With those MacWilliams could not trust—renegades or slaves whose character he could not read—his plan was, when the uprising came, to put pistols to their breasts and threaten them with death if they did not assist in the rebellion.
After hours that seemed as long as months had passed, he passed me the word one night that the signal would be given on the morrow, before noon. The rough weather we were laboring through was an aid to our scheme.
The next morning MacWilliams made an inspection of the hold. Then he came up to inform the Moslem lieutenant that there was much water in the bilges, and that it would be necessary to trim the ship. Uruj, suspecting nothing, consented. Our leader then asked that, for the same purpose, the cannon that were forward should be moved aft. This being done, he further requested that the Moslem soldiers be quartered aft so as to bring the ship's bow out of the water. This was also agreed to. Meanwhile, we had managed to store in a convenient place such weapons as we would need.
When all these things had been done, to avoid suspicion, we went about our regular duties. Our confederates of the gunner's force went below deck with the infidel soldiers so that it would not appear that there was a crowding together of the slaves and renegades. The rest of us were set to pumping water by MacWilliams. I could tell by the arrangement of the men, and by the way they acted, which were sharers in the secret. There were about a score of us, and we had to contend with double our number.
At noon, while most of the Turks that were on deck were aft, using their weight to bring the stern into the water so that the water in the vessel might flow towards the pumps, MacWilliams gave the signal to one of the gunners to fire a cannon. An explosion followed—the signal for us to proceed. With a ringing hurrah we sprang to the attack.
Each man had been assigned a specific duty: first we battened down the hatches down which most of the Moslems had gone, so that the greater part of our enemies were now prisoners; then we turned to conquer the Moslems on deck.
There were twelve of them. They came at us with pistols, knives and hatchets, calling us by their epithet, "Christian dogs!" But the dogs had become bloodhounds now. Johansen, one of the Danes, swung one of the cannon in their direction. They made a rush at him, but he fired the gun directly at them, at which there was a terrific explosion—and the decks became a welter of gore. The terrible death of these Mohammedans caused the remaining Moslems to prostrate themselves before us, their fury turned to abject fear.
Meanwhile, the Moslems imprisoned between decks were trying desperately to break through the hatches. Murad, weak from sickness, yet rose up beside Uruj to thunder threats against us and to urge his men on. However, our victory on deck left us free to attend to those below. Two men were stationed over each passageway, with orders to shoot any infidel who by the use of hatchet or knife was able to break through the planking.
MacWilliams stood over the hatchway below which Murad and Uruj raged.
"If you value your lives," he called, "you will surrender! My men have orders to shoot any man who dares to lift his head. If you come too strongly for our numbers, we will blow you to bits with your own cannon. We are only two days' sail from Plymouth. Your precious wizard hadn't enough insight to see that we were taking you nearer the coast of England every hour we sailed. We will take you there, alive or dead. If you would enter England with breath in your lungs, surrender!"