THE CRUISE OF THE FLYING FISH

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 250, 19 October 1907, Page 14

THE CRUISE OF THE FLYING FISH

BY OWEN HALL,

CHAPTER HI. IN VERY STRANGE QUARTERS. It was dark when I came to myself. My head was dizzy and confused, and I had a strange, new sensation of rocking gently from side to side, and of [hearing an occasional creaking sound, like, and yet unlike the noise of the wind in the forest. I had a confused feeling that something had happened, rand an uncomfortable impression that I ought to remember something I had entirely forgotten. After all, I thought dreamily, I must be in bed at home, and must just have awakened from a dream which I have forgotten. I stretched out a hand to touch the familiar bedstead, and so get rid of the puzzling impression; but it wasn't there. My hand came into contact instead with something rough and hard —something that la yin ridges and rose higher than my hand could reach. I drew back hastily, and tried to rub my eyes to make mc wide awake; the only effects seemed to be that I found a strong smell of tar on my fingers, and that my hand touched a damp cloth tied tightly round my head. Could I be dreaming still? Just for a moment I felt as if I must be so,, but the next I had raised myself to a sitting posture, and then I knew I was awake.

Where was I then, and what had happened? I felt with my hand that I had been lying on a heap of loose bags, and other things that seemed to be clothes of some sort, and now that I was sitting up I could make out a faint glimmer of gray light that diluted the heavy darkness, and yet didn't make it possible to see anything even close at hand. I felt anxiously around till my hand rested on something the shape of which was familiar. Yes, it was a cask, for I could feel the iron hoops, and even trace the joining of the staves; a large cask, standing on its end.

This first discovery led mc to a second. I don't know why it did so, but I seemed to know without thinking that the swaying movement, which was more distinct now that I was sitting up, was the motion of the sea; I was on hoard some vessel. For a minute or two I pressed my hand to my head as if that would make things more real: then suddenly the past came back. I seemed to myself to crouch again on Jacky's little path, to hear again the voices that came up out of the darkness below, and finally, with a start of terror, to feel that I was falling. I sat still after that, and tried to think it out. Then I remembered what Cap'en Bill had said just before I fell, and I could patly guess what it meant. I couldn't even fancy why he should want mc to go with him because 1 could speak French, but he bad. said so, and now my folly in trying to get away had put mc in his power. I supposed this must be Cap'en Bill's ship, hut then, if it was, why was I stowed away in that black hole? perhaps—and with the idea a rush of excitement came over me—perhaps he hadn't got command of her yet. Perhaps trie skipper Sam wanted to kill might still be in charge, and I might be able to warn ibim.

- I felt as if I had tumbled right into the middle of one of the stories I was so fond of reading, or one of the ones Cap'en Bill had told mother and mc a? ihe smoked his pipe in our kitchen. I Bhook myself, and felt my legs and arms •fco make quite sure I -was fit to get up. The examination was so far satisfactory—no bones were broken. One or two places felt pretty sore, and the ■joints were a little stiff, but that -iva-s Sail. I felt around carefully in tils darkness and then rose slowly to my feet

It was something of an effort, but at last- I had done it, and leant giddily against the friendly cask alongside for a minute, while all the world seemed to sway back and forward in a way that made my head go round. That flidn't last long, however, and things gradually settled down, till I could peer about mc in the dim twilight of the place, and try .to make out what it was like. I saw that I was in a corner of what I decided from my recollection of the coasting vessels that used to come to our creek during the rush, must be the lower deck of a vessel of no great 6ize. The spot was walled in by a lot of cases piled on one another, by tne ~ibig cask I was leaning against, and by a great coil of thick rope close beside ,%vhere my head had been. There seemed to be a narrow opening at the foot between the cases and a wall or bulkhead of some kind; that was evidently the only opening by -which I could get lout.

Feeling cautiously along the cases I soon reached the place, and found a gap ■big enough to let a man through, and in another moment I was free, as far at least as my little prison went. There was a little more light outside, though it wasn't enough to show mor* than the shadowy outline of the place. I had been right as to where I was, for now I could make out the shadow of what must be a mast in the centre, while I could just distinguish cases and casks built up on both sides, leaving a clear space in the middle. The gray light which enabled mc to see so much appeared to come Jn at the end of this open space, and though it looked a long way in the darkness my first thought was to reacfe it. I groped my way unsteadily, kefcping in touch with the cases, at which I grasped hastily every now and then as the vessel rolled, until after what seemed a long time, I reached the other end.

I had been right about the light, too, for it was a little stronger here; but I didn't understand about it till I actually reached the spot. The cargo wa3 stowed right across the lower deck, leaving only a veiy narrow passage at one place, through which the light filtered in. Two steps more showed mc how i was. There was a little sliding door in the bulkhead, a chink of which had been left open, and the light came in through this. Now that I had reached it I hesitated for the first time. What should I find on the other side? What pand of reception should I meet with? I was only a boy of fifteen, though 1 had been accustomed to the free independent life of the bush, and perhaps it was natural I should hesitate. Little by little mj courage came back or perhaps it was my curiosity that came to my assistance. . I laid hold of the sliding door, and pushed it cautiously hack. The chink had been a little one and now the sudden rush of light dazzled "the blaze of yellow light entered the +-T £?? f nmmte Z my way through the half-opened door, and I had Scarcely done it before I was arrested by the sound of voices: A few steps farther the little passage opened into a

square space from "which a short ladder of four or five steps led up to a deck that seemed to he about two-thirds the height of the part where I was standing. ... I had seen so many coasting craft in the prosperous days of the flat that I had no difficulty in seeing what this meant. It was evidentthat the vessel's stern was -occupied by a cabin with a half-raise-?, poojp, and those steps led up the entrance into it. The voices came from the cabin, and in a minute I had made up my mind to listen to what they were saying, as it might help mc to decide what I should do. I crept cautiously up the steps till I reached the door, which, like the one through which I had passed already, was a sliding one, and wasn't shut quite close. I pushed it gradually back, being careful to make no sound, and looked in. It opened into a short passage, out of which an open door led into what looked like a pantry. There was a door at the end which stood partly open, giving a glimpse of the cabin inside. At the moment, however, I hardly noticed what I saw in the interest I felt in the first words I heard. "I don't like the looks of the man, Captain," a voice said emphatically. '"Well, now, I don't see much the matter with the man's looks, and he's a sailor, every inch of him, I'll take my oath, but he's a good deal too free and easy to stay aboard my ship, and he'll go ashore first chance there is." "A.U right, Captain; but perhaps he won't care to go. It looks to mc as it he could do more with the men than you, or that fellow Morgan either." '"Not go, Sir? Oh, never you fear. When it comes to the pinch you'll find out who's master here. Even Morgan, sulky dog though the man is as ever I sailed with, must stand by mc against anybody." It was Captain Bill they were talking about; I knew it in a moment, and the skipper was trusting to Sam Morgan, in another instamt I had run along the passage, and pushed the cabin door wide open, exclaiming breathlessly as I did it, '"'Don't you trust Sam Morgan, Captain. I heard him say he would like to cut your throat." CHAPTER TV. HOW CAFES BILL TOOK CHARGE. The words were hardly out of my mouth before I felt a grip on my throat, that almost choked mc, while a gruff voice exclaimed: "Who the devil are you? And where did you drop from?" I struggled to. shake off the grip, and my eyes sought the face of the man who had seized mc so unexpectedly. It certainly wasn't Cap'en Hill, as 1 saw.in a moment, but a man smaller in every way, though thick-set and strong, as I had reason to know. Perhaps he saw how impossible it was for mc to answer him while he held mc like that, for he suddenly grasped my shoulder, and released my throat, adding, with an angry frown, "Do you hear mc, boy, what are you doing aboard my ship?" "It was Cap'en Bill," I stammered, and even as I said the words I heard a heavy footstep on the deck overhead, which I thought I recognised. "Cap'en Bill and Sam Morgan must have brought mc off in the boat." The skipper—for I never doubted that this was the skipper—gave mc a violent shake. "Dome, now, none o' that talk. You know -well enough how you came here." "No, I don't then," I answered desperately, looking full in his angry face, with a sense of injury, and a feeling that I had been a fool to interfere. "I've only just woke not 10 minutes ago, and I came to tell you that Cap'en Bill's come to take command of the ship, and Bam Morgan's going to help him." I felt the skipper's hand relax as I spoke, and another voice joined in: "That must be Jones, Captain. If this boy's telling the truth, things are getting serious. What will you do?" "Do?" the skipper exclaimed loudly, "Do? I'll soon show you what I'll do." His angry words still rang through the cabin when somebody crossed the deck overhead quickly, and the handle of a door was turned with a sharp sound. Next moment a harsh voice with a curious nasal twang shduted: "Hello,. Skipper, you're wanted on deck!" The skipper loosed his hold on mc and turned to the companion from which the voice, had come. ; "And what the devil do ye want mc for?" he exclaimed angrily, looking up at the man whose head and face could just be seen looking down through the opening he had made. "There's a heavy squall comin' up; I thought you'd like to be on deck yourself, Skipper." | "Squall be blowed," was the skipper's angry reply. "Send that fellow Jones that you brought aboard the other night down to mc; tell him to look lively too." The harsh, sulky voice, which I seemedto recognise, answered "Ay, ay, Sir," and the head disappeared from the companion doorway. The skipper turned to mc again, and I thought his face looked blacker than before, as he eyed mc all over, as if he was considering what he should do with mc. "Look here, youngster," he said, "if you've come here with a lying yarn I'll take, it out of your skin before you're half-an-hour older, so you'd better stand back there till I set you face to face with this fellow Jones; I take it he's the chap you call Cap'en-Biil." He gave mc a push as he spoke, and I staggered back against the bulkhead. He turned quickly away, as if to go to one of the two sleeping cabins that opened off the little saloon, when a heavy but active step sounded overhead, followed by the sound of several other footsteps, and a voice that sounded familiar and even friendly in my ears came down clearly through the open door. "Wants mc, does he, Sam? Well, I ain't a-sayin' but what that's a compliment neither, in a manner o' speakin'. Right ye was, Sam Morgan, I'm there." At the sound of that footstep so near at hand the skipper paused as if uncertain what to do, and next instant the broad figure of Cap'en Bill filled up the companion as he stooped to descend the stair at his usual leisurely pace. The skipper wheeled round, and, with one glance at mc, faced the new-comer with a heavy frown on his face, and a dangerous look in his eyes. Cap'en Bill didn't hurry himself, but when he reached the level at which he could command a view of the saloon, he seemed to take in the whole.party with a single glance, and the old half smile I had seen so often on his face when he got interested in one of his yarns just stirred the lines of his face. Before the

skipper had time to speak, Cap'en Bill sent his deep, ringing voice before him:

"Might it be mc as you was good enough for to want, Skipper? The mate here, he says to mc, "Bill,' sez he, or Cap'en Bill—though I ain't a-sayin' as I stands for compliments, not me— 'the skipper, he's a-wantin' of you in the cabin, he is, bad.' So, in course, I heaves anchor an' makes a straight course, shipshape and reglar; that's mc, Skipper, that is." "Oh, that's you, is it, Mr Bill Jones?" the skipper exclaimed, in a tone that was at once sarcastic an-1 angry, at the same time advancing a step, and confronting Cap'en Bill's smiling face with his angry one. "Shut that door behind you, Mr Morgan, and order these men back to their work. I didn't tell you to call all hands, did I?" Morgan, who had followed Cap'en Bill, looked at the skipper, and muttered something about the men in a sulky tone, but Cap'en Bill looked at mc across the cabin where I leaned against the bulkhead, and nodded in a friendly way, as he remarked: >, "So you've come to your bearin's, youngster, have ye? Well, I ain't a-say-in' but what I were half afraid as ye were a-goin' to slip your cable afore you paid us for the trouble we had a-bringiu' of ye off." ■ For a moment the cool audacity of the man struck the skipper dumb; then a red flush mounted to his face, as he thundered out the question: "And how dare you come aboard my ship to stir up mutiny? How dare you and your accomplice Morgan there conceal stowaways aboard? If either you or he fancies I'm the man to put up with any such pirate tricks as these you don't know John Simpson." Cap'en Bill faced the enraged skipper with the same unmoved smile: "Well," he said, "come to that now, I ain't asayin' not as I'd a liked it myself, neither; but in this 'ere case, an' seem' as how ye weren't handy for to ask, Sam here an' mc we took it oh ourselves." "Sam and you? Oh, then, you admit that it was a made up thing between you and Morgan, and that yarn about finding you on the beach was all a pack of lies?" '"Well, skipper, come to thai notf, I ain't a-sayin' but what Sam may have let her fall off a point or two from the straight course there; but that ain't much atween friends, is it now?" "It's this much, my man, that you leave this ship the first land we sight, and your frierlQ Morgan goes en shore at the first port where there's a Court and a magistrate." Cap'en Bill laughed. "Well,_ skipper," he said, "I ain't altogether free to say what Sam here's agoin' to do about that; but I ain't sure that goin' ashore'U suit my complaint. Seems to mc as how I've got business aboard this 'ere craft, so here 1 means to stay, meaning no offence, an' don't you forget it." "Tou scoundrel," the skipper exclaimed, making a quick step forward with his hand lifted as if to strike. Cap'en Bill waved him back with a free motion of his open hand, as he added: "No more callin' names, ain't a hap' ortho' good, Skipper, for I've took command o' this craft now, an' don't you forget it, neither." For a single moment there was a pause, and then the skipper sprang at Cap'en Bill's throat with a bound like a tiger's. Remembering how he had seized and shaken mc only a few minutes before, I expected to see a fierce struggle between the men, but I had no experience of a man like Cap'en Bill. The half smile with which he had spoken up to the last didn't fade from his face as the skipper leapt at him, but quicker than the spring itself the great hand and arm shot out and met his assailant in mid-air. The hand closed like a vice on the skipper's short, thick neck, and for a moment he seemed to be held suspended in the air. Next instant, Cap'en Bill stepped forward and pinned him, struggling fiercely to get free, against the bulkhead behind him. It was all done in a moment. At the first sign of an attack two sailors had sprung down the stair and seized the other man with whom the skipper had been speaking when I interrupted them, while Sam Morgan, with an ugly look in his eyes, laid his hand on the sheathknife he carried at his belt, and made a quick stride toward the skipper. Cap'en Bill's quick eye, which seemed to be as cool as ever, noticed the action, and with a single quick motion of his disengaged hand he met the mate with a push that sent him staggering back to the steps, as he exclaimed in a voice like the growl of an angry lion: "No, ye don't, Sam Morgan; not if I know it." Sam recovered himself, and sulkily pushed the knife back into the sheath, and almost at the same instant the skipper seemed to realise the hopelessness of any attempt on his part to struggle against the giant strength of the ma-a, that held him. Cap'en Bill glanced round, and saw that several more of the sailors had crowded down into the little saloon. "Here," he growled, "Some o' you lubbers make yerselves useful! Fetch a bit o' rope-yarn, and make them 'ere chaps a leetle more comfortable." (To be continued daily).