Across the Salt Seas. John Bloundelle-Burton
that I said also that I thought La Mouche Noire was making as good seaway as the great frigates themselves, then asked coldly and indifferently, with the same desire for disguise, when Tandy thought we might all be in the bay and at anchorage.
He glanced up at the sun-he had a big tortoise-shell watch in his pocket, but, sailor-like, never looked at it during the day, and when he had the sun for horologe-then leaned over the high gunwale of the ship and looked between his hands toward the north, and said:
"The old castle of Penhas is rising rapidly to view. 'Tis now eight of the clock. By midday we shall have dropped anchor."
"And the frigates?" I asked, with a nod toward the queen's great ships, which still were on our beam, in the same position to us as before.
"About the same. Only they will go in first to make choice of their anchorage." Then he added: "But they will not stay long; no longer than to fill the casks. Perhaps a day, or till nightfall."
"'Twill be long enough for me," I thought. "An hour would suffice to get on board one of them, ask to be taken off and sent to the admiral's ship to tell my tale. Long enough."
And now I went below again-with what different feelings from those which possessed me when I went on deck, you may well suppose-and began hastily to bestow my necessaries, such as they were, into the bag I had carried behind me on my horse from Venloo to Rotterdam: a change of linen, some brushes, a sleeping gown and a good cloak, carried either around me or the bag, if warm and dry weather, my powder flask and a little sack of bullets for my cavalry pistols-that was all. Also I counted my pieces, took out my shagreen bill case and saw that my Lord Marlborough's money drafts were safe, as well as my commission to the regiment, which must now serve as a passport and letter of presentation, and I was ready to go ashore at any moment, and to transfer myself to one of the ships if they would take me with them after I had told my news, as my Lord had said I was to demand they should do. Yet, little while enough as I had been a-doing of these things, 'twas not so quickly finished but that there was time for an interruption; interruption from Mr. Carstairs, who, a moment or so after I had been in my cabin, tapped gently, almost furtively, it seemed to me, upon the door, and on my bidding him come in-I suspecting very well who it was-put his head through the opening he had made by pushing it back.
"Are we in danger?" he asked, while as he spoke, I could not but observe that he looked very badly this morning-perhaps from the renewals of his drinkings. His face was all puckered and drawn, and whiter, it seemed to me, than before; his eyes were hideously bloodshot-that must, I guessed, be the drink-while the white, coarse hand with which he grasped the panel shook, I observed.
"Danger!" I repeated coldly, as well as curtly, for, as you may be sure, I had come to thoroughly despise, as well as cordially to detest, this dissolute old man who, besides, had a black and fearful past behind him, if his feverish wanderings of mind were to be trusted. "Danger! From what?"
"There are war frigates by us," he whispered. "Do you not know?"
"Yes, I know. But you who have been, it seems, a sailor, should also know our own flag, I think."
"Our own flag! Our English flag!"
"Can you not see?"
"They are on the other side of the ship. I cannot see aught through my port."
"Look through mine, then," I answered, pointing to it, and he, with many courteous excuses for venturing to intrude-he was much changed now, I thought-went over to my window, and gazed at the queen's vessels.
"True," he said. "True. They are English-our-ships. Where could they come from, do you suppose?"
"From the Cadiz fleet. And they are going into Lagos, as we are."
"And then-do you know where to, then-afterward-noble sir?"
"Then they will go north."
He drew a long breath at this-I guessed it to be a sigh of satisfaction at the thought that the English fleet should be going north, while the galleons, in which he had seemed to be so concerned, should either be going into, or gone into, Cadiz-as he supposed. Then he said:
"Oh, sir, this is, indeed, good news. For-for-I have business at Cadiz-very serious business, and-if they had remained here in the south they might have done much harm to honest traders, might they not? Do you not think so?"
"They may do harm elsewhere," I answered, again curtly. And my brevity caused him to look at me enquiringly.
"What harm? What can they do?"
"Oh! as for that," I said, unable to resist the temptation of repaying him somewhat for all the discomfort he had caused in the ship, and also because I so much despised him, "as for that, they might do much. They say there are some galleons about. Supposing they should meet them. 'Tis a great fleet; it could be fateful to a weaker one."
"Galleons! Galleons about!" he repeated-shrieked, almost. "Nay! Nay! Nay! The galleons are safe in Cadiz by now."
"Are they?" I said, shrugging of my shoulders.
"Are they not?" And now his face was death itself.
"We spoke a ship last night which did not say so," I answered. "No galleons have passed this way, gone in yet."
I almost regretted my words, seeing, a moment later, their effect on him. For that effect was great-I had nigh written terrible.
He staggered back from the port-hole by which he had been standing, gazing out at the Pembroke and her consorts, his face waxy now from the absence of blood; his lips a bluish purple, so that I could see the cracks in them; his coarse white hands twitching; and his eyes roving round my cabin lighted on my washing commode, on which stood the water ewer; then he seized it and the glass, poured out from one to the other-his hand shook so that the neck of the vessel clinked a tune upon the rim of the glass-and drank, yet not without some sort of a murmured apology for doing so-an apology that became almost a whine.
"Not passed this way-not gone in yet? My God! Where are they? And-and-with that fleet here-here-here-'twixt here and Cape St. Vincent! Where are they?"
"Probably coming in now-on their way," I made answer. "Or very near." Then next said, quietly: "You seem concerned about this?"
"Concerned!" he wailed. "Concerned! I have my fortune, my all-'tis not much, yet much to me-on board two of the galleons, and-and-ah!" and he clutched at his ruffled shirt front. "The English fleet is there-across their path! My God!"
CHAPTER VII.
LAGOS BAY
Tandy had timed our arrival in the bay with great exactness, since, soon after midday, both the queen's ships and ourselves had dropped anchor within it, the former saluting, and being saluted in return, by some artillery from the crazy old castle that rose above the shore. And now from those three frigates away went pinnaces and jolly boats, as well as the great long boats and launches, all in a hurry to fetch off the water which they needed, while also I could see very well that from the Pembroke they were a-hoisting overboard their barge, into which got some of the land officers-as the sailors call the soldiers-and also a gentleman in black who was, I supposed, a chaplain.
And then I considered that it was time for me to be ashore, too, since I knew not how long 'twould take for the ships of war to get in what they wanted, and to be off and away again; though Tandy told me I need be in no manner of hurry, since they had let down what he called their shore anchors, which they would not have done had they intended going away again in a moment, when they would have used instead their kedge, or pilot, anchors.
However, I was so impatient that I would not be stayed, and consequently begged the captain to let me have one of the shore boats, which had come out on our arrival and were now all around us, called alongside; and into this I jumped the instant it touched our ship. My few goods I left on board, to be brought on land when the captain himself came, which he intended to do later; nor did I make my farewells to him, since I felt pretty sure we should meet again shortly, while it was by no means certain that the admiral would take me with him, after I had delivered my news; but, instead, might order me to return at once to the earl with some reply message. Yet I hoped this would not be so, especially since his Lordship had bidden me see the thing out