should have beenthere quickly enough. At length we could make out the masts and hull ofa brig--a large vessel she seemed; the flames had caught her sails, andwere playing round her spars and masts. Suddenly, as we gazed at her,the deck seemed to lift; like sky-rockets up rose the masts; the flamesburst up brighter than ever from the hull; and then, like showers ofrockets, down came the burning rigging, hissing, into the sea; afterthis the flames raged more furiously than ever; then, suddenly, therewas perfect darkness; a groan escaped the breasts of many on board. Wewere too late to save any of the sufferers, still we stood on towardsthe spot where the vessel had been. Suddenly a hail reached us; wereplied to it. In a short time we shortened sail, and a boat camealongside; we had little doubt that she contained some of the peoplefrom the brig; six men soon came up the side, most of them had theirheads and arms bound up.
"Who are you, my men?" asked Mr. Ormsby.
"I am the mate, sir, of the brig that just now blew up; we are the onlypeople who have escaped," said one of them. "This afternoon we wereattacked by half a dozen Malay prows; we fought desperately, hoping todrive off the pirates; at length, the master and the other hands beingkilled, we jumped into the long-boat and made off, hoping to return tothe brig when the pirates had left her; they, however, set her on fire,and we were intending to make the best of our way to Singapore when wecaught sight of the schooner."
The mate expressing his belief that the pirates had stood to thesouthward, all sail was made in that direction. The weather had beenthreatening for some hours; it now grew worse and worse. Mr. Ormsby'schief regret was that it might drive the pirate fleet into port. Wemade such good way, that soon after noon we caught sight of the vesselsof which we were in search; they saw us, and guessed our intentions, andaway they went before the wind. We stood on, hoping to come up withthem; hour after hour passed by, and they kept ahead. The weather wasgetting more and more dirty; still we persevered, and, as the windincreased, we gained upon them.
"I think I could hit the sternmost of those fellows," said Ned Rawlings,as he ran his eye along a gun.
The gun was trained forward. Rawlings, who was one of the best marksmenon board, fired. The shot struck the nearest prow, and sent thesplinters flying away in every direction.
"Well done, Rawlings?" cried Mr. Ormsby.
The gun was again loaded, when just as he fired a fearful crash washeard; the schooner shook from stem to stern.
"She's ashore!" cried out more than one voice.
"And we must heave her off, lads!" cried our commander; giving the orderto take in all sail.
The vessel only hung forward; a boat was lowered, and a hawser carriedout immediately astern. We had not struck long before our enemiesdiscovered what had happened; they now came clustering round us at arespectful distance, though, having seen the effects of our shot. Thewind, however, was increasing, and the sea was getting up; and thereseemed every probability of the schooner being completely wrecked. Ibethought me, meantime, of Mr. Ormsby's directions. While the men wereworking away to heave her off, I went down into the cabin; havingsecured a rope round the chest Mr. Ormsby had placed under my charge, Igot a long thin line to serve as a buoy-rope, and got hold of a piece oflight wood, out of which to form the buoy. I did not think much, I own,of the danger we were in. The wind was increasing, the sea was gettingup meantime, and I might have seen that the little craft would not holdtogether many hours exposed to such a sea as was likely to roll in onher. The junks were drawing in closer and closer, just waiting for themoment when, our masts going, we might be thrown into confusion; andthey would have less difficulty in boarding. Having done all I couldbelow, I went on deck; the wind had greatly increased, the seas camerolling slowly in towards us; still, the crew, encouraged by our bravecommander, laboured on. The cable by which we were hauling off wastight as a harp-string; the men were pressing with might and main uponthe capstan-bars; those who were not thus employed were ordered to runfrom side to side--now forward, now to rush aft altogether. Just then,through the gloom, we observed a heavy sea rolling in towards us; itmight prove our destruction, or--
"Heave, lads! heave!" shouted our commander.
With a bound, so it seemed, as the sea passed under us, the vessel cameoff the reef, and was quickly hauled up to the anchor. Had it beendaylight, the pirates would have discovered what had occurred; as itwas, they probably did not find out that we were free. The cable wasbrought ahead, sail was made, the anchor was hove up, and away we shot,close-hauled, clear of the reef.
I had gone below to get supper for the commander, for, as may besupposed, no one had eaten anything for some hours; soon afterwards hecame into the cabin.
"Hillo! what is this?" he exclaimed, as he got his foot round thebuoy-rope.
I told him what I had done. He laughed.
"Well, Jack," he said, "you did what every man should do--your duty.You attended to your own business, and looked after the property placedunder your charge. However, I suspect if the schooner had gone topieces, we none of us should have remained alive to tell what had becomeof my plate-chest. Still, I will not forget this night's work, Jack."
I heard Mr. Ormsby tell the officers that he was not going to let theprows escape.
"We must wait, however, till daylight," he observed, "or we may begetting on shore again."
Bumping on a pointed rock tries a vessel. Scarcely had we got off, whenone of the carpenter's mates, who acted as our carpenter, came aft.
"She's making water very fast, sir," he said, addressing our commander."It's as much as we can do to keep her afloat till the morning."
"Rig the pumps, then; and, Mr. Norton, send the hands to work them,"said Mr. Ormsby, quite composedly. "We must not let the _Fawn_ go down,whatever we do."
In another minute the clank of the pumps was heard, and on itwent--"clank! clank! clank!" I dropped asleep in the midst of it. Whenmorning broke, a large fleet of prows was discovered about three milesto leeward; we immediately made sail, and stood down towards them, abright look-out being kept for reefs and shoals. The size of the littlevessel evidently encouraged the pirates. Their numbers having been nowincreased, instead of running, they stood boldly up towards us.
"We shall see some fun now, Jack," said Dicky Plumb, "depend on that."
In a short time we were near enough to open fire on the leading junks.They, in no way daunted, returned it with their long brass guns andgingals, peppering us very hotly. I rather suspect that Mr. Ormsby nowsaw that it would have been wiser had we kept clear of such gentry,especially in the sinking condition of the schooner; as long as thebreeze held, and the schooner was under command, we could run here andthere, raking the prows, and handling them very severely. At length,however, as the evening was coming on, the wind fell; our enemies, onthis, were seen to get out their long sweeps, and come out towards us ina body, some on one side, some on the other. It was evident that weshould have to fight for our lives; for the moment, not a man on boardthought of the leak. I got hold of a cutlass, which I could handlepretty well, and a brace of pistols; Mr. Plumb armed himself in asimilar manner. For some time we managed to keep the enemy at adistance with our guns, which we fired as rapidly as we could load them.It was now again almost dark. Just as the nearest prow was about toboard, down she went; our men cheered, and redoubled their efforts; butwe had another big enemy on the other side. On she came, though hulledseveral times; her crew were ready to spring on board. Mr. Ormsby,aided by Ned Rawlings and one or two others and myself, had run in agun, and loaded it; it was quickly run out again, and fired right downinto the hold of the prow. Just as the Malays were about to spring onboard, a thundering noise was heard; flames burst forth, and up went thevessel into the air; the schooner's sails were set on fire, and severalof our people were hurt; my face was blackened all over, and so wasDicky Plumb's. Down came the wreck of the prow on our deck, while thelimbs of her unfortunate crew were sent right over us, some sticking inthe rigging; this fearful event kept the rest of our en
emies at adistance for a few minutes, and enabled us to put out the flames, and toclear away the wreck. Scarcely, however, had we done this, than withfierce cries and shouts once more the prows pulled up towards us; we metthem with further discharges of shot, but though many of their peoplewere killed, yet a big prow grappled us on either side. So fiercely didour people fight, that not a man who reached the deck had time torecover his legs before he was cut down. Joss exerted himself bravely,and though not big enough to handle a cutlass, kept bringing ammunitionup from below, and then getting hold of a revolver, did good executionwith it, running in and out among the men, and killing numbers ofpirates as they attacked our people with their sharp scimitars. Atlength we succeeded in casting off the grapnels which the Malays hadthrown on board; and the breeze catching our topsails, we
Off to Sea: The Adventures of Jovial Jack Junker on his Road to Fame Page 16
