“Dick!” was the answer. “Can it be you?” and my brother and I grasped each other’s hands. He had grown into a tall young man, and certainly I should not have recognised him by his figure. I was also greatly altered; besides he would not have recognised me in my present condition—my countenance pale, my dress begrimed with dirt, torn, and travel-stained. I introduced Harry and Tubbs to him, and he shook hands with them both. There was no time for talking. He told us that the frigate had lighted the slaver, which had refused to heave to, and had had the audacity to fire at his Majesty’s ship. A gale coming on, as the only means of securing her, the frigate had run the slaver on board, when he with a lieutenant and eight men had leapt down on her deck, expecting to be followed by more of the crew, but, before they had time to spring on board, the ships parted. The slaver’s crew, as he called them, had made a desperate resistance, but a considerable number having been killed and more badly wounded, the survivors had been driven forward and yielded. “Having ceased to resist, the slaver’s crew,” he said, “had promised to assist in shortening sail, and apparently in good faith, having yielded up their arms, set about doing so. We have now got under snug canvas. There is too heavy a sea running to allow of a boat with more hands being sent to our assistance. However, as we have complete mastery of the people, we can do very well without them. Mr Hallton, the second lieutenant of the ‘Rover,’ our frigate, was inquiring for the captain of this craft, when he was told that he must either have been killed or fallen overboard, but one of his crew suggested that he might have gone below. Another then owned that he had heard the captain say, that sooner than fall into the hands of an enemy, he would blow the ship up. On hearing this, Mr Hallton sent me down below to search for him.”
“You would have been too late had we not providentially prevented him from executing his mad scheme,” I observed; and I then told him how we had discovered the captain in the very act of attempting to blow up the ship. “But you mistake the character of this craft,” I said; and I briefly told him how she had captured the “Arrow,” and how we had been treated since we fell into Captain Roderick’s hands.
“That greatly alters the aspect of affairs,” he observed, looking grave. “If you will come on deck with me, we will inform Mr Hallton. Perhaps he is inclined to treat the crew rather leniently, and to put more confidence in their promises than he would do if he were aware of her real character.”
Harry on this desired Tubbs to watch the pirate.
“I should be glad to do it, sir, but I should like a sniff of the sea-breeze,” answered Tom. “I want just to pump out all the foul air I’ve got down my throat.”
“Well,” said Charley, laughing, “one of my men shall remain instead of you. Noakes, stand by this man, and shoot him through the head if any one approaches to set him free or he manages to cast off the lashings, although he’ll not do that in a hurry, I suspect.”
On going on deck, we found Mr Hallton, the second lieutenant of the “Rover,” standing aft, giving directions to heave the dead bodies overboard and to collect the wounded, to attend to whom he summoned several of the most respectable-looking of their shipmates. The “Vulture” had not suffered much in her rigging, and was now hove to under a closely-reefed main-topsail. She rode so easily that I was not aware until then that a heavy sea was running, and had been surprised at Charley telling me that the two ships could not communicate. Charley introduced me to Mr Hallton, and briefly ran over the events of which I had given him an account.
“A pirate, do you say she is?” exclaimed the lieutenant. “I must really beg leave to doubt that. She is full of slaves, in the first place, and the captain and his crew very naturally fought to defend their property. But you say, Westerton, that you have found the captain. I will examine him and ascertain the state of the case.”
“But my brother here, sir, and Mr Bracewell, and the boatswain of the ‘Arrow,’ aver that they were taken out of their vessel and detained by force on board this ship, and there can be no doubt of her piratical character.”
“I beg that you will wait to give your opinion until you are asked for it, Mr Westerton,” answered the lieutenant in a gruff tone. “I say that she’s a slaver, and, as such, being taken full of slaves, we will condemn her. With regard to her piratical character, that has to be proved.”