XVI
The moon rose higher, and Dalton came and went, carrying provisions up from the cabin. These he lowered into our boat, which was hauled alongside, Jenks taking a hand when necessary, although he never came aft far enough to encounter any of our men. Andrews sat quietly on the deck and had his cuts bound up and dressed, while Mr. Bell went below to the medicine chest for whatever he wanted. We kept well apart, each side feeling a distrust for the other, and neither caring to provoke a conflict.
In about an hour Dalton announced the boat was ready.
"There's salt junk enough for all hands a week or two, and ship's bread for a month. There's water in the breaker. You can go when you're ready," said Journegan.
I went aft to Miss Sackett, where she had sat motionless for a long time with her face buried in her hands, as if to shut out the cruel sight around her.
"We will leave the ship in a few minutes," said I, taking her by the hand, and trying to raise her gently to her feet. "You must try to bear up to go with us. Try to walk evenly and quickly when the time comes, for there may be a struggle yet."
She let fall her hands from her face, and I saw her eyes, dry and bright in the moonlight.
"Can't you kill them?" she asked quietly. "Oh, if I were only a man!" Then she drew herself up to her full height, and gazed hard at the group of ruffians at the mizzen.
"I'll have to go below first, and get my things," she said. "I suppose you know what is best, to go or stay?"
"Hurry," I said. "I will wait here at the companion."
She went below with a firm tread, and I heard her slam the door of her stateroom. Andrews looked toward me and spoke.
"You can leave the girl aboard," said he. "You'll have enough in the boat."
"Chips," I called, "stand by for a rush. Don't let Dalton get forward alive. Miss Sackett either goes with us, or we all stay here together and fight it out."
Andrews, who had recovered somewhat, now staggered to his feet and drew his knife.
"Stand by and follow along the port rail," he said to Journegan and
England. "You two," addressing Bell and Jenks, "go to starboard."
Dalton, who was below and separated from his fellows, would be our object.
Jenks, however, remonstrated at the attack.
"Hold on," said he, and England stopped. "What's the use of crowding in this thing like this? Some of us will get killed sure with seven fresh men out for it, and what's the use? All for a gal. No, sir, says I, don't go making a fool job of the thing. I ain't out for murder, not fer no gal."
"You'll do as I say or get done," answered Andrews, with a fierce snort, turning toward him.
Jenks backed toward us, and Bell tried to hold Andrews back. He partly succeeded, but was close enough to the old man-o'-war's man to get a slight cut from a blow meant for Andrews. Then England took a hand, and with Journegan they held the assassin in check.
Jenks came toward us.
"I'll go with you fellows if you say so," said he, and he tossed his knife over the rail to show that he meant no treachery.
"'Tis a little late ye are, but ye're welcome," said Chips, who had advanced at my cry nearly to him. Frank, the young English sailor, and Johnson were both close behind Chins, with the rest following. It looked as if there would be a collision, after all.
"Take the girl and go," screamed Bell, almost fainting from the cut received.
"Yes, take her and be damned!" cried Journegan. "Only get off before it's too late."
"Seems to me," said Chips, "we could do for them now wid no trouble.
Let's try 'em."
Johnson advanced at the word, but I called him back just as Chips was making ready for a spring at England. The big prize fighter had made ready for the Irishman, and for an instant it seemed that we would have another ending of the affair.
"Come," I said to one of the young sailors who held back, "get aboard the small boat," and the fellow, who was shrinking from the knives, took the opportunity to get away. This made Chips hesitate, and in another moment I had two more of the men going over the side.
Miss Sackett came on deck. Her face was ruddy even in the moonlight, but she carried herself with a firm step to the mizzen channels.
"Stand by and hold her below there," I bawled, and a man received her into the boat. Then I called to the rest of our fellows and threw a leg over the rail to signify that we were going. They came along, Chips last, with Johnson at his side. The carpenter was furious and wanted to fight it out, and it would have taken very little to have set him upon them alone. They, however, when Andrews had been overcome, were by no means anxious to engage. This seemed strange to me, for they certainly were men who feared nothing, and the sooner we were out of the way, the surer they were of getting safe off with their necks. Just what made Bell so determined to have us go was a puzzle to me. As Chips climbed over the rail, England came to the side with Journegan. I expected some outburst, and for an instant the carpenter was at a disadvantage. But they let him go over without a hostile movement. He stood up in the bow while a man shoved off.
"Ah, ye raskils, it's like runnin' away we are, but we ain't. It's but lavin' to th' hangman what I'd do meself, curse ye."
The boat of the Sovereign towing at the quarter came abreast us as we dropped back. Chips still standing and glaring at the ship, with rage in his voice and eyes.
He stooped down and lifted an oar as the small boat came alongside, and with a half-suppressed yell smote her with all his strength upon the gunwale. The oar crashed through nearly to the water line under the power of the stroke.
"Blast ye," he cried, "ye'll niver leave that ship alive," and he smote the boat again and again, crushing her down until she began to fill. Johnson took a hand also in spite of England and Journegan hauling away at the painter. Our men backed water so hard they held her back until the boat was hopelessly stove and had settled to the thwarts. Then we let go and drifted away, while the men aboard the Sovereign hurled belaying-pins and gratings at us.
"A pleasant voyage to you," came the soft notes of Mr. Bell's voice; and then we rowed slowly away to the northward, leaving the Sovereign a dark, sunken grisly thing against the moonlit sky.
"Rig the mast and sail," I said. "It's no use getting tired before the struggle comes. We're some six hundred miles out, and may not raise a vessel for days."
The oars were taken in, and the tarpaulin which had done duty for a sail was rigged. Under the pressure of the light air the whale-boat made steering-way and a little more. The moon now made the night as light as day, and although it was slightly chilly in this latitude, we suffered little from the exposure, each settling himself into the most comfortable position possible, and gazing back at the strange black outline of the wrecked ship. Her sunken decks and patched-up jury rig with the trysail set from the after-stay gave her an uncanny look, while her masts and spars with the set canvas seemed as black as ink against the light sky beyond. There she lay, a horrid, ghastly thing, wallowing along slowly toward a port she would never reach.
While I looked at her, Miss Sackett burst into a hard laugh which jangled hysterically. She had been silent since she had entered the boat, and this sudden burst startled me. Her eyes were fixed upon the grim derelict. They shone in the moonlight and she choked convulsively.
"Can I hand you some water, ma'm?" asked Jenks.
"What made you come with us, you rogue?" she asked, without turning her head.
"I was with ye from the start, s'help me," said Jenks. "I only goes with the other side when I feared they'd kill all hands."
"Well, it's a good thing for you, you contemptible rascal," she answered in an even tone.
All of a sudden I noticed a flicker of light above the cabin of the Sovereign. It died away for an instant and then flared again, Miss Sackett laughed convulsively.
"Look," she said.
At that instant a red glare flashed up from the derelict. It shone on her maintopsail and staysails and lit up the ocean around her.
"Faith, but she's afire," cried Chips. "Look at them."
I turned the boat's head around and ran her off before the wind, hauling up again and standing for the wreck to get near her. Miss Sackett seized my arm and held it fast.
"Don't go back for them!" she cried. "You shall not go back for them!"
"I haven't the least intention of going for them," I answered; "I only wanted to get close enough to see what they'd do. Did you set her afire?" I asked bluntly.
"Of course I did," said the girl, passionately. "Do you suppose I didn't hear them telling you I should have to remain aboard? What else was there left for me to do? Would you have me fall into their hands?"
"Lord save ye, but ye did the right thing," said Chips. Johnson echoed this sentiment.
"An' I knew ye ware up to somethin' of the kind when ye went below," said Jenks, "fer I smelled the smoke and thought to stop it, but there ware too much risk as it was to add fire, so I had to step out o' the crowd an' jine ye. I never did nothin' in the fracas, as ye know, except get hurt."
In ten minutes we were close aboard the derelict, and her cabin was a mass of flame. Figures of men showed against the light amidships, and I finally made out all hands getting out a spar and barrels to make a raft. The oil in the cargo, however, was too quick for them. It had become ignited aft and had cut off all retreat by the stove-in boat. Several explosions followed, and the flames roared high above the maintopsail. Journegan, Andrews, and another man were seen making their way forward across the sunken deck. The heat drove them to the topgallant forecastle and in a few minutes we could see all standing there near the windlass. The bitts sheltered them from the heat.
The oil in the ship was not submerged in the after part, owing to her trimming by the head. It had been the last stuff put aboard and was well up under her cabin deck. Even that which was awash caught after the fire had started to heat things up well, and the entire after part of the Sovereign was a mass of flames. They gave forth a brilliant light, glowing red and making the sky appear dark beyond. Great clouds of sparks from the woodwork above soared into the heavens. The light must have been visible for miles.
There was absolutely no escape for the men aboard now, except by getting away on some float. Journegan, Dalton, and England were working hard at something on the forecastle which appeared to be a raft. The one they had started aft they had been forced to abandon after an explosion. The carpenter's tools being below in the hold when the ship filled, they had nothing but their knives and a small hatchet left to work with.
Suddenly Mr. Bell made us out in the darkness less than a quarter of a mile distant. He screamed for us to come back and take him off the derelict.
"Pay no attention to him," said Chips.
I hesitated, with the tiller in my hand. The end of those men seemed so horrible that I forgot for the instant what they had done.
"You shall not go back for them while I'm aboard this boat," said Miss Sackett, quietly, from her seat beside me, and she seized the tiller firmly to luff the craft.
"I didn't intend to," I answered; "yet that man's cry had so much of the woman in it that it was instinctive to turn."
"Instinctive or not, here we stay. He is the biggest devil of the lot," answered the girl. "There's some horrible game in getting us away. I'm certain of it, but don't know what it can be. We'll find out when it's too late."
"We might take them aboard one at a time and bind them," I suggested. This was greeted with growlings from Chips and Johnson. Even Jenks declared it would never do, and the other sailors made antagonistic remarks. There was nothing to do but keep away and let them save themselves as best they might.
We sailed slowly around the wreck, watching her burn. Hour after hour she flamed and hissed, the heat being felt at a hundred fathoms distant. And all the while, the sharp, piping voice of our third mate screamed shrilly for succor.
After midnight the Sovereign had burned clear to the water line from aft to amidships. Even her rails along the waist were burning fiercely with the oil that had been thrown upon them by the explosions of the heated barrels. And as she burned out her oil, she sank lower and lower in the water until she gave forth huge clouds of steam and smoke instead of flaring flames. In the early hours of the morning, we were still within two hundred fathoms of her; and she showed nothing in the gray light save the mainmast and the topgallant forecastle. Her canvas had gone, and the bare black pole of her mast stuck out of the sea, which now flowed deep around the foot of it. Upon the blackened forecastle head, five human forms crouched behind the sheltering bulk of the windlass. They were silent now and motionless. While I looked, one of them staggered to his feet and stretched out his hands above his head, gazing at the light in the east. It was Andrews. He raised his clenched fists and shook them fiercely at us and at the gray sky above. Then over the calm, silent ocean came the fierce, raving curses of the doomed villain.
A gentle air was stirring the swell in the east, which soon filled our sail. We kept the boat's head away until she pointed in the direction of the African cape. And so we sailed away, with the echoes of that villain's voice ringing in our ears, calling forth fierce curses upon the God he had denied.
I turned away from the horrible spectacle of that grisly hulk with its human burden. As I did so, my eyes met those of Miss Sackett. She lowered hers, took out her handkerchief and, bowing over, buried her face in it, crying as though her heart would break.