The fellow poled the boat off, while I put my whole strength into the oar I gripped. I caught a glimpse of Jacob poising and stooping with his arms outstretched and his finger-ends together; his body whizzed through the air, his arms and head striking the water as clean as a knife; then uprose his purple face at a distance of three boat's lengths. A thrust of the oar brought us alongside of him, and, while I grabbed him by the neck to help him inboard, Abraham was hoisting the sail, with Helga at the yoke-lines, quietly waiting for the sheet to be hauled aft.
'Bravely done, Jacob!' cried I. 'There's a bottle of brandy in the stern-sheets. Take a pull at it! The sun will speedily dry you.'
'Where's the Malays?' exclaimed Abraham.
'Didn't stop to see,' answered Jacob. 'I chucked the stretchers off and sung down "Ye can come up," and then bolted.'
'There's Nakier!' cried Helga.
'And there's Punmeamootty!' I called.
I was astounded by observing the figures of these two fellows quietly gazing at us from the forecastle. Almost immediately after they had appeared others joined them, and before our boat had fairly got way upon her I counted the whole eleven of them. They stood in a body with Nakier in the thick of them surveying us as coolly as though their ship were at anchor, and all were well, and we were objects of curiosity merely.
'Why, what's the matter with 'em?' cried Abraham. 'Are they waiting for us to sing out to tell 'em what to do?'
He had scarcely spoken the words when a loud shout of laughter broke from the dingy little mob, accompanied by much ironical flourishing of hands, while Nakier, springing on to the rail, pulled his hat off and repeatedly bowed to us. We were too much astounded to do more than gape at them. A minute later Nakier sprang back again on to the forecastle and piped out some orders in his melodious voice, in which, assuredly, the most attentive ear could have detected nothing of the weakness that I had noticed in his cries to us through the half-closed hatch. Instantly the men distributed themselves, one of them running to the wheel; and while we continued to gaze, mute with amazement, the foretopsail-yard was swung, the barque's head slowly fell off, the yards were then again braced up, and, behold! the little vessel, with her head at about south, was softly breaking the waters, with the after-yards swinging as they were squared by the braces to the north-east wind.
There was small need to go on staring and gaping for any length of time to discover that we were the victims of an out-and-away shrewder, cleverer, subtler stratagem than we had practised upon those dark-skins. I could not perceive any smoke rising from the forecastle. The fellows had been much too clever to accept the risk of suffocation as a condition of their escape. Abraham had assured me that the bulkhead which divided the forepeak from the main hold was as strong as any timber wall could well be; but there was either some damage, some rent, some imperfection in the bulkhead, which provided access to the hold, or the crew, jobbing with Asiatic patience at the plank with their sharp knives, had penetrated it, having had all last night and all this day to do the work in.