The Sea Wolves/Chapter 6

purpose of the men being no longer hid, Fisher set himself quickly to action. He fired three rounds from his Colt, and then bawled with all his strength for those below to come up. The sing of the bullets held back the throng for a moment, but no longer. They had not further need of stealth, and began to shout savagely, hugging close the one to the other for encouragement. Their answer to the pistol-shots was a discharge of their own weapons and many imprecations. In another moment they would have been all atop of the ladder and swarming down to the cabin; but of a sudden they held together with a great cry, and many of them fell upon their knees in an extremity of terror which no phrase could convey. And upon them there shone a great light, full of whiteness and dazzling—a light that came in focussed radiance across the sea, and cut a path of spreading brightness out of the very blackness of the fullest night.

The light fell upon them, as I say, and for many minutes they could neither speak, nor move, nor did any man ask his neighbour, whence comes the terror? It lay on many of their minds that some visitation of God had opened the sky to shed light upon their work; and until reason had rolled back upon her balance, they had neither tongues nor ears. But anon, when Burke and Messenger had come running up from the aft cabin, and the skipper had observed the dark hull of a cruiser, whose search-light played upon the yacht from a point some two miles away on the starboard quarter, they passed from their fear to wild oaths; and as the sound of a gun rolled over the sea, the white faces and bright eyes of the whole of them turned quickly to that place where the danger was to be observed.

So far as one can learn from his later narrative the first man to speak in that moment of panic was Burke, the skipper. Suddenly, as with the sound of a wild animal roaring, his curses and orders echoed through the ship.

"Curse you for a parcel of lazy swine, get up!" he roared. "Get up, I say! Do you think ez it's the Day of Judgment, ye Chicago hogs? All hands on deck and to their places, ye white-livered lubbers! Move, move, or, by thunder! I'll come down and move ye!"



They awoke at this, rushing to their places. A double watch tumbled into the stoke-holes; a couple of gunners cleared the three-inch Nordenfelt guns which were fixed in the bow and amidships. In five minutes the whole thought of the contemplated scuffle for the gold was forgotten. Bells were ringing, orders were bawled, the forced draught began to roar in the furnaces. The whole deck, which had been a hive of silence ten minutes before, now echoed with movement, with voices, with the clamour of action. Nor was there need of explanation. Instinctively all aboard knew that the pursuit was no longer a possibility, but an actuality; that by some plain chain of circumstances those upon land had heard of their filibustering, and were seeking them. Men passed each other in those moments with scarce opportunity to exchange an opinion; but those that spoke uttered such convictions as: "She's after us, for sure!" or such questions as: "Be they going to take us?"—and a gloom settled sternly upon the more part of them. But they worked with an unquestionable will, though their new fidelity was as much a matter of self-preservation as their erstwhile treachery had been the outcome of covetousness.

While there was this hubbub of order upon the decks below, there was upon the bridge a display of fine command and skilled seamanship. Burke, who ruled with resonant voice, and was easy to be heard above the wind, had eyes both for his own men and the plunging cruiser. Messenger gripped the rail and smoked a cigar with easy assurance. Kenner was restless, and dared a pessimistic forecast at unseemly intervals.

"Wal," said he, "I said it was a swinging job at Monaco three months ago, and, by gosh! it looks like setting me up in the prophet line!"

Messenger listened to him with a child-like smile playing about his mouth, and answered—

"Why not go to bed till we're out of it? They tell me that some men get wonderfully good notions with their heads under the clothes."

"Maybe," replied the American, "and maybe I squirm. But don't you see he's driving us right along agen the Irish coast? and where are ye then?"

"Why, right along the Irish coast, I suppose, as you say so."

Kenner stood before him and looked him up and down.

"Prince," said he, "I guess if I rubbed ice agen you, you wouldn't melt it. Hang me if your mother didn't feed you on snowballs!"

"Perhaps," said Messenger; "anyway, she taught me that you don't go far on a harum-scarum, and it's true."

"But," argued the other, getting angry, "don't you see, man, that once she's forced us shoreward there'll be twenty ships on our tail? You don't seem to take it in!"

"That's likely," replied Messenger, as he struck a fusee. "There are few things, however, I don't take in when the opportunity comes. The fact is, I wasn't born a skipper, and I'm too old to turn to that job. Don't you think it's as well to leave the business to Burke?"

This latter word expressed the whole of the man. Since he had got the money upon the ship he knew that the better part of his work was done. He was not a seaman; it rested with Burke, the skipper, to get the bullion into port. He could only wait and watch, and take from chance the gift apportioned to him. Kenner, on the other hand, was a man who concerned himself in every person's business, and did nobody's. He envied the Prince his sang-froid, his illimitable calm, his assurance; and when he could get nothing out of him, he went to Burke, who had his hand upon the communicator, and renewed his absurdities.

The situation was at that time very critical. Dark still held down upon the sea, save in that arc of whiteness which the search-light cast. The wind blew almost a full gale; green seas swept the foredecks and threatened to flood the fo'castle. The yacht trembled from stem to stern as every foam-capped mount of water struck her and went swinging away down her whole length. So great was her speed that she scarce rode a sea, but dashed through it with foam-spurts shooting up incessantly above her prow and a quivering of her plates which sent fear palpitating through all who felt it. There was no thought then, however, either of tempests or of the great rolling volumes of foam and water which were driven by the wind in mighty devouring masses, until they struck the iron coast of Donegal, fifty miles away. All eyes were turned upon the cruiser there, pursuing as a hideous phantom of the night, clinging to them, despite the vast use of fuel, seeming to have gained upon them every time there was a lift of the night or any show of her beaming light. And when another hour passed, the conviction, which had been growing since the beginning of it, became emphasized, and men expressed it, crying: "We're took! Heaven help us, we're took!" and clinging together as those upon whom a vengeance comes, to find them unready.

And thus the night passed, and the angry dawn rose above the wildness of the sea.