“I know that I can trust him to you, Junker,” said the surgeon, “and take care he has his medicine at the exact hour I mark down.”
“I am thankful to have you by me, Jack,” said Mr Ormsby. “You have behaved admirably, and I shall always be glad to render you any assistance in my power.”
I will not say that these remarks did not raise me somewhat in my own estimation. I do not see how it could have been otherwise; and vague ideas of what I might perhaps become by-and-by, floated through my mind. I was the son of a marine only, but then he was a sergeant, and my mother was certainly a lady by birth, though she might have been supposed to have lowered herself when she married my honest father. “Well, well, that may be all nonsense,” I thought over and over again, “and yet, if there is an opportunity, I will try to distinguish myself. I may, to be sure, get knocked on the head, and then there will be an end to the matter; but still, people do go through all sorts of dangers, and come out without even a scratch.” All day long the Roarer ran on, when towards evening we stood into a bay, where she brought up. It was supposed that the pirates were hiding away in the neighbourhood, and during the night a bright lookout was kept, lest any of the prows, not aware of our vicinity, might be stealing by. I sat up, as long as I could keep awake, with Mr Ormsby; but at length the surgeon sent me to my hammock, he or one of the midshipmen taking my place. He, however, had a good deal himself to do, looking after the other wounded men. When the sun rose there was not a breath of wind, the water in the bay looking like a polished mirror, so clear, that we could see the fish swimming about, far down below the surface. At length the land breeze came off the shore, the anchor was hove up, and we once more made sail. I may as well say that this sort of work continued for several days. Mr Ormsby was gradually recovering, so that he did not require much of my attendance. Dicky Plumb met me one day.
“Jack,” he said, “I have been making interest, in case there is any boat-work, that I may be employed, and I have asked, if I go, that you may go also. Of course the old Roarer herself is never likely to get hold of any of these fellows. They can see her coming, and hide away without difficulty, but with the boats it may be a very different matter.”
The very day after this we brought up as usual in a sheltered bay, the high points on either side covered with trees completely concealing the ship. It was dusk before we came to an anchor, so that, unless the people on shore had been expressly looking for us, we were very likely to have escaped observation. As soon as the sails were furled, the captain issued an order for five boats to be got ready, and armed with provisions for a couple of days, and it soon became known that he himself intended to lead our expedition in search of the pirates. The captain went in one of the boats, the second-lieutenant with the master and two mates in the others. Dicky told me he was going with Mr Mason.
“And you are to take an oar in the boat, as Barket, who belongs to her, is ill. Depend upon it, we shall see some fun. The captain would not trouble himself, unless he felt pretty sure of bagging a few pirates.”
There was a thin crescent moon in the sky, just sufficient to enable us to see the land, but not affording light enough to betray our approach to any of the people on shore. I should say that two days before we had fallen in with a trading junk proceeding northward. Captain Sharpe had questioned the master, and having treated him very liberally, obtained, I fancy, a good deal of information from him. As the Chinaman sailed away to the northward, there was no danger of his carrying the information of our being on the coast to the pirates, had he been so disposed. He, however, was probably very thankful to us for endeavouring to put an end to the career of those “ocean gatherers of blackmail.”
The men, having had their suppers, got ready for the expedition. We all had pistols in our belts and cutlasses by our sides, while in each boat there were several muskets besides those carried by the marines. In the bow of the launch, as also in that of the pinnace, there was a long brass gun, which could throw a shot well able to send a pirate prow to the bottom in the course of a few discharges. The captain gave the order to shove off, and following him closely, the flotilla of boats pulled away to the southward. I could not help looking every now and then at the big ship, as her dark hull, and masts and yards rose up against the clear sky. Our oars had been muffled, so that the pirates might not be warned of our approach. The only sound heard was the light splash of the blades, as they clove the calm surface of the water, and the light ripple caused by our stems as we glided through it. We had to round a high wooded point, which in a short time hid the ship from our sight. We now coasted along at some distance from the land, but sufficiently near to discover any prows which might be at anchor. Hour after hour we pulled on, but no suspicious craft were seen which might tempt us to overhaul them. Not a word was exchanged between the different boats, for sound is carried at night over a calm sea—especially in that clear atmosphere—to an immense distance, and had we laughed or talked, we might easily have betrayed our approach.
“Slow work this, Mason,” whispered Mr Plumb. “I hope, however, we shall have our reward before long.”
We soon after this saw behind us a high wooded point, very like the one near which the Roarer lay. Just then the captain dropped alongside each boat, and told the officers to be prepared, as he fully believed we should find a fleet of piratical prows on the other side. This put us all on the look-out. Each man might be seen tightening his belt, and feeling to ascertain that his pistol was ready at hand. Keeping close together, we followed our brave leader round the point. Scarcely had we opened the bay, when we made out a large fleet of prows at anchor, close in with the shore. It would have been difficult to count them.