George Manville Fenn

“ Didn’t he say nothing about no orders?”
“No, Joe.”
“Didn’t he say nothing about hysting another stunsail or two?”
“No, Joe.”
“Oh–h–h!” came in a groan from the men; and Rodd felt for them, for of late they had become more and more attached to their position, and seemed as happy as a pack of school-boys on board the beautiful little schooner.
“But he has been saying something, lads,” continued Rodd, in a low tone.
“Ay, ay, of course,” cried Joe. “Our old man don’t want to lose us, and he knows best what he ought to do. Go on, Mr Rodd, sir; tell us what he means.” ”

“ There she goes, lads!” groaned the poor fellow, for the hull of the sloop had been gradually rising more and more into sight, rapidly at last from the refraction as she had glided into a hotter stratum of air while nearing the schooner, and all at once a white puff of smoke had darted out of her bows, to be followed by a dull heavy thud, when the men turned as with one accord to gaze at their captain, as if hoping against hope that he would still hold on instead of giving an order to fat Gregg, the steersman, to throw the schooner up in the wind. ”

“ As a rule the forest came down to the flowing water on both sides in waves of verdure, with grand trees which every now and then presented the aspect of some gorgeous flower garden, here red, there blue, at other times in lovely wreaths of white, while it seemed, Joe Cross said to the lads, as if one of the blossoming trees took flight every now and then and came skimming over the boat, filling the sky with flowers, so beautiful were the flocks of parrots and other birds that, apparently attracted by the strangers, flew screaming and whistling overhead. ”

“ Uncle will consider it too hot.”
“Hot, sir? Not it! Just right. We shan’t mind. Fishing, netting, rowing. You tell him not to think about us. It will just warm us up, for most on us had the shivers all night.”
The low mist began to lift soon after Rodd had had his bath, for the level rays of the sun began to pierce the grey haze as the great orange orb slowly rolled up from the depths of ocean, investing it with the loveliest of pearly tints and iridescent hues, while not a speck of sail or the clearly marked lines of topmasts could be seen upon the horizon line. ”

“ The cheer was repeated as the Devon boat, in obedience to the dipping of the oars, glided farther out into mid-stream, while directly after there was a heavy swirl just beneath her bows, followed by the sudden protrusion of the huge grinning head of a fierce crocodile, the monster bent on mischief, and receiving a most unexpected salute, for Joe Cross was standing balancing his boat-hook in his hands, ready to lay it down along the thwart, but, quick almost as lightning, he gave it a twirl as he rested one foot upon the gunwale and drove it, harpoon fashion, crash into the reptile’s head. ”

“ Sea-sarpints aren’t much in my line. I have had a turn in a whaler, and though a right whale is a nasty kind of a bird to tackle when she is in her flurry, you know what you are about. There’s the harpoon in her, and you have got her at the end of your line, and you’re waiting for her with your lances ready to put her out of her misery. But even if you have got a few shot in her, a sea-sarpint’s different sort of cattle altogether, and I didn’t like the looks of this ’ere one at all. She came up quite vicious-like to look after us. You see her eye, Mr Rodd, sir? I did, sir, for a moment. ”

“ The time had been short, but too long for the patience of the man-of-war, for before the skipper had opened his mouth to give his order to the steersman, another puff of white smoke darted from the sloop’s bows, there was a heavy thud, and a cannon ball came skipping over the heaving sea like a flat stone thrown by a clever boy across the waters of a pond—dick, duck and drake fashion—while a thrill ran through all on board as they watched the shot pass right in front of the schooner’s bows and give its final splash as it disappeared far away. ”

“ Anxiety has made you nervous, Count. Here’s your doctor,” he said, turning to Captain Chubb, “and before many days have passed he will have cured all your trouble, and we can get to sea again.”
“Ah, yes, that will be better,” said the Count, wiping his moist brow. “You must forgive me, doctor—and you too, Captain Chubb. I am impatient, I know. But I see now all will be well. One moment, though: you said we can get to sea again. We? You will sail with me?”
“My dear sir,” said the doctor, “you need have no fear. Captain Chubb will make your brig as sound as ever. ”

“ I get regularly out of heart. There’s always something wrong. It’s as if we were never to be off. All these weary, weary months gone slowly dragging on.”
“Why, uncle, they seem to me to go like lightning,” cried Rodd.
“Oh, yes, of course. You are a boy, with plenty of time before you. I am getting an old man, and with little time to spare to do all the work I want to. I seem to get not a bit farther.”
“Why, you do, uncle. It’s astonishing what a lot we have done. Let’s see; it’s just fifteen months since you bought the schooner.” ”

“ As it proved in a short time after colours had been hoisted, those of the French brig being raised upon a spare spar, the stranger came steadily on in the most peaceable way till the tide had carried her within reasonable distance of the schooner’s anchorage, when an order rang out, an anchor was lowered with a splash, and as she swung slowly round, a light boat was dropped from the davits, and a swarthy-looking Spaniard, who seemed to be an officer if not the skipper of the swift-looking raking craft, had himself rowed alongside the schooner. ”

“ Then what do you say to monkeys?”
“That I should like to see them alive in the forest.”
“Well, there you have them, sir; and you could come across plenty, if you went far enough, big as boys.”
“Ah, now you are telling travellers’ tales, captain,” said Rodd.
“Nay, my lad, not I. I have seen them as big as boys, only not so tall, because their legs have all gone into arms. Little, short, crooked legs, they have got, as makes them squatty. But when they stand up their arms are so long that they nearly touch the ground. Big as boys? Why, they are bigger! I never saw boys with such big heads. ”

“ I felt as if all the wind had been knocked out of me, and as soon as I could speak and quite understand that my schooner had been took, I began to bully-rag the poor lads who had just escaped with their lives, for, not having time to get a gun or a cutlass, they had been almost as helpless on board as they were in the water among them reptiles. ”

“ It would be little better than murder to leave a man here without a boat.”
Rodd looked hard at Morny, as if questioning him with his eyes; and so the French lad took it to be, for he made a deprecating gesture with his hands.
The doctor was watching his nephew keenly, and now clapped him sharply on the shoulder.
“What are you thinking about, sir?” he cried.
“About what you said, uncle,” said the lad, rather confusedly.
“I didn’t say anything, sir. I was listening to you.”
“Yes, you did, Uncle Paul,” said the boy sternly. “You said that it would be murder to leave a man here without a boat.” ”

“ Mrs Champernowne’s arbour was a very homely affair, consisting of four fir poles to form as many corners, and a few more nailed and pegged together to form gables. Nature built all the rest with roses and honeysuckle and some vigorous ivy at the back, the roses spiring up, the honeysuckle creeping in and out among the long strands and holding them together, while the ivy ran rapidly up the back till it could grow no higher, and then began to droop down till it had formed itself into a thick curtain which kept out the wind. ”

“ Of all the crackbrained, sentimental, outrageous chaps I ever met there’s none of them comes up to a Frenchman.”
“Oh, you are too bad, Captain Chubb.”
“Too bad, eh? Why, aren’t they always kicking up a dust and making revolutions, cutting off their kings’ and queens’ heads, and then going to war with all the world, with their Napoleons and Bonapartes and all the rest of them? Call themselves men!”
“Why, you are as bad as uncle,” cried Rodd merrily. “You and he ought to be always the best of friends. But, if you speak fairly you must own that they are very gallant men.” ”

“ Otherwise everything was wondrously still, and those upon schooner or brig who might have felt doubtful about the Spanish craft saw or heard nothing save the low murmur of voices in conversation and the occasional opening or shutting of a dull lantern, whose use was explained by the sudden glow cast upon the face of some swarthy sailor as he lit a fresh cigarette, after which a couple of faint points of glowing light rising and falling might have been seen passing to and fro upon the Spaniard’s deck. ”

“ A’n’t you got an old friend, ship-owner or ship’s husband—man who’s got his head screwed on the right way, one you knows as honest and won’t take a hundred pounds from t’other side to sell the ship for them?”
“Well, no; I’m afraid I don’t know such a man,” said Uncle Paul.
“Have to find one,” grunted the skipper. “Won’t do to buy a ship with your eyes shut. Got yourself to think of as well as your money. You don’t want to engage a skipper and a crew of good men and true, and drownd them all at sea.”
“Well, no,” said Uncle Paul dryly; “our ambitions don’t lie in that direction, do they, Rodd?” ”

“ It’s what they used to call a bore, with a great wave of water coming up the river like a flood and washing all before it.”
“Had we better land?” cried the doctor.
“And lose our boat, sir? No. Be smart, my lads. It can’t be very far away. All eight of you, oars out, and we must keep our head to it so as we can ride over the big wave and let it pass under us. I don’t suppose there will be much of it. It’s a sort of flood water coming down from yonder after the storm, and it will soon be over. Don’t you worry about it, gentlemen. It will be nothing to a big wave at sea.” ”

“ Don’t know no better, doctor. You do, and it’s too strong, sir; it’s too strong.”
“Then let them leave it alone,” said the doctor hotly.
“That’s right, sir, but maybe they won’t. Don’t mean to say that I am stupid over them, but when I get a good crew I like to take care of them. Here, I’m getting out of breath. Can’t make long speeches. Cut it short.”
“Then say no more about it,” said the doctor.
“Nay, it won’t do. Taking out a good crew of smart lads. Want to bring them all back, not leave none of them sewed up in their hammocks and sunk in the sea with a shot at their heels. ”

“ That made our lads take heart again. We cheered back, and charged, and there were the slavers, blacks, half-breeds and Portuguese, took, as you might say, between the jaws of a big rat-trap, every one of whose teeth was a British sailor; and to save being chopped in two, down they all tumbled into the slaver’s hold, trapped themselves like the poor wretches the hold was packed with. My word, Mr Rodd, sir, there are some things as a fellow never can forget, and that was one of them. ”

“ It hurts,” muttered the boy; and then dream and reality merged in one, for there was another flash and the roar as if of half-a-dozen guns.
But the boy was awake now to the fact that he was not dreaming of the escape of the French brig, but far south of the Equator, lying half stifled in his cot, listening to the roar of a tropic storm, while every now and then the cabin which he shared with his uncle was lit up by the vivid flashes, which were succeeded by fresh roars.
“What a storm,” thought Rodd, “and how hot!” ”

“ The officer was received at the side by the doctor and captain, Rodd standing slightly behind looking hard at the midshipman, who stared harder, frowning and putting on an air of the most consequential kind, while, presumably involuntarily, his left hand played with the ivory and gilt hilt of a curved dirk, suggestive of a strong desire to draw it out of its sheath and flourish it before the schooner’s crew. ”

“ They were too idle to take any interest in the shooting, while their captain, a rather marked object in the sunshine from the bright scarlet scarf about his waist, worn to keep up his snowy white duck trousers, lay upon the top of the big three-masted schooner’s deck-house with his face turned to the glowing sun, and with a cigarette always in his mouth.
“I believe he goes on smoking when he’s asleep, uncle,” said Rodd.
“Yes, Pickle, and if I were an artist and wanted to paint a representation of idleness, there’s just the model I should select. They are a lazy lot.” ”

“ Rodd looked at him in despair.
“Thank you, my lad,” said the skipper dryly. “I am much obliged. But all right, Mr Rodd; you can’t tell, and I can’t tell. We know that the ball that came from the fort must have gone downwards a bit, so that it went out from lower than where it went in; but there’s no knowing whether she was hit from starboard or from larboard, and that’s where I’m bothered. But never say die. I think we will make this bit of canvas fast now, for I’m pretty sure of one thing; it will be a plaister for one hole if it isn’t for the other.”
“But look here, captain,” cried Rodd. ”