Captain Caution (32 page)

"It's a good time to have it out with you, Corunna," he said, "just because there isn't any time for it. I've coddled you along to keep you with me, because up to now you could have got away, if you tried. But now you can'tl This brig's mine, not yours; and I do what I want to with it and with everything on ill I'll drop the play-acting, but I'll treat you well if you'll be sweet."

She struck at him.

The door of the captain's cabin swung open. In the doorway stood

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the woman Victorine, tall and angular against the stern windows behind her.

She looked at Corunna's face and instantly stabbed at Slade with the two long knitting needles in her left hand. He gasped and clutched at his thigh. Then Victorine dragged Corunna across the threshold into the bright cabin. The door slammed in his face and the bolt shot home.

The two women heard his fist crash against a panel of the door, and after that they thought he laughed. "To hell with you this little whilel" he said, and scrambled up the ladder to the deck.

XXXII

IT WAS a brig, and American, Corunna had thought at first, that she had seen creeping around Espalamaca Point into Fayal Roads; and a brig was what it had been, an hour earlier, when it lay hove-to so far at sea that the lesser peaks below Fayal's high cone were misty nubbins on the water's edge.

"We'll take no chances," Marvin had said to Argandeau and Newton. "Rig the false mizzenmast, and stretch canvas over the ports and hammock nettings. Then we can round the point with a cable dragging and see what's before us with no danger to ourselves. One of them might come out in chase if we're cautious about it. With us as slow and harmless as we'll seem to be, it won't be the big ones that come out, either. It might be the sloop-of-war, and it might even be - "

"Stopl" Argandeau shouted. He clenched his fist, extended his first and little fingers, and with their tips touched the nearest carronade. "Be cautious" You must touch metal so when you give tongue to your desires, lest they turn sourI"

Marvin stared at him. "Metal?" he asked. "Wood's better. It's handier." He turned to look at the island, coldly blue against the grey sky. "If nobody comes out," he added, "we'll take our bearings and come back at dusk." He drew a deep breath. "We'll come back at dusk and see what's to be done." He struck his hand against the taffrail. "Rig the mizzenmastl Run the long guns to the stern-chase ports. Cover the ports with the jolly-boat and get a screen around the guns. I want her high in the bow, and clumsy-looking!"

So the True-Hearted Yankee brig had become a barque, highsided and cumbersome; and thus disguised she had labored in from the sea, a weary traveler seeking peace and rest in Fayal Roads.

As she passed the point and opened the broad bay rimmed with white houses set on slopes of dusty green, Marvin cast a quick glance aloft and then along the vessel's narrow deck. Above him, a handful of sailors crawled lazily about, handing the topgallant sails. Before him, from quarter-deck to bow, a double row of men were ranged inside the bulwarks, wedged tight between the carronades. It was

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no scurvy crew that Marvin eyed, but quiet men, neat in brown uniforms from France. Satisfied, he turned to the harbor.

"There they are, Danl" Newton said; and his voice, like his pale whiskers, seemed to tremble. "There they arel Four of 'em, and one of 'em the Blue Swanl"

Argandeau drew his small mirror from his pocket and examined his face anxiously. "That brig," he said, "she would be easy to approach in the dusk, eh, Captain Caution? I think we make a pleasant call tonight, and so I must shave, perhaps."

Marvin walked to the wheel. "That brig," he said to the helmsman. "That brig " He coughed and cleared his throat. "The brig beyond the three war craft! Get her in your mind."

The helmsman stared straight ahead. "I got her."

"Get her so you can find her in the dark," Marvin told him.

"I got her," the helmsman assured him.

"All right," Marvin said. "Bear off and on and off again; then point for Guia Head. It's steep-to. Allow for a two-knot on-shore current and don't waste any time getting around the head. Straighten her out when she points due west, and hold her parallel to the coast."

"Due west," the helmsman dutifully repeated.

Marvin turned to Newton. "Haul down the colors and run up the British ensign. Shake out the topgallant sails. Remind 'em not to hurry." Newton ran forward.

"Take in the cable?" Argandeau asked. He kissed his hand to the war vessels close inshore.

Marvin shook his head. "Let the cable alone. Let it alone." Into his mind there came the face of Captain Dorman. "'They cry unto the Lord in their trouble,"' Marvin murmured. "'They cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses . . . he bringeth them unto their desired haven.'" He looked quickly over his shoulder, as if he thought to find an old friend near at hand.

Overhead, the topgallant sails dropped from the yards and were sheeted home. The vessel wallowed uncertainly in the heavy swells that thrust themselves beneath her and passed onward to the accompaniment of complaining gurglings from her bows of gurglings and angry hissings, as though she protested at the trailing cable that restrained her.

A head came over the edge of the maintop and stared, openmouthed, at the quarter-deck. "They're going aloftl" it cried. "They're going aloft on the brigl"

Marvin seemed not to hear. His eyes were fastened on the little

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spouts of foam that rose slowly from the foot of Guia Head and seemed to cling for a time against its rocky sides.

"We take in the cable?" Argandeau asked softly.

"Take in three fathoms," Marvin said. "No, take in two fathoms."

"It's the brig," Newton told him. "She's coming out alone."

Marvin nodded.

Argandeau passed his hand caressingly over his chin. "So it is the Blue Swan after alll Better I go now and shave."

Marvin looked at him.

"You think I don't need it," Argandeau said hastily. "Ah, well, I remain here where all can see how I am gayl They will speak of it in later years. 'Lucien Argandeau,' they will say, 'he stood there in the shadow of that great rock, but more magnificent than the rock itself, because he was gay in the face of danger."' He scanned the bulging slope of Guia Head that towered above them; then cast a quick glance over his shoulder. "Now she comes," he told Marvin. "She is a brig indeed, that Blue Swan! She moves fastl What you think we take in that cableP"

"Take it in and coil it down," Marvin said. "Don't hurry, but when it's done, crowd on the royals and call the men aft. I've got a word to say to them."

Released from the drag of the heavy cable, the vessel seemed to hasten forward with the surges as if impatient to reach the calmer water beyond the head. She rounded steadily beneath the dark bulk of the overhanging cliff; and as she rounded, the cliff edge, like a drawn curtain, abruptly cut off from Marvin's gaze the white houses of the town and the tall brig that followed.

With the setting of the royals, she seemed to slice knifelike through the waves, in no respect different from the fast brig that had accompanied Tom Souville's Renard to sea, save that her false mizzenmast swayed precariously in its fastenings forward of the wheel; while strips of canvas, stretched around the bulwarks, added to her apparent height.

Marvin stood silently before the false mast while the crew, herded by Newton and the Indian, Steven, pressed aft to crouch amidships. He looked over his shoulder at Guia Head, falling fast astern. There was no vessel in sight.

Marvin stared down at the brown-clad men before him. "You know what we're up to," he said. "We're probably going to fight the brig that's in chase of us. It may be some of you don't like the idea of standing up to a vessel that isn't a cargo vessel. If that's the case, it may make you more peaceable in your minds to know she's got

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specie aboard. To the best of my knowledge, she's carrying fifteen thousand English pounds. That's seventy-five thousand dollars What's more, I propose to divide one-half of that fifteen thousand pounds among the crew of this vessel, provided the proper discipline's observed and she's taken as I want her taken. That'll mean over four hundred dollars apiece to each one of you, just for this one engagement."

"Yowl" screamed a seaman in the rear of the throng. A pleased rustling and whispering swept over the remainder of the crew.

"The commander of that brig," Marvin went on, "is an American, and as bad as they come. I think he's a traitor, bent on mischief to all true-hearted Americans. We'll soon know. If he fires on us, there's no doubt about it. Anyway, he's the man I'm after. I don't want him hurt. I want all gun pointers to keep their fire away from the cabin and quarter-deck of that brig. Restrict yourself to her rigging, so far as possible. That's why you've been told to load with chain and bar shot. Keep your sights on her bow and foremast. There'll be a penalty for each time she's hulled aft of the mainmast a penalty of one thousand dollars deducted from the amount to be distributed among you. So you'll do well not to fire until your sights are free of smoke and you can see what you're aiming at. You've got the pendulum, and there'll be no excuse for hitting her too far aft. Make sure you hit her, too, unless you want to spend the rest of this war starving and freezing on a British hulkl That's all. Get forward and keep yourselves below the bulwarks, where you won't be seen by those in the tops of the vessel in chase."

He turned again to look back at Guia Head. As he looked, the Blue Su~an's jibs and squaresails popped suddenly into view from behind it, almost as though a puff of smoke had shot from its foot.

"Pooil" Argandeau exclaimed. "Here am I, ready to be gay, and I find nothing to be gay about!"

"You'll scarcely have time," Marvin told him. "On the chart there's three small islands close inshore, halfway between Guia Head and the western point. We're nearly there. I don't want to pass 'em. Drag the cable again, and keep the islands on our beam. If necessary, drop a staysail under the bow."

"Goodl" Argandeau cried. "We set the stage, eh? Ah well: you can count on Argandeau to push over the scenery on himl"

A dozen men payed out the cable, and once more the vessel labored slowly in the choppy seas.

"Look! Lookl" Argandeau said. "She blows out a bean, I thinkI"

Astern, the Blue Stoan yawed; a fleecy ball of white burst from

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her bow. The distant explosion jarred the false mizzenmastin its lashings.

Argandeau opened his mouth wide in a soundless laugh. "Closel" he said, jerking his thumb contemptuously to larboard. "Close as last Fridayl"

The True-Hearted Yankee creaked and labored onward, her officers and crew caught in a frozen silence. Under the bulwarks the men stared white-eyed at Marvin, who in turn stood staring patiently at three small islands close against the low and rocky coast.

Closer now, the Blue Swan yawed again and fired a gun. The ball skipped past them to windward, whacking against the swells.

Marvin came suddenly to life and clapped his hands together. "Cut the mizzen!" he said. "Cut it on the larboard side and pitch it over the starboard counter, where it'll drag and be seen from the brigl Down with the helm and point for the islands! Keep the cable dragging! Rig the pendulum! Take in the royalsl"

Men scuttled crab-like over the decks, keeping their heads below the level of the false bulwarks. They slashed at the preventer stays of the stubby mizzenmast and tumbled it over the taffrail. The crews of the long guns crouched beside their pieces, growling among themselves and freeing the falls of the jolly-boat, which hung low from the stern-davits, screening the stern-chase ports.

Forward of the mainmast, at its foot, three men set up a padded iron tripod from the apex of which hung a bar tipped with an inverted gong of polished brass. At the level of the gong, and straight beneath the apex of the tripod, they made fast a small steel ring. This done, they stepped back, letting the iron bar swing free. It oscillated. The vessel rolled, and the bar, swinging off to one side, caught for a moment against a leg of the tripod; then swung downward. The brass gong touched the small steel ring, and the vessel echoed to its clang. The men under the bulwarks made motions of sponging and ramming. The tall Indian caught the pendulum and held it still.

"Set all guns at point-blank range," he shouted, "and keep your ears open for changes""

The Blue Swan was close at hand; as close, almost, as the small islands near the shore; so close that the white foam beneath her bows was reflected in her bright copper as her forefoot lifted, giving her the look of being sheathed with gleaming ice.

Marvin, staring at her with such fierce intensity that the northwest wind whirled moisture from his eyes, felt Argandeau take him by the arm.

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"You see who I see, standing on a carronade?" Argandeau asked him softly. "Look how he tips back his headlAnd his long hair; I can see it blowingI"

"Yes," Marvin said. "Yes. They can't get inshore of us now. They wouldn't dare. They'd strike the rocks. They'll have to run past our gunsl"

From the small figure on the Blue Swan's quarter-deck there came a hoarse shouting, indistinguishable above the wailing of the breeze in the top-hamper. Marvin, sighting at the onrushing brig along his own starboard taffrail, shouted, "Pendulum!"

Behind him the gong clanged and quickly clanged again.

"Nowl" Marvin shouted. "Let gol Cut away the mizzenl Cut the cablel Strip off the false canvas! Drop the jolly-boat! Fire when the pendulum strikes! Brace around the yardsl" He went to the wheel and seized it.

The deck of the True-Hearted Yankee boiled with men. The bow of the Blue Swan lay dead astem. The jolly-boat pitched downward with a whirring of falls. The pendulum clanged. With the clang, the guns at the stern ports bellowed, and the brig seemed to leap ahead, forced forward by the recoil of the guns. A thick cloud of white smoke enveloped her stem and her lower sails.