American boys afloat

by Oliver Optic

The strangers did not wait for anything more to be said, but came alongside the Salihé, the man in the stern grasping the rail to hold the boat. As well as they could be made out in the dim light of the moon, they were not English lords nor Spanish grandees. On the contrary, they were rather a piratical-looking set of men. They were talking among themselves, but in Spanish; and the man in the bow appeared to be the only one who spoke English.

Louis was not at all pleased with the situation; and he thought it was possible, after all, that there might be an adventure to wind up the moonlight excursion in the bay. He found his knowledge of Spanish was likely to be serviceable, for he could understand all that he could hear of what was passing in the after part of the craft. The man in the stern called to the one in the bow to leap on board of the steamer. The former looked like a cut-throat villain. He wore a woollen cap in sugar-loaf form with the point of it turned over on the side of his head.

It looked as though the party intended to board the Salihé, and Louis took Felix by the arm, and led him to the rail of the yacht, in order to prevent anything of this kind if possible. At the same time he told Scott to make another attempt to back the steamer off the bar. The pilot returned to the wheel and rang two bells. The screw began to revolve, and the boat began to shake, for Felipe had a full head of steam, having just replenished the furnace with coal, in preparation for the work he was now called upon to perform. For a minute or so the yacht was shaking under the pressure applied.

Setting the wheel amidships, Scott came out of the pilot-house, and placed himself at the side of Louis. In the adventure on the island of Teneriffe, in which his present companions, with the exception of the engineer, had been captured to obtain a ransom from the millionaires, Scott had been on the wrong side, and was engaged against his present friends. On the current occasion he seemed to be desirous of redeeming his character, so far as it had not already been done, and to prove his loyalty to the owner of the Guardian-Mother.

"Board her!" called the Spaniard in the stern in his own language, evidently supposing from the answer in English, and from the appearance of those on the forecastle of the steamer, that they could not understand him. "Board her, Gray!"

"No, no," replied the man called Gray, in Spanish. "We don't want any trouble about this business. This is Giles Chickworth's steamer; but he is not on board of her, so far as I can see."

"There is not a particle of wind, and we cannot sail the Golondrina down the bay," continued the Spaniard impatiently. "You waste time, and we shall all be lost, and all the goods with us."

This remark fully enlightened Louis in regard to the character of the villanous-looking fellows in the boat. They were contrabandistas, as smugglers are called in Spanish. The town of San Roque on the hill has the reputation of being largely the abode of this class of people, and the surrounding country doubtless is inhabited by great numbers of them.

"Gibraltar is a free port, and a resort in consequence of Spanish smugglers, who drive an amazing trade by introducing contraband goods into Spain. The British government is not altogether free from a charge of a breach of faith, in the toleration it has given to these dishonest men; for it is bound by many engagements to use its best exertions to prevent any fraud on the Spanish revenues, in consequence of its possession of this peninsula." This is an extract from an English book, published in London. The writer has not set up a windmill for the purpose of giving the knight-errant on board of the Salihé a job to knock it down.

It was plain enough to Louis, who had read the account of Gibraltar from which we have quoted, that the occupants of the boat alongside had a small vessel in the Palmones, loaded for a voyage to some port in Spain. The wind had been tolerably fresh during the afternoon, but at sunset it had entirely subsided, and at the present time the surface of the bay was glassy in the moonlight. The custom-house officials from Algeciras or elsewhere might pounce upon them before morning, or the next day if the vessel was compelled to remain in the river for the want of wind.