversation it can be calledwhen both were holding on still to the life-lines and shouting at eachother more than speaking, "what are we to do now?"

  "Carry-on, of course," replied "Old Jock," with a squint up at thewatery moon and the flying clouds that ever and anon obscured its palegleams, making everything look black around the moment it was hidden,"There's nothing else to be done but to let her scud before it until thegale has spent its force. I wish we could get up some more sail,though."

  "Would it be safe, sir?"

  "Safe!" snorted "Old Jock," sniffing with his nose up directly. "Why,what the dickens have you got to be afraid of, man? We're now in theopen sea, with nothing in the shape of land near us for a hundred milesor more anywhere you chose to cast the lead."

  "But, you forget, sir," suggested the other good-humouredly, so as notto anger the "old man," who was especially touchy about his navigation;"you forget the rate the ship's going--over twelve knots?"

  "No, I don't forget, Mister Mackay; and, if we were going twenty itwouldn't make the slightest difference," retorted the captain, who wasthoroughly roused now, as the first mate could tell by his addressinghim as "Mister," which he never did unless pretty well worked up and ina general state of temper. "I'd have you to know I'm captain of my ownship; and when I say a thing I mean a thing! Call up the hands to tryand get some more sail on her; for I'm going to make the best of thistyphoon now, as it has made the best it could of me--one good turndeserves another."

  Of course there was no arguing with him after this; so all Mr Mackaycould do was to pass the word forward for Tim Rooney, and tell him whatCaptain Gillespie's orders were--there was no good attempting to hailthe boatswain, for not a word shouted could be heard beyond the poop.

  "Begorra, it's a risky game, puttin' sail on her, sorr," said Timmeeting Mr Mackay half-way on the main-deck; "but we moight thrylettin' out a schrap more av the fores'le, if the houl lot don't fetchaway."

  "We must try it," returned Mr Mackay. "He will have it so."

  "All right, sorr, I'm agreeayble, as the man aid whin he wor agoin' tobe hung," said Tim Rooney grinning, never taking anything serious forvery long; "faix I'll go up mesilf if I can't get none av the hands tovolunteer. I couldn't order 'em yet, sorr, for it's more'n a man'sloife is worth to get on a yard with this wind."

  "Very good, Rooney, do your best," replied Mr Mackay. "Only don't runinto any danger. We can't afford to loose you, bo'sun."

  "Troth I'll take care av that same, sorr," returned Tim with a laugh."I wants another jollification ashore afore I'd be after losin' thenoomber av me mess."

  I had come down from off the poop with Mr Mackay, and now, standing byhis side, watched with anxiety Tim's movements.

  He had no lack of volunteers, however, for the ticklish work of layingout on the yard, Joe Fergusson's previous example having inspiredwhatever pluck was previously wanting; and, almost as soon as he gotforward we saw several of the hands mounting the fore rigging on thestarboard side--this being the least dangerous, as there was no chanceof their being blown into the sea against the wind.

  But Tim Rooney would not suffer them to go aloft alone, his stalwartfigure being the first to be seen leading the way up the shrouds, withJoe Fergusson close behind, not satisfied apparently with his previousattempt; and both, I noticed in the moonlight, which just then streamedout full for a few minutes, had their jack-knives between their teeth,ready for any emergency, as well as to cut away the double lashings ofthe foresail, "sea-gaskets" having been laced over the regular ones soas to bind the sail tighter to the yard.

  As they went up, the crew were flattened like pancakes against theratlines; and Mr Mackay and I held our breath when they got on thefoot-rope from the shrouds, holding on to the yard and jack-stay, withthe wind swaying them to and fro in the most perilous manner. TimRooney especially seemed in the most dangerous position, as he made forthe lee earing, whence he might be swept off in an instant into thefoaming waves that spurted up from the chains as if clutching at him,while Joe Fergusson worked his way out to the end of the weather yard-arm, fighting the fierce gusts at every sliding step he took.

  Then, when all were at their posts, Tim gave some sort of signal to thefour others whom he allowed to go up with him, and at the same instantthe gaskets were severed, parties of men below slacking off theclewlines and pulling on the sheets by degrees. By this means theforesail, having been double-reefed fortunately before being furled, wasset satisfactorily, without a split as all of us below expected, thehands getting down from the yards while we were yet hauling the tackaboard.

  The effect of this additional sail power on the ship was magical,lifting her bows out of the water and making her plunge madly throughthe billowy ocean, now all covered with foam and spume, like a maddenedhorse taking the bit between his teeth and bolting.

  "She wants some after sail to steady her," roared the captain bendingover the poop rail, although he held on tightly enough to it the while,and calling out to Mr Mackay, who remained with me just below him onthe main-deck. "We must try and get some sort of rag up."

  Mr Mackay made a motion up at the fragments of the main trysail, which,it may be remembered, had been carried away by the first blast of thetyphoon.

  "Aye," roared back "Old Jock," understanding him, and knowing that ifthe first mate had spoken he couldn't have heard a word he said, fromthe fact of the wind blowing forward. "I know it's gone, but try astaysail."

  "Bedad, he bates Bannagher!" said Tim Rooney, who had returned aft andjoined Mr Mackay and I under the break of the poop, where we weresheltered more from the force of the gale. "I niver did say sich a chapfor carryin' on, fair weather an' foul, loike `Ould Jock Sayins an'Mayins.' Sure, he wants to be there afore himsilf!"

  "We must rig up a storm staysail, I suppose," replied Mr Mackay,smiling at the other's remark. "Try one on the mizzen staysail--thesmallest you've got. Ask Adams, he'll soon find one; and, mind you,send it up `wift' fashion, so as to lessen the risk of its getting blownaway, bosun."

  "Aye, aye, sorr," said Tim, opening his eyes at this expedient ofhoisting a sail like a pilot's signal, and starting to work his wayforward again along the weather side of the deck. "Begorra, you're theboy, sure, Misther Mackay, for sayi
n' through a stone hidge as well asmost folk!"

  But the dodge succeeded all the same, and likewise had the advantage ofsteadying the vessel, which did not roll nearly so much when the aftersail was hoisted, with the sheet hauled in to leeward; although, theSilver Queen bent over when she felt it, as if running on a bowline,notwithstanding that the wind was almost dead aft and she spurring onbefore it.

  As the night came on it darkened more, the moon disappearing altogetherand the sky becoming completely covered with black angry clouds; whileheavy showers of cold rain pelted down on us at intervals from midnighttill "four bells" in the middle watch.

  Then the rain ceased and the heavens cleared a bit, a few stars peepingout; and the phosphorescent light from the sea enabled us to have a goodview of the boiling waves around us, still heaving and tossing as far asthe eye could reach, although the wind was perceptibly lessening.

  An hour later its force had fallen to that of a strong breeze, and thecaptain had the topsails and mizzen-topgallant set, carrying on stillfull pitch to the north-east, notwithstanding that just before dawn itbecame pitch dark again and we couldn't see a cable's length ahead.

  The starboard watch had been relieved shortly before this, but MrSaunders remained up, as indeed had most of us since the previousafternoon; while Captain Gillespie, indeed, never left the deck oncesince the first suspicion of the typhoon.

  He now yawned, however, the long strain and fatigue beginning to tell onhim.

  "I think I'll go below," he said; and, turning to Mr Mackay, allamiable again, especially at having carried his point of "carrying on"successfully in spite of the first mate's caution, he remarked with asniff, "You see, Mackay, we've gone on all right and met no dangers, andit'll puzzle those blessed pirates, if they're yet in the land of theliving, to find us at daybreak!"

  Just as he uttered these words, however, there was a tremendous shockforwards that threw us all off our feet, succeeded by a peculiar gratingfeeling under the ship's keel, after which, her heaving and rollingceased as if she had suddenly sailed from amidst the waves into the calmwater of some sheltered harbour. A second shock followed soon, but notso violent as the first; and then, all motion ceased.

  "By Jingo, she's aground!" snorted out "Old Jock," scrambling to hisfeet by the assistance of Mr Saunders' outstretched hand. "Where onearth can we've got to? there's no land here."

  Mr Mackay said nothing, although he had his suspicions, which indeedhad led in the original instance to his remonstrance against thecaptain's allowing the ship to rush on madly in the dark; but,presently, as the light of morning illumined the eastern sky and we wereable to see the ship's position, a sudden cry of alarm and recognitionburst from both--

  "The Pratas shoal!"

  This was their joint exclamation; and, on the sun rising a little lateron, when the whole scene and all our surroundings could be betterobserved, the wonder was that the Silver Queen was not in pieces andevery soul on board her drowned!

  To explain our miraculous escape, I may mention that this shoal, whichCaptain Gillespie and Mr Mackay so quickly named beyond question, was acircular coral reef almost in the centre of the China Sea, and about ahundred and thirty miles distant from Hongkong, absolutely in the veryhighway of vessels trading east and west.

  Breakers encircled it, showing their white crests on every side, thesharp points of the coral composing the reef almost coming to thesurface of the water, while at some spots it was raised above it. Inthese latter places it was covered with rank grass, exhibiting incipientsigns of vegetation; and, within the reef, inclosed by a lagoon somethree miles wide that went completely round it, lay a small island, onwhich were several shrubs and a prominent tree on a slight elevation,which will in process of time become a hill, whereon stood also theremains of a pagoda, or Chinese temple, while pieces of wreck andbleached bones were scattered over the shores. Of course we did notnotice all these things at first, but such was the result of oursubsequent observations and investigations.

  As wild, desolate, and dreary a spot it was as ever anchorite imaginedor poet pictured; such, at all events, we all thought on looking at itand realising the providential way in which our safety had beeneffected.

  It happened in this wise.

  There were one or two breaks in the reef surrounding this desert isle,as we could see from a link missing here and there in the chain ofbreakers. This was especially noticeable towards the south-westernportion of the rampart the indefatigable coral insect had thrown up,where an opening about double the width of the Silver Queen's beam wasplainly discernible. Through this fissure in the reef, piloted by thatpower which had watched over us throughout all the perils of our voyage,the ship had been driven; and she had beached herself gradually on theshore of the little island, as her way was eased by the placid lagooninto which she entered from the troubled sea without the naturalbreakwater. Here she was now fixed hard and fast forward, with herforefoot high and dry, although there was deep water under her sternaft.

  "Thank God for his mercy!" exclaimed Mr Mackay fervently; and I'm sureI echoed this recognition of the loving care that had so wonderfullypreserved us. "We couldn't have got in here without striking on thereef, if we had seen the entrance before our eyes and tried our verybest; not, at all events, with that gale shoving us on and in such a seaas is running--only look at it now!"

  "Oh, aye," agreed Captain Gillespie, gazing out as we all did at thecreamy line of foaming breakers all round, that sent showers of surfyspray over the coral ledge into the placid lagoon, which was calm andstill in comparison, like a mountain tarn, albeit filled with brackishsea-water all the same. "Oh, aye, it's wonderful enough our gettinghere; but how are we going to get out--eh?"

  "No doubt we'll find a way," said the other, who had bared his head whengiving thanksgiving where it was due; and whose noble, intelligent face,I thought, as I looked at him admiringly, seemed capable of anything, hespoke so cheerfully, his courage not daunted but increased, it seemed,all the more by what had happened--"No doubt we'll find a way, sir."

  But "Old Jock" wouldn't be comforted.

  Obstinately insisting before, against Mr Mackays advice, that we weregoing on all right, he was even more dogmatically certain now that wewere all wrong; saying that, as far as he could see, the ship and hercargo and every one of the thirty-one souls she had on board weredoomed!

  "I can't see how it's going to be managed, Mackay," he replieddespondingly to the other's cheery words, even his nose drooping withdismay at the prospect, superstition coming to aid his despairingconviction. "I knew there was something uncanny when those pigs jumpedoverboard that evening, and I told you so, if you recollect, Saunders;and you know, when I say a thing, I mean a thing."

  "Aye, aye," said the second mate, thus appealed to; and who being ashallow-pated man with little feeling for anything save the indulgenceof his appetite, thought there was some connection, now the captain putit so, between the loss of the porkers and the ship's being castaway, henot having been let into the secret of the reason for the strangebehaviour of the pigs on the occasion referred to. "Aye, aye, cap'en, Iremember your saying so quite well."

  Mr Mackay couldn't stand this, and he walked down the poop ladder toconceal his amusement; and I followed him when I found him bent onconsulting Tim Rooney as to what was to be done, the captain beinghopeless at present.

  "Be jabers, we're in a pritty kittle av fish an' no mistake!" said Timwhen asked his opinion about the situation. "We might be able to kedgeher off, sorr, an' thin ag'in we moightn't; but the foorst thing to say,sorr, is whither she's all roight below."

  "A good suggestion," answered Mr Mackay. "Tell the carpenter to soundthe well at once."

  "That'd be no good at all, sorr," interposed the other, "for the poorcraythur's got her bows hoigh an' dhry, while she's down by the starn.The bist thing as I'd advise, sorr, excusin' the liberty, is to get downalongside an' say if she's started anythin'. That big scrape she got asshe came over the rafe, I'm afeard, took off a bit
av her kale, sorr."

  "Right you are, Rooney, sensible as ever," said Mr Mackay. "We'll havea boat over the side at once and see to it."

  This, however, was a work of time, for the jolly-boat, which was theonly one of moderate size we had left, since the dinghy had been carriedaway in the typhoon, was stowed inside the long-boat; and so purchaseshad to be rigged to the fore and main yards before it could be raisedfrom its berth and hoisted over the ship's bulwarks.

  But, all hands helping, the job was done at last; when Mr Mackaydescended the side-ladder into the boat along with the boatswain and acouple of men to pull round the ship, so as to ascertain what, if any,damage she might have received. I could not help noticing, though, thatthe captain did not exhibit the slightest interest when the first matesubmitted what he was about to do and asked his permission--only tellinghim that he might go if he liked, but he thought it of little use!

  I should have liked to have gone with them too, and I mentioned this toTom Jerrold, as he and I leant over the bows and watched the jolly-boatand those in her below us; for although Tim Rooney had spoken of theship being "high and dry" she was still in shallow water forward, theshelly bottom being to be seen at the depth of two or three feet or so,the beach shelving abruptly.

  While the two of us were looking at the boat, though, and the island infront spread out before us, with its solitary tree, ruined Chinesepagoda and all, which Ching Wang was also inspecting with much interestfrom the forecastle, we were suddenly startled by a shout aft fromCaptain Gillespie, who still remained on the poop.

  "Hi, Mackay," he cried, "come back. Here is that blessed proa and junk,and a whole fleet of pirates after us!"

  This made both Tom and I turn pale, although Ching Wang betrayed noexpression of alarm when we explained the captain's hail to him, onlyhis little beady eyes twinkling.

  "You fightee number one chop, tyfong makee scarcee chop chop, Sabby? Nogoodee when sailor-mannee fightee!"

  When we got aft, where we were soon joined by Mr Mackay, who hadinstantly obeyed the captain's order of recall, and said, by the way,that they could not discover much injury to the ship forward save that aportion of her false keel had been torn off, "Old Jock" pointed out somespecks on the horizon to windward. These, on being scrutinised throughthe glass by the first mate, were declared to be the now familiar proaand her consort, a fact which I corroborated with my naked eye from themizzen cross-trees whither I at once ascended.

  The sea, I noticed too, had calmed down considerably outside the reef,which the pirate junks gained later on in the afternoon, coming throughthe opening we had observed to the south and west one by one, in singlefile, and then advancing towards the Silver Queen in line.

  Presently, when about half a mile off, they stopped on a flag beinghoisted by the leading proa, which appeared to command the expedition;and then, amidst the hideous din of a lot of tin-kettly drums and gongs,the pirates, for such they now showed themselves to be without doubt,opened fire on the ship with cannon and jingals--the balls from theformer soon singing in the air as they passed over our masts, their aim,however, being rather high and eccentric, although the first thatwhistled past made me duck my head in fright, thinking it was comingtowards me.

  "Oh!" I cried; but I may say without any exaggeration or desire tobrag, that I did not flinch again, nor did I utter another "Oh!"