By exerting their whole strength to the utmost the heavy hawser was rolled off the hatch, and the hatch itself raised, just as two figures came rushing forward from the quarterdeck with loud and angry outcries.
“Tumble up, my lads!” shouted George down the scuttle; “tumble up smartly, and help us to retake the ship.”
“Ay, ay, sir,” was the eager answer from below, and then the skipper, drawing his cutlass and pistol, turned to meet the prize-master and the helmsman, who had both hurried forward to learn the meaning of the disturbance in the galley.
“Surrender, or you are a dead man!” exclaimed George, thrusting the muzzle of his pistol into the face of the as yet only half-awake prize-master.
“Oui, oui, m’sieu; oh, yais, I surrendaire,” exclaimed the poor fellow, as he felt the firm pressure of the cold pistol-barrel against his forehead; and hastily unbuckling his cutlass, he thrust it into George’s hand.
The chief mate, in the meantime, had incontinently felled the other man to the deck with a single blow from his fist, and had then left Cross to secure him with a rope’s end. The barque’s crew had meanwhile made their way on deck, and were now clustered about their officers, anxious to know what they were to do, whilst the Aurora, left to herself, had shot up into the wind’s eye, and was now lying stationary, with all her square canvas aback, and the rest of her sails fluttering loudly in the wind.
“One hand to the wheel, and jam it hard up,” commanded George; “the rest of you to your stations. Mr Bowen and Mr Cross, you will mount guard over the galley-doors, if you please, until we have got the ship round. Raise tacks and sheets, round with the main-yard, and flatten in forward. Well, there, with the main-braces. Now swing your fore-yard, board the fore and main-tacks, and haul over the head-sheets. Right your helm, my lad; give her a spoke or two, if you find she wants it, as she gathers way, and then keep her ‘full and by.’ Now, lads, never mind about coiling up just now; you can do that after we have attended to the prisoners; come forward and open the weather galley-door, and as the Frenchmen pass out, seize them and lash their hands and heels together.”
These orders were promptly executed, the discomfited Frenchmen being permitted to pass out of the galley only one at a time. Cross’s burly form, drawn cutlass and conspicuously displayed pistol, supported by the appearance of the barque’s crew in his immediate background, proving an effectual deterrent to any attempt on the part of the privateersmen to make a rush for freedom, and in something like a couple of hours from the time of her capture, the Aurora, was once more in the undisputed possession of her rightful owner.