CHAPTER XI.
THE CRUISE IN THE FELUCCA.
Raimundo was very much disgusted when he found that Bill Stout and Bark Lingall were to be the companions of his flight. Thus far he had felt that his conduct was justifiable. His uncle Manuel had taught him to believe that his guardian intended to “put him out of the way.” Don Alejandro had not actually attempted to do any thing of this kind, so far as was known; and no case could be made out against him. Don Manuel did not mean that he should have an opportunity to attempt any thing of the kind. Certainly it was safer to keep out of his way, than to tempt him to do a deed which his own brother believed he was capable of doing. Raimundo thought Don Manuel was right: indeed, he could remember enough of Don Alejandro’s treatment of him before he left Barcelona, to convince him of his guardian’s intentions.
But when he found himself in the boat, escaping from the Tritonia with two of the worst “scalliwags” of the crew, the case seemed to present a different aspect to him. He realized that he was in bad company; and he felt contaminated by their presence, Yet he did not see how he could help himself. The only way he could get out of the scrape was to surrender to the chief steward, and in due time be handed over to the agent of his guardian. Whether he was correct or not in his estimate of his uncle’s character, he was sincere in his belief that Don Alejandro intended to do him harm, even to the sacrificing of his life. Independently of his personal fears, he did not think it would be right to give himself up to one who might be tempted to do an evil deed. He concluded to make the best of the situation, and as soon as possible to get rid of his disagreeable companions.
“Where shall we go, Raimundo?” asked Bill Stout, as confidentially as though he had been a part of the enterprise from the beginning.
“We must go on shore, of course,” replied the young Spaniard, who was not yet sufficiently reconciled to the situation to be very cordial.
More than this, he had not yet considered what his course should be when he had left the vessel; but it occurred to him, as Bill asked the question, that the alguacil, whose action had been fully reported to him by Hugo, might be watching the vessel from the shore. Raimundo looked about him to get a better idea of the situation. The wind was from the north-west, which swung the Prince so that she lay between the Tritonia and the landing-place, and hid her hull from the view of any one on the city side.
“I think we had better not land at any of the usual places,” suggested Bark. “Marline, Rimmer, and all the rest of the forward officers, are in charge of the boats at the principal landing.”
“I had no idea of going to the city. It would not be safe for me to show my face there,” answered Raimundo; and he directed the boatman to pull to the Barceloneta side of the port, and in such a direction as to keep in the shadow of the vessels of the fleet.
The man offered to land them at a more convenient place; but Raimundo insisted upon going to the point indicated. Very likely the boatman suspected that his passengers were not leaving the vessel to which they belonged in a perfectly regular manner; but probably this would not make any difference to him, as long as he was well paid for his services. Presently the boat grounded on some rocks at the foot of the sea-wall, which rose high above them. As usual the boatman was anxious to obtain another job; and he offered to take them to any point they wished to go to.
“I will take you back to your ship when you are ready to go,” continued the man with a smile, and a twinkle of the eye, which was enough to show that he did not believe they intended to return.
Raimundo replied that they had no further use for the boat that day.
“I have a big boat like that,” persisted the man, pointing to a felucca which was sailing down the bay.
The craft indicated was about thirty feet long, and carried a large lateen sail.
“Where is she?” asked Raimundo, with interest.
The man pointed up the harbor, and said he could have her ready in a few minutes.
“Do you go out to sea in her?”
“Oh, yes! go to Majorca in her,” replied the boatman, quite excited at the prospect of a large job.
“Can you take us to Tarragona in her?” continued the young Spaniard, to whom the felucca suggested the best means of getting away from Barcelona.
“Certainly I can: there is no trouble about it.”
“How much shall you charge to take us there?”
“It is fifteen leagues to Tarragona,” replied the boatman, who proceeded to magnify the difficulties of the enterprise as soon as the price was demanded.
“Very well: we can go by the railroad,” added Raimundo, who fully comprehended the object of the man.
“Your officers will see you if you go into the city,” said the boatman, with a cunning smile.
There was no longer any doubt that the fellow fully comprehended the situation, but the fugitive saw that he would not betray them; for, if he did, he would lose the job, which he evidently intended should be a profitable one.
“Name your price,” he added; and he was willing to pay liberally for the service he desired.
“Five hundred reales,” answered the man.
“Do you think we have so much money?” laughed the fugitive. “We can’t make a bargain with you.”
“What will you give?” asked the boatman.
“Two hundred reales.”
After considerable haggling, the bargain was struck at three hundred reales, or fifteen dollars; and this was less than the fugitive had expected to pay. The rest of the arrangements were readily made. Filipe, for this was the name he gave, was afraid his passengers would be captured while he went for his felucca; and, keeping in the shadow of the sea-wall, he pulled them around the point on which the old light-house stands, and landed them on some rocks under the wall. In this position they could not be seen from the vessels of the fleet, or from the landing-place on the other side, while the high wall concealed them from any person on the shore who did not take the trouble to look over at them.
“We shall want something to eat,” said Raimundo, as the boatman was about to leave them. “Take this, and buy as much bread and cold meat as you can with it.”
Raimundo handed him three dollars in Spanish silver, which Hugo had obtained for him. The large sum of money he had was in Spanish gold, obtained in Genoa. He had a few dollars in silver left for small expenses.
“What are we here for?” asked Bill Stout, who, of course, had not understood a word of the conversation of his companion and the boatman.
Both he and Bark had asked half a dozen times what they were talking about; but Raimundo had not answered them.
“What has been going on between you and that fellow all this time?” asked Bill, in a tone so imperative that the young officer did not like it at all.
“I have made a bargain with him to take us to Tarragona,” replied Raimundo coldly.
“And did not say a word to Bark and me about it!” exclaimed Bill.
“If you don’t like it you need not go. I did not invite you to come with me.”
“Did not invite me!” sneered Bill. “I know you didn’t; but we are in the party, and want you to understand that we are no longer under your orders. You needn’t take it upon yourself to make arrangements for me.”
“I made the arrangement for myself, and I don’t ask you to go with me,” answered Raimundo with dignity.
“Come, come! Bill, dry up!” interposed Bark. “Do you want to make a row now before we are fairly out of the vessel?”
“I got out of the vessel to get clear of those snobs of officers, and I am not going to have one of them lording it over me here.”
“Nonsense! He hasn’t done any thing that you can find fault with,” added Bark.
“He has made a trade with that boatman to take us somewhere without saying a word to us about it,” blustered Bill. “I want to put a check on that sort of thing in the beginning.”
“He has done just the right thing. If we had been alone we could not have managed the matter at all.”
“I could have managed it well enough myself.”
“You can’t speak a word of Spanish, nor I either.”
“I don’t even know where that place is—Dragona—or whatever it is,” growled Bill.
“I am not to blame for your ignorance,” said Raimundo. “You heard every thing that was said; and, if you don’t like it, I am willing to get along without you.”
“Come, Bill; we must not get up a row. Raimundo has done the right thing, and for one I am very much obliged to him,” continued Bark.
“He might have told us what he was about,” added Bill, somewhat appeased by the words of his fellow-conspirator.
“We had no time to spare; and he could not stop to tell the whole story twice over.”
“Where is the place we are going to?” demanded Bill in the same sulky tone.
“Tarragona, a seaport town, south of here. How far is it, Mr. Raimundo?”
“About fifty miles.”
“Will you tell us now, if you please, what arrangements you made with the boatman?” continued Bark, doing his best to smooth the ruffled feelings of the young Spaniard.
“Certainly I will; but I want to say in the first place that I had rather return to the Tritonia at once than be bullied by Stout or by anybody else. I don’t put on any airs, and I mean to treat everybody like a gentleman. I am a Spaniard, and I will not be insulted by any one,” said Raimundo, with as much dignity as an hidalgo in Castile.
“I didn’t mean to insult you,” said Bill mildly.
“Let it pass; but, if it is repeated, we part company at once, whatever the consequences,” added Raimundo, who then proceeded to explain what had passed between Filipe and himself.
The plan was entirely satisfactory to Bark; and so it was to Bill, though he had not the grace to say so. The villain had an itching to be the leader of whatever was going on himself; and he was very much afraid that the late second master of the Tritonia would usurp this office if he did not make himself felt in the beginning. He was rather cowed by the lofty stand Raimundo had taken; and he had come to the conclusion that he had better wait till the expedition was a little farther along before he attempted to assert himself again.
“Have you any money?” asked Raimundo, when he had finished his explanation.
“Yes. Both of us have money; and we will pay our share of the cost of the boat,” replied Bark, who was ten times more of a man than his companion in mischief.
“Is it Spanish money?”
“No, not any of it. I have seven English sovereigns in gold, and some silver. Bill has twelve sovereigns. I can draw over eighty pounds on my letter of credit; and Bill can get fifty on his.”
“I only wanted to know what ready money you had,” added Raimundo. “You must not say a word about money when we get into the felucca.”
“Why not?” asked Bill, in his surly way, as though he was disposed to make another issue on this point.
“I don’t know the boatman; and it is very likely he may have another man with him. There he comes, and there is another man with him,” replied Raimundo, as the felucca appeared off the light-house. “If you should show them any large sum of money, or let them know you had it, they might be tempted to throw us overboard for the sake of getting it. Of course, I don’t know that they would do any thing of the kind; but it is best to be on the safe side.”
“Some of these Spaniards would cut a man’s throat for half a dollar,” added Bill.
“So would some Americans; and they do it in New York sometimes,” replied Raimundo warmly. “I repeat it: don’t say a word about money.”
“The men in the boat cannot understand us if we do,” suggested Bark.
“They may speak English, for aught I know.”
“The one you talked with could not.”
“I don’t know about that. I did not try him in English. We must all pretend that we have very little money, whether we do it in English or in Spanish. When Filipe—that’s his name—asked me five hundred reales for taking us to Tarragona, I said that I had not so much money.”
“And that was a lie; wasn’t it?” sneered Bill.
“If it was, it is on my conscience, and not yours; and it may be a lie that will save your life and mine,” answered Raimundo sharply.
“I don’t object to the lie; but I thought you, one of the parson’s lambs, did object to such things,” chuckled Bill.
“I hate a lie: I think falsehood is mean and ungentlemanly; but I believe there is a wide difference between a lie told to a sick man, or to prevent a boatman from being tempted to cut your throat, and a lie told to save you from the consequences of your own misconduct.”
“Well, you needn’t preach: we are not chaplain’s lambs,” growled Bill.
“Neither am I,” added Raimundo. “I am what they call a Christian in Spain, and that is a Roman Catholic. But here is the felucca. Now mind what I have said, for your own safety.”
Filipe ran the bow of his craft up to the rocks on which the fugitives were standing, and they leaped on board of her. The boatman’s assistant shoved her off, and in a moment more she was driving down the harbor before the fresh breeze. The second man in the boat was not more than twenty years old, while Filipe was apparently about forty-five. He introduced his companion as his son, and said his name was John (Juan).
At the suggestion of Raimundo, the fugitives coiled themselves away in the bottom of the felucca, so that no inquisitive glass on board of the vessels or on the shore should reveal their presence to any one that wanted them. In this position they had an opportunity to examine the craft that was to convey them out of the reach of danger, as they hoped and believed. She was not so large as the craft that Filipe had pointed out as the model of his own; but she carried two sails, and was decked over forward so as to form quite a roomy cuddy. She was pointed at both ends, and sailed like a yacht. It was about one o’clock when the party went on board of her, and at her present rate of speed she would reach her destination in six or seven hours. She had the wind on her beam, and the indications were that she would have it fair all the way. There was not a cloud in the sky, and there was every promise of fair weather for the rest of the day. When the felucca had passed Monjuich, the party ventured to move about the craft, as they were no longer in danger of being seen from the city or the fleet; but they took the precaution to keep out of sight when they passed any other craft which might report them to their anxious friends in Barcelona.
“What have you got to eat, Filipe?” asked Raimundo, when the felucca was clear of the city.
“Plenty to eat and drink,” replied the skipper.
“Let me see what you have, for I am beginning to have an appetite.”
“Raimundo did not hesitate to strike him down.” Page [172].
Juan was directed to bring out the hamper of provisions his father had purchased. Certainly there were enough of them; but the quality was any thing but satisfactory. Coarse black bread, sausages that looked like Bolognas, and half a dozen bottles of cheap wine, were the principal articles in the hamper. The whole could not have cost half the money given to the boatman. But Filipe insisted that he had paid a peseta more than the sum handed him.
Raimundo inquired into this matter more because he was anxious to know about the character of the man than because he cared for the sum expended. He felt that he was, in a measure, in this man’s power; and he desired to ascertain what sort of a person he had to deal with. If he was not wicked enough to cut the throats of his passengers, or to throw them overboard for their money, he might betray them when there was no more money to be made out of them. The inquiry was not at all satisfactory in its results. Filipe had cheated him on the provisions; and Raimundo was confident that he would do so in other matters to the extent of his opportunities.
The food tasted better than it looked; and Raimundo made a hearty meal, as did all the others on board, including the boatmen. Raimundo would not drink any of the wine; but his companions did so quite freely, in spite of his caution. He noticed that Filipe urged them to drink, and seemed to be vexed when he could not induce him to taste the wine.
“Where are you going when you get to Tarragona?” asked the boatman, when the collation was disposed of.
“I think I shall go to Cadiz, and join my ship when she arrives there,” replied Raimundo.
“To Cadiz!” exclaimed Filipe. “How can you go to Cadiz when you have no money?”
Raimundo saw that he had said too much, and that the skipper wished to inquire into his finances.
“I shall get some money in Tarragona,” he replied; but he did not deem it prudent to mention his letter of credit.
Filipe continued to ply him with questions, which he evaded answering as well as he could. He did his best to produce the impression on his mind that he had no money. The boatman asked him about his companions, whether they could not let him have all the money he wanted to enable him to reach Cadiz. Why did they leave their ship if they had no money? How did he expect to get money in Tarragona?
“How do I know that you will pay me if you are so poor?” demanded Filipe, evidently much vexed at the result of his inquiry.
“I have money enough to pay you, and a few dollars more,” replied Raimundo.
“I don’t know: I think you had better pay me now, before I go any farther.”
“No, I will not pay you till we get to Tarragona,” replied the young Spaniard.
“I don’t know that you have money enough to pay me,” persisted the boatman.
Raimundo took from his pocket the three isabelinos he had reserved for the purpose of paying for the boat, with the silver he had left, and showed them to the rapacious skipper.
“That will convince you that I have the money,” said he, as he returned the gold and silver to his pocket.
He resolutely refused to pay for the boat till her work was done. By this time Bill and Bark, overcome by the wine they had drunk, were fast asleep in the cuddy where they had gone at the invitation of the boatman. Raimundo was inclined to join them; but the skipper was a treacherous fellow, and it was not prudent to do so. After all the man’s efforts to ascertain what money he had, he was actually afraid the fellow would attack him, and attempt to search his pockets. There were brigands in Spain,—at least, a party had been recently robbed by some in the south; and there might be pirates as well. So confident was the passenger of the evil intentions of Filipe, that he believed, if he was not robbed, it would be because the man supposed he had no more money than he had shown him. He kept his eye on a spare tiller in the boat, which he meant to use in self-defence if the occasion should require.
Just before dark Bill and Bark, having slept off the effect of the wine, awoke, and came out of the cuddy. Filipe proposed that they should have supper before dark, and ordered Juan to bring out the hamper. Raimundo did not want any supper, and refused to eat or drink. Bark and Bill were not hungry, and also declined. Then the skipper urged them to drink.
“Don’t taste another drop,” said Raimundo earnestly. “That man means mischief.”
“Do you mean to insult me?” demanded Filipe, fixing a savage scowl upon Raimundo.
It was plain enough now that the man understood English, though he had not yet spoken a word of it, and had refused to answer when spoken to in that language. At the same time he left the helm, which Juan took as though he was beside his father for that purpose. Raimundo leaped from his seat, with the tiller in his hand; for he had kept his place where he could lay his hand upon it.
“Stand by me!” shouted he to his companions.
Filipe rushed upon Raimundo, and attempted to seize him by the throat. The young officer struck at him with the tiller, but did not hit him. He dodged the blow; but it fanned his wrath to the highest pitch. Raimundo saw him thrust his hand into his breast-pocket; and he was sure there was a knife there. He raised his club again; but at this instant Bark Lingall threw his arms around the boatman’s throat, and, jamming his knees into his back, brought him down on his face in the bottom of the boat.
“Hold him down! don’t let him up!” cried Raimundo.
Bark was a stout fellow; and he held on, in spite of the struggles of the Spaniard. At this moment Juan left the tiller, and rushed forward to take a hand in the conflict, now that his father had got the worst of it. He had a knife in his hand, and Raimundo did not hesitate to strike him down with the heavy tiller; and he lay senseless in the bottom of the felucca. The young officer then went to the assistance of Bark Lingall; and, in a few minutes more, they had bound the skipper hand and foot, and lashed him down to the floor.