A Middy in Command Part 8

"That is all right, my boy," answered the general cordially; "we will willingly place ourselves under your orders without reserve; so tell us what you would have us do, and we will do it."

"Well," said I, "we may now expect the mutineers to return at any moment, and we must be ready for them when they appear. I will therefore ask you all to have your weapons at hand; and when the longboat heaves in sight the ladies must immediately go below, out of harm's way, while you distribute yourselves along the bulwarks, with your firearms levelled at the boat. You must arrange yourselves in such a manner that the mutineers may be able to see that you are all armed, and prepared to fight if necessary. By this means I hope to overawe them and bring them to reason."

I then completed all my arrangements, being careful to take Carter into my full confidence, and treat him in every respect as master of the s.h.i.+p, a.s.suming for myself rather the character of his first lieutenant than anything else--and then all that remained for us to do was to sit down and patiently await the return of the mutineers. But the time sped on, the hour of sunset arrived, and darkness fell upon the scene without any sign of the longboat, and I began to feel somewhat uneasy as to the safety of the absentees, for we were in a lonely, and, so far as my knowledge went, an unfrequented part of the coast; and I had heard some rather gruesome stories as to the doings of the natives, and of the treatment that they were wont to mete out to white men--s.h.i.+pwrecked sailors and others--who happened to be so unfortunate as to fall into their hands. And as the hours drifted past without bringing any news, I at length grew so anxious that I began to consider very seriously the advisability of sending away a boat in search of the missing men. After fully discussing the matter with Carter, however, I came to the conclusion that our first duty was to take care of the s.h.i.+p and her pa.s.sengers, and that the mutinous crew must be left to look after themselves. Finally, having set a strong anchor-watch, I went below and turned in.

Daylight arrived, noon came, and still there was no sign of the absentees, and in a fever of anxiety I made my way up to the fore-royal- yard, from which lofty elevation I made a careful survey of the inland district. But there was very little to see beyond a two-mile stretch of a broad, winding river dotted with tree-grown islets here and there.

The country itself was so densely overgrown with bush and trees that nothing upon its surface was to be seen. As to the longboat, she was nowhere visible; but I was not much astonished at that, because, from the glimpse that I was able to catch of the river, I had very little doubt that its characteristics were precisely those of all the other rivers in that region, namely, a somewhat sluggish current of water thick with foul and fetid mud, swampy margins overgrown with mangroves, and numerous shallow, winding creeks, mangrove-bordered, discharging into it on either side; and it was highly probable that, failing to find a firm bank upon which to land along the margin of the river itself, the mutineers had proceeded in search of such a spot up one of the creeks.

There were no canoes to be seen on that part of the river's surface which was visible from my look-out, and the only suggestion of human life anywhere in the neighbourhood was to be found in what I took to be a thin, almost invisible, wreath of smoke rising above the tree tops at a spot some two miles distant. That wreath of smoke might, of course, indicate the position of the mutineers' bivouac; but, on the other hand, it might--and I thought this far more likely--indicate the location of a native village; and if the latter suspicion should prove to be correct I could not but feel that the situation of the mutineers was one full of peril.

Having taken a careful mental note of everything that I had seen, I descended the ratlines, and, making my way aft, invited Carter, the general, and Mr Morton to join me in the main saloon, which happened just then to be vacant. When we arrived there, I told my companions what I had seen, and what I feared, and then laid before them a proposal that I should take the s.h.i.+p's galley--a very fine six-oared boat--and, with my nine men, and one of the carronades mounted in the bows, go in search of the missing men. But neither the general nor Morton would hear of this for a moment. They were quite willing that a boat should be dispatched to search for the longboat and her crew if the matter could be arranged, but they very strongly protested against the idea that I and all my nine fighting men should leave the s.h.i.+p, which, they pointed out, would be at the mercy of the mutineers if we were to miss them and if they were to get back before us; or, possibly, which would be still worse, open to an attack from hundreds of savages should the natives by any chance have discovered us and observed our helpless predicament. I was pointing out to them that this stand which they were taking rendered the idea of a search impossible, since I considered it neither wise nor prudent to dispatch a weak search party, and that I could not dream of ordering any of my own men away upon such an expedition in the command of anyone but myself, when I heard a call on deck, and the next moment Simpson presented himself at the entrance of the saloon to say that the longboat was in sight, pulling hard for the s.h.i.+p, but that, so far as could be made out, there were only five men in her! Whereupon, with one accord we all dashed out on deck and made the best of our way to the topgallant-forecastle, which afforded a good view of the approaching boat. It was now a few minutes past three o'clock, s.h.i.+p's time.

Arrived on the forecastle, I s.n.a.t.c.hed the telescope from the hands of the look-out as he flourished the instrument toward the boat, with the remark:

"There she comes, sir, and the buckos in her seem to be in a tearin'

hurry, too. See how they're makin' the spray fly and the oars buckle!

They're workin' harder just now than they've done for many a long day, I'll warrant."

Levelling the instrument upon the approaching boat, I saw that, as Simpson had informed me, there were only five men in her, who, as the look-out man had observed, were pulling as though for their lives. The boat, although a heavy one, was positively foaming through the water, and the long, stout ash oars, which the men were labouring at, bent and sprang almost to breaking point at every stroke.

"There is something very seriously wrong somewhere," said I gravely, "and those fellows are bringing the news of it. Let them come alongside, Simpson; but muster the _Sharks_ at the gangway to disarm those men as they come up the side, should they happen to have any weapons about them."

Two minutes later the longboat dashed alongside, and as the men flung in their oars, the man who had been pulling bow sprang to his feet and yelled:

"Heave me a line, mates, and for G.o.d's sake let us come aboard. We want to see Mr Carter, quick!"

"All right, my bully boy," answered Simpson. "Here's a line for ye; look out! But don't you chaps be in too much of a hurry now; the orders is that you're to come up the side one at a time. And if you've got any such little matter as a knife or a pistol about you, just fork it over.

Thank'e! Next man," as the man climbed inboard and without demur drew an empty pistol and his knife from his belt and handed them over.

"Now then, my lad," said I, as the fellow faced round and confronted me, "where are the rest of the men who left this s.h.i.+p yesterday? Out with your story, as quick as you please."

"Where are the rest!" he repeated, with white and quivering lips, while his eyes rolled and his voice rose almost to a scream. "Why, some of 'em are dead--lucky beggars! and t'others are in the hands of the savages, away there in the woods, and are bein' slowly tormented to death, one at a time, while t'others is forced to look on and wait their turn. At least that's how I reads what I've seen."

"And how come you five men to be here?" I demanded. "Have you managed to escape from the savages, or were you not with the rest when they were taken?"

"Why, sir," answered the fellow, "it's like this here--"

"Stop a moment," I interrupted him. "Tell us your whole story, as briefly as possible, from the moment when you pushed off from the s.h.i.+p's side yesterday. Then we shall get something like a clear and coherent account of what has happened."

"Yes, yes, that's right, Grenvile," agreed the general as he stood beside me, very upright and stern-looking, his lips white, but the eager light of battle already kindling in his eyes. "It will be a saving of time in the long run."

"I certainly think so," said I. "Now, my man, heave ahead with your yarn."

"Well, sir," resumed the man, "we shoved off from the s.h.i.+p's side-- three-and-twenty of us, as you know--but, beg pardon, sir, I forgot--you wasn't on deck--"

"Never mind about that, my lad," interrupted I; "go ahead as quickly as possible. You shoved off from the s.h.i.+p and pulled away into the river.

What happened then?"

"Nothin' at all, sir," was the reply. "We just pulled into the river, and as soon as we was fairly inside we started to look round for a spot where we could get ash.o.r.e; but, try where we would, we couldn't find nothin' but soft mud that wouldn't have bore the weight of a cat, much less of a man. But while we was huntin' for a place we came across a narrer creek, just wide enough for us to pull into; and Tonkin up's h.e.l.lum and says as we'll try in there. So we pulled along for a matter of nigh upon a mile, when all at once the creek comes to an end, and we find the boat's nose jammed in among a lot of mangrove roots. Then pore Jim Nesbitt ups and volunteers to try and scramble along the mangroves and see if he can find a spot firm enough for us to land upon; and when he'd been gone about a quarter of a hour he comes back again and says he've found a place. So, actin' upon Tonkin's orders, each one of us grabs a fowl, or a bottle, or what not, and away we goes in pore Jim's wake; and presently out we comes at a place where the mangroves stopped and the bush began, and where the mud was hard and firm enough to walk upon, and a little later we comes upon a sort of path through the bush, follerin' which we presently comes into a little open s.p.a.ce where there was nothin' but gra.s.s, with big trees growin' all round it, and there we brought ourselves to an anchor, and cried 'Spell ho!'

"Then we had some grub and a drop or two of grog, and a smoke, and then some of us stretched out on the gra.s.s to have a snooze; but the ants and creepin' things was that wis.h.i.+ous and perseverin' that we couldn't lie still for two minutes on end; so we all gets up and starts huntin' for fruit. But the only fruit we could find was c.o.kernuts, and they was to be had, as many as we wanted, just for the trouble of s.h.i.+nnin' up the trees. So we ate nuts and drank the milk--with just a dash of rum in it now and again--until we didn't want any more; and then we laid ourselves down again, and in spite of the ants and things some of us had a good long sleep. I felt just as sleepy as the rest, but I couldn't get no peace at all on the ground, so I looked round and presently made up my mind to go aloft in a big tree that was standin' not far off. That tree to look at was as easy to climb as them there ratlins, but somehow it took me a long time to s.h.i.+n up it and find a comfortable place where I could get a snooze without fallin' from aloft; but by and by I came athwart a branch with a big fork in it, reachin' out well over the open s.p.a.ce where the other chaps were lyin' about, and, wedgin' myself into the fork, I was very soon fast asleep.

"When I woke up it was pitch dark, exceptin' that somebody had lighted a big fire in the middle of the open s.p.a.ce, and there was our lads all lyin' round fast asleep. I felt cold, for the night had turned foggy, and I was tryin' to make up my mind to climb down and get a bit nearer to the fire when a most awful yellin' arose, and the next second the place was chock-full of leapin' and howlin' n.i.g.g.e.rs flouris.h.i.+n' great clubs and spears, and bowlin' over our chaps as fast as they got up on to their feet. A few of our people managed to get up, hows'ever, and they got to work with their pistols and cutla.s.ses, and I let fly with my pistol from where I sat up aloft among the branches, and bowled over an ugly, bald-headed old chap rigged in a monkey-skin round his 'mids.h.i.+ps, and carryin' a live snake in his hand.

"The loss of this old c.o.c.k seemed to have a most astonis.h.i.+n' effect upon the other n.i.g.g.e.rs, for whereas the minute afore they'd been doin' all they knew to kill our chaps, no sooner was this old party down than all hands of 'em what had seen him fall stops dead and yells out 'pilliloo'

to t'others, when, dash my wig if the whole lot of 'em didn't just make one jump upon our people--them that was still alive I mean--and beat their weapons out o' their hands, after which they lashes 'em all together, with their hands behind 'em, and marches 'em off into the bush, some twenty or thirty of 'em stoppin' behind to make sure that all of our lads as was down was also dead. And d'ye know how they did that, sir? Why, by just choppin' off their heads with great swords made of what looked like hard wood!

"Seven of our pore chaps lost the number of their mess in this way, and then the savages cleared out, carryin' the heads away with 'em, and leavin' the bodies lyin' scattered about the place. I waited up in my tree until the murderin' thieves had got clear away, and then I starts to climb down, intendin' to foller 'em and find out what they meant to do with the white men as they'd took away alive with 'em, when, as my feet touched the solid ground once more, dash my wig if these here four mates of mine didn't drop out of some other trees close at hand. They'd been worried wi' the ants and what not, same as I was, and, seein' me s.h.i.+nnin' up a tree, they'd gone and done likewise, and that's the way that we five escaped bein' ma.s.sicreed.

"Then the five of us goes to work and holds a council o' war, as you may say; and we agreed that two of us should foller up the savages to find out what game they was up to, while t'other three should go back to the boat and take care of her. But, seein' that away from the scattered embers of the fire it was so dark that you could hardly see your hand before you, we agreed that 'twas no use attemptin' to do anything until daylight; so we got up into our trees again, and held on where we were in case any o' them savages should come back. And a precious lucky thing it was that we thought of doin' so, for--it's the solemn truth I'm tellin' you, gen'lemen--we hadn't very much more'n got settled back on our perches when back comes about a dozen o' them savages, creepin' out from among the trees as quiet as cats, and starts searchin' the whole place up and down as though they'd lost somethin'. My mates and me reckoned it up that them n.i.g.g.e.rs had seen us and counted us some time yesterday, and had found, after the ma.s.sacree, that we wasn't all accounted for, and so they'd come back to look for us. It was a fort'nit thing for us that we was pretty well hid by the leaves, also that the n.i.g.g.e.rs didn't seem to think of lookin' for us up in the trees, and by and by, just as the day was breakin', they took theirselves off again.

"When they'd got fairly away out o' our neighbourhood I climbed down again, and the others follered suit; and Mike, here, and I made sail along the path that the n.i.g.g.e.rs had gone, while the other three topped their booms for the boat, the onderstandin' bein' that they was to get her afloat and swung round all ready, and then wait till Mike and me j'ined 'em.

"Well, Mr Carter, sir, and gen'lemen, Mike here and me follered along the path that the savages had took, for a matter of a couple o' mile, when we hears a tremenjous hullabaloo of n.i.g.g.e.rs shoutin', and tom-toms beatin', and dogs barkin', and what not, so we knowed that we was pretty close aboard a native village, as they calls 'em, so we shortened sail and got in among the bushes, creepin' for'ard until we could see what was happenin'. And when at last we was able to get a pretty clear view, the sight we saw was enough to freeze a man's blood. They'd got all our chaps lashed to stakes set up in a clear, open s.p.a.ce in front of the village, and one of the pore unfort'nit fellers was stripped stark naked and bein' tormented by a crowd o' n.i.g.g.e.rs what was puttin' burnin'

splinters between his fingers, and stickin' 'em into his flesh, and pourin' red-hot cinders into his mouth, what they'd prised open by thrustin' a thick stick in between his jaws; and the shrieks as that unhappy man was lettin' fly was just awful to listen to; but the savages seemed to enjy 'em, for they just yelled with delight at every shriek.

Mike and me we turned as sick as dogs at what we seen; and presently Mike grabs me by the hand and says: 'Let's get back to the s.h.i.+p, mate, and report. P'rhaps the skipper'll forgive us for what we've done, and persuade the navy gent to fit out a hexpedition to rescue the others.'

So away we came as fast as we could, but when we got to the boat she was aground, and we had to wait a long time until she floated. But here we are, sir; and oh, gen'lemen, for the love o' G.o.d do somethin', if ye can, to save them pore chaps what's bein' tormented to death over there."

CHAPTER EIGHT.

THE RESCUE.

For a few seconds after the close of the man's harrowing account there was a dead silence among us. Then the general, wiping the perspiration from his face, turned to me and said:

"Grenvile, my friend, this is a situation for you to grapple with, and a very difficult situation it is, I confess. For, on the one hand, those unhappy men must be rescued at all hazards, while, on the other, it is equally imperative that the s.h.i.+p and those in her should be protected from a possible, not to say very probable, attack by the savages. Now, what is to be done? Of course you will understand that I am ready to play any part that you may a.s.sign to me, but I may be permitted to suggest that I should probably be more useful in leading the sh.o.r.e expedition than in any other way."

"Thank you, general. Yes, no doubt you are right, but it is a very difficult situation, as you say, and I must have a moment or two to think it out."

Then, turning to the five horrified seamen who had returned in the longboat, I ordered them to go forward and get the cook to give them something to eat and drink, for I should be in need of the services of all of them sooner or later, while one of them would have to come with me in the boat as a guide.

The five men whom I addressed--all thoughts of mutiny having by this time been most effectually frightened out of their heads--turned and slouched away forward as meekly as lambs; and the moment that they were gone I was surrounded by an excited crowd of pa.s.sengers, all of whom had come down from the p.o.o.p to listen to the story of the five returned seamen, and every one of them had some more or less unpractical suggestion to make. It was rather unfortunate that they had all heard what had pa.s.sed, for the very graphic narrative, told by an eye-witness, of the gruesome happenings of the past night, and the powerful suggestion of what was probably taking place at that moment away yonder in the woods, had so acted upon the vivid imaginations of the women that one or two of them were visibly upon the very verge of hysterics, while all were more or less in a state of mortal terror as to what might be their fate should the natives take it into their heads to attack the s.h.i.+p. For, that the presence of so many white men as they had encountered would suggest to the astute native mind the idea that a s.h.i.+p was somewhere near at hand was so exceedingly likely that it might almost be accepted as a foregone conclusion. But, terrified though the women were, they behaved marvellously well, and quietly retired when I requested them to do so in order that we men might be left free to discuss details together. But, even while the chatter was raging round me at its most excited pitch, my mind was busy upon the details of the only plan that was at all feasible. Our entire available fighting force, counting in the whole of the male pa.s.sengers, the surgeon, Briggs and his three a.s.sistants, Jenkins the steerage pa.s.senger, the cook, and the five men who had escaped from the savages, amounted to thirty. It was, of course, quite impossible to form, from the account of the five escaped seamen, anything like an accurate estimate of the numbers of the savages, but I believed I should be quite safe in setting them down at not less than three hundred. There were also the four prisoners; but I reflected that as they had not suffered the harrowing experience of the five escaped men, they would probably be still in much too insubordinate a frame of mind to be of any use, and I therefore determined to leave them where they were for the present. I reckoned, however, that not a man would leave the village, either to attack the s.h.i.+p or for any other purpose, until the gruesome sport upon which they were at that moment engaged had been played out to an end; and I therefore came to the conclusion that I should be quite justified in throwing the balance of strength into the land expedition. I accordingly divided my force into two equal parts, placing Simpson in charge of the s.h.i.+p and entrusting him with her defence, with a small crew composed of the surgeon, the four stewards, the cook, Jenkins the steerage pa.s.senger, Messrs. Morton, Fielder, Acutt, Boyne, Pearson, and Taylor, and one of my own men named Sharland, whose wounds rendered him useless for arduous land service, although he might be made very useful at a pinch aboard the s.h.i.+p. This left, for the landing expedition, the general, Carter, myself, and seven _Sharks_, and the five men who had escaped in the longboat. Thus each force consisted of fifteen men. But I considered that the landing force was far the more formidable of the two, since we numbered among us nine trained fighting men; while, in the improbable event of an attack upon the s.h.i.+p, the party left on board her would have the advantage of the deck as a fighting platform, and, if hard pressed, the saloon and deckhouses to which to retreat. I also left them all the muskets and boarding pikes, as well, of course, as their own personal firearms, and the two bra.s.s carronades. As for us, the general and I each had a sword, the _Sharks_ carried a cutla.s.s apiece, and every man of us also had a brace of pistols in his belt, and a pocketful of cartridges. But what I most trusted to for the creation of a good, wholesome panic among the savages was a dozen signal rockets which I had found in the s.h.i.+p's magazine.

Our arrangements being now complete, the general bade a hasty good-bye to his wife and daughter, who bore themselves very bravely upon the occasion, and we all tumbled down over the side into the longboat--into which Briggs had already, with commendable forethought, pa.s.sed a large basket of provisions for the sustenance of ourselves and such of the mutineers as we might be fortunate enough to rescue. It was nearly two o'clock in the afternoon when we shoved off.

It took us but a few minutes to reach the river entrance, pa.s.sing through which we presently found ourselves in a broad, lagoon-like expanse of water, some two miles long by about a mile wide, dotted here and there with small, tree-clad islands, some of which might have been as much as ten or twelve acres in extent, while others were mere heaps of mud just large enough to support a clump of half a dozen or so of coconut trees and a tiny thicket of bamboo. The greater part of this lagoon was evidently very shallow, for dotted about here and there were to be seen partially submerged trunks of trees and other debris that appeared to have been swept down into their present position by some bygone flood, and had ultimately grounded on the mud; but there was just sufficient current and wind to reveal a deep-water channel of about two hundred yards wide, running in a fairly straight line through the lagoon toward its most distant extremity. There were numerous objects dotted about the surface of the lagoon, which, at a distance, had all the appearance of floating logs, but which, when we drew near to them, proved to be, in almost every instance, the heads of basking alligators.

And before we had been in the river ten minutes we were startled by a huge black bulk breaking water close alongside the boat, which turned out to be a hippopotamus.

"Now, Higgins," said I, "whereabout is this creek of yours? I see no sign of it thus far."

"Oh, it's some way on ahead yet, sir!" answered the man. "Keep her straight up through the deep-water, sir, please. I'll tell you when we comes in sight of it."

That the unfortunate mutineers had penetrated some distance into the country soon became evident, for we traversed the entire length of the lagoon and fully a mile of the river after it had narrowed down to about a quarter of a mile in width ere we sighted a break of any kind in the thick entanglement of mangrove trees that lined the margin of the stream. But even this, so Higgins informed us, was not the creek of which we were in search, and which he believed lay nearly a mile farther up the stream. Of the one actually in sight he denied any knowledge, and I soon became convinced that it had escaped the notice of the mutineers.

The break in question was on the northern bank of the river--that is to say, on the same side as the creek of which we were in quest; and when first sighted it was about a quarter of a mile distant. As we drew nearer to it I saw that a deep-water channel led straight to it from the main deep-water channel, at a point about half a cable's-length distant; and I kept my eye upon the spot, as the creek gradually opened out, for I could not help thinking that it presented an almost ideal spot wherein a slaver might conceal herself. And, as I watched, I suddenly saw a column of thick smoke shoot up above the tree tops at a point that I estimated to be not much more than two hundred yards from the mouth of the creek, and in the direction toward which the latter seemed to be trending, while at the same moment the blare of horns and the dub-a-dub- dub of tom-toms was borne faintly to our ears by the fitful breeze.

"Oars!" cried I sharply. "Silence, fore and aft, and listen all of you!"

The men instantly laid upon their oars, and as the boat went surging along with the "way" that she had on her, we all distinctly heard, above the quiet lap and gurgle of the water against her planking, the sounds of which I have spoken, with an occasional swelling of the sound which conveyed the idea of many human voices raised in a monotonous kind of chant.