The Rover's Secret: A Tale of the Pirate Cays and Lagoons of Cuba

by Harry Collingwood

  CHAPTER SEVEN.

  THE MUTINY.

  During the night a little air of wind sprang up from the eastward whichcarried us out clear of the Mona Passage, and when day dawned we foundourselves with a clear horizon all round the ship. At noon we woreround to retrace our steps, and by sunset we were within a dozen milesof the spot we had occupied at the same hour on the previous evening.

  The day, for a wonder, had passed almost pleasantly; there had been noflogging; Captain Pigot had scarcely showed himself on deck, except fora few minutes after breakfast and again at noon; and the officers of thewatches, glad to be freed from his obnoxious presence, had been carefulnot to unnecessarily hurry and badger the men whilst carrying on theduty of the ship. The only circumstance which, to my mind, seemeddisquieting, was the unusual demeanour of the men, who performed theirwork, steadily enough indeed, but in a moody, unnatural silence,wearing, meantime, a gloomy, preoccupied air, whilst they at the sametime--at least so it appeared to me--seemed to be, one and all, in arestless, anxious, watchful frame of mind, as though they were inmomentary expectation of something happening. I could not at allunderstand this state of things, which was something quite new, for,notwithstanding the skipper's intolerable tyranny, there were a few ofthe men--and those among the best and smartest hands we had in theship--who had hitherto contrived to maintain a fairly cheerfuldemeanour, and who seldom let slip such an opportunity as that affordedby the captain's absence from the deck to indulge in the exchange of aquiet bit of nautical humour or a harmless practical joke with theirnext neighbour. To-day, however, this sort of thing was conspicuouslyabsent; and I was at first disposed to attribute the unwonted gloom tothe men's horror and regret at the lamentable accident of the previousevening. But that, I felt again, would scarcely account for it; for,however sincere may be Jack's attachment to his shipmates whilst theyare alive and with him, they are no sooner dead and buried than, fromhis quickly acquired habit of promptly casting behind him alldisquieting memories, he forgets all about them and their fate.

  At length, as the day wore on and drew to a peaceful close, mymisgivings, such as they were--and they were, after all, so slight asscarcely to deserve mention--passed away; and at eight bells I retiredto my hammock with a dawning hope that perhaps, after all, thecollective remonstrance of the officers was about to bear good fruit.

  My mind being thus at rest, I at once sank into a profound sleep, fromwhich I was abruptly startled by a loud noise of some kind, though whatit was I could not for the moment make out. Almost immediatelyafterwards, however, I heard it again--a loud furious combined shout ofmany voices from the fore part of the ship. Feeling instinctively thatsomething was wrong, I leaped from my hammock--as also did Courtenay, myonly companion in the berth--and began hurriedly to search for myclothes by the dim light of the smoky lamp which hung swaying from thedeck-beam overhead. Before, however, I had time to do more than don mysocks, a grizzled weatherbeaten main-topman named Ned Sykes made hisappearance in the doorway of the berth, with a drawn cutlass in his handand a pair of pistols in his belt. He looked intently at us both for amoment, and then said, in a gruff but kindly tone of voice:

  "Muster Lascelles, and Muster Courtenay, ain't it? Ha! that's allright; I reckoned I should find you two young gen'lemen here, safeenough. Now, you two, just slip into your hammicks again as fast as youknows how, and stay there until I gives you leave to get out of 'em."

  "Why, what is the matter, Ned? What is all the row about?" askedCourtenay, with wide-staring, horrified eyes. For, by this time, theshouting and yelling were tremendous, and accompanied by a loudthumping, rumbling sound, produced, as we afterwards ascertained, by theshot which the men were flinging about the decks.

  "The matter is just this here, young 'un," replied Ned, entering theberth and seating himself on a chest, "The hands for'ard has made uptheir minds not to have no more such haccidents as them two thatoccurred last night; nor they ain't a-goin' to have no more floggin' norbully-raggin', so they've just rose up and are takin' possession of theship--Aha! I'm terrible afeard that means bloodshed," as a piercingshriek echoed through the ship. "Now," he continued, seeing that weevinced a strong disinclination to return to our hammocks, "you justtumble into them hammicks and lie down, _quick_; you couldn't do amorsel of good, e'er a one of yer, if you was out there on deck--you'donly get hurted or, mayhap, killed outright,--and I've been speciallytold off to come here and see as neither of yer gets into trouble;you've both been good kindly lads, you especial, Muster Lascelles--you've never had your eyes open to notice any little shortcomin's orskylarkin's on the part of the men, nor your tongues double-hung for togo and report 'em, so the lads is honestly anxious as you sha'n't cometo no harm in this here rumpus."

  "Then the men have actually mutinied," said I--and there I stoppedshort, for at that moment came the sound of a rush aft of many feet,with shouts and curses, mingled with which I heard the loud harsh tonesof Captain Pigot's voice raised in anger. The _melee_, however, if suchthere was, quickly swept aft, and there was a lull for perhaps two orthree minutes, followed by the sounds of a brief struggle on thequarter-deck, a few shrieks and groans, telling all too plainly of thebloody work going forward, and then silence, broken only now and then bythe sound of Farmer's voice, apparently issuing orders, though what hewas actually saying we could not distinguish.

  During all this time Courtenay and I lay huddled up in our hammocks, tooterrified and horror-stricken to say a word. At length, after the lapseof about an hour of quietness on deck, Sykes--after cautioning us mostearnestly not, on any account, to move from where we were until hisreturn--set out with the expressed intention of ascertaining how theland lay. He was absent about a quarter of an hour; and on his returnhe informed us in horrified accents that, out of all the officers of theship, there remained alive only Mr Southcott the master, the gunner,the carpenter, Courtenay, myself--and Farmer, the master's mate, who, itappeared, had taken a leading part in the mutiny, and had been electedto the command of the ship. It was evident, from the scared andhorrified appearance and manner of our informant, that he had neveranticipated any of this awful violence and bloodshed, though he franklyadmitted that he had been a consenting party to the mutiny--the generalunderstanding being that the officers were all to be secured in thefirst instance, and afterwards handed over as prisoners to the enemy--and he hurriedly explained to us that, for his own safety's sake, itwould now be necessary for him to leave us and join the rest of themutineers without delay, but that he would return to us as soon as hepossibly could; and that, in the meantime, we were on no account toleave the berth, or our lives would certainly be sacrificed.

  After hearing such statements as these, no further warning was needed tokeep us two unhappy mids close prisoners for the rest of the night.Further sleep was of course quite out of the question; so we hastilydressed, and, closing the door of the berth, seated ourselves on a sea-chest, where we passed the remainder of the night discussing the awfultragedy which had so suddenly been enacted, comparing notes as to ourmutual forebodings of some such disaster, and, lastly, wondering whatwould be the ultimate fate of ourselves and the few other survivingofficers.

  At length, after what appeared to be a very eternity of suspense andanxiety, steps were heard approaching the berth; and, upon our throwingopen the door, Sykes, somewhat the worse for liquor, made hisappearance, hailing us, in tones of obviously forced joviality, with:

  "Well, what cheer, my fighting cocks--my bully bantams? How goes it?Hope your honours has passed a comfortable night," with a ghastly grinat his own facetiousness. Then, with considerably more seriousness ofmanner, he continued:

  "Well, young uns, Farmer--or _Mister_ Farmer, I should say--has beenaxing arter you, and his instructions am that you may now go 'pon deck.But--hark 'e, my bullies, keep your weather eyes a-liftin' and a stopperupon your tongues. Whatsomever you may happen to see don't you be ledaway into indulgin' in any onpleasant remarks upon it; nor don't you gofor to try and talk over any
of the lads into `returning to their duty,'or any rot of that sort; for so sure as either of you attempts anythinglike that, so surely will you get your brains blowed out. The ship'stook--what's done is done--and neither you nor nobody else can make ormend the job; the men is in a mighty ticklish humour, I can tell 'e, andif you wants to save your precious carcasses you'll have to walk mightycarcumspect. And that's the advice and opinion of a friend, all free,gratis, and for nothink. Now, come along, my hearties; show a leg!"

  We followed our well-meaning guide up the ladder to the quarter-deck,where we found Farmer apparently awaiting our appearance. He wasstanding or rather leaning in a wearied attitude against a gun on thestarboard side of the deck; his cheeks were flushed and his eyes gleamedfeverishly; he looked a good twenty years older than he had appeared tobe on the previous day; and, like a good many of the other mutineers, heappeared to have been indulging somewhat freely in liquor. He rousedhimself at our approach, and, seating himself in a negligent, carelessattitude on the breech of the gun, said:

  "Good morning, young gentlemen. I am glad to see you both safe andsound. Sykes has of course informed you of what has taken place--he hadmy instructions to do so, as also to see that you were kept out ofharm's way last night. Now, what I have to say to you is this. You twolads having invariably manifested kindness and sympathy for the men,they were especially anxious that whenever the rising might take placeyour lives should be spared. This has been done. You are alive andunharmed this morning, whilst others have gone to render an account oftheir manifold misdeeds--their countless acts of oppression andcruelty--before that Judge in whose sight their lives are not one whitmore valuable than the lives of those whom they have goaded and drivento death--ay, and to _worse_ than death--to such frantic desperation ascan only be allayed by the shedding of blood like water. Now, mark mewell, both of you; you have had neither part nor lot in this matter--those who wished you well have so managed that, whether or no, youshould be kept strictly neutral throughout the affair; all those to whomyou owed obedience are either dead or prisoners; you are not asked orexpected to join us--we do not want you and should not care to have youeven if you were willing--you are therefore relieved from duty; and allthat is asked of you is that you shall interfere in no way, either byword or deed, with the working of the ship or with our plans. If youare agreeable to abide by this proposal, well and good; you will bewelcome to come and go as you like until we find it convenient to landyou; you will be allowed to occupy your former quarters, and yourrations will be regularly served out to you. But if on the other handyou make the slightest attempt to communicate with the prisoners, orendeavour in any way to seduce any of the men from their loyalty to therest, I will hang you both that same hour, one from each yard-arm. Thatis understood and agreed to, is it not, men?" he continued, raising hisvoice and appealing to the crowd of mutineers who had gathered round us.

  "Ay, ay, that's agreed; that's fair enough," was the unanimous reply.

  With that, Farmer waved his hand to us by way of dismissal; andconsiderably thrown off our balance by the address to which we had justlistened, and by the terrible turn affairs had taken generally, we slunkoff to the poop, so as to be as far away as possible from the murderousgang and from the ghastly puddles of coagulated blood about the quarter-deck, which still bore witness to heaven against them.

  At this moment a man on the forecastle electrified all hands byshouting:

  "Sail ho!"

  I saw Farmer start from his seat on the gun as if shot, his flushedfeatures turned ashen pale, and for a moment his palsied lips refused togive utterance to a sound.

  "Sail ho!" repeated the man in a louder hail, thinking, I suppose, thathis first intimation had passed unnoticed. This second hail fairlystartled the men, and in a moment everything was bustle and confusionand panic. It aroused Farmer too; he pulled himself togethersufficiently to respond to the hail with the usual question, "Whereaway?" and, on receiving the reply, "Two points on the larboard bow,"walked forward to personally inspect the stranger. We, of course,likewise directed our glances in the specified direction; and there shewas, sure enough, a large ship, on the starboard tack, with every stitchof canvas set that would draw, and steering a course which would takeher across our bows at a distance of about a mile.

  "Bring me the spy-glass out of the cabin, somebody!" hailed Farmer fromthe forecastle. The glass--a very powerful one and a favouriteinstrument with the murdered captain--was handed him by one of thequarter-masters, and he applied it to his eye. A breathless silence nowprevailed fore and aft for the stranger had all the look of a Britishman-of-war, and everybody was waiting to hear what Farmer's verdictwould be. The inspection was a long-sustained and evidently anxiousone. At length, dropping the glass into the hollow of his arm Farmerturned and said:

  "Bring Mr Southcott on deck, and let us hear his opinion of yonderhooker."

  In a few minutes the master was escorted on deck by a couple of armedseamen, and led forward to where Farmer was standing.

  "Mr Southcott," said the mutineer, turning toward the individualaddressed, and perceptibly shrinking as their glance met, "be goodenough to take this glass, and let me know wha' you think of thestranger yonder."

  "Stranger!" ejaculated Southcott. "Where away? Ah, I see her!" and hetook the glass from Farmer's extended hand.

  "Well, what think you of her?" asked Farmer impatiently, after themaster had been silently working away with the glass for some two orthree minutes.

  "One moment, please," answered Southcott with his eye still glued to thetube; "I think--but I am not quite sure--if she would only keep just themerest trifle more away--so as to permit of my catching a glimpse--"

  "Sail ho!" shouted a man in the fore-top; "two of 'em, a brig and a shipon the starboard beam, away in under the land there!"

  Farmer unceremoniously snatched the glass away from the master andlevelled it in the direction indicated.

  "Ay, ay, I see them," said he. "That is the _Drake_ nearest us, and the_Favourite_ inshore of her. They are all right; we have nothing to fearfrom them. It is this stranger here ahead of us that bothers me. Come,Mr Southcott," he continued, "you ought to know something about her bythis time--you have been looking at her long enough; do you think youever saw her before?"

  The master took the glass, had another long squint at the ship ahead,then handed the instrument back to Farmer, with the answer:

  "I decline to say whether I have or not."

  "That is enough," said Farmer; "your answer but confirms me in myconviction as to the identity of yonder frigate. It is the _Mermaid_.Speak, sir, is it not so?"

  "You are right, Farmer, it _is_ the _Mermaid_, thank God! and you cannotescape. See! she is already hauling up to speak us; and in anothertwenty minutes will be alongside. Now, sir, resign to me the commandwhich you have with so much violence and bloodshed usurped; and you,men," he continued, turning round and in a loud voice addressing therest of the crew, "return at once to your duty. Support and assist mein recovering the command of the ship, and I promise--"

  "Silence!" roared Farmer, striking the master a heavy blow full in themouth with his clenched fist. "Seize him, you two," he continued to themen who had charge of the prisoner, "and if he offers to speak again tothe men clap a belaying-pin between his teeth. My lads, you now knowthe truth; yonder frigate is our old acquaintance the _Mermaid_. MrSouthcott proposes that I should surrender the command of this ship tohim; and if I do so we all know what will follow. Most of us willdangle at the yard-arm; and though, _through the royal clemency_," (witha bitter sneer), "a few may be allowed to escape with a flogging throughthe fleet, with left-handed boatswains' mates to cross the lashes--thinkof that, men, and compare it with the mere two or three dozen at thegangway which most of you have tasted since you joined the _Hermione_--where is the man among you, I ask, who can point to himself and say, `Ishall be one of the _fortunate_ few?' No, no, my lads! after lastnight's work there must be no talk of surrender; the
ropes are alreadyround our necks, and as surely as we ever find ourselves beneath theBritish flag again, so surely will those ropes be hauled taut andourselves bowsed up to the yard-arm. And, even if our lives could beassured to us, what inducement is there to us to serve under Britishbunting again? I say there is _none_. We must choose, then, betweentwo alternatives; we must either fight or fly. Which is it to be?"

  The rest of the mutineers huddled together, evidently irresolute; eachman eagerly sought his neighbour's opinion, the _pros_ and _cons_ ofFarmer's question were hurriedly discussed, and I saw with inexpressibledelight that a good many of the men were more than half disposed to fallin with the master's suggestion.

  Mr Southcott must have seen this too, for he wheeled round upon Farmerand exclaimed:

  "Surely, Farmer, you are not mad enough to entertain the idea offighting the _Mermaid_? Why, man, you could not stand up before her forfive minutes with the men in their present undisciplined state and noone but yourself to direct operations. Your defeat under suchcircumstances is an absolute certainty; and think what would be the fateof yourself and your misguided followers if taken in arms against theflag under which they have sworn to serve. At present some at least ofthem may hope for mercy if they will but--"

  "Away with him! Take him below!" shouted Farmer, "and if he attempts toopen his mouth again put a bullet through his brains. Now, shipmates,"he continued, as the master was hurried below, "make up your minds, andquickly too; which will you have, the yard-rope or a pitched battle?"

  "What occasion is there for either?" inquired a burly boatswain's-mate."There's more ways of killing a cat than choking of her with cream.Let's square dead away afore it and set stunsails alow and aloft, bothsides. I'll lay my life we run far enough away from the _Mermaid_ aforesunset to dodge her in the dark."

  "No good," dissented Farmer. "The _Mermaid_ could beat us a couple ofknots off the wind in this breeze."

  "Ay, ay; that's true enough; she could so," assented a topman. "But wehave the heels of her on a taut bowline; so why not brace sharp up onthe starboard tack, pass between the islands, and then make for PortoRico?"

  "What! and run the gauntlet of those two cruisers inshore there, as wellas take our chance of falling in with the _Magicienne_ and the_Regulus_, which we know are knocking about somewhere in that direction!Is that the best counsel you can give, Ben?"

  "Well, then, let's haul close in with the land, set fire to the ship,and take to the boats," answered Ben.

  "And what then?" sneered Farmer.

  "Why, land, to be sure, and take sarvice with Jack Spaniard," was thereply.

  "Why, man, do you suppose they would welcome us if we went to themempty-handed?" asked Farmer. "No, no, that will never do. If we jointhe Spaniards we must take the ship with us to ensure a welcome; and I'mhalf inclined to think that will be the best thing we can do. But notnow; that must be thought over at leisure. Meanwhile, what is to bedone in the present emergency? We have no time for further argument.Will you stand by me and obey my orders?"

  "Ay, ay, we will, every man Jack of us, sink or swim, fight or fly," wasthe reply from a hundred throats.

  "That's well, my lads," exclaimed Farmer exultantly; "it shall go hardbut I will bring you through somehow. Starboard your helm, there," tothe man at the wheel; "let her come to on the larboard tack; to yourstations, men; let go the larboard sheets and braces, and round in onthe starboard. Smartly, my bullies; let's have no bungling, now, orCaptain Otway there will at once suspect that something is amiss.That's well; ease up the lee topgallant and royal-braces a trifle; wellthere of all; belay! Afterguard, muster your buckets and brushes andwash down the decks. Roberts, go below with a gang and rouse thehammocks on deck; and quarter-masters, see that they are snugly stowed.Where's the signal-man? Bend the ensign on to the peak-halliards andour number at the main; and main-top, there I stand by to hoist away thepennant. Gunner, muster your crew; go round the quarters with them; andsee that everything is ship-shape in case we should have to make a fightof it."

  I was surprised to see how, as Farmer issued his orders in a tone ofauthority, the instinct of discipline asserted itself; the men sprang totheir stations as nimbly and executed their several duties as smartly asthough Captain Pigot himself had been directing their movements. The_Hermione_ was braced sharp up on the larboard tack and heading as nearas she would lay for the _Mermaid_, which was now about a point and ahalf on our weather bow, about four miles distant, and nearing us fast;whilst the _Favourite_ and the _Drake_ were stretching out from underthe land to join her.

  Presently a string of tiny balls went soaring aloft to the _Mermaid's_main-royal mast-head, to break abroad as they reached it and stream outin the fresh morning breeze as so many gaily coloured signal flags.

  "There goes the _Mermaid's_ bunting, sir!" sang out the signal-man, "sheis showing her number."

  "Ay, ay, I see it," exclaimed Farmer. "And, by Heaven," he added, "itnever struck me until this moment that Pigot was senior captain. Hoistaway your ensign and pennant! up with the number! We are all right, myhearties; I know how to trick them now."

  He raised the telescope to his eye and brought it to bear upon the_Mermaid_.

  "All right," he exclaimed a few seconds later, "she sees our number--haul down! Now signal her to chase in the north-eastern quarter.Hurrah, my hearties, that's your sort! There goes her answeringpennant; and there she hauls to the wind on the starboard tack. Thatdisposes of her at all events. Now signal the _Favourite_ and _Drake_to chase to the nor'ard; that will send them through the Mona Passage,and leave us with a clear sea."

  A quarter of an hour later the three cruisers which had caused themutineers so much uneasiness were thrashing to windward under every ragthey could spread; when Farmer bore up and ran away to the southward andwestward with studding-sails set on both sides of the ship.