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When we came again to our harbour came close again to the grief we had in rage and swift action forgot when, from the inland hills, we caught sight of the basin of black water, and the cottages, snuggled by the white water-side we were amazed to discover a schooner lying at anchor off my father's wharf: the wreck of a craft, her topmast hanging, her cabin stove in, her jib-boom broke off short.
Cyril heard orders shouted on board the flagship, and saw her stern sweeping round. A moment later her sails were aback, but the men, who already clustered round the guns, were not quick enough in hauling the yards across, and, to his dismay, he saw the main topmast bend, and then go over the side with a crash.
The Ajax, arriving later, and probably drawing less attention, had only a topmast shot away. The British total of killed and wounded was very evenly distributed throughout the fleet. Only the rear ship lost an important spar, the main topmast. It was upon her, as already mentioned, and upon the two leading ships, the Exeter and Isis, that fell the heaviest fire, proportionately, of the French.
And when the clouds were at their thinnest, it was a very dim radiance that the moon was able to make. I watched and waited. The next time the clouds thinned I looked for'ard, and there was the shadow of the topmast, long and attenuated, wavering and lurching on the deck and against the rigging. This was my first ghost. Once again have I seen a ghost.
"Ay, ay, sir doon i' the fore," answered Davy, and Malcolm stood by his mistress. "She is like the Psyche," said Florimel, turning to him, "only the mast is not so tall." "Her topmast is struck, you see my lady to make sure of her passing clear under the bridges." "Ask them if we couldn't go down the river a little way," said Florimel. "I should so like to see the houses from it!"
Three minutes later, he gave an exclamation as of relief, and a shout rose from the men forward. Following the direction of his eyes, she saw the bowsprit of the Osprey swing to leeward, and a moment later her topmast fall over her side. "What did I tell you?" Carthew said, exultingly. "A race is never lost till it is won." "Oh! I am sorry," Bertha said.
Then her sharp bowsprit turned around a little, till it was aimed at that cleft between the rocks. She gathered speed and struck the billowing seas outside and turned a bit. Then the big sails began to rise, as did the jibs, and I saw a man run out to the end of the bowsprit as a thick white rope ran up to the fore topmast head and broke out into a fleecy white cloud of silk.
Despite these trials of his constancy, the old man's temper still continued "steady as a rock." "Whether you send me a reinforcement or not," he wrote to the Admiralty, "I shall sleep perfectly sound, not in the Tagus, but at sea; for as soon as the St. George has shifted her topmast, the Captain her bowsprit, and the Blenheim repaired her mainmast, I will go out."
And how desirable to be alone on it, when the Gulf and the Caribbean produced only such visitors as those who had come two nights before! He looked toward the little bay, fearing to see the topmast of the schooner showing its tip over the trees, but the sky there, an unbroken blue, was fouled by no such presence. He was rid of the pirates and forever he hoped.
"Then fire as soon as you are ready," replied I. "And aim at his spars. It is far more important to shoot away a topmast than to hull the fellow." "Ay, ay, sir!" answered Thompson, and I saw him stoop behind the gun, directing the gun's crew with his hands as he squinted along the sights of the weapon. Another second or two, as the schooner rose over the back of a swell, he fired.
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