One of Clive's Heroes Part 15

"Go and heave your lead, then, and be hanged to it."

Mr. Toley walked away aft and ordered one of the men to heave the deep-sea lead. The plummet, shaped like the frustum of a cone, and weighing thirty pounds, was thrown out from the side in the line of the vessel's drift.

"By the mark sixty, less five," sang out the man when the lead touched the bottom.

"I guess that'll do," said the first mate, returning to the quarter-deck.

"Well, what about your notion?" said the captain scornfully. But he listened quietly and with an intent look upon his weather-beaten face as Mr. Toley explained.

"You see, sir," he said, "while you was talking just now, I sort o' saw that if they attack us, 'twon't be for at least two hours after dark.

The boats won't put off while there's light enough to see 'em; and won't hurry anyhow, 'cos if they did the men 'ud have nary much strength left to 'em. Well, they'll take our bearings, of course. Thinks I, owing to what you said, sir, what if we could s.h.i.+ft 'em by half a mile or so?

The boats 'ud miss us in the darkness."

"That's so," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the captain; "and what then?"

"Well, sir, 'tis there my idea of taking soundings comes in. The _Good Intent_ can't be towed, not with our handful of men; but why shouldn't she be kedged? That's the notion, sir; and I guess you'll think it over."

"By jimmy, Mr. Toley, you en't come out o' Salem Ma.s.sachusetts for nothing. 'Tis a notion, a rare one; Ben Barker en't the man to bear a grudge, and I take back them words o' mine--leastways some on 'em.

Bo'sun, get ready to lower the long-boat."

The long-boat was lowered, out of sight of the enemy. A kedge anchor, fastened to a stout hawser, was put on board, and as soon as it was sufficiently dark to make so comparatively small an object as a boat invisible to the hostile craft, she put off at right angles to the _Good Intent's_ previous course, the hawser attached to the kedge being paid out as the boat drew away. When it had gone about a fifth of a mile from the vessel the kedge was dropped, and a signal was given by hauling on the rope.

"Clap on, men!" cried Captain Barker. "Get a good purchase, and none of your sing-song; avast all jabber."

The crew manned the windla.s.s and began with a will to haul on the cable in dead silence. The vessel was slowly warped ahead. Meanwhile the long-boat was returning; when she reached the side of the _Good Intent_, a second kedge was lowered into her, and again she put off, to drop the anchor two cables' length beyond the first, so that when the s.h.i.+p had tripped that, the second was ready to be hauled on.

When the _Good Intent_ had been thus warped a mile from her position at nightfall, Captain Barker ordered the operation to be stopped. To avoid noise the boat was not hoisted in. No lights were shown, and the sky being somewhat overcast, the boat's crew found that the s.h.i.+p was invisible at the distance of a fourth of a cable's length.

"I may be wrong," said Bulger to Desmond, "but I don't believe kedgin'

was ever done so far from harbour afore. I allers thought there was something in that long head of Mr. Toley, though, to be sure, there en't no call for him to pull a long face too."

An hour pa.s.sed after the kedging had been stopped. All on board the _Good Intent_ remained silent, or spoke in whispers, if they spoke at all. There had been no signs of the expected attack. Desmond was leaning on the gunwale, straining his eyes for a glimpse of the enemy.

But his ears gave him the first intimation of their approach. He heard a faint creaking, as of oars in rowlocks, and stepped back to where Bulger was leaning against the mast.

"There they come," he said.

The sound had already reached Captain Barker's ears. It was faint; doubtless the oars were m.u.f.fled. The s.h.i.+p was rolling lazily; save for the creaking nothing was heard but the lapping of the ripples against the hull. So still was the night that the slightest sound must travel far, and the captain remarked in a whisper to Mr. Toley that he guessed the approaching boats to be at least six cable-lengths distant.

Officers and men listened intently. The creaking grew no louder; on the contrary, it gradually became fainter, and at last died away. There was a long silence, broken only by what sounded like a low hail some considerable distance astern.

"They're musterin' the boats," said Bulger, with a chuckle. "I may be wrong, but I'll bet my breeches they find they've overshot the mark.

Now they'll scatter and try to nose us out."

Another hour of anxious suspense slowly pa.s.sed, and still nothing had happened. Then suddenly a blue light flashed for a few moments on the blackness of the sea, answered almost instantaneously by a rocket from another quarter. It was clear that the boats, having signalled that the search had failed, had been recalled by the rocket to the fleet.

"By thunder, Mr. Toley, you've done the trick!" said the captain.

"I guess we don't get our living by making mistakes--not in Salem, Ma.s.sachusetts," returned the first mate with his sad smile.

Through the night the watch was kept with more than ordinary vigilance, but nothing occurred to give Captain Barker anxiety. With morning light the enemy could be seen far astern.

CHAPTER THE TENTH

*In which our hero arrives in the Golden East; and Mr. Diggle presents him to a native prince.*

About midday a light breeze sprang up from the north-west. The two Indiamen and the uninjured grab, being the first to catch it, gained a full mile before the _Good Intent_, under topgallant sails, studding sails, royal and driver, began to slip through the water at her best speed. But, as the previous day's experience had proved, she was no match in sailing capacity for the pursuers. They gained on her steadily, and the grab had come almost within cannon-range when the man at the mast-head shouted:

"Sail ho! About a dozen sail ahead, sir!"

The captain spluttered out a round dozen oaths, and his dark face grew still darker. So many vessels in company must surely mean the King's s.h.i.+ps with a convoy. The French, so far as Captain Barker knew, had no such fleet in Indian waters, nor had the Dutch or Portuguese. If they were indeed British men-o'-war he would be caught between two fires, for there was not a doubt that they would support the Company's vessels.

"We ought to be within twenty miles o' the coast, Mr. Toley," said Captain Barker.

"Ay, sir, and somewhere in the lat.i.tude of Gheria."

"Odds bobs, and now I come to think of it, those there vessels may be sailing to attack Gheria, seeing as how, as these n.i.g.g.e.rs told us, they've bust up Suvarndrug."

"Guess I'll get to the foretop myself and take a look, sir," said Mr.

Toley.

He mounted, carrying the only perspective gla.s.s the vessel possessed.

The captain watched him anxiously as he took a long look.

"What do you make of 'em?" he shouted.

The mate shut up the telescope and came leisurely down.

"I count fifteen in all, sir."

"I don't care how many. What are they?"

"I calculate they're grabs and gallivats, sir."

The captain gave a hoa.r.s.e chuckle.

"By thunder, then, we'll soon turn the tables! Angria's gallivats--eh, Mr. Toley? We'll make a haul yet."

But Captain Barker was to be disappointed. The fleet had been descried also by the pursuers. A few minutes later the grab threw out a signal, hauled her wind and stood away to the northward, followed closely by the two larger vessels. The captain growled his disappointment. Nearly a dozen of the coast craft, as they were now clearly seen to be, went in pursuit, but with little chance of coming up with the chase. The remaining vessels of the newly-arrived fleet stood out to meet the _Good Intent_.

"Fetch up that Maratha fellow," cried the captain, "and hoist a white flag."

When the Maratha appeared, a pitiable object, emaciated from want of food, Captain Barker bade him shout as soon as the newcomers came within hailing distance. The white flag at the mast-head, and a loud long-drawn hail from Hybati, apprised the grab that the _Good Intent_ was no enemy, and averted hostilities. And thus it was, amid a convoy of Angria's own fleet, that Captain Barker's vessel, a few hours later, sailed peacefully into the harbour of Gheria.

Desmond looked with curious eyes on the famous fort and harbour. On the right, as the _Good Intent_ entered, he saw a long narrow promontory, at the end of which was a fortress, constructed, as it appeared, of solid rock. The promontory was joined to the mainland by a narrow isthmus of sand, beyond which lay an open town of some size. The sh.o.r.e was fringed with palmyras, mangoes and other tropical trees, and behind the straw huts and stone buildings of the town leafy groves clothed the sides of a gentle hill. The harbour, which formed the mouth of a river, was studded with Angria's vessels, large and small, and from the docks situated on the sandy isthmus came the busy sound of s.h.i.+pwrights at work. The rocky walls of the fort were fifty feet high, with round towers, long curtains, and some fifty embrasures. The left sh.o.r.e of the harbour was flat, but to the south of the fort rose a hill of the same height as the walls of rock. Such was the headquarters of the notorious pirate Tulaji Angria, the last of the line which had for fifty years been the terror of the Malabar coast.