“Mr Bowen, Mr Ritson, and I have resolved to fight as long as we can raise a hand in self-defence,” answered George; “and my advice to you is to do the same. Alone, we three men cannot hope to do much; but with your aid I certainly should not despair of beating off yonder schooner, even though she be full of men. And if the worst comes to the worst and we find that we must die, it will be far better to do so with swords in our hands, than to be slaughtered in cold blood.”
“Yes, yes; that’s true; none o’ that for me, thank’ee,” and sundry other exclamations of concurrence followed the conclusion of the skipper’s speech; then came another very brief consultation; and finally Ned once more stepped forward and said—
“We’ve agreed, sir, as you’re in the rights of it about the fightin’; and we’re quite ready to stand by yer—all hands of us—and do our best.”
“Very well,” said George. “Then we will lose no time in making ready for our defence. Mr Bowen, we will have up that brass long nine-pounder which is down below; I provided it for just such an emergency as this.”
“Ay, ay, sir,” answered the mate, in a cheery tone of voice which spoke volumes as to his confidence in their ability to beat off the pirate, if such the schooner should prove to be. Then, turning to the men, he continued—
“Now then, some of you, whip the tarpaulin off this after hatchway, and lift off the hatches. Mr Ritson, will you be good enough to rouse out a couple of fourfold tackles and get them made fast aloft? We shall require a chain strop also. That’s right, lads; off with those hatches; we’ll soon have the old barkie in fighting trim.”
Inspired by the mate’s cheery manner, the men worked with hearty good-will; and in less than an hour they had the long nine-pounder on deck, mounted on its carriage, its tackles hooked on, the gun loaded, cutlasses and pistols distributed, boarding-pikes cast loose, and everything ready for a stubborn resistance.
These preliminaries arranged, George and the chief mate made their way aloft as far as the main-top to watch the approach of the suspected schooner, which had by this time crept up to within about nine miles of the Aurora. She was still heading straight for the barque; and the telescope enabled them to see that her six sweeps were being vigorously plied; their long steady swing and the perfect time which was maintained in the working of them conclusively showing that they were being handled by a strong gang of men.
“Why, she must be full of men, or those long, heavy sweeps could never be kept going for so great a length of time,” remarked George to the mate. “We shall have to devote all our attention to those sweeps in the first instance, I can see. If we are only fortunate enough to knock away two or three of them, it will at least delay their approach; and if a breeze would only spring up, smart as that schooner looks, I should not despair of being able to show her a clean pair of heels.”
“Ay,” answered Bowen, “and we’re going to have a breeze by-and-by; just the way we wants it, too. I can make out the upper edge of a cloud-bank rising now above the horizon to the east’ard there; and if we can only keep yonder cut-throat crew at arm’s length until we get the wind, and if it’ll only come down upon us pretty fresh when it does come, I think, as you say, sir, we may give them handsomely the slip.”