A prize crew was immediately thrown on board the Raleigh, but with the contempt for the American navy which the British naturally felt at the time, it was thought enough to send a young lieutenant, a midshipman, and twenty men to take charge of the American ship. The crew were all on deck, about to be mustered by their captors, when Jack Bell, finding Dicky Stubbs, pale and awed, standing next him, whispered very softly:—
“Has you seen Mr. Dobell anywheres about?”
“No,” answered Dicky just as softly, “he ain’t able to move hardly yet.”
“You slip below, then,” Jack continued hurriedly but impressively, “and tell him there ain’t but twenty men and two officers aboard—and they thinks they has got all the officers—and if he kin manage to git into the men’s quarters and git a suit of sailor’s clo’es on him, they won’t never suspect we has a officer among us; but if we has an officer, we can git the ship back before they knows it. Now, can you remember that, boy?”
“Yes, sir,” answered Dicky—and in the confusion he easily managed to get below. With his heart in his mouth he ran to Mr. Dobell’s room. The lieutenant, much disabled by rheumatism, had yet managed to crawl as far as his door. He surmised only too well the state of affairs above, and when Dicky in an agitated whisper gave Jack Bell’s message, Dobell saw at once what was meant. Only twenty men and two young officers! He balanced rapidly in his own mind the chances he took, not forgetting the parole that he might expect as an officer, and the imprisonment he might suffer if he assumed the character of an ordinary seaman—but he saw the opportunity opening before him, and he also knew how level-headed and experienced Jack Bell was in spite of his humble position and want of school education. Nor did Mr. Dobell forget that although in the excitement of the moment he might have been overlooked for a little while, that very soon he would be inquired after and searched for—but a plan instantly suggested itself to him on that point. Picking up his cap he hobbled, with Dicky’s assistance, down to the men’s quarters. Nearly all the lights had been put out by the shock of the Ajax’s broadside, but by Mr. Dobell’s instructions Dicky put out every one in their wake that remained. He then told the boy as they passed the carpenters’ quarters to look around for a grindstone that he could lift. Dicky got hold of one that he could lift very handily, as he was a strong boy.
“Now,” said Mr. Dobell hurriedly, “get some sailor togs on me; then put my officer’s clothes up in a bundle and hide them until I can get a chance to throw them overboard; and next throw the grindstone overboard, with my cap after it, and rush up shouting, ‘Man overboard!’ and they will think it is I—but tell Bell privately that I am here.”
By that time they were in the sickbay, where there were two or three men ill, and in a minute or two Mr. Dobell was in a hammock, looking as ill as any of them. Dicky ran back and by almost superhuman efforts managed to get the heavy grindstone overboard and threw Mr. Dobell’s cap after it. A loud splash was heard, and Dicky rushed up on deck shouting, “Man overboard!”
This added to the commotion prevailing on deck. The boarding boat was at the gangway, and the young midshipman jumping in, the boat’s crew pulled toward the bow of the boat, where the splash had been heard. They saw an officer’s cap floating near by and it was picked up, and for half an hour they pulled back and forth over the place where the grindstone had gone down, upon the chance of saving the supposed unfortunate officer.
On deck Jack Bell, by some occult means, had passed the word around among the Americans that something was up and they must be on their guard. When the boat returned with the officer’s cap, it was at once identified as Mr. Dobell’s by the initials in it, and on looking into his room it was found empty. The British lieutenant thought he had conclusive proof that the first lieutenant had either fallen or jumped overboard; and Jack Bell propounded a plausible theory that Mr. Dobell, being unable to get on deck, had managed to lean out of the cabin window so far, in his effort to see what was happening above, that he lost his balance and fell overboard. “And he were a good officer, were Mr. Dobell,” said Jack with much feeling; “and he must ha’ felt awful bad when he knowed he couldn’t lift his hand to help the poor Raleigh.”
Jack’s theory was shared by the British officers, and when they found two or three sailors in the sickbay it did not occur to them that the one who appeared the most ill was the first lieutenant of the ship.