“Yes, and I truly believe, in all that turmoil of the elements, while we were on the brink of foundering and going down to old Davy’s locker, that there was not an officer or man, from the captain to the cook, who was not thinking of that pirate, and hoping that he might go down first. I myself, however, felt a sort of confidence, as I was held lashed on the poop to the mizzen rigging, that the brigantine might be caught and whirled about––so long as she was above water––by the same blows of the hurricane that beat upon the ‘Scourge;’ and when the tornado broke, and some one sang out ‘Sail ho!’ I knew by instinct it must be the ‘Centipede.’”
CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE CHASE.
|
“With sloping masts and dipping prow, As who pursued with yell and blow Still treads the shadow of his foe, And forward bends his head, The ship drove past, loud roared the blast, And southward aye we fled.” “Clap on more sail, pursue, give fire–– She is my prize, or ocean whelms them all.” “So many slain––so many drowned! I like not of that fight to tell. Come, let the cheerful grog go round! Messmates, I’ve done. A spell, ho, spell!” |
“It was all hands again, gentlemen. The hurricane had settled down into a moderate gale from northeast, though it was some time before the awfully confused sea got to roll regularly. Then we judged ourselves––for reckoning and observation had been out of the question––to be a long way south of Jamaica, and even to the southward of the great Pedro Bank. We did not wait this time for the pirate to lead us in getting ready for a race, but we got up a bran-new suit of top-sails and courses out of the sail-room, and, so soon as the men could go aloft with safety, they were ordered not to unbend the few tattered rags still clinging to the yards, but to cut away at once. Up went the top-sails and courses, and they were soon brought to the yards and set close-reefed, with a storm-jib to steady the ship forward. Presently we gave her the whole fore-sail and main-sail, and I think that even then, for some hours, but one half the corvette’s upper works could have been visible as she plunged through the angry heaving seas.
“It left us dry enough, however, to pay some heed to the brigantine ahead of us. She was about four miles off, a little on our weather bow, and as she rode up––splendid sea-boat that she was––like a gull on the back of a mighty roller, we could see that her bulwarks––mere boards and canvas, probably––had been washed away, the house between her masts gone too, and, no doubt, her long gun, or whatever else had been lying hid under it. And now she was once more the 217 schooner ‘Centipede,’ long and sharp, and without any rail to speak of, so that we could see her deck from the stem to her taffrail at every lurch she made. The only difference in her appearance was a short fore-mast with cross-trees, and a top-mast for square sails. Almost as soon as our top-sail sheets were hauled home, her own yards went up and the sail was spread, while with the bonnet off her fore-sail, the whole jib and a close-reefed main-sail, she went flying to the southward with the gale a point abaft the beam.
THE STERN CHASE.