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The halyards were let go, and the yard clewed down, and the sheets started, and in a few minutes the sails smothered and kept in by clewlines and buntlines. ``Furl 'em, sir? asked the mate. ``Let go the topsail halyards, fore and aft! shouted the captain in answer, at the top of his voice.
We fisted the sail together, and after six or eight minutes of hard hauling and pulling and beating down the sail, which was as stiff as sheet iron, we managed to get it furled; and snugly furled it must be, for we knew the mate well enough to be certain that if it got adrift again, we should be called up from our watch below, at any hour of the night, to furl it.
People are apt to have a foreboding of evil; but on the present occasion there were ample reasons for dreading mischief. "To my mind, if we were to furl every stitch of canvas, and send down our topmasts, we should be acting like seamen," said old Popples, as I was forward, attending to some duty. "Why do you say that?" I asked.
As he was drying his face Simba came for the guns, and a half-dozen of the porters prepared to strike and furl the tent. Already the canvas washstand had disappeared. "Simba," observed Kingozi in English, of which language Simba knew but three words, "she is no fool. She knows where there is water out yonder; but it is water at least forty miles away.
"What would you have me to do, Mr. Burns? We can neither furl it nor set it. I only wish the old thing would thrash itself to pieces and be done with it. That beastly racket confuses me." Mr. Burns wrung his hands, and cried out suddenly: "How will you get the ship into harbour, sir, without men to handle her?" And I couldn't tell him. Well it did get done about forty hours afterward.
I now began to pick up a little Bengalee, and, before I left the trade, could work a ship very well in the language. The Lascars were more like monkeys than men aloft, though they wanted strength. A topsail, that six of our common men would furl, would employ twenty of them. This was partly from habit, perhaps, though they actually want physical force.
"If that boat had people on board she would be pulling towards us, but by the way she floats on the water I am pretty certain that she's empty. Yes, I am confident of it," he added. "In another minute we shall be up to her, and till then there is little use hazarding conjectures on the subject." The raft approached the boat. "Furl the sail!" cried the mate.
"Be smart, lads!" cried the captain, after a few seconds' survey of the vessel through his glass; "that's her: furl the awnings, and run the anchor up to the bows: there's more silver in that vessel, my lads, than your chests will hold: and the good saints of the churches at Goa will have to wait a little longer for their gold candlesticks."
"I have them," replied I, "and we may as well put them down on the log-board: North Foreland Light Nor'-Nor'-West and a quarter West. Why, we should see the Tongue buoy. Now we'll drop the anchor and furl the sails, if you please, sir we can do nothing at present."
The weather being of so fine and settled a character, we had been carrying our royals all through the night; but shortly after the Captain made his appearance on deck, at eight bells in the morning watch, the breeze freshened up perceptibly; whereupon, a good offing having been secured, the word was given to clew up and furl all three royals; and a minute or two later the hands were aloft and out on the yards, rolling up the canvas.
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