CHAPTER ELEVEN.
CAPTAIN CARERA IMPARTS SOME INTERESTING INFORMATION.
Not a word was said by either of us until the unknown one had emergedfrom the companion and removed himself well out of ear-shot. Then, asCourtenay pushed the cigar-box across the table to me, after selecting aweed for himself, he looked me in the face and, with a mischievoustwinkle in his eye, remarked:
"Well, Lascelles, what is your interpretation of this riddle? What isthe character of this felucca? Who and what is her skipper? Andwhither are we bound?"
"Hush!" said I, "here comes the boy. We shall find ourselves in anexceedingly awkward fix unless we keep a very bright lookout."
Here Francisco entered the cabin and began to clear away the wreck ofthe breakfast.
"Why, Francisco, my lad, you look pale. You surely do not feel sea-sick, do you?" exclaimed Courtenay.
"Sea-sick! oh, no!" said the lad. "I got over all that long ago."
"Ah, indeed!" remarked my fellow-mid in his usual off-hand manner."And, pray, what may `long ago' mean? Last voyage, or the voyagebefore--three months ago--six months--a year?"
"More nearly two years ago, senor. I shall have been to sea two yearscome next month," was the reply.
"Two years, eh! Why, you are a perfect veteran, a regular old sea-dog,Francisco," continued Courtenay as he exhaled a wreath of pale-bluesmoke from his pursed-up lips and watched it go curling in fantasticwreaths up through the open sky-light. "And have you been all that timein the _Pinta_?"
"Yes, senor, all that time. Captain Carera is my uncle, you know. Headopted me when my mother died, and has promised to make a sailor ofme."
"Ah! very good of him; very good, indeed," went on Courtenay. "A veryworthy fellow that uncle of yours, Francisco. And has the _Pinta_ beenengaged in the same trade ever since you joined her?"
"The same trade, senor? I--I--"
"There, don't be alarmed at my question, my lad," interrupted Courtenay."You need not answer it unless you choose, you know; but there is nooccasion for secrecy with _us_. You understand that, do you not?"
"Well, I don't know, I am sure, excellency. I suppose it is all right,however, or you would not be here, so I do not mind answering. We_have_ been engaged in the same trade--for the most part--ever since Ijoined the _Pinta_."
"And a pretty profitable business your uncle must have found it,"remarked Courtenay.
"I don't know so much about that, senor," was the reply. "It _used_ tobe profitable enough at first, I believe, when el capitano had it all inhis own hands. But now that Giuseppe has admitted other traders, we notonly have to pay higher prices for the goods, but we also have to takeour turn with others for a cargo. Then, too, Giuseppe has not been sovery fortunate of late; the British cruisers have given him a great dealof trouble."
"Ah, yes, they are a pestilent lot, those British--always thrustingtheir noses into other people's business!" agreed my unabashed chum."Well," he continued to me, "shall we go on deck and take a look round?Uncommonly good cigars these of your uncle's, Francisco. Leave the boxon the table, my lad, will ye?"
On reaching the deck we were now, for the first time, able to takeparticular note of the vessel on board which we, by some inexplicableblunder, thus found ourselves--for that a blunder had been perpetratedby somebody we now fully realised. The craft proved to be a sturdylittle felucca of some sixty tons or so; very shallow and very beamy inproportion to her length; stoutly built, with high quarters, and low butwidely-flaring bows, which tossed the seas aside in fine style andenabled her to thrash along with perfectly dry decks. She was riggedwith a single stout, stumpy mast, raking well forward, upon which wasset--by means of an immense yard of bamboos "fished" together, and twicethe length of the craft herself--an enormous lateen or triangular sail,the tack of which consisted of a stout rope leading from the fore-end ofthe yard to a ring-bolt sunk into the deck just forward of the mast,whilst the sheet travelled upon an iron hawse well secured to thetaffrail. There were five hands on deck when we made our appearance,namely, the skipper and the helmsman--who were having a quiet chattogether--and three men in the waist, on the weather side of the deck,who were busy patching a sail. The weather was gloriously fine, withscarcely a cloud to be seen in the clear sapphire vault overhead; and afresh cool breeze from about east-north-east was ruffling up the white-caps to windward, straining at the huge sail until the yard bent like afishing-rod, and careening the gallant little craft to her covering-board, whilst it drove her along at the rate of a good honest nine knotsin the hour. There was no other sail anywhere in sight, nor indeedanything to distract attention from the little vessel herself, save theshoals of flying-fish which now and then sparkled out from under ourforefoot and went skimming away through the air to leeward, until theyvanished with a flash, only to reappear, perhaps, next moment, withtheir inveterate foe, a dolphin, in hot pursuit. The moment we showedourselves above the companion the skipper rose to his feet--he had beensitting cross-legged on the deck, under the weather bulwarks--and joinedus, evidently under the impression that it was an essential part of hisduty to make himself agreeable. He made some commonplace remark aboutthe weather, to which we both vouchsafed a ready and gracious response,very fully realising by this time the peculiarity and perilous nature ofour position on board the felucca--a position from which it was, ofcourse, utterly impossible for us then to effect a retreat--and beingespecially anxious not only to avert any possibility of a suspicion asto our _bona fides_, but also to extract such further hints as mighttend to the elucidation of that position. For some time theconversation was of a general and utterly unimportant character; atlength, however, Carera, evidently reverting to the topic which wasuppermost in his mind, remarked:
"I have thought it best, senors, to mention to Manuel, my mate there,"nodding his head toward the helmsman, "and the rest of the hands, thefact that you are both seamen, and they are as pleased as I was to hearit. It has made matters much easier for us all round, and very muchless dangerous for you; indeed, Manuel thinks that if you will onlyconsent to act as part of the crew whilst we are in harbour there, andrig accordingly, neither Giuseppe nor any of his people will suspectanything, and you will thus be able to freely look about you and makesuch observations as will enable you to subsequently carry out your partof the scheme with success. If it can only be carried through it willmake all our fortunes, for they must have doubloons stored away by thecaskful by this time. Why, I am taking across two hundred doubloonsthis time to trade with, and I have never taken less in any one of mytrips."
"And how many trips do you consider you have made altogether?" askedCourtenay.
"Oh, well, let me see--not less than sixty, I should suppose," was theanswer.
"Sixty times two hundred gives twelve thousand. Twelve thousanddoubloons--that is a goodly sum indeed," murmured I.
"Yes," answered Carera; "and to that you must add what the other tradershave taken across, which will perhaps amount to at least as much more.And there is also the specie which he has captured, and which of coursehe has had no need to barter away."
"Whew!" I involuntarily whistled, a great light suddenly bursting inupon my hitherto darkened understanding. Courtenay frowned a warning tome, and I hastened on to say: "That will be a big haul, certainly. Why,Carera, you will be able to retire from the sea altogether, and livelike a gentleman for the rest of your days."
"Yes," he responded somewhat gloomily, "if the secret is well kept. Ifnot--if it ever gets abroad that any of us on board here have been themeans of--of--well, of betraying Giuseppe and his gang, our lives willnot be worth a maravedi; for were all hands over there,"--noddingahead--"to be taken, there would still be the traders to reckon with.We shall completely spoil their game, you know, senors, and where thereis so much money to be made out of it they would never forgive us."
"Pooh!" exclaimed Courtenay reassuringly, "have no fear about that; theywill never get to know how the thing has happened. If you can onlydepend upon your
own people keeping close you may rely upon _our_ somanaging affairs that no suspicion shall rest upon you."
"I hope so--I fervently hope so!" murmured Carera anxiously. "Richeswould be of little value if one had to go about in constant dread of theassassin's knife."
We gave a cordial affirmation to this sentiment, and then noticing thatour worthy and most estimable skipper seemed somewhat indisposed forfurther conversation just then, Courtenay and I retired to the cabin totalk matters over, having at length extracted sufficient information toshow us pretty nearly how the land lay.
On getting below Master Courtenay's first act was to carefully selectanother cigar from the box on the table, cut off the point withmathematical regularity, light the weed, and then push the box over tome with the cheerful invitation:
"Help yourself, old fellow. Really superb weeds these--wonder what wasthe name of the ship these were taken out of, eh?"
Then he seated himself upon the lockers, planted his elbows squarely onthe table, rested his chin in the palms of his hands, and, in this by nomeans elegant attitude, puffed a long thin cloud of smoke at me. Heintently watched the tiny wreath for a moment or two, and then brokeground by saying:
"Well, Lascelles, old boy, do you happen to know whereabouts we are?"
"Certainly," I answered, in perfectly good faith; "we are now just aboutone hundred and twenty miles to the northward and westward of LaGuayra."
"Precisely. And we are--also--in--the--centre--of--a--hobble!" retortedthe lively youth, nodding his head impressively at every word to give itadditional emphasis. "In the centre of a hobble--that's where you and Ihappen to be at the present moment," he continued more soberly. "Let uslook at the facts of the case. To start with, we are manifestly onboard the wrong ship. The crew of that ship, or _this_ ship--it is allthe same in the present case--take us to be, not two unfortunatefugitive British midshipmen yearning to return to their duty, but twoofficers of the Spanish navy told off by that no doubt most respectableold gentleman--whose acquaintance I regret I have not yet had the honourof making--the captain-general, to execute a certain duty which we mayperhaps make a rough guess at, but as to the precise nature of which weare at present without any definite information. Do you agree with meso far?"
"Yes," said I. "But why can't you discuss the matter seriously? It mayprove serious enough for us both at any moment, Heaven knows!"
"True for you, O lovelorn youth with the solemn visage. But whereforethis emotion? _Becoje tu heno mientras que el sol luciere_ is as sounda bit of wisdom as any that I have happened to pick up during ourexceedingly pleasant sojourn at La Guayra. `Make hay whilst the sunshines!'--make the most of your opportunities--have all the fun you canduring your enforced absence from the jurisdiction of the first luff--isa proverb which ought to command the most profound respect of everyBritish midshipman; and I am surprised at you, Lascelles, anddisappointed in you, that you so little endeavour to live up to it,"remarked Courtenay. "However," he resumed, "there is a certainglimmering of truth in what you say; this hobble--I like the word`hobble,' don't you, so expressive, eh?--this hobble, then, in thecentre of which we find ourselves, may prove a serious enough matter forus both at any moment, so let us go carefully over the ground andascertain exactly how we stand. To start once more. I suppose you areprepared to accede to my proposition before stated, that we have by someunaccountable mistake blundered on board the wrong craft; and that onboard her we have, in the same unaccountable way, established in our tworespectable selves a most interesting case of mistaken identity, eh?"
"Yes," said I, "I agree with you there. Go on," seeing that it wasquite hopeless to think of diverting him from his ridiculous mood.
"That is all right," resumed Courtenay. "Now, judging from thefragmentary information we have been able to acquire thus far in ourinteresting conversations with that amiable old traitor, Carera, on deckthere, I imagine our position to be this. We are two youthful butintelligent Spanish naval officers commissioned by the captain-generalat La Guayra to accompany Carera on a little trading voyage he is makingto certain lagoons lying somewhere inside the Barcos Channel. Now where_is_ the Barcos Channel? Do you know?"
"Haven't the slightest idea, beyond the exceedingly hazy one I have beenable to form from what Carera said," answered I.
"Neither have I," acknowledged Courtenay. "But I think we know enoughto identify its position very nearly. If I understood our friend arightwe are now heading for Cape Irois, the most westerly point of SaintDomingo. From thence he intends to shape a course for Cape Maysi, whichwe both know to be the easternmost point of Cuba. Then, havingweathered that point, he informed us that we might expect to have thewind well on our starboard quarter, which--knowing as we do that theprevailing wind in that latitude is from about east-north-east--meansthat we shall be steering a westerly course, or say from west to north-west. That would take us up along the northern coast of Cuba. Now, howlong did you understand Carera to say it would take us to complete therun to the Barcos Channel?"
"Something like forty-eight hours," I replied.
"Exactly," acquiesced Courtenay. "That was what I understood. Now Ishould say that, with the wind on her quarter, this little hooker may beexpected to run about ten knots per hour, which, for forty-eight hours,gives a run of four hundred and eighty miles, at which distance, thereor thereabouts, from Cape Maysi, I imagine the Barcos Channel to be.That, then, seems to indicate approximately the locality of the spot towhich we are bound. Do you agree with me?"
"I do," said I. "That is precisely how I have reasoned it out in my ownmind."
"That is well," resumed Courtenay. "Now, why are we going there?Manifestly to assist in the betrayal of one Giuseppe something--I don'thappen to know his other name. From a hint dropped by Carera I haveformed the opinion that this Giuseppe must be an industrious, hard-working, and, withal, somewhat canny gentleman of the piraticalprofession; a man who seems to have made the business pay pretty well,too, for does not our friend on deck estimate that he has accumulatedthe tidy little sum of close upon twenty-five thousand doubloons? Now,however, that fickle goddess, Fortuna, appears to have withdrawn hersmiles from him. Those pestilent British cruisers are interfering withhim, and we know that when _they_ meddle with a business of that kind itmeans simple ruination for the honest people who are trying to make alivelihood out of it; consequently, our amigo Carera is no longer ableto depend upon finding a rich cargo, at a low figure for cash, awaitinghim at Giuseppe's snug little stronghold. Carera, the honest andfaithful, therefore proposes to become virtuous. He has, doubtless, oflate experienced certain qualms of conscience respecting the trade he isat present engaged in, and he has made up his mind to abandon it. Hehas also resolved to reform his friend Giuseppe; and, in order that thereformation of that estimable person may be made thoroughly effectual,he has undertaken--for a consideration, most probably a share of theplunder--to point out to us, the captain-general's deputies, the variousrocks, shoals, and other impediments which obstruct the fairway to thepirates' anchorage, and to indicate the several sea-marks which willenable us to safely and successfully pilot an expedition into such aposition as will enable it to knock Giuseppe's stronghold into a cockedhat. How does that accord with your view of the situation?"
"Yes," said I, "I think you are about right. That is pretty much theidea I have formed of it."
"Good, again!" ejaculated Courtenay. "Let us go a little further. Wenow come to the `hobble,' or dilemma, if you prefer the latter word, inwhich we find ourselves. The unfortunate hitch in this business, as Ilook at it, is this. It so happens that we are _not_ the captain-general's deputies, but two British midshipmen, and we want to go, notto the Barcos Channel, but to Port Royal. How are we to get to thelatter place?"
"That is a question which will demand our most serious consideration;but we need not worry about it for a few days," I replied. "And, as toour not wanting to go to the Barcos Channel, why should we not want togo there?"
"
Why, because we want to go to Port Royal instead, I suppose. What d'yemean, Lascelles?--hang it, man, I--what are you driving at?" stammeredCourtenay, thoroughly taken aback.
"Ah!" said I, with a certain air of triumph, I am afraid, "I see that myplan has not yet dawned upon your benighted understanding. What is toprevent our going to this Barcos Channel, seeing everything that is tobe seen there, and then making our way to Port Royal--the difficulty asto that will be no greater then than it is now--and reporting the wholeaffair to the admiral, who will doubtless send an expedition on his ownaccount, and send us with it as a reward for our--"
"That will do," interrupted Courtenay enthusiastically. "By George,Lascelles, you are a trump! a genius! a--a--in fact I don't know whatyou are not, in the line of `superior attainments,' as my schoolmasterused to say. And I--what a _consummate_ idiot I must have been not tothink of it too! I say, old fellow, would you be so kind and obligingas to kick me _hard_ once or twice. No? Well, never mind; I daresaysomebody else will, sooner or later, so I will excuse you. But, I say,Lascelles," he continued, as serious now as myself, "it is an awfulrisky thing to do; do you think we have nerve and--and--_impudence_enough to carry it through without being found out? We are only twoagainst ten, you know, on board here; and if we are detected it will bea sure case of,"--and he drew his hand suggestively across histhroat--"eh?"
"No doubt of that, I think," said I. "But why should we be found out?I feel as though my nerve would prove quite equal to the task; and asfor impudence, you have enough and to spare for both of us."
"All right, then," said he, "we'll chance it; and there's my hand uponit, Lascelles. You make whatever plans you may consider necessary, andI'll back you up through thick and thin. A man can but die once; and ifwe fail in this we shall at least have the consolation of feeling thatwe fell whilst doing our duty--for there can be no mistake about itsbeing our duty to bring about the destruction of that gang of pirateswho, I now feel convinced, are lurking among those lagoons inside theBarcos Channel."
"Yes," said I, "I think there can be no doubt about that. And now,having arrived at a clear understanding as to what we are about to do, Ithink it is all plain sailing up to the time of our arrival in thoselagoons. We must carefully note every particular which Carera may pointout to us, and make a sort of chart, if possible, wherewith to refreshour memories; after which it only remains for us to find our way to PortRoyal; and _that_, it seems to me, is the only item in our programmewhich is likely to give us any very serious difficulty."
This closed the discussion for the time being, and we went on deck,where Carera once more obsequiously joined us, much to our disgust; forit seemed probable that, if this sort of thing was to continue, weshould find the fellow far too attentive to suit our ulterior plans.We, however, made the best of the matter, and, finding that his thoughtswere wholly occupied with the trip and its object, we simply let himtalk about it to his heart's content, merely interjecting a remark hereand there with the object of directing his conversation into suchchannels as would afford us the information in which we still happenedto be deficient. In this way we gradually--and with some little skill,we flattered ourselves--acquired full particulars of the plot in thecarrying out of which we were supposed to be important agents, and whichturned out to be very much the sort of thing we had already pictured toourselves. The man Giuseppe was, we found, an Italian, who had made hisappearance in West Indian waters some five or six years previously,first in the character of a slaver, and afterwards as an avowed pirate.He was, according to Carera's account, a man of exceptional daring, aswily as a fox, and a thorough seaman; and these excellent qualities hadnot only raised him to the position of head or chief of the powerfulgang with whose fortunes he had identified himself, but had also enabledhim to carry on his nefarious business so successfully that he hadgradually acquired an almost fabulous amount of booty, and had at thesame time gained for himself--at all events among the Spaniards--thesomewhat sensational title of "The Terror of the Caribbean Sea." He hadestablished a sort of head-quarters for himself in a snug spot at thehead of the Conconil lagoons, where he had erected buildings for theaccommodation of his entire gang--part of which always remained on shoreto look after the place--and where he had gradually surrounded himselfwith every convenience for repairing and refitting his craft. It was tothis secluded, and indeed almost unknown spot, that he was in the habitof running for shelter when hard pressed by the cruisers who were alwayson the lookout for him; and, from Carera's description of thedifficulties of the navigation, it would seem almost impossible todevise or hit upon a place better suited for such a purpose. It washere, also, that he first stored his plunder, and afterwards bartered itfor gold or such necessaries as he might happen to require, with thethree or four favoured individuals who, with the most extremeprecaution, he had invited to trade with him. And it was the key to thenavigation of these lagoons and their approaches which Carera hadundertaken to sell to the Spanish authorities in consideration of hisreceiving, as the price of his treachery, one-half the amount of thecaptured spoil.
For the remainder of that day our minds were chiefly occupied with thequestion of how, after our visit to the Conconil lagoons, we were tomake our way to Port Royal; and the more carefully we considered thequestion the more numerous and insurmountable appeared to be thedifficulties in our way. It was not as though we were going to touch ata civilised port; in that case, if it came to the worst, we might haverun away from our craft and taken our chance of getting another to suitus. But this, under the circumstances, was out of the question.Moreover, directly we began to consider the matter, it seemed imperativethat the _Pinta_ and her entire crew should be detained at least untilour expedition should have sailed, otherwise Carera, finding himselfduped, might endeavour to make the best of a bad matter by hurrying offto warn Giuseppe of the possibility of our beating up his quarters. Thesituation eventually resolved itself into this: that whereas, on thecompletion of our ostensible trading errand, the _Pinta_ would, in theordinary course of events, return to La Guayra, taking us with her--whenon her arrival the whole fiasco would come to light and the leastmisfortune we might expect would be a return to our loathsome prisonquarters--it was necessary for the success of our plan that the craftand her crew should, by some means or other, find their way to RoyalPort. How was the affair to be managed? The outlines of a scheme atlength arranged themselves in my mind; and, although it was of sodesperate a character that we agreed it was almost impossible that weshould be able to carry it through, we nevertheless took immediate stepsto further its accomplishment. It was not much that we could do justthen; all that was possible for us was to assume extreme pleasure atbeing allowed to steer the little craft; and we so managed affairs thatin the course of a few days it came to be an understood thing among thehands that whenever either of them happened to be too lazy to take his"trick" at the tiller he could always get relief by appealing to one orthe other of us--if we happened to be on deck at the time.
The breeze continued to hold from the eastward; but as we drew overtoward the coast of Saint Domingo it softened down a trifle; so that, onour arrival off Cape Irois, we found ourselves just about twelve hoursbehind the time reckoned on by Carera. That, however, was a matter ofno very great moment, being rather an advantage than otherwise, since itenabled us to slip across the Windward Channel with less risk of beingsighted and overhauled by a British cruiser, an incident which--now thatCourtenay and I had quite made up our minds to go through with theadventure--we were folly as anxious as any of the _Pinta's_ regular crewto avoid. We were fortunate enough to make the passage withoutmolestation, though not wholly without an alarm, for a large ship wasmade out, about the end of the middle watch, coming down before the windand heading right for us, with a whole cloud of flying kites aloft andstudding-sails set on both sides. She proved, however, to be amerchantman, apparently British; and, from the course she was steering,we judged her to be bound to Kingston. She swept magnificently acrossour stern at a dis
tance of about a couple of miles; and in little morethan an hour from the time of our first sighting her she was hull-downagain upon our larboard quarter.
With sunrise we found ourselves hauling in under the high land aboutCape Maysi; and here we ran into the calm belt dividing the land andsea-breezes, and lay for an hour rolling gunwale under, our great sailflapping noisily and sending the dew pattering down on deck in regularshowers with every roll of the little vessel, whilst the huge yardswayed and creaked aloft, tugging at the stumpy mast and tautening outthe standing rigging alternately to port and starboard with suchviolence that I momentarily expected to see the whole affair go topplingover the side. "Hold on, good rope-yarns!" was now the cry; and they_did_ hold on, fortunately, though, during that hour of calm, there wasmore noise aloft than I had ever before heard on board a vessel. Atlength the sea-breeze came creeping down to us; a cat's-paw filled thelofty tapering sail, and passed, causing the canvas to flap heavily ereit filled to the next. Another flap; then the sail swelled out gentlyand "went to sleep," the nimble little hooker turned her saucy nose intothe wind's eye; a few bubbles drifted past her side as she gathered way,a long smooth ripple trailed out on each side of her sharp bows, thenshe heeled gracefully over to larboard as the languid breeze freshenedupon us, and presently down it came, half a gale of wind, burying ushalf bulwark deep and making everything crack again as the boat gatheredway and darted off like a startled dolphin. And here Carera was withinan ace of making a mess of the whole business; for whilst we had beentumbling about becalmed a current had got hold of us and had set us soclose in with the land that whilst rounding the point we actually passed_through_ the breakers beating on the reef; and I am convinced that hadwe been a couple of fathoms further to leeward the hooker would havelaid her bones there. However, the danger was come and gone in lessthan a minute; it was the extreme point of the reef we had grazed sovery closely, and, once past it, we had a clear sea ahead and were outof the reach of all further danger. It was Courtenay, however, whoactually saved the felucca; for at the supreme moment when the littlecraft plunged into the breakers, and when, if ever, there was the utmostneed for coolness and self-possession, what must all hands do but plumpdown upon their knees, calling upon Saint Antonio and Heaven knows howmany other saints to come and help them, Carera himself being one of theforemost to do so, abandoning the tiller meanwhile, and leaving thevessel to take care of herself, at the very moment of all others whenshe most needed looking after. She of course shot into the wind's eyein an instant, and in another minute the craft would have been on therocks, stern-foremost, and beating her bottom in, had not Courtenay--whohappened to be standing close by--sprung to the tiller and jammed ithard a-weather, thus causing her to pay off and forge ahead beforelosing steerage-way altogether.
Once fairly clear of the point, Carera put his helm up, and away wewent, with a flowing sheet, upon a north-west by west course; arrivingoff Mangle Point about noon. From thence we began to haul somewhat offfrom the land, the wind drawing further aft and freshening somewhat aswe did so; so that by sunset the lively little craft had broughtLucrecia Point fairly on her larboard beam. As the sun went down thewind manifested a disposition to drop; and for a couple of hours wecrept along at a speed of scarcely five knots; but it breezed up againjust after the first watch came on deck; and by two bells we weresmoking through it faster than I had ever before seen the craft travel.In accordance with the plan which Courtenay and I had arranged, we tookthe tiller between us during the whole of the first watch, the two handswhose places we had taken coolly going below and turning in. When thewatch was called at midnight we felt that we had done enough for ourpurpose, so we retired below and spent the remainder of the night in ourbunks.
The Rover's Secret: A Tale of the Pirate Cays and Lagoons of Cuba Page 11
