Fitz the Filibuster Part 61

The answer was a cheer, and then all eyes were directed to the boats, which were coming faster through the water now, till, at a command from the foremost stern-sheets, the men slackened and waited for their consort to come up abreast.

Another command was given, when the oars dipped faster all together, the boats dividing so as to take the schooner starboard and port.

"Not going to summon us to surrender?" said the skipper sharply. "Very well; but I think we shall make them speak."

The two boys stood together in the stern, close to the wheel, seeing the boats divide and pa.s.s them on either hand; and then with hearts throbbing they waited for what was to come--and not for long.

Matters moved quickly now, till the boats b.u.mped and grazed against the schooner's sides, two sharp orders rang out as their c.o.xswains hooked on, and then with a strange snarling roar their crews began to scramble up to the bulwarks, and with very bad success. They had not far to go, for the schooner's bulwarks were very low for a sea-going vessel, but here was the main defence, the nets fully ten feet high and very strong--a defence suggestive of the old gladiatorial fight between the Retiarius, or net and trident-bearer, and the Secutor, or sword and s.h.i.+eld-carrying man-at-arms.

There was no firing then; the Spaniards seized the net and began to climb, some becoming entangled, as in their hurry a leg or an arm slipped through, while the defenders dashed at them and brought their capstan-bars into use, crack and thud resounding, sending some back upon their companions, others into the boats, while three or four splashes announced the fall of unfortunates into the water.

Loud shouts came from the boats as the officers urged the men on, and from each an officer in uniform began to climb now and lead, followed by quite a crowd on either side, some of them hacking at the stout cord with their cutla.s.ses, but doing little mischief, crippled as they were by the sharp blows which were hailed down by the schooner's crew, upon hand, foot, and now and then upon some unlucky head.

Chips the carpenter, who was nothing without making some improvement upon the acts of his fellows, made a dash at the officer leading the attacking boat on the starboard side, delivering a thrust with the bar he carried, which pa.s.sed right through the large mesh of the net, catching the Spaniard in the chest and sending him backwards into the boat.

"That's what I calls a Canterbury poke, dear boys," he cried. "Let 'em have it, my lads. The beggars look like so many flies in a spider's web; and we are the spiders."

The shouting, yelling, and struggling did not last five minutes. Man after man succeeded the fallen, and then it was all over, the boats floating back with the current until they were checked by those in command, who ordered the oars out and the men to row. But it was some little time before the confusion on board each could be mastered, and the disabled portions of the crew drawn aside.

"Well done, my lads!" cried the skipper. "Couldn't be better!"

"Here," shouted the mate, "a couple of you up aloft and tighten that net up to the stay. Two more of you get a bit of signal-line and lace up those holes."

"Ay, ay, sir!" came readily enough, and the men rushed to their duty.

"Think that they have had enough of it?" said Fitz huskily.

"Not they," replied Poole. "We shall hear directly what they have got to say."

He had scarcely spoken before there was a fierce hail from one of the boats, whose commander shouted in Spanish to the skipper to surrender; and upon receiving a defiant reply in his own tongue, the officer roared--

"Surrender, you sc.u.m, or I'll order my men to fire; and as soon as you are my prisoners I'll hang you all, like the dogs you are."

"Back with you to your s.h.i.+p, you idiot, before you get worse off," cried the captain sternly. "Dogs can bite, and when English dogs do, they hold on."

"Surrender!" roared the officer again, "or I fire."

"At the first shot from your boat," cried the skipper, "I'll give the order too; and my men from shelter can pick off yours much faster than yours from the open boat."

"Insolent dog!" roared the officer, and raising a revolver he fired at the skipper, the bullet whistling just above his head.

In an instant Poole's revolver was out, and without aiming he fired too in the direction of the boat. He fired again and again over the attacking party's heads, until the whole of the six chambers were empty, and with the effect of making the Republican sailors cease rowing, while their boats drifted with the current, rapidly increasing the distance.

The order to fire from the boats did not come, but the second boat closed up to the first, and a loud and excited colloquy arose, there being evidently a difference of opinion between the leaders, one officer being for another attack; the second--so the skipper interpreted it from such of the words as he could catch--being for giving up and going back to the gunboat for advice.

And all the time, both boats still in confusion drifted farther and farther away; but at last the fiery leader of the first gained the day; his fellow gave up, and when the order was given to advance once more in the first boat he supplemented it in the second, and a low deep murmur rose up.

"Why, Fitz," whispered Poole, "they have had enough of it. The mongrels won't come on."

"Think so?" whispered back Fitz, gazing excitedly over the stern, while Poole's fingers were busy thrusting in fresh cartridges till his revolver chambers were full.

"Yes, it's plain enough," cried Poole, for the voices of the officers could be heard angrily threatening and abusing their men; but all in vain.

There was the appearance of struggles going on, and in one boat the sun flashed two or three times from the blade of a sword as it was raised in the air and used as a weapon of correction, its owner striking viciously at his mutinous men.

"Ah!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Fitz. "That's done it. They are more afraid of him than they are of us--of you, I mean. They are coming on again."

For the oars were dipping, making the water foam once more, as the crews in both the boats began to pull with all their might. But only half; the others backed water, and directly after the boats' heads had been turned and they were being rowed back as hard as they would go, till they disappeared round the first bend to the tune of a triumphant cheer given in strong chorus by every man upon the _Teal_.

Just at that moment Fitz clapped one hand to his cheek, for it felt hot, consequent upon the thought having struck him, that in his excitement he had been cheering too. That burning sensation was the result of a hint from his conscience that such conduct was not creditable to a young officer in the Royal Navy.

CHAPTER FORTY TWO.

THE CAMEL'S DEMAND.

The nets were soon mended and the slack places hauled up taut, while the _Teal's_ crew sauntered about the deck, waiting patiently for the next attack, and compared notes about the slight injuries they had received.

Meanwhile the skipper and mate were anxiously on the alert for what might happen next.

"I want to know what they mean, Burgess," the lads heard the skipper say. "They'll never put up with such a rebuff as this."

"Oh, I don't know," growled Burgess. "The officers wouldn't, of course, but they'll never get those swabs to face us for another bout."

"What do you think, then? That they will go back for fresh boats'

crews?"

"That's somewhere about it, or some stinkpots to heave aboard, or maybe, if they have got one, for a barge or pinnace with a boat's gun."

"Possibly," said the skipper, and Poole gave Fitz a nudge with his elbow as if to ask, Did you hear that?--a quite unnecessary performance, for Fitz had drunk in every word.

"Yes," continued the skipper; "they'll be after something or another.

Don Cousin is bound to take us by some means, and we must be on the look-out for a surprise. Can we wait till dark and slip out to sea again?"

"No," said the mate abruptly; "I want broad daylight for anything like that. I couldn't take the schooner a quarter of a mile in the dark without getting her on the rocks."

"I suppose not," said the skipper; "and I suppose it's no use to try and get higher up the stream?"

"Not a bit," replied the mate. "The boats would follow us anywhere. I am very sorry. I've brought you into a regular trap, and there's only one way out, and the gunboat's sitting on it. But under the circ.u.mstances there was nothing else to be done. How I do hate these tea-kettles! But one must look the plain truth in the face. They can go anywhere, and we, who depend upon our sails, can't."

"That's all true enough," said the skipper, "but it doesn't better our position. What I want to know is, how things are going on lower down.

Now, if you lads, or one of you," he continued, turning to the boys, "could s.h.i.+n up that high cliff yonder you could see the boats and the gunboat too, and make signals to us so that we might know what to expect."

"All right, father," said Poole sharply, and he glanced at Fitz as he spoke; "have me landed in the dinghy, and I'll go up and see."

Fitz looked at the speaker, and his eyes said, "All right, I'll come with you;" but the skipper made no answer for a time, but stood shading his eyes and sweeping the face of the cliff, before dropping his hand and saying--

"How would you do it, my lad?"