Chapter 49
"I want them for ballast to steady us with all this sail up," said the mate, smiling; and without any pause the second boat was drawn close up astern, four men crept into the leader, and the rope was allowed to run out again.
"Think we're going to have a fight, Mr Jack?" whispered Ned, as the doctor sat forward trying to make out the canoes through the sparkling cloud of spray here about a mile away; "It seems like it, Ned; but I hope not."
"You hope not, sir?"
"Of course."
"Oh, well then, I needn't mind saying I hope not too. I never was anything in that line, sir, even when I was a boy."
"What difference does that make?"
"Difference, sir? Oh, all the difference. Men can fight, of course; but if I was a king, and wanted to have a good army, I'd make it of boys."
Jack stared at him, and in spite of the peril of their position, felt disposed to smile.
"Why?" he said at last.
"Because they can fight so. They're not so big and strong; but then they're not so easily frightened. They're always ready for a set-to, and 'cepting where there's snakes in the way, they never think of danger, or being hurt. And when they are hurt, the more they feel it, the more they go, just like horses or donkeys."
"Excepting in the case of snakes," said Jack bitterly.
"Oh, don't you mind about that, sir. I was as scared as you were, I can tell you. I remember when I was a boy I wasn't good at fighting, and I used to get what we used to call the coward's blow, and that was the rum part of it."
Jack stared.
"Ah, you don't understand that, sir. But it was rum. You see it was like this; t'other chap as was crowing over me because I wouldn't fight, would give me an out-and-out good whack for the coward's blow, and then he wished he hadn't."
"Why?" asked Jack, after a glance at the doctor, who was still in the bows.
"Because it hurt me, and made me wild. And then I used to go at him and give him a good licking. That's what I was when a boy, sir, and I am just the same now; I don't feel at all like fighting, and, coward or no coward, I won't fight if I can help it; but if any one hurts me, or begins to shoot at us, I think I shall get trying what I can do. But you see it won't be fist-fists."
"No," said Jack thoughtfully; "it will not be fists."
"Hi! look out!" shouted Ned. "You'll be over."
For a sudden puff of wind had caught the boat in front, and she heeled over so much with the large spread of sail that the water began to creep in over the leeward side. But at a word from the mate half-a-dozen men s.h.i.+fted their positions to windward,
"And now they're goin' to take us under," said Ned, nervously seizing the side with one hand. "My word, we are beginning to go."
"Yes; this is different to rowing," cried the doctor, as their boat danced about and ran swiftly through the disturbed water left by their companion. "But, unfortunately, the wind will help the canoes as much as it helps us."
"But if it does not help them more, we shall be up to the yacht first."
"There's another side to that, Jack," said the doctor; "suppose they sail faster than we do. What then?"
This was unanswerable, and they sat back in the boat, running through the water with a little wave ever-widening on either side.
"I hope the painter won't give way," said the doctor at last, "and that they will not leave us behind."
"They'd miss us directly," said Jack. "Their boat would go so much faster."
"Couldn't go faster than she is. Why, Jack, it must be a clever canoe that can beat us."
"Goes too fast to please me," whispered the man at the first opportunity. "Strikes me, Mr Jack, that one of these times when they swing over to the left so they'll drag us under, so that our boat will fill and go down; and if we do, what about that there pig?"
"What pig?" said Jack wonderingly.
"Why, you know, sir, close in there as we came along. If there's things in this water that can pull down pigs, won't they be likely to pull down us?"
"There's plenty of real trouble to think about," said Jack quietly, "without our trying to make out imaginary ones. The boat will not fill."
"Eh? what's that?" said the doctor; "this boat fill? Oh no; she rides over the water like a cork. Can't see anything of the enemy, Jack; the spray along the reef makes a regular curtain, and shuts off everything.
I hope it hides us well from our black friends, for I don't want to get into a row of that kind. Well, Ned, if it comes to the worst, do you think you can manage a gun?"
"Cleaned Sir John's guns often enough, sir."
"Yes, but can you shoot?"
"That means holding the gun straight, sir, and pulling the trigger. Oh yes, sir; I can do that."
"That isn't shooting: you have to hit."
"So I suppose, sir; but some of the governor's friends, who come down in September and October, go shooting in his preserves and over the farms, but they don't always..h.i.t anything."
"But you will try if we want you, eh?"
"Yes, sir, if the governor orders me. And what about a cutla.s.s? Can you handle that, do you think?"
"Don't see why not, sir. I'm pretty handy with a carving-knife, both with meat and on the knifeboard."
"Well," said the doctor gravely, "I hope we shall not have to come to anything of that kind, for all our sakes."
"How long will it take us to get back?" said Jack, after a silence, during which the thoughts of the danger seemed to be chased away by the beauty of the sh.o.r.e along which they glided.
"Hours yet," said the doctor. "This wind will not last. If it would, we might be there before the canoes."
Very few greetings pa.s.sed between the two boats, for every one engaged in the race seemed in deadly earnest. There was the possibility of the people proving to be friendly, but as in all probability these great sea-going canoes belonged to a fighting fleet upon some raiding expedition, the hope in the direction of peace was not great.
About half of the way had been accomplished, when, as Jack sat watching the foaming waves break upon the reef, he caught sight of something misty and weird-looking apparently just on the other side, but it was too undefined for its nature to be made out.
He pointed it out to the doctor, who gave his opinion directly.
"One of the canoes," he said. "That's good, Jack. It shows that they have not distanced us."
A hail from the mate told them that they too had sighted the canoe from the boat in front; but though they gazed long and watchfully, they saw no more.
Not long after the wind dropped suddenly, came again, and then fell altogether, the appearances being so marked that the mate had the sails lowered, and stowed after the oars had been going for some time, and now they made out from the boat astern that Mr Bartlett had divided his crew into two watches, one rowing hard while the other rested.
It was all plain enough to those astern that everything was admirably arranged, so that the well-drilled men s.h.i.+fted their places without any confusion or difference in the speed of the boat, the men changing one at a time.