The Pirate Island

by Harry Collingwood

  At length the eventful day arrived on which the ceremony of laying the keel of the new schooner was to be performed. The pieces of timber of which it was to be composed—some of which had already formed part of the keel of the old ship—had all been shaped, the blocks laid in position, and every other preparation fully made; and nothing remained but to lay down the keel-pieces on the blocks placed ready for their reception, and to bolt them together.

  In the fulness of his delight Johnson resolved that the day should be a regular fête day; and accordingly on the morning in question the shipyard was gaily dressed with flags—of more than one nationality—which were hoisted upon poles hastily set up for the purpose; and all hands, clean shaven, and dressed in their best, prepared to assist in the ceremony.

  The proceedings were inaugurated by Johnson, who, attired in the full uniform of a captain of the American navy, took up a position on one of the keel-blocks, and from thence made an animated address to his followers, in which he rapidly sketched the history of the band from the day on which they had entered upon their present career by taking from their officers the Amazon tea clipper, in which they had sailed from China for England, down to the present time. He reminded them of the difficulties and misfortunes with which they had been obliged to contend; how they had unfortunately lost the Amazon upon an island some hundreds of miles to the westward of their present position; how they had been compelled to leave the island in open boats; of the sufferings which they subsequently endured; and how by a lucky accident they were finally enabled to obtain possession of the Albatross. He next dwelt upon the good fortune which had since attended them; the many valuable prizes they had taken; the rich store of booty they had accumulated; and the steady augmentation of the numbers of the brotherhood. Then, giving free rein to his fancy, he enlarged upon his plans for the future. What had already been done was, he said, nothing—a simple preliminary effort, a mere trial of strength—compared with what he would do. He would never be satisfied, he informed them, until he could finally lead them all out of that harbour on board a fleet of at least ten well armed, swift, and fully manned ships, in which it would be possible for them to ravage the entire coast of Spanish South America, despoiling the rich towns and laughing at all opposition. In this way, he promised them, he would place them in possession of such an unheard-of amount of treasure that every man among them should be worth his millions; after which, by following a plan which he would unfold to them at the proper time, they could quietly disband and settle down for the remainder of their lives, each man on that particular spot of earth which pleased him best, in the peaceful enjoyment of his well-earned gold. And they were assembled there that day, he added in conclusion, to lay the keel of the first of the ten clippers by which this glorious result was to be accomplished.

  It was an eloquent and masterly speech. Johnson was most accurately acquainted with the characters of those who surrounded him; he was making a great bid for the recovery of that popularity which in some unexplained way—but largely through the machinations of Alec Ralli, he shrewdly suspected—had been steadily slipping away from him; and he believed that the making of such dazzling promises as he had just indulged in was the surest way of winning it back. And if vociferous and tumultuous cheering was to be taken as an indication of success the pirate chief had every cause to be gratified. The enthusiasm was intense. Cheer after cheer rent the air; the men shook hands all round and then pressed forward, hustling each other, eager to perform the same ceremony with Johnson, vowing as they did so the blindest and most unswerving fidelity to him, and calling down the most frightful imprecations upon all traitors.

  Ralli stood at some little distance in the background, his arms folded across his chest, and a cynical smile wreathing his lips.

  “Ah right,” he muttered; “go on and shout yourselves hoarse, you swine! Yell, cheer, and swear fidelity until you are out of breath if it pleases you so to do; I like to see and hear it, for what is it after all but froth; you are all in a ferment just now, and it is best that this noisy gas should have its vent; you will soon sober down again, and then—we shall see. As for you,” he continued, with a furtive scowl at Johnson, whose face beamed with gratification, “you have had your day, and, blind bat as you are, you were beginning to see it just for a moment, but this fine speech of yours has thrown you off your guard again. You doubtless think that with a few empty boastful words you have recovered your lost position, but you are mistaken, my good friend, as you will find out when you return from your next cruise—if indeed you ever return at all. Well, enjoy your own opinion while you can; rejoice in the ease with which you have re-established yourself; I shall not attempt to undeceive you—at least just now, so I will go and add my plaudits to those of the herd—pah!” and he spat contemptuously on the ground as he moved forward to shake Johnson cordially by the hand.

  Order being at length restored, the ceremony of laying the keel was proceeded with. The several pieces were already on the ground, properly shaped, with bolt-holes bored, the bolts fitted, and in short every preparation made for fastening them together; and now, at a word from Johnson, a hundred eager hands seized the heavy timbers, and, under Lance’s superintendence, placed them upon the blocks. The joints were next brought closely together, the bolts inserted, the perfect straightness of the entire length of keel accurately tested, and finally the bolts were all simultaneously driven home and the keel “laid,” amidst the deafening cheers of the pirates and the roar of a battery of guns which had been placed temporarily in position to do due honour to the ceremony.

  The men were then served with an extra allowance of grog, after which they were dismissed to amuse themselves in any way they pleased for the remainder of the day.

  Johnson saw fit to leave the shipyard in the boat which conveyed Lance, Captain Staunton, and the rest of the Galatea party back to the settlement at the bottom of the bay, and it was evident during the passage that he was most anxious to make himself agreeable and to leave behind him a favourable impression. At last, when the boat was nearing the beach at which the party intended to land, he said to Lance—

  “Look here, colonel, I’ve been thinking about them women-folk of yourn; they must find it mighty lonesome here, with nothing much to do; do you think it ’d please ’em if I was to send one of them planners to your diggin’s? ’Cause, if you do, they shall have one. The cussed things ain’t no use to us, and I don’t hardly know what I fetched ’em along for.”

  “Thank you very much,” said Lance. “I have no doubt a little music now and then would prove a solace to them; indeed, it would make the evenings much more pleasant for us all, and if you feel disposed to spare us an instrument we shall remember you all the more gratefully.”

  “Then you may consider it done,” Johnson replied, as the boat’s keel grated on the beach and the party stepped ashore. “Come up to the capstan-house with me, and you can choose which you will have, and I will send it along at once.”

  Lance accordingly proceeded to the capstan-house with Johnson, while the remainder of the party wended their way straight to the hut, well pleased at what they considered a mark of great consideration on the part of the pirate chief.

  When Lance found himself alone with his companion he thought it would be a favourable opportunity to prefer a request which had been in his mind for several days, but which he had had no previous chance of mentioning.

  “I am glad,” he said, “to have this opportunity of thanking you, captain, in the name of our party, for all you have done for our comfort, under circumstances which I could not fail to perceive have been somewhat trying to you. I now want to ask you to add one favour more, and that is, to supply us with a sufficiency of arms and ammunition to enable us to defend ourselves, if need be, in your absence. Whilst you are on the island we feel ourselves to be safe, but I confess I am not altogether without doubts as to the treatment which we may receive at the hands of your Greek friend Ralli after your departure. And it would add very greatly t
o our feeling of security in your absence if we were provided with the means of resisting any attempt at unfair dealing on his part. I presume it is unnecessary for me to say that we should only use the weapons in a case of absolute necessity?”

  “Waal now, colonel,” said Johnson, “what you ask is fair enough, and for my own part I’d be willing enough to let you have all you want, but I vow I don’t just see exactly how I’m to do it. The key of the arm-chest is in the armourer’s pocket, and I can’t issue anything out of that chest without his knowledge. Now, I know that cuss, he’s no friend of mine, and he’d just go straight away and tell Ralli what I’d done, and that’d set the Greek dead agin you all for a certainty and make things just as uncomfortable for you as could be. Besides which, Ralli ’d just take ’em all away from you again as soon as my back was turned, and then you’d be worse off ’n ever. No, that won’t do, we’ll have to go some other way about it; but you leave it to me, general; you may bet your pile I’ll find out a way to do it before I sail. Now, which of these boxes of music will you have?”

  They had arrived by this time at the capstan-house, and were standing near the pianofortes, all of which had been placed together on the floor of the sail-loft, the packing-cases having been ripped off and probably used for firewood. Lance ran his fingers over the key-board of each instrument in turn, striking a few chords and harmonies to test the quality of the tone and touch, and finally selected a superb “grand” by Broadwood.

  “All right, general, I’ll have the durned thing taken down to your quarters to oncet. But do you mean to say that you know how to thump music out of them things as well as how to build batteries and ships and so forth?” ejaculated Johnson.

  “Well, yes,” said Lance, laughingly, “I believe I must plead guilty to being somewhat of a musician, though I have not touched an instrument for many a day until now.”

  “Then sit right down there, colonel, and play me something good,” said Johnson, rolling a nail-keg as a seat up to one of the instruments.

  Lance, thoroughly amused at the comical incongruity of the situation, sat down and rattled off “Yankee Doodle,” an air which he judged would be likely to find appreciation with his queer companion.

  Johnson stood for a moment spell-bound as the well remembered strains fell upon his ear, then a broad grin of delight overspread his features, and finally he began to caper about the sail-loft in the most extraordinary manner, and to utter certain unearthly sounds which Lance fancied was Johnson’s idea of singing.

  “Something else! gimme some more,” the pirate captain exclaimed rapturously, when his entertainer at length raised his fingers from the key-board. Whereupon Lance began to play and sing “Hail, Columbia.” Johnson stood still and silent as a statue now, the stirring strains touched an altogether different chord of his memory, and for an instant something suspiciously like a tear glistened in his eye.

  “Thank you,” he said very quietly, when Lance had finished, “that will do now; I would rather not hear any more at present. Let me keep the sound of that song in my mind as long as I can; my little maid at home used to sing that to me. But, look here,” he added, as Lance closed the instrument, “if you wish to be on good terms with the men after I am gone, have them all up in the meeting-room sometimes of an evening, and treat them to a little music; they will appreciate that, and you could do nothing more likely to win their regard. Why shouldn’t you give ’em—give us all—a concert to-night, to-day being a holiday?”

  Lance hesitated for a moment before making answer to this strange and unexpected proposal.

  “To tell you the truth,” he said at last, “I am afraid your people will be hardly in a mood to-night to appreciate such music as I could give them; the grog will have got into their heads, and they will be more inclined to sing among themselves than to sit quietly to listen to me.”

  “Not at all,” answered Johnson, who, now that a serious mood was upon him, had entirely dropped his Americanism of speech, “not at all; I have taken care to give orders that they shall not have sufficient to make them noisy. You will find them perfectly quiet and orderly, and I confess I should like to see the effect of a little genuine good music upon them.”

  “Very well,” answered Lance nonchalantly, “I am sure I have no objection; and, now that you have mentioned it, I confess I feel curious to see the result of so novel an experiment.”

  “Then it is settled,” said Johnson; and he forthwith summoned a party of men, to some of whom he gave orders to remove to the hut the pianoforte Lance had chosen, while to others was deputed the task of taking one of the other instruments into the large room used for purposes of general assembly, and placing the room in proper order for the evening’s entertainment, which was fixed to commence at the orthodox hour of eight o’clock.

  When Lance Evelin sauntered into the hut he was assailed by a general chorus of questions.

  “What ridiculous story is this which my husband has been telling us, Mr Evelin?” inquired Mrs Staunton.

  “About the piano, you know,” added Violet.

  “Is it actually true, Lance, that that absurd creature is really going to let us have one?” chimed in Blanche.

  “It would be a good deal more sensible of him if he would provide us with more comfortable quarters,” grumbled Dale.

  “I agree with you there, Dale, it certainly would,” said Rex Fortescue. “Of course I am speaking now of the matter as it affects the ladies; for ourselves, we can rough it well enough, but I certainly wish they could be made more comfortable. However, the fellow seems to have done his best for us; I have seen no better building than this in the whole settlement, so I suppose we must endeavour to be content as long as we are obliged to remain here; and as for the piano, why it will enable the ladies to beguile an hour or two; but it is a queer present to make under the circumstances, and the man who made it is certainly a bit of an eccentric.”

  “You are right,” replied Evelin; “and this gift is by no means his only eccentricity. Guess what is his latest request, or command, I scarcely know which to call it?”

  They all decided that it would be utterly impossible for them to guess, there was no saying what absurd whim might seize upon such a man; they would be surprised at nothing which he might ask, and so on.

  “Well, then, I will tell you,” said Lance. “He wishes me to give the men a concert to-night at eight o’clock in the assembly-room.”

  “Oh, Lance, what an extraordinary request!” exclaimed Blanche. “You will of course refuse; you will never trust yourself alone among all those men?”

  “Certainly I shall,” answered her lover, “why not? There will not be the slightest danger. The men are not in an excited state by any means, and I have an idea that a little music now and then may increase our popularity among them and place us on a more secure footing, if indeed it does not enable us to reach and awaken whatever of good may still exist in their breasts. Besides,” he added with a gay laugh, “I feel curious to see what effect I can produce upon them.”

  “If you go, Lance, I shall go with you,” said Rex.

  Violet Dudley glanced quickly and somewhat appealingly at the last speaker, but she had too much spirit to say a word which would keep her lover away from the side of his friend when there was a possibility that that friend might stand in need of help.

  “I think I may as well go also,” remarked Captain Staunton. “It seems hardly fair to leave you all the work to do, Evelin, when any of the rest of us can help you. I can sing a fairly good song, I flatter myself, if I am not much of a hand at the piano, and so when you feel tired I’ll give you a spell.”

  “All right,” said Lance. “The more the merrier; we shall at least show them that we are no churls. Are there any more volunteers?”

  “Certainly,” said Bob, “I’m one, Mr Evelin, if you will have me. I am something like Captain Staunton; I’m no hand at a piano, but I can sing, and I know a recitation or two which I think may serve to raise a good-humoured laugh
.”

  “I’m no singer,” said Brook, “but I know a few rather taking conjuring tricks, and I should like to go with you; but perhaps it would be hardly prudent to leave the ladies without any protection, would it? Therefore I think I’ll remain to-night, and go some other evening if there’s going to be any repetition of this sort of thing.”

  Mr Dale said nothing; he simply sat moodily plucking at his beard and muttering to himself; by the look of his countenance he was utterly disgusted with the whole proceeding.

  Thus, then, it was finally arranged, and at a few minutes before eight o’clock, Lance and his party issued from the hut on their way to the assembly-room, which they could see was already brilliantly lighted up.

  * * *

  * * *

  Chapter Thirteen.

  Ralli explains himself; so does Lance.

  On entering the assembly-room, our friends found that it was not only, as they had seen from the outside, well lighted, but that a very successful attempt had been made to decorate it by the draping of flags all round the walls, and the arrangement of an elaborate and well-designed flag-trophy on the wall at the back of the elevated platform, or stage, as it may be called. The long table, with its accompaniment of chairs, had been pushed back against the wall, and the pianoforte stood in the centre of the platform. The room was quite full, and the men appeared, for the most part, disposed to behave quietly and decorously. There were only some half a dozen young fellows who seemed at all inclined to be noisy or boisterous, and they occupied seats in the centre of the room. Johnson occupied a chair on one side of the platform, and Ralli balanced him on the opposite side. Johnson appeared rather surprised to see four of the Galatea party put in an appearance instead of one only; but he made no remark, merely waving them to accommodate themselves with chairs from those placed against the wall.