Chapter III: Part 3

"We were all that," replied Ben, knocking the ashes out of his pipe viciously as if he were giving the slave captain a rap on the head;--"and as we stood grouped around the deck amidships close by the engine-room hatch, fixing on our cutlasses and getting ready for the scrimmage, should luck enable us to have one, I don't know what we said we wouldn't do to the impudent beggars when we got aboard!

"The land was looming well on our beam, some six miles distant, and those breakers visible between us and it. The situation was a `tight' one, if there ever was such, for it looked uncommon like as if the captain of the dhow intended running ashore and risking her breaking to pieces on the rocks, if he couldn't find an opening in the coast into some lagoon where he could with his light draught beach the craft in safety. He was evidently determined to escape us, run what risk he might!

"I was standing alongside our skipper on the bridge; and I could see that he, too, was bound not to be licked, for he had screwed up his mouth in a way that he had when he had made up his mind to something, and then the admiral himself wouldn't have turned him from it!--He was a bold, courageous officer, was Captain Wilson, and every inch a sailor. Poor chap! he afterwards fell a victim to the fatal coast fever at Zanzibar.

"Well, I could see from the look on his face now, that if the Arab skipper was a determined fellow, and had resolved to circumvent us, why, Captain Wilson was equally determined, too, that he shouldn't, and that it was a case of `pull baker, pull devil' atween the two!

"`Campion,' say he to me, `pass the word forra'd for Mr Shrapnel to come here to me for a moment.'

"Of course I did as he told me; and soon the gunner arrives on the bridge, where, as I still stopped, it being my station there for the time, I heard all that was said between the skipper and him.

"`Mr Shrapnel,' says Captain Wilson, `we'll have to fire at the fellow in earnest now, or else he'll escape us; but I don't want to hurt any of those poor creatures, who are on board against their will. Can't you manage to shoot away a spar so as to cripple his wings a bit, so that we can manage to get alongside before he gets too close inshore?'"

"`I'll try, sir,' says the gunner, turning to go away.

"`Do,' replies our skipper, `and look sharp about it, too, or else it will be too late. Mind, though, and aim high. I wouldn't have the slaves hurt for anything. As for the Arab crew, we'll give 'em a taste of cold steel when we come across them, and that will be better than all the shot and shell we can send after them now!'

"`Aye, aye, sir,' said Mr, Shrapnel, going forwards again without any delay; and the gun detachment being all ready, our seven-inch spoke out again to the slaver, with more purpose than it had done before.

"The first shot went wide of the mark, and so did the second; but the third carried away her main halliards apparently, for the big sail came down all at once by the run, making the dhow broach-to as it fell over the side to leeward. Our men gave a tremendous cheer at this, but the slaver captain was a smart chap, as you might have noticed before, and would not give in yet; as before you could say `Jack Robinson,' he had the halliards spliced again, and the sail hoisted, bearing away straight for the land now, and not edging along it as he had previously done. He was evidently determined to destroy the vessel rather than give in.

"`Silence, men!' shouted out Captain Wilson to stop our fellows cheering, which, as you know, sir, is against the rules of the service, although winked at sometimes in the enthusiasm of the moment. `We haven't got the slaver yet, and it will be time to cheer when we've captured him! Mr Shrapnel,' he added then, as soon as all was quiet, the men being as mum as a mouse fore and aft--`you must send another messenger after, my joker; try if you can't do him a little more damage this time!'

"`Aye, aye, sir,' sang out the gunner; and he set to work again with a will, for the brief time during which the dhow's big main lug had been down had enabled us to get within half a mile of her, and Mr Shrapnel was better able to see what he was shooting at. He was a knowing hand, was the gunner! Watching his opportunity when the _Dolphin_ rose on the top of the heavy rolling swell that set in towards the land, and when the dhow was right down in the hollow of the combers, he pulled the lanyard of the trigger, and with a bang and a belch of flame and smoke a heavy conical shot went rotating through the air, making as much noise as a railroad train as it hurtled forwards at the chase, whose hull was hidden from view, but whose masts seemed quite close to us.

"He didn't require to fire a second shot this time.

"No sooner had the report sounded and the roaring rumbling thunder of the discharge died away in the distance, rolling in towards the coast-- the smoke being blown away, too, as quickly by the wind--than we could see the dhow dismasted before us, swaying about in the trough of the sea.

"She was a hopeless wreck, for both her masts had been snapped off short by the shot, and the yards to which the sails had been attached were lying athwart the deck. The _Dolphin_ now ranged up alongside her on the leeward bow, and the captain hailed her to know if she surrendered, when one of the Arabs on board, who must have been the skipper, waved a red handkerchief or cloth of some kind in token of truce. He was a tall, swarthy chap, with a turban instead of a fez, which the others wore, on his head; and the belt round his body, as we could see from looking down on to the deck of the dhow, which was much below the level of our vessel, was filled choke-full with long-barrelled pistols and dirks, and a round-shaped scimitar-like sword without a sheath that seemed as if it could give a fellow a very tidy cut.

"The sea was rough and both the dhow and the _Dolphin_ were rolling about terribly, we dipping our foreyard-arms as we lay-to; but Captain Wilson at once ordered the first cutter to be piped away, with one of the lieutenants in charge; while nothing would suit him also but to have his own gig manned. He said he mistrusted the slaver and would board her also himself, as she had a number of Arab rascals on her deck who would probably show fight.

"The boats were soon in the water, under our lee, the men shinning down into them by the falls, each chap with his cutlass tucked into his waistband; and, in another moment, rounding under the stem of the _Dolphin_, and getting nearly swamped as we breasted the sea, we made for the dhow, that now lay about half a cable's-length from our vessel, which had drifted a bit astern.

"`Put your backs into the stroke!' sang out Captain Wilson from his gig--for I was in the cutter; and with grim earnestness we stretched out as hard as we could, gripping the water firmly and then pulling with all our strength. It was hard work against such a sea as was then running and in the face of the wind, which was still rising and more gusty than before; but we were soon alongside the chase, both the boats boarding her of course to leeward, although the captain in his gig dashed at the high poop astern, while we in the cutter made for her bows, which lay lower in the water and would thus enable us to get more easily on board.

"Captain Wilson was right in his suspicions about the Arab skipper's surrender. Although he had waved that red rag of his to make-believe that he had given in, so that we might not give him a broadside as he probably expected--for of course he didn't know that we would not fire the big guns for fear of killing the poor slaves in the hold--no sooner had we got alongside than the beggars showed fight.

"I and another chap managed to grab hold of the bowsprit gear to haul ourselves up by into the fo'c'sle of the dhow, when chop came a cut that severed the ropes we had clutched, causing us to let go and drop back again into the bottom of the cutter with a thump that nearly knocked the bottom out of her, while another Arab shoved out the muzzle of a long matchlock right amongst us and fired it off so closely that the charge singed my whiskers. That did one good job, however, for it made us pretty angry, as you might imagine, and the whole cutter's crew tumbled aboard in a way that astonished them, I can tell you. They fought pluckily though, but they were more like mad cats than men, screaming and tearing us with their nails when we had knocked their long knives out of their hands and disarmed them. As for the skipper of the dhow, he was a perfect demon, and would have settled Captain Wilson had it not been for the coxswain of the gig giving him a drive through with his cutlass just as he had got our captain down and, kneeling on his chest, was preparing coolly to cut his throat with the keen curving scimitar that we had seen in his belt. Captain Wilson looked, sir, as pale as a ghost when he got on his feet again; for although he was as brave an officer as ever stepped, it does give a fellow a bit of a turn sometimes to be face to face with death, as he was then, and know that nothing, probably, can save you!

"When we had got the better hand of the slave crew, in which we did not quite get off scot-free, five of our men being killed outright and several wounded with ugly gashes from the sharp knives of the Arabs, we set about opening the hatches to release the slaves, who had all this while been kicking up a thundering row below, yelling and hollering as if they were all being murdered.

"Well, bless you! why, there were no less than three hundred and fifty crammed in the hold fore and aft on the two decks that were underneath the main one, and which had not four feet of space between them; the people, men, women, and children, being packed together so close that you couldn't have got a sheet of paper edgeways between them. As for the smell; well, sir, I think you'd prefer that of a gas main just opened, or the foulest scent you could think of, to what we all smelt in the hold of that there dhow; for it seemed to smother us and make the strongest men aboard turn faint just like a girl does when she cuts her finger and sees the blood.

"After releasing half of them and bringing them up on the upper deck of the dhow, for there was not space to let the whole of them out of the hold at once, we had to rig up the masts of the craft again so that she could make sail, the weather being too ticklish for the _Dolphin_ to take her in tow; although she did so for awhile, just in order to get a little further away from the coast, which was not too pleasant a neighbour with a north-east monsoon blowing and a heavy sea setting in towards the land.

"By the time we had rigged up jury-masts on the dhow it was dark, so, warning the prize-crew that was on board, of which I was one, to keep a sharp look-out and mind that our tow-rope didn't part, Captain Wilson went back to his own vessel--he wouldn't leave us till everything was ship-shape again with the slaver and everybody seemed comfortable-like; taking with him the majority of the Arabs who had been uninjured in the scuffle, and who might have tried perhaps to recapture the dhow from the small lot of men whom our captain was able only to spare to man her. Of course, there was very little chance of their attempting this now that their skipper was dead, the coxswain's thrust with his cutlass having lost the dark gentleman the `number of his mess'; but still, after the treachery they had already shown, it was best to take all proper precautions to spoil any little game they might try on.

"During the night, the _Dolphin_ kept under easy steam head to sea, only just preventing us from drifting ashore, as our tow-rope was hardly ever taut the whole time, for the wind blew so strongly still from the northward and eastward, the very direction we had to make for to reach Zanzibar with our prize, that it was impossible for the steamer to make any way against it, especially with the dhow in tow. The sea, too, was also very rough, breaking over the frail craft so frequently that we had to pack down all the slaves again below to prevent their being washed overboard.

"Towards morning, the wind gradually lessened, showing signs of shifting, which was to be expected at the season, being near the end of March. The sea, too, calmed down a bit, but there was still a heavy ground-swell, and from all appearances it looked as if there was going to be a squall, the more especially as it began to rain heavily. I had been left by Captain Wilson in charge of the prize-crew, and this change in the weather made me feel somewhat uneasy of the tow-rope breaking from the increased strain there was now on it through the labouring of the dhow; for I thought it would be better for both the _Dolphin_ and ourselves that we should cast loose and each sail on her own account, as at this time of the year the south-west monsoon, which takes the place of the north-eastern `kizkasi,' as it is cabled, or Indian trade-wind, generally sets in with a violent tornado blowing from off the land.

"Accordingly, as soon as daylight I hailed the steamer to send a boat aboard for me as I wished to speak to the captain. I had something more to tell him, however, than about my fears concerning the weather; for, while I was keeping watch during the night, I had heard some words dropped from the Arab prisoners on the foc's'le which I thought it best for him to know."

"Did you?" I said.

"Yes," said Ben, continuing his story. "While I was at Zanzibar I made it a point to study the lingo of the natives there, and had learned a good many words of the Kisawahili tongue, which is the _lingua Franca_ of the coast; and hearing these half-caste Arabs talking together I listened to what they said, for being a Feringhee in their eyes they did not think I could understand them. Of course I couldn't manage to stumble to everything I heard, some of their words being incomprehensible to me; but I gathered enough to learn that the dhow we had captured was in company with another one equally as large, loaded with slaves, that had got off clear and was now probably making its way towards the Persian Gulf out of reach of the _Dolphin_.

"This would be good news, I knew, for Captain Wilson; for, although the Arabs believed that this dhow had escaped us, if the _Dolphin_ at once went in pursuit of her in the right direction there was not the slightest doubt of her being able to overhaul her before she reached her destination, which was, I learned through the chatter of the prisoners, first to Mafiyah, as a sort of hiding-place until we should be reported out of the way, and then on to Muscat on the Arabian coast.

"I had no sooner got on board the _Dolphin_ in the dinghy sent for me, than, the skipper confirmed my own opinion as to the importance of the information I had obtained, although he said something which slightly damped my enthusiasm, in giving me a job I had not bargained for.

"`You've done quite right, Campion, my man,' said he, `in not losing time. I am glad you hailed me when you did, for every hour is precious in getting up with a chase that has got such a good start. I shall take care to mention you in my despatches for your prompt assistance in giving me news of this vessel, as well as for your gallantry in the capture of the _Fatima_,'--that was the name of the one we had already taken, sir, and now had in tow.

"So far Captain Wilson quite flabbergasted me with his compliments and made me feel as proud as Punch; but his next words lowered me down a peg, I can tell you!

"`I'm sorry, however, I sha'n't be able to take you with me, Campion,' he went on, `to see the end of this other affair; for now that I have to start off in chase of the other slaver, which will take me off the station, where some of the little Mtpe dhows will be trying to make runs from the mainland, thinking the coast unguarded, I intend leaving the pinnace behind to cruise about the Comoro Islands until I get back with the _Dolphin_, and, as you are the only responsible man I could trust to take charge of the boat and crew, you must remain here. Pass the word at once for the boatswain to pipe away the pinnace and see that she is properly stowed and provisioned.'

"This was a good deal more than I had bargained for. I thought I should have been allowed to remain as prize-master of the _Fatima_ and sail her up to Zanzibar, as that was what the captain had hinted the night before. However, of course I put the best face I could on the matter, and contented myself with seeing that the water barricoes and stores were properly put on board the pinnace, while all the other men who had not to remain behind with me and the boat were in high glee getting ready for the fresh chase, the news being already whispered about in the messes--hoping that they would have just such another scrimmage again as they had had the day before at the capture of the _Fatima_.

"Captain Wilson did not `let the grass grow under his feet,' as the saying goes--though it's rather a queer one for a seaman to use--in carrying out what he had decided on.

"Before the blazing African sun was an hour old, by which time too the rain had stopped falling, the second lieutenant of the _Dolphin_ was transferred to the command of the captured dhow, our `First Swab' having been wounded, taking with him all the prisoners that had been previously removed to our vessel for safety, although they were now bound securely with ropes and had a guard set over them to prevent their doing mischief, besides some additional hands to navigate the _Fatima_--which, hoisting her big lugs on the jury-masts we had rigged up the previous evening, and casting off the _Dolphin's_ tow-rope, was soon standing up the coast on her way to Zanzibar, keeping well inshore now, as that course was safest since the wind had changed.

"Hardly had the dhow got well off than the pinnace was lowered into the water alongside the steamer, her crew dropping in one by one, and I, of course, descending last. We had provisions and water on board to last us for six weeks, the usual time that boats are sent away from the vessels to which they belong on the east coast when cruising independently, as they all take it in turn to do; and Captain Wilson told me I was to hover about between Madagascar and the mainland in the Mozambique Channel until we might expect him back, which would be a month at farthest, even making allowances for his being detained at Zanzibar about the condemning of the slave-dhows which we had already captured and the one which he now hoped to get hold of.

"The _Dolphin_ then took us in tow till we were abreast of the Comoro Isles, when she cast us adrift, starting off up the channel full speed and steering north-east and by north, so as to get well out to sea before stretching in to the land towards Mafiyah, where she expected to pick up the slaver; while we, hoisting the sails of the pinnace, and taking it easy under the boat's awning that was spread fore and aft, bore away for Madagascar. Ah! sir, that was the commencement of an unfortunate voyage, for it was months before some of those that formed the pinnace's crew ever met their old shipmates again on board the _Dolphin_; the majority of those with me in the boat never met the hands we left on board the steamer again at all, nor will they till that great last day of all when the sea gives up its dead!"

"I suppose you refer to that time when you said you were capsized off the coast of Madagascar, eh?" said I, noticing that Ben Campion paused at this point.

"Aye," he replied; "but I'm afraid it'll take a precious long time to reel off the yarn concerning that period of the story!"

"Never mind, please go on," I replied. "Now you've begun and got so far, I'm sure I should like to hear the end of it."

"All right, then," he replied; but, before proceeding, he had to load up a fresh pipe, and while performing this interesting little operation he informed me, _en passant_, that the _Dolphin_ he afterwards heard had succeeded in capturing the second dhow, and her first prize the _Fatima_ had safely reached Zanzibar; and, consequently, that his prize-money for both seizures was safe, the sum accrueing to him amounting to over L50, being subsequently paid over to him when he rejoined his ship some time afterwards--"and spent, too, long since," as he said.

These little matters, relevant and irrelevant, being thus disposed of, Ben continued his narrative as follows.

VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER THREE.

IN THE MOZAMBIQUE CHANNEL.

"Where was I, sir?"

"You had just been turned adrift from the ship, I think," said I, "and left to cruise on your own account--wasn't that so?"

"Ah! yes, I remember now, sir. Well, then, when the _Dolphin_ had got well away from us, leaving us poor chaps to our own resources, we in the pinnace, now well under her canvas, were sailing along on a course almost at right angles to that taken by our old ship, which somewhat took away from the nasty feeling of being sort of left behind, you know; but, we could not help watching her with longing eyes as she sped away northward under full steam and with all her fore-and-aft sails set that could draw, going fourteen knots at the least!

"It was a lovely morning that there--the loveliest I ever saw on the African coast; for there was no mist, and the rain having ceased, the strong sou'-westerly breeze that was blowing right offshore from the mainland tempered down the heat of the broiling sun, which only those who have been on the coast can have an idea of as to how intense it can be, while the pinnace was moving quickly through the water; and it was not long before the _Dolphin_ was hull down on the horizon, the white gleam of her upper canvas vanishing soon after. But, for a long time succeeding that, we could still see the smoke from her funnel spread out in the shape of a fan to leeward, where it was blown by the following wind right across the sky and was clearly apparent in the clear blue air above as well as reflected in the sea below. Then, too, that disappeared at length, and we were left alone in our little boat on the waste of waters!

"I tell you we did feel a bit melancholy and down in the dumps then, especially as all hands knew the errand on which the old ship had gone and felt that we were out of the fun! However, I did not give the men time to think of this too long; for, acting under the directions given me by the skipper, I steered the pinnace towards the coast to windward of the Comoro Islands, intending after dark to creep up under the lee of Saint Juan, where I'd been told the dhows mostly made for when the coast was clear; and, what with trimming the sails and making taut the sheets, as well as stationing a special look-out in the bows and one in the stern behind me at the helm, I soon managed to turn the men's attention away from the _Dolphin_, though some of them still seemed chop-fallen, being new to boat cruising and not relishing the work.

"Of course, I knew in what a responsible position I was--almost like that of the captain of a ship; for, I could order the men to do anything I pleased, and if they disobeyed me have them tried for mutiny, while I had the right to attack and capture any native vessels I suspected of having slaves on board--so, soon after noon, when I piped all hands to dinner, I made them a little speech after the grub had been stowed away comfortably, pointing out that their circumstances were considerably better than they themselves appeared to think. In course, I said, our shipmates in the _Dolphin_ had a bit the advantage of us in starting off on another chase, with perhaps the chance of a second scrimmage at the end of it, the same as we had all had together on the previous evening; but then, I says, what we were doing was equally for the good of the service; and, besides, as soon as the steamer had overhauled the slaver she was after she would have to go back to that beastly Zanzibar in the thick of fever time, remaining there probably for weeks, until she got rid of the slaves from the captured dhows, while, on the contrary, we would be down here cruising about on the free open sea and enjoying ourselves!

"We lost nothing by remaining there, I said. If our old ship took the slaver she was now chasing, why, we would share in the prize-money just the same as if we'd been on board her, without running the risk of any hard knocks or having some Arab's dagger cutting daylight into us; and if she didn't succeed in hunting down the dhow, which was more than likely, considering the long start the latter had got, why, then we would be well out of a wild-goose chase.

"In addition to such arguments," continued Ben, who sometimes spoke with a purity of diction that is much more common amongst seamen of the navy of to-day than it was in "the good old days" of our ancestors before education was much in vogue, "I hinted that nobody could say we might not pick up a slave-dhow down there on our own hook quite as good as the other one we could not go after; and if not, well, at all events we would have an easier time of it than if we had been kept on board the ship! There, as they knew, the skipper took jolly good care to serve us out full purser's allowance of drill if there was nothing else stirring; for it was beating to quarters, or small-arm exercise, or manning the big guns, and playing all such fancy tricks with us when he had no better work to keep us employed with between watches. I can tell you, I never saw such a hand as Cap'en Wilson for that. He used to say that the devil always found something for idle hands; and the way he went about remedying this reminded me of the old poetry lines I once heard a Yankee sailor call the `Philadelphia Catechism'--

"`Six days shalt thou labour and do all thou art able,
And on the seventh,--holystone the decks and scrape the cable!'

"These words of mine had such an effect on the men that I assure you, sir, they grew quite cheerful like, chatting and laughing together as they lolled about on the thwarts under the boat awnings that were spread fore and aft I allowed them to take it easy, with the exception of the hands having charge of the sheets of the sails and those on the look- out, as I don't think discipline is preserved any the better by keeping fellows continually on the stretch when there's nothing particular to do, merely to see them slaving their hearts out.

"Presently, the look-out forward said he thought he saw the white sail of a dhow close in to the island we were beating to windward of; and of course every one immediately must take it for granted that she's a contraband carrying slaves."

"I suppose you didn't undeceive them?" said I.

"Not I," replied Ben. "I was only too glad of the chance. It banished at once all thoughts of the old _Dolphin_ out of their heads better than all my palaver, for all hands were so anxious to come up with the strange craft that they themselves voted for taking to the oars, which I certainly wouldn't have ordered their doing in the terrible afternoon heat, as, while we were having our dinner, the wind had been gradually dying until it was now almost a dead calm, and the sails flapping against the masts, with the boat rocking on the heavy rolling swell that you always meet with out there when the sun is at the meridian."

"I thought you expected a tornado in the early morning?" I here suggested.

"Ah! never you mind about that," said Ben. "We haven't yet done with the east-coast weather, as you'll see presently. Howsomever, as I was saying," he continued, "I told them to take in the sails, being so minded, and rig out the oars. They didn't lose any time about it either, for as soon as I gave the order it was all haul down and furl up; and, getting a good grip of the water, they started pulling like madmen, putting their hearts into every stroke--although the day was so hot and sweltry that a fellow seemed to melt away into perspiration, even lying still in the stern-sheets of the boat, as I was, without moving a muscle.

"The craft which had been sighted by the look-out forward was a small Mtpe dhow well under the lee of the island and creeping along-shore, her light sails and the wider spread of canvas which her lateen rig permitted enabling her to take advantage of the slightest puff of air; while our heavy pinnace, with her small-cut sails hardly raised above the surface of the sea, so as to get the full force of the wind, required a strong breeze to move her at all, although then she had pretty fair speed.

"Now that the men had taken to the oars, however, we began to approach the stranger more rapidly; but she was over five miles off, and a pull of that length under a burning sun is no joke, I can assure you. Stroke after stroke, our plucky seamen kept at it in spite of the heat, one minute appearing to gain and then again to lose distance as a whiff of air would waft the dhow along; so that, it was not until nearly sunset that we got within gunshot, and could hail her to see what she was up to.

"`Now, Adams,' said I to the man in the bows, who had command of the seven-pounder boat-gun we had fixed there, `I think we may invite the stranger gentleman to have a little chat. Fire away, my man, and make her come to.'

"All was ready, so without more ado he fired, the shot ricochetting across the prow of the Arab craft, which had by this time cleared the island and seemed making for Madagascar, that lay east and by south some three hundred miles off. At all events, the dhow was steering in that direction, with whatever wind there was on her beam, and she paid no attention to us at all apparently.

"Still, she didn't long keep on that course. The first message from our seven-pounder did not bring her to, nor did a second, but when a third went unpleasantly close, right through her broad lug-sail, we could see her come up to the wind sharp, while a fourth shot, which we now sent to show those on board that we meant business and would be obeyed, caused her heavy yard to be dropped by the run in token of surrender.

"We had a long pull yet to come near her; but on getting alongside we found it had been all labour for nothing. There was not the ghost of a slave aboard, nor any signs neither of her having carried any recently. She was only a trading dhow with a lot of Banians taking goods from the mainland to the islands; and so we had had all our chase for nothing. Well, the men were so vexed that they would have liked to have scuttled her. I was glad I hadn't suggested their taking to the oars, or perhaps they might have turned on me for making them toil so when it wasn't necessary; but of course I wasn't to blame, and they knew that.

"Having no authority to stop her, I was obliged to let the dhow proceed on her way, while we lay-to for the night in a sheltered creek under the lee of Saint Juan; for it was now getting dark, and the navigation being rather treacherous with a lot of coral reefs about, I thought it best to wait for daylight before we did any more cruising.

"On the wind rising again, towards midnight, I anchored the pinnace about a cable's-length off the beach, where we were pretty secure from drifting ashore on account of the tide setting the other way. Towards morning, however, it came on to blow more strongly, and as the boat rocked uneasily I hauled up the kedge again, for it was bad holding ground, the tackle chafing against the coral banks and sawing away in a manner that promised to make it part if it remained down much longer, the boat's head bobbing down and up every wave with a jerk that must snap our painter in time.

"Setting the mainsail reefed, and a small storm-staysail forwards, we ran before the wind, which had now increased to a gale, blowing stiffly, as it had done in the early part of the day before, from the south-west. It was of no use trying to lay-to in the open sea, for the rollers were too heavy for the boat to ride over, so we bore right away across the channel towards the north part of Madagascar, having a clear space of water in front of us with no chance of running ashore, for the next twenty-four hours or so at all events, if we kept on to the same point of the compass that the wind was now carrying us to. The pinnace being a good sea-boat, we were all right otherwise, that was, unless the gale shifted, when we would be driven back on to the rocky reef which encircled the Comoro Islands, and no doubt go to pieces there.

"`Let her drive,' said I to the men, whom I kept baling out the occasional seas that came in over the weather gunwale. `As long as she keeps on running like this we can come to no harm, but you mustn't stop baling, for if she once gets waterlogged she'll founder and then we'll all be lost.'

"This made them stick to it, although most of them were tired out with the long pull they had had in the afternoon after the dhow, and when morning broke we were still all right and buoyant, although the tornado showed no appearance of slackening, and we were quite out of sight of land, nothing but sky and sea being around us, and the waves rolling that high as they followed in our wake that if we had not scudded on we would have been swamped in an instant.

"All that day we continued driving ahead, for we could not stop, or wear the boat round, or do anything but simply let her go where the wind chose to take her. We could not even lower the mainsail, as if we had done so it might have capsized her, besides which, as long as it held out without being blown away, although it almost made the pinnace bury her nose in the waves in front, it prevented the following rollers behind from coming too close, just keeping way enough on her to be out of their reach. But, it was a perilous run of it, and every big comber that raced after us looked as if it would overtake our tiny craft and swamp her!

"By about four o'clock in the afternoon, as near as we could reckon, we sighted the highlands of Madagascar, for it couldn't be any other coast from the direction we had been sailing in ever since midnight. The land was right ahead and some distance off yet; but approaching it rapidly as we did, it made us tremble, for unless we could manage to steer inside the reef that lay outside the shore of the island, the same as at Saint Juan, we must be dashed against the cliffs. It was wonderful to think we had run all that distance in less than twenty-four hours.

"How we did it I'm sure I can't tell, but I believe in addition to the force of the wind, that must have driven us at the rate of twenty knots an hour, more or less, there was a strong easterly current in the Mozambique Channel with the south-west monsoon, and this must have carried us so speedily across from the Comoro Islands. I can't account for it otherwise.

"Be that as it may, sir, there was Madagascar now before us, with the pinnace closing in with the land every second, seeming as if she were flying towards it rather than sailing; soon, too, we could distinguish the noise of breakers, which grew every minute more distinct. We were rushing rapidly to destruction, and it looked as if no earthly power could save the boat from being dashed to pieces.

"However, there was a power above watching over us.

"Presently I noticed from the contour of the land that we were near Cape Tangan, which I well knew from a coasting voyage I had made round the island in a cruiser the year before when I came out to join the _London_, and I recollected that this headland ran out into the sea in a north-westerly point, so that, if we could contrive to get the boat to leeward of the cape, we would soon be in comparatively still water and protected alike from the force of the wind and the rolling waves.

"I sang out to the men therefore to get their oars out ready, and, watching my opportunity when we were just almost abreast of Cape Tangan, I told Adams, who was in the centre of the boat now, to lower away the mainsail, directing the others at the same time to pull with a will, as their lives depended on our rounding the promontory, against which it looked as if we were going to be hurled as we came up to it--it was so terribly near and frowning over us!

"This plan fortunately succeeded, for in another minute, during which I held my breath in suspense, we were round the cape and in still water, although close to a coral reef that girdled the land, which was still some three miles off. We really were safe for the time and dropped our anchor, glad enough at our escape; but I saw that the haven could only be of temporary assistance to us, for should the wind shift more to the northwards we would even be in a worse position than when scudding before the gale, as the reef would then be immediately to leeward of us and the gale in our face.

"It would serve no good, however, to meet evil half-way, so as the men were all dead tired out and exhausted with hunger, having eaten nothing since dinner the day before the storm set in, I ordered the provisions to be served out, telling them after that to lie down and have a good sleep in the bottom of the boat while I remained on the watch till morning, having had less exertion than any of them.

"But the poor fellows did not have half so long a rest as that. Towards midnight--it seemed indeed as if all our misfortunes came at that time-- the pinnace dragged her anchor and drifted on to the reef, when I had to rouse all hands to jump out in the darkness and shove her off again before she knocked a hole in her bottom. Then, no sooner were we afloat again than the wind veered round, just as I had fancied it would do, without the slightest warning, to the northward.

"This of course rendered it impossible for us to remain any longer under the lee of the cliff, our anchorage there being now untenable; and, putting out to sea again, we bravely endeavoured to ride out the gale in the offing under a close-reefed mainsail and fore-staysail, so as not to be in too close proximity to the reef, which was doubly dangerous to us now.

"Fortune favoured us in the attempt to weather the worst of the storm, until shortly after daybreak; when, the rollers coming rolling in heavier and more heavily each hour, the poor pinnace sank below the surface of the sea in twenty-five fathoms of water, leaving thirteen of us struggling for our lives some seven miles away from shore."

"That must have been awful!" said I sympathisingly.

"It was awful," replied Ben gravely. "I can hardly bear to tell of it now."

VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER FOUR.

A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.

"The only things left floating in the water after the pinnace sank down under us," resumed Ben after a lengthened pause, during which he puffed vigorously at his pipe as if to make up for lost time as well as to restore his equanimity, "were, the rain awning, a sort of long tarpaulin; the sun awning, which was of lighter stuff, and soon got saturated by the sea, making it go to the bottom too; a couple of oars that had become, somehow or other, unfastened from the rowlocks and went adrift; a pork breaker or barrel; and two water barricoes, one of which was empty, while the other contained only about a couple of gallons of the precious fluid which in a short time would be worth more to us than gold--but, I'm anticipating matters.

"Five of the boat's crew went down almost as soon as the pinnace, thus leaving only eight of us to battle against the waves and try to swim ashore if we could; although I, for one, didn't believe a soul would ever live to set foot on land again, that is if I gave any thought to it at all!

"What the others did at the moment I can't say; for with that selfish instinct of self-preservation which makes a man in the instant of danger grasp anything, regardless of what his comrades in distress might be doing, I grappled hold of one of the oars and the pork breaker, besides the stern-sheet grating, which I forgot to say also floated from the wreck. These I lashed together into a sort of raft with a long woollen comforter, which I had fortunately wound round my neck the night before while keeping watch to protect me from the damp dew, and now took off for the purpose. I was treading water all the time I was doing this, and the sea being very buoyant in the Indian Ocean on account of its extra saltness, I managed to rig up my raft pretty well. Then, when I had finished it to my satisfaction, I looked around me, being too busy to do that before; and, seeing Bellamy, one of the crew who I knew could not swim, holding on to the other oar, and Russell, another chap in the same predicament, clutching tight to the gaskets of one of the barricoes, I helped them both on to my little platform, keeping them and myself afloat as well as I was able by swimming alongside and pushing it; for neither of the poor fellows could aid me--they seemed perfectly helpless.

"By this time the sun was high in the heavens and blazing right down upon our heads with an intensity of heat that almost seemed to shrivel up our hair, making us feel as if a red-hot cinder was laid on top of it. There was not much wind, that having died away soon after daybreak, the tornado having spent all its force and blown itself out; but the sea was still rough, the heavy rolling waves washing over us every now and then as they broke against the raft. Perhaps this moisture was good for us, the rapid evaporation of the water under the burning heat keeping us cool; but, what with the exposure and the fright he had sustained at our sudden upset, poor Russell went clean out of his mind, becoming as mad as a March hare. Although I was trying all I could to keep him on the raft to preserve his life, he thought I was struggling to prevent his holding on; and he commenced fighting with me, clutching hold of my neck and trying to force me under the water. I stood this for some time; when, seeing he only got worse instead of better, and that I had no means of fastening him down to the raft, I thought the best thing I could do for my own safety, as well as to give the other two a chance for their lives, was to trust to my own unaided strength and strike out for the shore, leaving the two on the raft to look after themselves. Before abandoning that frail support, however, I adopted the precaution of taking off every stitch of clothing I had on--my boots I had chucked away when in the boat, preparing even then for the worst. Had I not done this, I'm certain I would never have reached land or be now telling you this tale."

"I'm sure I'm very glad you took the precaution," I observed, "it was a sensible one."

"Yes," said Ben, "there's no use a man attempting to swim any distance with his things on. A fellow can do it in a bath, as a sort of exhibition like; but when he comes to battle for his life against the sea, the only chance he has is when he's stripped; for his clothes suck in the water and weigh him down so as to take all the buoyancy out of him and cripple his efforts to keep afloat--that's my opinion from painful experience.

"Soon after I quitted the raft," continued Ben, proceeding again with his narrative after my interruption, "I saw on looking back that Russell had clutched hold of Bellamy the same as he had done with me. But Bellamy hadn't half my strength, for the other soon got the better of him, and although I tried to swim back against the rollers so as to prevent the mishap, I couldn't make headway in spite of all my efforts, so in a minute or so I saw both tumble off the raft into the sea, and go down locked together in an embrace of death. Poor fellows, the madman had caused both to perish, when, by keeping quiet, they might have been washed safely ashore in time. I tried myself to regain the raft then, it being now vacant and ample enough to support me alone comfortably; but the waves were too much for me, so I had to give up that hope and strike out once more for the shore, although the latter was so far off and low down too in the water that I couldn't even get a glimpse of it now to cheer me up and lead me on. I could only judge the direction of it by the set of the tide and the sun; and although I swam as manfully as I could, the thought occurred to me more than once that I might be making for the open ocean instead of the land after all, and was only prolonging my last agony!

"However, a little way on, the sight of one of my lost shipmates gave me fresh courage, for I had believed up till then, when Bellamy and Russell sank under water, that I was the only one of the pinnace's crew left alive.

"His name was Magellan, one of the smartest topmen of the old _Dolphin_, and he seemed now to rival the reputation of the fish after which our vessel was named, as he was swimming ahead of me with a proper breast stroke, and going well through the waves. I first saw him as he rose on top of a roller; and he, looking back at the same moment, when turning his head to avoid the wash of the wave, caught sight of me.

"`Hullo, Campion!' he sang out, `where are you bound for?'

"`For the shore, you lubber,' I retorted jokingly, for seeing him put such fresh life in me that I felt almost inclined to laugh out aloud with joy!

"`Have you got anything to support you in the water?' he asked with surprise.

"`No,' said I, `nothing but my own carcass and the use of my hands and legs.'

"`The same with me, old ship,' he replied, `let's see who'll get to land first.'

"`All right!' I cried, `start away!' and we both of us struck out hard; but he was a far better swimmer than I was, and I soon lost sight of him although I followed in the same track as well as I could steer.

"About noontide, when the sun had got vertical in the sky overhead and blazed down with even greater power than it had done before, I had another cheer up; for, as I rose on the send of the sea I could faintly discover the tops of two trees in the distance standing out amidst the waste of waters. This put additional pluck into me, and made me exert myself to the utmost, as before then I could not see any sign of land at all; but, after swimming on for some time I began to lose heart again and became assailed by all manner of miserable fancies that almost made me despair!