The Log of a Privateersman Page 16

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

  CAPTAIN RENOUF.

  Where was I? What was this darksome, foul, and evil-smelling place?Who was that forbidding-looking individual sitting there smoking underthat swaying, smoky, dimly-burning, miserable apology for a lamp? And,finally, what had happened that my limbs should feel heavy as lead, andthat I should be too weak to turn upon my cruelly-hard, box-like pallet?

  Such were the questions that slowly and laboriously formed themselveswithin my mind when I at length awoke from that state of blessedunconsciousness which I had believed to be death. For some time I laypainfully revolving these questions in my mind, groping about forinformation in a sort of dim, mental twilight, so obscure that I was noteven certain of my own identity. Gradually, however--very gradually,--the twilight brightened with returning life and reason, and I foundmyself beginning to identify my surroundings. I became conscious of arhythmical rising and falling and swaying movement, accompanied by acreaking, grinding sound, and the wash and gurgle of water outside theplanking that formed two of the three walls of the triangular apartmentin which I found myself, and I somehow recognised these movements andsounds as familiar. Then I heard a voice at some distance, shoutingsomething that I could not distinguish, answered by two or three voicesalmost immediately overhead. There was a noise of ropes being throwndown upon planking, and a further outcry of voices, accompanied by acreaking sound and the flapping of canvas. And then it suddenly dawnedupon me that I was lying in a bunk in a ship's forecastle, and that theforbidding-looking stranger must be one of the crew.

  But why was it, I asked myself, that this man was a stranger to me?Why, indeed, was it that all my surroundings were strange to me; for Icould not recall that I had ever seen any of them before? And then, asI lay puzzling over this perplexing problem, the past gradually unfoldeditself before me; first of all confusedly, as one recalls the images andincidents of an imperfectly remembered dream, and then more clearly,until it had all come back to me in the fulness of its hideous reality.I recollected everything, my memories beginning, strangely enough, as Ithink, with the incidents of my earliest childhood, and graduallyextending through the years until I arrived at the incident of theburning Indiaman, the boat-voyage, the pursuit of the strange ship, thegale, and our subsequent sufferings from thirst and starvation. And, asthe remembrance of the final horrors of that awful experience returnedto me, my thirst seemed to return with it, and I cried aloud for water,feeling surprised, as I did so, to find that my voice had returned tome, and that my throat, tongue, and lips, although still very sore andpainful, were no longer dry and hard as they had been when I was lastconscious of anything.

  The repulsive-looking individual, apparently the sole occupant of theforecastle except myself, at once rose from the chest upon which he wassitting, and approached my bunk, bending over and peering down into myface.

  "Aha! my frien'!" he exclaimed, in a strong French accent; "so you havecome to life again, have you? _Bon_! zat is grand; ze capitaine he villbe rejoice to hear ze news; for he say, ven ve pull you up out of ze_bateau_, `Aha! here is von fine fellow; he mus' be _tres fort_ ven heis vell; ve mus' try to save him; he vill be more useful in our--vat youcall, eh?--_gaillard d'avant_, dan in ze stomach of ze shark!' You vantvattare, eh? _Bon_! plenty vattare here, _mon ami_; plenty provisiontoo; you not starve no more; you lie still in ze bunk, and I shall bringyou all t'ings _necessaire_ to make you veil, _promptement_."

  So saying, he went to the other end of the forecastle, and producing alarge, rusty, tin can, and an equally rusty, and woefully battered tinpannikin, poured out a draught, which he brought to me, and, supportingmy head upon his shoulder, held to my lips. I had an opportunity totake a good look at him now, as he bent his face close to mine, and, sofar as I could see by the dim light of the forecastle, his repulsivenessof appearance was due rather to the filthy condition of his person andclothing than to the expression of his countenance; for although hisskin was dark with accumulated grime, his long whiskers, moustache, andblack greasy locks matted and unkempt, and his features frightfullyscarred with small-pox, there was a genial, mirthful sparkle in hiscoal-black eyes that somewhat favourably impressed me.

  The draught which he offered me was deliciously cool and refreshing;being composed of water strongly dashed with a crude, sour sort of wine.I swallowed it at a gulp, and was about to put a few interrogations tomy new friend, when, from the bunk adjoining my own, there arose afeeble cry that I identified as the voice of Dumaresq; and my grimynurse, gently laying my head back upon the pillow, at once hurried awayto attend to his other patient. I heard a few low-murmured words fromDumaresq, followed by a reply from the unprepossessing unknown, and thenI fell into a delightfully refreshing, dreamless slumber.

  When I next awoke it was night, for I could just catch a glimpse of anarrow strip of star-lit sky swinging to-and-fro athwart the openscuttle communicating with the deck, in unison with the pendulum-likeroll of the ship. There appeared to be a fine breeze blowing, for thevessel was heeling strongly; the thunder of the wind in the sails, andthe piping of it through the taut rigging came down through the scuttlewith a pleasant, slumberous sound, and the roar of the bow-wave, closeto my ear, with the quick, confused swirl and gurgle of water along theplanks, assured me that the ship was moving at a tolerably rapid rate.The ever-burning lamp still swung from its blackened beam, its yellowflame wavering hither and thither in the eddying draught of wind thatstreamed down through the scuttle, and its fat, black smoke coilingupward in fantastic wreaths until it was lost in the darkness among thebeams.

  A figure--a slumbering figure--still occupied the chest, and mistakingit at first for my grimy unknown friend, I called to him, for I feltboth hungry and thirsty. He was evidently not sleeping very heavily,for he awoke at my first call and came to the side of my bunk; but I atonce perceived that it was not the man I had before seen; this fellow'svoice and manner were surly in the extreme, and as he bent over me hegruffly demanded, in a scarcely comprehensible French patois, what Iwanted. I answered, in French, that I should like something to eat anddrink; whereupon he produced, from a sort of cupboard in the darkestcorner of the forecastle, a bowl and a large can of soup, together witha wooden tray of flinty biscuit and an old iron spoon. Pouring aliberal quantity of the soup into the bowl, and plunging the spoon intoit, he handed it to me, placed the bread barge within my reach, andagain composed himself to sleep. The soup was quite cold, and itssurface was covered with floating lumps of congealed grease;nevertheless, after rejecting the grease, I consumed the whole of thesoup, together with about half a biscuit, and felt very much the betterfor it. By and by the watch was called. I heard the men swarming upfrom the 'tween-decks abaft the forecastle; and presently my pock-markedfriend of the repulsive countenance but kindly eye, descended into theforecastle to the relief of the surly dog who had handed me the soup. Ithought this would be a good opportunity to learn something with regardto the character of the craft on board which I found myself, and also toobtain an insight into the circumstances under which we were picked up.I therefore proceeded to put a few questions to the new-comer, by meansof which I elicited the following information from him.

  The vessel which had picked us up was the privateer schooner _JeanBart_, of Morlaix, commanded by Captain Henri Renouf, an exceptionallybrave and skilful seaman, it would appear, if the story of hissuccesses, as told by Rene Ollivier, was to be believed. Indeed, if Iunderstood the guileless Rene aright, it was chiefly, if not wholly dueto these successes, or rather one result of them, the extreme short-handedness of the _Jean Bart_, caused by the losses sustained in herrecent engagements, that Captain Henri Renouf had troubled himself torescue us in the first place, and afterwards to issue orders that everyeffort should be made to restore us to health and strength; it being hisintention to make good some of his losses by enrolling us as members ofhis crew. A little further questioning on my part resulted in thediscovery that we had been picked up some four hours previously to myreturn to co
nsciousness; our boat having been sighted right ahead atdaybreak after the springing up of the breeze that had followed a periodof calm of unprecedented duration in the experience of those on boardthe _Jean Bart_. Eight of us had been found in the boat, of whom sixstill exhibited some faint signs of life, and these six had beendomiciled in the schooner's forecastle, and simply placed in charge oftwo of the crew--the vessel not carrying a surgeon--to recover or not asfate might decide. Upon learning from my friend Rene the date uponwhich we had been picked up, I made a little calculation, by which Iarrived at the conclusion that I must have lain absolutely unconsciousin the boat something like thirty hours, during which one of our numberhad mysteriously disappeared, probably by jumping overboard in a fit ofdelirium.

  During my conversation with Ollivier, Dumaresq awoke and joined in; uponwhich, assisted by the repulsive-looking but really sympathetic Frenchseaman, I contrived to get out of my bunk and reach a chest alongsideDumaresq's bunk; and I was much gratified to find that the gallant youngfellow, although still terribly weak, was making satisfactory progress.Further research resulted in the discovery that those saved from the gigwere, in addition to Dumaresq and myself, Tom Hardy, Peter Green, HenryAnstey, and Philip Sendell; all four of whom were thorough staunchBritish seamen, who, except when driven mad by hunger and thirst, wereto be implicitly depended upon.

  It was a very great relief to me to find that so many of us hadsurvived; for, apart from other considerations, I foresaw that, ifCaptain Renouf's intentions towards us were such as Ollivier had statedthem to be, complications were likely to arise of such a character thatthe strongest possible mutual support would be necessary to enable us toface them. The mere fact that this fellow, Renouf, had in so off-handeda manner arranged the destinies of six of his fellow-creatures, withouteven the formality of consulting them in the matter, rendered meexceedingly uneasy; such a proceeding seeming to indicate a headstrong,overbearing, exacting character, with which it would be exceedinglydifficult to deal. Of course, so far as Dumaresq was concerned, thearrangement was not so objectionable; he would probably be quite willingto work his passage to the next port. But with us who were English itwas quite another matter. The worst that Renouf had a right to do wasto treat us as prisoners of war; to impress us into an enemy's servicewould simply be an outrage. Yet it was not infrequently done, not onlyby the French, but also by our own countrymen. Before any furtherdevelopment was possible, however, it would be necessary for us tobecome well and strong again; and there was always the hope that beforethat time should have arrived the _Jean Bart_ might fall in with anenemy and be captured.

  This hope, however, was not destined to be fulfilled; and on the thirdday after the recovery of my senses, being once more well and strongenough to move about, I determined to take the bull by the hornsforthwith; with which purpose I sent a message aft by Ollivier toCaptain Renouf, expressing a desire to personally thank him for hisrescue of myself and the survivors of my boat's crew, and to makearrangements for obtaining our parole. By way of reply to this Ireceived a curt intimation that Captain Renouf was in his cabin, andthat I was to proceed thereto forthwith.

  In response to this summons I at once mounted to the deck for the firsttime, and, flinging a keen, hurried glance about me, found that I was onboard a slashing schooner, some fifty or sixty tons bigger than the_Dolphin_. She was a tremendously beamy craft, flush-decked fore-and-aft, and was armed with ten twelve-pounders in her broadside batteries,with a thirty-two-pounder between her masts--a truly formidable craft ofher kind. And it was evident, moreover, that she was manned inaccordance with her armament, for the watch on deck, although I did notstay to count them, mustered fully forty men, as ruffianly-looking a setof scoundrels as I ever set eyes on. A glance over the side showed methat the vessel was a regular flier; for although there was but amoderate breeze blowing, and the craft was close-hauled, she was goingalong at a pace of fully nine knots. So smart a vessel, so heavilyarmed and manned, ought to have been the pride of her captain; but Icould detect no traces of any such feeling, her decks being dark withdirt, while a general air of slovenliness pervaded the craft from stemto stern.

  I was conducted aft to the companion by Ollivier, who whispered to me,just as I was about to descend:

  "_Courage, mon ami_!"

  That the man should have deemed such an exhortation necessary was thereverse of encouraging, for it seemed to indicate that, in his opinion,I was about to undergo some more or less trying ordeal, a suggestionthat only too strongly confirmed my own forebodings. If, however, I wasabout to be involved in a difficulty, my first step was, manifestly, toascertain its nature; so, making my way down the companion ladder, Iknocked at a door which confronted me, and was immediately bidden, inFrench, to enter.

  Turning the handle of the door and flinging it open, I obeyed, findingmyself in a fine, roomy, well-lighted cabin, the beams of which,however, were so low that I could only stand upright when between them.The place was rather flashily decorated, with a good deal of gilding,and several crudely executed paintings in the panelling of the woodwork.A large mirror, nearly ruined by damp, surmounted a buffet against thefore-bulkhead, and the after-bulkhead was decorated with a trophycomposed of swords, pistols, and long, murderous-looking daggersarranged in the form of a star. A massive mahogany table, occupying thecentre of the cabin, reflected in its polished depths a handsome lamp ofwhite, silvery-looking metal that swung in the skylight, and the lockerunderneath the trophy was occupied by a slight, youthful-looking,sallow-complexioned man, whose well-oiled hair clustered in coal-blackringlets all over his small, shapely head, while a pair of small,piercing black eyes flashed out from beneath black eyebrows that ran,unbroken, right across the root of the nose, and a set of large, even,pearl-white teeth gleamed through a well-kept, coal-black moustache andbeard. The fellow was attired in a showy, theatrical-looking costume,consisting of blue cloth jacket, adorned with a double row of giltbuttons and a pair of bullion epaulettes upon the shoulders, over ashirt of white silk, open at the throat, a sword-belt of black varnishedleather, fastened by a pair of handsome brass or gold clasps, served thedouble purpose of a support for his blue cloth trousers and a receptaclefor a pair of pistols, handsomely mounted in silver. This was, ofcourse, Captain Renouf; and a man who looked like, and afterwards provedto actually be, his brother sat beside him. This individual I rightlyconjectured to be the chief mate of the _Jean Bart_. Both men wereyoung, the captain being, perhaps, about four-and-twenty, while hisbrother would be about two years younger, and both would have beenhandsome but for the cruel, sinister expression of the eyes. They wereocean dandies of the first water; for, in addition to their showy garb--that of the junior being similar to his captain's, except that theepaulettes were lacking,--they both wore gold ear-rings, while severalapparently valuable rings flashed upon the rather dirty fingers of thesenior officer.

  The pair looked at me intently as I made my bow, and, ere I could speaka word, Captain Renouf accosted me in French.

  "Well, my good fellow," said he, "pray who may you be?"

  "My name is Bowen," I answered. "I am chief officer of the Britishprivateer _Dolphin_, and I was in command of the boat, the occupants ofwhich you so humanely rescued a few days ago. Permit me, monsieur, toexpress to you, without further delay, on behalf of myself and myfellow-sufferers, our most hearty thanks for--"

  "And, pray, how came you and your fellow-sufferers to be adrift in thatboat?" demanded Renouf, unceremoniously cutting short my expression ofthanks. I could not help thinking that there was more than thesuspicion of a mocking sneer in the tone in which he uttered the words"you and your fellow-sufferers". Moreover there was a distinct air ofdiscourtesy in his manner of interrupting me, and a suggestion ofantagonism in his flashing eyes that put me on my guard; so, curbing avery decided disposition to make a resentful retort, I answered:

  "The gig was one of the boats of the late East Indiaman _Manilla_, whichthe _Dolphin_ had recaptured from a French privateer named the _
Tigre_,and which was afterwards set on fire by lightning and destroyed. I wasprize-officer in charge of the _Manilla_ at the time; hence my presencein one of her boats."

  "And how came you, sir, to be chief officer on board a Britishprivateer?" now demanded Renouf.

  I could not, for the life of me, comprehend the drift of this question,but there was no mistaking the insolent intonation of it. I thereforeanswered, rather haughtily:

  "Pardon me, sir, if I say that I cannot see what possible concern aFrenchman can have in such a matter as that which you have just referredto."

  "You cannot, eh?" he retorted, with a sudden flash of temper. "Then Iwill explain to you, my fine fellow. I asked the question because Ifeel curious to know what induced a French citizen to become a renegadeand take up arms against his own country. You are a Breton, sir. Irecognise you as such by your unmistakable dialect. And if I am notgreatly mistaken you hail from Morlaix, in the streets of which town Iam certain I have met that lanky carcase of yours hundreds of times.Nay, do not interrupt me! I will not have it--"

  "But I must and will interrupt you, Captain Renouf," I broke in, despitehis efforts to talk me down. "What you assert is simply ridiculous,sir. No man in his senses would ever mistake my imperfect French forBreton or any other dialect than that of an Englishman. What yourmotive may be for endeavouring to persuade yourself that I am a fellow-countryman of your own I cannot guess; but I reject the suggestion withscorn. I am an Englishman, as you are certainly quite aware, and Iinsist upon being treated as such. It was my intention to have askedparole for myself and my four fellow-countrymen; but with a captainpossessed of such extraordinary hallucinations it will probably bebetter for us to remain close prisoners."

  Renouf laughed disdainfully. "I have no doubt," said he, "that such anarrangement would suit you admirably, but it will not suit me. Now Iwant you to understand me clearly. You and your `four fellow-countrymen' are Frenchmen. Your clumsy attempt to pass yourselves offas Englishmen does not deceive me for a moment, nor do I believe it hasreally deceived that dolt Dumaresq, although he professes to have beentemporarily taken in by you. You are all Frenchmen, however; that factis indisputable. My brother here is as firmly convinced of it as I am;and, as France just now stands in need of the services of all her sons,it is my duty to see that you are made to serve her, willingly orunwillingly. But let me recommend you to render your service willingly;for if you do not it will be the worse for you. Now go on deck and turnto. And observe, my fine fellow, you will do well to recommend your`four fellow-countrymen', as you are pleased to term them, to commenceduty at once, and to behave themselves; for I learn that you have greatinfluence with them, and I shall hold you responsible for anyshortcomings on their part. Now, go!"

  "Captain Renouf," answered I, "I have listened to you patiently, and Iunderstand that it is your intention to compel us five Englishmen toserve on board this ship. You can only do this by force, sir, and Iwarn you that if you dare to use force to either of us you shall sufferfor it. You are certain to be captured by an English ship sooner orlater, and the captain of that ship will not be slow to amply avenge anyviolence you may be foolhardy enough to resort to in your determinationto compel five Englishmen to serve an enemy of their country."

  "So!" he ejaculated, starting to his feet in a frenzy of passion. "Youdare me, do you, you insolent rascal? Very well. Let us see how faryour courage will carry you!"

  He struck a hand-bell furiously, and shouted "Gaspar!"

  A man, evidently the steward, promptly made his appearance at the cabindoor, and responded:

  "Monsieur called?"

  "I did," answered Renouf. "Go on deck and tell Pierre to bring threemen and some lashing down into the cabin."

  The steward disappeared, and, as he did so, Renouf whipped a pistol outof his belt and covered me with it.

  "Now, Monsieur Englishman, since you insist upon being so considered,"he said, "if you make the slightest show of resistance I will shoot youthrough the head. Do you comprehend?"

  "Clearly," I answered. "But as I cannot fight all hands single-handed,and as I am not yet tired of my life, I shall not resist. You atpresent have me in your power, and, by the exercise of that power, cancompel me to do your will. But you are laying a heavy debt upon me,Captain Renouf, a debt which I will not fail to pay off in full at theearliest opportunity."

  "_Pouf_!" answered he scornfully; "a fig for your threats! I havealways been able to take good care of myself hitherto, and I doubt not Ishall always be equally able to do so."