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"Deck ahoy!" shouted I; "there is a small air of wind creeping up out of the south-eastern quarter." "Thank you, Mr Grenvile," replied the captain, who was engaged in conversation with Mr Fawcett, the officer of the watch. "Is it coming along pretty fast?" he continued. I took another good long look.
I say, Grenvile, can't we manage to have a little cruise on our own account? The skipper would forgive us, I'm sure, if we were lucky enough to take in a prize or two." "Not to be thought of, my friend," answered I severely. "We are to make the best of our way to Sierra Leone the best of our way, do you understand?
"Pass the word for San Domingo," said I to the sentry on duty outside. And as the man duly passed the word, I turned to Keene and said: "Now, then, young man, hurry up and get your kit ready as fast as you please. You are to come with me in the Francesca." "No!" exclaimed the youth with incredulous delight. "You don't really mean it, do you, Grenvile? You're only having me on."
And presently, as though to dissipate any doubt that might still be lurking in our minds, we distinctly heard, at frequent intervals, the piercing scream of a man in mortal agony! "Do you hear that, Grenvile?" whispered the general through his set teeth. "Why, man, those cries make one's blood run cold to listen to them! How much farther do you mean to go before landing?"
Then the former hailed again. "Very glad to find that you are safe, Mr Grenvile," he shouted. "You had better take room and heave-to, and we will do the same. You need not trouble about a boat; we will send one of ours." Carter flourished an arm by way of reply, and then gave the order: "Main tack and sheet let go! Man the main clew-garnets and trice up!
As she rose to her feet the door opened, and the Spanish surgeon entered. "Good morning, senorita!" he exclaimed. "How is our patient? Vastly better, Mammy tells me. I see she is busy preparing some broth for Senor Grenvile, but he must not have it until I have thoroughly satisfied myself that it would be good for him.
"No, sir, no," he replied, in a low, strained whisper; "don't move a muscle for your life, Mr Grenvile, until I tell you, sir. The brig's still alongside, and that unhung villain of a skipper's standin' on the rail, holdin' on to a swifter, and lookin' down on our decks as though, even now, he ain't quite satisfied that his work is properly finished."
"Just at that point I interrupted him by askin' what he meant by sayin' that the cap'n was `gone'; to which he replied that the skipper had shot himself and then jumped overboard which I don't believe, Mr Grenvile, not for a moment, for if I'm not very greatly mistaken I saw the scoundrel wink at the men as he told me the yarn.
"What is the latest news of the strangers, Mr Grenvile?" he asked. "Has the breeze yet reached them?" "No, sir; not yet," I answered; "but I expect it will in the course of the next half-hour. They are hull-up from here, sir; and I should think that you ought to be able to see the mast-heads of the larger craft the brig from the deck, by this time."
"The fact is, Grenvile," he continued, "that I don't want to die yet, if I can help it; not that I am not prepared to die, if it be God's will to take me, for, thanks be to Him, I am ready to go at any moment, if the call should come, as all men should be, especially soldiers and sailors, who are peculiarly liable to receive their summons at a moment's notice.
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