By Sheer Pluck: A Tale of the Ashanti War Page 3

  CHAPTER III: A TOUGH YARN

  "You had a close shave the other night," one of the boatmen remarked toFrank, as a few days after the adventure he strolled down with Ruthvenand Handcock to talk to the boatman whose boat had been lost, "a verynarrow shave. I had one out there myself when I was just about yourage, nigh forty years ago. I went out for a sail with my father in hisfishing boat, and I didn't come back for three years. That was the onlylong voyage I ever went. I've been sticking to fishing ever since."

  "How was it you were away three years?" Handcock asked, "and what wasthe adventure? Tell us about it."

  "Well, it's rather a long yarn," the boatman said.

  "Well, your best plan, Jack," Ruthven said, putting his hand in hispocket and bringing out sixpence, "will be for you to go across the roadand wet your whistle before you begin."

  "Thank ye, young gentleman. I will take three o' grog and an ounce of'bacca."

  He went across to the public house, and soon returned with a long clayin his hand. Then he sat down on the shingle with his back against aboat, and the boys threw themselves down close to him.

  "Now," he began, when he had filled his pipe with great deliberation andgot it fairly alight, "this here yarn as I'm going to tell you ain't nogammon. Most of the tales which gets told on the beach to visitors ascomes down here and wants to hear of sea adventures is just lies frombeginning to end. Now, I ain't that sort, leastways, I shouldn't go toimpose upon young gents like you as ha' had a real adventure of yourown, and showed oncommon good pluck and coolness too. I don't say, mindye, that every word is just gospel. My mates as ha' known me from a boytells me that I've 'bellished the yarn since I first told it, and thatall sorts of things have crept in which wasn't there first. That maybe so. When a man tells a story a great many times, naturally he can'talways tell it just the same, and he gets so mixed up atween what hetold last and what he told first that he don't rightly know whichwas which when he wants to tell it just as it really happened. So ifsometimes it appears to you that I'm steering rather wild, just you puta stopper on and bring me up all standing with a question."

  There was a quiet humor about the boatman's face, and the boys winkedat each other as much as to say that after such an exordium they mustexpect something rather staggering. The boatman took two or three hardwhiffs at his pipe and then began.

  "It was towards the end of September in 1832, that's just forty yearsago now, that I went out with my father and three hands in the smack,the Flying Dolphin. I'd been at sea with father off and on ever sinceI was about nine years old, and a smarter boy wasn't to be found on thebeach. The Dolphin was a good sea boat, but she wasn't, so to say, fast,and I dunno' as she was much to look at, for the old man wasn't the sortof chap to chuck away his money in paint or in new sails as long as theold ones could be pieced and patched so as to hold the wind. We sailedout pretty nigh over to the French coast, and good sport we had. We'dbeen out two days when we turned her head homewards. The wind wasblowing pretty strong, and the old man remarked, he thought we was infor a gale. There was some talk of our running in to Calais and waitingtill it had blown itself out, but the fish might have spoil before theWind dropped, so we made up our minds to run straight into Dover andsend the fish up from there. The night came on wild and squally, and asdark as pitch. It might be about eight bells, and I and one of the otherhands had turned in, when father gave a sudden shout down the hatch,'All hands on deck.' I was next to the steps and sprang up 'em. Just asI got to the top something grazed my face. I caught at it, not knowingwhat it was, and the next moment there was a crash, and the Dolphin wentaway from under my feet. I clung for bare life, scarce awake yet norknowing what had happened. The next moment I was under water. I stillheld on to the rope and was soon out again. By this time I was prettywell awake to what had happened. A ship running down channel had walkedclean over the poor old Dolphin, and I had got hold of the bobstay. Ittook me some time to climb up on to the bowsprit, for every time shepitched I went under water. However, I got up at last and swarmed alongthe bowsprit and got on board. There was a chap sitting down fast asleepthere. I walked aft to the helmsman. Two men were pacing up and down infront of him. 'You're a nice lot, you are,' I said, 'to go running downChannel at ten knots an hour without any watch, a-walking over ships anda-drowning of seamen. I'll have the law of ye, see if I don't.'

  "'Jeerusalem!' said one, 'who have we here?'

  "'My name is Jack Perkins,' says I, 'and I'm the sole survivor, as faras I knows, of the smack, the Flying Dolphin, as has been run down bythis craft and lost with all hands.'

  "'Darn the Flying Dolphin, and you too,' says the man, and he beginsto walk up and down the deck a-puffn' of a long cigar as if nothing hadhappened.

  "'Oh, come,' says I, 'this won't do. Here you've been and run down asmack, drowned father and the other three hands, and your lookout fastasleep, and you does nothing.'

  "'I suppose,' said the captain, sarcastic, 'you want me to jump overto look for 'em. You want me to heave the ship to in this gale andto invite yer father perlitely to come on board. P'raps you'd like agrapnel put out to see if I couldn't hook the smack and bring her upagain. Perhaps you'd like to be chucked overboard yourself. Nobody askedyou to come on board, nobody wanted your company. I reckon the wisestthing you can do is to go for'ard and turn in.' There didn't seem muchfor me to do else, so I went forward to the forecastle. There most ofthe hands were asleep, but two or three were sitting up yarning. I told'em my story and what this captain had said.

  "'He's a queer hand is the skipper,' one of 'em said, 'and hasn't got asoft place about him. Well, my lad, I'm sorry for what's happened, buttalking won't do it any good. You've got a long voyage before you, andyou'd best turn in and make yourself comfortable for it.'

  "'I ain't going a long voyage,' says I, beginning to wipe my eye, 'Iwants to be put ashore at the first port.'

  "'Well, my lad, I daresay the skipper will do that, but as we're boundfor the coast of Chili from Hamburg, and ain't likely to be there forabout five months, you've got, as I said, a long voyage before you. Ifthe weather had been fine the skipper might have spoken some ship in theChannel, and put you on board, but before the gale's blown out we shallbe hundreds of miles at sea. Even if it had been fine I don't supposethe skipper would have parted with you, especially if you told him thewatch was asleep. He would not care next time he entered an English portto have a claim fixed on his ship for the vally of the smack.'

  "I saw what the sailor said was like enough, and blamed myself forhaving let out about the watch. However, there was no help for it, and Iturned into an empty bunk and cried myself to sleep. What a voyage thatwas, to be sure! The ship was a Yankee and so was the master and mates.The crew were of all sorts, Dutch, and Swedes, and English, a Yank ortwo, and a sprinklin' of niggers. It was one of those ships they calla hell on earth, and cussing and kicking and driving went on all day. Ihadn't no regular place give me, but helped the black cook, and pulledat ropes, and swabbed the decks, and got kicked and cuffed all round.The skipper did not often speak to me, but when his eye lighted on me hegave an ugly sort of look, as seemed to say, 'You'd better ha' gone downwith the others. You think you're going to report the loss of the smack,and to get damages against the Potomac, do you? we shall see.' Thecrew were a rough lot, but the spirit seemed taken out of 'em by thetreatment they met with. It was a word and a blow with the mates, andthey would think no more of catching up a handspike and stretching a mansenseless on the deck than I should of killing a fly. There was two orthree among 'em of a better sort than the others. The best of 'em wasthe carpenter, an old Dutchman. 'Leetle boy,' he used to say to me,'you keep yourself out of the sight of de skipper. Bad man dat. Me muchsurprise if you get to de end of dis voyage all right. You best workvera hard and give him no excuse to hit you. If he do, by gosh, he killyou, and put down in de log, Boy killed by accident.'

  "I felt that this was so myself, and I did my work as well as I could.One day, however, when we were near the line I happene
d to upset abucket with some tar. The captain was standing close by.

  "'You young dog,' he said, 'you've done that a purpose,' and before Icould speak he caught up the bucket by the handle and brought it down onmy head with all his might. The next thing I remember was, I was lyingin a bunk in the forecastle. Everything looked strange to me, and Icouldn't raise my head. After a time I made shift to turn it round, andsaw old Jans sitting on a chest mending a jacket. I called him, but myvoice was so low I hardly seemed to hear it myself.

  "'Ah, my leetle boy!' he said, 'I am glad to hear you speak again. Twowhole weeks you say nothing except talk nonsense.'

  "'Have I been ill?' I asked.

  "'You haf been vera bad,' he said. 'De captain meant to kill you, I hafno doubt, and he pretty near do it. After he knock you down he said youdead. He sorry for accident, not mean to hit you so hard, but you deadand better be tossed overboard at once. De mates they come up and takeyour hands and feet. Den I insist dat I feel your wrist. Two or three ofus dey stood by me. Captain he vera angry, say we mutinous dogs. I saynot mutinous, but wasn't going to see a boy who was only stunned thrownoverboard. We say if he did dat we make complaint before consul when weget to port. De skipper he cuss and swear awful. Howebber we haf our wayand carry you here. You haf fever and near die. Tree days after webring you here de captain he swear you shamming and comed to look at youhisself, but he see that it true and tink you going to die. He go awaywid smile on his face. Every day he ask if you alive, and give gruntwhen I say yes. Now you best keep vera quiet. You no talk 'cept when noone else here but me. Other times lie wid your face to the side and youreyes shut. Best keep you here as long as we can, de longer de better. Hemake you come on deck and work as soon as he think you strong enough tostand. Best get pretty strong before you go out.'

  "For another three weeks I lay in my bunk. I only ate a little gruelwhen others were there, but when the skipper was at dinner Jans wouldbring me strong soup and meat from the caboose. The captain came severaltimes and shook me and swore I was shamming, but I only answered in awhisper and seemed as faint as a girl. All this time the Potomac wasmaking good way, and was running fast down the coast of South America.The air was getting cool and fresh.

  "'I tink,' Jans said one evening to me, 'dat dis not go on much muchlonger. De crew getting desperate. Dey talk and mutter among demselves.Me thinks we have trouble before long.'

  "The next day one of the mates came in with a bucket of water. 'There!you skulking young hound,' he said as he threw it over me; 'you'd bestget out, or the skipper will come and rouse you up himself.'

  "I staggered on to the floor. I had made up my mind to sham weak, butI did not need to pretend at first, for having been six weeks in bed, Ifelt strange and giddy when I got up. I slipped on my clothes and wentout on deck, staggered to the bulwarks and held on. The fresh air soonset me straight, and I felt that I was pretty strong again. However, Ipretended to be able to scarce stand, and, holding on by the bulwark,made my way aft.

  "'You young dog,' the skipper said, 'you've been shamming for the lastsix weeks. I reckon I'll sharpen you up now,' and he hit me a heavy blowwith a rattan he held in his hand. There was a cry of 'Shame!' from someof the men. As quick as thought the skipper pulled a pistol from hispocket.

  "'Who cried "Shame"?'" he asked looking round.

  "No one answered. Still holding the pistol in his hand he gave meseveral more cuts, and then told me to swab the deck. I did it,pretending all the time I was scarce strong enough to keep my feet. ThenI made my way forward and sat down against the bulwark, as if nigh doneup, till night came. That night as I lay in my bunk I heard the mentalking in whispers together. I judged from what they said that theyintended to wait for another week, when they expected to enter MagellanStraits, and then to attack and throw the officers overboard. Nothingseemed settled as to what they would do afterwards. Some were in favorof continuing the voyage to port, and there giving out that the captainand officers had been washed overboard in a storm; when, if all stoodtrue to each other, the truth could never be known, although suspicionsmight arise. The others, however, insisted that you never could be sureof every one, and that some one would be sure to peach. They arguedin favor of sailing west and beaching the ship on one of the Pacificislands, where they could live comfortably and take wives among thenative women. If they were ever found they could then say that the shipwas blown out of her course and wrecked there, and that the captain andofficers had been drowned or killed by the natives. It seemed to methat this party were the strongest. For the next week I was thrashed andkicked every day and had I been as weak as I pretended to be, I'm surethey would have killed me. However, thanks to the food Jans broughtme, for I was put on bread and water, I held on. At last we entered thestraits. The men were very quiet that day, and the captain in a worsetemper than usual. I did not go to sleep, and turned out at the midnightwatch, for I was made to keep watch although I was on duty all day.As the watch came in I heard them say to the others, 'In ten minutes'time.' Presently I saw them come out, and joining the watch on deck theywent aft quietly in a body. They had all got handspikes in their hands.Then there was a rush. Two pistol shots were fired, and then there wasa splash, and I knew that the officer on watch was done for. Then theyburst into the aft cabins. There were pistol shots and shouts, and forthree or four minutes the fight went on. Then all was quiet. Then theycame up on deck again and I heard three splashes, that accounted forthe captain and the two other mates. I thought it safe now to go aft. Ifound that six of the men had been killed. These were thrown overboard,and then the crew got at the spirit stores and began to drink. I lookedabout for Jans, and found him presently sitting on the deck by thebulwark.

  "'Ah, my leetle boy!' he said, 'you have just come in time. I have beenshot through the body. I was not in de fight, but was standing near whendey rushed at de officer on watch. De first pistol he fire missed de manhe aim at and hit me. Well, it was shust as well. I am too old to carefor living among de black peoples, and I did not want a black wife atall. So matters haf not turned out so vera bad. Get me some water.'

  "I got him some, but in five minutes the poor old Dutchman was dead.There was no one on deck. All were shouting and singing in the captain'scabin, so I went and turned in forward. Morning was just breaking whenI suddenly woke. There was a great light, and running on deck I sawthe fire pouring out from the cabin aft. I suppose they had all drunkthemselves stupid and had upset a light, and the fire had spread andsuffocated them all. Anyhow, there were none of them to be seen. I gothold of a water keg and placed it in a boat which luckily hung out onits davits, as Jans had, the day before, been calking a seam in her sidejust above the water's edge. I made a shift to lower it, threw off thefalls, and getting out the oars, rowed off. I lay by for some littletime, but did not see a soul on deck. Then, as I had nowhere particularto go, I lay down and slept. On getting up I found that I had driftedtwo or three miles from the ship, which was now a mere smoking shell,the greater part being burnt to the Water's edge. Two miles to thenorth lay the land, and getting out an oar at the stern I sculled herto shore. I suppose I had been seen, or that the flames of the ship hadcalled down the people, for there they were in the bay, and such a lotof creatures I never set eyes on. Men and women alike was pretty nighnaked, and dirt is no name for them. Though I was but a boy I was tallerthan most. They came round me and jabbered and jabbered till I was nighdeafened. Over and over again they pointed to the ship. I thought theywanted to know whether I belonged to it, but it couldn't have been that,because when I nodded a lot of 'em jumped into some canoes which waslying ashore, and taking me with them paddled off to the ship. I supposethey really wanted to know if they could have what they could find. Thatwasn't much, but it seemed a treasure to them. There was a lot of burnedbeams floating about alongside, and all of these which had iron orcopper bolts or fastenings they took in tow and rowed ashore. We hadn'tbeen gone many hundred yards from the vessel when she sunk. Well, younggentlemen, for upwards of two years I lived wit
h them critturs. Myclothes soon wore out, and I got to be as naked and dirty as the restof 'em. They were good hands at fishing, and could spear a fish by thelight of a torch wonderful. In other respects they didn't seem to havemuch sense. They lived, when I first went there, in holes scratched inthe side of a hill, but I taught 'em to make huts, making a sort ofax out of the iron saved. In summer they used to live in these, butin winter, when it was awful cold, we lived in the holes, which were asight warmer than the huts. Law, what a time that was! I had no endof adventures with wild beasts. The way the lions used to roar and theelephants--"

  "I think, Jack," Ruthven interrupted, "that this must be one of theembellishments which have crept in since you first began telling thetale. I don't think I should keep it in if I were you, because the factthat there are neither lions or elephants in South America throws adoubt upon the accuracy of this portion of your story."

  "It may be, sir," the sailor said, with a twinkle of his eyes, "that theelephants and lions may not have been in the first story. Now I thinkof it, I can't recall that they were; but, you see, people wants toknow all about it. They ain't satisfied when I tell 'em that I lived twoyears among these chaps. They wants to know how I passed my time, andwhether there were any wild beasts, and a lot of such like questions,and, in course, I must answer them. So then, you see, naturally,'bellishments creeps in; but I did live there for two years, that'sgospel truth, and I did go pretty nigh naked, and in winter was prettynear starved to death over and over again. When the ground was too hardto dig up roots, and the sea was too rough for the canoes to put out, itwent hard with us, and very often we looked more like living skelingtonsthan human beings. Every time a ship came in sight they used to hurry meaway into the woods. I suppose they found me useful, and didn't want topart with me. At last I got desperate, and made up my mind I'd make abolt whatever came of it. They didn't watch me when there were no shipsnear. I suppose they thought there was nowhere for me to run to, so onenight I steals down to the shore, gets into a canoe, puts in a lot ofroots which I had dug up and hidden away in readiness, and so makesoff. I rowed hard all night, for I knew they would be after me when theyfound I had gone. Them straits is sometimes miles and miles across;at other times not much more than a ship's length, and the tide runsthrough 'em like a mill race. I had chosen a time when I had the tidewith me, and soon after morning I came to one of them narrow places. Ishould like to have stopped here, because it would have been handy forany ship as passed; but the tide run so strong, and the rocks wereso steep on both sides, that I couldn't make a landing. Howsomdever,directly it widened out, I managed to paddle into the back water andlanded there. Well, gents, would you believe me, if there wasn't twobig allygaters sitting there with their mouths open ready to swallow me,canoe and all, when I came to shore."

  "No, Jack, I'm afraid we can't believe that. We would if we could, youknow, but alligators are not fond of such cold weather as you'd beenhaving, nor do they frequent the seashore."

  "Ah, but this, you see, was a straits, Master Ruthven, just a narrowstraits, and I expect the creatures took it for a river."

  "No, no, Jack, we can't swallow the alligators, any more than they couldswallow you and your canoe."

  "Well," the sailor said with a sigh, "I won't say no more about theallygaters. I can't rightly recall when they came into the story.Howsomdever, I landed, you can believe that, you know."

  "Oh yes, we can quite believe, Jack, that, if you were there, in thatcanoe, in that back water, with the land close ahead, you did land."

  The sailor looked searchingly at Ruthven and then continued:

  "I hauled the canoe up and hid it in some bushes, and it were well Idid, for a short time afterwards a great--" and he paused. "Does thehippypotybus live in them ere waters, young gents?"

  "He does not, Jack," Ruthven said.

  "Then it's clear," the sailor said, "that it wasn't a hippypotybus. Itmust have been a seal."

  "Yes, it might have been a seal," Ruthven said. "What did he do?"

  "Well he just took a look at me, gents, winked with one eye, as much asto say, 'I see you,' and went down again. There warn't nothing else ashe could do, was there?"

  "It was the best thing he could do anyhow," Ruthven said.

  "Well, gents, I lived there for about three weeks, and then a shipcomes along, homeward bound, and I goes out and hails her. At first theythought as I was a native as had learned to speak English, and it wasn'ttill they'd boiled me for three hours in the ship's copper as they gotat the color of my skin, and could believe as I was English. So I cameback here and found the old woman still alive, and took to fishingagain; but it was weeks and weeks before I could get her or any one elseto believe as I was Jack Perkins. And that's all the story, young gents.Generally I tells it a sight longer to the gents as come down fromLondon in summer; but, you see, I can't make much out of it when yewon't let me have 'bellishments."

  "And how much of it is true altogether, Jack?" Frank asked. "Really howmuch?"

  "It's all true as I have told you, young masters," the boatman said. "Itwere every bit true about the running down of the smack, and me beingnearly killed by the skipper, and the mutiny, and the burning of thevessel, and my living for a long time--no, I won't stick to the twoyears, but it might have been three weeks, with the natives before aship picked me up. And that's good enough for a yarn, ain't it?"

  "Quite good enough, Jack, and we're much obliged to you; but I shouldadvise you to drop the embellishments in future."

  "It ain't no use, Master Hargate, they will have 'bellishments, and ifthey will have 'em, Jack Perkins isn't the man to disappint 'em; and,Lord bless you, sir, the stiffer I pitches it in the more liberal theyis with their tips. Thank ye kindly all round, gentlemen. Yes, I do feeldry after the yarn."