Athelstane Ford Page 6

  CHAPTER VI

  _IN THE POWER OF THE ENEMY_

  On our voyage outward one thing had occurred to me which, as it turnedout afterwards, was to prove of very great consequence; this was mylearning of the native Indian language.

  Colonel Clive, who had never been at the pains to acquire it himself,had brought out in his train as secretary a Mr. Scrafton, who was wellversed in the Indostanee, and who was obliging enough to offer toimpart it to me, I having rendered him some services in thetranscribing of his papers and accounts. Having much time on my handson so long a voyage, I very thankfully accepted his proposal, thoughlittle then foreseeing the benefit I was to derive from it.

  This connection between us brought me a good deal under the notice ofMr. Clive, who was several times pleased to address his conversationto me, and to inquire my name and what had brought me into thatservice.

  When I told him I had run away from home he seemed not a littleamused, though he affected to rebuke me.

  "I perceive you are a young man of a reckless spirit," he observed,but whether in irony or not I could not tell. "And pray what do youintend to do when we get to the Indies?"

  "Why, sir," I answered hardily, "as soon as war breaks out I mean torun away from the ship and enlist under your honour."

  "The devil you do!" he cried, a smile showing itself on his sternface. "Mr. Scrafton, do you hear my little purser here? I have a mindto report your speech to Mr. Sanders."

  But though he said this, I could see that he was not ill-pleased. Andwhether from that occasion or another, by the time our voyage wasended I was known all over the ship as Colonel Clive's purser. And howproud the title made me I forbear to say, but I know that if Mr. Clivehad ordered me to march into Delhi, and pluck the Great Mogul by thebeard, I should have thought it a little thing to do.

  The first thing I did after we had dropped our anchor was to beg forleave to go ashore, which Mr. Sanders granted with some difficulty.Mr. Griffiths was good enough to give me a place in the cutter, and assoon as we were landed I separated myself from the rest, and withoutstaying to examine the curiosities of Bombay, which is a fine greatcity, built on an island, I procured a boatman to take me offprivately to the _Fair Maid_.

  The boatman I applied to was an Indian. He used me with wondrouscivility, calling me Sahib, which is an oriental term of respect, andbowing before me to the very ground. When we were got into the boat,however, he proved but a poor oarsman, and indeed all the natives ofthat country seem but a feeble race, owing, no doubt, to theiridolatrous religion, which forbids them to eat flesh.

  We arrived at the stern of the _Fair Maid_ without accident, but to mysurprise I could see nobody on the deck. Bidding the Indian wait forme I scrambled on board without hailing, and proceeded to examine thecabin. I found this likewise to be deserted, and was beginning tothink the vessel was empty when, on turning to come out, I foundmyself face to face with a dark man in a turban, bearing a nakedscymetar in his hand, who had crept in behind me.

  "Who are you?" I demanded, addressing him in Indostanee.

  But he shook his head, for, as I was to find out, the Morattoes, towhich nation he belonged, speak a different dialect of their own.

  While I was considering what to do with him, since his behaviour wasvery threatening, I was greatly relieved by seeing an Englishman comein after him, who proved, indeed, to be no other than my oldacquaintance, Trickster Tim.

  The sight of me gave him a great shock, and at first I believe hemistook me for a spirit from the other world, which perhaps was notstrange, considering that he had last seen me on the other side of theglobe, and lying very near to death's door.

  I spoke him friendly, nothing doubting that he would be pleased towelcome a fellow-countryman.

  "Well, Tim, how d'ye do, and how are all aboard the _Fair Maid_?"

  As soon as he had heard my voice his apprehensions vanished. He gazedat me for a minute, as if undecided what to do, and then, putting on asmile, stepped forward and shook me by the hand.

  "And how did you get here?" he asked. "We thought we had left you inYarmouth."

  Not thinking any concealment needful, I told him my story, which helistened to very attentively. At the end he spoke some words to theMorattoe, who went out of the cabin.

  "Sit down and make yourself comfortable," he said to me. "Our men areall gone ashore, but the captain will come off presently and be rightglad to see you safe again."

  "I can't stay long," I told him, "because I have only got leave for acouple of hours."

  At this he smiled a little queerly, but pulled out a bottle of rum andsome glasses, and prevailed on me to take a drink with him. We satthus for some time, talking, and he told me that the ship had been outthere for more than a month, having escaped some of the headwinds wehad had to contend with.

  "And what of Mrs. Rising?" I said at last, for I had been shy ofputting this question to such a man. "I understand she took passagewith you."

  He grinned at this, rather maliciously.

  "I thought you'd come to that," he said. "I didn't suppose it was forlove of your comrades that you had come on board so quickly. As forMistress Marian, she's ashore, and for her address I may refer you tothe captain when he finds you here."

  "The captain is rather slow in coming," I observed, getting on to myfeet. "I think I must be going ashore."

  With that I walked out of the cabin, Trickster Tim following at myheels. When I got on to the deck, I stared about me in dismay. Not asign could I see of my boatman.

  "What's become of that fellow who brought me out?" I cried, turning tomy companion.

  The scoundrel laughed in my face.

  "I sent word to him not to wait for you," he coolly replied, "as Ithought maybe you'd rather stay with us."

  "Rascal!" I shouted, taking him roughly by the arm. "What is themeaning of this villainy?"

  "There's the captain; you'd better ask him," he answered.

  And turning round as the sound of oars smote on my ears, I perceived aboat coming alongside, and seated upright in the stern the very man ofall others whom I had never thought or wished to see again. It was mycousin Rupert.

  He caught sight of me at the same moment, and a fierce scowl passedacross his brow.

  "Whom have you got there, Tim?" he called out, standing up in the boatto get a view of me.

  "Mr. Ford, sir, purser's assistant of his Majesty's ship _Talisman_."

  At that moment the boat came alongside and my cousin leaped on to thedeck, followed by four or five of the crew. He surveyed me with aglance of bitter hatred, mingled with triumph.

  "So, cousin, I did not kill you after all! Never mind, I am glad youhave remembered your old articles and are come to join us once more.We have lacked a cabin-boy since your desertion, and if his Majestycan spare you, we shall be glad of your services."

  I was too confounded to reply, or to take much heed of this mockingharangue. I had as firmly believed Rupert to be dead as, it seems, hehad believed me. The truth, as I gathered it by degrees afterwards,seemed to be this: At the moment of my casting him out of the boat inwhich we had fought, the other boat was returning to find out what hadbeen the result of the battle. They had first picked up Rupert out ofthe water, when he was on the point of death, and had then found mesenseless, and to all appearance mortally wounded, where I had fallen.They carried us both back with them, and finding Rupert revived, hadconcealed him on the _Fair Maid_ till she should sail. The boatswain,out of a kindness for me, and knowing the other's vindictive nature,had persuaded him that it was impossible for me to recover, and sothey had left me.

  As soon as I was able to collect myself I demanded to have speech withMr. Sims, the captain.

  "You will meet with Mr. Sims where you are going," retorted Rupert."In the meantime any business you have with the captain of this vesselmay be transacted with me."

  "Then I insist that you put me ashore instantly," I said, withresolution. "Would you kidnap me under the very guns of his Majesty'sfleet?
"

  "Not so fast," returned Rupert, keeping his temper, as he could affordto do, having the upper hand. "You have forgot your indentures, bywhich you are bound apprentice to the good ship _Fair Maid_, sailingunder his Majesty's letters of marque and commission."

  "Under a forged commission," I retorted hotly. "I refuse to be boundby indentures to a pirate!"

  This outburst was, no doubt, what my cousin had been waiting for, toset the opinion of the crew against me. He now turned to hisfollowers, very stern.

  "Take this youth down to the forecastle and put him in irons. If herepeats his scandalous aspersions, I will bring him to trial as adeserter and mutineer."

  I had no means of resistance, and his orders were carried out, thescoundrel who had tricked me into waiting for Rupert's return, takingespecial pleasure to see that my irons were made secure. I scorned toquestion the dirty rascals further as to how my cousin came to be incommand, but I guessed there had been some foul work on board sincethe vessel had left Yarmouth; and the next morning I learnt the wholestory.

  Old Muzzy, my firm friend, had been ashore all that night, very drunk,but soon after dawn he came off to the ship, and hearing of my plight,at once betook himself to where I was imprisoned. He embraced me veryheartily, and as soon as I had satisfied him as to my recovery andsubsequent adventures, he disclosed to me the situation of the _FairMaid_.

  "You see it's like this, my boy. Mr. Sims is a good seaman, no onecan't say he's not, but he's too much of a lawyer to handle a craftlike this. Now that cousin of yours, though he be a bloodthirsty,revengeful beast, as you should know by this time, yet he's no lawyer.Captain Sims, there, he was all for letters of marque and such, butthen, once a peace breaks out, where's your letters of marque? Theyain't no more use than so much ballast. Now when we came out here, thelieutenant he says, 'Let's go into Gheriah, and join the piratesthere'--though according to him they aren't what you may call pirates,being under a king of their own, who has as much right to give themcommissions as King George himself. But Captain Sims he wouldn't hearof it, the more so as there was a British squadron under CommodorePorter had been out from Bombay in the spring, and knocked some oftheir forts about their ears for them. But, you see, unless we joinedthem, we had nothing to do till such time as the war began again,unless we chose to take the risk of standing up and down the coast, asyou may say, on our own hook. So the crew they sided with thelieutenant, that's your cousin, and the end of it was there was a sortof a mutiny, and Captain Sims he was carried ashore at Gheriah andgiven up to the pirates, leastways to their king, and the lieutenanttook his place."

  "Then the long and short of it is that this is a pirate ship," was allI could say.

  "Well, we are, and, in a manner of speaking, we aren't. When we wantto come into Bombay here we sail under King George's flag, and whenwe're in company with the pirates we fly theirs. Any way, we've takentwo Dutch ships and an English one since we got out here, and that'sput money in our pockets, which is more than Captain Sims would havedone with his lawyering."

  "And I suppose I am to be carried to Gheriah and given up to thepirates, like Mr. Sims," I said bitterly.

  But this the boatswain swore with many oaths he would not permit.Nevertheless I could see that he was strongly attached to my cousin'sinterest, and not disposed to venture anything openly against him.Indeed, he tried very hard to persuade me to come into their plans,offering to reconcile me with Rupert if I would consent to do this. Tothese proposals, however, I would by no means consent, being moreexperienced by this time than when I had joined them at Yarmouth, andhaving a pretty shrewd notion of how Mr. Clive would regard my formercomrades if they should fall into his hands. Finally, I besought theboatswain for news of Marian.

  He drew a grave face at this name.

  "Athelstane, lad, I would rather you'd ask me any other question thanthat. Plague take the girl, she was the cause of all the mischiefbetween you and the lieutenant! Forget her, lad, forget her, she's notworth your troubling after."

  But he might as well have pressed me to forget who I was, and thesituation into which my eagerness to hear of Marian had brought me.

  Finding me resolute to know about her, he told me this much:--

  "She came aboard while the _Fair Maid_ was in the river, to nurse yourcousin as he lay ill of his wounds. But I believe he had been temptingher before that to come out to the Indies with him, and she held backfor him to go to church with her first, and this he didn't care enoughfor her to do. Anyhow, it ended in his getting round her to trustherself with him, and he swore he would carry her straight to Calcuttaand hand her over to her people there. When we got out here, and shefound he had no such purpose, but meant to keep her in the fortress aslong as it suited his pleasure, there was a terrible business betwixtthem. But you know what the lieutenant is, and that it ain't a fewtears from a woman that'll turn him from anything he has a mind to do.So he just set her ashore by force, and there she is, as much aprisoner as Mr. Sims himself."

  I was overcome with the horror of this news, though I suppose it waswhat I should have expected from my cousin's character.

  "Good heavens!" I cried out in my distraction. "Do you mean that sheis in the hands of the pirates at Gheriah?"

  "That's about what it comes to. And the sooner you give up allthoughts of her the better for you, says I."

  Before I could frame any answer--and, indeed, I know not what answer Icould have made--there was a great noise and trampling upon deck, anda man came down to tell us that the vessel was about to weigh anchor,and that the boatswain was wanted to attend to the service of theship. Whereupon he left me, in the company of bitterer thoughts than aman can have more than once in his life.

  I pass over the dreary time spent by me in that dismal confinementduring our voyage. Old Muzzy visited me pretty often, and once Ruperthimself came down and made offers towards a reconcilement.

  "Say that you will join us honestly, and I will take off the irons,and rate you as one of the crew. And when occasion serves, I willcause you to be made lieutenant under me," he promised, "for after allyou are my own kinsman, and blood is thicker than water."

  Whether he was sincere in this, or was compelled to it by my friendthe boatswain, I do not know. But I had only one reply to give him.

  "And Marian, what of her?" I said indignantly.

  A dark look came on his brow.

  "Leave that business alone," he said. "It were better for you, I warnyou fairly. That woman is mine, and I will not suffer the AlmightyHimself to come between us."

  At this blasphemous avowal I turned my back on him, and wouldentertain no further proposals. However, I knew from the boatswainthat Rupert was first for throwing me overboard; and when Muzzy, whohad much authority with the crew, would not consent to that, he wasfor putting me into the castle at Gheriah, along with the latecaptain. But this my sturdy champion also opposed, and the end of itwas that I was left in my present quarters when the _Fair Maid_arrived in the pirates' harbour, and brought them the news that aBritish squadron was on its way to besiege the place.

  This intelligence Rupert had acquired before leaving Bombay, and itwas this which had caused him to set sail with so much haste. Becomingvery busied in preparations for the defence, I luckily slippedsomewhat out of his mind, and the boatswain took advantage of this tosoften the rigour of my imprisonment, allowing me to take the air ondeck, and even going so far as to release me from my irons.

  I was thus enabled to gain some idea of the place I had been broughtto. When I first came up from below, after so long a time passed inobscurity, the daylight proved too much for my eyes, and I was obligedto close them, and accustom myself to the glare by degrees. As soon asI was able to look about me, however, I perceived that the _Fair Maid_was lying in a very spacious river, not far from the mouth, and overagainst a sort of rocky islet or peninsula, joined to the left bank ofthe river by a strip of sand. On the rock there was built a verystrong castle, having a double wall and towers to protect it, but thecannons o
f rather poor calibre. Alongside of us lay the fleet of thepirates, composed of strange-looking vessels, having for the most parttwo masts, one very much in the stern, and rigged with a huge sail,the peak of which came much above the top of the mast. The prows ofthese vessels stretched a great way forward out of the water havingthe appearance of a bird's beak. The larger of these vessels, of whichthere were about ten, are called grabs, and the smaller, of which Icounted upwards of sixty, gallivats. These latter are managed withoars as well as sails, and when there is no wind they are employed totow the grabs behind them, so that in light weather it is easy forthem to overtake the ship of which they are in pursuit. They were allarmed with cannon, the grabs carrying as many as twenty or thirty12-pounders, and the gallivats swivel-guns of 6 or 9 pounds.

  We had lain in this position for more than a month, and I wasbeginning to be afraid that Admiral Watson had altered his intentionof coming to reduce the pirates' stronghold, when one evening, as Isat on the deck, just at the time that the wind changed and began toblow in from the sea, I discerned a great commotion on shore in thefortress, and turning my eyes towards the river's mouth I beheld amost welcome sight, namely, a fleet of no less than fourteen ships,arranged in two lines, with the _Talisman_ at their head, sailingproudly in, with the British flag flying at their peaks, and theirtops all full of men, their guns run out through their portholes, andtheir decks cleared for action.

  As silently and as orderly as if they were in mid-ocean without a foein sight, they came sweeping up the river, doubled the rocky point,and anchored one after the other, within two hundred yards of thenorth wall of the fort.