The Congo Rovers Part 26

By way of reply to this, Smellie, without removing his eyes from the chase, waved his hand gently to the helmsman; the wheel was put a half a dozen spokes or so over to port, and the _Virginia_ slewed slightly more toward her antagonist.

"Now, steady men," cautioned the skipper. "Do not fire until I give the word, then pour your broadside in upon her decks--not a shot below the sheer-strake for your lives." I well knew of whom he was thinking when he said this; Antonia was doubtless in the cabin, and it was her safety for which he was thus careful. "And as soon as you have fired your broadside," he continued, "draw your cutla.s.ses and stand by to board.

Are the grappling-irons all ready?"

"All ready, sir," came the reply from the tars who were standing by to throw them, and then there ensued a few breathless moments of intense silence.

Gradually the two brigs neared each other, until the lap and swirl of the water along our antagonists' sides could be distinctly heard. At that moment a rattling volley of small-arms was discharged from the _Black Venus_, and I saw Smellie start and reel on his elevated perch.

The next instant, however, he had recovered himself, and once more waving to the helmsman, he gave the word:

"_Fire_!"

Prompt at the command, our broadside rattled out, and amid the cras.h.i.+ng of timber and the shrieks of the wounded I felt the jar of collision between the two vessels.

"Heave!" shouted Smellie. "Boarders away!" And with a simultaneous spring fore and aft, away we went over the bulwarks and down on to the crowded decks of the _Black Venus_.

The fight was short but stubborn. Our antagonists fought with the desperate bravery of men who already felt the halters settling round their necks; but whoever heard of British tars yielding an enemy's deck when once their feet were firmly planted upon it? Besides, almost every individual man among us felt that we had a long score of disappointments and floutings to wipe out, and steadily but irresistibly we drove the pirates into the waist of their s.h.i.+p, where, huddled closely together, it was impossible for them to use their arms effectively. Finally, Smellie and Madera, after several unsuccessful efforts to get at each other, managed to cross swords, and after a few rapid pa.s.ses the latter fell, run through the body by the skipper. In the very act of falling, however, he whipped a pistol from his belt and aiming point blank at the skipper, fired, the ball pa.s.sing through Smellie's lungs. The poor fellow turned blindly, and with the blood spurting from his mouth reeled into my arms.

I knew very little of the fight after this, for summoning a couple of men I at once proceeded to remove the skipper on board his own vessel; but before we had got him fairly down on deck a cheer from our lads told us that victory had once more declared herself on our side, and that the redoubtable _Black Venus_ was ours.

Getting Smellie below and into his cot with all speed, I waited until the arrival of the surgeon upon the scene, when, handing the patient over to his tender mercies, I hastened back on board the prize, and went straight below into her cabin. It was a magnificently furnished apartment, and fitted with every luxury, even to a guitar. But it was empty. Could it be possible that we had been deceived, after all, as to the circ.u.mstances of Dona Antonia's abduction? Perhaps she was concealed somewhere. I shouted:

"Dona Antonia! Dona Antonia! are you here? Fear not; it is I--d.i.c.k Hawkesley. We have captured this vessel; Madera is wounded, if not slain outright; your father is at hand, and you are free."

"Who calls?" I heard a voice--Madre Dolores'--exclaim from an adjacent berth, the door of which was closed. "Who calls?"

"I--d.i.c.k Hawkesley," I replied. "Don't you recognise my voice, Madre?"

"Ay, to be sure I do--_rum_" was the reply. A sound of the withdrawal of bolts followed; the door cautiously opened, and the Madre, with her eyes gleaming and a c.o.c.ked pistol pointed straight in my direction, protruded her head through the opening. One look was sufficient. With a wild cry of delight she dashed the pistol to the floor, exploding it in the act, and sending the ball within a hair's-breadth of my starboard ankle, and rus.h.i.+ng forward flung her arms convulsively about my neck, pouring out a torrent of Spanish endearments between the kisses which the poor old soul liberally bestowed upon me. I submitted with a good grace for a moment, and then gently but firmly withdrew myself from her embraces, to meet the glance of Dona Antonia, who stood in the doorway of the state-room, looking on with a curiously mingled expression of fear, doubt, and amus.e.m.e.nt.

A few words sufficed to fully explain to her the state of affairs, and then hastily enveloping her and old Dolores in the first wraps that came to hand, I conveyed them with all speed on board the _Virginia_ and presented them to Don Manuel.

My story is now ended, or nearly so; my adventures on the Congo and the west coast terminating with the capture of the _Black Venus_; a few additional words, therefore, will suffice to fittingly dismiss the princ.i.p.al personages who have figured in this history, and to bring the history itself to a symmetrical conclusion.

We returned with our prize to Banana Creek, on the morning following the action, and there remained for a couple of days to bury the dead, and to refit. Don Manuel embraced this opportunity to make a flying visit to his house, from which he returned after an absence of a few hours only, bringing with him a small but solidly constructed and extremely heavy oak chest, which he explained to me in confidence contained his daughter's dowry, and which eventually proved to be the receptacle of a goodly store of Spanish dollars.

From Banana Creek the two brigs proceeded in company to Sierra Leone, where the _Black Venus_ was soon afterwards adjudicated upon and condemned as a pirate, my evidence and that of the other six survivors from the _Daphne_ being accepted as conclusive of the fact that she had been guilty of at least _one_ act of piracy; namely, in the case of the _Highland Chieftain_. Her crew were committed to prison upon heavy sentences, meted out in proportion to the comparative guilt of the parties; but additional evidence shortly afterwards cropping up--that of poor Richards of the _Juliet_ amongst it--additional charges were preferred against them; and Madera, who proved to be the half-brother of the fict.i.tious Monsieur Le Breton, late of the _Virginia_, with his officers and several of his men, suffered the penalty of death by hanging.

Smellie's wound proving unexpectedly troublesome, he was ordered home that he might have the benefit of a more temperate climate to a.s.sist his recovery, and he accordingly took pa.s.sage for London in a tidy little barque, the _Lilian_, Don Manuel and his daughter, with old Dolores, all of whom had gone on to Sierra Leone with us, also engaging berths in the same vessel. The survivors from the _Daphne_ being also ordered home to stand their trial for the loss of that vessel, I thought I could not do better than secure one of the remaining berths in the _Lilian's_ cabin-- the men being accommodated in the steerage. Thus we had the mutual pleasure of each other's society all the way home.

The pa.s.sage was a long but uneventful one, and by the time that we arrived in the Chops of the Channel Smellie's wound had taken so favourable a turn that he was almost as well as ever, save and except for a little lingering weakness and shakiness in his lower spars, which, somehow, obstinately continued to need the a.s.sistance and support of Dona Antonia's fair arm whenever the two promenaded the deck together.

My gallant superior was extremely anxious to be married immediately on the s.h.i.+p's arrival, and after the usual protestations and pleadings for delay with which engaged maidens delight to torment their lovers, Dona Antonia so far yielded as to consent to the wedding taking place on the earliest possible day after my trial, so that I might be present at the ceremony.

And this arrangement was duly carried out; the trial by court-martial being, of course, a mere form, from which I and my fellow-survivors emerged with a full acquittal, accompanied, in my case, by a few very gracious and complimentary remarks from the president on the manner in which I had conducted myself during my short period of service.

As for Smellie, he found himself fully confirmed in his rank of commander, with the gracious intimation that, in appreciation of his valued services, an appointment would be at his disposal whenever he felt himself sufficiently recovered to ask for it, which he did after a six months' sojourn at home with his young wife. I sailed with him in the capacity of mids.h.i.+pman, and in the West Indies and elsewhere we pa.s.sed through several stirring adventures together, the record of which may possibly be given in the future.

THE END.