Nic Revel: A White Slave's Adventures in Alligator Land

by George Manville Fenn

  CHAPTER SIX.

  PLOTS AND PLANS.

  The rain came, as Nic had said it would, and as it does come up in thehigh hills of stony Dartmoor. Then the tiny rills swelled and becamerivulets, the rivulets rivers, and the rivers floods. The tricklingfall at the Captain's swelled up till the water, which looked likeporter, thundered down and filled the pool, and the salmon came rushingup from the sea till there were as many as ever. Then, as the rainytime passed away, Captain Revel made his plans, for he felt sure thatthere would be another raid by the gang who had attacked his placebefore, headed by Pete Burge and a deformed man of herculean strength,who came with a party of ne'er-do-weels from the nearest town.

  "That rascal Pete will be here with his gang," said the Captain, "andwe'll be ready for them."

  But the speaker was doing Pete Burge an injustice; for, though severalraids had been made in the neighbourhood, and pools cleared out, Petehad hung back from going to the Captain's for some reason or another,and suffered a good deal of abuse in consequence, one result being adesperate fight with Humpy Dee, the deformed man, who after a timeshowed the white feather, and left Pete victorious but a good dealknocked about.

  So, feeling sure that he was right, Captain Revel made his plans; and,unwillingly enough, but with the full intention of keeping his fatherout of danger, Nic set to work as his father's lieutenant and carriedout his orders.

  The result was that every servant was armed with a stout cudgel, andhalf-a-dozen sturdy peasants of the neighbourhood were enlisted to come,willingly enough, to help to watch and checkmate the rough party fromthe town, against whom a bitter feeling of enmity existed for deprivingthe cottagers from getting quietly a salmon for themselves.

  The arrangements were made for the next night, a stranger having beenseen inspecting the river and spying about among the fir-trees at theback of the pool.

  But no one came, and at daybreak the Captain's crew, as he called it,went back to bed.

  The following night did not pass off so peacefully, for soon aftertwelve, while the watchers, headed by the Captain and Nic, were wellhidden about the pool, the enemy came, and, after lighting theirlanthorns, began to net the salmon.

  Then a whistle rang out, a desperate attack was made upon them, and theCaptain nearly had a fit. For his party was greatly outnumbered. Theraiders fought desperately, and they went off at last fishless; but notuntil the Captain's little force had been thoroughly beaten and put toflight, with plenty of cuts and bruises amongst them, Nic's left armhanging down nearly helpless.

  "But never mind, Nic," said the Captain, rubbing his bruised hand as hespoke. "I knocked one of the rascals down, and they got no fish; and Idon't believe they'll come again."

  But they did, the very next night, and cleared the pool once more, forthe watchers were all abed; and in the morning the Captain was franticin his declarations of what he would do.

  To Nic's great delight, just when his father was at his worst, and, ashis old body-servant said, "working himself into a fantigue about a bito' fish," there was a diversion.

  Nic was sitting at breakfast, getting tired of having salmon at everymeal--by the ears, not by the mouth--when suddenly there was the dullthud of a big gun out at sea, and Captain Revel brought his fist downupon the table with a bang like an echo of the report.

  "Lawrence!" he cried excitedly. "Here, Nic, ring the bell, and tellSolly to go and hoist the flag."

  The bell was rung, and a maid appeared.

  "Where's Solly?" cried the Captain angrily.

  "Plee, sir, he's gone running up to the cliff to hoist the flag," saidthe girl nervously.

  "Humph! that will do," said the Captain, and the maid gladly beat aretreat.--"Not a bad bit of discipline that, Nic. Wonder what bringsLawrence here! Ring that bell again, boy, and order them to reset thebreakfast-table. He'll be here in half-an-hour, hungry. He always wasa hungry chap."

  The maid appeared, received her orders, and was about to go, when shewas arrested.

  "Here, Mary, what is there that can be cooked for Captain Lawrence'sbreakfast?"

  "The gardener has just brought in a salmon he found speared and left bythe river, sir."

  The Captain turned purple with rage.

  "Don't you ever dare to say salmon to me again, woman!" he roared.

  "No, sir; cert'n'y not, sir," faltered the frightened girl, turningwonderingly to Nic, her eyes seeming to say, "Please, sir, is mastergoing mad?"

  "Yes; tell the cook to fry some salmon cutlets," continued the Captain;and then apologetically to his son: "Lawrence likes fish."

  As the maid backed out of the room the Captain rose from the table.

  "Come along, my boy," he said; "we'll finish our breakfast with him."

  Nic followed his father into the hall, and then through the garden andup to the edge of the cliff, passing William Solly on his way back afterhoisting the flag, which was waving in the sea-breeze.

  "Quite right, William," said the Captain as the old sailor saluted andpassed on. "Nothing like discipline, Nic, my boy. Ha! You ought tohave been a sailor."

  The next minute they had reached the flagstaff, from whence they couldlook down at the mouth of the river, off which one of the king's shipswas lying close in, and between her and the shore there was a boatapproaching fast.

  As father and son watched, it was evident that they were seen, for someone stood up in the stern-sheets and waved a little flag, to which Nicreplied by holding his handkerchief to be blown out straight by thebreeze.

  "Ha! Very glad he has come, Nic," said the Captain. "Fine fellow, JackLawrence! Never forgets old friends. Now I'll be bound to say he cangive us good advice about what to do with those scoundrels."

  "Not much in his way, father, is it?" said Nic.

  "What, sir?" cried the Captain fiercely. "Look here, boy; I never knewanything which was not in Jack Lawrence's way. Why, when we were younglieutenants together on board the _Sovereign_, whether it was fight orstorm he was always ready with a good idea. He will give us--me--well,us--good advice, I'm sure. There he is, being carried ashore. Go andmeet him, my boy. I like him to see that he is welcome. Tell him I'dhave come down myself, but the climb back is a bit too much for me."

  Nic went off at a trot along the steep track which led down to theshore, and in due time met the hale, vigorous, grey-haired officerstriding uphill in a way which made Nic feel envious on his father'sbehalf.

  "Well, Nic, my boy," cried the visitor, "how's the dad? Well? That'sright. So are you," he continued, gazing searchingly at the lad withhis keen, steely-grey eyes. "Grown ever so much since I saw you last.Ah, boy, it's a pity you didn't come to sea!"

  Then he went on chatting about being just come upon the Plymouth stationtraining men for the king's ships, and how he hoped to see a good dealnow of his old friend and his son.

  The meeting between the brother-officers was boisterous, but there wassomething almost pathetic in the warmth with which they grasped hands,for they had first met in the same ship as middies, and many a timeduring Captain Lawrence's visits Nic had sat and listened to theirrecollections of the dangers they had gone through and their boyishpranks.

  William Solly was in the porch ready to salute the visitor, and to lookwith pride at the fine, manly old officer's greeting. He made a point,too, of stopping in the room to wait table, carefully supplying allwants, and smiling with pleasure as he saw how the pleasant meal wasenjoyed by the guest.

  "We were lying off the river late last night, but I wouldn't disturbyou," he said. "I made up my mind, though, to come to breakfast. Hah!What delicious fried salmon!"

  "_Hur-r-ur_!" growled Captain Revel, and Solly cocked his eye knowinglyat Nic.

  "Hallo! What's the matter?" cried the visitor.

  "The salmon--the salmon," growled Captain Revel, frowning and tappingthe table.

  "De-licious, man! Have some?--Here, Solly, hand the dish to yourmaster."

  "_Bur-r-ur_!" roared the Captain. "Take it away
--take it away, or Ishall be in another of my rages, and they're not good for me, Jack--notgood for me."

  "Why, what is it, old lad?"

  "Tell him, Nic--tell him," cried Captain Revel; and his son explainedthe cause of his father's irritation.

  "Why, that was worrying you last time I was here--let me see, a yearago."

  "Yes, Jack; and it has been worrying me ever since," cried CaptainRevel. "You see, I mustn't cut any of the scoundrels down, and Imustn't shoot them. The law would be down on me."

  "Yes, of course; but you might make the law come down on them."

  "Can't, my lad. Summonses are no use."

  "Catch them in the act, make them prisoners, and then see what the lawwill do."

  "But we can't catch them, Jack; they're too many for us," cried theCaptain earnestly. "They come twenty or thirty strong, and we've hadfight after fight with them, but they knock us to pieces. Look atSolly's forehead; they gave him that cut only a few nights ago."

  The old sailor blushed like a girl.

  "That's bad," said the visitor, after giving the man a sharp look."What sort of fellows are they?"

  "Big, strong, idle vagabonds. Scum of the town and the country round."

  "Indeed!" said the visitor, raising his eyes. "They thrash you, then,because you are not strong enough?"

  "Yes; that's it, Jack. Now, what am I to do?"

  "Let me see," said the visitor, tightening his lips. "They only comewhen the pool's full of salmon, you say, after a bit of rain in themoors?"

  "Yes; that's it, Jack."

  "Then you pretty well know when to expect them?"

  "Yes; that's right."

  "How would it be, then, if you sent me word in good time in the morning?Or, no--look here, old fellow--I shall know when there is rain on themoor, and I'll come round in this direction from the port. I'm cruisingabout the Channel training a lot of men. You hoist a couple of flags onthe staff some morning, and that evening at dusk I'll land a couple ofboats' crews, and have them marched up here to lay up with you and turnthe tables upon the rascals. How will that do?"

  Solly forgot discipline, and bent down to give one of his legs atremendous slap, while his master made the breakfast things dance fromhis vigorous bang on the table.

  "There, Nic," he cried triumphantly; "what did I say? Jack Lawrence wasalways ready to show the way when we were on our beam-ends. Jack, mydear old messmate," he cried heartily, as he stretched out hishand--"your fist."