Altsheler, Joseph - [Novel 05]

by A Herald Of The West (lit)

  There is nothing like a good song, well sung, to draw one's sympathy, and my feelings were with that ship, as if she were my own. I took the deepest personal interest in her, and hoped with a great hope that the night would be dark and that she would slip down the river, and after ward between the Capes and past the British fleet into safety.

  The night grew darker, and gathering clouds showed that it would be all that I wished. The singer ceased, and his figure vanished from the deck, but the charm of his singing remained. The outlines of La Eochelle be came indistinct and shadowy, the silver gleam of the river faded into a misty gray. Where I stood, no light was visible on the ship.

  Accustoming my eyes to the dark, I saw that some one else was watching the French ship. He was of or-

  * An old French song of longing.

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  dinary figure and appearance, but he seemed to be more deeply interested even than I. He shifted about, as if he would secure new points of observation, and never took his eyes from the sloop. This absorption enabled me to observe him without being noticed in return. I saw that his face was decidedly English; fat, and ruddy, with reddish side whiskers, and his walk, his entire man ner, was that of an Englishman.

  I guessed the man at once. He was an English spy come there to note the sailing of the French sloop, and to tell the ships of his own nation to meet and take her. I knew not what system of communication, what mes sengers or signals he might have, or whether they would prove effective, but I resolved at once to set my own efforts against his. If La Rochelle were about to sail, he should not send the warning of it to any one.

  I stepped farther back from the waterside, so that he might not observe me, and I followed him, though at a distance, in all his twists and turns, as he tried to see whatsoever might pass on board the French ship. A light suddenly blazed up there, and some sailors appeared on her deck. From the way they set to work, I judged that La Eochelle was preparing for her dangerous return. I intended to warn the Frenchmen of the strict watch kept upon them, and it was now time for me to set about it.

  I slipped back in the darkness, and travelling a paral lel course went down the stream until I thought I had gone far enough to escape the observation of the English spy. Then I returned to the banks of the river, and there found a waterman who was willing, for good hire, to row me to the French sloop.

  " Do you know the captain's name ? " I asked as he pulled us along.

  "Dubosc," he replied; "a good man to handle his ship."

  We were already halfway to La Eochelle. Follow-

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  ing my instructions, the boatman had rowed first to the far side of the river, and we were now approaching from such a course that the ship was between us and the spy, thus hiding us from him. In addition, we had the dark ness, which was now very heavy on land and river, to help us. Behind our boat the water, as it closed back after our passage, made but a dim gray wake. The farther shore was lost in the obscurity, and due ahead of us the bulk of La Rochelle showed, dim and misshapen. But there came from her a creaking noise the shuffle and the rasping slide of sail against sail.

  " She's going down the river, and mighty soon, too; there's no doubt of it," said the boatman.

  A minute later and we were at the side of La Eo- chelle. My boatman hailed, and a head black crinkly hair surmounting a thin dark face was thrust over the rail.

  "Who's there?" called the man in good English, though with a decided French accent.

  " Is that you, Captain Dubosc ? " I replied, as if I had known him for years.

  " Yes, I am Captain Dubosc; who are you, and what do you want ? "

  " I am a friend," I said; " I will tell you more when you take me on board; but my message is of the utmost importance to you and to France."

  I could see his keen black eyes shining like a cat's through the darkness, and he gave the word that I be taken on board. I paid my waterman, and dismissed him, trusting to the Frenchmen to put me ashore when I had done them my service. I saw him rowing away until he and his little boat were enveloped by the shadows, while I stood on the deck with the Frenchmen.

  A ship's lantern threw a sombre, distorting light over our group. Captain Dubosc was a black fellow that is, extremely dark as if from the sunburnt shore of the Mediterranean; not very tall, but enormously broad in

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  the shoulders, his face thin and keen. His officers, like their captain, seemed to be mostly from the south of Prance.

  "What is it? Who are you?" he asked shortly.

  " My name does not matter just now," I said, " but I want to tell you, Captain Dubosc, that your ship is watched at this very moment by an English spy. No movement that you can make will escape him, and he will send information that will lad to your capture. Come to the other side of the ship, and you can see the spy for yourself."

  All the officers started forward eagerly to take a look, but Dubosc motioned them back.

  " No," he said, " not too many; he would see us watching and take alarm."

  He and I only slipped to the side nearest the shore, and crouching behind a gun sought the spy with our eyes. He was easily found, for the ship was not far from the wharf. There he was, walking back and forth, examining the ship, her yards, her masts, her sails, and then bending forward and turning his ear toward us in the attitude of one who would listen intently. It was evident that here was a man who did not intend to neg lect the business upon which he had been sent. Even in that obscuring dusk his English traits showed. The little whiskers stood out like red fins from each side of his face, his nose was thrust well forward, and his whole attitude was aggressive.

  "How will you get rid of him? How will you keep him from telling his knowledge? " I ask ed of Dubosc.

  " Come with me and you shall see," he said. " We owe you thanks anyway, and now, having been warned, I trust that we French are not deficient in resources for our own protection."

  He spoke with calm dignity, and seemed to be grate ful, as he said he was, for my friendly word in time. I accepted his offer in like spirit. He ordered a boat to

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  be launched on the other side of the ship, and he, an other officer, four men, and myself made up its crew. We pulled in the darkness toward the farther shore, and then, dropping down the river a little, returned and landed, leaving only one sailor to mind the boat. On the way I told him who I was.

  Dubosc led the way, and having curved in toward the city we approached from the rear the spot where the spy most likely would bt. Presently we saw his back. He was standing quite still, attentively regarding the ship, and evidently not suspecting our movements. Dubosc and two of his men slipped upon him, and at the same instant all three seized him and threw him down.

  The Englishman uttered one brief cry, which was smothered in the beginning, and threw up his hands in a convulsive struggle, but all the French were upon him then, and in an incredibly brief space he was bound hand and foot and a handkerchief was stuffed so tightly into his mouth that he could make only a noise that sounded like a low moaning.

  They turned him over on his face, and the man looked up at us with startled eyes. But in a moment or two this expression passed away and his face settled into a stolid calm which expressed nothing.

  " Take him to the ship! " said Dubosc.

  The sailors lifted him up, Dubosc whistled to his boatman, and in a minute the boat was brought to the bank nearest us. Nothing seemed to be stirring in the city behind us. The lights twinkled in white and blue points, and the river, with the shapeless ships upon it, was dark and silent, save for its soft murmur.

  The sailors put the bound and gagged spy in the boat, and I, ignoring in my deep interest that my part of the affair was over, stepped in with them. Dubosc must have forgotten, too, for he said nothing, and all of us went on board La Rochelle together, first heaving the spy up to those waiting on the deck, as if he had been a

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  bundle of goods. They dropped him heavily upon the hard wood, and he lay there staring up with wide open eyes. Until then I had thought little of him as a man, looking at him merely as the agent of the British Gov ernment, but now that he was defeated I felt a sud den pity for him. Before he had seemed altogether commonplace, but now, in the light of the ship's lantern, his face looked clear cut and strong.

  "What are you going to do with him?" I asked of Captain Dubosc. " I suppose you can't let him go to night, can you?"

  " No," he replied.

  " That's true," I said; " he might give the warning. Suppose you take him down the river and turn him loose at the last land."

  " No," he said again.

  " What! " I exclaimed, " you don't mean to keep him a prisoner on your whole cruise, or carry him as such to France? Remember that you have taken him in an American port a neutral port."

  " No," he said a third time.

  I looked at him more attentively. His lips parted in a slight smile. Slight as it was, it was enough to reveal the soulless character of the man.

  "You don't mean that?" I cried.

  " The far side of my ship is in complete darkness," he said .quite coolly. " No one save ourselves can see what is passing there. This spy is bound hand and foot and gagged, we quietly drop him overboard, a plunk, and he is gone; there is no warning to the British fleet; there is no complication with the American Government or with anybody; La Rochelle passes out to sea and the whole affair is despatched neatly and cleanly, without fuss and without trouble; our great emperor himself would ap prove."

  Horror seized me. It was true that the English and French were at war, but Philadelphia was a neutral port;

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  this would be an atrocious murder, and I, however good my intent, would be the chief cause of it.

  One of the sailors had dragged the spy up into a sitting position with his back against a gun carriage, and there he sat doubled up with his eyes upon us. He could not fail to hear every word that was said, and I glanced at him. A little of the natural red was gone from his face, but otherwise his expression was unchanged, though he gazed at Dubosc and then at me, and then back at Dubosc with the most penetrating eyes that I ever saw in a man's head.

  " You shall not commit such a murder, Captain Du bosc! " I exclaimed. " I am going ashore and this man is going with me. He shall be my prisoner to-night, and I will see that he says nothing about La Kochelle."

  He shook his head. The spy's eyes were turned upon me now; they seemed to gleam through the dark ness.

  "Your suggestion is quite out of the question, Mr. Ten Broeck," said Captain Dubosc. " The man is ours to do with as we please. You can have him to-morrow, if you care to drag the river and find him. But we shall be far out at sea, and the American Government has far too much on hand to bother about so trifling a thing as the disappearance of an English spy."

  This man was fit to be a buccaneer, not the captain of a great nation's war ship.

  " I will not go ashore without him," I said.

  " Then I fear you will not go at all," he replied. " It is a little late even now to leave us. Look! "

  He pointed toward the shore. It was receding; the white and blue points of light twinkling in the city twinkled more dimly; I could hear more distinctly the swash of water along the sides of the ship, and above me the sails creaked. La Rochelle had started on her adventurous journey.

  My body turned cold to the backbone for a moment,

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  and then I recovered myself. I saw that it was no time to become confused or excited.

  " You dare not kidnap me, Captain Dubosc! " I said.

  " Oh, no, we will not kidnap you," he said; " we do not impress you Americans as, your friends the English do, but we will give you a pleasant voyage to France."

  One of the officers, a young man of about my own age, grinned as if he thought it a good joke. I could have struck him in the face with pleasure, but I re strained myself. I appreciated my situation fully. I knew that they could carry me off to France, unless I was taken on the way by the English, which would be no improvement, and with nearly the whole world at war, my fate would be a small matter to distressed nations. I could rely only upon my own courage and dexterity.

  " One must accept the decrees of fate like a philoso pher," I said in a resigned tone, " and perhaps I shall enjoy a free trip to France. But let me take the gag out of that man's mouth, and ask him a question or two; it can't possibly do any harm."

  Captain Dubosc assented more readily than I had ex pected.

  " Eemove the gag and ask him what you wish," he said.

  I stooped over the spy. His eyes were upon me as if he would look through my body into my soul. His arms were tied, not together, but at his side with one wrapping of cord. I gave back his look, and his eyes, meeting mine, flashed. Bending lower I severed trie cord that confined his arms with one sweep of the knife that I had taken from my pocket.

  " Release yourself," I said, thrusting the knife into his freed right hand. Then I sprang upon Captain Du bosc.

  In times of violence and peril it is a mighty thing to have the strength of a giant, and even in addition to the muscles and power which God had given me I had

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  the impulse of great excitement. The captain, his face showing terror, attempted to escape, but in an instant my arms were around him, and he was compressed in a hug which no five-foot-six Frenchman could resist. A groan came from him, and I swung him under my left arm, a slight bloody froth appearing upon his lips; then with my right hand I drew my pistol and faced the Frenchmen. It had all been done in thirty seconds, and when their hands flew to their swords the Englishman's wrists were free and their captain swung unconscious under my arm.

  " I wish to go ashore, gentlemen," I said, " and take the English spy with me; if one of you draws his sword or levels his pistol upon me, I'll blow your captain's brains out."

  "And if by any chance he should miss, I will do it for him," said a quiet voice at my shoulder.

  The little English spy stood beside me, a pistol in his right hand and the knife with which I had freed him in his left. He said nothing more, but lined up by my side, as if we formed a whole regiment going into battle. Despite his cockney face, his ridiculous red whiskers, and his insignificant figure, he looked the true hero. It showed in his clear eyes, his firm chin, and his whole attitude.

  The officers looked at us half in hesitation, half in fear. In the darkness sailors in the rigging, or hidden elsewhere, might have secured shots at us, but they had the double danger of the captain's death to follow, and of the reports being heard from the shore, with many complications as a sequel. So they stood in a confused group, still looking at us.

  The ship was drifting slowly with the current, and the shores were of equal distance now one side dark, and the points of light on the other growing fewer and fainter. The darkness hid the surface of the stream, save in a narrow circle around the ship, where the water

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  looked gray, almost black, and as we stood in silence on the deck, looking at each other, we could still hear its monotonous wash around the sides of La Rochelle.

  I felt a kind of wild exhilaration, a sense of triumph over odds which never fails to exalt the spirits. With their captain under my arm, as a kind of pawn, I could defy a whole ship's crew, a war ship at that, a twenty-two- gunner to boot.

  " Well, gentlemen," I said, " the boat in which we came is still trailing by the ship's side and waiting. I wish to go ashore with this Englishman."

  Two of them began to whisper together.

  " All I ask is personal safety for both of us," I said. " The Englishman shall be my prisoner until to-morrow, and I shall see that he sends no warning that can inter fere with the escape of La Rochelle."

  A lieutenant at last gave the word. A half dozen sailors had gathered and were looking at us. One o
f them lay hold of the rope and pulled the boat almost to the ship's side.

  " Into her! " I said to the Englishman.

  He dropped lightly into the centre of the boat. He could have cut the rope and rowed away with the oars that lay ready for his hand, but he did nothing of the kind. He held his pistol levelled ready for a shot, if it were needed, and with the other hand steadied the boat. Still holding Captain Dubosc under my arm, I dropped over the side and landed in the boat beside the spy.

  " Hold, this is a breach of faith! " cried the lieuten ant, rushing forward. " We have not tried to hurt you, and you are taking our captain with you."

  " It is no breach of faith," I said; " we are not yet on shore, and you might even send a cannon ball after us in this boat. We merely carry our hostage as far as the land. Send a sailor with us to bring him and the boat back, or come yourself."

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  He signed to a sailor, who leaped into the boat with us. The Englishman cut the rope, and then he and the Frenchman took up the oars and pulled for the shore. I took Captain Duhosc from under my arm and held him in such a position that his body would protect the spy and me from any but the most skilful shot from the ship. He was beginning to recover from the affection ate hug which I had given him. His eyes opened lan guidly and he struggled a little, but I held him firm.

  La Eochelle was almost stationary, merely drifting a little, and twenty or thirty men, officers and sailors, were clustered at her rail looking at us as we swiftly ap proached the shore. We had passed the city, and there were no lights in the darkness, save the few aboard the ship. The boat bumped suddenly against the bank. I released Captain Dubosc, and the English spy and I stepped out of the boat and upon the dry and solid earth, which felt very reliable and welcome beneath my feet after my experience with the treachery of ships and water.