“That will keep them a good bit astern,” Will said; “otherwise, if the wind were to drop at night, they might haul their own vessel up to us, and carry out their plan of blowing us up.”
“It is wise to take every precaution, sir,” Harman said; “but I don’t think any trick of that sort would be likely to succeed. You may be sure we should keep too sharp a watch on them.”
While the hawsers were being spliced, Will shouted to the pirates to cut away the wreckage from their ship, and when this was done he started with his prize in tow. As soon as they were fairly under weigh he hailed the prisoners through his speaking-trumpet and questioned them about their casualties. They replied that at the beginning of the engagement they had had one hundred and twenty men on board. The captain had been killed by the first volley of grape, and the slaughter among the crew had been terrible, all the officers [pg 168]being killed and eighty of the men. The remainder had run down into the hold, and remained there until, after a consultation, one of them crawled up on deck and hoisted and lowered the black flag.
“I suppose,” Will said, “your intention was to blow the ship and yourselves and us into the air as soon as we came on board.”
“That is just what we did mean,” one of them shouted savagely; “if we could but have paid you out we would not have minded what became of ourselves.”
“It is well, indeed, Dimchurch, that you suggested the possibility of their doing this to us. But for that we should certainly have lost nearly all our number, for, not knowing how many of the crew survived, I could not have ventured to go on board without pretty nearly every man. It will be a lesson to me in future, when I am fighting pirates, to act as if they were wild beasts.”
“Well, sir, I don’t know that they are altogether to be blamed; it is only human nature to pay back a blow for a blow, and with savages like these, especially when they know that they are bound to be hanged, you could hardly expect anything else.”
“I suppose not, Dimchurch, and certainly for myself I would rather be blown up than hanged. I suppose the reason why they did not blow up the ship when they found their plan had failed was that they clung to life even for a few days.”
“I expect it is that, sir; besides, you know, each man may think that although no doubt the rest will be hanged, he himself may get off.”
“Yes, I dare say that has something to do with it,” Will [pg 169]agreed. “I don’t think it likely, however, that any one of them will be spared after that affair of the Northumberland, and very probably that was only one of a dozen ships destroyed in the same way.